Obnoxio today. Bad language alert (even by my loose standards). http://obotheclown.blogspot.com/2010/07/man-of-people.html

Interesting piece from the curmudgeon on welfare reform. http://www.thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/ We should not forget the extent to which every possible step was taken to discourage benefit claimants already under New Labour. A friend of mine who works in what used to be called a Jobs Centre says it is heartbreaking to see the unemployed who have [...]

http://www.libdemvoice.org/the-independent-view-the-first-thing-vince-should-cut-is-funding-for-the-arms-trade-20053.html

A superb article from Richard Forer here. I found it really useful. http://www.redress.cc/palestine/rforer20100621

Labour Party man Brian Barder on how to salvage his party: The positive way to signal a radical change of policy on the resort to military force, implying (but not necessarily stating explicitly) a promise never to repeat the Iraq criminal blunder, would be to declare formally that no future Labour government will ever again [...]

From last week, an excellent piece on the people who don’t know they’ve been betrayed. http://powersminions.blogspot.com/2010/06/breaking-down-scottish-labour-mythology.html

Swedish dockworkers to boycott Israeli ships and goods http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704183204575288222251185504.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The invaluable Juan Cole http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/egypts-lifting-of-the-blockade-likely-temporary.html#comments

Running late again http://thecurmudgeonly.blogspot.com/2010/05/regretful-expressions.html This was a day when I felt blinded ny anger.

Running late today http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/05/31/israel/index.html

I have decided to try everyday, as close to 4.45pm as I can get to a computer, to publish a link to something I particularly enjoyed reading that day. It will not necessarily be something written on the day I read it. This first one wasn’t: http://stefzucconi.blogspot.com/2010/05/austerity.html

Casualty Monitor Since 2007, Casualty Monitor has been providing tracking and analysis of the mounting human cost of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Their site provides regularly updated graphical analysis of casualties.

The Center for Congressional Rights has launched the Guantanamo Global Justice Initiative to “spearhead the fight to seek justice for the hundreds of men and minors who have languished at Guant’namo for more than three years and to seek redress for the abuse and torture many have suffered at the hands of military interrogators and [...]

Liberty is one of the UK’s leading human rights and civil liberties organisations. They lobby Parliament, aiming to expose laws that undermine civil liberties and human rights, and work with politicians to correct them. They also challenge laws, by taking test cases to UK courts and the European Court of Human Rights and conduct research [...]

The National Security Whistleblowers Association is a US project that encourages whistle blowing in the national interest. It has now superseded the Truth Telling Project.

MediaLens describe themselves as a “response to the unwillingness, or inability, of the mainstream media to tell the truth about the real causes and extent of many of the problems facing us, such as human rights abuses, poverty, pollution and climate change.” A recent article looks at why ‘Real Men go to Tehran‘ You can [...]

The UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its associated public bodies”. In March 2005 the committee published damning criticism of Jack Straw’s FCO and its policies and practice on torture and extraordinary rendition. The week [...]

The International Committe of the Red Cross is a unique organisation that works in conflicts around the world to try and minimise suffering by promoting international humanitarian law. In a recent paper they provide answers to some of the most frequently asked questions and help set straight many of the misconceptions propgated by interested governments. [...]

Check out details on the AI campaign to stop human rights abuses occurring as part of the so called “war on terror”. Get involved. If you live in the USA or UK this is our responsibility!

A useful compilation of reports and documents from HRW on the human rights situation in Uzbekistan can be found here.