News and views …
Back to Main
September 20, 2005
Other Topics Thread
Comments
After reading Kos today, I’m reminded of Edgar Allan Poe’s Masque of the Red Death with Bush (or Cheney) as King Prospero.
Happy happy joy joy.
Posted by: Lupin | Sep 20 2005 8:15 utc | 2
“We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq, and these are policies that we are going to keep in place.” – Colin Powell, FEB 2001
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld should be impeached and then arrested.
ATTENTION CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS. We know you know in your heart that what Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have done with Iraq far exceeds the moral AND legal test for impeachment and shows them to be a clear and present danger to the United States of America. You must stand up and say so.
You have a duty to the American people, yourself and humanity to GO TO THE MAT for bi-partisan, well funded and transparent congressional investigations leading to impeachment. Shut down the governments business if that’s what you have to do to move this forward and pound it into the American mind. Use whatever guerilla parliamentary procedure available to you. Say and do nothing else until the GOP agrees to investigate what any sane and just mind considers horrific crimes. No legislation, no issue, no job, nothing you can personally gain or lose is more important (or potentially politically effective) than this effort. Nothing is more important than cutting this cancer from our government. Our safety, perhaps even our very survival depends on it.
Mountains of evidence make clear these people have behaved in ways that make them war criminals and traitors. You must stop them before they take us to war again, before they sell out our national security again, before they destabilize the world to the point of no return. It is your right and your duty. Only you and your fellow elected congressional Democrats can get this done. This is why the people elected you.
Stand shoulder to shoulder, stand tall. Walk down the hall, grab your fellow elected Democrats by the collar, walk out onto the steps, and start saying what you believe. Say it loud, say it together and say it all the time, and you will drag the media and the American mind along. They have committed impeachable offences, they are destroying our national security and our good name, and they are profiting greatly from it. They must be held to account before we follow ancient Rome into the ashes of history.
I PROMISE YOU, in the end, not only will you know you’ve done the right thing, but you’ll come out on top POLITICALLY as well. The American people will come to know traitors and criminals in their midst if you show them often enough what they look like. And in the end, they will be grateful. America needs leaders again. America needs heroes. Will you step up?
Senator Rockefeller, if you let Pat Roberts go back on his word to investigate the administrations use of intelligence, history will hunt you down and punish you in the same breath as those who have committed these despicable acts. Where are you? What could be more important than ensuring our leaders don’t twist intelligence to make fraudulent cases for war? As a member of the United States Senate you have the power to make sure this goes forward. You will have to put it on the line to be sure, but this is the right thing to do. Senator, we beg you, live up to your name. Stand tall in important ways.
Congressmen Waxman, Conyers, Lee, Rangel, thank you for all your letters, requests, complaints to the administration and the GOP leadership. You have done far more than most. You have shown you know right from wrong, that you have a heart, and you retain most of your humanity. But all that and a buck will buy America a cup of coffee. You have said many words that needed to be spoken. But it is clear we need different words now. We need words like IMPEACHEMENT and ARREST. Words like TREASON and HIGH CRIMES. Words like WAR PROFITEERING and CORRUPTION.
We, the American people, need to hear from you how the conservatives SOLD OUT THE SECURITY OF OUR COUNTRY, OF OUR CHILDREN AND OUR LOVED ONES in order to try and COVER UP THEIR FRAUDLENT CASE FOR WAR. They LIED to bring this nation to war. We need to hear these words from you and your fellow congressional Democrats EVERY DAY.
These are simple concepts and the evidence is clear. Once you push these words and ideas into the American mind the game will be over. In fact, you have the chance to crush the Republican Party. With this war and the way in which we were driven to it you have the great weight of the truth. Avail yourselves of it often enough and you will crush the conservative movement.
It is clear the intransigence of this administration and the GOP leadership knows no bounds. They won’t budge until the American people demand it. The way to make that happen is for you and your fellow Democrats to shut-it-all-down, by whatever means necessary, until the evidence and consequences of their crimes are detailed in congressional investigations and front and center in our media culture. Your action will force Joe Sixpack to come to a conclusion about what you are saying. The cold, hard reality of the evidence and a few GOP rats fleeing the ship to avoid the rising water will take care of the rest.
You owe your constituents and humanity a course of action that is effective. Time is short. The situation is dire. Our rate of decay is exponential. We’re losing entire cities at a time. Impeachment was designed to save the nation from just this kind of leadership. It’s time for you to get out there and speak truth to power.
Now is your time. Write a chapter of great American history or forever be damned to the footnotes in another tale of empire gone by. America as we know it depends on your actions in the next weeks and months. History has an especially keen eye on these days. May it hold you in high regard. God speed…
Domingo Chavez
Los Angeles, CA
Posted by: The Truth | Sep 20 2005 8:25 utc | 3
Josh Marshall at 9:31 pm:
“Mammalian biologists cite development as new evidence for late-stage testiculogenesis.”
Billmon three hours later:
“Scientists Astonished as Jelly-fish like creatures grow backbones, gonads.”
Everything’s derivative.
Posted by: aloyisius | Sep 20 2005 11:28 utc | 4
Bird flu pandemic will probably kill millions
The initial outbreak of what could explode into a bird flu pandemic may affect only a few people, but the world will have just weeks to contain the deadly virus before it spreads and kills millions.
Chances of containment are limited because the potentially catastrophic infection may not be detected until it has already spread to several countries, like the SARS virus in 2003. Avian flu vaccines developed in advance will have little impact on the pandemic virus.
It will take scientists four to six months to develop a vaccine that protects against the pandemic virus, by which time thousands could have died.
Posted by: mistah charley | Sep 20 2005 14:06 utc | 5
The next flu pandemic
In 1918, a strain of influenza different from any that had been seen before emerged among soldiers stationed in Haskell, Kan. By the end of 1919, more than one out of four people on the planet had fallen ill.
Hospitals overflowed. Cities shut down. Tens of millions died, including many young, healthy adults.
Scientists are afraid it’s about to happen again.
In the last two years, a new strain of influenza has spread through birds in Asia, killing more than 50 people. Public health officials say the bird flu could give rise to the next pandemic.
Pandemics occur every few decades, with the emergence of a new strain of influenza that differs significantly from those already in circulation. (Ordinary strains of common influenza constantly circulate around the world.) Because no one has been exposed to the new strain, no one has developed a natural immunity to it.
The deadliness of the pandemic is a product of chance, depending on the genetic traits of the virus that emerges.
The 1918 pandemic was the worst of the 20th century. It killed at least 20 million people worldwide, including more than half a million Americans. Millions of healthy, young adults died because the virus provoked the immune system to mount a massive response that not only attacked the virus but also destroyed the lungs.
Many patients felt fine in the morning, sick at midday and were dead by nightfall.
The two other pandemics in the 20th century, in 1957 and 1968, were far milder, killing about 50,000 people each in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that a ”medium-level” pandemic today could kill 200,000 Americans and send another 700,000 to the hospital.
But the actual numbers could vary widely — and the avian flu moving through Asia is ominous.
”More and more, thoughts are spreading that something catastrophic is in the offing,” said Dr. John Sinnott, director of infectious diseases at the University of South Florida, in a speech to more than 100 public health officials who gathered last week in Tampa to prepare for the next pandemic.
Posted by: mistah charley | Sep 20 2005 14:17 utc | 6
LONDON—Over the past 24 hours, seven people have checked into hospitals here with telltale symptoms. Rashes, vomiting, high temperature, and cramps: the classic signs of smallpox. Once thought wiped out, the disease is back and threatening a pandemic of epic proportions.
The government faces a dilemma: It needs people to stay home, but if the news breaks, mass panic might ensue as people flee the city, carrying the virus with them.
A shadowy media firm steps in to help orchestrate a sophisticated campaign of mass deception. Rather than alert the public to the smallpox threat, the company sets up a high-tech “ops center” to convince the public that an accident at a chemical plant threatens London. As the fictitious toxic cloud approaches the city, TV news outlets are provided graphic visuals charting the path of the invisible toxins. Londoners stay indoors, glued to the telly, convinced that even a short walk into the streets could be fatal
Posted by: annie | Sep 20 2005 15:51 utc | 7
I’m amused by the part of the Miami Herald article linked to by mistah charley, above, where they talk about Tamiflu. A little nugget picked up from reading about the 1918 epidemic: by the time you start to exhibit flu symptoms, you have been contagious for an extended period (exact numbers vary depending on the variety of flu), which means that you have potentially infected lots of other people. The idea that you could halt (or even slow down) an avian flu epidemic using Tamiflu is silly, unless by extremely unlikely chance nobody leaves the area where the epidemic starts for about two days. (Think about it: even if the WHO has a separate stockpile of Tamiflu in each country in the world, it will take time to notice that an outbreak has started, then more time to get the doses there…) All it would take is one person hopping on a plane before noticing the symptoms, and a Tamiflu stockpile is useless to slow down the spread.
Also, I find it worrying that so many people are thinking of avian flu as something we can build a vaccine for. The whole point of H5N1 being so scary is that it mutates really, really fast compared with most human varieties of flu. Meaning that by the time a vaccine is ready (the delay is measured in weeks at best), it is probably already useless, having been prepared for an old version of the virus. Avian flu spreads to humans = humanity really screwed. (Although it would probably be good news for the environment.)
A couple of other points to ponder: the 1918 epidemic came in two waves. First there was a relatively mild wave (meaning that the number of deaths would not make any top 10 lists for the 20th century) and then, just when everyone was getting back on their feet again, a fresh wave came back, much deadlier than before, and really screwed things up. The second one is the one that pushed the 1918 epidemic into the record books, and from what I have read, it made no difference to people’s immunity to the second wave whether or not they had been infected by the first. (Nobody is sure whether that means the two were completely distinct, or whether the second was a mutation of the first.) So if there’s a pandemic coming, everyone make sure they don’t let their guard down if they survive the first part, until a month or two has passed.
The other thing: it has been suggested that the epidemic of encephalitis lethargica (the “Sleepy Sickness” that Oliver Sacks wrote about in Awakenings) was an aftereffect of the 1918 influenza pandemic—what would now be termed a “post-influenza syndrome”. (I’ve even seen speculation that the reason Wilson didn’t push the 14 points, which would have removed one of the prime reasons, or at least excuses, for World War Two, was because he was suffering from a neurological post-influenza syndrome; according to contemporary reports, after getting over the flu, he never again had the energy that he once did. Interesting question, eh?) Who knows what post-H5N1 syndromes await us?
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Sep 20 2005 19:01 utc | 8
Karzai Wants End to U.S.-Led Operations
“I don’t think there is a big need for military activity in Afghanistan anymore,” he told reporters in Kabul. “The nature of the war on terrorism in Afghanistan has changed now.
“No coalition forces should go to Afghan homes without the authorization of the Afghan government. … The use of air power is something that may not be very effective now.”
In suggesting a new approach to fighting militants, Karzai said foreign governments should “concentrate on where terrorists are trained, on their bases, on the supply to them, on the money coming to them” — a veiled reference to alleged support that the militants get from neighboring Pakistan.
Ok – let’s pack up and get home.
Finally Kerry says something I like:
Using the nickname Bush used for Brown, Kerry said, “Brownie is to Katrina what Paul Bremer is to peace in Iraq, what George Tenet is to slam-dunk intelligence, what Paul Wolfowitz is to parades paved with flowers in Baghdad, what Dick Cheney is to visionary energy policy, what Donald Rumsfeld is to basic war planning, what Tom DeLay is to ethics and what George Bush is to ‘Mission Accomplished’ and ‘Wanted Dead or Alive.’ “
Frankenstein’s monster is on the loose
As it shall be abroad, so it will be at home. Poor people ain’t got no home, no electricity, no water. No hospitals, no schools, no city. New Orleans, welcome to Fallujah, to Gaza, to Haiti, to El Salvador, to Nicaragua.
Bechtel, Kellogg Root & Brown, Carlyle, Halliburton welcome you to “globalization”: the pain is yours; the gain is theirs.
Welcome to a civilization that ridicules science as an entity beneath treason. Welcome to the freedom and democracy of a state that knows no social contract, where you are born with a gun in your hand but no concept of the common good; a state that owes you nothing but owns you body and soul—in the unemployment lines, in the soup kitchens, in the army recruitment centers, in the prisons, on death row, in the schools that teach you nothing, in front of your television screens that lie and string you along with cynical contempt. To your doom, to your doom, for what is freedom without resources?
The courts have evicted you: there is no bankruptcy for you, no socialism for you. Debtor prison is good enough for you. Government handouts, in the form of corporate socialism, are strictly bookmarked for corporations. No one cares about you. Yours is not to reason why; yours is but to pray and die.
Welcome to the Plan for the New American Century. Welcome to the New World Order. Welcome. It stands exposed. Right there in New Orleans.
America, welcome to your planned future as a domestic, internal third world. Welcome to personal and public chronic indebtedness. Welcome to a bloated “defense” budget that cannot assist you, let alone “defend” you from a hurricane in the age of science. Welcome to the offensive budget that makes your country dependent on China for daily loans. Welcome to the multicolored ribbons in support of a war that kills your troops—your children, who are not here, not at home to help with their strength, their youth, their bravery, their idealism in pulling you out of the toxic flood waters.
Welcome. Dr. Frankenstein’s monster’s vengeance is at our door….
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 20 2005 20:16 utc | 11
Again, I urge Barflies to separate the real dangers from not real ones. And when considering the flu, at the risk of boring older Barflies, I’ve got to say again that my experience has taught me to be careful what I laugh at, lest the last laugh be on me. The silliest, craziest, stupidest thing I’d ever heard of actually wards off & cures the flu. It’s kind of embarrassing even to discuss it – but the sick are generally not finicky about the cure, esp. when it costs $2.00 & only involves drinking a glass of stuff that doesn’t taste bad. If no one knows the precise mechanism about how it works, or it sounds funny, you don’t care at that point.
I know guys especially hate hearing about vegetables, but if you’re worried about getting the flu, go buy yourself a vegetable juicer. You won’t get the flu if you drink this ridiculous stuff weekly – assuming yr. immune system isn’t radically compromised to begin with. Juice 1 grapefruit, w/4 stalks of celery (3 if organic) – add pinch Cream of Tartar. If you already have the flu, drink 4 glasses/day. I’ve seen a continuous cough stop in 10 mins. after 1 glass of this stuff. It’s crazy & utterly amazing. (See “Foods that Heal”.)
So, the flu is a non-issue. But Annie’s post is The Most Frightening Thing I’ve Ever Read. Isn’t that more terrifying than losing a city & its inhabitants – even if said “inhabitants” included you? Isn’t that an official declaration of war by govt. upon its citizens?
Posted by: jj | Sep 20 2005 20:17 utc | 12
Finally Kerry says something I like:
Yeah, yeah. This is empty political speech, designed to get you out of your chair thinking you agree with the guy, but what did he actually say? Nothing. What would he do: Kill more effectively, Lie more seemlessly, plan for killing better, put more troops int an illegal occupation. Same old “Mr. Live Shot”, as reporters call him derisively here in MA. Anybody can be a critic after the fact.
Gore spent his own money to evacuate two planeloads of people from New Orleans. What did Mr. Ketchup do? Or is he Mr. Pickle. I forget, he’s so memorable. Better he would have dropped dead after giving his “Winter Soldier” speech. I would have remembered him with fondness and admiration.
You’re right, JJ. What’s really scary is the way we are no being encouraged to think about being grateful for a government that protects us from enemies they have gone out of their way to create.
Problem is, when you have the flu bad, as I do today, after eating nothing but junk for several days, I don’t feel like getting up off my ass to make a vegetable juice.
the flu is a non-issue
The problem is: There is no “the flu”. There is a bunch of symtoms that come together as reaction to very different issues a human body has fighting some bacterias and/or viruses of very different ancestories. We tend to call those symtoms “a flu”.
Now your recipe does help in many cases but that does in no way assures me that it will help if something really nasty develops. Some billions of the 6.5 billion humans on this planet will survive that nasty wave, some will not. Celery will make a difference for some 10 million maybe even some more.
Somebody on a thread said Kerry was paid $13M to go away quietly after ’04 fraud. Anyone know anything about that?
Uncle, yr. post couldn’t have been any more timely. I highly recommend following the link. Well written piece by Literature Professor. But speaking of Frankenstein’s Monster at yr. door – while I was reading that, this msg. arrived in my email.
OCA needs your immediate help to stop Congress and the Bush administration from seriously degrading organic standards.
After 35 years of hard work, the U.S. organic community has built up a multi-billion dollar alternative to industrial agriculture, based upon strict organic standards and organic community control over modification to these standards.
Now, large corporations such as Kraft, Wal-Mart, & Dean Foods–aided and abetted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are moving to lower organic standards by allowing Bush appointees in the USDA National Organic Program to create a broad list of synthetic ingredients that would be allowed in organic production. Even worse these proposed regulatory changes will reduce future public discussion and input and take away the National Organic Standards Board’s (NOSB) traditional lead jurisdiction in setting standards. What this means, in blunt terms. is that USDA bureaucrats and industry lobbyists, not consumers, will now have more control over what can go into organic foods and products. (Send a quick letter to your Congressperson online here)
Today, Tuesday, Sept. 20, acting in haste and near-total secrecy, the U.S. Senate will vote on a “rider” to the 2006 Agriculture Appropriations Bill that will take away control over organic standards from the National Standards Board and put this control in the hands of federal bureaucrats in the USDA (remember the USDA proposal in 1997-98 that said that genetic engineering, toxic sludge, and food irradiation would be OK on organic farms, or USDA suggestions in 2004 that heretofore banned pesticides, hormones, tainted feeds, and animal drugs would be OK?).
link
Red Alert – follow link & Call yr. Senators Immediately
I just called one of mine. Office said they weren’t sure if it would come up today. So, if you’re reading this after Tuesday business hrs. call Wednesday.
Posted by: jj | Sep 20 2005 20:42 utc | 16
b, it obviously doesn’t work for bacteria which have to be killed by antibiotics, but does fine for the cluster of viruses that go by the name of the flu/colds.
Posted by: jj | Sep 20 2005 20:45 utc | 17
jj
I raw live juice fast frequently.
A little bit from personal experience over many years.
Around 1973 I became interested in alternative nutrition etc. etc. I have studied, practiced, experimented with a variety of “panaceas” but I have zeroed in on one important aspect of health/nutrition/immunity.
The multi-million year old ecological/habitat oriented natural diet provides far more protection and immunity than all the drug and interventionists medicine will ever dream of in their philosophy.
If we were to just browse in our environment and be able to acquire enough calories (not a really difficult exercise) we would be far healthier than ingesting all the vitamins and supplements the free market offers us.
I try to maximize my ingestion of raw, live growing species from my habitat in their most natural and native form.
When I reach 90 and can still make this proclamation from the point of health that I enjoy today at 64, I will be a little bit more curmudgeon about it. But meanwhile, I think there is a whole bunch of truth in the idea.
@Domingo Chavez
I am printing and passing on your post from Sep 20, 2005 4:25:40 AM to all my Democratic and Republican representatives in my district. Thanks for saying it the way I know it but can’t quite yet verbalize it by myself.
Posted by: Juannie | Sep 20 2005 22:14 utc | 18
it obviously doesn’t work for bacteria which have to be killed by antibiotics,
If humans would always have needed antibiotics to kill bacteria I wonder how they ever survived.
I guess you didn´t intended the interpretation I just made, but it is too simple in my view to pu bacteria into the the pharma area and hope for nutrition help on viruses.
—
A real life experience I had:
I was working in a company developing and distributing an online service. We had trouble with computer viruses randomly troubling our users. The marketing folks came up with this great claim.
“XXX [our service] – The best antibiotic against your computer virus”
It took me a week to explain to them that there is not one antibiotic that tacles viruses.
But it is one immune system that has to deal with all biological intrusions. Feed the immune system. Feed the soil. Lets appreciate and utilize to the best of our intelligence the age old genetic intelligences.
Posted by: Juannie | Sep 21 2005 0:10 utc | 20
Re: Red Alert – follow link & Call yr. Senators Immediately
I am reluctant to say, that I quit calling or writing these “collectors” long ago, no matter how articulate, up to date and informed you are nothing compares my concerns to lobby money and the system is and has long ago become coin- operated, while constituents take a backseat and are reduced to second hand status. I’m sick of the condescending reply letters, wait time on the phone and talking to no nothing clerks. Do it if you must, if it makes you feel better, but know that it is a big placebo.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 21 2005 1:20 utc | 22
B, etc., I marvel that people survived w/out them as well. They key as Juannie suggests is whether yr. immune system is healthy enough to fend off unwanted intruders. But I don’t know anyone who made it to their 21st birthday w/out antibiotics – and that’s w/garbage pickup & contemporary sewage & water systems.
re confusion about bacteria & viruses – it was only in last 2 yrs. that American doctors have finally stopped prescribing antibiotics for people who went in w/the flu!! So, it’s not surprising that people are completely confused. Antibiotics became the Communion Wafer, if you will, of Am. medicine.
@Juannie – there’s so little habitat left…and the knowledge needed is immense, but the theory sounds about right in that we co-evolved w/our environment. As Americans none of us are native species here, so it’s a bit complicated. But clearly proper nutrition is the sine qua non of health, a precious concept that I refuse to allow the medical system to appropriate.
They’ve tried to apply that theory to feeding dogs & it’s a rather dubious proposition. The Romantics think they can recreate under industrial conditions the situation in which dogs evolved. Since they evolved eating raw meat & bones, people are giving them the same. At least 2 problems w/that. Evolution is a statistical proposition. Just because the species survived eating that way, it doesn’t follow that each individual maximized its life span – And my dog is Very Definitely an individual to me. Also, the conditions in industrial slaughterhouses are far different than those that prevailed when a dog ate a freshly killed animal – the bacteria that accumulates in batches of thousands of pounds of ground meat can be far greater in concentration & toxicity. But the Romantic in me was seduced by the idea of eating in accord w/evolution briefly.
As, B- noted, everything is so complicated.
Posted by: jj | Sep 21 2005 1:25 utc | 23
Uncle $cam, if you call you don’t get letters. And huge volumes of calls make a difference on marginal issues like this. I’m not sure it would have mattered on the bankruptcy bill. It depends on how crucial it is to the Kleptocracy. At the very least one can buy time.
Posted by: jj | Sep 21 2005 1:28 utc | 24
US-Pakistan: An elaborate pas de deux
Pakistan’s primary role in its relationship with the US is to ferret out the Taliban and al-Qaeda. In this complex dance, Islamabad is often allowed to steal the limelight, even if it means Washington turning a blind eye to such weighty matters as nuclear proliferation and radical students. – Ramtanu Maitra
@jj
marginal issues? jj, just as you can’t measure pain, you also can’t ‘marginalize’ issues…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 21 2005 3:36 utc | 25
Tehran six months off nuclear arms ability: Israel
Iran may be only six months away from acquiring the capability to produce nuclear weapons, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has claimed.
Well, yeah, it’s called “Proxy war”…
“Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It’s classified information.” — US official quoted in Carl Cameron’s Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 21 2005 16:57 utc | 26
Uncle-
Check your linking method in today’s posts. Your putting the current website -MOA-in front of the link, and messing it up.
TO’s carrying MoDo. Message: I can’t
…
here’s nothing more pathetic than watching someone who’s out of touch feign being in touch.
…
The more the president echoes his dad’s “Message: I care,” the more the world hears “Message: I can’t.”
Decent rundown of last few days in the life of the Pathetic One. Too bad the front section doesn’t carry on in same spirit, but then it wouldn’t be Pravada-on-the-Hudson.
Posted by: jj | Sep 21 2005 18:18 utc | 28
@Malooga/Uncle $cam:
No, U$ isn’t putting MOA in front of the posts; he’s copy-and-pasting his links and getting more than he wanted. He put in a link to
”http://theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16668603%255E2703,00.html"
when what he wants is actually
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,16668603%255E2703,00.html
(Note the beginning and end of those lines.) Your web browser is looking at that, scratching its head over the extra ”, and assuming you meant to put a slash there, which means the link would be relative to the current page.
Make sure, when putting in a URL, to obey the following two rules:
1. It should start with http, https, or, possibly, ftp; nothing else. If you have anything else in front of that, you’re doing it wrong.
2. It should usually end with a letter or a number, not a slash, and almost certainly not anything else. (If it ends with a slash, you are giving the URL for a directory. Sometimes that’s okay—if the directory has an index page, like http://www.moonofalabama.org/ does, then the link will retrieve that instead.) Most commonly, though, a slash at the end means mistyping, and it will break the link.
You can always get the right URL, with no strings attached, by actually opening the page (with no frames) in a web browser, waiting until it is completely loaded, selecting the URL in the location bar at the top of your web browser window (this is true in Firefox, IE, Safari, and iCab; not sure about any others), and copying that.
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When Doing Technical Support | Sep 21 2005 18:57 utc | 29
Lest anyone imagine that contempt for humans engaged in using the Iraqi horror to advance themselves is confined only to certain nationalities lookit this piece of something you’d scrape off your shoe.
This is the chap who suggested BushCo’s problems would be over if the war on terra changed it’s name to “the global struggle against violent extremism”.
Judging by the way that suggestion went down like a lead balloon I doubt he’s going to be invited back to the Whitehouse in a hurry.
I remember this lowlife from when he was hanging out in NZ a close confident of the last right wing Prime Minister he bolted when his campaign failed to get Kiwis to support the descent into developing world lifestyles, that was required to get the economy ‘sorted’.
Since he has been ‘offshore’ he stays in contact with the plebs via press releases trumpeting his successes in the big wide world.
Considering this rebranding of war was hardly a success he must be getting desperate and down to the ‘any publicity is good publicity’ take on being a big fish in a little pond.
There is something fishy about his claim to be the boss of Saatchi and Saatchi. AS far as I can discern that shop is on it’s last legs. I think his is a ‘non-executive position’ whatever that means.
part 57 in the series “Slimebags” can crawl out from under any rock.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Sep 21 2005 18:57 utc | 30
Uncle $cam –
if you read that article Sharon says Iran is 6 month away to have the KNOWLEDGE how to build a nuclear weapon. That is quite different from the ability to build a weapon in the first place. It is also irrelevant as there are at least 20 countries in this world who have this “knowledge” and no nukes.
It is just typical Sharon warmongering – wastebasketing required.
From The Australian A death knell to the Bush doctrine
THE North Korean agreement offers new hope for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and for China-US relations; and, above all, is an incentive for a more realistic Bush foreign policy.
The agreement is fragile and may not hold. But after such protracted pessimism it is a ray of optimism in a gloomy global environment. And – if the deal does stick – the path will open towards a transformation on the Korean peninsula and in the strategic situation of Northeast Asia.
The agreement suggests the US has reached a tipping point. The ebullient Bush of his 2002 “axis of evil” fame would never have contemplated this retreat. The agreement violates pre-emption, unilateralism, regime change and military intervention, the ideas that once defined Bush’s presidency. It confirms that Iraq is the exception, not the rule, for Bush’s foreign policy.
It shows that Bush badly needs a win, given his Iraq entrapment, his Hurricane Katrina embarrassment and the looming diplomatic confrontation with Iran.
The Forged Niger Documents
These are the documents which prove that the claims made about Iraq’s WMDs were intentional lies, and not “mistakes”.
cryptome.org still kicking ass… even after a visit by the feds
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 21 2005 22:22 utc | 33
sorry about the links above guys, I was using an old puter to post em which had microshit word and kept screwing up, i have no idea why it kept putting MOA in front of the posts, I assumed it was some kinda microshaft stunt…
they can be reached by cutting and pasting, as the truth says above…sorry. Do take time time to check em out.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 21 2005 22:35 utc | 34
Now that’s marketing:
‘Clinton,’ ‘Lewinsky’ Brand Condoms Sold in China
A new line of condoms is grabbing headlines in China even as its sparks a debate about trademark law and promotion campaigns. The products’ brand names: “Clinton” and “Lewinsky.”
The condoms are sold in boxes of 12, with the brand named after former President Bill Clinton priced at $3.70 and that of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky at $2.25.
Guangzhou Haojian Bioscience Co. said it registered both trademarks and is pricing the brands differently to reflect the higher quality of the Clinton line.
Defense Spending Is Overstated, GAO Report Says
The Pentagon has no accurate knowledge of the cost of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or the fight against terrorism, limiting Congress’s ability to oversee spending, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released yesterday.
The Defense Department has reported spending $191 billion to fight terrorism from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks through May 2005, with the annual sum ballooning from $11 billion in fiscal 2002 to a projected $71 billion in fiscal 2005. But the GAO investigation found many inaccuracies totaling billions of dollars.
“Neither DOD nor Congress can reliably know how much the war is costing and details of how appropriated funds are being spent,” the report to Congress stated.
…
The report said the Pentagon overstated the cost of mobilized Army reservists in fiscal 2004 by as much as $2.1 billion. Because the Army lacked a reliable process to identify the military personnel costs, it plugged in numbers to match the available budget, the report stated. “Effectively, the Army was reporting back to Congress exactly what it had appropriated,” the report said.
The probe also found “inadvertent double accounting” by the Navy and Marine Corps from November 2004 to April 2005 amounting to almost $1.8 billion.
The report turned up aberrations in imminent-danger pay — $225 a month offered to military personnel serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries — which had “little correlation with the numbers of deployed personnel.” That pay totaled $38 million in April 2004, implying that 170,000 military personnel were receiving it, but by August 2004 it had mushroomed to $231 million, suggesting that more than 1 million U.S. troops were serving in danger zones.
Where is the outrage???
Let me urge you to watch Seymour Hersh in this WMedia flick (start at 6:00) : link
Some stuff he says:
– they have enough balck money. They scipped billions from Iraq oil money etc. They don´t need an Iran-Contra-Deal. Everything is off the book.
– They through money at the North Korea problem to clear the deck because they promissed Sharon to act against Iran as a deal to get him out of Gaza.
– Bush/Cheney/Rmmy are leading – Condi is not in the picture
…
Is Bush drinking again?
Wait! before the Knee-jerking begins read this:
Let me say this before people start in: the National Enquirer has beaten more libel suits than most major newspapers. Their stuff is vetted by libel lawyers before it hits the stands. In fact, their accuracy is no worse than their MSM peers. Up until the 1970’s, they ran alien stories, but then switched to celebrity coverage.
Why do I trust the NE? They pay their sources. So someone close to the WH got a big fat check for this, over $10K. And if they deny this or lie, the NE has a file on them. When dealing with gossip, this is quite effective. Now they may wind up paying the wrong people, but this is what they were told. Come on, if you ran the NE, would you risk a libel suit with your reputation?
Also, first Capital Hill Blue, now the NE, slowly, but surely, this is going to reach the MSM. Gossip is sually tomorrow’s news today.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 22 2005 22:53 utc | 38
Good defense, of NE $cam. No way they’d be making this up out of whole cloth. In general their worst sin is making mountains out of molehills w/all the distortion that entails, when they have pages to fill w/little to say. But I’d take this to the bank.
What I find more interesting is who is leaking this? As people noted on another blog, NE is read & believed by most of their base – so this is Big & serious trouble. Is it part of a putsch? Nora Ephron’s story last week was that Cheney is fed up w/him. And we all noted that he didn’t bail him out over NO. But I don’t see the ventriloquist’s dummy going anywhere as long as the ventriloquist is still in place. (ie – they’d get rid of Cheney first, before dumping Dummy.) When he went to Ariz a few wks. ago, I wondered what he was talking to McCain about. Was there falling out w/Cheney & was he feeling him out about stepping into VP role. Or …
And what’s the lead time on this story? How long have they been working on it?
In the context of Everything Else that’s going on, it’s hard not to take it very seriously. Scales finally falling from the eyes of the Bought Off, and yes the reality this Drunken Idiot has created is truly Terrifying. This art. will pry loose his base who are just too damn ignorant to be moved by anything else, much moreso than anything on Fox or NYT.
This makes his hold on power extremely tenuous. At the very least it shifts power back from the Executive to Congress, for starters…not that Congress represents our interests…
Posted by: jj | Sep 23 2005 1:54 utc | 39
Nigerian militia storm U.S.-run oil platform
More than 100 armed militants stormed a U.S.-operated oil production platform in Nigeria and forced it to close on Thursday in response to the arrest of an ethnic militia leader on treason charges.
Armed with assault rifles, the fighters invaded the Idama platform operated by Chevron in the southern Niger Delta, escalating a simmering political crisis in the world’s eighth largest oil exporter.
“Eight boats, each carrying 15 armed people occupied the Idama flow station. Six government security forces had their weapons taken from them,” a source close to Chevron said.
“Apparently the militants are now heading for more stations.”
…
Dokubo-Asari’s Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF) threatened on Tuesday to cause mayhem and close down oil facilities in the delta, which pumps all of Nigeria’s 2.4 million barrels per day, unless their leader was released.
…
Dokubo-Asari campaigns for self-determination of his Ijaw tribe, the largest in the delta, and argues that the colonial treaties that created the union with Nigeria were fraudulent.
…
Last year, Dokubo-Asari and thousands of his followers fought gun battles with troops from rebel hideouts in the creeks near Port Harcourt, until a peace deal was signed which gave Dokubo-Asari amnesty in return for disarmament.
An NDPVF commander, Dakoru Princewill, said he had about 3,000 volunteers ready for action and they would be able to procure arms when they decided they needed them.
Posted by: b real | Sep 23 2005 2:02 utc | 40
jj- it could involve the cia, maybe revenge, maybe smokescreen. the national enquirer has been part of the grant wurlitzer even since it was purchased by an ex-cia guy, generoso paul pope, jr in the 1950’s. of course, the ole’ saying goes once cia, always cia.
Posted by: b real | Sep 23 2005 2:22 utc | 41
thanks for the hersh link b. i too urge all to listen/watch. i luuuv that guy.
Posted by: annie | Sep 23 2005 2:23 utc | 42
Actually, I’m wondering if maybe Cheney is the one who’s got the serious trouble. I mean, he disappears for a long stretch, and when he starts to resurface we hear that he’s going into the hospital. One possible interpretation of recent events is that Cheney is basically about to die, possibly because of stress (plans seem to be failing for the neocons, and he’s at the center of more of them than anyone else; if the MSM can start questioning Bush, then you know the neocons’ problems are pretty serious) or more likely just because he’s led the sort of life that a fat, rich, white man leads, so his cardiovascular system is shot. Either way, since Bush himself can’t think his way out of a paper bag (like the right wing figurehead in A Wild Sheep Chase, the man is zero as a thinker) and Rove only does party tricks for the base, not policy, Bush is under serious stress himself—the hurricanes have exposed a lot of serious corruption at a time when Cheney is gone, North Korea is getting tricky, Iran is heating up, and Cheney is down for the count. Therefore Bush goes off looking for a someone to replace Cheney, preferably someone smart enough to do some serious damage control.
Unfortunately for him, most of the smart people in his party, vile though they may be in general, have been screwed over by Bush because they could see where Bush’s policies would lead and disagreed with him, thus becoming persona non grata in the party. And they’re Republicans, which means they’re nasty little revenge seekers. Consider the dialog behind that closed door in Arizona:
Bush: hey, there, Mister McCain, buddy, I know that my folks did a lying smear campaign against you back in 2000, and I’ve ignored every piece of advice you’ve given me for the last five years, but it looks like Dick is about to pop his clogs, and I need one’a’ you smart guys to keep the heat off. How’d you like to come and hold the bag for me?
McCain: Would you like a pretzel, Mr. President?
Everyone smart enough to take over Cheney’s unique position is smart enough to see that the chickens are about to come home to roost, and that the replacement will get all the flack for being a Republican while deriving none of the benefits of having been involved in the swindles personally, so Bush is stuck. That’s why he’s drinking again. I don’t believe for an instant that Bush feels bad about New Orleans. He’s a sociopath. If he’s upset, it comes from realizing that everything is going pear-shaped just when his sole remaining serious strategist is incapacitated. I bet that if Cheney does die of something, Bush will resign—and there will probably be a lot more scandal involved than even we expect, because I doubt Cheney trusts anyone enough to let them in on all his secrets. (It would be a hoot and a half if it turned out that Cheney was holding something big on Karl Rove which then came out, so that Bush would suddenly left without either one…)
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Sep 23 2005 3:06 utc | 43
jj- thinking more about why the nat’l enquirer would finally make this story public (in the supermarkets of all places!) when it’s been pretty common gossip that he’s been off the wagon for a long while. and the thought occured to me, this is either a warning to chimpy from his mafia backers, or a setup for his “tragic” accident, to draw on the topical joke of bush post pet goat period. mafia == cia.
reading up on the 1943 murder of il martello publisher carlo tresca, of which doug valentine, in his book the strength of the wolf, says “provides a graphic example of organized crime’s deep political association w/ members of the Establishment.”
Tresca was an avowed socialist, and his political adversary was Generoso Pope, publisher of the pro-fascist Il Progresso Italo-Americano. It has always been easy for fascists to acquire political patrons in America, but once it became clear that America was going to war w/ Italy, Pope enlisted the help of NY Congressman Samuel Dickstein, co-founder of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In 1941 Dickstein defended Pope before Congress, a fact that contributed immensely to Pope’s successful attempt to achieve respectabilty.
With Dickstein in his corner, Pope emerged as a wedge between the Establishment and the Mafia and, w/ the support of influential friends like columnist Drew Pearson, and Assistant US Attorney Roy Cohen, he was able to provide political cover for his gangster cronies. Frank Costello, for example, was godfather to his children. But Pope’s closest underworld ally was Joseph Bonanno, whose narcotics manager, Carmine Galante, though never convicted, was universally recognized as Tresca’s assassin.
All the Mafia families were investing in labor racketeering, and Pope had aligned w/ International Ladies Garment Workers Union leader Luigi Antonini through a sweetheart deal arranged by Joe Bonanno’s consigliere, Frank Garofalo. A vicious killer, Garofalo had been Pope’s “factotum” since 1934, when, as Professor Alan Block asserts, Pope has used him to intimidate “other Italian-language newspapers which were anti-fascist and anti-Pope.” Tresca threatened to expose Garofalo’s connection w/ Pope, and as a result of that (and because he had blocked [Vito] Genovese’s attempt to establish a social club as a front for drug trafficking), Genovese ordered his execution. Tresca was shot and killed on 11 January 1943. Galante was arrested and held for eight months, but was never indicted, and the FBI failed to connect any Mafiosi w/ the crime – despite the fact that contributions to Galante’s defense fund were funneled through Lucchese family member Joseph DiPalermo and the Teamster’s Union.
Aware that the Mafia was serving new patrons in the wake of the Luciano Project, Pope threw his weight behind the CIA-supported Christian Democrats and became a key player in shaping US foreign policy in Italy. His relations w/ the espionage Establishment were reportedly cemented when his son, having served briefly in the CIA, purchased the New York Enquirer and turned it into the public opinion-shaping, Mafia-friendly tabloid the National Enquirer
Posted by: b real | Sep 23 2005 3:10 utc | 44
of course, i’m probably making some big leaps of imagination at such a late hour in a bar, of all places!. after pope, jr died, i haven’t bothered checking out who bought the franchise. wmr says that bush’s bruises were a result of his binges. i’ve always thought he was being roughed up – “i’m just trying to get on w/ my life”. funny how the mind works though. i didn’t find much humor in that current bush/school joke, but it keeps popping up all over the place. and now the enquirer piece. hmmm.
Posted by: b real | Sep 23 2005 3:24 utc | 45
A New Deadly, Contagious Dog Flu Virus Is Detected in 7 States
FEMA will save em!
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 23 2005 3:44 utc | 46
W/re to Bush & NE, they’re actually even more accurate than some “respected” newspapers.
Here’s a quote from that about why:
“For instance, the “Enquirer” requires reporters to read direct quotes back to sources — and get the response on tape. The “Times” doesn’t do that, nor does it require reporters to provide contact numbers or even bother to check expense accounts to see what the journalist really did with his or her time.”
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 23 2005 4:01 utc | 47
National Archives Indian Records Discarded
WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal officials are investigating how National Archives documents of interest to Indians suing the Interior Department were found discarded in a trash bin and a wastebasket.
The discovery came to light on Sept. 1, when Archives staff noticed federal records in one of the trash bins behind the National Archives Building near the Capitol. They notified the Archives’ inspector general, Paul Brachfeld, whose staff recovered the documents. …
Shit like this just pisses me off, not so much as a anthropologist, researcher, academic, but the the systemic blantant disregard and dehumanizing of real humans and peoples culture; things like this are a mortal sin to history.
A friend of mine made the statement the other day, “It’s absolutely amazing the race and class divisions discussion of Katrina have brought out,I’m truly stunned by some of the things I’ve read and seen people proudly assert lately.” He went on to assert,”Indeed, and I’m glad this stuff is on the surface now, because it’s easier to deal with our problems when we can all admit there’s a problem.” And then he stunned me with, “How many of us knew it was this bad?; I sure didn’t.” I just shook my head in amazement…
Not only does “Bush not like black people” it would seem he hates the poor too.
Also see: Still Separate, Still Unequal:
America’s Educational Apartheid, by Jonathon Kozol, from the September issue of Harper’s. Even if you’re familiar with a big-city public-school system , it’s an eye-opener.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 23 2005 5:14 utc | 48
Iraq Preparing For IMF Deal or “How to carve out a pumpkin”…
of course, it is well known that the World Bankers,IMF’ers loan conditions look less like an assistance plans and more like a blueprints for a financial coup d’etats. Especially, w/ “comb-licker” as the bastard, er, uh, I mean bastion of progress.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 23 2005 5:58 utc | 50
I knew it was just a question of time before they shoved the goddamn bible down the throats of public school kids. Of course, they couldn’t do it til they had a “textbook”. Oh, happy day – now they do…
An interfaith group released a new textbook Thursday aimed at teaching public high school students about the Bible while avoiding legal and religious disputes.
The nonprofit Bible Literacy Project of Fairfax, Virginia, spent five years and $2 million developing “The Bible and Its Influence.” The textbook, introduced at a Washington news conference, won initial endorsements from experts in literature, religion and church-state law.
link
Will it be a required coarse? If so, when you flunk it because you to have your brain polluted, can you graduate? Can you still get into any college in America? Can you imagine having to referee the brawls between fundie brats & atheists? And what’s the damn point anyway except to smear this male god batshit everywhere…no institution can escape?
########
Don’t have a link, but ABC radio is reporting that Bu$hCo appointed the lawyer for Chevron to look into complaints of price gouging by Oil Cos. It must be massive!!
Posted by: jj | Sep 23 2005 6:24 utc | 51