if you can envision something, you’re halfway there to making it become reality…

Posted by: b real | Nov 30 2004 20:01 utc | 4

Found this on livejournal.com(“Musings of a progressive, feminist SAHM”). Thght. it might life the spirits here a bit.
Things to do before the Inauguration
(From my good friend and all around remarkable woman, Pinko Feminist Hellcat)
Things to do before the Inaugural
1. Get that abortion you’ve always wanted.
2. Drink a nice clean glass of water.
3. Cash your Social Security check.
4. See a doctor of your own choosing.
5. Spend quality time with your draft age child/grandchild.
6. Visit Syria, or any foreign country for that matter.
7. Get that gas mask you’ve been putting off buying.
8. Hoard gasoline.
9. Borrow books from library before they’re banned -Constitutional law books, Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter, Tropic of Cancer, etc.
10. If you have an idea for an art piece involving a crucifix -do it now.
11. Come out – then go back in – HURRY!
12. Jam in all the Alzheimer’s stem cell research you can.
13. Stay out late before the curfews start.
14. Go see Bruce Springsteen before he has his “accident”.
15. Go see Mount Rushmore before the Reagan addition.
16. Use the phrase – “you can’t do that – this is America”.
17. If you’re white – marry a black person, if you’re black -marry a white person.
18. Take a walk in Yosemite, without being hit by a snowmobile or a base-jumper.
19. Enroll your kid in an accelerated art or music class.
20. Start your school day without a prayer.
21. Pass on the secrets of evolution to future generations.
22. . Learn French.
23. . Attend a commitment ceremony with your gay friends.
24. Take a factory tour anywhere in the US.
25. Try to take photographs of animals on the endangered species list.
26. Visit Florida before the polar ice caps melt.
27. Visit Nevada before it becomes radioactive.
28. Visit Alaska before “The Big Spill”.
29. Visit Massachusetts while it is still a State.

Posted by: jj | Nov 30 2004 21:10 utc | 6

Thaks for posting that Emereton, so I could easily join up and add my name.
So sorry you have decided to close up shop B. MOA has been my first-choice chat station since Billmon closed. I see there is more traffic over at le speakeasy now, and I hope it will catch on. Don’t forget Bernhard, we still need you.

Posted by: rapt | Dec 1 2004 0:09 utc | 8

Today’s the day for further Election Fraud News in Ohio:
Voters to challenge US election
Wednesday December 1, 2004
The Guardian
George Bush’s victory in the US presidential election will be challenged in Ohio’s supreme court today, when a group of Democratic voters will allege widespread fraud.
President Bush clinched re-election by winning the state of Ohio on November 2 by a margin of 136,000 votes over the Democratic candidate, John Kerry. Despite claims of fraud and technical glitches, Senator Kerry decided that they were not big enough to affect the result and conceded the election on November 3.
However, Cliff Arnebeck, a lawyer representing a group of voters challenging the Ohio result, claimed new analysis of various anomalies suggested it was rigged.
“We’ll be calling for a reversal of the result based on evidence developed in the course of litigation,” Mr Arnebeck told The Guardian yesterday. “Exit polling and substantial irregularities excluded votes that should have been counted. There is evidence that votes cast for one candidate were moved to the column of the other candidate.” …
Also, see CANNONFIRE for exhaustive coverage of other developments, including planned recount efforts in Nevada and New Mexico.
It AIN’T over yet !!

Posted by: JMF | Dec 1 2004 14:24 utc | 10

Hells Angels Harriman–now that would be a bank!

Posted by: FlashHarry | Dec 1 2004 14:57 utc | 12

Funny, my daughter started learning Mandarin this year in college (Pitzer, but the class is given at Pomona), too. She loves it. We live in SF where Cantonese is more common though.
On the Eastern Front, a friend of mine moved to the Ukraine this year and has started blogging the events on the streets:
Slice of Orange

Posted by: biklett | Dec 1 2004 17:14 utc | 14

What’s in a name? Try looking for Arabian Gulf on Google

Posted by: Rumi | Dec 1 2004 18:46 utc | 16

Michael E. Lewitt, The HCM Market Letter:
On Friday, November 19, Alan Greenspan made his latest attempt to quell financial market speculation. Speaking at a European Banking Congress in Europe, Mr. Greenspan made it very clear that interest rates are going to continue to rise. Despite the market reaction to Mr. Greenspan’s words (it sold off a bit), one can’t help but feel that we’ve heard these warnings before and that they will continue to fall on deaf ears. Mr. Greenspan’s credibility has been undermined by his track record of easing rates at the slightest hint of real (Long Term Capital Management) or imagined (Y2K) crises, as well as statements claiming that he couldn’t identify a bubble even as it was blowing up in his face.
Mr. Greenspan’s warning came just a few days after Congress raised the U.S. federal debt ceiling to the 13-digit number above [8,180,000,000,000], and just as the U.S. dollar breached the $1.30 mark against the Euro for the first time (and for what appears to be a sustained period). A clear pattern has emerged – higher interest rates, lower dollar, slower economic growth, higher oil prices – but the benchmark-driven financial markets don’t seem to be paying much attention.
As President Bush II enters his second term, he is faced with rising oil prices and a weakening currency (not to mention nuclear challenges in Iran and North Korea and worrisome signs of political backwardization in Russia). Second terms are notoriously problematic, and circumstances certainly suggest that Mr. Bush could be in for a rough ride, particularly with respect to the economy. The surest contrary sign of trouble ahead may be the stock market rally that began immediately after the election – if nothing else, the stock market has shown itself to be particularly clueless as an arbiter of anything other than its own psychology. It used to be said that the stock market discounts tomorrow. With the proliferation of hedge funds (more and more of which are just glorified day traders) and other short-term traders, about the best that can be said is that the stock market is trying to discount the next ten minutes based on how things felt the last ten minutes.
Christopher Wood’s believes that “the re-election of Bush is US dollar bearish and gold bullish.”1 The unhappy truth, as astute observers such as Mr. Wood and Stephen Roach keep repeating, is that America is facing a period of almost inevitable decline as a consequence of chronic and acute economic imbalances and a political system that fails to deal with them. Mr. Wood and others speak of “America’s growing abuse of the US dollar’s privileged role as the reserve currency of the world.” The real question is whether Japan and China can even afford to let the dollar crack in view of their enormous dollar holdings, as well as the mercantile base of their economies. American hegemony may or may not be peaking, as HCM fears it is, but there is almost no question that the great symbol of that hegemony – the U.S. dollar – is likely to remain under pressure. […]
As The Bank Credit Analyst (November 2004, pp. 9-10) notes: “The dollar would probably have been in a meltdown a while ago but for large-scale dollar purchases by Asian central banks. These purchases have helped slow the dollar’s descent, but will not prevent a decline if private capital flows continue to diminish, as has been the case this year…We do not anticipate a dollar collapse any time soon because Asian central banks will continue to be buyers of last resort for the currency. Nonetheless, the path of least resistance is down and the best that can be hoped for is that it will remain a benign process with the dollar falling without forcing U.S. interest rates higher.”
In the aftermath of the election, talking heads spent countless hours discussing how divided the United States has become culturally and politically. But these so-called experts really missed the point – the culture and psychology of the United States have never been more united when it comes to matters of dollars and cents. A body politic claiming to have chosen its next leader based on stringent moral concerns continues to engage in fiscal profligacy that would make Donald Trump blush.2
The culture of debt has been so deeply instilled in Americans that it will require a true Armageddon event to dislodge it. HCM has no way of handicapping the probability of any such event. For the moment, the unwinding of the global debt bubble is likely to be a slow and tedious affair, interspersed with some brief sell-offs but managed by the Federal Reserve and Asian Central Banks that remain locked in a symbiotic dance of death. If they release their grasp on each other, they both will die. So they will continue to cling to each other and waltz in slow motion and pray that the dollar will deflate slowly, that fragile global demand trends will be sustained or at least not weaken, and that the Devil’s bargain they’ve made with each other can somehow be redeemed for cash. But if it is redeemed for cash, it won’t be in U.S. dollars.
Foreigners Still Jonesin’ for Dollar Assets
It is very clear that foreign buying of dollar-denominated assets is driving the U.S. markets higher. According to the U.S. Treasury, foreign appetite for U.S. corporate bonds reached record levels in September 2004. Net inflows into this sector reached $44.6bn, up from $26.5bn in August. Treasuries received inflows of $19.3bn in September compared to $14.6bn in September. Those of us who are bearish on corporate credit at today’s absurdly inflated levels need look no further than this data to understand where a lot of the buying is coming from.
The U.S. requires approximately $55bn each month, or $1.8bn each day, to fund its current account deficit. We are now half a year and 100 basis points into a Federal Reserve tightening cycle that HCM now believes has much further to run. The Euro has broken through $1.30 and foreign buyers are still piling into dollar assets (despite noises about diversifying their holdings). The world is awash in dollars, debt and speculation. Anticipating Mr. Greenspan’s comments quoted above, Peter Bernstein wrote in The Financial Times on November 17 that “as Herb Stein, the late economist, put it: ‘If something can’t go on forever, it won’t.’ Private capital inflows into the US are already shrinking. There is a point at which one or other central bank will cry ‘Enough!’ and the house of cards will fall in.” Mr. Bernstein is hardly an alarmist, and he has been warning for months that the current situation is unsustainable. He believes that the optimal solution would be a replay of the 1985 Plaza Accord – “an orderly appreciation of the main nondollar currencies against the dollar, which is a more benign method of curtailing America’s appetite for imports while spurring the development of domestic sources of growth in the rest of the world. Without such an accord, the outlook for an orderly dollar devaluation is dim.”
No such accord was reached at the European Economic Summit last weekend. But dollar weakness was abundant. Mr. Greenspan opined: “Given the size of the U.S. current account deficit, a diminished appetite for adding to dollar balances must occur at some point. International investors will eventually adjust their accumulation of dollar assets or, alternatively, seek higher dollar returns to offset concentration risk, elevating the cost of financing the U.S. current account deficit and rendering it increasingly less tenable.” The problem is that the markets don’t seem to believe the Fed Chairman. Or everybody figures they can get out of the market before the sell-down occurs. A crisis will not happen until there is a crisis. By then, it will be too late for many investors to get out of the way.

Posted by: Pat | Dec 1 2004 19:44 utc | 18

It’s something at least. You can all support impeachBlair.org (or impeachBush.org ?? )

Dear supporter,
We have done what they said was impossible; a motion of impeachment is now on the agenda of the House of Commons for the first time since the days of Napoleon and the Battle of Trafalgar – you can find it under the future business section though for procedural reasons only the top six supporters are listed.
To mark this historic event, a meeting was held in the House of Commons on Wednesday for the MPs and public figures supporting the campaign. The actor Corin Redgrave, the musician Brian Eno, novelist Iain Banks and spy novelist Frederick Forsyth were all present.
The first concrete result of the impeachment motion is that the Liberal Democrats have been emboldened to take the unusual step of proposing an amendment to the Queen’s speech. They propose a new Commons Committee to investigate the powers of Prime Ministers in making war. They should be congratulated and urged to go the final step and follow Jenny Tonge MP and Paul Marsden MP in calling for a committee to draw up the impeachment charges. Nevertheless the gravitational pull of the impeachment demand is being felt.
Second, according to the BBC World at One; Downing Street’s response was “MPs
have the right to call for impeachment- let’s see what happens.” A macho – “Bring
it on” statement that appears to welcome a debate.
Third, if nothing else, impeachment is back as a live instrument of the constitution and this in itself is a huge step.
What now? We need more MPs to support it and a full debate in the Commons.
Labour, Liberal Democrat and Tory MPs can find reasons not to support impeachment – “let’s wait for the election and a reduced labour majority or for something worse to go wrong in Iraq that will bring Blair down”, or “we can’t support it because of the Tories”, and so on and so on.
But this is not about political parties, it is about democracy. It is about fighting for the fundamental principle of parliamentary democracy that ministers cannot deceive parliament and the public and get away with it. Look at the MPs who support the impeachment motion from former Tory ministers and Boris Johnson to the left-wing Adam Price – they have all managed to sink their differences and place democracy above party.
It is now time for Labour MPs to join the impeachment campaign. Privately many have indicated that when the time is right they will join. Many have already written to Kofi Annan accusing the government of war crimes. Why can they support that idea of a trial and not support charging the Prime Minister in the court of parliament? Some of the Labour MPs even suggest that it should be left to the grieving relatives of the British dead in Iraq to take Blair to court. We believe they must take responsibility themselves.
We hope and expect that the power of impeachment will continue to exert its force, that in the early New Year there will be a debate and a vote in the Commons and that we will win it. Let Labour MPs shuffle through the lobbies in favour of Blair’s deceit and explain their actions to their constituents.
We may not win but the campaigns for the vote, free speech, racial equality might have been lost. In the end it comes down to how much we care for democracy and freedom.
Yours,
impeachBlair.org

Posted by: DM | Dec 1 2004 20:10 utc | 20

My recent thoughts inspired by this article:

In a sense, all elections are about the disgruntled peasants storming the castle to topple the tyrant king.
In fact, this IS the essence of democracy as opposed to monarchy.
I can not recall any election that was won, where the incumbent insisted that he had the inherent right to stay in the contested office. That would be a monarchial narrative, which can only be justifed be a threat of force and divine annoitment.
Sometimes it is both parties, the incumbent’s and the opposition, storming the same castle to topple the imagined king of the other side.
Republicans are good at creating this image of constantly fighting against those elite liberals in their castle, but they somehow never succeed at finishing it. Then they are storming the castle, even when they are occupying it. This is plain and simple a class war of the god-loving peasants against the libertine aristocrats. On the other hand the Dems are fighting the class war of the poor peasants against the land-owning, rent-raising aristocrats.

Posted by: MarcinGomulka | Dec 2 2004 0:58 utc | 22

It’s International AIDS Day
40 million currently infected

Posted by: slothrop | Dec 2 2004 1:48 utc | 24

@slothrop Under the Same Sun has a pointed op/ed today about TRIPS and affordable AIDS meds (lack of); looks like India is being forced to stop producing affordable AIDS drugs. Mustn’t violate those Western corporations’ intelprop rights now, must we. This is not just “dog in the manger,” it’s, oh, “direwolf in the salad bowl.” Ridiculous and tragic and unbearably stupid and… oh well. I’d boycott big pharma, except that I already am…
for some reason the whole story brings my mind back around to that Kissinger quote about depopulating Asia. is it just stupidity and greed, or something far worse?

Posted by: DeAnander | Dec 2 2004 2:38 utc | 26

Sharon and the Future of Palestine

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Dec 2 2004 6:18 utc | 28

The new US currency!
here

Posted by: Fran | Dec 2 2004 7:10 utc | 30

@jj Wayne M had better produce a real document pretty soon instead of just making threatening noises (“I have here a list…”). What has he really got and when is he going to make it public?
And what the H is Mike M playing at?

Posted by: DeAnander | Dec 2 2004 7:22 utc | 32

I need to vent. I am so sick of yellow ribbon stickers on SUVs (and the bigger the SUV, the bigger the sticker). Does anyone but me remember what that stupid song was really about?
Dawn – Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree
I’m coming home. I’ve done my time.
Now I’ve got to know what is and isn’t mine.
If you received my letter telling you I’d soon be free,
Then you’ll know just what to do if you still want me,
If you still want me,
Oh, tie a yellow ribbon ’round the ole oak tree.
It’s been three long years.
Do you still want me?
(Still want me?)
If I don’t see a ribbon ’round the ole oak tree,
I’ll stay on the bus,
Forget about us,
Put the blame on me,
If I don’t see a yellow ribbon ’round the ole oak tree.
Bus driver, please look for me,
‘Cause I couldn’t bear to see what I might see.
I’m really still in prison, and my love, she holds the key.
A simple yellow ribbon’s what I need to set me free.
I wrote and told her please,
Oh, tie a yellow ribbon ’round the ole oak tree.
It’s been three long years.
Do you still want me?
(Still want me?)
If I don’t see a ribbon ’round the ole oak tree,
I’ll stay on the bus,
Forget about us,
Put the blame on me,
If I don’t see a yellow ribbon ’round the ole oak tree.
Now the whole damn bus is cheering,
And I can’t believe I see,
A hundred yellow ribbons ’round the ole oak tree.
I’m coming home, mm-hmm.

Posted by: beq | Dec 2 2004 12:06 utc | 34

The President, the First Lady and Dick Cheney are flying on Air Force
One.
George looks at Laura, chuckles and says, “You know, I could throw a
$1,000.00 bill out the window right now and make somebody very happy.”
Laura shrugs her shoulders and says, “Well, I could throw ten $100.00
bills out the window and make 10 people very happy.”
Cheney says, “Of course then, I could throw one-hundred $10.00 bills
out the window and make a hundred people very happy.”
The pilot rolls his eyes, looks at all of them and says to his
co-pilot, “Such bigshots back there….. hell, I could throw all of them
out the window and make 56 million people very happy.”

okay, now I have to get to work.

Posted by: beq | Dec 2 2004 12:34 utc | 36

This election is NOT over.

Posted by: beq | Dec 2 2004 16:18 utc | 38

Slothrop: Well, I see a major red herring with election fraud. People are entirely focused on the now obvious frauds for presidential election. Well, it would be good to look at the Congress and Senate, where the GOP gained seats, because I strongly suspect fraud in some chosen cases, to ensure GOP dominance.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Dec 2 2004 16:37 utc | 40

john kerry…reporting for duty
How Democrats Enabled Republicans To Steal the 2004 Presidential Election
i agree w/ CluelessJoe – the public can have more impact & involvement challenging fraud @ local levels

Posted by: b real | Dec 2 2004 18:49 utc | 42

here’s the link to the first part of that article on the dems compilicity that i just mentioned. sorry ’bout that…

Posted by: b real | Dec 2 2004 19:25 utc | 44

@DeAnander – a few thghts. for yr. father. You could remind him that nothing USgov doing today follows from concern for oil. Recall that at the 11th hour, Saddam completely capitulated to everything US wanted, asking Only To Remain In Power. There was no reason to invade then other than to implement the NeoCon agenda. Secondly, send him Naomi Klein’s outstanding art. in Harper’s -avail. online. War Is Not About Oil. Garner, 1st pro-consul, was fired immed. ‘cuz he was ready to set up elections & get out in 90 days. This is about the “neoliberal” agenda – Piratizing all of Iraq, plundering it for US Kleptocrats. (Also, a good Christimas present for him might be Perkins, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”. That might open his eyes, if he has any compassion. He may not know that Empire worked by deliberately bankrupting countries thruout the world, so Oligarchs could control them.)
As for Wayne showing check to TV cameras, what TV stations would show up? Somebody who could vouch for the purpose of that check would have to show up & they’d be killed immed.
Part of the reason Nixon was thrown out is ‘cuz country was ripped apart. Now everyone is sitting waiting for the next person to do something. In the absence of a National Strike, nothing will happen in Ohio, or anywhere else. God knows what that Nat’l Coalition that org. anti-war marches is org. a Shit on their Inauguration Parade. What’s the Point – just to show off yr. new swastika armbands? (I trust you saw that Lewrockwell & Paul Craig Roberts made it official, comparing them explicitly to Nazis.)
Once someone gets the ball of Mass Mobilization rolling, I think it’ll take off, even without the media, but was distressed that even Thom Hartmann gave up. I get the feeling that everyone is just waiting for the word – esp. w/Ukraine….but as we wait, it’s getting colder.
I think a focus on Mobsters Resign Now, End Computer-voting, Retain Exit Polls. It should focus on wide-spread corruption & criminality of those in power. In addition to demanding resignation of Bu$hCo, it should demand resignation of Sen. Hagel & Ga. Senator who stole election from Max Cleland. (Ending “neoliberalism” wouldn’t be bad, while we’re at it!!) I would personally like to add things we want of Kerry, but that will prob. confuse things.
(What really caught my eye in Wayne’s current art. was the last paragraph. He notes that the DieBold software used in voting is same used in Las Vegas, which allows fixing over the phone. This opens possibility/probability of even the Mob, -Russian Mob even?- fixing elections.)

Posted by: jj | Dec 2 2004 19:57 utc | 46

Tenet calls for Internet security

Former CIA Director George J. Tenet yesterday called for new security measures to guard against attacks on the United States that use the Internet, which he called “a potential Achilles’ heel.”
“I know that these actions will be controversial in this age when we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control or accountability,” he told an information-technology security conference in Washington, “but ultimately the Wild West must give way to governance and control.”

Posted by: b | Dec 2 2004 21:47 utc | 48

Joy Gordon’s article “The U.N. is Us” in the Dec issue of Harper’s (not avail online yet) is worth seeking out for debunking US attempts to place blame on the UN for this oil for food stuff scandal. and there’s an earlier article here

Posted by: b real | Dec 2 2004 22:18 utc | 50

bhopal – the ongoing caring face of capital

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 2 2004 22:44 utc | 52

JJ,
I like your thoughts above on the mass strike…especially the Mobsters Resign parts. Ditto on the resignation demands of Hagel and Chambliss…I would only include Schwarzaneggar (recall done on electronic machines…I dont believe in that mandate either) and Norm Coleman who’s currently warming the late Paul Wellstone’s senate seat (dont get me started on Wellstone). Coleman is the one pushing the Kofi Annan stuff in the media right now…he’s been working on the ‘scandal’ [/rolling eyes].

Posted by: Voodoo | Dec 2 2004 22:50 utc | 54

De – same here – it is an unusual day when there is nothing to be outraged about…
G’night

Posted by: Jérôme | Dec 2 2004 23:21 utc | 56

Oops, I meant to include this at the bottom of that last post.
Here’s a direct link to Keith Olbermann’s blog entry for today.
It’s worth the read. I’m sure he’ll cover the voting stuff tonigh…usually around the 7:30 CST point. 😉
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

Posted by: Voodoo | Dec 2 2004 23:29 utc | 58

DeA,
You want the media’s attention? Then pull the goddam plug. The only way these corporate SOB’s will ever notice us is if we unplug ourselves from their matrix, i.e., cost them money. That means giving up sports and whatever other goodies they use to hook us. If the internet could be used to organize a 3, 4, 6 or whatever month boycott of cable and satellite TV, you would get attention if just 20% of the public went along. You want to hurt this administration and their corporate co-conspirators? Hit them in the only organ they have that feels: their wallets. I’m already unplugged, but I’d love to have company.

Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 3 2004 2:02 utc | 60

Since people don’t seem interested in having sit-ins to protest, what does anyone think of a blue-staters mvmt. to withdraw the one thing from the system that we all contribute, even DeAnander I suspec, & w/out which they cannot run the country. Our Capital.
We can’t secede quickly, but it only takes moments to withdraw our capital. If Blue-Staters everywhere, either transferred all but a bit of petty cash to accounts in Canadian Banks, or simply shut down our savings accounts until the duly elected govt. were seated, they could not Govern, & things could move quickly.
I’m not being silly, at least I don’t think I am. Our best chance of maintaining a remnant of sanity here & avoiding a currency crash, & undoubtedly martial law, is to demand that the Elites acknowledge the Landslide for Kerry & get him in office. This is Utter Madness. And we all know 4 yrs. from now is TOO LATE.
What does anyone think about that as an mass tactic – Quick,Easy, avail. to Everyone.
(Recall, if you will, that they’re so desperate for Capital that they’re considering imposing a National Sales Tax to drive up savings, since foreign countries aren’t too interested in their debt. Why the hell should we? They deliberately created the debt so they could destroy Social Security & Medicare. Fuck ’em – ain’t our problem. When the Mobsters get outta Dodge, we’ll reconsider, if they have constructive solutions to propose. If that would bring down the economy…well then they’ll maybe they’ll be willing to face reality – A Landslide is a Landslide. I think, personally, this for me is about saying No to what I can only call National Psychosis. Kerry, Madsen, no…it’s about Sanity
First. What else everyone wants to add on – lay it out. Great. Let’s discuss it.)

Posted by: jj | Dec 3 2004 3:20 utc | 62

Unplugging? Is that the modern equivalent of dropping-out? Like, it makes a difference to anyone except yourself ?
Well, everyone and anyone is entitled to find their own way.
I often wonder, though, how many of us angst-ridden former hippie-intellectual-liberal types, the ones with the potential to make a difference, have settled for making “personal statements”, where the end result has only been to leave the field clear for lesser types who are less troubled with moral scruples.
For some reason, I am troubled by this idea of passing through this world leaving no more than a few footprints in the sand, while we do nothing other than make a few reprobate comments on those who are tearing the place apart. Sort of like conscientiously sorting out your recyclable garbage, but doing nothing to curtain the uninhibited excesses of the packaging industry.
My take is that this “unplugging” (if they don’t unplug us from the Internet first) – sounds awfully like the hippies of Nimbin (Oz) moving “back to the land”. (Many of them, by the way, got reconnected when soaring land prices made them millionaires.)
Oh well, my 2 cents worth is that when intelligent, moral people “drop-out”, they may be contributing to the easy path laid out for the thugs of this world. None of us can expect to make any earth-shattering difference on our own, but a small positive contribution to the real world and to promoting ideas and ideals might be as much as can be expected and maybe all that is required. And anyone trying to organize a boycott of cable TV obviously doesn’t have any kids.
Oh – and gerrymandered elections are nothing new. You’ll have to pick your fights better than this. I’ve got no idea why you would bypass verifiable ‘crimes in high places’ (something that can be pinned on individuals) as grounds for impeachment – to go for something that would require Americans to loose faith in their “democracy”.

Posted by: DM | Dec 3 2004 4:06 utc | 64

DM:
Unplugging isn’t dropping out. It is engaging in the only way the corporate media understands: MONEY. Your comment doesn’t signify engagement to me: it signifies surrender. Do you really believe your kids would not survive without TV? I grew up in a one channel town and lived to tell the tale. Your kids would manage to find other things to do for a few weeks or months and might even thank you for it later on.
I am not trying to pick a fight here, DM, but calling me a drop out misses the mark. If I was, I wouldn’t be an MoA visitor or even bother to respond to you. I am merely proposing fighting the opposition with the same ammunition they use against us. You are entitled to your opinion and I wouldn’t hold it against you if you didn’t join a mass media boycott – whatever your reasons. However, I doubt that your footprints go any deeper into the sand than mine.

Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 3 2004 4:29 utc | 66

DM:
You could be right; it might not work. However, I still think it is worth a try. If Sun Tsu has something to contribute, please share. Namaste.

Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 3 2004 5:16 utc | 68

Hi, Everyone, put down yr. glasses for an impt. announcement. Look what I just found @Kos:
Lawyer in OH Recount Suit: We Have Evidence of Fraud
by LawStudent
Thu Dec 2nd, 2004 at 19:08:01 PST
…
Anyway, there was a pretty lengthy interview on C-Span today with Cliff Arnebeck, an attorney for Alliance for Democracy, who is going to file a suit tomorrow in Ohio challenging the election result.  This is different from demanding a recount.  This organization is actually saying it believes–BASED ON EVIDENCE–that the election result is INCORRECT.  
Mr. Arnebeck said they have evidence that shows the election result was actually the opposite of what’s been reported.  He says that Kerry won 51% of the vote in OH, and he seems to claim he can prove it.  
I have no idea about the validity of this claim, but I can say this is the first time I’ve heard a lawyer involved in this fracas saying they have evidence of fraud.
Listen to it yourself and tell me what you think.  Go to http://www.cspan.org under “Recent Programs” and click on “Washington Journal Entire Program (12/02/04)”
(Methinks there’s Guardian art. on it; if interesting, I’ll link later.)
Stay Tuned – Could Get Interesting….

Posted by: jj | Dec 3 2004 7:15 utc | 70

“Who wrote this – a pop sociologist, obscure blogger or anti-war playwright? ‘Muslims see Americans as strangely narcissistic – namely, that the war is all about us. As the Muslims see it, everything about the war is – for Americans – really no more than an extension of American domestic politics and its great game. This perception is … heightened by election-year atmospherics, but none the less sustains their impression that when Americans talk to Muslims, they are talking to themselves.’
Actually, this is the conclusion of the report of the defence science board taskforce on strategic communication – the product of a Pentagon advisory panel – delivered in September. Its 102 pages were not made public in the presidential campaign, but, barely noticed by the US press, silently slipped on to a Pentagon website on Thanksgiving eve.”

Posted by: beq | Dec 3 2004 17:53 utc | 72

Bar Snack for Y’all
last post for a while, I must go do something remunerative.
Doug Ireland writes I have argued, since 9/11, that the dastardly terrorist attacks that day cemented a tectonic shift to the right in the nation’s politics which had been under way for over two decades. Since the first Reagan presidency, the weight of progressive values in electoral politics have been steadily eroded, as the money-and-poll driven Democrats have scurried–sometimes furtively, often openly–to their right. This election only reinforced my conclusion that we are in for a period of reaction that may well last several generations.
depressing, but worth thinking about. backlashes of this kind can and do last for generations. oh gawd.

Posted by: DeAnander | Dec 3 2004 18:45 utc | 74

There seems to be something boiling in the underground, if it gets even hotter this might be a hopeful trend.
NBC makes sharp correction in Latino support for Bush, puts Kerry up in Texas
There is more interesting information on the main page of raw story.

Posted by: Fran | Dec 3 2004 19:22 utc | 76

I scanned DeAnander’s link to Doug Ireland art. that claims Americans moving to the right. That’s created out of Whole cloth, as they say. The whole cloth of Murdered Senator(s?), rigged elections & as Nation ed. Katrina vanden Heuvel noted, the disaster of “neoliberalism” – economic policies of the .01% Declaring War on the Rest of Us.
(Evidence: Tom Frank’s bk. on why Kansas votes Repug – ‘cuz xDems. no longer support economic policies they need. xDems won last 2 elections for the WH despite being loathed. If the votes were counted & they hadn’t murdered anyone, they would still control the Senate as well.)
This strikes me as just the pathetic kind of rationalization one spins when one Desperately needs to delude oneself that the govt. is a reflection of the will of the people. Find some courage Dougie – this is a coup d’etat.
And that doesn’t even mention reporting the documentary evidence that Stanley Hilton, xSen. Dole’s aide, said that he has of BoyBush ordering 9/11.
If one looks at what Americans actually support, it is far to the left of the xDem. party which is why it’s so hard for them to win elections. They want their factories brought back, family farms supported, National Medical System like Canada, equal rights for women & men. The stuff that the elites oppose so they try to make it seem extreme. No, Assholes, this is the portrait of Mainstreet America.

Posted by: jj | Dec 3 2004 20:40 utc | 78

btw – martha honey’s book “hostile acts” is a great read

Posted by: b real | Dec 3 2004 23:17 utc | 80

@B Real – thanks. Hadn’t seen that. God knows how one doesn’t lose one’s footing in all this madness. Hard to imagine a Dole staffer would – Jones is a conspiracy nut, but Hilton losing it too? That’s what gave it credibility for me; Lawyer, dole staffer w/documents, plus I remember when his office/home was broken in to & his documents were raided. Who the hell knows. Even reading the well-respected by the establishment John Loftus, he may have the structure right on many things, but most of his details are off. But then you’re dealing w/people all of whom have a stake in lying and do lie constantly to other participants.
Some of this is pure competition – somebody gets some stuff right, but if they get anything wrong, they’re thoroughly discredited by other researchers. These things are so huge that no one could get most of it right, except in the really small potatoes stuff like the MLK assasination.
On a different level, during the height of the Women’s Movement, Socialist Feminism tended to hold sway over the Cultural Feminists who were less dangerous to the state. Then a story came out in the press about the Cuban soldiers sent to Angola who were raping local women. That effectively ended Socialist Feminism. Years later I went to a lecture by John Stockwell. He was a CIA agent in Angola during that time and mentioned, while discussing CIA disinformation, they had planted that completely fabricated story for precisely that purpose.

Posted by: jj | Dec 5 2004 0:20 utc | 82

@jj re angola, wow, you just blew my mind…

Posted by: DeAnander | Dec 5 2004 0:51 utc | 84

hanoi-john,
Nice to have you aboard. (from the “good news and great news thread.”)You’re the first I poster I remember from Vietnam. As a lurker you are probably already aware of the multinational patronage here. We, I believe I speak for most or all regulars, welcome you.

Posted by: juannie | Dec 5 2004 6:07 utc | 86

I have been trying to figure out how to approach the holiday season this year carrying the undeniable weight of what my country has done (is doing) to the world. My mom dumped a bag of Christmas catalogs on me over T-giving and I took a look. I was fascinated by this photo obviously taken at the height of summer but doctored to look like the “manor” is dusted in snow and then I read on. Conspicuous consumption doesn’t begin to cover it. Two people!…and a cat appropriately named, Maxi-million, actually, Maximillian but close enough. And there are more…..

Posted by: beq | Dec 5 2004 15:49 utc | 88

I am doing things too quickly these days and posted this earlier today on an inappropriate thread, completely forgetting about this one. So here it is again. I think it is worth a second posting. I am also pressed for time and cannot edit and comment on it, but I think this first hand account by an American soldier who was in Falluja has a lot to offer those who ponder both the American military, the resistance, and how the military perceive the resistance.
**************************************************
THE FOLLOWING letter from a U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq, known as hEkLe,powerfully conveys the terror of the U.S. assault on Falluja. It was
published in GI Special, a daily Internet newsletter that gathers news and information helpful to soldiers and military families. You can find an archive of the GI Special updated with each new issue at
http://www.militaryproject.org. hEkLe and several fellow soldiers have a Web log that they regularly update with essays at
http://www.ftssoldier.blogspot.com.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
THESE ARE ugly times for the U.S. military in Iraq. It seems everywhere you turn, more and more troops are being killed and maimed in vicious
encounters with determined rebel fighters.
The insurgency is mounting incredibly in such places as Baghdad, Mosul and Baquba, using more advanced techniques and weaponry associated with a
well-organized guerilla campaign. Even in the massively destroyed city of Falluja, rebel forces are starting to reappear with a callous determination to win or die trying. Many critics and political pundits are starting to realize that this war is, in many aspects, un-winnable.
And why should anyone think that a complete victory is possible? Conventionally, our U.S. forces win territory here or there, killing a
plethora of civilians as well as insurgents with each new boundary conquered. However, such as the recent case in Falluja, the rebel fighters have returned like a swarm of angry hornets, attacking with a vicious frenzy.
I was in Falluja during the last two days of the final assault. My mission was much different from that of the brave and weary infantry and Marines involved in the major fighting. I was on an escort mission, accompanied by a squad whose task it was to protect a high brass figure in the combat zone.
This particularly arrogant officer went to the last battle in the same spirit of an impartial spectator checking out the fourth quarter of a high school football game. Once we got to the Marine-occupied Camp Falluja and saw artillery being fired into town, the man suddenly became desperate to play an active role in the battle that would render Falluja to ashes. It was already rumored that all he really wanted was his trigger time, perhaps to prove that he is the toughest cowboy west of the Euphrates. Guys like him are a dime a dozen in the army: a career soldier who spent the first 20 years of his service patrolling the Berlin Wall or guarding the DMZ between North and South Korea. This sort of brass may have been
lucky to serve in the first Gulf War, but in all actuality spent very little time shooting rag heads.
For these trigger-happy tough guys, the last two decades of Cold War hostilities built into a war frenzy of stark emptiness, fizzling out almost
completely with the Clinton administration. But this is the New War, a never-ending, action-packed “Red Scare” in which the communist threat of yesteryear was simply replaced with the white
knuckled tension of today’s “war on terrorism.”
The younger soldiers who grew up in relatively peaceful times interpret the mentality of the careerists as one of making up for lost opportunities. To the elder generation of trigger pullers, this is the real deal; the chance to use all the cool toys and high speed training that has been stored away since the ’70s for something tangibly useful…and it’s about goddamn time.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
HOWEVER, UPON reaching the front lines, a safety standard was in effect stating that the urban combat was extremely intense. The lightest armored
vehicles allowed in sector were Bradley tanks.
Taking a glance at our armored humvees, this commander insisted that our section would be fine. Even though the armored humvees are very stout and
nearly impenetrable against small-arms fire, they usually don’t hold up well against rocket attacks and roadside bombs, like a heavily armored tank
will. The reports from within the war zone indicated heavy rocket attacks, with an armed insurgent waiting on every corner for a soft target such as trucks. In the end, the overzealous officer was urged not to infiltrate into sector
with only three trucks, for it would be a death wish during those dangerous twilight hours. It was suggested that in the morning, after the air strikes were complete, he could move in and “inspect the damage.”
Even as the sun was setting over the hazy orange horizon, artillery was
pounding away at the remaining 12 percent of the already devastated Falluja. Many units were pulled out for the evening in preparation of a full-scale
air strike that was scheduled to last for up to 12 hours. Our squad was sitting on top of our parked humvees, manning the crew-served machine guns and scanning the urban landscape for enemy activity. This was supposed to be a secured forward operating area, right on the edge of the combat zone. However, with no barbed wire perimeter set up and only a few scattered tanks serving as protection, one was under the assumption that if
someone missed a minor detail while on guard, some serious shit could go down. One soldier informed me that only two nights prior, an insurgent was caught sneaking around the bullet-ridden houses to our immediate west. He was armed with a rocket-propelled grenade and was laying low on his advance towards the perimeter. One of the tanks spotted him through its night vision and hastily shot him into three pieces. Indeed, though it was safe enough to smoke a cigarette and relax, one had to remain diligently aware of his surroundings if he planned on making it through the night.
As the evening wore on and the artillery continued, a new gruesome roar filled the sky. The fighter jets were right on time and made their grand appearance with a series of massive air strikes. Between the pernicious bombs and fierce
artillery, the sky seemed as though it were on fire for several minutes at a time. First, you would see a blaze of light in the horizon, like
lightning hitting a dynamite warehouse, and then hear the massive explosion that would turn your stomach, rattle your eyeballs and compress itself deep within your lungs. Although these massive bombs were being dropped no further than five kilometers away, it felt like it was happening right in front of your face.
At first, it was impossible not to flinch with each unexpected boom, but after scores of intense explosions, your senses became aware and complacent towards them.
At times, the jets would scream menacingly low over the city and open fire with smaller missiles meant for extreme accuracy. This is what Top Gun, in all its glory and silver screen acclaim, seemed to be lacking in the movie’s high budget sound effects.
These air-deployed missiles make a banshee-like squeal, sort of like bottle rocket fueled with plutonium, and then suddenly would become inaudible. Seconds later, the colossal explosion would rip the sky open and hammer devastatingly into the ground, sending flames and debris pummeling into the air.
And as always, the artillery–some rounds were high explosive, some were illumination rounds, some were reported as being white phosphorus (the
modern-day napalm).
Occasionally, on the outskirts of the isolated impact area, you could hear tanks firing machine guns and blazing their cannons. It was amazing that anything could survive this deadly onslaught. Suddenly, a transmission came over the radio approving the request for “bunker-busters.” Apparently, there were a handful of insurgent compounds that were impenetrable by artillery. At the time, I was unaware when these bunker-busters were deployed, but I was told later that the incredibly massive explosions were a direct result of these “final solution”-type missiles.
I continued to watch the final assault on Falluja throughout the night from atop my humvee.
It was interesting to scan the vast skies above with night-vision goggles. Circling continuously overhead throughout the battle was an array of attack helicopters. The most devastating were the Cobras and Apaches with their chain-gun missile launchers.
Through the night vision, I could see them hovering around the carnage, scanning the ground with an infrared spotlight that seemed to reach for miles. Once a target was identified, a rapid series of hollow blasts would echo through the skies, and from the ground came a “rat-a-tatting” of explosions, like a daisy chain of supercharged black cats during a Fourth of July barbeque.
More artillery, more tanks, more machine gun fire, ominous death-dealing fighter planes terminating whole city blocks at a time…this wasn’t a war,
it was a massacre!
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
AS I look back on the air strikes that lasted well into the next morning, I cannot help but be both amazed by our modern technology and disgusted by
its means.
It occurred to me many times during the siege that while the Falluja resistance was boldly fighting us with archaic weapons from the Cold War, we were soaring far above their heads, dropping Thor’s fury with a destructive power and precision that may as well been nuclear. It was like the Iraqis were bringing a knife to a tank fight.
And yet, the resistance toiled on, many fighting until their deaths. What determination!
Some soldiers call them stupid for even thinking they have a chance in hell to defeat the strongest military in the world, but I call them brave. It’s
not about fighting to win an immediate victory. And what is a conventional victory in a non-conventional war?
It seems overwhelmingly obvious that this is no longer within the United States hands.
We reduced Falluja to rubble. We claimed victory and told the world we held Falluja under total and complete control. Our military claimed very few
civilian casualties and listed thousands of insurgents dead. CNN and Fox News harped and cheered on the television that the battle of Falluja would go down in history as a complete success, and a testament to the United States’ supremacy on the modern battlefield.
However, after the dust settled, and generals sat in cozy offices smoking their victory cigars, the front lines in Falluja exploded again with
indomitable mortar, rocket, and small-arm attacks on U.S. and coalition forces.
Recent reports indicate that many insurgents have resurfaced in the devastated city of Falluja. We had already claimed the situation under control and were starting to turn our attention to the other problem city of Mosul. Suddenly, we were backtracking our attention to Falluja. Did the
Department of Defense and the national press lie to the public and claim another preemptive victory?
Not necessarily so. Conventionally, we won the battle–how could anyone argue that? We destroyed an entire city and killed thousands of its
occupants. But the main issue that both the military and public forget to analyze is that this war, beyond any shadow of a doubt, is completely
guerrilla.
Sometimes I wonder if the West Point-graduated officers have ever studied the intricate simplicity and effectiveness of guerrilla warfare.
During the course of this war, I have occasionally asked a random lieutenant or a captain if he at any time has even browsed through Che Guevara’s Guerrilla Warfare. Almost half of them admit that they have not. This I find to be amazing! Here we have many years of guerrilla warfare ahead of us, and our military’s leadership seems dangerously unaware of what it all means!
Anyone can tell you that a guerrilla fighter is one who uses hit-and-run techniques to attempt a breakdown of a stronger conventional force.
However, what is more important to a guerrilla campaign are the political forces that drive it. Throughout history, many guerrilla armies have been successful; our own country and its fight for independence cannot be excluded.
We should have learned a lesson in guerrilla fighting with the Vietnam War only 30 years ago, but history has a funny way of repeating itself. The Vietnam War was a perfect example of how quick, deadly assaults on conventional troops over a long period of time can lead to an unpopular
public view of the war, thus ending it.
Che Guevara stressed in his book Guerrilla Warfare that the most important factor in a guerrilla campaign is popular support. With that, victory is
almost completely assured.
The Iraqis already have many of the main ingredients of a successful insurrection. Not only do they have a seemingly endless supply of munitions and weapons, they have the advantage to blend into their environment, whether that environment is a crowded marketplace or a thickly vegetated palm grove.
The Iraqi insurgent has utilized these advantages to the fullest, but his most important and relevant advantage is the popular support from his own countrymen.
What our military and government needs to realize is that every mistake we make is an advantage to the Iraqi insurrection. Every time an innocent man, woman or child is murdered in a military act, deliberate or not, the insurgent grows stronger.
Even if an innocent civilian is slain at the hands of his or her own freedom fighter, that fighter is still viewed as a warrior of the people, while the occupying force will ultimately be blamed as the responsible perpetrator.
Everything about this war is political…every ambush, every bombing, every death. When a coalition worker or soldier is abducted and executed, this only adds encouragement and justice to the dissident fervor of the Iraq public, while angering and demoralizing the occupier.
Our own media will prove to be our downfall as well. Every time an atrocity is revealed through our news outlets, our grasp on this once secular nation slips away. As America grows increasingly disturbed by the images of carnage and violent death of her own sons in arms, its government loses the justification to continue the bloody debacle.
Since all these traits are the conventional power’s unavoidable mistakes, the guerrilla campaign will surely succeed.
In Iraq’s case, complete destruction of the United States military is impossible, but through perseverance, the insurgency will drive us out.
This will prove to be the inevitable outcome of the war.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
WE LOST many soldiers in the final battle for Falluja, and many more were seriously wounded. It seems unfair that even after the devastation we
wreaked on this city just to contain it, many more troops will die in vain to keep it that way.
I saw the look in the eyes of a reconnaissance scout while I talked to him after the battle. His stories of gore and violent death were unnerving. The sacrifices that he and his whole platoon had made were infinite. They fought every day with little or no sleep, very few breaks and no hot meals.
For obvious reasons, they never could manage to find time to e-mail their mothers to let them know that everything turned out okay.
Some of the members of his platoon will never get the chance to reassure their mothers, because now, those soldiers are dead.
The look in his eyes as he told some of the stories were deep and weary, even perturbed. He described in accurate detail how some enemy combatants were blown to pieces by army-issued bazookas, some had their heads shot off by a 50 caliber bullet, others were run over by tanks as they stood defiantly in the narrow streets, firing an AK-47.
The soldier told me how one of his favorite sergeants died right in front of him. He was taking cover behind an alley wall, and as he emerged to fire his M4 rifle, he was shot through the abdomen with a rocket-propelled grenade.
The grenade itself exploded and sent shrapnel into the narrator’s leg. He showed me where a chunk of burned flesh was torn from his left thigh.
He ended his conversation saying that he was just a dumb kid from California who never thought joining the army would send him straight to
hell. He told me he was tired as fuck and wanted a shower. Then he slowly walked away, cradling a rifle under his arm.

Posted by: conchita | Dec 6 2004 2:15 utc | 90