CHINA SCHOLAR ORVILLE SCHELL ON CHINA (NEWSWEEK)

It’s impossible to understand what the Games mean to the Chinese without understanding their history of humiliation.

The Olympics are an irresistible stage for athletes—but also for those who wish to act out their grievances before the world. The Beijing Games, which kick off on Aug. 8, are hardly an exception. While Chinese leaders furiously insist they’re not, and should not be, “political,” these Olympics promise to become one of the most charged in history. Rarely has a more varied array of contentious issues crystallized around a single sporting event.

China is bedeviled by internal problems—human-rights violations, media censorship, corruption, pollution, labor abuses and lack of due process, to name a few. Several “domestic” issues—Tibet, Taiwan and Hong Kong—have also regularly spilled over into the international realm. At the same time, a host of relatively new, purely international problems have accrued to China as the country has aggressively sought access to natural resources around the world. By dealing with pariah states like Burma, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Iran in order to feed the country’s voracious appetite for oil, timber and metals, Chinese leaders have been accused of playing an irresponsible global role. Their critics would like nothing more than to flay Beijing before a worldwide television audience of hundreds of millions.

Chinese officials are doing everything possible to block such protests.

YOUR LETTERS ON THE BIO WAR ISSUE

David Degraw recommends we read this piece posted on Mediachannel.org

WATCH: ANTHRAX TESTING IN WORLD WAR 2

Chris Herz lives in Ivins neighborhood. His take is posted in blog comments:

My family home is one block from Dr Ivin’s, and two from the main gate to Ft Detrick. With others I have worked for years against the biowar nastiness carried on there.

I did not know Ivins personally, though I have seen him around. I can attest to the fact that there were and are an whole bunch of real Strangelove characters around the biowar program. Also like the Army officers they work for (66% of whom describe themselves as “very conservative”) most I have met certainly are right wingers.
Yes, and surely there were political motives: To use anthrax against liberals in Congress and the media who might be obstructing their President’s Patriot Act would be perfectly natural.

Scuttlebutt around here is that Ivins was not alone, that at least one former colonel commandant of the Fort was also involved. I have heard this from local police officers.

Worth noting also that the original suspect Dr Hatfill was as nasty a racist as one might want to find — having used his expertise for both Rhodesia and South Africa. Ivins apparently from the news stories was never too tightly wrapped and was a serious alcoholic. Who vetted such guys for this work? Who defended Ivins from investigation early on?

Many questions remain unanswered/

Chris Rulon writes:

Danny, I’ve followed some of your work online and have found much of it useful in my research. But I think you may be missing the real story here. The corporate media (and whoever framed Hatfill and Ivins) appear to be covering for a man named Philip Zach. Here a a couple of links to get you started:

Philip Zack Steals Anthrax

http://www.thesimon.com/magazine/articles/canon_fodder/01241_philip_zack_steals_anthrax.html

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j022202.html

http://www.aztlan.net/zack.htm

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/anthraxsuspect.html

Maybe you’ll have the balls to speak this mans name. I havent heard his name once from the likes of CNN,MSNBC,CBS etc. Thanks

Jos writes:

Friends & colleagues of Dr. Ivins say he couldn’t have done it, it’s too out of character. This “other” Dr. Ivins was concerned about “the growing political influence of conservative Christians.”

Blog: Dance Away Blues
Post: Murderous Psychopath or Sacrificial Lamb?

Phil Restino writes from Florida:

As always, thank you for your great investigative reporting and your efforts in getting it out to your unsuspecting fellow humans. I used to live in Boston off of Mass Ave near Symphony and I know the area quite well. Actually, I worked for a while in a custom woodwork shop off of Albany Street where BU Medical Center is located. Anyway, when reading your article which was posted on the AfterDowningStreet.org website this morning, I thought perhaps if you approached native Boston movie stars and close friends Matt Damon and/or Ben Afleck with your idea for making the film. They, or people who they may know of, might be able to help get the film made.

Another idea I had was if you were to contact the Alex Jones Show and get yourself on as a guest to talk about all this biowarfare stuff … especially since the guy from Ft. Dietrich was conveniently suicided this past week and it is a story that Alex Jones has been talking about.

’

John Rice writes about an “interesting unasked angle:”

,,,is where and when Ivins was educated—at the Univ. of Cincinnati—I believe I read from 1964 through 1974, where he received his BS, MS and PHD (somewhat unusual, though not unheard of, for an educational path)

What else happened there at that time?

Remember MK-ULTRA and its various manifestations? They were doing ‘research’ there at the time, including several contracts to study various effects of cold and radiation, and who knows what else?

I think it would be interesting to try to track his time at the U of C to determine whether or not he was part of a research project there, or had undergone any psych problems for which he had received treatment. Experiments were also performed at the associated hospital in Cincy by Drs. who were on the staff of both facilities.

I’m suspecting he might possibly have been a Manchurian candidate or equivalent.

Something obviously stinks to high heaven, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit that he was ‘suicided’ to end the investigation, and/or to eliminate a link to possible government involvement in the anthrax attacks. There is nothing I have read to suggest he did it, other than the claimed anxiety problems of recent date which suggest mental instability—everything else being inferred.

Dancewater writes:

Here’s an angle to the anthrax story you might have missed:

A Apello wrires:

Since several years, American Military, is investing vast amount of money to fund research about the Ebola virus and suitable vaccines, to the Dutch bio-tech company Crucell, apparantly against upcoming “bio-terrorism”. I hope they’ll use it in an defensive and not in an offensive way, which is a deep concern.
Kind regards.

Ellie Martin writes: “With over 50 suspicious deaths of scientists since 9-11, how do we know Ivins committed suicide. Was he really murdered? Governments are corrupt and this government over years of history has done much corruption!”

BRADLEY LAING ON SUBPRIME AND MORE

Contrasting your interest in the sub prime mess to assorted conservative talk radio hosts these past two weeks has been a bad experience. So far as I can tell, the only real idea in their minds is: allow offshore drilling.

Somehow, i cannot figure out if this means: offshore drilling for lower gasoline prices, or offshore drilling for energy independence from an unstable middle east.

If energy independence means high gasoline prices but no foriegn oil dependency, that is seperate from lower gasoline price with U.S produced and Saudi produced oil combined.

Meanwhile, on National Public Radio a guest said that the billions to prop up the two housing giants were to protect five trillion dollars in securities, most held in asia. If those collapsed, treasure bills would be next, followed by the dollar.

You wonder, seriously, what the advertisers on these am radio stations think is going on back on the Planet Earth.

CREDIT CARD DEBT

Corinne Cooper, Professor Emerita of Law writes about an article I did on credit card debt:

I run a listserv on interest rates, credit cards, debt, and bankruptcy for bankruptcy lawyers and related professionals. I warned of the mortgage crisis for years (actually predicting its arrival 6 months too early.)

So I’m on vacation, eating a bowl of green chile stew and reading the Santa Fe Reporter.

Your article was accurate, comprehensive, and terrifying. I know Bob Manning’s work well, and you succinctly describe the crisis. I no longer call it “looming” as we are clearly in it even though we haven’t fathomed how to get out.

So thanks for ruining my dinner. Your piece was brilliant. I sent a link out to my readers.

CREDIT CARD REFORM

The Center for Responsible Lending writes:

The House Financial Services Committee voted July 31, 2008 to approve HR 5244, the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights. This bill largely mirrors, and in some aspects is stronger than, the Federal Reserve’s very positive proposals against unfair and deceptive credit card practices.

Opponents proposed a weak alternative bill that would have substituted a voluntary resolution for tough new restrictions on abusive lending practices, but because of your calls representatives voted to stop unfair credit card practices and ensure responsible and fair terms for Americans.

These members of the US House of Representatives Financial Services Committee voted to approve HR 5244:

Sherman (Calif.)
Waters (Calif.)
Speier (Calif.)
Baca (Calif.)
Perlmutter (Colo.)
Shays (Conn.)
Murphy, C. (Conn.)
Mahoney (Fla.)
Klein, R. (Fla.)
Scott, D. (Ga.)
Foster (Ill.)
Gutierrez (Ill.)
Bean (Ill.)
Donnelly (Ind.)
Carson, A. (Ind.)
Moore, D. (Kan.)
Cazayoux (La.)
Frank, B. (Mass.)
Capuano (Mass.)
Lynch (Mass.)
Ellison (Minn.)
Clay (Mo.)
Cleaver (Mo.)
Childers (Miss.)
Watt (N.C.)
Miller, B. (N.C.)
Jones, W. (N.C.)
Hodes (N.H.)
Velazquez (N.Y.)
Maloney (N.Y.)
McCarthy, C. (N.Y.)
Ackerman (N.Y.)
Meeks, G. (N.Y.)
Wilson, Charlie (Ohio)
Kanjorski (Pa.)
Davis, L. (Tenn.)
Hinojosa (Texas)
Green, A. (Texas)
Moore, G. (Wis.)

PRESIDENT OF ARGENTINA: DON”T CRIMINALIZE DRUG USERS

Argentine president calls for decriminalization of drug use

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) — President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchnerrepeated her call this week to decriminalize personal drug use and crackdown on traffickers and dealers.

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner says she doesn’t like to “condemn someone who has an addiction.”

POLLS IN THE US AND CHINA

Any number of public opinion polls in the past year have found that Americans are deeply concerned — even dissatisfied — with the direction their country is going.

Polls have found that Americans are unhappy with their political leaders — both in the White House and in Congress — and they are unhappy with economic conditions.

By way of contrast, the Pew Research Center released poll results Tuesday that show most Chinese people are happy with the direction their nation is going and that two thirds of them approve of the job their political leaders are doing.

FINALLY, US OBAMA TOO THIN

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Speaking to donors at a San Diego fund-raiser last month, Barack Obama reassured the crowd that he wouldn’t give in to Republican tactics to throw his candidacy off track.

“Listen, I’m skinny but I’m tough,” Sen. Obama said.

But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama’s skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.

Ok, that does it. Your comments always welcome. Also posting an article about denial. Write: Dissector@mediachannel.org