Perspectives on the 2nd Bush term Features collected by TFF between November 2, 2004 and January 20 - Inauguration Day, 2005

This collection contains pointed comments on various aspects of the second term of the Bush Administration. Bookmark it and check now and then the next four years: what was right and what was wrong, what was too ‘hard’ and too ‘soft’ as predictions?

On imperialism

Gore Vidal, In These Times
Imperial amnesia or the United States of Amnesia…

Ignacio Ramet, Le Monde Diplomatique
Bush second time around

Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor
On foreign policy: how bold will Bush be?
There is Iraq but new challenges also loom in Iran and North Korea.

Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker and Information Clearing House
The Coming Wars.
What Pentagon can now do in secret.

Tom Barry, Laura Carlsen, and John Gershman, International Relations Center
The next four years: A political forecast

Chalmers Johnson, TomDispatch.com
Creating a WIA – Worthless Intelligence Agency.

Scott Ritter, Aljazeera
The Salvador option
The Pentagon is considering the organisation, training and equipping of so-called death squads, teams of Iraqi assassins who would be used to infiltrate and eliminate the leadership of the Iraqi resistance.

On democracy and leadership

Greg Palast, TomPaine.com
Kerry won

Maureen Dowd, The Age
The loonies have taken control.

Howard Fineman, Newsweek
Karl Rove unleashed.

Tom Barry, The Right Web
Robert Zoellick: A Bush Family Man.
No. 2 at Rice’s State Department

On the economy

Paul Krugman, TurthOut
Economic crisis a question of when, not if.

The U.S. National debt Clock
Each U.S. citizen’s share of this debt is $25,792.10.

Joseph Quinlan, The Globalist
Behind the sinking dollar: America’s image as a “rogue nations”.

On human rights

Information Clearing House
The Human Costs of War
– a project by Patricia Foulkrod and in association with Operation Truth, an non-profit organization created by Iraq veteran Paul Rieckhoff. This film is our soldiers’ perspective of the Iraq War, and how they are being treated upon returning home.

Jim Lobe, Information Clearing House
Congress pushes penalties for Global Court Support
U.S. allies in the developing South are now being targeted by lawmakers here, who have already meted out punishment to nations that support the new International Criminal Court (ICC).

Jim Lobe, Foreign Policy in Focus
Mainstream media miss Rumsfel’d “Dirty Wars” talk
Rumsfeld blurs the line between the police and the military.

Eric Margolis, Information Clearing House
Uncle Sam has his own gulag.
Behaving like the Soviet secret police won’t make America safer…

Amnesty International
Human rights not hollow words
An appeal to President George W. Bush on the occasion of his re-inauguration.

Scott Horton, Los Angeles Times
A Nuremberg Lesson – Torture scandal began far above ‘rotten apples.’

On global development

Editorial in the New York Times
America, the indifferent
Almost a third of the way into the program (The UN Millennium Declaration goals), the latest available figures show that the percentage of U.S. income going to poor countries remains near rock bottom: 0.14 percent.

Tom Reagan, Christian Science Monitor
“They hate our policies, not our freedom”.

Timothy Heritage, Reuters
Four more years of Bush makes the world anxious
Mistrust also runs deep among ordinary people. Some 58 percent of people surveyed in a British Broadcasting Corporation poll in 21 countries said they believed Bush’s re-election made the world a more dangerous place.

On media, censorship and puritanism

George Monbiot, Common Dreams
A televisual Fairyland.
The US media is disciplined by Corporate America into promoting the Republican cause.

Dominic Timms, The Guardian
Fearful US TV networks censor more shows
The panic that is gripping American TV bosses facing a puritanical backlash or exorbitant government fines has today extended to a cartoon series and a BBC drama.Would you be browsing this Collection now,
if it wasn’t useful to you?
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On arrogance

Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation
Annal of Outrage
The Bush administration’s ten most outrageous scandals – and orgy in fraud, mismanagement and corruption.

Dafna Linzer, The Washington Post – TruthOut
IAEA leader’s phone tapped
U.S. pores over transcipts to try to out nuclear chief ElBaradei

– a type of intimidation used before…

The Progress Report
When it comes to inaugural excess, the numbers speak for themselves.
What you could get for the 40 million dollars inauguration…

Peace & future researcher + ‌Art Photographer

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“En dag som berättigar till fest”, utropade den London-baserade al-Quds al-Arabi efter FN:s eldupphörresolution, “eftersom detta är första gången som Israel accepterar ett FN-beslut från en position som besegrad och inte som segrare”. Att ett arabisk-israeliskt krig för en gångs skull slutat med arabisk seger, är en helt dominerade åsikt i arabiska medier. Al-Quds al-Arabi tillåter sig att drömma om att det israeliska nederlaget skall leda till massflykt från Israel. Men i nästa andetag påminner tidningen om att Israel aldrig brukar genomföra sina internationella åtaganden och varnar för att förlorarna, liksom tidigare, kan hämnas genom att provocera fram inbördeskrig i Libanon. Med tanke på de otaliga massmediala vittnesmålen om det libanesiska folkets eniga motståndskraft förefaller risken för inre stridigheter i det sargade landet just nu liten. Men visst kan man urskilja nyansskillnader i libanesiska tidningar. Vänsterorganet al-Safir uppfattar FN-resolutionen som en komplott i syfte att rädda Israel från ännu större...
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“En dag som berättigar till fest”, utropade den London-baserade al-Quds al-Arabi efter FN:s eldupphörresolution, “eftersom detta är första gången som Israel accepterar ett FN-beslut från en position som besegrad och inte som segrare”. Att ett arabisk-israeliskt krig för en gångs skull slutat med arabisk seger, är en helt dominerade åsikt i arabiska medier. Al-Quds al-Arabi tillåter sig att drömma om att det israeliska nederlaget skall leda till massflykt från Israel. Men i nästa andetag påminner tidningen om att Israel aldrig brukar genomföra sina internationella åtaganden och varnar för att förlorarna, liksom tidigare, kan hämnas genom att provocera fram inbördeskrig i Libanon. Med tanke på de otaliga massmediala vittnesmålen om det libanesiska folkets eniga motståndskraft förefaller risken för inre stridigheter i det sargade landet just nu liten. Men visst kan man urskilja nyansskillnader i libanesiska tidningar. Vänsterorganet al-Safir uppfattar FN-resolutionen som en komplott i syfte att rädda Israel från ännu större...
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“En dag som berättigar till fest”, utropade den London-baserade al-Quds al-Arabi efter FN:s eldupphörresolution, “eftersom detta är första gången som Israel accepterar ett FN-beslut från en position som besegrad och inte som segrare”. Att ett arabisk-israeliskt krig för en gångs skull slutat med arabisk seger, är en helt dominerade åsikt i arabiska medier. Al-Quds al-Arabi tillåter sig att drömma om att det israeliska nederlaget skall leda till massflykt från Israel. Men i nästa andetag påminner tidningen om att Israel aldrig brukar genomföra sina internationella åtaganden och varnar för att förlorarna, liksom tidigare, kan hämnas genom att provocera fram inbördeskrig i Libanon. Med tanke på de otaliga massmediala vittnesmålen om det libanesiska folkets eniga motståndskraft förefaller risken för inre stridigheter i det sargade landet just nu liten. Men visst kan man urskilja nyansskillnader i libanesiska tidningar. Vänsterorganet al-Safir uppfattar FN-resolutionen som en komplott i syfte att rädda Israel från ännu större...
Greenland – the world’s largest island, a continent of its own with only 57.000 inhabitants. I visited it for the first time in May 2005. I flew across the inland ice to Nuuk, the tiny capital with some 14.000 inhabitants. I was overwhelmed by the pride and kindness of everyone I met as well as by the unique natural beauty. Unfortunately, due to weather conditions during my ten-day stay I could get nowhere else but Nuuk. Fortunately, however, among those I met was Gitte Arvegaard, a Danish lawyer and negotiator employed by the local government, Greenland Home Rule. She turned out to be an enthusiastic photographer with a lot of pictures taken during various trips around Greenland. So this Greeland series is the result of our cooperative effort. We both hope you enjoy it and are stimulated to visit Greenland – about which you may read more here. Finally, if you want to...
 Jan Oberg’s storyof how he met Sir Paul Liverpool – where else to meet Paul McCartney? Paul’s old class mate and TFF Associate, Jonathan Power introduced me to Paul McCartney in Liverpool at an informal reception. It was held at what used to be their school, now the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and we were there to celebrate that Jonathan had written Amnesty International’s 40th Anniversary book. This happy event for “righting wrongs and writing songs” gave me an opportunity to meet Paul and tell him about TFF and get straight to the matter: would he consider making a donation in support of our work for peace? While I was probably the only one with such a wish that day, I was certainly not the only one who wanted to shake hands and talk with him. In the last minutes before Paul was to leave, Jonathan brought us together and we got about three...
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“En dag som berättigar till fest”, utropade den London-baserade al-Quds al-Arabi efter FN:s eldupphörresolution, “eftersom detta är första gången som Israel accepterar ett FN-beslut från en position som besegrad och inte som segrare”. Att ett arabisk-israeliskt krig för en gångs skull slutat med arabisk seger, är en helt dominerade åsikt i arabiska medier. Al-Quds al-Arabi tillåter sig att drömma om att det israeliska nederlaget skall leda till massflykt från Israel. Men i nästa andetag påminner tidningen om att Israel aldrig brukar genomföra sina internationella åtaganden och varnar för att förlorarna, liksom tidigare, kan hämnas genom att provocera fram inbördeskrig i Libanon. Med tanke på de otaliga massmediala vittnesmålen om det libanesiska folkets eniga motståndskraft förefaller risken för inre stridigheter i det sargade landet just nu liten. Men visst kan man urskilja nyansskillnader i libanesiska tidningar. Vänsterorganet al-Safir uppfattar FN-resolutionen som en komplott i syfte att rädda Israel från ännu större...
Greenland – the world’s largest island, a continent of its own with only 57.000 inhabitants. I visited it for the first time in May 2005. I flew across the inland ice to Nuuk, the tiny capital with some 14.000 inhabitants. I was overwhelmed by the pride and kindness of everyone I met as well as by the unique natural beauty. Unfortunately, due to weather conditions during my ten-day stay I could get nowhere else but Nuuk. Fortunately, however, among those I met was Gitte Arvegaard, a Danish lawyer and negotiator employed by the local government, Greenland Home Rule. She turned out to be an enthusiastic photographer with a lot of pictures taken during various trips around Greenland. So this Greeland series is the result of our cooperative effort. We both hope you enjoy it and are stimulated to visit Greenland – about which you may read more here. Finally, if you want to...
p_mccartney_poem
 Jan Oberg’s storyof how he met Sir Paul Liverpool – where else to meet Paul McCartney? Paul’s old class mate and TFF Associate, Jonathan Power introduced me to Paul McCartney in Liverpool at an informal reception. It was held at what used to be their school, now the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and we were there to celebrate that Jonathan had written Amnesty International’s 40th Anniversary book. This happy event for “righting wrongs and writing songs” gave me an opportunity to meet Paul and tell him about TFF and get straight to the matter: would he consider making a donation in support of our work for peace? While I was probably the only one with such a wish that day, I was certainly not the only one who wanted to shake hands and talk with him. In the last minutes before Paul was to leave, Jonathan brought us together and we got about three...
Logo-Transnational
1942James Paul McCartney is born in Liverpool on June 18th. 1956Paul writes his first song, I Lost My Little Girl. 1957Paul meets John Lennon at St. Peter’s Church Fete, Woolton, Liverpool. He joins his first group, The Quarrymen and performs in his first gig at The New Clubmoor Hall, Liverpool, on October 18th. 1960Formation of The Beatles, who play residencies in Hamburg and at The Cavern in Liverpool. 1961First Beatles recordings issued in Germany, as the backing group for Tony Sheridan. 1962The first Beatles Parlophone recording, Love Me Do, reaches number 17 in the British charts. 1963The birth of Beatlemania. Please Please Me gives the group their first British Number 1. She Loves You cements their success. Please Please Me and With The Beatles albums released. 1964First triumphant American tour. The Beatles perform at the Royal Command Performance and release their first film, A Hard Day’s Night. Their single I...
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  Back to the series “Bujumbura, Burundi”
By JONATHAN POWER August 16, 2000 LONDON – Remember the summer of ’98? In the sweltering, torpid heat of a Roman august, charged with exhaust fumes, the international community gave its overwhelming approval to the establishment of an International Criminal Court that will enable those accused of “crimes against humanity” to be tried and, if convicted, sentenced. Only seven nations opposed or abstained from the motion, including Israel, China, India and the U.S.A. where the Pentagon had successfully waged bureaucratic guerrilla war to undermine the initially sympathetic stance of President Bill Clinton. Two years on we can now see what an epochal event that was. In a the stroke of 120 pens it changed the climate on political thuggery. After numerous half-starts and false starts ever since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials that convicted the war criminals of the Second World War, the world at last had agreed en masse a common...