I’d have added the following comment to the post, G20 Post Mortem / Open Thread, had I been able to register. It may show up there yet; I’ve sent it to the blog editor and left it up to him. The article is a colourful argument against “Twitbook” and demonstrations.

Kevin, the blog editor, concluded:

Finally, draw a line in the sand. Don’t tell anyone where that line is, or what the consequences will be if it’s crossed. Don’t wave a sign about it. Don’t twitbook about it. Let the fascists figure it out the hard way.

Yet Kevin maintains this blog on which he draws lines on any number of subjects including the topic in question.

Continue reading →

Tourists snapping up £20 guided walks around Nairobi’s open-sewer streets
Xan Rice in Nairobi, guardian.co.uk, 25 September 2009

The streets of Kibera, Nairobi, are attracting the interest of tour operators – but critics say the residents are on parade like animals. Photograph: Stephen Morrison/EPA

[Read the report]

President Obama has the uncanny ability to achieve Bush-like ends by much smoother means. He announces a compromise on missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, then moves the weapons elsewhere on the continent. He initially tones down the rhetoric on Iran, then escalates the pressure on that country. “A smooth, intelligent president can be more dangerous than a blustering, boorish one.”

by Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report, 22 September 2009

“Where Bush would be vilified, Obama will be lionized for committing the same acts of aggression.”

Citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran have the right to live without fear of sanctions, military attack, and destruction at the hands of the United States. The Iranian government has the right to enrich uranium, launch satellites, build missiles or even to develop nuclear weapons. It has these rights of self-determination freely exercised by other nations, regardless of American, European or Israeli opinion.

The United States does not have the right to wage or even to threaten war against Iran, or to tell bald-faced lies about nonexistent threats. These lies are particularly egregious given the United States’ long history of invading, destabilizing or occupying many foreign countries, including Iran, all over the world.

[Read the report]

25 September 2009

Police used teargas pepper spray and rubber bullets against University of Pittsburgh students during the Pittsburgh G20 Summit. Many of the students were not part of any demonstration but bystanders, curious to find a mass of armed riot police on their campus. For more information and videos visit http://indypgh.org/g20