News, views and visions* …
*Those with visions should go see a doctor.
(Helmut Schmidt, ex-Chancellor of West Germany)
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September 7, 2005
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Ah, Bernhard, so you have heard Giovanni di Lorenzo quote Schmidt on ZDF last night?
Five influential German journalists debated the current election campaign in Germany and reflected on their own roles in the game. Good thing, and it was fascinating to see these egos in communicative action. IMHO, the German media scene, which is not so bad to start with, is visibly getting better.
Posted by: teuton | Sep 7 2005 9:06 utc | 1
Ah, Bernhard, so you have heard Giovanni di Lorenzo quote Schmidt on ZDF last night?
No I didn´t – my TV usage is down to maybe 5 min/day average. I was reminded on the Schmidt-vision talk when I read somewhere that Merkel had visions.
But I agree – the media are getting a bit better, but there is also some concentration going on which I do not like. Beware of Murdoch buying a consolidated Springer with the regulators under Merkel’s control.
Perhaps it is interesting for our friends in the US that in the recent TV debate with Schroeder, Merkel could not even bring herself to say that the crisis management in NO was not the best ever. In fact, she did not say anything about NO or about the current political situation in the US. The conservative credo in Germany is that the US never do wrong, and if they do in some very, very minor way… well, the US cannot REALLY do wrong.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is our next chancellor. No more fussing with stupid opposition against necessary wars to eradicate evildoers and prevent the proliferation of WMDs. All orders from Washington will be obeyed (if that daft peacenik people only lets them). The Bushistas will be very, very pleased.
Posted by: teuton | Sep 7 2005 9:34 utc | 3
With all the oddball things FEMA and the United States have done about the disaster in New Orleans over the last week, perhaps there is a simpler explanation than the desire to eliminate a blue city in a red state.
Perhaps some of the private contractors associated with FEMA and Bu$hCo have noticed there are tens of millions of dollars laying around the drowned city.
Perhaps they regard this cash as perks of their business, and are willing to do anything to get it, and want no witnesses.
Cash is a perk, and contributors are entitled.
I’ve started worrying about a
nuclear device blamed on Iran going off in N.O. ,
forcing the wanted invasion of Iran and justifying
draconian domestic policies, eventually martial law in
most U.S. cities. “Remember the Vieux Carre! ” will spur
recruitment in the Mel Brooks version.
Posted by: Michael McIntyre | Sep 7 2005 11:30 utc | 5
A strategic vision: Democrats should forget about the White House, forget about the U.S. Senate, retire Clinton and Carville — focus on nominating and electing women to the House of Representatives. Platform is extremely simple and honest. Balance the Federal budget, cut overseas military deployment.
Posted by: Wolf DeVoon | Sep 7 2005 13:15 utc | 6
On my best days I still lean towards paranoia, but too many events are lining up not to bother me.
I’ve watched campaigns since I was a kid; my father was a campaign manager for Barbara Mikulski in her early House runs, is a friend of Sarbanes and a colleague of Hoyer. Last year, Bush’s presidential campaign was just absolutely horribly run. The limiting events to loyal followers, the awful preparation for the debates, it was all the worst I’ve ever seen. I said at the time I felt as though they were running like people who knew they couldn’t lose.
And now, with the late, indifferent reaction, followed by these big production set piece acting jobs… well, it’s all so transparent, it boggles the mind they would even try it.
I asked in an earlier post which Bernhard bumped up for dicussion whether we aren’t witnessing mass murder. I still can’t say I’m convinced I know the answer, but thinking about the question did lead me also to ask myself: what kind of person commits an obvious murder?
I see now that the question fits with all these other things. What kind of person says it’s a shirt rumple when clearly something else is under his jacket? What kind of person blatently uses firefighters as props when they are still desperately needed for the job they’ve been trained — and very much want — to do? What kind of person continues to lie about the need for a war which has long since been shown a mistake? What kind of person commits an obvious murder?
The only answer I’ve come up is: one who knows he can’t be punished.
It’s no longer about getting caught for them; they don’t seem to care in the least who knows what they’re doing. Because they believe they can’t be punished. And punished means taken out of power.
Put this together with Dick Cheney’s buying a big house on the Chesapeake — oy, if ever there was a sign he intends to be in the area for a looong time! — and it makes me as frightened for the future of the nation, and, more immediately, the safety of my family, as I’ve ever been.
Posted by: mats | Sep 7 2005 13:22 utc | 7
yeah. What’s up with the Chanky buying the big house while the country’s dissolving? Doesn’t he know he could have said there’s a national emergency, punt for a week, and then bargain for a half mil discount? Or just do it Saudi prince style, stroll into the foyer, say you like, then write out the check that you think the seller deserves?
Maybe that’s the way it was done.
Posted by: christofay | Sep 7 2005 14:22 utc | 8
@Wolf:
IMHO, Carville’s attitude toward a campaign is what the democrats need most. It’s real Hardball after all, and Carville’s good at it.
Don’t throw out the machete with “I did not have sex…” child.
Posted by: Groucho | Sep 7 2005 14:50 utc | 9
@Groucho
Respectfully disagree. Carville gave you what you have today, including the Clintons. The radical strategy is to elect women to the House. No more men. Don’t waste time or money on another Kerry fiasco. The Founding Fathers created the House of Representatives to check the Executive.
7:14 A.M. – (AP) Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., lashed back, saying she won’t tolerate federal officials’ denigrating local efforts to deal with the catastrophe.
“If one person criticizes them or says one more thing, including the president of the United States, he will hear from me,” she said on the ABC’s ‘This Week.’ “One more word about it after this show airs and I might likely have to punch him. Literally.”
You need 300 more like Landrieu.
Posted by: Wolf DeVoon | Sep 7 2005 15:17 utc | 10
Can you tell landrieu is pissed that possibly tens of thousands of her constituents have been killed by gross criminal neglect – if not intent?
B: Merkel really said she has visions? She just looked Thatcher-like sheepish hardcore conservative to me, so far, but she may just be nuts after all. OK, Thatcher was hardcore conservative and nuts…
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Sep 7 2005 15:24 utc | 11
@Wolf
Did you not get the memo about no more free elections?
Posted by: crone | Sep 7 2005 15:30 utc | 12
Brought this post up here from below, hope nobody minds…
“It is not just a failure of execution (William Kristol), or that bad things just happen (Laura Bush). It was not just indifference by the President, or a lack of accountability, or a failure of federal-state communication, or corrupt appointments in FEMA, or the cutting of budgets for fixing levees, or the inexcusable absence of the National Guard off in Iraq. It was all of these and more, but they are the effects, not the cause.”
– George Lakoff
Or maybe, as LARRY MARGASAK, of Associated Press writes,
Things just didn’t seem right to the people in the field.
“The Bush administration was warned by congressional investigators this summer that some first responders were concerned that their training and equipment was tilting too much toward combatting terrorism rather than natural disasters .
but, we will never know, because, A.)
they hide the dead and B.) the House hearings examining that response had been canceled indefinitely…
(Sound familiar?)
Folks, in my tinhat, this is methodical relentless and systemic. Ever seen a Buffalo Jump?
the masses are being herded into an ideology. Metaphorically and quite literally i.e. physically. What other conclusion can there be?
I will proudly be wrong, but I fear I’m not.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 7 2005 16:03 utc | 13
Did I miss it, with all this news, or did the NRA stand up indignantly for the rights of black Americans to bear guns? Must of missed that one. I thought this is exectly the scenario the NARA and the white separatists paint for why we need guns. So why the silence?
Next up- If people would just allow RFID chip implantation, our job of identifying the dead would be much more efficient.
Posted by: biklett | Sep 7 2005 17:53 utc | 16
biklett,
from what I understand FEMA’s new job is to go door to door putting one’s social security number on one’s arm, so they will know who you are when you die, if you don’t evacuate. Great for everyone but those the alligators and dogs get.
Posted by: hrc | Sep 7 2005 19:15 utc | 17
@ bernhard & teuton
Angela Merkel’s bid to become Germany’s first woman leader was dealt an embarrassing blow yesterday after her party was forced to admit that she virtually copied a speech given by the late Ronald Reagan during her recent TV duel with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
A spokesman for Germany’s opposition conservatives conceded that Mrs Merkel was ” certainly inspired” by Mr Reagan’s words, spoken during his 1980 election campaign, when she delivered her closing address to more than 21 million viewers during last Sunday night’s televised election debate.
Excerpts from the two speeches were published on Germany’s Spiegel-Online website yesterday. They showed that both put almost exactly the same rhetorical questions to voters – albeit 25 years apart….
Embarrassed Merkel admits plagiarising Reagan
I’d be embarrassed to be caught using an American script too!
Posted by: Nugget | Sep 7 2005 21:35 utc | 19
Within the last 48 hours, Merkel’s plagiarising of Reagan (of all people!) has been exposed, denigrated, and satirized by comedians. However, she will still become chancellor. We’ll see how good she is at the job in terms of domestic policy. She will certainly try very hard ‘to seek a reconciliation with the USA’, as the official meme runs. Surely, we Germans should be ashamed that we have been behaving so unreasonably towards the US over the last four years. Up is down.
Posted by: teuton | Sep 7 2005 23:05 utc | 20
commenter Monolycus, eceptional post ,peaked my curiosity on forensic anthropologist Clyde Snow, in searching out more I found another article that may be of interest to some:
Many people who distrust the mainstream media have turned to alternate news sources, some of which are Internet based. Unfortunately, many of these alternate sources of news simply promote an alternate series of lies. These alternate lies are of course dressed up as “exposés.”
How Pros Manage Mass Disaster Scenes
Note: the above is rated CD(TM) CRITICAL DISCERNMENT IS REQUIRED
assumptions and beliefs
Knowledge and awareness are recommended…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 7 2005 23:11 utc | 21
@Unca $cam
The link appears to be broken.
“I got a redirect and an error message. What did you get for Hallowe’en, Charlie Brown?”
Posted by: Monolycus | Sep 7 2005 23:18 utc | 22
The Cover-Up is Complete!
Listening to “On Point” on NPR tonight on “What
Went Wrong.” Framing, as usual, the government is honest. FEMA and the National Guard cutting emergency communication lines, keeping buses and supplies out: IT IS ALL DOWN THE MEMORY HOLE, already. They had some asshole reporter from the Wall St. Journal who has already written the official coverup. “It was quite believable that Brown and Chertoff would no less than television viewers because they had so much trouble communicating.” When pressed why they couldn’t just use walkie-talkies, he went into some arcane b.s. about bandwidth, and different companies competing to “supply Solutions”, none of which made any sense. It was just one bald-faced lie after another. And already the media has adopted Rove’s framing: “The Blame Game”, which sure is a nice way to trivialize murder. I could go on, but its all too depressing. They will get away with anything they want to.
I hate to be the wet blanket here but why even worry about who to run for office when a large chunk of the electorate has been disenfranchised?
What happened in NOLA is a direct consequence of that disenfranchisement. I realise BushCo didn’t give a toss about the Louisiana electorate since they are known blues but they weren’t at all worried about what other black Amerikans around the US thought either. If it were just that the people were democrat voters the Feds would have gone in straight away lest other people think this could happen to them. But they aren’t worried about what black Amerikans anywhere think.
Why would they worry? The ability to prevent someone from voting on the grounds they ‘may’ be a felon combined with heavy policing of the African Amerikan community guarantees black Amerikans can do little to protect themselves using ‘the law’.
When you toss the deliberate introduction of crack cocaine into poor urban communities by the repugs it’s hard not to imagine this policy isn’t deliberate co-ordinated racism.
My brother phoned me from Biloxi yesterday. He’s been over covering the Katrina aftermath and says that feelings are very heated amongst African Amerikan survivors and the scuttlebutt is that the forced evacuations are happening because the city administration is concerned that a full on race war may develop.
Normally I give the bloke a hard time cause he’s a typical MSM grunt spieling out the obvious and chasing ratings. This is quite an unusual take for him but he has been to the US many times before and in fact was in LA during the Rodney King bizzo. He was covering a story on the death of some Samoans by cop when the King verdict was announced.
He says feelings are a hell of a lot more vehement this time as it’s not just a mob of angry and bored kids. The whole community knows exactly what happened. That as far as the rest of Amerika is concerned they would rather see black Amerikans die than have them in their town.
Some MoA readers will have seen the counterpunch article by the Katrina survivors that told of the armed sherifs deputies on the greater New Orleans bridge and who said “that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans, and there would be no Superdomes in their city. These were code words for: if you are poor and Black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River, and you are not getting out of New Orleans.”
The New Orleans survivors believe that one of the major reasons for the delay in evacuating them was that cities across the US were deliberately dragging their feet to avoid having to accept survivors.
Now people who live in the US can blame BushCo all they want and be as ‘heartbroken’ as they feel about the New Orleans tragedy but unless all people take a firm stand to ensure that this deliberate planned and co-ordinated oppression of one sector of their community ceases then the outcome is pretty much inevitable.
I’m not even talking about what’s ethically right. Think about this. If people’s nearest and dearest are victimised while they are rendered completely powerless in their own community what is the likely outcome?
The Palestinians didn’t start the suicide bombing bizzo until it was obvious to all that they had no other way of defending themselves and expressing their outrage.
I’m sure that African Amerikans are a long way from that yet and whatever action they may be forced to take will be their own and not some pale imitation.
Everbody else’s reluctance to do much concrete to stop this obscenity will leave black Amerikans little choice other than some form of direct action that to be effective must be socially destructive. If it does come down to this the problem will be difficult to settle with a handshake and gestures of goodwill as both sides will have had a lot of angry history. A la Ireland or the Balkans.
Don’t imagine “It can’t happen here”. When people are pushed into a corner and left with bugger all to lose they figure they may as well go down fighting.
It appears to me that Charles Manson couldn’t have done a better job of inciting a race war than the mixture of bigotry and complacency expressed by mainstream US society has done.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Sep 8 2005 0:43 utc | 27
Deds, if i were one of those victims in bilioxi i would be ready to riot. i think its genocide what happened there. how can i let anyone of those people know that our eyes and ears are not shut and we know what happened. my head is just bursting with anger about it. if this just passes like some wave, ohio, plame whatever. the fashion problem of the momemt., what does that say of us. even the best of us. this is such an atrocity, thousands and thousands dead. out falluja. i’m sorry , i cannot forgive. am angry and i would totally understand any of those people wanting to riot. i think we should have riots all over this country right now, i’ve about had it. ok, i’m going to calm down. am supposed to meet some friends. how can i separate myself. its not just something that happened on the fucking television. i went out and took care of some thingsa today, bills whatever, getting away from the computer and my obsession w/NO and the absurdity of life just going on as if nothing is really happening. people walking around. i see friends and they think i’m just too wrapped up in politics. and by the time i get home its even worse. i’m driving down the street thinking GENOCIDE . hideous.ahhhhh
Posted by: annie | Sep 8 2005 1:48 utc | 28
The Noose
So glad to see you well
Overcome and completely silent now
Without himself
You cast your demons out
And not to pull your halo down
Around your neck and tug you off your cloud
But I’m more than just a little curious
How you’re planning to go about
Making your amends to the dead
To the dead
Recall the deeds as if
They’re all someone else’s
Atrocious stories
Now you stand reborn before us all
So glad to see you well
And not to pull your halo down
Around your neck and tug you to the ground
But I’m more than just a little curious
How you’re planning to go about
Making your amends to the dead
To the dead
With your halo slipping down
Your halo slipping
Your halo slipping down
Your halo slipping down
Your halo slipping down [repeated]
Your halo slipping down to choke you now
Performed by a perfect circle ()
annie, find this song, if not the whole album
, put on some good headphones, and let Cathartic Therapy have it’s way w/you. It works for me often.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 8 2005 3:38 utc | 29
Wolf : I’m with you. The rest of these folks can look forward to the end of the world so they can say I told you so. If we elected a House full of human beings with any party affiliation we could step back from the abyss.
My litmus test is : will you vote to fund wars in the Middle East or not? Not is my correct answer.
Next comes the ballot itself, but that’s not a on-liner like the war.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Sep 8 2005 3:51 utc | 30
@annie it’s probably got to the point where people have to take direct action to help stop the slide into chaos and killing. I’m relectant to tell other people how they should deal with their problems when I live in a country which isn’t squeaky clean around the way it deals with it’s indigenous people so it’s tough to give solutions for a problem that I haven’t seen resolved anywhere.
Today’s Independent has a story on a UN report on global inequality. One of the points it makes is:
” It reveals that the infant mortality rate has been rising in the US for the past five years – and is now the same as Malaysia. America’s black children are twice as likely as whites to die before their first birthday.”
Now I have always felt that this particular statistic provides an uncomfortable insight into the reality of a society.
Babies come into this world without any preconceived notions of right and wrong and can’t be held accountable for whatever may have gone before.
If a society can’t ensure that all young children born into it get a fair shake of the stick that is a pretty good indication that the society is failing to deliver equity for it’s members.
Since I’ve been back in NZ I have been working to assist people who have been caught up in the corporate debt machine. A small unpaid debt can quickly grow exponentially when people who don’t have the skills and knowledge to take on the collection agencies get intimidated.
Of course that is what these corporations count on and they think nothing of making harrassing phone and in person calls that would have them up on stalking charges if people knew how the system worked. Anyway while I have had a fair amount of success with that some of the issues poor people face are a lot more intractable than a bad debt and I have been considering the best way to make people confront the brutal reality of the community they live in.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Sep 8 2005 4:26 utc | 31
Bloody Typepad! Here’s the rest:
Infant mortality has become a little cliche that rolls off the tongue in some politician’s soundbite. When those two words are spoken regarding our own society how many people get an image of a 2 day old child eyes ears and nose seeping mucus which is being mopped up by the insects and flies crawling across the child’s head while they can hear the sound of their favourite sitcom in the background. Mostly people who do allow an image to be summoned probably hear ‘statistic’ more than anything else and see a sheet of paper covered in numbers or a graph.
At the moment I have been considering strategies for making those statistics talk. Insisting that the death of a child be accompanied by a description which is graphic but not diminishing to the memory of the child or their family.
Too often we enter into an unspoken ‘contract’ with our media and politicians to protect us from the reality of chalenging issues like the death of a baby.
I’ve been thinking the way to go is to pick a prevalent mode of death and ensure that people are forced to deal with the facts of it.
NZ has had a problem with a strain of menengitis for the last 20 years. The nature of this disease is that it strikes children in families where there is poverty and or overcrowding. As well as frequently being fatal most people in NZ were aware that even those who live can be left with of a form of permanent disability.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Sep 8 2005 4:29 utc | 32
next bit:
In the abstract which is how most people thought of it, it sounded bad but people sort of got used to it.
A couple of years ago an 18 month old girl came down with menengitis and her father was horrified by the reality of this disease once he saw it in action. Blood poisoning can set in and it kills tissue very quickly. When his daughter had one of her hands and both her feet amputated this chap decided to go to the media so others could realise exactly what this disease was about. Over the next few days I’m sad to report the child had considerably more of her limbs amputated before the medicos were able to stabilise her condition. By that time parents around NZ were in a blind panic and at last the government decided to try a Norwegian vaccination which had some success with a different strain of the disease. The vaccination was rolled out nationally and it looks like the epidemic may finally be in decline.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Sep 8 2005 4:31 utc | 33
ok, maybe black kids are twice as likely to die than white kids before their first birthday. whatever. maybe aids plays into this. maybe white kids aren’t that likely to die. i don’t know. to me thats not the issue. i may be blindingly naive but i think alot of those people were working people. they had lives , and were functioning human beings. once a person is thirsty, starving,suffering,and surviving under excrusiating circumstances do they look different if they are rich, poor,educated, etc. they were screwed over because they were black. period, i am not interested in the crime that occured or how many junkies were mixed in .its irrelevant. most of those people are normal regular people. there are many reasons to stay in your home during a disaster other than lack of funds.ok, it was a bad choice and i’m sure many of them are poor(they all are now) but lets get one thing straight, one thing they’re not is indigenous. they are another race, they are no less american. their ancestors have been here from close to day 1. this is race, blatantly a race issue.and a land grab. a louisiana purchase. the first american city to be overtaken by the patriot act, and americans are casting a blind eye because the image of 25000 black people is just too overwhelming and foreign, forget that in that crowd are mothers and nurses and truckdrivers and surveyors and cooks and fathers and nephews and teachers and musicians and best friends and hairdressers and the list goes on and on. and on, they are people . its our own racism that separates them from any isolated, victimized, starving,struggling, people who have just lost their livelyhoods, families, city,homes,neighborhoods,evrything, and this is their home and what the hell are they supposed to feel.
Posted by: annie | Sep 8 2005 5:09 utc | 34
Outrageous!!! – GOP taking from the poor to provide hurricane relief
Tomorrow the GOP is moving a bill “on suspension” through the House to provide $51.8 billion in hurricane relief. “On suspension” means there will be no opportunity to read the bill, no opportunity to amend it, no opportunity to insert language to keep tabs on how the money is used or misused. It’s their way or the highway.
—-
Outrageous!!!? hahaha, this is par for the course…as Hip hop artist Paris says in his (note: audio) “What would you do”
lyrics “YOU THINK A FEW THOUSAND LIVES MEAN SHIT TO KILLERS?”…
Let it load and give it a listen, even if you not a fan of hiphop,(which I’m not a big fan of most) the message in it is worth the time. Some refer to it as the “Conscience hip hop” movement…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 8 2005 5:18 utc | 35
gRRRRR, SORRY, TRY THIS: “What would you do”
(Note also, these are hard truth lyrics, I had forgotten that they are of adult material, so keep that in mind…sorry again..
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 8 2005 5:33 utc | 36
CHORUS X2
What would you do if you
Knew all of the things we know
Would you stand up for truth
Or would you turn away too?
And then what if you saw
All of the things that’s wrong
Would you stand tall and strong?
Or would you turn and walk away
I see a message from the government, like every day
I watch it, and listen, and call ’em all suckas
They warnin’ me about Osama or whatever
Picture me buyin’ this scam I said “never”
You in tune to a Hard Truth soldier spittin’
I stay committed gives a fuck to die or lose commission
It’s all a part of fightin’ devil state mind control
And all about the battle for your body mind and soul
And now I’m hopin’ you don’t close ya mind – so they shape ya
Don’t forget they made us slaves, gave us AIDS and raped us
Another Bush season mean another war for profit
All in secret so the public never think to stop it
The Illuminati triple 6 all connected
Stolen votes they control the race and take elections
It’s the Skull and Bones Freemason kill committee
See the Dragon gettin’ shittier in every city
CHORUS
Now ask yourself who’s the people with the most to gain (Bush)
‘fore 911 motherfuckas couldn’t stand his name (Bush)
Now even niggas waivin’ flags like they lost they mind
Everybody got opinions but don’t know the time
‘Cause Amerikkka’s been took – it’s plain to see
The oldest trick in the book is make an enemy
A phony evil so the government can do its dirt
And take away ya freedom lock and load, beat and search
Ain’t nothin’ changed but more colored people locked in prison
These pigs still beat us but it seem we forgettin’
But I remember ‘fore September how these devils do it
Fuck Giuliani ask Diallo how he doin’
We in the streets holla ‘jail to the thief’ follow
Fuck wavin’ flags bring these dragons to they knees
Oil blood money makes these killers ride cold
Suspicious suicides people dyin’ never told
It’s all a part of playin’ God so ya think we need ’em
While ‘Bin Ashcroft’ take away ya rights to freedom
Bear witness to the sickness of these dictators
Hope you understand the time brother cause it’s major
CHORUS
So now you askin why my records always come the same
Keep it real, ain’t no fillers, motherfucka blingin’
Mine eyes seen the gory of the coming of the beast
So every story every word I’m sayin’ ‘Fuck Peace’
See you could witness the Illuminati body count
Don’t be surprised these is devils that I’m talkin’ bout
You think a couple thousand lives mean shit to killers?
I swear to God we the ones – ain’t no villans [sic]
Or any other word they think to demonize a country
Ain’t no terror threat unless approval ratings slumpin’
So I’ma say it for the record we the ones that planned it
Ain’t no other country took a part or had they hand in
It’s all a way to keep ya scared so you think you need’em
Praisin’ Bush while that killer take away ya freedom
How many of us got discovered but ignore the symptoms?
Niggaz talkin’ loud but ain’t nobody sayin’ shit’
And with the 4th Amendment gone eyes are on the 1st
That’s why I’m spittin’ cyanide each and every verse
I see the Carlyle group and Harris Bank Accounts
I see ’em plead the 5th each and every session now
And while Reichstag burns I see the public buy it
I see the profilin see the media’s compliance
War is good for business see the vicious make a savior
Hope you understand the time brother cause its major
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 8 2005 5:37 utc | 37
From metafilter.com comes:
Internal Memos Show Oil Companies Intentionally Limited Refining Capacity To Drive Up Gasoline Prices The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) today exposed internal oil company memos that show how the industry intentionally reduced domestic refining capacity to drive up profits , Internal memos from Mobil, Chevron, and Texaco show different ways the oil giants closed down refining capacity and , drove independent refiners out of business. . In related news, petroleum industry analyst Tim Hamilton showed that from January 17th to April 18th 2005 gasoline prices jumped 65 cents per gallon and
refiner profits rose [pdf] by 61 cents per gallon.
Further, Heywood Mogroot writes, “It is a sad testament to the anti-competitive nature of the gasoline market, however, that it took regulators, legislators, whistleblowers and consumer groups to force an oil company to sell a refinery for over $100 million, rather than demolish it.”
Shell to keep Bakersfield refinery open longer
Scarcity-rent seeking mf’ers. And to top it off, they’re selling *our* oil products to us with monopoly rents.
Before I caught the Georgist religion last year I had no real philosophical framework, outside of state socialism, to measure how fucked the status quo is from the optimal.
I have little confidence in the American public waking up and seeing how well the big guys are screwing us over with insider sweetheart deals wrt domestic resource extraction (Alaska’s Citizen’s Dividend is a good first step though … Alaska is supposed to be libertarian, and I think such Georgism is consonant with all forms of political philosophy other than our current form, plutocracy).
w/slight editing me, your ol uncle…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 8 2005 6:31 utc | 38
@Malooga
“IT IS ALL DOWN THE MEMORY HOLE, already.”
Either the spinmeisters are getting better at this with practice or the plebs have finally developed the attention span of a retarded goldfish. Could go either way. It took them a full month and a half to flush away the Downing Street minutes. If they can reduce the flak for their next bloodbath down to less than 24 hours, we’ll know that the multitudo have finally accepted their roles as subhumans.
Posted by: Monolycus | Sep 8 2005 7:08 utc | 39
Political grandstanding and lies
how deep goes the rot
delays, rejection of aid
Oh, and don’t miss this one:
Right city, wrong state (FEMA accused of flying evacuees to wrong Charleston)
metafilter commenter, Marxchivist says, “It is nice to know if a disaster happens, my life may be in these people’s hands.”
But, something don’t add up, something smells fishy about this story to me, they are trying to hard to have us believe incompetence, this is beyond absurd, it’s as if “they” (whoever they are) wants us to believe FEMA, is this fucked up…somthing just does not feel right about it…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 8 2005 7:21 utc | 40
On the other end of the transaction, I paid >$3/gal today for the first time – $3.09 to be exact. I patronize an American owned independent gas station when possible. where the owner has frequently employed disabled guys. We were discussing oil, gas, etc. He told me that he hasn’t made any money on gas in last ~ 1-1/2 yrs. He only gets $.045/gal. In short, prices may have sky rocketed, but the little guy on the corner ain’t gettin’ none of it.
Posted by: jj | Sep 8 2005 7:27 utc | 41
Beyond Incompetence or,“No Flood For Oil”.
Pattern Emerges in Katrina Lack of Response Stories…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 8 2005 7:47 utc | 42
GRRRRR…that should have been:
Beyond Incompetence or, No Flood For Oil”.
Posted by: Uncle $ | Sep 8 2005 7:49 utc | 43
@Unca $cam
“But, something don’t add up, something smells fishy about this story to me, they are trying to hard to have us believe incompetence, this is beyond absurd, it’s as if “they” (whoever they are) wants us to believe FEMA, is this fucked up…somthing just does not feel right about it…”
It doesn’t feel right because it isn’t right. And it isn’t new. Look at the “faulty” intelligence about Iraq leading up to justifying something they planned to do anyway. Look at the complete absence of culpability regarding Abu Ghraib. And now look at New Orleans. We have stories about water and food being deliberately turned away, survivors being deliberately rounded up, communications (at least in Jefferson Parrish) being deliberately cut… and yet we are still playing that cold comfort game of imagining that well-orchestrated events are just a series of “oopsies”!
Ronald Reagan (all Alzheimer’s jokes aside) managed to skip some pretty hefty criminal charges by playing “asleep at the wheel”. Some arms for hostages, a wry chuckle from the populace and then it’s back to business. The comforting thought that none of this is malicious is what keeps these guys in business.
But apart from covering their asses, how does it benefit them to appear to be a bunch of well-meaning, but bumbling idiots? Let’s think about this a moment. Aren’t people now DEMANDING a more comprehensive and self-contained FEMA? Aren’t they appalled at the “bureaucracy” that cost all these lives? Why, none of this would have happened if FEMA had the authority to be a self-contained police force that didn’t have to wait for authorization from a higher power (They are, and they don’t). But now they have a mandate from the masses to be jack-booted thugs. People are throwing themselves on the ground and BEGGING that FEMA come in swiftly, efficiently, and with no “bureaucratic” oversight (and with that, no accountability). A newer, harder, more militaristic FEMA that shoots first and asks for permission later would never have let New Orleans flounder for days. And a newer, harder, more militaristic FEMA is precisely what we are demanding and will get… and with a legitimacy that can only be bought for the price of a few thousand ordinary lives.
A good fisherman does not jam a hook down a fish’s mouth. A good fisherman makes that fish believe that is where he wants that hook to be.
Am I giving the administration too much credit for cleverness? Sure, we sleep easier at night thinking that they are a bunch of incompetents. But I ask you, for the past five years, have they stopped inflating their own bank accounts? Have they been held responsible for one single atrocity or outrage that has been perpetrated at their behest? So who are the real incompetents here: BushCo or us “clever” commentators who keep letting them get away with it over and over and over…?
Posted by: Monolycus | Sep 8 2005 7:51 utc | 44
Righto, Monolycus, bang on no doubt! it’s as someone somewhere else commented, thus:
“All these accusations were in the past, and , while mistakes were made, we must push Forward toward the Future, Stay the Course, and remain increasingly more Vigilant.”
“The time for laying blame has passed, we must look towards the future.”
“It’s the (derogatory political affiliation here) that keep bring up (horrible fuckup of policy)!! Like they would do any different!! Just look at (political figure no longer in power here) and see how badly he fucked up (limited political crisis at the time here). He got off so why shouldn’t (current tyranical leader here) get a free pass over (current extended political crisis with no end in sight here).”
I see how this all works…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 8 2005 8:04 utc | 45
It surely does look like their longed for police state is possible but it is not written in stone, is it?
If this society has come to this point and has no choice but to travel this road, then we can only hope to live within the confines in some semi-normal way which does happen in totalitarian societies.
If this is inevitable, wouldn’t it be good to just have it happen quickly so we can get past it?
I have always known what their intentions are and it is painful to watch them shop for shoes and mansions while we die, but life is full of surprises, and I simply can’t tell if they will succeed, and even though others are sure they will, I don’t get any solid evidence from them to prove this.
We have to wait for this great adventure to unfold.
Posted by: jm | Sep 8 2005 8:34 utc | 46
Stop the Genocide in Tal Afar!
ANKARA – Kasim Omer, the deputy chairman of the Iraqi Turkmen Democrat Party, has called on the international community “to take action to stop genocide“.
Releasing a statement, Omer stated that “the massacre launched in Tal Afar on September 3rd has turned into genocide“, and said, “we call on all Muslim countries and neighboring countries, particularly Turkey, Russia, China, India, France, Germany and Turkish republics to take action to stop this genocide.“
“The number of women, men and children who were killed in the attacks of U.S. soldiers and peshmerges reached 213 as of last night,“ indicated Omer.
Omer said, “uranium and napalm which had been used by the United States in Yugoslavia and during Iraq`s invasion, was also used in the recent attack on Tal Afar.“
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Sep 8 2005 9:22 utc | 48
Lot of talk about race here, even genocide (annie. – yes I am enraged as well.) Without wanting to begin a long argument that would focus on the Class – Race oppression cycle in the US, I do think the real issue is Class, with Race polarising public opinion, particularly that of the oppressed themselves (see other posters.) This suits the PTB (powers that be) because it is divise and distracts from the main issue – poverty. I would prefer to speak of letting the poor die…
Second, I don’t think the main or only intent is to kill. The deaths are the results of a larger, more global strategy. That strategy basically has to do with Control. The control of certain segments of the population of the US. Focusing on what was not done or what didn’t happen as compared to some good model of disaster management (e.g. such as in Cuba, where before the last hurricane they moved not quite 2 million animals to safe spots – the people were taken care of in any case) is a mistake. The “failure incompetency snafu” etc. meme suits the PTB, as it sends the message that the Authorities intended to do the ‘right’ thing (reading further I see that monocyclus makes the same point.) In that way their true intents are camouflaged, hidden. Lastly, here we see bureaucracy being used to jam the system itself – a curious and very clever exploitation of US love of rules, authority, law and order, justice, efficiency, etc. This has everyone confused and provides some stinking red herrings.
This item caught my eye:
Times-Picayune story from July 24 – A DVD was made to warn and advise.
Their message will be distributed on hundreds of DVDs across the city. The DVDs’ basic get-out-of-town message applies to all audiences, but it is especially targeted to scores of churches and other groups heavily concentrated in Central City and other vulnerable, low-income neighborhoods, said the Rev. Marshall Truehill, head of Total Community Action.
“The primary message is that each person is primarily responsible for themselves, for their own family and friends,” Truehill said.
In addition to the plea from Nagin, Thomas and Wilkins, video exhortations to make evacuation plans come from representatives of State Police and the National Weather Service, and from local officials such as Sen. Ann Duplessis, D-New Orleans, and State Rep. Arthur Morrell, D-New Orleans, said Allan Katz, whose advertising company is coordinating officials’ scripts and doing the recording.
Link
To save people, make a DVD! And it seems perfectly natural.
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 8 2005 11:12 utc | 49
I don’t think they know what they are doing. That’s the problem.
It just occurred to me that we are creating an illusion around these officials that is our own. And I’m beginning to wonder how much it resembles fact. I think they have been shocked at what a mythological act it has become and they are drunk with the attention and the power we have given them like rock stars. I think they have no specific intentions and are winging it as it goes. It’s taken on a life of its own and has even trumped reality shows.
I don’t think it’s about class, race, or anything like that. It about some sort of power and attention factor. Who gets the stage.
We ALL know that no one’s in charge.
Posted by: jm | Sep 8 2005 11:23 utc | 50
All those pictures, pictures, pictures, of people held under control, of prisoners, of riff raff, of poor bewildered crowds, of wounded people, the dead, of terrorists…of people under occupation. All of them very similar in their content and style. The people never wear glasses. The women are usually strangely dressed. The background is often grey, or dusty yellow. Many are asking for help, need water. All over, military materiel, or its results, busted homes, burning tires…tanks facing kids, a helmet on the ground.
All ‘Arabs’. (Pictures of the slums of Riyad are never shown.)
All those pictures, pictures, pictures…of the poor in Africa. The women are colorfully dressed, they are pretty, the babies dying, covered in flies…there is a disaster, a flood, a storm, or no rain, no food…wreckage, or desolate landscape.
In the first set, the whites are soldiers. In the second set, they are saviors. (Though in the early Iraq days we had some soldier-savior pictures.)
The NO pictures seem to meld the two in strange, hesitant ways.
I guess humanitarian war has come to the US.
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 8 2005 11:41 utc | 51
I also think New Orleans was a botched experiment A test of their ideology. They seized the opportunity but it was too big too fast. Now the cat is out of the bag.
Posted by: jm | Sep 8 2005 11:41 utc | 52
New blog: FEMA FAILURES: Link
KOS Hurricane Katrina timeline: Link
From liberal bias: Visual Timeline: Katrina versus Bush: Link
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 8 2005 11:46 utc | 53
I don’t know if you all can stomach this right now but a colleague sent me this link to a story which pretty much says it was the fault of the welfare state that caused the chaos in New Orleans.
I wonder how these bastards sleep
Posted by: dan of steele | Sep 8 2005 12:20 utc | 54
jm wrote: It just occurred to me that we are creating an illusion around these officials that is our own. And I’m beginning to wonder how much it resembles fact. I think they have been shocked at what a mythological act it has become ..
I see that too – a sort of bumbling inevitability. Many, probably most of them are minions, cogs in the wheel, pleasing their superiors, spouting the current mantra, all of it set in a crazy complacent culture frozen in bureaucracy based on mythical values of fairness and/or efficiency (ultimately related to democracy, the rule of law, and the free market!).. caught in the system, generally happy to be in it, for kudos, power, money, love. A life.
However, if I can see that a DVD will not save lives, it is a certainty that many others understand it too. They know. They don’t care. (Some may simply be afraid to speak up.) That’s the nub. How did that happen?
A big difference between Nazi management and the US today, another reason why the comparison is not apt (I have argued against it before.)
The Nazis set up a two-tier system and managed it through brute power. Those in charge, with the guns (caricatural and brief), and the people, meaning those who had no decisionary powers. The people became complicit or simply mute through intimidation, control, and by being bought off, with rather large sums of money btw. Again, keeping it very simple, and by-passing anti-semitism etc.
Nothing like that pertains in the US. In my reading, the people are not complicit – or am I wrong here? Influenced by reading MoA? What is clear is that they are not, in their own perceptions, benefiting either in confort – jobs, gas prices, taxes, meds, etc. – nor in quality of life through group belonging – nationalism, renewal, re-birth, excitement, new loves, adrenalin – and yet, they do not protest. They gain nothing and bow down. Amazing. However, many are excusers as they acquire status and financial clout by sucking up to what they see as the powerful in their pitiful pond.
Nazi rules were centrally decided in function of a master plan, were rigorously implemented; they worked – until the oil ran out.
The US brand of domination by a loose coalition between Gvmt., corporations, part of the military, arms production, the illegal fringe, and many other dominant, or aspiring to be so, scattered, groups such as the American Taliban is so implicit and tentacular it is hard to grasp.
FEMA is either a natural if opaque outcome of all these forces; or it is something more sinister.
-sorry, a bit long and a conclusion is like duh…missing… I have a free day today!
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 8 2005 14:22 utc | 55
DEBS,
on a lighter note:
If a society can’t ensure that all young children born into it get a fair shake of the stick that is a pretty good indication that the society is failing to deliver equity for it’s members.
Equity? Equality? A capitalist faux pas?
This ruling crime familiy is like a shark. Just when you think reality might catch up to them, they jump the gun, and sprint on ahead, creating a new reality. This was the new product we knew would be introduced this September. At least they can hold off on the “terrorist attack” ’til right before next years elections.
Noisette wrote: I do think the real issue is Class, with Race polarising public opinion, particularly that of the oppressed themselves
i agree. while we focus on the city of NO itself, we miss the reality that the lack of a fed response took place throughout the entire coastal area affected by the storm. at least, that is my reading from avail media, & please correct me if i’m wrong on that impression. the u.s. is edging toward a national security state, much like we fostered throughout latin america over the past, and, as we clearly saw in those instances, the NSS most definately functions an instrument of class warfare. the timing of condi’s shopping spree & dick’s mansion, not to mention the focus on these, should be easy clues to the class dynamics here.
but skin color is hard to miss, so it’s easy to trigger stereotypes to shape the public mind. even/esp a moron can pick up on these feeds. class, however, is not so readily visible in the united states, esp when everyone identifies themselves w/ squeaky clean celebrity role models & manufactured promotional images conveyed prominently in advertising. this is by design. and the plebes lap it up. ‘the united states is a classless society’, they repeat unconsciously, like good servants.
Posted by: b real | Sep 8 2005 15:18 utc | 57
two more points to append to my thoughts:
if we seriously want to open a national discourse on “looting”, we’re going to have to ignore the brainwashing spin that passes for the fourth estate right now & direct our attention 180 degrees. same goes for the talk of terrorism. the magician wants you to focus on the retail terrorist in one hand while the state terrorism going on everywhere else goes on w/o interference.
catastrophes usually create moments of great reflection & can be catalysts for change. let’s not let the wetiko’s cannibalize this opportunity.
Posted by: b real | Sep 8 2005 15:27 utc | 58
I assume “wetiko” assisted by the usual ideological response to class conflict: it’s all a matter of personal responsibility.
David Brooks, as usual.
Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 8 2005 16:31 utc | 59
ko-me-dy, sat-yr
And now, people, all those gathered here in our times, and yes Mister Mayor Randolph, who has contibuted so much to our community, and right beside him, Mrs. Jablonsky, a pillar among pillars, and all of you good people here, the Po-lice, represented by Sgt. “Kay” Hoey; our valiant firemen, Boodo boy, I salute you, Right, and the pillars or our economic community, Mr. Goldschmer, on the left there, Mrs. Goldschmer, and Miss Kwicko, HELLO!, and all you people gathered here today, in the soul of the community, the Boy Scouts (clapping), Oh and the GIRL scouts (more clapping), our Pastor -cheers Harvey!- ever READY to sheperd the sinning flocks to paradise – oh – salvation – some of that – excuse me – but all good people here – and Marie, our artist; Marie who brings Art into our souls, her valiant efforts to bring the spirit of Art into the Community..and our valiant – oh I already used that word right? – medical service, Dr. Brown, and his deputy, Dr. Hoohu, ever ready to save lives, prolong them, do right. The Forest Rangers – Hi Dan! – protecting the lives of the American people. And our representative of the Black community, Hi Morgan Nike La Toy, glad to see you’re doing good, and now, I should mention our boys and girls in Iraq, not here today, our thoughts go to them, prayers too, anyway to finish up, coming up to my anouncement, don’t want to drag out the PRE-Liminaries my conclusion is:
America is fucked!
My Swiss version is truly gruesome, worse, I am closer
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 8 2005 17:03 utc | 60
At least one god development in the world: Yushchenko sacks Ukraine government over corruption scandal
The Ukrainian president appointed long-time ally Yury Yekhanurov, 57, head of the eastern Dniepropetrovsk region, as acting prime minister in place of fiery Yulia Tymoshenko, a charismatic leader who roused crowds during the “orange revolution” protests last year.
Telegraph, 5 Sept. 2005:
“Barely noticed, Germany has overtaken America to become the world’s biggest single exporter, shipping the hardware that powers the rising economies of Asia and eastern Europe. Its trade surplus is now greater than that of China, Japan and India combined, reaching a staggering 16.8 billion euros in June alone. The profits made by German companies are running at over 33 per cent of national income, the highest in 40 years.”
Link
Posted by: Noisette | Sep 8 2005 17:29 utc | 62
while brooks looks for his silver lining, wetiko summa-cum-lordy pat robertson leaves no mining opportunity unexploited
Posted by: b real | Sep 8 2005 18:29 utc | 63
cheney gets cheneyed in gulfport
Cheney, who was sent to the region by
President George W. Bush amid intense criticism of the federal response to the disaster, was briefing reporters in Gulfport, Mississippi on his impressions of the relief work when he was interrupted by a bystander.
“Go f—(expletive) yourself Mr. Cheney!” the unidentified man shouted. Then he repeated: “Go f—(expletive) yourself!”
luckily the reporter puts this expletive in context for the impressionable reader
Cheney famously used the same expression in a Senate confrontation with Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy over Cheney’s links to defense contract giant Halliburton.
[emphasis added]
Posted by: b real | Sep 8 2005 21:08 utc | 64
E.On, BASF sign gas pipeline deal with Gazprom
Nice deal. Russia will deliver natgas to Germany through a baltic sea pipeline bypassing the land lines through Bellorussia, Ukraine and Poland (i.e. U.S.-neocon influence).
On the other hand, Germany will depend on gas from Russia for quite a chunk of its energy needs. But this is better much than to depend on Saudi Arabia and large tankers in the open sea.
An interesting move on The Great Game chessboard.
Conservative Commentator Bill O’Reilly faces sexual harassment charges of course for this other post, (see below)you gotta get it from the fucking UK…
Grand Jury Indicts PAC Connected to DeLay
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 9 2005 2:01 utc | 67
In an interview with American ABC TV news to be broadcast on Friday (US time), Colin Powell , former Secretary of State, describes his speech to the UN Security Council as a “a blot” on his record. “I’m the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and (it) will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It’s painful now,” [Powell] said. Finally, some recognition of this fact, albeit two years too late.
But he still did it . . . so, am I supposed to feel sorry for him now? FUCK COLIN POWELL AND HIS SUCK-UP SON MEDIA GANGSTER FCC MICHAEL POWELL!
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 9 2005 3:45 utc | 68
Uncle, here’s something for all of us to get excited about.
Let’s send this deluded fucker some mail:
LINK
Posted by: Groucho | Sep 9 2005 3:57 utc | 69
Bush allows contractors to pay lower wages
The Davis-Bacon Act prohibits the federal government from undercutting prevailing wages … Now the Bush administration is empowering itself to pay substandard …
These mother fuckers ARE RAPING THIS COUNTRY AND I’M SICK OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I AM READY TO TAKE TO THE STREETS ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 9 2005 4:06 utc | 70
that’s fucked up, uncle. ya know that anyone working there probably won’t live very long either. nothing like living the american dream: e-x-p-l-o-i-t-a-t-i-o-n
bring your pitchforks to d.c on the 24th
Posted by: b real | Sep 9 2005 4:33 utc | 71
Nazi rules were centrally decided in function of a master plan, were rigorously implemented; they worked – until the oil ran out.
Sorry to quibble, but I don’t think this is historically correct. Hitler’s inner circle were given overlapping portfolios, bureaucratically at war with each other to gain the Fuhrer’s attention, which was fickle and emotional. The only recognizable “master plan” was architectural — Hitler’s stupendous brick and mortar fantasies.
Posted by: Wolf DeVoon | Sep 9 2005 7:43 utc | 72