No distinguished Moonart this weekend, but Neil Young’s Living With War and your regular news & views.
Back to Main
April 28, 2006
Weekend OT
Comments
Lets start with some fun.
Al Kamen
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), along with other top House Republicans, was photographed in and around the snappy blue General Motors HydroGen 3 van.
The event followed one by Senate Democrats on Wednesday, who rode in their gas guzzlers to an Exxon station a block from their offices to blame Republicans for high fuel prices.
Hastert, who appeared to have walked to the station, left in the very fuel-efficient vehicle, apparently headed for his office. But he went only a block or so before he got out and stepped into his pre-positioned gas-guzzling armored SUV to take him back to his office. Alert photographers, suspecting a ploy, had followed the speaker and captured the bait-and-switch.
Another few days like yesterday, and Republicans may want to start a Congressional Office of Osteopathy. In the House, it took Republicans eight hours of private meetings and public bickering and name-calling just to agree to the terms of debate for legislation on lobbying (the bill itself was put off until next week). In the Senate, a single Democratic senator hijacked proceedings for nearly five hours as Republicans struggled to pass a war spending bill.
…
In both chambers, GOP unity has all but dissolved in the face of low poll ratings. And in both cases, the dynamic is much the same: The lawmakers on the spending committees — “appropriators” in legislative parlance — are fighting any effort to diminish their power to dole out whatever cash they want. In the House, they oppose reining in their ability to put in anonymous “earmarks” in spending bills for pet projects. In the Senate, they object to stripping out special-interest goodies from the war spending bill.
…and had his sister later write a memoir, Fifth Quarter, in which she said that “George hoped someday to become a dentist…George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession–getting paid to make people suffer.”
from New Republic article by Ryan Lizza
Posted by: beq | Apr 28 2006 18:28 utc | 2
I have been to Zanzibar many times.
This saddens me:
In the US, experts were investigating the possibility that sonar from US submarines could have been responsible for a similar incident in Marathon, Florida, where 68 deep-water dolphins stranded themselves in March 2005.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Apr 28 2006 22:16 utc | 3
here we go again —[Oxy] Limbaugh arrested on drug charges.
More ‘Hillbily Heroin’?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 28 2006 23:09 utc | 4
More than ever before, U.S. consumer retrenchment and resulting recession are required for the commencement of the long-overdue and unavoidable adjustment process, although the Fed is more determined than ever to maintain the boom. At this point, boom-time conditions are sustained only by ongoing massive Credit inflation (dollar debasement), with this inflation/debasement exacerbating the increasingly destabilizing non-dollar speculative flows.
…
The higher energy and commodities prices surge, the greater U.S. Credit expansion and resulting dollar outflows necessary to satisfy (monetize) our dependency. The more foreign asset markets inflate, the greater the tide of speculative outflows to non-dollar markets and assets. With foreign central banks fully loaded to the gills with dollars and not all too tickled about it, it is not an easy exercise to contemplate a backdrop more conducive to a run on our currency. And how ironic would it be if such a run was instigated by our own institutions and citizens, as opposed to our foreign creditors?
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 29 2006 2:48 utc | 5
THREE Stage Terror Drill to Take Place in Chicago: May 2-4
Considering that “drills” were taking place the morning of 9/11 and 7/7 there is always the remote possibility that this is cover for another “inside job”. We pray to God that it is not.
Interesting that massive immigration protests are to coincide on the same dates no?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 29 2006 3:54 utc | 6
since the snow job thread looks to be dead
i’ll place this comment here. instead.
Every day, a handful of people speak, the rest listen. – jerry mander
from thesmokinggun.com: Dick Cheney’s Suite Demands
below you’ll find a copy of Vice President Dick Cheney’s standard “tour” rider. The document is provided to hotels where Cheney will be bunking and lists how the Republican pol’s “Downtime Suite” needs to be outfitted. While the vice president’s requests are pretty modest (no extract-the-brown-M&M demands here), Cheney does like his suite at a comfy 68 degrees. And, of course, all the televisions need to be preset to the Fox News Channel.
…
The items listed below are required for The Vice President’s Downtime Suite
…
All Televisions tuned to FOX News (please let the Advance Office know if it is satellite or cable television)
note the capital T in The Vice President, btw
so is cheney just a really devoted fan of faux news, or does he have a more vested interest in the network?
Radio was the most important mass medium in the Third Reich. A state institution even before the takeover by the Nazis, it was “coordinated” into the Reich Radio Company, which was staffed exclusively by conformist personnel, and its contents and operations were overseen by the Reich Ministry of Propaganda. … Goebbel’s goal of turning the radio into the most important “instrument for influencing the masses” was soon achieved…
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Radio, as the head of the Radio Department in Goebbel’s ministry put it, was “the device for proclaiming the currency fo the National Socialist worldview.”
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Getting the highly diverse German press to toe the Nazi line was a more difficult process.
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The Editor’s Law of October 1933, which elevated journalists to the position of quasi-public officeholders … placed them under the regime’s yoke [and] allowed Goebbels to exert influence in matters of personnel as well. The possibility of working in one’s profession depended on political conformity prescribed by law.
…
After 1933, the press conferences of the Reich government degenerated into little more than the issuing of slogans, an occassion when journalists received orders on what was to be reported in what form and to what extent and what was off-limits. The language rules were extremely detailed and constituted the heart of Nazi control of the press.
— from a concise history of the third reich, wolfgang benz
imagine if the nazi’s, instead of radio, had television to work w/…
Posted by: b real | Apr 29 2006 4:01 utc | 7
I just found out that Harpers has a bit of a blog…so I bring back this offering about revolt @CIA – guys who support Bu$hCo’s kidnapping & torture v. those who don’t & want to be sure that they don’t get prosecuted for this actually illegal stuff. (See below…how close are we to Germany circa you know when…)
An ex-senior agency officer who keeps in contact with his former peers told me that there is a “a big swing” in anti-Bush sentiment at Langley. “I’ve been stunned by what I’m hearing,” he said. “There are people who fear that indictments and subpoenas could be coming down, and they don’t want to get caught up in it.”
…
My source, hardly a softie on the topic of terrorism, said of the split at the CIA: “There’s an SS group within the agency that’s willing to do anything and there’s a Wehrmacht group that is saying, ‘I’m not gonna touch this stuff’.”link
Posted by: jj | Apr 29 2006 6:14 utc | 8
Here’s some weekend brain soup for your saturday morning brunch…
Evolutionary Psychology, Memes and the Origin of War
“There is relatively little respected academic work about a science of social prediction, but in the late 1940s to early 1950s science fiction authors Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov (who were often ahead of their time) wrote speculative stories about the concept, Heinlein referring to ‘social psychodynamics’ (Heinlein 1941, 1953) and Asimov calling it ‘Psychohistory’ (Asimov 1951, 1952, 1953). (‘Psychohistory’ has a more recent use that has nothing to do with social prediction.)
In ‘Memetics and the Modular Mind’ (Henson 1987) I wrote about memetics as a path to social prediction, but while memetics provided an epidemic model for the spread of memes (that is, elements of culture), it didn’t develop as a science of social prediction. In retrospect, the focus was too narrow. The scope had to be widened to include the evolved psychology of a meme’s host in order to predict–given particular environmental circumstances–which memes would flourish and which would die out.
The present article proposes an evolutionary psychology based model of social prediction, particularly for wars and related social disruption such as riots and suicide bombers.”
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 29 2006 6:43 utc | 9
There’s some interesting (Iraq) commentary by Nabras Kazimi on both the US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, (himself and his role in) the recent ouster of PM canadate Jafari, along with some observations on his replacement Nuri al-Maliki.
This story, comes on the heels of the WaPo story by David Ignatious, where the US ambassador appears to be taking credit for the dumping of Jafari. Some curiousity, givin that Condi and Chief Clearing Brush have at the same time singing the praises of Iraqi autonomy, but who listens to them anyway?
According to Ignatious, Kahalizad takes some pride in organizing the anti Jafari effort:
………………………………
When Jafari was renominated by the Shiite alliance in February, Khalilzad warned, initially in this column, that the United States wouldn’t support a government that did not put unity first. Khalilzad helped organize a rival coalition of Kurdish and Sunni politicians that represented 143 seats in parliament, more than the 130 seats of the Shiite alliance that had nominated Jafari. Meanwhile, he began holding marathon meetings with all the Iraqi factions to hammer out the political platform for a unity government.
………………………………
And interestingly this event coincited:
At this time, a wild rumor circulated among the top echelons of the UIA block that had Khalilzad warning of an American-backed military coup should Jaafari not relinquish his candidacy. But this unfounded rumor had an effect, and the morale of the Jaafari camp was squashed, leading the top man to back down.
……………………………….
Khalizads plan was then suppose to acomplish several manuvers :
However, (because) Mr. Allawi failed to deliver at the polls, and the first instinct was to contravene the numbers and bring him back to the top. To do that, Mr. Khalilzad put forward a plan to split the winning Shia block by promising American support to several hopefuls for the prime minister’s job. The natural contender was Ibrahim Jaafari, the current prime minister who hoped to continue his mandate into a four year term. Another was American favorite and acolyte of Mr. Hakim’s, Adel Abdel-Mahdi, and a third was the chairman of the Fadhila party, Nadim Al-Jabiri. Mr. Jabiri was the most ambitious and least talented of the lot, and thus, the easiest to dupe.
On January 20, a meeting was set up between Khalilzad, Allawi and Jabiri. According to sources privy to the discussions, Mr. Jabiri was promised the prime minister’s slot if he could tear away his Fadhila Party faction and join the Kurds, the Sunnis, and Mr. Allawi’s block. Mr. Allawi would later tell his lieutenants that the plan involved breaking off Fadhila and then forcing Mr. Jabiri – freshly out of friends – to deliver his votes to Mr. Allawi’s bid for the top job.
This was a fine intrigue had it been employed anywhere else, but events are unfolding in Iraq that no amount of planning can keep up with: American meddling is no longer understood as a justifiable strategic move to ward off the Iranians, rather it is seen as a move to weaken the Shias at a historical juncture when the denominational components Iraqi nation must decide on toughing it out or parting ways.
………………………….
So, in looking back on all the manipulations in developing a government complicit to US desires, what has been acomplished? At first glance, sure, PM Jafari has been dumped, but at what cost. Reportadly, Alawi is not only not on the road to greater influence, but has also lost his (shoe-in) bid for Vice president — Jabari is on the outs — SCIRI (and US) hopeful Abdel Mahdi also out — and with the canidacy of Miliki, the Sadr trend remains in the in crowd — not to mention that the Sunni influence (or not) over quelling the ongoing insurgency shows no sign of abatement or apeasment over the deal. So they got Maliki.
Kazami has this to say about him:
As recently as a year ago, laughter would have met anyone speculating that Nouri Al-Maliki would one day become a candidate for the prime minister’s job. In fact, plenty of people in the Iraqi political class wondered whether I was joking or had flipped out when I began warning them two weeks ago that should Ibrahim Al-Jaafari relinquish his mandate to form a government, then Maliki would be the United Iraqi Alliance’s choice.
It is gratifying that my speculation panned out, but this outcome is hardly reassuring. For there was a reason as to why no one took Maliki seriously – he is just not cut out for such a role in history.
………………………………….
Khalilzad and O’Sullivan kept their fingers crossed that other more palatable names would be put forth by the UIA, but they must have been surprised as much as anyone when the choice landed on Maliki. The key question that official Washington should be asking is this: did the Khalilzad-O’Sullivan duo advise President Bush that Washington’s policy of hobbling Jaafari’s candidacy would lead to the unfortunate situation of Maliki as prime minister?
Those American diplomats and strategic advisors can put a brave face on things and give Maliki the benefit of the doubt – as he is owed. However, there are many points against him from those in the know. He can be petty and quarrelsome, and forcefulness does not translate well into good managerial skills where the out-sized egos of Iraqi politicians are concerned: as deputy head of the De-Ba’athification Commission, Maliki initially expended his efforts to stymie the efforts of political foes such his party’s rivals, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution, in divvying up the job positions, budget and office space assigned to the commission. It later fell to Maliki to hire a general director of the commission’s legal department, and since he had not built up a dedicated staff of his own over the years – a situation that still stands today – he quickly picked a candidate who it later transpired had a criminal record for fraud. To compound matters, Maliki refused to fire him even when confronted with the legal evidence and kept him at the job.
More skeletons will emerge from the convoluted alleyways of the Shia-dominated Al-Amin quarter of Old Damascus, where Maliki lived for many years and worked as a Da’awa Party official. There will be persistent allegations about his mysterious relationship with Major-General Mohammad Nassif of Syrian intelligence, better known as “Abu Wael,” who has been recently promoted to Syria’s tight decision-making team, and who generally handles the files that have to do with Iraq’s Shia, Iran, and Hezbollah.
It is surprising that Sunnis who, with Khalilzad’s tacit encouragement, put up heated resistance to Jaafari’s nomination seem to have acquiesced to Maliki, even though he is clearly more of a hard-liner on all the matters the Sunnis take issue with such as de-Ba’athification. But apparently their goal from the very start was to thwart Jaafari’s prospects as an act of spite, and to show the Shias that they will not get their way.
……………………………
Khalizad, like the rest of this administration works overtime , only to move backwards — who’s gonna trust this guy now?
Posted by: anna missed | Apr 29 2006 9:46 utc | 10
In an age of paranoia and hysteria, this guy should be a shoo-in for some kind of award for upping the ante. I mean, really, it’s like someone giving Cardinal Richelieu a wedgie during the height of the Thirty Years’ War.
Posted by: Monolycus | Apr 29 2006 12:55 utc | 11
Good link Monolycus
If the Pentagon were clever, he’d be employed by them without anyone knowing about the story.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Apr 29 2006 15:49 utc | 12
Bush, today:
“There will be more tough fighting ahead in Iraq and more days of sacrifice and struggle,” he cautioned. “Yet, the enemies of freedom have suffered a real blow in recent days, and we have taken great strides on the march to victory.”
ok. better.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 29 2006 16:39 utc | 13
well, interesting moment. I just had a “talk” with a military recruiter who came to my door looking for my autistic son. I told them I had opted out, but apparently it didn’t “take.”
I told him a few things. he told me a few things. I asked him why he supported this adminstration after the way the military had been treated. he’d been in Iraq. he said it was like a country club…swimming pools, movie stars…okay, not…he said a/c and mcdonalds. I said..in the green zone? he said there were wmd.
I said David Kay said there weren’t. I said that when they’re in the military, they don’t always get all the news..they get hillbilly heroin limbaugh. he said he had access to the same news I did. I said, well then, go out and read what I said. Saddam and bin Ladenn were not connected. he said they were building bases. I said…Saddam, a secular tyrant, was in league with Osama, a religious nut and part of the mujahadeen? He said Osama was not part of the mujahadeen. I told him to go out and read about the Reagan administration and the war in Afghan. to bankrupt Russia. yes, osama was part of the mujahadeenn fighting for us. he said, well, we invaded b/c he was in violation of the weapons thing after GWII. I said, yeah, but you know, this is real politics and the US had no problem supporting assholes like Pinochet who killed thousands of his people, but who was just as much of an asshole as Saddam…but Pinochet didn’t have oil. I said it’s about money. that Rummy sold pharma to Saddam when he was at Serle. He was skeptical, so I told him to go look for it, it’s out there…even a picture of Rummy shaking hands with saddam.
It got to the point where he said, I see your neighbor’s house is for sale across the street. Why don’t you put yours up for sale so that you can move to France or Russia or some third world country if you don’t like your country?
that’s when I got REALLY pissed. “who in the hell do you think you are to tell me where I can live or not, or that I should move because I disagree with what’s going on? You’re supposed to defend the constitution of the united states, not the assholes in power now. where in the constitution does it say we’re supposed to invade other countries that did not attack us? how dare you tell me where I should live.
and then I said, but you know, if my tax dollars are going to go to support the current crooks, then, yes, I wish I could move. And I’ll make sure I tell everyone I know about your recruitment efforts, telliiing me I should leave the country if I don’t support Bush’s war.
and I slammed the door in his face.
if that’s the military I’m supposed to support, it would be kinda of nice if they weren’t rushlimbots. I am so pissed.
they, of course, think I’m totally misinformed by a media that only exists to make money. but, of course, bushco is only looking out for our interests.
and the whole time I was arguing with him, I had conditioner on my hair all piled on top of my head and a grubby old grey t-shirt on. I’m sure I made a great impression. he was spiffy in the sharp greens and beret.
Posted by: fauxreal | Apr 29 2006 18:12 utc | 14
The British National Health Service is on one of today’s most important issue. It recently issued a leaflet on “Good Defecation Dynamics”.
Are you sitting comfortably?
it won’t stop there fauxreal. when my son graduated the recruitment mailings started up w/regularity, then the phone calls. my son uses a cell and i was the one answering. i got in very similiar conversations w/these guys. i’d get their emails and forward them real news. after about a year they gave up.
Posted by: annie | Apr 29 2006 18:30 utc | 16
She is 15, has her own site and makes animations like this one What Would Jesus Do (Flash, put sound on).
Some folks from the right fringe send her emails:
“It’s people like you who need to fucking die and get raped while your corpse rots in the sun,” said one e-mail Lowery shared with me. “Fuck you, I would jack off on your parents if I could. If you don’t like the team, get out of the park. That means take ur small dick and get the fuck off of my homeland you faggot chocolate gulper.”
“You are a TRAITOR to your country and should be executed for treason,” another one said. “All you do is bitch about the US. If you hate it so much, why don’t you GET THE FUCK OUT.”
“Why don’t you go masterbate [sic] to a pic of Sheehan and fuck off,” said a third.
“Are you a muslem [sic] terrorist?” asked another.
Has anyone here read “Breaking the Spell – Religion as a Natural Phenomenon – By Daniel C. Dennett”?
Sounds interesting
b- will you start a sideline biz for eurocards? find some gay guys who would be willing to do some international relief efforts..I can’t apply for some jobs if I’m not a member of the EU.
I got married one year too late to be grandfathered in as an automatic citizen. my kids do have their i.d. cards for Belg. and my ex was supposed to make sure the passport issue was clear last time he was there….i’ll have to ask again about that one.
if nothing else, I can send them to visit their grandparents and they can stay there for a long, long time. me too.
then gradually we can start an artist’s colony somewhere in the EU until they raid us and send us back, at which point I will ask for political asylum, with my encounter with the military being exhibit B. Exhibit A is the weird questioning by the FBI a few years ago.
I should get an FOIA form to see if I have a file. If they have a file on me…what a waste of tax dollars.
Ashcroft, btw, had sent out a memo saying the justice dept. would support all agencies that wanted to fight FOIA requests. I’m sure Gonzalez is no better. he’s probably worse.
I have be useful member of society now…or something resembling it.
Posted by: fauxreal | Apr 29 2006 19:24 utc | 20
Hospitality suites, free prostitutes, defense contractors, Drugs,
Sex in the city eh? er I mean Whitehouse.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 29 2006 22:04 utc | 21
what is it w/ the moaning and groaning among armed services enlistees? christ. they’re hired killers. just crank your toby keith up and shoot who we tell you to shoot.
as far as the view hinted at here and there among the “left” the military’s growing dissent is a good sign, my hunch is Our Boys, untethered from onerous civilian leadership, would just as soon go fallujah on iraq’s ass asap.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 30 2006 1:06 utc | 23
I’m getting slick and glossy recruitment brochures addressed to my SO’s 16 year old son. How the F**k did they find me? I tear them up into tiny pieces before I throw them away.
Wondering how much enlistments went up after Elvis joined up. Just saying.
Posted by: beq | Apr 30 2006 1:47 utc | 24
would just as soon go fallujah on iraq’s ass asap
Nice turn of phrase, slothrop. You may be right. Maybe some of still have cognitive dissonance.
Posted by: DM | Apr 30 2006 1:49 utc | 25
b- such good people to talk to that girl that way. I hope she can send the worst emails to her local police station.
annie- this is the first house call, but have already had lots of mail and some phone calls.
slothrop- the guy said he was in fallujah. all I could say was, “you were in falllujah?”
and while this asshole who was telling me to move earlier, I was going to an event for the homeless…my kid was in part of it…but I’d talked to the guy in charge of the group earlier in the day (I know him already anyway) and told him I was bringing over stuff b/c the coalmine where I work partly pays me in script that I have to spend at the big boss man’s store…and if I have any money left, they keep it.
so I went over and bought dry good and toilletries, and I was telling everyone else in my situation they could give some of their script goods to the place, too.
gee, so sorry I don’t support my son or any other mother’s son killing Iraqis for Cheney’s profit.
Posted by: fauxreal | Apr 30 2006 2:27 utc | 26
Groucho – I excerpted that a few hrs. ago on thread “And the Band Played On”. Can we discuss it on one thread or the other. (My vote is that it should get its own thread.)
Posted by: jj | Apr 30 2006 2:58 utc | 28
@jj, Groucho – I am blocked from smirking chimp (don´t know why). Can someone email that piece to MoonofA at aol.com?
b-, can’t you follow my previous link to the original @Mother Jones? If not, pls. let me know & I’ll send you links.
Anyone need a laugh? Here’s a great one. Stephen Colbert, of Comedy Central & ex-daily show staffer, was invited to give a tribute to President Bush at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night. (Who Came Up w/that Brilliant Idea??) Did he ever…When it was over, the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling, and left immediately.
Some of things he said:
Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “They are re-arranging the deck chairs–on the Hindenburg.”
Colbert told Bush he could end the problem of protests by retired generals by refusing to let them retire. Etc.
Posted by: jj | Apr 30 2006 5:45 utc | 31
If any Barflies, wish to enjoy Colbert’s performance – those w/broadband connection can see it @C&L. Else, s’posed to be rebroadcast Sun 12:30 pm EDT.
Posted by: jj | Apr 30 2006 6:01 utc | 32
Frank Rich is back commenting. His “liberated” NYT column is here
“We’re helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of hospitals and schools,” Mr. Bush said on that glorious day. Three years later we know, courtesy of the Army Corps of Engineers, that our corrupt, Enron-like Iraq reconstruction effort has yielded at most 20 of those 142 promised hospitals. But we did build a palace for ourselves. The only building project on time and on budget, USA Today reported, is a $592 million embassy complex in the Green Zone on acreage the size of 80 football fields. Symbolically enough, it will have its own water-treatment plant and power generator to provide the basic services that we still have not restored to pre-invasion levels for the poor unwashed Iraqis beyond the American bunker.
…
Mr. Rumsfeld is merely a useful, even essential, scapegoat for the hawks in politics and punditland who are now embarrassed to have signed on to this fiasco. For conservative hawks, he’s a convenient way to deflect blame from where it most belongs: with the commander in chief. For liberal hawks, attacking Mr. Rumsfeld for his poor execution of the war means never having to say you’re sorry for leaping on (and abetting) the blatant propaganda bandwagon that took us there. But their history can’t be rewritten any more than Mr. Bush’s can: the war’s failures were manifestly foretold by the administration’s arrogance and haste during the run-up.
A new defense or press secretary changes nothing. The only person who can try to save the administration from itself in Iraq is the president. He can start telling the truth in the narrow window of time he has left and initiate a candid national conversation about our inevitable exit strategy. Or he can wait for events on the ground in Iraq and political realities at home to do it for him.
Great. Rich is one of my fave’s not to mention an occasional barfly himself.
Apparently C&L couldn’t get entire video of Colbert, so someone posted full text @americablog thread @2:15 am.
Posted by: jj | Apr 30 2006 6:29 utc | 34
@fauxreal – thx
—
When will the U.S. get rid of this pathetic Army Corps of Engineers?
U.S. Pays for 150 Iraqi Clinics, and Manages to Build 20
A $243 million program led by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to build 150 health care clinics in Iraq has in some cases produced little more than empty shells of crumbling concrete and shattered bricks cemented together into uneven walls, two reports by a federal oversight office have found.
…
Late Friday, the inspector general also released an audit report on a $147 million United States-led program to train and equip thousands of Iraqis to protect oil pipelines, electrical transmission lines and hundreds of key installations in both sectors.
Begun in September 2003, the effort, called Task Force Shield, was so disorganized that the auditors were never able to determine basic facts like how many Iraqis were trained, how many weapons were purchased and where much of the equipment ended up, the report says.
…
Even more severe shortcomings plagued the program to protect the electricity infrastructure, which ended almost as soon as it had begun.
Remember who was put in charge of the oil-infrastructure guards?
One Ahmed Chalabi. $147 million plus control of all oil smuggling. That guy must be billionaire by now.
The Observer has a good comment on oil:
A battle for oil could set the world aflame
It’s a new world. Henry Kissinger thinks that the 21st-century struggle for oil reserves will match the 19th-century fight for colonies. The dangers are obvious. Britain in all this is the doe-eyed Bambi, bleating its faith in market forces in a world of predators. We should urgently slow down the depletion rate of North Sea oil and gas and establish a British strategic reserve and, with that protection, begin determinedly to build an economy that is not dependent on oil and gas. We should get serious about energy efficiency for solid environmental and strategic reasons. We should tax aviation fuel. We must accelerate our investment in renewable energy. We must research how to burn coal cleanly. And we must commission new nuclear reactors.
We have to move on all fronts fast. The case is usually made in terms of climate change, but it is more than that. Unless we confront and change the emerging balance of world power, the consequent oil conflagrations could make the conflicts of the 20th century look tame.
Whoa! Colbert = Ball of steel! ; of course he should stay out of small jets from here on out and if I were Colbert I’d have a hazmat suit on to open my mail from now on.
Thanks for the heads up jj, that was amazing.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 30 2006 10:00 utc | 37
Colbert is great – I love how he rips the journalist on their “elite” dinner – and most of them just shut up
transcript
Here is that passage
And as excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of Fox News.
Fox News gives you both sides of every story, the President’s side and the Vice President’s side.
But the rest of you, what are you thinking, reporting on N.S.A. wiretapping or secret prisons in Eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason, they’re superdepressing.
And if that’s your goal, well, misery accomplished. Over the last five years you people were so good over tax cuts, W.M.D. intelligence, the affect of global warming. We Americans didn’t want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew. But, listen, let’s review the rules. Here’s how it works. The President makes decisions, he’s the decider. The Press Secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know, fiction.
For those who use torrent files:
The C&L video is incomplete — for the full show, try
http://www.mininova.org/tor/296239
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 30 2006 10:34 utc | 40
@beq et al…
I’m getting slick and glossy recruitment brochures addressed to my SO’s 16 year old son.
If you’re like me, you’ve spent some time considering ways that you can combat the onslaught of regulations, bureaucrats and would be do-gooders.
With things like the glossies and the other junk snail mail, an old culture jamming trick is due. Most if not all of these type recruitment correspondence
have pre-paid bulk return post-mark addresses on them. I use them to sent back there crap along w/whatever other things seem to be cluttering up my desk. Also, you can turn the tables on a bureaucrat by making him fill out your paperwork! Of course we are ultimately all paying for it (trees and such). But it gives me petty satisfaction none the less. 😉
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 30 2006 11:23 utc | 41
WaPo on pork A ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ An overstuffed highway bill A teapot museum
Money for those “bridges to nowhere” in Alaska in the transportation bill was not taken away, just the specific language that this money has to be spend on those bridges. So they will be built and will “help” those two Senators who asked for them as they both own land that will benefit from those bridges.
This is incredible corruption.
tomorrow is a big day for immigrant protests/boycotts. let’s hope for peace, but as any modest tour through the rightwing blogosphere (scroll down and read the comments under “Undocumented Americans” Plan To Shut Down US Cities, to get a taste of the stupidity) this morning shows, whitey is ready for, feels certain about the rectitude of, violence. those of you living in the southwest know how fragile things are right now.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 30 2006 16:32 utc | 43
For those watching, the article about “signing statements” doesn´t has much new stuff but some details. But for the first time a major publication, Boston Globe, goes into this on page 1.
Time for the other newsies and the people to get this.
Bush challenges hundreds of laws
President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.
Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ”whistle-blower” protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.
…
Bush is the first president in modern history who has never vetoed a bill, giving Congress no chance to override his judgments. Instead, he has signed every bill that reached his desk, often inviting the legislation’s sponsors to signing ceremonies at which he lavishes praise upon their work.
Then, after the media and the lawmakers have left the White House, Bush quietly files ”signing statements” — official documents in which a president lays out his legal interpretation of a bill for the federal bureaucracy to follow when implementing the new law. The statements are recorded in the federal register.
In his signing statements, Bush has repeatedly asserted that the Constitution gives him the right to ignore numerous sections of the bills — sometimes including provisions that were the subject of negotiations with Congress in order to get lawmakers to pass the bill. He has appended such statements to more than one of every 10 bills he has signed.
…
Similarly, the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld affirmative-action programs, as long as they do not include quotas. Most recently, in 2003, the court upheld a race-conscious university admissions program over the strong objections of Bush, who argued that such programs should be struck down as unconstitutional.
Yet despite the court’s rulings, Bush has taken exception at least nine times to provisions that seek to ensure that minorities are represented among recipients of government jobs, contracts, and grants. Each time, he singled out the provisions, declaring that he would construe them ”in a manner consistent with” the Constitution’s guarantee of ”equal protection” to all — which some legal scholars say amounts to an argument that the affirmative-action provisions represent reverse discrimination against whites.
Golove said that to the extent Bush is interpreting the Constitution in defiance of the Supreme Court’s precedents, he threatens to ”overturn the existing structures of constitutional law.”
A president who ignores the court, backed by a Congress that is unwilling to challenge him, Golove said, can make the Constitution simply ”disappear.”
…
Read it all, example after example. Copy and give it to conservatives. They should really be scared too.
WaPo writes: Merits of Partitioning Iraq or Allowing Civil War Weighed
As the U.S. military struggles against persistent sectarian violence in Iraq, military officers and security experts find themselves in a vigorous debate over an idea that just months ago was largely dismissed as a fringe thought: that the surest — and perhaps now the only — way to bring stability to Iraq is to divide the country into three pieces.
Those who see the partitioning of Iraq as increasingly attractive argue that separating the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds may be the only solution to the violence that many experts believe verges on civil war. Others contend that it would simply lead to new and dangerous challenges for the United States, not least the possibility that al-Qaeda would find it easier to build a new base of operations in a partitioned Iraq.
Now what is legal or moral or whatever justification for U.S. folks to discuss the partioning of sovereign Iraq? Would they have the means to do so? The article doesn´t even address these questions, but just assumes that it could be done. Stupid.
b- thanks for posting the transcript! I’ve tried to get the qt at crooks and liars to play, and, like with the Young release yesterday, it won’t play yet…I’ll keep trying.
I love this man. What brilliant comedy. Oh how I wish this could be the moment when Dubya’s entire crew jumped the shark, all lined up like Cypress Gardens Aqua Maids about to hit a truth tanker. wish I were better at photoshop, and had space for images, and… anyway….
Here are some exerpts:
So don’t pay attention to the approval ratings that say 68% of Americans disapprove of the job this man is doing. I ask you this, does that not also logically mean that 68% approve of the job he’s not doing? Think about it. I havent. I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.
…Justice Scalia’s here. May I be the first to say welcome, sir. You look fantastic. How are you?
John McCain is here. John McCain John McCain. What a maverick. Somebody find out what fork he used on his salad, because I guarantee you wasn’t a salad fork. He could have used a spoon. There’s no predicting him. So wonderful to see you coming back into the republican fold. I have a summerhouse in South Carolina, look me up when you go to speak at Bob Jones University. So glad you’ve seen the light. Mayor Nagin is here from New Orleans, the chocolate city. Yeah, give it up. Mayor Nagin, I would like to welcome you to Washington, D.C., The chocolate city with a marshmallow center.
And a graham cracker crust of corruption. It’s a mallomar is what I’m describing, a seasonal cookie.
…I can’t get it to load on my computer yet, but word is that Colbert was pointing to Scalia with his middle finger. I hope so.
And, if anyone has not seen Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, it’s great. With Tom Waits starting the documentary with his song, “What’s He Building In There.” PERFECT. with pans of Enron’s glass house tower of lies in the skyland, close up, in back of the church with a huge sign on top: JESUS SAVES.
(all others pay full price.)
Posted by: fauxreal | Apr 30 2006 17:39 utc | 46
iraq faces certain partition. and this can be accomplished under the aegis of a constitutional sanction of federalism. so, no b, not illigitimate at all.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 30 2006 17:40 utc | 47
and as I’ve said ad nauseum, partition benefits u.s. occupation.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 30 2006 18:04 utc | 48
@fauxreal et al…
You can watch watch the whole Colbert speech on YouTube.com and here As well as here. (It’s easier than torrent…)
The torrent file I posted earlier is of the whole gala not just Colbert’s speech and imho worth watching just to see the coward press whine.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 30 2006 18:20 utc | 49
really easy here but only first half
i am astounded, wow what courage and wit
Posted by: annie | Apr 30 2006 19:03 utc | 50
b, slothrop —
Official partition in Iraq would offer no solution to the sectarian strife. Any attempts (by the US) to partition Iraq, might seem a good short term solution but, would only exacperbate the problem by inviting a regional conflict, in the long term. This would benifit no one. Even for the neo-colonialist US, partition would be counterproductive. The logic of divide and conquer only works if the “divide” part of the equation remains under some sort of centralized control. Should the “divide” part become hyper-activeand take on a life of its own and mutate into a progressively de-centralized state — which appears to be the case in Iraq — any hopes of achieving the “conquer” (ed) state will have vanished, along with the spoils. This is of course not to say the US may not try to partition Iraq anyway, the logic so far has trended in this direction, but to say this will only intensify the level of failure, bringing in the whole region into the ongoiung civil war.
Posted by: anna missed | Apr 30 2006 19:55 utc | 51
I think the spoiler in the divide Iraq scenario is Kurdistan. How would that work? If the Kurds get their own country they will very soon want the parts that are in Turkey and Iran as well. Who will defend Kurdistan when the Turks invade? What would happen if the Kurds in Iran attempted to split off from Iran?
Those questions have to weigh heavily on any decision to somehow make the US’s job of governing easier by splitting Iraq into small pieces.
Posted by: dan of steele | Apr 30 2006 20:29 utc | 52
@dan – I think the spoiler in the divide Iraq scenario is Kurdistan. How would that work?
Turkish Armed Forces Strike Kurdish Camps in North Iraq
Iraq says Iran forces shelled Kurds in Iraq
Here I am late in the thread again. At the bottom of the last open thread I asked if there were others among us who could offer rgiap a little boost in his health struggles by helping contribute toward a new computer. I for one would hate to see him lose his connection to us all. There were responses from annie and conchita before the thread died. If you can help, please email me.
Posted by: liz | May 1 2006 4:49 utc | 54