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And, yes, I DO take it personally: 02/18/2007 - 02/25/2007
Mandy: Great blog!
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Penny: I'm glad I found your blog (from a comment on Think Progress), it's comprehensive and very insightful.
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Alison: Loquacious as ever with a touch of elegance -- & right on target as usual!
"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, February 24, 2007

"We do not see that the United States is in a position to impose another crisis in the region on its taxpayers"

well, they may not be able to see it, but, with a certifiably insane man like dick cheney, and his pathetic sock puppet, george, at the helm, anything's possible...
Iran on Saturday played down the possibility of US military action against its nuclear programme after a veiled threat from Vice President Dick Cheney, but said it was prepared for all possible scenarios.

"We do not see that the United States is in a position to impose another crisis in the region on its taxpayers," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters. "The current situation has cost them a lot."

fortunately, darth has the uk's daily telegraph to help pimp the war...
American armada prepares to take on Iran

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Start really fighting back, goddamit...!

the kind of response i'm sick of hearing...
Democrats are not going to deserve to win the White House until they develop, in their own guts, the convictions that they try to convey in their policy statements. Think of this situation: the Dems are begging the only person in the history of the Air National Guard to relinquish his pilot's license voluntarily, who checked the "No" Box when asked if he would serve overseas and who decided on his own which military regulations he would follow, to muzzle a man who, when called to defend his country, asserted he had "other priorities", from attacking their patriotism! It is hard to know which is more pathetic, the Cheney attack or the Democrats' response.

the kind of response i'd LIKE to hear...
Instead of reinforcing Cheney's scurrilous remarks by begging their dismissal, Democrats should have attacked his policy in Iraq that emboldens al-Qaeda: weakened our military, recruited more terrorists than we kill (source: Memo from the Greatest Defense Secretary in US--or world, or interplanetary?---History), strengthened Iranian influence in the region, refused to send 600 Army Rangers to kill Osama bin Laden when we had him surrounded in Tora Bora, and allowed al-Qaeda to re-establish itself in the Afghan-Pakistani border region. Every time we add troops in Iraq, we diminish the effort against the real enemy.

because, if the dems don't start standing up for our country, i am beginning to despair of where we'll be come 20 january 2009...

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The spouse of Hillary's top campaign aide sounds off

National Journal’s Hotline reports that a recent fundraising letter issued by Scooter Libby’s Legal Defense Trust includes the following quote from former Cheney aide Mary Matalin:
This loyal soldier in the War on Terror doesn’t have to go at it alone.

let's not forget the top hillary campaign aide that mary-mary-quite-contrary is mary-ed to...

(thanks to think progress via atrios...)

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How do you feel about Iraq?

given that the stew of individual emotions can rarely be captured by a single word, i would have to categorize my own feelings as a mixture of angry, tired, and numb, usually with one of them dominating given what's happening in my life, the u.s., and iraq...
Given a range of possible words to describe their feelings about the overall situation in Iraq, people were most likely to identify with "worried," selected by 81 percent of those surveyed.

Other descriptive words selected by respondents:

_Compassionate: 74 percent.

_Angry: 62 percent.

_Tired: 61 percent.

_Hopeful: 51 percent.

_Proud: 38 percent.

_Numb: 27 percent.

today, i'm tired of the whole damn thing and wish it was over, or, better yet, had never started...

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I think Canada gets it

and what, precisely, would be the problem that the u.s. has with this fundamental right...?
"The overarching principle of fundamental justice that applies here is this: before the state can detain people for significant periods of time, it must accord them a fair judicial process."

- CHIEF JUSTICE BEVERLEY McLACHLIN, of Canada, in a ruling striking down a law that allowed the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects.

other than that the bush administration is intent on destroying civil liberties and creating a totalitarian state...

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Shameful and despicable - rejecting the treaty but seeking "technical upgrades"

cluster bombs and other anti-personnel weapons are among the nastiest devices in the entire nasty weapons inventory, with the possible exception of depleted uranium and other "dirty" bombs...
The United States on Friday rejected an international call to abandon the use of cluster bombs, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"We ... take the position that these munitions do have a place and a use in military inventories, given the right technology as well as the proper rules of engagement," McCormack said.

Forty-six countries meeting in Oslo on Friday pledged to seek a treaty banning cluster bombs by next year, with major user and stockpiler Britain and manufacturer France signing on, Norway said.

"We, ourselves, have already taken a couple of other steps with regard to technical upgrades to cluster munitions, as well as looking very closely at the rules of engagement, how they are used," said McCormack.

the fact that the u.s. rejects such a treaty is further evidence that the u.s. is and will seek to retain the title of the world's most powerful terrorist state...

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The Clintons "have never shown any real reverence for the truth"

one more reason why hillary shouldn't be the democratic presidential nominee...
The Clintons' Real Trouble with Truth

By Robert Parry
February 24, 2007

Hollywood mogul David Geffen touched a raw nerve with Hillary Clinton when he told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd that “everybody in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it’s troubling.”

The Clintons’ trouble with truth, however, is not just the petty political lying nor is it their quibbling over what “is is” or what “mistake” means. It’s that they have never shown any real reverence for the truth. Too often, they see it as something to be traded away for a transitory tactical advantage.

If a future historian is ever to understand what happened to the United States in this era – how the world’s greatest power so disastrously lost its way – that scholar should look back to the first Clinton-Bush transition in 1992-93, when Bill Clinton could have grasped a unique historical moment but didn’t.

this is what's always troubled me about bill clinton... as much as i like him personally, and as much as the country was, at least to all appearances, better off during his presidency, there was always this feeling lurking in the background that he was bullshitting us... i guess that's because he was - and still is...

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Friday, February 23, 2007

"Intertubes" Ted Stevens - he's b-a-a-a-a-ack

read the following very carefully, and see if you can determine the context...



didja figure it out...? don't worry, i don't think anybody could... ready...?

Almost as freaky as his infamously disjointed "series-of-tubes" speech last year about the Internet (which briefly earned him the Most Lampooned Politician on the Web award), Stevens's reelection site asks visitors to enter a username and password and then -- as they unsuccessfully fumble for a password -- condemns them with a warning... (see above)

where, oh where, oh where did it come from...? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm...?

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Breaking Iraq news: a significant break between the US and its Shiite allies or inexcusable stupidity? [UPDATE]

via juan cole...
Breaking News: US Arrests Ammar al-Hakim

US troops arrested Ammar al-Hakim, the son of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, on his return from Iran. There are conflicting reports on whether he has been released.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim is the leader of the United Iraqi Alliance, the major bloc in parliament, and is enormously powerful and influential in Iraq. He also heads the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq and its Badr Corps paramilitary. He visited Bush in the White House on Dec. 4. If the arrest of his son was deliberate, it could be a significant break between the US and its Shiite allies in Iraq. If it was an accident, it was inexcusable stupidity.

It is also possible that the MEK terrorist organization, which Saddam had given a base in Iraq from which it could blow things up in Iran, is funneling disinformation to the US military. The MEK operatives are still in Iraq and their spies monitor the border, and I have a sense that they are trying to drive a wedge between the US and SCIRI. SCIRI has repeatedly called for their expulsion from the country.

let's see how this one plays out, or, indeed, if we even hear of it again...

[UPDATE]

it looks like the verdict is in... the envelope, please...

IT'S ------ INEXCUSABLE STUPIDITY!

US troops have released the eldest son of one of Iraq's top Shia politicians after detaining him for nearly 12 hours, Iraqi officials have said.

Ammar al-Hakim, the son of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, was arrested at a border checkpoint as he returned from Iran, security and Shia officials said.

It remains unclear why Mr Hakim and his two bodyguards were detained.

The US ambassador to Iraq apologised
and said that the circumstances of the detention would be investigated.

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"Of course we would"

of COURSE they would...
At a White House press briefing on Friday, Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto was asked whether the Bush Administration would oppose "any effort to revoke" the 2002 congressional resolution which authorized the war in Iraq.

"Of course we would," said Fratto. "You know, the plan that we're in right now and that we're going forward on is to carry out the president's proposal to bring security to Baghdad. And the authorization in the Security Council resolution is clear."

read this tortured rationale and feel the pain...
[A] reporter asked why it would be "unreasonable" for Congress to consider a different resolution since "the threat that was envisioned at the time that resolution was passed was obviously Saddam Hussein."

"He has been gone now for nearly four years," the reporter continued. "Why would it be unreasonable for the Congress to consider that since the first of those two conditions has long since been met, that you wouldn't be in need of a different kind of resolution?"

Fratto replied, "Because it's simply not necessary. I mean, I think the second part of that section on authorization is still important and envisioned the changing nature there."

"I mean, the president -- you know, the president said this isn't the fight we entered in Iraq, but it's the fight we're in," Fratto continued. "I think that is what is recognized in the international community now. Certainly at the U.N. Security Council it envisioned changing circumstances in Iraq. There have been a lot of changing circumstances in Iraq. We went in as a multinational force under U.N. authorization to take military action in Iraq. We were there as an occupying force, and now we're there at the invitation of the sovereign elected government of Iraq."

The White House deputy press secretary said that "the war authorization spoke to and certainly envisioned subsequent U.N. Security Council resolutions, and the authorization's very clear in that the president has the authority to strictly enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions." Fratto then said he wasn't "sure if the Democrats are contemplating that the United States should not enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions."

"If that's something that they're contemplating, I think that would be interesting to some people to say the least," Fratto said.

lemme see... as i recall, john bolton, the former recess-appointed u.s. ambassador to that selfsame united nations, was of the opinion that the top floors of the u.n. hq could easily be removed without a noticeable difference... so, we're now beholden to the u.n...?

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The "main components of a police state"

i posted last week on joe conason's new book, It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush... here's another excerpt, this one from alternet, that highlights leading republicans who see strong reason to be more than a little bit concerned with the megalomaniacal tendencies of the bush administration...
Former Republican congressman Bob Barr of Georgia, who served as one of the managers of the impeachment of Bill Clinton in the House of Representatives, has joined the American Civil Liberties Union he once detested. In the measures taken by the Bush administration and approved by his former colleagues, Barr sees the potential for "a totalitarian type regime."

Paul Craig Roberts, a longtime contributor to the Wall Street Journal and a former Treasury official under Reagan, perceives the "main components of a police state" in the Bush administration's declaration of plenary powers to deny fundamental rights to suspected terrorists. Bruce Fein, who served as associate attorney general in the Reagan Justice Department, believes that the Bush White House is "a clear and present danger to the rule of law," and that the president "cannot be trusted to conduct the war against global terrorism with a decent respect for civil liberties and checks against executive abuses." Syndicated columnist George Will accuses the administration of pursuing a "monarchical doctrine" in its assertion of extraordinary war powers.

yep, i'm bangin' the drum - again... george has to go... they ALL have to go...

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Edwards, Pandagon, Shakespeare's Sister, campaigns, and bloggers

i find this to be a very insightful analysis...
The fight was not so much about religion or online obscenity as power. The netroots are the most aggressive, ascendant force in progressive politics, wielding more members, money and media impact than most liberal organizations. In the 2006 election cycle, MoveOn alone spent more than every other liberal political action committee except the prochoice EMILY's List. According to the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet, online donors gave Kerry $82 million in 2004, and Democrats expect much more in 2008. (Bush pulled only $14 million from the web.) And now top bloggers--like Jerome Armstrong, Markos Moulitsas and Glenn Greenwald--have hundreds of thousands of readers, successful books and a bully pulpit in print and broadcast media.

Republicans cannot stop the donations or pressure the media into ignoring liberal bloggers. Instead, the GOP has tried to drive a wedge between Democratic leaders and the netroots by attacking bloggers--and their readers--as an extreme vitriolic embarrassment. During the midterms, the Republican National Committee repeatedly attacked Democratic candidates for accepting netroots donations and working with bloggers, even distributing a six-page "research" brief maligning Moulitsas, the founder of Daily Kos.

[...]

"On our blogs, we all say things that might offend someone. Truth is, in life--in bars, in restaurants, in offices, on the phone--we all do that, only now there is...a permanent record," wrote Jeff Jarvis, director of CUNY's interactive journalism program, about the Edwards affair. When campaigns hire bloggers, he explained, they empower people who talk "without the veils of spin and PR and plastic discretion that politicians must learn." Yet the very skills that make a good blogger--provoking people with passionate, authentic opinions--are considered a handicap on the campaign trail.

[...]

In the end, campaigns prefer discipline over authenticity, and many bloggers do not. So Democrats should focus on tapping bloggers' energy while managing their passion--and disregard the self-serving complaints of their opponents.

what i crave from a candidate is an authentic voice, a voice "without the veils of spin and pr and plastic discretion..." reading this, i was reminded of why i was sucked back into actually caring about a political candidate when i first heard howard dean... authenticity is what is missing... i can't define it precisely, but i know it when i hear it...

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Threat level to Social Security reduced after Vilsack abandons candidacy

atrios points out that one of the reasons the fight against privatizing social security was successful was the fact that we never
...implicitly [bought] in to the Elite Consensus's "Social Security is in Crisis" assumption. As we pointed out, There Is No Crisis.

Going forward, it's important to put a marker down that no politician who buys into this "crisis" frame should get any support. That isn't to say we can't have a sensible discussion about possibly tweaking and improving Social Security, but that discussion should be divorced from the dishonest assertion that it needs adjustments because of long run fiscal problems.

atrios also disavows any influence he might have had on vilsack dropping out of the race...

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Fitz: "...unlike anything I've ever seen..."

pachacutec, posting on firedoglake, shares his perspective on fitzgerald's closing argument in the libby trial... it's really outstanding reading...
All about me, right from the outset of Pat's closing argument, I saw people begin to look at each other. Furtive, sidelong looks popped out all over. There I sat just behind the defense table, and I watched the lawyers sag and share occasional "oh shit" looks.

[...]

This was no Fred Thompson television lawyer fakery. This was the real deal, immediate, authentic and vibrant, frankly unlike anything I've ever seen in any film or stage play.

[...]

Sometimes Fitz's voice seemed to quaver with righteous fury, other times he mocked himself, as in the time he went shuffling through his exhibit book and said to the jury something like, "This is where I pretend to look organized, shuffling through my papers, and you pretend to believe I actually know what I'm doing." This got a giggle, not big laughs, but he was not playing for laughs: he was just being genuine and a bit authentic. The jury was with him every step of the way, from all I could see.

[...]

The verdicts will be the final arbiter of this trial's winners and losers, but based purely on being there, feeling it, soaking it all in and watching everyone around me, including close inspection of the defense team, the day of closing arguments belonged to one man, and one man alone.

as an amateur psychologist and an avid student of human behavior (particularly my own), i am always fascinated when i read an obviously superior analysis of a dramatic scenario... my hat is off to pachacutec... brilliant work...

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"Iraqis will have ... a powerful influence on who is the next leader of the free world"

looking at 2008...
But even after the utter repudiation of the war in the election of November 2006, Republicans and Democrats have been slow to realize that Bush’s post-election escalation will cause opposition to the conflict to be a “tsunami” in 2008. After digging in her heels about the apology, Hillary will not even be able to get the Democratic nomination.

Anti-war Barack Obama, or more likely, John Edwards—who has apologized for his war vote—will be the Democratic nominee and the next President.

Because Bush’s escalation flies in the face of public opinion—in both the United States and Iraq—he has sunk the chances of the Republican Party in the 2008 election. All the major Republican candidates—John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney—have been forced to endorse the escalation.

Only the courageous Chuck Hagel has criticized the President’s policy, but regrettably he will not survive the Republican primaries because of that stance.

Although the finger-pointing will continue throughout the 2008 election campaign, ironically the Iraqis—aggrieved but the butt of blame for their plight—will have had a powerful influence on who is the next leader of the free world.

only 23 more months of bush in office... do you suppose the republic can continue to stand under his assault until then...?

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Cheney: don't even THINK about withdrawal

binding legislation and revocation of the aumf should have been pursued from day one, or at least in the first 100 hours, of the new congressional session...
Key lawmakers, backed by party leaders, are drafting legislation that would effectively revoke the broad authority granted to the president in the days Saddam Hussein was in power, and leave U.S. troops with a limited mission as they prepare to withdraw.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., intends to present the proposal to fellow Democrats next week, and he is expected to try to add the measure to anti-terrorism legislation scheduled to be debated later this month. Officials who described the strategy spoke only on condition of anonymity, noting that rank-and-file senators had not yet been briefed on the details.

if the dems really want to practice "bipartisanship," they would do well to reach out to every congressional r, and make a very strong case why a revocation measure should be passed... and by "reach out," i don't mean a hand on the shoulder... i'm talking about long, arduous, closed-door sessions where the dems show just how badly iraq has damaged, is damaging, and will continue to damage this country for years to come, even if it's stopped immediately... the crippling cost, the horrendous loss of life, the creation of a failed state, the sacrifices of thousands of families and friends, the social and political polarization, the destruction of the u.s. reputation in the international community, the wrecked lives of physically and mentally disabled vets, the war profiteering, and the lies that took us to war in the first place, all need to be laid on the table... timidity and inaction against the possibility that they will be accused of aiding and abetting terrorism and not supporting the troops should also be labeled for the bullshit it really is...

because, as we learned yesterday, the prediction of 10 more years in iraq (see previous post) plus the continuing pronouncements of darth (see below) and others, make it clear that, unless the brakes are forcibly put on this administration, iraq will remain a colony in the empire...

Dick Cheney on Friday warned that the United States and ally Australia "simply cannot indulge" thoughts of an early withdrawal from Iraq as it would spawn a new wave of global terror.

Cheney, launching a two-day visit to key US ally Australia, praised Prime Minister John Howard's staunch support of the US-led war and its fight against terror, saying the only option for survival was to fight back ferociously.

As Britain announced a decrease in its troop numbers in Iraq and countries such as Denmark prepare to pull out of the coalition, he linked victory in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with stemming a global tide of terrorism.

"The notion that free countries can turn our backs on what happens in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, or any other possible safe haven for terrorists is an option we simply cannot indulge," Cheney said in a speech in Sydney.

so, don't you dare even THINK about withdrawal... cheney is friggin' unbelievable, but, like the energizer bunny, he keeps on goin'... he's gotta go... they ALL gotta go...

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Thursday, February 22, 2007

Ten more years in Iraq

newsweek's right... the presidential candidates either do not know about this or they don't WANT to know about this... i hope to hell this hits the national media big-time...
In For the Long Haul

The Petraeus plan will have U.S. forces deployed in Iraq for years to come. Does anybody running for president realize that?

[...]

As Democrats and Republicans back home try to outdo each other with quick-fix plans for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and funds, what few people seem to have noticed is that Gen. David Petraeus’s new “surge” plan is committing U.S. troops, day by day, to a much deeper and longer-term role in policing Iraq than since the earliest days of the U.S. occupation. How long must we stay under the Petraeus plan? Perhaps 10 years. At least five.

[...]

“We’re putting down roots,” says Philip Carter, a former U.S. Army captain who returned last summer from a year of policing and training in the hot zone around Baquba. “The Americans are no longer willing to accept failure in order to put Iraqis in the lead. You can’t let the mission fail just for the sake of diplomacy.”

[...]

[An] Army expert in irregular warfare notes that insurgencies take on average 10 years to defeat. And while technically we’re about four years into this one, the Pentagon was in such denial for so long about confronting the Iraqi insurgency—and wasted time on so many errant alternatives—that America may be at square one in fighting it, or possibly even “in negative numbers,” this expert says.

this has to be the most dismal piece of news i've read in a long time... it confirms everything i've thought was the case... we're in iraq permanently, and that's been the intention all along...

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OPOL - a Thursday evening rant

and, of course, i'm not posting on this because i disagree with him... < duh >
  • I refuse to be bullied into acquiescence by supposedly well-meaning people who want us to believe that we have no recourse – that we have to accept where we are, where Bushco and their enablers have dragged us kicking and screaming – and that we just have to like it or lump it.
  • These are dangerous and evil bastards who have seized our country and we have to take it back – or die trying!
  • This is no time to compromise! This is no time to pull to the center! This is no time to strike yet another bargain with the devil! This is no time to throw up our hands and say ‘oh well, we just don’t have the votes.’
  • All of our screaming and bitching has changed the national discourse! We are being heard loud and clear. We’ve won on net neutrality (for now). We have forced the issue on Iraq. We even have Hawky Hillary making noises about withdrawal. All our shouting from the rooftops has made a serious impact, so now we should STFU?
  • It’s time to object, not acquiesce! It’s time to kick their asses, not butter their biscuits!
  • It’s time to say, ‘Hell NO we won’t go!’ It’s time to say, ‘fascism is NOT for America!’
  • It’s time to put the criminal bastards out of business and reclaim the government for the people!
  • One does not reason with monsters or compromise with fools.
well, i couldn't agree more... i've promised myself that i will not shut up, that i will continue calling for the removal of george and his band of criminals, and that i will keep this blog going until it happens...

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"It is our company; it is our country...We cannot afford another failure as CEO"

managers at equity investment firms are required, more than almost anyone else in business or government, to recognize good leadership and management... their jobs, their livelihoods, and the livelihoods of their clients depend on it... you can bet that mr. hellman would NOT be recommending an investment in the united states in its current state...
Warren Hellman[, who] founded Hellman & Friedman, a private equity investment firm, and was the youngest employee ever appointed partner at Lehman Brothers [...] concentrates on six acts of commission or omission by the president that would be grounds for firing if the president was Chief Executive Officer of a company:

  • failing to be fiscally responsible
  • making poor strategic decisions
  • poorly executing those decisions
  • choosing poor personnel
  • poor research and development for the future
  • failure to adhere to the institution's charters and bylaws.
[...]

Looking at this record, Hellman concludes that "If Bush were the chief executive of a company, he would in all likelihood be given a good pension and quickly replaced." He asks Americans to think of themselves as stockholders, and writes that "it is our company; it is our country, and those we elect are our employees -- and are responsible to us. We cannot afford another failure as CEO."

it's the "quickly replaced" part that we had better begin paying attention to... every month those criminals remain in office is another month that the u.s. spends sliding down the tracks to an authoritarian state...

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The NYT on detainee rights and the use of torture

no comment necessary... the title tells it all...
American Liberty at the Precipice

[...]

The right of prisoners to challenge their confinement — habeas corpus — is enshrined in the Constitution and is central to American liberty. Congress and the Supreme Court should act quickly and forcefully to undo the grievous damage that last fall’s law — and this week’s ruling — have done to this basic freedom.

[...]

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which rejected the detainees’ claims by a vote of 2 to 1, should have permitted the detainees to be heard in court — and it should have ruled that the law is unconstitutional.

[...]

The Supreme Court should add this case to its docket right away and reverse it before this term ends.

Congress should not wait for the Supreme Court to act. With the Democrats now in charge, it is in a good position to pass a new law that fixes the dangerous mess it has made. Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, have introduced a bill that would repeal the provision in the Military Commissions Act that purports to obliterate the habeas corpus rights of detainees.

The Bush administration’s assault on civil liberties does not end with habeas corpus. Congress should also move quickly to pass another crucial bill, introduced by Senator Christopher Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, that, among other steps, would once and for all outlaw the use of evidence obtained through torture.

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Bye-bye Brits, part 2

Ally's Timing Is Awkward for Bush

no shit, sherlock...

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Visiting beautiful, exotic Baghdad

nearly four years later, it's a scene from dante's hell...
What’s in Baghdad

At first sight, the city looked more damaged and brutally wounded, and more devastated than when I left it last year. Not a single hour passes without one hearing an explosion, a car bomb, or devastated women and children screaming for help. I saw people running from a suicide bomber and others trying to pull bodies from a fire. Sirens from ambulances and police cars and helicopters flying day and night all over the city all join in to create a constant roar of horrible noises.

My beloved Baghdad has a 9 p.m. curfew. The government-run power plants provide residential electricity one hour a day, but not every day. Private sources of electricity are available at very high rates so they are only for people who can afford the high rates. One source is a man located at the end of the block from where I’m staying. He runs a huge generator, and his deal is $100/month for four hours of electricity a day. If we remember that the average salary of an Iraqi college graduate is only $300/month, then we have to agree that the price is a little steep. Most of the people are jobless due to lack of security, the fear of kidnapping, and all the other atrocities being committed on a daily basis. Others buy their own generator run on either gasoline or benzene, which cost about $5/gallon. This is also sold by a private enterprise and the supplies are not always available. Therefore, people look for a few liters of fuel in the black market and pay double if not triple the cost.

Drivers line their cars up at gas stations where they often have to stay all night and sometimes for two days in a row, all while taking the risk of getting shot at by terrorists who thrive on finding crowds in open areas. These kinds of attacks are always on the news.

There is also a rationing of water in Baghdad. Some use water pumps to get additional water, which worsens water shortages and causes friction between neighbors, especially with those who can’t afford powering a water pump.

The continuous shortage of fuel is hard to imagine in Iraq, as it is one of the top producers of petroleum oil in the world. Thousands of barrels of this precious commodity are either smuggled out of Iraq or sold by shrewd businessmen to Iran and other neighboring countries. This transportation occurs right under the noses of the Iraqi and the coalition forces.

Jabria Jassim, an Elgin [Illinois] Community College chemistry professor, recently visited Baghdad to see relatives.

it's astounding to me that we've been in iraq for almost four years and that things are as horrible as professor jassim describes them... think of the money spent (unimaginable sums), think of the lives lost (in the hundreds of thousands), think of the on-going human tragedy that will take generations to heal (incalculable)... and why are we there in the first place...? lies...

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Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Wow...! ANOTHER call for impeachment - of GONZALES!

cool...
[T]he Justice Department Gonzales built [is] the kind of ethical mess you might expect to see with a real estate lawyer, known more for a dogged loyalty to the man who made his career than to any dedication to the rule of law, serving as the nation's chief law enforcement officer. These investigations are likely to provide more than enough fodder for Congress to consider hearings into Gonzales's fitness to serve as the U.S. Attorney General, as if his views on habeas corpus weren't enough. I'm with John Dean.
In the history of U.S. Attorney Generals, Alberto Gonzales is constantly reaching for new lows. So dubious is his testimony that he is not afforded the courtesy given most cabinet officers when appearing on Capitol Hill: Congress insists he testify under oath. Even under oath, Gonzales's purported understanding of the Constitution is historically and legally inaccurate, far beyond the bounds of partisan interpretation.

Dean says he should resign. I say he should be impeached.

i'm with you, mcjoan... oh, yeah... john dean too...

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Good...! NOBODY should tolerate Cheney's crap for one second...!

nancy pelosi pushes back on darth - hard...
Vice President Cheney continues to question the patriotism of those of us in Congress who challenge the Bush Administration’s misguided policies in Iraq, but his latest attack is beneath the office of the Vice President, especially at a time of war.

Mischaracterizations by the Vice President will not dissuade Congress from developing, on a bipartisan basis, a responsible new direction for U.S. policy in Iraq that brings our troops home safely and soon. I hope the President will repudiate and distance himself from the Vice President’s remarks.

the president doesn't know the meaning of the word "repudiate," nancy... you'll have to dumb down your vocabulary a tad if you expect him to get your drift...

(thanks to john at americablog...)

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Arthur Silber: "Large-scale public ignorance is necessary to the perpetuation of a fundamentally false national mythology"

it's a fact that to overcome our ignorance takes considerable time, serious thought, an open mind, and no small skill at discernment, but it can be done...
We see our success, and our power on the world stage, as inherently tied to superior moral virtue. We are so successful because we are uniquely virtuous, and our national power confirms our morality, in relation to which all other peoples and all other countries can only suffer in comparison.

[...]

Large-scale public ignorance is necessary to the perpetuation of a fundamentally false national mythology. [...] An honest observer knows that we learn only of some of the worst atrocities committed by U.S. troops in Iraq, those that cannot be denied or covered up. There are countless acts of barbarism about which we will never learn anything. And even when we cannot deny the occurrence of monstrous acts, we minimize and "explain" them using identical, contemptibly dishonest mechanisms.

Our mythology is crucially tied to our conception of our self-worth. For most of us, it is life itself. Dispense with the lies and death ensues, at least that is how many Americans experience it psychologically. I think only a monumental shock to these illusions -- in the form of a major economic collapse, a conflict of horrifying devastation, or by some other means -- will ever pry most Americans from these dangerous and destructive fables to which they cling with increasing desperation. In the meantime, the death and destruction will go on, exactly as they have before -- and most of us will do precious little to try to stop them.

what arthur describes is playing out today... the vast majority of the american citizenry sits passively by, preferring to believe that the u.s. could harbor nothing but the best of intentions, and the fact that the bush administration has screwed things up so royally could only be due to incompetence, rather than being a deliberate attempt to permanently alter the very nature of the country... will it take, as arthur argues, a "monumental shock" to wake people up...? i hope not, but, i do know this... our time is running out...


(thanks to crooks and liars...)

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GQ (of all places) gets shrill

and calls for cheney's impeachment...
THE PEOPLE V. RICHARD CHENEY

Resolved, that Richard B. Cheney, vice president of the United States, should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and that these articles of impeachment be submitted to the American people.

[...]

In the case of George W. Bush, there may be any number of reasons not to add an eighteenth name to the .[Note: Only seventeen officials in U.S. history have ever undergone impeachment proceedings.] These range from the moderate (that two consecutive presidential impeachments would do more harm than good to the nation) to the provocative (that while Bush has been wrong about a staggering number of issues, he is too hapless to be held accountable for it) to the pragmatic (that even if Bush were impeached, we would still be stuck with Vice President Cheney). There is even, for those inclined to such things, an argument by design: that the president is the president, and therefore God designed it that way.

But none of these apply to Vice President Cheney, and not only because it was Cheney (and not God, or George W. Bush, or anybody else) who selected himself as vice president back in 2000. With Cheney, there are also no lingering questions about capacity, motive, or malice. Over the past six years, as the country has spiraled into military misadventure, fiscal madness, and environmental meltdown, the vice president has not merely been wrong about the issues; he has been duplicitous, deceitful, and deliberately destructive to the American democracy. These things can no longer be denied by rational minds...

no argument from me... among the criminal cabal that currently occupies the white house, any ass that can be dragged out the door and tossed into the street is one ass closer to the rescue of our country... bring it on...

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Suspending habeas corpus: "Guantánamo and the military commissions are implements for breaking the law"

we continue to pick up speed as we race madly down the hill toward an authoritarian dictatorship...
A divided federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a new law stripping federal judges of authority to review foreign prisoners’ challenges to their detention at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

[...]

Two of the three appeals court judges, citing Supreme Court and other historical precedent, held that the right of habeas corpus did not extend to foreign citizens detained outside the United States.

[...]

The dissenting judge on Tuesday, Judith W. Rogers, said the new law did violate the constitutional provision restricting the suspension of habeas corpus.

Administration officials welcomed the decision as a vindication of its position on the rights of detainees, after years of its halting efforts to create a legal process that would withstand tests in court.

detainees' rights...? please... let's step back and review the situation for a moment, shall we...? as i posted last week...
The whole purpose of setting up Guantánamo Bay is for torture. Why do this? Because you want to escape the rule of law. There is only one thing that you want to escape the rule of law to do, and that is to question people coercively—what some people call torture. Guantánamo and the military commissions are implements for breaking the law.

—Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift, January 2007, to the author, Marie Brenner, in the article, Taking on Guantánamo, Vanity Fair, March 2007.

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The Democratic party's "left wing"

today's wapo showcases a lengthy, front-page article on how the crazed lefties are attacking poor bay area democrat, representative ellen tauscher, and how the party's "left wing" is destroying democratic "moderates..."
...the grass-roots and Net-roots activists of the party's left wing had already settled on their new enemy...

how dare you, wapo, characterize me that way...

yes, i'm grass-roots, and, being a blogger, i guess i'm net-roots too... but i don't consider myself a member of a "party" nearly as much as i consider myself a u.s. citizen who is hugely concerned with what's happening to my country... i have zero time or patience for any elected official who can't stand up and forcefully speak out against it, and, unquestionably, that puts me in opposition to a shamefully high percentage of those in both parties who claim to represent the electorate, but in fact are enabling the actions of a criminal administration bent on accumulating absolute power... just because i happen to care deeply about the principles upon which the united states was founded and am taking the time and energy to put those beliefs out there on a daily basis, does not make me the subversive, left-wing nutcase that you imply... admittedly, you try to soften your stand later on in the article by saying this...

...the Democratic takeover has energized and emboldened the party's liberal base...

i will cop to being a liberal, and, de facto, that probably puts me in the camp of the "party's liberal base..." however, i wouldn't go so far as to say i'm "emboldened..." on the contrary, i'm probably more discouraged right now than i was BEFORE the november elections... the wapo captures precisely why i feel that way by - cluelessly - revealing tauscher's modus operandi...
She said she doesn't trust anything the Bush administration says, but it's the administration in power. "I want to represent my constituents, so I have to work with this president," she said. "I'm a pragmatic person. I don't have the luxury of saying, 'I'll come back in January 2009 and try to get some work done.'"

like so many of her erstwhile colleagues, tauscher doesn't get it... there IS no "working with this president..." dealing pragmatically with the bush administration has already pushed the united states to the brink of a dictatorship... we can't afford an ellen tauscher any more than we can afford a hillary clinton or a joe lieberman or a joe biden...

there's another thread running throughout the article that makes both markos and moveon into kingmakers... if you read daily kos regularly, it is transparently clear that markos is anything but, nor does he have any ambitions in that direction... and moveon is one of the least centrally-directed, most grass-roots driven organizations i have ever seen... while the wapo has at least begun to grasp a smidgen of the fact that there are no "leaders" in this grass-roots, net-roots driven revolution, they still want to play the celebrity game... i can tell you that markos, for one, ain't playin'...

[Markos is] often portrayed as a raving ideologue, but he's really a savvy strategist; he has no problem supporting conservative Democrats in conservative districts, such as new Rep. Heath Shuler (N.C.). But he sees no need to tolerate a DLC type in Tauscher's district, where Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) received 58 percent of the presidential vote in 2004. And he said that primaries are the only way to force incumbents with safe seats to pay attention to constituents.

"We're creating real democracy," he said.

read that last quote carefully, wapo... "real democracy..." think about it... it's THAT concept that has the democratic leadership scared to death... and i would appreciate it if you would cease characterizing those who are working to save the united states from a criminal administration as left-wing loons bent on wiping out any hint of "moderation..."

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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Pumpin' up the stats to make the "war on terror" look bigger and badder

enough to make you puke...
Federal prosecutors counted immigration violations, marriage fraud and drug trafficking among anti-terror cases in the four years after 9/11 even though no evidence linked them to terror activity, a Justice Department audit said Tuesday.

Overall, nearly all of the terrorism-related statistics on investigations, referrals and cases examined by department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine were either diminished or inflated. Only two of 26 sets of department data reported between 2001 and 2005 were accurate, the audit found.

Responding, a Justice spokesman pointed to figures showing that prosecutors in the department's headquarters for the most part either accurately or underreported their data — underscoring what he called efforts to avoid pumping up federal terror statistics.

where's the truth...? there doesn't seem to be ANY in the bush administration...

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Bye-bye Brits

cheerio...
Tony Blair is expected to announce a timetable for the withdrawal of UK troops from Iraq.

The prime minister is due to make an announcement in the House of Commons on Wednesday in which he is expected clarify the details.

Mr Blair is expected to say hundreds of troops will return from Basra within weeks with more to follow later.

Some 7,000 UK troops are currently serving in Iraq and about 1,500 are expected to return within weeks.

whaddaya know... the poodle bites...

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Oooooow, WOULDN'T it be loverly...!

yeah, i know... here i go, grasping at straws, but a guy's gotta DREAM, right...?
According to MSNBC's David Shuster, legal sources say that if I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is convicted for perjury and obstruction, prosecutors may try to get him to turn over evidence against the Vice President.

"Legal sources confirm to MSNBC tonight that if Libby is convicted, prosecutors are expected to attempt to revisit Libby’s vague testimony about Vice President Cheney," Shuster said. "The idea is that prosecutors would seek to flip Libby to get at suspicions about the Vice President."

"Prosecutors are still seeking to pursue Cheney in the overall investigation," he added.

The X factor in the case is whether if Libby is convicted he will be pardoned by President Bush -- in which case all bets are off.

if libby's convicted, bush will probably sign a pardon faster than he signed the terry schiavo bill, cuz if libby DID flip on cheney, the wolves would start closing in on george's ass right quick...

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"You lost the day your tanks rolled into Baghdad"

riverbend posts on an al jazeera report telling how Iraqi security forces abducted an iraqi woman from her home and raped her... it's devastating, and she concludes with this...
[A]s the situation continues to deteriorate both for Iraqis inside and outside of Iraq, and for Americans inside Iraq, Americans in America are still debating on the state of the war and occupation- are they winning or losing? Is it better or worse.

Let me clear it up for any moron with lingering doubts: It’s worse. It’s over. You lost. You lost the day your tanks rolled into Baghdad to the cheers of your imported, American-trained monkeys. You lost every single family whose home your soldiers violated. You lost every sane, red-blooded Iraqi when the Abu Ghraib pictures came out and verified your atrocities behind prison walls as well as the ones we see in our streets. You lost when you brought murderers, looters, gangsters and militia heads to power and hailed them as Iraq’s first democratic government. You lost when a gruesome execution was dubbed your biggest accomplishment. You lost the respect and reputation you once had. You lost more than 3000 troops. That is what you lost America. I hope the oil, at least, made it worthwhile.

she's right... it's over... it's been over for a long time... why are we still allowing george bush to wage this horrible and illegal war...?

(thanks to converger at daily kos...)

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Bush keeps his promise

inflaming world tensions, trashing any semblance of u.s. foreign policy, grabbing for absolute power, and shredding the constitution seem to be the only promises he's capable of keeping...
A second US aircraft carrier has arrived in Middle Eastern waters as promised by US President George W. Bush in January amid an escalating crisis with nearby Iran over its nuclear program.

[...]

Bush on January 10 unveiled his new strategy for Iraq which included deploying a second aircraft carrier group and a Patriot anti-missile defense system "to reassure our friends and allies."

WHY, for god's sake, do we allow this man to remain in office...?

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Open flame and gasoline are a deadly combination

keeping with the theme of many of my posts over the past two years, THIS, among numerous other reasons, is why the bush administration so desperately needs removing...
US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.

It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.

The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.

[...]

[S]enior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran.

That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies.

Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran.

this is a huge lake of gasoline over which george bush is holding an as-yet unlit match...

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A page 1 story we shouldn't have to read

george bush is the best thing to ever happen to osama bin laden and al qaeda...
Terrorist Networks Lure Young Moroccans
to War in Far-Off Iraq

Conflict Is Recruiting Tool for Al-Qaeda Affiliates

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, February 20, 2007; Page A01

[...]

About two dozen men from Tetouan and nearby towns in the Rif Mountains have traveled to Iraq in the past 18 months to volunteer as fighters or suicide bombers, according to local residents and officials. Moroccan authorities said the men were recruited by international terrorist networks affiliated with al-Qaeda that have deepened their roots in North Africa since the invasion of Iraq four years ago.

and strengthening the ranks of al qaeda feeds directly into the bushco agenda of creating an endless war... a marriage made in heaven hell...

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Monday, February 19, 2007

As a nation, why can't we ask the right questions?

goddamit, THESE are the questions that need to be asked - and answered...
Indeed, it is hard to envision how the United States can win the crucial battles for the hearts and minds of key populations if Bush remains President. Arguably, Bush has become a “clear and present danger” to the interests of the American people – yet he still has almost two years left in his term.

[...]

The trickier questions are: Can the United States afford 23 more months of Bush in the White House? Does his incompetence in the face of today’s fast-moving crises demand extraordinary action to remove him from office through impeachment?

If impeachment is impossible, given the sizable Republican minorities in both the House and Senate, is there at least some hope for legislative remedies that can begin to correct Bush’s many errors? Could patriotic Republicans confront the President and Vice President about resignations?

Or must the American people wait two more years as today’s “clear and present danger” grows only more acute?

there is NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING, more important to the safety, security, and long-term health of the united states than the questions robert parry raises... what i want to know is why in the flaming hell aren't they being asked LOUDLY by every citizen of the u.s...span>

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Putting environmental protestors on trial in Argentina



typical tactics of a mining company... the esquel mine is owned by u.s.-based, canadian-owned meridian gold...
Residents of Esquel, a city in the southern Argentine province of Chubut, who have been opposing a proposed open pit gold mine for five years, have been sued by the company promoting the project for leaking its strategy to change the community's mind about the mine.

[...]

The provincial government of Chubut granted a gold mining concession to El Desquite in 2002. The ore was to be mined by the open cast method, only six kilometres from Esquel, a city of 40,000, and cyanide leaching was to be used to purify the gold.

[...]

in 2005, the Esquel Residents' Assembly held a press conference and released recordings of a meeting of El Desquite shareholders, members of the board, and consultants, which took place in Buenos Aires in September 2003, six months after the referendum.

The meeting was held behind closed doors in a hotel in central Buenos Aires, and company representatives and their public relations consultants discussed strategies to change the unfavourable attitudes towards the mine in Esquel, by contracting respected residents to be opinion leaders, capable of persuading hardliners.

Other suggestions were providing "social benefits" for residents, and holding meetings, interviews and sending reports to national and provincial political leaders, in order to secure their public support for the project.

To win round the residents, El Desquite advisers recommended coopting prestigious non-governmental organisations such as the Wildlife Foundation (FVSA), Citizen Power (Poder Ciudadano) and the Environment and Natural Resources Foundation (FARN), in order to counterbalance the voices of opposing organisations "like Greenpeace."

"It would be important for developing our strategy to contract them for certain activities," said a consultant who suggested contacting FARN, headed by "a man of prestige, constitutional lawyer Daniel Sabsay," according to the recording of the meeting that was released by Esquel residents and was never denied by the company.

[...]

Using the courts to stop social action "is a new way of discouraging protest and teaching demonstrators a lesson," sociologist Maristella Svampa told IPS.

"Putting protesters on trial is a practice that began with the state, and now it's a recourse used by multinational corporations too," she added.

it could just as well be the u.s...

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Another Condi jaunt to Iraq and zero to show for it

as i believe i posted a few weeks ago, in a non-apologetic crudity, she's as useless as tits on a boar...
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accomplished little or nothing during her recent trip to the Middle East that focused on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. After meeting with principles from both sides, Rice made a short statement and quickly left the region.

"When it came, Condi Rice's post-meeting statement was a study in blandness," the BBC quipped.

Standing alone in front of a blue wall-sized backdrop, Rice spoke briefly about her meeting with the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president, saying that all sides agreed problems must be addressed and future meetings were in store, but little else.

but, wait... she DID push them to finalize the oil agreement...

from yesterday's nyt and my post...

Rice, in Surprise Baghdad Visit, Presses Leaders for
Progress


The secretary of state said she told Iraq's leaders to
quickly finalize an oil law and stressed the importance of
rehiring Sunni civil servants.

didja get that...?

"...quickly finalize an oil law..."

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"A reckless impulse to corrupt national institutions with partisan ideology"

raw story highlights a salon excerpt from joe conason's book...

Joe Conason, It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush

[Conason] states up front that the idea of an American slide into authoritarianism is not based in any paranoia, but comes because the current president "has repeatedly asserted and exercised authority that he does not possess under the Constitution he swore to uphold."

Conason says there is growing public anxiety and anger about the Bush administration's use and abuse of power. Two events that particularly have raised public concern were "the misbegotten, horrifically mismanaged war in Iraq to the heartless mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster." He notes that "we do not know the full dimensions of the scandals behind Iraq and Katrina, because the Republican leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives abdicated the traditional congressional duties of oversight and investigation."

Their unwillingness to take on the President on these issues was due to an acquiescence with authoritarianism, he writes. He says the "style" of the Bush regime is seen in its "almost casual contempt for democratic and lawful norms; an expanding appetite for executive control at the expense of constitutional balances; a reckless impulse to corrupt national institutions with partisan ideology; and an ugly tendency to smear dissent as disloyalty."

i think conason is being a tad circumspect... "authoritarianism" is a fairly mild description of the wholesale constitutional shredding being engaged in by the bush administration... he does use the word "abuse," but it would be much more accurate to protray the bush regime for what it is - a quiet coup d'etat that is bent on reshaping the u.s. into a dictatorial state...

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Sunday, February 18, 2007

Jury tampering at the WaPo - a media disgrace

what an f****** disgrace... at least they could be a little less obvious about it...
Shame on the Washington Post, Again

By Robert Parry
February 19, 2007

Just days before the perjury/obstruction trial of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby goes to the jury, the Washington Post’s Outlook section published a bizarre front-page article by right-wing legal expert Victoria Toensing suggesting that the prosecutor and one of the chief victims in the case should be put on trial.

Beyond the absurdity – and dishonesty – of Toensing’s arguments, the Post illustrated the article with fabricated “mug shots” of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an Iraq War critic whose undercover CIA wife, Valerie Plame, was outed by the Bush administration.

In this lead opinion article for Washington’s biggest-circulation newspaper, Toensing, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration, cites Fitzgerald, Wilson and several other targets in proposed “indictments,” each of which begins: “This Grand Jury Charges …”

Given the Post’s prominence in the nation’s capital and Toensing’s former position in the Justice Department, the article has the look and feel of an attempt to influence the jury that will be judging whether Libby committed perjury and obstruction of justice.

brent budowsky, posting over at larry johnson's no quarter blog, shares robert parry's perspective, in even stronger terms...
Brent Budowsky: Dear Editor, Washington Post

From Brent Budowsky
February 18, 2007
To: Robert Kaiser, Washington Post

Mr. Kaiser, I am forwarding below the note I wrote to Messrs. Graham and Hiatt about Outlook's Victoria Toensing piece today.

With all due respect, I have long admired your work, but that piece today was the most egregious attempt at jury tampering that I have ever seen in this or any other town.

[...]

As Ms. Toensing knows, the content of her piece has nothing to do with the charges at trial. This is what is known as a nullification defense, which should be offered at trial by defense counsel, under the rules of evidence, not offered by a partisan attorney writing with the imprimateur of a former Justice Department attorney, under the letterhead of Washington's paper of record.

This letter is on the record and I request that you publish it.

Sincerely,

Brent Budowsky

larry johnson doesn't think much of it either...
Washington Post Enables Toensing's Delusions

by Larry C Johnson

Congratulations to Victoria Toensing, former Reagan Administration Justice Department official, for plumbing new depths of delusion and crazed fantasies in her latest Washington Post op-ed. Ms. Toensing's piece--Trial in Error--should have been titled, "I Am Ignorant of Basic Facts".

[...]

[T]he Victoria Toensings of the world seem hell bent on perpetuating the lies and living in the delusional world that it is okay to out an under cover CIA officer during a time of war. While Toensing has the right to be wrong, we ought to ask why a paper with the reputation of the Washington Post is lowering its journalistic standards, ignoring ethics, and enabling the spread of lies. I think the owner of the Washington Post has some "splaining" to do.

spin is one thing... stenography is another... but jury tampering is unconscionable and illegal...

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The best laugh I've had all day

i'm not going to give it away... you have to go see for yourself...

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The supermarket as a window into a city's culture

..

Banderas de la República Argentina y Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires



Supermercado Coto
Avenida Cabildo, Barrio Nuñez
Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires
República de la Argentina

Item: In the 15 items or less check out line, a woman in her late 60s or early 70s removes one item at a time from the small, hand-held, blue, supermarket basket and places each one carefully in front of the cashier so it can be scanned, all the while keeping an eye on the subtotal as it steadily climbs. She has obviously calculated well in advance the precise amount of money she can spend, because when the total reaches her budgeted amount, she hands the remaining items to the cashier and asks her to please have them returned to the shelf. She then opens a small change purse, extracts two small denomination bills, and counts out small change in the exact amount. The cashier accepts the money, checks to make sure it is correct, finalizes the transaction, and gives the woman her receipt, which she then folds and tucks away in her change purse. The cashier, a young and very courteous woman, thanks the older woman with a smile, and hands her two plastic bags. The older woman then picks her way through the small group of shoppers, store employees, and security guards in the front of the store to the automatic doors leading to the very busy street.

Item: Outside the store, on the curb, just to the left of the front entrance, a short Bolivian or Peruvian woman with pronounced buck teeth, has a sidewalk display of small quantities of vegetables and fruits, of roughly the same variety and often of a superior quality to those offered in the produce section of the supermarket, but that sell for approximately 20% less, neatly arranged in wooden boxes. Three women and two men are queued up waiting for a fourth woman to complete and pay for her selection. A member of the woman's family has a display just to the side of and across the sidewalk from the produce display, against the outside wall of the supermarket. This display features DVD's of most, if not all, of the latest movies showing in the first-run theaters.

Item: Just inside and to the right of the supermarket's front entrance, numerous store employees, all young males, congregate around stacks of white plastic baskets each containing numerous plastic sacks of groceries. Each stack carries a hand-written piece of paper showing an address, with a copy of a cash register receipt stapled to it. They are organizing home deliveries, a service which virtually every retail outlet in Buenos Aires, from supermarkets to pharmacies to ice cream stores to hardware stores, provides free of charge. (Note: Buenos Aires is the ONLY place I have seen in my travels where every McDonalds offers home delivery.)

Item: Soft drinks in Coto, as in supermarkets everywhere, occupy a great deal of shelf space. In Coto, they fill full five head-high shelves that run almost the width of the store. Directly across the aisle, occupying a space of almost identical size, is an enormous variety of different brands of mate. According to Wikipedia...

Mate (pronounced /'ma.te/) is a highly caffeinated infusion prepared by steeping dried leaves of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) in hot water. It is the national drink in Uruguay and Argentina[1] and a common social practice in Paraguay and parts of Chile and Brazil.



Mate gourd with bombilla

Item: A shopper, after all of his items have been rung up, produces a 100 peso note in payment. The cashier immediately asks if he has any smaller denomination bills, or, if not, the correct amount of small change. The shopper responds in the negative and the cashier reluctantly accepts the 100 peso note. After holding it up to the light and carefully examining it to insure its authenticity, the cashier rings for assistance from the supervisor who circulates among the cashiers at the front of the store. A few minutes later when the supervisor arrives, the cashier shows her the 100 peso note. The supervisor takes it and disappears into a small office just to the side of the front entrance. She returns a minute or two later with change for the note in bills and coins. The cashier completes the transaction and hands the correct change to the customer.

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Immigrants: open a path to their full inclusion in the life of this country

the nyt chronicles our country's further descent into ignominy over the immigrant issue and itemizes the damage...
  • Border enforcement
  • Federal raids
  • Local crackdowns
  • Gutted due process
  • The web of suspicion
  • The bureaucratic trap
  • The rise of hate
[...]

Enforcement of laws cannot be ignored. Punish immigrants who enter illegally, make them pay back taxes and fines, restrict their ability to get work through deceit and false identities. But open a path to their full inclusion in the life of this country.

The alternative — the path of immigrant exploitation, of harassment without hope — will only repeat the ways the country has shamed itself at countless points in its history.

we must never, ever forget... these people ARE US... they only want what we all want - to live in reasonable comfort, to lead productive lives, to enjoy a few creature comforts, to find love, to raise families, and to grow old with dignity... those are the very same drives that caused the united states to come into existence in the first place... immigrants ARE our history...

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Condi visits Baghdad to push the Iraqis - ABOUT THE OIL LAW

i'm sorry, but, after reading the teaser for this story, i nearly had to run to the bathroom to regurgitate my coffee and bran cereal with fruit...
Rice, in Surprise Baghdad Visit, Presses Leaders for
Progress


The secretary of state said she told Iraq's leaders to
quickly finalize an oil law and stressed the importance of
rehiring Sunni civil servants.

didja get that...?
"...quickly finalize an oil law..."

i managed to suppress the gag reflex long enough to open the full article and see if there was anything there BESIDES u.s. oil greed...

first paragraph...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Saturday to meet with Iraqi officials about the new security plan and to press the Shiite-led government to accelerate reconciliation, reconstruction and economic progress.

fourth paragraph...
She said she had told Iraq’s leaders to quickly finish work on an oil law that would distribute revenues evenly among Iraq’s population.

just in case any doubt remains as to the REAL purpose of condi's visit, her pressure on the iraqis to pass the oil law, and to WHY the u.s. is in iraq in the FIRST PLACE, let's refresh ourselves, ok...?
The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.

Oil industry executives and analysts say the law, which would permit Western companies to pocket up to three-quarters of profits in the early years, is the only way to get Iraq's oil industry back on its feet after years of sanctions, war and loss of expertise. But it will operate through "production-sharing agreements" (or PSAs) which are highly unusual in the Middle East, where the oil industry in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the world's two largest producers, is state controlled.

Opponents say Iraq, where oil accounts for 95 per cent of the economy, is being forced to surrender an unacceptable degree of sovereignty.

are we back up to speed now...? good... btw, pocketing 75% of profits "in the early years" probably won't leave a hell of a lot of revenues to be distributed "evenly among Iraq’s population..."

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"Maimed soldiers are living in cockroach infested ghettos"

Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility

john at americablog quite rightly worked up a full head of steam over this wapo story... i suggest that you go read it... he says everything i would say, only better...

here's the headline for john's post...


The real treason. Our maimed soldiers are living in cockroach infested ghettos back here in the states.

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The Lone Ranger, Tonto, and the Senate Iraq resolution - a headline sampler

nyt...
Senate Rejects Renewed Effort to Debate Iraq

wapo...
Iraq Vote In Senate Blocked By GOP

juan cole...
Senate Comes Close to Condemning Iraq Escalation

iht...
Senate Democrats fall 4 votes short in bid to force Iraq debate

all fairly reasonable, right...? but, true to form, here's the ap...
GOP foils Dems' bid to repudiate Bush

actually, i'm not entirely sure why i have such a negative reaction to the ap headline, but i do... for some reason, it strikes a very discordant tone for me, conjuring up images of a turn-of-the-century melodrama where the villain ties the heroine to the railroad track because she can't pay her rent, and the white knight, dudley do-right, rides in to save the day... so, here's the evil, mustachioed villain (the dastardly dems) trying to tie the embattled lone ranger (george bush) to the railroad track (the iraq resolution), when tonto (the faithful repubs) appears in the nick of time to save the lone ranger's whitebread hide... is it just me, or am i having a sunday morning hallucinatory flashback...?

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