From Newsday, April 23:

LAGOS - A militant group that has been attacking Nigeria's oil pipelines and helping to drive up world oil prices added a new tactic last week by detonating a car bomb in a major oil city to publicize its standing threat to shut down the country's entire crude output.

On April 19, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 1,187 immigrant workers employed by IFCO Systems North America, Inc., which manufactures and recycles pallets and crates. ICE also arrested seven current and former IFCO Systems managers on criminal charges of conspiring to transport, harbor and encourage unauthorized workers to reside in the US for commercial advantage and financial gain. Two of the seven were arrested in Guilderland, New York; one in Amsterdam, New York; two in Houston, Texas; one in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and one in Westborough, Massachusetts. All seven were released on bond and are to appear May 4 in Albany, New York, where the criminal complaint was filed. Two other IFCO employees were arrested in Guilderland on criminal charges relating to fraudulent documents.

From Reuters, April 20:

TORONTO - Native protesters used a mound of burning tires and parked vehicles to blockade a road in a southern Ontario town on Thursday after provincial police evicted a group occupying a local construction site.

The situation in Mongolia certainly seems to be escalating. But what can be gleaned of the politics? The ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) certainly seems throroughly market-oriented and globalist, its name as much an anachronism as that of China's Communist Party. Meanwhile, note the Buddhist and even shamanist imagery and tactics associated with the protesters. Again: dare we hope that this is a real indigenous ecological movement, with autonomy from any outside powers? From New Eurasia via Mongolia Web News, April 19:

Now we can forgive him for Let's Roll and supporting Reagan. The crazy, mixed-up populist crooner, we knew his heart was still in the right place! From the New York Times, April 18:

LOS ANGELES, April 17 — Neil Young, who has periodically touched on political themes during a four-decade career, plans to release a hastily recorded new album ruminating on the war in Iraq and directly calling for the impeachment of President Bush.

Another exercise in just how far off-base the supposed "left" has drifted. Greg Palast's latest, on the retired generals calling for Rumsfeld's resignation, is happly picked up by all the lefty blogs, like Smirking Chimp. None seem to have a clue how profoundly wrong-headed—indeed, downright sinister—his political prescriptions are. Palast takes the generals to task for aiming their ire at Rumsfeld for poor planning of the war, rather than Bush for ordering it in the first place. His analogy (or is it just an analogy?) about who the generals should be "shooting" at sounds (or does it just "sound"?) like a call for a military coup d'etat. Palast seems to have as much contempt as his nemesis Bush for the democratic principle of civilian control of the armed forces. Now obviously, Bush is not a legitimate president. His first election was blatantly stolen, and maybe his second one too, and his invasion of Iraq violated the Neutrality Act, the War Powers Act, the Nuremberg Principles and a host of other laws and treaties. But a progressive response would be a popular mandate for impeachment—not a generals' putsch!

A new and dramatic attack by India's Maoist Naxalite rebels. From the Times of India, April 16:

RAIPUR: At least 10 policemen were killed on Sunday in a Maoist attack in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, an official said.

Somebody please wake us when this madness is over. From the New York Times, April 15:

Jazz Lover Fiddling With Bass Causes Bomb Scare on East Side
The easy listening habits of Grantley Richards met with a large police response early yesterday, shutting several Manhattan blocks and causing a brief panic.