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June 20, 2005
Just Another OT
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BOLTON VOTE CLOTURE RESULTS
38 Oppose Cloture — 54 Favor Cloture — 60 Votes Needed to Get Cloture
That means recess appointment I guess. Lame duck at the UN from day one on.
Todays WaPo piece on Bolton was dehgrading
The prospective revival of the plutonium disposal project underlines a noticeable change since Bolton’s departure from his old job as arms control chief. Regardless of whether the Senate confirms him as U.N. ambassador during a scheduled vote today, fellow U.S. officials and independent analysts said his absence has already been felt at the State Department.
Without the hard-charging Bolton around, the Bush administration not only has moved to reconcile with Russia over nuclear threat reduction but also has dropped its campaign to oust the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and made common cause with European allies in offering incentives to Iran to persuade it to drop any ambitions for nuclear weapons.
Bolton had also resisted using the so-called New York channel for communications with North Korea, a one-on-one meeting used sporadically through Bush’s presidency and most recently revived in May. And fellow U.S. officials said Bolton had opposed a new strategic opening to India offering the prospect of sharing civilian nuclear technology, a move made in March.
ruffled feathers
“Like a moth to a flame, Democrats can’t help themselves when it comes to denigrating and demonizing Christians,” Hostettler said.
Democrats burst to their feet, pointing and shouting.
Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc., demanded that Hostettler’s words be “taken down.” That’s a rare parliamentary sanction for a breach of decorum. Had it been approved by a House vote, it would have taken away Hostettler’s right to speak for the rest of the day.
Confused murmurs rumbled through the chamber, as Republicans huddled around a stoic Hostettler and Democrats rallied around Obey.
At one point, Rep. John “Jack” Murtha, D-Pa., wandered across the aisle, put his imposing, former Marine’s frame just behind the seated Hostettler and said that he goes to church as often as Hostettler does.
Pointing into Hostettler’s face, Murtha, a Vietnam veteran, kept repeating: “Ever been to combat? Ever been to combat?” Hostettler stayed seated and Murtha walked away scowling.
Posted by: annie | Jun 21 2005 2:39 utc | 2
Rumsfeld and Zarqawi agree on Al Jazeera
Two sides at war with each other – the United States and an al Qaida-linked group in Iraq – have found a common target, the Arabic television channel Aljazeera.
If US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has accused Aljazeera of attacking the image of the US, the leader of the al Qaida-linked group Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has charged the Arabic channel of being a mouthpiece for the Americans.
Rumsfeld a few days back, for the second time this month, attacked Aljazeera’s news coverage, accusing the Arab satellite channel of pounding “day after day after day” the United States’s image.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 21 2005 3:08 utc | 3
Couldn’t destroying evidence in a case concerning national security be prosecuted as treason? Just wondering cause over at ASZ is a post that will take your breath away, get ready for the rabbit hole:
9/11 Updates: Sibel Edmonds, Porter Goss, Osama & the FBI
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 21 2005 3:36 utc | 4
Riverbend from Baghdad Burning:General Update…
What people find particularly frustrating is the fact that while Baghdad seems to be falling apart in so many ways with roads broken and pitted, buildings blasted and burnt out and residential areas often swimming in sewage, the Green Zone is flourishing. The walls surrounding restricted areas housing Americans and Puppets have gotten higher- as if vying with the tallest of date palms for height. The concrete reinforcements and road blocks designed to slow and impede traffic are now a part of everyday scenery- the road, the trees, the shops, the earth, the sky… and the ugly concrete slabs sometimes wound insidiously with barbed wire.
The price of building materials has gone up unbelievably, in spite of the fact that major reconstruction has not yet begun. I assumed it was because so much of the concrete and other building materials was going to reinforce the restricted areas. A friend who recently got involved working with an Iraqi subcontractor who takes projects inside of the Green Zone explained that it was more than that. The Green Zone, he told us, is a city in itself. He came back awed, and more than a little bit upset. He talked of designs and plans being made for everything from the future US Embassy and the housing complex that will surround it, to restaurants, shops, fitness centers, gasoline stations, constant electricity and water- a virtual country inside of a country with its own rules, regulations and government. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Republic of the Green Zone, also known as the Green Republic.
“The Americans won’t be out in less than ten years.” Is how the argument often begins with the friend who has entered the Green Republic. “How can you say that?” Is usually my answer- and I begin to throw around numbers- 2007, 2008 maximum… Could they possibly want to be here longer? Can they afford to be here longer? At this, T. shakes his head- if you could see the bases they are planning to build- if you could see what already has been built- you’d know that they are going to be here for quite a while.
The Green Zone is a source of consternation and aggravation for the typical Iraqi. It makes us anxious because it symbolises the heart of the occupation and if fortifications and barricades are any indicator- the occupation is going to be here for a long time. It is a provocation because no matter how anyone tries to explain or justify it, it is like a slap in the face. It tells us that while we are citizens in our own country, our comings and goings are restricted because portions of the country no longer belong to its people. They belong to the people living in the Green Republic.
Posted by: Fran | Jun 21 2005 4:01 utc | 5
@ Uncle $cam:
You beat me to posting the Edmonds statement.
This may be the next “old story” that is about to get
traction. My admiration for Ms. Edmonds is without limits, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were an attempt to punish her (she’s still under a court imposed “gag order”,
I believe). There seems to be more than enough here
to make both the Alger Hiss case and Watergate seem like small potatoes.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 21 2005 7:55 utc | 6
The link to Edmonds latest statement on her site is
here.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 21 2005 8:00 utc | 7
Leszek Kolakowski &
the anatomy of totalitarianism
snip:
Born in Radom, in eastern Poland, in 1927, the philosopher Leszek Kolakowski is closing in on his eightieth year. He has come a long way. He was a boy of twelve when the Nazis stormed into Poland. “I remember the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto,” he writes in “Genocide and Ideology” (1978), “which I saw from outside; I lived among Poles who were active in helping Jews and who risked their lives every day trying to save those few who could be saved from the inferno.” In 1945, the war over, he joined the Communist Party: the Communists were anti-fascist, weren’t they? (Were they?)
snip:
In 1966, after delivering a speech commemorating the tenth anniversary of the “October thaw,” he was expelled from the Party with all the usual ceremony. The state-controlled press launched a series of attacks on the renegade. He was removed from his university chair for “forming the views of the youth in a manner contrary to the official tendency of the country.” In 1968, he went into exile. His works were promptly enrolled in the Index of forbidden authors and, until 1981, could be neither referred to nor cited officially
Posted by: cdr | Jun 21 2005 8:36 utc | 8
John Hostettler hates the founding fathers and the rule of law
He forgets that he’s carrying a gun, or he sneaks guns on board planes, or he sneaks guns into D.C. where handguns are illegal. OK, he makes gun owners look bad.
Hostettler uses the same arguments to destroy the separation of powers that Stephen Douglas used to defend slavery before the Civil War.
Hostettler lied when he took his oath of office:
The oath of office required by the sixth article of the Constitution of the United States, and as provided by section 2 of the act of May 13, 1884 (23 Stat. 22), to be administered to Members, Resident Commissioner, and Delegates of the House of Representatives, the text of which is carried in 5 U.S.C. 3331:
I, Loyal Citizen of the Republic, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Posted by: citizen | Jun 21 2005 9:22 utc | 9
Boston Globe: Support The Troops
Marine Corps units fighting in some of the most dangerous terrain in Iraq don’t have enough weapons, communications gear, or properly outfitted vehicles, according to an investigation by the Marine Corps’ inspector general provided to Congress yesterday.
The report, obtained by the Globe, says the estimated 30,000 Marines in Iraq need twice as many heavy machine guns, more fully protected armored vehicles, and more communications equipment to operate in a region the size of Utah.
The Marine Corps leadership has ”understated” the amount and types of ground equipment it needs, according to the investigation, concluding that all of its fighting units in Iraq ”require ground equipment that exceeds” their current supplies, ”particularly in mobility, engineering, communications, and heavy weapons.”
Complaints of equipment shortages in Iraq, including lack of adequate vehicle armor, have plagued the Pentagon for months, but most of the reported shortages have been found in the Army, which makes up the bulk of the American occupation force.
The analysis of the Marines’ battle readiness, however, shows that the Corps is lacking key equipment needed to stabilize Al Anbar province in western Iraq. The province is where some of the bloodiest fighting has occurred in recent months between American-led coalition forces and Iraqi insurgents aided by foreign fighters who have slipped across the border.
Marine Corps forces and newly trained Iraqi soldiers battled insurgents in Al Anbar province for the fourth straight day yesterday as part of Operation Spear, launched last week along the Syrian border.
The Marine Corps’ mission, among the most difficult of the 140,000 American troops in Iraq, is to help stabilize a huge swath of Iraq where popular support for the insurgency is highest and where more sophisticated enemy tactics have been introduced, including larger and more effective improvised explosive devices, the roadside bombs that are the single biggest killer of American troops in Iraq.
But the report says that about a quarter of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force’s Humvees lack sufficient armor to protect troops against roadside bombings, including 1,000 vehicles that have yet to be fitted with armor plates to protect the undercarriage.
The report also says that if the current demands in Iraq continue, the Corps will need another 650 Humvees, which have been logging an average of 480 miles a month, mostly over rough terrain. And despite an agreement with the Army to repair broken vehicles at a maintenance facility in Kuwait, the Marine Corps had not scheduled any repairs as of last month.
Meanwhile, those Humvees that have received full armor — which the report says have significantly improved the safety of troops — are suffering excessive wear and tear because they were never designed to carry the additional weight.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jun 21 2005 15:20 utc | 10
Uncle Scam, it is true that Morgan Reynolds questioning the WTC ‘collapses’ as well as the German Tv program (7 million viewers?) presenting 9/11 as Bush’s handiwork have created a flurry. Flocco has a new article out too. Mouzdi was re-acquitted on 9 June. D. R. Griffin has been very active. And reportedly Star Wars III suggests it was an inside job (I haven’t seen it.)
Publicly expressed doubts are growing, indeed. There has even been an ‘academic’ paper on the topic! (jnl: psychohistory -> google)
However, there is no new information, just old stuff re-discovered, or re-questioned, with the exception of several new articles about ‘missed chances’ – The FBI flubbing up, the CIA asleep at the wheel, etc.
I don’t see where all this is going, though I take heart from your optimism. No whistleblowers; no evidence; families bought off then snowed under; and, most important, an incredibly strong political power that boasts of creating reality, and does.
S. Edmonds is playing it straight and legal, and keeping herself in the news, no doubt in the interest of self-preservation. It would be nice to hear in detail what she knows or even suspects but it isn’t much and it isn’t solid. (No proof.) Some of the things she says or writes don’t make too much sense, though I myself believe she is sincere.
From her statement (Hannah’s link above..)
The new translation revealed certain information regarding blueprints, pictures, and building material for skyscrapers being sent overseas (country name omitted). It also revealed certain illegal activities in obtaining visas from certain embassies in the Middle East, through network contacts and bribery.
Of course, the stuff about buildings is hogwash – either untrue or some kind of plant, or some side issue, an extra helping of concrete details (alu tubes, maps, dangerous almanachs, duct tape, etc.) supposed to stir to alarm and anger. The detail of ‘building material’ is very telling, as if the any building materials of any kind (trusses, anyone? steel beams? dralon carpets that burn?) could have been of any concern to the designated bogey-men.
The visa spiel is a reference to Visa Express Program at the Embassy in Jeddah – well known by now. Quote:
June 1, 2001, (the date that “Visa Express” began) through September 10, 2001 Total issued = 36,018
Grassley Report on Visa Express, July 2002
One example, Al Omari’s visa request:
Link
One blogger who keeps fair track of main 9/11 news without too much wrapping, for the interested.
Link
Posted by: Noisette | Jun 21 2005 16:02 utc | 11
I know I probably shouldn’t go here, but…
“I ask once again, Senator Santorum: where you between the hours of 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM on June the 5th?”
Please, let me be Mikado for a day when sentencing time comes – I’ve got some lovely details already mapped out. Including a diet to consist solely of roadkill and dog semen – which he must harvest himself, without using his hands.
(disclaimer: my outrage at the other alleged rape and molestation incidents should be considered as a given, just in case any PETA-hating trolls wander by)
Posted by: OkieByAccident | Jun 21 2005 17:43 utc | 12
A few thoughts on the DSM
That name is a disaster. These are minutes. That is important because
1 It is a legal document, like a signed witness statement or a signed affidavit. It can be submitted to a court of law as an unimpeachable record of what took place.
2 It is standard practice for the notetaker to circulate draft notes to allow those quoted to correct any mistakes. This document is the end product of this process.
3 This is a policy body meeting under the personal authority of the Prime Minister – the hallmark of Blair’s “presidential style”. The Cabinet as an institution was bypassed by this group (shades of OSP).
4 The meeting was chaired by the Prime Minister, which makes the minutes his personal property. Although Mathew Rycroft’s name appears on the copies circulated, Blair himself had first to sign the original before it was filed. “Notes” become “Minutes” once the Chairman has signed them.
5 At some point after this meeting took place, the minute taking stopped. There are no (admitted) records of Blair’s kitchen cabinet comprising three elected and ten unelected officials. Even the Butler Inquiry (another whitewash) was sufficiently disgusted to complain about Blair’s “sofa style” of government
Implications
These minutes are a signed confession for the war crimes trial. There IS an application under consideration at the ICC, and these minutes have gone straight to the top of the pile.
So you can expect NO FURTHER HELP from the British parliament and media. They are in absolute lockdown mode since the election. As for why, look at the EU summit: Blair v Chirac, Britain v Frogland. The British press are putting forward this mass-murderer as the right man to lead Europe out of its troubles!
Next month Britain takes over as President of the UN Security Council, President of the European Union and President of the Group of 8. The G8 summit will be hosted by the Queen on 5 to 7 July. Then on 10 July the Queen holds her own personal celebration for VE Day.
So it’s Basil Fawlty time. NOBODY will mention the war!
Posted by: John | Jun 21 2005 20:21 utc | 14
But what about Jennifer Anniston?
ideology wins when it is no longer able to be parodied
Posted by: slothrop | Jun 22 2005 1:55 utc | 15
it’s also a perfectly accessible feminism: woman asserts herself by massively accommodating the expectations of men for sassy bitches. jennifer anniston: you go girl.
I give up.
Posted by: slothrop | Jun 22 2005 2:57 utc | 16
Posted by: Fran | Jun 22 2005 4:07 utc | 17
Tucker Carlson interviews Scott Ritter; Has US/Iran war started?
Bush gave Geneva protections to (MEK) terrorist group
Have you heard of the Mujahideen-e Khalq? Possibly not, but they’re a Marxist Islamist terrorist organization whose goal has been to seize power in Iran since the time of the Shah. They were involved in the 1979 revolution, and by involved I mean that they bombed civilian targets to seed unrest and instigated the hostage-taking at the US embassy. After failing to win power in the aftermath, they eventually relocated to Iraq where they joined the payroll of Saddam Hussein, working for him to target civilians inside Iran to aid Hussein’s war effort, and later to help Hussein suppress the Shi’a and Kurdish uprisings. Their presence in northern Iraq was even used before the Iraq war as evidence of Hussein’s support for terrorism.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 22 2005 4:34 utc | 18
ATOL leads today (22 June) with 3 articles on terrorism and
intelligence services. It almost feels like someone is
aiming a sophisticated dis-information campaign in our direction, but that’s probably just a touch of paranoia on my part.
@ Noisette
Thanks for the deconstruction of the Sibel Edmonds’ statement. You may well be right, but until such time
as the gag order is lifted, I am definitely giving Ms. Edmonds the benefit of a doubt. There must be some reason why the lid has been clamped on so tightly, and why Dale Watson and Thomas Frields both ended up with (presumably cushy) jobs at Booz-Hamilton in Quantico, Va.
after their brilliant performance at the FBI.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 22 2005 5:51 utc | 19
Insurgents’ bombs becoming more refined, U.S. military says
David S. Cloud, New York Times
June 22, 2005 BOMB0622
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. casualties from bomb attacks in Iraq have reached new heights in the past two months, as insurgents have begun to deploy devices that leave armored vehicles increasingly vulnerable, according to military records.
There were about 700 attacks against American forces last month using improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the highest number since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the military command in Iraq and a senior Pentagon military official. Attacks on Iraqis also reached unprecedented levels, Lt. Gen. John Vines, a senior American ground commander in Iraq, said on Tuesday.
The surge in attacks, the officials say, has coincided with the appearance of significant advancements in bomb design, including the use of shaped charges that concentrate the blast and give it a better chance of penetrating armored vehicles, causing higher casualties …
Posted by: Outraged | Jun 22 2005 6:29 utc | 20
Empire Notes has an enlightening comparison of Iranian and US democratic systems.
Posted by: citizen | Jun 22 2005 6:51 utc | 21
Did my last post really get appended to Outraged’s from 2:29? Weird.
Posted by: citizen | Jun 22 2005 6:52 utc | 22
@fran
CH-53 Down
06/19/05 By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer
Videotape from a freelance cameraman working for Associated Press Television News in western Iraq Saturday showed what appeared to be the fuselage of an American-made CH-53 military helicopter sitting in a field with its rotor blades missing.
Other damage was difficult to asses in the tape, made at a considerable distance. An unidentified group of people could be seen around the fuselage. The U.S. military had no comment.
Posted by: Outraged | June 20, 2005 12:39 AM | #
Outraged – I just found out the Swiss airplane code/numbers do not include CH, but it is HB – I have no idea why.
Posted by: Fran | Jun 22 2005 7:17 utc | 23
@Hannah K. O’Luthon
The ATOL articles are probably more noteworthy for what they don’t say … Prez Carter and subsequently Reagan had the CIA fund and support the Pakistani’s and more specifically the ISI to the tune of $Billions in covert funding and specific military materiel .. the islamists supplied the cannon-fodder (i.e. lives/blood).
We used the Mujahedeen, and Al-Qaeda and Co, as proxies through a proxy (Pakistan) to give the Soviets in Afghnaistan thier own version of Vietnam from 1979-1989. Despite all our promises to the Mujahedeen we shut the US Embassy and effectively abandoned them and Afghanistan in toto within 90 days of the departure of the Soviets in 1989. Shortly thereafter, and largely through a sense of ‘betrayal’ Al-Qaeda and other Jihadi veteran organisations from Afghanistan ‘effectively’ declared war on the ‘Imperial’ US.
That decision certainly came back to bite us … especially since the ISI lost control of the Jihadi movement (supposedly), or at least a large portion of it … Pakistan is not a ‘true’ US puppet as they are a member of the ‘Nuclear’ club and have a significant capability in ‘Fourth Generation Warfare’. Many analysts believe that Iran has learnt Pakistans lesson and that’s why thier limited resources are not wasted on a large, modernised conventional military, but on specializing in unconventional warfare and posession of the ‘bomb’.
Juan Cole has a good summary here
For the declassified documents themselves on ISI and al-Qaeda see
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 97
And this is a much more ‘informative’ article from ATOL back in 2003:
Osama, oracles and opportunities
Posted by: Outraged | Jun 22 2005 7:20 utc | 24
excellent link citizen, very interesting comparisons, it reminds me of what my religious studies prof says in that “Islam is enlightenment in reverse” and moreover,reminds me of the thesis of the documentary the Power Of Nightmares; two groups so diametrically opposed that the become the same at their core. None the less, as Kieran says over at crooked timber “We find ourselves … in a situation that is hopeless but not yet desperate. The arcs of history, culture, philosophy, and science all seem to be converging on this temporal instant. … Hold on even while we accept the darkness. We know not what miracles may happen; what heroic possibilities exist. We may be only moments away from a new dawn.”
But, I’m not that optimistic.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 22 2005 7:39 utc | 25
Good summary …
October 13, 1995 issue of Executive Intelligence Review
The Anglo-American support apparatus behind the Afghani mujahideen
by Adam K. East
Following the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union in December 1979, the U.S. administration, first under Carter and then under Reagan, launched a massive support and training campaign for the Afghan freedom fighters, or “mujahideen” (holy warriors), as they came to be known. In addition to overt and covert funding operations by various U.S. governmental agencies for the mujahideen, a plethora of private “aid” agencies, think-tanks, and other odd outfits joined the fray, with the ostensible aim of helping the Afghans to liberate their nation from the clutches of the Soviet invaders.
However, a closer look at the activities of these private agencies reveals that there was much more at stake. As the profiles below show, the source of policy for most of these groups was British intelligence. As such, these groups lobbied the U.S. Congress, set up conferences, launched pro-mujahideen propaganda campaigns, and, in some cases, even provided military training for various mujahideen groups. U.S. policy toward Afghanistan, and the region, was largely determined by the aims of these “committees,” which also represented the controlling “mediators” between the mujahideen and British policy.
Some of the members and leaders of the organizations profiled below were also involved with some of the figures in the drugs-for-guns related Iran-Contra networks of then-Vice President George Bush and his sidekick Oliver North …
Posted by: Outraged | Jun 22 2005 7:43 utc | 26
Just to add to the fun: A U.S. Air Force U-2 aircraft crashed in Southwest Asia late on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
Posted by: biklett | Jun 22 2005 7:45 utc | 27
To rotate the focus a bit, this may provide some hope at least for the possibility of our lives continuing, at least if one sets aside the tyrannical economic & political elites we’re yoked to.
David Suzuki is one of the Western World’s most Beautiful & Significant People. Thank you Canada. Here’s a link to his paper Sustainability within a Generation: A new vision for Canada.
Posted by: jj | Jun 22 2005 7:49 utc | 28
Some folks now suddenly have BIG bank accounts:
Billions shipped to Iraq with few records
The U.S. government shipped nearly $12 billion in cash to the U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in the year up to June 2004, lawmakers say.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told a House panel Tuesday that the money was drawn from the proceeds of the sale of Iraqi oil held at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank.
More than $5 billion of that amount — nearly half — was flown into Iraq in the last six weeks before the United States gave Iraq back its sovereignty in June 2004, according to a report drawn up by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Government Reform.
Of that amount, $4 billion alone was rushed to Iraq in week before the handover.
The Coalition Provisional Authority had the authority to spend that money on behalf of Iraq because the United States was the occupying power.
And spend it did.
Fully $19 billion of the $23 billion then in the Development Fund for Iraq was obligated or spent in the year after Saddam Hussein was invaded. That money came on top of the $18.4 billion provided to Iraq by U.S. taxpayers for reconstruction efforts.
The money in the Development Fund for Iraq comes from oil proceeds and is supposed to be watched over by the United Nations, but the U.S. government has not provided the documentation to allow it to do so, according to the report.
@ b
Thanks for another excellent link. The more I learn,
the more corrupt it all becomes, and I didn’t start from
complete naivte’.
@ Outraged
Same comment as above. I wonder just how much control was really lost, and how much it was just a recalibration of the mission by the string-pullers. By the way, do you have any views on the connections between
Viktor Bout (and his Russian KGB-Mafia friends), Charles Taylor (and the LISCR money) and Al Qaeda? It’s all murky and soaked in criminality.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 22 2005 8:58 utc | 30
@biklett
The location of the U-2 spy plane crash is in SouthWest Asia (so is Iran), possibly in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) located at the Southern end of the Persian Gulf.
Since Iran’s Southern coastline (Image) is due North of the UAE (Image) it’s not hard to guess where it was or what it was doing before it … ‘went down’ … possibly in the UAE, maybe even in Iran itself … or trying to get back to the Taif airbase in Saudi Arabia ? …
Satellite image of the Persian Gulf.
Posted by: Outraged | Jun 22 2005 9:00 utc | 31
@Hannah K. O’Luthon
Um, alas, no.
Here’s a much better reference link on the U-2.
Posted by: Outraged | Jun 22 2005 9:08 utc | 32
Sounds like they’re busy flipping coins in the Pentagon – Iran, Syria…Syria, Iran…from the Jerusalem Post:
US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is considering provoking a military confrontation with Syria by attacking Hizbullah bases near the Syrian border in Lebanon, according to the authoritative London-based Jane’s Intelligence Digest. In an article to be published on Friday, the journal said multi-faceted US attacks, which would be conducted within the framework of the global war on terrorism, are likely to focus on Hizbullah bases in the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon. It noted that the deployment of US special forces in the Bekaa Valley, where most of Syria’s occupation forces in Lebanon are based, would be highly inflammatory and would “almost certainly involve a confrontation with Syrian troops.” Such a conflict might well prove to be the objective of the US, said the journal, which described Washington’s strategic benefits from a confrontation with Syria. …
link – scroll down to last story
Posted by: jj | Jun 22 2005 9:20 utc | 33
Um, here’s a cached link to that story from jj … dateline 22 June 2004.
The Syrian Army has since left Lebanon and therefore the Bekaa Valley and given the recent strong showing of Hizbullah and thier electoral allies in the Lebanese elections … the Lebanese reaction to a US military incursion into Lebabon ???
The Iraqi-Syrian border is still up for grabs though re provocative Ops …
Posted by: Outraged | Jun 22 2005 9:59 utc | 34
He said that the recent corporate scandals could have been prevented if CEOs were screened for psychopathic behavior. “Why wouldn’t we want to screen them?” he asked. “We screen police officers, teachers. Why not people who are going to handle billions of dollars?”
it will be a very cold day in hell before this happens.
Posted by: dan of steele | Jun 22 2005 12:07 utc | 35
Its about time and I think also a good idea. Will it help, I don’t know, however as money is involved it might.
Cancel Your Subscriptions – The Time Has Come – WE MUST STOP FUNDING THE ENEMY AND THE ENEMY IS OUR CORPORATE MEDIA! – We cannot continue to battle the beast while we finance its very existence!
Posted by: Fran | Jun 22 2005 13:16 utc | 36
Update on the U-2 crash …
The Pilot was killed in the crash, apparently as the spy plane was trying to land in Oman ?
However, the plane was identified as being from the 380th Expeditionary Airwing, supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in surveillance flights over Afghanistan … but the 380th is comprised of U-2s, RQ-4A Global Hawks and KC10 air-refueling tankers operating out of AL Dhafra Air Base, in the UAE, NOT Oman … ???
Perhaps the UAE is a little sensitive about the actual mission (Iran ?) and therefore the hosting of the U-2s ?
Posted by: Outraged | Jun 22 2005 14:06 utc | 37
Right-fucking-on Fran! This reminds me of David Brin’s ideal of using the power of our wallets and technology to regain power. His hotly debated ideals suggests that technology — instead of leading us toward domination by Big Brother — may embolden and empower a new kind of citizenship.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 22 2005 14:11 utc | 38
U-2 plane crashed in the UAE and it was part of the Afghanistan war says the New York Times.
(tip: what lies between the UAE and Afghanistan?)
From William Lind, we are losing two 4th gen wars, not just one.
Insurgents linked to the former Taliban regime have set off a wave of violence in Afghanistan, launching a string of almost daily bombings and assassinations that have killed dozens of U.S. and Afghan military personnel and civilians in recent weeks … a virtual lockdown is in effect for many of the … roughly 3,000 international residents of Kabul.
As recently as April of this year, the senior U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Barno, said he envisioned “most of (the Taliban) collapsing and rejoining the Afghan political and economic process” within a year. He seems to have projected the winter’s quiescence as a trend, forgetting that Afghan wars always shut down in wintertime, as war did everywhere until the 19th century. Afghanistan is not so much Iraq Lite as Iraq Slow, the land that forgot time. Our defeat will come slowly. But it will come.
The reason we will lose is that our strategic objective is unrealistic. Neither America nor anyone can turn Afghanistan into a modern state, aka Brave New World. In attempting to do so, we have launched broadscale assaults on Afghanistan’s rural economy and culture, guaranteeing that the Pashtun countryside will eventually turn against us. Afghan wars are decided in the countryside, not in Kabul.
He continues by describing the US war on poppie production, the staple of the Afghan rural economy, and our “assault on traditional Afghan culture” which will turn the Pashtuns against us.
Conclusion:
In consequence of these blunders, assailing rural Afghanistan’s economy and its culture, de Borchgrave reports that “Britain’s defense chiefs have advised Tony Blair ‘a strategic failure’ of the Afghan operation now threatens.” That term is precisely accurate. Our failure is strategic, not tactical, and it can only be remedied by a change in strategic objective. Instead of trying to remake Afghanistan, we need to redefine our strategic objective to accept that country as it is, always has been and always will be: a poor, primitive and faction-ridden place, dependent on poppy cultivation and proud of its strict Islamic traditions.
In other words, we have to accept that the Afghanistan we have is as good as it is going to get. Once we do that, we open the door to a steady reduction in our presence there and the reduction of Afghan affairs to matters of local importance only. That, and only that, is a realistic strategic objective in Afghanistan.
Posted by: lonesomeG | Jun 22 2005 16:35 utc | 40
Sorry to post and run, so to speak, but I woke up this morning with the first line of a song parody in my head, the rest wrote itself while I was in the shower, and it seems a pity to forget it forever, so I’m putting it here where people can read it.
(To the tune of a widely-known children’s hymn)
Jesus hates me, this I know;
Calvin’s doctrine tells me so.
Worldly wealth is in God’s hand:
I am poor, therefore I’m damned.
Yes, Jesus hates me.
Yes, Jesus hates me.
Yes, Jesus hates me:
My checkbook tells me so.
Posted by: Blind Misery | Jun 22 2005 16:36 utc | 41
Air Force Academy Watch
Air Force Chaplain Submits Resignation
An Air Force Academy chaplain who accused superiors of improperly promoting evangelical Christianity among cadets submitted her resignation from the military on Tuesday, one day before an official task force was to report on the religious climate at the campus, in Colorado Springs.
The Lutheran chaplain, Capt. MeLinda S. Morton, has said she was fired from an administrative job because of her public criticism and was ordered to deploy to Japan.
…
In an interview on Tuesday evening, Captain Morton said that she had been offered a position on the academy staff earlier in the day, but that the job would be guaranteed for only five weeks.
She said she viewed the offer as “not a particularly committed approach to addressing the problem,” and added that “given the lack of collegiality among the chaplain staff, at the end of the day it was incredibly difficult to stay.”
In a statement released Tuesday, the Air Force said the job offered to Captain Morton was “special assistant for religious respect issues.” In that role, the statement said, she would help develop “our continuing religious respect education and training programs,” as well as continue her duties as a chaplain conducting periodic worship services.
a quick drive-by
al giordano covers the ezln communiqués over at the narcosphere
the angry arab is currently blogging (and ranting) from lebanon
and pinochet’s hearing today was rescheduled to next week after being rushed to hospital yesterday after fainting
vroooommmmm
Posted by: b real | Jun 22 2005 19:08 utc | 43
The Paper Moon
By John Gorenfeld
Issue Date: 07.03.05
“[The Reverend Sun Myung] Moon’s speeches foresee an apocalyptic confrontation involving the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and North and South Korea, in which the Moon Organization would play a key role. Under these circumstances, the subcommittee believes it is in the interest of the United States to know what control Moon and his followers have over instruments of war and to what extent they are in a position to influence Korean defense policies.”
— U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee report, “Investigation of Korean-American Relations,” October 31, 1978
The Washington Times considers North Korea a “gulag state.” But funny thing: The paper’s owner considers it a great place to do business.
Posted by: beq | Jun 22 2005 19:26 utc | 44
Be interested to hear from the experts….
Does anybody think that the coming temporary oil glut will be manipulated/capitalized by the Roving Halliburtonians?
Back to business as usual. Israel revives militants assassination policy
Posted by: dan of steele | Jun 22 2005 21:49 utc | 46
“When it is defeated in Iraq, at the heart of the Middle East, it will be a death knell for terrorism as we know it.”
It’s absolutely cowardly we aim so low–that our goals attained by war cannot befit the greatness of our nation. Why not: the War on Death? Kill everyone who refuses to live forever?
Posted by: slothrop | Jun 22 2005 23:33 utc | 47
The young soldiers, trained well enough to be disciplined but encouraged to maintain their naive adolescent belief in invulnerability, have in wartime more power at their fingertips than they will ever have again. They catapult from being minimum wage employees at places like Burger King, facing a life of dead-end jobs with little hope of health insurance and adequate benefits, to being part of, in the words of the Marines, “the greatest fighting force on the face of the earth.” The disparity between what they were and what they have become is breathtaking and intoxicating. This intoxication is only heightened in wartime when all taboos are broken. Murder goes unpunished and often rewarded. The thrill of destruction fills their days with wild adrenaline highs, strange grotesque landscapes that are hallucinogenic, all accompanied by a sense of purpose and comradeship, overpowers the alienation many left behind. They become accustomed to killing, carrying out acts of slaughter with no more forethought than they take to relieve themselves. And the abuses committed against the helpless prisoners in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo are not aberrations but the real face of war. In wartime all human beings become objects, objects either to gratify or destroy or both. And almost no one is immune. The contagion of the crowd sees to that.
Chris Hedges at OnlineJournal
there’s quite a bit more, and while it may be preaching to the choir it is thoughtful, elegiac, and incisive.
We have to stop looking outside ourselves for some ‘solution’ to humanity’s race to the bottom of the primordial pool. If this world we inhabit is worth ‘saving’ it follows that there must be something good within all of us.
Not a select few that can convince enough other humans to trust them to sort it out, nor some uprising of selected individuals whose shared world view has turned them into a righteous mob, but that this ability to ‘sort it out’ should belong to each and everyone.
It is interesting that the one facet of the Anglo justice system that most people continue to have faith in and yet is continually under attack by political elites frustrated at their inability to control it, is the jury system.
Yes the jury system has been perverted many times over the years by those who seek to control its outcomes but never the less most people confronted by the might of the state imagine the best option to safeguard their rights is a jury of their peers.
One could argue about the ways that the state attempts to exclude certain ‘types’ from jury selection or even argue that the expense of jury trials prohibits any but the rich from getting a level playing field. These objections are to the machinery of the current jury system rather than to the underlying principle of trusting your fate to a group of dis-interested fellow citizens.
Therefore if one could get the ‘machinery’ of government running smoothly enough that legislators were presented with the unbiased ‘facts’ of a situation prior to making any decision, I would for one be happier with that decision being made by a random sample of my fellow citizens than I could ever be with it being made by a group of self selected, self interested individuals who professsed to share my world view.
A concept such as this is wouldn’t take any sort of revolutionary change to occur to implement. A group of citizens could publicise that this was what was needed, then take their district electoral rolls and openly and publically randomly select people from that to stand for election.
Of course some of these people would turn out to be total ratbags but fine-tuning of machinery could deal with most of this. eg people only get one term in power, really heavy and meaningful sanctions for those ‘caught at it’ combined with a system of recall for the obviously corrupt.
A truly independent and professional public service would also be required but this wouldn’t be that difficult once all the poltical appointees had been purged. People would see the merits of this sort of system of governance and it wouldn’t be that difficult at all to sell most on the virtues of doing the right thing. Hell if people can be sold on the concept of the sanctity of a piece of dyed cloth how difficult would it be for them to grasp that acts of abuse of power are self destructive and anti-social.
Pshaw! Blind idealism I hear the cynics cry. Well as our species ‘progresses’ we have been developing more and more sophisticated methods of determining the ‘will of the people’. Each refinement appears to make the system more corrupt and less responsive to ordinary citizens. Time to simplify and reduce rather than dissect and refine I reckon.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Jun 23 2005 0:40 utc | 49
We have to stop looking outside ourselves for some ‘solution’ to humanity’s race to the bottom of the primordial pool. If this world we inhabit is worth ‘saving’ it follows that there must be something good within all of us.
Not a select few that can convince enough other humans to trust them to sort it out, nor some uprising of selected individuals whose shared world view has turned them into a righteous mob, but that this ability to ‘sort it out’ should belong to each and everyone.
It is interesting that the one facet of the Anglo justice system that most people continue to have faith in and yet is continually under attack by political elites frustrated at their inability to control it, is the jury system.
Yes the jury system has been perverted many times over the years by those who seek to control its outcomes but never the less most people confronted by the might of the state imagine the best option to safeguard their rights is a jury of their peers.
One could argue about the ways that the state attempts to exclude certain ‘types’ from jury selection or even argue that the expense of jury trials prohibits any but the rich from getting a level playing field. These objections are to the machinery of the current jury system rather than to the underlying principle of trusting your fate to a group of dis-interested fellow citizens.
Therefore if one could get the ‘machinery’ of government running smoothly enough that legislators were presented with the unbiased ‘facts’ of a situation prior to making any decision, I would for one be happier with that decision being made by a random sample of my fellow citizens than I could ever be with it being made by a group of self selected, self interested individuals who professsed to share my world view.
A concept such as this is wouldn’t take any sort of revolutionary change to occur to implement. A group of citizens could publicise that this was what was needed, then take their district electoral rolls and openly and publically randomly select people from that to stand for election.
Of course some of these people would turn out to be total ratbags but fine-tuning of machinery could deal with most of this. eg people only get one term in power, really heavy and meaningful sanctions for those ‘caught at it’ combined with a system of recall for the obviously corrupt.
A truly independent and professional public service would also be required but this wouldn’t be that difficult once all the poltical appointees had been purged. People would see the merits of this sort of system of governance and it wouldn’t be that difficult at all to sell most on the virtues of doing the right thing. Hell if people can be sold on the concept of the sanctity of a piece of dyed cloth how difficult would it be for them to grasp that acts of abuse of power are self destructive and anti-social.
Pshaw! Blind idealism I hear the cynics cry. Well as our species ‘progresses’ we have been developing more and more sophisticated methods of determining the ‘will of the people’. Each refinement appears to make the system more corrupt and less responsive to ordinary citizens. Time to simplify and reduce rather than dissect and refine I reckon.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Jun 23 2005 0:45 utc | 50
Blind idealism? I think yes.
Unfortunate. But it does seem that ultimately (at least for the next 1,000 years or so) – the system most likely to prevail will be ‘globalist/corporate capitalism’.
There is another word for this system (the word escapes me at the moment ..) , but it seems to me that this system is more suited to the overwhelming majority than the sort of personal responsibility and grass-roots democracy that you describe.
Posted by: DM | Jun 23 2005 3:07 utc | 51
Can someone who understands how this works please translate this into English?? Is Big Pharma about to strip us of our Vitamins & assorted supplements?
The U.S. Delegation to Codex has just issued a formal written statement to the Codex Alimentarius Commission that the United States, during the July 4-9, 2005, meeting in Rome, will support compulsory rules created by this international organization directly overruling U.S. law regarding access to vitamins. link
I don’t know anything about the reliability of the source, so I’m just putting this out here to be sorted out.
Posted by: jj | Jun 23 2005 5:28 utc | 52
National Security Whistleblowers now have their
own web site (among the moving forces behind this group is Sibel Edmonds). This is not the first such site (cf. the National Whistleblower Center site and the links it provides).
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jun 23 2005 5:50 utc | 53
In the absence of any real media coverage, some of these glimpses need to be propagated.
Posted by: DM | Jun 23 2005 7:20 utc | 54
Great idea: Evangelicals Building a Base in Iraq
.. During the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, American evangelicals made no secret of their desire to follow the troops. Samaritan’s Purse, the global relief organization led by the Rev. Franklin Graham — who has called Islam an “evil and wicked” religion — and the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, were among those that mobilized missionaries and relief supplies.
…
Some Iraqi Christians expressed fear that the evangelicals would undermine Christian-Muslim harmony here, which rests on a long-standing, tacit agreement not to proselytize each other. “There is an informal agreement that says we have nothing to do with your religion and faith,” said Yonadam Kanna, one of six Christians elected to Iraq’s parliament. “We are brothers but we don’t interfere in your religion.”
Delly said that “even if a Muslim comes to me and said, ‘I want to be Christian,’ I would not accept. I would tell him to go back and try to be a good Muslim and God will accept you.” Trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, he added, “is not acceptable.”
…
A new poll reveals seven of 10 Americans believe the terror detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp are being treated “better than they deserve” or “about right.”
The poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports found 36 percent of respondents believe the prisoners are being treated “better than they deserve”, while 34 percent said “about right.”
Just 20 percent of Americans polled believed detainees have been treated unfairly.
.. so if this poll is anywhere near correct, 7 out of 10 Americans would have to include a pretty high percentage of “Democrats”. Anyone still optimistic about the future of the USA ?
Posted by: DM | Jun 23 2005 8:43 utc | 56
And for more chronic pessimism ..
WE ALL HAVE A GEORGE W. BUSH INSIDE OF US
Posted by: DM | Jun 23 2005 9:07 utc | 57
DM
That 70% is about the same number that believe SH knocked over the twin towers. I think it is a combination of cognitive dissonance on the part of the government and laziness on the part of the public. Don’t assume Democrats are less gullible and more intelligent than Republicans.
Thanks for the second link to the study of GWB in all of us. That is a good essay on why reason and facts fail to sway the voters in the US, they are hypnotized by this character. What can be done to cause people to take their eyes away from him?
Posted by: dan of steele | Jun 23 2005 11:43 utc | 58
@ jj | June 23, 2005 01:28 AM:
Go over to Le Speakeasy for discussion (recently dormant) on this topic.
Posted by: beq | Jun 23 2005 12:01 utc | 59
b: U-2 plane crashed in the UAE and it was part of the Afghanistan war says the New York Times.
The NYT misreads official reports. Read this excellent news analysis by a Vietnam veteran blogging as ‘Bob’.
jj, I posted the same diary, beq mentioned above, on Booman – link see for some of the reactions, which I was amazed about. It seems to be a rather emotional/irrational topic and it is hard to figure out what is really true. From some of my friends, here in Europe, working in alternative health care this is a topic they take very serious. I really hope this codex alimentarius will not become law, because it would create great restrictions to choice.
Posted by: Fran | Jun 23 2005 15:53 utc | 61
Jesus wept …
Property can be taken for development-Supreme Court
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a city can take a person’s home for a development project aimed at revitalizing a depressed local economy, a decision that could have nationwide impact.
By a 5-4 vote, the high court upheld a ruling that New London, Connecticut, can seize the homes and businesses owned by seven families for a development project that will complement a nearby research facility by the Pfizer Inc. drug company …
Posted by: Outraged | Jun 23 2005 15:53 utc | 62
This analysis reveals some dire issues with the prop-agenda blitz going on to implement the “final solution” to C+ Augustus and his brownshirts paxamericana agenda:
The New York Times is a Master at Deception
This needs to get out there!
Truth revealed?
A brilliant article by Sanjoy Mahajan in ZNET analyzes with crystalline clarity and exposes the shameless cover-up tactics used by The New York Times when dealing with the Downing Street Memos (minutes) and briefings.
In Mahajan’s words:
The NYT articles — masterpieces of delay, indirection, distraction, fake rebuttals, and elegant omission — keep readers ignorant of the lies and the lying liars who tell them. No wonder so many Americans still support this gangster war.
Sanjoy Mahajan’s Anatomy of a Coverup may be found here.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 23 2005 19:59 utc | 63
This analysis reveals some dire issues with the prop-agenda blitz going on to implement the “final solution” to C+ Augustus and his brownshirts paxamericana agenda:
The New York Times is a Master at Deception
This needs to get out there!
Truth revealed?
A brilliant article by Sanjoy Mahajan in ZNET analyzes with crystalline clarity and exposes the shameless cover-up tactics used by The New York Times when dealing with the Downing Street Memos (minutes) and briefings.
In Mahajan’s words:
The NYT articles — masterpieces of delay, indirection, distraction, fake rebuttals, and elegant omission — keep readers ignorant of the lies and the lying liars who tell them. No wonder so many Americans still support this gangster war.
Sanjoy Mahajan’s Anatomy of a Coverup may be found here.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 23 2005 20:00 utc | 64
Fran, I have some very reliable info. coming in from a leading practitioner that I’ll post when I can read it. We have to get moving now. This has info. on what we need to do. Thanks, I’m off to read yr. diary.
@BEQ, I’ll go over there, but for some reason I can’t post there & can’t figure out what to do about it. Beyond that, we need an immediate mass mobilization & that seems to be fading…
IRRATIONAL? No, what’s irrational is that the Pirates are doing this. This is destroying the way one stays healthy. One cannot possibly over-react to this. It’s obvious why they like to keep these wars going to divert the energy of the masses while they steal & destroy absolutely everything. We should be focusing on shutting down the Pirates Bar, where they meet to plan this, aka “WTO”.
This is of a parcel w/Outraged’s 11:53 post. From what I understand of that, it means that anyone who’s not rich & powerful who’s living somewhere that the 1% wants can simply have their property condemned & taken over against their will. Whole communities where ordinary people have lived for generations, if not centuries, can now be seized by the Rich for their delight. I hope Pat loves all this New Freedom!! So much for property rights!
Posted by: jj | Jun 23 2005 20:17 utc | 65
Dear Fran,
I owe you an apology. I should have read yr. linked diary before I responded. When you commented on the emotionalism & irrationalism, I thought you meant that you thought that people who understood the value of these were being too emotional at the thought of losing them! Excuse me – I forgot about the Ignoramuses out there who know nothing & vent endlessly., not knowing that so much of mainstream medicine is well-packaged quackery.
From another point of view, I always understood that the ignorance of these masses was our bliss. I never doubted that when those who understood the limits of Industrialized Medicine reached a critical mass, the Masters of I-M- would work to crush us – as much to defend their lack of imagination, as to defend their greed. The Totalitarian Mind at work. As my favorite cultural historian, William Irwin Thompson, wrote – there’s nothing as totalitarian as the culture of industrialism. It self-righteously destroys everything in its path.
To make matters worse, the meeting in Rome is July 3-8, when Am. are in officially sanctioned space out mode. Anything planned in Europe? I haven’t seen any mention of it in the press here…. Everything here is distraction, frittering away one’s energies into areas in which one can have virtually no effect.
Any more recommendations on sites w/good explanations to post about & send to our local newspapers would be most appreciated.
Posted by: jj | Jun 23 2005 21:00 utc | 67
In-Home ATM Provides Fast Cash
Pulte Homes has partnered with Ditech.com and Fannie Mae to provide in-home cash-out refi access via a personal ATM machine incorporated into the standard kitchen design in all new homes.
Discreetly tucked beneath the slab granite counter top and housed in its own alder wood cabinet, the nickel-plated money machine offers the ultimate in consumer convenience.
…
A real-time data feed, delivered to your kitchen via satellite radio, updates the microprocessor inside the ATM with the latest home price appreciation percentages so your available cash is increased on an hourly basis.
🙂
jj, no need to apologize. This is one of those topic were I feel like hitting a wall. It is hard to get people interested, or they just don’t realize what this is all about. I don’t know what can be done. There have been e-mails and colletions of signatures and as far as I know there is a law suit hanging at a EU court to counter the codex- but somehow I find it very difficult to find good and clear information.
Posted by: Fran | Jun 23 2005 21:30 utc | 69
AMMAN (AFP) – A novel said to have been penned by ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein telling the story of an Arab warrior who saves a town from a plot to overthrow its ruler is to be published soon.
Posted by: Fran | Jun 23 2005 21:54 utc | 70
@DM
A thousand years? You jest surely. Lemme see what was the last institution promised to last a millenium? Ah the Third Reich. Didn’t even get two decades. And I’m the idealist?
The global economy is predicated on the notion of ‘private ownership’. Appears to creak along OK when the resource base expands along with consumption. We have a rapidly expanding population combined with finite resources. Blind Freddy can see that as the ratio of have-nots to haves increase, the concept of ‘private ownership’ won’t just be ideologically unsustainable it will be physically unenforceable.
The Iraq invasion is as graphic a demonstration of this as it gets.
The next time that someone gets the notion to invade and pillage a country under force of arms, they will probably have learnt enough from Iraq to be more honest with their own population. That is the lesson the greedheads will draw from this debacle. Telling the country upfront that they are fighting to preserve their own way of life rather than to impose ‘freedom’ on a group of people they have been indoctrinated to hold in contempt will probably be a more successful morale strategy. The thing is though that even with a great deal more committment from the US population and forces it is unlikely that a military strategy dependent on moving large quantities of physical resources through thousands of kilometres of hostile territory could succeed long term. Whatever the modus operandi for the theft is, it would always have been ‘cheaper’ to get the resources from a compliant population.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Jun 23 2005 23:01 utc | 72
@Debs is dead
I wasn’t laughing but maybe I should have had a /”bitter irony” tag. I don’t know how long this thousand year reich will last, but I doubt that anything much will be learned from Iraq. We’ve had enough wars, and nobody yet seems to had learned anything much about anything. I do agree with your vision and I wish I could share your optimism.
Posted by: DM | Jun 23 2005 23:36 utc | 73
@dan of steele
“Thanks for the second link to the study of GWB in all of us. That is a good essay on why reason and facts fail to sway the voters in the US, they are hypnotized by this character. What can be done to cause people to take their eyes away from him?”
You’re really not going to like the answer. Debs is Dead said that “We have to stop looking outside ourselves for some ‘solution’ to humanity’s race to the bottom of the primordial pool. If this world we inhabit is worth ‘saving’ it follows that there must be something good within all of us.” That, in a nutshell, is the problem. From a Buddhist perspective, the failure of all of us to recognise this interconnectedness is, itself, what is keeping people from seeing the solutions to end all of this suffering.
I get discouraged from time to time reading hateful posts vilifying the despicable characters on the Right just as I get discouraged hearing hateful posts vilifying people on the Left. I have posted before about enantiodromia (the tendency of a phenomenon to become indistinguishable from its diametric opposite). This is a very real problem, and our failure to see our opponents as anything but evil incarnate is caused by the same ways of thinking that makes our opponents see anyone who disagrees with them as “vile terrorists”. There is no “us and them” on a sinking ship.
While I understand and agree with Giap’s multiple postings about the need to oppose and end the US administration’s shameful (and criminal!) brand of fascism, his call for war crimes trials in which he wants to see the administration publicly executed comes from the same feelings of fear and anger that causes a soldier to torture an Afghani detainee.
The neocon modus operandi comes from hate and vengeance. Hating the neocons and demanding vengeance for their crimes will only perpetuate these problems. Vilifying US citizen for being “good Germans” because they are not taking to the streets will only perpetuate problems. The “enemy” are not desperate terrorists as the Right would have it, nor are they neocons as the Left would have it. The enemy is us (see the 70% US approval rate of Guantanamo that DM cited above) and our hate and fear. It is not some supervillian outside of ourselves. Recognition of that fact is the only way to disempower “that character” and “cause people to take their eyes away from him”. And the people who need to take their eyes away are not your “unenlightened neighbours” who do not read Moon of Alabama. The people our ourselves; all of us.
If Karl Rove or somebody like him wants to accuse me of blaming the victim here, or wanting to “send terrorists to therapy”, or whatever thoughtless reflexive thing they want to say that keeps them from examining their own worldview, that is fine. But we have seen how the politics of hate and fear espoused by Karl Rove and people like him are increasing (rather than decreasing) suffering, impoverishment and national insecurity. What I am talking about is not some abstract philosophical position. What is inside of us is having a measurable effect on what is outside of us.
Posted by: Monolycus | Jun 24 2005 0:23 utc | 75
@DM
The only reason I’ve adopted optimism is that I can’t see the alternative taking us anywhere. We may as well try our best to sort ourselves out with a glint in the eye and a smile on the lips cause sure as hell nothing else is likely to work.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Jun 24 2005 0:26 utc | 76
FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE
The Supreme Court does us all a favor today and clarified the two different ways for not-wealthy-Americans to be f***ed by the government – Democratic or Republican.
Today the Supreme Court ruled that municipalities can use eminent domain (a power defined as the ability to seize private property if for public uses) to seize property in New London, CT for a private development. Which could be re-explained in the following way: Wealthy persons (corporate or otherwise) may use the government as its favored tool for dispossessing less powerful persons so long as they come up with a plausible fairy tale that the public will benefit from it. Accustomed to thinking of the conservatives as the party of power and wealth, we might expect to see the famously conservative justices names all over this ream job for the unwealthy. But…
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.
He was joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
Hell, I knew the conservatives were our johns, but the liberals are our pimps!?!… This morning’s arguments in front of the court nicely clarify what has been too unclear for too long – how the liberals expect us to lie down with any scabby fool for a few dollars more.
JUSTICE SCALIA: No. I just want to take property from people who are paying less taxes and give it to people who are paying more taxes. That would be a public use, wouldn’t it?
JUSTICE O’CONNOR: For example, Motel 6 and the city thinks, well, if we had a Ritz-Carlton, we would have higher taxes. Now, is that okay?
MR. HORTON [lawyer for the developers]: Yes, Your Honor. That would be okay. I — because otherwise you’re in the position of drawing the line. I mean, there is, there is a limit. I mean –
JUSTICE SCALIA: Let me qualify it. You can take from A to give to B if B pays more taxes?
MR. HORTON: If it’s a significant amount. Obviously, there is a cost -
JUSTICE SCALIA: I’ll accept that. You can take from A and give to B if B pays significantly more taxes.
MR. HORTON: With that -
JUSTICE SCALIA: You accept that as a proposition?
MR. HORTON: I do, Your Honor
Horton’s position was the one supported by the so-called liberal bloc of judges today, the position that in any dispute, the person who will pay significantly more taxes is the person to be treated as a citizen – or really, I should speak the lingo, as the John to be serviced.
Though presented by Stevens et al as a sort of paternalist approach, Scalia made sure the message was clear: the Johns are to be fellated; we are to be slapped off the street and into the alleys where we can rent a bed.
And our pimps… well, they and their payments are not to be mentioned.
But never fear, our liberal leaders throw us a sop about the glorious history that we can continue to uphold every time we agree to getting slapped off the block:
JUSTICE SOUTER: Well, I’m not interested in the label. I’m just saying if the government says we need to increase the tax base because we have a depressed city, so we are going to take some of our tax money now, and we are just going to buy up property that people are willing to sell to us, and we are going to assemble parcels. And when we get a big enough one, we are going to sell them to a developer for industrial purposes. And that will, that will raise the tax base. Is there anything illegitimate as a purpose for governmental spending in doing that?
MR. BULLOCK: No, Your Honor. We do not believe that that would be — it’s not a public use.
JUSTICE SOUTER: Why isn’t there a public purpose here?
MR. BULLOCK: Well, Your Honor, because this case affects the eminent domain power, which is regulated by the Fifth Amendment -
JUSTICE SOUTER: No, but we are talking about — I mean, I realize that, but I mean, I thought your point was that it was use of eminent domain power for an improper purpose. And you characterize that purpose as conveying property to private owners.
Well, in my example, the same thing is going on except that it’s not using the eminent domain power. If the purpose in my example is a proper public purpose, why isn’t it a proper public purpose when the government does it by eminent domain? What changes about the purpose?
MR. BULLOCK: Your Honor, because of the public use restriction of the Amendment. That’s what we really -
JUSTICE SCALIA: Mr. Bullock, do you equate purpose with use? Are the two terms the same? Does the public use requirement mean nothing more than that it have a public purpose?
MR. BULLOCK: No, Your Honor.
JUSTICE SCALIA: That’s your answer to Justice Souter.
JUSTICE SOUTER: But if that is your answer then the slum clearance cases have got to go the other way.
MR. BULLOCK: I’m sorry -
JUSTICE SOUTER: If that is your answer, then I suppose the slum clearance cases were wrongly decided.
Bullock was defending the 6 property owners in New London who our liberal SC justices determined to be the harlot citizens of the state and of the republic. Why? Because we do not pay enough to own the corner. Pfizer owns this corner. Bullock was defeated because liberal justices, on principle, will blow whomever pays more taxes.
But that is a bad PR image (black robes and all ). So instead we will be sold this: we can’t go reversing all those War on Poverty decisions from the 60s. What about the indigent?
So, to protect a piss-poor faux victory from the 60s, liberals publically renounce all claims to actual and present justice. And what about the rights of the indigent you hypocritical “justices”?…
(sound of words failing)
So, that’s how the Supreme Court just explained to me why we are losing to the fascists. We have no friggin idea what an unjust coalition we have been part of. We stink, and are trying to tell people that this is the smell of justice.
Posted by: citizen | Jun 24 2005 1:15 utc | 77
A first principle:
All citizens are to be treated as having equal claims to protection under the law.
A second principle:
All non-citizens shall be treated in the way we actually demand that we be treated abroad.
Reject eminent domain and the rest of the apparatus by which we devalue others and begin to worship the merely powerful. No justice can come of it.
And because the Democrats seem constitutionally disposed not to create political community – well, they need the rug pulled out from under them. And every day there are more of us here down below.
Posted by: citizen | Jun 24 2005 1:28 utc | 78
Sorry citizen but this seems to be pretty standard social democrat/leftish/liberal rationalisation. These types, being as selfish as you need to be to get ahead in the world have always confused any notion of socialism with state capitalism. The monopoly of capital is replaced with the monopoly of self serving, hypocritical, pseudo-altuistic, cold hearted windbags.
Lets face it the single distinguishing characteristic of all allegedly democratic ‘liberal’ legislators has been their willingness to sacrifice the lives of a few for the cream of the many. Which always turns out to be not so many.
The rise of the Nimby (Not In My Back Yard) can be traced to the asinine attempts by these ‘givers’ to dispossess a few.
One of the ugliest by-products of the surge in domestic dwelling prices has been the grim determination with which communities that feel they are copping the rough end of the pineapple resist encroachments that a generation ago would have been considered by most to be a neccessary evil.
The middle classes sit at their computers tapping out missives against windmill farms in their area because of the negative effect on property prices.
Legislators should ‘go back to tors’ and explain to these types that perhaps they should forgo electricity themselves if they aren’t prepared to suffer any inconvenience in its generation. That is too hard and anyway these self interested bourgoisie evoke empathy. So instead draconian legislation is passed with the proviso that it is only invoked against the truly powerless, the poor.
High achieving lawyers such as judges know the path of least resistance when they see it.
And no I don’t have anytime for the inherent contradictions of the liberterian worldview but if I’ve gotta vote and the choice is between an unprincipled ‘lefty’ (oops sorry ‘pragmatic liberal’) and an idealistic but foolish liberterian I generally prefer to go with the naif.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Jun 24 2005 1:52 utc | 79
Thanks Dead Debs for helping clear my mind on this issue. I was struck by the vote and wondered why Scalia and Thomas would vote against this. It comes down to who controls local governments- If true progressives do want to improve cities, this ruling will help. With a little creativity, cities and local governments could argue that shutting down egregious polluters would be justified for economic benefits.
Posted by: biklett | Jun 24 2005 3:38 utc | 80
But in the meantime, this ruling just makes one more avenue for legal piracy. It’s one more step away from non-violent solutions.
Sure, this produces allies over time. OK. patience.
Posted by: citizen | Jun 24 2005 4:26 utc | 81