Chuck Mertz’s guests on this week’s This is Hell follows the articles.

Vancouver transit riders tasered for not paying fares “The country’s only armed transit police have been tasering passengers who try to avoid paying fares. According to documents provided in response to a Freedom of Information request, police patrolling public transit in the Metro Vancouver area have used tasers 10 times in the past 18 months, including five occasions when victims had been accosted for riding free.” Globe and Mail (4/16/08)

Chinese AIDS victims detained, harassed: lawyers. “Chinese police have detained up to eight HIV/AIDS-affected people who tried to complain to Premier Wen Jiabao about a hospital they claimed spread the HIV virus, lawyers for two of the families said on Monday.” Reuters (4/14/08)

The Hypocrisy and Danger of Anti-China Demonstrations “We hear that Tibetans suffer ‘demographic aggression’ and ‘cultural genocide’. But we do not hear those terms applied to Spanish and French policies toward the Basque minority. We do not hear those terms applied to the US annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1898. And Diego Garcia? In 1973, not so long ago, the UK forcibly deported the entire native Chagossian population from the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. People were allowed one suitcase of clothing. Nothing else. Family pets were gassed, then cremated. Complete ethnic cleansing. Complete cultural destruction. Why? In order to build a big US air base. It has been used to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq, and soon maybe to bomb Iran and Pakistan. Diego Garcia, with nobody there but Brits and Americans, is also a perfect place for rendition, torture and other illegal actions. When the Olympics come to London in 2012, the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu will certainly lead the demonstrators protesting the ‘demographic aggression’ and ‘cultural genocide’ in Diego Garcia. The UN Secretary General, the President of France, the Chancellor of Germany, the new US President and the entire US Congress will certainly boycott the opening ceremonies. The height of hypocrisy is this moral posturing about 100 dead in race riots in Lhasa, while the USA, UK and more than 40 nations in the Coalition of the Willing wage a war of aggression against Iraq.” CommonDreams (4/14/08) Or, could the media’s moral outrage require western allegiance as a prerequisite? How come Zimbabwe and Tibet get all the attention? “When it comes to rigging elections, countries like Jordan and Egypt have been happy to oblige in recent months – in the Egyptian case, jailing hundreds of opposition activists into the bargain – and almost nobody in the west has batted an eyelid. In Saudi Arabia there are no national elections at all, let alone the opposition MPs and newspapers that exist in Zimbabwe. In Africa, Togo has been a more flagrant rigger, while in Cameroon last week the president was given the job for life. And when it comes to separatist and independence movements, the Turkish Kurds have faced far more violence and a tighter cultural clampdown than the Tibetans. The crucial difference, of course, and the reason why these conflicts and violations don’t get the deluxe media and political treatment offered to the Zimbabwean opposition or Tibetan separatists is that the governments involved are all backed by the west, compounded in the Zimbabwean case by a transparently racist agenda.” The Guardian (4/17/08)

Iraq’s Biggest Aid Agency? Muqtada Al-Sadr & Co. “A new report from Washington-based Refugees International says that Muqtada and his Mahdi Army are the largest ‘unofficial’ aid agency in the country. And they’re not alone. In the patchwork quilt of sectarian neighborhoods that make-up Baghdad, almost all aid is delivered through political and religious groups, according to report co-author Kristele Younes. ... ‘They are giving them money to pay rent. They are giving them oil and food. They are providing them with generators for electricity. They are really meeting all the needs that the government and the U.N. should be meeting at this stage’.” MSNBC (4/16/08)

Why is David Vitter Still in Office and Not Eliot Spitzer? “The news that David Vitter may soon be called to testify at the trial of Deborah Jean Palfrey — more commonly known as “the D.C. madam” — serves as an important reminder: He’s still in office. And, really, in light of the bipartisan frenzy to expel Eliot Spitzer from the governorship when his ties to the Emperor’s Club were revealed, you’ve got to wonder why.” New York Observer (4/15/08)

Mine Opponents Face Lawsuit Based on Press Clippings “Local activists and politicians in the northern Peruvian region of Piura who are facing charges of terrorism and extortion because of their activism to oppose mining investment projects supported by the government say the only evidence against them are photocopies of newspaper articles.” Inter Press Service (4/14/08)

New Burma constitution published “Burma’s military rulers have published their proposed new constitution, which critics say will cement their grip on power and weaken the opposition. … But the Irrawaddy website, which is critical of the junta, says the new rules enshrine the military’s dominance of the political system. … A clause which bars anyone who has been married to a foreign national from holding political office is also drawing criticism. Ms Suu Kyi, the main opposition leader, was married to a British academic and is therefore disqualified.” BBC News (4/9/08)

Global warming rage lets global hunger grow “We drive, they starve. The mass diversion of the North American grain harvest into ethanol plants for fuel is reaching its political and moral limits. ‘The reality is that people are dying already,’ said Jacques Diouf, of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). ‘Naturally people won’t be sitting dying of starvation, they will react,’ he said. The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year. Last week, the UN predicted ‘massacres’ unless the biofuel policy is halted.” Telegraph (4/15/08) World Bank contributes to food crisis. A man-made famine “For anyone who understands the current food crisis, it is hard to listen to the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, without gagging. Earlier this week, Zoellick waxed apocalyptic about the consequences of the global surge in prices, arguing that free trade had become a humanitarian necessity, to ensure that poor people had enough to eat. The current wave of food riots has already claimed the prime minister of Haiti, and there have been protests around the world, from Mexico, to Egypt, to India. The reason for the price rise is perfect storm of high oil prices, an increasing demand for meat in developing countries, poor harvests, population growth, financial speculation and biofuels. But prices have fluctuated before. The reason we’re seeing such misery as a result of this particular spike has everything to do with Zoellick and his friends.”
The Guardian (4/15/08)

Politics: New National Network Media Buy Tells McCain to Stop Pushing Pork for Corporate Polluters “Senator John McCain’s support for billions of dollars of handouts to corporate polluters is the focus of a new, pre-Earth Day national network media buy from Friends of the Earth Action. The national environmental group will run TV ads across the country and on the web asking McCain to stop trying to add billions of dollars of subsidies for the nuclear industry to the Lieberman-Warner global warming bill. The bill is already a trillion-dollar giveaway for corporate polluters.” Friends of the Earth (4/15/08)

Cops and Former Secret Service Agents Ran Black Ops on Green Groups “Meet the private security firm that spied on Greenpeace and other environmental outfits for corporate clients. A tale of intrigue, infiltration, and dumpster-diving. … A private security company organized and managed by former Secret Service officers spied on Greenpeace and other environmental organizations from the late 1990s through at least 2000, pilfering documents from trash bins, attempting to plant undercover operatives within groups, casing offices, collecting phone records of activists, and penetrating confidential meetings. According to company documents provided to Mother Jones by a former investor in the firm, this security outfit collected confidential internal records-donor lists, detailed financial statements, the Social Security numbers of staff members, strategy memos-from these organizations and produced intelligence reports for public relations firms and major corporations involved in environmental controversies.” ­_Mother Jones (4/11/08)_

How Republicans Quietly Hijacked the Justice Department to Swing Elections “Jim Crow has returned to American elections, only in the twenty-first century, instead of men in white robes or a barrel-chested sheriff menacingly patrolling voting precincts, we are more likely to see a lawyer carrying a folder filled with briefing papers and proposed legislation about ‘voter fraud’ and other measures to supposedly protect the sanctity of the vote. Since the 2004 election, activist lawyers with ties to the Republican Party and its presidential campaigns, Republican legislators, and even the Supreme Court — in a largely unnoticed ruling in 2006 — have been aggressively regulating most aspects of the voting process. Collectively, these efforts are undoing the gains of the civil rights era that brought voting rights to minorities and the poor, groups that tend to support Democrats. In addition, the Department of Justice (DOJ), which for decades had fought to ensure that all eligible citizens could vote, now encourages states to take steps in the opposite direction.” Ig Publishing (4/15/08)

Khadr’s reading stirs furor “The case of a missing box of legal documents confiscated from Omar Khadr ended yesterday afternoon at a bizarre news conference about dominoes and the Lord of the Rings. The 21-year-old detainee, who faces U.S. war crimes charges and is scheduled to appear before a military commission today, has seen his case fought outside court this week during impromptu media briefings at the U.S. military base. On Wednesday, Khadr’s military lawyer, U.S. Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, told reporters that hundreds of pages of documents had been taken from Khadr. When the former Toronto resident asked for the documents earlier this week, guards brought him an empty box. … In addition to seizing the screenplay, the military said he could no longer play dominos and chess during visits with Khadr.” The Star (4/14/08)

Notes
If you knew… grew out of my efforts to provide content for This is Hell’s Headlines from Hell. It has always been my intent to eventually concentrate on just one site. That day has finally come. ‘If You Knew … ‘ will become the unique content for This is Hell beginning Monday, April 21. Headlines from Hell will be regularly updated with new articles from across the web.

Saturday, April 19th, on WNUR 89.3 FM Evanston/Chicago, This is Hell broadcasts live for four hours beginning at 9 AM (CMT) You can also hear us live online via WNUR’s web site under the heading, “Listen Online.” Or, if you miss the live broadcast, access it in This is Hell’s archives.

This Saturday’s guests include:

• Loretta Napoleoni, author of “Rogue Economics” (Seven Stories) She also wrote, “Terror, Inc.: Tracing the Money Behind Global Terrorism.” Loretta, an economist herself, is one of the world’s leading experts on money laundering and terror financing.
• Michael Hudson, Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s chief economic adviser in the recent Democratic primary presidential campaign and he advised the US, Canadian, Mexican and Latvian governments, as well as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. He recently authored, “Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire” (Pluto Press). This week, Michael wrote the article, Hillary Joins the Vast, Rightwing Financial Conspiracy
• Michael Grunwald, Washington Post reporter and a senior writer at TIME magazine. He is the author of “The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise.” Michael has done a significant amount of writing on the Army Corps of Engineers including his recent article, How the Army Corps is Swindling Americans
• Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute a progressive policy think tank she founded in 2004. She was the co-director of Food First, the Institute for Food and Development Policy. This week, she released two reports: “Food Price Crisis: A Wake Up Call for New Policies to Eradicate Hunger” and “The Status of International Food Aid Negotiations.”

This week’s irregular correspondents will be:

• Kevan Harris, ‘The Radical Pessimist,’ will give his two cents …
• LaddieO.com reports web and technology news from the hermetically sealed clean rooms at URL Labs …
• and Jeff Dorchen delivers an illuminative Moment of Truth

Check out these excellent roundups; for the recent news from all points east, check out Isaac Oommen’s East is East, Nathan Coes brand new Labor News Roundup and for the latest in rebel uprisings, read Alfonzo Torrezs The Rebel Communiqué.

If you knew… is posted as an article on Fridays. There is an archive of over 400 blogs and articles, posted over the last three years. Any comments, suggestions, critiques or leads to articles, are welcomed. Along with articles, Headlines from Hell now includes commentary from contributors to This is Hell, including yours truly.

There are more articles on Canadian genocide, using aboriginal children to test a leprosy drug, the Orangeburg Massacre and much more.

Click here to see more articles