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December 24, 2005
Weekend Thread
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Alito Memo in ’84 Favored Immunity for Top Officials
The attorney general should be immune from lawsuits for ordering wiretaps of Americans without permission from a court, Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush’s Supreme Court nominee, wrote in a memorandum in 1984 as a government lawyer in the Reagan administration.
So now we know why Bush wants him on the Supreme Court …
Xceptional Xmas, Happy Hannukah, Kool Kwanzaa, Roaring Ramadan, Funny Festivus & a Nifty New Year from Lupin and Mrs Lupin to all of you lovely lefties from our little village in the hills of Southern France.
Posted by: Lupin | Dec 24 2005 8:46 utc | 2
This kind of sneaked through. Can Congress limit court access? That will be another constitutional case coming up.
Detainees Face Limited Access to Courts
The defense authorization bill approved by Congress this week includes landmark protections for military detainees suspected of terrorist activities from abuse or mistreatment at the hands of their U.S. captors.
But the measure awaiting President Bush’s signature also would limit the access of detainees held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to federal courts. And it would allow the military to use confessions elicited by torture when deciding whether a detainee is an enemy combatant.
I wrote a diary, under my other
pseudonym that I thought I should share here, being as I stole part (the crux) of the erudite comment from here. Forgive me Mono, but I thought it was such as profound thought I had to share the meme. It can be read here:
Storm the Whitehouse!!! : cc the pRes!
My other intention, was to get the international community here involved in my maddness.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 24 2005 9:52 utc | 5
Lupin, thanks for the good wishes.
I extend your greeting and add my own to our fair peers both heard and unheard.
lonesomeG, jj, DeAnander, vbo, jj, debs, uncle, malooga, billmon, b real, annie and anna missed on our rainy coast, fauxreal in the midwest, swedish kind of death, outraged,rememberinggiap. MarcinGomulka. HKO. jdp, Noisette, Bernhard, even you and me. If the rest of you would post from time to time it would be easier to remember y’all! Now there is an easy list they can use to track us down!
So, to all of our moon of alabama community, thanks and best wishes indeed.
Posted by: jonku | Dec 24 2005 10:17 utc | 6
Perhaps, while sitting at your kitchen table w/friends family and loved ones in the next few days we can keep New Orleans in our thoughts and prayers.
Perhaps the World Ends Here
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat
to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it
has been since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teeth at the corners.
They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be
human. We make men at it, we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our
children. They laugh with us at our poor falling-down selves and as
we put ourselves back together once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the
shadow of terror. A place to celebrate the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for
burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering
and remorse. We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end here at the kitchen table, while we are laughing
and crying, eating of the last sweet bite.
— Joy Harjo, from The Woman Who Fell From The Sky , 1994
Best wishes to you all. Thanks for making the “Moon” part of my day.
Take care of yourselves – and each other.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 24 2005 11:22 utc | 7
Puke. On now, Cspan2 The southern Baptist Conservative Convention w/Bill (dead black babies) Bennet
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 24 2005 11:58 utc | 8
Oh dear it became xmas morning here an hour ago I better get some kip to prepare for the am’s onslaught. They’re too old to swallow father xmas but young enough to still demand my presence at sparrow fart.
Happy yuletide to fellow mooners. Next year we’ll get em.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Dec 24 2005 12:08 utc | 9
Civil society networks ?
The Power of Strategic Listening:… and why our leaders seem deaf.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 24 2005 12:17 utc | 10
…the peculiar nature of the game…makes it impossible for [participants] to stop the game once it is under way. Such situations
we label games without end.
— Watzlawick, Beavin, Jackson,
Pragmatics of Human Communication
SUSPICION LEADS TO MORE SUSPICION
In brief, once a government has n orders of secret police spying on each other, all are potentially suspect, and to be safe, a secret police of order n plus 1 must be created. And so on,forever.
or
THE BURDEN OF OMNISCIENCE
or: Why you can’t reach the Court
or the Castle in Kafka’s allegories
Every secret police agency must be monitored by an elite corps or secret-police-of-the-second-order. This is because
(a) infiltration of the secret police, for purposes of subversion, will always be a prime goal of both internal subversives and hostile foreign powers and (b) secret police agencies acquire fantastic capacities to blackmail and intimidate others, in and out of government. Stalin executed three chiefs of the secret police in a row because of this danger. As Nixon so wistfully said in a
Watergate transcript, Well, Hoover performed. He would have fought. That was the point. He would have defied a few people. He would have
scared them to death. He had a file on everybody. [Italics added.]
Thus, those who employ secret police agencies must monitor them, to be sure they are not acquiring too much power. Here a sinister infinite regress enters the game. Any elite second order police must be, also, subject to infiltration, or to acquiring “too much power” in the opinion of its masters. And so it, too, must be monitored, by a secret-police-of-the-third-order.
SUSPICION LEADS TO MORE SUSPICION
In brief, once a government has n orders of secret police spying on each other, all are potentially suspect, and to be safe, secret police of order n plus 1 must be created. And so on,
forever.
Thus games without end
Thus, the USSR after 62 years of Marxist secret police games reached the point where the alpha males were terrified of painters and poets.
In spying-and-hiding transactions, worry leads to more worry and suspicion leads to more suspicion. The very act of participating,however unwillingly, in the secret police game–even as victim, or citizen being monitored–will eventually produce all the classic symptoms of clinical paranoia.
The government, on discovering that growing numbers of citizens regard it with fear and loathing, will increase the size and powers of the secret police, to protect itself. The infinite regress again appears.
The only alternative was suggested sarcastically by playwright Bertolt Brecht (who was hounded by U.S. secret police as a communist and by East German secret police, later, as not sufficiently communist). “If the government doesn’t trust the
people,” Brecht asked innocently, “why doesn’t it dissolve them and elect a new people?” No way has yet been invented to elect a new people, so the government will instead spy on the existing people with increased vigor.
Every secret police organization is engaged in both the collection of information and the production of misinformation, euphemistically
called “disinformation.” That is, you score points in the secret police game both by hoarding signals (information units)–hiding facts from competitors–and by foisting false
signals (fake information units) on the other players. This creates the situation I call Optimum SNAFU, in which every player has rational (not neurotic) reasons for suspecting that each and all
may be trying to deceive him, gull him, con him, dupe him and generally misinform him. As Henry Kissinger is alleged to have said, anybody in Washington who isn’t paranoid must be crazy.
Such is the neuro-sociological “logic” of a Disinformation Matrix. It is, as Paul Watzlawik has demonstrated, the logic of schizophrenia.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 24 2005 13:40 utc | 11
love & force to you all
you are part of a community of resistance
i give thanks to you, all, without exception
& workwise b hpe you all on certain ground
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 24 2005 13:58 utc | 12
I’m an atheist so it’s happy holidays to you wise, indefagitable mooners and a hearty FUCK YOU to the despicable war criminals running my country and the NSA technician reading this post.
Posted by: ran | Dec 24 2005 14:15 utc | 13
Merry Christmas to everyone…believers or not…Future of the world just does not look very bright to me at the moment but world may very well survive this generation as it survived many others before. Hopefully we’ll all get those little signs “along the road” to tell us where to look and how to understand events and what to do with our lives in the midst of this mess. All the best people! We Serbs will celebrate “our” Christmas on January 7 though…
Posted by: vbo | Dec 24 2005 14:16 utc | 14
The very best of this season to everyone here at the Moon.
Don’t post much but am here every day and appreciative of y’all. Nice to have the occasion to say so.
Interesting idea Uncle $cam. I haven’t voted yet but the way I’ve been feeling lately, your second choice might be my answer. I’ll give it more thought.
While over there at Kos I picked up on the disclosure “UMass Mao library book story is a hoax.” I feel somewhat ambivalent as I know this type of thing isn’t beneath them and it was a good warning shot that might have helped more Americans to wake up. Can’t use it now.
Posted by: Juannie | Dec 24 2005 14:18 utc | 15
my dear Juannie,
and how do we know the hoax is not a hoax? see the pandora box boy king has opened?
“Reality is what you can get away with”, and we are in a reality war!
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 24 2005 14:28 utc | 16
whatever the reason is you choose to celebrate these days, they are always a time to be with family and for just a little while make believe that we have a chance. It is darkest before dawn so just maybe we will make it.
Thank you to everyone who posts here, I come here every day and really appreciate the comments of all and especially those who put a lot of thought and effort into them. I only wish I were smart enough to write like you.
dan
Posted by: dan of steele | Dec 24 2005 14:42 utc | 17
Remember Christian Bailey? of lincon group fame? Just got the following in an e-mail:
It was astounding enough for Washington’s political elite: last month they discovered that the man at the heart of a scandal over the planting of US propaganda in Iraqi newspapers was a dapper but unknown 30-year-old Oxford graduate who had somehow managed to land a $100 million Pentagon contract. What is even more remarkable however, after an investigation by The Times, is that just ten years ago Christian Bailey, whose US company is under investigation for planting fake news stories in Iraqi newspapers, was a nerdy, socially awkward English school-leaver called Jozefowicz.which leads here:
Godalming geek made millions running the Pentagon’s propaganda war in Iraq
Can voutch for the site, but interesting none the less…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 24 2005 15:34 utc | 18
b, and others, w/ regards to the UMass Mao library book story, it sounds like classic 101 psyops to me…
Blame hoax on the lowly student “bad Apple”, while the likely Homeland Security agent “professors” Robert A. Pontbriand ’85, psychology, accepted a position with Lockheed Martin, IS Defense in Alexandria, VA, with the Dept of Defense and Homeland Security. Robert is an active member of the US Army Reserve. and Brian Glyn Williams, whose background smells strongly of OGA (other govermental agency) could very well had cooked up and planted this story in an effort to dupe/ridicule critics of Patriot Act and recent NSA and Pentagon secret spying revelations look credulous, and also conflate this alleged incident with real serious domestic spying events. Wedge talking point issue created! Damn paranoid nut job lefties..
This has Rovian stink all over it…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 24 2005 16:57 utc | 19
Every year for the past few holiday seasons, Christian fundamentalists have raised a stink about how “Happy Holidays” is actually pinko hippie code for “Fuck You” to intolerant Christians. Now that I am aware of that, I would like to wish everyone a very heartfelt “Happy Holidays”.
I’ve been a bit too depressed the past week or so to actively participate much on these boards, but I do want to let you all know that I am still reading and still absorbing all that you regularly offer here. I am grateful to you all for offering news and interpretations, thoughts and ideas, and most of all, hope and community. Even when I am being churlish and disagreeable I value all of your contributions and I wanted you to know that.
@Unca
I am flattered that you thought enough of my observation to incorporate it in your own thoughts and works. You might want to use quotation marks in the future, though. I’m not offended by any means, but someone who has run across both comments might be led to assume that we are the same person. As for your idea, I think that might constitute spamming and actually be illegal. Even if it is not, it is probably as worthwhile as infiltrating the Pentagon and flushing all the toilets simultaneously. The annoyance might be gratifying, but I don’t think it will accomplish much. Still, I admire your moxie and wish you my best.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 24 2005 18:15 utc | 20
Hello everyone. I would like to wish a Merry Christmas to the believers and a Happy Holidays to the non-believers (and believers to be politically correct).
My plans are the usual, a couple of rum and cokes, maybe a Bud, and watching my kids, even the older ones, open some presents, watch the Detroit Pistons game tomorrow and just frigging mellow out.
To our frieneds in other countries, I really appreciate your input and perspective from abroad. It really gives us an alternate view.
b, I would really like to thank you for this forum for my sometimes rambling comments. All, have a good time and while it is hard to put the corrupt Bushie out of mind, try for a day.
Posted by: jdp | Dec 24 2005 18:52 utc | 21
A few weeks ago, I spent a long time trying to research bankruptcy law and ran into a bit of a non-starter when it turned out that no government or public agency actually maintained the statistics that were often cited and used to make and break arguments. I have no background in investigatative journalism and had to avail myself on the kindness of two personal friends (a banker and a reference librarian) to establish that what I needed to find did not exist.
I’m running into a similar problem again.
I turned on my television a few days ago for some background noise and some lightweight info-tainment show was on(I do not recall the title and would be embarrassed to admit I was even watching it in the first place; I think Deborah Norville might have been the hostess). They ran a story that horrified me and I raced to my search engine to get the particulars and post it here. Unfortunately, I can’t find much evidence of the story that was presented and am asking for help here at MoA to verify this.
The story is this: Convicted sex offenders who have completed their sentences are being shipped to an island that is accessible only by a three-hour ferry ride to remain for the rest of their lives. According to the show, the island (spelled variously “MacNeal Island”, “McNeil Island” and “McNeill Island”) is currently home to 110 men and one woman (although I have found evidence that they are upgrading to accomodate 450 people at this time at a place that is not supposed to exist)who have completed sentences for sex offenses, but who have been refused re-admittance into society post facto at the request of a particular California legislator (whose name I also do not recall). The inmates are housed in dormitories on this offshore former nature preserve (there is, apparently an onshore satellite of the facility called Camp Columbia where farm work is performed) and are kept under constant 24-hour video surveillance with no hope for reform or release. They interviewed a few of these inmates and showed footage of the cells in which they are forced to live. It looked pretty abysmal.
I have found evidence that there was a prison facility see: Prologue on a MacNeal, McNeil or McNeill Island located offshore from Washington State, but it has been reported as being closed in 1981.
Is this story true and how is this kind of detention lawful? I’m irritated about the fact that it is being done to convicted former sex-offenders (just as I am appalled at the growing sex offender registries that are continuing to be implemented to fuel people’s hysteria) because, despite any terrible legal precedent these actions produce for the rest of us, this is precisely the sort of group that is easy to dehumanise and nobody wants to defend. I don’t want to resort to the “first they came for the fill-in-the-blanks, but I was not a fill-in-the-blank” argument, but there it is.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 24 2005 19:08 utc | 22
Mono, I heard something about this on KPFA , problem is they have so many shows and I listen to it damn near all day everyday it’s going to be hard to hunt down… I’m hunting for it now, when/if I find something out on it I will post it…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 24 2005 19:37 utc | 23
Venerable Uncle,
I think I will vote“This will get us/you in trouble.” I was seriously considering “What have we got to lose” but feel I might be involving other unsuspecting corespondents of mine if “….get us in trouble” were even a slight likelihood. As I understand their surveillance protocol, one “hit” will generate many more “hits.” It’s insidious.
Besides I have seen too many get-on-the-band-wagon programs fail, for whatever reason.
I lean toward the revelation of truth to more and more people, more and more often, as a possible efficacious way out of the conundrum. The masses proactively protesting has often changed corrupt regimes, sometimes even peacefully.
I think that the revelation has to be that: not just that the politicians are corrupt but that the “military actors and the economic power structures, which ultimately control the formulation, and direction of US foreign policy (Chossudovsky)” must be challenged and exposed. The corporate person has to be exposed as a sham and a scam and when a critical mass of we-the-people understand this and start to more fervently express our outrage, things may again tilt back toward sanity.
Reading and digesting what you and others discuss here supplies my intellectual ammunition in my local campaign to bring these truths to a higher level of awareness in my friends and acquaintances, and maybe even my more broad local community.
With that thought I offer peace and good will to all, regardless. May the coming bifurcation be influenced by the efforts of our hearts. Happy holiday to all.
Posted by: Juannie | Dec 24 2005 19:44 utc | 24
An interesting WaPo story of how commerce money buys congressman buys contracts: Post-9/11 Rush Mixed Politics With Security
The piece doesn´t get to the real problem. Why are companies “persons” that can donate to campigns? One person one vote?
Why isn´t there a hard limit on what people can give. One dollar one vote?
@Uncle the actual story tracing Bailey’s past comes from the London Times. If it’s a good enough source for the Downing St memo then I wouldn’t fault it on this story.
@Monolycus Merry Xmas which as at the very least an agnostic I much prefer to the allegedly politically correct Happy holidays.
Mono you are certainly on the right track with this story it is an issue that many of us particularly parents are conflicted about and one of the chief reasons I fought tooth and nail for custody of my young ‘uns.
That said however in NZ just like everywhere else there has been some incredibly cruel harrassment of ex-inmates as well as fit ups of gay men in the education industry whose actual preference was for a partner of their own age.
It’s an almost ‘perfect opression’ because we all know where we could go to find out more of this stuff ie into the paedophile and rape areas of IRC and Usenet but to do so would almost inevitably result in coming to the attention of the thought police who have successfully fitted up others trying to find the ‘truth'(eg Pete Townsend).
However I hate letting the bastards get away with anything so if I come up with any info sources I will let you know.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Dec 24 2005 22:17 utc | 26
It just occurred to me that my criticism of the usage of Happy Holidays may seem like an implied criticism of people who use it when in my usual bulldozer unthinking manner I had made the comment in the belief that everyone else had the same epiphany about this as I.
I’ll try and explain myself. On the surface it appears that Happy Holidays is way of making what in most Western countries is a national holiday far more inclusive and I don’t fault that. Since the xtians stole the thing from earlier cultures’ celebration of mid-winter solstice and yuletide the same way that the spring fertility rites of Easter were ripped off my preference is to go back to those animist celebrations which are extremely inclusive.
The young fella was watching some piece of xmas crap on the box last week made by that well known advocate of P.C. Dolt Wisney. I didn’t look at it for long but it was a sort of happy holidays fable and included two religious symbols, a cross and a minorah.
That made me stop and think about why this issue of happy holidays had been picked up by BushCo even though it offended his fundie base.
This is really hard to say because being an anti zionist can be misunderstood as being an anti semite. But I will say I would have been more comfortable if in addition to the cross and the minorah there had been symbols of other great religions that have celebrations around this time and who are at least as subscribed to as the Jewish or xtian religion.
It occurred to me that the inclusiveness of happy holidays was being in fact exclusive in that it was an acceptance of the jewish religion as part of the xtian celebration but a rejection of all others.
Food for thought and possibly worth a moon debate on a day when we’re not living so much R.L.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Dec 24 2005 22:36 utc | 27
Merry Christmas all, may we enjoy the lengthening days (peace to all Kiwis now on the day-wane).
I’m still reading, just too spent to write anything worth posting. Thanks for all the light in a dark season.
Posted by: citizen | Dec 25 2005 0:22 utc | 28
evo morales: I Believe Only In The Power Of The People
It must be said, compañeras and compañeros, that we must serve the social and popular movements rather than the transnational corporations. I am new to politics; I had hated it and had been afraid of becoming a career politician. But I realized that politics had once been the science of serving the people, and that getting involved in politics is important if you want to help your people. By getting involved, I mean living for politics, rather than living off of politics. We have coordinated our struggles between the social movements and political parties, with the support of our academic institutions, in a way that has created a greater national consciousness. That is what made it possible for the people to rise up in these recent days.
When we speak of the “defense of humanity,” as we do at this event, I think that this only happens by eliminating neoliberalism and imperialism. But I think that in this we are not so alone, because we see, every day that anti-imperialist thinking is spreading, especially after Bush’s bloody “intervention” policy in Iraq. Our way of organizing and uniting against the system, against the empire’s aggression towards our people, is spreading, as are the strategies for creating and strengthening the power of the people.
I believe only in the power of the people. That was my experience in my own region, a single province the importance of local power. And now, with all that has happened in Bolivia, I have seen the importance of the power of a whole people, of a whole nation. For those of us who believe it important to defend humanity, the best contribution we can make is to help create that popular power.
wishing peaceful empowerment for all peoples (except the alpha males) this holiday season. have a good one!
Posted by: b real | Dec 25 2005 2:34 utc | 30
Not much of a cheese shop:
Well done python takeoff via robotwisdom
Posted by: biklett | Dec 25 2005 4:52 utc | 31
To all of MOA posters and readers, I wish to give a hug and a kiss and a “Hail fellow, well met!” I am aware of all this “newfound awareness” about the politicizing and polarising effect of what western peoples celebrate as “christmas”. However, I wish that folks would just realize that the whole glut of all the celebrations that happpen at this time of year is simply a re-affirmation of the process of life and death, and the hope/belief that there is something more. Look to the druids and other peoples of earlier ages,
throughout the world,and see that they all celebrated something at this time of the year. The brain might lie, but the heart does not.
At the very least, I look at these holidays as a celebration of a common humanity.”God” bless you all.
As an aside to Juannie: I am most glad to see that you are still here among us. I hope that you are still playing your guitar. Yes, I still only post when I am drunk. IN VINO VERITAS!
Years ago,I was playing a one man show in a mall bar in Houston. I was taking a break, and a man comes up and says “You sound great! Give me a call!” So I got home and fished his card out of my pocket,and I said to myself “Who the hell is Ry Cooder?” and threw it away.LOL My knees are still torn up from kicking myself in the ass.
To all the folks that post here because of a belief in a common humanity, I can’t thank you enough.I see the same things and read the same things that you post about, and thank god that you do.There are
many people that depend upon a voice of reason and a beacon of light and sanity. Without you,where would we be? Watching Fox “News”?
Bernard, thank you for hosting this site, and to RGiap, thank you for making me sharpen my wits by making me wade through your volouminous verbosity.lol.
What has become of Jerome?
Helpful Spook?
Annie,Annamist,Uncle,Jdp,Mono,Hanna,Deander,Debs,(The only man who ran for preznit whilst incarcerated),Vbo,Jonku,Dan of Steel(Steely Dan?)Beq,(thank you for all the wonderful art)Lupin(Is there room at the Inn? I promise that I will learn to speak francais. Bye the way , can we speak about this “possumworld”?lol.)Ran,Teuton, and so many others …(i miss those california redheads dancing on the bar}and Alabama!
To you all and all the others that I have missed…
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Posted by: possum | Dec 25 2005 5:53 utc | 32
Thanks possum, all.
—-
Who runs U.S. policy?
Pro-Israel Group Criticizes White House Policy on Iran
In lengthy news releases and talking points circulated to supporters on Capitol Hill, AIPAC describes the Bush administration’s recent policy decisions on Iran as “dangerous,” “disturbing” and “inappropriate.” One background paper suggests that White House policies are actually helping Iran — a sworn enemy of the Jewish state — to acquire nuclear weapons.
The tough words from one of Washington’s most well-connected and influential lobbies come at a difficult time for President Bush, who has been struggling with low poll numbers and growing public discontent over the war in Iraq.
Bush raised AIPAC’s concerns in a recent telephone conversation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair when the two discussed Iran, U.S. officials said.
Well said possum, you might consider drinking more (ha ha, whatever it takes)– and would like to add an — all hail — and blessings –, to those postings and threads both beautiful and insightful and educational, and personal, from so many different perspectives. That gives the moa community its breadth and depth and daily bread and breath.
THANKS ALL & MERRYMENT
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 25 2005 7:56 utc | 34
Seasons Greetings and Happy St. Nicholas Day to all on this wonderful day of getting. And don’t forget to tell someone a Gigantic lie. They’ll love you for it.
Cynically Yours,
pb
Posted by: pb | Dec 25 2005 18:16 utc | 35
Greetings to my distant mysterious friends.
Another marker in the circle dance around the sun. I’ll be watching for snowdrops and camellias blooming soon (we barely get winter in Orygun, just long autumn changing to spring when the sun turns ’round). The creek came up strong and fast last week, but it’s back down to average rainy season levels. I’m trying to finish my spring cleaning (from last year) before I have to call it a wash and try again. I wrote to my family and told them I did my Xmas shopping at Mercy Corps. They still send me “stuff.”
Xtians are fussing over what to call their Druid greenery, moviegoers watch Osiris rise again in the guise of a lion (and Santa handing out weapons), tourism is down in Bethlehem due to inclement weather…
Hold fast to your loved ones, open the heart one more iota, praise Sol:
Ra! Ra! Ra!
Posted by: catlady | Dec 25 2005 18:29 utc | 36
I flicked across to the NYT this am to find a story about the phonetaps and echelon. ie As mooners have been pointing out from the beginning every international call was ‘screened’ (ie tapped) It’s now official. The NYT says so. (lol).
Anyhoo on the way there I came across this which is a story on Pennsylvania rethugs attempting to stifle academic freedom:
“While attending a Pennsylvania Republican Party picnic, Jennie Mae Brown bumped into her state representative and started venting.
Jennie Mae Brown told her Pennsylvania state representative, Gibson C. Armstrong, that she felt a physics professor’s comments in the classroom about President Bush and Iraq were inappropriate.
“How could this happen?” Ms. Brown asked Representative Gibson C. Armstrong two summers ago, complaining about a physics professor at the York campus of Pennsylvania State University who she said routinely used class time to belittle President Bush and the war in Iraq. As an Air Force veteran, Ms. Brown said she felt the teacher’s comments were inappropriate for the classroom.”
Same ole same ole. A much higher proportion of academics at state tertiary institutions are likely to be republican critics than supporters. Instead of accepting the obvious answer which is that people properly trained in critical thinking are unlikely to accept the piffle promoted by mainchancers, in true rethug fashion ‘the problem’ is turned around onto the symptom to preclude any real investigation of the root causes ie that rethug politics don’t follow any rational ethos.
A bloke by the name of Horowitz, apparently a well known reactionary and if he follows the inclinations of the rest of his ilk, a man who has got ahead by telling those in power what they want to hear, has been harrassing state legislatures with a document entitled an”Academic Bill of Rights”.
This document isn’t reproduced in the NYT and while undoubtedly a quick google would turn it up I don’t have the energy or inclination since if it follows rethug methodology it will be the opposite of what the bill’s title implies.
That is it will place restrictions on what can be discussed in classrooms. Natch it will probably be done in such a way that those forced to study economics, business theory or IT won’t be protected from the vicious rightwing tirades of looney conservative iconoclasts, but that is a good thing. I always enjoyed engaging with that brand of moron.
If any of them were silly enough to abuse their position in order to make their point by downgrading the papers of students who didn’t share their point of view, there is always a way to deal with that sort of foolishness.
Anyway none of that matters because it seems that unlike a couple of years ago an article of repression such as this is unlikely to gain any ‘traction’:
“In Pennsylvania, lawmakers are examining whether the political climate at 18 state-run schools requires legislation to ban bias. Mr. Armstrong said he discussed the issue in several conversations with Mr. Horowitz “as an expert in the field” before calling for the creation of a committee.
“But I don’t know if his Academic Bill of Rights is necessary in Pennsylvania,” Mr. Armstrong said in an interview. “Before we have legislation to change a problem, we first have to determine whether the problem exists. If it does exist, the next question is, ‘Is it significant enough to require legislation?’ ”
“So the question I’m asking,” he added, “is, ‘Do we have a problem in Pennsylvania?’ ”
For now, the answer is unclear. While Mr. Armstrong said he had received complaints from “about 50 students” who said they were intimidated by professors expressing strong political views, Democratic members of the committee have called the endeavor a waste of time, and the Republican chairman, Representative Thomas L. Stevenson, seemed to agree.
“If our report were issued today,” Mr. Stevenson said, “I’d say our institutions of higher education are doing a fine job.”
The tide has turned which is great but the naysayer deep down says watch out for the enemy within. Things can only possibly have got as bad as they did with support from the opposition and while the rethugs will be pissed they also know that if they hang in long enough some of their former credibility will return.
This isn’t the case for the wolves in sheep’s clothing though. They know that their immediate future has accusations of hipocrasy, corruption and mainchancing to look forward to. All of which carry the danger of depleting poll numbers.
Experience has taught us that one of the most dangerous things anyone can do in an alleged democracy is get between a mainchancing politician and his votes. These guys are going to move heaven and earth to try and save their asses.
All that means is that while people are enjoying the improved ‘climate’ they need to watch their backs to make sure that old chesnut of TV melodramas doesn’t occur. ie Dr Evil was only ‘winged’ and whilst everyone is patting each other on the back, evil has one final chance to rid the world of our hero which he does before collapsing in a ‘hail of lead’.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Dec 25 2005 19:30 utc | 37
The Higher Standards Tour
Lemme tell you about Iraq.
The US military says they won’t hand over any Iraqi jails or individual detainees
to the Iraqi prison authorities, until they demonstrate higher standards of care.
Higher standards of care!? Is that like some kinda sick Baathist joke?
‘Here, you rag-head sand-nigger, I’ll show you some higher standards of care!’
Whoop-ass! Whoop-ass! Whoop-ass!
‘Now here, clip this here electric cord on your balls, and go stand up on that crate,
I’m gonna sic my police dogs on your brown Arab ass.’
It’s the same kinda shit at Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and secret torture prisons all over
the world, but the US military says they wanna see higher standards of care?!
They got mass graves all over the world dedicated to our standards of care.
Higher standards. Yeah…
Like tapping our phones.
President George W. Bush orders our phone conversations will be monitored
without a legal decree, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is watching the
mosques, the greens and the anti-Fed activists. Anyone who’s not Republican.
But they want higher standards, so they’re tapping straight into US telephone
centers, monitoring everything with high-speed computers, your phone calls,
your business exchanges, bank and credit card transfers, damn, everything!
Calling Saudi Arabia on business? They got your cracker ass!
Donating to an Afghan Relief Fund? FBI doing sneak ‘n peek while you’re at work.
Blogging about you maybe gonna Impeach Bush? ‘Click … click … testing … testing’.
They’re gonna divide this country into two camps. Either you’re a White is Right Christian
cracker with a good government job, or you’re a dark-skin pinko commie in the slammer.
White cracker fat pension … dark commie doin’ time.
Higher standards. Yeah…
You’ve probably seen Prince Charles and Camilla visiting the US awhile back,
transferring some of their hard assets in courier pouches to Bahaman banks,
and doing a little sneak and peek on where they’re gonna retire to over here.
Yeah… West Palm. And now Charles says he wants to be called King George!
That’s right. Our closest allies are monarchies.
But George Bush called him right back, and said the throne’s taken until 2008,
then he’s gonna give Ted Nugent the first shot.
King Ted. Yeah…
You know he’s going to premier his Wanted Ted or Alive 2 next month? Yeah.
“Five city slickers will be forced to change every aspect of their lives when they
try to prove they have what it takes to survive a week in the wilderness with Ted.”
Wilderness my ass. These crackers got a helicopter with steak and lobster
waiting for them just five minutes away. They don’t know what wilderness is.
Wilderness is tryin’ to keep your business goin’ when Wal-Mart is moving in.
Wilderness is tryin’ to make it to Social Security age, when the cost of living
is up and going through the roof, with your paycheck worth less and less in
phoney US dollar play money. That’s what I’m talking about … Wilderness.
Wilderness is having poor relatives calling you for a handout, and everyone
staying away from Uncle Ernie’s funeral, because nobody can afford the bill.
Your money is worth 55% what it was on 9/11, from the Fed printing presses
runnin’ night and day. Runnin’ straight into the stock broker’s pockets. Yeah.
Wilderness is your kid finished college and working at Burger King, sleeping
at home on a couch in your living room, busted for DUI by Homeland Defense
’cause he’s working himself crazy trying to get the first, last and security deposit.
They aren’t even making enough jobs to cover layoffs, much less kids coming up,
but they wanna bring 350,000 foreign H-1B workers in to take the best jobs away.
Wilderness. Yeah…
You know what the only two masters degrees you can get from a community
technical school are? An MBA, that’s right, and a Masters in Criminal Justice.
Either you’re a white cracker with an MBA, so you can be a program manager
for some Homeland Defense contractor, or you’re a dark cracker getting your
Get Out of Jail Free card, so you can run the largest prison system on the planet.
White cracker Defense MBA … dark cracker Prisons MCJ.
Defense, and Prisons. Yeah. America today.
So what are they defending US from?
Defending US from going to prison, as long as we keep shopping, keep paying
our taxes, and stay off the bugged phones, that’s what they’re defending US from.
Get up. Go to work. Go shopping. Go home. And keep your fucking mouth shut.
Yeah. America today. Sounds a lot more like the G-d damn Soviet Union to me!
[Chris Rock throws his microphone to the floor as crowd rises to their feet hooting]
[For more, go to: http://tinyurl.com/97xdn%5D
Posted by: Loose Shanks | Dec 25 2005 21:32 utc | 38
Came across an interesting parallel to current history while finishing up Pakenham’s The Scramble for Africa. At the start of the 20th Century, Germany, a relatively new colonial power with a conservative government in power at the time, was beset by revolutions in their colonies. Domestically, the conservative government should have toppled when the systemic abuses of the German colonies which caused the revolts were uncovered. Right?
Then, to everyone’s surprise, (Chancellor Bulow) rounded on his accusers, and…dissolved the Reichstag….
The ensuing election…came to be called the ‘Hottenton Election’. The Kaiser’s government certainly fought it with a good deal more finesse than they had fought the Hottenton war. As if he were the leader of a parliamentary party (rather than the nominee of a semi-autocratic sovereign) Bulow nimbly turned the colonial disasters to his own political advantage. For two years – ever since the Socialist gains in the election of 1905 – he had lived from hand to mouth in the Reichstag. Now he was determined to rebuild a bloc of solidly pro-government parties, and break the power of his tormentors…
The Centre was the strongest party in the Reichstag, but it was often split on colonial issues…The Social Democrats led by August Bebel were even more split than the Centre. A majority, including Bebel, still stuck to the Marxist equation that imperialism equalled exploitation; and that the cure for colonies was abolition, not reform. But there was also a nagging voice of ‘revisionists’ who claimed that colonialism provided good jobs for German workers and might have a part to play in socialism after all.
Small wonder, then, that Bulow had no difficulty in pulling the colonial rug from under his enemies in the ‘Hottenton Election’ in 1907…The new Reichstag was dominated by the Right…Despite the humiliations of the Herero, Nama, and ‘Maji-Maji’ rebellions and the sickening revelations of atrocities in Togo and Cameroon, Bulow’s colonial policy seemed vindicated.
I’ve had difficulty finding a proper historical parallel to George W. Bush. Calling him “Little Boots” is fun, but he’s not insane like that. Hitler comparisons are excessive and probably not good tactically. But Kaiser Wilhelm II – a childish bully, who loves nothing more than playing soldier? That’s our man.
Posted by: Rowan | Dec 25 2005 23:10 utc | 39
happy xermas – hardly ever comment but lurkalot
this one for unkle skam (womble?)
“In the same network, apparently pursuing the same goal, those who only constitute a part of the network are obliged to be ignorant of the hypotheses and conclusions of the other parts, and especially of their ruling nucleus. The quite well known fact that all information on whatever subject under observation may well be entirely imaginary, or in large part false, or very inadequately interpreted, complicates and renders unsure to a great degree the calculations of the inquisitors; because what is sufficient to condemn someone is not sufficient when it comes to recognizing or using him. Since sources of information are in competition, so are falsifications.
It is in these conditions of its existence that we can speak of a tendency to the falling profitability of control, to the extent that it approaches the totality of social space and consequently increases its personnel and its means. Because here each means aspires and labors to become an end. Surveillance spies on and conspires against itself.
Its principal present contradiction, finally, is that it is surveilling, infiltrating and influencing an absent party: that which is supposed to want the subversion of the social order. But where can it be seen at work? Because conditions certainly have never been so seriously revolutionary, but it is only governments that think so. Negation has been so thoroughly deprived of its thought that it was dispersed long ago. Because of this, it is only a vague, yet very worrisome threat, and surveillance in its turn has been deprived of the best field of its activity. These powers of surveillance and intervention are exactly led by current necessities, which command their terms of engagement, to operate on the very terrain of this threat in order to combat it in advance. [56] This is why surveillance has an interest in organizing poles of negation itself, which it will instruct with more than the discredited means of the spectacle, so as to influence, not terrorists this time, but theories. [57]
http://www.notbored.org/commentaires.html
still the bit of writing that best sums up our age imo
Posted by: drunk as a r*le | Dec 26 2005 2:51 utc | 40
Debs- re horowitz, check out stan goff’s FUN Holiday Action Idea from FERAL SCHOLAR
Posted by: b real | Dec 26 2005 5:05 utc | 41
drunk
thanx. not many could say it so well, eh?
Still, his claim dialectical thought is finished, is, well, “dialectical.”
Posted by: slothrop | Dec 26 2005 16:55 utc | 42