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May 23, 2005
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The rude pundit has decided she is not rude enough in her phantasies and delivered a piece of reality.
Alas, Hogan’s Heroes. And poor LeBeau. He never stood a chance. The second that Sgt. Schultz discovered the receiver in the coffee pot and then sputtered a report to Colonel Klink, who then discovered the comically obvious bugs in his office, LeBeau’s fate was sealed. But there was so much to go through before the sweet kiss of death finally sucked the last breath from the ill-fated Frenchman.
Sure, when Klink called Col. Hogan to his office, Hogan expected to do the usual song and dance – flatter Klink, make implicit threats about the Commandant’s status within the Luftwaffe, plant yet one more bug, wink at Helga, Klink’s big-titted secretary (would Hogan have it any other way?), head back to quarters, and send more messages to the Allies about Nazi plans. Except not this time. No, when Hogan entered Klink’s office, the monocle was off and Gestapo Officer Hochestetter was there with two big guards. Hogan wasn’t sure what happened when the first rifle butt hit him in the nose, but the next thing he knew, his clothes were being cut off him and a hood was being placed on his head. He heard the Germans laughing at his cold, frightened, shriveled cock, disappearing like a turtle head into his body. Then Hogan made his biggest mistake.
Every other time Hogan had invoked the Geneva Convention (for instance, “Colonel Klink, I must protest as a violation of the Geneva Convention the private interrogation of my men by a Gestapo officer”), Klink had crumbled like a house of cards. But when he tried this time, he was slammed face down on the Klink’s desk as the Commandant exhaled a frustrated, “Hooogannnn. I’ll show you what we think of the Geneva Convention.” And then Hogan heard a thick sheaf of papers being rolled tightly. Well, this is poetic, Hogan thought, just before he felt the searing pain of the Geneva Conventions being shoved into his ass. Schultz protested briefly, but Klink asked the bumbling Sergeant what he would say to any investigators.
“I see noth-ink,” he exclaimed. “I see noth-ink.”
Hogan would not crack. He would not give up the names of anyone who had collaborated with him to enable the Allies to stop so many attacks, so many Nazi plans. By the time they threw him into the freezing cold cell, near the cells where LeBeau, Klinch, Newkirk, and Carter cowered, all naked, all chained into forced kneeling positions, Hogan had been beaten repeatedly, he’d had electrodes attached to his nutsack, he’d been half-drowned over and over, but he wouldn’t give them a name. Even when they raped him with Klink’s swagger stick, Hogan stayed true to his men, his mission.
God, the way the months progressed after that. The dogs they used on Klinch, the way they bundled Newkirk and Carter up in the middle of the night and sent them to Nazi areas of Northern Africa, where they would be tortured and mutilated until they gave up every bit of info they had and lied about so, so much more. How many times can you be hung by your ankles, had your balls pressed in a makeshift vice, your asshole probed with broomsticks, snakes, and ballpeen hammers, how much can you take until you are willing to say anything, sign anything, consign your family to death. Carter lasted about six months until the poor, dim bastard didn’t have anything else to make up and he took one electric shock too many. It was worse for Newkirk. He lived until just about the end of the war, when, in a panic, the Gestapo sold him to a caravan of lonely Bedouins.
But LeBeau. The Gestapo decided to use LeBeau as a way to soften up Hogan, that tough motherfucker. They screamed at him, kept him awake for three, four days at a time. They forced him to stand for hours and hours and every time he fell, they would kick him in the side of his leg. They’d chain him by his arms and legs, a modified rack, and force him to sing “Deutschland Uber Alles,” to call himself a “filthy Jew,” and more. When he’d shit himself, they’d force him to roll around in his own shit and then hose him off with freezing water. They would take him down occasionally, to show him to Hogan, to question him some more. LeBeau would twitch, his muscles stretched to uselessness, uncontrollable. The twitching would enrage his interrogators, and they would beat him more. When Schultz finally started beating him, LeBeau just gave up. His official cause of death was a heart attack, caused by blood clots from all the torture. C’est la vie, eh?
Hogan was sent home after the war. When he is asleep, when he is awake, he hears screams, from his men, from himself. Fifty years of screams. And he thinks he’s lucky.
Remember: Hogan’s Heroes were guilty. They committed espionage. They thwarted the Germans every chance they could. The Germans in this version were being good soldiers, according to the paradigm the Bush administration has created. They were trying to stop imminent attacks on their own men. Hogan and the other prisoners wouldn’t have given up any information if the niceties of the Geneva Convention had been followed, right?
And if they had been innocents, if LeBeau had simply been driving past Stalag 13, delivering wine, well, that’s just collateral damage. It’s a shame, but, god, don’t you understand the price we must pay to sleep safely at night?
moon is like a large famiy
after we have understood in one way or another the absence of outraged & deanander – i have become a bit concerned over the absence of jérôme – i hope it is just his working wya from the computer & not any bad news on the home front
outraged & deander should feel free to rest amongst us & speak even if you are feeling frail – i doubt if you feel anywhere near as melancholic as i do at the current sate of affairs
i too had troube going through nyt article b offered – it felt so dirty – so shameful – & knowing that the muders & tortures spoken of reflect only on what is obvioussly many many more cases of the same nature
we are witnessing a war of anhilation of arab peoples – they are treated as if they are worth less than goats – their culture, their faith, their patrimoine is treated so profanely as to destabilise the best of minds
i imagine that most of us feel fragile when what is required is strength & resistance
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 23 2005 22:29 utc | 2
Posted by: annie | May 23 2005 22:30 utc | 3
annie
All they need is a pick-me-up terrorist attack. yup.
Posted by: slothrop | May 23 2005 22:38 utc | 4
i think that is one of the saddest reflections because it is true – another event of that nature will oblige the necessary narrative conventions that this criminal administration & its friends depend upon
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 23 2005 22:41 utc | 5
sending laura over w/ her susan b anthony blouse didn’t seem to have the desired effet.
Posted by: annie | May 23 2005 22:49 utc | 6
I was just about to post the link to the approval ratings that annie posted… and was going to comment about a new wave of “terrorism” being on the horizon to “unite the people” as slothrop did…
If there’s any evidence that I needed that I was preaching to the choir…
Posted by: Monolycus | May 23 2005 22:54 utc | 8
slothrop
i forget whether you read french but there is a very good book that has passed my eyes here – short but maigisterial ;
grammaire de la multitude (pour une analyse des formes de vie contemporaines) – paolo virno – éditions de l’éclat & conjunctures – 2002 – a filtering of sorts very influence by our friend w benjamin
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 23 2005 23:42 utc | 9
I refer you to this obit for Paul Ricoeur. I hope his death reawakens an interst in his works.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1490178,00.html
Posted by: theodor | May 23 2005 23:44 utc | 10
cnn say some agreement has been reached re filibuster – i hope it is not one more episode of the gutlessness of the democrats
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 24 2005 0:00 utc | 11
apparently the deal includes confirming owens. hideous.
Posted by: annie | May 24 2005 0:16 utc | 12
as i sd annie, gutlessness of staggering dimensions
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 24 2005 0:39 utc | 13
i don’t think the dems had any choice but to compromise
“If the cloture vote fails, Frist would use some parliamentary maneuvering, with help from Vice President Dick Cheney as the body’s presiding officer, to get a vote on a procedural motion (nuclear option)that would effectively limit debate on a judicial nominee, Such a procedural motion would NOT be subject to debate and presumably would pass with a simple majority of 51 votes, instead of the three-fifths supermajority required for cloture on a filibuster.
Once that happens, the Senate would set a time to vote on Owen’s nomination, which would require only a simple majority for confirmation.”
so either way owens would have made it to the appeals court. at least the filibuster is still intact for the supremes, (probaly a showdown this summer) and now that the abortion issue is up for debate AGAIN this fall, i don’t really know what choice the dems had on this one. anyway you look at it we got screwed. but i don’t think gutless applies here. unless you’re talking about all those gutless moderate rethugs that are just too afraid to cross the leader.
Posted by: annie | May 24 2005 1:26 utc | 14
A bit more on the proposed political disenfranchisement of Europeans that masks itself as the “EU Consitution” – rather as in xUS the “Clear Skies Iniative” that expands air pollution:
Resisting the Latest Version of “European Construction” Vive La France?
The method is simplicity itself. It consists in isolating political processes from the influence of the citizenry, by entrusting a maximum of decisions to a non-elected bureaucracy which is not answerable to any parliament, but which is open to the influence of every possible private pressure group (including certain NGOs). European construction boils down to transferring State power to a super-privileged bureaucracy which preaches to others the purest economic liberalism. Elections can go on being held, but they are of no importance, because no serious political alternative can be proposed, no “New Deal”, no “structural reform”, no “common programme of the left”, no “Italian way to socialism”. Competition and the free market are the only prospects on the horizon now and forever. And, as in the United States, people vote more and more with their feet by avoiding the ballot box, or else vote for whoever seems to be most hated by those in power (Le Pen for instance).
Bet that Americans are over there as we write, making sure Europeans are up-to-date in election rigging!
Posted by: jj | May 24 2005 1:26 utc | 15
Well, while I don’t like the compromise, it come down to the rethugs were losing the battle and took what they could get. Owens is another Texas moron and the last thing the US needs is more Texans in positions of decision making.
I do believe the Dems won the debate though.
Posted by: jdp | May 24 2005 1:27 utc | 16
Hard to see just yet what the implications are, I think, or whether it will hold together, particularly when it comes to the Supreme Court. Owens, Brown and Pryor get voted on but no guarantees on the others. Reid (who likely did not have the votes) is declaring victory, as is Frist, but in Frist’s case it’s not very believable. It does make Frist look bad in the eyes of Dobson et al. and may trigger a fracture within the Repugs. The right-wing blogs are absolutely outraged, while the left is divided.
Posted by: liz | May 24 2005 1:52 utc | 17
Anyone have any idea what’s up with Billmon? Nothing since 5/16 (great posts).
I can’t figure out whether to be depressed or relieved about the compromise–my stomach is still doing flip-flops about this horror show. I really feared the Rethugs running roughshod over our rights, upcoming legislation, Supreme Court nominations. I foresaw the destruction of any cooperation in the Senate, perhaps of our Republic. I dread more radical judges–which will increase distrust of the judciary and the justice system. May seem overdramatic, but I really fear what’s happening under BushCo and the Rethugs.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 24 2005 2:24 utc | 18
U.S. Propaganda a Prelude to Attack, Pyongyang Says
North Korea’s party mouthpiece, Rodong Sinmun, charges that it is standard procedure for Washington to attack the image of nations it intends to target for aggression and/or invasion.
May 22, 2005
I am utterly astonished at finding myself in agreement with the DPRK propagandists … a strangely surreal and unfamiliar world … a former sense of security derived from an ‘orderded’ or known global reality now seems to be little more than shifting sand beneath ones feet … then again the most effective propaganda is based on known truths …
Posted by: Outraged | May 24 2005 7:56 utc | 19
Democrats may extend Iraq war memo probe to London
U.S. congressmen are investigating the British government’s role in helping to prepare for the war in Iraq.
Senior Democrats in Congress are considering sending a delegation to London to investigate Britain’s role in the preparations for the war, which was launched in March 2003. They have seized on a leaked Downing Street memo, first published three weeks ago by The Sunday Times, as evidence American lawmakers were misled about Bush’s intentions in Iraq.
A group of 89 Democrats from the House of Representatives has written to President George W. Bush to ask whether the memo is accurate. It recounts a discussion between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his military and intelligence advisers about the Bush administration’s views in July 2002, three months before Congress authorized the White House to go to war with Iraq.
The Democrats’ letter, drafted by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, said the memo raised troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war as well as the integrity of your own administration, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
’They (the Republicans) are trying desperately to wait it out and hope that nobody will bring this up,’ Conyers said. ’But this thing will not be snuffed out.’
Posted by: Outraged | May 24 2005 8:07 utc | 20
Cloture Compromise – the Senate did what it has historically done – compromise. Nothing here that is new or unique. Let’s see what happens in the future.
Posted by: Dismayed | May 24 2005 8:38 utc | 21
Jérôme seems to be off posting with his fancy new friends at Daily Kos and the Booman Tribune. 🙂
I think he may have decided that his posts here were boring us.
So, Tony, what did selling you soul to Bush get you?.
Tony Blair is considering flying to Washington in a bid to rescue his ambitious G8 agenda on Africa and climate change, Downing Street acknowledged yesterday.
Mr Blair has not seen President George Bush since last year, but his aides recognise he is facing serious resistance to the government’s plans to help Africa – to be tabled at the G8 summit in Gleneagles starting July 6.
Bubbles Greenspan – so sez the Wall Street Journal
From today´s Wall Street Journal (no link, behind subscription wall)
A grozing number of people are tapping into their home equity to invest in more real estate.
That´s like using a margin account to buy stocks
…
Many Americans are incredibly reckless in assuming that real estate prices will keep rising or, at worst, flatten out. It´s a classic phenomenon you expect to see in a speculative bubble
…When will the frenzy die down? “The way the consumer operates, they usually don´t back away from winners until they become losers”
An interesting take on Iraq in the LA Times. It confirms my reading of the “four big bases” as retreat.
Insurgents Flourish in Iraq’s Wild West
U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad agree that Al Anbar province — the vast desert badlands stretching west from the cities of Fallouja and Ramadi to the lawless region abutting the Syrian border — remains the epicenter of the country’s deadly insurgency.
…
“You can’t get all the Marines and train them on a single objective, because usually the objective is bigger than you are,” said Maj. Mark Lister, a senior Marine air officer in Al Anbar province. “Basically, we’ve got all the toys, but not enough boys.”
…
Just three battalions of Marines are stationed in the western part of the province, down from four a few months ago. Marine officials in western Al Anbar say that each of those battalions is smaller by one company than last year, meaning there are approximately 2,100 Marines there now, compared with about 3,600 last year.
Some U.S. military officers in Al Anbar province say that commanders in Baghdad and the Pentagon have denied their repeated requests for more troops.
“[Commanders] can’t use the word, but we’re withdrawing,” said one U.S. military official in Al Anbar province, who asked not to be identified because it is the Pentagon that usually speaks publicly about troop levels. “Slowly, that’s what we’re doing.”
…
“It’s an extremely frustrating fight,” said Maj. Steve White, operations director for the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment. “Fighting these guys is like picking up water. You’re going to lose some every time.”
A military news release declared the mission a success, saying that U.S. troops had killed more than 125 insurgents. Nine Marines were killed and 40 were wounded during the operation.
Yet as soon as the operation concluded, the Marines crossed back over the Euphrates River and left no U.S. or Iraqi government presence in the region — generally considered a major mistake in counterinsurgency warfare.
“It’s classically the wrong thing to do,” said Kalev Sepp, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., who last fall was a counterinsurgency advisor to Army Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. general in Iraq. “Sending 1,000 men north of the Euphrates does what? Sometimes these things can be counterproductive, because you just end up shooting things up and then leaving the area.”
…
“The right thing to do would have been to sweep the area with U.S. troops, and hold it with Iraqi troops,” said a military official and counterinsurgency expert at the Pentagon who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not an official Pentagon spokesman.
Yet, there were no Iraqi troops to leave in the area. Just one platoon of Iraqi troops is stationed in the far west Al Anbar province, garrisoned at a phosphate plant in the town of Qaim. But those troops were on leave during the week of Operation Matador, taking their paychecks home to their families.
…
At the same time, the official said he expected it would take years to finish the job.
“If we can win this thing in six years, we’re setting new land speed records,” he said.
More of the free-market will save the world crap.
Can someone please tell me who provides the intellectual cover for this nonsense? Is Friedman a good candidate? Who should I read so that I too can develop a belief that the free-market is an all powerful force that will bring us all to the promised land, where the inhabitants will throw flowers at our feet?
NIALL FERGUSON: Cowboys and Indians
…How, then, did the British crush the insurgency of 1920? Three lessons stand out.
The first is that, unlike the American enterprise in Iraq today, they had enough men. In 1920, total British forces in Iraq numbered around 120,000, of whom around 34,000 were trained for actual fighting. During the insurgency, a further 15,000 men arrived as reinforcements.
Coincidentally, that is very close to the number of American military personnel now in Iraq (around 138,000). The trouble is that the population of Iraq was just over three million in 1920, whereas today it is around 24 million. Thus, back then the ratio of Iraqis to foreign forces was, at most, 23 to 1. Today it is around 174 to 1. To arrive at a ratio of 23 to 1 today, about one million American troops would be needed…
…The Americans’ other problem has to do with timing and expectations. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has said that American forces should aim to work to a “10-30-30” timetable: 10 days should suffice to topple a rogue regime, 30 days to establish order in its wake, and 30 more days to prepare for the next military undertaking. I am all in favor of a 10-30-30 timetable – provided the measurement is years, not days. For it may well take around 10 years to establish order in Iraq, 30 more to establish the rule of law, and quite possibly another 30 to create a stable democracy…
…YES, as that anonymous officer said, the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq could indeed still fail. But too few American liberals seem to grasp how high the price will be if it does. That is a point, unfortunately, that also eludes most of this country’s allies. Does it also elude the secretary of defense? If “10-30-30” are the numbers that concern him, I begin to fear that it does. The numbers that matter right now are 174 to 1. That is not only the ratio of Iraqis to American troops. It is starting to look alarmingly like the odds against American success.
Posted by: Greco | May 24 2005 13:08 utc | 29
Any of you intelligent and erudite folks want to take a crack at deconstructing this:
Liberal Democracy vs. Transnational Progressivism: The Ideological Civil War Within the West The reason I bring this up is because for the life of me, I am trying to understand what the hell is going on, and all I seem to keep coming up against over and over is that we are in a full scale full on paradigmatic, ideological and philosophical war. With full assaults on the ideals OF The Enlightenment , the New Deal, Science and Education the Enviroment and on and on…
I value and respect the minds here and would love to see you guys and gals deconstruct this article and help me understand it.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 24 2005 15:08 utc | 30
Eight American soldiers killed in Iraq
Insurgent attacks during the past 24 hours have killed eight U.S. soldiers in Iraq, the military said Tuesday.
Three soldiers died in a car bombing in central Baghdad on Tuesday and a fourth — who was manning an observation post — was killed by a drive-by gunman, Task Force Baghdad spokesman, Maj. Darryl Wright said.
Four other American soldiers were killed by a bomb on Monday, the military said. They were assigned to the 155th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force.
The explosive “detonated near their vehicle” in fighting in Haswa, south of Baghdad.
… and some hundred Iraqis not worth the headlines
“or lowering the (historically high) educational requirements demanded by military recruiters. ”
this absurd sentence was a solution to attracting more military in that article greco linked to.
exactly what historically high requirements could he be alluding to.
Posted by: annie | May 24 2005 16:39 utc | 32
Nuclear Weapon Effects Calculator
This interactive tool illustrates the devastating effects of a nuclear weapon detonation in selected U.S. cities. The size of the weapon and the height at which it is detonated are the two main factors which affect the range of destruction. The size of the bomb can be chosen by selecting the weapon’s yield, as measured in kilotons (KT) or megatons (MT) of TNT equivalent. There is also the option of having the bomb delivered using an automobile at ground level or using an aircraft flying at an altitude which produces the widest area of destruction.
Posted by: b real | May 24 2005 17:01 utc | 33
This somehow makes me grin:
US flips its lid over ‘middle finger’ tag
India-born PepsiCo president Indra Nooyi, one of Fortune’s most powerful businesswomen, anointed America the “middle finger” of the world in a speech to Columbia Business School’s graduating students.
…
In her speech, Nooyi attributed fingers to the other continents, none of whose proponents have reacted in cyberspace: the thumb for Asia, strong and powerful and looking to turn into a bigger global player; Europe, the index finger, pointing the way; South America, the ring finger to symbolize love and sensuality; Africa, the little finger, small and insignificant but when it is injured, the entire hand hurts.
Nooyi described the US as the middle and biggest finger.
She didn´t mean it that way, but somehow that middle-finger will stick.
WMD & guitars
“America is very powerful militarily, but culture is the strongest spoke of the wheel,” he added. “I’m blessed to have a hand in both camps.”
Like we say: we have the art. They have Steely Dan, the I wanna lil’ girl band.
Posted by: slothrop | May 24 2005 17:06 utc | 35
This was to be expected
Foes of Evolution Set Sights on New Target: Gravity
If a group of concerned parents gets its way, high school physics students may soon be required to learn about alternative explanations of gravity. The parents say that a one-sided focus on Newton’s so-called universal law of gravitation is unfair to students who don’t believe in gravity. If they prevail, physics teachers may be forced to read a statement acknowledging that our understanding of gravity is just a theory.
🙂
hah. thanks slothrop. what a fool believes, indeed. “The bad guys are more afraid of music than they are of guns and bombs. Everybody who plays music is a freedom fighter.”
Posted by: b real | May 24 2005 17:16 utc | 37
I tried your game out b real.
Wasn’t much fun.
Stops at 4 megaton yield.
Posted by: Spanky Ham | May 24 2005 18:09 utc | 38
To drown headline A, launch headline B
A: Nine American troops killed in Iraq
B: Al-Zarqawi injured, says Web statement
An hour after my last comment above, the Washington Post website has changed its headline from “Seven killed in Iraq” (they had the wrong count) to “Web Report Says Zarqawi Hurt”.
Posting purportedly by one of the leaders of his insurgent organization indicates he’s been injured
– is more important than dead troops. Quite patriotic.
The New Yorker debunks Intelligent Design in detail:
DEVOLUTION
Biologists aren’t alarmed by intelligent design’s arrival in Dover and elsewhere because they have all sworn allegiance to atheistic materialism; they’re alarmed because intelligent design is junk science. Meanwhile, more than eighty per cent of Americans say that God either created human beings in their present form or guided their development. As a succession of intelligent-design proponents appeared before the Kansas State Board of Education earlier this month, it was possible to wonder whether the movement’s scientific coherence was beside the point. Intelligent design has come this far by faith.
b & jérôme
looking quite bad here for the ‘yes’ on sunday
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 24 2005 22:04 utc | 42
In case anyone missed this last time around, Council of Canadians has reposted the summary of the first meeting of the Task Force on the Future of North America, organized jointly by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE), the Council on Foreign Relations and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations.
Can’t merge w/Mexico, if Americans have pensions now can we?? link
Happily, the Canadians led by the Great Maude Barlow, are fighting back. After holding hearings for citizens throughout Canada, they will be releasing a report challenging the Elite plans. It’s unclear when from the site, which claims an April release.
Posted by: jj | May 25 2005 5:35 utc | 43
U.S. Department of Defense worker charged again in secrecy case
A Defense Department analyst already accused of disclosing classified information was charged again yesterday, this time with possessing classified documents concerning Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and Iraq, the Justice Department announced.
The new criminal complaint says 83 classified documents dating back three decades — including 38 marked Top Secret — were found in a search of Lawrence Franklin’s West Virginia home. They included three CIA documents on al Qaeda, a CIA memo on Iraq and several government reports on terrorism. It is unclear why Franklin would have had them in his possession or taken them home….
….The formal charges did not reveal who received the information, but federal law enforcement sources have said that Franklin disclosed the material to former top officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, one of the most influential lobbying organizations in Washington. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing….
Posted by: Nugget | May 25 2005 5:55 utc | 44
U.S. military deaths on the increase in Iraq – 14 in three days
Posted by: beq | May 25 2005 11:44 utc | 45
beq, but don’t forget Al-Zarqawi wounded, saw this on CNN this morning. I just watched for 10 Minutes, it was all about Zarqawi maybe hurt, nothing about the other deaths or hurt. Well, after watching for 10 Minutes I decided I still do not need a tv.
I start to admire this man, or maybe better his physician who must be a real miracle man, as Zarqawi seems to get hurt almost every week.
Posted by: Fran | May 25 2005 12:35 utc | 46
😉
Thought about replacing my tv last week and just couldn’t do it.
Posted by: beq | May 25 2005 13:00 utc | 47
China, New Land of Shoppers, Builds Malls on Gigantic Scale
DONGGUAN, China – After construction workers finish plastering a replica of the Arc de Triomphe and buffing the imitation streets of Hollywood, Paris and Amsterdam, a giant new shopping theme park here will proclaim itself the world’s largest shopping mall.
A partly completed section of the South China Mall in Dongguan. The developers traveled abroad for two years in search of the right model.
The South China Mall – a jumble of Disneyland and Las Vegas, a shoppers’ version of paradise and hell all wrapped in one – will be nearly three times the size of the massive Mall of America in Minnesota. It is part of yet another astonishing new consequence of the quarter-century economic boom here: the great malls of China.
Not long ago, shopping in China consisted mostly of lining up to entreat surly clerks to accept cash in exchange for ugly merchandise that did not fit. But now, Chinese have started to embrace America’s modern “shop till you drop” ethos and are in the midst of a buy-at-the-mall frenzy.
Already, four shopping malls in China are larger than the Mall of America. Two, including the South China Mall, are bigger than the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, which just surrendered its status as the world’s largest to an enormous retail center in Beijing. And by 2010, China is expected to be home to at least 7 of the world’s 10 largest malls.
Chinese are swarming into malls, which usually have many levels that rise up rather than out in the sprawling two-level style typical in much of the United States. Chinese consumers arrive by bus and train, and growing numbers are driving there. On busy days, one mall in the southern city of Guangzhou attracts about 600,000 shoppers.
Posted by: Fran | May 25 2005 13:00 utc | 48
A sign in front of Danieltown Baptist Church, located at 2361 U.S. 221 south reads “The Koran needs to be flushed,” and the Rev. Creighton Lovelace, pastor of the church, is not apologizing for the display.
“About Friday or Saturday we will have a new sign,” he said. “It should state to some effect ‘Where are your treasures? Are they at the flea market or are they in heaven?'”
Lovelace said that he does not have anything against the flea market that recently opened up down the street from the church.
busy, busy, busy.
Posted by: beq | May 25 2005 14:37 utc | 50
Thanks for the cartoon tip, b.
And now a fine Bosh quote from the AllSpinZone
“If you’ve retired, you don’t have anything to worry about — third time I’ve said that. (Laughter.) I’ll probably say it three more times. See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. (Applause.)”
fine catch by Richard Brain
Posted by: citizen | May 25 2005 17:47 utc | 52
Or as one of bitchphd’s subs noted:
Seriously, what is wrong with this guy?
From NPR this morning, quotes from a stop on the President’s bamboozlepalooza social security tour, talking with the regular folks:
GWB: “I like explaining the situation”….
GWB: “You are Audrey Ciblensky.”
AC: “That’s right. I’m a 70 year old widow.”
GWB: “Don’t ever say your age.”
AC: “Oh, I have no problem. Don’t ask me my weight.”
GWB: “he he”
GWB: “You look great. You look like 100 to me.”
GWB: “That’s where you are going to be. 30 more years.”
The question stands.
Posted by: citizen | May 25 2005 17:52 utc | 53
“If you’ve retired, you don’t have anything to worry about…”
iow: If you’re not retired, you do have something to worry about…
oh, my head.
Posted by: beq | May 25 2005 18:00 utc | 55
found this one at mark crispin miller’s blog:
Chrysler workers on OT for big order – U.S. military wants 19,000 minivans, 5,000 Pacificas
A huge U.S. military order for 24,000 minivans and Pacificas means DaimlerChrysler Canada employees can work overtime most Saturdays, holidays and even some Sundays until mid-July if they want to.
Company sources say the U.S. armed forces have ordered 19,000 minivans and 5,000 Pacificas for use as light-duty vehicles in the U.S., Iraq and elsewhere in the world. It is believed the light gasoline-powered vehicles will replace the diesel-powered Humvees in use as light personnel carriers on U.S. bases around the world to reduce fuel consumption.
The U.S. military has been increasingly concerned about fuel consumption in recent years, and its commanders have complained publicly that the diesel-guzzling Humvee is extremely inefficient in non-combat use to ferry a few soldiers at a time around base.
Ten thousand of the minivans — all gold-coloured — will be built at the Chrysler Group’s St. Louis assembly plant, 9,000 at the Windsor plant. Windsor is the sole source of the Pacifica, so its employees get to fill the lion’s share of the order, 14,000 vehicles.
Posted by: b real | May 25 2005 18:11 utc | 56
Federal Bureau of Investigation, 01 Aug 02
(deleted) interview at Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay Navel Station on 22 JUL 02 and on 29 JUL 02, by Special Agent (SA) (deleted) FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
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Prior to his capture, (deleted) had no information against the United States. Personally, he has nothing against the United States. The guards in the detention facility do not treat him well. Their behaviour is bad. About five month ago, the guards beat the detainees. They flushed a Koran in the toilet. .. The guards dance around when the detainees are trying to pray. The guards still do these things.
FBI Records (PDF) released to ACLU, Page 3878-3881
see also: ACLU press release
A report in yesterday’s Washington Post said the new bases would be constructed around existing airfields to ensure supply lines and troop mobility. It named the four probable locations as: Tallil in the south; Al Asad in the west; Balad in the center and either Irbil or Qayyarah in the north.
Posted by: slothrop | May 25 2005 20:59 utc | 58
Iraq Partition/Federalism
Busting Iraq into pieces is good for the Bush Doctrine.
Posted by: slothrop | May 25 2005 21:04 utc | 59
JUST WHAT EVERY IRAQI NEEDS: A BIBLE
Enough is enough for the Christian community in Iraq. The head of Iraq’s largest Christian community, Patriarch Emmanuel Delly, recently scathingly attacked the evangelical Christians who have taken their crusade to Iraq since the illegal U.S. invasion of March 2003.
Delly told Al-Jazeera News on May 19 that Iraq did not need Christian missionaries because its churches dated back long before Protestantism. He objected to the aspect of trying to convert Muslims and said, “You can’t even talk about that here.”
According to Delly, the evangelicals attract poor youths with displays of money and then “take them out in cars to have fun. Then, they take photos and send them here, to Germany, to the United States and say ‘look how many Muslims have become Christian.’”
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Until March 2003, Iraqi Christians and Muslims lived in peace. Neither side tried to convert the other. Even Jews lived in Iraq in harmony. But, the new Iraq is on the verge of sectarian violence that could become ugly. All because of the intervention of the U.S.
Christian evangelists who travel to Iraq to save the savages are merely taking a cue from their masters in Washington. They are so ignorant that they think Iraqis have never heard of Christ and must be taught to see the light. In reality, most Iraqi Christians and Muslims are probably more knowledgeable about Christianity’s history than the light-skinned invaders from the Florida group.
U.S. bombs and missiles destroyed the physical portion of Iraq. Now, zealous missionaries are trying to destroy the belief system of Iraq. Fortunately, for the Iraqi people, neither ploy has worked to destroy their will. Resistance works at many levels.
Posted by: Fran | May 26 2005 4:52 utc | 61
By way of BlondeSense
New Leads in the Johnny Gosch Case
Interesting in that it comes from an NBC affiliate.
A cold case is heating up. Iowa paperboy Johnny Gosch vanished without a trace in 1982. But, now, after KWWL’s story last month on Johnny’s disappearance, there is new information on the case.
…During the early morning of Septmeber 5, 1982, Johnny Gosch was kidnapped from a West Des Moines neighborhood while delivering newspapers. It was silent, quick and professional. “This man has told us that at the end of their investigation that there were 834 kids involved that were kidnapped,” says James Rothstein. He’s talking about a former CIA agent who must remain anonymous.
Posted by: beq | May 26 2005 13:20 utc | 62
Hope this is true: Amnesty takes aim at Gitmo
Amnesty International Thursday called the U.S. military’s anti-terror prison at Guantanamo Bay the “gulag of our times” and warned that American leaders may face international prosecution for mistreating prisoners.
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If U.S. officials don’t act, other countries will, warned Amnesty’s U.S. director, William Schultz. “The apparent high-level architects of torture should think twice before planning their next vacation to places like Acapulco or the French Riviera, because they may find themselves under arrest,” he said.
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“You can’t indict the boss,” Barry said. “But we have so much evidence of abuse in so many locations that to say it’s a couple of bad people here or there has lost credibility with the public.”
Posted by: Fran | May 26 2005 15:01 utc | 63
The lies that led to war by Juan Cole
From Bush’s meeting in May 2000 with Osama Siblani and 12 Republicans in a hotel room in Troy, Mich., until July 2002, his obsession with attacking Iraq never wavered. His first national security meeting was all about Iraq. He seriously considered attacking Iraq before Afghanistan after Sept. 11, and Blair had to argue him into the Afghanistan war. He had Rumsfeld ask Gen. Franks for an Iraq war plan on Nov. 27, 2001. The sense that Dearlove had, that the die had been inexorably cast by July 2002, was entirely correct.
bears repeating over and over and over
Posted by: beq | May 26 2005 17:15 utc | 64
beq – it will be repeated over & over too, w/ slight alterations to this summary:
The central crime in this pattern of crimes, the kingpin which holds them all together, is the plot for aggressive wars. The chief reason for international cognizance of these crimes lies in this fact. Have we established the Plan or Conspiracy to make aggressive war?
Certain admitted or clearly proven facts help answer that question. First is the fact that such war of aggression did take place. Second, it is admitted that from the moment the Nazis came to power, every one of them and every one of the defendants worked like beavers to prepare for some war. The question therefore comes to this: Were they preparing for the war which did occur, or were they preparing for some war which never has happened? It is probably true that in their early days none of them had in mind what month of what year war would begin, the exact dispute which would precipitate it, or whether its first impact would be Austria, Czechoslovakia, or Poland. But I submit that the defendants either knew or were chargeable with knowledge that the war for which they were making ready would be a war of German aggression. This is partly because there was no real expectation that any power or combination of powers would attack Germany. But it is chiefly because the inherent nature of the German plans was such that they were certain sooner or later to meet resistance and that they could then be accomplished only by aggression. [source]
Posted by: b real | May 26 2005 17:30 utc | 66
…” If you were to say of these men that they are not guilty, it would be as true to say that there has been no war, there are no slain, there has been no crime.
thanks, b real.
Posted by: beq | May 26 2005 17:46 utc | 67
New Iraq Security Cordon to Ring Baghdad
The government said Thursday a security cordon of 40,000 Iraqi soldiers and police will ring Baghdad starting next week in what it dubbed Operation Lightning, aimed at halting a spree of insurgent violence that has killed more than 620 people this month.
Well, 40,000, at least 10% of those ARE with the resistance. And where the hell do they get 40,000 when the last news were about some 2 or 3 batallions of reliable troops?
Quite a PR stunt – the effect will be further trouble with -sofar- harmless people that turns them into resistance fighters.
caption of the photo coming with the article linked above:
Husam Abdul-Zahra, 17, left, grieves with his friend Haidar Hussein, after Husam was wounded and two of his brothers were killed when the minibus they were travelling in was attacked near the previous al-Rasheed Camp in southeastern Baghdad Thursday, May 26, 2005. An Iraqi police official said that seven Iraqi secondhand goods vendors on the bus were shot, killing three and wounding four when American troops opened fire on the vehicle, whilst the U.S. military said it had heard a report of a bus being attacked, but did not know who was involved.
b real
yes those documents are chilling in their resonance
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 26 2005 20:16 utc | 71
Krugman on Roach and bubbles
Running Out of Bubbles
Remember the stock market bubble? With everything that’s happened since 2000, it feels like ancient history. But a few pessimists, notably Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley, argue that we have not yet paid the price for our past excesses.
I’ve never fully accepted that view. But looking at the housing market, I’m starting to reconsider.
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Some analysts still insist that housing prices aren’t out of line. But someone will always come up with reasons why seemingly absurd asset prices make sense. Remember “Dow 36,000”? Robert Shiller, who argued against such rationalizations and correctly called the stock bubble in his book “Irrational Exuberance,” has added an ominous analysis of the housing market to the new edition, and says the housing bubble “may be the biggest bubble in U.S. history”
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So what happens if the housing bubble bursts? It will be the same thing all over again, unless the Fed can find something to take its place. And it’s hard to imagine what that might be. After all, the Fed’s ability to manage the economy mainly comes from its ability to create booms and busts in the housing market. If housing enters a post-bubble slump, what’s left?
Mr. Roach believes that the Fed’s apparent success after 2001 was an illusion, that it simply piled up trouble for the future. I hope he’s wrong. But the Fed does seem to be running out of bubbles.
I seldom agree with Friedman’s column, but today he gets five points:
Just Shut It Down
Guantánamo Bay is becoming the anti-Statue of Liberty. If we have a case to be made against any of the 500 or so inmates still in Guantánamo, then it is high time we put them on trial, convict as many possible (which will not be easy because of bungled interrogations) and then simply let the rest go home or to a third country. Sure, a few may come back to haunt us. But at least they won’t be able to take advantage of Guantánamo as an engine of recruitment to enlist thousands more. I would rather have a few more bad guys roaming the world than a whole new generation.
“This is not about being for or against the war,” said Michael Posner, the executive director of Human Rights First, which is closely following this issue. “It is about doing it right. If we are going to transform the Middle East, we have to be law-abiding and uphold the values we want them to embrace – otherwise it is not going to work.”
Molly Ivins: Irony overflowing – Oil might be drying up, but Washington’s greasy as ever
AUSTIN, Texas — I often complain about the excess of irony in our national life, but this week, if you’re not begoshed by the irony surplus, you haven’t been paying attention. If we could just figure out a way to get energy out of the stuff, we’d be set for life.
Liberals for the filibuster; conservatives against it — hilarious. Pentagon loses track of more than $1 trillion, and the Army can’t find 56 airplanes, 32 tanks and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units. Not to mention Osama bin Laden. And more:
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Owen is so notorious for reading her own opinions into the law, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, then her colleague on the Texas Supreme Court, described her opinion in a parental consent case as “an unconscionable act of judicial activism.” (For further irony, see Gonzales’ subsequent attempts to deny that he was describing Owen.)
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The George Galloway hearing (OK, so it was last week). In addition to being the funniest biter-bit performance in years (if you missed it, the transcript and the video are floating around on the Internet), it was yet another victory for the Brits over the Americans when it comes to spoken English. Holy cow, what a display of pyrotechnic mastery of language. The American senators were left with so much egg on their faces they looked like a bad day at a Tyson chicken plant.
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Posted by: Fran | May 27 2005 13:56 utc | 78
Great Analysis by Robert Parry on how the US intelligence agencies and news media got the way they are today.
LINK
Posted by: Spanky Ham | May 27 2005 15:06 utc | 79
Posted by: b real | May 27 2005 18:05 utc | 80
Bar snack! and something else to think about on a long lazy weekend.
[Caution: Morford]
Posted by: beq | May 27 2005 18:44 utc | 81
friedman is a piece of shit
the only the thing he is worried about here is that the rab people own the lmeans of communication & use it & confront ‘experts’ with the facts
he is ok otherwise with the general destruction of the arab people
Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 27 2005 19:13 utc | 83
here is that article from the may 2005 issue of harpers magazine on the xtian fundies in co springs, for those who didn’t get to read the print version – Soldiers of Christ: Inside America’s most powerful megachurch
Posted by: b real | May 27 2005 20:11 utc | 84
A good omen.
Have you noticed lately that the press photos of shrub are getting more and more revealing. To day at truthout the chimp really shines through.
Posted by: Juannie | May 27 2005 20:23 utc | 85
In other words, let’s argue that the female orgasm, far from becoming obsolete and useless, is more necessary and vital than ever before, because it is the orgasm that allows us a glimpse of what lies beyond, of what we can become, of all that there is and all we want to be and all we want to become and it’s all wrapped up in a white-hot moment of transcendental moaning hope. Plus, as I understand it, they’re just tremendous amounts of fun.
great catch, beq
Which is to say, deny the power of the mystico-erotic spiritual gasp at your peril.
have a great holiday wknd
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