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October 25, 2005
Open Thread 05-108
Comments
I really like this quote (see below). Very apropos of recent discussions of trust and the media. E.G., Judas Miller et al…
“Trust is contingent on the evidence which one party provides the others of his true, concrete intentions; it cannot exist if that party’s words do not coincide with their actions. To say one thing and do another—to take one’s own word lightly—cannot inspire trust. To glorify democracy and to silence people is a farce; to discourse on humanism and to negate people is a lie.”
— Paulo Friere
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 25 2005 11:42 utc | 1
He’s a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he’s been tapped by God to do very important things,” one White House ally said, referring to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.–in a piece from yesterday’s New York Daily News by Thomas diFrank.
It’s a gem, no? Just what we ourselves have been saying all along about various “White House allies”….But who could have said such a thing? Without a hint of irony? With blind fury, rather! I think it’s a fairly educated person (at least the phrasing seem to suggest this), and a person who talks comfortably with Thomas diFrank… I have no idea who it is, but I’d guess that it’s Barbara Bush (rather than, say, Laura Bush). It has the mad ring of a deranged and helpless mother defending her infant child. It is not, in any event, a very temperate remark (hence my guess that it’s Barbara’s), and certainly not from someone who seems to know Fitzgerald personally (given all the recently published personal testimony that sees him in a rather different light)…..
Posted by: alabama | Oct 25 2005 12:00 utc | 2
Well, we’ve reached 2,000+ confirmed casualties (KIA, i.e. Deaths) amongst US troops in Iraq.
This seemingly simple figure, 2000, does not include the 20,000 or more casualties, physically or phychologically maimed for life, nor the likelihood of from 10%-25% of all combat troops who have deployed in Iraq eventually (within 3 years to a decade) developing debilitating physical or mental illnesses, who otherwise thought they were A-OK.
Nor does it consider the impact on thier loved ones, partners and family, nor thier communities …
And it certainly is a drop in the ocean compared the uncounted 10’s of thousands of innocent non-US victims, who don’t even have a heartless VA to deny them anything in the firts place …
2000 (flash slides and animation with sound, requires broadband internet)
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 25 2005 12:56 utc | 3
Bush seeks to exempt CIA from bill barring abuse of detainees
Rights activists assail proposal
By R. Jeffrey Smith and Josh White, Washington Post | October 25, 2005
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has proposed exempting employees of the Central Intelligence Agency from a legislative measure endorsed this month by 90 members of the Senate that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoners in US custody.
– snip –
Cheney’s proposal is drafted in such a way that the exemption from the rule barring ill treatment could require a presidential finding that ”such operations are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from terrorist attack.”
– snip –
‘This is the first time they’ve said explicitly that the intelligence community should be allowed to treat prisoners inhumanely,” said Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. ”In the past, they’ve only said that the law does not forbid inhumane treatment.” Now, he said, the administration is saying more concretely that it cannot be forbidden.
Yep, they’re prepared to put thier case for the legal authority for the Prez to legally treat prisoners and detainees inhumanely in hardcopy …
Yep, we are certainly striving to be the best goddamned Fascist state we can be, no doubt about it.
Jesus wept, they just won’t ‘give-up’. I hope and pray for the faintest chance of a ‘Nuremberg Mk II’ for the soulless, heartless, inhuman bastards that comprise Bush & Co.
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 25 2005 13:11 utc | 4
alabama :
He’s a vile, detestable… who believes he’s been tapped by God…
Have no idea who said it but surely Mr Rove or a student of the Rove coined it. It is classic in the pin your own sins on the “enemy” style.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Oct 25 2005 13:18 utc | 5
The propaganda war in support of imperial ambitions in the Middle East and Central Asia just stepped up a few notches …
BBC World Service to launch Arabic TV channel
Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:11 PM BST
LONDON (Reuters) – The BBC World Service is launching an Arabic-language television service and closing down 10 local language radio services, mostly in eastern Europe, as part of a broad restructuring.
– snip –
The new channel was formed at the request of the British Foreign Office, which funds the World Service through a direct grant worth 239 million pounds in 2005-2006 …
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 25 2005 13:54 utc | 6
When It Comes To War, Business Has No Conscience
From: Mike Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: October 23, 2005 6:21 AM
Subject: When It Comes To War, Business Has No Conscience
To G.I. Special:
Everyday I am reminded of the Vietnam War.
Everyday I am reminded of America’s wealth.
Everyday I am reminded of how America got that wealth.
Everyday I am reminded of the Vietnam War.
Ghost images of family seen on the Wall,
Only veterans know the cost of it all.
Missing in the home, precious loved one’s gone astray,
Too bad America’s war pimps get away.
– snip –
The Vietnam War has come full circle for me, over and over again.
The U.S. Government could drop Napalm on the entire country of Iraq, and the Iraqi resistance would not give up. The reason: Because the land and the Iraqi flesh and blood are one and the same.
If the American people do not figure this out, arrogance will bury us.
The favorite song by most American soldiers in Vietnam, was done by the British rock group, The Animals.
The name of that song was, “We Got To Get Out Of This Place.”
Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
October 23, 2005
2,000 American
Soldiers dead in
Iraq, and counting,
and counting…
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 25 2005 14:07 utc | 7
“Hey, what’s going on? You guys can’t just come in here and interrupt a speech like this. Let go of me, dammit. I’m the Preznit of the United States. Whadda mean I’m under arrest? For What? …Help…Help…Laura….Turd…Scooter…Somebody, anybody….Help…Help…
….Mama….
“Law & Order: Presidential Investigation Unit” Episode 1-06
Posted by: Anonymous | Oct 25 2005 15:10 utc | 8
Check out this piece from New Internationalist magazine concerning Murdoch and Chinese state tv
“The Dragon and the Phoenix”
Polluting the mental commons with lies fear and lemming consciousness is big business; politics as usual for the ruling elite
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 25 2005 17:03 utc | 9
‘Riverbend’ a prizewinner in The Lettre Ulysses Award for ‘The Art of Reportage’
Posted by: Baghdad Burning | Oct 25 2005 17:43 utc | 10
Thanks for posting that bit of good news about the award to Riverbend for her good work.
Posted by: eftsoons | Oct 25 2005 19:12 utc | 11
The mad tea party, by Mark Bryan:
Picture (office, child safe)
Posted by: Noisette | Oct 25 2005 20:05 utc | 12
Preliminary odds on the indictments:
Odds on Libby: 1-5
Odds on Rove: 3-2
Odds on Cheney: 6-1
Odds on G-Dub: 100-1
Odds on “Fitzmas” shattering the conservative grip on politics for decades: 1500-1
Odds on a wider investigation into the lies for war: 70-1
Odds that everyone major gets pardoned: 500-1
Odds that liberal democrats will soil themselves far in excess of what actually happens: sorry, I don’t like taking candy from babies.
Posted by: Rowan | Oct 25 2005 23:41 utc | 13
Sorry, typo – odds that everyone major gets pardoned should be 1-500.
Posted by: Rowan | Oct 25 2005 23:42 utc | 14
Al-Jazeera’s global aims add power to Qatar’s elbow
By Roula Khalaf
Published: October 24 2005 22:01 | Last updated: October 24 2005 22:01
Thanks to al-Jazeera, the Arab world’s most controversial TV station, the small emirate of Qatar has gradually boosted its political influence in the Middle East.
Much to Doha’s delight, since the 1996 launch of al-Jazeera disputes have erupted with other, more powerful Arab governments, and foreign ministers have flocked to Qatar to plead for moderation in its coverage…
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 26 2005 1:08 utc | 15
Not much underscores the double dealing that is Western involvement in the Middle East than the West’s attitude to Al Jazeera.
As far as I can see Al-Jazeera are only guilty of telling the truth in an environment where both the domestic and foreign news service up until then had been lying to their audience.
For that sin Al Jazeera journalists have been shot see todays Counterpunch story on Palestine hotel and imprisoned .
The western agenda defies logic they tell us that their chief interest is to encourage democracy in the Middle East, yet the only media source that consistently tells all sides of the Middle East’s internecine disputes is continually harassed for doing so.
Once the English language version of Al Jazeera is available, the BBC wil be looking to its laurels. I swear BBC World is becoming more of an instrument of the Bliar government as each day passes. Last night it was damn near unwatchable as it sought to beat up the Syria/Harriri story.
But we shouldn’t be surprised since the British Foreign Office funds BBC World to the tune of approx 270 million pounds a year.
If Al-Jazeera can inform it’s audience of what is actually happening rather than what management thinks the audience needs to hear, it will rip through the others station’s audience share like the proverbial.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 26 2005 3:18 utc | 16
The billmon site seems to suggest that if you want to comment on Billmon, you should come here.
I’m commenting on his piece on the Italian Niger forgeries. He asks why conspirators who have done so much with such care would put together such shabby forgeries.
One of the things that comes out in the actual article from La Repubblica, as opposed to the small excerpts that have run in American blogs, is that the documents weren’t forged (if you follow La Repubblica) intentionally to play a role in the run-up to the Iraq war. They were forged as a ruse to earn some money for Martino from the French, who were looking for someone who may have been diverting small amounts of uranium from the mines in the late 90’s.
Martino did in fact sell the documents to the French — “he got some high-denomination banknotes and spent them happily in Nice. Rocco adores the Cote d’Azure” is how La Repubblica put it.
When the French vetted the documents, they laughed at them and threw them out. The officer involved told La Repubblica “Niger is a francophone country that we know well. Noone here would ever confuse one minister with another, as happens in those papers.”
This is all in early 2001, before 9/11. Iraq is just a dream vacation for W at this point, a place he’d really like to send troops, but has no conceivable pretext for doing so.
It’s only in the wake of 9/11 that Berlusconi begins casting about for something that might help him take a more “prominent role among the allies.” He asks Nucera to look around, and the Niger forgeries are all the Nucera can come up with.
You can see my admittedly poor translation of the La Repubblica piece at my diary on Daily Kos
Posted by: ne plus ultra | Oct 26 2005 3:37 utc | 17
Not much underscores the double dealing that is Western involvement in the Middle East than the West’s attitude to Al Jazeera.
As far as I can see Al-Jazeera are only guilty of telling the truth in an environment where both the domestic and foreign news service up until then had been lying to their audience.
For that sin Al Jazeera journalists have been shot see todays Counterpunch story on Palestine hotel and imprisoned .
The western agenda defies logic they tell us that their chief interest is to encourage democracy in the Middle East, yet the only media source that consistently tells all sides of the Middle East’s internecine disputes is continually harassed for doing so.
Once the English language version of Al Jazeera is available, the BBC wil be looking to its laurels. I swear BBC World is becoming more of an instrument of the Bliar government as each day passes. Last night it was damn near unwatchable as it sought to beat up the Syria/Harriri story.
But we shouldn’t be surprised since the British Foreign Office funds BBC World to the tune of approx 270 million pounds a year.
If Al-Jazeera can inform it’s audience of what is actually happening rather than what management thinks the audience needs to hear, it will rip through the others station’s audience share like the proverbial.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 26 2005 3:44 utc | 18
Arrrgh sorry gang I don’t suppose it helps at all to point out that every time I failed to post I checked to make sure the damn thing hadn’t gone thru anyhow b4 clickin again.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 26 2005 5:25 utc | 19
No need to apologize. It wasn’t B- reminding us how much we’d miss him, Typepad crashed.
Thanks for Everything b.
Posted by: jj | Oct 26 2005 5:31 utc | 20
It’s still not fixed. Main page shows I posted, but nothing showing up here, although it seemed to take the post when entered. Are they being checked, or…let’s see what happens to this post.
Posted by: jj | Oct 26 2005 5:34 utc | 21
same weirdness here, got a maintanence alert from typepad once, see if this works.
Posted by: anna missed | Oct 26 2005 6:21 utc | 22
okay, seems to work now, but forgot what I was going to say. Anyway Billmon has a long post on Niger docs.
Posted by: anna missed | Oct 26 2005 6:24 utc | 23
From the ‘All Roads Lead To Rome’ Post….
“If this was a professional operation conducted by a professional intelligence service, why did it produce such crappy fakes?”
Regardless the original intent of the ‘faker’ (ie. see bit on Martino’s dealings with the French described above) what if, and this is just a flyer here, in their post-stovepipe life the forgeries were only meant to convince one person?
And what if that one person was someone who couldn’t tell the difference between the swings of Dave Kingman and Mario Mendoza despite their similar batting averages?
Awww, heck, who am I kidding. The Twig probably doesn’t even know who Mario is, despite the fact that he hit well below the Mendoza line on every well he ever dug.
No surprises in this
ATOL review of reconstruction in Iraq, but it does make one wonder if naive outsiders fail to understand what constitutes success: ripping off funds intended for the Iraqi people probably is viewed as a positive virtue in some circles, and not merely among those seeking to build
their retirement trust.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Oct 26 2005 11:12 utc | 25
It isn’t exactly like L’Osservatore Romano making
snide remarks about the Pope, but close enough to make it clear that the U.S. Army is not taking the hewing to the politically correct neo-con line. I count at least two
editorial grenades being lobbed in the general direction of the White House.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Oct 26 2005 14:21 utc | 26
Australian terror laws spark uproar
Wednesday 26 October 2005, 9:46 Makka Time, 6:46 GMT
The Australian government has sparked an uproar by announcing it will push controversial new anti-terrorist laws through parliament on Melbourne Cup day, when public attention will be focused on the country’s premier horse race.
Opponents, who assert that proposed laws allowing for secret preventive detention of suspects are unconstitutional, said debating the bill on the day of the 1 November Melbourne Cup was an abuse of power by Prime Minister John Howard…
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 26 2005 16:14 utc | 27
latest issue of swans offers some interesting commentary on the u.s. crisis – What have we come to? Who are we? And what do we stand for?
Posted by: b real | Oct 26 2005 18:18 utc | 28
Today is D-Day for anyone wanting to drink Healthy Milk, eat Organic Foods, or support Family Farming. One of the Main Purposes of this is to drive family Organic Farmers out of business & let the Pirates take over. This is Insane, and a guarantee that the food quality will decline further.
At 4 p.m today, Oct. 25 Congress will consider an amendment to the Agricultural Appropriations Bill sponsored by the Organic Trade Association (OTA) that would weaken the organic food law. The amendment would allow:
numerous synthetic processing aids to be used in organic food without any public review;
could allow young dairy cows to be treated with antibiotics and fed genetically engineered feed prior to being converted to organic production;
create a loophole in which organic ingredients could be substituted with non-organic ingredients without any consumer notice based upon “emergency decrees.”
The amendment was stopped in the Senate by consumer pressure two weeks ago but industry pressure has brought in back! We need your help again!!!
Call the following offices now and tell to reject the OTA Organic Amendment from Agricultural Appropriation Bill. List here
Posted by: jj | Oct 26 2005 18:21 utc | 29
With all of the years and resources the US has dedicated to exactly this sort of thing, why have we been beaten to the punch by the Japanese? Geez, we can’t even do commercial fascism right these days.
Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 26 2005 20:34 utc | 32
I was looking at some of the news at Google and saw this new story about some comments that the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made at a seminar entitled “World without Zionism”
New York Times says Iran’s President Says Israel Must Be ‘Wiped Off the Map’
Guardian says Iran Leader Calls for Israel’s Destruction
NewsByUs says Iran Pres: Kill All Jews
And so on and so on.
The only story that had his comments in context came from Iran Focus which says Iran’s Ahmadinejad says Israel will be wiped off the earth and the quote that has everyone in hysterics is
“Our dear Imam [Ruhollah Khomeini] ordered that the occupying regime in Jerusalem be wiped off the face of the earth. This was a very wise statement. The issue of Palestine is not one which we could compromise on. … This would mean the defeat of the Islamic world”, he insisted.
My question is, how did all those other newspapers miss this seemingly minor point? They wouldn’t be biased or anything like that, would they?
Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 26 2005 21:00 utc | 33
I’m missing the context you seem to be riled up about, dan of steele. Saying that the ocuppying regime of Jerusalem is not the state of Israel seems to be a case of, ah, semitic semantics.
What am I missing here?
Posted by: Rowan | Oct 26 2005 21:34 utc | 34
The coming grand coalition in Germany: illegitimate and undemocratic
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 26 2005 22:44 utc | 35
It looks as if the ‘mass psychosis’ that Merica is under is, spreading ; contagious and dangerous: Teachers accused of anti-US bias
The federal Treasurer has drawn a rebuke from teachers for warning them against spreading anti-Americanism in schools and suggesting it could mutate into anti-Westernism and terrorist attacks against Australia.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 26 2005 22:53 utc | 36
Bet that so-called Iranian leader calling for Israel’s Destruction, has a newly fattened Swiss bank Account & has been promised SH’s old digs on the Riviera that are currently rotting away. Probably in Baby Doc’s neighborhood.
Posted by: jj | Oct 27 2005 0:46 utc | 37
“We simply cannot protect the American people if those who are sworn to protect us join and conspire with our enemies.”
U.S. soldiers involved in drug smuggling ring
I wonder when they’ll finally latch on to the commander-in-chief.
Posted by: Irony | Oct 27 2005 1:21 utc | 38
The Belfast Telegraph, of Northern Ireland has an interesting take on The New York Times Hard times in New York
“If the White House trembles at what may soon come, the Times is … tearing itself apart on its own printed pages.”
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 27 2005 3:56 utc | 39
From the Financial Times:
Iran opposition group seeks US legitimacy
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: October 26 2005 03:00
[…]
Stephen Hadley, national security adviser, commissioned 10 briefing papers exploring various options [on what to do about Iran]. A National Security Council meeting was cancelled this month after one of the papers, which proposed expanding diplomatic contacts with Iran, was leaked to the Wall Street Journal. Some officials suspect that someone senior wanted to sabotage the idea.
Diplomats and two US officials said the latest review was prompted by the conclusion reached by Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state, and others that an effective sanctions option did not exist, and that they had been misled by the predictions of neoconservatives who saw the Iranian regime ripe for overthrow by a restless populace.
[…]
Posted by: Pat | Oct 27 2005 4:31 utc | 40
@ b
I wrote with lack of clarity:
1. The lead story tells of “some Iraqis” expressing solidarity with the U.S., but the majority considering U.S. troops to be occupiers
2. On the same Web page there’s mention of Bush’s call
for “sacrifice” with quotes around sacrifice, which I read as an “editorial” comment on Bush’s chutzpah in calling for others to make sacrifices.
I consider both 1. and 2. to be editorial choices (not editorials) which indicate divergence from official propaganda. Of course, it’s all in the eyes of the reader, and I tend to find anti-Bush material everywhere.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Oct 27 2005 4:49 utc | 41
Re: Sacrifice
Let us always remember (and Billmon’s ‘2000’ post was a vivid reminder) that where there’s someone calling for sacrifice, there’s someone collecting sacrifices.
Posted by: Pat | Oct 27 2005 6:32 utc | 42
@Uncle $cam
It looks as if the ‘mass psychosis’ that Merica is under is, spreading ; contagious and dangerous
Oh yeah – Costello and Howard are full-on with this neocon shite.
And we even have our very own version of AIPAC (LIIP ?) …
Allan Gyngell, executive director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, said Mr Costello had “defined Australian policy in the tradition of British empiricism rather than American idealism”.
Different country – same assholes ..
“If the world is to have a hegemon, the modern United States is the kind of hegemon we would like to have: democratic, respectful of human rights, with strong and genuine belief in individual liberty,” he [Costello] said.
Well, that’s the way it is. We keep voting for party hacks and chancers, and they keep deluding themselves that they are leaders. Costello and team have nothing valuable to contribute so they like to parrot what they think are big and important themes.
But Sharon Canty, spokeswoman for the Parents and Citizens Federation, suggested Mr Costello was more interested in media and leadership than policy.
“Evidence of successful education in NSW could be a student’s ability to recognise a grab for leadership and media time when they see one,” she said.
It is somewhat comforting to know that the P&C are quite capable of putting the mockers on the likes of lightweights like Costello.
Posted by: DM | Oct 27 2005 7:02 utc | 43
Interesting piece by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in WaPo The New Sunni Jihad: ‘A Time for Politics’ – Tour With Iraqi Reveals Tactical Change
Interesting little story here, by a “Special Correspondent” wouldn’t you say?
Al-Qaeda stealing radioactive material from Colombia?
especially, when the whois lookup trace brings us this:
Domain Name: INDIADAILY.COM
Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Software, Systems sysofti@yahoo.com
Systems & Software, A Division of Integratise Inc.
P.O. Box 219
Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889-3259
US
732-549-8929 fax: 999 999 9999
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 27 2005 10:04 utc | 45
Harriet Miers falls on sword, withdraws nomination
Bush must really be looking forward to the weekend.
Posted by: GM | Oct 27 2005 13:53 utc | 46
Miers is out
It’a ‘official’:
“Its better to have been nominated and withdrawn then never to have been nominated at all”
Posted by: Hubris | Oct 27 2005 14:18 utc | 47
Boo!
Iran ‘six months’ from nuclear bomb
Iran may be only six months from having the necessary means to make an atomic bomb, Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom said today, urging quick international action on Tehran’s nuclear program.
Remember when Israel was saying the same thing about Iraq?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 28 2005 0:47 utc | 48
Well…Shalom isn’t entirely wrong, if by “nuclear bomb” we understand it to mean their Bourse which could nuke xUS economy.
But let’s wait & see if Ha’aretz prints that drivel.
Posted by: jj | Oct 28 2005 1:12 utc | 51
“… from correspondents in paris”
Hmmm, perchance unattributed because in reality this opportunistic propaganda was drafted by the Israeli hawks ?
Short on context … long on blatant propaganda memes …
These days it has now become a case of looking for chaff amongst the wheat … the chaff being actual news as opposed to the masses of wheat, idealogically or agenda driven ‘political education’ masquerading as news …
Re-examine all that you have been told…
dismiss that which insults your soul.
– Walt Whitman.
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 28 2005 1:39 utc | 53
Family Values & War:
“Hey Mom it’s me.” Something my son always said every time he called, but this time his voice sounded unusual. He had a really serious tone in his voice and the automatic gunfire in the background was loud and more constant than usual. My heart began to race and I took a deep breath.
“Hey, I’m trapped on a rooftop and I don’t think we are going to make it out of here, so I just called to tell you that I loved you and that I am thinking of all of you.” The gunfire in the background was so loud that he had to pause, and then he continued. “We were out on patrol and were just getting ready to return to base and a bunch of our guys got overrun and so we went to help them, but when we got close we got overrun as well and had to retreat to this rooftop.”
I could hear yelling in the background and then big explosions. The phone then seemed to be put on the ground and there was more yelling and automatic gunfire, but this time it was my son who was doing the shooting. My son picked up the phone and in an out of breath voice said, “I really don’t think we are going to make it out of here alive. link
[B-, Seems to be working fine now. Maybe system was just on overload…and will be tomorrow, if…]
Posted by: jj | Oct 28 2005 1:39 utc | 54
outaged
that is beautiful whitman at his beautiful best
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 28 2005 1:57 utc | 55
weird story jj. And I don’t care what, he should not use language like “This is kinda cool in a f***** up kind of way” to his mother.
Posted by: DM | Oct 28 2005 1:58 utc | 56
@RememberingGiap
There is no better example of the almost universal suborning of the media than the rabid anti-Iranian diatribes pretending to be lournalism …
Virtually no reports quote the relevant text and vertainly not in context …
I’m no friend of Irans current leadership, however, quoting the former Imam Khomeini (?)calling for the removal (wipe the off the map)(ceratainly media unsophisticated) of the ‘Zionists’ that illegally MILITARILY OCCUPY Palestine (i.e. international law) is hardly worse than the continual repetitive drumbeat of ‘regime change’ from the ‘west’ re a diverse range of ‘enemies’ … oh the hypocrisy
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 28 2005 2:09 utc | 57
Oh bugger ! Typos and open tags … must be tired … Pardon, c’est la vie …
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 28 2005 2:18 utc | 59
Iran may be only six months from having the necessary means to make an atomic bomb, Israeli Foreign Minister Sylvan Shalom said today
Then again, they may not be only…It is so hard to say. And we certainly don’t want our first warning to be a mushroom cloud. The sheeple will fall for this every time.
outraged
far be it for me to criticise typo..;.it’s more or less ma royaume & i hope at times it is so terrible that it takes on a transcedental quality
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 28 2005 2:24 utc | 61
Cheney’s dirty secret
A Register-Guard Editorial
Published: Thursday, October 27, 2005
It’s little wonder that Vice President Dick Cheney went in secret to deliver a White House plan to make it legal for Central Intelligence Agency employees to torture detainees in U.S. custody.
How could anybody, even the bunker-dwelling Cheney, stand up and argue in public that the Congress of the United States of America should give the president the explicit power to allow government agencies outside the Defense Department (think spooks, and not the Halloween kind) to abuse and torture prisoners – or hand them over to other governments that would attach the electrodes?
It’s hard to think of a better example of moral bankruptcy than Cheney’s proposal to weaken a Senate-approved ban on torturing detainees in U.S. custody…
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 28 2005 2:33 utc | 62
The American Experiment, Really?
A hyper-militarized and arch-violent nation where 100 million people — one third of the US population — are directly or indirectly related to the military and countless law enforcement agencies, spending on death and destruction more than the remaining of the entire world; a self-indulgent nation of buccaneers drowning in consumerism and waste without any regard for the consequences wreaked on the environment and the rest of humanity; a pitiful land gripped by fear and insecurity; a human construct based on a mixture of savage social Darwinism, an irrational, deeply conservative (in the reactionary sense), religiosity, and an absurd (and groundless) belief in an innate, god-given Goodness; and the slow but unrelenting “Third-Worldization” of the social and economic fabric of the country where even hope has been hijacked and raped. In brief, a deluded people in unreserved denial of the damages and destructions they inflict upon themselves and the world.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 28 2005 2:36 utc | 63
Vice President for Torture
Washington Post, United States – 25 Oct 2005
VICE PRESIDENT Cheney is aggressively pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans. “Cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment of prisoners is banned by an international treaty negotiated by the Reagan administration and ratified by the United States. The State Department annually issues a report criticizing other governments for violating it. Now Mr. Cheney is asking Congress to approve legal language that would allow the CIA to commit such abuses against foreign prisoners it is holding abroad. In other words, this vice president has become an open advocate of torture…
US: License to Abuse Would Put CIA Above the Law
Reuters AlertNet, UK – 25 Oct 2005
(New York, October 26, 2005) – The Bush administration is now the only government in the world to claim a legal justification for mistreating prisoners during interrogations, Human Rights Watch said today. The administration recently approached members of the U.S. Congress to seek a waiver that would allow the CIA to use cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment on detainees in U.S. custody outside the United States.
While many other governments practice torture and other forms of mistreatment and have records of abuse far worse than the United States, no other government currently claims that such abuse is legally permissible…
Posted by: Outraged | Oct 28 2005 2:50 utc | 64
Cronies’ cronies’ cronies
Cosma Shalizi makes a very interesting research proposal – how could we measure the extent to which cronyism allows incompetents to land plum jobs in the Bush administration?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 28 2005 3:11 utc | 65
scam
I think that Weber book on economy & society has a few answers to your question.
Posted by: slothrop | Oct 28 2005 3:37 utc | 66
Hooboy, ever since MyDD posted that left blogistan is kicking the shit out of right blogistan a few weeks back, the wingnuts and moonbats of the “ownership society” have been smearing blogs. Aravosis at AmericaBlog catches Forbes running a cover story that basically tells businesses that us bloggers are just bunch of “activist liars” (as opposed to the upstanding facts from The Pravda’s septic tank) that need to be put in our place by …… other “activist liars” (e.g. sympathetic blogs to Big Business).
Heh.