Where two plus two equals four
I thought I’d have a go at it myself, and after a lot of messing about I’ve managed to update the WordPress blog software to version 2.5. There may be a few issues remaining, and I’ll try to get my developer to resolve them the next few days.
Thanks for your patience and stay tuned!
June 24th, 2008 at 09:15pm Posted by: Winston
Just wanted to let anyone still listening via RSS that The Alcove.Net will be back in early ‘09. I have a new writer and some other contributors as well.
If we’re lucky we may get up and running in time for the US Presidential election.
The blog is being updated to the new WordPress 2.5 and we’ll be back as soon as we can. Thanks to anyone who has enjoyed reading.
May 24th, 2008 at 10:27pm Posted by: Winston
Regrettably, due to declining readership and other priorities on my time, I may soon need to retire The-Alcove.Net.
I really do not want to do this, but see little alternative unless someone comes forward who might be willing to take over the reigns. I simply haven’t had the time to keep the content up enough to attract more readers.
So if anyone out there would like to get into a bit of alternative news blogging, please get in touch (just leave a comment on this post, or send an email). The site is powered by WordPress 2, it’s very easy to use, and if anyone is so inclined, I’m more than happy to let them take over. In fact, the more contributors the better.
Failing that, I’ll probably have to just leave the site dormant until the domain expires, or until I need the space on my server.
Winston
January 8th, 2007 at 12:20pm Posted by: Winston
An excellent editorial from Robert Fisk, on the recent execution of Saddam Hussein.
Hussein’s execution will be remembered as a case of America destroying an Arab leader who no longer obeyed his orders from Washington.
…
In the aftermath of the international crimes against humanity of 2001 we have tortured, we have murdered, we have brutalised and killed the innocent — we have even added our shame at Abu Ghraib to Saddam’s shame at Abu Ghraib — and yet we are supposed to forget these terrible crimes as we applaud the swinging corpse of the dictator we created.
Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam’s weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability.
Source article: www.alternet.org
December 31st, 2006 at 11:53am Posted by: Winston
Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at a secure facility in northern Baghdad for crimes against humanity.
Iraqi TV said the execution took place just before 0600 local time (0300GMT). A representative of the prime minister and a Sunni Muslim cleric were present.
Footage of him being led to the gallows was later shown on Iraqi state TV.
Source article: news.bbc.co.uk
December 30th, 2006 at 08:54pm Posted by: Winston
Sunnis, Civil War, Sadr and the prospects of ‘victory.’
Source article: www.alternet.org
December 29th, 2006 at 10:12pm Posted by: Winston
The offensive, the senseless, the bigoted, the inaccurate: a year in right-wing nuttery.
Source article: www.alternet.org
December 29th, 2006 at 09:56pm Posted by: Winston
Intelligence sources say President Bush — along with Israel’s Ehud Olmert and the UK’s Tony Blair — are weighing the possibility of Israeli-led attacks on Syria and Iran in early 2007, with the United States providing logistical back-up.
Source article: www.alternet.org
December 29th, 2006 at 09:55pm Posted by: Winston
A few good news stories for the end of the year…
Indigenous peoples won victories all over the world in 2006, perhaps beginning with the inauguration of labor leader Evo Morales as president of Bolivia on January 22nd, the first indigenous president of the largely indigenous nation since the Spanish invasion almost five centuries before. He made good on his campaign promises to nationalize energy resources and negotiated contracts giving the impoverished nation far higher percentages of profits from natural-gas extraction. In November, the Achuar people of the Peru-Ecuador rainforest blockaded a major oil producer and forced it and the Peruvian government to implement environmental reforms.
There were domestic victories on other fronts. One major U.S. citizen achievement was the October defeat of attempts to privatize and jack up usage fees on the Internet, despite $200 million in corporate spending on the issue. A new grassroots movement defeated the telecom industry’s attempt to take over this major new zone of global communication for its own profit. A minor but sweet victory for independent thinking and bold opposition was Stephen Colbert’s April dressing down of the Bush Administration, to the president’s face, at the White House Press Corps dinner. The mainstream media, also excoriated by the bold Colbert, ignored the spectacular verbal attack until the alternative media made the story impossible to ignore. Such trajectories — major stories investigated, exposed and explained by the alternative media until the mainstream can no longer ignore the news — are one of the reasons why net neutrality matters.
It was a lousy year to be a Republican president, though not nearly as bad as being a U.S. soldier or an Iraqi citizen. A number of highly visible defections from the war in Iraq made a difference in 2006, notably that of Lieutenant Ehren Watada, a Japanese-American officer from Hawaii who refused to serve in what he called “an illegal and immoral war.” Recruiting kids to serve in the military became harder than ever, and recruiters fought back with ever-lowering standards, ballooning bonuses and, according to many sources, packs of lies.
Five central Asian nations — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan — signed a treaty foreswearing nuclear weapons anywhere on their considerable territory in September, further upsetting the Bush Administration which hoped to reserve the option of siting a few nukes there. Donald Rumsfeld was obliged to resign after the 2006 elections, and he may join Henry Kissinger as thugs who don’t like to travel abroad — the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit against the former Secretary of Defense in Germany, on behalf of torture victims from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. This picked up where the lawsuits against Chilean ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet — hounded by justice the last eight years of his life, until his death earlier this month — left off.
Source article: www.alternet.org
December 29th, 2006 at 09:20pm Posted by: Winston
Speculation over the timing of Saddam Hussein’s execution mounted last night after the White House indicated it was expecting the Iraqi authorities to carry out his sentence as soon as this weekend.
Source article: www.guardian.co.uk
December 29th, 2006 at 09:15pm Posted by: Winston
The neo-conservative dream faded in 2006.
US soldier on a weapons search in a Baghdad house
Iraq was meant to be the showcase for a New American Century
The ambitions proclaimed when the neo-cons’ mission statement “The Project for the New American Century” was declared in 1997 have turned into disappointment and recriminations as the crisis in Iraq has grown.
“The Project for the New American Century” has been reduced to a voice-mail box and a ghostly website. A single employee has been left to wrap things up.
Source article: news.bbc.co.uk
December 23rd, 2006 at 08:58pm Posted by: Winston
There’s nothing outrageous or bigoted about Jimmy Carter’s book arguing that Palestinians are victims of apartheid, as critics are claiming. If anything, Carter mutes his case.
Source article: www.alternet.org
December 23rd, 2006 at 08:26pm Posted by: Winston
Saudi Arabia, fearful of a nuclear Iran and a Shiite Iraq, is taking steps to influence U.S. policy in Iraq. The kingdom may also be building its own nuclear program.
Early in November, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, in a memo leaked to the press recommended that Saudi Arabia play a leadership role in talks about Iraq’s future. But even before the memo landed on Bush’s White House desk, the Saudis were positioning themselves to directly influence strategy in Iraq:
Source article: www.alternet.org
December 22nd, 2006 at 11:17am Posted by: Winston
Each day the occupation continues, life gets worse for most Iraqis. Yet the U.S. still won’t admit to failure.
The underlying trend is clear: Each day the occupation continues, life gets worse for most Iraqis. Rather than stemming civil war or sectarian conflict, the occupation is spurring it. Rather than being a source of stability, the occupation is the major source of instability and chaos.
“I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound largemouth bass in my lake.”
–George w. Bush05/07/2006
on his best moment in office (in an interview with a German newspaper)
Posted by: Winston
December 20th, 2006 at 07:48pm Posted by: Winston
Vice President Dick Cheney will be summoned as a defense witness in the trial of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, a defense lawyer said Tuesday in federal court. A spokeswoman for Mr. Cheney signaled that he would not resist the request for his testimony.
Source article: www.nytimes.com
December 20th, 2006 at 10:50am Posted by: Winston
Howard Zinn gave a speech to the University of Wisconsin (my alma mater, thank you) explaining the ultimately simple mechanism behind our repeated mistake of fighting wars both disastrous to our nation and to others. Bad History.
Source article: www.alternet.org
December 20th, 2006 at 10:45am Posted by: Winston
US President George W Bush is considering a short-term US troop increase in Iraq, a spokesman says.
But he denied reports of a rift between the White House and resistant Pentagon chiefs.
With White House forecasts predicting Washington will spend more than $US2 billion ($A2.5 billion) a week on Iraq into next year, a senior official declined to speculate on the cost of an extra 20,000 troops - a figure that US media say Bush is weighing.
…
US Army medical experts said suicides among US soldiers in Iraq doubled in 2005 compared with 2004 while a Pentagon report on Monday said violence in Iraq was at record levels.
Source article: www.theage.com.au
December 20th, 2006 at 10:33am Posted by: Winston
The greatest current threat to our standard of living is the current account deficit, which now stands at a whopping $225.6 billion in just the third quarter of 2006. This is the equivalent of 6.8 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP). Current account deficits above 5 percent flash a threat level of “red†to economists.
Source article: thinkprogress.org
December 20th, 2006 at 10:32am Posted by: Winston
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