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Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

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Human Rights in Ireland
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Lockdown Skeptics

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offsite link A Golden Age for American Meritocracy Fri Jan 24, 2025 14:15 | Darren Gee
The second Trump Presidency has already dissolved hundreds of DEI programmes and looks set to herald a new golden age of American meritocracy. It's a movement America and the world are hungry for, says Darren Gobin.
The post A Golden Age for American Meritocracy appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Think Tank?s Net Zero Survey Concludes the Public is the Problem Fri Jan 24, 2025 13:10 | Ben Pile
The Social Market Foundation has carried out a survey on public attitudes to Net Zero and concluded that the "uninformed" and reluctant public are the problem. Why else would they say no to heat pumps?
The post Think Tank’s Net Zero Survey Concludes the Public is the Problem appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Number of Children Who Think They are Wrong Sex Surges 50-Fold Fri Jan 24, 2025 11:10 | Will Jones
There has been a 50-fold rise in children who think they are the?wrong sex in just 10 years, with two thirds of them girls, analysis of GP records suggests.
The post Number of Children Who Think They are Wrong Sex Surges 50-Fold appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey: Go Back to Your Constituencies and Prepare to Live in Mud and Grass Huts Fri Jan 24, 2025 09:00 | Chris Morrison
With all 72 Lib Dem MPs supporting the mad Climate and Nature Bill, their clownish leader Ed Davey is effectively telling them to go back to their constituencies and prepare to live in mud and grass huts.
The post Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey: Go Back to Your Constituencies and Prepare to Live in Mud and Grass Huts appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link In Episode 27 of the Sceptic: David Shipley on Southport, Fred de Fossard on Trump vs Woke Capitalis... Fri Jan 24, 2025 07:00 | Richard Eldred
In episode 27 of the Sceptic: David Shipley on Southport, Fred de Fossard on Trump vs Woke Capitalism and Ed West on the grooming gangs as Britain?s Chernobyl.
The post In Episode 27 of the Sceptic: David Shipley on Southport, Fred de Fossard on Trump vs Woke Capitalism and Ed West on the Grooming Gangs As Britain?s Chernobyl appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Should we condemn or not the glorification of Nazism?, by Thierry Meyssan Wed Jan 22, 2025 14:05 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?116 Sat Jan 18, 2025 06:46 | en

offsite link After the United Kingdom, Germany and Denmark, the Trump team prepares an operat... Sat Jan 18, 2025 06:37 | en

offsite link Trump and Musk, Canada, Panama and Greenland, an old story, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jan 14, 2025 07:03 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?114-115 Fri Jan 10, 2025 14:04 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Blink and you'll have missed it

category international | anti-war / imperialism | news report author Friday August 15, 2003 17:44author by Aidan Report this post to the editors

Over the last few months cracks have begun to appear in the coaltions arguments for the war. Awkward scientists coming forward, murdered civilians, and minor pieces of legislation. George Bush's executive order 13303, which quietly came into effect today, is one of those reasons.

Once in a while, the 43rd president of the United States affirms a commitment to human rights to a degree staggering even by his own exacting standards. Wednesday's item concerning the market for mercenary security operatives in Iraq has led us on a paper trail to Executive Order 13303, made with such little fanfare by George Bush on May 22 that you'd almost think he was trying to keep it quiet.

The order - and we're still trying to take this in - grants complete civil and criminal immunity to all US companies operating in Iraq, making them legally exempt from the consequences of anything related to commerce in Iraqi oil.

Let's see that in more detail.

Corporate oil security workers who shoot Iraqis in the course of their working day would be immune from prosecution.

If a tanker sinks or a refinery explodes, the company will be immune from judgment, as indeed would a firm that decided to employ slave labour to build a pipeline, or catastrophically polluted the environment.

"13303 cancels the concept of corporate accountability and abandons the rule of [domestic and international] law," explains a paper by Tom Devine, director of US Democratic legal thinktank Government Accountability Project. "[It] is a blank cheque for corporate anarchy." It's certainly hard to imagine a surer way to inflame the ongoing conflict, or indeed a more hassle-free one for Dubya to enrich his Texas buddies. Has Operation Iraqi Freedom ever seemed more aptly named?

(taken from the Guardian diary 15/07/03)

Related Link: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030731-2.html
author by iosaf (yet again)publication date Fri Aug 15, 2003 20:06author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Tracing the ownership of the Prestige touched on all those issues Aidan. Sordid connections were made that spanned from the Liberian ship's registry to the Russian Mafia to believe it or not: key former members of the Franco regime.
Refinery explosions are a very regular global occurence. There was one with the loss of five workers yesterday in central Spain, the state Oil provider Repsol lost in the "hot weather" one if it's storage tanks. This explosion will probably be more accountable as most in Europe are than one which occurs in Africa or Asia. If one stops to think of the concentration of refinery and volatile chemical industries in Asia and the simple probability of accident, there are lots of "blank" pages in our record. Bhopal was seen and fought, countless others never go beyond the pages of the local newspaper.
One of the principle problems of the modern capitalist system which I term "hyper-capitalist" system is it's continued legal conceit based in anglo-saxon company law that an entity constructed for trade may be a "person" and as such afforded the same rights as a person. This conceit underlies most of the problems with the last ten years expansion of multi-national-corporation "rights", rights that were are very much explained in any of the current protest/anarchist/anti-capitalist literature on the MAI.
.............so google goo for the MAI.

author by Seáinínpublication date Fri Aug 15, 2003 20:41author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Executive order 13303 says nothing of the kind, as far as I can see. It's an order made by the President delegating responsibility to the Secretary of State for a list of reports which must be made to Congress.

author by Shawneenpublication date Fri Aug 15, 2003 20:45author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Stop lying to yourselves.
Bush is doing the right thing here (yet again) and all I hear is whining (yet again)

first we FREED up all the oil imprisoned by badman hussein, then we gave FREEDOM to the flag-waving patriotic American companies to bring that oil to needy American families.

We have liberated the Iraqi's from a lot of pesky things- property, civil rights, dignity. And what do we get in return?

crypto-fascist-anarcho-pinko-commie-bleedingheart-scum like you.

No appreciation for democracy and the greatness that is George W(anker) Bush.

author by dollarboypublication date Fri Aug 15, 2003 21:32author address author phone Report this post to the editors

So it's on the gravy train for the companies that funded his (non) election, and guess what?

y'know all them good old patriotic men and women who went to Afghanistan and Iraq 'cos Bush told 'em to?
We'll he's CUTTING THEIR PAY.
That's right $75 each from their paypackets.
Cos y'know ...the war cost more than they thought it would.
Man of the people, Commander in Chief, a good ol' boy. proud of the 'Merkan armed forces', not that it stops him shafting them.

..."oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light"...

Related Link: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/135080_paycuted.html
author by Shoneenpublication date Sun Aug 17, 2003 23:32author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The link is not to the executive order referred to in the article.

Here is a link to the PDF version from the Federal Register.

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/pdf/03-13412.pdf

Interestingly, the E.O. starts off by declaring a "national emergency" ....

"I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that the threat of attachment or other judicial process against the Development Fund for Iraq, Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein, and proceeds, obligations, or any financial instruments of any nature whatsoever arising from or related to the sale or marketing thereof, and interests therein, obstructs the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in the country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq. This situation constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat."

Related Link: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/pdf/03-13412.pdf
 
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