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And, yes, I DO take it personally: 10/28/2007 - 11/04/2007
Mandy: Great blog!
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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, November 03, 2007

Room to train our warriors


Piñon Canyon, east of Trinidad, Colorado

a friend in southern colorado had tipped me off to the controversy that was brewing over this but couldn't tell me what the land was wanted for... i did a search of the local newspaper but couldn't come up with anything... now, i see what the fuss is all about...
The U.S. Army wants 418,000 acres of private ranch land to triple the size of its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, a training area considered suitable -- some would say essential -- for preparing American warriors to do battle in the Middle East and Afghanistan. The 1,000-square-mile facility would be 15 times the size of the District.

Several dozen ranchers and members of 15 county commissions that voted to oppose the project find themselves pitted against the Pentagon and Colorado business interests in a struggle over property rights, personal heritage and the contested priorities of national security.

[...]

In Piñon Canyon, where prehistoric dinosaur tracks lie near a surviving section of the 1800s-era Santa Fe Trail, the Army sees an opportunity when other training grounds are overtaxed by the demands of war. The move is also part of a long-term reorganization of the armed forces.

To Colorado business leaders, the expansion would help consolidate and enhance the state's growing role as a military hub: It is home to Fort Carson, the Air Force Academy and the U.S. Northern Command.

[...]

The land under discussion is an arid plateau that occupies a sparsely populated slice of Colorado near the New Mexico border. It lies alongside 235,000 acres acquired by the Army in the early 1980s. The open spaces provide rambling room for 67-ton tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles to practice maneuvers within a few hours of Fort Carson, home to a dozen Army units.

i grew up in colorado springs, one of the most military-obsessed (NORAD, Peterson AFB, the Air Force Academy, Ft. Carson, military retirees), right-wing (rabid libertarian, neocon, movement conservative, 24 per-centers), christian fundamentalist (Focus on the Family and at least a hundred similar organizations) towns you will ever run across, so it's no surprise to hear a colorado springs chamber of commerce shill spouting something like this...
Brian A. Binn, president of the military affairs committee of the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, said the benefits to the state economy and national defense are clear. If the ranchers triumph and the training site is not created, he added, other states would be all too willing to accept the troops and the business.

"We have to look sometimes at what's better for the national defense, the greater good," Binn said. "It is a national security issue. The men and women of our armed services deserve nothing less."

the issue isn't jobs, altho' that's one way to frame it... it isn't about needing more space to train our military, altho' that's certainly another way to frame it... it isn't about private property, altho' that's ANOTHER way to frame it... and it isn't even about preserving and protecting the environment, altho' that's yet ANOTHER way to frame it... it's about the fact that the united states is a militaristic, war-mongering country with an insatiable appetite for controlling as much of the world's resources as possible, and an unending need for warm bodies to toss in the path of death and destruction... don't believe me...? take a look at the very well-chosen word carefully and unobtrusively placed in the first paragraph of the above wapo excerpt... did you catch it...?

WE DON'T HAVE SOLDIERS
IN THE U.S. ANY MORE,
WE HAVE WARRIORS!

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Suspending the constitution and declaring martial law "for the benefit of Pakistan" [w/UPDATE]



in all seriousness, read this carefully... given the present state of executive power in the united states, there is absolutely nothing to prevent the very same scenario from happening here... be sure to note that the underlying justification for this outrage is that the "war on terror" must continue unobstructed...

from the bbc...

Pakistan has been engulfed in political upheaval in recent months, and the security forces have suffered a series of blows from pro-Taleban militants opposed to Gen Musharraf's support for the US-led "war on terror".

In a lengthy televised speech late on Saturday, Mr Musharraf said the situation had forced him into making "some very painful decisions".

"I suspect that Pakistan's sovereignty is in danger unless timely action is taken," he said.

He insisted his decisions were made for the benefit of Pakistan.

[...]

"Kindly understand the criticality of the situation in Pakistan and around Pakistan. Pakistan is on the verge of destabilisation," he said.

"Inaction at this moment is suicide for Pakistan and I cannot allow this country to commit suicide."

[...]

Gen Musharraf's address echoed the text of the declaration of emergency rule, which opens with a reference to the "grave threat" posed by the "visible ascendancy in the activities of extremists and incidents of terrorist attacks".

It ends by saying that the constitution is in "abeyance" - which, according to our correspondent, in effect means that martial law has been imposed, although there is not a heavy security presence on the streets.

[...]

Shortly after emergency rule was declared, all private news channels were taken off the air and tough restrictions have been imposed on the media.

Statements that defame Gen Musharraf, the military or the government are prohibited and statements or pictures from Islamist militants are banned from broadcast or publication.

you can bet george is keeping a close eye on this one... NOTHING can be allowed to interfere with the "war on terror..."

[UPDATE]

the nyt gives no quarter either to mushararraf or bush...
General Musharraf’s move to seize emergency powers and abandon the Constitution left Bush administration officials close to their nightmare: an American-backed military dictator who is risking civil instability in a country with nuclear weapons and an increasingly alienated public.

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The Last Lie Revealed

Well, Princess Pelosi and Spineless Harry have taken back their last '06 election promise, a full Congressional work week.
From the Daily Campus.

Democrats won a majority in both houses of Congress last November, making several promises to the voters that elected them. Among these was "an end to the two-day work week," and a "return to a five-day work week."

Less than a year later, the Democratic majority in Congress has announced that starting in January, Congress will no longer work on Fridays. As it stands currently, important votes do not occur on Mondays because many Congressmen travel to their districts over the weekend. (emphasis added)
The announcement of a cutback in the Congressional work week has drawn several criticisms and rightly so. The promise of a return to a full five-day work week was a key principle in the Democrats' platform in the 2006 mid-term elections. It is disappointing that the Democratic majority, which has been vocal about its own inability to make gains in the face of a significant Republican minority and a combative White House, has decided to decrease its work efforts. Even though the House of Representatives has conducted 1,000 roll-call votes during its current session, only 106 of those votes were on bills that were ultimately signed into law. The 12 months were the laziest non-election year in the Senate since 1989. Not getting anything done in Congress will not be changed by working less.
[...]

Let's see, the war goes on with no end in sight, Dems are joining Repubs in calling for the invasion of Iran, privatization of public resources continues unchecked, the Bill of Rights is gone,war funding and domestic spying are totally supported by Congress,46 million still don't have health care, the economy is about to implode, the world thinks we are war criminals and imperialists, toys and food are being sold that are poison, and Congress cuts back its work week.
Call me crazy, but I think we are pretty much screwed from any angle, by every side.
Bush, Cheney and their corporate sponsors have nothing to fear from Congress or the people. They win.
I abandon all hope.
I am bereft of all reason.
I stand on the cliffs edge watching our world happily run off it. It might be time to just let it go, try not to get pulled over with it, and build from the ashes.
It's a bad day.

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Bird and Fortune: two Brits 'splain the financial markets

stu has been telling me about these two guys, and describing their quintessential dry-as-dust british humor... no kidding...



(thanks to brasscheck tv...)

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Booman doesn't want to see Kucinich's impeachment resolution squashed

and who can blame him...?
I've been advocating the impeachment of the president and vice-president ever since the FISA violations were revealed in December 2005. I am not going to make the case again here. In fact, I am not happy to learn that Dennis Kucinich is going to introduce a privileged resolution to bring articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) announced today that he will be offering a privileged resolution on the House floor next week that will bring articles of impeachment against the Vice President, Richard B. Cheney.

“The momentum is building for impeachment,” Kucinich said. “Millions of citizens across the nation are demanding Congress rein in the Vice President’s abuse of power.

Do I disagree with any of that? No. Emphatically no. But I am so sick and tired of seeing the party's 'moderates' roll over and play dead that I don't think I can emotionally handle the spectacle of Kucinich's resolution getting the back of the hand from the Washington Establishment, the press, and the majority of elected Democratic officials.

my response...
as much as i agree with you about the total demoralizing effect of watching yet another highly appropriate and urgent effort squashed, i have to agree that it's important to keep this stuff visible and to force the co-conspirators and collaborators out into the light of day...

keep in mind too, it won't only be the impeachment resolution and the 21 who get smacked down, it will be done in the context of the goofy, ridiculous, woo-woo, ufo-sighting, weirded-out freak that is the picture of kucinich we are being force-fed by the media, because, you see, only somebody as deluded as THAT could possibly support impeachment...

by all means, gird your loins and dump the thoughts of shooting yourself, and instead take some comfort at the fact that nancy is going to have to look at the very thing she has stonewalled lying right there "on the table..."

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These are the people who are laying the groundwork for a national security state through climate change

you could see this one coming a mile away...
Climate change could be one of the greatest national security challenges ever faced by U.S. policy makers, according to a new joint study by two U.S. think tanks.

The report, to be released Monday, raises the threat of dramatic population migrations, wars over water and resources, and a realignment of power among nations.

During the last two decades, climate scientists have underestimated how quickly the Earth is changing — perhaps to avoid being branded as "alarmists," the study said. But policy planners should count on climate-induced instability in critical parts of the world within 30 years.

The report was compiled by a panel of security and climate specialists, sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Center for a New American Security. The Associated Press received an advance copy.

all fear, all the time... gotta keep us peasants quivering in our boots so we gladly hand over our few remaining rights in the false hope of security...

just for larfs, lets look at the csis board of trustees...

Trustees

* George L. Argyros -- Chairman & CEO, Arnel & Affiliates
* Richard Armitage -- President, Armitage International
* Betty Beene -- Former President & CEO, United Way of America
* Reginald K. Brack -- Former Chairman & CEO, Time, Incorporated
* William E. Brock** -- Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
* Harold Brown** -- Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
* Zbigniew Brzezinski** -- Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
* William S. Cohen -- Chairman & CEO, The Cohen Group
* Ralph Cossa -- President, Pacific Forum/CSIS
* William H. Frist -- Trustee, CSIS
* Michael P. Galvin* -- President, Harrison Street Capital, LLC
* Linda W. Hart -- Vice Chairman & CEO, The Hart Group, Inc.
* Ben W. Heineman, Jr. -- CSIS Trustee and Senior Adviser
* Thomas O. Hicks -- Chairman, Hicks Holdings LLC
* Carla A. Hills** -- Chairman & CEO, Hills & Company
* Ray L. Hunt -- Chairman & CEO, Hunt Consolidated, Inc.
* E. Neville Isdell -- Chairman & CEO, The Coca-Cola Company
* James L. Jones -- Trustee, CSIS
* Henry A. Kissinger** -- Chairman & CEO, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
* Kenneth G. Langone -- President & CEO, Invemed Associates, LLC
* Donald B. Marron -- Chairman & CEO, Lightyear Capital
* Joseph Nye -- Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government
* E. Stanley O’Neal -- Chairman and CEO, Merrill Lynch & Company, Inc.
* Joseph E. Robert -- Chairman and CEO, The J.E. Robert Companies (JER)
* Felix G. Rohatyn -- President, Rohatyn Associates, LLC
* David M. Rubenstein -- Cofounder and Managing Director, The Carlyle Group
* Charles A. Sanders -- Former Chairman & CEO, Glaxo Inc.
* James R. Schlesinger** -- Senior Adviser, Lehman Brothers, Inc.
* Brent Scowcroft** -- President, Forum for International Policy
* Rex Tillerson -- Chairman & CEO, Exxon Mobil Corporation
* Murray Weidenbaum -- Hon. Chair, Weidenbaum Center, Washington University
* Frederick B. Whittemore -- Advisory Director, Morgan Stanley

well, THAT'S interesting... now, let's look at the board and advisors of the center for a new american security...
Board of Directors

* The Honorable Dr. William J. Perry, Chairman of the Board
Professor and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace
Stanford University
* The Honorable Dr. Madeleine K. Albright
Principal, The Albright Group LLC
*The Honorable Richard L. Armitage
President, Armitage International
* Norman R. Augustine
Former Chairman, Executive Committee, Lockheed Martin Corporation
* Admiral Dennis C. Blair, USN (Ret.)
Former Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Pacific Command
* The Honorable Dr. Richard J. Danzig
Sam Nunn Prize Fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies
* The Honorable William J. Lynn
Senior Vice President, Government Operations & Strategy, Raytheon Company
*LtGen Greg S. Newbold, USMC (Ret.)
Managing Director, Torch Hill Capital
*John D. Podesta
President and CEO, Center for American Progress

Board of Advisors

* Rand Beers
National Security Network
* Steve Biegun
Vice President for International Governmental Affairs, Ford Motor Company
* Dr. Hans Binnendijk
Former Senior Director for Defense Policy, U.S. National Security Council
* Dr. Ashton Carter
Ford Foundation Professor of Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
* Dr. Michael Green
Senior Advisor and Japan Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies
* LtGen Wallace Gregson, USMC, Jr., (Ret.)
WCG & Associates International, LLC
* Andrew Hoehn
Vice President and Director, Project Air Force, RAND Corporation
* Dr. Michael O'Hanlon
Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
* Dr. Mitchell Reiss
Vice Provost for International Affairs, College of William & Mary
* Dr. Susan Rice
Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy and Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution
* Randy Schriver
Partner, Armitage International LLC
* Sarah Sewall
Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard University
* Ambassador Wendy Sherman
Principal, The Albright Group LLC
* Gayle Smith
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
*James Steinberg
Dean, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin
* Dr. Edward (Ted) Warner III
Principal, Booz Allen Hamilton

honest to pete... just LOOK at those names... not one advocate for peace or human rights among the lot of 'em...these are the very people who have taken us to the brink of a police state, advocated for illegal wars, profited obscenely from every war and conflict waged around the globe, and essentially dictated our country's agenda and the lives of its citizens for decades... so, tell me again why they should be trusted with ANYTHING...?

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Remember, Pervez Musharraf is one of our closest allies



the u.s. can be counted on to provide strong support for a dictator who declares martial law rather than risk the possibility of losing power...
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan on Saturday ahead of a crucial Supreme Court decision on whether to overturn his recent election win and amid rising Islamic militant violence.

Eight Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the emergency, which suspended the current constitution. The government blocked transmissions of private news channels in several cities and telephone services in the capital, Islamabad, were cut.

[...]

The state TV report gave no reason for the emergency but it follows weeks of speculation that he could take the step. Military vehicles patrolled and troops blocked roads in the administrative heart of the capital.

[...]

Shahzad Iqbal, an official at a cable TV news provider in Islamabad said authorities were blocking transmissions of private news channels in Islamabad and neighboring Rawalpindi. State TV was still on the air.

"The government has done it," he said.

i hate to say it, folks, but the groundwork for this same scenario has been carefully, systematically, and quietly put in place in our own country...

a quick (and far from exhaustive) review...

  • H.R. 1955: "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism"
  • the Patriot Act
  • the Military Commissions Act
  • the Protect America Act
  • Section 1076 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act
  • National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directives NSPD-51 and HSPD-20
  • the pending FISA bill

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Criminal Democrats who no longer care if we know

lead item in the daily wapo email, page one in the print edition...

the headline says it all...

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS
Democratic Defections Clear Path For Mukasey
The nomination fight over attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey effectively came to an end yesterday, as two key Senate Democrats parted from their colleagues and announced their support for the former judge despite his controversial statements on torture.
(By Dan Eggen and Paul Kane, The Washington Post)

i only have one quibble... the defections are not of recent vintage... they sold out a long time ago, and we are only now seeing it in the full light of day... they have essentially declared what we have suspected all along, that they are supporters of a criminal regime, fully cognizant of their actions, and they no longer care who knows it...

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Friday, November 02, 2007

"Every citizen is faced with a simple choice: organize or perish"

finally, somebody says what i've been yammering about for the past three years: there is nothing incompetent about the Bush administration...

charles sullivan
...

These days it is popular to describe the events occurring in Iraq as the result of incompetence, mismanagement, miscalculation, and benevolent bungling; to characterize them as a well intentioned mistake on the road to freedom and democracy, rather than the moral abomination they are. What we have in Iraq is not the result of any of these phenomena. It is the intended consequence of cold calculation to bomb Iraq into submission, to thoroughly disorient its people, and to apply economic shock therapy before they can recognize what is being done to them.

The intent is to invade sovereign nations either militarily, economically, or both; and to force unbridled capitalism on them. This means, of course, that we must first overthrow the existing governments—many of them democracies, and replace them with ruthless dictatorships willing to betray their own people, and amenable to opening up their countries to corporate exploitation and privatization.

So called free market capitalism requires corrupt leadership on the receiving end that is willing to accept bribes while becoming a puppet to the US. This is how some of the must brutal regimes in the world came into power. Corporate America is always beating the drums of war in search of profits and ever increasing shares of the world’s markets. Enough is never enough—they want it all.

Aside from overthrowing popularly elected governments, the unspoken objective of mature capitalism, guided by the doctrine of economic shock therapy, is to turn once sovereign nations into totally deregulated corporate states, answerable to no one.

This objective will be accomplished by privatizing the nationalized infrastructure, inviting in foreign investors, removing tariffs that protect local business and cooperatives from predatory multinational corporations, and downsizing the workforce; by eliminating social spending, and removing all forms of corporate controls. In short, by conducting a fire sale of each nation’s stolen assets and auctioning them off at bargain basement prices to wealthy multinational investors.

The intent is to create an unfettered corporate state in which the market, driven solely by profit, is the final arbiter of all things; an Orwellian world in which human rights, labor laws, environmental protections, and social justice do not even exist, much less enter into market equations.

[...]

We are witnessing naked greed unleashed upon the world like a swarm of locusts the size of North America. The fabulously wealthy are realizing obscene profits, while the majority of the world’s people are forced into economic servitude, many of them living in abject poverty, scratching out a bleak existence on sweatshop wages under horrendous conditions.

[...]

If the world were as enamored with capitalism as its adherents proclaim, there would be no need to masquerade it as anything other than what it is—economic self interest for the privileged, driven by insatiable greed, funded by the public treasure. There would be no need to impose it on the world through high tech militarism and occupation, preceded by elaborate propagandistic media blitzes and tricks. All people would seek it out, as they seek water to slake their thirst and nourishment for their bodies.

So we must ask ourselves: When has it ever been in the pubic interest to over feed the rich and starve the poor? When has it ever been in the public interest to destroy the earth for the sake of profits? When has it ever been in the public interest to promote war and injustice over peace and shared prosperity?

[...]

Every citizen is faced with a simple choice: organize or perish. The storm clouds of World War Three are looming on the horizon. These are extraordinary times that demand something from every one of us.

i rarely read things that put the truth out so clearly and unambiguously as this does... it's very sobering...

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Disgusting: Schumer and DiFi support Mukasey

what the hell is the matter with these idiots...? dianne feinstein is nothing more than joe lieberman in drag...
Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California say they will support Michael Mukasey's nomination to be attorney general. Both are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

they're selling the united states down the river... actually, forget the present tense... it's already sold...

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War with Iran?



bumper stickers available here...

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Dodd's gotta keep on keepin' on



there is no way chris dodd can speak out forcefully enough about the severe constitutional crisis that is threatening our country...

raw story...

Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd may be polling below the margin of error, but his presidential bid has provided a podium for his moves in the Senate to curtail President Bush's power grab.

Selling himself as a dark horse alternative to the frontrunners, Dodd has used his presence on the campaign trail to raise the visibility of his attempts to block administration proposals are restore what he says have been crumbling Constitutional rights in the last seven years. The Connecticut Senator's recent promise to filibuster a foreign surveillance law that would grant legal immunity to phone and internet companies that helped the NSA spy on Americans without warrants has helped raise his profile, especially among progressive bloggers and liberal activists.

only if he keeps on keepin' on...

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Creamfields Buenos Aires 2007 < sigh >

creamfields is one of the largest techno music festivals in the world with venues mostly in europe... buenos aires is the only one in south america but there may be one in rio too, i'm not sure... i went last year as my first-ever big-deal, outdoor music festival experience... there were at least 9 stages and well over 60,000 people attended... it started at 3:30 in the afternoon and continued well into mid-morning of the next day... we got there about 4:30 and left about 12:30 when i finally gave out... i was easily among the oldest farts there... i danced my boo-tay off the entire time... it's scheduled for a week from tomorrow and i will be missing it this year... ah, well...

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Blog awards: Army of Dude

edger put up this post on docudharma supporting a blog award for army of dude, a REAL military blog from a REAL iraq soldier... i'm offering it here not only because it's honest and touching, it's also genuine as hell, and causes me waves of deja vu from my own experience in vietnam...
It looks like Iraq veteran Alex, who wrote The Real Deal as his response to Rush Limbaugh calling veterans opposed to the war "phony soldiers", has a pretty good shot at winning the 2007 Weblog Award for Best Military Blog.



The Real Deal:

When I was a kid I watched Rush with my dad every morning when he was still on TV and always found him pretty funny and clever. Over the years I didn't have a very concrete opinion about him, I just knew him as the kooky conservative radio host who defended Bush at every turn (and hey, so did I). What did Rush and I have to lose when the war in Iraq started in 2003? I didn't have any family in the military, and all my friends were too young to even enlist. Why not go kick the sh*t out of a country, as long as someone else was doing it?


This was the last time Rush and I would agree on the war, so here's my opinion of you, Rush: you're as smart, selfless and courageous as I was as a 17 year old high school senior.


You make a good point that people who joined the military during the war knew they were going and shouldn't be against it. As I've seen since I joined in 2004, everyone in the military is gung ho to a certain extent, at least in the beginning of their career. I was part of a large group of new guys who got to a unit that just got back from a year long deployment. After our hazing sessions became less and less frequent in the following months, we listened to the stories all of them were telling, of vicious firefights and rescue missions. We all wanted to do our part, we all wanted to get some too. We were going to see what it was like to take a life. Too bad Rush missed his chance to do so, or maybe he'd be singing a different tune.
...

As a phony civilian hoping to be a phony soldier, I tried to enlist in the military after I graduated high school in 2003.
...

Speaking of phony soldiers, I wanted to show Rush a few that I know: {click link above for all of Alex's pictures}



This is Chevy in Baghdad. Brian Chevalier was going to reenlist but decided against it before he was killed on March 14 during our first mission in Baqubah. His phony life was celebrated in a phony memorial where everyone who knew him cried phony tears. A phony American flag draped over his phony coffin when his body came home. It was presented to his phony mother and phony daughter.


I would be in awe if I ever met a real life soldier, and not a phony one like Bill, Matt or Brian Chevalier. Thank you, Rush Limbaugh, for telling me the difference. I hope your ass is ok.


You can vote for Alex here. Help him win the award. He deserves it.  His blog is Army of Dude.

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Jim Hightower: a right to protest? In your dreams...

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A perfect example of how we are being propagandized to accept torture as normal practice

from think progress...
On Wednesday night on CNN’s The Situation Room, conservative columnist and “Republican strategist” Rachel Marsden dismissed worries over Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s refusal to say waterboarding is torture, saying “One man’s torture is another man’s CIA’s sponsored swim lesson.”



it's not a "swim lesson..." it's TORTURE... (see post from yesterday that demonstrates how waterboarding is carried out...)

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Saying nothing, committing to nothing

this video comes from the edwards campaign... while i'm not a declared supporter of edwards and i will very likely NEVER be a supporter of hillary clinton, i am not posting this for any other reason than it is a very informative look at exactly how candidates - in this case, hillary clinton - manage to sound strong, purposeful and decisive while saying nothing and committing to nothing... nice work, edwards campaign...!

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"Bush doctrine: The president as commander in chief can do whatever he wants regardless of Congress"

simply put...
[T]he Bush doctrine: The president as commander in chief can do whatever he wants regardless of Congress. There must be no checks and balances, no accountability. There must be no disclosure to other branches of government, whether legislative or judicial. Oral findings, or, if necessary, secret memos, make the illegal legal merely by saying they are legal in the name of presidential authority. The operational need to know determines who knows.

i don't think dick cheney or david addington would disagree...

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"Mukasey has proved he will dance as the strings are pulled"

the fact that anyone expected someone with a distinguished career and a reputation for integrity and independence who was nominated for a senior bush administration post to actually BEHAVE with integrity and independence is a telling sign of just how much denial still exists about the nefarious intent of the bush criminal cabal...

sidney blumenthal in salon...

Mukasey is not a free agent. He had been strictly briefed and in his testimony was following orders. He has avoided calling waterboarding torture because that is consistent with the administration's position and past practice. Mukasey's refusal to disavow waterboarding reveals his acceptance of his assignment to a secondary role as attorney general, an inferior agent, not a constitutional officer, to certain political appointees in the White House.

Those who are responsible for waterboarding have defined and dictated Mukasey's evasions. His acquiescence demonstrates that no one in his position could take a contrary view to that of David Addington, Vice President Cheney's former counsel and now chief of staff, who directed and coauthored the infamous memos by former deputy assistant director of the Office of Legal Counsel John Yoo justifying torture, and charged the current acting director of OLC, Stephen Bradbury, to issue new memos rationalizing it.

Addington is the reigning legal authority within the administration, presiding over the attorney general no matter who would fill the job. Addington rules by decree and tantrum, intolerant of any alternative opinion, which he suppresses with intimidation and threat. Gonzales, as White House counsel and then attorney general, was the marionette of Karl Rove and Addington. Rove is gone, but Addington remains.

In his confirmation hearings, Mukasey has proved he will dance as the strings are pulled. His positions on waterboarding express precisely the relationship between the Bush White House and its Justice Department. Mukasey's testimony telegraphs that the White House will continue to call the shots. He has already ceded the essence of his power even before assuming it. His vaunted integrity and independence have been crushed, short work for Addington.

mukasey would never have been nominated if there was the slightest doubt that, in his confirmation hearings or later on the job, he would do or say anything that would counter his marching orders from the white house...

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Just say "NO" to Mukasey

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Thursday, November 01, 2007

The Screen Writers' Show

from Reuters:

'Interest (in reality shows) has become a lot more heated with the strike approaching', said Morgan Langley, a producer of the Fox network's real-life police documentary show 'Cops' and a new spin-off, 'Jail'."

via Variety:

"In an ominous sign, WGA strike captains have been told to instruct guild members to take their personal items home from offices at the end of work today."

People are going to more than simply jones for their missing favorite shows. It may not be pretty. But one thing is certain: The public WILL take notice.

People sans stories and entertainment will have to come to terms with what is already in their heads:


"Just look at the number of wars that have been pursued in the name of God - both historically and in the present - especially by Judeo-Christianity and Islam. It's a consistent fact: The more sexual suppression, the more war." -- Sachiko McLean

There are numerous other quotes and tracts which long bear this out. It has been know for a long long time: strangle the libido, crush sexual desire and outlets, supplant those with guilt and you have bred animosity and hostility and violence. Such sustained sexual oppression erupts as a need to destroy, a drive to kill. That is a long known formula for going to war. So that holding true, we should be seeing signs of war in society. Signs of violence. Signs of killing.

So it comes as little surprise that the banner at IMDB today is for the new action thriller "WANTED". But is the movie simply pandering to our government programmed passion to kill? Could it be more sinister than even that?

What if this programming goes to the original design of the Government's MKULTRA?

The ultimate design of that revealing project was addressed by the movie (again we thank script writers) in "The Manchurian Candidate 1962" and 2004, where people are programmed to unthinkingly carry out government instructions to assassinate.

Of course the opposite is also true: Restore sensuality back to society and the violence should abate. That is as easy as restoring the First Amendment. Or by winning over the Script Writers, which ever comes first.

Script writers have so much power. So so so so so much power. I know I want them on our side.

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Bruce Fein instead of Mukasey?

doomsy at the liberal doomsayer tipped me off to this letter from bruce fein in last sunday's nyt...
To The Editor:

Re “Clinton Plans to Consider Giving Up Some Powers” (news article, Oct. 24): The American Freedom Agenda, an organization of conservatives founded last March 20 to restore checks and balances and protections against government abuses, requested all presidential aspirants, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, to sign an American Freedom Pledge.

They were asked to renounce the following powers if elected: torture; presidential signing statements; indefinite detentions of American citizens as enemy combatants; military commissions that combine judge, jury and prosecutor; spying on American citizens in contravention of federal statutes on the president’s say-so alone; kidnapping, imprisoning and torturing suspected terrorists abroad; executive privilege to shield the executive branch from Congressional oversight; prosecuting journalists under the Espionage Act for exposing national security abuses; listing organizations as terrorist groups based on secret evidence; suspending the writ of habeas corpus during the conflict with international terrorism; and invoking the state secrets privilege to deny victims of constitutional wrongdoing any judicial remedy. Senator Clinton has balked at signing the pledge, as have all other candidates except Representative Ron Paul.

Bruce Fein
Chairman, American Freedom Agenda

a little bit about the american freedom agenda, an organization i hadn't heard of but am very glad to see operating...

The American Freedom Agenda’s (AFA) mission is twofold: the enactment of a cluster of statutes that would restore the Constitution’s checks and balances as enshrined by the Founding Fathers; and, making the subject a staple of political campaigns and of foremost concern to Members of Congress and to voters and educators. Especially since 9/11, the executive branch has chronically usurped legislative or judicial power, and has repeatedly claimed that the President is the law. The constitutional grievances against the White House are chilling, reminiscent of the kingly abuses that provoked the Declaration of Independence.

The 10-point American Freedom Agenda would work to restore the roles of Congress and the federal judiciary to prevent such abuses of power and protect against injustices that are the signature of civilized nations. In particular, the American Freedom Agenda would:

  • Prohibit military commissions whose verdicts are suspect except in places of active hostilities where a battlefield tribunal is necessary to obtain fresh testimony or to prevent anarchy;
  • Prohibit the use of secret evidence or evidence obtained by torture or coercion in military or civilian tribunals;
  • Prohibit the detention of American citizens as unlawful enemy combatants without proof of criminal activity on the President’s say-so;
  • Restore habeas corpus for alleged alien enemy combatants, i.e., non-citizens who have allegedly participated in active hostilities against the United States, to protect the innocent;
  • Prohibit the National Security Agency from intercepting phone conversations or emails or breaking and entering homes on the President’s say-so in violation of federal law;
  • Empower the House of Representatives and the Senate collectively to challenge in the Supreme Court the constitutionality of signing statements that declare the intent of the President to disregard duly enacted provisions of bills he has signed into law because he maintains they are unconstitutional;
  • Prohibit the executive from invoking the state secrets privilege to deny justice to victims of constitutional violations perpetrated by government officers or agents; and, establish legislative-executive committees in the House and Senate to adjudicate the withholding of information from Congress based on executive privilege that obstructs oversight and government in the sunshine;
  • Prohibit the President from kidnapping, detaining, and torturing persons abroad in collaboration with foreign governments;
  • Amend the Espionage Act to permit journalists to report on classified national security matters without fear of prosecution; and;
  • Prohibit the listing of individuals or organizations with a presence in the United States as global terrorists or global terrorist organizations based on secret evidence.
american freedom agenda's principals are...
- Bruce Fein

- Bob Barr

- John Whitehead

- Richard Viguerie

some heavy-duty conservatives there, for sure, but preserving our constitution is certainly not a left-right, conservative-liberal, democratic-republican issue...

oh, btw, doomsy thinks that fein should be nominated for attorney general in place of the increasingly beleaguered mukasey... i don't disagree...

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Salon's Joan Walsh on Mukasey and waterboarding: "Torture is torture"

joan walsh at salon...
Torture is torture no matter what its context or purpose. We need an attorney general who knows that.

I saw this video earlier this year when I first visited Current TV, and I couldn't get it out of my head. I'm glad to have it here. It's disturbing, but it makes Mukasey's dodge that much more outrageous.



let's get REAL, folks, and stop our implicit consent to having torture propagandized as mainstream, rational public policy... it's not... it's TORTURE...

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Luke Ryland interviewed by Scott Horton on Sibel Edmonds

luke's busy keeping sibel front and center... still no takers for her "tell-all" on the domestic front... personally, i think she just needs to get it all out, maybe on youtube...



(see earlier post here for more background info...)

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It's SO painful to watch Bush, particularly when he's letting his insanity show

check this...

Sky News political editor David Speers interviews George W Bush, ahead of the APEC summit. 2007



then, check this...
Near the end of this interview Bush says;

"Whether it be Afghanistan or Iraq, we got more work to do. We the free world has more work to do, and I believe those of us who live in liberty have a responsibility to promote forms of government that deal with what causes 19 kids to get on airplanes to kill 3000 students."

What is he talking about???

i can't help but wonder if ANY of his neurons are firing correctly...

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Screen Writers Strike? Oh My!

from the New York Times:

The Writers Guild of America’s contract covering 12,000 writers for television and film expires tonight.

'11th hour is at hand; talks go on', The Hollywood Reporter’s headline says today. Negotiations between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers resume at 10 a.m. Pacific time, and 'the WGA is expected to present an updated proposal', the Associated Press reports."

My favorite TV show is E-Online's "Keeping up with the Kardashians", arguably starring Kylie and Kendall Jenner and co-starring their father, Olympic Gold medalist Bruce Jenner, along with the rest of their family:


In one fine episode, family members are flown to an exotic photo shoot location aboard the private jet belonging to First Amendment front liner, Joe Francis, before it was seized, recently.

My favorite major theatrical release movie is Pretty Baby (1978):


Now with all that time on their hands, why can't WGA writers all get together and collaborate on writing some epic OMNIMAX® remake of the spectacular Pretty Baby, in remonstration of the times?

It would appear that all that politically correct money for show types like "24" seems to be running thin. Why wouldn't it be? Numerous other bellwethers are pointing to a general economic slowdown. People are going to need escapism more now than ever. And the WGA shouldn't simply be a propaganda arm of government, anyway. Scripts should mean something.

Write really meaningfully and hey, I'm all for you. Oh yeah, good job on "The Simpsons".

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Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the Democratic party are complicit in killing democracy

here's a follow-on to jim's Spoiled brat, two faced, eltist, scumbag beltway princess post from the 28th...
Her machinations since Democrats took over the U.S. House in January 2007 show that Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't scared of the Republicans - "her eagerness to cooperate with the Bush regime is matched only by her incompetence in leading Congress." Pelosi and her leadership clique have never had the slightest intention of seriously opposing George Bush, since they are quite content with a status quo of endless war, half of New Orleans abandoned, true universal health care on perpetual hold, and a growing police state. Every constituency of the Democratic Party has been betrayed, with the complicity of Pelosi and her crowd.

[...]

It is clear that Nancy Pelosi's reign as Speaker has been an absolute disaster for the Democratic party and for the entire nation. Her eagerness to cooperate with the Bush regime is matched only by her incompetence in leading Congress. Under her watch, Congress gave Alberto Gonzales, on his way to riding out of town on a rail, a significant victory by expanding FISA regulations to allow warrantless surveillance of American citizens.

[...]

The story of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act debacle has been blamed on Bush. It is true that he once again lied about a terror threat, but it is not true that Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats were innocently stampeded. The Democrats had every intention of caving from the very beginning. Pelosi and the rest of the leadership promised the ACLU and other civil liberties groups that they wouldn't pass a bill without first investigating the extent of White House law breaking and without consulting them first. They did no such thing. As an ACLU lobbyist put it, "They turned around and screwed us over - and the Constitution - all at once."

Disappointment in the Democrats, pleas to "grow a spine" miss the point entirely. Pelosi and her clique have no interest in Democracy. They go through the flimsiest pretense of opposing Bush when they have no interest in doing so. Her goal is to preserve the status quo, not to overturn it.

[...]

Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of what passes for Congressional leadership have perfected their criminal enterprise. Every act of treachery is followed by lame excuses for inaction. The truly spineless ones, progressives wallowing in denial, foolishly whine, asking each other what is wrong when the answer stares them in the face. The Democratic party is complicit in killing democracy.

they ALL need to go, every last goddam one of 'em...

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Condignity?

The Register is running this warm and fuzzy, feel-good story about mercy, understanding and second chances:

Florida prosecutors have decided not to pursue Andrew "don't tase me, bro" Meyer through the courts if he keeps his nose clean during 18 months probation.

He'll soon be allowed to resume his studies. Campus cops had recommended he be sent to the big house for resisting arrest with violence."

The Register was even thoughtful enough to include this light and humorous music video montage, making light and frivolous his disruptive antics.

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Juan Cole: close the Iraq embassy

i agree 110%...

in full...

I don't try to start an internet campaign very often, because the blogosphere has its own priorities and logic that are democratic and should not be forced. But here is a plea for everyone in the blogging world to help force congress to save our diplomats.

Bush is trying to Shanghai several hundred foreign service officers and force them to go to Iraq. They are protesting.

Now is that time for all Americans to stand up for the diplomats who serve this country ably and courageously throughout the world, for decades on end. Foreign service officers risk disease and death, and many of them see their marriages destroyed when spouses decline to follow them to a series of remote places. They are the ones who represent America abroad, who know languages and cultures and do their best to convince the world that we're basically a good people.

The Jesse Helms Right always hated the State Department, because it is about compromise and finding peaceful solutions, whereas the US Right is about war, violence and imposing its will on people. But is is the State Department that, despite some lapses over the decades, generally embodies the best of what America is abroad.

The guerrillas in Iraq constantly target the Green Zone and US diplomatic personnel there with mortar and rocket fire. State Department personnel sleep in trailers that are completely unprotected from such incoming fire. At several points in the past year, they have been forbidden to go outside without protective gear (as if outside were more dangerous). The Bush administration has consistently lied about the danger they are in and tried to cover up these severe security precautions.

The US embassy in Iraq should be closed. It is not safe for the personnel there. Some sort of rump mission of hardy volunteers could be maintained. But kidnapping our most capable diplomats and putting them in front of a fire squad is morally wrong and is administratively stupid, since many of these intrepid individuals will simply resign. (You cannot easily get good life insurance that covers death from war, and most State spouses cannot have careers because of the two-year rotations to various foreign capitals, and their families are in danger of being reduced to dire poverty if they are killed).

There is, in addition to the daily danger, no good escape route for civilian personnel from Baghdad. The troop escalation will be reversed by next year this time, and as the US draws down, the Green Zone is in danger of being overwhelmed by the Mahdi Army. The State Department employees sent there for two year missions are the ones who may end up in secret JAM prisons, as happened in Tehran in 1979.

Bush should not be allowed by Congress to commit this immoral act against the civilians who serve us so faithfully.

Please write your congressional representatives and senators and demand that the US embassy be closed and the forced deportation of US diplomats to Iraq be halted.

The Democrats have been facing the dilemma that they are blocked from doing much about Iraq. This is something they can do. Cut off funding for the embassy and force most of the diplomats home. This is the way to start ending the war.

Now.

good for you, professor cole... good for you...

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SSDD

not a good day...

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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

American Marketing Genius

courtesy Fox News

via Fox News:

Oh, corruption is — this whole thing is corruption. It's - - it's unbelievable. It's what I didn't believe, Greta. I didn't believe this existed. This is the United States. I thought — at 29 years old, I thought, Oh, my God, we're the great — look, here's what you're taught as a kid. We're the greatest country in the world. This document, this Constitution, this is good everywhere. This — how naive was I? I just — I've been told this my whole life. I didn't know it really works like this.

I thought I had rights. I thought, you know, just — if you didn't break the law, they can't say you broke the law. I didn't know that people use it as a game. These people who have power, they have a police force that they can send after you. They have the ability to charge you and take away your freedom and your life. I just can't believe it. I just, like, every — it went against everything I have been taught my whole life, everything." -- Joe Francis, from the front lines defending the First Amendment

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What do Bush Rangers, the CIA, Senator Mel Martinez, crashed airplanes, Saudi arms dealers and the Titan Corp. all have in common?

COCAINE...!




yep, that's right, and, if this gets investigated in any kind of responsible way (very questionable), and if sibel edmonds spills what she knows (highly doubtful), there won't be enough popcorn to go around for THIS show...
A MadCowMorningNews investigation has uncovered links between the ownership of the drug-running Gulfstream (Cocaine Two) and the other American-registered plane busted carrying a multi-ton load of cocaine in Mexico recently, the DC9 (Cocaine One) airliner caught with 5.5 tons of cocaine in Mexico 18 months ago.

Recently-released FAA records from the Gulfstream II business jet that went down in Mexico a month ago with four tons of cocaine reveal that before it was “parked” in the name of a New York real estate developer with ties to the Russian Mob, the plane was owned by a secretive Midwestern media baron and Republican fund-raiser, who had a business partner who, incredibly, owned the other American drug plane, the DC9, recently busted in Mexico.

Stephen Adams was in business with Miami attorney Michael Farkas, who founded SkyWay Aircraft, which owned the DC9 busted in Mexico 18 months ago with 5.5 tons of cocaine aboard.

Moreover at the same time the Bush Ranger extraordinaire Stephen Adams owned the Gulfstream (N987SA) in 1999 and 2000, he was personally buying over $1 million of billboard ads for George W. Bush for his 2000 Presidential election bid.

According to SEC filings, Stephen Adams and Michael Farkas jointly controlled Holiday RV Superstores, Inc., which was used by arms merchant and CIA-fixer Adnan Khashoggi in a complicated securities fraud which stole as much as $300 million from investors and taxpayers.

Khashoggi, under indictment for felony fraud in the case and currently a fugitive from justice, is himself involved in the DC9 scandal through his lieutenant Ramy El-Batrawi, also a Farkas business partner, and the former owner of one of the two twin DC9's used for god only knows what.

The links between recent owners of the two drug planes, discovered during an examination of FAA registration records, suggest a continuing criminal conspiracy to engage in massive drug trafficking, involving Republican fund-raisers Adams and Senator Mel Martinez, Saudi arms dealer Khashoggi, prominent oligarchs in the Russian Mob, dirty San Diego defense contractor Titan Corp., as well as elements of American military and civilian intelligence.

The politically-explosive implications of the scandal may explain why American officials have been reluctant to move against, or even name, the true owners of the planes and basically "turned a blind eye" to the American involvement exposed by the drug trafficking seizures.

please, please, please, can't we get to the bottom of this and show, once and for all, just what criminals are running our country so we can finally toss them out on their collective asses...?

(thanks to cryptogon...)

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Bush and Cheney need to resign before we throw 'em out

just sayin'...

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Ummmmmmm... No...........

a question is posed in the last sentence of this nyt op-ed excerpt, the answer to which i offered in the post title...
President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, Michael Mukasey, was asked an important question about Congress’s power at his confirmation hearing. If witnesses claim executive privilege and refuse to respond to Congressional subpoenas in the United States attorneys scandal — as Karl Rove and Harriet Miers have done — and Congress holds them in contempt, would his Justice Department refer the matter to a grand jury for criminal prosecution, as federal law requires?

Mr. Mukasey suggested the answer would be no. That was hardly his only slap-down of Congress. He made the startling claim that a president can defy laws if he or she is acting within the authority “to defend the country.” That is a mighty large exception to the rule that Congress’s laws are supreme.

The founders wanted the “people’s branch” to be strong, but the Bush administration has usurped a frightening number of Congress’s powers — with very little resistance. The question is whether members of Congress of both parties will do anything about it.

clearly, the answer is "no..." congress has had ample opportunity to forcefully deal with this issue and, as should be obvious now, isn't going to do a goddam thing... the better question is when and if the american people are going to do something...

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Another Harry Reid email on FISA: says nothing, commits to nothing

i got another email today from harry reid... it's exactly the same boilerplate email that landed in my inbox last week...

today...

On October 18, 2007, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence agreed 13-2 to the text of a draft Senate bill which many believe is also a substantial improvement over the flawed Protect America Act. As Senators and the public examine the bill, there will be some debate about certain provisions in this initial draft bill, most notably how the draft bill addresses issues related to the alleged cooperation of telecommunications carriers with the government on intelligence collection.

In the coming weeks, Senators will have an opportunity to further refine and improve the draft bill, first through Senate Judiciary Committee action, then during floor debate, and in the conference process with the House. I assure you that I will work with my longtime friend and colleague Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) to ensure that he feels his rights as a United States Senator to amend and improve legislation are preserved and respected. You can be certain that I will be pushing hard for a final bill that provides America with the effective but legal intelligence tools needed to fight terrorism, while also protecting our civil liberties and establishing strong mechanisms for congressional and judicial oversight.

october 25...
On October 18, 2007, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence agreed 13-2 to the text of a draft Senate bill which many believe is also a substantial improvement over the flawed Protect America Act. As Senators and the public examine the bill, there will be some debate about certain provisions in this initial draft bill, most notably how the draft bill addresses issues related to the alleged cooperation of telecommunications carriers with the government on intelligence collection.

In the coming weeks, Senators will have an opportunity to further refine and improve the draft bill, first through Senate Judiciary Committee action, then during floor debate, and in the conference process with the House. I assure you that I will work with my longtime friend and colleague Senator Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) to ensure that he feels his rights as a United States Senator to amend and improve legislation are preserved and respected. You can be certain that I will be pushing hard for a final bill that provides America with the effective but legal intelligence tools needed to fight terrorism, while also protecting our civil liberties and establishing strong mechanisms for congressional and judicial oversight.

ah, MY senator... how embarrassing...

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"No collective punishment:" Israel prevented from cutting electricity to Gaza




Palestinian officals say Israel already cut
fuel supplies by 30 percent on Sunday, though
Israeli officials say supply was only reduced
by between 5 and 11 percent. Palestinians rely
on Israel for all of their fuel and more than
half of their electricity.


i've been posting about my ever-increasing upset with israel (here and here), an upset recently aggravated by israel's plan to cut fuel and electricity supplies to gaza (see previous posts here and here)... evidently, i'm not alone...
Israel Criticized for Power Cuts to Gaza

Israel's attorney general has thwarted government plans to cut electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip on humanitarian grounds. The EU and UN are warning Israel not to impose "collective punishment" on the Palestinian people.

Israel's attorney general has prohibited the government from cutting electricity supplies to the Gaza Strip, arguing that there needs to be a full evaluation of the humanitarian consequences first.

The ruling by Attorney General Menahem Mazuz came late on Monday after 10 human rights groups petitioned Israel's supreme court to stop the cutbacks, arguing that they amounted to collective punishment. Israel had announced Sunday that it was cutting back fuel supplies and electricity to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory.

this story came from germany's spiegel online... no surprise, a quick search only turned up one u.s.-based media source reporting on it, an ap story being carried on newspapers outside the u.s....

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Not-so-amazing divergence of opinion on Argentina's presidential election



prompted by Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's victory in this past sunday's presidential election in argentina, the pundits weigh in, and a fascinating juxtaposition of perspectives it is...

here's one point of view that paints a very positive picture of how argentina's managed its recovery by repudiating the imf and its policies, but neglects to mention anything about the seamy reality that underlies literally everything in the country...

from the la times op-ed page...

[T]he authorities made sure that their currency didn't rise too high and didn't swing wildly as a result of movements in financial markets. (Here in the U.S., where we have shed more than 3 million manufacturing jobs since 2001 -- the bulk of them lost because of an overvalued dollar -- we might take note.) They also kept interest rates low and made growth, rather than the lowest possible inflation, the top priority.

These policies are mostly a no-no among central bankers and economists, and Argentina had a few showdowns with the IMF, including a brief temporary default to the fund in September 2003. But the fund backed down, and most of the defaulted international creditors ended up settling for 35 cents on the dollar in 2005.

Of course, Argentina hasn't gotten a lot of foreign direct investment in the last five years, and it cannot directly borrow in international bond markets. But these handicaps -- which if you read the business press should spell doom -- turned out not to be all that important. Nor are they permanent. In time, foreign investors and lenders will find their way back to a fast-growing economy.

[...]

Getting basic macroeconomic policies right for your own economy is a lot more important than pleasing international financial markets. That goes double for failed international financial institutions like the IMF. The fund not only oversaw the train wreck that collapsed Argentina's economy from 1998 to 2002, it opposed the major policies that drove Argentina's remarkable recovery.

The fact that Argentina's break with the IMF and its policies was key to the country's economic success also has implications for other countries. Over the last quarter of a century, the fund and its allied institutions -- run from Washington -- have presided over Latin America's worst long-term growth performance in more than a century. As a result, most governments in the region have moved away from the IMF. Its loan portfolio in the region has shrunk from $49 billion just four years ago to less than $1 billion today. But it still holds sway in many poor countries.

Argentina's new government will face challenges, the kind brought about by a fast-growing economy: keeping inflation in check and assuring adequate supplies of energy. But these problems are manageable. Of course, there are analysts who argue otherwise, but their forecasts over the last five years have not been very accurate.

so, ya got that...? bad imf, good argentina...

now, let's jump across the country to the wapo op-ed page, where we're offered the standard beltway point of view...

Argentina -- and Ms. Fernandez de Kirchner's Peronist party -- still have not learned the lessons of the country's history. That could make the coming years more turbulent.

[...]

For the last century, Argentina has lived by a cycle of economic boom and bust, driven by prices for its agricultural exports, by the fondness of its governments for populist policies and by its resistance to playing by the usual rules of global financial markets. The boom under Mr. Kirchner, which followed the devastating bust of 2001, follows the usual pattern: It has been fueled by high prices for Argentine beef, wheat and soybeans, and by Mr. Kirchner's stiffing of international creditors, vast government spending, and controls on energy and food prices. The predictable result has been disinvestment in the energy sector that already has caused brownouts and mounting inflation that is probably double the official estimate of 9 percent annually.

The Kirchners managed to get through the election season by manipulating the inflation figures and bullying supermarkets into keeping prices down.

[...]

Ms. Fernandez de Kirchner ... can use her mandate to deliver the tough medicine the economy needs -- including energy price and interest rate increases, a revaluation of the currency and a reconciliation with the International Monetary Fund, which holds the key to renewed foreign investment. Or she can pursue her husband's populist course until it produces another crash.

message from the wapo...? good imf, bad argentina...

even tho' i live there part-time, i am not going to present myself as a fount of argentina truth, but i do know a few things... there's a little truth in both points of view as well as some things left out... imf policies have seriously damaged many countries, although perhaps none as spectacularly as argentina... was it all the imf's fault...? of course not, but the imf does deserve a large portion of the blame... does argentina need to reconcile with the imf...? maybe, and they're trying, but i think they're now smart enough to not ever again let the imf dictate their macroeconomic policies... are price controls a good way to combat inflation...? honestly, i don't know... my guess is, probably not... is inflation higher than the government reports...? my shoe leather analysis says, oh, yeah... when i am now paying almost double cab fare, a 2/3 increase for a bag of bran cereal and a liter of drinkable yogurt, i ain't buyin' the 9% figure...

naturally, the wapo also gets in a dig about hugo chávez, venezuela and the bolivarian revolution, but neither writer talks about argentina's alliance with venezuela, both for economic development loans and energy supplies, an important omission, imho... also, neither article mentions the on-going and seemingly unmanageable corruption at all levels of argentina society... basically, i have found the average argentine to be honest, decent and well-intended, but they have become so jaded and resigned to ever-present corruption that most of them just throw up their hands, a state of mind that leads to this, another fact that neither article deigned to mention...

[O]nly 73 per cent of electors voted, the lowest turnout since 1928 in a country where voting is compulsory.

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WaPo debate today on the constitutional crisis

it's not too late to submit comments and questions to today's online wapo debate...

Authors Eric Lane and Michael Oreskes ("The Genius of America") and Larry J. Sabato ("A More Perfect Constitution") will be online Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 3 p.m. ET to examine and debate the Constitutional crises that have arisen during the Bush administration, and the steps that can be taken and changes that can be made to preserve our rights and the power of our nation's founding document.

Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.


here's mine...
Besides the stated reason - fighting the war on terror - do you see any other connections between legislation like Jane Harman's recently-passed H.R. 1955: "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism" and the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the Protect America Act, Section 1076 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007, National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directives NSPD-51 and HSPD-20, and the FISA bill with its provision for granting telecom immunity? If so, could you describe them? Could you also offer any opinions as to why our constitutional crisis remains virtually unaddressed either in Congress or by the 2008 presidential candidates, and what may happen if it remains unaddressed when the next president is sworn in on 20 January 2009?

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Scanning your hard drive: the next step to the fascist state

and from germany, where else...?
[A]long with several other European countries, Germany is seeking authority to plant secret Trojan viruses into the computers of suspects that could scan files, photos, diagrams and voice recordings, record every keystroke typed and possibly even turn on webcams and microphones in an attempt to gain knowledge of attacks before they happen.

[...]

"If you spy on my telephone calls, you can never have as big a picture of me as if you can read my hard drive," said Constanze Kurz, an activist with the Berlin-based hacker organization the Chaos Computer Club, which has pledged to find and publicize the first government Trojan.

"My communications, my private photos, my private films, all of my research. And if you install that Trojan on the computer, you can look not only at this data on the hard drive, but you can see what I'm typing, you can collect my thoughts as I'm typing them in," she said. "If you give me your computer for one hour, I will know everything about you."

Already, Romania, Cyprus, Latvia and Spain have laws that allow "online searches," according to a report from Germany's Interior Ministry, which conducted an informal survey in Europe. Switzerland and Slovenia appear to also allow such searches, and Sweden is in the process of adopting similar legislation, the report said.

In the U.S., where battles are being fought over warrantless surveillance of telephone and Internet communications, the FBI is known to have implanted software designed to identify target computers. But it is unknown, and the FBI won't say, whether the government has tried to surreptitiously search the contents of hard drives.

you can't tell me it isn't already happening here...

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Monday, October 29, 2007

Rainbows, high desert, 15:09 and 16:36 PDT, 29 October

it's been a good day for sky phenomena...



i'm watching the third small thunderstorm of the afternoon roll by, punctuated by periods of sun, often simultaneously with the rain... i managed to grab this panorama, fleeting though it was... there's another smaller, fainter, half-rainbow out there right now that i might try getting a shot of if it intensifies...

ok, it DID intensify, only it dropped back to a quarter-rainbow... here's a halfway decent shot which, unfortunately doesn't really pick up the much fainter double bow to the left...




[UPDATE]

well, the FOURTH thunderstorm is just finishing up, and this one was a dilly... the lightning was intense and i could see it striking the ridge tops and at least one power pole transformer off in the distance... it came barreling out of the southwest and the heavy rain lasted nearly 15 minutes (that's a LONG time in this neck of the woods), and was accompanied by a little bit of pebble-sized hail... the electricity has been flickering off and on and just went out completely... the flashing and booming is heading off to the northeast now, to rattle somebody else's windows... i wish i would have set the camera out with the shutter open to see what i could have caught in the way of lightning strikes... oh, well... it's too dark for rainbows...

[UPDATE II]

while i was writing this post, lightning must have struck a power substation over the ridge because the power went out and was out for nearly two hours... a wee bit of excitement for a late october evening...

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Too good to pass up...

john cole blogging in balloon juice via markos...
Yoda, or an Army Officer?
By: John Cole October 29, 2007 at 3:31 pm

Now it is time for this week’s game, which we will call “Yoda or an Army Officer.” Below are a series of quotes. Your goal is to determine if they were uttered by Jedi Master Yoda or Col. Steve Boylan.

1.) “Truly wonderful the mind of a child is.”

2.) “I am interested in this issue. What I am doing about it does not concern you. ”

3.) “Do or do not; there is no try.”

4.) “Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you?”

5.) “Interesting is what I find it.”

6.) “No! No different. Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.”

7.) “Pray tell, where do you think he is and how long have you fantasized that he has been here?”

8.) “Always in motion the future is.”

9.) “Good, bad or indifferent…I will not judge. That is our system and we must work with it.”

10.) “That is why you fail.”

Answers below the fold. Good luck!

Answers:

1.) Yoda
2.) Col. Boylan
3.) Yoda
4.) Yoda
5.) Col. Boylan
6.) Yoda
7.) Col. Boylan
8.) Yoda
9.) Col. Boylan
10.) Yoda
It wasn’t easy, was it? Clearly Col. Boylan was channeling the force.

it takes a really clever, astute and wide-ranging mind to come up with a connection like that... my hat is off...

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Fighting terrorism with comics in Germany


This is the cover of the comic book commissioned
by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia to
teach children about Islamism and terrorism. In
the middle is Murat, a troubled Turkish youth, who
gets caught up in the machinations of Harun, a boy
who has been radicalized by a local man preaching
Jihad.


honestly, i don't have an opinion one way or the other on this, but i have to say, i'm impressed with the creativity and the sincere attempt to put some constructive stuff out there in kid-friendly style that doesn't demonize or preach...
The Interior Ministry of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is taking a new tack in the fight against homegrown terrorism. It's using a comic book -- complete with colorful images and "youthful" language -- to battle nasty jihadism.

[...]

[T]o be fair, the story is not half-bad, and it's pretty well put together.

Andi has all the accoutrements needed to mark him as your run-o-the-mill hipster kid -- baseball cap, hoodie and messy hair -- and he has a Turkish girlfriend, Ayshe. Her brother -- and Andi's buddy -- Murat, is going through a bit of a crisis because he can't find a position as an apprentice, and he blames his rejection letters on xenophobia. That makes Murat the perfect prey for the strange new kid on the playground, Harun, with his serious demeanor and steadfast belief in what he's been fed from Islamists. Harun, in turn, beats it into Murat's head that he will be discriminated against because of his religion.

[...]

Of course, after 38 pages, there is the inevitable happy ending: Murat transforms himself from a potential public enemy number one back into a cheerful chap. And, joy upon joy, an apprenticeship position appears out of nowhere, just to hammer home the moral of the story a little bit further.

[...]

One thing is for sure: the officials have given it a good shot. The story is a bit too short and sweet but, at the same time, it's half-way believable because you can see that a lot of the details are a fairly faithful reflection of reality.

definitely an "a" for effort and at least trying to get past stereotypes... maybe the u.s. will take lessons... < scratches chin > nah...

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The WaPo notes Obama's "spiritual reawakening" in another virtuoso display of context-free journalism [w/UPDATE]

the entire story builds on this opening paragraph... (pay no attention to that throw-away little 12th paragraph...)
[T]he Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois -- hoping his campaign can recapture some of that old-time religious fervor -- launched a three-city gospel concert series over the weekend across the state, in North Charleston, Greenwood and Columbia.

i kept reading, becoming more and more astonished at how a major news outlet could completely ignore the homophobic element that aravosis at americablog (here, among many other posts) has been all over like flies on shit - until, that is, the sole mention appeared, 12 paragraphs down, inserted between parentheses, almost as an afterthought...
(The gospel series also draws attention because of the inclusion of the Grammy-winning gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, who has publicly said he overcame his homosexual thoughts and desires through prayer.)

no mention of WHY mcclurkin and his "getting over being gay through prayer" stance was drawing attention, WHERE it had been exposed, and the veritable firestorm that has ensued since... what a pathetic excuse for journalism... what a pathetic excuse for a newspaper...

[UPDATE]

my sincere apologies to the wapo... i have since read a lead story on obama in the la times which doesn't mention the homophobia flap AT ALL... i simply failed to appreciate the fact that the wapo isn't alone in its race to the bottom of context-free reporting...

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Tancredo won't run again

this is exceptionally good news... the three degrees of separation i experienced with him during my short sojourn in colorado in 2002 quite convinced me that he is one of the more hate-filled individuals i had ever run across... i simply could not get my head around the fact that he was actually representing ordinary citizens in the congress of the united states...

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"I never heard of an Iraqi unit that was able to operate on their own"

"search and avoid," another sad news item not to be found in traditional news media...
Iraq war veterans now stationed at a base here say that morale among U.S. soldiers in the country is so poor, many are simply parking their Humvees and pretending to be on patrol, a practice dubbed "search and avoid" missions.

Phil Aliff is an active duty soldier with the 10th Mountain Division stationed at Fort Drum in upstate New York. He served nearly one year in Iraq from August 2005 to July 2006, in the areas of Abu Ghraib and Fallujah, both west of Baghdad.

"Morale was incredibly low," said Aliff, adding that he joined the military because he was raised in a poor family by a single mother and had few other prospects. "Most men in my platoon in Iraq were just in from combat tours in Afghanistan."

According to Aliff, their mission was to help the Iraqi Army "stand up" in the Abu Ghraib area of western Baghdad, but in fact his platoon was doing all the fighting without support from the Iraqis they were supposedly preparing to take control of the security situation.

"I never heard of an Iraqi unit that was able to operate on their own," said Aliff, who is now a member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). "The only reason we were replaced by an Iraqi Army unit was for publicity."

Aliff said he participated in roughly 300 patrols. "We were hit by so many roadside bombs we became incredibly demoralised, so we decided the only way we wouldn't be blown up was to avoid driving around all the time."

"So we would go find an open field and park, and call our base every hour to tell them we were searching for weapons caches in the fields and doing weapons patrols and everything was going fine," he said, adding, "All our enlisted people became very disenchanted with our chain of command."

everyone who has ever served in the military, particularly the enlisted ranks, can tell stories of hiding out to avoid unpleasant duty, so that part isn't news... what is news is the duty they're hiding out FROM... in my experience, it was usually latrine or kitchen duty, not the essence of the mission they're there to do...

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