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November 23, 2005
And Again and again
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Time to change the (W)hat now presidency — to the (B)lowback presidency.
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 23 2005 11:36 utc | 1
Those who have nearly as many hours in the day as DiD does to ponder the world of shit we’ve got ourselves in may have noticed DiD’s post about 12 or so hours ago about the Bliar / chimpee tiff.
Chimpee wanted to bomb the Al Jazeera hq in Doha, the capital of Qatar but the bliar didn’t think this was such a good idea. Anyway the last post speculated that since the minute had been so widely circulated there is every chance that Bliar wanted the world to hear about the time the monkey stood up to the organ grinder.
Less than 24 hours after the first story which revealed the subject of the lover’s quarrel for the first time; Bliar has started threatening newspaper editors with prosecution under the official secrets act if they quote directly from the leaked memo.
Presumably this is an attempt to mollify Chimpee who probably doesn’t think that now is an opportune time to let the sheeple know that freedom of speech doesn’t apply to ragheads.
Of course it won’t stop the story from getting out since the media can no longer quote directly from the memo, they now quote the story which first described the memo. As in:
“Under the front-page headline “Bush plot to bomb his ally”, the Daily Mirror reported that the US president last year planned to attack the Arabic television station al-Jazeera, which has its headquarters in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where US and British bombers were based.”
The Brit fishwraps were taken aback to find that they weren’t to leak this story which originates in a vain attempt by Bliar to cast himself as the honest but true friend helping Chimpee understand reality.
“Richard Wallace, editor of the Daily Mirror, said last night: “We made No 10 fully aware of the intention to publish and were given ‘no comment’ officially or unofficially. Suddenly 24 hours later we are threatened under section 5 [of the secrets act]”.
Under section 5 it is an offence to have come into the possession of government information, or a document from a crown servant, if that person discloses it without lawful authority. The prosecution has to prove the disclosure was damaging”.
The real question is since the Official secrets Act can only be enforced in the land of the poms, will the amerikan MSM run with it or take the low road and not tell the people of the US how close Chimpee came to committing possibly his worst crime yet.
You see it’s not kosher to wage war on a neutral state much less any ally like BushCo alleges that Quatar and the other gulf states are.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 23 2005 11:58 utc | 2
MORAL TEST
This test only has one question, but it’s a very important
one. By
giving an honest answer, you will discover where you stand
morally.
The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation
in which
you will have to make a decision.
Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous.
Please
scroll down slowly and give due consideration to each line.
THE SITUATION
You are in New Orleans to be specific. There is chaos all
around you
caused by a hurricane with severe flooding. This is a flood
of
biblical proportions. You are photo journalist working for a
major
newspaper, and you’re caught in the middle of this epic
disaster.
The situation is nearly hopeless. You’re trying to shoot
career-making
photos. There are houses and people swirling around you, some
disappearing under the water. Nature is unleashing all of its
destructive fury.
==============================================
THE TEST
Suddenly you see a man in the water. He is fighting for his
life,
trying not to be taken down with the debris. You move closer.
Somehow the man looks familiar. You suddenly realize who it
is. It’s the
President, George W. Bush.
At the same time you notice that the raging waters are about
to take him
under forever. You have two options- you can save the life of
the
President, or you can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning
photo,
documenting the death of one of the world’s most famous men.
==============================================
THE QUESTION
Here’s the question, and please give an honest answer…….
Would you select high contrast colour film, or would you go
with the
classic simplicity of black and white?
Posted by: beq | Nov 23 2005 12:15 utc | 3
high contrast colour film … an oldie but a goodie … LOL
@Debs is Dead
Yes, what with the Afghan bombing and the strafing of the Baghdad office this memo puts in all in an entirely different perspective …
If I was the Emir of Qatar I’d tell CENTCOM they’ve got five days to get their forward headquarters at Al Udeid airbase outta the f__kin’ country or they might accidentally get bombed back to the stone age by uncontrollable free speech lovin’ arabs …
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 23 2005 13:22 utc | 5
Thatcher used ‘nuclear blackmail’ to get missile codes
“Margaret Thatcher forced Francois Mitterrand to give her the codes to disable Argentina’s French-made missiles during the Falklands war by threatening to launch a nuclear warhead against Buenos Aires, according to a book.
Rendez-vous: the psychoanalysis of Francois Mitterrand , by Ali Magoudi, who met the late French president up to twice a week in secrecy at his Paris practice from 1982 to 1984, also reveals that Mr Mitterrand believed he would get his ‘revenge’ by building a tunnel under the Channel that would forever destroy Britain’s island status.”
Related: Elvis Costello’s Tramp the Dirt Down.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 23 2005 14:10 utc | 6
The War on Terrorism and its bastard son, the War in Iraq, are being fought in the media as much as they are being fought on the battlefield, which is why Bush saw Al-Jazeera as a fair target.
In the end, Al-J is simply playing to its target audience and presenting a point of view that plays well to its viewers in the Arab world, just as Fox News “fair-and-balances” its point of view to appeal to the sentiments and sympathies of Middle America.
To portray Al-Jazeera as “terrorist sympathizers” is about the same as claiming that Fox News sympathizes with the “interrogators” at Abu Ghraib.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Nov 23 2005 14:12 utc | 7
The one thing that I think you can say with some surety is that this is yet one more example of the president’s rapidly diminishing power, credibility and prestige. Six months, not to mention a year ago, I think there’s little reason to believe a paper like the Post would have touched such a story and touch it in a way that entertains the possibility that President Bush actually had to be talked down by Tony Blair from bombing a news network whose editorial line he found too critical.
What I put in bold is a meme that would have legs among the sheeple, IMHO.
Then again Ann the Man Coulter got laughs when she thought Tim McV missed his chance with the NYT building. They do have a thing for killing the messenger, don’t they?
Posted by: Hamburger | Nov 23 2005 14:31 utc | 8
Exit Strategy in Search of a Party
Meyerson, WaPo
Meanwhile, the case for continuing our involvement grows increasingly absurd: In its latest iteration, we are there to prevent war between Shiite and Sunni, which looms, of course, only because we invaded Iraq in the first place. We stay to mitigate the consequence of our coming.
(snip)
But it’s not 1969. There is no silent majority to be rallied in support of the war, just a frustrated minority. The streets are quiet. Demonstrators are decorous. The audience for Dick Cheney’s hatchet jobs has dwindled. The president’s credibility is reaching Nixonian depths. The Democrats have been pushed to the brink of opposing the war, but there — on the brink — they totter.
And so, on the most urgent question confronting America today, we have reached an absurd and exquisite equipoise. The Republicans cannot credibly defend the war; the Democrats cannot quite bring themselves to call for its end. …
When I posed the likelihood of civil war to my war-mongering brother, his reply was: Not going to happen. I wonder what he’s thinking now. Does he still believe (in) Bush?
Posted by: Hamburger | Nov 23 2005 14:57 utc | 9
Nixonian depths
The “sheeple” I had in mind above (9:31:02 AM) would be the denizens of a red county in a very blue state – those I’d be sharing turkey with, if I were sharing turkey.
Posted by: Hamburger | Nov 23 2005 15:55 utc | 10
MYTH
In the end, Al-J is simply playing to its target audience and presenting a point of view that plays well to its viewers in the Arab world, just as Fox News “fair-and-balances” its point of view to appeal to the sentiments and sympathies of Middle America.
perhaps a little homework is in order?
In 1999, New York Times reporter Thomas L. Friedman called Al-Jazeera “the freest, most widely watched TV network in the Arab world.
Al Jazeera has been criticized by many of its Muslim viewers for giving air time to Israeli officials. Some have accused Al Jazeera of being too pro-American or pro-Western in its coverage, and have mockingly taken to calling it “Al-Khinzeera,” which means “The Pig.”
Posted by: annie | Nov 23 2005 16:28 utc | 11
Prior to even asking Blair about the Qatar bombing run, you would think Shrub would have vetted it with all his handlers: Karl, Dick, Rummy, Condi…
Did they all fail a morality test too?
“Great idea, Mr P. See what Tony sez?”
Posted by: Anonymous | Nov 23 2005 16:30 utc | 12
preferably i would choose a digital camera thereby having the option of color,b&w or a lovely sepia, although one can get a nice sepia simply by developing color (aw love that kodacrome) in b&w. of course then you don’t have the option of changing your mind back to color.
Posted by: annie | Nov 23 2005 16:36 utc | 13
for all you plame junkies out there. an informative eye opening post @ swopa don’t miss it
Posted by: annie | Nov 23 2005 16:40 utc | 14
No no annie, this is the weeks eye opening plame post:
Did Plame have proof Bush tried to plant WMDs in Iraq?
Heneghan has been reporting for a week now that the primary reason for the outing Plame was not in retribution against her husband Joe Wilson for disputing claims that the government of Niger had supplied Iraq with nuclear materials. But rather she was outed for the role of her CIA team in the interruption of a covert plan to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into Iraq before the war.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 23 2005 17:01 utc | 15
@ Uncle $cam:
A number of exocets hit British ships anyway. I remember watching the footage, which was played over and over again on the BBC: mangled, flayed and burned men dying on a beach at the end of the world. As fine an argument for the insanity of war as I’ve ever had the misfortune to see – that and a row of bodies wrapped in tarps, awaiting burial in the pissing rain. Elvis Costello wrote Shipbuilding about it:
Is it worth it?
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boy’s birthday
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children
Soon we’ll be shipbuilding…….
Well I ask you
The boy said “Dad they’re going to take me to task, but I’ll be back by Christmas”
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
Somebody said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed in
The result of this shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram or a picture postcard
Within weeks they’ll be re-opening the shipyards
And notifying the next of kin
Once again
It’s all we’re skilled in
We will be shipbuilding……..
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls.
Beautiful, desolate song. Bloody Thatcher, bloody Bush and all the bloody rest of them. We could be diving for pearls.
Posted by: Tantalus | Nov 23 2005 17:48 utc | 17
Uncle,
I ran across your 12:01 link on another site and was going to post it here though I’m not sure how much credence to give it. It’s getting a lot of attention now as it is unavailable due to excess traffic. My question: Who is Tom Heneghan? Reliable? There are some explosive allegations in his article. No one else that I’m aware of has reported these things so he’s either way out in front or out to lunch.
Posted by: lonesomeG | Nov 23 2005 18:39 utc | 19
Happy Thanksgiving? Who the hell do you think you’re kidding, you American butchers?
Posted by: Gobble | Nov 23 2005 18:45 utc | 20
and a happy thanksgiving eve to you all
uncle, that news is soo last week;)
ok , that’s a joke but i have been hearing smidgens of parts of this for weeks now. heneghan seems to make spagetti (everything in the pot) w/all of madsens’ posts, or is it madsen dicing heneghan, oh nevermind. anyho, w/a grain of salt i say. i do thinks it’s most likely the initial plot was (along w/discrediting wilson)a huge takedown slap to the cia and given the discloser of their overseas operation obviously an attack on whatever those operations were. i also believe fitz has been delving into this aspect of the case and the likelyhood of potential deaths as a result of the exposure is great. but, until we have more meat to bite into i’m just sticking w/the exciting revelations (to me) that swopa puts together so seemlessly and i like steve clemmons to.
Posted by: annie | Nov 23 2005 18:49 utc | 21
i had occasion to hear an aljazeera guy at a symposium put together by steve clemons and he seemed very reasonable and humane – actually, to my limited perception he seemed like the star of the show.
to be specific
Yosri Fouda
Senior Investigative Reporter and London Bureau Chief, Al-Jazeera
you can see a video of his talk, along with lots of other stuff (including my own c-span debut questioning gen. wes clark after his speech – i asked “isn’t it time for an orderly withdrawal from Iraq?” no, he said. )
at
http://www.americaspurpose.org/archives/tsap.asp
Posted by: mistah charley | Nov 23 2005 18:59 utc | 22
from New Majority Education Fund:
“Half of all eligible voters choose not to vote in any given election, and 27% of the voting public can elect a president. Ninety-eight percent of Congressional incumbents are re-elected. The two major political parties are completely beholden to corporate donors and it’s often difficult to tell the differences between their policies. Candidates for office have to raise so much money that they can’t possibly get elected without currying up to moneyed interests. And it’s difficult to change how elections are conducted because our elected leaders and their two parties designed it the way it is, benefit from it, and want it to stay the same.
In our winner-takes-all elections, it’s impossible for independent political parties to organize, grow, and present voters with alternatives. All they can really do is “spoil” elections – pull votes from a less-desired candidate thus throwing the election to their least-desired candidate.
It doesn’t have to be this way. In many countries of the world voters get to vote for the candidates of many different political parties, and their votes are tallied in a way that gives representation to the concerns of minorities (In our country, the views of 51% of voters can over-ride the views of the other 49%, or almost half the population!).
There is a way to count ballots that allows alternative parties to positively impact election outcomes. There is a way to cast a protest vote that counts without throwing the election to the least desirable candidate. This way was once legal in all fifty states, is currently legal in ten states, and is still widely used in New York. It’s called fusion voting.”
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 23 2005 19:02 utc | 23
FEMA’s #1 accomplishment this year: its’ response to Hurricane Katrina. Seems like just yesterday they were apologizing for it.
Posted by: lonesomeG | Nov 23 2005 19:31 utc | 25
Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel
One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told during the briefing was that the few credible reports of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda involved attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. Saddam viewed Al Qaeda as well as other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime. At one point, analysts believed, Saddam considered infiltrating the ranks of Al Qaeda with Iraqi nationals or even Iraqi intelligence operatives to learn more about its inner workings, according to records and sources.
Posted by: beq | Nov 23 2005 19:50 utc | 27
annie,
I regularly check out the Al-Jazeera news site and find that it to be a lot more “fair and balanced” than Fox News or CNN simply for the fact that they *can* air things that no US network would dare air for fear of being branded “terrorist sympathizers”.
Still, news networks are not selling news as a product, the product they are selling is advertising time. To make their product more appealing, they have to wrap it in something that appeals to the target market. Fox News has decided that its target audience wants equal pparts celebrity gossip, sports results and self-aggrandizing jingoism.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Nov 23 2005 19:59 utc | 28
Unfortunately the Josh Marshall take on the bomb Al-Jazeera brainwave is the one that is probably going to be the accepted line amongst the MSM in the US.
“With my very limited sense of how George W. Bush operates in private, I think it does sound the like the sort of thing the president might joke about or say merely for effect, though I wouldn’t say that shows him in such a great light either.”
Hell if this were a one-off event DiD would be prepared to give the Chimp the benefit of the doubt, however it needs to be remembered that the Al-Jazeera branch in Kabul and it’s Iraqi HQ in Baghdad were ‘accidentally’ levelled by US forces causing considerable loss of life.
If her Majesty were to let the hoi polloi see the minute which reports this discussion, DiD is sure that one of the arguments the Bliar put up would have been that bombing the Qatar studios would be an admission that the first two were not in fact accidents.
DiD shares the rednecks contempt for limp wristed ‘liberals’ so is unfamiliar with the works of “Micah” but would be unsurprised to discover that the fellow is a demopublican.
It is really about time for the demopublicans to (sorry about the well worn cliche), shit or get off the pot.
If they are opposed to the war in Iraq then they need to come over here with the rest of the world and make sure this slaughter is ended immediately.
If on the other hand they really do believe that the people of the USA lack the skills, nous, and tenacity to take care of themselves then they should join with the republicrats in murder, rape and pillage of other nations’ resources.
There is no ‘third way’ to use a another well worn cliche, you can’t be a little bit pregnant. Well you can’t be a little bit crooked either. A thief is a thief is a thief whichever way you dress it up.
Sometimes confronting the truth about our actions is the only possible way forward. When people actually do that they are generally surprised that most others don’t condemn and criticise. Instead they encourage and congratulate the person/nation for having the strength and honesty to confront their demons.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 23 2005 21:17 utc | 29
Hugo Chavez is selling discounted oil to poor Americans to defray heating costs this winter. He might be able to make the claim that the government of Venezuala is doing more for Americans than the US government. Probably wouldn’t be true – but I’d laugh.
Posted by: Rowan | Nov 23 2005 21:19 utc | 30
Interesting development in Iran. The folks in parliament – yes, it IS a democracy – are now blocking the President supported by the majority earlier after recognizing that he is just a dumb wingnut.
Iran’s President Suffers Third Defeat in Choice of Oil Minister
Iran’s hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, suffered another defeat today after the Iranian Parliament rejected his third nominee for the sensitive leadership of the ministry of oil.
…
“The vote today shows that Parliament is distancing itself from President Ahmadinejad’s policies,” said Hamidreza Jalaipour, a sociologist and professor at Tehran University.
“Mr. Ahmadinejad thought Parliament will eventually give in, but the Parliament is not willing to surrender to such a situation,” he added, “and the friction between the two has become a deterrent force for any kind of progress in the past three months since he took office.”
This is the first time since the 1979 revolution that an Iranian president has faced such a hurdle. Mr. Ahmadinejad was legally required to name his minister within three months of taking office.
…
Another deputy, Ismail Gerami Moghadam, said the president’s inefficiency in introducing his cabinet ministers is laying the groundwork for his impeachment, the I.S.N.A. news agency quoted him as saying.
President Ahmadinejad has come under increasing criticism for firing thousands of experienced managers as part of his effort to fight economic corruption and replacing them with young and inexperienced ones. He dismissed the managers of seven state-run banks this week.
The president appointed a 27-year-old, Ali Salehabadi, as the director of the stock market after the previous director resigned following a 30 percent fall in share prices.
It took the Iranian parliament only three month to find out a hack was eleceted and to talk about impeachment. How long does it take for Congress?
There is hope that the younger generation are not going to follow the path trodden by their predecessors into the land of me me and dog eat dog.
DiD prefers coffee to extortionately priced flavoured milkshakes, served in inconveniently oversized containers, however he did catch this story in this morning’s kiwi fishwrap about a strike at Starbucks in NZ:
” Starbucks shift supervisor Takuira Hika walked out of the chain’s coffee shop in Newmarket yesterday to add his support to a claim for a minimum $12 an hour for the workers who report to him. “
Notice that this young Tangata Whenua is a supervisor but he hasn’t fallen for the bs mock career path ahead of his or his colleagues’ best long term interests.
Ten years ago the story of just one young kiwi doing something in the interests of all, rather than succumbing to the Gecko exhortation that “it’s all about greed, ladies and gentlemen”, would have been unheard.
The new generation of young people don’t even have a distant memory of strong unions and worker’s rights. Those concepts were like some unseen bogeyman, reckoned to bring the world undone with pinko reliance on ‘others’ rather than grabbing what you can as often as you can.
Well the new generation has had a look at the ‘new’ model for society and decided that they don’t want to put immediate material benefit for themselves ahead of everything else.
Many of them will probably be able to count on the fingers of one hand the times that both Mum and Dad were home with the kids. It seemed that at least one of their parents was always out slaving desperately to stay ahead of the mortgage.
Note this commendable statement by one of the strikers:
“Mr Hika left his manager alone in the cafe and he knew there would be consequences when he returned more than an hour later.
“We were warned that if we were not back in an hour it would become an abandonment of shift, which could lead to a verbal warning,” he said.
“There is also a personal relationship with the manager because she will take it to heart. She had family and friends waiting when she was due to finish.”
The story goes on to say that the IWW (the wobblies, in fact one of the greatest worker organisations anywhere, anytime) is leading the charge on behalf of Starbucks workers in the US.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 23 2005 22:35 utc | 33
International Relations Center
outstanding work. i am especially fond of their “right web” catalog.
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 24 2005 0:54 utc | 34
repeating myself on this one, but worth repeating:
Saw someone and something awesome recently: Eve Ensler reading this preface from her book, The Good Body, and talking about V Day.
“In the midst of a war in Iraq, in a time of escalating global terrorism, when civil liberties are disappearing as fast as the ozone layer, when one out of three women in the world will be beaten or raped in her lifetime, why write a play about my stomach?
Maybe because my stomach is one thing I feel I have control over, or maybe because I have hoped that my stomach is something I could get control over. Maybe because I see how my stomach has come to occupy my attention, I see how other women’s stomachs or butts or thighs or hair or skin have come to occupy their attention, so that we have very little left for the war in Iraq—or much else, for that matter. When a group of ethnically diverse, economically disadvantaged women in the United States was recently asked about the one thing they would change in their lives if they could, the majority of these women said they would lose weight. Maybe I identify with these women because I have bought into the idea that if my stomach were flat, then I would be good, and I would be safe. I would be protected. I would be accepted, admired, important, loved. Maybe because for most of my life I have felt wrong, dirty, guilty, and bad, and my stomach is the carrier, the pouch for all that self-hatred. Maybe because my stomach has become the repository for my sorrow, my childhood scars, my unfulfilled ambition, my unexpressed rage. Like a toxic dump, it is where the explosive trajectories collide—the Judeo- Christian imperative to be good; the patriarchal mandate that women be quiet, be less; the consumer-state imperative to be better, which is based on the assumption that you are born wrong and bad, and that being better always involves spending money, lots of money. Maybe because, as the world rapidly divides into fundamentalist camps, reductive sound bites, and polarizing platitudes, an exploration of my stomach and the life therein has the potential to shatter these dangerous constraints.
This journey has been different from the one I undertook in The Vagina Monologues. I was worried about vaginas when I began that play. I was worried about the shame associated with vaginas and I was worried about what was happening to vaginas, in the dark. As I talked about vaginas and to vaginas, I became even more worried about the onslaught of violence done to women and their vaginas around the world.
There was, of course, the great celebration of vaginas as well. Pleasure, discovery, sex, moans, power. I suppose I had this fantasy that after finally coming home into my vagina, I could relax, get on with life. This was not the case. The deadly self-hatred simply moved into another part of my body.
The Good Body began with me and my particular obsession with my “imperfect” stomach. I have charted this self-hatred, recorded it, tried to follow it back to its source. Here, unlike the women in The Vagina Monologues, I am my own victim, my own perpetrator. Of course, the tools of my selfvictimization have been made readily available. The pattern of the perfect body has been programmed into me since birth. But whatever the cultural influences and pressures, my preoccupation with my flab, my constant dieting, exercising, worrying, is selfimposed. I pick up the magazines. I buy into the ideal. I believe that blond, flat girls have the secret. What is far more frightening than narcissism is the zeal for self-mutilation that is spreading, infecting the world.
I have been to more than forty countries in the last six years. I have seen the rampant and insidious poisoning: skin-lightening creams sell as fast as tooth paste in Africa and Asia; the mothers of eight-year-olds in America remove their daughters’ ribs so they will not have to worry about dieting; five-year-olds in Manhattan do strict asanas so they won’t embarrass their parents in public by being chubby; girls vomit and starve themselves in China and Fiji and everywhere; Korean women remove Asia from their eyelids . . . the list goes on and on.
I have been in a dialogue with my stomach for the past three years. I have entered my belly—the dark wet underworld—to get at the secrets there. I have talked with women in surgical centers in Beverly Hills; on the sensual beaches of Rio de Janeiro; in the gyms of Mumbai, New York, Moscow; in the hectic and crowded beauty salons of Istanbul, South Africa, and Rome. Except for a rare few, the women I met loathed at least one part of their body. There was almost always one part that they longed to change, that they had a medicine cabinet full of products devoted to transforming or hiding or reducing or straightening or lightening. Just about every woman believed that if she could just get that part right, everything else would work out. Of course, it is an endless heartbreaking campaign.
Some of the monologues in The Good Body are based on well-known women like Helen Gurley Brown and Isabella Rossellini. Those monologues, which grew out of a series of conversations with each of these fascinating women, are not recorded interviews, but interpretations of the lives they offered me. Some of the other characters are based on real lives, real stories. Many are invented.
This play is my prayer, my attempt to analyze the mechanisms of our imprisonment, to break free so that we may spend more time running the world than running away from it; so that we may be consumed by the sorrow of the world rather than consuming to avoid that sorrow and suffering. This play is an expression of my hope, my desire, that we will all refuse to be Barbie, that we will say no to the loss of the particular, whether it be to a voluptuous woman in a silk sari, or a woman with defining lines of character in her face, or a distinguishing nose, or olivetoned skin, or wild curly hair.
I am stepping off the capitalist treadmill. I am going to take a deep breath and find a way to survive not being flat or perfect. I am inviting you to join me, to stop trying to be anything, anyone other than who you are. I was moved by women in Africa who lived close to the earth and didn’t understand what it meant to not love their body. I was lifted by older women in India who celebrated their roundness. I was inspired by Marion Woodman, a great Jungian analyst, who gave me confidence to trust what I know. She has said that “instead of transcending ourselves, we must move into ourselves.” Tell the image makers and magazine sellers and the plastic surgeons that you are not afraid. That what you fear the most is the death of imagination and originality and metaphor and passion. Then be bold and LOVE YOUR BODY. STOP FIXING IT. It was never broken.”
* * *
Excerpted from The Good Body by Eve Ensler Copyright © 2004 by Eve Ensler. Excerpted by permission of Villard, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Dynamite!
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 24 2005 1:21 utc | 35
so strange. these syncronicities. i have been working on a translation of shakespeare’s ‘richard iii’ – & that play all occur in the stomach. the stomach of all our fears
& i was reminded how few ‘leaders’ posess that shakespearean dimension. certainly no one in the cheney bush junta. they are smalltime hoods best described by clifford odets, edward bond or even john webster. they are small men. there is no grandeur in them. theirs are small histories writ large tho they are written in blood. the blood of others
no there is no hamlet nor macbeth nor lear nor richard – meditating on their characters or absence of them would lead us nowhere. nowhere at all. they are so sordid in their creation. like some golem gon terribly wrong but richard cheney is how i have always imagined a golem – a bit like voerword, franco, salazar or botha – – figures drawn from the wells of hate & hate configuring both form & content
& i thought – that chavez – yes companero chavez – has that largeness of character – this ex putchist turned into bolivarian hero -& each day he does something – something so characteristic – that seems to give that character – even more grandeur – his gift of oil for heating to the people in the bronx is an idea of genius – revealing the naked greed of the beast. & in the end it is such a large thing written small
no the cheney bush junta – all the figures – armitage, negroponte, libby, powell, ashcroft – really such crude caricatures & indeed john bolton – a dangerous cartoon of a man & thse endless stupid generals that the pentagon brings out of some thoughtless & endless john ford movie – with their endless pricks stuck into the water of our lives. these goons in green who shout & holler – like some terrible piece written by a mamet or a stoppard – endless useless screaming
no there is no character of richard the third there – just his crimes are committed
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 24 2005 1:51 utc | 36
You’re correct of course r’giap one of the most mortifying things about this whole debacle is that the planet has been held to ransom by smallminded, weak-kneed, bores.
Imagine trying to conduct a converation with the dazed and confused commander in chief! In no time at all your gaze would be diverted by your wristwatch then the door, the wristwatch again, once more the door, “Help there must be someway outta this place!”
In fact the only way it is possible to capture any of these nonentities in the mind’s eye is to picture them doing things that they never would.
Rumsfield changing his grandchild “there that’s much tidier” or Dubya making sure his wife was satisfied “Don’t worry about me Laura, how does that feel?”
Cheney spending Xmas day taking out the trash in a soup kitchen “C’mon we can’t let these drumsticks go to waste. Oh great there’s still some white meat on this one. Here you take my plate Mr Jackson and I’ll just finish off these scraps.”
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 24 2005 2:38 utc | 37
This Threatening of Brit. Press w/Official Secrets Act Bullshit is just routine CYA stuff. Blair’s under the same fire at home that georgie is. He wanted that info. out there to prove that he isn’t georgie’s poodle.
georgie’s just a 7 yr. old still blowing up frogs. Al J-, Eff ’em, we’ll just blow ’em up. That’s ALL wittle georgie knows how to do. Not surprising. And Al J- was a Serious Problem. Hard to run the ole standard issue imperial wars in age of satellite tv. They’d muzzled xUS media, Billmon’s fantasies notwithstanding. But recall, they had to put off wasting Fallujah til they’d found a way to dispose of Al J- etc.
I read some time ago, that they’d pressured Head of State that owns it to allow it to be piratized & that Saudis were going to buy it. Anyone know anything about that?
Posted by: jj | Nov 24 2005 3:15 utc | 39
Robert Dreyfuss on the 3 day Cairo talks, where multi- factions in Iraq are inching toward full spectrum talks including the resistance — all to the chagrin of US officials (who didnt even attend). link
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 24 2005 5:31 utc | 40
@rgiap U’re correct of course thinking of Fallujah should be enough to create a picture of Rumsfield, Cheney or Bush but it is very difficult to consider the perpetrators of that horror as fellow human beings. Therefore occasionally considering these parasites in decidely human but extremely unlikely situations can remind us that underneath all the preening, posturing and lying are a mob of assholes whose shit stinks the same as anyone else’s.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 24 2005 6:59 utc | 41
There are so many fissures in the Bushrock. Mass distrust and steady leaks have made Fortress Pachyderm penatrable. They can’t win back trust, so they will be stopped. I didn’t believe this for a time, but hubrisity comes through again. It will be a bloody struggle yet, but this battle will be won.
The dirty truths of executive power and lobbyist influence and journalistic methodology are front, front and center. They issues are eaqsier to see, less nuanced.
Now is the time to define the ills.
Posted by: canucklehead | Nov 24 2005 7:17 utc | 42
Judy and Booby are the public faces of source confidentialitis, the journalitic poppyrot that elevates contact access over objectivity and facts. But Rove figured it out. So now the mold must break, and a new journalism must emerge.
Posted by: Anonymous | Nov 24 2005 7:19 utc | 43
A new Who Should Be Person of the Year? poll…
TIME’s Person of the Year is the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year. Who do you think fits the bill this year?
41% J.K. Rowling
15% Bono
13% Steve Jobs
11% Mother Nature
6% Lance Armstrong
4% The Google Guys
2% Pope Benedict XVI
2% Condoleezza Rice
2% George W. Bush
1% Bill and Melinda Gates
1% Rick Warren
1% Valerie Plame
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 24 2005 10:19 utc | 44
That reminds me. I really must get around to cancelling my Time subscription.
Posted by: DM | Nov 24 2005 10:40 utc | 45
I’ll check back later and see if my nomination gets published:-
Al-Zarqawi
More lives than a cat. More lieutenants than Napoleon. More elusive than either the Scarlet Pimpernel or Emanuel Goldstein.
(yeah yeah – really corny – but sort of blends in with Time)
Posted by: DM | Nov 24 2005 10:54 utc | 46
Uncle, with yearly Time person, yeah the sheeple are living in fantasy land.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Nov 24 2005 13:04 utc | 47
DiD, I was going to mention that Al-J was bombed, in Afgh.
But in Baghdad also, April 2003. A ‘mistake’ – one dead. Tareq Ayyoub.
An Al-J ‘terrorist’ was condemned to 7 years (Madrid bombing), two al Arabia employees were killed (Baghdad); several Al-J journalists were imprisoned in Abu Ghraib: 21 were arrested in all. Several other ‘arabs’ working for Reuters have been jailed or killed. There is an Al-J journalist in Gitmo, though he may have been released. (name: Al – Haj.)
The Al-J outpost in Basra has also been bombed. The bombs failed to explode…
Al-J vehicles have been fired on.
Al-J reporters were banned from the NY stock exchange, NASDAQ as well.
Invoking the Official Secrets Act ensures the story gets stronger legs, and makes Bliar look… great.
Posted by: Noisette | Nov 24 2005 16:54 utc | 48
Time Person (sic) of the Year?
Immediately thought of Charlie Sheen who, with the insanely funny hit sitcom “Two and a Half Men,” gives us more than we deserve.
But, on second thought, Men “The Master” Nguyen, twice ranked number one Texas Hold’em Poker Player, is the “Person.” Metaphor for the American Creed: bold accumulator, ruthless competitor. he’s vietnamese, so we have an answer to the painful question: Was Vietnam worth it? yes, yes.
good clean fun. cmon.
plus vindication of the behavior needed to be a marketplace winner: terrifying stoicism of the bluff=admirable deception of the exchange relation; malicious celebration before final player desparately folds=triumph of cunning avarice over inefficiency; post-poker match analysis (“like he was toying with a buncha
schoolkgirls”)=economics.
it’s all there.
Posted by: slothrop | Nov 24 2005 17:48 utc | 49
A thanksgiving day irony: at 1p.m., NYT Web headlines: sorta like circa 1670 Plymouth crier: Boy’s lips burnt by hot turkeyleg, Band of Narragansett slaughtered by English settlers…
Car Bomb South of Baghdad Kills At Least 30 People
By EDWARD WONG 8:42 AM ET
A car bomb exploded outside the main hospital this morning in Mahmudiya, a town in the region known as the Triangle of Death.
Lamppost Hit by Parade Balloon Injures 2 Spectators
By MARC SANTORA 12:29 PM ET
Two people were hurt Thursday when a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade knocked a lampost to the ground.
Macy’s Outlined Safety Plans Before Parade
Slide show: Parade photos
Posted by: slothrop | Nov 24 2005 18:09 utc | 50
man’o’f:
thanks for posting eve ensler’s treatise. I took a pledge to stop hating my body around the same time as her. It’s a totally private journey but I have been interested to see what it’s like NOT to participate in body-loathing during shared meals with women. I try to enjoy my food and ignore comments about being “bad” or eating “sinful” foods. I try to listen to my bones and ligaments to get information about when to take a walk and when to rest. No one else thinks my body is perfect but each day that I can do the work that is important to me I say Thank You Body, You’re All Right With Me.
Posted by: Lisa | Nov 24 2005 18:43 utc | 52
slothrop,
I enjoyed the comments on the Men link, and the handles (especially “angry hardon”) — curious bunch, those that would dedicate their lives to poker / gambling. Once I went to the track with a friend (who was once a jocky) and was amazed to see so many people study so hard, most of which had probably never cracked a book in their lives.
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 24 2005 20:18 utc | 53
re: Ensler’s work
“I was worried about the shame associated with vaginas and I was worried about what was happening to vaginas, in the dark. As I talked about vaginas and to vaginas, I became even more worried about the onslaught of violence done to women and their vaginas around the world.”
Ken Wilber: “I don’t mean to be crude, but it appears that testosterone basically has two, and only two major drives: fuck it or kill it.”
Empowering women is only half the solution. How to bring all men, collectively, to account not only for the death and destruction and suffering we wield with our warring, but all the pathological misery and pain and devastation we daily inflict with our dicks, as well? We need strong international prohibitions on war, yes, but we sorely need some serious dick management, too.
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 24 2005 20:28 utc | 54
From JB:
“This New York Times article confirms something I suspected as soon as Padilla’s indictment was announced. The Bush administration is desperate to avoid accountability on its detention and interrogation policies not because of what it may need to do in the future but rather because of the illegality of what it has already done.”
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 24 2005 21:13 utc | 55
This could be a welcome development in real news:
Link
Posted by: biklett | Nov 24 2005 22:57 utc | 56
@ manonfyre, forgive me but I once thought that maybe testosterone should be put on a tap. Turn it up for fun and moving heavy objects, and turn it down the rest of the time. Just a thought.
Thanks so much for the post.
Posted by: beq | Nov 24 2005 23:04 utc | 57
DiD has a family member hard at work in the MSM who may be feeling at little vulnerable. DiD had already (in a light hearted manner of course) taunted this journalist about who his REAL employer was following the revelation that one of the chief agents of influence for the Rendon organisation was Australian Broadcasting Corporation camera operator Paul Moran.
Perhaps the timing is coincidental but since then the outlet at which DiD’s family member works, screened one of the most objective yet interesting, (ie the large proportion of Palestinians determined to win with non-violent strategies), pieces of TV coverage on the illegal occupation of Jerusalem seen in a long time.
This morning DiD’s inbox contained an article authored by one of the team which went to Jerusalem. The author had lived on the West Bank and in Jerusalem 10 years or so previously and was horrified by the changes wrought by the illegal settler movement in cohorts with the corrupt Likud administration.
Rather than publish the entire article at MoA, which makes life extremely tiresome for those on slower connections it was posted to an unused blog DiD acquired but never used.
the piece is entitled Impressions from a visit to Palestine
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 25 2005 1:28 utc | 58
Birth and decline of the working middle-class — Flint, Michigan USA.
Flint Sit-Down Strike
GM Cutbacks
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 25 2005 2:29 utc | 59
So what’s the difference between an American academic with an “Informed Comment” and a military apologist ?
A “PR” problem? A moron with a PhD and six languages is still a moron.
Posted by: DM | Nov 25 2005 4:21 utc | 60
oops edit: last post on wrong thread. moving to “the plan.”
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 25 2005 4:47 utc | 62
From the Guardian, Secret British document accuses Israel, a British gov’t paper is leaked with assessments of Israel’s goals in Jerusalem and Palestine:
A confidential Foreign Office document accuses Israel of rushing to annex the Arab area of Jerusalem, using illegal Jewish settlement construction and the vast West Bank barrier, in a move to prevent it becoming a Palestinian capital.
…
The document, drawn up by the British consulate in East Jerusalem as part of the UK’s presidency of the EU, says Israeli policies are designed to prevent Jerusalem from becoming a Palestinian capital, particularly settlement expansion in and around the city. It says Mr Sharon’s plan to link Jerusalem with the large Ma’ale Adumim settlement in the West Bank by building thousands of new homes “threatens to complete the encircling of the city by Jewish settlements, dividing the West Bank into two separate geographical areas”.
It adds: “Israeli activities in Jerusalem are in violation of both its Roadmap (peace plan) obligations and international law.”
This isn’t news to me, Sharon the “man of peace” has withdrawn a small number of settlements to great publicity, now quietly continuing to crush the Palestinian people and, as noted here, their state.
I’ve seen film (Scared Sacred, a documentary) of the so-called security fence, it is as imposing as any border you could imagine, scarier than the Berlin Wall in those spy movies. The filmmaker was threatened off with a rifle shot from the wall while taping. It comes pretty close to home when you realize they can shoot anyone they please.
Posted by: jonku | Nov 25 2005 6:06 utc | 63
I’m trying to get a copy of the story on Jerusalem I saw t’other night. It details just how much crap Palestinian citizens just going about their business get from the Israelis.
The reporter was taken by an old Palestinian gentleman to see his home on the city outskirts where the access between home and jerusalem had been sealed off by the wall.
They tried to get there the ‘quick’ way through an Israeli checkpoint and they and other Palestinians also wanting to get home from work were kept waiting for 2 1/2 hours by soldiers who had nothing better to do than use their power over others sadistically.
When they did finally get checked by these underage, overgrown, bullies they were turned back because of the film crew’s cameras.
So they walked to the bloke’s house the long way around, a journey that took several miles instead of a couple of hundred meters. The old chap showed them the nice kids from the Israeli settlement next door who were giving him the fingers and heaping obscenities on him.
When asked how he was going to fight this the old bloke said “That is one thing the Israelis will never make me do. This my home and my father before’s home. My grandchildren live here I will not fight a war in my neighborhood”.
By the time the film crew headed back the ‘soldiers’ at the checkpoint had notified the next Israelis up the food chain that a NZ film crew was wandering around Jerusalem without an Israeli spin doctor.
So they detained everyone and confiscated all footage. The crew got it back on condition that they take the next flight out of Israel. Which they did.
There is no doubt that the Israelis are making life as tough as possible for Palestinians anywhere but Gaza. The plan appears to be to drive all Palestinians into an outdoor prison that is already the most overcrowded piece of land on the planet.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 25 2005 9:45 utc | 64
The ‘conflict’ in Israel is a proxy war. The Anglo-American ‘right’, mainly but not only as various Western powers are complicit (despite, or even because of, traditional anti-semitism) have picked that little scrap of land – previously a decrepit outpost of the Ottoman Empire – to further their interests.
Israel represents a toe-hold in the ME; a conflict that can be localised, contained, controlled; serves to polarise attention, and keep other ‘Ayrab’ States quiet – the scandal is happening in Israel, not at home, it is all far away, anyway there is nothing to be done about it. The ‘war’ endlessly demonstrates that Pals -Arabs- are crazed terrorists – they can legitimatly be accorded the status of non-people, shot by snipers, put in open air concentration camps, have their homes demolished, etc. People become used to that..evil is evil…
The Palestinians, practically entirely dependent on foreign aid (and now literally starving..), are financed mostly by the EU.
Not only, though: the US contributes large sums indirectly, through the UN payments. Every Western Power (as well as those less high up in the grand scale of thing who can’t object) are complicit in keeping this conflict going. Arab States get their money’s worth; a straw man enemy is provided; the EU can sob and wring its hands and fund Pal schools that are prompty demolished; the US can sell (give) arms to Israel and gargle about a road map.
Posted by: Noisette | Nov 25 2005 18:11 utc | 65
US Marines battled Syrian troops Thursday night after crossing the border from Iraq into Syria
Both sides suffered casualties. US soldiers crossed over after Damascus was given an ultimatum Thursday, Nov. 24, to hand over a group of senior commanders belonging to Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s al Qaeda force. According to US intelligence, the group had fled to Syria to escape an American attack in Mosul. Syrian border guards opened fire on the American forc
Posted by: annie | Nov 25 2005 20:22 utc | 66
Annie, isn’t it interesting that Debka puts two Syrian references in the same story and it suddenly looks like the US forces that have crossed into Syria are chasing the high-level AQ members, when I believe the incursion is basically an ongoing set of border raids.
The big deal of course is that troops are entering Syria at all. Shades of Cambodia.
Posted by: jonku | Nov 25 2005 20:51 utc | 67
annie, Debka is to Israel as Drudge is to US. So bollocks to that propaganda.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Nov 25 2005 21:36 utc | 68
THe real reason for amerikan incursion into Syria is pretty obvious but we should still hold BushCo and their supporters accountable on their ‘excuses’ as well.
If the US is invading Syria because some Iraqi freedom fighters crossed over the border into Syria without the knowledge of Syria and the Syrian govt’s inability to hand them over, then the quid pro quo must be that the US hand convicted bomber, murderer and terrorist Luis Posada Carriles over to Venezuala. He is actually being protected by the US whereas there is every chance that these suspected terrorists are in Syria in spite of the best efforts of the Syrian govt not because of them.
If BushCo fails to deliver Carriles into Venzualian custody, it then follows that Chavez is within his rights to invade the US and seize this lowlife.
Finally the seamless way that repugs are segueing between accusing Syria of the Lebanese car bombing of Hariri and attacking Syria’s Eastern border really raises cui bono concerns about who blew up the unfortunate Hariri.
Lets face it this isn’t a mob famous for having all ducks in a row when the shit hits the fan.
Hariri strikes me as a likely US agent of influence but he had stopped toeing the party line about getting rid of Syria. A little detail which sorta takes the motive away from Assad and drops it on the US.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 25 2005 23:18 utc | 69
Is Europe being used to hold CIA [ghost]detainees?
Many European countries have started investigations into allegations that CIA aeroplanes, with terrorist [suspected ?] detainees [ghost ?]as passengers, have been landing at European airports.
The story began with disclosures by the Washington Post and by Human Rights Watch about secret CIA-run detention camps in many countries including Poland and Romania. The EU has asked Washington for a clarification and the Council of Europe has also begun its own investigation…
A couple of observations:
The purpose of obtaining archived satellite imagery going back to 2002 is that these ‘black sites’ would be unlikely to be run as permanent setups, more likely to be ‘short duration’, infrequent or even rotating ‘use’ facilities. Hence, activity during specific periods may be gleaned by analysing and interpreting imagery during periods suggested by the aircraft landing and departures reported by HRW and amateur ‘airplane spotters’, air controllers et al, especially since such ‘transient’ sites would almost certainly have been ‘sanitized’ by now. ‘Nothing to see here, move along, move along now …‘
It would seem that journalists/editors feel there is no need to state or explain the egregious nature of secret seizure, transport (on unofficial civilian aircraft, covertly), detention and [probable ?] torture of SUSPECTS when reporting on these events ?! Let alone the plethora of laws in multiple countries being breached as well as violations of sovereignty … Perhaps its a given that the public understands this, however, I cannot help but interpret the failure to mention or reinforce this fact/aspect as a media ‘soft sell’ …
The graphic used by Netherlands radio is certainly ‘novel’.
This story is getting virtually nil coverage in the U.S. media, am curious, any observations re the TV/cable reporting and ‘perspective’ in EU ? Will this story get ‘legs’ in the EU political circles or just ‘fade away’ ? Is there a perception in European countries that their political leaders aren’t interested, or maybe even complicit ?
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 25 2005 23:36 utc | 70
@DiD
If we used the ‘reciprocity test’, especially re foreign policy conduct, then America would be, by our own definitions, a ‘Rogue State’ in the propagandized mold of North Korea …
Reflections on such obvious hypocrisy and blatant ‘double-standards’ are almost instantly dismissively shot down by jingoistic exceptionalism and the ‘we are always the Good guys, never the bad guys’, ingrained mantras … i.e., you must ‘hate [my] America’, so you can just F__k off overseas !
Isn’t that the point of this administrations outrageous policy of only requiring ‘other’ nations to abide by International Laws and treaties whilst unilaterally exempting its own actions and conduct by, effectively, Preznit decree ? We’re not exempt as such, just ‘above’ such ‘quaint’ notions … an Ubermenschen government ?
The preznit has publicly expressed his utter contempt for International Law on numerous occasions, IIRC, it’s for the ‘others’.
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 25 2005 23:53 utc | 71
@DM
Thanks for the link to the ‘Netwar’ article [flooding the channel]. An excellent and insightful analytical piece.
There’s probably two ‘trolls ?’ (working in tandem ?), or presenting ‘alternating’ persona’s on that particular thread, and one who seems to be everywhere, constantly …
Reading your linked article has prompted some considerable personal reflection re the (probable ?) modern incarnation of CoIntelPro activities within the perfect anonymity of Blogs. Though I find it difficult to believe our little backwater would be targeted by other than (enthusiastic ?) amateurs.
Though, the difficulty is that the more such a possible provocateur(s) posts, the easier it is to holistically analyze the ‘poster’, through examination of the totality of their posts, and ,at least, determine a high probability of a false ‘persona(s)’ due to the difficulty in being constant and consistent in maintaining the cover, i.e. false identity, though an almost impossible task over any extended series of posts, I would suggest … hence the actual return on the invested effort would seem minimal re creating disruption, dissent, distractions, diversion from the central topic (at hand) and of course, simply ‘flooding’.
Of course, if it was an actual formal activity, re ‘Net CoIntelPro, then agents would be assigned multiple topics/blogs to track and monitor and ‘engage/influence/disrupt/misinform’ with a series of defined almost schizophrenic, yet relatively consistent, individual ‘persona’s’, no small task though … shades of ‘Rendon’ ? …
It does of course raise the unresolved issue of how, or even if, to deal with such activities whilst avoiding the onerous burden of ‘moderators’ and pseudo-censorship … for me, the somewhat ‘free reign’ nature of the MOA is one of its unique strengths …
Paranoia is only a handicap if you’re wrong 😉
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 26 2005 0:40 utc | 72
yes i could tell debka was a right wing shill operation by the slant on everything on that page. still it was the first confirmation we were actually doing battle inside syria as opposed to ‘just’ the border area. i could tell by the reference to zarqawi relocating in bagdad.
via firesdog seems the british telly did an update on al jazeerah/bushbomb. worth watching the video
thanks for blogging that article debs. i have a friend from palestine and she told me simila rawful wall stories.
Posted by: annie | Nov 26 2005 1:50 utc | 73
@DM, Outraged et al
Re: “flooding the channel”
Thanks for an excellent article.
I posted this awhile back,
Security officials to spy on chat rooms .
Also see: Your ISP as Net watchdog .
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 26 2005 2:32 utc | 74
@annie
If the five page memo is a true and correct record of a candid discussion of geopolitical strategy between Bush and Blair at a key juncture (April 2004 ?) then it would cover a number of topics and certainly reveal true agenda’s and motivations as opposed to the propaganda and spin they dish out to the public.
Given that newspapers with a scoop, such as the Daily Mirror with this memo, usually promote a ‘tidbit’ so they can follow-up with further ‘revelations’ as they run with (wring ?) the story, it’s not unreasonable to speculate that Bush is determined to keep the rest of the contents under raps. After all, this sort of ‘fly on the wall’ insight is usually only available 25-50 years later as part of the declassified historical record.
Don’t like their chances of keeping it under wraps … Official Secrets Act or not …
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 26 2005 2:35 utc | 75
“I have come to London to reach out to British officials..” – Al Jazeera Managing Director
Posted by: annie | Nov 26 2005 2:41 utc | 76
for some reason the above post eliminated my comment that this is a blog . of course my first comment there i made a stupid misspelling. as usual.
but of more embarrassment is a horrible troll on the first post about Tayseer Allouni and his children missing him. i urge you to make a comment. crooks and liars linked to the site, i think it is a very new blog.
i cannot find the enegy to fear what someone collecting internet data may find about me . i am a potter for jimminy fitzmas.and if my thoughts and words are considered of those of a heritic well so be it.
Posted by: annie | Nov 26 2005 2:51 utc | 77
@Annie don’t even worry about it. The existence of either provocateurs or ‘moles’ or whatever childish ‘infra dig’ name these types use at the moment, is always gonna be a strictly hit and miss affair. I’m not gonna rabbit on about this except to say that Peter Seller’s characterisation of Inspector Clouseau prtty much typifies the quality of their work.
No we shouldn’t be complacent except that being a strictly non-violent bunch who know very few of each other very well, I really can’t see that anything we said here would be of much interest.
The most likely outcome any of that sort of low life would aspire to is to cause dissension amongst ourselves and only then if we are a particularly high traffic blog.
What was the name of that company Uncle or someone discovered a couple of months back? They were headed up by some young Englishman mainchancer who had just won a defence contract of a few mill to wreak exactly that sort of havoc on the interweb.
I don’t have any reason to suspect they are here but we really should watch the watchers from time to time even if it is just to re-assure ourselves that they aren’t.
We probably have about the correct number of slightly disordered personalities coming in here and displaying their poor human interaction skills but I see that as a positive not something to worry about. It takes 2 to make a troll; the baiter and the biter.
We all get caught out now and then when we’ve got some bile to clear off the liver. Once again people are just displaying their humanity. A good thing.
Sometimes I reckon that Monty Python script where one of them (Cleese or Chapman I think) expounds on the “difference between arguement and simple contradiction” should be nailed over the doorway at MoA.
Of course that would take the fun out of it for some and there would be the danger that we could be joined by a control freak who would try and enforce ‘the rules’. LOL
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 26 2005 3:29 utc | 78
does anybody seriously doubt that the psychopaths of the cheney bush junta did not try their best to bomb al jazeera
they murdered their journalists & stringers in iraq & afghanistan. they have framed the journalist in spain
their behaviour follows that of their fellow traveller abramoff – what you can’t buy – steal & what you can’t comprimise – kill
& those british poodles of the press from the left & right with the notable exceptions of a fisk, a pilger a montbiot or a younge will follow their trainers at the home office & shut their little traps
because papamommy – otherwise known as ‘the special relationship’ or what is otherwise called by gwf hegel the master slave axis – will determine what is said & not said
we surround ourselves in their shame because they hide the worst of their crimes by lifestyle analysts who really know only about decay & death
they do not hear us ” crying like a fire into the sun”
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 26 2005 3:29 utc | 79
@Uncle Sam
Hm, even though certain elements may desire to be able to do it, log and subsequently analyze everything, the reality has always been the resources necessary simply aren’t there to do if even for targeted priority cases let alone a broad reach ‘Big Brother’ approach.
After all the NSA, which is certainly not exactly underfunded, simply cannot keep up with the the timely analysis of the raw material it sources from a multitude of means … even with automated collection and semi-automated filtering of the raw material, ultimately a human analyst must read/listen/view the material to produce an initial assessment …
The other aspect is that (IMO) corporations and to a lesser degree ordinary businesses are diametrically opposed to the authoritarians desire to collect and retain ‘everything’ for two reasons: unreasonable burden and $ cost as well as the desire to not have even semi-public records of business conduct, etc ‘on record’ …
Oh, by the way, isn’t this sort of crap another reason we were fighting the good fight against them commies ? And now that we ‘won’ they want to impose it on us ? So much for democracy … the justification re child abuse and exploitation while sound at first glance is often used as an emotive trigger to curry support and distract from the actual intent re these collection and retention schemes (in my experience in Intel and Justice Intel) …
As an aside … myself and a peer many years back had first hand knowledge of an Intel Director clearly perjuring himself before Congress re illegal ‘wiretapping’ (not necessarily phone lines …) … the testimony was only double digits (incidents) for that year when the true record was into the 100’s … he knew we knew and vice versa … but what do you do, we both troubled over it at length … the classified record was there and ultimately we were both indirectly requested to (illegally) destroy the relevant record … we both decided to advise that unless the request was written and documented we could not comply … the written request never surfaced … sacrifice a career for a minuscule likelihood of a successful result ? … or just ‘walk away’ …
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 26 2005 3:29 utc | 80
lenin was very clear on this
informed that thee was a police informer on the central committe of the bolsheviks – he said the wors thing was to concentrate on them – he sd that for an agent to be redible he has to do the work & in the end the larger work will benefit. lenin thought the concentration on intelligence issues was a disproportionate waste of time & contrary to all the mythology on the question it was not lenin but a polish aristocrat turned bolshevik who became the model not only for soviet intelligence but for every intelligence community thereafter
the wilderness of mirrors should not become a pathology
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 26 2005 3:38 utc | 81
$cam – Fed has been supporting the stock market ever since 2000, it’s a matter of public record.
DiscerningAngels has some interesting conjecture,
but like so much of what ‘really’ goes on in the
world, MSM and the US sheeple fold their hands,
playing, ‘here’s the church, here’s the steeple’.
We stole America from the First Nations, now it’s
karma time. The global traders (traitors) know no
national citizenship except to Xanadu of Mammon.
So it’s every servant for himself, or end up on
the no’mo social-security poor-farm reservation.
Posted by: Clarence Darrow | Nov 26 2005 3:56 utc | 82
I’ll go to jail to print the truth about Bush and al-Jazeera
Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 26 2005 4:11 utc | 85
@remembereringgiap
Sage advice indeed, R’Giap. One of the other purposes/objectives of provocateurs is to waste an organizations or groups effort and time re the real or perceived bogeymen within or without and by so doing further exacerbate internal dissent, tension, conflict as well as unfounded/unreasonable paranoia/fear.
Posted by: Outraged | Nov 26 2005 4:12 utc | 86
monoffyre
let us not forget: sachs helped engineer the market reforms in russia.
Posted by: slothrop | Nov 26 2005 4:34 utc | 87
there’s proof in sach’s career the jumble of theory and practice. he makes the faustian bargains.
ergo: He is an “economist”
Posted by: slothrop | Nov 26 2005 4:37 utc | 88
The scale of the problem that intelligence services face with all this is demonstrated by the tendency that criminal intelligence gathering has developed to only scrutinise the TXT messages on mobile phones and not even try to collate the spoken stuff.
Similarly around the world CCTV has begun to create more problems than it solves because when a record of a vicious assault or the like turns up the public want to know why the person wasn’t arrested or prevented from committing the assault in real time.
In a country like the UK where there are literally hundreds of thousands of CCTV cameras, there is no way anyone can watch them in ‘real time’. And we musn’t forget that these cameras also record undesirable events like a south american not behaving suspiciously and not wearing unseasonal clothes.
Peter Wright’s book Spycatcher tells us that even back in the 40’s and 50’s when telecommunication was pretty much restricted to a few ‘licensed’ organisations it took MI5 and the CIA over 10 years to work through all the tapes of radio communications from the Russian Embassy in Washington that were made around the time of the atomic secrets leak from the “Manhatten Project”
There have been well publicised attempts like the Echelon Project to use technology to pick out the ‘suspicious’ communications from the dross.
Those results have been equally hit and miss as well as wreaking havoc.
For example in the early Thatcher years when the old bag was crushing the miner’s union, echelon had recently been installed on the UK domestic telephone system. This equipment was installed on the then new ‘crossbar’ exchange technology. The earliest digital exchanges. Prior to that telephone switches were thousands of electromagnetic relays, incredibly expensive to install and maintain, unreliable and slow. But a wonderful intersection of technology and art. Remember the movies where the FBI had to keep the kidnapper on the phone for ages while some tech tried to follow the connection through the exchange by checking which relays were switched? Anyway crossbar and the echelon technology meant that counter intelligence or police could set the system to look out for certain words of phrases. If someone spoke one of the ‘triggers’ the remainder of the call would be recorded along with the numbers and whatever names were associated with those phone numbers.
The Miner’s union had gone out on a national strike but Thatcher was well prepared and had scabs set up to cross picket lines with assistance from the police. The union decided that the best way to counter this would be to put full on picket lines on a few selected mines, rather that try and keep scabs out of all mines and win none, it made sense to picket a few selected mines.
Once the police got wind of this strategy they tried really hard to find out which mines to avoid and which ones to be at in numbers.
So the union had to keep that info secret and release it at the last moment by way of a telephone tree .
So MI5 got into the act and one of the phrases they identified as a trigger for echelon was ‘flying pickets’ the name given the Miners Union strategy by the tabloid media.
The problem was every man and his dog was talking about the strike and in no time at all the system had locked up and crashed, due chiefly to the fact that half of England was on the blower gossiping and ‘flicking the switch’ by talking about flying pickets. No phones in England for several days. A big mess.
Unless intelligence has supplied a specific person or location to target SigInt is often worse than usless as an information gathering tool because the resources required just to get the ‘red flagged’ calls monitored are huge.
That’s where HumInt comes into play because people can advise what’s hot and what’s not thereby reducing the vast numbers of listeners and watchers.
But of course HumInt comes with it’s own set of problems as the IWG discovered when working with Chalabi’s plants.
Blanket information gathering keeps a lot of otherwise unemployables able to put food on the table but as a tool of repression it struggles to be effective in a halfway open society.
The stasi stats in East germany were a classic example where nearly 50% of the population were spying in the other 50% and of course there’s no real way of knowing if your 50% are the good guys or the other half is the ‘good guys’ and you’re paying the ‘blackhats’.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 26 2005 4:51 utc | 89
am i the only person who can’t open manonfyre’s end of poverty link?
Posted by: annie | Nov 26 2005 5:09 utc | 90
Amusing bit for the chuckle deprived on this holiday wkend.
Making School Relevant gets Teacher Investigated for Political Incorrectness, even in Vt.
BENNINGTON, Vt. –The school superintendent whose district includes Mount Anthony Union High School has labeled “inappropriate” and “irresponsible” an English teacher’s use of liberal statements in a vocabulary quiz.
“I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes,” said one question on a quiz written by English and social studies teacher Bret Chenkin.
Posted by: jj | Nov 26 2005 5:56 utc | 93
[from Driftglass.blogspot.com)
I heard this story once.
Anyway there’s this parable about the trader and the soldier. Longtime friends, each was a master in his chosen profession.
One day they were out at the bazaar and the trader found a vase of surpassing beauty, crafted with great skill. He smiled to his friend and said, “Let me show you how a professional bargains.”
He asked the shop owner, “How much?”
“1,000,” came the reply.
“That is an insult for which I should rip the living heart from your chest,” the trader snorted. “I offer you 300 for this shit bucket.”
“300!” the owner said. “I can hear you, but can no longer see you for an offer of 300 is venom spit straight into me eyes. And yet if I must use naught but my ears and nose, I shall still track you to the end of time and strike off your head for offering me any less that 900.”
“*900!?” the trader nearly fainted. “When you should be offering me 900 to haul away this rubbish, bury it and spare you the shame of the world knowing you had ever shown such trash as this in the window of your shop? Were I not robbed of my reason my staring too long at this repulsive thing I would not now offer 400. Take it quickly before I regain my good sense and smash it to atoms.”
“400?!”
Well, you get the point…except when the trader hit 500 he changed his tone. The owner rolled out his top shelf bluster, but at 500 the trader just said, very calmly, “I shall go no higher.”
And when the owner tried another tack, the trader turned to the soldier and said, “We’re leaving.”
And they walked out. They got halfway down the dusty street before they heard the shop owner shout out a VERY dirty word and say, “All right. All right. 500.”
Well the soldier was very impressed with this technique, and had seen a magnificent and cunningly crafted sword in that same store, and resolved to himself to go back the very next day and put into practice what his friend had shown him.
And so he did, and they danced the same quarreling dance of offer, aggrieved shock, affront and counter-offer as the owner and trader has danced the day before.
Then the soldier announced he was leaving and walked out. And walked. And walked. And peeked quickly over his shoulder. And strained his ears for the sound of the shop keeper chasing him down. And walked some more.
In fact he walked all the way across town to the home of the trader. His friend invited him in and the soldier sat and explained all, shaking his head in confusion.
“What happened?” he asked. “I followed your methods to the letter.”
“And…”
“And the shopkeeper never came after me.”
“Ah, the trader said, “let me explain.
“You understand the art of war, my friend, but I understand human nature. When I told the shopkeeper that I would pay no more than 500, I meant it sincerely. It is a striking piece, but when I saw it I decided that 500 was a fair price and that I would rather walk away from the deal than pay more than I felt it was worth.
“What did you make as your final offer to the shop keeper for the sword?”
“300.”
“Would you have paid more?”
The soldier nodded.
“And that, my friend,” the trader said, “is the difference. The shop keeper knew I would never have returned, and that my price was fair, so we struck a deal. But like me, the shop keeper is an expert in the art of human nature. He knows you will pay more, so he knows you will eventually come back and pay what he wants – perhaps even his original asking-price – and that all you have to do is wait.
“You must decide in your own heart what you are truly willing to pay, and then truly be willing to turn your back and walk away from it without regret if the price is just high.”
– – –
So what does that have to do with John McCain?
Everything.
Because McCain has no fixed ceiling on what he is willing to pay to be President…and, I would argue, on an almost metabolic level, on what he is willing to pay to stop the government from using torture as a tool of statecraft.
I don’t pretend for a minute to understand what John McCain went through during his 5 ½ years in Hanoi but it’s safe to say it left the deepest possible mark on him that an experience can leave on a human. An episode that laid scar tissue down into the marrow. It….reformatted him into different kind of man.
He understands torture as well or better than any America. He understands that as an means of extracting information it is at best unreliable and, at worst, worse than useless.
But as an instrument of terror, it’s very effective. You can make a man do anything, say anything, agree to anything if you know what he dreads. If you know what lurks behind the door of his personal Room 101 you can make him dance.
Well, for the porcine, young Yellow Elephants of the GOP, being made to walk their loose, brave wartalk is their greatest fear. They thought this war would be fought on the cheap and easy by the little people. And as long as the military was kept packed with disposable lower-caste members they were free to bloviate as loud and proud and arrogantly bumper-sticker-stupid as they liked…knowing they’de never have to actually pick up the tab.
For the Administration — the People of the Lie — they live in terror of the moral rot that has eaten out their hearts being dumped out on the sideway for all and sundry to stare at.
They live in a world where the resources of the most powerful nation on Earth have been bent and perverted to cover up their spiritual leprosy, and it is still not enough.
Even with a core of obsequi-bot followers who will believe any Jesus-flavored lie Dubya snowballs into their mouths, it is still not enough.
Even with a prostrate press, it is still not enough.
However high the wall around this Administration may be, however tightly tuckpointed the stones, the groundwater in every direction now stinks of their deathcult lies and madness. However tightly they squeeze, they can’t control it and it scares the shit out of them.
And with John McCain, given his history, one might reasonably speculate that his exposed nerve is torture itself. Both on a personal and a patriotic level, what could be more horrifying to McCain than his government — run by his Party — not only engaging in torture, but first hearing the Republican President spit in his face and lie through his teeth about it,,,and then listen to his Republican Vice President kick him in his already bruised and shattered ribs by moving to sanctify and protect torture as a matter of national policy.
So one might ask why? Why does Cheney have such a fetish for protecting something as medieval and grotesque and anti-American as torture?
I mean other than the obvious fact that Dick Cheney is one evil motherfucker?
One possible answer might be that it gives them leverage over McCain. Remember these are people who looked at the blood and carnage and national trauma of 9/11 as a political opportunity. As a chance to put a hammerlock on the conscience of the nation, and twist and wrench our limbs with fear until we scream and writhe and the cartilage pops just to get what they want.
And what is the topic of torture but the rawest possible tissue McCain has?
And what is holding out the threat of vetoing his amendment to stop his government from torturing human beings but the Bush Administration pounding on his already crushed skull with a length of rebar?
For five years, George Bush has profligately shat all over John Mc Cain and everything he claimed to stand for, and yet they need him. Now that the noose is tightening and the issue has transcended the conduct of the war and become one of the personal credibility and integrity of the President, they need him to hide behind. He has been left free to nitpick and criticize the on-the-ground particulars, but the White House desperately needs McCain’s medals, biography and reputation to lay down suppressing fire long enough to get Bush safely away.
In other words, behind closed doors, I can easily imagine Cheney slapping McCain across the mouth, screaming…
“Say it, bitch!
Say ‘George Bush is a good and decent man!’ Say it or we’ll throw the whole Rove Machine behind Santorum. Say it or we’ll open a hundred Abu Ghraib and start feeding hajis through fucking meatgrinders!
And it’ll be your fault, McCain, because you could’ve stopped it. Right here, right now, you can stop it all.
You can ride into the White House on a white horse as the fucking savior of the Universe in ’08.
You can keep Blackwater from cutting the nuts and fingers off them little ay-rabs kids.
All you have to do is play ball for a coupla more years and you can have it all.
You can save the fucking world.
Just say, ‘George Bush is an honorable man.’”
And he will say it. Again and again. Because however much McCain is an expert at the art of war, no group specializes in and exploits the darkest side of human nature more deliberately and effectively than the monsters of the Bush White House.
They know when it comes to stopping torture and winning the Oval Office, there is no price so high that McCain won’t pay it. Which gives them leverage, and because they are men without morals, they have no qualms about leaning hard on that lever.
And so however badly they abuse him and everything he loves, he will always come back tomorrow on bended knee and pay whatever they ask
Posted by: Clarence Darrow | Nov 26 2005 6:12 utc | 94
Well this Chalkie certainly needs to be investigated. Fancy referring to the activities of spinmeisters as insuring something when surely they are ensuring that certain situations develop. They’re not collecting a commission on premiums ..are they?
Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 26 2005 6:14 utc | 95
Clarence — that was so good I’ll provide the LINK. And dont forget to check that photoshop of Cheney as the “penquin” & Delay as “two-face” LOL.
Posted by: anna missed | Nov 26 2005 6:37 utc | 96
Here’s another, anna, and it’s priceless:
The Last Words of Hassan Sabbah
By William S. Burroughs
1. Oiga amigos ! Oiga amigos ! Paco ! Enrique !
2. Listen to the last words of Hassan Sabbah,
3. The Old man of the Mountain !
4. Listen to my last words, anywhere !
5. Listen all you boards, governments, syndicates, nations of the world,
6. And you, powers behind what filth deals consummated in what lavatory,
7. To take what is not yours ,
8. To sell out your sons forever ! To sell out the ground from unborn feet for ever ?
9. Listen to my last words any world ! Listen if you value the bodies for which you would sell all souls forever!
10. What am I doing over here with the workers, the gooks, the apes, the dogs, the errand boys, the human animals ?
11 . Why don’t I come over with the board, and drink coca-cola and make it ?
12. “For God’s sake, do not let that Coca-Cola thing out !”
13. Thing is right, Mr Whoever is responsible for that who done it !
14. Explain how the blood, and bones, and brains of a hundred million more or less gooks went down the drain in green piss !
15. So you on the boards could use bodies, and minds, and souls that were not yours, are not yours, and never will be yours.
16. You want Hassan Sabbah to explain that ? To tidy that up !
You have the wrong name and the wrong number !
17. “Don’t let them see us, don’t tell them what we are doing ! ”
18. Are these the words of the all powerful nations and syndicates of the earth ?
19. “- Don’t let them see us, don’t tell them what we are doing!
20. Not the cancer deal, not the green deal !
21. Do not let that out !
22. Desaster, desaster, unevaluable disaster !
23. Don’t show them out, these things take time and that’s my business.”
24. As usual, Mr Loose ! Short time to go. Minutes to go!
Blue heavy metal people.
25. “- Don’t let that out! Don’t show them the blues !”
26. Are these the words of the all powerful boards and syndicates of the earth ?
Show them the blues.
27. Crab men ! Pick worms ! Intestinal parasites !
28. Squeezing the air you did not shit it out and eat it again, forever !
29. “Don’t let them see us ! Don’t tell them what we are doing !”
30. Are these the words of the all powerful boards, syndicates, cartels of the
earth ?
31. The great banking families of the world
32. French, English, American ?
33. Like Burroughs, that proud American name ?
34. Proud of what exactly ? Would you all like to see exactly what Burroughs has to be proud of ?
35. Short time racket, heavy metal gimmick ?
36. All right, Mister Burroughs, who bears my name and my words burried all the way
37. For all to see, in Time Square, in Picadilly,
38. Play it all, play it all, play it all back !
39. Pay it all, pay it all, pay it all back ! …
40. Shall I show them the blues ?
41. Now! Now! Now !
42. “Premature ! Premature! Premature!”
43. Time for what ? Premature for whom ?
44. I say to all : these words are not premature . These words might be too late.
45. Minutes to go. Minutes to go. Minutes to goo ; Minutes to green goo.
46. “Top secret! For the Board – the Initiates..”
47. Are these the words of the all powerful boards and syndicates of the earth ?
48. These are the words of liars, and cowards, and collaborators and traitors,
Liars who always want more time and more
49. You stole to the sky what was not yours
Poisonning the bodies and the souls forever ! Look ! Look ! Look !
50. “Don’t let them see us ! Don’t tell them what we are doing !”
51. Are these the words of the great nations, the all powerful boards and syndicates of the earth ?
52. These are the names of liars, and cowards, and collaboraters and traitors
53. Collaborators with insect people,
54. With any people anywhere who offers you a body forever, to shit forever.
55. For this you have sold your sons forever,
56. The ground under unborn feet forever !
57. Traiters to all souls everywhere !
58. You on the boards, who want others to pay for you,
59. With your deals to take what is not yours !
60. You on the board, who now say :
61. “Protect us from our our gooks
62. Protect us from our human animals.”
63. Are these the words of the all powerful boards and syndicates of the earth ?
64. And you want the name of Hassan Sabbah on your filth deals
65. To sell out the unborn ?
66. “Protect us from our gooks, our dogs, our human animals !”
67. Are these the words of the all powerful boards, your powerful syndicates
68. Your powerful governments and nations of the earth ?
69. Liars ! Liars! Liars! Cowards! Cowards ! Cowards!
70. Who cannot even face your own dogs !
71. Traitors to all souls everywhere ! Sold out to shit forever :
72. You, miserable collaborators,
73. Now ask protection of Hassan Sabbah ?
74. “Protect us from our gooks, our human animals ?”
75. No, no, no, I will not protect you,
76. And you will never use the name of Hassan Sabbah – William Burroughs to cover your green shit deals with crab-men.
77. My words are for all,
78 I repeat for all !
79. No one is excluded !
80. Free to all who pay , free to all who pay and pain for all to see , for all to see!
81. In Picadilly, in Time Square, Place de la concorde,
82. In all the streets and plazas of the world !
83. Pay, pay, pay !
84. Play it all, play it all , play it all back !
85. Pay it all, pay it all, pay it all back !
86. See my writing the silent accross all your skies,
87. The silent writing of Brion Gysin – Hassan Sabbah.
88. The silent writing of space, the writing of Hassan Sabbah
89. All out of time ! All into space ! Forever !
90. PRISONNERS OF THE EARTH, COME OUT!
Posted by: Clarence Darrow | Nov 26 2005 7:16 utc | 97
slothrop,
It’s funny you should nominate Men the Master. I got on a poker-watching kick the last few weeks – something to do with not having internet at home and suddenly having cable – and man, that guy was just way more interesting than anyone else. They take it all very seriously. He drinks beer and talks shit. And you know? That is the best part of America. The guy who takes the piss out of the too-serious, is what America used to be seen as.
What I’m saying is, I’d vote for him. He’s entertained me more than JK Rowling has.
Posted by: Rowan | Nov 26 2005 7:31 utc | 98
I recently caught McCain on John Stewart’s Daily Show, and the rerun.
They were having fun, McCain is a good entertainer, perhaps part of his appeal. However I will “vote for socialists” still.
As far as echelon, b’s insistence that they can track us all down etc., I remember working in what Deb’s accurately descibes as the electromechanical phone system: A vast clicking machine in a big room, you can literally hear every call clicking rhough digit by digit — silence in the afternoon erupts just after three pm as the kids return from school and call each other, likewise after a hockey game or tv show you can hear the central office’s customers call each other.
At that time a wiretap was literally a set of wires leading from the target phone to a line to the police or other monitoring office.
Nowadays these huge switch rooms, and the employees who kept them running, are replace by a single electronic switch and the technicians who monitor it.
A wiretap is literally invisable, just an entry in a console. Likewise diverting calls is simple — the question of how easy it is to monitor electronically, by the NSA and whoever else, is a little tricky. Clearly there are thousands of people, computers and tapes recording all this stuff.
Remember the FBI’s decision, per Sybel Edmonds, to slow down their post-911 translation of intercepts in a stated goal to gain more funding — this is the human factor.
I have always assumed that everything I say in public, or certainly on the phone or on the web is monitored and recorded. The thing is, it’s like a conversation in a cocktail party — there is so much going on that one can basically assume that unless specifically targeted our anonymity and conversations are basically ignored.
That brings me to the topic of trolls, Rendon and so on.
I have experience here: in the late 1990s I was working in an Internet startup company which was tasked with creating marketing for a pop band’s new record, aimed at high school girls and boys.
So “we” hired a bunch of youngsters to spend time in online chatrooms and mention this band and their new record. Big waste of time and money in my opinion, however the client paid, the workers worked and recorded their efforts.
If it was done by a half-baked marketing group in 1999 or whenever you can count on the fact that it is done now by volunteers and even real operators.
I would guess they look more to the bigger blogs but who knows, maybe we here are viewed as a brain trust. Stranger things have happened!
Well, the Internet sure isn’t anonymous, but we all know that. It can be if you really worked at it I think, but I still enjoy the original metaphor of the bar environment. Speak freely but keep your eyes open.
While I’m at it a big shout out to the dedicated posters, you know who you are, and hi to all who read but don’t post too often.
Moon of Alabama, still my favorite free-for-all.
Posted by: jonku | Nov 26 2005 10:49 utc | 99
that photoshop on dirtydlass is fantastic. thanks for the link anna missed.
Posted by: annie | Nov 26 2005 15:39 utc | 100