Childish games

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan has rejected Mr Chiam See Tong's request for $80 million in upgrading funds for his Potong Pasir ward.

In his reply to Mr Chiam, which was copied to the media, Mr Mah explained that since Mr Chiam claimed during the election campaign that his Town Council had enough funds to do lift upgrading for all the blocks over the next five years, he should therefore proceed to do so.

Will the ruling party please grow up, please grow up, please grow up.

The ultimate axis of evil

WHAT do American soldiers in Iraq, Israelis in Palestine and Russians in Chechnya have in common?

In each case, soldiers went into battle convinced they were fighting an enemy who was not only inferior, but also represented a threat to their countries. Hatred and fear drive otherwise decent human beings to commit butchery on a scale they would normally be incapable of.

How do ordinary people reach such a state of bestiality?

Israeli army enters Gaza in ground offensive

Israeli troops entered the southern Gaza Strip, starting a broad ground operation early Wednesday, following the abduction of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants.

The Israeli army has confirmed the start of the offensive, code-named "Summer Rain", adding that the military operation is aimed to secure the return of the kidnapped soldier.

It is the first major ground offensive by the Israeli army since Israel withdrew troops and soldiers from the entire Gaza Strip last summer after 38 years of occupation.

Seems like peace in the Middle East is still a far-fetched idea.

Will the real English master stand up?

This article highlights some important points in regards to the Singapore government's intention to hire native English speakers to teach local students in the English language.

This problem of having the impression that native English speakers being the best to teach non native English speakers is a myth.

I mean, who'd understand the Scots!

Drug firms attacked on marketing

The Consumers International lobby group accused drugmakers of using the methods to get doctors to prescribe products and persuade consumers they need them.

Drug firms say that they act within strict guidelines.

One report said only one of the firms studied, Orion Pharma, provided specific marketing budget information.

It also pointed to the "large numbers of serious, recent and repeated breaches of marketing codes".

This showed the "current regulatory framework is clearly insufficient to prevent systemic violations of marketing regulations".

A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush from Michael Moore

To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?

How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?

That's right. Horse shows.

I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.

I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.

Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?

When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?

When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?

Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?

Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?

With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?

Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.

That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.

It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the window at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"

My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?

And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?

Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.

Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?

I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?

I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com

The War is Killing My Friends and I'm Sick of It

From: SPC Fish
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 12:22 AM
To: soldiers@michaelmoore.com
Subject: I can't sleep

Thank you! Thank you for caring about us, speaking for us, and telling the truth. A British coalition soldier gave me his copy of Fahrenheit 9/11 while I was serving in Afghanistan. That soldier was involved in a suicide car bomb this month and we took care of him at the hospital. I just got back yesterday and looked you up. I've always been a liberal girl, and it ticks me off to no end that Bush is going to try to take away my rights and screw America over with his Christian-influenced "leadership." And what makes me even more angry is that all my friends and my husband are serving in a bullshit war in Iraq. I served in another bullshit war as a nurse in Kandahar.

I have sent soldiers with missing limbs, with vents breathing for them, with malaria infections, and with burns from IEDs and land mines back to Germany and I don't know why this had to happen in the first place. We will never find Osama, it's a lost effort. In Iraq, we are only breeding more terrorists because we won't leave them alone and let them fix their own problems. We just want to storm on in and make "functional governments" within the Middle East so we can profit from them and their oil. The war is killing my friends and I'm sick of it, I want my husband to come home alive. I'm sick of thinking about the soldiers screaming in the trauma bay before we took them to surgery, and I haven't even seen combat, only the effects. I watched C-SPAN today and saw my senator, Barbara Boxer, ask Condoleeza Rice why we're still there if no progress is being made. She could not answer it, her reply was a tap dance of excuses. It made me cry. Thank you for listening to us.

- SPC Fish

Drug-using doc done in by his habit, not entrapment

He may have been a young doctor who had made good from a humble background — but recently-convicted Adrian Yeo was a habitual drug user and the actions used to nab him were strictly professional, said the Ministry for Home Affairs (MHA) in a statement on Friday.

The CNB are talking as though the "entrapment" tactic they use to nab drug offenders are justified and to a certain extent they are. Obviously, eliminitating of the growing and manufacturing of drugs is the best solution but that's not gonna happen.

But putting these small time offenders in the gallows using this tactic is a waste of limited resources that could have better been used to go for the big fishes instead. Now they are the people the CNB should be focusing on for without them, there'd be no one to supply all the small fishes.

Demand is nothing without supply and in this context, that is very positive. Nabbing these small time drug offenders is just the tip of the iceberg and "entrapment" only gives the impression they are doing something about the problem at large when in fact they are not doing much to stamp it out.

Timor Leste rebels surrender weapons

Timor Leste's rebel soldiers on Friday surrendered their weapons to international troops, obeying an order to disarm from President Xanana Gusmao.

The rebels, led by Major Alfredo Reinado, handed over 12 M16 rifles, four handguns and ammunition to Australian troops, who later secured the weapons inside steel containers.

Reinado said more weapons would be coming in from his area of control in the next few days.

Good to know that peace is underway in Timor Leste. Also we shouldn't discount the fact that Major Reinado knew he was being cornered. With the cache of weapons he just surrendered, he couldn't have lasted long with the ball on his side of the court.

He got what he wanted - attention and now for the negotiation bit.

Banned tactics used in detainee interrogations

Special Operations interrogators gave some detainees only bread or crackers and water if they did not cooperate, according to the investigation by Brig. Gen. Richard P. Formica of the Army.

One prisoner was fed only bread and water for 17 days. Other detainees were locked for as many as seven days in cells so small that they could neither stand nor lie down, while interrogators played loud music to disrupt sleep.

Some detainees were stripped naked, drenched with water and then interrogated in air-conditioned rooms or in cold weather.

Despite the findings, Formica recommended that none of the soldiers be disciplined, saying what they did was wrong but not deliberate abuse.

He faulted "inadequate policy guidance" rather than "personal failure" for the mistreatment, and cited the dangerous environment in which Special Operations forces carried out their missions.

"It is regrettable," Formica said in an interview.

The report made public by the Pentagon on Friday was a heavily redacted copy of the 75-page classified document that Formica completed 20 months ago; but this one was released only in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union.

In my opinion, if the tables were turned, Formica and the whole of the USA would definitely look at it differently, least of all "regrettable". At least the American Civil Liberties Union got a foot in. Shows that there are people in America itself who also wants answers.

Cleric Calls on Bush to Convert to Islam

A reputed leader of the al-Qaida-linked terror group blamed for deadly bombings across Indonesia on Thursday accused President Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard of waging wars against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir also called on Bush and Howard to convert to Islam, saying it was "the only way to save their souls," adding that families still grieving after the 2002 Bali blasts that killed many foreigners should also become Muslim to find "salvation and peace."

"I feel sorry for the American people, but it seems now they realize he was wrong," Bashir added.

Uh huh. That's gonna happen. What a way to start a Friday.

Iraqi oil money should be shared with people: Bush

The new Iraqi government should set up a trust fund to share the country's oil money with its people and is forming special repair teams to fix quickly energy sites that are attacked, President George W. Bush said on Wednesday.

"I reminded the government that that oil belongs to the Iraqi people and the government has the responsibility to be good stewards of that valuable asset and valuable resource," he said.

Wow, look who's talking here?

Fraudsters stole $1bn of Hurricane Katrina relief cash

About US$1bn (£542m) in relief meant for victims of Hurricane Katrina was lost to fraud, with bogus claimants spending the money on Hawaiian holidays, football tickets, diamond jewellery and Girls Gone Wild porn videos, the US Congress was told yesterday.

"We expected it, but we didn't expect it on this magnitude," Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the house homeland security investigations panel, told reporters. "It's an assault on the American taxpayer."

And everyone else in the world who chipped in, if I may add.

Crying foul

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said there are three criteria when selecting precincts for upgrading: How old the blocks were, where the blocks were — to ensure upgrading is not concentrated in a few constituencies — and support for the Government.

But the Opposition feels it is unfair to place its wards at the back of the upgrading queue.

"Mr Mah's main argument was that the PAP Government had to be fair to those who had voted for the PAP on its promise to upgrade PAP wards. But the bigger question on voters' minds is a very simple one — whether such a promise is a legitimate use of taxpayers' monies or not," said Ms Lim, who is chairman of the Workers' Party.

"Everybody pays taxes whether they live in PAP or Opposition wards. There are no tax rebates for those living in Opposition wards."

The victims the law forgot?

WHEN a crime is committed, justice may be meted out with the offender being fined, jailed or both. But victims of crime are often left confused and traumatised by the experience in addition to having suffered physical and emotional harm or loss to property.

The criminal justice system has been focused on apprehending and securing convictions against those who were thought to pose a threat to society. This has led to victims of the crime — the ones who had been truly harmed by the offender — being virtually ignored by the process meant to support and protect them.

The victims of crime should be given adequate information about "their" case, such as the progress of investigation, prosecution, conviction and sentence of the offender.

The greater attention given to victims of crime is a result of a realisation by governments around the world of their obligation to protect individuals from harm — and where this is not possible, to render adequate support for them to get on with their lives.

Dissatisfaction with the criminal justice system by victims of crime may be a factor leading to failure to report offences, which means that society as a whole will suffer if the offender is free to commit other offences.

Released without charge

The two brothers arrested last week in an anti-terror raid on a house in east London, in which one was shot, were released without charge last night after police failed to find any link to an alleged biological terror plot.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23 and Abul Koyair, 20, maintained their innocence throughout their detention. They were released from Paddington Green high security police station shortly before 8:30pm after an extensive search of their house.

More than 250 police officers, some of them armed and wearing biochemical suits, burst into the house at 4am last Friday after receiving intelligence claiming that a chemical or biological weapon could be inside.

During the operation, Mr Kahar was shot in the shoulder by a police gun. The shooting of Mr Kahar will be investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which could take months to produce a report.

Azad Ali chair of the Muslim Safety Forum, which tries to improve relations between the Muslim community and the police, said officers should explain fully to the family what happened and apologise for the trauma they caused.

"The police have clearly made errors and they have to learn lessons," he said.

In light of the situation, the brothers' family sent a statement to at least 20 mosques on Thursday evening which was read to worshippers during prayers on Friday afternoon, urging them to disassociate themselves from the event.

Mr Koyair and Mr Kahar's sister, Humeya Kalam, said the police raid represented "barbaric and horrific actions" but an extremist protest would "only give another opportunity for our community to be portrayed in a negative light".

Danish PM confronts Bush

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Friday became the first foreign leader to publicly confront President George Bush over allegations of civilian killings in the Iraqi town of Haditha.

It took a leader of a small nation to do this. Shows some balls.

Bush 'would like to empty Guantanamo'

US President George W. Bush on Friday said that he hoped to "empty" the US-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by sending some detainees home and trying the most dangerous in US courts.

In the meantime, three detainees at Guantanamo Bay apparently committed suicide amid protests of the U.S. military prison by inmates, the Defense Department said Saturday.

Don't just say it. Do it.

Uncivilised war

At least 40 people -- some of them high school students -- were reported killed across Iraq, as the new government failed to name security ministers to deal with continuing violence.

Seems like they are running out of people to kill so they're killing one another. It's just plain ridiculous.

GUILTY!

A US military jury on Thursday found US army Sergeant Santos Cardona guilty of threatening a detainee at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison with his dog, and of dereliction of duty.

Timor Leste roundup

Yesterday morning at Becora, Timor Leste, Kiwi troops led by Major Eugene Whakahoehoe took over from Charlie Company of Australia's 3RAR battle group just hours upon arrival.

They immediately set out to patrol some of Dili's toughest districts, tasked with bringing gangs of thugs to heel in townships razed by the violence that still continues to erupt in East Timor's capital.

He said he doubted if the Kiwis would need to use their guns to face down the gangs of slightly-built Timorese: "You put a 100kg Kiwi into the middle of a crowd and it's quite easy to disperse a crowd."

That's right. My first rugby debut was for my school team in a friendly against the New Zealand College and it's not an over-exeggaration when I say that they STEAMROLLED all over us 95-0! And they were on average two years younger than us!

Get out! The Kiwis are coming!

Major Alfredo Reinado, the fired army commander whose rebellion triggered the collapse of security, blamed Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri for the crisis and said it wouldn’t be over until he was gone from office.

He accused the prime minister of ordering troops in April to open fire on civilian demonstrators who supported the rebels. Five people were killed when rioting erupted.

Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato, who was asked by the government to step down earlier this week, officially announced his resignation Thursday. He said he accepted “moral and political responsibility” for failing to ensure the safety of the police officers killed last week.

Defense Minister Roque Rodriguez also resigned Thursday. The government had announced earlier in this week he would be replaced.

Looks like Alkitiri is doing a Rumsfeld but for the sake of peace and a bigger cause than himself, he should be humble, accept responsibility and resign so that Timor Leste can move on as a nation.

No case and UN chief apologises to S'porean

Singaporean United Nations official Dileep Nair has been cleared of charges of corruption and inappropriate recruitment.

Mr Nair, 55, a former DBS Bank managing director who is now based in Dubai as Singapore's Consul General, had maintained his innocence throughout, pointing out that the campaign against him was revenge for the high-profile investigations conducted by his office with the UN.

That's a piece of good news for Singapore's integrity which has extremely rarely been an issue.

U.S. Troops May Have Fired at Kabul Crowd

The U.S. military is investigating the possibility that soldiers fired into a crowd of Afghans at the scene of a fatal traffic accident that sparked a day of rioting here this week.

"There are indications, as part of our initial investigation, that coalition soldiers did in fact use their weapons in self-defense," Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for U.S. forces here, said on Wednesday.

Witnesses say the crowd was trying to prevent the troops from leaving the scene to ensure that victims were compensated and that police had time to investigate the accident and arrest anyone responsible. They also say some military vehicles drove over people and crashed into shops in their hurry to leave.