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December 5, 2005
Fresh Open One
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& while i’m at it – what may pass for a version of television formated courtroom drama in baghda is beyond a fucking joke & at least the defendants know it – asking to be executed without all this nonsense that they ptrend is legality
on every level this empire impoverishes. it impoverishes everything it touches
it has turned diplomacy into thai boxing, statescraft into the work of a butcher & jurisprudence a bad joke told by a fool
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 5 2005 19:00 utc | 1
Remember the Katrina desaster? Why were no federal help/troops coming?
Documents Highlight Bush-Blanco Standoff
Shortly after noon on Aug. 31, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) delivered a message that stunned aides to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D), who were frantically managing the catastrophe that began two days earlier when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.
White House senior adviser Karl Rove wanted it conveyed that he understood that Blanco was requesting that President Bush federalize the evacuation of New Orleans. The governor should explore legal options to impose martial law “or as close as we can get,” Vitter quoted Rove as saying, according to handwritten notes by Terry Ryder, Blanco’s executive counsel.
Thus began what one aide called a “full-court press” to compel the first-term governor to yield control of her state National Guard — a legal, political and personal campaign by White House staff that failed three days later when Blanco rejected the administration’s terms, 10 minutes before Bush was to announce them in a Rose Garden news conference, the governor’s aides said.
Some but not all, may find this page interesting:
Introduction Meme
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 5 2005 19:26 utc | 3
ô b
don’ get me on their ‘interior’ ‘policy’ – which is nothing more than a herd of starving jackalls wandering the corridors of power in washington with money falling to the ground at every inch
where nothing & i mean nothing is ordered whether it is a natural catastrophe or the national health of its people, or their ‘social’ ‘security’
as we witnessed last week they cannot even have a debate without them appearing to the most unbiased observors for what they are jackalls
they care not for their citizens, nor for their futures, they care not an ounce for the earth of their country & will gladly strip mine all of america if that is what is necessary to make a profit
they have no policy other than that of greed
that they did not care one iota for the entrapped people of new orleans was no surprise, no surprise at all – just the most open expression of their lack of care. & today it is the same- they are turfing the people out of the ‘hotels-refuges’ & throwing people out on to the streets – read the article in rolling stone – on the femacommunities.
they cultivate savagery like the jackalls that they are
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 5 2005 19:38 utc | 4
Jesus-bed,bath,& beyond- Christ, the first thing they look for ( and insist upon) in the worst natural disaster in US history — is more fucking power? Unbelievable.
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 5 2005 19:39 utc | 5
The Old Fashioned Patriot notices a pattern between bad news and and killing top AQ guys. Might explain all the top aids OBL and Zarqawi have.
Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 5 2005 19:39 utc | 6
As the Defense Department scrambles to finalize its budget for the coming fiscal year, the Air Force is looking to secure much of its savings by cutting active and reserve forces, instead of slashing weapons purchases.
—-
The Pentagon move to sacrifice manpower in order to protect high-tech weaponry is an about-face from signals in recent months that Pentagon leaders and defense-industry executives were girding for deep weapons-program cuts to offset huge bills from both the war in Iraq and the Gulf Coast hurricanes.
After a little WSJ bs, they tell us why the reversal:
Nonetheless the shift is good news for the nation’s major defense contractors, which appear to have dodged major cutbacks in big-ticket weapons purchases.
—-
The focus on cutting personnel partially lifts a cloud from a rare Pentagon dinner tonight between several defense-industry chief executives and Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, who is spearheading budget and strategic-planning exercises. An October memo from Mr. England instructing the services to cut some $32 billion in projected spending through 2011 created anxiety among defense contractors and investors that some major weapons programs could be terminated.
The arms industry lobbyists on K Street strike again. These people are so greedy that their own profits come before even maintaining the system that produced them. Guess that is what happens when you let greedheads run an empire.
Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 5 2005 20:02 utc | 7
That Driftglass guy has a priceless rant up about lying and the plan for victory.
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 5 2005 20:22 utc | 8
Sorry, the link does’nt work. Nothing copys there either so, its still worth a look:
http://www.driftglass.blogspot.com/
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 5 2005 20:26 utc | 9
Licoln Group in India?
Patient and steady with all he must bear,
Ready to accept every challenge with care,
Easy in manner, yet solid as steel,
Strong in his faith, refreshingly real,
Isn’t afraid to propose what is bold,
Doesn’t conform to the usual mold,
Eyes that have foresight, for hindsight won’t do,
Never back down when he sees what is true,
Tells it all straight, and means it all too,
Going forward and knowing he’s right,
Even when doubted for why he would fight.
Over and over he makes his case clear,
Reaching to touch the ones who won’t hear.
Growing in strength, he won’t be unnerved,
Ever assuring he’ll stand by his word.
Wanting the world to join his firm stand,
Bracing for war, but praying for peace,
Using his power so evil will cease:
So much a leader and worthy of trust,
Here stands a man who will do what he must.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH
“Some but not all, may find this page interesting.”
A heartfelt thanks, uncle. I’ll be working through that. I am fascinated by the ability the internet and games have to propagate ideas both virally and experientially; and also still sitting with a comment here by fauxreal some weeks ago, vis.
“For all the criticism, I’d like to know what people on this forum would do if they were put in the position of Prez. How would you defend the nation from enemies, foreign and domestic?”
Surely “we” can evolve at least a theoretically superior operating manual for planet earth, if only for the purposes of discussion? OS 012 seems at least an attempt in that direction.
Posted by: Sentient Lemming | Dec 5 2005 21:54 utc | 12
@Unka
It’s possible that I am being simple-minded here (or, more probably, my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet), but my reading of the Introduction Meme you linked to seems to be another variant of the “Noble Lie” repackaged for a techie audience. I’m not saying the Plato’s Lie doesn’t do the job that it was intended to do, but I am saying that anything short of critical and objective self-correction always carries with it unintended consequences.
By way of illustration, the American practice of harming people we don’t like at the expense of helping people we do like has had the unintended effect of harming people that we do like (Incidentally, I used the word “practice” instead of “belief” above since I seriously doubt that the average person has thought about the matter enough to have codified it into a belief system). Two examples of this that I can think of are as follows:
By prioritising harming people we don’t like (spending billions on bombs and bullets to be used in Iraq and Pakistan) instead of helping people we do like (spending billions on a national health care system), we have made our auto-manufacturers unable to compete with nations that do have national health care systems which has resulted in hundreds of thousands of GM and Delphi employees joining the ranks of the unemployed. These former employees can no longer pay taxes, and we are farther away from being able to help people we do like.
Also, by harming people we don’t like (refusing to legally recognise gay relationships) instead of helping people we do like (allowing both friend and foe to utilise their partner’s insurance benefits), we have prevented a portion of the population from being insured. This has resulted in another section of the population who can not see the inside of a hospital when they have the need and can, therefore, no longer pay taxes or be socially productive when they are sick. As before, this creates a situation in which we are now farther away from being able to help people that we do like.
So in this sense, the “Noble Lie” that “enemies lurk everywhere and must be crushed at all costs” (an article of faith, really, and therefore an ersatz national religion) is destroying us. Any “Operating System” in lieu of critical examination has this same self-destructive potential.
But I could be missing the point here.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 5 2005 23:10 utc | 13
Just when you think it can’t get any stranger…. Rumors are circulating that Rumsfeld may be replaced…with Joe Lieberman. A great leap sideways.
Rumors that Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) will replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resurfaced again on Face the Nation:
Bob Schieffer: “Last night — over this weekend, I had four different people tell me that the White House is thinking if the secretary of Defense goes over the next year — and a lot of people think that he will, that the president is thinking of nominating Joe Lieberman to be secretary of Defense.”
Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 6 2005 0:41 utc | 14
Anyone know anything about americablog? Was it hacked by fundiecrats perhaps? John is co-ordinating a campaign urging Ford to not back down to their pesterings. Ford apparently agreed to withdraw advertising from gay press. But I checked atrios to see if he had any update, & couldn’t get his site either. Anyone have any info on this?
Posted by: jj | Dec 6 2005 2:22 utc | 15
Just a couple of quick observations.
As a bona fide car guy, I wanted to comment on Monolycus’s commentary about the American practice of harming people we don’t like at the expense of helping people we do like. Overall, I think its a very astute observation. I would add to his examples how our consistent support of Israel and, in contrast, the House of Saud have also had repercussions spanning decades.
However, the comparison of money spent on war vs. nationally subsidising or regulating healthcare falls flat when you bring up the problems of our domestic auto industry. The truth is that the troubles of GM and Ford, in particular, have little in actuality to do with the healthcare costs they pay out. Frankly, numerous profitable foreign auto makers operate manufacturing facilities here in America, paying the exact same kinds of costs. Toyota and Nissan, being key examples, as well as Hyundai. GM and Ford are essentially in denial about the realities which have emerged over the last 2 decades or so. Realities concerning their public image, their product, and their management and marketing strategies. The US Domestic Automobile market has proven time and again that it punishes a lack of imagination. It also punishes hubris and the idea, long standing in Detroit, that the managers and marketers know better than the customer what the market demands. Detroit’s tortoise-like response to the energy crisis of the 70’s is a prominent example of this type of thinking; it was also the beginning of the end for the big 3. GM’s decision to bet the farm on their new line of fullsize pickups and SUV’s, in the midst of unstable fuel costs, serves as a more recent example.
I guess that my point is not so much to diminish the overall rightness of Monolycus’s post, but to warn about buying into corporate propaganda. The truth is that, under increasing pressure from their shareholders to maximize profitability, the captains of heavy industry and manufacturing long for the Gilded Age; before the 40 hour workweek, workmans comp, overtime pay and the like. This and none of them want to take responsibility or blame in realizing that their average hourly employee has little to do at all with the mess they find themselves in. If they’re not carefull, they’ll reap what they have sown. Already Toyota is poised to unseat the General as number one in the global market.
Posted by: charmingDeviant | Dec 6 2005 2:39 utc | 16
LonesomeG,
I guess that might explain the preposterous op-ed smokin Joe placed in the NY Times last week. Or perhaps the rumored appointment explains the former. A coverletter perhaps? If his CV is that windy, I can’t imagine what his resume reads like..
It really enrages me when high profile democrats come out like this, basically towing the GOP line and carrying their water like this. It is clear to a growing majority that this war was started under false pretenses and has become little more than a corporate war profiteering scam. [Why else would mission critical services such as logistics, infrastructure repair (normally the domain of the Army Corps of Engineers), and even feeding the troops have been subcontracted out to private companies?] Moreover, it has developed into a deja vu of the vietnam experience in that the more munitions and dollars the US pours into the country the less progress actually gets made. As Rep. Murtha said, “the american people are way ahead of us on this”.
The op-ed requires registration to read, but I’ve included most of it (albeit dissected) here on my blog.
Posted by: charmingDeviant | Dec 6 2005 2:52 utc | 17
jj, I’m having trouble getting to several sites, a blogspot problem?
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 6 2005 3:49 utc | 18
“Terrorism” can be defined as a primarily a psychological tool of “strategic leveraging” and a form of “propaganda by deed,” that can be utilized by both anti-state partisan revolutionary groups and state leaderships. The nature of “terrorism” and use of tools differ somewhat from epoch to epoch with changing technologies, but the perceptions of precisely what is a “terrorist” action may differ substantially among differing societies and classes. What one society/government considers to be an act of “terrorism” may be considered as a justifiable military action or else an act of just revenge by another. In general, however, in the effort to manipulate emotions and cause fear and panic, individuals, groups, or states who engage in violent acts of “terrorism” seek to demonstrate by concrete actions an iron will to use violence even if that means martyrdom and mass murder….
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 6 2005 4:48 utc | 19
Interview with Spc. Douglas Barber- OIF Vet suffering from PTSD
Interviewer-How many soldiers did you see or serve with who were suffering from combat stress or exhibiting some type of psychological problem? Were they willing to admit it or was there a general state of denial? Did you see a lot of guys having problems?
DB-Oh, I’ve seen a lot of soldiers with combat stress. We had a situation where two E-5s locked and loaded their weapons and faced off on each other right before we had to go out on convoy one day. !7 soldiers in Iraq killed themselves with their own weapons, including officers. We had to go through suicide prevention counseling with our battalion chaplain after that started up with the guys killing themselves.
Everybody in Iraq was going through suicide counseling because the stress was so high. It was at such a magnitude, such a high level, that it was unthinkable for anyone to imagine. You cannot even imagine it.
A person in the general population cannot imagine exactly what the toll is like over therefore the soldiers that are there now, or have been there. I mean it’s phenomenal, it’s beyond an average civilian’s comprehension.
It’s completely out of their reach, even when I try to explain it to them. They need to hear about all this, so that they can know just how far this problem goes. It beyond even me to describe it properly. I wish they could just step in our minds for one day, it would change their whole lives, I can tell you that.
I know of another situation where a guy was locked and loaded with a squad automatic weapon (S.A.W. M249- the Army’s standard issue squad/platoon support light machine gun. It is fully automatic, fires 5.56mm rounds and holds a standard 200 round drum magazine). See http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m249.htm
This guy had locked and loaded and was sitting there on the steps of the battalion AO. He was ready to shoot everybody from the battalion commander on down the line. That was the type of attitude I saw. There were so many of those things going on: it was a real major issue.
Those are the types of stories you don’t hear about in the news. You don’t ever hear about it at all; the reporters do just not know it, or else it’s known and not reported. People need to know about that!
Interviewer-Were there a lot of incidences of that nature? Where they were upset with their officers or NCOs, and were at the point of violence or killing someone?
DB-Hell, yeah! Oh, yeah, all the time. That was a regular occurrence, it was by no means an isolated circumstance. I know on our base alone it was a regular occurrence. There was a lot of that stuff going on while we were up there.
Posted by: b real | Dec 6 2005 4:50 utc | 20
Methinks he did protesteth too much. Guess:
http://www.patriotresource.com/wtc/federal/0912/SoSNBC.html
“Since my return, I’ve been in touch with leaders around the world, with Lord Robertson and NATO, with Javier Solana and the European Union and Kofi Annan, to make sure everybody understands that we need a worldwide response to this assault on America, because it’s an assault on civilization, it’s an assault on democracy, it’s an assault on the world and **the world must respond as the United States plans to respond**.”
Action Jackson.
Posted by: Gerald Hanfletner | Dec 6 2005 6:43 utc | 21
Fundies don their Brown Shirts:
LAWRENCE, Kan. — A professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent design was canceled after he sent e-mails deriding Christian conservatives was hospitalized Monday after an apparent roadside beating.
University of Kansas religious studies professor Paul Mirecki told the Lawrence Journal-World that two men who beat him were making references to the class that was to be offered for the first time this spring. Originally called “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies,” the course was canceled last week at Mirecki’s request.
The class was added after the Kansas Board of Education decided to include more criticism of evolution in science standards for elementary and secondary students.
“I didn’t know them,” Mirecki said of his assailants, “but I’m sure they knew me.”
…
One recent e-mail from Mirecki to members of a student organization referred to religious conservatives as “fundies,” and said a course describing intelligent design as mythology would be a “nice slap in their big fat face.” Mirecki has apologized for those comments. Link
Posted by: jj | Dec 6 2005 6:47 utc | 22
though most days suck fema subcontractors have finally picked up my pre-katrina garbage today.the truck meant to pick up appliances(from a company in MS)took his good old sweet time 2hr 45min to pick up 2 refridgerators.i had to take his plate # down and threaten him to get him to get in his giant claw and do his job.at the same time local contractors with full loads aren’t being allowed to use the dump site.turned my own gas on finally after being told by entergy our area hadn’t any and i may have lost the hot water heaters but the house is warm and i can cook.its been a good week.and by the way if your from new orleans and haven’t drank the water yet don’t.
Posted by: onzaga | Dec 6 2005 7:03 utc | 23
General Clark has an OpEd in the NYT The Next Iraq Offensive
He must have smoked some strong stuff to come up with this. Does anyone knows his dealer or does he homegrow?
On the military side, American and Iraqi forces must take greater control of the country’s borders, not only on the Syrian side but also in the east, on the Iranian side. The current strategy of clearing areas near Syria of insurgents and then posting Iraqi troops, backed up by mobile American units, has had success. But it needs to be expanded, especially in the heavily Shiite regions in the southeast, where there has been continuing cross-border traffic from Iran and where the loyalties of the Iraqi troops will be especially tested.
We need to deploy three or four American brigades, some 20,000 troops, with adequate aerial reconnaissance, to provide training, supervision and backup along Iraq’s several thousand miles of vulnerable border. And even then, the borders won’t be “sealed”; they’ll just be more challenging to penetrate.
We must also continue military efforts against insurgent strongholds and bases in the Sunni areas, in conjunction with Iraqi forces. Over the next year or so, this will probably require four to six brigade combat teams, plus an operational reserve, maybe 30,000 troops.
…
As important as these military changes are, they won’t matter at all unless our political strategy is rethought. First, the Iraqis must change the Constitution as quickly as possible after next week’s parliamentary elections. Most important, oil revenues should be declared the property of the central government, not the provinces. And the federal concept must be modified to preclude the creation of a Shiite autonomous region in the south.
Also, a broad initiative to reduce sectarian influence within government institutions is long overdue. The elections, in which Sunnis will participate, will help; but the government must do more to ensure that all ethnic and religious groups are represented within ministries, police forces, the army, the judiciary and other overarching federal institutions.
…
We also have to stop ignoring Tehran’s meddling and begin a public dialogue on respecting Iraqi independence, which will make it far easier to get international support against the Iranians if (and when) they break their word.
Seal the boarder with Iran? Rewrite the constitution? Who, how and why should the Iraqi’s agree with that?
Starting a war with Iran (“if (and when)”) will not help much either.
As said – some strong stuff…
@Mssr. Deviant
Yeah, I was grossly oversimplifying in order to make my point. Thanks for clarifying on my behalf.
I also noticed upon re-reading that I typed “Pakistan” when I meant “Afghanistan”. So much for the idea that at least aggressive wars have the benefit of teaching Americans geography.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 6 2005 8:39 utc | 25
@onzaga – looks like they really screwed the victims of Katrina. Is there any way we can help?
If you would like to publish something drop me a note.
thanks b and i may just do that tonight i just needed to rant a little.most everything has been said and said again we are really at this point caught between bureaucracy and a hard place.and you have always helped just by being here(or there for that matter)thanks again.
Posted by: onzaga | Dec 6 2005 9:39 utc | 27
May Papa Legba and the Sacred Santeria Sisters, be w/you onzaga, hope your cookin up a mess of some fine Gumbo Ya-Ya!
Godluck!
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 6 2005 10:31 utc | 28
Monbiot on the illusion of making fuel from plants
In promoting biodiesel – as the EU, the British and US governments and thousands of environmental campaigners do – you might imagine that you are creating a market for old chip fat, or rapeseed oil, or oil from algae grown in desert ponds. In reality you are creating a market for the most destructive crop on earth.
Last week, the chairman of Malaysia’s federal land development authority announced that he was about to build a new biodiesel plant. His was the ninth such decision in four months. Four new refineries are being built in Peninsula Malaysia, one in Sarawak and two in Rotterdam. Two foreign consortiums – one German, one American – are setting up rival plants in Singapore. All of them will be making biodiesel from the same source: oil from palm trees.
“The demand for biodiesel,” the Malaysian Star reports, “will come from the European Community … This fresh demand … would, at the very least, take up most of Malaysia’s crude palm oil inventories.” Why? Because it is cheaper than biodiesel made from any other crop.
In September, Friends of the Earth published a report about the impact of palm oil production. “Between 1985 and 2000,” it found, “the development of oil-palm plantations was responsible for an estimated 87 per cent of deforestation in Malaysia”. In Sumatra and Borneo, some 4 million hectares of forest have been converted to palm farms. Now a further 6 million hectares are scheduled for clearance in Malaysia, and 16.5 million in Indonesia.
Riverbend on Mother of All Trials…
One thing that struck me about what the witnesses were saying- after the assassination attempt in Dujail, so much of what later unfolded is exactly what is happening now in parts of Iraq. They talked about how a complete orchard was demolished because the Mukhabarat thought people were hiding there and because they thought someone had tried to shoot Saddam from that area. That was like last year when the Americans razed orchards in Diyala because they believed insurgents were hiding there. Then they talked about the mass detentions- men, women and children- and its almost as if they are describing present-day Ramadi or Falloojah. The descriptions of cramped detention spaces, and torture are almost exactly the testimonies of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, etc.
It makes one wonder when Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney and the rest will have their day, as the accused, in court.
Professor Sami al-Arian Aquitted in Tampa
A federal jury on Tuesday found a former Florida professor not guilty of funding a banned Islamist group in a verdict likely to be seen as a stiff blow to the U.S. government in its attempts to prosecute terror suspects.
The jury in Tampa, Florida, took 13 days to deliver its verdict against Sami al-Arian, who along with three co-defendants was accused of raising money for Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.
The panel, delivering verdicts six months to the day after the trial started, found al-Arian not guilty of conspiracy to murder, providing material support to a terrorist group and obstruction of justice.
The other men, Sameeh Hammoudeh, Hatem Fariz and Ghassan Ballut, were also cleared of most of the charges against them.
. . .
When the defendants were arrested, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said al-Arian was Islamic Jihad’s North American leader.
Posted by: b real | Dec 6 2005 22:48 utc | 32
sorry b real you were quicker & perhaps i had to wait longer
tendresse et force
Posted by: r’giap | Dec 6 2005 23:15 utc | 35
A C-130 crashed into a 10 story apt building in Iran and burned for hours. Building still standing.
Firefighters managed to put out the fire in the building, which was damaged and charred but still standing. Police cordoned the building and debris field, preventing journalists and a crowd of as many as 10,000 people from getting close to the site. Many in the crowd were screaming, afraid their relatives had been killed. Several hours after the crash, the building still was smoldering.
This is a horrible tragedy for those involved and their loved ones, but I couldn’t resist the comparison to the 3 WTC towers, one of which was not hit. Are Iranian building designers really that much better than American ones?
Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 6 2005 23:37 utc | 36
just a quote i found tonight:
“Look, if you think any American official is going to tell you the truth, then you’re stupid. Did you hear that? – stupid.”
Arthur Sylvester, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, 1965
link
Posted by: manonfyre | Dec 7 2005 0:34 utc | 37
AEI “scholar” outlines new Bush strategy for containing China:
The Bush administration is quietly seeking to build with Britain, Japan and India a globe-spanning coalition system that can contain China, claims a leading neo-conservative thinker.
“Over the past six months, the Bush administration has upgraded its budding strategic partnerships with India and Japan. Along with the steady special relationship with Great Britain, what is beginning to emerge is a global coalition system — it is too soon to call it a true alliance — for the post-Cold War world,” argues Thomas Donnelly, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
In a new essay just published by the AEI, titled “The Big Four Alliance: The New Bush Strategy,” Donnelly says that “far from maintaining a unilateralist approach to American security,” the Bush administration has been forging a strategic partnership structure that can help to manage the rise of China, while also buttressing the liberal international order of free trade, free markets and expanded democracy.
The Great Game continues, but why the change?
What is striking and new is that Donnelly, a powerful advocate of a strong U.S. defense, now acknowledges that the American role is overstretched and can no longer sustain its lonely superpower role.
“We need help,” he suggests.
Now there’s an epiphany. No reflection about what it is we need help doing, why we are doing it, what doing it might do us or why anyone else should help us do it. Eternal US global domination remains an Unassailable Assumption.
Then this about the failure of what previously passed for strategy:
“It is clear that the Defense Department’s initial conception of ‘transformation’ — substituting capital for labor, firepower for manpower — has not removed the inherent constraints imposed by a small force, reduced by 40 percent from its final Cold-War strength. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s preference for temporary ‘coalitions of the willing’ has been supplanted by a new understanding that preserving the Pax Americana requires more permanent arrangements…..”
Man, reality’s a bitch even when you do create it yourself. If insipid banalities like this essay actually pass for critical analytic thought among our strategic class, we need more help than Donnelly will ever understand.
Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 7 2005 0:50 utc | 38
Billmon alumna – haven’t read Moon in a long time. Found out this a.m. that I live in part of what has been called “spiritual warfare territory”, in Ohio – Chris Hedges on Morning Sedition. The Christian Reconstructionists plan to control the debate during next year’s election for governor. Bernhard – whoever tells you that Bush’s support in Ohio was among the unwashed masses is talking through their hat. The strongest supporters I know are very highly educated people like doctors and lawyers – they just don’t pay attention to the religious argument part of the Bush strategy. The doctors EXCLUSIVELy pay attention to the malpractice/tort reform issues and apparently very little else except perhaps “DEFENDING AMERICA”, and the attorneys know who pays their hefty fees, and it isn’t working class people. Without funding from wealthy so-called middle class (six figure and up income) professionals, Bush support wouldn’t have taken the Ohio election or probably anywhere else. So we can all forget this “liberal” claptrap that it’s “dumb” people who voted Bush into office. I liked the energy thread a lot. Learned today how the MEdicare drug plan will impact my 87-year-old mother and force her into unwillingly contributing to Mitch McConnell’s coffers (one of the plans they’re pushing in her state of Indiana as the most affordable is with Humana, which is a contributor to McConnell among other things – yeah, I know about the lawsuits/Physicians for Natl Health Care/etc.
Posted by: francoise | Dec 7 2005 1:02 utc | 39
i can only repeat mistah charley, ô have mercy on our souls, if any
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 7 2005 1:34 utc | 40
@LonesomeG
The article that you provided fails to identify Thomas Donnelly as the same “leading Neo-conservative thinker” who was given principal authorship credit for the PNAC manifesto Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century.
Yeah, I’d be willing to take his word for it that he has the inside scoop on how the administration plans to conduct its foreign policy. After all, he was the guy who wrote it for them.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 7 2005 2:09 utc | 41
& on this day when we learn the ten marines died at a promotion ceremony instead of in deployment, when the republican john gotti tom delay presents the implacability of his passage into prison as a victory, as the justice dept sees one of its touted cases against ‘terrorists’ founder in florida
& on this day when madam condi von ribbentrop serves the reich throughout europe with her lies & orders
& on this day when the scandalous ‘courtroom drama’ that passes for justice in baghdad, & on this day when more bodies are found at fallujah, when another operation against the puppet police is carried out by women & succeeds
& on this day when a military plane crashes into a building in iran
i wonder exactly what kind of souls modern man has
& whether there is a bottom for modern man – or is it indeed as it appears, endless
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 7 2005 2:21 utc | 42
Sorry to keep going on about this guy, but I knew when I read Lonesome’s article that I had heard the name Thomas Donnelly before. Of all the Neo-Imperials, he seems to have kept the lowest profile. Even his biopage on Wikipedia has been toned down and tagged for an update for nearly a year. It does indicate, though, that his mighty pen was behind “just causes” from Panama to Iraq to Somalia and has served on the board of directors for the biggest of the pigs at the defense trough. Ever wonder who pulls Cheney’s strings?
Things must be bad indeed if this particular hobgoblin is saying the Empire can’t go it alone.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 7 2005 2:42 utc | 43
Third link was supposed to go to Lockheed Martin. I obviously need some more coffee in me.
This business about low profiles has reminded me, though…
Has anyone had any luck looking for Christian Bailey et al with the Wayback Machine? I’ve been assured by those who are more tech-savvy than myself that it is technically impossible to thoroughly drop items down the memory hole… and I know we’ve had some problems with news getting scoured in the past. Anyway, couldn’t hurt to try.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 7 2005 2:51 utc | 44
So many threats to ‘Empire’, so few resources … hah !
Where a comment piece is the only alternative to blatant propaganda passed off as ‘news’ …
Democracy under threat
Chávez will only gain from the US-backed opposition’s ploy to undermine elections
The people of Venezuela have gone to the polls 11 times in seven years. Almost a superfluity of democracy, some might think, and signs of electoral fatigue could be detected in Sunday’s elections for the National Assembly when only 30% of the electorate bothered to vote. The rest perceived the result as a foregone conclusion since in earlier elections President Hugo Chávez, or the candidates he backed, had stacked up substantial majorities. Sunday’s poll followed the trend, and the Chávez list wiped the board…
The above makes interesting reading compared to the ‘rabid’ propagandist texts that pass for reporting by the BBC and most other MSM outlets, forget about U.S. coverage (argh!), re Venezuela and Chavez …
Venezuelans ‘lost faith in polls’
Turnout was less than half of that at the last election
The US has called for electoral reform in Venezuela after supporters of President Hugo Chavez swept all 167 seats in parliament…
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 7 2005 3:29 utc | 45
Further to b real @ Dec 5, 2005 11:50:49 PM
As Suicides Spread, VA Appointments Cancelled For Returning Iraq Vets
December 4, 2005 By DAVID McLEMORE, The Dallas Morning News
Since combat operations began in Iraq in March 2003, 45 soldiers have killed themselves in Iraq, and an additional two dozen committed suicide after returning home, the Army has confirmed.
And while no one knows precisely what pushes someone over the edge, the unresolved stresses of combat on the soldier’s heart and mind are a factor.
Veterans in several states have found that Veterans Affairs had to stop scheduling appointments because of a lack of staff or a shortage of funds, said Mr. Robinson of the National Gulf War Resource Center.
“For the Guard and reserve, it’s particularly bad,” he said. “Their soldiers are separated from the Defense Department support system almost immediately after deployment and sent home to VA hospitals and clinics that are already overwhelmed and backlogged.
“We have to recognize the need and provide help, not wait for the veterans to ask.”
Approximately 58,000 sevicemen were killed in Vietnam, but its not well known that the same number died again as a result of suicide and causes directly related to mental trauma up to a decade or more after they came home, stateside …
Suicide in the Trenches
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
– Siegfried Sassoon
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 7 2005 4:31 utc | 46
@Francoise, in case you stop by again…
If you want to deal w/doctors afflicted w/the Exorbitant Insurance Problem, contact Nader’s group. Or guys @citizen.org – ex-Nader group. One of them did a study, or they will know about it to refer you along. Here’s the deal on that. Doctors are being scammed pure and simple. A historical study was done of malpractice insurance rates. Surprise Surprise!! High Rates are co-related only w/ insurance cos. suffering losses in other areas, or wishing to boost their profit margins. Doctors are a fixed market, so their rates are easy to raise to offset other losses. Bush’s shit will push them entirely in the wrong direction. The problem is the greed of Ins. Cos. Again we need to go after the obscene profit margins. Raises have Nada Zip Zilch Nothing to do w/high payouts, so curtailing them won’t affect their rates. Education Pays!!
Hope you saw this.
Posted by: jj | Dec 7 2005 5:03 utc | 47
Thanks Monolycus. I don’t remember reading Donnelly’s name and I read the PNAC document. It was based on one Wolfowitz wrote and Cheney passed to HW in 1992; I had thought Perle had written PNAC’s, but he actually wrote what became official foreign policy for State based on Donnelly’s PNAC document.
Switching topics, another odd Plame fact:
This news has been out for a few weeks and I just hadn’t noticed. But the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Fund is being headed up by none other than Mel Sembler, the Cheney-fan and the big-ticket GOP fundraiser from Florida who was the US Ambassador to Italy when all the secret meetings took place and when the forged uranium papers showed up at the US Embassy in October 2002.
The article Marshall links to – which presents the Libby defense teams’ effort positively – mentions Sembler’s Republican background but doesn’t say he was ambassador to Italy when Ledeen, Franklin et al met in Italy and was still there when the forgeries surfaced. (Wonder what random odds against this coincidence the Improbablity Drive would calculate.) A woman named Barbara Comstock recruited Sembler to Libby’s defense effort; the article says this about her:
Comstock, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Justice Department under former Attorney General John Ashcroft, said she got involved because at the time of the indictment, she was working for Libby’s lawyers.
So, she was working in Ashcroft’s office when the CIA referred the investigation to DOJ, when Justice decided to pursue it and when Ashcroft recused himself. Lots of inside knowledge about the DOJ investigation. Then, she takes a job with Libby’s lawyers sometime before the indictments are handed down. They must have known.
One more quote from the article:
Comstock said the defense fund is up and running and has received contributions.
She said the amount would not be made public. “It’s a private trust fund for a private individual and we haven’t disclosed that.”
Republicans are putting a lot of money into their war chest for this fight and all the other side has is some public employees who will not be on this full time. And the public will never know how much was raised or who donated. Fitz better have him cold to have any chance at all.
Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 7 2005 5:09 utc | 48
@francoise
good to have some new blood. (No, I’m not a vampire.)
@LonesomeG
Great catch. But according to Duncelly’s formulation we have three brains and one body. How will Indians feel once they understand that they have been unanimously elected to be the muscle, that is, to be the ones lucky enough to be chosen to die for this Imperial policy, where the benefits accrue to the braintrust. Yes, under neo-liberal economic policy it will be possible to bribe the elite off, but the rest derive no benefit from this formulation. Look for extreme unrest in India should this play out.
As an aside, turning India from a non-allied country to a capitalist pawn has been a bigger accomplishment–and by-product of the fall of the Soviet Union–than the Orange revolution in the Ukraine.
Good thght. Malooga. Avoid Am. draft by filling ranks w/Indians!!
I noticed that Europe was not included in that list. Anyone have any info. on that. Am., Brit, India & Japan?? This musta been on the comics page!!
Posted by: jj | Dec 7 2005 6:33 utc | 50
A propos of nothing:
A friend of mine had interviewed Ramsey Clark, you can see the man himself (Quicktime only)
“It ought to be perfectly clear to anyone who believes in truth or justice or in freedom that it’s extremely important for Sadam Hussein to have a fair trial. The United States ought to do every thing in its power to assure that he has a fair trial to assure that the public and the world can see that he has a fair trial. That they have something to be afraid of. But if they don’t give him a fair trial, then they are going to be blamed, it’s going to be victors justice. And it’s going to create anger and hatred and violence and we’ll go on like that. So it’s so obvious that if you believe in truth, a fair trial can develop the truth. And if you believe in justice the result of a fair trial should be justice. And if you believe in freedom it will come from that.”
Posted by: Werner Dieter Thomas | Dec 7 2005 6:39 utc | 51
Agreed, Malooga. This strategy puts a new light on American corporations outsourcing jobs to India – creates a nice dependency they (our corporate-owned and run govt) can call in. I’m not saying they did it to create this result but I’ll bet they foresaw it.
One more link, then to bed. This article argues that Bush’s strategy in Iraq is working.
….notwithstanding the derision of liberals, there is a U.S. strategy in Iraq that has already had some success and may well have more.
Even though Bush has said it repeatedly, it’s still true: the strategy is to create an Iraqi security force that will fight the counterinsurgency so the United States won’t have to. Initially, Iraqi security forces wouldn’t fight.
—-
In fact, both the supposedly clueful [Gen David]Petraeus [who argued that training was the problem] and the sadly clueless Democrats are missing the real point, which is not training, but will. Initially, the problem was finding Iraqis who had a reason to fight other Iraqis – people would sometimes sign up for the money, but they didn’t want to fight.
—-
Now, as Petraeus says, there is a steady stream of people who don’t just want to draw a salary but want to fight. The reason is the steadily widening sectarian divide.
—-
As a result, there are now plenty of Shi’a who join the army because they want to fight the Sunni insurgency.
The Shia militia are now willing to fight because they are fighting back against violence directed at them – supposedly by Sunnis. The US is employing the Salvador option, Shia against Sunni. However, not mentioned is the possibility that at least some of the violence directed at the Shia is false flag, a popular Mossad and CIA tactic. The Brits rescued two of their own in Basra some time back who were caught with explosives in their trunk and the US came for two of theirs in a Shia neighborhood in Baghdad a while ago. There is a natural Sunni/Shia fault line to exploit that didn’t exist in Viet Nam when we tried this tactic there to incite the South Vietnamese to fight the Communist north and there is no doubt we are doing the same in Iraq. So, when Bush says they have a strategy now, he is finally telling the truth and, when he says it will work I’m sure he believes it.
But will it work out as they hope?
The emerging U.S. strategy not only depends on sectarianism but drives the sectarian dynamic further; Shi’a troops patrol and carry out operations in Sunni al-Anbar province; Kurdish peshmerga (with new uniforms) carry out operations in largely Turcoman Tall Afar.
This is far more dangerous for Iraq than the old strategy – if Iraqis hate American troops, or even Americans, the focus of that hatred could be removed by ending the occupation. If Iraqis are driven to hate each other, on a deeply personal basis, then there will be no foreseeable solution. Even partition would be no answer; multiethnic Baghdad would be in the same position as multiethnic Bosnia in the 1990’s.
The administration and the military are not willing to own up to this strategy. They trumpet the fact that some small number of Sunni Arabs has joined the army and they even raided the torture house in Baghdad run by their own ally, SCIRI. In part, this is because this de facto strategy is increasing Iranian influence in Iraq, the last thing the United States wants.
This administration is stocked with the kind of brutally stupid characters I once thought existed only in Coen brothers’ movies.
Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 7 2005 6:44 utc | 52
@Mono
I’ve been assured by those who are more tech-savvy than myself that it is technically impossible to thoroughly drop items down the memory hole.
Not true. Wayback Machine can be unplugged with robots.txt file submitted by a domain owner. I discovered this by searching for my own published articles. Wayback had them safe and sound until a couple of months ago. Suddenly gone. All gone, like they never existed, five years of publication electronically redacted.
Posted by: Wolf DeVoon | Dec 7 2005 7:04 utc | 53
lonesome G,
It’s pretty clear this is the strategy the US is working now. And the downside mentioned, while no doubt true, may pale by comparison to the great Iraqi oil rip — off thats currently being pushed through the puppet regime, from Stan Goff’s place:
This report reveals how an oil policy with origins in the US State Department is on course to be adopted in Iraq, soon after the December elections, with no public debate and at enormous potential cost. The policy allocates the majority (1) of Iraq’s oilfields – accounting for at least 64% of the country’s oil reserves – for development by multinational oil companies.
Iraqi public opinion is strongly opposed to handing control over oil development to foreign companies. But with the active involvement of the US and British governments a group of powerful Iraqi politicians and technocrats is pushing for a system of long term contracts with foreign oil companies which will be beyond the reach of Iraqi courts, public scrutiny or democratic control.
………………………………..
The debate over oil “privatisation” in Iraq has often been misleading due to the technical nature of the term, which refers to legal ownership of oil reserves. This has allowed governments and companies to deny that “privatisation” is taking place. Meanwhile, important practical questions, of public versus private control over oil development and revenues, have not been addressed.
……………………………….
In Iraq’s case, these contracts (the PSA,production sharing agreements) could be signed while the government is new and weak, the security situation dire, and the country still under military occupation. As such the terms are likely to be highly unfavourable, but could persist for up to 40 years.
……………………………….
Of course, what ultimately happens will depend on the outcome of the elections, on the broader political and security situation and on negotiations with oil companies. However, the pressure for Iraq to adopt PSAs is substantial. The current government is fast-tracking the process and is already negotiating contracts with oil companies in parallel with the constitutional process, elections and passage of a Petroleum Law.
The Constitution also suggests a decentralisation of authority over oil contracts, from the national level to Iraq’s regions. If implemented, the regions would have weaker bargaining power than a national government, leading to poorer terms for Iraq in any deal with oil companies.
……………………………
None of the top oil producers in the Middle East uses PSAs. Some governments that have signed them regret doing so. In Russia, where political upheaval was followed by rapid opening up to the private sector in the 1990s, PSAs have cost the state billions of dollars, making it unlikely that any more will be signed. The parallel with Iraq’s current transition is obvious.
……………………………
PSAs represent a radical redesign of Iraq’s oil industry, wrenching it from public into private hands. The strategic drivers for this are the US/UK push for “energy security” in a constrained market and the multinational oil companies’ need to “book” new reserves to secure future growth.
Despite their disadvantages to the Iraqi economy and democracy, they are being introduced in Iraq without public debate.
…………………………
The full policy study from Global Policy.
It should come as no small suprise, to the Shiite population — that they have been SCREWED AGAIN by the USA, with in fact, their newfound representatives acting as their agents. Consistent though, from the US perspective — when things are spinning out of control, hit the gas and go faster — and with Chalabi (no doubt on this one) doing the driving they’ll be a cliff in the picture sooner or later.
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 7 2005 9:14 utc | 54
The above has been around for a while now, And I still dont understand why Juan Cole is silent on this — and other economic re-structuring going on in Iraq, which never seems to enter his thinking as indicitive of anything. Today on his site is this reaction to “leftist” criticism of his / Murtha / and now Dean, prescription for the drawdown — somewhere over the rainbow — “horizon” for US military force. Here:
The looney left is attacking me now because I say I think the US does have the responsibility to forestall massive hot civil war in Iraq if it can, of the sort that could leave 2.5 million people dead and 5 million displaced abroad. That is what happened in Afghanistan from 1979. The US helped destabilize it(the Soviets contributed more to the actual destabilzaiont)in the 1980s and then, under Bush senior, just walked away completely. The American far left never complained about what was going on in Afghanistan in the 1990s, because for them the only source of evil in the world is US imperialism, and since the US had largely left Afghanistan, all was well. No matter if hundreds of thousands of Afghans were maimed as the US turned its back. Somehow they don’t complain so loudly about US-led NATO intervention in the former Yugoslavia, which certainly saved hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives. They don’t actually care about Bosnians or Afghans or Iraqis, just about hating the US. The US has done horrible things. It has also done noble things. I am hoping that it finally does the noble thing in Iraq, and wins smart, for the Iraqis and for the Americans. Dean gets that. Bush doesn’t
posted by Juan @ 12/07/2005 06:30:00 AM 0 comments
……………………
So, he expects that, somewhere over the rainbow, the US will stop doing “horrible things”, and suddenly start doing “noble things”?
And if those”noble things” might just involve things that are in the economic interest of the Iraqi people, as opposed to US interests, Juan, why are you so silent about it?
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 7 2005 10:31 utc | 55
Link to Libération
The French left doesn’t kid around–or does it? Here’s an editorial from Libération about our Secretary of State (mostly), entitled le trou noir (or “the black hole”).
Posted by: alabama | Dec 7 2005 11:40 utc | 57
@Alabama
The link you provided only gives me an “erreur” message. By the way, it’s good to see you’re still with us… I had just been wondering where you’d gotten off to.
@Wolf DeVoon
I kind of suspected it was not as airtight as that, but I thought it might be worth a shot. The guy who explained the process to me put little air-quotes around “technically impossible”. And I’m sorry to hear about your disappearing oeuvre. Were you saying that your articles were intentionally scrubbed?
@Anyone Who Cares
An interesting (to me, but I am slowly becoming obsessed with malfeasance, I think) read about The Ten Worst Corporations of 2003. The implication (to me, but I am slowly becoming obsessed with implications, I think) is that you can get away with anything if you simply put an “Inc.” after the name of your organization.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 7 2005 12:08 utc | 58
Yep. And banned by a DMOZ meta-editor who removed my website from the directory that Google uses for ‘trust rank.’ It’s been a long slow climb back from oblivion, compounded by a campaign of smears and scoffs.
I’m willing to say that my work was subpar or worse, therefore deserved general opprobrium and ridicule. But who else has been blackballed? I’m thinking of Hogeye Bill Orton in particular, who electronically disappeared, too.
Posted by: Wolf DeVoon | Dec 7 2005 13:57 utc | 59
Yeah, Anna Missed, we need to be constantly reminded of the oil front in the WoT. With all the blood and explosions getting the headlines, this travesty is easily overlooked and proceeds out of the glare of public observation (not that most of the US public would notice, believe or care). Goff’s article and link tell us again what this war really is: a big fucking heist.
If this latest bloody strategy succeds in gaining the US control of Iraq, the invasion would be justified for most of the public and they would happily slurp whatever loot the corporados let them have while chanting “Bush was right.” And the elites would have a “proven” strategy for use in suppressing insurgencies in other invaded countries and no cautionary tale warning them not to invade. This is one time when failure is really our best option since our elites won’t change behavior until they are forced to. It is also best for the rest of the world our policies are destabilizing, esp Iran, Syria and Venezuela.
Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 7 2005 16:05 utc | 60
Thanx for finding & posting the Juan Cole bit, anna missed
Cole:
When Saddam massacred the Shiites and put them in mass graves, none of these observers on the far left said anything at all about it.
Name some names, Dr. Cole.
Who, on the “far-left,” said “nothing”?
I assume “far-left” means the following truncated list of political commitments: distributive justice including the legally substantive correction of social inequities, social ownership of basic production (energy, transportation, health, communication), resolution of conflict justified only by an international consensus devoted to the goals of distributive justice.
If the “far-left” condemns US militarism, it does so because occupation of Iraq was predictably pursued for geostrategic reasons (oil, the “Great Game” of resource allocation in Central Asia, checking Iran/Syria ambitions). Even more, the “far-left” condemns US militarism because the permanent war economy–the systematic murder and destruction–is essential to the annihilation of excessive, “idle” capital.
Fucking “loons.”
Really, the smarter MoA patrons, for almost two years, have been dead-on augers about GWOT and its ancillary stupidities.
Posted by: slothrop | Dec 7 2005 17:19 utc | 61
Present family name: BINALSHIBH
Forename: RAMZI MOHAMED ABDULLAH
Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1267 (1999) and successor resolutions including Resolution 1617 (2005) , the Subject is under the following UN Sanctions: Freezing of Assets, Travel Ban and Arms Embargo.
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONTACT YOUR NATIONAL OR LOCAL POLICE
via InterPol
Maybe they should search here
Binalshibh was captured in Pakistan on September 11, 2002, after a gunbattle in Karachi. He was subsequently turned over to the United States, which imprisoned him, without trial, in a secret location.
Chomsky, who one might say is “far-left,” as early as 2000, addressed the gassing of Kurds emphasizing silence of US response to the horror.
WTF?
Posted by: slothrop | Dec 7 2005 17:57 utc | 63
sounds like cole is using a straw man to delude/advance/justify himself. “observers on the far left“.. in the united states? that then supported nato in yugo? there were plenty of sane, rational people who complained about the betrayal of the shia uprising in real time. gotta watch out for those intellectuals who use terms like “looney left” b/c it masks more than self projection – it validates what passes for political discourse in this nation, further cementing the parameters defined by power.
Posted by: b real | Dec 7 2005 19:02 utc | 64
Re. Ramsi Binalshib.
For somene to be removed from Interpol listings, clear proof of death, capture, jailing, sentencing, or aquittal, innocence, etc. is required.
It is really very unclear if the US actually holds Binalshib (though he was for a long time listed as an inmate of Gitmo, may still be today, haven’t checked…) or Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
No one at all has seen them, and they have not been produced for any legal proceedings, despite pressure from foreign governments and US authorities (e.g. Judge Brinkma, Moussaoui trial.) Their testimony ‘by proxy’ (FBI and CIA agents) has been utterly unconvincing – vague and second hand, without even any pretense at documentary backup. (Afaik, off the cuff.)
Posted by: Noisette | Dec 7 2005 19:05 utc | 65
Thanks, Malooga and jj for responding to me. Actually, jj, my husband is a formerly employed radiologist and I will always believe his dissents caused his colleagues to force him out of practice. He defended talc miners’ rights in NY State and got screwed out of a small practice there by colleagues and industry. I know the tort reform issue. Only on WNYC on a visit to NYC 2 yrs ago (when we could afford it – husband trained & worked in the NYC Columbia/NYU/etc hospitals) I heard that malpractice rates go up when the insurance companies take losses on the bond market. As you say the docs are going wrong direction. Radiologists are really asses. I work for one who used to play Rush Limbaugh in the background on dictation. So much for education! I also have worked for attorneys, which is why I make those accusations – they cynically play the fears of the working class (they could care less about gay marriage or church) while reaping advantages themselves. Also Medicare reimbursements.
Malooga – liked your writings about energy – I have friends involved with peak oil movement. If beq reads any of this, greetings, beq – an old friend – I always read Mushinronsha and beq’s comments when I was on Billmon 2 years ago … and thanks Bernhard for keeping this alive! The movement I talked about of Ken Blackwell in Ohio is being compared by Chris Hedges (and not in a silly way) to German history – political leader talking about morals and defending virtue while really installing totalitarianism …
Posted by: francoise | Dec 8 2005 11:57 utc | 66