There is more …

Cont. reading: Barfly Art: Transhumanity

R.L.: "Compassion is no substitute for justice."

Short after the Abu Ghraib pictures became public knowledge one year ago, Rumsfeld said:

Cont. reading: Flag-Draped Anniversary

…
What the U.S. bubble economy needs, then, is for even more speculators to take even larger unhedged positions in the bond market financed with borrowed yen. And the best way to persuade them to do that is to convince them short-term yen rates will remain close to zero; that the ODIC cartel will defend the dollar to the death; and that long-term U.S. bond prices are unlikely to fall dramatically. It also helps to make alternative uses of speculative capital look less appealing.
…
.. As I told a friend the other day, the supply side hag may be aging rapidly, but she may still have a few more, um, carnal moments left in her yet. And at this late date, that may be about the best we can expect.

Down Time

Despite real efforts in 2003 and 2004, the US prison population has been mostly stagnant under Bushco, as compared to previous periods:

Source

Is Bush soft on crime?

Cont. reading: Bush Not Putting Enough People in Jail

To the Straussians, rationality does not provide an adequate basis for a stable social order. To the contrary, the Age of Enlightenment has ushered in the crisis of modernity, in which nihilism – the moral vacuum left behind by the death of God – inevitably leads to decadence, decline and, ultimately, genocide.

That logical leap from Jefferson to Hitler might seem like the intellectual equivalent of Evel Knieval’s outlandish attempt to jump the Snake River canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle. But it’s essential to the Straussian world view – just as it provides the crucial angst that gives neo-conservatism such sharp political edges.

The Grand Delusion

An open threatd …

The latest tool for the most inconvenient way to travel comes down at a list price of some $270 million.

On your flight to that "lonely spot" the travel agent envisioned, you will be joined by up to 839 fellows in being immobilized, dehydrated and deprived of oxygen.

Having arrived you will just forget about peak oil, global warming, uncontrolled development and all the other menaces your unreasonable fellow humans bring about.

Okay, apart from that depression, congrats to the Airbus folks who did get this hydrocarbon eating bird up and down without trouble.

For those of you that have followed my previous economic stories, this should not come out as a surprise, but the Financial Times publishes yet another pessimistic article about the US economy.

Today’s installment is quite explicit: Property could fall like a house of cards

Nout Wellink, president of the Dutch central bank, last month warned that a hangover from the property boom could well exacerbate the next downturn. Both the Dutch experience and the history of housing booms suggest that this counsel deserves to be taken seriously. However, it is probably already too late for the leading Anglo-Saxon economies to escape lightly from the consequences of their property bubbles.

Cont. reading: It’s Too Late

by Vauro, Il Manifesto

Details released in Washington on Monday by a US army official said the soldiers "were not culpable of dereliction of duty in following their procedures."

 

[Sgrena said:] "They’re saying they were only following the rules of engagement. But if you fire on a passing car which you were warned about, and follow the rules of engagement, you have to ask what those rules really were?"

US-Italian talks after report clears soldiers in friendly-fire shooting

As you  can see, I am on holiday and enjoying the Atlantic beaches in the spring, keeping myself busy building sand castles and trying to get them to resist the onslaught of the rising tide.

Cont. reading: Building Sand Castles

Christians detained for illegal praying in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia has detained 40 Pakistani Christians for holding prayers at a house in the Muslim kingdom, where practicing any religion other than Islam is illegal, newspapers said yesterday.

A group of men, women and children were attending the service in the capital Riyadh when police raided the house, Al Jazirah newspaper said.

It said authorities also found Christian tapes and books.

Link

There are hard reasons for Bush to behave this way despite the above news.
Oil prices, business connections, proselytize Abdullah, manly exuberance needs – he certainly has to set persuasive priorities.

Fallen Angels, in financial language, are companies that used to have an investment grade rating and have been downrated to “junk”. In normal language, they are companies which used to be a good risk as borrowers but are now considered by the rating agencies to be a poor risk (with a much higher chance that it will default on its debt).

(Yes, yet another graph of things improving under Clinton and falling apart under Bush)

GM is likely to become a Fallen Angel this year, and I would argue that the US economy is not far behind.

Cont. reading: Fallen Angels

This should break the Senates Foreign Relation Committee deadlock about the John Bolton nomination.

Newsweek reports:

Colin Powell plainly didn’t like what he was hearing. At a meeting in London in November 2003, his counterpart, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, was complaining to Powell about John Bolton, according to a former Bush administration official who was there. Straw told the then Secretary of State that Bolton, Powell’s under secretary for arms control, was making it impossible to reach allied agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. Powell turned to an aide and said, "Get a different view on [the Iranian problem]. Bolton is being too tough."

The very best US puppy Jack Straw had to intervened against Bolton to get a solution on Iran,

Perhaps the most dramatic instance took place early in the U.S.-British talks in 2003 to force Libya to surrender its nuclear program, NEWSWEEK has learned. The Libya deal succeeded only after British officials "at the highest level" persuaded the White House to keep Bolton off the negotiating team. A crucial issue, according to sources involved in the affair, was Muammar Kaddafi’s demand that if Libya abandoned its WMD program, the U.S. in turn would drop its goal of regime change. But Bolton was unwilling to support this compromise. The White House agreed to keep Bolton "out of the loop," as one source puts it.

and the puddle himself had to bark out loud to keep Bolton away from messing up the successful negations with Lybia. The only success this administration had on WMD proliferation so far.

The Bolton case should now finally move away from the fruitless discussion about bullying subordinates – an issue that can not be a serious ground for Republicans to deny Bush their consent on the nomination. But the heavyhanded attempts to mess up foreign relation policy are very good reason. Additionaly

the committee is examining fresh allegations that Bolton misused or hyped flawed intelligence against Syria, China and Iran.

Add to this the already proven Bolton WMD lies on Iraq and Cuba and you can tell that no future word this man may utter would be taken as serious fact or likely intelligence by friends or foes.

Bolton is a uncontrollable firebrand who throws lighted matches at any gas station he passes. He can not be trusted to run any responsible foreign relations position.

The grownup Republicans in the SFRC must now ask Bolton to step away from the UN job.

They should offer him an ambassadorship in McMurdo. Thinking again – the possible  consequences of accelerated glacier melting should raise serious concerns on even that nomination.

WASHINGTON (NYT/RBN), April 23 – A new federal policy will make it significantly more difficult for Medicare beneficiaries to obtain hearings in person before a judge when the government denies their claims for home care, nursing home services, prescription drugs and other treatments.

Cont. reading: MediCare Claim Hearing

News, views and visions …

The counter on Helena Cobban’s site says

82 days since Iraqis elected an Assembly with a UIA-list majority, without a government accountable to that Assembly being allowed to take power.

Meanwhile longtime CIA asset’s Allawi list refuses to join Iraq cabinet without five posts

Cont. reading: Cost-Effective, Humane, Even Thrilling

V.  End Game

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IV.  Stormy Weather

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III.  The Good German

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II.  Unintentional Irony

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I.  Indecent Exposure

.. So it occurred to me that maybe the media megamonsters are trying to deposit some journalistic capital in the First Republican Bank of Congress, in hopes of being able to write checks on it when and if the FCC launches its crackdown. Who knows? Sucking up to the Bible fedayeen with a little prime time rapture might also pay dividends down the road. ..

by lorraine

My name is Lorraine and I am an addict.

These simple words, and a hell of a lot of hard work, have saved my life–hell, given me a life, a life that was lost to me for several years while I struggled with the effects of a debilitating neck injury that caused incessant pain. In part one of this diary, I want to talk about personal addiction. In part ii, I want to talk about the politics of addiction. 

I remember what the pain felt like, because I wrote about it one night, while in its toxic embrace:

Cont. reading: On Pain, Addiction, and Powerlessness