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And, yes, I DO take it personally: 08/03/2008 - 08/10/2008
Mandy: Great blog!
Mark: Thanks to all the contributors on this blog. When I want to get information on the events that really matter, I come here.
Penny: I'm glad I found your blog (from a comment on Think Progress), it's comprehensive and very insightful.
Eric: Nice site....I enjoyed it and will be back.
nora kelly: I enjoy your site. Keep it up! I particularly like your insights on Latin America.
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, August 09, 2008

"We've gone from being screwed to being fucked. [...] Both would-be presidents have already sold us out."

matt taibbi in rolling stone via alternet...
The truth is that the campaigns of both Barack Obama and John McCain are being inundated with cash from more or less exactly the same gorgons of the corporate scene. From Wall Street to the Big Oil powerhouses to the military-industrial complex, America's fat-cat business leaders know that the Animal House-style party of the last eight years that made almost all of them rich with bonuses, government contracts and bubble profits is about to come to an end, and someone is going to have to pay to clean up the mess. They want that someone to be you, not them, and they've spared no expense to make sure both presidential candidates will be there to bail them out next year.

They're succeeding. Both would-be presidents have already sold us out. They've taken the money and run -- completing the cyclical transformation of the American political narrative from one of monopolistic Republican iniquity to an even more depressing tale about the overweening power of corporate money and the essentially fictitious nature of our two-party system.

In layman's terms, we've gone from being screwed to being fucked. Who knows -- maybe Barack Obama will surprise us if he wins the election. But if you look at the money, it doesn't look good.

brother tim and i have been discussing our rapidly declining confidence in obama for several weeks now on our blogtalk radio show... i've heard a lot of people say that he's only doing what he has to do in order to be elected and that, once he's in office, he'll do what so desperately needs to be done because, after all, how could ANYONE in this day and age hope to be elected to the presidency by speaking and acting the truth...? lord help us, i would LOVE to believe that and, maybe, just maybe, it's true, but there's absolutely NOTHING in the last 50 years of american leadership that gives me any reason to be optimistic...

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John Hagee, Christians United for Israel, John McCain and Joe Lieberman



(thanks to john at americablog...)

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Friday, August 08, 2008

Fellow Congressmen... I urge you to cast your vote for... Oops... I'm sorry... It's classified

this video clip contains little real information but is all the more disturbing for that...

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John Sidney McCain III [with note from profmarcus]

War Hero ........ or Traitor?

You decide




A wealth of information can be found with a little use of Google.


Go on ....................Give it a try.



[Note from profmarcus]

as i watched this video clip, i discovered it was produced by vietnam veterans against john mccain... as a vietnam veteran, i thought it would be a good idea to call attention to this apparently well-organized group and its seemingly well-documented assertions... however, it's just more information and, just like all the rest of us, as brother tim pointed out, you have to decide...

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Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Public diplomacy has turned into base propaganda

for most of us, a blinding glimpse of the obvious...
John H. Brown resigned from the diplomatic corps in March 2003 in opposition to the war in Iraq.

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Tuesday, August 05, 2008

The truth about the "success" of the Baghdad "surge," the truth you won't see on U.S. news

we seem to have forgotten that the term "surge" was a political talking point designed to minimize what was, in fact, an escalation... now, even the liberals and progressives seem content to call it a "surge" and, worse yet, are passively accepting the bush administration characterization of it as a "success"...

Baghdad, 5 years on (part 1): City of walls



Baghdad, 5 years on (part 2): killing fields



Baghdad 5 years on (part 3): Iraq's lost generation



(thanks to panicbean at daily kos...)

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Cutting out the middle-man

brasscheck tv...
Why don't we shoot ourselves?

One of the plans entertained at a meeting presided over by Dick Cheney was for the US to manufacture Iranian gun boats and order Navy SEALs dressed in Iranian military uniforms to attack US ships.

It was rejected because "you can't have Americans killing Americans?"

The New Yorker refused to include this story in its reporting.

As Sy Hersch put it so well: "Editors are mice training to be rats."



yeah, why DON'T we just shoot ourselves...? easier... cheaper... you don't have to go to all the trouble of creating another war as an excuse...

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Sunday, August 03, 2008

Sunday kite-blogging - Día de los Niños

after at least a week of gray days - very unusual here in buenos aires - the S.U.N. managed to shine today from 9 a.m. to roughly 3:30... after making myself a breakfast omelet and sitting in on a noon conference call, i was still able to capture about 2 1/2 hours of the remaining sunshine before the current set of clouds rolled over... i rode the bike over to parque de los niños and then up the paseo de la costa along the rio de la plata to the end... i had forgotten that today is día de los niños, so there were lots of folks and lots of families out enjoying themselves... carlitos, famous for its burgers and zillion varieties of panqueques (pancakes) on the paseo was packed... best of all, there were also two kite outfits who had tents and displays on the paseo and were demo'ing their wares... amazing...! i now have my eye on one particular kite that i am simply going to HAVE to check out... i wish i had had my camera...

since i don't have any pics to post, here's a youtube clip made by one of the kite vendors that features one of the kite highlights, an octopus kite, that was being flown this afternoon...




here's the links to the two kite sellers...

Batoco

and

Alto Vuelo

unfortunately, i can't find the particular kite i have my eye on in the catalog or gallery of either site... guess i'll just have to make an in-person visit...! ;)

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