Give her a hug from a lady in america who just knows that she is as magnificent as her name. =)

Posted by: beq | Feb 18 2005 22:12 utc | 4

i read the cbs article this morning and wrote the reporter, dotty lynch , something about connecting the dots.under subject i called it rove/gannon connection. she wrote me back w/ the same title, i read now from b’s link she changed the title. sent her some freeper links and the new ameriblog stuff on rather and suggested it would be lovely if cbs were the first msm to break the rathergate/gannon connection. so why do you think it’s stupid for cbs to chime in? i think the more the merrier.

Posted by: annie | Feb 18 2005 23:50 utc | 6

Random news clips for a nice cheerful weekend:
Bush promises support for Israel if it attacks Iran (oh boy here we go)
Hardline Republican Jewish group floats ad depicting Dean as supporter of terrorism
Ward 54: non-monetist costs to the US continue to accrue
One American Refusenik — better get that Anschluss going so these boys and girls won’t have any place to run to, eh.
Not your Jetsons/StarTrek future: planet of the slums — what is the fate of a billion people rendered “surplus to requirements” by neoliberalism?
Yet Another Smoking Gun: “The evidence [for anthropogenic contribution to climate change] really is overwhelming,” says Scripps researcher — how many smoking guns does it take to get American nostrils twitching?
We can’t go on congratulating ourselves that “China is even more clueless”…
especially when drivel like this is being published in English, not Chinese… [it should come as no surprise that the primary author holds a position at rightwingnut thinktank The Manhattan Institute (more) which reliably promotes charter schools, total telecomms dereg, and other pet causes of its financial backers. primary author seems to have murky ties with coal industry also, but I have not followed up thoroughly.]
and then there are those who actually try to do something practical about it all…
Gonna quote Monbiot, ‘cos he seems spot on with his recent Jeremiad:

The denial of climate change, while out of tune with the science, is consistent with, even necessary for, the outlook of almost all the world’s economists. Modern economics, whether informed by Marx or Keynes or Hayek, is premised on the notion that the planet has an infinite capacity to supply us with wealth and absorb our pollution. The cure to all ills is endless growth […]
Our economists are exposed by climatologists as utopian fantasists, the leaders of a millenarian cult as mad as, and far more dangerous than, any religious fundamentalism. But their theories govern our lives, so those who insist that physics and biology still apply are ridiculed by a global consensus founded on wishful thinking.

There are signs in the wind (above) that the Chinese planning elite may be giving up at last on wishful, grandiose thinking. My bet is that the first nations/cultures to give up wishful thinking will emerge the strongest after the next 25 years, while those who cling to their cornucopian and imperialist fantasies will end up as the new “third world,” resource-poor and ripe for exploitation.
Meanwhile Amurkans object to wind farms because they “spoil the view.” and 2004 was a record year for SUV and heavy truck sales as a percentage of US new car sales. in fact the grotesque Hummer H2 is no longer King of the Road.

For a base price of $225,000 — nearly twice the Hummer H1 wagon’s base price of $117,508 — consumers can get a basic version of the 10-foot-tall Bad Boy that can drive through five feet of water, climb a 60-degree grade, tow six tons and keep rolling even with a quarter-sized hole in the tire’s sidewall.
The price goes up from there, depending on options. Drivers can get infrared cameras that peer through darkness. The flat-nosed cab can be bulletproof, and house a mini-safe behind three leather seats. The dash can include a satellite phone, a two-way radio and a global-positioning system all alongside DVD, MP3 and CD players and a flip-out LCD screen.
For $750,000, buyers can get the fully loaded “NBC” version that can, Ayres said, detect and block out fallout from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons by over-pressurizing the cab with filtered, clean air much like an aircraft.

“I believe in the future: I will live in my car…” [P Simon]
I’m offline for a while. see y’all later…

Posted by: DeAnander | Feb 19 2005 1:55 utc | 8

wow. right on, deanander.

Posted by: slothrop | Feb 19 2005 2:26 utc | 10

Israel is part of the military-industrial complex.
Let’s take another look now at how the special status of Israel in U.S. politics relates to the U.S. drive for global domination. After decades of growing ties between the two countries, Israel is now so closely linked to the United States in concrete ways that it is actually a part of the U.S. military-industrial complex. Israel sells military equipment, with our knowledge, to countries to which the U.S. is restricted by law from selling — for instance, to China. So many arms and types of arms are produced in the U.S. for Israel that it has become quite easy for Israel’s lobbyists in Washington to go to individual congressmen and point out to them how many jobs in a given district depend on this arms industry and on not withholding arms from Israel. In this way, Israel becomes a direct factor in pressing the U.S. to continue its drive for empire and global domination, in expanding the U.S. military-industrial complex, and in keeping congressmen and other politicians in office — politicians who serve first and foremost the ruling elite of the country.

Posted by: lonesomeG | Feb 19 2005 2:47 utc | 12

Want to thank jj in this thread for a link, but Wealth Bondage is not a group blog. We just pretend to me. Rather it is a kind of Beggar’s Opera set in a Wealth Bondage Bordello, and the Dumpster out back, in which the denizens, crazy all, discuss the issues of the day. Fools and Knaves are the posters. I, a pro bono Dungeon Master to the Stars, am the only sane one. Any way, thanks for the link.

Posted by: The Happy Tutor | Feb 19 2005 3:08 utc | 14

Riverbend has a new post: Groceries and Election Results…

I feel like I have my finger on the throbbing pulse of the Iraqi political situation every time I visit Abu Ammar. You can often tell just how things are going in the country from the produce available at his stand. For example, when he doesn’t have any good tomatoes we know that the roads to Basra are either closed or really bad and the tomatoes aren’t getting through to Baghdad. When citrus fruit isn’t available during the winter months, we know that the roads to Diyala are probably risky and oranges and lemons couldn’t be delivered. He’ll also give you the main news headlines he picks up from various radio stations and if you feel so inclined, you can read the headlines from any one of the assorted newspapers lying in a pile near his feet. Plus, he has all of the neighborhood gossip.
“Did you know Abu Hamid’s family are going to move?” He took a drag from the cigarette and pointed with his ballpoint pen towards a house about 100 m away from his stand.
“Really?” I asked, turning my attention to the tomatoes, “How did you hear?”
“I saw them showing the house to a couple last week and then I saw them showing it again this week… they’re trying to sell it.”
“Did you hear about the election results?” E. asked Abu Ammar. Abu Ammar shook his head in the affirmative and squashed his cigarette with a slippered foot. “Well, we were expecting it.” He shrugged his shoulders and continued, “Most Shia voted for list 169. They were blaring it out at the Husseiniya near our house the night of the elections. I was there for evening prayer.” A Husseiniya is a sort of mosque for Shia. We had heard that many of them were campaigning for list 169- the Sistani-backed list.
I shook my head and sighed. “So do you still think the Americans want to turn Iraq into another America? You said last year that if we gave them a chance, Baghdad would look like New York.” I said in reference to a conversation we had last year. E. gave me a wary look and tried to draw my attention to some onions, “Oh hey- look at the onions- do we have onions?”
Abu Ammar shook his head and sighed, “Well if we’re New York or we’re Baghdad or we’re hell, it’s not going to make a difference to me. I’ll still sell my vegetables here.”

Posted by: Fran | Feb 19 2005 14:27 utc | 16

Advertisement (1/4 page) in todays Hamburger Abendblatt, the local leading paper in Germany’s second biggest city.
Picture:
A presidential person in front of a crowd of 20 people cheering and waving the Stars and Stipes:
Text
In big capital letters (in English):
“Thank you, Mr. President”
Sidebox (in German):
“Nearly all materials for design furniture are payed in Dollar. With the low exchange rate we now could purchase huge quantities for a very good price. We will now pass this advantage to you. Thank you, Mr. President.”
Additional eye catcher (in German):
“Weak Dollar makes design furniture up to 42% cheaper.”
Bush is visiting Germnay next week. Maybe someone will say thanks for the cheap furniture.

Posted by: b | Feb 19 2005 20:44 utc | 18

500,000 Italians demonstrated in Rome today against the war and for the release of Giuliana Sgrena, 56, a senior reporter for
the Italian daily paper Il Manifesto.
Any mention of this in US papers?

Posted by: dan of steele | Feb 19 2005 22:17 utc | 20

B there is no point in quoting NYT editorials. This paper has proven over and over again that it is part of the mechanism designed to overthrow the people. Owned by the govt class – says nothing in favor of truth justice and the american way.
I am forever astounded that smart folks like yourself can continue to give credence to this rag, which calls itself the paper of record. I hear it again and again: “The NYT said…” So fukkin what? Sounds a lot like the Pied Piper to me.

Posted by: rapt | Feb 19 2005 23:36 utc | 22

Digby has a good comment on Riverbends last post: Are You Proud Of Yourself Condi?

Iraq was always much more complicated. Many of us were extremely suspicious of the evidence that Saddam posed a threat to the United States and as horrible as his regime was, there was always the liklihood that the country would eventually fall into civil war and itself become a fundamentalist theocracy — thus making daily life for a full fifty percent of the population many degrees worse than it was under Saddam. It was never a pretty calculation but it was realistic. We knew all this going in and it is one of the reasons why it was never easy to simply wave the flag and proclaim ourselves liberators. Unless everything went exactly as envisioned by the starry eyed neocons, there was every chance that we would actually make many people less free by our actions.
It appears that this is happening. Not that anyone cares, mind you. If half of the Iraqi population sees a substantial loss of personal freedom from our liberation, it isn’t really a problem. They are, after all, only women.

I am glad Digby is bringing this up. No one seems to care about the women in Iraq, even here in Switzerland I haven’t read much about their more and more detoriating situation. I know some Iraqi men living here, but when I bring up this topic they look at me with big eyes as if wondering what I am talking about and they to not seem to care much about this. It’s so frustrating seeing those women rights which are actually human rights being taken away from these women, insteat of them gaining more freedom. I know the situation is bad for the men in Iraq too, but I still feel that it is much worse for the women.

Posted by: Fran | Feb 20 2005 7:12 utc | 24

Another nice article about Bush’s Europe trip from the Toronto Star:
Enter Bush, the diplomat

WASHINGTON—It was as if, with time running out, George W. Bush realized his European makeover hadn’t taken, and Air Force One was idling on the tarmac.
So he tried to do it all in one breath, in a stunning presidential segue.
“There’s … a concern in Europe, I suspect, that the only thing I care about is our national security,” he said this week.
“We also care deeply about hunger and disease. And I look forward to working with the Europeans on hunger and disease.”
Quickly, he added: “We care about the climate.”
If the phraseology seemed awkward, it was. These are not topics that come easily to the U.S. president’s lips.
…
On German ARD Television, he referred to Schroeder, the man who rode an anti-Washington, anti-war campaign to re-election as “Gerhard” and explained how he would broach the topic of more help in training Iraqi troops.
“What friends do is, they say, `Are you comfortable … if you’re interested in helping this fledgling democracy get to be a more mature democracy, where’s your comfort level?'”
Variations on that theme were aired in France, Belgium, Russia and Slovakia, where he told the audience: “I want to say to the world, freedom is a beautiful thing.”
Yet, Philip Gordon, a U.S.-European expert at Brookings, reminded a seminar this week that Bush can quickly tumble off the charm message track, as he did in a similar fence-mending jaunt to Ottawa last November.
It took one reporter’s question for Bush to tell the country that he wasn’t concerned about his unpopularity in Canada because he just won a much larger popularity contest at home.
It’s that type of blunt talk advisers want him to leave in Washington next week.

Well, and now I am heading out to enjoy the sunshine.

Posted by: Fran | Feb 20 2005 10:10 utc | 26

Re: Pharisee Nation
DM: Thanks for the link. He’s good! That John Dear is very, VERY good.
And the stark irony of just the anecdotal piece you excerpted above is so amazingly overwhelming, sort of like the scene in “Pleasantville” where things devolve to the point of “No Coloreds Allowed.” (If you haven’t seen the film, that likely won’t make any sense; if you have, it should probably hit you like a brick.)

Posted by: JMF | Feb 20 2005 19:10 utc | 28

Spain voters approve EU charter – A clear majority of Spaniards have voted in favour of the European Union constitution in a referendum.

With nine out of 10 votes counted, officials figures showed 77% of voters backed the charter.
Turnout was only about 42% – an embarrassingly low figure for the government, a BBC correspondent says.
It was the first of a series of European polls on the constitutional treaty, which must be ratified by all 25 EU member states to go into effect.
The deadline for ratification is November 2006.

Posted by: Fran | Feb 20 2005 21:16 utc | 30

but they are a little more austere than i am
has anybody heard of them before – maoist international movement(m.i.m.) – perhaps they are the people connected with the remnants of peru’s shining path who surprisingly retain influence – given their disastorus strategy

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 20 2005 21:25 utc | 32

Kind of amazing, from Reuters:

The megayacht phenomenon is mainly driven by the general rise in wealth. Worldwide, 7.7 million people had assets of more than $1 million at the end of 2003, according to the Merrill Lynch/Capgemini wealth report.
Forbes magazine lists 587 billionaires on its latest ranking of the world’s richest people, 64 more than a year earlier. Their combined net worth soared to $2.47 trillion in 2004, up from $1.82 trillion a year earlier.

Just to put this obscene disparity of wealth in perspective, Zaire’s GDP is $40.5 billion for 60 million people.

Posted by: slothrop | Feb 21 2005 0:05 utc | 34

Oh don’t be silly, b. People don’t turn-out for foregone conclusions. When the question is “how big will the margin be?”, people stay at home. If people didn’t accept it, they’d vote against it.

Posted by: Colman | Feb 21 2005 10:04 utc | 36