So by early next week Ahmad Chalabi will have finished his (pre) victory lap in front of the Cheney Administration, including an audience with big dick himself, side kick Rumsfleld, angeneiux Condi, and “igor” Hadley. Sure, he’s under FBI investigation, and a barrage of criticism for the pre-war intellegence, but reports of his (fawning) reception at the Council on Foreign Relations, showed a man confident enough to be standing in a rowboat, with a powdered (&prefectly unmussed) wig crossing a Delaware River full of political icefloes. The man is tenacious if nothing else, and those in Washington must in some ways watch in envy at such an operator, a risk taker, back slapper and back stabber — an ultimate interlocuter and juggler — who manages to make all happy (enough). Which is why he’s here in the first place, to get the job done in Iraq. Not unlike the Juan Cole(/Billmon) theory about how the Zarqawi (myth/entity) is useful to all interests, Chalabi, can also be seen through this prism of utility. The US would like to dis-engage militarily while preserving some vestages of victory. On several fronts the Cheney administration can claim success if it throws its full weight behind Chalabi1) Preservation of oil interests. Chalaibi, is now the oil minister, and has had some reputed effect in protecting the oil infrstructure from sabatoge. And while rhetorically anti- Syrian (anti-baath) he seems to have laid the groundwork for an Iraqi / Mediteranean pipeline project, which could placate Syrian hostility (toward Iraq) and greatly benifit potential export. He has also with typical duplicity, has simultaniously called for Iraqi oil wealth to remain in the hands of the Iraqi population, while at the same time being a strong advocate for privatization of those same Iraqi assets. The other issue at which the administration would dearly like to avoid is having Iraq fall into the hands of the secular forces, that would in any way cast all their blood and treasure into the service of a (Iranian) mullah bound theocracy. Here too Chalabi has made some interesting manuvers. Much of the credibility he has gained from the Sistani perspective is based upon the US raid on his compound during the Bremmer days — from which he was able to claim that he was not in the pocket of the US, but was (through his Iranian linkage) looking out for Iraqi interests first. So he tied his influence and newfound populist image to the Shiite ticket and managed to win deputy vice-president, which has now morphed into the powerful oil-minister position. Recently, Chalabi has broken with the secular Shiite alliance, and has established his own non — secular Shiite list. This would from the neo–con perspective, resolve the remaining overt face problems at issue — a non–secular majority canadate sworn to privatization, with cards to deal out to both Iran and syria, and if he could just his hands on some Diebolt machines we’d have a real democracy in action.
[lifted to the frontpage – comment here – b.]

Posted by: anna missed | Nov 12 2005 10:29 utc | 4

We more have to worry about them destabilizing Syrian regime in hopes of overthrowing it – turns out Israel from to build an oil pipeline through Syria!!
And Hope that BYU Physicist’s writings on 911 catch fire…
Goddamn JackAss Party hard at work driving things to the right – saw bit in paper today about them introducing bill requiring anyone leaking classified info. to lose their security clearance. Goddamn Bastards. That’s close to an Official Secrets Act.

Posted by: jj | Nov 12 2005 21:27 utc | 6

Two will get one that this death occurred in a hotel in Jordan. The plot thickens!
” DUBAI – Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s deputy, Izzat Ibrahim, has died, Al Arabiya satellite television quoted a Baath party statement as saying.”
Further:
“The Al Arabiya correspondent quoted the Baath party statement as saying Ibrahim died at 2am on Friday (12.00pm NZT). The correspondent said the statement did not indicate that he had died in a military clash or been killed.”
“It can be said he died of natural causes,” Arabiya’s correspondent said, adding that Ibrahim probably died in Iraq. ”
@manonfyre absolutely spot cross factional solidarity is required right now. Everything that implies; which not only means the other mugs have to stop emphasisng the differences rather than the commonalities.
WE have to do the same.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Nov 12 2005 22:27 utc | 8

I don’t think the situation is that bad at all in the USA at the present time. I think it is somewhere around bottom middle. Sometimes desperate clinging together can hamper progress. The more disparity, probably the more the strong political mutations will arise. And they will. Always tweak your fear levels if possible, since that is what they want. There is so much bluff. Don’t fall for it.
This is interesting:
More and more Westerners are seeing the fish, fowl, and wild animals around them as something to cherish rather than something to eat.
A Colorado State University study of values concerning wildlife indicates a major shift from traditional beliefs that “wildlife is mainly for human use” toward one in which animals should be protected as “part of our extended family”.
Kind of St. Francis of Assisiish, wouldn’t you say?

Posted by: jm | Nov 12 2005 22:58 utc | 10

St. Francis of Assisiish…
To stretch your topic a little jm, there has been some chatter on some of the more esoteric (ET) sites that our human brain patterns are being naturally altered by forces beyond our ken or our control.
I know most of us (so far) don’t cotton to this kind of stuff, but hey as the evidence mounts you have to either deny or acknowledge.
Now I personally for some time now, have cherished wildlife; I don’t hunt but then I do eat meat. I think a lot of us agree that life is a beautiful thing no matter if it is low or high. In fact it now appears that some of the “high” life is arrogant enough to disrespect the lower forms, but, as I said, that is changing whether you like it or not.
Looking forward to that change myself. My idealism says it is inevitable.

Posted by: rapt | Nov 13 2005 0:04 utc | 12

Hmmm, I’ve long thought that we’re all shepherds and we should stop fouling our beautiful blue nest before it does us in. I came to this conclusion through education and observation, not as a result of “something” miraculously playing with the circuits in my 3lb universe. Evidence? Deny.

Posted by: gmac | Nov 13 2005 1:33 utc | 14

hands across the water by artifice:

“The wheels are coming off the bus,” a giddy Shallow Throat said. “Now that the Bush Administration is imploding from within, it’s time for those of us on the outside to set more political charges. . .
“In short, we’re at the shores of Lake Critical Mass, my friend — but not quite to the Promised Land. Tell your liberal Dem colleagues to ratchet up the pressure and join us traditional conservatives in pushing this crew off the political cliff. If we each work our respective constituencies with intelligence and determination, the long nightmare will soon be over. . .
“To change metaphors, the Bush Administration is like a Great White Shark beached right now, mostly by its own actions. In such a position, it’s extremely vulnerable, but in order to ensure that it doesn’t escape at the next HardRight tide, you’ve got to tie it up tightly. You’ve got to organize the various teams so that everyone knows how and where to throw the ropes over the carcass, where the nodal points of weakness are.
“If everyone’s merely running around shouting and cheering, you’ll just get your ropes all tangled up and little will be accomplished, except to make everyone temporarily feel good. We don’t want to feel good, we want to get this batch of crooks and liars and power-hungry zealots out of the peoples’ White House. Then we can set about the long process of undoing years of Bush&Co. damage, and start the restoration process. . .
BEWARE THE WALKING WOUNDED
“Which translates into: They will do anything, ANYTHING, to stave off their impending loss of power. If they feel they have to totally shift the focus, to distract the public from the Administration’s self-created woes, they will act accordingly; launch an attack on another country; look the other way again as a large-scale terrorist attack (or public health threat) takes place inside the United States; kick their slime-machine into high gear against anyone who criticizes them. In short, don’t take your eyes off the Busheviks for a second; they’re wounded, cornered animals ready to do anything to strike out and escape the political noose — and, not incidentally, likely criminal prosecutions down the line.”

from, “Shallow Throat”:
Ratchet It Up, Take ‘Em Down

Posted by: manonfyre | Nov 13 2005 1:53 utc | 16

i wish i could feel some hope in the woes of this criminal administration but i believe they will do anything to retain on to their power in a way few other elites have – we have joked here about their endtimers & their rapture but i am deeply convinced we have in face – not the cold hardthinking capitalists of my comrade slothrops models but a trul mad group of fanatics not unlike those that ‘sheltered’ in the bunker in berlin in april 1945
i feel they wish to do us harm & to do even greater harm to their own country
this is not the moment for optimism but of struggle fought decisively, locally & globally

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 13 2005 2:25 utc | 18

For those Americans whose hope is blighted by
Madison Avenue and Detroit, and a White House
in thrall to the Big Oil mob, there’s this:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10354790
And this:
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=38759
And this:
http://www.wnbiodiesel.com/technology.html
Simply put, a Senate/House vote for ANWR,
means *we will not be re-electing you*. A
vote to ignore the Kyoto Protocols means
*we will not be re-electing you*. Changes
to Clean Air and lowering vehicle mileage
means *we will not be re-electing you*!

Posted by: wnbio&12 | Nov 13 2005 3:40 utc | 20

SCV NEWSMAKER OF THE WEEK:
Janis Karpinski
Former Commander, Abu Ghraib Prison, Iraq
Interview by Leon Worden
Signal Multimedia Editor
Sunday, November 13, 2005
(Television interview conducted November 4, 2005)
“Newsmaker of the Week” is presented by the SCV Press Club and Comcast, and hosted by Signal Multimedia Editor Leon Worden. The program premieres every Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. on SCVTV Channel 20, repeating Sundays at 8:30 a.m.
This week’s newsmaker is Janis Karpinski, former commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade and detention operations in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib prison during the period of detainee abuse. Questions are paraphrased; answers are presented in full. (transcript follows)(Link)

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 13 2005 4:21 utc | 22

Blair faces new inquiry into Iraq war

MPs organising the campaign to impeach Tony Blair believe they have enough support to force a highly damaging Commons investigation into the Prime Minister’s pre-war conduct
An organiser of the impeachment campaign told the Sunday Herald : “We have been promised 200 signatures and are now hopeful this process will go ahead as it should have last year. There will be a vote and an investigation will be set up. Does this have the potential to finish Tony Blair? Yes it does.”

Posted by: annie | Nov 13 2005 6:32 utc | 24

Cheney’s people are probably just desperately trying to stay out of prison yep
Libby May Have Tried to Mask Cheney’s Role ya think? here’s the new wapo

Posted by: annie | Nov 13 2005 7:18 utc | 26

I posted the changed attitude towards animals because of the subtle changes it represents. These are red states with gun toting burly hunters. But they realize the logic. What good will their 22’s do them if the animals are gone? If the forests that hide them are stripped? For a meat eater there is nothing in the world as tasty as fresh killed elk. And the realization that harmony with the earth might be necessary is in the air.
But even more important is the growing power of communities filled with small people who care about their immediate environment. As the top tumbles, and it will now because it’s overweighted, the bottom is ready to rebuild. I know from local politics in my area that this is true. It might take more time than we hope and more struggle, but the change is in the wind.
When Wal Mart, who just announced that it will get 20% of its energy from renewable sources, you can be sure that the shift is coming. The oil companies are making their last grab, but I think many others have already moved on to prepare for the big debut of renewables.
I still think we will see the rise of the hemp industry as well. The next years will bring a lot of innovation. The days of large geographic empires seem to be over. They are too hard to maintain. Resources are dwindling and we have to conserve and develop new ways to survive.
We, as a species, have no choice. Survival dictates.

Posted by: jm | Nov 13 2005 7:20 utc | 28

@jm
I agree that we need to change as a species, but I respectfully disagree that most people in Red States (and I have lived in them) have a clue how their food is produced. Sure, all of my friends are aware–and still eat predominately corporate farmed food–but the vast majority, who I have worked blue collar jobs with, are ignorant and just want the cheapest shit they can get. That is why Walmart keeps gowing.
Walmart and renewable resources? Well, is hydro, what with all the destructive dams out West considered renewable? I do agree that Wind is poised to take off in the midwest. I would be interested in knowing what the Walton family has invested in lately. Enron was the biggest purveyor of wind in this hemisphere before their troubles; did they have to sell off, and to whom?
Hemp? Next years? Well, it depends on your definition of “next years.” We aint gonna be growing hemp in this country in the next five years, especially with our “new and improved” judiciary to rule on legalities.
Major corporations will do everything in their power to block what they don’t own or control the profit stream from. Hmmm…maybe they are developing a strand of GM hemp.

Posted by: Malooga | Nov 13 2005 7:41 utc | 30

Malooga,
Those farts on the judiciary could be dead tomorrow. You never know.
When I mention an interesting positive development, I am in no way suggesting that it will catch on immediately and make a big difference. It’s merely a sign.
You know my often mentioned attitude toward corporate control and our continued support of them. That won’t change.
However, there are somewhat ethical ones as well. If corruption, and what corruption means is that the carrier of it is spoiled and can no longer function… if it inhibits their vitality they will turn away from those practices. All of this remains to be seen and can’t be predicted for certain. Life is full of surprises and unexpected twists and turns, both good and bad. It’s physics and concrete reality.
It’s impossible for me to believe, just from simple observation, that we are trying to become extinct. We will mutate and evolve like all those before us, unless something really unexpected happens to wipe us out. And we naturally move toward or create abundant habitats.
Corporations will have to evolve too.

Posted by: jm | Nov 13 2005 7:56 utc | 32

@jm
I think the record profits are just the indication of the demise.
Sounds too much like the administrations spin on Iraq. But, yes, I agree things are always changing. Most people aren’t trying to become extinct, they are ignorant and disempowered, and are merely trying to survive. It is the system of endless growth and industrialization which we have been following for 600 years which is killing us. It’s very hard, but not impossible to change this. Those that are in power are also generally ignorant of larger trends and motivated by greed. Let’s face it, having what most of us here would consider infinite amounts of money to enjoy oneself with is quite seductive.
@jj- The NativeWind story is very exciting. I think I will do a story on it.
Prediction: If Bliar really is investigated and goes down, then Bush will also fall.

Posted by: Malooga | Nov 13 2005 9:00 utc | 34

U.S. Orders College to Drop Fellowships For Minorities
Associated Press
Saturday, November 12, 2005; Page A14
CARBONDALE, Ill., Nov. 11 — Federal prosecutors are threatening to sue Southern Illinois University over three scholarship programs aimed at women and minorities, calling them discriminatory.
SIU “has engaged in a pattern or practice of intentional discrimination against whites, non-preferred minorities and males,” the Justice Department said in a letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times…

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 13 2005 17:49 utc | 36

Will Commonism eventually win out over Feralism?

Posted by: pb | Nov 13 2005 20:12 utc | 38

John Edwards OpEd in todays WaPo is kind of weird. Edwards says:

Almost three years ago we went into Iraq to remove what we were told — and what many of us believed and argued — was a threat to America. But in fact we now know that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction when our forces invaded Iraq in 2003. The intelligence was deeply flawed and, in some cases, manipulated to fit a political agenda.
It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake.

The first “line of defense should be, legitimate, that the vote was NOT about war, but about pressure on Saddam to let inspctors in.
According to the constitution only Congress can declare war. That resolution did not do so. So why is Edwards taking the second defense line along “the intelligence we were presented was wrong or faked”?
Congress has not declared war for some 60 years(?), but supported every war that was launched by the US.
I assume this is a general scheme congress politicians use to steel themselfs away from the responsibility.
But then again that doesn´t fit Edwards line of defense.
Any ideas?

Posted by: b | Nov 13 2005 23:04 utc | 40

This is how we become Argentina. Money spent. Pensions go poof. This is from a biz writer at the Fox Worldcon News that I consider pretty good:
ORACLE AT DELPHI
By CHRISTOPHER BYRON
Bankrupt auto parts giant Delphi is squeezing its workers but was very kind to its former chief executive.
Photo: AP
November 14, 2005 — WHAT’S taking place these days in the U.S. auto industry is simply astonishing.
After years and even decades of self-destruction in slow motion, the ruination of the industry has abruptly shifted into overdrive.
Like a scene out of a Buster Keaton silent movie, the wheels and fenders of Detroit’s free-wheeling jalopy have suddenly begun popping off in all directions.
By last week the situation for General Motors had become so desperate that speculation swirled regarding the odds that the company might soon be forced to file for outright bankruptcy, a move that would have seemed unthinkable only a few weeks ago.
For the record, GM officials insist that no such move is even being contemplated. But the Detroit Free Press reported late last week that Bank of America is now advising investors that a Chapter 11 filing by GM is “inevitable” though not necessarily immediate.
We’ll turn in a minute to the details of the mess in which GM now finds itself — in large part as a consequence of having become entangled with Wall Street in a bit of misguided financial engineering six years ago.
For now it is enough to know that the financial alchemy in question — cooked up for GM by the folks at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch in 1999 — has already led to the bankruptcy collapse of GM’s largest parts supplier, Delphi Corp., and is now threatening to drag down the world’s largest automaker as well.
The stakes in this mess are huge.
In its own bankruptcy filing, which took place just last month, Delphi Corp. is now trying to waltz away from $19 billion of balance sheet debt and other liabilities.
And a bankruptcy filing by GM could add anywhere from $40 billion to an unfathomable $445 billion more to the pot.
Such a filing would dwarf the $103 billion bankruptcy collapse of WorldCom Inc. three years ago, the largest such failure on record. And like a financial version of Hurricane Katrina — which the experts likewise warned was coming but which everyone else pretty much ignored until it was too late — the storm surge from a GM bankruptcy would spread out tsunami-like from the Midwest until it reached into every nook and cranny of the economy.
It seems utterly bizarre to be worrying over the threatened bankruptcy of the largest manufacturing company in the U.S. at a time when the economy is growing at a rate of nearly 4 percent annually, and when corporate profits are rising while unemployment remains stable at a manageable 5percent.
BUT if the public has been caught off-guard by all this, it is probably because the rest of the country has long since tuned out the ceaseless, decades-long squabbling that has gone on between the CEOs and union bosses of Motown.
Historically, there has been plenty of blame to be shared by everyone in this quarrel.
But this time around the fault lies squarely with the greedy, cosseted suits of GM and Delphi.
Like Siamese twins who have grown up to hate each other, the two groups have been conjoined since birth by a fatally flawed scheme to spin off GM’s parts division, via an IPO, and turn it into the separate and freestanding company that is now known as Delphi Corp.
The basic idea behind the spin-off was for the automaker to cash in on Wall Street’s insatiable demand for IPOs. But there was a second purpose as well: to help the automaker begin to shed the biggest and most rapidly growing financial problem it faced — some $42 billion of unfunded post-retirement health and pension obligations for its employees, which GM was paying for day-to-day out of general corporate revenues.
By spinning off Delphi as a separate company, GM could move some $4.5 billion of those debts off its balance sheet and onto Delphi’s, thereby beginning to pare away the costs that foreign automakers (whose employees enjoyed elaborate government-funded health and retirement packages) didn’t face.
That at least was the theory. In reality, GM never got rid of the obligations because to make the IPO attractive to investors, as well as gain the support of the unions whose members would be switching employers in the deal, the company had to promise to pick up the pieces if Delphi itself failed to keep sending pension checks to its employees.
Like a bad penny that pledge has now returned six year’s later to threaten GM’s very survival. As a free-standing business, Delphi has produced few of the promised rewards of independence.
But Delphi has seen its own health and benefit obligations explode out of control, just like its former parent company.
By the start of this year, those obligations topped $20 billion, with the unfunded portion alone doubling to nearly $10 billion.
By the start of the year, the fellow who presided over all this at Delphi — a GM parts division lifer with the self-admiring name of J.T. Battenberg III — could see the handwriting on the wall.
Preparing to cash in his chips, he announced in early February that he would step down and retire as chairman and CEO once a successor could be found.
By June he was gone, leaving behind a company in chaos, with a collapsing stock price, soaring losses, and two widening federal investigations (one civil, the other criminal) into evidence of accounting fraud that surfaced just before he announced his retirement.
But don’t cry for J.T. Battenberg III, because he’ll do fine in retirement, receiving more than $1.7 million annually through a company-financed pension plan set up specially for himself and a handful of Delphi’s other top executives.
By contrast, the company’s U.S.-based hourly workers, some 63,000 in number, will be lucky if their own retirements allow for much more than eating cat food from a can.
THAT is because Bat tenberg’s shoot-the- wounded successor, one Robert S. (“Steve”) Miller, whose previous achievements as a corporate fixer-upper include shepherding Bethlehem Steel into bankruptcy, took over in July and within 60 days had done the same for Delphi.
As a bankrupt company, Delphi is now trying to push its unfunded pension nightmare, which has ballooned by another $2 billion since January and now totals more than $12 billion, back on GM
For its part, GM is frantically trying to dodge the bullet by insisting that the U.S. Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp step in and take over. And since there are plenty of reasons to think the PBGC will resist, the employees themselves could wind up with nothing while dueling lawyers fight it out in court.
Meanwhile, Shoot-the-Wounded Steve has unfurled his plan for bringing Delphi back from the brink and heading off outright liquidation: a new contract with the rank-and-file in which they agree to (A) an average 60 percent cut in pay, to a starting wage of barely $9 per hour, as well as (B) the elimination of all overtime, (C) the phase-out of all retirement plans, (D) a health-benefit package that begins with a family deductible of $1,800 per year, and various other draconian terms.
One look at that and Delphi’s unions are now talking strike. And though a work stoppage will certainly finish off Delphi, thereby wiping out the very jobs the unions want to protect, it could easily cost GM billions, pushing it into bankruptcy as well since Delphi is the company’s largest supplier of parts.
Why this whole situation was allowed to get so out of hand in the first place is a topic for another day.
The larger question, of course, is what does this do to American leadership and prestige around the world when the fate of the mightiest economy on earth rests on the outcome of a fight between the executives and shop-floor workers of a six-year-old, bankrupt company that Wall Street had no business creating in the first place.
Meanwhile, let’s all hope that cooler heads prevail and that a strike, which would have calamitious consequences, doesn’t happen.
cbyron@nypost.com
In another column that I saw last week the writer pointed out that the board of GM has plenty of experience with crashing and burning companies, they’re the pilots that start the nose dive. One GM board member is the former head of Compaq, the pc company that was diving fast till it was taken over by Carly the media star at HP. Strap on thos seat belts and hold on Oldsmobile riders.

Posted by: christofay | Nov 14 2005 7:31 utc | 42

easedropping
follow the link to hear what the blind cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman; his lawyer, Lynne Stewart; and a translator, Mohammed Yousry have to say about… who else, Patrick fitzgerald

Posted by: annie | Nov 14 2005 7:39 utc | 44

Shuffling Toward Revolution, by Digbyan insightful look at the current political climate through the prism of the 60s. The chickenhawk complaint the world is forced to endure as a generational lament.

Posted by: anna missed | Nov 14 2005 10:06 utc | 46

Two pieces from the same NYT page:
Jordan Arrests Iraqi Woman in Hotel Blasts

Jordanian security officials on Sunday announced the arrest of an Iraqi woman they said was closely linked to the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as a fourth bomber in the Amman hotel attacks. They also broadcast a taped confession showing her wearing a translucent explosive belt packed with ball bearings, in which she described how she had tried unsuccessfully to blow herself up.

Heavy Hand of the Secret Police Impeding Reform in Arab World

In Jordan, one of the region’s most liberal countries, the intelligence agencies vet the appointment of every university professor, ambassador and important editor. The mukhabarat eavesdrops with the help of evidently thousands of Jordanians on its payroll, similar to the informant networks in the Soviet bloc.
The secret police chiefs live above the law. The last head of the Jordanian mukhabarat routinely overruled the smoking ban on Royal Jordanian Airways, lighting up as he pleased. No one dared challenge him.
The State Department’s annual human rights report, unusually critical of a staunch ally, particularly one that offers widespread cooperation on terrorism issues, said the lack of accountability within the mukhabarat and the police resulted “in a climate of impunity” and underscored “significant restrictions on freedom of speech, press, assembly and association.” It said the agents “sometimes abuse detainees physically and verbally” and “allegedly also use torture.”

And that women in the first article did “confess” …

Posted by: b | Nov 14 2005 12:13 utc | 48

Hmmm. Now why wouldn’t they want us to know this anymore? Are they planning to pour money into the country just before the 2006 elections?

Posted by: lonesomeG | Nov 14 2005 18:01 utc | 50

@ b –
You are so right about the drinking man @ C&L. Is that affection or leaning on Laura at the end? Public display is surprising- PDA or PDD?
@lonesome G –
Curious. Sent query to a friend who is an academic economist, consults regularly with Fed. Will post reply, if any.
@Moon of Alabama proprietor and customers –
No richer mix of posts, links, infomation, passion, wit, thoughtful debate, occasional brawls, and peacemakers at any bar in web space or any corner in town, even for those of us sipping slow mojitos in the corner and lurking mostly. In the shadow, a nod of thanks and a round for all.

Posted by: small coke | Nov 14 2005 21:06 utc | 52

@Dan of Steele
It’s more than coincidental the U.S., UK and Australia all bulldoze/sneak-in incredibly similar legislation, i.e. the Patriot Act and the ‘new anti-terrorism laws'(UK/Aust) … laws that weren’t necessary against previous terrorist groups ? Nor necessary to defend against the ‘evil empire, the former Soviet Union. What ever happened to the ‘peace dividend’ to be won from winning the Cold war ? Defeating the Soviets ?
Even though it’s from the WSWS:

The Blair government’s offensive against democratic rights is necessitated by its pro business agenda. Though it came to power promising to reverse the social devastation caused by 18 years of Conservative rule, Labour is unable to satisfy the aspirations of working people for decent wages and living standards. In order to impose the predatory demands of the global corporations at home and abroad, the Blair government must increasingly rely on state repression.

How to we get from corporate capitalism to something (what ?) that is more equitable, humane (morally defensible ?) and sustainable ?
Personally I sense weakness and smell the scent of fear in these laws … is it fear of true democracy ?

Posted by: Outraged | Nov 14 2005 21:21 utc | 54

Remember the drones Sad-damn Eye-Rack was suppose to have well…get what?
Spy Drones ‘TO FLY OVER CITIES’
HONEYWELL is developing a micro flying spy drone — that would be used for civilian law enforcement.
Look up Albert Wheelon and the Corona Program…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 15 2005 11:05 utc | 56