#10: 04.12.28=2: Secess.#6:Voluntaryists; Russia-China-Taiwan-US #1; Oh, Iraq!

1) Secessionism #6: Voluntaryists "" Statement of Purpose: Voluntaryists are advocates of non-political, non-violent strategies to achieve a free society. We reject electoral politics, in theory and in practice, as incompatible with libertarian principles. Governments must cloak their actions in an aura of moral legitimacy in order to sustain their power, and political methods invariably strengthen that legitimacy. Voluntaryists seek instead to delegitimize the State through education, and we advocate withdrawal of the cooperation and tacit consent on which State power ultimately depends. "" http://www.voluntaryist.com/ "" "Your Papers, Please!" The Origin and Evolution of Official Identity in the United States, by Carl Watner, From Issue Number 121 The chief principle of a well-regulated police state is this: That each citizen shall be at all times and places ... recognized as this or that particular person. No one must remain unknown to the police. This can be attained with certainty only in the following manner: Each one must always carry a pass with him, signed by his immediate government official, in which his person is accurately described. There must be no exception to this rule. "" http://www.voluntaryist.com/articles/121a.php 2) Russia-China-Taiwan-US #2 (1) "U.S., Russian nuclear missiles remain on hair-trigger alert", Knight Ridder News http://shorterlink.com/?808H6Z Nunn and others see that inertia in the Bush administration's refusal to consider the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and its request - since defeated in the Senate - for about $500 million for research on a so-called "bunker buster'' nuclear weapon and low-yield "mini-nukes.'' Russia, too, has some Cold War inertia to overcome. Putin proudly announced last month that Russia was testing "the newest nuclear missile systems ... that other nuclear states do not have.'' He offered no further details about the weapons. A number of political analysts believe Putin's comments - which were unprepared remarks made to a group of senior commanders at the Ministry of Defense - were intended to boost military morale and for domestic political consumption. "I'm sure it was nothing surprising to the U.S.,'' said Kobyakov, noting that the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty obliges each side to provide technical data on any new nuclear weapons. Kobyakov and others believe Putin was probably referring to the Topol-M missile, which has long been in the Russian pipeline, and a sea-launched missile that's being developed. There are rumors in military circles in Moscow that the new missile could be maneuvered in flight, unlike current ballistic missiles, to foil the Bush administration's planned national missile defense system. One senior Russian general cryptically called it "a hypersonic flying vehicle.'' Government officials in both countries are keen to point out that they've stopped targeting each other with their nuclear missiles, although experts say this "detargeting'' is political hokum. The old targeting data and missile trajectories are stored in command computers, Kobyakov said. And missiles can be retargeted in a matter of seconds: A couple of mouse clicks on a computer would put Washington, Miami or Moscow back in the nuclear crosshairs. But it's the danger of accidental or maverick launches that most concerns atomic experts. That danger is heightened, in part, by the decrepit state of Russian defenses. "The Russian Early Warning System is essentially useless,'' said Theodore Postol, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an expert on early warning issues and technology. Holes in Russia's satellite and radar networks, Postol said, mean that U.S. submarines in the North Atlantic can strike Moscow with a two- or three-minute warning for the Russian capital. Launches from the North Pacific could hit the city with no warning at all. Postol also said a new Prognoz satellite warning system "may never be in place.'' Stanislav Petrov, the old bunker commander, the man who saved America back in 1983, nodded his head sadly when told of Postol's assessment. "That's right, not enough satellites,'' he said. "We never had enough.'' Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises. "" (2) "Russia and China plan war games", BBC News, UK edition. "" Russia and China - former Cold War foes - will hold an unprecedented military exercise in the second half of 2005. "" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4128337.stm "" The war game, involving naval ships and aircraft, will take place on Chinese territory, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said. Main supplier Russian observers say that China gets half of Russia's weapons exports. Mr Ivanov visited China earlier and described his discussions on Russian weapons deliveries as "record-breaking". Moscow and Beijing share the concept of a multi-polar world - opposing what they see as US global dominance. Mr Ivanov said that in 2005 Russia would also hold joint exercises with other former Soviet countries, Nato and, separately, with France. "" (3) "China Expands. Europe Rises. And the United States . . .", by Fred Kaplan, The New York Times, Sunday 26 December 2004 http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/122804F.shtml "" On March 1, the European Union announced that it was raising import tariffs on a long list of American products, and would go on raising them each month until Congress repealed a subsidy for American exporters that had been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization. Congressmen railed against this intrusion but finally gave in. Americans realized that, in the global economy they largely created and for 60 years dominated, they could no longer do whatever they wanted. Last month, China's president, Hu Jintao, embarked on a 12-day tour of Latin America, and wound up making commitments to invest $30 billion in the region. China is now Brazil's second largest trading partner and Chile's largest export market. In trade, technology, investment, education and culture, China has been displacing the United States all across Asia, and is now starting to do the same in America's backyard. There is nothing necessarily alarming about an expansive China or an emergent Europe, except perhaps that they coincide with a growing American dependence on both "" (4) "China Backs Iran Against The Great Satan" Combine China's recent Iranian energy mega-deal with Vladimir Putin's new strategic coalition, which includes nuclear-capable Brazil, and it rapidly becomes clear that New York's "Fortress Americas" fallback initiative is already dead in the water Copyright: Joe Vialls, 22 December 2004 http://www.vialls.com/myahudi/greatsatan.html "" Twenty years ago 'The Great Satan' referred only to a collection of murderous Zionist Jews who illegally invaded Palestine in the 1940s, to butcher the residents and steal their land for Ben Gurion's "Yisrael". But as Zionists later took firm control of the United States, and forced the use of American soldiers in the 1990 Gulf War against Iraq, a subtle change slowly took place. In the minds of about 70 percent of the global population, America had simply become Zionist Headquarters, and was thus itself anointed 'The Great Satan'. Nowadays the contempt and hatred of the civilized world is being directed against ordinary American citizens, who in the future will pay a heavy price for failing to remove a handful of Zionist madmen from Wall Street while they still had the chance to do so. The rest of the world will no longer tolerate the megalomanic 'New Zion', and is now taking active steps to destroy it. "" (5) "Democracy in the Former Soviet Union: 1991-2004", Report Drafted by:Yevgeny Bendersky, PINR, 28 Dec. 2004: "" The Power and Interest News Report (PINR) is a global organization that provides analyses of conflicts and other international events. PINR seeks to provide insight into various conflicts, regions and points of interest around the globe. We approach a subject based upon the powers and interests involved, leaving the moral judgments to the reader. "" "" What did not happen from the start, and what is only now slowly becoming apparent, is that civil society in the F.S.U. lacked proper education on even basic democratic principles. Newly found political freedom roughly translated into free elections for the majority of the people, but they knew next to nothing about other principles that are so crucial to a vibrant, working democracy. The importance of properly prepared civil society was demonstrated repeatedly in U.S. and U.N. efforts at establishing the rule of law in post conflict societies around the world after 1991. In countries as diverse as East Timor and Bosnia, properly prepared civil society was the keystone that determined the success or failure of a given international mission. Its importance was crucial to the F.S.U. as well, but there, democracy became a process that was largely instituted from the top-down, with the masses sidelined in crucial decision-making or policy-setting agendas. "" 3) Oh, Iraq! http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5092438-103550,00.html "" Comment "Yes, you must pull out - but also pay for the damag: The US isn't protecting or feeding Iraqis, it's stoking violence and hardship", Naomi Klein, Monday, December 27, 2004 Guardian "" http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1998/10/981009-in.htm "" Senate Unanimously Passes Iraq Liberation Act, Oct 7 Iraq News, October 9, 1998 By Laurie Mylroie ""