One Canuck's Radio WeblogA 'news items' 'clipping service' for myself and anyone else who's interested |
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30/1/2006; 6:31:29 |
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This is the 4th death in Toronto due to SARS. There is considerable concern about the problem here. It's generally the top story in the news, ahead of the war. .< 11:46:11 PM  >CBC News: the fifth estate - The Forgotten People 'Although the U.S. government officially denounced the gassing of the Kurds, it was business like never before with Iraq. After 1988 business with Iraq actually increased. By 1989, Iraq was given American agricultural guarantees worth $1 billion. Iraq was the largest importer of U.S. rice and the 2nd largest participant in the agricultural credit program. Not long afterwards, believing that the U.S. would let him get away with murder again, Saddam Hussein sent his troops into Kuwait to claim the oil rich emirate as an Iraqi province.' From the transcript of an extraordinary doc the 5th estate did on the Kurds. Check out this site. .< 11:37:49 PM >CBC News: Canadian family on edge as son fights in Iraq 'Whenever the phone rings now, or there's a knock at the door, the Morrises freeze for a moment ? terrified that it's bad news from the front lines.' .< 10:16:53 PM >Russian military intel update: War in Iraq 'The coalition troops have so far failed to take An-Nasiriya despite of the categorical orders from the command and more than 800 combat missions by the strike aircraft. All attempts to break through the Iraqi defense were met by Iraqi counterattacks. After 24 hours of fighting the coalition troops only managed to advance several hundred meters in two sectors near An-Nasiriya at the cost of 4 destroyed armored personnel carriers, no less that 3 Marines killed by sniper and mortar fire, 10 wounded and 2 missing in action. The exact Iraqi losses are being determined.' A fascinating new source of unfiltered information. .< 6:23:49 PM >Best war reporters: The Russians? For somebody who remembers the cold war, this seems a bit surreal. Since those days, it appears the Russian press has swung from the "pravda" of Pravda to the opposite extreme, namely actually reporting unfiltered truth. You see, Russians are monitoring all radio traffic over Iraq, and they have some fancy toys that give them a very clear picture of what's going on. But what's amazing is that they post their findings on the internet. I started reading these a few days ago with a "this is surely a hoax" attitude. Since then, I am convinced that it's the real thing. They predict division movements and tactics with devestating accuracy, and their analysis seems very well supported. One webpage, which takes a few minutes to read, contains far more information about the war than 4 hours of CNN. So you want links, eh? [Kuro5hin.org] .< 3:30:53 AM >About IRAQ-O-METER 'Percentage of Americans who currently support this war: 72% Percentage of Americans who believe Iraq attacked the World Trade Center: 51% Percentage of Americans who cannot locate Iraq on a world map: 65%' .< 3:21:38 AM >Fox News "revises" its own news scroll [Daypop Top 40] '"We believe the war against Iraq is a violation of international law," Unger said. "And the media is not telling people the whole story. I know people see what we're doing as a nuisance. But what's happening to the people of Iraq is much more than a nuisance." Fox News had its own response to the demonstrators. The news ticker rimming Fox's headquarters on Sixth Avenue wasn't carrying war updates as the protest began. Instead, it poked fun at the demonstrators, chiding them. "War protester auditions here today ... thanks for coming!" read one message. "Who won your right to show up here today?" another questioned. "Protesters or soldiers?" ' .< 3:16:34 AM >Delusions of Power ' And therein lies the broader moral. In the last two years Mr. Cheney and other top officials have gotten it wrong again and again ? on energy, on the economy, on the budget. But political muscle has insulated them from any adverse consequences. So they, and the country, don't learn from their mistakes ? and the mistakes keep getting bigger.' These guys are going down. .< 3:05:29 AM >Will Hutton: The tragedy of this unequal partnership Comment: By opting to join the American hard Right, Will Hutton argues, Tony Blair has made the mistake of his political life. [Guardian Unlimited] The tradegy is that Blair is a good man who thought he would be able to stear Bush in the right direction. He joined up to act as a balance in concert with Colin Powell. I'm sure he had no idea how evil the hawks are. There can be little doubt now. .< 3:00:27 AM >One in 100 black adults now in jail UK: One in every 100 black British adults is now in prison, according to the latest Home Office figures. [Guardian Unlimited] 'The figures have sparked fears of an American-style penal system, where black men are 10 times more likely to go to prison than whites and one in 20 over the age of 18 is in jail.' Jesus. This is far far worse than I imagined. Maybe Malcolm X was right. .< 2:56:15 AM >US arms trader to run Iraq Business: Ex-general who will lead reconstruction heads firm behind Patriot missiles. [Guardian Unlimited] How could this be more obscene? .< 2:52:34 AM >Day the war came home Amelia Hill at Brize Norton sees the bodies of 10 of Britain's first servicemen to die in Iraq arrive in the green fields of Oxfordshire. [Guardian Unlimited] .< 2:51:41 AM >Bloggers spearhead offscreen opposition Media: The net has given free rein to opinion not expressed in mainstream media coverage of the Gulf conflict, says John Naughton. [Guardian Unlimited] Blog on! .< 2:50:07 AM >Rumsfeld in the firing line Fresh controversy surrounds the US defence secretary after claims he forced military chiefs to send a small, lightly armed force to the Gulf. [BBC News | World | UK Edition] An evil man meddling in the business of his military commanders. This is old news but hopefully the story will continue to grow. I can't wait to this mans number comes up. Some might thing he's going to hell. I think he came from there. .< 2:46:39 AM >BBC NEWS | Politics | Angry Cook lashes out at war 'In his outspoken article for the Sunday Mirror newspaper, Mr Cook said that US President George W Bush and his Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not appear to know what to do now that their hopes that Iraq would swiftly capitulate had proved unfounded. [...] Mr Cook, who was among 10 members of the Labour Government to resign over the war, accused Mr Bush of "sitting pretty in the comfort of Camp David" while coalition forces risked death in an "unnecessary and badly planned" war.' .< 2:31:08 AM >Iraq Around the Clock There's a second fight raging in television coverage of the war: the pitched battle between journalism and the imperatives of show business. [New York Times: Arts] .< 2:29:44 AM >'Anthology': Let It Be Even Longer On DVD, "The Beatles Anthology" (Apple/EMI, five DVD's) has grown again. [New York Times: Arts] 'The main "Anthology" documentary is unchanged, but the soundtrack has been remixed for 5.1 surround sound (with stereo as an option). On early mono recordings and concert clips, this means slightly heavy-handed reverb on the back channels. But the later studio recordings ? "Rain," "Strawberry Fields Forever," "A Day in the Life" and "Hello Goodbye" among them ? are revelatory. Remixed from the multitrack session tapes, these versions put the lead vocals front and center, with instruments and harmony vocals surrounding the listener, giving the textures extraordinary transparency. The group's entire catalog, overdue for remastering anyway, ought to be done this way.' Bring it on! In hi res please. The DVD is apparently DTS (and Dolby) which is good news. .< 2:26:30 AM >The Globe and Mail: The battle for home-computer supremacy is finally over. Mac wins - by a mile 'Apple's newest desktops and laptops are probably the best personal computers ever made. I say this as someone who, until recently, was a pro-Windows person with no time for the "Microsoft stole our ideas" whining of the Mac camp. [snip] There's another, more important aspect to this price-based argument-Windows will ultimately cost you more because it breaks down frequently. If your time is worth nothing, that's no big deal. But if your files are important, it's a huge deal: Windows is much more vulnerable to viruses, meaning you can suffer catastrophic data loss. The U.S. Consumers Union surveyed 7,800 people and found Windows almost 300% more likely than Macintosh to be infected with viruses and 550% more likely to suffer damage that can take weeks to fix.' Eureka. Someone's finally talking about it. I've been saying this for years. People who say PCs are cheaper have no respect for the value of their own time. .< 2:13:25 AM >War money accidentally offered to peaceful Slovenia The United States mistakenly named Slovenia as a partner in its war against Iraq and even offered it a share of the money budgeted for the conflict, the tiny Alpine nation said on Thursday. [...]Slovenia was one of the states named in the $75 billion U.S. war budget which must be approved by Congress and includes grants to partners in the U.S.-led military action. Slovenia was slated to get $4.5 million from the budget, which Rop said will not be forthcoming. "We are a part of no such coalition. We are a part of a coalition for peace," Rop said. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs] The following are excerpts from a letter that Malcolm X wrote to his followers after completing the hajj (Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca). The letter is quoted in his autobiography and you can read it online here. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors... ...There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white. America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white - but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color. [Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs]I'm glad Malcolm X made this trip and had his eyes opened by the experience. I would submit that he misunderstood the reason for the transforation. Islam brought them together. But the fact is he had grown up and lived in an inward looking country with a deeply racist society. I wish Dubbya had travelled before he came to power. He might have a different view of the world. .< 1:59:49 AM >Peeper Peeper is a tool for finding icons on your computer. [Ranchero.com] .< 1:44:02 AM >To the victor go the spoils If U.S. corporations get their way, none of their European competitors will be doing business in Baghdad. [Salon] It was the greed of American corporations which allowed Saddam to arm himself in the first place. They are making money selling hardware to the military. And now they will make money rebuilding the country the bombed. The only thing that matters in this world is the success of American corporations. Young Americans and the Iraqi peopl are being sacrificed for the sake of American corporations. |
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