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And, yes, I DO take it personally: 07/09/2006 - 07/16/2006
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"Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it."
- Noam Chomsky
Send tips and other comments to: profmarcus2010@yahoo.com

And, yes, I DO take it personally

Saturday, July 15, 2006

You know you're not in the U.S. when...

the open-air bar/cafe you pass walking back from a social gathering is featuring a cuban salsa band - and they're damn good too...! serbia may have its problems but that doesn't mean beograd ain't jumpin' on a saturday night...!

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The emasculation of the U.S. Congress is complete

all they really need to do is stick to their rove-penned scripts and make sure the media is nearby...
"Before long, Congress will be leaving on its summer vacation," Bob Schieffer of CBS News said two weeks ago. "My question is, how will we know they are gone?"


(thanks to frank rich via raw story...)

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Saturday photoblogging: Beograd

...

now that i've recovered somewhat from jet lag, i'm starting to notice my surroundings... here are two views of studentski square from my apartment window in beograd... it's a very pleasant saturday evening, and the sounds of kids at play are drifting quietly in through curtains that are rippling slightly in a refreshing breeze...

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"Bush Says the World is Flat, Democrats Disagree."

i would be chuckling if it wasn't for the fact that i can all too easily visualize that very headline appearing on a major u.s. newspaper or on a news crawler on fox, msnbc, or cnn...

(thanks to markos...)

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Israel helped create and perpetuate Hezbollah in Lebanon

as always, juan cole provides much-needed perspective...
Israeli spokesmen are saying that they want to finish off Hizbullah. But you can't finish off a mass movement among 1.35 million people. Besides, there wouldn't be any Hizbullah if Israel had not invaded Lebanon in 1982 and occupied the south for twenty-two years. Israel's grabby occupation radicalized and helped mobilize the Lebanese Shiites. They aren't going to become less radical and less mobilized as a result of the current hamfisted Israeli assault.

besides not grasping the very real truth of the above, here's something else most americans are clueless about...
Americans have to understand that when Israel goes wild and bombs a civilian airport and civilian neighborhoods in Beirut, a lot of the world's Catholics (Lebanon is partially a Catholic country) and its 1.4 billion Muslims blame the United States for it. Israel is given billions every year by the United States, including sophisticated weaponry that is now being trained on the slums of south Beirut. It should also be remembered that Bin Laden said, at least, that he started thinking about hitting New York when he saw that 1982 Israeli destruction of the skyscrapers or "towers" of Lebanon. How many future Bin Ladens are watching with horror and rage and feelings of revenge as Israel drops bombs on civilian tenement buildings? When will this blow back on Americans? (I mean blow back in other ways than an already painful further spike in petroleum prices).

one thing we can be sure of... it WILL blow back... like THIS, for example...
Young Shiite nationalist clerical leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, called 'on Iraqis to stand behind Lebanon to fight a "common enemy", Israel. ' Several thousand protesters rallied in Sadr City (East Baghdad).

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The WaPo's take on Specter's surrender

so, something was definitely fishy... i thought it sounded too good to be true... we now see specter for the craven, cowardly, butt-kissing, administration toady he really is...
The bill would, indeed, get the NSA's program in front of judges, in one of two ways. It would transfer lawsuits challenging the program from courts around the country to the super-secret court system that typically handles wiretap applications in national security cases. It would also permit -- but not require -- the administration to seek approval from this court system, created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, for entire surveillance programs, thereby allowing judges to assess their legality.

But the cost of this judicial review would be ever so high. The bill's most dangerous language would effectively repeal FISA's current requirement that all domestic national security surveillance take place under its terms. The "compromise" bill would add to FISA: "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit the constitutional authority of the President to collect intelligence with respect to foreign powers and agents of foreign powers." It would also, in various places, insert Congress's acknowledgment that the president may have inherent constitutional authority to spy on Americans. Any reasonable court looking at this bill would understand it as withdrawing the nearly three-decade-old legal insistence that FISA is the exclusive legitimate means of spying on Americans. It would therefore legitimize whatever it is the NSA is doing -- and a whole lot more.

Allowing the administration to seek authorization from the courts for an "electronic surveillance program" is almost as dangerous. The FISA court today grants warrants for individual surveillance when the government shows evidence of espionage or terrorist ties. Under this bill, the government could get permission for long-term programs involving large numbers of innocent individuals with only a showing that the program is, in general, legal and that it is "reasonably designed" to capture the communications of "a person reasonably believed to have communication with" a foreign power or terrorist group.

The bill even makes a hash out of the generally reasonable idea of transferring existing litigation to the FISA court system. It inexplicably permits the FISA courts to "dismiss a challenge to the legality of an electronic surveillance program for any reason" -- such as, say, the eye color of one of the attorneys.

This bill is not a compromise but a full-fledged capitulation on the part of the legislative branch to executive claims of power. Mr. Specter has not been briefed on the NSA's program. Yet he's proposing revolutionary changes to the very fiber of the law of domestic surveillance -- changes not advocated by key legislators who have detailed knowledge of the program.

good lord.. if the wapo can be this shrill in its condemnation, the rest of the populace ought to seriously consider taking up rakes and hoes and storming the bastille...

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Catching up, FISA first

after crossing 9 hours worth of time zones and being shafted repeatedly by my supposedly globally accessible wifi provider, the loathsome t-mobile, i'm just now looking at friday's news... this in the nyt caught my eye right off the bat...
After months of resistance, the White House agreed Thursday to allow a secret intelligence court to review the legality of the National Security Agency’s program to conduct wiretaps without warrants on Americans suspected of having ties to terrorists.

If approved by Congress, the deal would put the court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, in the unusual position of deciding whether the wiretapping program is a legitimate use of the president’s power to fight terrorism. The aim of the plan, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told reporters, would be to “test the constitutionality” of the program.

so, after 5+ years of secret spying, they're going to allow the program to be "tested for constitutionality...?" what, are we supposed to give bush and gonzales bouquets of flowers...? besides, if the program was to really be "tested," the supreme court should be the one doing the testing... but, i suppose due process applies...
The plan [...] would apparently leave the secretive intelligence court free to consider the case in closed proceedings, without the kind of briefs and oral arguments that are usually part of federal court consideration of constitutional issues. The court’s ruling in the matter could also remain secret.

The court would be able to determine whether the program is “reasonably designed” to focus on the communications of actual terrorism suspects and people in the United States who communicate with them. That determination is now left entirely in the hands of the security agency under an internal checklist.

If the court were to rule the program unconstitutional, the attorney general could refine and resubmit it or, conversely, appeal the decision to the FISA appellate court and ultimately perhaps the Supreme Court, officials said.

and THIS is supposed to relieve our qualms...? i don't think so...

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Thursday, July 13, 2006

Reporters: some questions for Dick and Don

from larry wilkerson via steve clemons at the washington note...
Ask Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld:

Q. Define torture.

Q. Do we do torture?

Q. There have been dozens of homicides and more than a hundred deaths in U.S. custody. Is killing someone not the ultimate torture?

Q. If those cases were just the work of bad apples, why were the investigations dragged out so long? Why, for instance, did it take the Army two years before filing charges related to the homicides at Bagram Air Force Base in December 2002?

Q. Why are the sentences for the "bad apples" so light? Isn't it the case that in these military courts martial, their military peers recognize they were following orders?

c'mon fourth estate... where's the cojones...?

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Bumper stickers

a slice of some very public opinion...

  • AT LEAST IN VIETNAM, BUSH HAD AN EXIT STRATEGY
  • BLIND FAITH IN BAD LEADERSHIP IS NOT PATRIOTISM
  • IF YOU'RE NOT OUTRAGED, YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION
  • IF YOU SUPPORTED BUSH, A YELLOW RIBBON WON'T MAKE UP FOR IT
  • POVERTY, HEALTHCARE & HOMELESSNESS ARE MORAL ISSUES
  • OF COURSE IT HURTS. YOU'RE GETTING SCREWED BY AN ELEPHANT
  • BUSH LIED, AND YOU KNOW IT
  • RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM: A THREAT ABROAD, A THREAT AT HOME
  • GOD BLESS EVERYONE (No exceptions)
  • BUSH SPENT YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY ON HIS WAR
  • PRO-AMERICA, ANTI-BUSH
  • WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB?
  • IF YOU SUPPORT BUSH'S WAR, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? SHUT UP AND SHIP OUT
  • FEEL SAFER NOW?
  • I'D RATHER HAVE A PRESIDENT WHO SCREWED HIS INTERN THAN ONE WHO SCREWED HIS COUNTRY
  • JESUS WAS A SOCIAL ACTIVIST - THAT IS A LIBERAL
  • MY VALUES? FREE SPEECH. EQUALITY. LIBERTY. EDUCATION. TOLERANCE
  • IS IT 2008 YET?
  • DISSENT IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF PATRIOTISM -- Thomas Jefferson
  • DON'T BLAME ME. I VOTED AGAINST BUSH -- TWICE!
  • ANNOY A CONSERVATIVE; THINK FOR YOURSELF
  • VISUALIZE IMPEACHMENT
  • HEY BUSH! WHERE'S BIN LADEN?
  • CORPORATE MEDIA = MASS MIND CONTROL
  • STOP MAD COWBOY DISEASE
  • GEORGE W. BUSH: MAKING TERRORISTS FASTER THAN HE CAN KILL THEM
  • KEEP YOUR THEOCRACY OFF MY DEMOCRACY
  • DEMOCRATS ARE SEXY. WHOEVER HEARD OF A GOOD PIECE OF ELEPHANT?
  • ASPIRING CANADIAN
  • CORPORATE MEDIA: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
  • DON'T CONFUSE DYING FOR OIL WITH FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM
  • STEM CELL RESEARCH IS PRO LIFE
  • HATE, GREED, IGNORANCE: WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
  • HONOR OUR TROOPS; DEMAND THE TRUTH
  • REBUILD IRAQ? WHY NOT SPEND 87 BILLION ON AMER ICA?
  • FACT: BUSH OIL 1999 - $19 BARREL; 2006 - $70 BARREL
  • THE LAST TIME RELIGION CONTROLLED POLITICS, PEOPLE GOT BURNED AT THE STAKE
and my personal favorite...

  • I'LL GIVE UP MY CHOICE WHEN JOHN ROBERTS GETS PREGNANT

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Juan Cole on Gaza, Lebanon, and Iraq

apropos of my previous post...
All hell broke loose on Wednesday in the Mideast, with a Hizbullah attack on the Israeli army and Israeli reprisals, and the Israeli dropping of a 500 pound bomb on Gaza. I roundly condemn Hizbullah's criminal and stupid attack on Israel and escalation of a crisis that is already harming ordinary Palestinians on a massive scale.

Likewise, the Beirut airport is not in south Lebanon and for the Israelis to bomb it and neighborhoods in south Beirut is a disproportionate use of force. The Israelis are actually talking about causing "pain to the Lebanese." That is despicable.

One thing is clear. This crisis will not leave the fabric of Lebanese politics untouched, and the danger of an unraveling is acute. And, it is clear that the withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon has given an opening to Israeli hawks to invade Lebanese territory again. It will not be good for Israelis if Lebanon collapses into a failed state again.

[...]

Iraqi Sunnis generally sympathize with the Palestinians. And hard line Shiites like the Sadr Movement and the Mahdi Army are close to Hizbullah. Israel's wars could tip Iraq over into an unstoppable downward spiral.

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Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water

outrageous... beirut was just getting back on its feet after years and years of conflict... the tourists have been coming back, some even to ski (yes, lebanon has some pretty decent skiing!), the beach areas had been restored, and now the israelis, super-power war-fiends that they are, wipe out the recovery in a single blow... it'll be years again before any tourist flies into beirut to enjoy the wonderful lebanese hospitality... and that's not even mentioning the very real likelihood that we could soon see the entire region engulfed in war...
Israel intensified its attacks against Lebanon on Thursday, blasting Beirut's airport in its heaviest air campaign against its neighbor in 24 years. Four dozen civilians had died in the violence following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, officials said. After warplanes punched holes in the airport's runways just south of Beirut, Israel's army chief Brig. Gen. Dan Halutz warned that "nothing is safe" in Lebanon. He said Beirut itself -- particularly offices and residences of Hezbollah officials -- would be a target.

the israelis have learned the lessons of their american sponsors very well... bomb first, ask questions later...

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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Mm-mmm-mmm...! Peach-mint tea...!

andrew at haverford college either is bursting with creativity or has entirely too much time on his hands... cute and clever nonetheless...


Mmm... Peach Mint Tea
"a remedy for government-induced dyspepsia"

Hold a Tea Party to overthrow King George!

Is your country turning into a totalitarian state? Are you saddened by the destruction of our democracy? This zesty blend of high-quality black teas, infused with the aromas of ripening peaches and cool, dewy mint leaves, is sure to calm your nerves! Just drink up, and take "Mmm... Peach Mint" power into your own hands!

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What the hell is Israel trying to do...?

besides trying to topple the palestinian government...
A bomb dropped by an Israeli warplane destroyed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry building early Thursday, witnesses said. The bomb collapsed the building and caused widespread destruction in the area.

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Let's prosecute the press for behaving as if it was a free country

so, bushco's going to go the extra mile in shutting down the free flow of information... it's not enough to just try to bully them into submission...
The Bush administration is preparing a crackdown on intelligence leaks to the media and will try to pursue prosecutions in some recent cases, the chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.

Michigan Republican Rep. Peter Hoekstra also suggested some unauthorized leaks could have been deliberate attempts to help al Qaeda.

"More frequently than what we would like, we find out that the intelligence community has been penetrated, not necessarily by al Qaeda, but by other nations or organizations," he said.

"I don't have any evidence. But from my perspective, when you have information that is leaked that is clearly helpful to our enemy, you cannot discount that possibility," he added.

In recent months, two major intelligence operations were leaked to the media: the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department's tracking of international banking transactions.

"There will be a renewed effort by the Justice Department in a couple of these cases to go through the entire process ... so they can prosecute," Hoekstra said in a speech to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"deliberate attempts to help al Qaeda..." pardon me, but that's a complete load of shit... this dictatorial regime is getting uglier by the day...

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Why is a complete recount "absurd" and a partial one acceptable...?



inquiring minds want to know...
Felipe Calderón, a free-trade booster who was declared the winner of Mexico's disputed presidential election last week, said Tuesday that he would accept a partial recount but that a complete recount would be "absurd" and illegal.

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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

"All the president's enablers..."

yer goddam right... it's got nothing whatsoever to do with blogofascism...
Lieberman has simply and rightly been caught up in the fundamental dynamics of Politics 2006, in which Democrats are doing their damnedest to unseat all the president's enablers in this year's elections. As well, Lieberman's broader politics are at odds with those of his fellow Northeastern Democrats. He is not being opposed because he doesn't reflect the views of his Democratic constituents 100 percent of the time. He is being opposed because he leads causes many of them find repugnant...

note to all the other presidential enablers... be warned...

(thanks to markos at daily kos...)

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"Why don't the Americans just go home?"

riverbend is still out there, thank god, but it's devastating to read her latest post...
The news the world hears about Iraq and the situation in the country itself are wholly different. People are being driven out of their homes and areas by force and killed in the streets, and the Americans, Iranians and the Puppets talk of national conferences and progress.

It's like Baghdad is no longer one city, it's a dozen different smaller cities each infected with its own form of violence. It's gotten so that I dread sleeping because the morning always brings so much bad news. The television shows the images and the radio stations broadcast it. The newspapers show images of corpses and angry words jump out at you from their pages, "civil war… death… killing… bombing… rape…"

[...]

The pity I once had for foreign troops in Iraq is gone. It's been eradicated by the atrocities in Abu Ghraib, the deaths in Haditha and the latest news of rapes and killings. I look at them in their armored vehicles and to be honest- I can't bring myself to care whether they are 19 or 39. I can't bring myself to care if they make it back home alive. I can't bring myself to care anymore about the wife or parents or children they left behind. I can't bring myself to care because it's difficult to see beyond the horrors. I look at them and wonder just how many innocents they killed and how many more they'll kill before they go home. How many more young Iraqi girls will they rape?

Why don't the Americans just go home? They've done enough damage and we hear talk of how things will fall apart in Iraq if they 'cut and run', but the fact is that they aren't doing anything right now. How much worse can it get?

i don't know how much worse it can get but, quite frankly, i'm afraid we may find out...

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13M inmates in U.S. prisons



mark fiore puts things in their proper perspective... (video link)

(thanks to jeralyn at talkleft...)

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Green card blackmail

the u.s. as we thought it was...
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

the u.s. as it's come to be...
Last November, when Yassine Ouassif crossed into Champlain, N.Y., from Canada, border agents questioned him for several hours. Then they took away his green card and sent him home to San Francisco by bus, with strict instructions: As soon as he got there, he was to call a man named Dan.

Dan, it turned out, was Daniel Fliflet, a counterterrorism agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Ouassif met the agent at an Oakland subway station on Nov. 30, and the two men walked the streets together for 90 minutes.

Mr. Fliflet told the 24-year-old Moroccan that he'd been monitoring his friends and him for many months, Mr. Ouassif recalls. Mr. Fliflet made him an offer: Become an informant and regularly report to the FBI on what his Muslim friends in San Francisco were saying and doing. In exchange, he would get back his green card. He could resume his education, bring his Moroccan wife to America, and pursue his dream of buying a car, moving to Sacramento and becoming an engineer.

If he refused? asked Mr. Ouassif. "I will work hard to deport you to Morocco as soon as possible," Mr. Fliflet responded, according to an account written by Mr. Ouassif soon after the meeting. "I want you to know something important," the FBI agent added, according to Mr. Ouassif. "America is just like a bus, and you have a choice to make: Either you board the bus or you leave."

i'm so ashamed for my country...

(thanks to raw story...)

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Terror in Mumbai

this is big and very, very tragic... i'm hoping it's not kashmiri militants... the last thing we need is an another outbreak in kashmir, particularly now that the u.s. is increasing arms sales to both india and pakistan...
Seven bombs hit Bombay's commuter rail network during rush hour Tuesday evening, killing 131 people and wounding more than 300 in what authorities called a well-coordinated terrorist attack. There was no immediate claim of responsibility in the bombings, which came in quick succession — a common tactic employed by Kashmiri militants.

India's major cities were put on high alert after the blasts. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called an emergency Cabinet meeting and said that "terrorists" were behind the attacks.

on the other hand, let's be brutally honest here... the massive u.s. defense industry feeds off of global conflicts and, the more there are, the more money can be made...

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Quite a rough stretch on the way to winning the GWOT, eh, George...?

you'd think people would have more respect for a king...

(from the wapo...)
  • The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee and other members of Congress have complained about not being briefed on classified surveillance programs and huge unprecedented databases used to monitor domestic and international phone calls, faxes, e-mails and bank transfers.
  • European governments and three international bodies are investigating secret prisons run by the CIA, and some countries have pledged not to allow the transport of terrorism suspects through their airports.
  • Six European allies have demanded that President Bush shut down the prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, citing violations of international law and mistreatment of detainees.
  • [T]he Supreme Court recently issued a rebuke of the military commissions created by the administration to try detainees, declaring that they violated the Geneva Conventions and were never properly authorized by Congress.
the immutable law of unintended consequences, george... it's like gravity... it's really hard to ignore...

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Making the children pay, often with their lives

jerusalem post...
International aid organizations reported on Tuesday morning that basic foodstuffs, including flour, sugar and oil, will run out within a few days. The aid organizations submitted reports on the issue to the UN headquarters in New York. In addition, the organizations will report that water supplies are scarce due to the lack of electricity and that the sewage system was no[t] functional.

juan cole...
Palestinian 4-year-olds have not committed any crimes, to be deprived of food, water and medical care.

to be living in the first decade of the 21st century and to see people still perpetrating this kind of atrocity against other people is a sad condemnation of the state of human civilization...

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Back to Geneva

it's such a rarity to see any good news coming from this administration but, at last, we have some, and it's huge...
The Bush administration said Tuesday that all detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and in all other U.S. military custody around the world are entitled to protections under the Geneva Conventions.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said the policy, outlined in a new Defense Department memo, reflects the recent 5-3 Supreme Court decision blocking military tribunals set up by President Bush.

The policy, described in a memo by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, appears to reverse the administration's earlier insistence that the detainees are not prisoners of war and thus subject to the Geneva protections.

you can be sure this decision was reached over the fierce opposition of cheney, addington, and rumsfeld... john yoo is probably thoroughly ticked off as well...

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Monday, July 10, 2006

Potential consequences of Bush's N. Korea leadership vacuum

we're not having to wait until doofus leaves office to reap the consequences of his disastrous presidency...
In the absence of American leadership [on the North Korea situation], Japan is now flirting with harsher security options to preserve its own security. In other words, Japan is calculating that America may be so weakened or internally consistent that it can't be the guarantor of Japan's security. Counting on America less, Japan may consider adding to its security tool kit preemptive strike options of its own. Fascinating and disturbing.

and what do you think might be added to that so-called "security tool kit," hmmmmm...?
While Japan has a serious domestic allergy to home-based nukes, if America looks even less dependable in the future, Japan may flirt with nuclear weapons acquisition as well.

sharing nuclear technology with russia... encouraging civilian nuclear development in india... selling military hardware to both indian and pakistan, already nuclear powers... unconditionally supporting another nearly out of control nuclear power - israel... and now, blindly nudging japan towards developing nuclear weapons capability in the interests of its own self-defense... how is it possible that one presidential administration can make such a huge, goddam mess...?

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Baghdad descends further into Dante's hell

summary executions on public streets for the crime of being of the wrong flavor of islam... we have loosed the hounds of hell...

  • Eyewitnesses in the Iraqi capital said that elements of the Mahdi Army, loyal to young Shiite nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, killed at least 61, among them women and children, on the basis of their religious identity. [Official Iraqi and US sources said these numbers were exaggerated, and most American wire services gave the number of dead as 42.] They set up a checkpoint at the entrance to the Jihad quarter of Baghdad for this purpose. Eyewitnesses said that gunmen wearing civilian clothing set up checkpoint barriers in the streets beginning early Sunday morning and began stopping passers-by. They investigated their identities, and killed anyone whom they found to be Sunni Arab. The eyewitnesses also said that some gunmen entered a number of homes and shot down the inhabitants. Some then set the houses on fire.
  • Sunni Arab guerrillas replied to the checkpoint massacre by detonating a car bomb in front of the Ahl al-Bait Husayniyah (a Shiite center for mourning their martyrs from the House of the Prophet Muhammad) in the al-Kisah district of the Adhamiyah quarter of Baghdad, killing 19 and wounding 35. (Late reports in the Australian press spoke of 25 dead).
  • "There's a lack of everything. Children are dying because of bleeding because there are no blood bags available," said Fernandez. "Antibiotics, Pentostam [an antimony compound used in the treatment of parasite infection], special milk for dehydrated children, and almost all medical material for emergency conditions aren't available."
horrifying...

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NYT: embarrassed by the truth...?

the headline...

Detainee Rights Create a Divide on Capitol Hill

but, as always with the nyt (and even more with the wapo), the headlines are misleading... what might appear at first glance as yet another dem-repub split, guess what...? it's a REPUB-REPUB split...
The Supreme Court decision striking down the use of military commissions to bring terrorism detainees to trial has set off sharp differences among Republicans in Congress over what kind of rights detainees should be granted and how much deference should be shown the president in deciding the issue.

here's the headline as it SHOULD read...

DETAINEE RIGHTS SPLIT REPUBLICANS
ON CAPITOL HILL...


there, doesn't that have a more honest ring to it...?

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Sunday, July 09, 2006

Gilad Shalit

an outstanding and deeply thoughtful article in today's Toronto Star by Simon J. Black, a Toronto freelance writer...
Since his capture, I have been unable to avoid the image of Gilad Shalit and the life and history behind this image.

What I do not know is the names and faces of the hundreds of Palestinian children held in Israeli jails.

please read the rest...

(thanks to not the country club...)

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This is one reason why I don't want any Clintonistas back in the White House

not only did they trumpet this bullshit in the wapo, they're now issuing the same insanity from the pages of time magazine...
We anticipated that North Korea would ignore the U.S.'s warnings. That's why, in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post on June 22, we urged the Bush Administration to strike the Taepo Dong 2 on its launchpad before the test could be conducted. "Surgical strike" is a much abused term, but destroying a test missile as it is being readied for launch qualifies for this category because only one U.S. cruise missile or precision bomb with an ordinary high-explosive warhead could easily puncture and ignite the multistory test booster. As with space-shuttle launches from Cape Canaveral, all personnel would normally be a safe distance away from the rocket at the time, so there should be no collateral damage.
Former Clinton administration officials Ashton Carter and William Perry

i don't think they have any idea what the full, long-term "collateral damage" would really look like but, you can be sure, it would be one hell of a lot more than missile debris on a launch pad...

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"Pre-emptive war, unilateral action, black-and-white phrasings" don't work...? Or is it all about Condi...?



yeah, it think it's pretty obvious to all but the hopelessly brain dead and the organ-grinders of the bush propaganda machine that our foreign policy is an unmitigated disaster...

(from this week's edition of time magazine online edition...)
So what happened? The most obvious answer is that the Bush Doctrine foundered in the principal place the U.S. tried to apply it. Though no one in the White House openly questions Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq, some aides now acknowledge that it has come at a steep cost in military resources, public support and credibility abroad. The Administration is paying the bill every day as it tries to cope with other crises. Pursuing the forward-leaning foreign policy envisioned in the Bush Doctrine is nearly impossible at a time when the U.S. is trying to figure out how to extricate itself from Iraq. Around the world, both the U.S.'s friends and its adversaries are taking note—and in many cases, taking advantage—of the strains on the superpower. If the toppling of Saddam Hussein marked the high-water mark of U.S. hegemony, the past three years have witnessed a steady erosion in Washington's ability to bend the world to its will.

and now we're supposed to believe this...?
A strategic makeover is evident in the ascendancy of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has tried to repair the Administration's relations with allies and has persuaded Bush to join multilateral negotiations aimed at defusing the standoffs with North Korea and Iran. By training and temperament, Rice is a foreign policy realist, less inclined to the moralizing approach of the neoconservatives who dominated Bush's War Cabinet in the first term. Her push for pragmatism has rubbed off on hawks like Vice President Dick Cheney, the primary intellectual force behind Bush's post-9/11 policies. "There's a move, even by Cheney, toward the Kissingerian approach of focusing entirely on vital interests," says a presidential adviser. "It's a more focused foreign policy that is driven by realism and less by ideology."

somthing is "rubbing off" on dick cheney...? i'm sorry... i don't believe that's possible... what i see here is much more a rovian attempt to groom the next republican presidential candidate - condoleezza rice by presenting her as a moderate, rational, alternative to bush's insanity... what rove REALLY wants is another sock puppet and is trying to paint condi as an independent thinker who has the "courage" to challenge george...

(thanks to raw story...)

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Let's talk about REAL leadership

not the lame, pseudo-variety that is the current order of the day... georgia10 at daily kos captures my view almost down to the letter...
This formula is what leadership is about: speaking to people as a person, not a politician. It's about leveling with them and speaking to them with a recognition that they are capable of handling the unvarnished truth about the state of our nation. We need to speak with concrete clarity. The American people are grown-ups who can handle the unvarnished truth. They will be more willing to jump on board with practical solutions when they're invited to sit at the table with authentic people they can trust.

very well said...

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Drowning Norquist in his own bathtub



now, here's a story that deserves front-page treatment... even more so than karl rove, norquist operates in the shadows, but his influence is no less malign...
[I]n the aftermath of reports that [Grover] Norquist served as a cash conduit for disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the irascible, combative activist is struggling to maintain his stature as some GOP lawmakers distance themselves and as enemies in the conservative movement seek to diminish his position.

when you play with fire, etc., etc...

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AMLO alleges Mexican elections were rigged



i hope he's got strong evidence to support his case, because, otherwise, he will be characterized as a fool and a sore loser and will have unleashed a potential monster by stirring a pot that's been ready to boil for quite some time...
López Obrador ignited the smoldering emotions of his followers Saturday morning, alleging for the first time that Mexico's electoral commission had rigged its computers before the July 2 election to ensure the half-percentage-point victory of Felipe Calderón, a champion of free trade.

[...]

On Saturday, he gave a mega-display of street power, drawing an estimated 280,000 people into the city center on a humid, drizzly afternoon, according to a Mexico City government estimate.

The crowd chanted, "Strong, strong!" when López Obrador stepped to the microphone. The former Mexico City mayor then declared that the electoral commission had "played with the hopes" of millions of Mexicans by allegedly rigging the vote total. Thousands chanted back: "You are not alone!"

the good news... the wapo didn't put this description of amlo in their page one headline: "failed populist candidate..." the bad news... it was in the opening paragraph...

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Clamping down on the press... Are the blogs next...?

an interesting comment to my earlier post on brooks...
I'd say Brooks is merely the south-facing end of a northbound stalking horse.

And where, one wonders idly and whimsically, is Brooks's condemnation of the rampant right-wing vituperation against anyone and anything even one micron to the left of Lieberman? Has he, for example, said one cross word about the blodthirsty rants directed against the NY Times and its personnel (which you so appropriately link to Brooks's little tantrum)? Has he expressed even mild disapproval of the vicious personal attacks against non-reactionary judges? Since I make it a point never to read Brooks, and habitually change the station when comes on NPR, I wouldn't know for certain; but I seriously doubt it.

I've been following the Lieberman-Lamont race pretty closely, as my brother is very active in the Lamont campaign. I am quite confident that no Lamont supporter suggested that Lieberman ought to be sent to the gas chamber or fed poisoned creme brulee. The worst fate that anyone has wished him is to be returned to private life, where he can go about his kind-hearted and well-intentioned business.
The Continental Op

brooks may indeed be the anterior equine facade of which you speak, but he has nonetheless been a reliable bellwether of current administration thinking... methinks his recent attack on kos and the liberal/progressive blogosphere in general, his defense of lieberman that incorporates many of the same elements, in tandem with things like zengerle's insistence on peddling the nonsense of "blogofascism," all point to knives being sharpened and a readiness to take on blogs and the internet, a bastion of free speech that is becoming increasingly unacceptable in the growing repression of bushworld...

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