Meanwhile in Gaza:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/15/22438/837

Posted by: mattes | Oct 16 2006 14:49 utc | 4

Response to Billmon: He’s ahead of the curve anyway with the Titanic post, b you’re slacking. It is useful to note how Mr Fisk is a prophet before his time. Or should I say in his own land?
Published on Wednesday, June 12, 2002 in the lndependent/UK Mr Bush’s Titanic War on Terror Will Eventually Sink Beneath the Waves. Meantime, all the men who claim to be fighting terror are using this lunatic “war” simply for their own purposes.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Oct 16 2006 15:54 utc | 6

In Gaza, 70 to 75% of the population is dependent on direct food aid. Donors include the US, Japan, Arab States, etc. as well as the traditional, long standing, EU and UN schemes.
They are being fed by the prison guards. Badly. I read that more than half are down to one meal a day – a small meal.
Words fail.

Posted by: Noirette | Oct 16 2006 16:45 utc | 8

Informative series of articles on the Lebanon/Israel war at Asia Times.

Posted by: ran | Oct 16 2006 17:26 utc | 10

b real
when i was a babe – perhaps i still am one – paul robeson’s plight was at the centre of my family’s concerns – that is he was not allowed to leave those united states & along with many thousands of others
i’m sorry to go off on a tangent – but the way state power -demolished the dignity of that great man did more to politicise me than any other question
hobermann’s book is brilliant on the day to day demolition job that was dedicated to this giant & nothing was too small of it hurt him ( letting down tyres, burning letter boxes etc)
if i was an american i would use that passport quick – i do not see the good tidings that dailykos or huffington post seem to think is possible
what is more terrible – is that the state devoted enormous energies into destroying its opponents at home – now they just leave that job to the scum that are commonly called journalists which is really another word for slave

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 16 2006 18:57 utc | 12

lynne stewart was sentenced to 28 months this afternoon. if it wasn’t a prison term it would be laughable. sounds like that judge did not buy into the draconian vision of this administration. can’t believe this is happening to her, but at least it is not the remainder of her life.

Posted by: conchita | Oct 16 2006 19:57 utc | 14

lynne stewart was sentenced to 28 months this afternoon.
i guess we can expect more of this. at least she had a trial, something they don’t have to afford us anymore, as of tomorrow anyway.

Posted by: annie | Oct 16 2006 20:56 utc | 16

The rest of us won’t get anything like the consideration Lynne Stewart got. She had an extraordinary support system. 1100 letters written to the judge. Judge was one of the few who shouldn’t be thrown off the bench & he didn’t buy any of the govt. garbage. She faced 30 yrs. in jail, and could have been thrown in the slammer instantly. She’s still out on bail, can travel etc.

Posted by: jj | Oct 17 2006 3:03 utc | 18

I don’t read kos so I don’t know, but it was a ridiculously ignorant, irrelevant, sexist piece of shit. I have no idea if it’s reflective of his tribe. Pathetic if it is. My hunch is that he has them trained like Pavlov’s dogs to say x-Dems. good, repugs bad, vote.

Posted by: jj | Oct 17 2006 3:56 utc | 20

Back to the original question, does anyone know what the platform of the Democratic party is, i.e What do they stand for? I mean if you can’t even get dedicated kossacks to answer that, then what is it they might win?
Kinda, the ol’, ‘I won’!, er now what…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 17 2006 4:26 utc | 22

Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?

FOR the past several months, I’ve been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental question: “Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?”
…
A few weeks ago, I took the F.B.I.’s temperature again. At the end of a long interview, I asked Willie Hulon, chief of the bureau’s new national security branch, whether he thought that it was important for a man in his position to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. “Yes, sure, it’s right to know the difference,” he said. “It’s important to know who your targets are.”
…
O.K., I asked, trying to help, what about today? Which one is Iran — Sunni or Shiite? He thought for a second. “Iran and Hezbollah,” I prompted. “Which are they?”
He took a stab: “Sunni.”
Wrong.
Al Qaeda? “Sunni.”
Right.
…
Take Representative Terry Everett, a seven-term Alabama Republican who is vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence.
“Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” I asked him a few weeks ago.
Mr. Everett responded with a low chuckle. He thought for a moment: “One’s in one location, another’s in another location. No, to be honest with you, I don’t know. I thought it was differences in their religion, different families or something.”
…
Representative Jo Ann Davis, a Virginia Republican who heads a House intelligence subcommittee charged with overseeing the C.I.A.’s performance in recruiting Islamic spies and analyzing information, was similarly dumbfounded when I asked her if she knew the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.
“Do I?” she asked me. A look of concentration came over her face. “You know, I should.”

Posted by: b | Oct 17 2006 5:54 utc | 24

b, lol!!

Posted by: annie | Oct 17 2006 7:30 utc | 26

Talking of dkos, there is a diary up with a summary of Sybel Edmonds interviews, links, etc. (seems pretty complete.) I was at first startled, then understood that Edmonds is respectable – she has testified in official venues and is under a gag order which she obeys.
Her revelations, I suppose, for dkos-ers, fall under the rubric ‘corruption of the Repugs’ and ‘criminal inefficiency of the present administration’, whereas it is of course much more for those who care to look a little closer.
kos
reduced sentences:
Terrorist’s lawyer gets mild sentence – She faced 30 years for helping sheikh contact followers
New York — Radical lawyer Lynne Stewart was sentenced Monday to 28 months in prison for helping a terrorist client communicate with his followers, a far less severe sentence than the 30 years sought by federal prosecutors.
sfgate
The Sheikh is the ‘blind sheikh’, Omar, Abdel Omar Rahman, who accompanied the mujahideen when they were being trained in Pakistan by the Americans to fight the Russkies in Afghanistan.
He eventually moved to the US, and settled in New Jersey, where his speeches from the platform raised some alarm – Great Satan and America as whore, bit over the top. He was convicted of ‘seditious conspiracy’ after the WTC 1993 fiasco, in 1996, in a trial that was controversial to say the least. The star witness against him is said to have been paid a million dollars! Prosecuting counsel: Patrick Fitzgerald.
firedoglake says:
One of the people Fitzgerald put behind bars for the 1993 bombing was Sheikh Omar Abdel Raham, better known as “the Blind Sheikh.” Fitzgerald wound up writing a set of rules or Special Administrative Measures (SAMS) to hinder the Sheikh’s ability to communicate to his followers from jail. (It was the violation of the SAMS rules that got Lynn Stewart in hot water.)
link

Posted by: Noirette | Oct 17 2006 15:37 utc | 28

@b re:24
How appalling, What a shitstorm that would cause CCB (Chief Clearing Brush) if ever there was a reporter with balls to ask…
It should, but it does not surprise me, as most Americans can not find Cuba on a map.
I have often suspected that Americans demand far less competence in their elected leaders than in their sports coaches. Can you imagine the scandal and waves of derision that would erupt if it turned out that a MLB manager not only didn’t know the difference between the AL and NL, but never bothered to find out? Or if a division I-A head coach (in any sport) couldn’t name their conference rival? They’d be ridden out of town on a rail.
Here we pay/reward them.
Talked to a guy about this a bit back, he said “Why do you need to know your enemy? We don’t need precision, we have bombs.” I said, well how do you know who to bomb. He said, just bomb them all.
Yeah.
Say, did I ever tell you guys the story about Ollie North bringing a thick frosted chocolate cake out to the (appalingly hot) Iranian desert as a gift? And a bible? To a Shi`i Muslim cleric? During Ramadan?
He’s got his own show now, don’t he?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 17 2006 17:32 utc | 30

michael klare: Beware Empires in Decline

The common wisdom circulating in Washington these days is that the United States is too bogged down in Iraq to consider risky military action against Iran or—God forbid—North Korea. Policy analysts describe the U.S. military as “over-burdened” or “stretched to the limit.” The presumption is that the Pentagon is telling President Bush that it can’t really undertake another major military contingency.
Added to these pessimistic assessments of U.S. military capacity is the widespread claim that a “new realism” has taken over in the administration’s upper reaches, that cautious “realists” like Condoleezza Rice have gained the upper hand over fire-breathing neoconservatives. Ergo: No military strike against Iran or North Korea.
But I’m not buying any of this.
Just as an empire on the rise, like the United States on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, is often inclined to take rash and ill-considered actions, so an empire on the decline, like the British and French empires after World War II, will engage in senseless, self-destructive acts. And I fear the same can happen to the United States today, as we, too, slip into decline.
…
I suspect that the response of declining British and French imperial elites when faced with provocative acts by a former subject power in 1956 is a far more accurate gauge of what to expect from the Bush administration today.

Posted by: b real | Oct 17 2006 18:40 utc | 32

Bush and Foley

George W. Bush may now pretend that he never knew Mark Foley, but lukery has dug up some news stories indicating that Foley has been a Bush family friend since the early 1980s.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 17 2006 20:12 utc | 34

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FDA commissioner Lester Crawford pleaded guilty Tuesday to conflict of interest and falsely reporting information about stocks he owned in food, beverage and medical device companies he was in charge of regulating. – cnn
their criminality is continuing 24/24 7/7

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 17 2006 23:05 utc | 36

Scott Ritter, recently returned from Iran, and author of the forthcoming book Target Iran: The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change, was interviewed yesterday on Democracy Now. His view on the likelihood of war with Iran:

AMY GOODMAN: Scott Ritter, both the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner have said covert actions have already begun in Iran, U.S. military. Do you think that is true?
SCOTT RITTER: I respect the reporting of Seymour Hersh. I respect the analysis of Sam Gardiner. And I respect the integrity of people who have talked to me who are in a position to know. Look, we’re already overflying Iran with unmanned aerial vehicles, pilotless drones. On the ground, the CIA is recruiting Mojahedin-e-Khalq, recruiting Kurds, recruiting Azeris, who are operating inside Iran on behalf of the United States of America. And there is reason to believe that we’ve actually put uniformed members of the United States Armed Forces and American citizens operating as CIA paramilitaries inside Iranian territory to gather intelligence.
Now, when you violate the borders and the airspace of a sovereign nation with paramilitary and military forces, that’s an act of war. That’s an act of war. So, when Americans say, “Ah, there’s not going to be a war in Iran,” there’s already a war in Iran. We’re at war with Iran. We’re just not in the declared conventional stage of the war. The Bush administration has a policy of regime change. They’re going to use the military, and the military is being used.

Read the whole thing:
Scott Ritter on Iran

Posted by: Bea | Oct 18 2006 0:48 utc | 38

let’s hope they are at least the kind of kind and gentle prison wardens who will put us all in the same cell block.
Moments after reading this, I came across this, and, combined with your post here, it gave me definite pause.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Disaffected people living in the United States may develop radical ideologies and potentially violent skills over the Internet and that could present the next major U.S. security threat, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Monday.
“We now have a capability of someone to radicalize themselves over the Internet,” Chertoff said on the sidelines of a meeting of International Association of the Chiefs of Police.
“They can train themselves over the Internet. They never have to necessarily go to the training camp or speak with anybody else and that diffusion of a combination of hatred and technical skills in things like bomb-making is a dangerous combination,” Chertoff said. “Those are the kind of terrorists that we may not be able to detect with spies and satellites.”
Chertoff pointed to the July 7, 2005 attacks on London’s transit system, which killed 56 people, as an example a home-grown threat.
To help gather intelligence on possible home-grown attackers, Chertoff said Homeland Security would deploy 20 field agents this fiscal year into “intelligence fusion centers,” where they would work with local police agencies.
By the end of the next fiscal year, he said the department aims to up that to 35 staffers.

Put together with everything else we know is going on, how far-fetched is it to see them calling our posts here “radicalizing ourselves”… Really, not that far at all, when one has no legal rights left.
Funny, I was just reading that Iraq has moved to close two newspapers that were critical of the recent vote, and that Iran has decided to prevent fast internet service from becoming available, severely limiting the utility of the internet… Guess we are in good company then…
Link

Posted by: Bea | Oct 18 2006 1:35 utc | 40

it is good to see that someone out there can maintain a sense of humour with all that is happening. this came in my email and it made me laugh. bernhard, sorry for taking up bandwidth, but i don’t have a link.

This is an actual letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Quality, State of Pennsylvania . This guy’s response is hilarious, but read the State’s letter before you get to the response letter.
SUBJECT: DEQ File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County
Dear Mr. DeVries:
It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity:
Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond.
A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity.
A review of the Department’s files shows that no permits have been issued. Therefore, the Department has determined that this activity is in violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.
The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially failed during a recent rain event, causing debris and flooding at downstream locations. We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and cannot be permitted. The Department therefore orders you to cease and desist all activities at this location, and to restore the stream to a free-flow condition by removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the stream channel. All restoration work shall be completed no later than January 31, 2006.
Please notify this office when the restoration has been completed so that a follow-up site inspection may be scheduled by our staff.
Failure to comply with this request or any further unauthorized activity on the site may result in this case being referred for elevated enforcement action.
We anticipate and would appreciate your full cooperation in this matter. Please feel free to contact me at this office if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
David L. Price
District Representative and Water Management Division.
************************************************************************
*****************************************
Here is the actual response sent back by Mr. DeVries:
Re: DEQ File No. 97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Lycoming County
Dear Mr. Price,
Your certified letter dated 12/17/02 has been handed to me to respond to. I am the legal landowner but not the Contractor at 2088 Dagget Lane, Trout Run, Pennsylvania.
A couple of beavers are in the (State unauthorized) process of constructing and maintaining two wood “debris” dams across the outlet stream of my Spring Pond. While I did not pay for, authorize, nor supervise their dam project, I think they would be highly offended that you call their skillful use of natures building materials “debris.” I would like to challenge your department to attempt to emulate their dam project any time and/or any place you choose.
I believe I can safely state there is no way you could ever match their dam skills, their dam resourcefulness, their dam ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam determination and/or their dam work ethic.
As to your request, I do not think the beavers are aware that they must first fill out a dam permit prior to the start of this type of dam activity.
My first dam question to you is:
(1) Are you trying to discriminate against my Spring Pond Beavers, or
(2) Do you require all beavers throughout this State to conform to said dam request?
If you are not discriminating against these particular beavers, through the Freedom of Information Act, I request completed copies of all those other applicable beaver dam permits that have been issued. Perhaps we will see if there really is a dam violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Pennsylvania Compiled Laws, annotated.
I have several concerns. My first concern is, aren’t the beavers entitled to legal representation? The Spring Pond Beavers are financially destitute and are unable to pay for said representation — so the State will have to provide them with a dam lawyer. The Department’s dam concern that either one or both of the dams failed during a recent rain event, causing flooding, is proof that this is a natural occurrence, which the Department is required to protect. In other words, we should leave the Spring Pond Beavers alone rather than harassing them and calling their dam names.
If you want the stream “restored” to a dam free-flow condition please contact the beavers — but if you are going to arrest them, they obviously did not pay any attention to your dam letter, they being unable to read English.
In my humble opinion, the Spring Pond Beavers have a right to build their unauthorized dams as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green and water flows downstream. They have more dam rights than I do to live and enjoy Spring Pond. If the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection lives up to its name, it should protect the natural resources (Beavers) and the environment (Beavers’ Dams).
So, as far as the beavers and I are concerned, this dam case can be referred for more elevated enforcement action right now. Why wait until 1/31/2006? The Spring Pond Beavers may be under the dam ice then and there will be no way for you or your dam staff to contact/harass them then.
In conclusion, I would like to bring to your attention to a real environmental quality, health, problem in the area. It is the bears! Bears are actually defecating in our woods. I definitely believe you should be persecuting the defecating bears and leave the beavers alone.
If you are going to investigate the beaver dam, watch your step! The bears are not careful where they dump!
Being unable to comply with your dam request, and being unable to contact you on your dam answering machine, I am sending this response to your dam office.
THANK YOU.
RYAN DEVRIES & THE DAM BEAVERS

Posted by: conchita | Oct 18 2006 1:54 utc | 42

jj, came in my email from an activist in san francisco named scott munson. might be true, might be urban legend. you guess is as good as mine. i just thought it was funny and it is good to laugh.

Posted by: conchita | Oct 18 2006 2:26 utc | 44

Refusal to Enlist

Omri Evron,
Tel Aviv 12 October 2006
I, Omri Evron, refuse to serve in the army because I am faithful to the moral principles in which I believe. My refusal to enlist is in protest against the longstanding military occupation of the Palestinian people, an occupation that deepens and entrenches the hatred and terror between peoples. I oppose participation in the cruel war for the control over the occupied territories, a war waged in order to protect the Israeli settlements and to maintain the “Greater Israel” ideology. I refuse to serve an ideology that does not recognize the right of all nations to independence and a peaceful coexistence. In no way am I prepared to contribute to the systematic oppression of a civilian population and the deprivation of their rights – as it is being carried out by the apartheid regime and the Israeli military in the occupied territories. I am outraged by the starvation and incarceration of millions of people behind walls and checkpoints. I refuse to enlist because I do not believe that violence is a solution and that war brings peace.
I refuse to serve the arms industries, mega corporations, greedy contractors, preachers of racism and cynical leaders whose business is the advancement of suffering and who rob people of their basic human rights. I refuse in order to draw attention to the fact that not everyone is ready to be indoctrinated by and co-opted for nationalist and racist causes. With this act I want to express my solidarity with all prisoners for freedom worldwide. I refuse to believe the lies that come to sow division and antagonism between workers on both sides of the border so that they cannot join hands in the struggle for their rights. I would like my refusal to be a message of peace and solidarity and to appeal to all those who kill, and are prepared to be killed, for interests that are not their own, to lay down their arms and to join the struggle for a more just world.
Though I am aware that this act constitutes an infringement of Israeli law, I am compelled to stand by my democratic, humanist and egalitarian values. Military rule over millions of Palestinians is not democratic. It is my duty to oppose any law that makes it possible to deprive others of their rights and freedom, or to treat them with such violence that their fundamental humanity is negated.
I refuse against the nationalist “peace for the settlements” war.
I refuse against the systematic oppression and humiliation of civilians.
I refuse against the occupation and military rule that prevents a civilian population from determining its own fate.
I refuse against the apartheid and racist regime.
I refuse to consider people my enemies for reasons of race, ethnicity or religion.
I refuse to take part in the bloody cycle that is destroying both peoples.
I refuse in order to call for inter-national solidarity for the sake of peace and the well-being of all nations that wish to live in freedom and free of exploitation, oppression and war.
I refuse to kill! I refuse to oppress! I refuse to occupy!
I declare my loyalty to peace and refuse to serve the war and occupation!

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Oct 18 2006 4:23 utc | 46

Bush Sets Defense As Space Priority

President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone “hostile to U.S. interests.”
The document, the first full revision of overall space policy in 10 years, emphasizes security issues, encourages private enterprise in space, and characterizes the role of U.S. space diplomacy largely in terms of persuading other nations to support U.S. policy.
…
The new policy was applauded by defense analyst Baker Spring of the conservative Heritage Foundation. He said that he supported the policy’s rejection of international agreements or treaties, as well as its emphasis on protecting military assets and placing missile defense components in space. He also said that he liked the policy’s promotion of commercial enterprises in space and its apparent recognition that private satellites will need military protection as well.

Posted by: b | Oct 18 2006 6:02 utc | 48

Therefore, Maliki will either refuse to sign the law – in which case he would doubtless be removed immediately one way or another; perhaps even by some act of “terrorist violence” – or else he will seek to postpone the deadline and buy himself a little more time. If it’s the latter case, then he and his government might last out the year after all, assuming the Potomac Potentate deigns to extend his temporary mercy. But sooner or later the law will be signed: it is the reason for the war, it is why all of these people have died, it is the sign and substance of the true victory that Bush has been working for all these years.

Floyd link

Posted by: DM | Oct 18 2006 13:38 utc | 50

@Outraged
Great to see you post on here… wish you would stop by more often. Miss your very fascinating and enlightening posts. Good luck with your new venture.

Posted by: Bea | Oct 18 2006 13:41 utc | 52

@Monolycus #47
Sorry for the bad link. Try this: Go to http://www.rawstory.com then click on the headline that refers to “Chertoff: Web Terror Training…” and that should link you to the story. I replicated the whole thing I believe so there might not be much more to it.

Posted by: Bea | Oct 18 2006 13:43 utc | 54

Hezbollah, Lessons NOT Learned …

When David Became Goliath – PDF
Authors: Christopher E. Whitting; ARMY COMMAND AND GENERAL STAFF COLL FORT LEAVENWORTH KS
Abstract: For the first time since its establishment as a nation, and following four successive victories against various Arab conventional armies between 1948 and 1973, Israel was forced to withdraw militarily from South Lebanon in May 2000. This thesis investigates the defeat of the Israeli Defense Force by a guerilla army, Hezbollah. Rarely are the causes of defeat on the modern battlefield simply a case of military failure. Specifically this study will focus on the combination of factors that in unison forced the withdrawal of the Israeli Defense Force from Lebanon. The study concludes that a combination of political, military and social factors combined to force Israel to withdraw from Lebanon. A failure by Israel’s politicians to correctly identify the true nature of the problem and to link political goals to achievable military objectives condemned the 1982 invasion from the outset. Additionally, the Israeli Defence Force was slow to adapt to guerilla warfare throughout the 18-year war, preferring to rely on the proven methods of prior conventional wars to achieve victory. Moreover, the social impact of a long and unwinnable war without a just cause impacted severely on Israeli society weakening support for an Army whose historical role had changed from protector to aggressor…

Not quite an ‘objective’ analysis, some unsupported assertions and has minor flaws, though still close to the mark … how the equivalent of no more than, at most, the equivalent of a brigade of light infantry (and ragheads at that) defeated the combined might of the IDF and destroyed the myth …

HOW HEZBOLLAH DEFEATED ISRAEL (in three parts)

Looking forward … lessons to be learned ?

Beware empires in decline
Just as an empire on the rise, like the United States on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, is often inclined to take rash and ill-considered actions, so an empire on the decline, like the British and French empires over the Suez crisis, will engage in senseless, self-destructive acts. Watch out, Iran and North Korea…
AMERICA’S ACUPUNCTURE POINTS
PART 1: Striking where it hurts most
If America ever goes to war with China, Chinese military doctrine suggests the US should expect attacks on a number of key points where it is particularly vulnerable – where a single jab would paralyze the entire nation. China, probably assisted by allies like Russia and Iran, would aim at targets such as the US electricity grid, its computer networks, its oil supply routes, and the US dollar. America is entirely unprepared for this kind of warfare…

Posted by: Outraged | Oct 18 2006 14:15 utc | 56

As of this moment, the comments for Bernhard’s article entitled “Enabled” are disabled. 404 Page Not Found. Tried it a couple of times… the rest of the Moon doesn’t seem to be effected.
We got friends…
Domain Name af.mil ? (Military)
IP Address 137.244.215.# (78 CS/SCSC)
ISP 78 CS/SCSC
Location
Continent : North America
Country : United States (Facts)
State : Georgia
City : Centerville
Lat/Long : 32.6365, -83.6649 (Map)

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 18 2006 14:25 utc | 58

And now it’s back. Huh. How very… friendly. Not subtle, but effective, as my old friend Rick Blaine would have noted.
Shout out to whoever is peeking in from Chungnam. That one’s not me.

Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 18 2006 14:44 utc | 60

Got thinking about this….my attempt to view the thread in question (just minutes ago), combined with our lame-o overburdened IT infrastructure, might have somehow “hung” the application.

Posted by: fallout11 | Oct 18 2006 14:50 utc | 62

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. This is only a test. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
When the real poop hits, we wanna know we can block transmission.
Army Strong!
Co-Chair, Keep the Commandments Coalition of George
General William G. Boykin

Posted by: Uncle $cam/William G. Boykin | Oct 18 2006 15:08 utc | 64

Why would the homeland be so insecure if it were really the land of hope and freedom it has always claimed to be?
I could not agree more with your analysis, especially this point. I guess the old truism applies here: “You sow what you reap.”

Posted by: Bea | Oct 18 2006 15:17 utc | 66

the ‘fire’ would seem from all the videos exactly what the insurgency say it is – a succesful operation
the absence of cover in the corrupt media also suggest the same

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 18 2006 16:41 utc | 68

some good news for a change. george monbiot writes in the guardian how the tide is turning in british courts – in favor of antiwar protesters!

Posted by: conchita | Oct 18 2006 18:33 utc | 70

Fran @25
“‘And the west, encumbered by crippling [preemptive wars], and burdened with [policies] too rigid to accommodate itself to the swing of events must . . . eventually . . . fall.'” – The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler
In light of all of the posts, here and elsewhere, comparing Bush to Hitler and The Right to the Reich; I will go ahead and say that attacking Iran would be equivilent to Operation Barbarossa…
“In Russian and Soviet historiography, the conflict is referred to as the Great Patriotic War (Russian: Великая Отечественная Война, Velikaja Otečestvennaja Vojna), a name which alludes to the Russo–Napoleonic Patriotic War on Russian soil in 1812. The term Great Patriotic War appeared in the Soviet newspaper Pravda one day after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, in a long article titled “The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People” (Russian: Великая Отечественная война cоветского народа). The term “war against aggression” was used by the Soviet Union before the involvement of the United States and Japan.” – from wikipedia
I have no idea exactly what the Iranian papers would use for their headlines but I imagine something analogous to “The Great patriotic War” would appear and a similar end result would follow.
However, I hope that all those very well articulated blogs explaining why the US wont attack Iran are correct.

Posted by: Fiat Lux | Oct 18 2006 23:12 utc | 72

Electricity in Baghdad at Lowest Level Since the Invasion
Average is now 2.4 hours/day. Way to win hearts and minds…

Posted by: Bea | Oct 19 2006 0:13 utc | 74

Always so conflicted there Joannie?
Just amusing.

Posted by: Ms. M. | Oct 19 2006 1:43 utc | 76

Iran must be intimidated, says Israeli leader

MOSCOW (AFP) – Visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stepped up rhetoric against Iran, saying the its controversial nuclear program could be prevented through intimidation.
Speaking to reporters following meetings with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, Olmert said he had told Putin that “there was no chance of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear arms if Iran is not afraid.
“The Iranians should be afraid that something they don’t want to happen will occur,” he said.
“We are at a critical juncture and the entire international community must join ranks to block Iran’s true intention of arming itself with nuclear weapons,” Olmert told journalists after talks with Putin in the Kremlin.

I feel like I have to write my own news.

There is no chance of preventing endless repetitions of Israel’s criminal destruction of Lebanese infrastructure and the mining of southern Lebanon with hundreds of thousands of bomblets if Israel is not afraid.
The Israelis should be deeply afraid that something they don’t want to happen will occur.
We are at a critical juncture and the entire international community must join ranks to block Israel’s true intention of starving the Palestinians to death, of eliminating a whole nation and expropriating its lands.

Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement. All that is necessary is that they be held accountable under that agreement. And that Israel sign the agreement and eliminate its nuclear arsenal. And of course that the US and all the other signatories honor the agreement and be held accountable as well to work toward the elimination of nuclear weapons from all the world’s arsenals.
As for instilling the requisite fear in the Israelis, pull their siphon out of the US Treasury.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Oct 19 2006 3:01 utc | 78

#42 – The “beaver dam” incident really happened, says Snopes – but in Pearson, Michigan, not Daggett Run, Pennsylvania – apparently as stories circulate on the web people treat even factual accounts as folk fiction, to be “improved” at will

Posted by: mistah charley | Oct 19 2006 3:04 utc | 80

I feel like I have to write my own news.
There is no chance of preventing endless repetitions of Israel’s criminal destruction of Lebanese infrastructure and the mining of southern Lebanon with hundreds of thousands of bomblets if Israel is not afraid.
right on JFL

Posted by: annie | Oct 19 2006 4:23 utc | 82

@Fiat Lux – 72
As I said in another thread, Hitler attacking Russia had some arguable rational, especially the growth of the Russian army over the years before the war. A year later, Stalin might have well overrun the eastern German front.
An attack by the US on a third world country which has a comparable joke of military forces to steal or gain control of its natural resources is something else.

Posted by: b | Oct 19 2006 5:44 utc | 84

War in Iran called off? Sounds like it – for now.

Posted by: b | Oct 19 2006 6:17 utc | 86

maybe i just have a sick sense of humor but i absolutely died laughing when i read this!!
they must be really desperate. lol lol lol
something tells me keith would have no problems getting volunteers to refute this charge.

Posted by: annie | Oct 19 2006 15:44 utc | 88

The oil spot strategy in Iraq is dead, unfortunatly, there isn’t a new one …
General Urges New Strategy for Baghdad

The American-led crackdown in Baghdad has not succeeded in quelling violence across the capital and a new approach is needed, a military spokesman said today.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the senior spokesman for the American military in Iraq, said that the strategy of concentrating on a limited number of highly troubled neighborhoods had not slowed sectarian violence in the city as a whole.
…
In earlier statements, General Caldwell and other American commanders had called for patience, saying that the crackdown would take time to produce results.
General Caldwell did not explain what conditions had changed or say what new approaches were under consideration.
…
And General Caldwell gave a new sense of the toll the continuing violence has taken on Iraq’s young security forces. He said that roughly 25,000 soldiers and police officers had been lost to service after being killed or wounded too badly to return to duty.

Posted by: b | Oct 19 2006 16:27 utc | 90

Lend me your ear…
Oaxaca Popular Assembly Leader Assassinated
can anyone provide an instance when aright-wing figure was assassinated?
Van Gogh doesn’t count because, while he was portrayed as a rabid right-wing racist, his actual stance was much more nuanced…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 19 2006 21:43 utc | 92

Judge orders Cheney visitor logs opened

A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to release information about who visited Vice President
Dick Cheney’s office and personal residence, an order that could spark a late election-season debate over lobbyists’ White House access.
While researching the access lobbyists and others had on the White House, The Washington Post asked in June for two years of White House visitor logs. The
Secret Service refused to process the request, which government attorneys called “a fishing expedition into the most sensitive details of the vice presidency.”
U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina said Wednesday that, by the end of next week, the Secret Service must produce the records or at least identity them and justify why they are being withheld.
The Secret Service can still try to withhold the records but, in a written ruling Thursday, Urbina questioned the agency’s primary argument — that the logs are protected by Cheney’s right to executive privilege.

Posted by: annie | Oct 20 2006 9:18 utc | 94

annie
i misread & thought that the article sd – cheney’s legs forced open by judge
& i thought this was such a new form of foleyian jurisprudence, that we should all take note

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 20 2006 10:41 utc | 96

Israel slams UNIFIL idea of using force to stop Lebanon air violations
20/10/2006
Israel slammed on Friday suggestions by the commander of UN troops in Lebanon that their rules of engagement might have to be changed to allow use of force to stop Israeli air violations of Lebanese air space. General Alain Pellegrini, commander of the UNIFIL force in Lebanon, told a news briefing at UN headquarters on Thursday that if diplomacy failed it might have to explore “other ways” to halt the incursions, referring to the possible use of anti-aircraft missiles equipping French forces in Lebanon. But Pellegrini made it clear that such a move would require “new rules of engagement drafted and decided at UN headquarters”.

From AlManarTV [English] … be warned, this is the widely banned [by satellite transmission, in the ‘international community’] propaganda mouthpiece of the [alleged] terrorist organisation Hezbollah … which was effectively internationally recognised as a legitimate Resistance movement by Israel, the US and the UN, after the IDF exit from Lebabon circa 2000, but before the events of 9/11 and the commencement of the ‘War on Terra’, IIRC …
Hm, IIRC, the French brought some MBT’s with them this time to Lebanon so the IDF armor wouldn’t so easily be able to ‘standover’ the effectively defenceless UNIFIL, again …

Posted by: Outraged | Oct 20 2006 12:42 utc | 98

Good to see your posts again Outraged. Or have I missed them along the way?
Either way, I hope you hang around.

Posted by: Juannie | Oct 20 2006 13:47 utc | 100