This video is called BP poisoning wildlife.
More than 300 sea birds, nearly 200 turtles and 19 dolphins have been found dead along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Thanks BP. See here.
BP oil spill: grassroots anger over ‘lack of clean-up plan’: here.
Oil leak may not be limited to only one location: here.
Greenpeace rebrands BP with oil-slickened graphic campaign: here.
This video from Scotland is called Tripping Up Trump.
From Wildlife Extra, about Scotland:
Protest against Trump golf course is growing – You can help
27/05/2010 23:30:24 Tripping up Trump
May 2010. The prospects of Donald Trump’s unpopular housing and golf development ever being built as planned have taken another welcome blow.
In an impressive display of mass public opposition to Donald Trump, local campaign group Tripping Up Trump (TUT) attracted over a 1000 new potential owners for its plot at Menie, The Bunker, in just 24hrs (1 person every 90 seconds). The would-be owners signed up on-line via the Tripping Up Trump website
Buy a piece of land
The community-led campaign has 60 people (75% based in Aberdeenshire) who already own its land in the heartland of where the Trump Organisation wishes to develop, with the option for thousands more to join up and become a potential owner.
TUT spokesperson Martin Glegg said: “We expected strong support but this has become overwhelming. The TUT email accounts our busting at the seams.”
“I hope this sends a message to Donald Trump that the idea that he has much local support outside his wealthy business friends and councillors is just plain wrong. He now must face the reality the he will have to learn to live with his neighbours in a civilised fashion and make compromises if he wants to build his private resort.”
David Putnam – Local hero
One famous figure who is supporting The Bunker is David Putnam the producer of the famous film ‘Local Hero‘. He is now one of the owners of the plot at Menie.
Said Lord Putnam, “This saga is the real life version of a film I made over 25 years ago, Local Hero. Thankfully, Local Hero had a happy ending when the American developer came to his senses and withdrew with dignity. It would be great if Donald Trump would watch it. Compulsory purchase orders for this kind of project would set a very dangerous precedent for all of Scotland.”
In the time it took to write this 20 to people asked to join The Bunker. Information about the new joint land ownership project will be available here.
September 2010. Dr David Kennedy, the first principal of The Robert Gordon University and member of Tripping Up Trump, returned to the University on Tuesday 28 September to renounce the honorary doctorate it conferred on him in 1999. Dr Kennedy is returning his honorary degree in protest at the University’s decision to confer an honorary doctorate on developer Donald Trump and to express his support for the families at Menie that Mr Trump is trying to force from their homes: here.
Trumped by Donald? Are Bankruptcy and a Bad Toupee Qualifications for President? Here.
Film-makers Anthony Baxter and Richard Phinney accused Grampian Police at the weekend of covering up the truth over police harassment during the making of the documentary You’ve Been Trumped: here.
January 2011. Donald Trump has backed down from threatening the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders against the residents of the village of Menie; a very welcome development for those who think that CPO’s should not be enforced for private commercial gain: here.
Greens today slammed US billionaire Donald Trump’s £750 million private luxury golf and housing development that was being constructed on the Aberdeenshire coast: here.
This video says about itself:
Video from a blue tit box nest camera and some outside showing the 44 days from laying the first egg, feeding the chicks through to 8 fledged birds (from 11 eggs).
From Wildlife Extra:
Blue tits set up home in ashtray
Birds removed old cigarette butts
May 2010: Wildlife Extra has this week been told of not one, but two blue tit families setting up home in company ashtrays. In both cases, the ingenious birds have turned a metal, wall-mounted metal-box ashtray into the perfect nest site.
Staff at environmental monitoring company YSI Hydrodata in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, first noticed their enterprising guests after cigarette butts began to appear over the floor. Signs were put up asking smokers not to use the box, which had been filled with moss and twigs by the bird for her eggs to hatch inside.
Andrew Burton’s YSI’s Service Manager said: ‘We were confused by all of the cigarette butts that suddenly appeared on the floor a few metres from the ashtray and it seems these were removed by the blue tits prior to setting up their nest.
‘There are now around seven or eight chicks inside the ashtray and we hope they have an enjoyable stay in their unconventional home.’
Meanwhile in Wallsend, Tyne & Wear, another blue tit couple have made their home at the outside ashtray at Oceana Business Park.
‘I was delighted to hear about the arrival of our newest tenants,’ said Tony Mann, managing director of The Oceana Group. ‘The surrounding greenery and wildlife plays an essential role in the harmonious running of the site.
‘We have a groundsman who keeps Oceana in a pristine condition; and bird tables and friendly feeding areas have been installed. It all adds to the overall ambience of this beautiful heritage location.’
If there’s no trees and no nest boxes then why not an ashtray?
The RSPB’s wildlife officer Lee Hollingsworth said that although the blue tits’ homes sounded odd, using an ashtray as a nest was neither as unusual nor as ridiculous as it might at first appear.
‘If you think about it, a metal-box ashtray is very similar to a nest box,’ he said. ‘Ideally, blue tits would be nesting in a tree, but with the lack of trees, they choose nest boxes and with the lack of nest boxes, then why not a wall-mounted ashtray? It’s a safe place – no squirrels or magpies are going to get in. Blue tits will make their home wherever there’s a small hole. We’ve had reports of them nesting in cracks between bricks, in garden urns, in old water pumps…’
Do you know of any more unusual nests?
Britain: Number of blue tits plunges by 42% as experts warn modern feeders are threatening species: here.
September 2010: Better bird-seed recipes, newly-gained skills and home makeovers are changing the types of birds seen most often in West Country gardens, according to the final report from one of the UK’s biggest ‘citizen science’ projects – the decade-long Bristol Bird Watch.
This video from Italy is called Berlusconi’s party of EU candidates.
If a Leftist critic of Silvio Berlusconi compares him to fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, the usual reaction from Berlusconi‘s supporters is: “HOW DARE YOU!!”
Now, however, from the (Conservative) Daily Telegraph in Britain:
Silvio Berlusconi compares himself to Mussolini
Silvio Berlusconi has compared himself to Benito Mussolini, complaining that like the Second World War leader he does not have enough real power.
Nick Squires in Rome
Published: 12:58PM BST 28 May 2010
The Italian prime minister said he empathised with Il Duce, who had complained that he lacked real authority and that true power lay with officials in his fascist administration.
Mr Berlusconi said he had recently been reading Mussolini‘s diaries, which had led him to reflect on the challenges of governing Italy in the 21st century.
“I will dare to quote you a phrase from someone considered a dictator, a great, powerful dictator, Benito Mussolini,” the 73-year-old media tycoon told a news conference at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.
“In his diary, I recently read this phrase. ‘They say I have power. It isn’t true. Maybe my party officials do. But I don’t know. All I can do is say to my horse go right or left. And I have to be happy with that.'” Mr Berlusconi, who has been accused of a dictatorial style of government by the Opposition and even members of his own centre-Right coalition, said: “As prime minister, I have never had the feeling that I was in power.
“Sometimes as a businessman, with 56,000 employees, I’ve had the feeling of being able to decide and be in control. But today in a democracy, I am in the service of everyone and anyone can criticise me and perhaps even insult me,” he said.
The remark came in response to a question on whether the £20 billion austerity plan announced by his government this week threatened his popularity.
Italian newspapers ran pictures of Mr Berlusconi at the conference in Paris alongside black and white images of Mussolini, who seized power in 1922 and led Italy into war against Britain and France in 1940.
La Stampa recalled another controversial comment he made about the wartime leader in 2003, when he told Boris Johnson, then the editor of The Spectator, that Mussolini was a benign figure who “never killed anyone” and sent his political opponents “on holiday”.
Five worrisome coincidences between the current Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi and the early 20th century dictator, Benito Mussolini, in their visions of democracy: here.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government has won a confidence vote in the Senate on a Bill that curbs wiretaps and imposes fines on news organisations that report leaked information on criminal investigations: here.
This video from the USA is called BP Execs Should Be Treated Like Criminals.
BP‘s top official upgrades Gulf oil spill impact to “environmental catastrophe”: here.
Put the oil spill in perspective. Here is a view of it over my home area.
Two workers injured in the Gulf of Mexico BP oil rig explosion told Congress on Thursday that the corporations in charge of the doomed drilling operation cut corners and neglected maintenance in order to ramp up profits: here.
Big Oil – two words that should strike fear into the hearts of aquatic life forms everywhere: here.
BP Stops the Well, but PR Disaster Continues: here.
Getting Naked to Expose BP: here.
National Wildlife Federation Scientist on CNN: Oil Ashore So Far “The Tip Of The Iceberg”: here.
BP’s OTHER Spill this Week: here.
Ex-EPA Officials: Why Isn’t BP Under Criminal Investigation? Here.
BP says only 30 acres of wetlands have been hit by oilspill. NWF flyover video tells a much different story: here.
Obama on oil leak: ‘I was wrong’: here.
BP Wants Cases Heard by Judge with Oil Ties: here.
This video from the USA is called Arlington West.
It says about itself:
Sep 20, 2007
105 heartfelt interviews with Soldiers and Military Families whose children were killed in Iraq. Every Sunday, Veterans For Peace honor the fallen with a cemetery of crosses at the beach.
Anoother video, no longer on the Internet, used to say about itself:
Arlington West refers to two closely related projects, both of which are intended to draw public attention to, and to open a discourse on the subject of both military and civilian deaths during the invasion and occupation of Iraq of the early 21st century.
From Associated Press:
1,000th U.S. Military Death In Afghanistan
May 28, 2010
The U.S. military suffered its 1,000th death of the Afghan war Friday, according to an Associated Press count, when NATO reported a service member was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
The NATO statement did not identify the victim’s name or nationality, but U.S. spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said the service member was American.
The Associated Press bases its tally on U.S. Defense Department reports of deaths suffered as a direct result of the Afghan conflict, including personnel assigned to units in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Uzbekistan.
Other news organizations count deaths suffered by service members assigned elsewhere as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, which includes operations in the Philippines, the Horn of Africa and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The NATO statement gave no details of the bombing Friday, nor did it specify where the attack occurred.
Overcoming the Bush Legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan: here.
U.S. Night Raid In Afghanistan Elicits Outrage: here.
Yep, killing civilians in Afghanistan is a “mistake”, just like killing 1m in Iraq or 4m in Vietnam: here.
USA: Senate Approves $60 Billion For War, While House Cuts $24 Billion For Unemployed Workers And State Aid: here.
Kirchner: Bush Angrily Said War would Grow US Economy: here.
By Bill Van Auken in the USA:
Jamaica state of siege: Scores dead, hundreds detained
28 May 2010
Scores have been reported killed or wounded and hundreds arrested in what critics describe as indiscriminate violence by Jamaican security forces besieging an impoverished West Kingston neighborhood.
The confrontation, triggered by the Jamaican government’s reluctant acquiescence to Washington’s demand for the extradition of powerful and politically connected reputed drug trafficker, Christopher “Dudus” Coke, has continued for five days. Residents of Tivoli Gardens, Jamaica’s first public housing development and a supposed stronghold of Coke and his supporters, have been turned into prisoners in their own homes as some 2,000 police and soldiers armed with automatic weapons and wearing combat helmets have stormed into the area.
In a call to Jamaica’s News Talk Radio 93FM Wednesday night, two women from the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood said that they were trapped on the floor of their home, without food, electricity or water and terrified of being shot if they raised their heads.
“We’re not animals down here,” one of the women said. “We are humans.”
Residents have reported the security forces firing rocket-propelled grenades and using bulldozers to demolish homes, while the media has raised questions about unexplained explosions in the housing estate.
The security forces have sought to keep a tight lid on the operation, turning away the media at gunpoint. On Wednesday, Jamaica’s independent public defender, Earl Witter, a government official, was allowed into the zone and reported a count of 44 civilians dead.
Hospitals, however, had by Wednesday reported receiving the bodies of 60 civilians, and there were disturbing reports that suggest the real death toll could be significantly higher. Some residents of Tivoli Gardens have reported seeing troops burning corpses on piles of tires. And Kingston’s Mayor Desmond McKenzie announced that he was launching an investigation following a Television Jamaica report Wednesday night showing police carrying coffins to a local cemetery for unauthorized burials.
McKenzie said he had demanded explanations from the chiefs of the army and the police. “I’m hoping that I will be given an answer, and the country will be given an answer that the people of West Kingston who have died under tragic circumstances are not being thrown into the ground just like that,” the mayor said.
Jamaica’s daily Gleaner reported Thursday that the carnage had “put morgues on the brink of overflowing.” Agence-France Presse reported Wednesday that the morgue at one of the major Kingston hospitals had received three truckloads of bodies, including that of a baby.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has announced that public hospitals in the capital and surrounding area have suspended all but emergency services until further notice because of the growing number of casualties resulting from the police-army operation.
The countdown to the confrontation began May 17 when Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced that, having dropped his nine-month-long opposition to the extradition of Coke, he would order his arrest. …
The accused drug lord has a significant base of support in the poor inner-city neighborhoods, where he has used his wealth and political connections to secure government contracts and jobs, while dispensing limited forms of social assistance not otherwise available.
Those political connections are at the center of Jamaica’s present crisis. Prime Minister Golding is the representative in parliament for the same Tivoli Gardens district, a seat he inherited from the previous long-time leader of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, Edward Seaga.
It was Seaga who cemented the hold of the JLP and the drug gangsters over Tivoli Gardens. In 1980, he relied on these elements as shock troops in violent elections that claimed some 800 lives and brought his party to power through the defeat of the People’s National Party of Michael Manley. …
Seaga tailored Jamaican policy to the demands of Washington, jettisoning the left-nationalist rhetoric of Manley. He became a key supporter of the Reagan administration’s Caribbean Basin Initiative, broke off relations with Cuba and supported the 1983 US invasion of Grenada.
The connections between Golding and Coke surfaced earlier this month, as questions arose about government payments to a high-powered US lobbying firm headed by Charles Mannatt, the former chairman of the Democratic Party and reported confidante of President Barack Obama.
Mannatt was apparently hired to lobby against the extradition order against Coke, meeting with administration officials to argue that the accused drug lord was in fact a legitimate businessman and philanthropist.
While first acknowledging that the government had paid for Mannatt’s services, Golding later claimed that lobbying bills were footed by the JLP.
In what appears to be a ratcheting up of US pressure on Golding, ABC News reported Wednesday that the prime minister had been named in US court documents as a “known criminal affiliate” of Coke. According to the ABC report, US officials cited wiretapped telephone conversations between the Jamaican leader and the accused drug trafficker.
Meanwhile, the London daily Independent reported that Coke’s gang, the so-called Shower Posse—so named for the quantity of bullets it unleashes in confrontations with its rivals—was in the direct employ of the JLP and used to turn out the vote in the district during elections.
By Casey Gane-McCalla at News One for Black America:
The Jamaican police bare a lot of responsibility for the violence. Police in Jamaica have a reputation for killing civilians and brutality. This is one of the reasons for the tense relationship between the police in Jamaica and people in the Garrisons.
The Jamaican Labour Party has protected and empowered Dudus for years, as they did his father Lester Coke, also know as Jim Brown. Still the opposition party, the People’s National Party has its connections to gangsters and garrisons too.
America has its own role in the violence going on in Jamaica. It was the U.S. who indicted Dudus on criminal charges and demanded that Jamaica arrest him. The USA supported, trained and armed the Shower Posse (which Dudus now heads) to help the JLP fight the PNP in the seventies and eighties, when Jamaica was developing a relationship with Cuba. In many ways the U.S.A. is responsible for Tivoli Gardens becoming the stronghold it is today and Dons like Dudus being as powerful as they are. The guns that are being used by the criminals are being shipped from the US and the US is supplying the Jamaican police with weapons as well. Dudus is rich because of Americans buying drugs not Jamaicans.
Critics: Rising Jamaican Death Toll Rooted in So-Called “War on Drugs”: here.
Amnesty called on the Jamaican government today to seriously investigate human rights abuses allegedly committed during last year’s bloody operation to catch a reputed drug lord: here.
UN: No torture in Jamaica – police murder suspects straight away! (par 13, US embassy cable): here.
Over the past decades, civil libertarians have warned that right-wing politicians were moving towards an all-embracing police state, using the media-generated panics of the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Terror” as their stalking horses: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 