Category: Snake Oil

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Investigating Israeli War Crimes at Khuza’a

Testimony from eyewitnesses, friends, neighbours and human rights experts about the incident tell the story of how a woman carrying a baby and white flag was shot in broad daylight by an Israeli soldier.

Nasser al Najar, Rawhiyya’s husband, still has the bloodstained white flag he says his wife was carrying when she was killed.

In 1949, the newly formed state of Israel, many of whose citizens had been victims of Nazi war crimes, signed the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in time of war.

Among the conditions of the convention Article three states: “Persons taking no active part in the hostilities … shall in all circumstances be treated humanely.”

Article 32 states: “Civilian hospitals organised to give care to the wounded and sick … may in no circumstances be the object of attack.”

But during Israel’s recent war on Gaza there is evidence to suggest that these conditions were frequently ignored and that the Israeli military disregarded the laws of war.

Additional reportage on the horrific targetted killing of civilians by Israeli soldiers is at Al Jazeera.

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Conroy screwed as Xenophon sees the light

In the SMH, Asher Moses reports that Opposition Senator Minchin has obtained legal advice that the conservative Labor government will almost certainly have to pass legislation to enable net censorship filters to be installed at ISP level.

With Senator Xenophon changing sides on the issue, net censorship legislation would be comfortably blocked in the Senate.

Senator Nick Xenophon previously indicated he may support a filter that blocks online gambling websites but in a phone interview today he withdrew all support, saying “the more evidence that’s come out, the more questions there are on this”.

…

Xenophon said instead of implementing a blanket mandatory censorship regime the Government should instead put the money towards educating parents on how to supervise their kids online and tackling “pedophiles through cracking open those peer-to-peer groups”.

Technical experts have said the filters proposed by the Government would do nothing to block child porn being transferred on encrypted peer-to-peer networks.

“I’m very skeptical that the Government is going down the best path on this,” said Xenophon.

“I commend their intentions but I think the implementation of this could almost be counter-productive and I think the money could be better spent.”

Of course, Rudd, Conroy and Co. might produce some juicy carrot to entice Xenophon back into the faith-based net totalitarian camp. Yet with recent polls showing immense public disagreement with the government’s censorship proposals along with overwhelming criticism from technical experts, the prudish Pixie mob will face an uphill battle to implement their ludicrous, unworkable filters.

This week, a national telephone poll of 1100 people, conducted by Galaxy and commissioned by online activist group GetUp, found that only 5 per cent of Australians want ISPs to be responsible for protecting children online and only 4 per cent want Government to have this responsibility.

A recent survey by Netspace of 10,000 of the ISP’s customers found 61 per cent strongly opposed mandatory internet filtering with only 6.3 per cent strongly agreeing with the policy.

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Eviction in East Jerusalem – Inside Story

Under its latest fascist ethnocratic government with Netanyahoo at the helm, Israel steps up its vile theft of Palestinian land in East Jerusalem – Palestinians are evicted and their homes demolished so Jewish settlers can move in. Under international law, Israel acts illegally and thus far, with impunity, eroding the peace process in order to make both two state and one state solutions impossible. According to Israeli peace organisation B’t Selem, Israel has demolished 350 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem since 2004.

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Discussion of Israeli Fascism on Democracy Now

Amy Goodman interviews Dr. Mustafa Barghouti and Professor Neve Gordon on the shrill tenor of current Israeli politics, noting creeping fascism within all major parties and a flourishing culture of impunity. Because Western governments refuse to sanction Israel’s heinous acts, choosing instead to follow the bankrupt Israel only line, those with no respect for justice or human rights feel more than ever they can commit crimes of violence without any fear of retribution, as they have escaped censure for the recent horrors inflicted on the Gazan people.

Nutanyahoo supports stripping citizenship from those who are ‘disloyal’ to the ‘state’ along with Lieberman, the problem is how? Lieberman hasn’t a plan which Nutso can get away with satisfactorily – yet.

Neve Gordon says there is a racist culture within Israel and neo-Fascists like Lieberman are feeding upon the Israeli people’s decades fermented hatred for the Arabs. Palestinians are an inconvenience to the cryptoZionist, who dreams of thieving ALL the land they would like and to hell with anyone else. Gordon feels Israeli politics is at a watershed moment.

In discussing who is ‘loyal’ or ‘not loyal’ to Israhell with a view to banishing them, Lieberman and Nutanyahoo are talking about ethnic cleansing 23% of the Israeli population who happen to be Arab – and these cryptofascists are getting away with at least conspiring about doing it.

Barghouti has some hopes of Mitchell and Obama, and can feel the breeze of change. He regards Israel’s assault on Gaza as a preemptive strike against the Obama administration, to restrict the peace process to the Annapolis agreement failures, so settlement activities can continue unchallenged.

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Conroy’s Stupid Filter Trials – You Gotta Laugh

Once a jolly swagman plugged into the internets,
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited as he torrented
“Don’t go deploying your filters on me”.

“Deploying your filters, deploying your filters
Don’t go deploying your filters on me”
And he sang as he watched and waited as he torrented,
“Don’t go deploying your filters on me”.

Down came the content speeding through the internets,
Up jumped the swagman and viewed it with glee,
And he sang as he shoved that content on his backup disk,
“You’ll be a-wasting your filters on me”.

“Wasting your filters, wasting your filters
Don’t go a-wasting your filters on me”
And he sang as he shoved that content on his backup disk,
“Don’t go a-wasting your filters on me”.

Up rode the Conroy, mounted on his ISP,
Down came the troopers, one, two, three,
“Where’s that jolly content you downloaded so illicitly?
You’ve been evading the filters from me.”

“Evading the filters, evading the filters
You’ve been evading the filters from me.”
“Where’s that jolly content you downloaded so illicitly?
You’ve been evading the filters from me.”

Up jumped the swagman and handed them his backup disk,
“You’ll never crack my encryption”, said he,
And his packets are tunneled and proxied through the internets,
“You’ll never get your bloody filters on me”.

“Your bloody filters, your bloody filters
You’ll never get your bloody filters on me”.
And his packets are tunneled and proxied through the internets,
“You’ll never get your bloody filters on me”.

from mudshark on Slashdot.