Gord's Notebook : J'Accuse ...BUSH CONDOLEEZA RICE & CHEVRON SUPPORT FOR BURMESE' JUNTA

To begin with here is a video which I put together :Bruce Cockburn- Call It Democracy

from Segregation & Civil Rights Movement to Vietnam Pacification & American WMDS & carpet-bombing Cambodia to Coup in Chile to Kent State Massacre to Renditions & Torture to Katrina to Blackwater Mercenaries to a Million Dead in Iraq & Basicly Business as usual & so it goes

First I would be remiss to note first that AOL & other internet servers have been blocking emails from Truthout.Org & they are trying to intimidate or to actually shut down any alternative news sources on the Internet - & yet the Neocons claim ours is a free society but that is as long as you accept the party line - though it seems even the most outrageous sorts of nasty nonsense published on the Internet by the Fanatical Right such as The Army Of God & various White Supremacists organizations on the net are rarely targeted by these servers or the Government -

As for the free flow of information & commentay checkout this bit from TRUTHOUT.ORG
UPDATE: 09.20.07:12:noon:pdt:

It looks like AOL has lifted their ban. While it's still pretty early, it looks like we convinced AOL that you do have the right to read what you want.

Microsoft and Yahoo are still interfering.

Microsoft is dug in and blatantly refusing to deliver messages, that's Hotmail, MSN, WebTV and who knows what else. Yahoo too while not communicating any position to us is sending a large portion of our communications to you to your junk mail folders, apparently according to complaints, even though readers are attempting to designate the newsletters as acceptable in the Yahoo mail interface.

And so it goes- J' Accuse... Hypocrisy & NEOCON REGIMES & Their Claims of Concern Over The Fate Of The Burmese People

Though the Bush Regime is publicly condemning the brutality of the Junta in Burma in its treatment of peaceful pro-democracy protesters it is not surprising to discover - as the article below by Amy Goodman points out - that one of the big backers of the Junta is Chevron which is an American company- a company on whose board Condoleeza Rice served so as usual it is all in the family as it were & of course business interest always trump human rights in the Bush Neocon Regime - but of course they will make all of the required noises in public to show they do care but will they insist Chevron & other American owned companies or their subsidiaries stop doing business with the Burmese Junta . What the Neocons & other pro-business lobbies in the US government is to write legislation in order to exempt & shelter certain companies from any form of legal meddling as they see it since how these multi-nationals carry out their practices are their business & as far as they & their supporters & shareholders are concerned they shouldn't be hampered by any government agency & of course they see nothing immoral or improper about backing a brutal regime in Burma or anywhere else as long as they can make a profit which is what the Neocon Revolution & agenda is all about - concerns about using slave labor or child labor or inadequate wages or substandard housing or the forceful evacuation of people from an area so the company can take part in clear cutting whole large areas of forest & take part in strip-mining etc.

Unfortunately a vast number of Americans & Canadians & other Westerners care more for profits than human rights - What they don't like is seeing those nasty pictures of the violence on their Televisions or Computers - this is what they object to when it comes to Iraq, Afghanistan or Darfur or Burma or even the suffering several years ago of people after Hurricane Katrina-

They don't really care if a bunch Buddhist Monks are rounded up or killed they just don't want to see it happening in their living rooms on their televisions which just supposed to entertain them - As for some of them who might care at least for the moment they are easily appeased & then silenced as long as officials make the right sorts of noises then they can get on with their lives even if nothing substantive actually takes place -

If the public is told Iraq is safe then they believe it or if they are told that Iraqis are bunch of blood thirsty Barbarians & that America had good intentions in Iraq & is therefore not to blame as the Neocons now claim then that version of the facts is acceptable to them since they believe that most people outside of America or the West are all uncivilized & have no regard fro human life - they don't love their children as we in the West do -

To this writer it is all of a piece- what the public & those in power want is that only GOOD NEWS be shown on television or in print or on the Internet & then they can all ignore the real world & live on their own little Fantasy Island

We should remember the Bush & Harper & British regimes all see nothing wrong with torturing prisoners or kidnapping people & denying them due process & have thrown out notions like Hebeas Corpus & other legal recourse's which they see as just the out-dated foolish ideas of ineffective liberals & the far left whiners-

For instance I have talked about the destructive practice in the United States of Mountain Removal Mining which utterly destroys forests & mountains & undermines if not destroys the culture of the people who live in these areas - so if Bush & the Neocons see nothing wrong with this practice or with the violation of human rights of anyone who they accuse of being a terrorist whether the accusation is grounded in any evidence doesn't matter once someone is accused then those in power can do what they like with the accused - and the fear is that those in power will start going after anyone who defends these detainees or criticizes these Neocon Regimes as we saw recently in the case of General Petraeus it was made into law that no one should be permitted to criticize anyone in the American Armed Forces including the 50,000 or more Mercenaries working for the Bush Regime - so where does this leave free speech in America -

Anyway here is part of by Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! on Burma & the Chevron connection:

Chevron's Pipeline Is the Burmese Regime's Lifeline - By Amy Goodman Truthdig Tuesday 02 October 2007

The Bush administration is making headlines with its strong language against the Burmese regime. President Bush declared increased sanctions in his U.N. General Assembly speech. First lady Laura Bush has come out with perhaps the strongest statements. Explaining that she has a cousin who is a Burma activist, Laura Bush said, "The deplorable acts of violence being perpetrated against Buddhist monks and peaceful Burmese demonstrators shame the military regime."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, at the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said, "The United States is determined to keep an international focus on the travesty that is taking place." Keeping an international focus is essential, but should not distract from one of the most powerful supporters of the junta, one that is much closer to home. Rice knows it well: Chevron.

Fueling the military junta that has ruled for decades are Burma's natural gas reserves, controlled by the Burmese regime in partnership with the U.S. multinational oil giant Chevron, the French oil company Total and a Thai oil firm. Offshore natural gas facilities deliver their extracted gas to Thailand through Burma's Yadana pipeline. The pipeline was built with slave labor, forced into servitude by the Burmese military.

The original pipeline partner, Unocal, was sued by EarthRights International for the use of slave labor. As soon as the suit was settled out of court, Chevron bought Unocal.

Chevron's role in propping up the brutal regime in Burma is clear. According to Marco Simons, U.S. legal director at EarthRights International: "Sanctions haven't worked because gas is the lifeline of the regime. Before Yadana went online, Burma's regime was facing severe shortages of currency. It's really Yadana and gas projects that kept the military regime afloat to buy arms and ammunition and pay its soldiers."

The U.S. government has had sanctions in place against Burma since 1997. A loophole exists, though, for companies grandfathered in. Unocal's exemption from the Burma sanctions has been passed on to its new owner, Chevron.

Rice served on the Chevron board of directors for a decade. She even had a Chevron oil tanker named after her. While she served on the board, Chevron was sued for involvement in the killing of nonviolent protesters in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Like the Burmese, Nigerians suffer political repression and pollution where oil and gas are extracted and they live in dire poverty. The protests in Burma were actually triggered by a government-imposed increase in fuel prices.

Human-rights groups around the world have called for a global day of action on Saturday, Oct. 6, in solidarity with the people of Burma. Like the brave activists and citizen journalists sending news and photos out of the country, the organizers of the Oct. 6 protest are using the Internet to pull together what will probably be the largest demonstration ever in support of Burma. Among the demands are calls for companies to stop doing business with Burma's brutal regime.