'Bush Doesn't Like Meetings Like G-8'

"In 1995, then Texas Gov. George W. Bush arrived in Vermont for a four-day National Governors Association conference. He left the next day," the Savannah Morning News reports. "'He told me he was totally bored,' said Paul Burka, executive editor of Texas Monthly. 'No one was doing anything. Everyone was sitting there and posturing. He just didn't like sitting around and doing nothing.'"

James Moore, author of "Bush's Brain" and the recently released "Bush's War for Reelection" agrees. "He absolutely hates that kind of thing. ... He despises dealing with the nuances of political and economic theory." And though Bush can't leave on the first day, "the White House has used its position as host to craft an agenda that humors Bush's preference by making this year's G-8 one of the shortest in history."

Even so, over the course of the meeting, UNCTAD informs us that 7,500 young children will die of malaria, a child will be orphaned by AIDS every 14 seconds, 65 million girls will be denied schooling, as they are throughout the year, and 13,000 children will die from diarrhoea - a result of poor water and sanitation.

globalization |

First Enron Criminal Case Heads to Trial

The first Enron criminal case to go to trial "may be a sleeper" according to Reuters. Last week it was revealed that "the U.S. Justice Department's star informant," former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow, "has testimony that was more helpful to the defendants, four former Merrill Lynch bankers and two ex-Enron Corp. executives." Fastow's testimony "appears to undercut the prosecution's key contention: that the defendants knew and hid the fact the $28 million barge sale [to Nigeria] was really a loan."

Plus: 'Disgusting' Tapes Dig Enron Deeper into Mire

corporate power |

Quote of the Day

Why outsource when wages are stagnating perfectly well at home?

Q: Companies that are rushing to outsource say the labor savings are enormous. Are they missing something?

A. Yes, they lose something in the very rushing to do it. A handful of years ago, 15 percent of our total cost was represented by direct labor. Today, it is less than 5 percent, and it is headed lower. I ask you: Does it take a genius to conclude that if it gets down to 1 percent or less, it doesn't matter very much whether we build the product in Indonesia or Indiana?

- Sidney Harman, executive chairman of Harman International Industries, in an interview with The New York Times. HII produces audio and electronic control systems for automakers.

globalization | more: United for a Fair Economy

Ethnic Cleansing: 'Torture, Starvation Haunt Sudan's Helpless'

Never again, eh?

The white-robed men on horseback shot two of Hamid Rahman's boys that scorching afternoon. They were 3 and 6. But they weren't the youngest or the weakest to die. The Arab marauders targeted the blind, the disabled, the women carrying children - anyone who couldn't run fast enough.

"They killed even babies," recalled Rahman, 40, a thin, bearded survivor with sad, glassy eyes that reflected his loss.

global crisis | more: Ethnic Cleansing Rages in Sudan (BBC News); Give now to the UN Refugee Agency

G8 Agenda: Extending Imperial Reach

Differences over the handover of sovereignty to Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have led to several last-minute reforms to the G8 Summit agenda.

The Summit will still call for support for the Middle East's "civil institutions, private enterprise and businesses," though U.S. plans to sketch out a "Greater Middle East Initiative" have been "seriously scaled back." In addition, France and Russia have blocked plans for a U.S.-backed "Democracy Assistance Group", arguing that states would view it as "a back door to regime change."

The U.S. (along with Britain and Italy) is also pushing for an initiative that would draw international funds to offer support to countries that join so-called 'peace missions.' Joan Russow of the Global Compliance Research Project believes the initiative is an attempt "to train and equip peacekeepers from Africa and other developing nations as 'a standby brigade to clean-up after U.S. 'humanitarian interventions' or preventive/pre-emptive aggressive strikes -- as in Iraq and Haiti."

globalization | NoG8.org

Pentagon Tests Raytheon-Produced Energy Beam

The Pentagon has conducted tests using a "directed energy beam" produced by Raytheon that made the volunteers feel "as if they were on fire," though "when they stepped aside, the pain disappeared instantly." The beam is "among the most potent of a new generation of futuristic, 'less-than-lethal' weapons being developed by the Defense Department - tools that could dramatically alter the way police control riots and soldiers fight wars," the Sacramento Bee reports.

The Bee notes that the technology raises some "thorny questions" arising from the potential use of the weapons on "unruly protestors" and "crowds in the Third World," or as torture devices. Not to worry: the head of the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate insists that the use of these technologies as torture devices "'would be in direct violation of' the Pentagon's definition of nonlethal weapons. ... 'Nor, as professionals, would any of us sign up for it.'"

corporate power | more: WarProfiteers.com