Italians throw a wrench into 'democratic' american empire

News from Vicenza, Italy is of an overwhelming vote in favor of not allowing the US to construct a new military base - Dal Molina - in their environs. The local referendum took the high road, instead of being a mere "NO BASE" measure against the empire's encroachment. According to this report:

The referendum asked local residents if they agreed with the City of Vicenza taking up measures to purchase the Dal Molin area, the site of the proposed base, in order to designate its use in the public interest and to protect the environmental integrity of the site. With a resounding no to the new base, 23,050 voters, or 95.66%, voted in favor of the referendum.

Equally or perhaps more important, was the fact that although Burlesquecroni's regional lackey managed to get the referendum suspended through court action, on the day of the vote over 24,000 miscreants nevertheless went to the polls.

It was an extraordinary example of citizens taking democracy into their own hands, a victory over apathy. And it wasn´t the first time it had happened in Vicenza, where for over two years the people have not only succeeded in blocking construction of a base they don´t want, but also in creating a community which takes an active role in the politics that affect their lives and the lives of others around the globe.

One wonders if the Bush administration is going to approach Italian democracy the same way it has Palestinian: if you don't like the results, just ignore them and do whatever you can to discredit the electorate. With the right friends in power, anything's possible, no? Yet in a country where people are willing to burn thousands of Roma out of their homes and battle the police over garbage dumps, it seems Washington will not have an easy time trying to force its military agenda on the majority. Here's a nice clip from last year, offering some background as to why the resistance to the US base is so widespread.

Lame Phuck #2

Breaking news on the BBC informs us that Pakistani soldiers have taken a stand against US troops attempting to cross the Afghan border into Waziristan. It's about time someone said NO to the Pentagon, but perhaps the bigger issue here is what the Confounder and Thief thinks he's doing by sending US troops into yet another hostile country. As far as i can tell, the objective of the flailing W Dick administration is to destabilize as many countries as possible before they leave office: Iraq, Iran, Georgia, Pakistan, Afghanistan - hard to say who's next on the list but i wouldn't be surprised to read that Cheney's decided to stop over in Baku on his way back from Georgia. (Enticing more Russian troops to set up camp close to the Iranian border may look like a way to put a wedge in Russian-Iranian relations, but Putin is so much cooler and shiftier than W, the chances of seeing the Russians get buried in a meaningless regional conflict that destroys their ties with Tehran seem pretty slim.) The reason for sending more US forces to Afghanistan is now blatantly clear, even while attempts to start fighting inside Pakistan's territory have surely been pulled out of the Bush dynastic ass. One wonders if this will give Sen. Obama pause the next time he waxes urgent about putting his foot down with the Pakistanis. In the long term, Pakistan probably deserves as much of a political overhaul as the US, but in the short term, this isn't gonna happen at gunpoint - one of the many ironies may be that with US forces now grouping along its border and launching attacks inside the country, Pakistan's many internal divisions may actually dissipate under a common banner: US OUT NOW!

Another irony, pointed out in the Times of India, is that if Little Bush opts to go to war in Pakistan, US forces will be facing their own sophisticated weaponry. " In July, the Bush administration sought to shift $226.5 million in US counterterrorism aid for the F-16 upgrades." Pretty groovy, eh? Nothing like having your own misguided missiles come back to kill your troops. Irony No. 3 is that these raids across the border are inciting Pakistani tribes to join forces with the Taliban - or at least that's what they're threatening, according to this report.

That W still has the cajones to say he's made great progress in the so-called "war on terror" goes far beyond being disingenuous. He's either living in a dream world or just rubbing our noses in the fact that we've all be screwed. Impeachment looks increasingly mild, given the havoc this asshole has wreaked around the world.

Yet another "height of hypocrisy" from Washington

Al-Jazeera is reporting that the US is pushing to remove the ban on nuclear materials trade with India. The hypocrisy here should be obvious: India is no longer a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), already possesses nuclear weapons, and is not open to IAEA inspections because it is not part of the NPT regime. Compare this to Iran's nuclear status and therein lies the rub.

According to al-Jazeera, "Diplomats close to the suppliers group talks say that France, Russia, Canada, Brazil and South Africa are in favour of an agreement." Let's take a guess as to which countries are engaged in marketing their nuclear technologies in new Delhi, should the exemption for purchase be granted. As far as the US nuclear industry goes, this is one way to build up the necessary wad of investment cash for the much-touted maniacal rejuvenation of the US nuclear power industry - it's been well over 20 years since any new plants were built - on top of the normal military tech profiteering that helps firms like Lockheed Martin maintain their company yachts. The US Congressional Research Service published an interesting report about US-India relations last year; start reading on p. 31 if you'd like to see how many billions in weapons are being sold and to get some idea of Israel's role in assuring the flow of arms into Asia continues to increase.

Hunkered Down in Hokkaido

The G8 and some of their special friends, i.e. not China not India of course Israel, are meeting this week in northern Japan and once again, security operations are massive. According to The Independent, "Japan's last G8 conference in 2000 cost its taxpayers $750m and the final price tag for Hokkaido is likely to be not far off that figure." Naturally, a large portion of this bill goes to police, surveillance operations, etc. Thus has it ever been. When APEC met in Sydney, Australia last year, it was also the biggest security operation ever seen in that country. If the preparatory meeting last month in Osaka of G8 finance ministers is any indication of how serious the Japanese government is about keeping heads of state safe from harassment (if not harm), then we can expect some repercussions for protesters who do not show adequate respect for the state's security program.

Without China and India participating, the premise that this summit will arrive at doable and sufficient reductions in global CO2 emissions is basically laughable. The Europeans will again find themselves dealing with a US president promoting faith-based reduction regimes, i.e. whatever the corporate emitters [his base] say they are willing to accept and even then, in a way that will somehow enhance their profits [their faith]. In terms of the problems in Africa - Zimbabwe, Somalia, Somalian pirates (!), Darfur-Chad - i believe we can expect more hollow pronouncements and no substantive acts. However, it's a great accolade to the power of the G8 rulers that most of Hokkaido Island has been transformed to isolate and protect these people, and maybe some protesters will have to be deported but that's the price of security - democracy? - while the international media again tells us about the 9 course meals and who gave whom a comforting back rub. There is something incredibly flawed with this model of global governance in the 21st century, and the way these meetings continue to be used as excuses for turning the planet into a totalitarian security zone.

Ploughshares Aotearoa Deflate US Military in NZ

Not sure if it's cool to download photos and then publish them on my blog, even with a credit, but i'd people to see this picture and there doesn't seem to be any other way to embed it. The photographer is Derek Flynn and you can see his 5-photo series here at stuff.no.za.

Yesterday at the Waihopai Spy Base in Aotearoa/New Zealand, three men caused an estimated $1 million in damages by deflating "one of the two 30 metre radomes covering satellite interception dishes. The members then built a shrine and prayed for the victims of the war with no end - the so-called 'War on Terror' led by the U. S. Empire which also controls the New Zealand taxpayer funded Waihopai spy base." The consequences of their action, in the NZ legal system, can be followed at the Ploughshares Aotearoa website. At this time, they've been released on bail but can't associate with each other or get anywhere near a military base.

According to the national Anti-Bases Campaign (ABC), Waihopai is one of three Escelon bases run by the US in NZ under the "super-secret" UKUSA Agreement. If you live or travel in the Pacific, this is probably the place where your emails, faxes and text messages are intercepted, then analyzed to detect any terrorist polyps. The US can't put this equipment anywhere they can't also insure its security, which means that whether the people on Aotearoa like it or not, they live under the shadowed fist of the Pentagon, policing the world for no other reason than to protect its own infrastructure. This is vicious circle territory, significant if one lives in New Zealand but hardly a point of concern in the US during an election year. For more info on how Waihopai fits into the over-arching militarization of outer space, check out Global Network and the Federation of American Scientists' Space Policy Project.