Bicyclemark was present this past Saturday, at Amsterdam’s annual Gay Festival. Coming from the New York City area, the concept of acceptance and freedom of expression when it comes to sexuality is a very familiar one, but never in New York has there been a spirit of joy, diversity, and acceptance like there was in Amsterdam on this famous holiday. Nevermind the hundreds of boats filled with decorative and entertaining themes that floated through the canals. The real subjects of pride and progress were the thousands upon thousands of people lining the canals, searching for a good seat to catch a glimpse of the parade. Senior citizens, Children, tourists, all shapes, colors, and sizes, everyone enjoys and annual gay festival. That is impressive. There are not enough places in this world which such a spirit. Which leaves one big question… how can Amsterdam export this wonderful energy, and bring the rest of the world out of its sexual dark-age.
Justice by the barrell of a gun, US Military style: No trial, No Rights, No truth – just guns and bombs and celebration. That’s the mentality. Now they say they have killed Saddam’s sons, which of course, none of us can prove, so we just believe it.
They claim that killing Saddam’s sons is important, because they organize the resistance and they are generally bad people. Such beliefs prove that the US occupation force and its leaders understand nothing of what its like to have your home occupied by a bunch of outsiders who arrest and shoot your neighbors. No killing of any leaders will stop the resistance, never has that worked in the history of occupations. Kill Saddam’s sons, but don’t believe for a second that killing will make things better. Violence can only bring about violence. And by killing their leaders, the US not only shows is disregard for justice and rule of law, but its ignorance regarding opressed people and resistance.
11 prisoners of Guantanamo Bay concentration camp X-Ray were released today. The reason: they had no proof that these men were “illegal combatants” or “terrorists”. Strange thing.. when they were first arrested, Donald Rumsfeld told the world that he was sure these people were all illegal combatants.. I guess he wasnt so sure afterall. This seems quite similar to the Weapons that Bush/Blair claimed Iraq had and would use, now we see there are no weapons – guess they weren’t so sure afterall.
Quick fact: GW Bush… president for about three years now. Yet, right now, he’s on his first trip to africa! First trip to africa!!! The largest continent in the world — first trip for the president of the most powerful nation on the planet.
Obviously he really doesn’t give a shit. Obviously he knows nothing of the continent. And obviously he has brought no help to them, only badly formulated speeches and pledges that never need to be honored.
GW BUSH, completely Africa- Ignorant.
Worst regime in history? Looks like it!
White House cuts global warming from report
Environmental study censored, say critics
Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Friday June 20, 2003
The Guardian
The White House has removed damaging references to global warming from a major US government report on the environment due to be published next week.
References to health threats posed by exhaust emissions that were part of the draft report by the environmental protection agency (EPA) have been removed, according to leaked versions of the report.
White House officials have cut details about the sudden increase in global warming over the past decade compared with the past 1,000 years and inserted information from a report that questions this conclusion and which was partly financed by the American Petroleum Institute, according to the New York Times, to whom the draft documents were leaked.
The removal of controversial passages has caused concern within the EPA. At the end of April a memo circulated among staff members and also leaked to the paper said the report “no longer accurately represents scientific consensus on climate change”.
Another memo warned of the danger to the agency’s credibility posed by agreeing to the deletions, because the “EPA will take responsibility and severe criticism from the science and environmental communities for poorly representing the science”.
The report was commissioned in 2001 by the agency’s head, Christie Whitman, who has just announced her resignation for unrelated reasons. Its aim was to provide a comprehensive overview of the major environmental issues facing the government and the scientific community.
One of the most striking changes comes in the report’s “global issues” section.
In the draft version the introduction reads: “Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment.”
This has been replaced with: “The complexity of the Earth system and the interconnections among its components make it a scientific challenge to document change, diagnose its causes and develop useful projections of how natural variability and human actions may affect the global environment in the future.”
Environmental groups have criticised the changes. Aaron Rappaport of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington said yesterday: “It’s ridiculous to leave global warming out of a report on change in the environment.”
The references had apparently been “censored out”, he said.
“It shows a serious lack of transparency,” Mr Rappaport added. “I regret to say we’re not surprised.
“The administration’s prejudice against the scientific consensus around global warming is well known.”
Ms Whitman, who will leave office at the end of next week, has said she is content with the deletions made by the White House.
“The first draft, as with many first drafts, contained everything,” she said.
“As it went through the review, there was less consensus on the science and conclusions on climate change.
“So, rather than go out with something half-baked or not put out the whole report, we felt it was important for us to get this out because there is a lot of really good information that people can use to measure our successes.”
The EPA did not return a call yesterday requesting a comment by time of going to press.
Mr Bush angered environmentalists early in his administration by declining to endorse the Kyoto international agreement on global warming, and subsequently expressing doubts about whether global warming even existed.
His administration has often clashed with environmental groups. Environmentalists have accused the government of being too ready to listen to oil and logging interests.
The major environmental clash has centred around the Arctic national wildlife refuge where the White House seeks to allow drilling for oil. The issue remains stalled in the legislature.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) officially opens this week in the Hague, Netherlands, without the participation of the United States. Based on ideas such as international law, human rights, and justice, most nations of the world have agreed that such a court should exist in order to hear cases of human rights violations, war crimes, etc. The Bush Administration insists that the court would be used for political purposes, for prosecuting American officials and servicemen who would be accused of commiting crimes during different conflicts around the world, and therefore they refuse to recognize it. An ironic arguement, by not participating on such grounds, it becomes very suspicious that perhaps the US government has alot of skeletons in the closet and dirty secrets. If they wanted to prove otherwise they could recognize the court, and using their excellent international law atourneys, defend themselves, and prove their innocence and rightuousness. But until now, no such strategy, instead the Bush administration spits on the international community, and in response, the world moves forward without their American sisters and brothers.