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December 7, 2005
Open Thread 05-125
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Death Sentence Passes for Impoverished or Crippled Deadbeat Students
But then, on the other hand, what borrower under the age of 30 honestly still expects they would actually receive social security benefits to have garnished in the first place?
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 7 2005 21:22 utc | 2
americans need to ask themselves why this story appeared in foreign newspapers but has been largely ignored by the domestic msm.
In a major defeat for the federal government, a Florida jury last night acquitted a Palestinian professor on charges of leading a terrorist group that carried out suicide bombings in Israel. Three of his co-defendants were also cleared of dozens of related charges.
Do a search on Sami al-Arian and see how little there is about this case in comparison to the near hysteria when he was first arrested.
Effective censorship requires the willing compliance of the target population.
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 7 2005 21:26 utc | 3
When the man appeared to reach into his baggage, at least one shot was fired by the marshals, wounding the man, the official said, adding that the marshals’ actions were consistent with their training. Officials said later that the man had died of his injuries.
Upon investigation, there was no evidence that the man had a bomb, an official said.
the kicker is final sentence in that cnn article on the execution in miami – “No other flights at Miami International were disrupted Wednesday, an airport official said.”
thank goodness nobody else was inconvenienced
Posted by: b real | Dec 7 2005 22:19 utc | 5
Saddam’s half brother puts the show in show trial.
On Tuesday, Saddam Hussein’s half brother and co-defendant Barazan Ibrahim, former director of Iraq’s much-feared “mohabaraat” or intelligence service, goaded the chief prosecutor, calling him “comrade.”
“Comrade Jaafar you know it was not only me interrupting the witness yesterday,” Ibrahim said.
“But you were provoking him,” said the prosecutor, Jaafar al-Musawi.
“It was not me, comrade,” answered Ibrahim.
“I object to you calling me comrade,” the prosecutor quipped, as if to say, “we’re not that close.”
“But comrade is a great compliment. What is wrong with comrade?” Ibrahim asked.
“I am not your comrade,” said the prosecutor.
“But you are, we were in the party (Baath) together,” Ibrahim said.
The prosecutor was silent.
Posted by: lonesomeG | Dec 7 2005 22:30 utc | 6
@lg – that trial is a bad show trial and will have serious back slash for those who persue it.
I am all for Saddam before real judges – that would be the ICJ – who could make a real case. But that set some light on the U.S. government too – so it will never happen.
ed.-note: I have banned a bunch of IP-addresses that seemed to be the source of spam – but they may have been spoofed.
b-, for semi-literates, what’s a “spoof IP-addr”? It is or it isn’t no? Or you said something about a scrambling system for them – is that what you mean? I noticed that after you outed Tante Aime for using some such system, all sorts of strange names started showing up, often w/a syntax not terribly dissimilar to his…
Posted by: jj | Dec 8 2005 2:02 utc | 8
And for another piece of yummy hyperbolic pie Oh God how I Miss the Commies from that Driftglass guy……..And, who is that guy???????
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 8 2005 2:04 utc | 9
According to Indictment, AIPAC Has Been Under Investigation Since Early 1999 but guess what..And during all that time,
members of Congress continued to accept money from them.
As someone, (I forget who) said “Why are our elected “leaders” having a hard time distinguishing whats ours (America’s) and Israel’s interests”?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 8 2005 3:01 utc | 10
Many mooners have prolly already seen the story over at kos on:
Katrina Victims Testify About Ethnic Cleansing, Levee Bomb!
, but w/all the flooding of signals i.e. discussion over there I chose not to read the comments, however I did follow up on the C-span subcommitte hearings. One organizations that was mentioned by one the victims testifying mentioned the Causeway Concentration Camp Committee in New Orleans. Like many links I post here at Moon, I do not necessarily agree nor disagre with. However, I find these peoples views quite valid.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 8 2005 4:20 utc | 11
@anna missed
Wow! Driftglass could be Billmon’s soul brother. Wish I could write like either of them.’
thanks Unca…many Mooners also do not go by kos, unless directed by some rare topic that strays far from the usual…so pointers are required…
Posted by: jj | Dec 8 2005 5:50 utc | 13
I’ve done many posts on elite plans to merge xUS w/Canada & points South…Now xUS has started selecting those Specimens it wishes to insert in Canadian WH etc., to implement plans of Wall St. Wackos.
Canada’s Prince of Darkness, Michael Ignatieff . . .
Or Thomas Friedman in Striped Trousers, Silk Stockings and Garters
If Michael Ignatieff is anything, it’s connected, and I do not mean just to the relatively small establishment of Canada, I mean connected to the shadowy godfathers of world empire. Ignatieff has a rich career in America where truly loyal service, whether by natural or adopted sons, is always handsomely rewarded.
His lineage is straight from the new comedy R’Giap is composing –
His paternal grandfather, Count Paul Ignatieff, was minister of education for Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Following the Russian Revolution, the family moved to Canada, where Ignatieff’s father, George, became a leading diplomat during Cold War era. Ignatieff’s maternal great-grandfather, George Munro Grant, was a well-known Canadian advocate of British imperialism in the late 19th century, and an uncle, George Parkin Grant, was a conservative political philosopher. Can’t Make This Shit Up
Posted by: jj | Dec 8 2005 8:09 utc | 15
The man, who arrived in Miami from Quito, Ecuador, was identified as Florida resident Rigoberto Alpizar.
Authorities said he was challenged by two air marshals on board the Orlando-bound plane, and shot on the passenger gangway after running off the aircraft. He ignored demands to put his bag on the ground and instead reached into it, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said.
“Shots were fired as the team attempted to subdue the subject,” the spokesman said.
The shooting triggered a scramble by air marshals to guard airports across the United States against possible attacks.
But Jim Bauer, special agent in charge of the federal air marshals’ Miami office, said investigators found no immediate evidence of a link to terrorism and no sign of a bomb.
A woman who said she was a witness told NBC television’s Miami affiliate, WTVJ, that the man’s wife had screamed “my husband, my husband,” and said he had bipolar disorder and needed medication.
“Her husband ran through the aisle frantically. She ran after him and all of a sudden there were four or five shots,” passenger Mary Gardner told the station by telephone.
Federal officials said they could not comment on the allegation that the suspect might have been mentally ill.
So that’s alright then at first it seemed that this may have been a silly mistake. However the man’s illness reassures on a couple of points that show it wasn’t an error.
1/ firstly the fact that this fellow was a US resident with a geneology from “South of the Border” informs that this was just part of keeping the poodle in line with a bit of “anything you can do we can do”.
2/ do better in fact because not only was the deceased of South American descent, he had an illness, and a wife whose entreaties were successfully ignored.
But the most satisfying thing for boy george has to be that the sheeple picked up on the nazi sub-text of the ‘staying the course’ dinner theatre and remembered to do a 2 in 1: untermensch WITH a disability.
The rednecks will be rocking! I wonder if the neighbors on Pennsylvania Ave will be able to sleep with all of that whoopin and hollerin.
p.s. Isn’t agent Jim Bauer one of them Sutherland boys? Yew know, Donnie’s eldest boy.
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 8 2005 8:54 utc | 16
Oil industry targets EU climate policy
Lobbyists funded by the US oil industry have launched a campaign in Europe aimed at derailing efforts to tackle greenhouse gas pollution and climate change.
Documents obtained by Greenpeace and seen by the Guardian reveal a systematic plan to persuade European business, politicians and the media that the EU should abandon its commitments under the Kyoto protocol, the international agreement that aims to reduce emissions that lead to global warming. The disclosure comes as United Nations climate change talks in Montreal on the future of Kyoto, the first phase of which expires in 2012, enter a critical phase.
Article continues
The documents, an email and a PowerPoint presentation, describe efforts to establish a European coalition to “challenge the course of the EU’s post-2012 agenda”. They were written by Chris Horner, a Washington DC lawyer and senior fellow at the rightwing thinktank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has received more than $1.3m (£750,000) funding from the US oil giant Exxon Mobil. Mr Horner also acts for the Cooler Heads Coalition, a group set up “to dispel the myth of global warming”.
Something hopeful:
Torture evidence inadmissible in UK courts, Lords rule
Evidence that may have been obtained by torture cannot be used against terror suspects in British courts, the House of Lords ruled today.
A panel of seven Law Lords voted unanimously to allow an appeal by eight detainees who are being held without charge on suspicion of being involved in terrorism, against a controversial Court of Appeal judgment passed in August 2004.
…
Lord Bingham of Cornhill, the former Lord Chief Justice who headed the panel, said English law had regarded “torture and its fruits” with abhorrence for more than 500 years.
“The principles of the common law, standing alone, in my opinion compel the exclusion of third-party torture evidence as unreliable, unfair, offensive to ordinary standards of humanity and decency and incompatible with the principles which should animate a tribunal seeking to administer justice,” he said.
Well, just to stir stuff up, Iranian president calls for the creation of a Jewish state in Europe. Not that Mrs. Merkel or Herr Haider would approve it, mind you…
As for ignatieff, it’s always been my logical conclusion of studying world history that you can’t make a true anti-aristocratic and anti-monarchic revolution unless you manage to effectively kill every single nobleman in the country, otherwise there’s always the risk that some fucker will come back sometime down the line and claim his ill-gotten crap back. But then I’m known to be a cold cynical realist…
Posted by: CluelessJoe | Dec 8 2005 15:47 utc | 19
Pitchforks and Torches Parade
Here’s a nice meme that could go either way. Perhaps, this meme could be spread in the blogsphere. While, I’m a bit ambivalent to it, as it would only be a placebo for the masses as in Roman times, i.e. by keeping the people entertained/distracted etc..
On the otherhand, it would rachet up the surface tension of our ‘rulers’. On a third hand, it would give the spooks a chance to use their new technology e.g. crowd control non lethal weapons and practice urban warfare stratagies.
what say Mooners?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 8 2005 20:19 utc | 20
we say since the very culture that lennon loathed has come over all maudlin on the 25th anniversary of his karking it, keep youself on track by reading the man’s words directly rather than through the filter of Jann Wenner.
Counterpunch has an excellent interview of Lennon from shortly before his murder. It is with Tariq Ali and Robin Blackburn when they were Trots so it is a lot more honest than anything else even if it is a little didactic.
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 8 2005 20:39 utc | 21
“I don’t believe in Beatles”…
My very first epiphany came the moment I heard John sing the above. It was haughtingly sad, and at the same time cathartic. Zen-like. Thank-you John Winston Lennon and whoever posted the above post.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 8 2005 20:58 utc | 22
i was stringing popcorn unsuccessfully, it was before i knew dayold popcorn strung better. i heard it over the radio.
when i was ten i thought i might marry him. i belonged to a fan club and got the records before they were available at the record stores. there was a section between the living and dining rooms w/sliding doubledoors , a closet area w/the record player. my only record. i would dance for hours to the same songs.
one of my fondest memories is my father bringing home 2 tickets to the cow palace. by the time we went his leg was in a cast. i left him immediately once they appeared and ran to the stage. i was one of the first and as a result was directly in front of him, a crowd pushing against my back, security guards in front. the dress i had made for the occasion got ripped. they stopped the music and said they wouldn’t continue unless we calmed down. i was 11. my first concert.
we spent one christmas in lake tahoe, i got frost bite. the revolver album came out. i understood what he meant in norwegian wood, after close scrutiny.
i met john lennon. really. it was when he and yoko came to the bay area to concieve, something to do w/a healer or acupuncturist in sf. would have been summer 71 possibly 72. about 9 months before sean was born. they rented my friends house. i was the nanny/babysitter. it was a house fashioned out of the wood from an old bridge on lovell avenue in mill valley. i spent days cleaning making it just right. we had to remove all the childrens drawings from the walls. and place a television across from the bed. i placed a ceramic bowl i had made for them and filled it with figs, i assume they took it, it wasn’t there when we returned. i also left a detailed map of one of my favorite intimate places to go for a walk where they would not be distirbed. my friend rosa, who owned the house,her 4 childrem and i were going to mexico while they were there. by then i was not the same 11 year old girl. i had been altered thru teen years of herman hesse, peyote,dylan and his music. and the 60’s.
that night listening to the radio, first that he had been shot,then the finality. everything flooded back to me. the figs,if they ever followed the map. feeling so very small and looking in his eyes. this is a very private memory, i don’t know why i am telling you now. it’s not exactly a secret, but nothing i usually share.
Posted by: annie | Dec 9 2005 2:54 utc | 23
annie, a precious, and lovely memory.
brought a smile to my face.
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 9 2005 9:10 utc | 26
Why Southeast Asia is turning from US to China
WASHINGTON – The United States is rapidly losing its influence in the Southeast Asia region to China, thanks to an overly narrow focus on terrorism and a propensity to place bilateral ties above multilateral relationships, according to US and Chinese analysts.
– snip –
Against China’s regional approach, the US is “notoriously bilateral, and almost gratuitously so in Southeast Asia,” Dalpino said, adding that the fact that US officials won’t be attending the first East Asia Summit, scheduled for December 14 in Kuala Lumpur, underscores US alienation from the region…
Hm, Southeast Asia and Latin America, maybe … times they are a changin’ …
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 9 2005 14:15 utc | 27
Poll gives impetus to SE Asian integration
A NEW poll suggests people in South-East Asia have a strong sense of communal identity and do not think regional political and economic integration is moving fast enough…
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 9 2005 14:19 utc | 28
Dead man did not speak of bomb
THE man who was shot and killed by US air marshals in Miami on Thursday never spoke of a bomb…
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 9 2005 16:49 utc | 29
Bill Moyers and Sy Hersh on the same stage today to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the National Security Archive — broadcast on CSPAN w/ video already available online.
Also, check out the latest from Francis Moore Lappe —
“Democracy isn’t something we have, it’s something we do.” — at Democracy’s Edge.
p.s. Amy Goodman’s interview with Lennon biographer Jon Weiner was good.
Posted by: manonfyre | Dec 10 2005 2:52 utc | 31
BYE BYE AMERICA (2)
Officer: “Do you have your ID?”
Davis: “Yes.”
Officer: “May I see it?”
Davis: “No.”
Some debate ensued — officers would later describe Davis as “argumentative” — and then the Federal Protective Services cops tossed Davis’s cell phone, physically forced her off the bus, handcuffed her and took her into custody. Ultimately, she was ticketed for violating two mundane-sounding federal regulations regarding compliance with signs and access to federal property.
Posted by: DM | Dec 10 2005 3:05 utc | 32
Just to compliment DM’s post above see my post about same and much more Here .
The RealID Act will come into effect in 2008
RealID calls for every person in the U.S. to carry a new ID that contains an embedded microchip and antenna that broadcasts your name, birth date, identification number, and even your photo to card readers, including those in ATMs and at every cash register. The card can broadcast your personal info to persons and institutions without your knowledge or consent. This technology also allows the gov. or whoever to track you, as the chip will broadcast the cardholder’s presence to each reader he passes.
p.s. as our jj says, welcome to xAmerica, and I add, ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ Democracy!
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 10 2005 3:22 utc | 34
over at consortium news, robert perry reflects on the anniversary of gary webb’s exit
Posted by: b real | Dec 10 2005 5:33 utc | 36
And let’s not forget the Bastard British.
Maya Evans, 25, was convicted of breaching Section 132 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 after reading aloud the names of the 97 dead British soldiers next to the Cenotaph on Whitehall.
Posted by: DM | Dec 10 2005 18:01 utc | 37