Mostly Water

pApril 24, 2013 - BC Civil Liberties Association/p pThe BCCLA argued that Bill C-309 threatens the constitutionally-protected freedoms of expression and association by placing a chill on those who may wish to wear masks at popular protests and demonstrations...“Costumes and masks are lawful and they can be a powerful aid to unpopular speech...They can help foster the uninhibited expression of political views. The anonymity of a mask can protect people who are voicing their political opinions from punishment or reprisal by government, employers, family and others.”/p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/bc_civil_liberties_urges_rejection_bill_makes_wearing_masks_some_protests_crime target=_blankread more/a/p

pBy Dawn Paley - April 23, 2013/p pIsmael and his wife Manuela...had faced-off against many powerful forces: banks, governments, and wealthy well drillers. But something was different this time. Tensions rose quickly; the conflict heated up, and in a matter of months Manuela and Ismael were dead. In the months before he was killed, Solorio denounced death threats he received and aggression by people he said were paid by the mining company, and demanded the government provide protection. His requests were ignored./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/punching_holes_desert_mine_exploration_canadian_company_spotlighted_double_murder target=_blankread more/a/p

pBy Finian Cunningham - April 28, 2013/p pMs Stewart (73) is dying in a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, from cancer that has spread from her breast to the rest of her body. Her family has little doubt that her life-threatening illness has been induced by the vindictive conditions of her incarceration by the US authorities...The US state’s cruel persecution of this woman epitomizes the general destruction of human rights and the rise of draconian police powers across America in the aftermath of 9/11 and the fraudulent “war on terror”./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/lawyer%E2%80%99s_jail_torment_marks_us_totalitarian_state target=_blankread more/a/p

pIsrael's gulag is one of the world's worst. Palestinian political prisoners fill it. Their crime is wanting to live free from occupation. It's longstanding. It's ruthless. It's illegal./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/palestinian_prisoner_diaries target=_blankread more/a/p

pIt's the largest ever plant leakage. Fukushima's disaster never ends. It keeps on giving./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/fukushimas_catastrophic_aftermath_continues target=_blankread more/a/p

pWhat's ongoing now bears eerie resemblance to events preceding Bush's Iraq war. Obama's replicating a familiar scenario./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/creating_pretext_war_syria target=_blankread more/a/p

pBy Kim Hearty and Nicholas Ellan - April 26, 2013/p pConsecutive increases in police budgets have given the VPD more resources for a dual strategy of heightened ticketing in the DTES and the increased criminalization of protest. Under [Vancouver Mayor Gregor] Robertson’s direction, Vancouver’s police have been pressed into a campaign of harassment and intimidation against democratic protests perceived as anti-business./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/vancouver_police_fail_silence_dissent target=_blankread more/a/p

pApril 27, 2013 - CBC News/p pThe former NASA scientist criticized by Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver earlier this week for his views on the Keystone XL pipeline is responding by calling the Conservatives a desperate and Neanderthal government...The current government is a Neanderthal government on this issue...I have hopes that Canada will actually be a good example for the United States but the present government is certainly not./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/top_us_climate_scientist_calls_canadian_conservatives_neanderthal target=_blankread more/a/p

pBy Bill Van Auken - 27 April 2013/p pIn an attempt to pave the way for a direct military intervention aimed at toppling the government of President Bashar al-Assad, Washington, its NATO allies, Israel and Qatar have all in recent days broadcast trumped-up charges that Syria has used chemical weapons...There is no proof whatsoever that the Assad regime used chemical weapons./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/washington_fabricates_chemical_weapons_pretext_war_against_syria target=_blankread more/a/p

pInternational law is clear and unequivocal. Torture is illegal at all times, under all circumstances with no allowed exceptions. It violates constitutional protections. They include the 8th Amendment's guarantee against cruel and unusual punishments./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/torture_remains_official_us_policy target=_blankread more/a/p

pBy Maria Wallstam and Nathan Crompton - April 23, 2013/p pRecently, the relationship between Vancity and community groups...[has] been strained by increasing conflicts over gentrification. Vancity’s own financial interests in the neighbourhood, combined with pressure from business lobbyists and corporate media, have pressured the credit union to go to bat for the cause of gentrification...The unnamed source of the rift is the ongoing picket of the Pidgin restaurant.../p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/gentrification_drive_bcs_largest_credit_union_vancity_downtown_eastside target=_blankread more/a/p

pBy Martha Rosenberg - April 25, 2013/p p...[D]on't worry, Wall Street. Pharma isn't going to deliver disappointing earnings just because it has little or no new drugs coming online and has failed at the very reason for its existence. Here are six new Pharma marketing initiatives that are guaranteed to keep investor expectations high...The secret? Recycling old and discredited drugs and marketing diseases to sell the few new ones./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/6_new_ways_big_pharma_scheming_make_billions_expense_your_health target=_blankread more/a/p

pBy Yves Engler - April 26th, 2013/p pIn 2010 the Auditor General apparently called on the Canada Revenue Agency to “investigate or revoke” the Jewish National Fund’s charitable status. But this request seems to have been ignored in deference to a “charity” that has long participated in the erasure of Palestinians’ presence from their historic homeland./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/racist_jnf_tax_fraud target=_blankread more/a/p

pBoston's marathon bombings leave disturbing questions unanswered. Official accounts lack credibility. Mounting evidence suggests FBI responsibility. It doesn't surprise./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/fbi_responsibility_us_terror_plots target=_blankread more/a/p

pBy Bill Van Auken - WSWS/p pOne decade after the Bush administration invoked the infamous pretext of “weapons of mass destruction” to launch a war of aggression against Iraq, the Obama administration is preparing to follow the same route to launch its own war for regime-change in Syria...Today, just as a decade ago, these claims are employed purely as a pretext for aggressive war in pursuit of US geo-strategic interests in the Middle East./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/washington%E2%80%99s_threat_invade_syria target=_blankread more/a/p

pObama plans lots more death and destruction. Current multiple direct and proxy wars aren't enough. His appetite for more is insatiable./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/obama_heads_closer_war_syria target=_blankread more/a/p

pHis war criminal record doesn't matter. America honors its worst./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/bush_legacy target=_blankread more/a/p

pPost-Boston bombings, expect Obama and Congress to take full advantage. Perhaps more war is planned. Big lies launch them. Fear-mongering enlists public support. Anything ahead is possible./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/americas_war_terror_20 target=_blankread more/a/p

pBy Tom Carter - 25 April 2013/p pWhat history will remember as most significant about the events in Boston will not be the bombing near the marathon’s finish line or the perpetrators or their motives. What will be remembered instead will be the unprecedented military lock-down of an entire major American city, with military vehicles in the streets and heavily armed soldiers going house to house — tromping through living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens, staring down their assault rifles at terrified, barefoot families in their pajamas./p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/boston_lockdown_and_bill_rights target=_blankread more/a/p

pBy John Pilger - April 25, 2013/p p[Thatcher's] funeral was a propaganda stunt, fit for a dictator: an absurd show of militarism, as if a coup had taken place. And it has. “Her real triumph...was to have transformed not just one party but two, so that when Labour did eventually return, the great bulk of Thatcherism was accepted as irreversible.”/p pa href=http://mostlywater.org/dance_thatchers_grave_remember_there_has_been_coup_britain target=_blankread more/a/p