A Letter to the Terrorists, from London

I have been very encouraged by the Brits lack of panic regarding this attack. Would that we Americans would adopt this attitude instead of running around like Chicken Little fearing everything and seeing danger where there is none. Face it, we are not safe and Dear Leader has done nothing to make us safer. There isn't an army or police force large enough to protect us from this. There is no "fighting the terrorists there so we won't have to fight them here."

So, let's get on with our lives and work on the stuff we can control. Like, oh, the causes that breed this sort of response. Choke off their source of recruits by actually changing the way we engage the rest of the world. Most especially, let's stop thinking and acting as though our power and wealth gives us ownership rights over the rest of the globe.

From the London News Review, July 7

What the fuck do you think you're doing?
This is London. We've dealt with your sort before. You don't try and pull this on us.

Do you have any idea how many times our city has been attacked? Whatever you're trying to do, it's not going to work.

All you've done is end some of our lives, and ruin some more. How is that going to help you? You don't get rewarded for this kind of crap.

And if, as your MO indicates, you're an al-Qaeda group, then you're out of your tiny minds.

Because if this is a message to Tony Blair, we've got news for you. We don't much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We'll deal with that ourselves. We're London, and we've got our own way of doing things, and it doesn't involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives.

And that's because we're better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we're going to go about our lives. We're going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we're going to work. And we're going down the pub.

So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city.

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A glorious Saturday morning

there was a big rainstorm here in skopje last night preceded by some great sheet lightning... now, saturday morning, it's sunny and fresh but the humidity has jumped up significantly...

no major news that i have been able to uncover... plenty of smaller items for concern, not the least of which are the rumors of rehnquist's pending resignation which will be just another ring in the on-going SCOTUS media circus... let it all rest... i'm off to a sheepherders festival in the mountains where i will see how sheep are milked... :)

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Argentina about Brazil - "Our uncivilized neighbor to the north..."

there's never been a lot of love lost between argentina and brazil... their rivalries in fútbol mirror their rivalries in almost every other area... brazil, as the largest economy in latin america, is followed by mexico... argentina comes in third but chile has been closing the gap... argentina's president nestor kirchner and brazil's president lula da silva probably have more in common politically than any other two latin american presidents... it only makes sense for the brasilenos and the argentines to make nice, but don't hold your breath...

If Argentina and Brazil continue competing with each other over trade instead of establishing a joint development and industrialisation zone, the failure of their partnership as a model for South American integration could lead the other nations of the region to turn their sights towards the United States.

These words of warning come from Marcelo Gullo, a university professor and political analyst specialising in international relations, and the author of a new book, ”Argentina-Brasil: la gran oportunidad” (Argentina-Brazil: The Great Opportunity).

however, given the current cool state of u.s./latin american relations, the u.s. is not likely to be seen as a "best buddy" any time soon either...

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Truly one of the sickest things I can possibly imagine...

i would say thanks to think progress but "thanks" is hardly the right word... brought to you by the twisted minds of the rev. fred phelps and his flock at topeka's westboro baptist church...

Thank God for the bombing of London's subway today - July 7, 2005 - wherein dozens were killed and hundreds seriously injured. Wish it was many more.

"But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction; truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth." Jer. 7:28.

England: Island of the Sodomite Damned



Tony Blair and his Bitch Barrister Wife

These two have let England to irreversible doom, pushing the fag agenda. It is now a crime to preach God's truth about fags in England. Blair wants to be president (Antichrist) of EU (European Union), whose laws also criminalize Gospel preaching.

god does not hate... god loves all of us without reservation... we are, all of us, his children...

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Faux News listens...? Who knew...?

i haven't posted on this topic mostly because i regarded it as just another attempt by bush and the r's to bullshit the american people and, frankly, i'm a little jaded... but, by cracky, a little pressure produced an unexpected result...

Fox News' erstwhile "Supreme Court analyst" C. Boyden Gray appears to have been demoted. Since Media Matters for America President and CEO David Brock wrote to Fox News on July 1 demanding that Gray be removed from his position as Fox News "Supreme Court analyst" because of his involvement with a group [founder and chairman of the Committee for Justice, an organization established with the encouragement of White House senior adviser Karl Rove] created to help confirm President Bush's judicial nominees, Gray has appeared on Fox News four times, but has not once been identified with that title.

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Iraq ≠ Terrorism

(thanks to think progress...)

Condoleezza Rice was interviewed today by the BBC and she was asked a very good question:

BEALE: Do you think that Britain and America in Iraq are perhaps fighting the wrong war? They went to war to remove physical weapons of mass destruction but partly Saddam Hussein as well, but that hasn’t stopped the terrorist attacks in Western cities like Madrid, in London today. It seems to have fueled those attacks.

RICE: Oh, I don’t think that anything is being fueled here except the fact that the terrorists are finally being confronted. Again, they were — they’ve been doing this now for a couple of decades and for a while the world, going all the way back to Beirut and going back to the attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 or the attacks on American Embassies in 1998, this has been going on for a while.

oh, condi... for someone in such a responsible position, you can't honestly think you can say something like that and have people believe it... for chrissake, wake up and smell the coffee...

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Terror attacks - bad for business

i've now listened to, read, and watched the equivalent of several hours of coverage of the london bombings via a wide variety of media and blogger resources... i am appalled but not terribly surprised at how much focus is placed on the effect they have had on business - the stock markets, airlines, jet fuel, etc... on cnni, for instance, the impact on the ability to make money seems to take a constant second place behind the coverage of the actual events... what's wrong with this picture...?

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London bombings [UPDATE]

terrible... and mixed in with my feelings of horror and outrage and especially in light of the previous post, i can't help thinking, there go the rest of our civil liberties...

Two people have been killed and scores have been injured after three blasts on the Underground network and another on a double-decker bus in London.

[...]

An Islamist website has posted a statement - purportedly from al-Qaeda - claiming it was behind the attacks.

London's police chief Sir Ian Blair said there had been "many casualties" but it was too early to put a figure to those killed or injured.

[UPDATE]

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick confirmed 35 people had died in the blasts on the Underground.

He said there were 21 confirmed fatalities following the blast at 0856 BST on a Piccadilly Line train in a tunnel between King's Cross and Russell Square.

There were seven confirmed deaths after a blast at 0851 BST 100 yards into a tunnel from Liverpool Street station. The train involved was a Circle Line train.

And at 0917 BST an explosion on another Circle Line train coming into Edgware Road underground station blew a hole through a wall onto another train at an adjoining platform.

Three trains were thought to be involved and there were seven confirmed deaths so far, Mr Paddick said.

He said two had died in the bus blast at 0947 at the junction of Upper Woburn Place and Tavistock Square.

London Ambulance Service said it had treated 45 patients with serious or critical injuries including burns, amputations, chest and blast injuries and fractured limbs.

a woman i worked with here in macedonia who is now living in london sent an sms a few hours ago saying that she was fine and that her brother who works in the financial district was fine as well... parents of another friend phoned to say the same thing... yet another friend is delayed at heathrow for an indefinite time trying to get a flight to the u.s. on her way back from armenia...

here's my concern... we have been subjected to emotional manipulation and fear-mongering ever since 9/11... fear has been used to push all types of misbegotten agendas down our throats... bush's speech last week was yet another attempt to justify the criminal war in iraq based on fear... i fully expect that the outcome of london will be that we see efforts to play on our fears re-doubled...

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My take

I woke up this morning to the news of the London bombings. Angry, sad, disgusted. With all of them. Not just with the terrorists who think killing innocents advances their cause, but with Tony and George who think killing innocents advances their cause.

And I have believed for quite some time that is is just a matter of time before these types of attacks with come to our shores. 9/11 was dramatic, but a bombing here, a bombing there, will shred what's left of middle America's sense of security.

And really, what can be done militarily or police-wise to protect us from this sort of thing? Search every one who gets on a bus or a train? Post a guard at every public trash can to inspect what is thrown in?

Perhaps answer to that question can be found in Israel or Northern Ireland where, finally, after decades and centuries of back and forth retaliation, there finally arose an acceptance, albeit grudgingly, and an understanding that the grievances of the weak must be given heed and that might does not make right. Nor does might guarantee safety. There has to be a better way.

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Enemy of the state...? Huh...?!?

ooo... this does NOT sound good... not good AT ALL...

I used to work on national security issues for the State Department and I know how dangerous our country's opponents can be. To the dismay of many of my more progressive friends, I've given the feds the benefit of the doubt on homeland security. I tend to dismiss conspiracy theories as nonsense and I take my shoes off for the airport screeners with a smile.

obviously, that's not good enough...

Heading for Oakland from Seattle to see my grandkids last week, the Alaska Airlines check-in machine refused to give me a boarding pass. Directed to the ticket counter, I gave the agent my driver's license and watched her punch keys at her computer.

Frowning, she told me that my name was on the national terrorist No Fly Watch List and that I had to be specially cleared to board a plane. Any plane. Then she disappeared with my license for 10 minutes, returning with a boarding pass and a written notice from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirming that my name was on a list of persons "who posed, or were suspected of posing, a threat to civil aviation or national security."

[...]

Huh? My name is on a list of real and suspected enemies of the state and I can't find out what I'm accused of or why, let alone defend myself. And I'm guilty, says my government, not just until proven innocent or a victim of mistaken identity--but forever.

Sure, 9/11 changed a lot. Tougher internal security measures (like thorough screenings at airports and boundary crossings) are a dismal necessity. But, in protecting ourselves, we can't allow our leaders to continue to create a climate of fear and mistrust, to destroy our civil liberties and, in so doing, to change who we are as a nation. What a victory that would be for our enemies, and what a betrayal of real patriots and so many in the wider world who still remember this country as a source of inspiration and hope.

I don't think it's like Germany in 1936 -- but, look at Germany in 1930. Primed by National Socialist propaganda to stay fearful and angry, Germans in droves refused to see the right's extreme views and actions as a threat to their liberties.

And don't forget that frog. You know that frog. Dropped into a pot of boiling water, he jumps out to safety. But put him into a pot of cold water over a steady flame, he won't realize the danger until it's too late to jump.

So how hot does the water have to get? When the feds can rifle through your library reading list? When they can intimidate journalists? When a government agency can keep you off airplanes without giving you a reason? When there's not even a pretense of due process? We're not talking about prisoners at Guantanamo; this is you and me. Well, after last week, it sure as hell is me and it could be you, next.

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Can I get an amen?

From Christianity Today

George W. Bush is not Lord. The Declaration of Independence is not an infallible guide to Christian faith and practice. Nor is the U.S. Constitution, nor the U.N. Universal Declaration on Human Rights. "Original intent" of America's founders is not the hermeneutical key that will guarantee national righteousness. The American flag is not the Cross. The Pledge of Allegiance is not the Creed. "God Bless America" is not the Doxology.

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More on the housing bubble

yeah, i've posted a lot on this one, too (here, here, here, and here), and i'm not getting any less concerned as time goes on... when i read statistics like the ones cited in this nyt op-ed piece, my nerves start twitching all over again...

One-fourth of all home buyers - including 42 percent of first-time buyers - made no down payment in 2004, according to the National Association of Realtors. Nearly one-third of all new mortgages this year call for interest-only payments (in California, it's almost half), according to Loan Performance, a mortgage data firm.

Another risky aspect of these sorts of mortgages is that they attract relatively hard-pressed borrowers. Egged on by lenders where mortgage-making has been the one consistent profit center, they tend to be people who can't afford a traditional fixed-rate loan - even at the current low rates.

It's a safe bet that lenders wouldn't be so freewheeling if they had to worry about being paid back in full. But it's unusual for lenders to bear the entire risk of the loans they make: they sell many mortgages to private investment banks, which slice and dice them into various securities - an interest-only portion, say, and a principal-only portion. Those securities are then sold to other investors, like mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds, European insurance companies and the central bank of China, to name a few. Investors now hold $4.6 trillion in mortgage-backed securities. That's more than the outstanding value of United States Treasuries.

those are some eye-popping numbers all right...

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Rove: yes, more...

i just spotted robert kuttner's piece in the boston globe asking the question, why the hell isn't fitzgerald going after the big fish, novak, instead of cooper and miller...?

But what about Novak? He obviously knows who leaked the name to him. Why is Miller, who never even wrote an article, facing jail? If anyone should be threatened with contempt of court, it is Novak.

There are only two possibilities. Either Novak did tell the prosecutor the names of the officials who leaked the name and the prosecutor is going easy on them, or Novak refused and the prosecutor is going easy on Novak. Either explanation reeks of favoritism, selective prosecution, and cover-up.

One leading suspect of having leaked Plame's identity is the president's chief political adviser, Karl Rove. Given how utterly Machiavellian Rove is, readers who take press reports of Fitzgerald's pristine independence at face value are touchingly naïve.

Given the stakes, do you really think this administration would let a Justice Department official just pick some highly independent prosecutor to launch a wide ranging probe -- one that could net Novak, a reliable administration toady, and the chummy high officials Novak talks to, say, Rove or Vice President Dick Cheney?

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Rove: time for more background

on this blog and on others, i have pushed and pushed my belief that karl rove is the most dangerous man in america... his combination of raw intellectual power, obsession with total control, fundamentalist ideology, ability to visualize and execute according to long-term scenarios, and masterful skill at creating chaos and division in "enemy" ranks, imho, puts him at the center of the flood of darkness that pours endlessly from the white house... those who continue to see him as merely a gifted political hack, are seriously underestimating his destructive ability...



thanks to michael at americablog, i found this article from editor and publisher written by someone who used to teach with rove and knows him well...

In teaching with him, I learned Rove assumes command over any political enterprise he engages. He insists on absolute discipline from staff: nothing escapes him; no one who works with him moves without his direction. [...] Little has changed since the Bush presidency; all roads still lead to Rove.

[...]

The problem, as always, in dealing with Rove, is establishing a clear chain of culpability. Rove once described himself as a die-hard Nixonite; he is, like the former president, both student and master of plausible deniability.

[...]

For in this case [Valerie Plame], Rove, improving on Macchiavelli, has bet that reporters won’t rat their relationship with the administration’s most important political source. How better for him to operate without constraint, or to camouflage breaking the law, than under the cover of journalists and journalism, protected by the First Amendment?

now, here's the pathological part... many people have talked about rove's affability... i get very disturbed when someone as malicious as rove does a jekyll and hyde and turns on the charm...

Karl Rove is in my experience with him the brightest and most affable of companions; perhaps I have been coopted, for I genuinely treasure his friendship. But neither charm nor political power should be permitted to subvert the First Amendment, which is intended to insure that reporters and citizens burrow fully and publicly into government, not insulate its players from felony, or reality.

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Another one turns

As of today, after 25 years, I am no longer a Republican.

I take this step with deep regret, and with a deep sense of betrayal.

[...]

My Republican Party was the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, and George H.W. Bush. It was a party of honesty and accountability. It was a party of tolerance, and practicality and honor. It was a party that faced facts and dealt with reality, and that crafted common-sense solutions to problems based on the facts as they were, not as we wished them to be, or even worse, as we made them up. It was a party that told the truth, even when the truth came hard. And now, it is none of those things.

Fifty years from now, the Republican Party of this era will be judged by how we provided for the nation's future on three core issues: how we led the world on the environment, how we minded the business of running our country in such a way that we didn't go bankrupt, and whether we gracefully accepted our place on the world's stage as its only superpower. Sadly, we have built the foundation for dismal failure on all three counts. And we've done it in such a way that we shouldn't be surprised if neither the American people nor the world ever trusts us again.

[...]

I could go on and on - about how we have compromised our international integrity by sanctioning torture, about how we are systematically dismantling the civil liberties that it took us two centuries to define and preserve, and about how we have substituted bullying, brinksmanship and "staying on message" for real political discourse - but those three issues are enough.

We're poisoning our planet through gluttony and ignorance.

We're teetering on the brink of self-inflicted insolvency.

We're selfishly and needlessly sacrificing the best of a generation.

And we're lying about it.

While it has compiled this record of failure and deception, the party which I'm leaving today has spent its time, energy and political capital trying to save Terri Schiavo, battling the threat of single-sex unions, fighting medical marijuana and physician-assisted suicide, manufacturing political crises over presidential nominees, and selling privatized Social Security to an America that isn't buying. We fiddle while Rome burns.

Enough is enough. I quit.

Even more at link.

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Ten Characteristics

Just found this. Read it and pass it on.

We do hereby now and forever reject the bastardization of this nation's core principles through this proclamation, and define this reminder to our wayward leaders just what it takes to be a True US Patriot...

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Ray McGovern on U.S. intelligence

ray mcgovern, a highly articulate and analytical thinker and former cia senior analyst with a career spanning 27 years, seven presidents, and dealing with top russian intelligence issues, has some sobering insights into bush's intelligence apparatus...

Regarding the recent 9/11 Commission’s drastic recommendations for intelligence gathering methods adopted by the administration now bundling domestic and foreign services under one department head, McGovern claims the so-called reforms have made the situation worse.

"What you have is a body of former somebody’s who know nothing about intelligence gathering now making recommendations about improving it," said McGovern, referring to the members of the 9/11 Commission.

Taking an enormous subject and condensing it down to its basic elements as only a true CIA analyst could do, McGovern said the words of retired Army Gen. William Odom, once head of Army intelligence, explains the flawed intelligence gathering design under Bush in a single sentence.

"No organizational design will compensate for incompetent encumbrance."

now, then... don't you feel better...?

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Too many

Another one. I got the news yesterday. Another friend, another case of breast cancer. Another name to add to my list of women I walk for in the Race for the Cure.

Damn it.

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The hegemon's tendrils continue to grow into Latin America

i've been following with great concern u.s. efforts to re-gain its influence and re-assert its domination over latin american politics and i've made posts about it on several different occasions (here and here)...

yet another story emerges from the 7th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Tuxtla Mechanism for Dialogue and Coordination and the 26th assembly of the Central American Integration System (SICA) that both took place in tegucigalpa, honduras last week... a special focus of discussion for both meetings was on efforts to combat the region's ”maras” or youth gangs... ngo's and costa rica (known as the "switzerland of the americas") were not happy with some of the proposals being circulated...

Civil society organisations fear that supranational agreements could be signed at the meeting that will lead to violations of young people's rights and an escalation of extreme and repressive measures.

Honduran Foreign Minister Leonidas Rosa Bautista announced that the participating authorities would analyse the creation of a supranational rapid response force to combat drug trafficking and terrorism, regional-level arrest warrants and a single passport and visa for all of Central America, among other initiatives.

For his part, Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco stated at a press conference Tuesday that he would not sign any agreement aimed at creating a supranational body led by the subregion's armed forces, in part because his country does not have an army, but also because he does not support such measures.

but the u.s., eager to sweep everything under the umbrella of the "war on terror," thus providing a blanket justification for possible future intervention, was, once again, the camel with its nose under the tent...

Some authorities in Central America maintain that the maras are linked to drug trafficking and international terrorism, and should therefore be countered with international support.

The United States recently demonstrated its interest in providing such support when agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) met with security officials from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to discuss a strategy to fight organised crime.

Salvadoran police authorities insist that the problem of the maras should be encompassed within the international ”war on terrorism” headed up by Washington, and have already accused a number of alleged gang members of involvement in terrorist activities, sparking controversy in the legal community, because many jurists believe these charges to be unfounded.

remember, all of this is taking place under the radar of u.s. media... stay tuned... there WILL be more, you can be sure...

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Truer words were never spoken...

the guardian's talking about perspectives on climate change and global warming but it also applies to everything else...

In principle, the US mainstream media avoids launching campaigns on its own initiative and, in the name of objectivity, has tended to give more or less equal time to scientists on both sides of the argument, even though the sceptics are a tiny minority.

it's the "fair and balanced" crapola - give the nutbags equal time...

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Bush - But what have you done for me LATELY...?

could this guy be a bigger weenie...?

President Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair to expect no favors at this week's Group of Eight summit of major industrialized countries in return for backing the war in Iraq.

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U.S. economists support China bid; Congress thinks otherwise

the bid for unocal by china's CNOOC Ltd. seems, on the face of it, to be solidly in line with the free-market economics so loudly championed by the r's... u.s. economists see the benefits (from an article in china view)...

Some American leading economists have said that China's push to buy US companies such as Unocal Corp. and Maytag Corp., might benefit the American economy despite sparking a political outcry in Congress.

Overseas takeovers of US firms often brought an inclusion of capital and additional markets, according to Catherine L. Mann, an economist at the Institute for International Economics in Washington.

"It turns them into a stakeholder," said Stephen Roach, chief global economist at Morgan Stanley Co. in New York. He further noted that it was better for the US economy to have China using some of the dollars generated by its trade surplus with the United States to acquire American corporations.

but, evidently, the free-market ideology goes out the window when you don't like the buyer (from the nyt)...

Four days after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a resolution urging the Bush administration to block the proposed transaction as a threat to national security, China's Foreign Ministry excoriated Congress for injecting politics into what it characterized as a standard business matter.

"national security, huh...?" check this rationale for trying to block george soros...

Some Republican lawmakers don't think George Soros should be permitted to purchase a Major League Baseball team because he's too liberal and he has some wacky notions. I must have been napping, and that's why I missed the part where we became a country in which Democrats are no longer allowed to buy things.

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$100/barrel oil...?

and just in time for winter...

Oil prices could rocket to $100 within six months, plunging the world into an unprecedented fuel crisis, controversial Texan oil analyst Matt Simmons has warned.

After crude surged through $60 a barrel last week, nervous investors were pinning their hopes on a build-up in US oil-stocks to depress prices in the coming months.

But Simmons believes surging demand will keep prices bubbling well above $50. 'We could be at $100 by this winter. We have the biggest risk we have ever had of demand exceeding supply. We are now just about to face up to the biggest crisis we have ever had,' he said.

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U.S. "outsources" military functions to India

india used to be very proud of its non-aligned status but the u.s. has managed to change that... so, now, not only are we outsourcing call centers...

The new "Framework for the US-India Defence Relationship" unveiled last week involves more than arms deals and envisages the "outsourcing" of several functions to India, including joint-military operations in third countries, patrolling of sea-lanes and disaster relief operations.

Besides the two countries have also agreed to collaborate on Ballistic Missile Defence and other research and development efforts, and enhance "capabilities to combat" WMD proliferation.

just a couple of months ago, the u.s. "sold" ("sold" meaning the u.s. gave them the money to buy it) $1.3B worth of missiles, weapons systems, and aircraft to pakistan... i wondered at the time what india's reaction would be and, lo and behold, now we know...

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"Decent society" includes gay marriage

the more i read about zapatero, the more impressed i am... what a terrific quote...

The legalisation of gay marriage in Spain will make it possible to build a decent country, ”because a decent society is one that does not humiliate its members,” Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said Thursday.

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Bush: We DON'T play well with others...

what a wonderful opportunity the scotland g8 meeting provides for junior to take the stage as a true global leader, someone who not only has the interests of his country at heart but the welfare of the PLANET as well... oh, wait... we're talking about george w... never mind...

George Bush sounds a warning today to those hoping for a significant deal on Africa and climate change at Wednesday's G8 summit, making clear that when he arrives at Gleneagles he will dedicate his efforts to putting America's interests first.

The president will adopt a stance starkly at odds with the idealism professed by the performers at Saturday's Live 8 concerts around the world and their television audience of 2 billion.

"I go to the G8 not really trying to make [Tony Blair] look bad or good; but I go to the G8 with an agenda that I think is best for our country."

bugs bunny: "what a maroon...!"

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More on the Zapatistas

last week, we heard that the zapatistas had something up their sleeve... now, we know a little more... evidently, subcomandante marcos is doing a slow reveal of his agenda...

Marcos has issued several rambling missives over the Internet. The last, on Thursday, said the rebels would try to rally support for a leftist agenda before the 2006 presidential race by sending a delegation of Zapatistas across the country to unite leftist workers, advocates and students.

The delegation's mission would be to rewrite the Constitution and "to construct from below an alternative to neo-liberal destruction and a leftist alternative for Mexico," wrote Marcos.

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