mandag den 24. januar 2011

Putins Palace.

A Russian version of Wikileaks calling themselves RuLeaks, has publicised a series of pictures which allegedly depict Vladimir Putin's private castle in Russia.

See them here.

torsdag den 20. januar 2011

To år efter: Ingen fornyelse i udenrigspolitikken.

I anledning af, at det idag er to år siden Obama holdt sin tiltrædelsestale som USAs 44. præsident, har jeg skrevet en artikel til Modkraft.dks webmagasin Kontradoxa omhandlende hans administrations foreløbige udenrigspolitik, nærmere bestemt hans regerings fortsættelse af den amerikanske tradition for at støtte formålstjenstlige diktaturer og repressive regimer.

Læs den på Modkraft.dk.

torsdag den 13. januar 2011

USAs skatteminister Timothy Geithner: USA er insolvent.

Økonomiprofessor emeritus Michael S. Rozeff har skrevet en artikel om USAs økonomiske problemer på på det libertarianske site LewRockwell.com

The U.S. government is insolvent. Who says so? Timothy F. Geithner, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

Geithner sent a letter to Congress on Jan. 6, 2011 asking for the debt limit to be raised. If it is not raised, he warned, the U.S. will default on its debt. In his words:

Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the debt limit when necessary. Failure to raise the limit would precipitate a default by the United States."

He didn’t say that the government will be inconvenienced. He didn’t say that the government would be forced to muddle through by delaying payments, raising taxes, and cutting non-obligatory programs and services. He said the government will default. This means that the government doesn’t have enough cash to pay its obligations to the many and sundry persons to whom it owes cash unless Congress authorizes an issue of even more debt.

After the government issues the new debt, its overall debt will be even higher than before. Unless its obligations that require cash payments are reduced, or unless it finds new sources of revenue, or unless the interest rates that it pays decline, the same situation will surely occur again and occur even faster because its overall debt will have risen. It will run short of cash to pay its obligations.

Læs mere her.

lørdag den 8. januar 2011

Peak Oil and a Changing Climate

USA glemte at sikre våbenfabrik i Irak.

Den britiske avis The Guardian bragte i går en meget interessant artikel om hvordan man fra amerikansk side ikke formåede at sikre en gigantisk våbenfabrik udenfor Baghdad umiddelbart efter invasionen af Irak selvom man var informeret om dens eksistens og indhold. Dette forvoldte at Al-Qaeda i Irak fik fingrene i 40.000 tons højeksplosivt materiale. Læs mere her.

tirsdag den 4. januar 2011

Living in the End Times According to Slavoj Zizek

Dokumentar om velfærdsstatens historie.





Jonathan Cook om mediebias i Israel/Palæstina-konflikten.

Den britiske journalist Jonathan Cook, som har skrevet ganske omfattende om Israel/Palæstina konflikten, har skrevet et længere essay i hvilket han redegør for medier-nes bias i dækningen af konflikten. Den lange version (27 sider) kan læses her. Den korte version kan læses her.

Dronekrigen i Pakistan har massive civile tabstal.

Konsekvenserne af Obama-administrationens videreførelse af den uofficielle (læs: aldrig erklærede) dronekrig i de Nord-Pakistanske stammeområder er ikke overraskende omfattende civile tabstal. Den indiske avis New Kerala omtaler flere nye undersøgelser som alle peger på, at dette er tilfældet:

As many as 2,043 people, mostly civilians, were killed in US drone attacks in northwestern parts of Pakistan during the last five years, a research has revealed.

The yearly report of Conflict Monitoring Centre (CMC) has termed the CIA drone strikes as an 'assassination campaign turning out to be revenge campaign', and showed that 2010 was the deadliest year ever of causalities resulted in drone-hits in Pakistan.

According to the report, 134 drone attacks were reported in Pakistan's FATA region in 2010 alone, inflicting 929 causalities. December 17 was the deadliest day of 2010 when three drone attacks killed 54 people in Khyber Agency.

Regarding civilian causalities and attacks on women and children, the report said: "People in the tribal belt usually carry guns and ammunition as a tradition. US drone will identify anyone carrying a gun as a militant and subsequently he will be killed."

Kæmpe Fail i Prostitutionsdebatten.

Fra dagens udgave af Information.

"SF's ligestillingsordfører, Pernille Vigsø Bagge, og medlem af EU-parlamentet for Socialdemokraterne Britta Thomsen påstår, at Holland har en særlig børnehave oprettet til børn af prostituerede, og bruger den som argument mod legalisering af prostitution i Danmark. I Holland har man aldrig hørt om den pågældende børnehave"