So why Harriet Miers and other issues …
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October 3, 2005
Open Thread 05-100
Comments
Meet the next Supreme Court nominee:
Harriet Miers Biography
Oh, and check out her degree.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 3 2005 13:08 utc | 1
Extracts from Fisk’s book
How the world was duped: the race to invade Iraq.
Face to face with the world’s most wanted man.
Shock and awe: the night Baghdad burned.
Posted by: Fran | Oct 3 2005 14:40 utc | 3
working link to fisk extracts. Fran- looks like the urls you pasted in were enclosed in quote characters.
Posted by: b real | Oct 3 2005 14:53 utc | 4
b real, thank you – don’t know what happened, done them as usual, or at least thought so. 🙂
Posted by: Fran | Oct 3 2005 14:55 utc | 5
Another clueless governmental nomination. Another stealth Supreme Court candidate. And another crony.
Some old guy named William Odom is not having any of the kool aid:
LINK
Posted by: Groucho | Oct 3 2005 17:09 utc | 7
Wm. Odom:
“Many U.S. officers in Iraq, especially at company and field grade levels, know that while they are winning every tactical battle, they are losing strategically.”
Not for nothing do they call it the tar baby.
Reed Hundt at TPM Cafe on Saturday:
“From my talks around town I derive the impression that the current Democratic Party position on Iraq is to start saying that the Administration only has three more months within which to demonstrate that it is wise to ‘stay the course’ in Iraq.
As I understand this position, it reflects in part the members’ focus on the various appropriations packages and other bills struggling toward resolution before adjournment perhaps before Thanksgiving. They don’t want to do much on Iraq this fall, or even in the winter.
Instead, they would, I gather, assess in the winter what happens in Iraq after the constitution is voted in (which it surely will be, or will be counted as having been), look at the polls in the spring, and figure out what to say about Iraq in the summer, during the run-up to the election.”
Too, too funny. That’s the other side’s “strategy” as well:
Dead Dog Floating Downstream.
Posted by: Pat | Oct 3 2005 17:25 utc | 8
American cars used for insurgent attacks in Iraq – who are these insurgents?
US car theft rings probed for ties to Iraq bombings
The inquiry began after coalition troops raided a bomb-making factory in Fallujah last November and found a sport utility vehicle registered in Texas that was being prepared for a bombing mission.
Investigators said they are comparing several other cases where vehicles evidently stolen in the United States wound up in Syria or other Middle East countries and ultimately into the hands of Iraqi insurgent groups — including Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born Abu Musab Al Zarqawi.
That gives me like ten nice ideas for various conspiracy theories …
@beq – why didn´t you say I have to move the cursor – poor me needed the cat to help.
Nice link 😉 Thanks.
oh my…nightmares for the next coupla’ nights…thanks beq
Posted by: b real | Oct 3 2005 19:24 utc | 12
A few days ago Billmon had the General Moron piece with a lively discussion here.
Today new numbers are in (via Atrios):
1
GM, the world’s biggest automaker, said U.S. sales overall sank 24 percent to 344,797 vehicles in September.
Sales of light trucks, which include pickups, sport/utility vehicles and vans, plummeted even more, off 30 percent from a year earlier, while car sales declined 14.5 percent.
Ford, the nation’s No. 2 automaker, said September sales overall sank 19 percent to 228,157 vehicles.
Ford’s sales of light trucks fell even more sharply, sinking 27 percent to 155,167.
…
Competitor Chrysler Group said sales rose 4 percent from a year earlier though details of those sales were not immediately available.
But even with that gain from September 2004, Chrysler’s September sales sank 6 percent form the strong pace in August.
Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday that its U.S. vehicle sales jumped 10.3 percent in September as climbing car sales offset a slight decline in trucks.
The Japanese automaker – which sells car and trucks under the Toyota, Lexus and Scion brands – sold 178,417 vehicles during the month, up from 161,793 last September. Car sales jumped 22.2 percent to 107,551 vehicles, more than making up for a 3.9 percent decline in truck sales to 70,866 units.
Atrios has this link to Miers blog? I am not sure if this is real or satire, I would tend to the second one – however, with this administration you never know.
Harriet Miers’s Blog!!!
Posted by: Fran | Oct 3 2005 20:00 utc | 14
my old pal at counterpunch paul craig roberts
“Condoleezza the Gun Slinger
The Greatest Strategic Disaster in US History
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Capitol Hill Blue, the Washington DC publication that cultivates relationships with White House staffers, reports (September 28) one White House aide saying: “It’s like working in an insane asylum. People walk around like they’re in a trance. We’re the dance band on the Titanic, playing out our last songs to people who know the ship is sinking and none of us are going to make it.”
“If POTUS is on the road, you can breathe a little easier,” says an aide. Otherwise it is one temper tantrum after another from Bush, whose “cakewalk war” has turned into interminable conflict, whose idiocy in diverting funding for New Orleans’ levees to war in Iraq was disastrous for the famous city, and whose Social Security privatization has been rejected by the electorate.
Even rah-rah Republican Newt Gingrich says the White House is surrounded by failure.
No member of the White House staff wants to deliver news to Bush, because the news is bad. Bush demands sycophancy and equates bad news with disagreement and disloyalty.
Little wonder that Republican minority token Condi Rice was dispatched to Princeton last week to inform the university that democracy comes out of the barrel of a gun. US military force, said the secretary of state with a straight face, is required to force democracy down the throats of the Muslims in order to save future American generations from “insecurity and fear.”
Condi obviously doesn’t want Bush to put her in the “against us” camp. She told Princeton that she agreed with Bush “that the root cause of September 11 was the violent expression of a global extremist ideology, an ideology rooted in the oppression and despair of the modern Middle East.”
Every American should be scared to death that a secretary of state can make such an ignorant and propagandistic statement.
Many Middle Eastern countries are ruled by puppets on the American payroll. Even the Saudis are under American protection. If there is oppression in the Middle East, it is because US puppets and protectorates are doing what the US government wants, not what the people they rule want.
The Middle East is in despair because almost a century after the First World War freed Arabs from Turkish occupation, they still cannot get free of US and British occupation. The reasons Osama bin Laden has a cause among Muslims are US military bases in the Middle East and the genocide that Israel practices toward Palestine by stealing the West Bank and herding Palestinians into ghettos.
What kind of fool believes that the way to bring democracy to a country is to invade, destroy cities and infrastructure, and kill and maim tens of thousands of civilians, while creating every possible animosity by aligning with some members of the society against the others?”
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 4 2005 0:01 utc | 15
Nice to see that you are finally cultivating friends of the right sort, RG.
Posted by: Groucho | Oct 4 2005 0:23 utc | 16
why yes groucho – its called a united front – whomever is the enemy of my enemy
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 4 2005 0:27 utc | 17
“What kind of fool believes that the way to bring democracy to a country is to invade, destroy cities and infrastructure, and kill and maim tens of thousands of civilians, while creating every possible animosity by aligning with some members of the society against the others?”
What kind of fool? A bloody-minded, covetous one. When the contradiction falls apart and there’s nothing at all left to defend, they will gladly take up arms for nothing at all.
Posted by: Pat | Oct 4 2005 0:53 utc | 18
& iraq must be the first imperialist venture where very significant & substantial elements of the intelligence community & the military are completely opposed to the political elites – either out of self preservation, engaged for the longer term interest or simply elements who see madness much like mr kurtz. they also seem to be powerless
for all the sucintness of mr roberts & some of the generals & colonels & veteran intelligence agents – they seem utterly powerless in the face of the larger criminality
like mad king leopold – they cannot rein the madness in
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 4 2005 1:02 utc | 19
“iraq must be the first imperialist venture where very significant & substantial elements of the intelligence community & the military are completely opposed to the political elites”
Torn, rememberinggiap. Not completely opposed, but torn.
Posted by: Pat | Oct 4 2005 2:34 utc | 20
on another front (the avian influenza issue) there’s a revised version of a physician’s argument that you SHOULD be worried, but that there are things you can do to prepare –
see http://tinyurl.com/bgefm
Posted by: mistah charley | Oct 4 2005 2:50 utc | 21
Dear Bill Mon
I have a couple of points to raise
Whats up with faith based initiatives? Talk about coruption. I would bet one does not have to dig deep to find dirt! The flow of cash to these group, will help to keep people like Bush in power. I wish some journalist would take a some time to check it out. I am sure it would not take long to hit pay dirt.
My other point is W always talks about the importance of being Loyal. The White house people do need to be loyal, to the American people and the US Consitution NOT BUSH
All the best Peter
Posted by: Peter | Oct 4 2005 3:15 utc | 22
“iraq must be the first imperialist venture where very significant & substantial elements of the intelligence community & the military are completely opposed to the political elites”
Torn, rememberinggiap. Not completely opposed
while there are significant numbers torn it is also true that there are equally, if not more members completely opposed.
and this is what is significant, not the torn ones, for there are always members of society torn by any war.
Posted by: annie | Oct 4 2005 3:25 utc | 23
Can you give me hard numbers, annie?
That tear is not insignificant. It’s amazing that it’s there at all, things considered.
Posted by: Pat | Oct 4 2005 3:39 utc | 24
here’s 3612
it is the same site listing those opposed to invading a few years ago . i can’t find the original letter to the president this site offered a couple years ago, i just remember crying when i kept scrolling page after page. this is for an independent commission to investigate the torture.
Posted by: annie | Oct 4 2005 4:04 utc | 25
that was supposed to read ‘for an independent commission’
i consider these numbers significant. perhaps someone out there better qualified to search can find the list i am referring to. there is also the group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
from billmon’s What a “Secure” Province Looks Like” link
“In past situations you’ve had a good guy and a bad guy and the troops were impassioned, but now troops just want to go home,” Sabin said. “I don’t feel like there’s a cause. I don’t personally think there’s a reason for this.”
Posted by: annie | Oct 4 2005 4:17 utc | 27
annie, the troops don’t decide.
It’s always someone else’s reason.
Posted by: Pat | Oct 4 2005 4:25 utc | 28
But you, annie, you had better gear up – full battle rattle.
Because the nays don’t have it.
Posted by: Pat | Oct 4 2005 4:49 utc | 29
The 9/9/05 This American Life is of interest to Whiskey Bar readers:
This American Life producer Alex Blumberg talks with Lorrie Beth Slonsky and her husband Larry Bradshaw. They’re paramedics from San Francisco who were visiting New Orleans for a convention when Hurricane Katrina hit. After the storm, they tried to escape the city in a number of ways. When they tried to leave the city on foot, they were told, at gunpoint, by police, that they must turn back. We also hear from Debbie Zelinsky, who was with them. (17 minutes)
Posted by: Bill Brock – Chicago | Oct 4 2005 5:54 utc | 30
@ b Thanks for the link on the car-theft-ring. The fact that Steve Emerson is quoted as linking it to Al Qaeda ought to be enough to get at least one of your 10 conspiracy theories up and running.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Oct 4 2005 6:15 utc | 31
One-two punch:
Second Indictment Issued Against DeLay
A grand jury in Texas issued a second indictment on Monday against Representative Tom DeLay, accusing the Texas Republican and two aides of money laundering in a $190,000 transaction that prosecutors have described as a violation of the state’s ban on the use of corporate money in local election campaigns.
The indictment was announced without warning on Monday in Austin, the state capital, after lawyers for Mr. DeLay went to court earlier in the day to ask that the original conspiracy indictment be dismissed on technical grounds.
What vote?
Election Move Seems to Ensure Iraqis’ Charter
Iraq’s Shiite and Kurdish leaders quietly adopted new rules over the weekend that will make it virtually impossible for the constitution to fail in the coming national referendum.
…
Under the new rules, the constitution will fail only if two-thirds of all registered voters – rather than two-thirds of all those actually casting ballots – reject it in at least three of the 18 provinces.
The change, adopted during an unannounced vote in Parliament on Sunday afternoon, effectively raises the bar for those who oppose the constitution. Given that fewer than 60 percent of registered Iraqis voted in the January elections, the chances that two-thirds will both show up at the polls and vote against the document in three provinces would appear to be close to nil.
How may Iraqis and Americans will die for this “election”?
Additional clip from the above link
Ms. Reyes said the assembly members had not changed election law, but only clarified the meaning of the word “voters” in the relevant passage. The legal passage in question states: “The general referendum will be successful and the draft constitution ratified if a majority of voters in Iraq approve and if two-thirds of voters in three or more governorates do not reject it.”
In their vote on Sunday, the Shiite and Kurdish members interpreted the law as follows: the constitution will pass if a majority of ballots are cast for it; it will fail if two-thirds of registered voters in three or more provinces vote against it. In other words, the lawmakers designated two different meanings for the word “voters” in one passage. “I think it’s a double standard, and it’s unfair,” said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish assembly member who, like many other lawmakers, said he had not been present during the vote and only learned of it afterward. “When it’s in your favor, you say ‘voters.’ When it’s not in your favor you say ‘eligible voters.’ “
Did DeLay teach those guys?
The new indictment, handed up by a grand jury seated Monday, contained two counts. The money laundering charge carries a penalty of up to life in prison. The charge of conspiracy to launder money is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Posted by: annie | Oct 4 2005 7:30 utc | 35
PAT, while you’re around & speaking of torn allegiances, have you seen this ? Are you aware that the casualty figures from “Gulf War I” are ~2/3, that is 425,000 are sick & slowly dying from Gulf War Illness out of 695,000 troops sent over? (this 2-dvd set they’ve compiled contains a treasure trove of govt. documents you might find interesting on how the govt. treats the troops.)
The spokeswoman for Gulf War Vets is a Missouri Republican, Joyce Riley, a no-nonsense nurse & Capt. in Reserves/Nat’l Guard who would have gone over again were she not too ill from prev. war. She’s been Dir. of Operations @4 hospitals. I heard an interview w/her, when she was publicizing these DVD’s they’ve produced & was seriously impressed. She’s Not anti-military & neither is Maj. (Dr.) Doug Rokke; but they’re anti-military policies in regard to weapons used that are killing US troops in Catastrophic numbers – none of it discussed. (Do you think Americans would have signed on to another Iraqi invasion if they knew actual casualty figures from prev. caper??)
Posted by: jj | Oct 4 2005 8:05 utc | 36
Riverbend:
Constitution Conversations…
It is utterly frustrating to talk to someone about the referendum- whether they are Sunni or Shia or Kurd- and know that even before they’ve read the constitution properly, they’ve decided what they are going to vote.
Women’s rights aren’t a primary concern for anyone, anymore. People actually laugh when someone brings up the topic. “Let’s keep Iraq united first…” is often the response when I comment about the prospect of Iranian-style Sharia.
Rights and freedoms have become minor concerns compared to the possibility of civil war, the reality of ethnic displacement and cleansing, and the daily certainty of bloodshed and death.
Translator caught in web
When Sibel Edmonds was a young girl, her father, a physician in Iran, was asked to falsify an autopsy finding. Angrily, he refused, daring the authorities to retaliate.
At home, he told his family: “Things like this do not happen in truly democratic civil societies – like America.”
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 4 2005 11:29 utc | 38
British civilian arrested in Iraq
And just what is a Brit doing among an armed group? Low intensity operations?
Posted by: Frank Kitson | Oct 4 2005 12:01 utc | 39
Oscar for the ghost of Joe McCarthy?
He isn’t up here with me so I somehow doubt he’ll ever be able to collect it.
Posted by: Pauline Kael | Oct 4 2005 12:26 utc | 40
jj, thanks for bringing up the GW vets, people should be reminded of those numbers whenever there’s a chance they’ll sit up and take notice.
Posted by: Noisette | Oct 4 2005 15:50 utc | 41
The referendum vote-rigging shenanigans of Iraq’s Shia and Kurdish faux-democrats that bernhard refers to above have proved to be a little too blatant for the United Nations:
Iraqi parliament may review referendum rules: UN
Posted by: Democracy 101 | Oct 4 2005 16:49 utc | 42
Coalition government in America?
A call for a coalition of the left on the lines of Poland’s famed Solidarity Movement is making the rounds in blogtopia. This seems to be in reaction to a number of folks who are increasingly unsatisfied by the lack of a real opposition party in America. This dissatisfaction has been brewing for a long time in lefty circles, but seems to be more at the forefront as what passes for Democratic leadership has proven woefully inadequate in a number of crucial battleground issues.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 4 2005 17:31 utc | 43
Iraq’s Shiite and Kurdish leaders quietly adopted new rules over the weekend that will make it virtually impossible for the constitution to fail in the coming national referendum.
…
Under the new rules, the constitution will fail only if two-thirds of all registered voters – rather than two-thirds of all those actually casting ballots – reject it in at least three of the 18 provinces.
The change, adopted during an unannounced vote in Parliament on Sunday afternoon, effectively raises the bar for those who oppose the constitution. Given that fewer than 60 percent of registered Iraqis voted in the January elections, the chances that two-thirds will both show up at the polls and vote against the document in three provinces would appear to be close to nil.
The neocon pipe dream of turning Iraq into a “beacon of liberty” in the Middle East hits yet another speed bump…
Posted by: Lexington | Oct 4 2005 17:36 utc | 44
DON´T SNEEZE!!!
Bush proposes using military in bird flu pandemic
President George W. Bush suggested using the military to contain any epidemic of avian influenza on Tuesday, saying Congress needs to consider the possibility.
He said the military, perhaps the National Guard, might be needed to enforce quarantines if the feared H5N1 bird flu virus changes enough to cause widespread human infection.
“If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine?” Bush asked at a news conference.
“It’s one thing to shut down airplanes. It’s another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine?” Bush added.
Interesting wording: To quarantine is to keep the disease within a cirtaion area or group. “It’s another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. Who would want to come in to get exposed?
“One option is the use of a military that’s able to plan and move. So that’s why I put it on the table. I think it’s an important debate for Congress to have.”
…
Bush said he was concerned and involved in planning for an influenza pandemic, which experts say will definitely come, although they cannot predict when or whether it will be H5N1 or some other virus.
“And I think the president ought to have all options on the table to understand what the consequences are — all assets on the table, not options — assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant,” he said.
Hmmm – Bush is involved in planning for an influenza pandemic. Like involved in planning for a war on Iraq?
What do we make of the Saturday, October 1 Washington Post headline “Poison Found in Air During Anti-War Protest”?
Washington D.C. Public Health Director Greg A. Pane posed the right question in the Post article, “Why that day? That’s what is not explained.” Pane pointed that it was “just this 24-hour period and none since.”
Posted by: annie | Oct 4 2005 18:11 utc | 46
the murderous swine that inhabit this criminal administration are now trying their little tricks with the iraq constitution – how these pigs like to wallow in the corruption of their own words
to replace the gift of the alphabet that the corp of iraq gave us – the pigs that drink at the swill of the white house – grunt for us a new grammar –
they murder so easily with bombardments that even their own soldiers find offensive & know implicity that it will create greater danger for them as well as the people of iraq & they use words & ideas that are so empty of meaning – words that have become vile coming out of the mouths of the criminal beasts who crawl through this immoral administration – words such as democracy, liberty & freedom – that have become besmirched entirely & cannot be used again
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 4 2005 19:11 utc | 47
[ed.note: posted by Tante Aime in another thread – moved here by b.]
Kiss the Ring
I was reading “Suicide in Cuba” last night,
about the slave trade of the 1800’s, where
the sugar plantation owners, as the price
of sugar declined due to increasing supply,
and the price of slaves increased, due to
decreasing supply, decided to start taking
care of their slaves(!), instead of simply
working them to death within a few years of
20 hours a day, seven days a week hard labor.
African slaves were particularly troublesome,
because their animist religion told them that
their spirit moved about when they were asleep,
and that in death, their spirit was set free
to roam the earth with their elders and friends.
So when the plantation owners would whip and
beat and flay the skin off their backs for not
being “happy workers”, many slaves fought back
the only way they could, by jumping into the
boiling kettles of sugar syrup, or wrapping
the chains that bound them around their necks,
and jumping in a well, or hanging from a tree.
This was fine when slaves were cheap, the
plantations would just buy another one, but it
became an “item” affecting the “bottom line”
when sugar prices began to fall, and slavery
began to become unpopular. It started to cost,
to show up on the ledger, so to speak.
The Spanish authority cast around for ideas,
and came up with a plan. They required those
plantations with more than twelve slaves to
allow a Benedictine monk to live among the
slaves, paid for by the plantation owner. The
monk’s task was to teach Spanish to the slaves,
and to learn their language. But most of all,
his task was to teach Jesus (el crucificado)
to the slaves, to teach them “by-and-by”, that
if they mutely suffered their fate, in the
afterlife they would live in glorious freedom.
Well, that was fine, and why Afro-Americans
today are predominantly Christian. The plan
worked, suicides nearly disappeared, and the
plantations returned to exceptional prosperity.
Each slave was given a small plot of land to
grow food for their families, and everyone got by.
That lasted only until about 1850.
Then came the introduction of Chinese servants,
indentured for eight years, then they were to
be given their freedom and a small plot of land.
(The plot of land, of course, were the same plots
that the African slaves had carved out and
cared for!) Suddenly the plantation owners had
a cheap supply of labor again, and reverted
back to their old ways, using humans as draft
animals, beating, kicking and whipping them
without mercy, 20, even 21 hours a day, 7
days a week these Chinese slaved.
There are legal records of all this in the book.
Most indentured slaves died before their eight
years, and then when the plantation owners
refused to give the survivors their freedom,
and the Africans fought them for their little
vegetable plots, suddenly suicides exploded again.
The Chinese now were the ones mass-hanging
themselves from the big banyan trees, or
jumping into the boiling sugar vats, or
chaining themselves together and jumping
into the river to drown.
Imagine throwing yourself into boiling sugar.
But supplies of Chinese remained cheap, so
the authorities looked the other way, and
*to this day*, suicide remains the way out
for a substantial portion of Cuban slaves.
Not “slaves”-slaves anymore, they’re free.
Free to starve to death. Free to work from
cradle to grave to eke out a subsistence,
because the US has kept an economic boycott
on the tiny island for FORTY YEARS now.
And when the poor complain, on Sunday, the
Benedictine monks say a mass to the Pope
in Rome, in his splendid gold robes and
rubies on every finger, a mass for slaves.
Then they tell the people, “Kiss the ring”.
In fewer words, tante aime:
The stomach is a fiercer master
Than Corporate, but more easily
Satisfied. Americans have that
Luxury, serving just one master.
For now….
Posted by: lash marks | Oct 4 2005 20:10 utc | 49
Why the fuck can’t we pull something like this off here. ‘Black Tuesday’ strike in France
A one-day national strike has caused massive disruption to transport, schools and industry across France.
Americans are a bunch of friggin sheep.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 4 2005 20:54 utc | 50
Of all the sad but diabolical occurrences this week the decision to rig the Iraqi constitution poll is the worst.
The cynical way in which a majority of voters who participate in the poll can approve the constitution yet a majority of ‘registered voters’ is required to reject it will have awful flow on effects in developing democracies. Everytime a more participative government is suggested in a despotic regime, those in power will be able to quite easily demonstrate that even established democracies such as the US conspire to subvert the people’s will. So what is the point in democracy? At least a dictatorship is honest and has no pretensions of ‘doing the right thing’.
When you combine this desperate act with the massacre of civilians occuring right now in the Euphrates Valley which will ensure that even if voters in the Sunni provinces wanted to participate in the referendum they will not be able to the referendum is a pointless waste of time. The determination of BushCo and Bliarite to destroy Iraq and save face is obvious even to those who don’t want to see.
What better time to distract the sheeple by putting one of Babara’s selected handmaidens to W on the Supreme Court.
The whole strategy has that multi-faceted objective combined with economy of action that the corporatists like to call synergy.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 4 2005 20:59 utc | 51
so in the holy month of ramadan – the beasts at the white house decide its a good time to make a complete mockery of the cartoon consitution they have placed before the people of iraq much like the nazis invented edicts for occupied poland as if 300 divisions had little to do with its enactment
& at the same time the beasts are destroying town after town, village after village family after family on the the euphrates river
the demonic deciders who swan the corridors of that hell that is called washington are ripping through human flesh, human construction & human ideas as if a threshing machine – a machine that has long since lost its conductor
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 5 2005 0:01 utc | 54
Is there a psychologist in the House, errr I mean bar, to explain tante aime, errr DoFW?? I’m really curious. If there’s anyone I didn’t think was a troll….perhaps it was a homework assignment for his playwriting class – ‘cept he’s not practicing dialogue? Strange Bird.
Debs asked So what is the point in democracy?
Elections, even w/majority vote wins, are merely necessary for democracy, but not sufficient. Elections are merely a mechanism of selecting candidates. If those candidates do not represent the Best Interests of the Citizens, it’s not a democratic govt. America isn’t a democracy. Candidates are not allowed to represent our interests, only those of the elites. They’re merely a charade & a means of settling conflicts between contending elites. Also, allows the more gullible among the masses to blame themselves/each other when no matter the outcome govt. continues to not represent the interests of the people – it’s the elite sponsored blame the victim game. Not to mention keeping masses passive – just wait til next election…just wait til next election…ad infinitem…
Posted by: jj | Oct 5 2005 0:17 utc | 55
I’ve pointed out all along that one reason it is Essential to defend Roe, is not just to protect heterosexual vaginal intercourse from extinction, but ‘cuz it’s the Camel’s Nose. Damn, these assholes haven’t even eliminated Roe & the Camel’s Incontinent Ass is already intruding into the tent.
Secular, dope smoking married or single women May Not Reproduce Artifically
(Indianapolis, Indiana) Legislation has been introduced in the Indiana legislature that would prohibit gays, lesbians and single people in Indiana from using medical science to assist them in having a child.
The bill has the support of Senator Patricia Miller, the chair of the Health Finance Commission where the legislation is currently being considered.
Miller says that assisted pregnancy is totally unregulated. The bill would bar any doctor from assisting in a pregnancy through intrauterine insemination, donation of an egg, donation of an embryo, in vitro fertilization and transfer of an embryo, and sperm injection without making a number of “determinations” about the “suitability of the candidate.
Women seeking treatment would have to provide a certificate of satisfactory completion of an assessment required under the bill.
Among the determining factors is a requirement that the women be married to a person of the opposite sex. The assessment would contain a description of the family lifestyle and automatically exclude lesbians. Women would also have to provide proof that they have participated in faith-based or church activities.
A judge could not establish parentage of a child born through assisted reproduction without the assessment certificate and a separate certificate from the physician involved.
Courts would be prohibited from granting a petition to establish parentage if the parents have been convicted of crimes such as murder, reckless homicide neglect of a dependent felony battery, or have a drug conviction.
Um…as I was saying about Roe…
Posted by: jj | Oct 5 2005 2:05 utc | 56
Uncle, thanks very much for the Coalition of the Left post. I have been shifting my weight from foot to foot and lurking on various blogs trying to figure out my next move for much too long. At last a concept I can throw myself behind.
And my contribution will be Ira Chernus’ very sensible look at the politics of fear and how to get beyond them courtesy of Tom Englelhardt. Chernus isn’t telling us anything we don’t already know, but it was grounding for me to hear “butter not bombs” said so well. If only our elected officials could acknowledge the wisdom of his words.
Posted by: conchita | Oct 5 2005 4:06 utc | 58
Toronto mystery bug claims two more lives
“There is no guarantee that this is not the beginning of the next pandemic,” Dr. Allison McGeer, a microbiologist at Mount Sinai Hospital said yesterday, adding tests so far have shown the outbreak is not SARS, avian flu or influenza.
Shouldn’t he be dead .
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 5 2005 5:27 utc | 59
A bit of hope & amusement for everyone to snack on…
Better living through plastic is morphing into Better living through plantic:
The first commercial application of the innovative Plantic technology is in packaging and display trays. Plantic trays look, feel and function the same as traditional plastic trays except that Plantic trays are made from renewable resources, are compostable and, most interestingly, dissolve when in water.
If you guessed this didn’t come from The Empire on Its Ass, you guessed right!! link
Posted by: jj | Oct 5 2005 7:52 utc | 60
In contrast to jj’s wonderful link…
From the “War on the poor” dept:
Devices can halt cars with tardy payments
It was only a matter of time. The box – called a starter interrupt unit – is used mostly at used-car dealerships that provide financing to customers with bad credit. But other segments of the auto industry may adopt it, particularly if consumers’ credit ratings continue to decline.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 5 2005 9:20 utc | 61
As stated before, the “ideology control system” routes around feckless damage and continues it’s insatiable course of ‘arbeit macht frei’ democracy:
Policy Trumps Scandal
(The media love scandal stories, but citizens put them in perspective.)
by William Kristol
Oh, and don’t miss:
Project for a New Chinese Century
Enjoy your visit…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 5 2005 12:48 utc | 62
@Uncle – the Project for a NCC could be written with the US in mind just by exchanging a few words – funny stuff
Fair and Balanced History According to Bill O’Reilly:
In a discussion with Wes Clark the other evening, O’R said that the 82nd Airborne had perpetrated the Malmedy Massacre during WWII.
Pat Lang’s got it here:
LINK
Of Course Faux sanitized the transcript.
Posted by: Groucho | Oct 5 2005 18:55 utc | 64
William Odom Interview on Democracy Now
Interesting and informative.
Posted by: Groucho | Oct 5 2005 19:20 utc | 65
o reilly wouldnt know his arsce from his elbow & his toungue is just another truncheon to batter heads
malmedy – fuck it’s surprising he knows europe exists at all
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 5 2005 19:34 utc | 66
Al Gore on the US media:
The German philosopher, Jurgen Habermas, describes what has happened as “the refeudalization of the public sphere.” That may sound like gobbledygook, but it’s a phrase that packs a lot of meaning. The feudal system which thrived before the printing press democratized knowledge and made the idea of America thinkable, was a system in which wealth and power were intimately intertwined, and where knowledge played no mediating role whatsoever. The great mass of the people were ignorant. And their powerlessness was born of their ignorance.
It did not come as a surprise that the concentration of control over this powerful one-way medium carries with it the potential for damaging the operations of our democracy. As early as the 1920s, when the predecessor of television, radio, first debuted in the United States, there was immediate apprehension about its potential impact on democracy. One early American student of the medium wrote that if control of radio were concentrated in the hands of a few, “no nation can be free.”
good read
(apologies if posted before or elsewhere)
Bush Considers Military Role in Flu Fight
WaPo, October 4, 2005.
“President Bush, stirring debate on the worrisome possibility of a bird flu pandemic, suggested dispatching American troops to enforce quarantines in any areas with outbreaks of the killer virus.”
Link
U.S. governors oppose Bush on military’s relief role
UPI, October 4, 2005
“A USA Today survey of governors has found that a majority oppose President Bush’s plan to make the military the first responder to disasters.”
Link
Posted by: Noisette | Oct 5 2005 20:52 utc | 68
Not good news for the tin-hatters.
“Scientists for the first time have reconstructed the 1918 Spanish influenza virus strain that caused the deadliest flu outbreak in history in an attempt to ward off another worldwide pandemic.
Tests in animal and human cells showed the virus is extremely virulent and capable of infecting several different species, which is unusual for typical strains of the virus that emerge each flu season.
The scientists said the reconstructed virus is kept under tight safeguards at the CDC.”
That makes me feel much better.
Posted by: PeeDee | Oct 5 2005 22:56 utc | 69
& they now crank up the war against iran – blaming them for their own mistakes & foolish strategies in basra
thes fools will turn the world into fire – – do they not imagine what the weight of 100 divisions of the iranian national guard would do to their dreams in iraq
do they not understand that each crime they have committed, are committing & will commit will be faced if not tommorow – then the next day by the fury of the people
& the fury of the people will speak – of that i am certain
the imperial beast’s only strategy in the face of that will be yet again – massive force – & as some have noted possibly the use of tactical(?) nuclear weapons. do they not realise that even if they use the most obscene force they have at their disposal that they will not face reckoning in the not so distant future
these fools who want war – will find it not to their liking – as they are finding out each day in iraq – the resistance is turning all the supposed ‘victories’ of the beast into shit – into defeats – the next one worse than the other. a resistance that is capable even in these early days of controlling most of iraq any time they want
the imperialists control so little really – & then they only control it during the day – the night of iraq belongs to the people
do these clowns really believe their treatmebt of the people of iraq will not go unpunished – if they think so – their lesson, their salutary lesson will be very hard indeed. & that lesson is being taught every moment now
they can do what they want with their ‘constitution’ – their puppet governments & their armies of slaves – but nothing will alter this irrevocable reality – the people of iraq will win & the imperialist will lose
it will be as i have often sd – the first moment in the inevitable collapse of the american empire, it will reduce the british to the thuggish & incompetent col blimps they are, it will send the australian & all the little armies of the east – down on their knees – begging for forgiveness – that will not come on this night or any other
the imperialists can try & create a greater war – iran or syria – whatever – & it will tunr into an even greater defeat – quicker than they ever imagined
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 6 2005 0:45 utc | 70
anybody been able to connect to americablog, they are slammed. something about 22 indictments in the plame case. and a mole in cheneys office???
Posted by: annie | Oct 6 2005 1:19 utc | 71
The D.C. Rumor mill is thrumming with whispers that 22 indictments are about to be handed down on the outed-CIA agent Valerie Plame case. The last time the wires buzzed this loud — that Tom DeLay would be indicted and would step down from his leadership post in the House — the scuttlebutters got it right.
Can it be a coincidence that the White House appears to be distancing President Bush from embattled aide Karl Rove? “He’s been missing in action at more than one major presidential event,” a member of the White House press corps tells us.
wonder who’s going to win billmon’s contest?
Posted by: annie | Oct 6 2005 1:42 utc | 72
As part of his plea agreement with the prosecution Franklin will be allowed to serve his term at a minimum security detention camp and will also be allowed to keep part of his federal pension, which is assigned to his wife.
The indictment lists charges involving incidents dating back to 1999, and is related to information on Iran and terrorist attacks in Central Asia and Saudi Arabia. For a period in 2004, Franklin worked covertly with the government and relayed allegedly classified information to Rosen and Weissm
Posted by: annie | Oct 6 2005 1:53 utc | 73
If they only get Rove, it won’t help that much… They’ve got to at least throw one of the wh assholes to the wolves.
WTF??? It will now be illegal to know the weather, unless the fascists decide we can know it??????? Or any info. they gather about global warming, or… or…. or….
The Department of Commerce has issued a blanket media policy to employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), requiring that all requests for contact from national media be first approved by the Department, RAW STORY has learned.
According to a leaked Sept. 29 email memo sent out to NOAA staff, including employees of the National Weather Service (NWS) — both of which are under the Department of Commerce — employees must collect information from reporters and forward it to the Department.
The memo was leaked to RAW STORY last week.
link
THIS CANNOT POSSIBLY BE LEGAL, CAN IT?
Posted by: jj | Oct 6 2005 2:11 utc | 75
big battle gets bigger
hell breaking loose
They said American troops ordered people to stay indoors, opened fire from rooftops at motorists trying to leave town, and chased suspected insurgents into the hospital, where they detained the director and several patients.
The coming weeks in Al Anbar province will test the ability of Iraqi forces to protect cities and towns secured by U.S. forces.
The offensive launched Tuesday, codenamed River Gate, brought Marines back to Haditha and the adjacent villages of Haqlaniya and Parwana two months after driving insurgents out of the area 130 miles northwest of Baghdad. U.S. forces suffered heavy losses in that early August assault; 14 Marines and their interpreter died when an armored vehicle hit a landmine. Days after American forces left, however, militants were back in control, dominating a region of 100,000 people with no government presence or police force. U.S. officials say Haditha is a smuggling crossroads for Al Qaeda in Iraq, linking its infiltration route from the Syrian border to roads leading to Mosul, Ramadi, Fallouja and Baghdad.
This time, the Marines brought along what U.S. officials called the largest contingent of Iraqi troops to join in an anti-insurgent assault. Army Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, said that about half the 2,500 troops taking part in the offensive were Iraqis.
“What’s different is there are more Iraqi forces in the field with more experience,” Boylan said, adding that some of them would remain behind to keep the insurgents from coming back.
Residents contacted by telephone in Haditha, however, said they saw no Iraqi forces alongside the Americans.
The assault began with predawn strikes by U.S. warplanes and helicopters that knocked out a bridge across the Euphrates and cut off electricity to the city and neighboring villages.
Posted by: annie | Oct 6 2005 5:02 utc | 76
From what I can see on the TV news here they are rounding up all the adult males in the Euphrates Valley villages. Not that I’m cynical or anything but what’s the bet that they won’t get out till after the constitutional referendum. Or heaven forfend do you think they may have polling booths at Abu Graib et al? If they do I’m sure the screws will even fill out the ballot papers for you.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 6 2005 5:26 utc | 77
Maybe the shitstorm IS coming because the story about the ‘mole’ in Cheney’s Office is an old one.
The gang may be up to their old distraction trick ie while we’re looking to see if there’s anything up the sleeve, they’re screwing us.
It’s a non story at the best of times really. This bloke who was originally a filipino citizen had the gall to let people in the Philippines know what deals were being cut between the US and the Philippine president.
I reckon if most people knew what the information was that ‘spies’ that got charged, were actually passing on, they’d say “fair enough” and let them go.
Poor old Christopher Boyce is a classic example of this and it looks like he’s never going to get out, probably just to make sure that no-one learns those ‘secrets’.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 6 2005 5:46 utc | 78
Fuck a Duck…We might not get a new Admin. Obviously Libby didn’t do this w/out Cheney, for starters…From Wayne Madsen:
Although specifics of the charges are unclear, as of 11:30 PM (EDT) it is reported by informed and connected sources that indictments may soon be returned against White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, and former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. Vice President Cheney may be named as an unindicted co-conspirator. President George W. Bush may also be implicated but it remains unclear in what capacity. At issue are possible criminal conspiracies, obstruction of justice, making false statements to Federal law enforcement agents, and perjury before a Federal Grand Jury. Because the entire investigation has been wrapped in secrecy with virtually no leaks, this report, at this time, remains speculative.
Posted by: jj | Oct 6 2005 6:08 utc | 79
It’s embarrassing how a part of me can no longer believe apparent good news when I hear it. After the increasingly blatant self-serving and unconscionable policies and legislation that have been spewing out of Capitol Hill these past few years, whenever I hear about a glimmer of basic humanity coming out of there, all I can do is wonder to myself “So, what’s in it for them?”
Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 6 2005 6:41 utc | 80