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August 4, 2006
OT 06-72
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forgot to post this…US Begins Building Treaty-Breaching Germ War Defence Centre‘
By Julian Borger
The Guardian UK
Monday 31 July 2006
Construction work has begun near Washington on a vast germ warfare laboratory intended to help protect the US against an attack with biological weapon, but critics say the laboratory’s work will violate international law and its extreme secrecy will exacerbate a biological arms race.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 4 2006 7:04 utc | 2
Paul Krugman: Centrism Is for Suckers
The point is that those who cling to the belief that politics can be conducted in terms of people rather than parties — a group that also includes would-be centrist Democrats like Joe Lieberman and many members of the punditocracy — are kidding themselves.
The fact is that in 1994, the year when radical Republicans took control both of Congress and of their own party, things fell apart, and the center did not hold. Now we’re living in an age of one-letter politics, in which a politician’s partisan affiliation is almost always far more important than his or her personal beliefs. And those who refuse to recognize this reality end up being useful idiots for those, like President Bush, who have been consistently ruthless in their partisanship.
It’s time once again boys and girls for Unca’s periodic PSAA (Public Service Alarm announcement):
Your cell phone is tracking you, you know. By law,your phone has to tell where you are within 125 meters when you call 911 which isn’t so bad on the face of it. However, the telecom systems can use your phone to track you at any time. In some cases, this can be done even when your phone is off.I used to have links to solidly support the tracking-while-off claim, but they’ve gone dead.There are a number of different tracking issues here, most of which require the phone to be on. However, it is possible to track of phone as long as it has power, whether or not it’s on or not. I’m not sure how you feel about it, but I don’t like being fitted with a radio collar at all times. This nonconsensual tracking is growing common in the US now, but has been around in Europe for quite a number of years so my friends tell me.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 4 2006 8:14 utc | 4
Bush’s fundamentalism seen as a decisive, negative factor in his policies
There is an alien influence, mostly unpublicized, running like an undercurrent beneath the Bush administration’s Middle East policies. It may help explain George W. Bush’s single-mindedness, his oblivious inability to face reality as his war in Iraq, his war against terror and his policies towards Arabs and Israeli have collapsed.
I say “alien,” because I believe this to be the first time in modern American history that a president’s religion, in this case his Christian fundamentalism, has become a decisive factor in his foreign and domestic policies. It’s a factor that has been under-reported, to say the least, and that begs for press attention.
There have been some comments on this blog recently bemoaning the tearing of hair and rending of garments by “the liberals” as self indulgent posturing.
Well, what’s the alternative.
Here’s a suggestion.
Jonathan Tasini has been denied a spot on NY1-TimeWarner’s upcoming debate among the candidates in the primaries of both parties for the nomination for the Senate. There are to be two Republicans and Hillary on the debate. No Jonathan. The reason given by Time-Warner is that Jonathan has not raised $500,000, to be spent in future on TV ads, presumably, after this “freebie” introduction by Time-Warner.
Jonathan Tasini is talking the good talk. I would love to see him in debate against Hillary. But TimeWarner, which has thusfar given $5,000 to Hillary’s campaign, has decided to help her ignore Jonathan to death.
Robert Hardt is the man who has made this decision at NY1-TimeWarner.
The FCC Commissioners are :
Chairman Kevin J. Martin: KJMWEB@fcc.gov
Commissioner Michael J. Copps: Michael.Copps@fcc.gov
Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein: Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov
Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate: dtaylortateweb@fcc.gov
Commissioner Robert McDowell: Robert.McDowell@fcc.gov
I personally pointed out to all of these that I, and 338,000 registered Democratic voters in the NY1-TimeWarner broadcasting area, 13% according to the latest Marist poll, as “Ben” has calculated in a comment at Tasini’s site, do too! That’s more than the combined base of both the Republicans, John Spencer and K.T. McFarland in NYC, who WILL be on the debate.
As well, everyone knows that TV is the greatest expense facing political campaigns, and for a TV station to base participation in a debate on the amount of money raised to buy TV ads is a clear conflict of interest.
Write. It cannot hurt. It’s good therapy as well. It IS doing something.
And check out Jonathan Tasini. You’ll want to see him debate Hillary Clinton too.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 4 2006 15:14 utc | 6
After wrinting to NY1 and the FCC I wrote to Hillary too :
Dear Hillary Clinton,
I am sure you are as incensed as I am that NY1-TimeWarner has arbitrarily barred your fellow Democrat, Jonathan Tasini, from their upcoming debate!
I know that, although TimeWarner has contributed $5,000 to your campaign, you had nothing to do with this utterly anti-democratic decision.
I know that you welcome the opportunity to debate Jonathan Tasini in an open debate, as this is the life’s blood of politics in a democracy.
Please call Robert Hardt – Director of Politics, NY1, 212-379-3330, and email him too, to register your disgust and plan of action against TimeWarner.
I know you’ll want the FCC to look into this blatant act of extortion. Clearly NY1-TimeWarner is looking for more campaign TV ad revenue, the ultimate destination of the millions all you poor politicians are forced to raise to get elected. This move is clearly a conflict of interest on Robert Hardt’s part and probably a criminal matter.
Thanks so much in advance for the prompt attention I know you will give this matter.
I’m looking forward, as I know you are, to a good, healthy debate between yourself and Jonathan Tasini on NY1.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 4 2006 15:38 utc | 7
I say “alien,” because I believe this to be the first time in modern American history that a president’s religion, in this case his Christian fundamentalism, has become a decisive factor in his foreign and domestic policies
I have always believed Bush’s “born-again” claim to be a pile of crap and that he is merely playing the music his fundie base wants to hear. Anyone with an ego that big cannot genuinely accept an entity bigger and better than himself being in charge. Now Blair is a different story; I think his fundie aspect is genuine. I remember reading in the UK papers that he was the most religious PM the Brits every had and also about how he was backing Creationist private schools in England, the six-day, 4004 BC, type.
Posted by: Ensley | Aug 4 2006 16:03 utc | 8
Tony Bliar, unthinker!
Middle East conflagration courtesy of the arc of oversimplification ™.
Posted by: Dismal Science | Aug 4 2006 16:47 utc | 9
To see this Haaretz is remarkable: Ending the neoconservative nightmare
Witnessing the near-perfect symmetry of Israeli and American policy has been one of the more noteworthy aspects of the latest Lebanon war. A true friend in the White House. No deescalate and stabilize, honest-broker, diplomatic jaw-jaw from this president. Great. Except that Israel was actually in need of an early exit strategy, had its diplomatic options narrowed by American weakness and marginalization in the region, and found itself ratcheting up aerial and ground operations in ways that largely worked to Hezbollah’s advantage, the Qana tragedy included. The American ladder had gone AWOL.
…
Finding themselves somewhat bogged down in the Iraqi quagmire, the neoconservatives are reveling in the latest crisis, displaying their customary hubris in re-seizing the initiative. The U.S. press and blogosphere is awash with neocon-inspired calls for indefinite shooting, no talking and extension of hostilities to Syria and Iran, with Gingrich calling this a third world war to “defend civilization.”
Disentangling Israeli interests from the rubble of neocon “creative destruction” in the Middle East has become an urgent challenge for Israeli policy-makers. An America that seeks to reshape the region through an unsophisticated mixture of bombs and ballots, devoid of local contextual understanding, alliance-building or redressing of grievances, ultimately undermines both itself and Israel. The sight this week of Secretary of State Rice homeward bound, unable to touch down in any Arab capital, should have a sobering effect in Washington and Jerusalem.
dismal
on the essential points there is no difference beetween a blair, a gingrich or a limbaugh
only he is creepier, or as we say here louche
Posted by: r’giap | Aug 4 2006 17:20 utc | 11
Yep, r’giap: as a The Financial Times editorial had it earlier this week, Tony’s entire policy on the ME seems to consist of “bombing it into moderation”.
Posted by: Dismal Science | Aug 4 2006 17:32 utc | 12
dismal – the diplomat was the one i was peaking of – he was asked on cnn where the govt of england was – & he replied coldly but firmly -“they have lost their way” – this was followed by a most difficult silence – by a stenograpaher who had lost her way
all of which demanded the service of yet another idf hack
Posted by: r’giap | Aug 4 2006 17:54 utc | 13
…o’er the land of the free, and your home in the grave.
Posted by: citizen | Aug 4 2006 18:29 utc | 14
Thanks, jfl.
ensley, agreed. its all an act. cmon, he curses, kills, probably has homosexual affairs, etc. etc.
yes, louche. Somerset Maughham loved to describe his anti-heros as just such………
@b #10:
That is ridiculous. A country, after much provocation, finally has two of its soldiers kidnapped, and in response they completely destroy another country, a war crime of a scale unimaginable, and then they cry that “daddy” America should have helped them out of this? Where is the responsibility here?
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 4 2006 20:52 utc | 15
The AFP says that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shiites hit the streets in protest against the US/Israeli Axis and in support of Sadr.
Sadr’s folks said there were one million. US military spokesman Major Steven Stover said .0014 million.
If the number is, say half a million, that’d be the same as what, five or six million hitting the streets in the USofA?
Driving the US out of their country might give them the bona fides they need to put it back together again, a la Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 4 2006 21:21 utc | 16
If you want perspective Bush didn’t know there were two sects of Islam.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 4 2006 21:42 utc | 17
In the midst of the birth bangs of a new mideast, a very, very late term abortion
Israel’s heavy overnight bombing of Beirut’s main access road to the north has severed the last major overland route to bring relief supplies into Lebanon, international aid agencies said today.
“This is Lebanon’s umbilical cord,” Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said.
“This (road) has been the only way for us to bring in aid. We really need to find other ways to bring relief in.”
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 5 2006 0:18 utc | 18
War may trump all other concerns in Congressional election season
“It’s not about accomplishment,” said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., who doesn’t face re-election this year but is closely watching his state’s race to replace Democratic Sen. Mark Dayton, who’s retiring. “It’s about Iraq. That’s the great discontent that is out there. Those events are beyond our control.”
And there you have the legislative branch. Having given up their Constitutional responsibility to wage war or no… “it’s beyond their control”.
Throw ALL the bastards out!!!
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 5 2006 0:25 utc | 19
Israeli Soldier Incarcerated for Refusing to Fight
Israeli authorities have sentenced an army officer to 28 days in a military prison for refusing to serve in the ongoing Israeli campaign in Lebanon.
32-year-old Reserve Captain Amir Paster, an infantry officer and student at Tel Aviv University, is the first Israeli soldier to be punished for refusing to serve in the current conflict and has received harsh criticism from the Israeli military for setting what it termed a bad example for his troops.
According to the soldier support group Yesh Gvul (“There Is a Limit”), Paster refused to serve on the grounds that Israeli operations were harming civilians, declaring at his trial “taking part in this war runs contrary to the values upon which he was brought up.”
Supporters say Paster’s act was courageous given that the vast majority of Jewish Israelis support the war.
A peace rally planned by Gush Shalom drew 5,000 into the streets of Tel Aviv last weekend. A larger rally was planned for this Saturday but Avnery said authorities have refused to grant permits for the peaceful protest.
“We are really fighting against a huge machine,” he said. “We have had to resort to paid advertisements. Every day, Gush Shalom is taking out a paid advertisement in the newspapers with money we don’t have. We’re still writing, but we’ve only been able to get our articles published abroad and on the Internet.”
It’s US tax dollars that fund that “huge machine”.
Not one more Nickel!
Not one more Dime!
No more money!
For Israeli War Crime!
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 5 2006 0:49 utc | 20
cloned
what bush does not know would fill 3,000 libraries in each country of each continent
what he does know – is so slim – you could read the washington post thru it
Posted by: r’giap | Aug 5 2006 1:01 utc | 21
AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember McKinney, I’m looking at a piece from The Hill, the Capitol newspaper in Washington, D.C. It says, “McKinney opponent rakes in pro-Israel cash.” That’s the headline. We’ve been talking a lot about the Middle East today. And the article says, “Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s primary run-off opponent has tapped into the pro-Israel fundraising network that helped her virtually unknown challenger Denise Majette topple McKinney and Artur Davis beat then-Rep. Earl Hilliard in Alabama in a pair of hotly contested 2002 primaries in black-majority districts. Hank Johnson collected at least $34,100 Tuesday from individuals and political action committees that supported Majette, Davis or both, including several pro-Israel PACs. Overall, Johnson reported receiving $63,100 on Tuesday. The contributions were recorded in a filing with the Federal Election Commission. […] “Seven pro-Israel PACs gave to Johnson on Tuesday: MOPAC in Michigan, Washington PAC in D.C., SUNPAC and National Action Committee PAC in Florida, CITYPAC in Chicago, Mid-Manhattan PAC in New York and Louisiana for American Security PAC. Five of the seven contributed to both Majette and Davis four years ago, according to FEC records. SUNPAC gave to Majette in 2002 and to Davis in 2004, while Mid-Manhattan PAC gave only to Davis in 2002.” Your response?
AMY GOODMAN: And your stance right now on what’s happening in Lebanon, in Gaza, and also in Iraq?
REP. CYNTHIA McKINNEY: Well, of course, I think that the United States should be an honest broker, and I’ve said that from the very beginning. In fact, I got in trouble with AIPAC early on in my career, when they sent me a pledge that I didn’t sign, and that pledge was a commitment to maintain the military superiority of Israel. And I thought that the United States needs to be an honest broker and not take sides and provide an opportunity for human rights to be first and foremost, not the possession of weapons of destruction, and death and destruction.
AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember McKinney, we just have a few seconds, but why do you want to return to Congress? What do you think are the most important issues to work on right now?
REP. CYNTHIA McKINNEY: Well, of course, we’re involved in a war that is illegal, immoral and unjust, and so we need to get our military health in order. We need to get our energy health in order. War is not an energy policy. And we need to get our fiscal health in order. We cannot continue to borrow $2.5 billion a day and think that the financial deck of cards won’t collapse. So we’ve got a lot of work to do on behalf of putting America back on the right track. And I just hope that I will be a part of the changing of the guard in Congress, as it were, because we’ve got to do something to get rid of the Republican majority, because they have been an abomination for the reputation of our country, the moral standing of our country, the financial standing of our country. And right now, they’re trying to control the voice —
AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember McKinney, we’re going to have to leave it there. I thank you very much for joining us from Georgia. Her run-off primary is on Tuesday.
Well, it is the AIPAC/Republicrat/Demoplican complex that is trying to crush Cynthia McKinney, again. She is one of the very, very few politicians of any stripe that is representing the people of the United States rather than agents of a foreign power.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 5 2006 1:14 utc | 22
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about, right now, the latest hours in Beirut, the packets that have been dropped, the leaflets that have been dropped on Beirut, calling on residents to leave?
JUAN COLE: Well, the Israeli bombing campaign is only tangentially aimed at hurting Hezbollah. That’s a guerrilla organization. They’ve gone underground. It’s very unlikely that the Israelis can do further harm to them at this point by merely bombing unknown sites. The Israelis are systemically destroying the Lebanese infrastructure. They are hitting bridges. They are continuing to hit roads. They are degrading the ability of the Lebanese to connect with one another. And they are, frankly, putting pressure on the rest of the Lebanese to turn on Hezbollah and to try to control it on behalf of the Israelis…
Well, you know, all of the political progress that has been made in Lebanon in the past year and a half has now been undone. The country is in ruins. Over $2 billion have been done to its economy. The government is increasingly unable to assert itself. I mean, if you knock out all of the major roads and bridges, then how can the government get government bureaucrats and military out, and aid workers and so forth out to where they’re needed? Basically, Lebanon is being crippled, and so it really doesn’t matter whether the government falls or not, because the government is not able to function under these conditions. Lebanon is being paralyzed as a civilized society. It’s being reduced to rubble. And so, they can resign or they can not resign, but the fact is the country cannot any longer function.
Israel has destroyed a country here. It was a beautiful country. It was a country with a great deal of potential, and it was finally coming back together after a 20-year civil war, in which Israel itself had played a very sinister role. So for it now to come again and destroy the country under the pretext of fighting Hezbollah, which consists — fighting Hezbollah has been a very small part of what they have been doing, is a war crime. I mean, the Israelis are guilty, quite frankly, of numerous war crimes, and that’s the reason Tony Blair won’t say that their response has been indiscriminate — or has been disproportionate, because disproportionate attacks are war crimes in international law.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 5 2006 1:26 utc | 23
U.S. to Help Train, Equip Lebanon Army
The United States plans to help train and equip the Lebanese army so it can take control of all of the nation’s territory when warfare between Israel and Hezbollah eases, the State Department said Thursday.
The program was approved by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to take effect “once we have conditions on the ground permitting,” spokesman Sean McCormack said.
McCormack provided no details on what equipment the United States might provide, the training that would be conducted, how many U.S. personnel would be involved, or possible costs.
The Israelis have decided to use US troops to occupy Lebanon. Rumsfeld and Rice click their heels in unison and salute smartly. They await the specifications they are to meet from the Israeli high command.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 5 2006 2:12 utc | 24
Inside the administration, neoconservatives on Vice President Dick Cheney’s national security staff and Elliott Abrams, the neoconservative senior director for the Near East on the National Security Council, are prime movers behind sharing NSA intelligence with Israel, and they have discussed Syrian and Iranian supply activities as a potential pretext for Israeli bombing of both countries, the source privy to conversations about the program says. (Intelligence, including that gathered by the NSA, has been provided to Israel in the past for various purposes.) The neoconservatives are described as enthusiastic about the possibility of using NSA intelligence as a lever to widen the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and Israel and Hamas into a four-front war.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 5 2006 2:17 utc | 25
From Know you enemies dept:
National Endowment for Democracy: Paying to Make Enemies of America
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 5 2006 4:49 utc | 26
NED:
Ah, better living thru corruption and continuing criminal enterprises.
Meanwhile, Hez has some smokin’ antitank stuff:
LINK
Posted by: Violet, | Aug 5 2006 5:18 utc | 27
from Violet,’s link (@27)
“Israel contends that Hezbollah gets almost all of its weaponry from Syria and by extension Iran, including its anti-tank missiles.
That’s why cutting off the supply chain is essential — and why fighting Hezbollah after it has spent six years building up its arsenal is proving so painful to Israel, officials say.”
Or, to paraphrase, “Israel contends that they’ve held up their part of the bargain and are getting tired of waiting around for the US to extend this thing into Syria and Iran and want to get the larger show on the road already.”
Posted by: Monolycus | Aug 5 2006 5:30 utc | 28
CK has made a good point that our politics also needs to be capable of drawing popular support.
Now, I realize that the sentiment on the site right now is that “he who has the gold makes the rule,” but it would be absurd for us to take this too far, and believe that popular opinion has never mattered. So I persist for a moment to consider the issue of how we could speak the language of this country and its political register.
So I want to exemplify what I mean by citing someone who once said some very unpopular things, but who knew how to define a problem, its arguments and grounds – I’m speaking of Frederick Douglas’ in his Fourth of July speech. An excerpt:
The fact that the church of our country (with fractional exceptions) does not esteem “the Fugitive Slave Law” as a declaration of war against religious liberty, im plies that that church regards religion simply as a form of worship, an empty ceremony, and not a vital principle, requiring active benevolence, justice, love, and good will towards man. It esteems sacrifice above mercy; psalm-singing above right doing; solemn meetings above practical righteousness. A worship that can be conducted by persons who refuse to give shelter to the houseless, to give bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and who enjoin obedience to a law forbidding these acts of mercy is a curse, not a blessing to mankind. The Bible addresses all such persons as “scribes, pharisees, hypocrites, who pay tithe of mint, anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.”
But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. It has made itself the bulwark of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Many of its most eloquent Divines, who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world for Christianity.
For my part, I would say, welcome infidelity! welcome atheism! welcome anything! in preference to the gospel, as preached by those Divines! They convert the very name of religion into an engine of tyranny and barbarous cruelty, and serve to confirm more infidels, in this age, than all the infidel writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Bolingbroke put together have done.
When speaking the truth to others, in the 19th century or the 21st, it is not sufficient to speak the language of one’s own perspective. But necessary to speak a language in which one’s listeners can hear the truth. To many, Douglass’ register will mean little, but to some it is the sound of truth. And it will first anger them, but remain under their skins. (Not the Thomas Paine dig, but suitable replacements are at hand, and well known to us.)
First, one creates doubt.
Of course, in an age of fear, that is dangerous, but still necessary.
Posted by: citizen | Aug 5 2006 6:18 utc | 29
I agree with Malooga #15 that the article quoted in #10 is nonsense.
And besides it’s the same spin I seem to have seen somewhere around the internet lately 🙂 where the line goes something like this:
AIPAC doesn’t exist. (At least it isn’t mentioned as a factor in existence.)
Those awful White House neocons are forcing the Israelis to do what they’re doing, for their own ulterior purposes that have nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with some dark ulterior impulse which is never really named, only alluded to.
I am calling it the AIPAC-type tactic for the lefties who won’t take the anti-Semitism card except to respond with a Bronx cheer.
Posted by: 2nd anonymous poster | Aug 5 2006 6:52 utc | 30
PS This is much nicer, of course, than the usual awful horrid lunacy encountered everywhere.
So, in my heart I’m thankful for this different tack. It’s quite pleasant and a welcome change.
Posted by: 2nd anonymous | Aug 5 2006 6:55 utc | 31
Oh PPS a third factor to the line:
How can the great and powerful United States possibly be influenced by a small little country (surrounding by big powerful enemies)?
okay I’ll try to stop now
Posted by: 2nd anonymous | Aug 5 2006 6:56 utc | 32
To the article I linked in 10.
The neocons are a tabu in Israel. Try to find anything mentioned aboiout them in the Israeli press. I think this is a frist and therby important.
Lebanon endures heaviest battering while world powers argue
BEIRUT (AFP) – Israel battered Lebanon with what police described as the heaviest bombardment of the 25-day-old conflict as world powers bickered over the wording of a UN Security Council call for a ceasefire.
In the space of seven hours, Israel hit Lebanon with around 250 air raids and some 4,000 shells, wounding at least 14 people, police said.
The single village of Aitaroun near the border endured a barrage of 2,000 rounds.
Israeli artillery was systematically levelling 15 villages within five kilometres (three miles) of the border after Israeli leaders vowed to create a security zone free of Hezbollah fighters in the area, the police added.
The US opposes what it terms a “fake peace” resolution that fails to tackle what it regards as the underlying problem of Hezbollah’s presence on the border.
“No, I don’t think so,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said when asked whether there had been any breakthrough in talks with France on the wording of a resolution.
The UN chief voiced frustration with the slowness of the world body to call a halt to a conflict that has now seen well over 900 Lebanese killed in the Israeli offensive and 2.5 billion dollars in damage to infrastructure, according to Lebanese government figures.
“The bombing continues and the infrastructure is being destroyed — this cannot continue any longer,” Annan said. “Once again I have called for hostilities to stop.”
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 5 2006 13:24 utc | 36
thanks, citizen, #29,for the reminder.
Israel 4000 shells: Not mention by number in the headlines.
Hezbullah 200 shells: Oh my God, the sky is falling.
Seems Israel is doing less damage with more power than earlier in the war.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 5 2006 14:49 utc | 37
I thought some of our religious friends might find following interesting, I found it intrguing especially coming from none other than a Joe Bageant recon: The False Gospel of Work Enjoy.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 5 2006 15:16 utc | 38
Mexico full poll recount rejected
Mexico’s electoral body has rejected a request by left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for a full recount of votes from July’s disputed election.If there is no solution, there’ll be revolution, Lopez Obrador’s supporters
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 5 2006 20:08 utc | 39
The Israelis have been subject, since 85+ about, to the same kind of neo-con, – in their case, military – take over as in the US. It took like wildfire as Israel considers itself under attack all the time; its economic dependence, its relative poverty, racist structure, and pretensions to world importance render it very vulnerable to accepting any support, approval, lifeline. (Its history, that is another story…)
Israelis sit on small terraces with alu ashtrays, gazing out over non-people territory, tapping their cigarettes, among the flowering bougainvillas, complaining about social aid breaking down, about the ugliness and violence of their neighbors, the lack of Oreo cookies, or whatever, and the great white hope – USA.
Meanwhile Ari and Nira have to go to the army…
In Tel-Aviv there are hordes of young people working on software in a cool company and eating pizza and getting drunk on Saturday night and doing the disco scene like there was no tommorow – being like young people in a rich Western country – that’s the badge of belonging.
(only trying to point to contradictions and absurdity, no slurs intended)
Posted by: Noirette | Aug 5 2006 20:51 utc | 40
USATODAY.com – Army makes way for older soldiers
The Army has begun training the oldest recruits in its history, the result of a concerted effort to fill ranks depleted during the Iraq war. In June, five months after it raised the enlistment age limit from 35 to just shy of 40, the Army raised it to just under 42.
To accommodate the older soldiers, the Army has lowered the minimum physical requirements needed to pass basic training. The first group of older recruits is going through basic training here. So far, only five people 40 and older – and 324 age 35 and older – have enlisted, Army records show.
[“Hey look, that country we’ve hated / been jealous of for decades is in crippling debt, it’s citizens are indifferent and it’s military is over extended.” Do you ever imagine other countries saying those words? What comes next?]
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 5 2006 22:09 utc | 41
Thanks Uncle,
Joe’s brought a lot of important stories to our attention:
how did we come to be such a nation? How did we come to elect the jackals in the first place? I am reminded of a story an acquaintance once told me. During World War II he made friends with a German prisoner, and once asked the prisoner how Nazi Germany could possibly have come into being, how ordinary Germans could be so compliant. “Imagine what would happen,” replied the prisoner, “if John Dillinger were elected president of your country.”
Posted by: citizen | Aug 5 2006 23:11 utc | 42
The Military Project
Geared to the news and needs of the soldiers in Iraq.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 5 2006 23:55 utc | 43
Another effort for those whose hair and clothes are torn already:
Boycott Now!
Israel’s war crimes are now so shocking, its extremism so clear, the suffering so great, the UN so helpless, and the international community’s need to contain Israel’s behavior so urgent and compelling, that the time for global action has matured. A coordinated movement of divestment, sanctions, and boycotts against Israel must convene to contain not only Israel’s aggressive acts and crimes against humanitarian law but also, as in South Africa, its founding racist logics that inspired and still drive the entire Palestinian problem.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 5 2006 23:58 utc | 44
Soory I have been putting things on the thread up there^^ that should be on th eOT like this:
LEBANON: Mental hospital nearly out of medicine (Reuters, 3 August)
Posted by: Dismal Science | Aug 6 2006 0:12 utc | 45
Boycott Now! (cont’d)
Nothing else will work. Diplomacy, threats, pleading, the “peace process,” mediation, all will be useless until external pressure brings Israel’s entire Jewish population to undertake the very difficult task of rethinking their world. This pressure requires the full range of boycotts, sanctions, and divestment that the world can employ. (South African intellectual Steven Friedman has observed wryly that the way to bring down any established settler-colonial regime is to make it choose between profits and identity. Profits, he says, will win every time.)
This is the essence of my claim that ending the US’ Israeli Entitlement Program will end Israel’s war against its neighbors in the proverbial New York Minute.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 6 2006 0:22 utc | 46
Uncle, that’s an impt. story, but methinks you’re missing the reason. Why do you think they just raised the age limit to 42? Pick a number, any number – why 42?
Simple answer. This gives them some time to establish requirements that work for that age group, before they implement the draft the JackAss Party has been screaming for – which, my what a coincidence, will draft citizens up to the age of 42… …
So, does anyone still think Admin. won’t set off another 911 to implement a draft?
Posted by: jj | Aug 6 2006 0:31 utc | 47
Boycott Now! (finis)
It’s impossible, today, to exert an effective boycott on the United States, as its products are far too ubiquitous in our lives. But it’s quick and easy to launch a boycott of emblematic US products, upsetting its major corporations. It’s especially easy to boycott the great global consumables, like Coca-Cola, MacDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC, whose leverage has brought anti-democratic pressures on governments the world over.
In the US, the impact of these measures may be small. But in Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Arab and Muslim worlds, boycotting these famous brands can gain national scope and the impact on corporate profits will be enormous. Never underestimate the power of US corporations to leverage US foreign policy. They are the one force that consistently does so.
Anger and hatred, arising from the Lebanon debacle, must be channelled not into retaliation and vengeance but into principled action.
Intel is the prime target among American corporations :
Boycott Israel Campaign
Intel are one of the biggest supporters of Israel. Their very first development centre outside the US was opened in Haifa in 1974. Since then they have continued pouring investment in to Israel. By year 2000 they employ over 4000 israelis. Exports from their Lachish-Qiryat Gat plant in israel (opened feb 99) total $ 3 million a day at peak capacity – approximately $ 1 billion a year.
Al-Awda (Palestine Right to Return Coalition) have pointed out that the Intel plant at”Qiryat Gat” is built on land Israel confiscated from the Palestinian villages of Iraq al Manshiya. Iraq al Manshiya was a village of 2000 people living in 300 houses with two mosques and one school. The original Palestinian inhabitants were terrorised out of the village and then the whole village was razed to the ground to prepare the way for the new israeli settlement of Qiryat Gat. Today the remaining population from Iraq al Manshiya is still not allowed to return. Legal action against Intel for building on looted land is being considered.
AMD. Faster, better, cheaper. Transmeta, energy efficient.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Aug 6 2006 0:36 utc | 48
boycott AND sue
Is there a legal reference someone can send these guys?
Posted by: citizen | Aug 6 2006 0:38 utc | 49
John,
Three cheers for a boycott! Thanks for the link. How poignant that the article is from South Africa.
Yes it is high time, and not just for moral reasons, not just because Howard Beale is itching to step forward and shout “I won’t take it anymore.”
It is high time as an act of self-defense, for reasons given in Satya Sagar’s (ahem… in my opinion)prescient article:
His basic theory is that, (1) in order to survive, Israel needs a world in its own own image and that (2) the large modern corporation has anti-human characteristics that very much resemble those of Israel.
“After all at the core of global capitalism lies a fierce authoritarian urge that seeks to monopolise everything that exists but is unable to do so because the little people of the world have fought and established, over the centuries, some basic norms and laws of human and social behaviour. If Israel keeps demolishing these ‘barriers’ and advances the forces of barbarism – it makes complete world domination by the moneyed that much easier.”
Especially,if you have read Jack London’s “Iron Heel”, his article makes for very interesting mental vistas. The Tyrell corporation from “Blade Runner” also comes to mind.
So Boycott? Boycott! And is it not perhaps way too late? But cowards always ask questions like that…
If we do not act now, the Iron-Heel-principle that underlies Israel (but of course not only Israel) will absorb us all and force us all to live on either side of a wall: inside or outside.
And to complacent souls who are certain they will end up on the priviledged side of that wall, I can only say: Look what is happening to the Maronites in Lebanon.
Posted by: Guthman Bey | Aug 6 2006 1:05 utc | 50
In case anyone else has been wondering what’s up w/Castro, I found this:
Rio de Janeiro (dpa) – A newspaper based in the commercial centre of Sao Paulo cited Brazilian government sources in its report Saturday that Cuban leader Fidel Castro has stomach cancer. According to official statements Monday from Havana, Castro temporarily handed the reins of government to his brother and hand-picked successor, Raul, after undergoing surgery for an intestinal haemorrhage blamed on stress from recent overseas travel.
The Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo cited normally reliable sources in the government in Brasilia as saying that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was notified from Havana about the elder Castro’s medical condition. A leftist with lifelong good relations with the Cuban regime, Lula was supposedly told that Castro has a serious, malignant stomach tumour.Castro Suffering Stomach Cancer?
Posted by: jj | Aug 6 2006 1:27 utc | 51
Ahhh, speaking of…
I am Cuba by Mikhail Evstafiev, I ran across this today as Mikhail is the same photographer whom did the Vedran Smailovic shots.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 6 2006 1:44 utc | 52
“I am Cuba” is not by Mikhael Evstafiev. It was directed by the Soviet (Georgian) genius Mikheil Kalatozishvili. Two other masterpieces of his that are available on DVD are “The Cranes are Flying” (about WWII) and “The Red Tent”, which is about the ill-fated 1928 polar expedition of the Italian general Nobile and stars Peter Finch.
Posted by: Guthman Bey | Aug 6 2006 3:08 utc | 53
You are correct Bey, excuse my gaffe. found this…
Looks wonderful…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 6 2006 3:24 utc | 54
Did I miss something? Here is a Der Spiegel report on an incident at a nuclear plant in Forsmark, Sweden last week triggered by an electrical short. A power outage compounded by the failure of two out of four backup generators ultimately led to the closure of the plant (and, as a “precautionary measure”, half the nuclear plants in Sweden) in what plant workers described to Swedish media as a near-meltdown. Assessments call it the worst nuclear mishap since Chernobyl. Did this get any coverage at the time in the US press? If not, why not?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 6 2006 3:46 utc | 55
For those who would like to delve a little more deeply into understanding our world and our place in it, than current events, I invite everyone to take some time to familiarize themselves with Murray Bookchin’s Legacy. Uprising Radio produced a very special program including archival footage of him speaking. Also links to an article about Murray by Brian Tokar.
For those who don’t know, Murray founded the Institute for Social Ecology. He was the first person to theoretically link radical politics with ecological awareness. His thinking was far ahead of his time, as Marxists still saw our ecology primarily as an endless supplier of the raw materials of production. He was even ahead of Rachel Carson! He went through many phases in his political life including anarchism and social libertarianism, continually developing and refining his thinking, eventually calling himself a communalist.
One of the left’s most important theorists, and a sweet guy, to boot…..
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 6 2006 3:49 utc | 56
Uncle $cam:
Thanks for your thorough and meticulous research, keeping us all abreast of what is really important in the world.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 6 2006 3:51 utc | 57
A book that just fell off my shelf reminded me that some but not all MOA’s might find highly interesting, it is one of many that has influenced my thinking over the years, I thought I’d share it…
The Paradigm Conspiracy (How Our Systems of Government, Church, School and Culture Violate Our Human Potential)
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 6 2006 4:19 utc | 58
Did I miss something? Here is a Der Spiegel report on an incident at a nuclear plant in Forsmark, Sweden last week triggered by an electrical short. A power outage compounded by the failure of two out of four backup generators ultimately led to the closure of the plant (and, as a “precautionary measure”, half the nuclear plants in Sweden) in what plant workers described to Swedish media as a near-meltdown. Assessments call it the worst nuclear mishap since Chernobyl. Did this get any coverage at the time in the US press? If not, why not?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 6 2006 4:25 utc | 59
Well, crap I seem to be batting badly today, I meant to link to this: The Paradigm Conspiracy: Why Our Social Systems Violate Human Potential — And How We Can Change Them
Also see: Comments on The Paradigm Conspiracy
@malooga , thanks.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 6 2006 4:32 utc | 60