tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-338385662012-02-02T11:02:20.327+11:00Togs's Place.Com.Website of an Unembedded Australian Radio ManJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.comBlogger13501100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-16038996316657080352012-01-22T17:18:00.002+11:002012-01-23T13:27:06.353+11:00John Pilger:The world war on democracyLisette Talate died the other day. I remember a wiry, fiercely intelligent woman who masked her grief with a determination that was a presence. She was the embodiment of people's resistance to the war on democracy. I first glimpsed her in a 1950s Colonial Office film about the Chagos islanders, a tiny creole nation living midway between Africa and Asia in the Indian Ocean. The camera panned John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-39519410523958924532012-01-22T16:48:00.000+11:002012-01-22T16:48:49.052+11:00Mark Steel: A new yacht is the least she<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-57596339826291913452011-12-30T16:13:00.000+11:002011-12-30T16:13:58.510+11:00John Pilger:In the land of facades, mark the first signs of an Indian spring
When the early morning fog rises and drifting skeins from wood fires carry the sweet smell of India, the joggers arrive in Lodi Gardens. Past the tomb of Mohammed Shah, the 15th century Munghal ruler, across a landscape manicured in the 1930s by Lady Willingdon, wife of the governor-general, recently acquired trainers stride out from ample figures in smart saris and white cotton dhotis. In DelhiJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-82017205751277543032011-12-30T11:14:00.000+11:002011-12-30T11:14:33.973+11:00Mark Steel on the the death of Christopher Hitchens "Just because you're an atheist doesn't make you rational "
Having followed the latest debate about religion, I'd say the conclusion is obvious that the only thing as disturbing as the religious is the modern atheist. I'd noticed this before, after I was slightly critical of Richard Dawkins and received piles of fuming replies, that made me think that what his followers would like is to John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-83274426410512268732011-12-11T02:09:00.001+11:002011-12-11T02:10:37.493+11:00Mark Steel: Let's ask florists for a credit rating"Governments should be made to recite their policies in front of a panel on TV every Saturday."
The Daily Mail, still trying to attract my attention. All right. Questions to Which the Answer is No...Here's my question about economics – why should it send countries into panic when the bankers make pronouncements about countries' credit ratings, as they did yesterday? You could choose any layer of John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-24218989275184248452011-12-11T01:49:00.002+11:002011-12-11T01:51:12.217+11:00Listen to the People, Not the Polluters by Amy Goodman
DURBAN, South Africa—High above the pavement, overlooking Durban’s famous South Beach and the pounding surf of the Indian Ocean, and just blocks from the United Nations Climate Change Conference, where up to 20,000 people gathered, seven activists fought against the wind to unfurl a banner that read “Listen to the People, Not the Polluters.” It was no simple task. Despite the morning sun and John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-21667620071533870062011-12-03T10:54:00.001+11:002011-12-03T10:55:23.299+11:00Arundhati Roy: "The People Who Created the Crisis Will Not Be the Ones That Come Up With a Solution"Arundhati Roy
The prize-winning author of The God of Small Things talks about why she is drawn to the Occupy movement and the need to reclaim language and meaning.
Sitting in a car parked at a gas station on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, my colleague Michelle holds an audio recorder to my cellphone. At the other end of the line is Arundhati Roy, author of the Booker Prize-winning The God of John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-9830258500916507082011-12-03T10:44:00.000+11:002011-12-03T10:44:54.038+11:00Robert Fisk:"The real fight for democracy in Egypt has yet to begin.""A Cairo newspaper editor on why the elections will not prevent protesters from returning to Tahrir Square."
When it comes to economics, you don't mess with Wael Gamal. Before becoming a managing editor of Shrouq – Sunrise, to you and me – he was economics editor of the Egyptian daily, and he casts a cold eye on soldiers who don't understand money. "Not a single one of the 20 generals on the John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-8751104524160300132011-12-03T07:46:00.000+11:002011-12-03T07:46:04.415+11:00Mark Steel: Unions just want the mums to pay"Michael Gove believes the strikers want 'mothers to give up a day's work or pay for childcare'."
Sometimes when there's a strike, it's tricky to work out the real issues causing the conflict. So the Government is lucky to have Michael Gove, who's decoded what the unions are really after. The strikers, he said, are "itching for a fight", and "want mothers to give up John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-89820414465380421922011-12-03T07:29:00.000+11:002011-12-03T07:29:39.220+11:00Mark Steel: Don't let's forget the rich are different"You almost have to admire the front when people can't stop swiping billions."
The High Pay Commission has just published a report about the trend in salaries paid to the highest 0.1 per cent of earners, and it seems that someone must have made a terrible mistake. Because, in this time of unprecedented debt and sacrifice, with the Government making daily statements such as "in order to keep old John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-91663792177051747592011-12-01T10:52:00.000+11:002011-12-01T10:52:31.728+11:00Tariq Ali:"Why did NATO attack Pakistan?"
The Nato assault on a Pakistani checkpoint close to the Afghan border which killed 24 soldiers on Saturday must have been deliberate. Nato commanders have long been supplied with maps marking these checkpoints by the Pakistani military. They knew that the target was a military outpost. The explanation that they were fired on first rings false and has been ferociously denied by Islamabad. John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-90391316547993634462011-12-01T10:43:00.000+11:002011-12-01T10:43:11.444+11:00John Pilger:"Once again, war is prime time and journalism's role is taboo."
On 22 May 2007, the Guardian's front page announced: "Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq." The writer, Simon Tisdall, claimed that Iran had secret plans to defeat American troops in Iraq, which included "forging ties with al-Qaida elements". The coming "showdown" was an Iranian plot to influence a vote in the US Congress. Based entirely on briefings by anonymous John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-51035707265733655132011-11-17T15:39:00.000+11:002011-11-17T15:39:38.716+11:00Tariq Ali:‘How do the 99% compare with mass protests of the past – and can they succeed?’“A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth glancing at,” wrote Oscar Wilde, “for it leaves out the one country at which humanity is always landing. And when humanity lands there, it looks out, and seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.” The spirit of that 19th century socialist is alive among the idealistic young people who have come out in John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-27440178003737088332011-11-16T13:38:00.000+11:002011-11-16T13:38:21.631+11:00Mark Steel: Why should I be wearing a poppy? The plan must be to honour the dead of past wars by starting new ones
It's Poppy Week, which means if you don't wear a poppy all week you're a filthy, dirty, low-life, scummy traitor. Yesterday, there was outrage in newspapers because a library in Derbyshire would not sell poppies, and a headline in the sports section of the Daily Mail complained: "Why are only 12 Premier League clubs wearing their poppies?"Everyone on television has to wear a giant, beaming poppyJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-50121688652700169462011-11-16T09:55:00.001+11:002011-11-16T09:56:22.372+11:00In Mexico, a universal struggle against power and forgetting by John Pilger
Alameda Park is Mexico City's languid space for lovers and open-air ballroom dancers: the gents in two-tone shoes, the ladies in finery and heels. The cobbled paths undulate from the great earthquake of 1985. You imagine the fairground sinking into the cobwebs of cracks, its Edwardian organ playing forlornly. Two small churches nearby totter precariously: the surreal is Mexico's facade.
Hidden John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-73328208878608232352011-10-23T08:19:00.002+11:002011-10-23T08:47:09.382+11:00Robert Doyle : “Selfish rabble got what it deserved.” ORLLY? #occupymelbOh yeah. Tricksy police in Sydney smashed #occupysydney at approximately 5am this morning. Maybe 40 or so arrests, camp destroyed. Video seized along with arrested. Pride. Integrity. Guts.
I’m beginning to believe that Robert Doyle may not be the sharpest tool in the shed.Either that, or he assumes his audience are fools.
In an opinion piece in the Sunday Herald Sun (‘Selfish rabble got what it John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-53161900636952718632011-10-22T21:16:00.000+11:002011-10-22T21:16:41.593+11:00Ben Courtice:This is not what democracy looks like!Yesterday's police riot has drawn out the politics of the state government quite clearly. The Herald Sun, a reliable conservative mouthpiece for much of the time, summed it up with their first paragraphs in today's edition. "The Battle of City Square wasn't quite over but the result was never in doubt when a quiet policeman dropped a comment that said it all."Now they know we mean it," he mused, John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-80294473145051653452011-10-20T17:49:00.001+11:002011-10-20T17:55:04.641+11:00John Pilger:The Son of Africa claims a continent’s crown jewels
On 14 October, President Barack Obama announced he was sending United States special forces troops to Uganda to join the civil war there. In the next few months, US combat troops will be sent to South Sudan, Congo and Central African Republic. They will only "engage" for "self-defence", says Obama, satirically. With Libya secured, an American invasion of the African continent is under way.
John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-51401040059873851922011-10-11T21:07:00.001+11:002011-10-14T07:27:35.349+11:00Joe Strummer Quotes
“Authority is supposedly grounded in wisdom, but I could see from a very early age that authority was only a system of control and it didn't have any inherent wisdom. I quickly realised that you either became a power or you were crushed”
“If I had five million pounds I'd start a radio station because something needs to be done. It would be nice to turn on the radio and hear something that John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-57714617119776995822011-10-08T13:28:00.000+11:002011-10-08T13:28:30.322+11:00John Cummins and the fight for the right to organise by Joe LohThe events depicted in this footage relate to a particular period of history when the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) was deregistered in 1986. (Click underline to film)
The Union was fighting for its survival and John Cummins was arrested and jailed countless times as he fought for the right to represent BLF members.
In one particular court appearance when John was challenging an John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-61877702270606137592011-10-08T08:24:00.001+11:002011-10-08T08:26:15.166+11:00Naomi Klein: Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World NowI was honored to be invited to speak at Occupy Wall Street on Thursday night. Since amplification is (disgracefully) banned, and everything I say will have to be repeated by hundreds of people so others can hear (a k a “the human microphone”), what I actually say at Liberty Plaza will have to be very short. With that in mind, here is the longer, uncut version of the speech.
I love you.
And I John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-66058330391533138162011-10-07T23:13:00.000+11:002011-10-07T23:13:42.843+11:00John Pilger:The ‘getting’ of Assange and the smearing of a revolutionThe High Court in London will soon to decide whether Julian Assange is to be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual misconduct. At the appeal hearing in July, Ben Emmerson QC, counsel for the defence, described the whole saga as "crazy". Sweden's chief prosecutor had dismissed the original arrest warrant, saying there was no case for Assange to answer. Both the women involved said John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-17228168759488786332011-10-07T12:51:00.000+11:002011-10-07T12:51:44.217+11:00Naomi Klein: Protesters Are Seeking Change in the Streets Because It Won't Come From the Ballot Box“My biggest fear was that the Obama presidency was was going to lead this generation of young people into political cynicism and political apathy,” Klein says. “But instead, they are going to where the power is. They are realizing the change is not coming in Washington because politicians are so controlled by corporate interest, and that that is the fundamental crisis in this country.” Naomi John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-65559577312534177392011-09-24T13:02:00.000+10:002011-09-24T13:02:55.498+10:00War and shopping - an extremism that never speaks its name by John Pilger John Pilger in London defending Julian Assange last year.
Looking for a bookshop that was no longer there, I walked instead into a labyrinth designed as a trap. Leaving became an allusion, rather like Alice once she had stepped through the Looking Glass. Walls of glass curved into concentric circles as one "store" merged into another: Armani Exchange with Dinki Di Pies. Exits led to gauntlets John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-6949177569220383942011-09-18T09:37:00.001+10:002011-09-18T09:38:37.117+10:00Tariq Ali:America's selective vigilantism will make as many enemies as friendsUnder the guise of humanitarianism, the frontiers of the west's squalid protectorate are being decided in Washington
"Sovereign is he who decides on the exception," Carl Schmitt wrote in different times almost a century ago, when European empires and armies dominated most continents and the United States was basking beneath an isolationist sun. What the conservative theorist meant by "exception"John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-65132974918939051792011-09-17T13:43:00.000+10:002011-09-17T13:43:33.141+10:00Mark Steel: Bankers: eight billion years in jail should do itInstead of this pointless Vickers Report about how to sort out the banks, the investigation should have been carried out by Supernanny. She'd have sorted it.
Because the problem seems to be they've got no discipline. And governments have been like these soppy posh parents you get who watch their toddlers go berserk in public, and eventually say, "Polyglot, darling, I've warned you haven't I, John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-51498109200452290802011-09-11T11:03:00.002+10:002011-09-11T11:09:48.457+10:00Mark Steel: Welcome to the Wapping ExperienceAs the Murdochs are selling off their plant at Wapping, it should be bought by English Heritage the way they do with other shut-down workplaces, and turned into "The News International Experience".
Visitors could be offered headphones with a commentary that plays as they go round, saying: "Hi, I'm Bob Hoskins, and I've seen some right goings-on round the East End I can tell yer, but what they John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-68895632269545553112011-09-10T09:30:00.000+10:002011-09-10T09:30:52.410+10:00Robert Jensen:Imperial Delusions: Ignoring the Lessons of 9/11Ten years ago, critics of America’s mad rush to war were right, but it didn’t matter.
Within hours after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it was clear that political leaders were going to use the attacks to justify war in Central Asia and the Middle East. And within hours, those of us critical of that policy began to offer principled and practical arguments against aggressive war as a response to theJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-83580194026103981662011-09-10T09:03:00.001+10:002011-09-10T09:08:05.143+10:00John Pilger:Hail to the true victors of Rupert's revolution
On 13 September, one of the world's biggest arms fairs opens in London, backed by the British government. On 8 September, the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a preview entitled "Middle East: A vast market for UK defence and security companies". The host was the Royal Bank of Scotland, a major investor in cluster bombs. According to Amnesty international, the victims of cluster John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-27109233194682475182011-09-08T07:13:00.001+10:002011-09-08T07:14:05.443+10:00Noam Chomsky:The Responsibility of Intellectuals, Using Privilege to Challenge the State In 1967, as the Vietnam War escalated, Noam Chomsky penned The Responsibility of Intellectuals, a stunning rebuke to scientists and scholars for their subservience to political power. Today we face a similar array of crises, from wars to escalating debt. What are the obligations of intellectuals in this day and age?
Since we often cannot see what is happening before our eyes, it is perhaps not John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-66993028411528836762011-09-07T17:24:00.000+10:002011-09-07T17:24:18.365+10:00Noam Chomsky:9/11 and the Imperial Mentality, Looking Back on 9/11 a Decade LaterWe are approaching the 10th anniversary of the horrendous atrocities of September 11, 2001, which, it is commonly held, changed the world. On May 1st, the presumed mastermind of the crime, Osama bin Laden, was assassinated in Pakistan by a team of elite US commandos, Navy SEALs, after he was captured, unarmed and undefended, in Operation Geronimo.
A number of analysts have observed that John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-83151622582871739922011-09-04T18:05:00.000+10:002011-09-04T18:05:53.730+10:00Have we managed to silence ourselves as well as the world with our own fears? by Robert Fisk
I'm talking about the volumes, the libraries – nay, the very halls of literature – which the international crimes against humanity of 11 September 2001 have spawned. Many are spavined with pseudo-patriotism and self-regard, others rotten with the hopeless mythology of CIA/Mossad culprits, a few (from the Muslim world, alas) even referring to the killers as "boys", almost all avoiding the one John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-46433274714280733132011-08-27T18:54:00.000+10:002011-08-27T18:54:54.809+10:00Joe Strummer is Spinning in His Grave, Why Music Needs to Get Political Again by BILLY BRAGG
How ironic that The Clash should be on the cover of the NME in the week that London was burning, that their faces should be staring out from the shelves as newsagents were ransacked and robbed by looters intent on anarchy in the UK. Touching too, that the picture should be from very early in their career – Joe with curly blond hair – for The Clash were formed in the wake of a London riot: the John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-17264836710418916132011-08-20T10:48:00.000+10:002011-08-20T10:48:14.378+10:00Mark Steel: Flogging is too good for them
People who love to scream about stern discipline and National Service are having a fantastic time in post-riot Britain. My favourite was a man on a Radio 5 phone-in, who ended his rant by yelling, "I TELL you how little discipline there is. My son gets homework and he's allowed to do it ON HIS COMPUTER. We need to GET BACK to PENCIL and PAPER!" And you felt that if you suggested 'What about penJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-33715853358258262482011-08-18T20:29:00.001+10:002011-08-18T20:31:16.306+10:00John Pilger:Damn it or fear it, the forbidden truth is an insurrection in Britain
On a warm spring day, strolling in south London, I heard demanding voices behind me. A police van disgorged a posse of six or more, who waved me aside. They surrounded a young black man who, like me, was ambling along. They appropriated him; they rifled his pockets, looked in his shoes, inspected his teeth. Their thuggery affirmed, they let him go with the barked warning there would be a next John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-56874246634450989282011-08-18T17:18:00.000+10:002011-08-18T17:18:56.574+10:00Naomi Klein:Daylight Robbery, Meet Nighttime Robbery/London Riots
I keep hearing comparisons between the London riots and riots in other European cities—window smashing in Athens or car bonfires in Paris. And there are parallels, to be sure: a spark set by police violence, a generation that feels forgotten.
But those events were marked by mass destruction; the looting was minor. There have, however, been other mass lootings in recent years, and perhaps we John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-91149972903061162772011-08-14T13:07:00.005+10:002011-08-14T13:14:12.651+10:00London Riots-Tariq Ali:Why here, why now?
Why is it that the same areas always erupt first, whatever the cause? Pure accident? Might it have something to do with race and class and institutionalised poverty and the sheer grimness of everyday life? The coalition politicians (including new New Labour, who might well sign up to a national government if the recession continues apace) with their petrified ideologies can’t say that because John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-15791117839193652132011-08-06T00:07:00.000+10:002011-08-06T00:07:53.700+10:00In Cuba, the revolution continues, softly, as times change by John Pilger
On my first day in Cuba, in 1967, I waited in a bus queue that was really a conga line. Ahead of me were two large, funny females resplendent in frills of blinding yellow; one of them had an especially long bongo under her arm. When the bus arrived, painted in Cuba's colours for its inaugural service, they announced that the gringo had not long arrived from London and was therefore personally John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-77167742730689187352011-08-05T21:38:00.000+10:002011-08-05T21:38:16.334+10:00Mark Steel: Alcohol can be a problem, as can doctorsBritain is getting drunker than ever, apparently, with a government "consultation" expected to reveal the shocking statistic that, compared with 20 years ago, there are 80 per cent more documentaries or news items showing a clip of a girl in a short skirt being sick on a bench while a lad with no shirt makes a noise like a werewolf as he's thrown into a police van.
But more worrying is the John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-76134953547497679612011-08-05T21:22:00.000+10:002011-08-05T21:22:26.088+10:00Murdoch: Will Anything Really Change? by Tariq AliThe rottenness of British political culture, in a country where the lives of so many have been subjugated by lies for so long, has now been on public view for the last few weeks. The country’s most powerful media baron is forced by events to close down his profitable Sunday paper—News of the World--- specializing in celebrity sex stories and using its close links with the police to get tip-offs John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-4273129008713226302011-07-30T23:54:00.000+10:002011-07-30T23:54:41.029+10:00Chomsky Interview on Education By Noam Chomsky and Jennifer PagliaroNoam Chomsky
I saw that you were quoted as saying "education is ignorance" --
Well, that's what it often is in practice. It shouldn't be.
I'm just wondering if you can speak to this idea of education being mostly something that teaches obedience rather than critical thinking.
I didn't say that's what it mostly is. I said that's what it's becoming. There's strong pressure to turn it into that. John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-73408997240901561482011-07-27T22:08:00.000+10:002011-07-27T22:08:54.222+10:00Mark Steel: Time to inflict pain on the terminally illHow do YOU suggest we cut the deficit then? You'll be asked this if you ever oppose a cost-cutting scheme, such as merging the sewer system with the library service or something. So here's one answer, we could pay a bit less to ATOS, a company that receives £100m a year from the Government for assessing who should be cut off from disability benefit.
The method they choose is to interview each John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-87078995118376021782011-07-24T19:00:00.000+10:002011-07-24T19:00:36.619+10:00Amid the Murdoch scandal, there is the acrid smell of business as usual by John PilgerIn Scoop, Evelyn Waugh’s brilliant satire on the press, there is the moment when Lord Copper, owner of the Daily Beast, meets his new special war correspondent, William Boot, in truth an authority on wild flowers and birdsong. A confused Boot is brought to his lordship’s presence by Mr. Salter, The Beast’s foreign editor.
“Is Mr. Boot all set for his trip?”
“Up to a point, Lord Copper.”
CopperJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-78328843324492888612011-07-16T05:26:00.000+10:002011-07-16T05:26:36.671+10:00The strange silencing of liberal America by John Pilger
How does political censorship work in liberal societies? When my film, 'Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia', was banned in the United States in 1980, the broadcaster PBS cut all contact. Negotiations were ended abruptly; phone calls were not returned. Something had happened. But what? 'Year Zero' had already alerted much of the world to the horrors of Pol Pot, but it also investigated the John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-14401651934864003922011-07-03T12:06:00.002+10:002011-07-03T12:50:39.862+10:00The invasion of Australia - official at last by John Pilger
John Pilger
The City of Sydney has voted to replace the words “European arrival” in the official record with “invasion”. The deputy lord mayor, Marcelle Hoff, says it is intellectually dishonest to use any other word in describing how Aboriginal Australia was dispossessed by the British. “We were invaded,” said Paul Morris, an Aboriginal adviser to the council. “It is the truth and it John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-40010617875885107242011-06-26T14:58:00.000+10:002011-06-26T14:58:43.327+10:00Robert Fisk: 'No wonder they were rioting in Damascus. This was insulting both to the living and to the dead'Robert Fisk on the reality behind Bashar al-Assad's address to the nation
It was sad. It was ridiculous. It was totally out of touch. The thousand Syrian dead (and counting) were, according to President Bashar al-Assad, victims of that well-known Arab animal: the plot, the conspiracy, the "foreign hand", the same dastardly enemy that confronted Mubarak (before he was chucked out) and Ben Ali (John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-2888051437426968352011-06-26T14:52:00.000+10:002011-06-26T14:52:41.362+10:00Mark Steel: Pensions: no wonder firemen are on the rich lists by Mark SteelHow is the Government getting away with this idea that a public-sector pension is a "luxury"? Is it something that suave bachelors could show off, saying: "Once I've taken you for a spin in my Aston Martin, how about I show you the mid-range forecast for my teacher's pension over a bottle of Veuve Cliquot."
A pension is a necessity, so you might as well say we simply can't go on enjoying the John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-52122753387648715612011-06-25T08:07:00.002+10:002011-06-25T08:09:14.730+10:00Brainwashing the polite and professional way by John Pilger
John Pilger
One of the most original and provocative books of the past decade is Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt (Rowman & Littlefield). “A critical look at salaried professionals,” says the cover, “and the soul-battering system that shapes their lives.” Its theme is postmodern America but also applies to Britain, where the corporate state has bred a new class of Americanised manager to John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-79010036356546583702011-06-18T08:22:00.000+10:002011-06-18T08:22:41.932+10:00Overcoming Despair as the Republicans Take Over By Noam Chomsky and Michael Lerner
Noam Chomsky
Michael Lerner (ML): You have made many excellent analyses of the power of global capital and
its capacity to undermine ordinary citizens’ efforts to transform the global reality toward a more
humane and generous world. If there were a serious movement in the U.S. ready to challenge global
capital, what should such a movement do? Or is it, as many believe, hopeless, John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-80929049676299249932011-06-17T22:32:00.001+10:002011-06-17T22:44:43.661+10:00A link between climate change and natural disasters?
Recently the world has watched on with horror as tornadoes, fires, record floods and earthquakes have wreaked destruction across the globe. Are these events linked to climate change? This video op-ed, written by author Bill McKibben and narrated and illustrated by Stephen Thomson, raises some serious questions.
Click on the above text to see the videoJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-7428923296403290242011-06-16T18:38:00.000+10:002011-06-16T18:38:54.574+10:00Make O'Farrell’s industrial laws unworkable By Susan PriceA bill attacking the rights of NSW public sector workers pushed by the O’Farrell Coalition government are set to pass through the upper house on June 14, with the support of Fred Nile’s Christian Democrats and the Shooters Party.
It can then be put through the Liberal dominated lower house on June 15.
The anti-union bill is a draconian measure. If passed, it will give the state government the John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-64144385786554835022011-06-10T06:43:00.000+10:002011-06-10T06:43:28.308+10:00“Russian Lessons”—a full version of Ali’s latest LRB article
Tariq Ali
Late one night in 1897, a Pashtun tribe (with whom the British wrongly assumed they were not in dispute), launched a stealth attack on the British encampment. Winston Churchill, an eager twenty-something subaltern on his first visit to the turbulent North-West frontier, was outraged by the ‘treachery’. The guerrilla attack cost the British Indian army forty officers and men as well asJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-51308911709192240072011-06-05T21:44:00.001+10:002011-06-05T21:45:25.546+10:00'Worse than WorkChoices' -- O’Farrell to slash public service wages By John Gauci NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell. The newly-elected Barry O’Farrell Coalition government in NSW has introduced a bill that gives it unprecedented power over pay and conditions for the state's 400,000 public servants —gutting the NSW Industrial Relations Commission’s (IRC) role.
The Industrial Relations Amendment (Public Sector Conditions of Employment) Bill 2011 amends the state John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-66563074074242156362011-06-02T18:59:00.001+10:002011-06-02T19:00:43.188+10:00Obama has 'addiction to war' says writer Tariq Ali
Barack Obama ran for office under the slogan 'Change We Can Believe in' and presented himself as a departure from his divisive predecessor. Writer, filmmaker and activist Tariq Ali has been manning the barricades against American presidents for 40 years - and believes Obama represents no real change at all, as the rich have continued to prosper and the poor have continued to suffer.(Click hereJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-6340368372369355642011-05-29T09:36:00.001+10:002011-05-29T09:41:22.795+10:00Human Intelligence and the Environment by Noam ChomskyI’LL BEGIN with an interesting debate that took place some years ago between Carl Sagan, the well-known astrophysicist, and Ernst Mayr, the grand old man of American biology. They were debating the possibility of finding intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. And Sagan, speaking from the point of view of an astrophysicist, pointed out that there are innumerable planets just like ours. John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-13023532574505434552011-05-28T11:58:00.000+10:002011-05-28T11:58:30.399+10:00Welcome to the violent world of Mr. Hopey Changey by John PilgerWhen Britain lost control of Egypt in 1956, Prime Minister Anthony Eden said he wanted the nationalist president Gamal Abdel Nasser "destroyed… murdered… I don’t give a damn if there’s anarchy and chaos in Egypt". Those insolent Arabs, Winston Churchill had urged in 1951, should be driven "into the gutter from which they should never have emerged". The language of colonialism may have been John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-12094228077807006462011-05-26T20:31:00.000+10:002011-05-26T20:31:39.282+10:00Assange: 'WikiLeaks is an intelligence agency of the people'
Below is the transcript of Julian Assange’s acceptance speech of the Sydney Peace Foundation Gold Medal at the Frontline Club in London on May 10.
Thank you Professor Rees and Mary Kostakidis. I think Professor Rees has stolen all my good lines and Mary’s stolen all my jokes, so I’m not sure that I have much left.
However, I would like to begin first of all with a status update because there John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-89921538440787356612011-05-22T16:17:00.000+10:002011-05-22T16:17:08.079+10:00Lots of Rhetoric – But Very Little Help by Robert Fisk "Then we had to hear what America's 'role' was going to be in the new Middle East. We did not hear if the Arabs wanted them to have a role."It was the same old story. Palestinians can have a "viable" state, Israel a "secure" one. Israel cannot be de-legitimised. The Palestinians must not attempt to ask the UN for statehood in John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-77745831879342104342011-05-14T22:11:00.000+10:002011-05-14T22:11:34.960+10:00John Pilger: How the Murdoch press keeps Australia's dirty secret The illegal eavesdropping on famous people by the News of the World is said to be Rupert Murdoch’s Watergate. But is it the crime by which Murdoch ought to be known? In his native land, Australia, Murdoch controls 70 per cent of the capital city press. Australia is the world’s first murdochracy, in which smear by media is power.
The most enduring and insidious Murdoch campaign has John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-10828955739304496472011-05-07T19:47:00.002+10:002011-05-08T08:44:59.258+10:00Noam Chomsky On Bin Laden's Assassination
It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them. In societies that John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-11789931512143669382011-05-07T18:30:00.000+10:002011-05-07T18:30:17.457+10:00Bin Laden's death: 'Why kill the goose?' by Tariq Ali<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <!--[endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-21821630329764333062011-05-06T07:53:00.000+10:002011-05-06T07:53:06.109+10:00Robert Fisk: If this is a US victory, does that mean its forces should go home now?<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <!--[endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-55421925150778035262011-05-06T07:47:00.001+10:002011-05-07T15:41:22.422+10:00Mark Steel: The modern jihadist must be on Twitter
Mark Steel
What seems strange is that if this raid was watched live on film, wouldn't someone have bought the rights and released it on DVD by now? Americans aren't usually slow with a commercial opportunity. They probably arranged a three-minute gap between the two shots fired at Bin Laden, to allow for a commercial break. It would become the best-selling film John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-90547782834949999902011-05-04T05:25:00.002+10:002011-05-04T07:38:42.372+10:00Robert Fisk: Was he betrayed? Of course. Pakistan knew Bin Laden's hiding place all along
A middle-aged nonentity, a political failure outstripped by history – by the millions of Arabs demanding freedom and democracy in the Middle East – died in Pakistan yesterday. And then the world went mad.
Fresh from providing us with a copy of his birth certificate, the American President turned up in the middle of the night to provide us with a live-time death certificate for Osama bin John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-6974750392755630782011-04-29T08:04:00.001+10:002011-04-29T08:05:40.267+10:00ANZAC Day not for faggots and towelheads by Geoff LemonAt least, not according to the Australian Christian Lobby. Sure, their main man Jim Wallace used slightly more careful language, but that was the sentiment of what he said. “Just hope that as we remember Servicemen and women today we remember the Australia they fought for – wasn’t gay marriage and Islamic!” was the thoughtful missive he left via Twitter on the 25th.
I generally couldn’t John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-22271491536425470232011-04-24T15:57:00.001+10:002011-04-24T16:02:52.046+10:00Dr Tariq Ali on history and politics: Writer, journalist, filmmaker and public intellectual Dr Tariq Ali addressed a capacity crowd at Eden Grove this week on the current uprisings in the Arab world and their links to contemporary history and the international community.
In his talk entitled “The West, the Arab World and its Discontents”, Dr Ali, who was born in Lahore in 1943 and educated at Oxford, attributed the current John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-28134386249076816442011-04-22T17:15:00.001+10:002011-04-22T17:20:32.952+10:00The Contours of Global Order by Noam ChomskyNoam Chomsky
The democracy uprising in the Arab world has been a spectacular display of courage, dedication, and commitment by popular forces -- coinciding, fortuitously, with a remarkable uprising of tens of thousands in support of working people and democracy in Madison, Wisconsin, and other U.S. cities. If the trajectories of revolt in Cairo and Madison intersected, however, they were headed John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-59258477819535188632011-04-22T11:26:00.001+10:002011-04-22T11:28:20.648+10:00John Pilger Q&A Transcript: embedded journalism, Murdoch press, Israel-Palestine, WikiLeaksJohn Pilger addressed a sold-out crowd of over 400 people in Sydney at a special screening of his new documentary, The War You Don’t See. Following the screening Pilger answered questions on the Australian and international media, relationships between corporations or governments and our media, embedded journalism, Israel-Palestine media coverage (including the current campaign against John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-43386821504437453612011-04-21T07:37:00.006+10:002011-04-21T07:42:41.429+10:00Julia Gillard leads the march for Anzac in the 51st state by John Pilger
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard leaves after speaking at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC. Photograph: Getty Images.
As Washington releases another wave of terror on a faraway land, the Australian prime minister is reviving the spirit of Gallipoli and preparing her country to play its old role of deputy sheriff to Uncle Sam.
The street where I grew up in Sydney was a John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-33419937520518716622011-04-20T21:30:00.000+10:002011-04-20T21:30:36.876+10:00Profit Pathology and Disposable Planet by Michael ParentiMichael Parenti<!--[if !mso]>
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<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONEJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-38977557129290549032011-04-19T22:04:00.001+10:002011-04-19T22:05:37.919+10:00Alternative Radio May Line Up
Alternative Radio, Celebrating 25 Years of Audio DemocracyNoam Chomsky
Hi,
just watching Stephen Fry's program on the ABC about the BP Gulf oil spill.
Very interesting and worth checking out on iView if you missed.
Just as interesting and worth catching up with is Noam Chomsky's "Human
Intelligence and the Environment". We cant have one without the otherJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-65526417284827526462011-04-18T08:51:00.003+10:002011-04-18T09:28:52.243+10:00Who’s afraid of the Green Left? by Peter Boyle Rally against climate denialists, Sydney April 2, 2011. Photo by Peter Boyle.
For more than a week, Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian has been on the warpath against green and left “extremists”. It began by attacking the NSW Greens for supporting the global boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli apartheid. The Greens are organised in independent parties in John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-59029365400686150892011-04-10T17:06:00.001+10:002011-04-10T21:30:02.867+10:00Arab Dictators & Western Complicity by Noam ChomskyArab Dictators & Western Complicity, Noam Chomsky on the Egyptian Revolution, Belgian TV on 20/03/2011. Click here to watch. John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-30083218794806350842011-04-09T10:20:00.004+10:002011-04-09T10:46:50.890+10:00Pilger's new film: media’s pro-war spin exposed by Kate Ausburn
John Pilger’s latest film, The War You Don’t See, looks at the power wielded by journalists reporting conflict. It examines the responsibility of the media in justifying and supporting the wars our governments wage.
Pilger asks: “What is the role of the media in rapacious wars like Iraq and Afghanistan and how are the crimes of war reported and justified?
“John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-84836929504620752702011-04-08T07:31:00.000+10:002011-04-08T07:31:41.400+10:00David Cameron's gift of war and racism, to them and us by John Pilger The Euro-American attack on Libya has nothing to do with protecting anyone; only the terminally naive believe such nonsense. It is the West’s response to popular uprisings in strategic, resource-rich regions of the world and the beginning of a war of attrition against the new imperial rival, China.
President Barack Obama’s historical distinction is now guaranteed. He is America’s John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-54679848786430881412011-04-06T05:19:00.000+10:002011-04-06T05:19:09.483+10:00Noam Chomsky answer six questions from Ken Loach, Alice Walker, Paul Laverty, Chris Hedges, John Berger and Amira Has.
Noam Chomsky answer six questions from Ken Loach, Alice Walker, Paul Laverty, Chris Hedges, John Berger and Amira Hass from Frank Barat press from ZNet,click here to play video.
Frank Barat asks Prof Noam Chomsky 6 questions that were sent by Alice Walker, John Berger, Ken Loach, Paul Laverty, Amira Hass and Chris Hedges.
Interview starts with question from John Berger:
Political practice John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-7147901236933735402011-04-05T16:39:00.001+10:002011-04-06T05:00:18.616+10:00Lyibya is another case of selective vigilantism by the west by Tariq AliBombing Tripoli while shoring up other despots in the Arab world shows the UN-backed strikes to oust Gaddafi are purely cynical Tariq Ali
The US-Nato intervention in Libya, with United Nations security council cover, is part of an orchestrated response to show support for the movement against one dictator in particular and by so doing to bring the Arab rebellions to an end by asserting westernJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-78851674412727781782011-04-03T07:24:00.002+10:002011-04-03T07:42:30.532+10:00Mark Steel: Protest scenes that left Benghazi in the shade
From the way the news has been since Saturday, I expect this week's episode of Gardeners' Question Time to go: "Before answering the question about Mister Dibley's crocus, do the panel condemn the violence we saw in Oxford Street? Well come on, do you? DO YOU?"By tomorrow the Shipping Forecast will go: "Rockall, gales, South-Westerly, Oxford Street, paint, John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-62228214391100093372011-04-02T14:25:00.002+11:002011-04-02T14:27:40.909+11:00Responsibility and Integrity: the dilemmas we face by Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky was born in Philadelphia and educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his PhD. In 1955 he was appointed to the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has served as professor of foreign languages and linguistics. He has also taught courses and lectured at many universities throughout the world, John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-81770149034798262062011-04-02T14:15:00.000+11:002011-04-02T14:15:28.928+11:00Noam Chomsky: On Libya and the Unfolding Crises<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <!--[endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-41897050394367827012011-03-27T15:41:00.000+11:002011-03-27T15:41:11.208+11:00A Labor wipeout in NSW – cause for celebration? by Tim Anderson
The Australian Labor Party is about to be wiped out in the March NSW elections and an important question for people with a social conscience is – does it matter?
Isn’t there cause to celebrate the popular rejection of a party which pretends social democratic values yet, in government, has collaborated in virtually the entire oligarchic agenda - multiple wars, privatisations, massive John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-63587154914172045772011-03-19T14:40:00.000+11:002011-03-19T14:40:24.773+11:00John Pilger, Andrew Wilkie and Julian Burnside Defending Julian Assange at Sydney Town HallClick on this to see John Pilger, Andrew Wilkie and Julian Burnside speak defending Julian Assange at Sydney Town Hall 16-3-11.John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-53402588074988376142011-03-12T09:25:00.000+11:002011-03-12T09:25:43.002+11:00Noam Chomsky talks about Libya and Obama on the BBCThis interview with Noam Chomsky (linguist, philosopher and activist) was conducted by Jeremy Paxman during Newsnight (BBC2) on 8 March, 2011. Click here to see interview.John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-27892407249959114382011-03-11T22:27:00.000+11:002011-03-11T22:27:49.776+11:00How the so-called guardians of free speech are silencing the messenger by John Pilger
As the United States and Britain look for an excuse to invade another oil-rich Arab country, the hypocrisy is familiar. Colonel Gaddafi is “delusional” and “blood-drenched” while the authors of an invasion that killed a million Iraqis, who have kidnapped and tortured in our name, are entirely sane, never blood-drenched and once again the arbiters of “stability”.
But something has changed. John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-37544292341982242562011-03-09T21:14:00.001+11:002011-03-09T23:20:52.798+11:00Mark Steel: I know, let's sell weapons to a lunaticThe Western leaders now condemning Colonel Gaddafi as a madman must be perplexed as to what's gone wrong with him, because up until a month ago they obviously thought he was perfectly sane and well-balanced – otherwise they wouldn't have sold him all those tanks. They must wonder if the stress of being a dictator has got to him, and if he'd had a fortnight off and started yoga all this trouble John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-72636375827128463212011-03-09T21:04:00.001+11:002011-03-09T21:09:04.939+11:00Mark Steel: The caring, sharing way to bad times
Mark Steel
The first troubling side to the Big Society is no one can explain what it means. You might not agree with them, but at least policy initiatives such as the Five-Year Plan, Thousand-Year Reich or Holy Jihad were clear and got their point across. But ministers explain the Big Society with statements such as, "It's a brave optimism vision that instead John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-39604800658904556802011-03-08T17:20:00.003+11:002011-03-08T17:22:35.063+11:00The Great Fascist’s last groupie by Tim AndersonForty-five years ago - in the middle of a bloody war that would go on to cost more than two million lives - an Australian Prime Minister declared undying loyalty to Washington. Conservative Prime Minister Harold Holt said he would go ‘all the way’ with the then US President, Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Today - with most of Asia, almost all of Latin America and most of the Arab world seeking to John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-9595653580274858982011-03-06T09:03:00.000+11:002011-03-06T09:03:15.141+11:00U.S. Savage Imperialism, Part 4, The U.S., the Mideast, and the world, part four of a talk at Z The U.S., the Mideast, and the world, part four of a talk at Z By Noam Chomsky<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <!--[endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-32400254287896109962011-03-06T08:44:00.001+11:002011-03-06T09:16:12.293+11:00Robert Fisk: The Tunisian whose jihad was for the people, not God
The second Arab awakening of modern history – the first was the Arab revolt against the Ottoman empire – requires some new definitions, perhaps even some new words in at least the English language.
And some new calculator that will instantly register the old age of dictators and the growing army of the young. If you survive into senility, you can enter the John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-76142538322161963072011-03-05T17:35:00.001+11:002011-03-05T17:36:57.983+11:00All Australians Deserve Free Health Care by Catherine Deveny
Catherine Deveny
HOW can anyone not agree with free universal high-quality health care? How can anyone think that our current public/private marriage of political convenience is beneficial to all Australians both now and in the future? How can anyone think that our nation is getting value for money? It's not.
Private health insurance is a rip-off. Public John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-23580352406453907862011-03-05T12:03:00.002+11:002011-03-05T12:06:40.175+11:00Micah Sifry: WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency/Interview with Laura Flanders"Wikileaks is a symptom of a much larger change, an age when information can be moved into the public arena by all kinds of people," says Micah Sifry of the Personal Democracy Forum. Bradley Manning, the accused leaker of the "Collateral Murder" video aired on WikiLeaks, faces 22 new charges from the government, including "Aiding the Enemy." But which enemy is he aiding, Micah asks? Is it John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-71780840864548682302011-03-04T17:31:00.001+11:002011-03-04T17:34:13.731+11:00In the Age of WikiLeaks, the End of Secrecy? by Micah L. Sifry
“In one direction we can reach out and touch the time when the leaders of the Soviet Union thought that the explosion at the nuclear reactor in Chernobyl could be kept secret from the rest of the world. In the other direction we can see a time—already upon us—when fourteen-year-old hackers in Australia or Newfoundland can make their way into the most sensitive John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-43066619899637792452011-03-03T22:01:00.002+11:002011-03-03T23:19:59.648+11:00'Stability, A Cold Code Word With US' By Noam ChomskyInterview with Professor Noam Chomsky, renowned American author and political analyst
Broadcast By Press TV - February 24, 2011
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also censured the Libyan government's severe suppression of Libyans and called for an end to the “bloodshed” in the North African country.
To learn more on the latest developments in the Arab world, John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-54967410064489940532011-03-01T21:58:00.000+11:002011-03-01T21:58:11.839+11:00U.S. Savage Imperialism, Part 3 By Noam Chomsky
In parts one and two of "U.S. Savage Imperialism," Chomsky talks about the U.S. global mission and the Mideast with particular regard to Iran and Israel/Palestine. He closes by speculating on whether, with world pressure, the U.S. might shift its policy and insist on Israel accepting the international consensus on a two-state solution. What follows is a transcript of the first group of John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-4553703554112552932011-03-01T17:46:00.001+11:002011-03-01T17:52:33.113+11:00Humphrey McQueen: WikiLeaks and the fight for free speechThe article below is based on a December 16 speech by Canberra-based freelance historian Humphrey McQueen. McQueen spoke at a Canberra rally organised to defend WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange.
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By what right are we here today? Why are we confident that we can protest and not be shot at by the political police on the fringes of this crowd?
We take it for granted that we John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-5477596676745506222011-02-28T23:25:00.000+11:002011-02-28T23:25:05.029+11:00Profit Pathology and Disposable Planet by Michael Parenti
Some years ago in New England, a group of environmentalists asked a corporate executive how his company (a paper mill) could justify dumping its raw industrial effluent into a nearby river. The river—which had taken Mother Nature centuries to create--was used for drinking water, fishing, boating, and swimming. In just a few years, the paper mill had turned it into a highly toxic open sewer.
TheJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-58144140365629654932011-02-27T11:09:00.001+11:002011-02-27T11:10:27.433+11:00U.S. Savage Imperialism, Part 2 The Israel/Palestine issue By Noam ChomskyNoam Chomsky
It's pretty common now for supporters of the Palestinians and Palestinian leaders themselves to say, "Well, we have to abandon hope in the two-state solution." As one of the Palestinian leaders said, "We should give Israel the key and let them take over the entire West Bank. It will be one state, we'll then carry out a civil rights struggle. We can win that one, like South Africa." John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-1452645610873837132011-02-27T10:41:00.000+11:002011-02-27T10:41:33.347+11:00‘Muammar Gaddafi’s planned resignation speech,’ as seen by Tariq Ali,
“It’s raining outside which is why I cannot address you. Sorry. It seems to be raining inside my tent as well. Can this be rain? No. It’s dogs polluting the uniforms of my bodyguards. No respect for women. Benghazi. I hate that city. Once I accidentally addressed my friend Berlusconi as Benghazi. Drunkards, pimps and religious extremists. I will bomb them again before I leave. I wish we had John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-35217781642241904302011-02-27T10:35:00.001+11:002011-02-27T10:35:32.926+11:00This is an Arab 1848. But US hegemony is only dented by Tariq Ali
With western-backed despots being turfed out politics has changed for ever. So just how far can the revolution spread?
The refusal of the people to kiss or ignore the rod that has chastised them for so many decades has opened a new chapter in the history of the Arab nation. The absurd, if much vaunted, neocon notion that Arabs or Muslims were hostile to democracy has disappeared like parchmentJohn/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33838566.post-1312382410343874042011-02-26T23:25:00.002+11:002011-02-26T23:56:52.748+11:00Disaster capitalism: how to make money out of misery by Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
The privatisation of aid after Katrina offers a glimpse of a terrifying future in which only the wealthy are saved.
The Red Cross has just announced a new disaster-response partnership with Wal-Mart. When the next hurricane hits, it will be a co-production of Big Aid and Big Box. This, apparently, is the lesson learned from the US government's John/Togs Tognolinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01991679381033314236noreply@blogger.com0