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December 3, 2005
Weekend OT
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I am listening to c-span and I think the stupisit people are from Texas and Ohio. I would hope they don’t reflect the larger society but I have been disappointed before.
I watched Kudlows show last night and Robert Reich former labor secretary under Clinton was great. He kicked ass on Walt Williams (token, Stephen Moore and others. They tried presenting their side of statistics on income and Reich basically told them they were full of shit and they were munipulating the statistics. Willaims made kind of a personal attack on Reich and Reich told him he could do ad hominem attacks all he wants but the real statictic don’t lie and that all wealth and wages are being accumulated by the top ten percent of income earners. It was a real nice job.
I believe it was a good week for bringing out corruption in the republican party. The Dukester made his Jimmy Swaggert (I have sinned!) speech and the Abramoff scandal kept weaving a bigger web.
Posted by: jdp | Dec 3 2005 14:08 utc | 2
FBI REOPENS NIGER DOC INVESTIGATION
The FBI has reopened an inquiry into one of the most intriguing aspects of the pre-Iraq war intelligence fiasco: how the Bush administration came to rely on forged documents linking Iraq to nuclear weapons materials as part of its justification for the invasion.
The documents inspired intense U.S. interest in the buildup to the war — and they led the CIA to send a former ambassador to the African nation of Niger to investigate whether Iraq had sought the materials there. The ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV, found little evidence to support such a claim, and the documents were later deemed to have been forged.
The issue erupted in July 2003, when Wilson published his findings in a New York Times opinion piece. Administration officials leaked the identity of Wilson’s wife, covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, allegedly as part of an effort to discredit Wilson — prompting a separate investigation into the potentially illegal unmasking of a covert agent.
The Plame case — in which Vice President Dick Cheney’s former Chief of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby has been charged with obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements — has raised questions about the administration’s use of intelligence and how it targeted its critics.
Posted by: annie | Dec 3 2005 17:36 utc | 3
So Hugo Chavez has taken out ads in American papers to tout his heating-oil aid program for low-income Americans.
Take note, Dubya: these are PAID ADVERTISEMENTS, not planted “news” stories. Call the man a “threat to stability” in the region, but at least he plays an honest hand.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Dec 3 2005 18:14 utc | 4
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 3 2005 19:49 utc | 5
“Special Counsel’s Showing Decides The Case”
Judge Tatel concluded (from pages 82-83):
“I conclude, as I began, with the tensions at work in this case. Here, two reporters and a news magazine, informants to the public, seek to keep a grand jury uninformed. Representing two equally fundamental principles—rule of law and free speech—the special counsel and the reporters both aim to facilitate fully informed and accurate decision-making by those they serve: the grand jury and the electorate. To this court falls the task of balancing the two sides’ concerns.
As James Madison explained, “[A] people who mean to be their own Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” See In re Lindsey, 148 F.3d 1100, 1109 (D.C. Cir. 1998) (quoting Letter from James Madison to W.T. Barry (Aug. 4, 1822), in 9 The Writings of James Madison 103 (Gaillard Hunt ed., 1910)). Consistent with that maxim, “[a] free press is indispensable to the workings of our democratic society,” Associated Press v. United States, 326 U.S. 1, 28 (1945) (Frankfurter, J., concurring), and because confidential sources are essential to the workings of the press—a practical reality that virtually all states and the federal government now acknowledge—I believe that “reason and experience” compel recognition of a privilege for reporters’ sources. That said, because “[l]iberty can only be exercised in a system of law which safeguards order,” Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 559, 574 (1965), the privilege must give way to imperatives of law enforcement in exceptional cases.
Were the leak at issue in this case less harmful to national security or more vital to public debate, or had the special counsel failed to demonstrate the grand jury’s need for the reporters’ evidence, I might have supported the motion to quash. Because identifying appellants’ sources instead appears essential to remedying a serious breach of public trust, I join in affirming the district court’s orders compelling their testimony. ”
There is simply no innocent explanation for Fitzgerald ‘s actions – or inactions – in this case. Judges ,after reviewing his evidence, UNANIMOUSLY concur that a crime ,a serious national security crime has taken place. Fitzgerald , with the great support of the media and his friends at ADL , has pursued trivial charges against Libby ,a major player in the alleged crime . He is doing same in this ridiculous quibbling over what Rove told Cooper. He has secured the cooperation of Cheney staffers David Wurmser and John Hannah , ex-WH. Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, and has had the full cooperation of the State Dept. and CIA. Fitzgerald has vaccumed up the evidence and now wants to throw away the key , through disingenuous claims of “national security”. The skunk trail leads to AIPAC and Mossad and he ain’t go’in there.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 3 2005 20:18 utc | 6
uncle
after spending my time as a jurisprudential junkie – i too firm feel that that catholic hero has completely sidelined what is the major crime & given the facts, the facts he & the court possess – it is surprising or on the other hand, absolutely consistent
Posted by: r’giap | Dec 3 2005 20:37 utc | 7
follow the money?
……….
The 15-month proconsulship of the CPA disbursed nearly $20 billion, two-thirds of it in cash, most of which came from the Development Fund for Iraq that had replaced the UN Oil for Food Program and from frozen and seized Iraqi assets. Most of the money was flown into Iraq on C-130s in huge plastic shrink-wrapped pallets holding 40 “cashpaks,” each cashpak having $1.6 million in $100 bills. Twelve billion dollars moved that way between May 2003 and June 2004, drawn from accounts administered by the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The $100 bills weighed an estimated 363 tons.
……….
this all just gets worse and worse
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 3 2005 20:45 utc | 8
yes, anna missed, even the conservativs are screaming – tho they are past masters of waste – the pure scope & depth of the waste in iraq in human & financial terms is beyond even the darkest of their imaginings
imagine annamissed, these poor conservative’s nights are full of nightmares of little chinamen in hangchow, peking, shanghai buying their country in a stolen moment
the conservatives are first to protect their own purse but here any effort on their part is doomed to failure – the junta is now on some of the finest crack known to man & they’re going to go to hell where the fires will burn in eternity as the very reverend jerry falwell has already determined in some fundraising drive or another
can you imagine the erections on the head of the five families of new york about those crates of cold cash & it is true i wouldn’t be totally surprised if they are not involved at some level or another in the new industry, that is, the destruction of iraq
Posted by: r’giap | Dec 3 2005 21:03 utc | 9
The Physician and the Rabbi
A old Jewish rabbi was sweeping out his house after a sand storm,
and stepped on a scorpion that had hid in the corner. It stung his foot.
“G-d damn you!” the rabbi shouted, then his eyes watered and his
ears flamed, not from the sting, but with embarrassment for having
used his Lord’s name in vain. He limped about to bind his sore foot.
Then seeing the still living scorpion, he hatched a clever plan.
“I will bind your claws, then see that you never sting me again!”
With that, he bound the scorpions claws with broom straw, and
remembering the ancient Hebrew wisdom to keep his enemies
close, he strung the scorpion with burro hair and hung it around
his neck, where he could keep a close eye on it.
But his foot sorely bothered him, and it became greatly infected.
The rabbi hustled himself off to the physician that very afternoon.
“Rabbi, you have a serious infection!” the physician mused.
“Yes, I have stepped on a scorpion,” the rabbi explained.
“Here, I ‘ll give you a powerful antibiotic to kill the venom,” and
then the physician gave the rabbi several jabs from his kit.
But no sooner had the rabbi returned home, than he saw not one,
now it’s two scorpions scrurrying along the walls in the shadows!
“G-d damn you both!” he yelled without any embarrassment.
His Lord had healed him with the physician’s balm, and now
the Rabbi trusted it was his right to be free from scorpions.
He quickly trussed their claws with broom straw, and strung
them on the burro hair garland about his neck. All was well.
That night, the rabbi had a fierce dream, of raging fires and
weeping women. He broke into a sweat, thrashing in his bed,
which woke up the sleeping scorpions around his neck, and
being rather suffocated and choking on the rabbi’s salty dew,
they stung him repeatedly on his hairy chest.
The rabbi awoke in agony, pulling at his nightshirt for breath.
If he took the scorpions from around his neck, they would
get underfoot again, and he couldn’t afford to be lame, it
would mean he couldn’t walk to the temple on sabbath.
So the very next morning, off the rabbi ran to the physician.
“I’m sorely vexed with scorpion venom,” the rabbi cried.
“You must give me a more powerful antibiotic!”
The physician examined the rabbi’s neck and jumped back
in shock. “Rabbi, you have three scorpions about your neck!”
The rabbi admonished, ‘you must hold your enemies close’,
explaining he could not afford to be stung on his foot again.
The physician, out of respect for the rabbi’s principals,
but also knowing the old fart wouldn’t budge an inch,
gave him several jabs of sugar water, and sent him off.
“Be sure to pick up some insecticide on your way home!”
The rabbi stopped by his grocer to buy tomatoes and lemons,
and at the register remembered, “Give me some pesticide!”
Then he scrurried back to his house, and liberally applied
the poison around the walls and in every nook and cranny.
Suddenly, dozens of scorpions came out of hiding from
where they had once only benignly picked up the crumbs
from the rabbi’s table, waiting in the dark while he slept.
“G-d damn you all!” the rabbi shrieked, and with his broom
thrashed and smashed the scurrying scorpions to a pulp.
Then feeling remorseful, but ever mindful of his enemies,
he picked up the survivors, and one by one, carefully bound
their claws and strung them on the burro hair garland that
he wore about his neck.
That night the rabbi dreamed not of flames and weeping
women, he dreamed he walked in Hell itself, the ground
beneath his burning feet blistering them into bloody boils,
his hair on fire, his eyes burnt black. His breathing labored.
The still living scorpions, vexed with suffocation, salt sweat,
the poison and the thrashing rabbi, began to sting and sting.
The rabbi awoke with his chest a beehive of bloody welts.
At dawn the next morning, unable to wait a moment longer,
the rabbi scurried to the physician’s house and pounded on
the door. “Wake up, doctor!” he wailed, “You must cure me!”
The physician was rather cross at being woken so early,
and probably should have bit his tongue, but he didn’t.
“You old fool!” the doctor chided, “You’re wearing your
disease about your neck. I gave you sugar water jabs,
because there is no medicine for the disease of ego!”
Suddenly the rabbi felt a cool wind from the mountains,
fresh with the scent of pine trees and sparkling waters.
He rushed home and burnt his house to the ground,
throwing the garland of living scorpions into the fire.
“There, G-d damn you!” he cursed, then turned on his
heels and marched off alone, out into the wilderness.
Somewhere in the vastness of back of beyond, G-d
found the rabbi at last, alone in a cave. G-d felt pity
for the poor fool, and gave the rabbi the great gift
of compassion, one night while he sat by the fire.
And ever after that, the rabbi slept with the scorpions.
His people would visit him in his cave, to pour out their
troubles, their neighbor stole this, and their neighbor
transgressed that. Then they would whisper, as they
walked back home, what a saint the rabbi must be!
Saint? No. The rabbi slept content, assured that his
G-d would provide him his every need. And for the
scorpions? Well, they never stung the rabbi again.
Posted by: Auntie Zion | Dec 3 2005 21:32 utc | 10
Someone off their meds again perhaps??
Anyone else a bit agitated by those missile stories?? I seem not quite the same as before I read them last night – linked here by our favorite Uncle, from whatreallyhappened.com.
Here’s a fine meditation for your weekend edification. (Christ, who wrote that sentence!! Apologies 🙁 )
Observing political and economic discourse in North America since the 1970s leads to an inescapable conclusion: The vast bulk of legislative activity favours the interests of large commercial enterprises. Big business is very well off, and successive Canadian and U.S. governments, of whatever political stripe, have made this their primary objective for at least the past 25 years.
Digging deeper into 20th century history, one finds the exaltation of big business at the expense of the citizen was a central characteristic of government policy in Germany and Italy in the years before those countries were chewed to bits and spat out by fascism. Fascist dictatorships were borne to power in each of these countries by big business, and they served the interests of big business with remarkable ferocity.
…
By exploring the disturbing parallels between our own time and the era of overt fascism, we can avoid the same hideous mistakes. At present, we live in a constitutional democracy. The tools necessary to protect us from fascism remain in the hands of the citizen. All the same, North America is on a fascist trajectory. We must recognize this threat for what it is, and we must change course.
Fascism then. Fascism now?
Posted by: jj | Dec 3 2005 21:48 utc | 11
@jj – that missle story is not a missle story but a story of two M113 with TOW launchers (ground to ground about 2500m) but without the actual TOW) being ferried into the wrong direction.
I don´t see any trouble with that.
But that piece you linked to is interesting – the economics are decisive. But most folks (even her) miss that connection.
(See Iraq dicussions)
B-, as I noted in response to Noisette, we’re a bit umm…apprehensive around these parts about now…that story appeared around the same time as this, that I believe Uncle also linked to:
Pilot Reports ‘Missile’ Fired at Jetliner Near LAX (11/28/05)
FBI agents and Homeland Security officials spent the weekend investigating the report of a possible missile fired at an American Airlines plane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport.
Sources tell ABC News the pilot of American Airlines Flight 621, en route to Chicago, radioed air traffic controllers after takeoff from LAX. He told them a missile had been fired at the aircraft and missed.
The plane was over water when the pilot said he saw a smoke trail pass by the cockpit.
FBI agents believe it was a flare or a bottle rocket, but say they may never know if that’s what it actually was.link
For more insight into why we’re edgy, here’s the tale of a non-violent utterly innocent youngster framed by FBI under Patriot Act for torching of SUV dealerships in SoCal. The only good news is that it’s still sufficiently rare that it got major play in new Newsweek. The Story is that the State Political Police Agencies are infiltrating eco-conscious groups, and possibly setting people up, or possibly staging actions to raise threat of so-called terraism to rationalize increased violence against them. 60’s Redux but w/radically increased prosecutorial abilities to destroy them. Apologies & Deceptions
Posted by: jj | Dec 3 2005 22:29 utc | 13
Someone off their meds again perhaps??
it wasn’t me! but i do have the flu…
Posted by: annie | Dec 3 2005 22:57 utc | 14
actually, that was a joke, i am probably one of the only people here who couldn’t write that if i tried.
Posted by: annie | Dec 3 2005 22:59 utc | 15
No, not you Annie!! Remedy for flu that works immediately, if I may repeat myself. Get a vegetable juicer, grapefuits, celery & a bag/bottle of cream of tartar. Juice 1 grapefuit (no peel), 4 celery stalks (3 if organic) & stir in pinch of cr. of tartar. I drink 4 glasses/day if ill, or on the verge. You should notice the difference Immediately. I saw someone stop her contintuous coughing in 10 mins.
Onward, if I may…
Karen K. points us to JackAss Party cand. for Pres. in ’08. Va. gov. Mark Warner – only gov. to be invited to Bilderberger Conference. They found him acceptable… …so we won’t, but it’s all rigged so that’s irrelevant. The popular choice will “scream”!!
We see it in Presidential candidate and the Democrat’s one real chance for the 2008 Presidency, Virginia Governor Mark Warner, who says “the debate should focus on how to finish the job; that Sunni Muslims and Iraqis in general should be involved in reconstruction; and that the United States must convince more allies to help.”
Warner is the Democratic chance for the White House because of the political airgap between Mark “we don’t need more troops in Iraq” Warner and Hillary “we do need more troops in Iraq” Clinton. Warner gets points for reflecting the public mood on Iraq while satisfying the establishment’s need to remain in Iraq, control its politics, finances, security and energy policies.
Just to be clear, by “establishment,” I am referring to the big government, big oil, and big military-industrial-congressional complex that is actively strangling the last bit of life out of an already unconscious American Republic.
Mark Warner attended the 2005 Bilderburger meeting in Italy. He was the only governor to do so this year, and I think they approved. Thus vetted, his interest in the Presidency is now revealed, and his campaign theme may well be “A Wish for America” or “Hope Rising.”link
Posted by: jj | Dec 3 2005 23:20 utc | 16
Tom Engelhardt has a brilliant piece in Asia Times.
Its conclusion:
In the end, ignore (if you can) the whirlwind of withdrawal language that will turn all sorts of non or semi-withdrawal schemes into something other than what they are, and try to keep your eyes on those shoals of reality. This is not Vietnam, which happened in slow-time. This war, as the historian Marilyn Young claimed in its first weeks so few years ago, is “Vietnam on crack cocaine” and, whatever anyone is saying now, it’s a fair bet that events will outpace all administration plans and fantasies in the explosive year to come.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Dec 3 2005 23:54 utc | 17
New Allegations of Security Contractor Killings in Iraq
(C) MAKIDJ EXPRESSES GRAVE CONCERN THAT “THESE GUYS WERE ON THE WAY HOME AND DECIDED THAT THEY NEEDED TO KILL A FEW IRAQIS JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT—COWBOYS AND MURDERERS LIKE THESE [EXPLETIVE DELETED] ARE GOING TO UNDERMINE THE ENTIRE EFFORT IN IRAQ. THEY HAVE STAINED THE NAMES OF THE US MILITARY PERSONNEL WHO HAVE BEEN KIA OR WIA IN IRAQ. IF I WAS [IRAQI] I’D BE TRYING TO KILL THESE [EXPLETIVE DELETED] ‘CONTRACTORS’, TOO!”
And as the Iraqi Army and Police (loyal colonial troops one and all) stand up and our boys ‘stand down’ (never less than 60,000-100,000 still there though …) what’s going to happen to the 100,000+ mercenaries (security contractors) over there ? Will their numbers decrease or increase ?
Apparently it would seem former soldiers and paramilitaries from certain ,Latin American, countries are becoming the new favourite for mercenary (security contractor) recruitment in Iraq because of their more relevant, ‘experience’ …
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 4 2005 0:37 utc | 18
Christians must fight against this wicked secularization of Christmas.
Posted by: slothrop | Dec 4 2005 0:52 utc | 19
Assuming, Robt. Scheer got a deservedly fat pension, etc. when inc. reactionary LA Times fired him, we may be the beneficiary. Check out this new zine he’s editing.link Today’s feature is art. by Orville Schell on China. Much else of interest as well.
Posted by: jj | Dec 4 2005 2:54 utc | 20
Russian News and Information Agency
Russia to Build First Floating Nuclear Plant
MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and the New England Republic [breakaway former USA states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine] have signed an $86.5-million contract for construction of the world’s first floating nuclear power plant, Vladimir Uryvsky, deputy department head at the Federal Nuclear Energy Agency, told the newspaper Trud.
The Bath Iron Works in Maine will build the ship body, and Russia will be responsible for the nuclear power block. The plant will look like a ten-story 140m-long and 30m-wide floating building, with a displacement of 21,000 tons.
The floating nuclear plant is to be berthed in Portland, Maine, in the New England Republic, to supply electricity and heat to NER towns and cities along the Canadian border. The plant will have a 70-megawatt capacity and a maximum thermal capacity of 150 gigacalories per hour, enough for a population of 200,000. Construction is to begin in 2006, and end in 2011.
Uryvsky said the 6-billion ruble ($208.84 million) project would be recouped in 12 years with electricity returns of 46 billion rubles and thermal energy returns of 61 billion. Accrued profits are expected to top 65 billion rubles during the plant’s exploitation.
The plant will use the closed technological cycle and multiple hermetic protection. The energy block will have five independent safety barriers, more than those on a nuclear submarine or icebreaker, Uryvsky said.
Such plants will soon be in demand across Siberia and much of the Far East, which are increasingly short of energy. The leaders of the Russian nuclear energy sector and the administrations of the Chukotka autonomous area and the Kamchatka region have signed declarations of intentions on the construction of similar power plants. Canada, Indonesia, India and several other countries have expressed interest in the New England project.
Governors of NER are in the process of preparing financing for the project and negotiating with the US EPA and Energy Departments for licensing and permission to build an electrical intertie tying into the US Northeast power grid. However, spokespersons close to the Bush Administration have said, off the record, “This breakaway NER nuclear project shall not stand.”
Greenpeace representatives are still preparing a position paper, but vow to fight the proposed New England Republic nuclear plant, in favor of solar energy, and reusing toilet tissues twice.
Posted by: Grussen Andovsky | Dec 4 2005 3:44 utc | 21
Only in America…. Student Suspended After Removing Camera From Bathroom
Pano…ahh, fuck it.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 4 2005 3:46 utc | 22
Fisk
Yet still they avoid the “Israel” question. The Arab princes in Syriana – who in real life would be obsessed with the occupation of the West Bank – do not murmur a word about Israel. The Arab al-Qa’ida operative who persuades the young Pakistani to attack an oil tanker makes no reference to Israel – as every one of bin Laden’s acolytes assuredly would. It was instructive that Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 did not mention Israel once.
So one key issue of the Middle East remains to be confronted …
Americans are ready to discuss the United States’ relationship with Israel. And America’s injustices towards the Arabs. As usual, ordinary Americans are way out in front of their largely tamed press and television reporters. Now we have to wait and see if the media boys and girls will catch up with their own people.
Now we have to wait and see ..
(but don’t hold your breath)
Posted by: DM | Dec 4 2005 6:31 utc | 23
Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake German Citizen Released After Months in ‘Rendition’ (Well, I wouldn´t call it a “Mistake”)
The CIA, working with other intelligence agencies, has captured an estimated 3,000 people, including several key leaders of al Qaeda, in its campaign to dismantle terrorist networks. It is impossible to know, however, how many mistakes the CIA and its foreign partners have made.
Unlike the military’s prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — where 180 prisoners have been freed after a review of their cases — there is no tribunal or judge to check the evidence against those picked up by the CIA. The same bureaucracy that decides to capture and transfer a suspect for interrogation– a process called “rendition” — is also responsible for policing itself for errors.
The CIA inspector general is investigating a growing number of what it calls “erroneous renditions,” according to several former and current intelligence officials.
One official said about three dozen names fall in that category; others believe it is fewer. The list includes several people whose identities were offered by al Qaeda figures during CIA interrogations, officials said. One turned out to be an innocent college professor who had given the al Qaeda member a bad grade, one official said.
jj, i will be dragging myself to the store tomorrow for the ingredients. what does anyone ever use cream of tartar for anyway? i’ve saved your recipe for good.
slothrop,sent out the santa link to some true believers , thanks
Posted by: annie | Dec 4 2005 9:46 utc | 25
catching up on kuntsler, and while not mentioned as such, a nice screed on exceptionalism:
Roman Hruska, who said, memorably: “There are a lot of mediocre people in America who ought to be represented.”
Now Hruska has been reincarnated in Senator Charles (“Chuck”) Grassley of Iowa, who said the following a few days ago:
“You know what? What makes our economy grow is energy. And Americans are used to going to the gas tank (sic), and when they put that hose in their, uh, tank, and when I do it, I wanna get gas out of it. And when I turn the light switch on, I want the lights to go on, and I don’t want somebody to tell me I gotta change my way of living to satisfy them. Because this is America, and this is something we’ve worked our way into, and the American people are entitled to it, and if we’re going improve (sic) our standard of living, you have to consume more energy.”
……………….
While I doubt that the President and his posse are too dim to comprehend the energy trap we’re in, there certainly is plenty of plain stupidity in the rest of our elected leadership, of which Senator Grassley’s remarks are Exhibit A. To be more precise, actually, Grassley’s statement displays something closer to childishness than sheer stupidity. It comprises a set of beliefs or expectations that are unfortunately widespread in our culture, namely, that we should demand a particular outcome because we want it to be so. This is exactly how children below the age of reason think, in their wild egocentricity, and it is the hallmark of mental development to grow beyond that kind of thinking. But the force of advertising and other inducements to fantasy are so overwhelming in everyday American life that they may be obstructing the development of a huge chunk of the population, something that becomes worse each year, as proportionately more adults fail to grow up mentally. This state-of-mind is made visible in Las Vegas, our national monument to the creed that people should get whatever they want.
…………….
link
…………….
So I was thinking last night(and was going to write something on it), that so much behavior from the administration does indeed, strike me as childish — I decided, because I have 3 of them myself, that they should’nt be used as a metaphorical devise — because they have an excuse, in that they are children.
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 4 2005 10:20 utc | 26
Update on the Wilkes $cam : Deeper into the Wilkes/MZM scandals . A conundrum wrapped in an enigma, stored in a hall of mirrors, where each door opens a thousand more…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 4 2005 13:15 utc | 27
Different era, same song.
Nina Simone and Langston Hughes, right (write?) on the money as ever:
Mr Back Lash, Mr Back Lash
Just who do think I am?
You raise my taxes, freeze my wages
And send my son to Viet Nam…
Posted by: Dismal Science | Dec 4 2005 14:36 utc | 28
“Only in America…. Student Suspended After Removing Camera From Bathroom”
Lisa interrupts Willie while he’s mopping up the floor, and asks to see some of his security tapes. At first, Willie tries to deny the existence of the tapes, but he comes clean when Lisa points out the fully exposed cameras mounted on the ceiling.
Willie leads Lisa to the video room, which is almost as well-stocked with surveillance equipment as SNPP’s.
Lisa: Why does the school need to watch us all the time?
Willie: School?
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 4 2005 17:02 utc | 29
anna – when you stand in line at the airport and the plane flight crew passes you, going through the same security routine you do, twice a day if they have to change planes, and every day, 240 days a year … consider this.
that captain and co-pilot aren’t making any more money than you are, anymore. they live in motels and bars most of their lives. they don’t even fly the plane, it’s been entirely automated. oh, they taxi out, alright, and push the throttles forward to max, then they watch the air speed, and pull back on the yoke, just to get airborne.
after that, it’s push the autopilot button, type in the three letter destination code, and then spend the rest of the flight asleep. while you’re anxiously wondering at the state of the airplane, they’re sitting, bored out of their minds, asking each other, ‘what’s the autopilot doing now?’
ask any pilot how many times they’ve woken with a start, to see the co-pilot asleep alongside them.
then, a few minutes after the autopilot brings the plane into ils at your destination and you’re off on the downwind leg, the pilot announces, as casually as if he’s been flying the plane all along, ‘we’ll (sic) be landing in blah, blah minutes, the weather is blah,blah’ and have a nice day’. just ten seconds before the plane hits the tarmac, the autopilot light goes off, and your flight crew gets to feather the yoke back for the touch down. the braking is automatic.
endless hours of colossal boredom for ten seconds of terror, is how your pilot would describe it.
so you might say, anna, the bushco boys seem to be acting like children to us. but that’s only because we’re not inside the cockpit with them, watching an autopilot hell of belly-bumping massive egos and banks of red phones screaming, handlers pushing and shoving, script writers mish-mashing and pollsters punditing, papers flying … and all the time asking themselves, ‘what’s the f(*&’g autopilot doing now?”
Posted by: Grant Andover | Dec 4 2005 17:30 utc | 30
I recommend the extensively annotated account by Chris Floydof the use of Death Squads, currently in Iraq (and Colombia) and formerly in Central America? This is the nitty-gritty of the way our government pursues “freedom” and “liberty” (for American corporations). Floyd quotes the Max Fuller piece also discussed in the article r’giap links to at uruknet.
Chris Floyd’s concluding paragraph:
This bi-partisan policy has been remarkably consistent for more than half a century: to augment the wealth and power of the elite, American leaders have supported – or created – vicious gangs of killers and cranks to foment unrest, eliminate opponents and terrorize whole nations into submission. The resulting carnage in the target countries – and inevitable blowback against ordinary Americans – means nothing to these Great Gamesters; it’s merely the price of doing business. Bush’s “incompetence” is just a mask for stone-cold calculation.
Posted by: mistah charley | Dec 4 2005 17:47 utc | 31
What’s going on with California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson?
The California voting machine test is on again, off again.
He gives Black Box Voting a Nov. 30 deadline, then tells the press he has no idea where the Nov. 30 date came from.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 4 2005 18:02 utc | 32
@Annie, it’s essential apparently. It provides I believe it’s potassium, or some such.
Posted by: jj | Dec 4 2005 18:07 utc | 33
the fuller article – & as mistah charley sats – –have mercy on our souls, if any
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 4 2005 18:34 utc | 34
Zbigniew Brzezinski on the dangers from Bush’s rethoric.
President Bush has equated Islamic radicalism with communism. Is the comparison sound? Is it wise?
No – it is stupid and dangerous.
truly something diabolical from rupert murdoch on crooks & liars – i imagine a trailer for a new reality show – really, diabolical in a way it is articulated & engineered – Sunday, December 04, 2005
Trading Spouses: This is a scary video
Posted by: r’giap | Dec 4 2005 22:45 utc | 40
I know to many here this story is just preaching to choir… but I would like to register my disagreement with the meme that gets repeated here sometimes (viz. an election has to be “close” to be stolen). Control of the apparati means that actual voter sentiment and reported results are two entirely unrelated animals.
I’ve said this before, but unless or until this situation is addressed and remedied, every other issue we debate here is moot.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 4 2005 22:54 utc | 42
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Trading Spouses: This is a scary video
Posted by: r’giap | Dec 4 2005 22:59 utc | 43
Giap re the scary video, that is just mental illness and delusion, just a bit like what all the war mongers suffer from.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Dec 5 2005 0:32 utc | 44
If that is the video of the “God Warrior” woman (I’m sorry, the video wouldn’t load on my feeble machine), I don’t think it is delusion or mental illness. I think it is a well-choreographed publicity stunt. She seems to be in on the gag since she endorsed a figure of herself someone sculpted recently and sold on E-Bay.
Of course, I also thought for years that guests on daytime talk shows were out-of-work actor ringers, too.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 5 2005 1:44 utc | 45
there is nothing rupert or his minions at fox are incapable of doing to demean, degrade & destroy
humanism is obviouslly offensive to mr murdoch et famille – both on ethical & financial terms
this is really the world of the ‘day of the locust’ & ‘death in the family’
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 5 2005 1:53 utc | 46
“Make Good Money, $5 a Day,
Make Any More, and I’d Move Away”
r’giap, thanks for the max fuller piece, great stuff! you can bet it’s only a moment before the us is also balkanized into 3rd-world conditions, although we here on moa represent the upper 10% of american economic levels, and are probably way too insulated from reality to even care anymore.
try visiting your local men’s shelter.
so i like to roust my kids with a story from the 30’s, the columbia dam builders, working in iraqi conditions for twelve hours a day, made ’25c and found’, a term meaning they got a hot and a cot.
when my kids cry bs, i tell them cattlemen, just a generation earlier, which for us, is a little over a hundred years ago, made 25c a day, a plate of beans and cornpone, and slept on the ground.
(of course, in town, that 25c would buy a steak, all the muffins you could sop up the red-bean gravey with, and a cup of chicory coffee. wow.)
today the average american, which none of us here represents, saves less than 1% of their income, (although in the last year, that’s now negative). 1% of the average american’s wage is $390 a year, a little more than $1 a day left in their pocket.
for that $1 a day, which the average american now no longer even manages to save, they can buy one really crappy oatmeal burger, or a three-finger dip of fries soaked in metsel oil, or a half-can of watery campbell’s chicken soup out of the can, or a pack of ramen eaten raw, or a can of pepsi.
one of the above.
the american dream of economic flight became a rocket ship after 1945. we no longer fly … we’re like a jumbo jet now, *pushed* through the sky at an incredible burn-rate, with only little drips and sprinkles and trickle-downs keeping most of us from the welfare line. like i said, go visit your local men’s shelter this christmas.
35% of all the earth’s resources we’re devouring, just us, and they are rapidly disappearing as a result. then once the american economic engine flames out, our lifestyles will tip up and auger in so fast, you won’t have time to ‘cry wolf’.
we’re retrograde now, way back to the frontier, those cowboy lawless days of cattle barons and cattle rustlers … and the local towns sheeple. iraq is just another battle of little big horn.
i guarantee nobody’s losing any sleep over it.
Posted by: Larry Ellison | Dec 5 2005 3:17 utc | 47
It’s a phenomenon I’d noticed before, R’Giap. When the Roman Empire needed to take its collective mind off of social injustices, it degraded humans in the arena. This began as a “religious” ritual, but it worked very well to distract people from the unnecessary cost in human life of Imperial expansion. In Mesoamerica, the Toltecs (and later Aztecs) had their own death games (that also began as a religious ritual, probably with the Olmecs) as they began expanding and conquering unnecessarily. Even the British in the heyday of their Empire engaged in blood sports. For the modern Empire, “reality” (a misnomer if there ever was one) television serves the same purpose. It degrades any nobility from life, thereby making the human cost of expansion (“human sacrifice”?) easier to swallow while entertaining and distracting the class of plebs.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 5 2005 3:26 utc | 48
Al Jazeera goes international
The British newspaper The Daily Mirror recently reported that US President George W. Bush had wanted to attack Al Jazeera, an Arab language channel based in Doha, Qatar. The newspaper quoted a source as saying, “[Bush] made clear he wanted to bomb Al Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere.”
The White House immediately denied the report. But whether it is true or not, the fact is, bombing “Al Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere” will now be more difficult as the pan-Arabic station has begun expanding to an international network. Al Jazeera International is set to be launched in February 2006. It will then be the world’s first English-language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East.
Lana Khachan, press officer of Al Jazeera International, told NEWSBREAK in an e-mail interview, “We are excited being the first international news channel operating out of the Middle East.”
Al Jazeera International is opening up three other broadcast news centers, aside from its headquarters in Doha. The broadcast centers will be in Washington, London, and Kuala Lumpur (KL). Up to 30 bureaus will also be set up, including one here in Manila…
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 5 2005 3:56 utc | 49
US Government to Start No Frills “Torture Airways” Airline and Vacation Service
WASHINGTON (AP)–Under siege over the revelations of thousands of secret CIA “torture flights” of freedom fighters to the many secret torture facilities which the CIA and Pentagon have established around the world, Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, has gone on the offensive by announcing that the Bush Administration is starting up a cut-rate “Torture Airways” airline and vacation service when she meets European allies this week.
(Satire)
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 5 2005 3:58 utc | 50
or,
Torturers ‘R Us, and we’re proud of it!
…Far from apologising or admitting error, the US secretary of state is expected to privately tell Europe’s leaders not to make a fuss about CIA activities which, she will argue, form a key part of the post-9/11 “war on terror” to which they all signed up. Administration officials briefing at the weekend told the Washington Post that the American line will be that “we’re all in this together and you need to look at yourselves as much as us … people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”.
Ms Rice’s spokesman, Sean McCormack, suggested last week that European demands for “clarification” of the full scope of the CIA covert programme, made by foreign secretary Jack Straw on behalf of the EU and by the Council of Europe, were disingenuous. “It is the responsibility of governments to explain as clearly as possible to their publics and publics around the world what it is that they are doing,” he said pointedly.
Officials said Ms Rice would emphasise that the US “respects the sovereignty” of its allies. But while that formula appears reassuring, it may be a subtle way of reminding European leaders that they, or their [whose ?] intelligence agencies, either knew or turned a blind eye to what was going on under their noses…
Posted by: Outraged | Dec 5 2005 4:32 utc | 51
Giap re the scary video,
It seemed to me the fairly anodyne ranting of someone who wants to be noticed. Get out of my house, she screamed, whilst he filming continued, and her letting it. I don’t know is it was staged or scripted, but the only ‘real’ look was on the part of the fear in the kids’ faces–the social services should pay her a visit for abusing those poor little bastards.
Posted by: theodor | Dec 5 2005 4:52 utc | 52
US Government to Start No Frills “Torture Airways” Airline and Vacation Service
We know that’s satire. If it was real the government would charge full fare, as they currently do to fly wounded soldiers back to the USA 🙁
Cream of Tartar
Is that some kind of ingredient made in the secret prisons of Kyrgestan? Sorry…
“Lotta poor man got the Cumberland Blues
He can’t win for losin’…”
i am experiencing a MOA appreciation moment. have i told you lately how much i love you? maybe having the flu has made me a touch more revealing. this thread alone, from anna missed’s incredible 5:20 post, to jj’s remedy, to r’giaps fantastic links. (LOVE the video!, and the wilks news)mono, can i steal your 10:26 post, i want to post it somewhere oh what’s the point of naming everyone, theo, so glad you’re off hutchins, outrage you are the bomb, where’s scam? b.b.b. i am forever greatful(grateful?) mistah, malooga, i listen sometimes….
i am the ultimate fly on the wall. nothing slips past me(although sometimes things fly over my head). faux, oh, i better shut up
thanks 100xXXXX
Posted by: annie | Dec 5 2005 7:37 utc | 54
@Annie, did you have/get a veggie juicer…and are you feeling better? Amazingly, it works pronto – unless you’re elderly, then it merely reduces length of illness by 2/3rds.
Sadly, doesn’t look like Debs shares your sentiments. He seems to have been seriously ticked off @being called for tarring all of us w/a brush appropriate to the rulers…
Thank God bu$hCo stole WH in ’00….Life was tough in DC til then, as this 10/98 Onion art. reminds us:
WASHINGTON, DC–Taking steps to fill the void that has plagued the American military-industrial complex since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced Tuesday that the U.S. will hold enemy tryouts next week.
Secretary of State Albright answers reporters’ questions about plans to hold open auditions for a new U.S. enemy.
Slated to begin Oct. 26, the tryouts will take place at the Pentagon. More than 40 nations are expected to vie for the role of U.S. adversary, including India, Afghanistan, China, North Korea and Sudan.
The Leading Candidates
“Over the past seven years, the State Department, working closely with the CIA, Congress and the president, has made efforts to establish a longterm state of hostility with a foreign power of consequence,” Albright said. “Unfortunately, these efforts have proven unfruitful. If we are to find a new Evil Empire, we must start taking a more proactive approach.”
Though tryouts are not until next week, Albright said the State Department has already received a number of impressive preliminary proposals.
“We met with the Syrian representative yesterday, and he promised that Syria would house terrorist enemies of the U.S. and stockpile chemical weapons near the Israeli border,” Albright said.link
Posted by: jj | Dec 5 2005 8:10 utc | 55
well , i witnessed the debs drama but decided to watch from the distance while the shit was a flyin’. i’ve been following the links of the cunningham/wilkes/mzm link and it goes on forever. i don’t consider myself elderly but i am past my prime.
i am embarrassed to say i am sipping hot whiskey w/lemon (the lemon is good for the flu!) although a friend brought me soup today i haven’t prepared myself for the recipe yet. my son brought me a candy bar. i love chocolate. tea, lemon, moa, and life. elderly, that is a weird word, someday i will be there.
i am lucky w/age. there is a certain childlike quality that never seems to desert me…
debs will be back, he’s too much a part of the fabric here. men have a way of flexing their testostorone and then don’t know how to reverse themselves. reminds me in a way of billmons retreat. men, i will never be able to figure them out. best to just step to the side when they get their haunches up. everybody calms down eventually. he can hear us . debs….
Posted by: annie | Dec 5 2005 9:13 utc | 56
@annie
Sure, repost my 10.26 if you like. I didn’t think I had written it especially coherently, but if you were able to tease out what I was getting at then I am grateful. And get feeling better already.
I was hoping Debs would have been back by now as well. I offered my apology for my bit in that debacle. Hopefully, he is occupied with positive things and not dealing with a crisis or having a prolonged sulk… our tiff certainly wasn’t worth four or five days of twisted knickers. He’s a valuable contributor here and has to know that occasional differences of opinion do not change that.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 5 2005 9:31 utc | 57
maybe we need to do a call out…
DEBS,,DEBS,,,,COME BACK…..
WE AREN’T WHOLE W/OUT YOU….
Posted by: annie | Dec 5 2005 9:47 utc | 58
theodor
es, yes perhaps i am more taken by modern melodaramatic conventions than i would like & perhaps my relation to rupert is more symbiotic that i would want it to be for my good health
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 5 2005 10:26 utc | 59
@ annie 2:37
You must be in an altered state. As a friend of mine who was an orthodox Jew had engraved inside his wedding ring, “This too shall pass!” Lay down and keep still my child: You sound like Dorothy upon her return to Kansas. 🙂
My cure for the flu? Cayenne capsules until you feel a burn , massive Vit C, citrus , lite diet, liquid, herbs to get the bowels moving. jj’s prescription sounds like it will work fine, though. I would add a little horseradish root into the juice. Marvelous for the mucus membranes, rendering them more porous and helping the body utilize the other elements of the juice.
The usual obscurity surrounds recent deaths in Pakistan, with the
usual low credibility of the official version.
Speaking of low credibility, it seems that Google map of the Wilkes Poway address is not up to date, so
the empty lot reported earlier was based on probably erroneous data. Terrestrial confirmation of aerial reconaissance always seems to be useful before jumping to conclusions or ordering strikes.
Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Dec 5 2005 12:50 utc | 61
I also miss Debbs’essays. The temptation to criticize the perfume while millions suffer is a very human one.
I tried occiloccinum last night to stave off a headache and a queasy achy feeling and it worked. That and the saltine crackers. Placebo effect?
Posted by: gylangirl | Dec 5 2005 16:46 utc | 63
debs come back from wherever you are
& i am so sick & tired of the ‘………..’ used bt the fucking bbc when it is not their own propoganda
if they were honourable in this affair -they would say for example george bush ‘talks’, or rumsfield ‘spoke’ or iraq puppet troops ‘defend’ or pakistani army ‘kills’ or captures’ or amerian troops ‘control’….. etc etc etc
but clearly here what is good for the goose is not good for the gander
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 5 2005 17:08 utc | 64
@Annie – speaking of lemon…and cold winter nights…my latest late evening delight is Hot Lemonade made w/Grade B Maple Syrup in lieu of honey. (Whole Foods bulk Maple Syrup is Grade B, but it’s not nearly as full-flavored as it was last yr, so I got a bottle & will get some direct from Vt. via the web soon.) It’s Exquisite. Grade B is much richer & deeper in flavor. and of course, you can still spike it w/brandy, but do taste it first!
(My flu formula comes from “Foods that Heal” by Bernard Jensen. It will blow your mind that something that sounds so frankly “silly” really “cures the incurable”. Your view of “modern medicine” will instantly join the post-modern age!!)
Posted by: jj | Dec 5 2005 17:41 utc | 65
lemon, cayenne, and maple syrup is a great purifier,cleanser. today i will venture out for ingredients.
Posted by: annie | Dec 5 2005 18:27 utc | 66