Morning Email

I haven't even gotten to the news on the web this morning yet. Just perusing my email and I popped open my NYT Headlines. Under the the Washington section these three headlines and blurbs:

First:

Immigration Sting Puts 2 U.S. Agencies at Odds
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
The Labor Department criticized a sting carried out by federal immigration officials, suggesting that it would make immigrant workers distrust safety officials.

Oops..guess no one told immigration that George and Co really like that cheap immigrant labor, while at the same time stirring up members of its base to rail against immigrants and encouraging folks like the Minutemen.
Short version: Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been masquerading as OSHA officials to nab illegals. The Labor Department is furious. But this comment just about sums it up for me:

"We think it's an absolute outrage and danger for the immigration authorities to use this type of tactic," said Cecilia Munoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, an advocacy group for Hispanics. "Our labor law system is completely complaint-driven, and our ability to keep the work force safe depends on workers being able to complain, and by masquerading as OSHA officials, immigration authorities will clearly discourage immigrant workers from coming forward. This won't affect just immigrant workers, it will affect the safety of all workers."

Safety? Who needs workplace safety? It just cuts into the bottom line to have to worry abut that! Of course, the Bushies will never go after the employers that hire the illegals in the first place. Republican donations would dry up in a heartbeat, now wouldn't they?

Next headline:

Contraceptive Sales Status on Calendar at F.D.A.
By ROBERT PEAR
The Bush administration said that it would decide by Sept. 1 whether to allow sales of an emergency contraceptive without a prescription.

Looks like this is another deal with the Devil. Senators Clinton and Murray have agreed to release Bush' nominee to head the FDA, and allow a vote, in exchange for the administration agreeing to make a decision on whether they will allow emergency contraception to be sold OTC. I will be shocked if they allow it.

And finally:

Court Says E.P.A. Can Limit Its Regulation of Emissions
By ANTHONY DePALMA
The most authoritative court ruling on the issue so far lessens the likelihood that there will be any national programs to control greenhouse gas emissions anytime soon.

Beyond depressing...it's all about the bottom line for these assholes. Same song, different verse, "Self-policing works!" From the article:

Eryn Witcher, the press secretary for the Environmental Protection Agency, called the court decision a welcome win.
"We are pleased with this ruling and glad the court supported our decision," Ms. Witcher said. She said voluntary programs were better ways to reduce carbon and greenhouse gases than "mandatory regulations and litigation that don't promote economic growth."

This was a "fractured decision" and does leave the door open for the case to be heard by the entire court.

James R. Milkey, chief of the environmental protection division in the Massachusetts attorney general's office, called the ruling "a deeply fractured set of opinions" that was both disappointing and heartening.

"The two judges in the majority just assumed that E.P.A. had the authority to regulate emissions without dealing directly with the question," Mr. Milkey said.

Only Judge David S. Tatel, who wrote a pointed dissenting opinion, touched the central issue, Mr. Milkey said, and he "firmly rejected each and every argument that E.P.A. made trying to hide behind the claim that it lacked authority."

Mr. Milkey said the strong dissent could strengthen the case for a rehearing before the full 11-member Court of Appeals. The case could also be taken to the Supreme Court.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Beyond global "warming..."

there's "warming..." then there's "heating..."

Temperatures in this Eastern Hudson Bay community hit 36.6 C (98F) on Monday, making Kuujjuaraapik [above the Arctic Circle] the hottest place in Quebec and breaking the previous record of 29.4 C (85F), set in 1969.

But Tuesday was even hotter. The day’s high climbed to 37 C (99F), breaking the previous record high of 28.3 C (83F) set in 1998.

These temperatures were much higher than the normal temperature range of around 15 C (59F).

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Colleagues of Wilson's wife speak out

very powerful words, addressed to the leaker, from those who trained, worked with, and know ambassador wilson's wife... excerpted here but worth reading in full at tpm cafe...

You are a traitor and you are our enemy. You should lose your job and probably should go to jail for blowing the cover of a clandestine intelligence officer.

You have set a sickening precedent. You have warned all U.S. intelligence officers that you may be compromised if you are providing information the White House does not like. A precedent, as one colleague pointed out during our brief appearances, allows you to build out a case based on previous legal actions and court decisions. It's a slippery slope if it lowers the bar.

Ambassador Wilson's political affiliations are irrelevant. Political differences serve as the basis for the give and take of representative government. What is relevant is the damage caused by the exposure that Ambassador Wilson's wife as a political act intended to undermine Wilson's view.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Habeas Corpus: eliminating Federal review of indigent capital cases?

i have to ask myself, why is this even being considered...? what earthly purpose can it serve...?

Congress is quietly considering whether to destroy one of the pillars of constitutional law: the habeas corpus power of the federal courts to determine whether an indigent defendant has been unjustly sentenced to death in state courts.

A bill making alarming progress in committee would effectively strip federal courts of most review power and shift it to the attorney general. That's right: the chief prosecutor of the United States would become the judge of whether state courts behave fairly enough toward defendants appealing capital convictions. If a state system was certified as up to snuff, then the federal courts would lose their jurisdiction and condemned defendants their last hope.

[...]

The injustices of the criminal court process flow considerably from the widespread lack of competent defense counsel in the first place.

[...]

Proponents insist that truly meritorious complaints would somehow survive under this oppressive bill. In fact, it would make the execution of the innocent even more likely than it already is.

is it possible to have too many safeguards in place to insure against societally-sanctioned murder...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Poll: Bush free-fall

a picture is worth, etc...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Latin America - ties to U.S. "faltering..."

this is one of those articles that has to be read all the way through to pick up the slant...

While Latin America has been enjoying its best economic performance in years, its democratic institutions and ties to the United States are faltering, according to a new report by the Inter-American Dialogue (IAD), a Washington-based think tank.

[...]

[T]he growing divide between the U.S. and Latin America has only served to compound the region's problems, according to the report, which noted, ”Few Latin American governments today view the United States as a reliable partner.”

you can expect to hear the "democratic institutions . . . are faltering" line repeated over and over as the u.s. lays the groundwork for latin american intervention against the possibility that venezuela or bolivia will nationalize their domestic energy industries... because, you see, the "divide" is all about "free" trade and "free" markets ("free" defined as being open to the u.s. without constraint)...

The divide has multiple origins, it said, including the failure of former President Bill Clinton to get congressional approval for negotiating authority for new trade agreements after NAFTA; the souring of many in of Latin America on free-market reforms by the late-1990s, and the shift in U.S. attention to international terrorism, nuclear proliferation and the war in Iraq.

If Bush fails to get Congress to ratify CAFTA, it warns, any hope for a FTAA [Free Trade Agreement for the Americas] accord will be dashed, and ”Latin American advocates of closer U.S. ties will lose influence across the region, while Washington's adversaries will gain new ground.”

the "souring" on free-market reforms came about largely as a result of countries like argentina struggling to blindly follow imf and world bank dictates that most often were crafted for the benefit of the global financial organizations backing the loans...

"latin american advocates of closer u.s. ties will lose influence...?" who in latin america is pushing for "closer u.s. ties...?" in-depth news-gathering would provide information about who, precisely, those "advocates" are, their affiliations, their backers, etc...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

More Rove

ok, i said yesterday that i have been "deliberately avoiding the moment-to-moment, breathless, seemingly endless posting on developments in the karl rove telenovela" and now i'm making my second rove post in a row since i opened my yap... but, how, i ask you, can a body be expected to resist a good paul krugman column...? (as a good friend once said, "if i'm going to have to eat crow, i'd rather do it while it's still warm...")

What Mr. Rove understood, long before the rest of us, is that we're not living in the America of the past, where even partisans sometimes changed their views when faced with the facts. Instead, we're living in a country in which there is no longer such a thing as nonpolitical truth. In particular, there are now few, if any, limits to what conservative politicians can get away with: the faithful will follow the twists and turns of the party line with a loyalty that would have pleased the Comintern.

[...]

Mr. Rove also understands, better than anyone else in American politics, the power of smear tactics. Attacks on someone who contradicts the official line don't have to be true, or even plausible, to undermine that person's effectiveness. All they have to do is get a lot of media play, and they'll create the sense that there must be something wrong with the guy.

[...]

Ultimately, this isn't just about Mr. Rove. It's also about Mr. Bush, who has always known that his trusted political adviser - a disciple of the late Lee Atwater, whose smear tactics helped President Bush's father win the 1988 election - is a thug, and obviously made no attempt to find out if he was the leaker.

Most of all, it's about what has happened to America. How did our political system get to this point?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Josh Marshall - Rovian insight good enough to post in full

my reactions to rove have been of the fairly simplistic variety... in tolkien terminology, i think he's a dark force... josh marshall of talking points memo and tpm cafe takes a much more articulate approach which, i believe, deserves reading in its entirety...

I think it's only late in the evening, when the email traffic slows and the other distractions fade, that I can really see and marvel at the collosus that is, as Brock calls it, the Republican noise machine, with its ferocity that is only surpassed

by its nihilism.

Now we can see in full view what we've seen again and again in recent years, the favored tactic: terror by grand moral inversion, the lie so total and audacious that it almost knocks opponents off their feet.

John Kerry decorated war hero? No, coward and showboat.

We noted yesterday the great article by Josh Green in the Atlantic last year in which Josh chronicled the tactic as Rove practiced it in races he ran down in Alabama in the 1990s. In one state supreme court race his candidate went up against an opponent who'd developed an impeccable reputation on child welfare issues (he was a former family court judge). Once you understand the pattern, the strategy suggests itself. Rove orchestrated a whispering campaign to spread the word that the man was a pedophile. Like I said, audacious.

And so here now. Wilson, a whistleblower administration officials were trying to punish? A whistleblower calling out White House manipulated intelligence during the lead-up to war?

Not at all. Rove was the whistleblower trying to knock down a campaign of disinformation from Joe Wilson. The audacity of it is enough to knock some people off their feet. Like I said, terror by grand moral inversion.

And here we have them on their shows and newsprint boxes, having Plame simultaneously a glorified secretary and also a political operator scheming to upend the president's drive to war by sending her husband on a mission to Niger. What range!

The two words capture it: ferocity and nihilism, feeding off each other.

by george, i think he's got it...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

War on terror, Iraq, Presidential honesty & Karl Rove

i am deliberately avoiding the moment-to-moment, breathless, seemingly endless posting on developments in the karl rove telenovela... i've been perfectly clear that i believe the man is a dark force who has no business occupying any position of public trust at any level anywhere... but i am also extremely leery* (dontcha just love that word...?) of either breaking out the celebratory fireworks prematurely or jumping up and down in glee as someone goes down... (ok, i'll confess to some gleeful cackling from time to time...) however, i do think it's worth sharing this...

[T]he latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that Bush’s overall job rating has slipped and that his rating for being “honest and straightforward” has dropped to its lowest point.

[...]

[O]nly 41 percent give Bush good marks for being “honest and straightforward” — his lowest ranking on this question since he became president. That’s a drop of nine percentage points since January, when a majority (50 percent to 36 percent) indicated that he was honest and straightforward. This finding comes at a time when the Bush administration is battling the perception that its rhetoric doesn’t match the realities in Iraq, and also allegations that chief political adviser Karl Rove leaked sensitive information about a CIA agent to a reporter. (The survey, however, was taken just before these allegations about Rove exploded into the current controversy.)

“It’s a bad period for the president,” said Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican Bill McInturff. Hart attributes Bush’s problems to “one part the economy, two parts Iraq, and one part everything else.” In fact, he is somewhat surprised that Bush’s ratings didn’t increase slightly after the London attacks. “I am sort of surprised we don’t see more a skew toward rallying around anti-terrorism.”

the good news is that bushco is increasingly being seen for exactly what it is - a bunch of lying, corrupt, self-serving, fear-mongers... the bad news is that, so far at least, nothing of substance has changed...

*leery
Pronunciation: 'lir-E
Function: adjective
: SUSPICIOUS, WARY -- often used with of

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Arms to Pakistan, Military Cooperation Pact with India, Pakistan Upset

i posted w-a-a-ay back on the $1.3B u.s. weapons sale to pakistan, paid for by the u.s. department of defense, no less... i speculated at the time on what india's reaction might be... come to find out that india just recently signed a "defense cooperation agreement" with the u.s. that "outsources" military functions to india, including joint- operations in third countries, patrolling of sea-lanes and disaster relief operations... well, whaddaya know... now, pakistan's nose is outta joint...

Alarm and dismay have been the general reaction in Pakistan to news of a framework agreement on defence cooperation signed between India, its long-standing rival in South Asia and the United States - which, only a year ago, accorded this country the status of ''major non-NATO ally''.

[...]

[Said Mairaj Muhammad Khan, senior politician and former minister of a Pakistan People's Party (PPP) government] thought that the net effect of the Indo-US agreement would be that ''both countries would now have their attention diverted from social sectors and worsen the problem of widespread poverty they both face in order to find ever more resources for military spending.''

i sure as hell can't pass myself off as any kind of expert in south asian affairs but this strikes me as either deliberately divisive or monumentally stupid... india and pakistan, two nuclear powers, have been engaged in a peace process that has taken them further than they have managed to go since the territory was carved up 50 years ago... what the hell does the u.s. think it's doing...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Issue this man a citation for TWU

twu = talking while unconscious...

Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, refused yesterday to back off on his earlier statements connecting Boston's ''liberalism" with the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal, saying that the city's ''sexual license" and ''sexual freedom" nurtured an environment where sexual abuse would occur.

[...]

Representative Martin T. Meehan, Democrat of Lowell, said, ''There's not much you can say about someone who claims to have read the Bible cover to cover and came away from it thinking it encourages hatred for fellow human beings."

David Wade, spokesman for Senator John F. Kerry, said, ''Sometimes you wonder whether Rick Santorum can possibly believe the radically wrong words that escape his mouth."

a therapist once asked a friend of mine, "are the words that come out of your mouth the first time you've heard them too...?"

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Iraq: an interesting perspective

”I think the U.S. has primarily made mistakes in rebuilding Iraq rather than screwing things up on purpose,” [journalist Aaron Glantz] told IPS. ”For example, I think many good people in the CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] thought Iraq was and still is 'not ready' for democracy. I think they're wrong.”

”Their fault is that they support democracy only if the government elected is friendly to the Bush administration's geo-strategic ends.”

are you telling me that we didn't go into iraq in the first place with "geo-strategic ends" in mind...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

China - the dragon stirs

it used to be said of russia - "don't disturb the sleeping bear..." in china, the "dragon" is coming awake...

[T]he Bush administration's decision to wage the war in Iraq stands out as a crucial factor in explaining how China came to scour the earth for energy and why the effort is likely to remain central to U.S.-Chinese relations for some time, those analysts say.

"Iraq changed the government's thinking," said Pan Rui, an international relations expert at Fudan University in Shanghai. "The Middle East is China's largest source of oil. America is now pursuing a grand strategy, the pursuit of American hegemony in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is the number one oil producer, and Iraq is number two [in terms of reserves]. Now, the United States has direct influence in both countries."

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Recess appointment for Bolton...?

With neither the White House nor Senate Democrats showing any sign of yielding in their long-running dispute over documents related to Bolton's State Department work, speculation is rife that Bolton is prepared to accept a recess appointment good through the end of 2006, despite warnings from some GOP senators that it would weaken his influence and effectiveness.

what a pile of crap... the bullheadedness and let 'em eat cake attitude of bushco is truly beyond belief and it doesn't bode well for a consensus candidate for the supreme court either...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

A-humma-humma-humma

If you haven't already seen (partial video from Crooks and Liars... C-Span no longer has it on their site) or read the transcript from yesterday's press briefing you are depriving yourself. Finally, the press corps found its huevos and piled on Scotty. My favorite:

Q Scott, I mean, just -- I mean, this is ridiculous. The notion that you're going to stand before us after having commented with that level of detail and tell people watching this that somehow you decided not to talk. You've got a public record out there. Do you stand by your remarks from that podium, or not?

MR. McCLELLAN: And again, David, I'm well aware, like you, of what was previously said, and I will be glad to talk about it at the appropriate time. The appropriate time is when the investigation --

Q Why are you choosing when it's appropriate and when it's inappropriate?

MR. McCLELLAN: If you'll let me finish --

Q No, you're not finishing -- you're not saying anything. You stood at that podium and said that Karl Rove was not involved. And now we find out that he spoke out about Joseph Wilson's wife. So don't you owe the American public a fuller explanation? Was he involved, or was he not? Because, contrary to what you told the American people, he did, indeed, talk about his wife, didn't he?

MR. McCLELLAN: David, there will be a time to talk about this, but now is not the time to talk about it.

Q Do you think people will accept that, what you're saying today?

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, I've responded to the question. [At this point there is cynical laughter from the press corp]

Go ahead, Terry.

Q Well, you're in a bad spot here, Scott, because after the investigation began, after the criminal investigation was underway, you said -- October 10th, 2003, "I spoke with those individuals, Rove, Abrams and Libby, as I pointed out, those individuals assured me they were not involved in this." From that podium. That's after the criminal investigation began. Now that Rove has essentially been caught red-handed peddling this information, all of a sudden you have respect for the sanctity of the criminal investigation?

It was a sight to behold. The press corps would not let go...except for this one guy. I thought JeffG was no longer in attendance.

Q Scott, today also the President spoke about the war on terrorism and also, according to -- report, there was bombings in London and also bombings in India, and at both places, al Qaeda was involved. According to the India report and press reports, a Pakistani television said that Osama bin Laden is there alive and they have spoken with him, and his group is still -- as far as terrorism around the globe is concerned. So now the major bombings after 9/11 took place in London, and more are about to come, according to al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. They are still -- and again, the President is doing a great job as far as fighting against terrorism is concerned. But where do we stand now, really? Where do we go from London, as far as terrorism is concerned? How far we can go after Osama bin Laden now to catch him? Because he's still in Pakistan.

And this one:

Q One follow-up. Considering the widespread interest and the absolutely frantic Democrat reaction to Karl Rove's excellent speech to conservatives last month, does the President hope that Karl will give a lot more speeches?

Whaa?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Tired

From yesterday's NYT letters

Israel's vice prime minister, Ehud Olmert, put it this way during a speech in New York last month: "We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies."

I wonder when America will get tired of beating its collective chest and get on with the job of peace.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Chevron on peak oil

very interesting... one of the world's big oil companies is laying it on the line...

(thanks to jerome a paris at kos...)

Energy will be one of the defining issues of this century. One thing is clear: the era of easy oil is over. What we all do next will determine how well we meet the energy needs of the entire world in this century and beyond.

Demand is soaring like never before. As populations grow and economies take off, millions in the developing world are enjoying the benefits of a lifestyle that requires increasing amounts of energy. In fact, some say that in 20 years the world will consume 40% more oil than it does today. At the same time, many of the world’s oil and gas fields are maturing. And new energy discoveries are mainly occurring in places where resources are difficult to extract, physically, economically and even politically. When growing demand meets tighter supplies, the result is more competition for the same resources.

We can wait until a crisis forces us to do something. Or we can commit to working together, and start by asking the tough questions: How do we meet the energy needs of the developing world and those of industrialized nations? What role will renewables and alternative energies play? What is the best way to protect our environment? How do we accelerate our conservation efforts? Whatever actions we take, we must look not just to next year, but to the next 50 years.

At Chevron, we believe that innovation, collaboration and conservation are the cornerstones on which to build this new world. We cannot do this alone. Corporations, governments and every citizen of this planet must be part of the solution as surely as they are part of the problem. We call upon scientists and educators, politicians and policy-makers, environmentalists, leaders of industry and each one of you to be part of reshaping the next era of energy.

It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil.
We’ll use the next trillion in 30.
Cambridge Energy Research Associates
http://www.cera.com

In 20 years the world will consume 40% more oil than it does today.
EIA Projections of Oil Production Capacity and Oil Production
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/forecast.html#Forecasts

At the same time many of the world’s oil and gas fields are maturing.
The Economist
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4077933

New energy discoveries are mainly occurring in places where resources are difficult to extract physically, economically, and politically.
American Associates of Petroleum Geologists
http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2005/01jan/discoveries.cfm

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Children in charge...? I don't think so...

I don't usually say such things, but there's something unbelievably stunted about all this. [President Bush] and his top officials seem almost completely divorced from any sense of the actual consequences of their various acts and decisions. They live in some kind of dream world offshore of reality, which would perhaps not be so disturbing if they didn't also control the levers of power in what, not so long ago, was regularly referred to as the "lone" or "last superpower" or the globe's only "hyperpower."

[...]

It may be that nations deserve the leaders they get and perhaps it's no mistake that George Bush ended up as our leader -- twice no less -- in a period that otherwise seemed to cry out for having your basic set of grown-ups in power, or that his Secretary of Defense likes to play stand-up comic at his news conferences, or that his first Attorney General just loved to sing songs of his own creation to his staff, or that none of them can get it through their heads that it's not just the terrorists who, in our world, have been taking "the lives of the innocent."

I keep thinking: Who let these children out in the world on their own?

many, many times i've seen bush and his administration compared to children... let me respectfully disagree... i believe they are fully aware, mature individuals who know PRECISELY what they are doing... and what IS IT that they ARE doing, you might ask...? i don't think it's that hard to understand... they are using every opportunity to sow fear, fully cognizant that fear-filled citizens are much easier to control... has it worked so far...? i think the answer to that is self-evident...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Follow-up on Argentina's "Disappeareds"

i posted yesterday about how the secrets of argentina's "dirty war" continue to surface after nearly 30 years... my hat is off and my heart goes out to the efforts of these proud women to find and reunite their families as well as to educate today's younger generation in argentina about a dark chapter in national history...

For more than 27 years, the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been searching for young people who were kidnapped as small children during Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship or were born to political prisoners in clandestine detention centres.

[...]

”To find our grandchildren, what is needed is a society that is aware of what happened in the past and is able to understand the right to an identity,” said Irene Strauss, who is in charge of coordinating the human rights group's work in schools, in which posters, videos, films and radio and TV programmes are used.

Starting last month, the vehicle chosen for these efforts is the weekly educational TV programme ”Foro 21”, which has incorporated a monthly section called ”Schools for Identity”, showing efforts to teach students about what happened during and since the de facto military regime and about everyone's right to know their real identity.

[...]

Between 11,000 (according to government figures) and 30,000 (according to human rights groups) people were forcibly disappeared by the dictatorship.

Many of the adults were seized along with their small children. In addition, women who were pregnant when they were kidnapped gave birth in the concentration camps.

The great majority of these children, slightly over 500 according to the estimates of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, are young people who are living today with the false identities they were illegally assigned by those who kidnapped or raised them.

So far 75 of them have recovered their true identity, thanks to the untiring work of the Grandmothers, an organisation that was created in 1977 to search for the children who were ”disappeared” along with their parents and raised by military couples or given in illegal adoption to families who were genuinely unaware of their origins.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Ferragamo Condi flips off SE Asia

[U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice] flew . . . into a storm of criticism of her decision not to attend the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations convention late this month. If, as seems likely, her decision stands, she will be the first secretary of state in more than 20 years not to attend, and some of the region's leaders are upset by her choice to skip the meeting and send Robert B. Zoellick, the deputy secretary of state.

"Lots of people were offended by this decision," said a senior Asian diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue. "We all have respect for Mr. Zoellick, but it is a statement of her priorities."

"It's regrettable," said Syed Hamid Albar, the Malaysian foreign minister, quoted by Kyodo, the Japanese news agency. "I hope it is not an indication that the U.S. is giving less importance or showing less interest in Asean while focusing on the Middle East."

diplomacy is, by definition, nuance... but, as we know, bushco doesn't "do" nuance... evidently not... nothing "nuanced" about blowing off a meeting for the first time in 20 years... ya gotta love bushco... why "do" nuance when you can simply bludgeon with a club...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The 'Bush Way': Scottie twists in the wind...

yesterday at the press gaggle...

The 32-minute pummeling was perhaps the worst McClellan received since he got the job two years ago. His eyes were red and tired. He wiggled his foot nervously behind the lectern and robotically refused to answer no fewer than 35 questions about Rove and the outing of the CIA's Valerie Plame. Twenty-two times McClellan repeated that an "ongoing" investigation prevented him from explaining the gap between his past statements and the facts.

let's get really, really real here... how many times has some hot new story, supposedly heaven-sent to trip up bushco, gone flat in a matter of a few weeks...? let's start with something as recent as the downing street memo... then there's everything from armstrong williams to mary carey... (sorry, i just don't have the energy to do an exhaustive list... it's only 9 a.m. and my butt is already dragging...) here's my prediction... three weeks from now, we'll be off on yet another chase after yet another gagging bushco boo-boo and rove will still be in the white house, smiling out of his asshole...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: another below-the-radar story

the shanghai cooperation organization, composed of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan,

called on the United States and its NATO allies last week to set a deadline for leaving military bases in Central Asia that they have been using since the 2001 war in Afghanistan, [intending] to push the US superpower out of an energy-rich and strategically crucial region.

just one more example of how the u.s., by playing world bully and acting solely and unilaterally in pursuit of its own economic interests, has succeeded in pushing other countries together in opposition to its hegemony...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Aid to Africa in return for privatization

yep... that's the way it works... all you poor countries liberalize YOUR trade and open up YOUR borders for foreign investment and we rich countries may, just MAY, give you something in return... but, please, don't mention the massive agricultural subsidies in the eu and the u.s...

The G8 countries ”sent a clear message that they will only consider taking action if poor countries liberalise in return,” the WDM [World Development Movement (WDM), an independent non-governmental organisation] said in a statement. ”The G8 push to get poor countries to liberalise has even extended as far as offering 'aid for trade' bribes -- giving poor countries some extra aid money in return for liberalisation.”

[...]

The G8 pushed the privatisation principle strongly in its communiqué, in the face of a host of studies, several of them accepted even by the World Bank, that rapid and unfettered privatisation had ruined the economies of several strong and struggling nations alike.

[...]

”The G8's approach on trade seems to be 'Ask not what we can do for the poor, but what the poor can do for us,'” said Peter Hardstaff [of the WDM].

i'm actually glad to see the hypocrisy of the g8 countries finally seeing more of the light of day...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Pandacam...

let's digress for a moment and consider something much more pleasant...

The National Zoo's newborn panda cub is squealing and murmuring in apparent vigorous health, while its mother, Mei Xiang, is gaining confidence and is utterly absorbed in caring for her baby, keepers said yesterday.

you can watch for yourself via the zoo's two "pandacams..."

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The secrets of Argentina's "dirty war" continue to surface

The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team announced Friday that it had identified the remains of three of the founders of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, who were forcibly disappeared in 1977.

[...]

The story began almost immediately after the 1976 coup d'etat. Desperate over the kidnapping of her oldest son, Néstor de Vincenti, Villaflor [Azucena Villaflor de Vincenti, Esther Ballestrino de Careaga and Maria Eugenia Ponce de Bianco had been thrown into the sea shortly after the three women were kidnapped by the security forces] began to get together with the relatives of other victims of forced disappearance in the Stella Maris parish church in Buenos Aires.

When the writs of habeas corpus failed to bring results, she suggested that the relatives walk in circles around the pyramid in the Plaza de Mayo, the large square outside the presidential palace, to draw attention to their plight.

Villaflor also had the idea that if only women took part in the protests, the regime would not dare take measures against them.

But she was wrong.

argentina's forensic anthropology team has become a respected global resource in dealing with "disappeareds..."

[It] was set up in 1984 to give scientific, non-governmental support to families in the search for the bodies of victims of the dictatorship's human rights crimes.

Since then, more than 600 unidentified bodies have been exhumed, 150 of whom turned out to belong to victims of forced disappearance.

The team became famous in 1997, when they unearthed and identified the remains of legendary Argentine-Cuban guerrilla leader Ernesto ”Che” Guevara, who was killed in Bolivia in 1967.

They have also worked in Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Guatemala, Venezuela, Peru, El Salvador, Ecuador, Panama, Honduras, Romania, Ethiopia, Iraqi Kurdistan, South Africa, Croatia and Uruguay.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

SCOTUS: Chief Justice O'Connor...?

hmmmmmmm...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) complicated the already dizzying calculus about the future of the Supreme Court by speculating at length yesterday about the possibility that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would stay if President Bush elevated her to chief justice.

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The reauthorized Patriot Act - a fishing licence

Congress is considering adding a broad new investigative power, known as the administrative subpoena, that would allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation to gain access to anyone's financial, medical, employment and even library records without approval from a judge and even without the target knowing about it. Members of Congress should block this disturbing provision from becoming law.

[...]

When the F.B.I. wants access to private records about an individual, it ordinarily needs to get the approval of a judge or a grand jury. The proposed new administrative subpoena power would allow the F.B.I. to call people in and force them to produce records on its own authority, without approval from the judicial branch. This kind of secret, compelled evidence not tied to any court is incompatible with basic American principles of justice. It would also make it far easier for the F.B.I. to go off on fishing expeditions.

The bill would allow the F.B.I. to order that the subpoenas be kept secret. That means record holders, like banks or employers, would not be able to inform the person whose private information was being handed over. It would also make it difficult for Congress, and the public, to know whether the F.B.I. was abusing its enormous new powers.

and the benefit of this provision would be what, exactly...?

The proposed new administrative subpoena power is a solution in search of a problem. In testimony before Congress, the F.B.I. could not point to examples of national security investigations that were deterred by its lack of administrative subpoena power.

yet another means of inducing fear and extending control...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Bushco & fundie rhetoric implicitly condones hate

A small fire and anti-gay graffiti were found Saturday at a church [in Middlebrook, Virginia] belonging to the United Church of Christ, a denomination that endorsed same-sex marriage last week.

The exterior of St. John's Reformed United Church of Christ also included a message that United Church of Christ members were sinners.

[...]

The fire came a day after two black churches were heavily damaged by seven arson fires in Sparta, Tenn. Authorities said there was no evidence that it was a hate crime, but they were not ruling anything out.

Someone also tried to set fire to a mosque early Saturday in Bloomington, Ind., and the FBI was investigating it as a hate crime.

make no mistake... the atmosphere of fear and hate that is swirling under the surface of american life is oh-so-subtly being encouraged by the public pronouncements of our governmental and religious leaders...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Is Bushco really clueless...?

plutonium page at kos in a post entitled "Will the 'war on terror" ever end?" asks this question...

"Does the Bush administration have any freaking clue exactly what their war in Iraq has done?"

yes, i believe they do and i also believe that it was and is intentional... it stretches the bounds of the imagination entirely too far to think that these people (bushco) could have been so completely clueless and, in fact, i don't think they were/are... their objectives are simple - breed a state of constant fear which allows them to increase their control... OUR objective (meaning those of us who believe in something better and are working toward dispelling fear and darkness) must be to stay focused on what we know CAN BE...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

"The Americans have no vision" - former interim Iraqi PM

Iraq's former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi has warned that his country is facing civil war and has predicted dire consequences for Europe and America as well as the Middle East if the crisis is not resolved.

“The problem is that the Americans have no vision and no clear policy on how to go about in Iraq,” said Allawi, a long-time ally of Washington.

gee... why are we not surprised...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

"I didn't know her name. I didn't leak her name..."

This is what

"Rove told CNN last year when asked if he had anything to do with the Plame leak. Rove has never publicly acknowledged talking to any reporter about former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife. But last week, his lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed to NEWSWEEK that Rove did—and that Rove was the secret source who, at the request of both Cooper's lawyer and the prosecutor, gave Cooper permission to testify."

but, oh, the tangled webs we weave...

In early October 2003, NEWSWEEK reported that immediately after Novak's column appeared in July, Rove called MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews and told him that Wilson's wife was "fair game." But White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters at the time that any suggestion that Rove had played a role in outing Plame was "totally ridiculous." On Oct. 10, McClellan was asked directly if Rove and two other White House aides had ever discussed Valerie Plame with any reporters. McClellan said he had spoken with all three, and "those individuals assured me they were not involved in this."

however...

NEWSWEEK obtained a copy of the e-mail that Cooper sent his bureau chief after speaking to Rove. [...] Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip."

~rubs hands together in glee~ MUHAHAHAHAHAHA...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments