The Mound of Sound

Well they may not have a democracy but at least they’ve decided to stop mutilating their female children. Egypt, second-largest beneficiary of US aid, has banned female circumcision. It seems that Cairo became enlightened after the death of a 12-year old girl resulting from the barbaric procedure.

This form of mutilation was ostensibly banned in Egypt 10-years ago but you know how these things go, eh? A 2005 study by UNICEF of Egyptian women aged 25 to 49 found 96% had been “circumcised.”

Another airstrike. More dead Afghan civilians. How many? At least 30, possibly a lot more. This account from The New York Times:

“Five houses were bombed,” the mayor said, who proceeded to name some of the victims: Hajji Noor Muhammad, Amanullah, Abdul Wajeed and Hajji Muhammad Qasam.

“These were all civilians, and the dead include women and children. There were also militants killed. We are sending a delegation to the village to investigate,” he said.

“People tried to escape from the area with their cars, trucks and tractors, and the coalition airplanes bombed them because they thought they were the enemy fleeing,” said Hajji Zahir, a tribal elder who said he had been in touch with residents of the effected villages. “They told me that they had buried 170 bodies so far.”

Just what are we doing in Afghanistan? The supposedly sovereign government of this country – its head of state and its parliament – have repeatedly demanded that we stop these strikes and yet we carry on regardless. If we presistently reject this country’s sovereignty what are we but an army of occupation and by what right do we hold ourselves as conquerors of Afghanistan?

Once you create a market where polluters can buy carbon credits it raises the problem of just who’s buying, just who’s selling and what’s up for grabs.

Coming up with carbon offsets can turn into a potentially big bucks proposition, especially given some of the controversial, even wacky, technologies being floated these days.

Enter a Vancouver-based company, Planktos, Inc. The company plans to sell carbon credits it creates by pouring iron dust into the ocean near the Galapagos Islands. The iron is supposed to induce the growth of phytoplankton that then suck up atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The World Wildlife Fund argues that Planktos is taking unacceptable risks in the quest for profit. The WWF claims that Planktos’ meddling may trigger a change in the make-up of the phytoplankton bloom which is the bottom rung of the oceanic food chain.

“World Wildlife Fund’s concern extends beyond the impact on individual species and extends to the changes that this dumping may cause in the interaction of species, affecting the entire ecosystem,” said microbiologist Sallie Chisholm, a WWF board member. “There’s a real risk that this experiment may cause a domino effect through the food chain.”

Planktos’ CEO Russ George denies the WWF claims and says the iron dust experiment will be not merely harmless but beneficial to the ocean ecosystem.

You don’t hear much about this in our media and, Lord knows, it’ll never cross Harpo’s sanctimonious lips, but people are beginning to be heard in opposition to the greatest scam of the Iraq War – the Iraq Oil Law crafted by the occupation to transfer control of Iraq’s oil and much of its oil wealth to Western (i.e. American) oil companies.

Five Nobel Peace Prize Laureates; Betty Williams, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi and Wangari Maathai; yesterday condemned the coercive law:

“In support of the people of Iraq, we the undersigned Nobel Peace Prize Laureates state our opposition to the Iraq Oil Law. We also oppose the decision of the United States government to require that the Iraq government pass the Oil Law as a condition of continued reconstruction aid in legislation passed on May 24, 2007. A law with the potential to so radically transform the basic economic security of the people of Iraq should not be forced on Iraq while it is under occupation and in such a weak negotiating position vis-à-vis both the U.S. government and foreign oil corporations. The Iraq Oil Law could benefit foreign oil companies at the expense of the Iraqi people, deny the Iraqi people economic security, create greater instability, and move the country further away from peace. The U.S. government should leave the matter of how Iraq will address the future of its oil system to the Iraqi people to be dealt with at a time when they are free from occupation and more able to engage in truly democratic decision-making. It is immoral and illegal to use war and invasion as mechanisms for robbing a people of their vital natural resources.”

California’s state Republican Party has hired a Canadian, Christopher Matthews, to serve as the party’s Deputy Political Director beginning October 1st.

The problem is a US Federal Election Campaign Act which prohibits foreign nationals from having any involvement, direct or indirect, with campaign finances and decision-making powers in a political committee. In his new job, Matthews duties will include political research, involving microtargeting potential voters and technology.

The California GOP claims to have structured Matthews’ job so as to avoid conflicting with the law.