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October 21, 2006
OT 06-99
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>Pump Head Cheny today said
After 2 bypass operations, and a 30%-50% chance of development of “pump head syndrom” after even one heart surgery — coupled with the numerous personal accounts of Cheney’s marked personality change after assuming the VP — kinda makes you wonder.
Posted by: anna missed | Oct 21 2006 8:06 utc | 2
Good grief….what Cheney said today was not “HEY I GOT PUMP HEAD!!!”
but instead (but, just as bad) “The war in Iraq is going remarkably well”
Posted by: anna missed | Oct 21 2006 8:10 utc | 3
Israeli War Plan Had No Exit Strategy
ust two days after Israel launched a punishing counterattack against Hezbollah this summer, Israeli military and diplomatic officials were deeply split over war strategy.
On July 14, as Israeli aircraft prepared to bomb south Beirut, the research unit of Israel’s military intelligence branch presented a report to senior Israeli officials that questioned the war plan’s ability to achieve the government’s goals.
The analysis, according to senior Foreign Ministry officials who read it, concluded that the heavy bombing campaign and small ground offensive then underway would show “diminishing returns” within days. It stated that the plan would neither win the release of the two Israeli soldiers in Hezbollah’s hands nor reduce the militia’s rocket attacks on Israel to fewer than 100 a day.
Quite one-sided, but interesting read …
A Patriot’s manifesto. Pat Tillman’s bro in arms speaks.
Powerful stuff here. Kevin Tillman’s eloquent voice will resonate. His and Pat’s experience could well be that which brings this country back from the precipice over which it’s already fallen.
I can’t see Rove and Bush sliming him like they’ve tried to do with Cindy Sheehan, whose message, after all is indistinguishable from Kevin Tillman’s.
If that’s not enough, how bout…
One Citizen’s Bill Of Impeachment
by STUART MARKOFF
A DECLARATION OF DIVORCE FROM,
AND IMPEACHMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT
OF THESE UNITED STATES CURRENTLY IN POWER AS OF THIS
OCTOBER, 2006 IN THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY FIFTH
YEAR OF THE PROMULGATION OF THE CONSTITUTION.
When in the course of the history of this Republic, survivor of Rebellion, of the Great Depression, and of many wars, an Executive violates its contract with its citizens to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, and fails to so uphold and defend its basic principles, putting the nation itself in jeopardy, and subverting its very purposes, then the citizens must exercise their right to reject such governance not only by the power of the vote but by petitioning the Legislative to institute proceedings of Impeachment against the Executive to reclaim the balance of the three branches as invisioned by the Authors and enshrined in the words of the Constitution itself.
To that end, We draw up this bill of high crimes and misdemeanors not only multitimes manifest but continuing, to the great harm, and maiming of this Republic, whereby we urge that the current President, Vice-President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of the Interior be impeached, removed from office, and rendered subject to prosecution for crimes against both the domestic and international order at trials by a jury of their peers, the ordinary citizens of the United States of America.
Wherefore, we list the wrongs inflicted upon us:
Waging war by lies, distortions, and a secret agenda;
Basing domestic policy on various grandiose usurpations of both the Legislative and Judicial functions;
Suspending basic rights as enumerated in the Bill of Rights and in Common Law;
Refusing to carry out the express intent of legislation by invoking the expediency of sign-off statements;
Misusing the Armed Forces, and subjecting troops to retaliatory punishment by an Enemy;
Creating new enemies, and destroying American prestige with aggressive, hegemonic, and destabilizing policies;
Subverting the freedom of the press with paid propaganda disguised as open journalism;
And in general, exercising an Incompetence so willful that its consequences may take generations to repair.
THEREFORE DO WE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES SEPARATE OURSELVES FROM OBEDIENCE TO SUCH UNLAWFUL AUTHORITY, EXCEPT AS CONTINGENT UPON SUCH TIME AS THEIR IMPEACHMENT, REMOVAL, AND TRIAL,
in the trust we still have in the wisdom of the Founders and in the courage of the Legislative and the Judiciary to document and to pass judgment, and to rectify the CRIMINAL wrongs enumerated.
Herewith we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor: _________
Copy, paste and send to the fucking white house, and add your name to it. I sent mine with the header “You are on notice. You have been served.”
Also, I will be sending money to a charity in Gaza, as my response to 10/17/06. FUCK THEM.
Bring it on.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 21 2006 8:17 utc | 5
Terrorists:
Arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan in January 2000, Rahim says al-Qaida leaders burned him with cigarettes, smashed his right hand, deprived him of sleep, nearly drowned him and hanged him from the ceiling until he “confessed” to spying for the United States.
U.S. forces took the young Kurd from Syria into custody in January 2002 after the Taliban fled his prison. Accusing him of being an al-Qaida terrorist, U.S. interrogators deprived him of sleep, threatened him with police dogs and kept him in stress positions for hours, he says. He’s been held ever since as an enemy combatant.
Terrorist Profiling, Version 2.0
The government’s top intelligence agency is building a computerized system to search very large stores of information for patterns of activity that look like terrorist planning. The system, which is run by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is in the early research phases and is being tested, in part, with government intelligence that may contain information on U.S. citizens and other people inside the country.
It encompasses existing profiling and detection systems, including those that create “suspicion scores” for suspected terrorists by analyzing very large databases of government intelligence, as well as records of individuals’ private communications, financial transactions, and other everyday activities.
(AP) A fire at the Army base that houses the National Security Agency heavily damaged a building containing “sensitive” materials Friday afternoon, base officials said.
Burning relevant Evidence?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 21 2006 10:22 utc | 8
Lebanon’s War With Cluster Bombs
Since then, the true dimensions of the problem have become even clearer: 770 cluster-bomb sites have now been identified. And the current U.N. estimate is that Israel dropped between 2 million and 3 million bomblets on Lebanon, of which up to a million have yet to explode.
In fact, it is estimated that there are more unexploded bomblets in southern Lebanon than there are people. They lurk in tobacco fields, olive groves, on rooftops, in farms, mixed in with rubble. They are injuring two or three people every day, according to the United Nations, and have killed 20 people since the cease-fire in August.
“What we did was insane and monstrous,” one Israeli commander admitted to the newspaper Haaretz. “We covered entire towns in cluster bombs.”
Emails disclose that Republican Representative Curt Weldon (PA) contacted the Navy (and other departments, presumably) in order to draw together a “hit list” of individuals “in the national security field” supportive of his opponent, Joe Sestak.“If they don’t think there will be retribution before or after the election, they’re kidding themselves.”
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 21 2006 11:20 utc | 10
an article to pass around to your right wing friends and neighbors
On Saturday morning, Sept. 23, 2006, many police vehicles appeared in our driveway. Men in black with flak jackets ran to and around our house.
My wife was at home alone. I drove up and asked, “What’s going on?”
Men ran at me, dropped into shooting position, double-handed semi-automatic pistols pointed at me, and made me put my hands against my truck.
I was held at gunpoint, searched, taunted, and led into the house. I had no idea what this was about. I was scared beyond description. I feared there had been a murder and I was a suspect.
My wife and I were interrogated about Internet crime. We are not avid computer users; we do not even e-mail. We knew nothing of what they were speaking.
snip
At 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 2, the chief investigator of Pittsylvania County returned our possessions and said that the wrong IP (computer) address had been identified. We would not be charged.
Pittsylvania County Sheriff’s Department, Bedford County Sheriff’s Department and Blue Ridge Thunder invaded our peaceful lives with military force based on one piece of wrong digital information.
Kafka would nod knowingly at this
Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 21 2006 15:47 utc | 11
Excellent close look into the dismemberment of Iraq at the not-to-be-missed new blog Missing Links, found via Gorilla’s Guides.
Posted by: Alamet | Oct 21 2006 16:17 utc | 12
Address at the 88th Annual American Legion National Convention
As Delivered by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Salt Lake City, Utah, Tuesday, August 29, 2006:
(…)
” It’s a strange time:
• When a database search of America’s leading newspapers turns up literally 10 times as many mentions of one of the soldiers who has been punished for misconduct — 10 times more — than the mentions of Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith, the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in the Global War on Terror;
• Or when a senior editor at Newsweek disparagingly refers to the brave volunteers in our armed forces — the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines, the Coast Guard — as a “mercenary army;”
• When the former head of CNN accuses the American military of deliberately targeting journalists; and the once CNN Baghdad bureau chief finally admits that as bureau chief in Baghdad, he concealed reports of Saddam Hussein’s crimes when he was in charge there so that CNN could keep on reporting selective news;
• And it’s a time when Amnesty International refers to the military facility at Guantanamo Bay — which holds terrorists who have vowed to kill Americans and which is arguably the best run and most scrutinized detention facility in the history of warfare — as “the gulag of our times.” It’s inexcusable. (Applause.)
Those who know the truth need to speak out against these kinds of myths and distortions that are being told about our troops and about our country. America is not what’s wrong with the world. (Applause.)
(…)
The good news is that most Americans, though understandably influenced by what they see and read, have good inner gyroscopes. They have good center of gravity. So, I’m confident that over time they will evaluate and reflect on what is happening in this struggle and come to wise conclusions about it. ”
Done for. Never, ever spend much time dissing your internal enemy’s acts in any precise way. Inner gyroscopes? What pathetic BS.
defenselink
Posted by: Noirette | Oct 21 2006 17:27 utc | 13
Does this mean what it seems to mean?..
Australian Treasurer Seeks Orderly Withdrawal From U.S. Dollar
10/19/06
TREASURER Peter Costello has called on East Asia’s central bankers to “telegraph” their intentions to diversify out of American investments and ensure an orderly adjustment.
Central banks in China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong have channelled immense foreign reserves into American government bonds, helping to prop up the US dollar and hold down American interest rates.
Mr Costello said “the strategy had changed” and Chinese central bankers were now looking for alternative investments.
“Of course you can have an orderly adjustment,” he told reporters. “And what I would recommend is that these matters be telegraphed well in advance. I think we should begin preparing ourselves for it.”
…
Posted by: Alamet | Oct 21 2006 17:43 utc | 14
alamet
smh is a serious perhaps the last serious paper in that god forsaken country & it is a very interesting bit of news indeed
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 21 2006 17:52 utc | 15
on days as sad as these there is always cnn for a good laugh
headlining bush talks strategy with his generals
really, the parallels with that famous bunker are too much
bush surrounded by his jodls & keitels & ribbentropps & the sinister rove, i mean bormann yapping away like crazed hyenas on some strange strain of lsd
strategy – they wouldn’t know outside the perameters of a heat seeking missile
tactics they think as thoroughly as some toned up mel torme – tactics – i laugh at this world – they are not the ones determining the tactics – is is the ragtag armies of iraq who are determining exactly which route to follow; tactics – they make me laugh
logistics – they know even less except the profit margins of all those monsters sucking at the teat of public monies – those pigs of men who wine & dine in the trough of their own torpitude
& their abramoffs smiling as they wade through this shit – piling piety on paper money that has less & less meaning unless you are working either at a central bank in china or are in the politburo of the chinese communist party
& there’s old kim jong il in the middle of watching his favourite film noirs imitating johnny garfield for his chinese guests – telling them exactly the same story johnny would would have before he died of a broken heart in a hotel after mccarthy & his goons cohn & hoover had fucked him over & over again to make clear to the american re(public) that you don’t get on the bad side of their jurisprudence
tactics, strategy, logistics – don’t make me laugh more than i can on a day as sad as this for the people or iraq
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 21 2006 18:36 utc | 16
@ Alamet.
There have been some pretty serious rumours in financial circles that a major move away from the dollar is being contemplated. Of course this is a scenario that’s been touted at regular intervals, but maybe it’s becoming more than just talk?
Posted by: SteinL | Oct 21 2006 21:21 utc | 17
one more from suskind’s book; an interesting take on bush admin gwot spin and the deceptions needed to erode constitutional rights:
That would soon happen, as Spain began withdrawing troops, as news of a “terrorist victory” circled the globe. Beneath those headlines, though, was further affirmation of what CIA analysts had first begun to see in sigint and limited humint as far back as the spring of 2002: a possible strategic shift by al Qaeda away from further attacks on the U.S. mainland. The venues for violence were Saudi Arabia; European countries, some with large Muslim populations; and certainly Spain.
The deeply classified debate over why Zawahiri had called off the chemical attacks, meanwhile, shed its old self-congratulatory thesis that this might be due to the pressure the United States was putting on al Qaeda’s structure. That line of analysis gave way to growing evidence that al Qaeda might not have been trying to attack the United States in the three years since its singular triumph of 9/11.
“What we understood inside CIA is that al Qaeda just doesn’t act out of bloodlust, or pathological rage. Though their tactics are horrific, they’re not homicidal maniacs. They do what they do to carry forward specific strategic goals,” said a senior CIA official involved in highest-level debates over bin Laden and Zawahiri during this period.
“Clearly, they had the capability to attack us in about a hundred different ways. They didn’t. The question was, why?”
Now, does the American public-with response to the 9/11 attacks and new global landscape indisputably the seminal issue in its national election-deserve to know that al Qaeda may not have been trying to attack America?
Without knowing it, is it possible to assess the President’s central assertion that he should be reelected because he has kept us from being attacked again?
The core dilemma-can a nation fight a war in secret while preserving the values of a democracy-was becoming more acute by the hour in this, the first national election since the attacks.
In any event, myriad key facts, such as al Qaeda’s status and real strategy, would remain submerged in the spring of 2004. Aj ustification for this secrecy-and, at this point, the shadow cast over a continent of actions and rationales in the conduct of the “war on terror”-was a hard, tactical extract from the cult of message-discipline: that to let al Qaeda know certain things we knew, including that we knew that they might not actually have a desire to attack the U.S. mainland, would be [305] valuable in helping them plot their strategies. And, because al Qaeda, its supporters, imitators, and adherents, are members ofavast, nonvoting global constituency that the U.S. President had now assumed, no one could know.
That meant that the dictates of “information warfare” that apply to an enemy in combat would also apply on the U.S. mainland, even though it was now democracy’s quadrennial opportunity for citizens to assess the conduct of their leaders. The American public had no more right to know the government’s intentions than a mid-rung al Qaeda lieutenant. If all that happened to benefit those in power, so be it.
This collision of rights and interests created an acute, subterranean stress-like tectonic plates sliding-deep beneath the American system of government and its traditions of informed consent.
What was visible on the surface, meanwhile, were internecine struggles between the forces of message discipline and those of messy, intermittently meaningful debate.
Posted by: slothrop | Oct 21 2006 21:36 utc | 18
Anyone else wondering where old Strike Force Eisenhower is? Due to arrive today, I thought…
Posted by: Tantalus | Oct 21 2006 21:45 utc | 19
really, the parallels with that famous bunker are too much
Last week I skipped through Laurence Rees’s book-to-go-w/-the-tv-series The Nazis: A Warning From History just for the hell of it. To see how it read in the light of where we’re at right now.
The book’s not as good as the documentary series, but one of Rees’s main points sticks out a mile at this juncture: that the Nazis were crap at everything. So much for the stereotype of German “efficiency” – they were just rubbish, utterly and deeply incompetent.
Schacht knew what they were doing economically would lead to financial ruin, let alone everything else they did.
Posted by: Dismal Science | Oct 21 2006 22:04 utc | 20
In view of the clusterfuck that is the Middle East after USUK “let’s make the energy supply more secure” intervention, Putin has got the EU metaphorically and literally over a barrel, it would seem.
When will Russia join the EU proper?
Posted by: Dismal Science | Oct 21 2006 22:42 utc | 21
@ Tantalus
Three US Navy Task Forces in place in the Persian Gulf October 21.
USS Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group,
USS Enterprise Strike Group,
Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group.
Link
.
Posted by: Antifa | Oct 21 2006 23:05 utc | 22
“Anyone else wondering where old Strike Force Eisenhower is? Due to arrive today, I thought…”
Probably slowed up a bit by:
1/ North Korea explodes a nuclear bomb.
2/ Camp Falcon in Baghdad is sabotaged by Iraqi resistance fighters and a billion dollars worth of US munitions go boom.
Posted by: Anonymous | Oct 21 2006 23:05 utc | 23
you all are getting a bit jumpy with regard to the Eisenhower
Ike at Naples
Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 21 2006 23:09 utc | 24
When will Russia join the EU proper?
Not in any forseeable future as Russia has no wish to join the EU.
And when it comes to the Russian gas exports to the EU both sides huff and puff but in the end the pipelines are already in place and EU needs to buy just as Russia needs to sell.
Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Oct 22 2006 0:04 utc | 25
Speaking of the Eisenhower group, Robert Dreyfuss at tom dispatch is talkin bout that COUP THANG in Iraq again.
Posted by: anna missed | Oct 22 2006 1:00 utc | 26
thanks anna missed. dreyfuss is on top of it again. no mention of the oil deal coming down in dec.
Posted by: annie | Oct 22 2006 3:40 utc | 27
Dont know what to make of this, but somehow they have a list of 300 casualties from the FOB Falcon blowup last week. A mixed bag of reportage and eyewitness accounts — not sure how much is legit.
Posted by: anna missed | Oct 22 2006 4:38 utc | 28
@anna missed – it’s from TBRnews – a very dubious propaganda site and the “reporter” is even more dubious.
I don’t believe a word of their writings.
Israel admits using phosphorus bombs during war in Lebanon
Israel has acknowledged for the first time that it attacked Hezbollah targets during the second Lebanon war with phosphorus shells. White phosphorus causes very painful and often lethal chemical burns to those hit by it, and until recently Israel maintained that it only uses such bombs to mark targets or territory.
thanks b, first encounter with that one, weird mix of legit (stars&stripes), unsourced, unnamed eyewitness. is that a jailbait scheme?
Posted by: anna missed | Oct 22 2006 7:23 utc | 31
anna missed and Bernhard, I never miss TBR’s Voice From The White House column. It comes out on Saturday mornings … used to be very good, very well-written shock journalism by a purported White House insider.
Occasionally full of BS. But recently, the last 6 months or so it is utterly boring. They also repreint a bunch of other recent stories to support their current slant.
The column about US casualties has run for years but I never paid any attention to it because it has no backing.
Anyway, I agree TBR’s a lousy news source but the Voice column is always good for a look as far as I am concerned.
Posted by: jonku | Oct 22 2006 8:14 utc | 32
One of the better stories about Amara, but, like most of these stories, they focus on a presumed threat to the Maliki government. I’m not so sure that what happened in Amara, and potentially Basra as well, are necessarily a threat to Maliki (unless you are George Bush). An alternative take might be to see the shift (in political allegance) all over the south toward Sadr is actually in Maliki’s interest, and the show of force by the Mahdi Army as a push back to SCIRI influence, and icing their provincial intelligence operative in the process. There could be a deeper agenda at work if, the rumors that the US is also behind the SCIRI plan for partition, that may reinforce the nationalist bent of Sadr connecting to Maliki. SCIRI, in this case may not be so inclined to partition, if whats to be partitioned is all controlled by the Sadr — DAWA connection.
Posted by: anna missed | Oct 22 2006 8:24 utc | 33
Just to echo alamet. I (and more importantly my Arabic moderators) have been following the work done on missing links it’s good solid work.
He’s also unearthed this chap A Non-Arab Arab who seems thus far to also do some pretty solid work. Certainly this posting: iraq: on sciri vs sadrists is very good.
Americans really desperately need to know what’s going on in the Arabic world. Europeans do too but the need is particularly dire amongst Americans. Particularly when the analysis is done, as in Badger’s case, from a very American perspective. Not something that I’m capable of 🙂 One to add to your reading list folks.
PS: Thanks for mentioning Gorilla’s Guides alamet.
PPS: Hej fra Københaven Steinl 🙂
mfi
Posted by: markfromireland | Oct 22 2006 10:15 utc | 34
From Josh Marshall at talkingpointsmemo.com:
Quote of the week:
“The higher you climb up the tree, the more your ass shows.”
It was from Richard Armitage, white house official and I think Cheney’s chief of staff.
Posted by: jonku | Oct 22 2006 10:43 utc | 35
My local fishwrap reported this morning that due to the low polling numbers George W. Bush would have a crisis meeting with republicans and top military commanders about the situation.
Anyone that knows anything about this?
Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Oct 22 2006 13:04 utc | 37
Interesting askod, I searched around and found nothing to that effect, however that doesn’t mean much these days, as they would more likely than not, keep something of that nature on the qt.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 22 2006 13:55 utc | 38
b:
I followed your lnk to Ha’aretz on the phosphorous bombs :
Edery also pointed out that international law does not forbid the use of phosphorus and that “the IDF used this type of munitions according to the rules of international law.
According to rules of international law…
I remember once buying a camera or computer in NYC from a Jewish guy, on the Sabbath. I noticed that his belt buckle was made from a key. I mentioned how neat that looked. The guy told me that on the Sabbath Jews were not allowed to carry anything in their pockets, so he had had his house key turned into a belt buckle. So he was “legal”. Keeping up his end of the Covenant with the Lord.
Any of us are quite as capable of utter hypocrisy, but the Israelis are saying as well that, hey, those two million, or three, cluster bombs we dropped on Lebanon are “legal” as well. So what’s your problem?
Yeah, what’s the problem? It’s the letter of the law that counts. Liability in a “legal”, torts-centric sense. Sue me. I’m covered.
Death and destruction are someone else’s problem.
And that’s where our problem, the US’s and Israel’s has come from. We’ve got shelves of legal opinions that “prove” that we’re not terrorists.
Hell, if they had any money, we could sue them!
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Oct 22 2006 14:00 utc | 39
@ swedish
perhaps this story is what your local paper was referring to.
WASHINGTON – President Bush prepared Friday to meet with his top general in the Middle East amid growing concerns that Iraq is slipping deeper into intractable crisis.
“There’s a reason why the violence is increasing,” Bush said at a fundraiser Friday. “We’re confronting those who would like to sow sectarian violence.”
Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are scheduled to consult Saturday with top U.S. commanders in Iraq. Rumsfeld and the White House both said Friday that the meeting was previously scheduled and not called in response to events in Iraq. Gen. John Abizaid, the head of the U.S. Central Command, arrived in Washington from the Middle East on Friday to meet with Bush, according to the White House.
Though the White House says no major changes are in the offing, the moves, particularly when paired with increasing criticism from generals, foreign policy experts and Republicans running for re-election, suggest a recalibration could be coming.
Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 22 2006 14:38 utc | 40
Mark from Ireland, you are welcome. Thank you for all you have been doing.
Posted by: Alamet | Oct 22 2006 14:40 utc | 41
A long while ago I had a post about Baluchistan. The south east corner of Pakistan and parts of Iran. I predicted that the Balochs will want independence and that the US will help them.
Le Monde Diplomatique now has a piece in English about Pakistan’s Baluch insurgency. While currently the US is not involved, I still expect that to change.
watching that gonnoreah ridden golem blitzer & he seems not at all pleased by general haigs obvious contempt for blitzers confrerie -wolfowitz, perle, cheney & brezinski being an old warrior of the word
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 22 2006 15:56 utc | 43
ô the little golem is much happier with dr i do my diagnosis by video frist
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 22 2006 16:09 utc | 44
Frank Rich is hyping Obama for president: Obama Not a Miracle Elixer. Part of the qualities he list is this:
Mr. Obama has offended no one (a silly tiff with John McCain excepted). Search right-wing blogs and you’ll find none of the invective showered on other liberal Democrats in general and black liberal leaders in particular. What little criticism Mr. Obama has received is from those in his own camp who find him cautious to a fault, especially on issues that might cause controversy.
Hmm – is that a qualification? What does the guy stand for? He was against the catastrophy in Iraq, but else? I just don’t know – I’m asking.
Obama took the hint from Rich and just about announced he will run in 2008: Obama Says He’s Weighing 2008 Run
Sen. Barack Obama acknowledged Sunday he was considering a run for president in 2008, backing off previous statements that he would not do so.
The Illinois Democrat said he could no longer stand by the statements he made after his 2004 election and earlier this year that he would serve a full six-year term in Congress. He said he would not make a decision until after the Nov. 7 elections.
The good thing with this – Hillary will be pissed…
What does the guy stand for?
good question. saw him on charlie rose the other night and frankly i was surprised he would consider running, so far he’s just an image albeit a good one but still, what do we know of him?
Posted by: annie | Oct 22 2006 17:04 utc | 46
imo, obama is as much like a leaf in the wind as hilary. he has not stepped forward until the last moment and only under pressure to support progressive causes and then he seems to qualify much of what he says. i don’t know his voting history but i bet it is disappointing. i agree with b that he will pose a challenge hilary had not counted on, and he is more likely to get my vote than she, but he is no superstar in my eyes. if anything i think he is a dino dem already even if this is his first stint in the senate. he is a charismatic speaker and he is loyal to his roots, but he seems just as much an opportunist as hilary. my two cents.
Posted by: conchita | Oct 22 2006 17:11 utc | 47
How will Obama be in foreign politics? If his Kenia visit was an example he will not be great. He critizised the Kenian Government on Kenia’s tv and was surprised that they were not amused. If that was an example of his diplomatic skills I have severe doubts about him.
Besides what has he so far accomplished as Senator?
Posted by: Fran | Oct 22 2006 17:12 utc | 48
almet #41, i second that and thank you too for turning me onto this site
Posted by: annie | Oct 22 2006 17:13 utc | 49
okay, final parting remark before i dive into my school projects. if some of the folks over at d (for dreaded) kos take issue with obama for being too centrist, then what does that tell you?
Posted by: conchita | Oct 22 2006 17:13 utc | 50
if some of the folks over at d (for dreaded) kos take issue with obama for being too centrist, then what does that tell you?
it tells kossacks are perfectly willing to not jump on any dem bandwagon. of course obama insulting them probably cemented a riff, obabma publicly distancing himself from those wacko bloggers. what was it he said? something about not seeing anything new coming from there ?
Posted by: annie | Oct 22 2006 17:32 utc | 51
” longevity itself can produce wealth. We have traditionally thought that we need to grow our GDP in order to pay for our ageing society. In fact, our ageing society can help our GDP to grow.”
Took them long enough to come to that one, considering how addicted conservatives are to fossil fuels anyway.
Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 22 2006 17:35 utc | 52
@33, @34
To add, it will be interesting to see what comes of the Mahdi-SCIRI power tossle in South Iraq. The chances are that Iran’s influence will ensure that it does not spin out of control.
In Lebanon, Amal & Hezbollah function hand-in-hand today. This was not always the case. SCIRI and Mahdi are not too far apart for the same to happen.
NonArab-Arab’s piece hits many point’s.
Another angle might contrast SCIRI as more top-down in political approach as compared to Mahdi’s more bottom-up agenda.
Looking back, Sadr’s outspoken opposition to the occupation from the early stages was viewed as rash and impulsive by other top Shia clerics & leaders. But it has worked for him on the long run. Meanwhile, critics of SCIRI today might label them alternatively as Iran’s puppets or USUK’s puppets.
An interesting question is whether Sadr’s increasing prominence could have been predicted from the get-go. Probably, unless one ignores or down-plays the potential impact of Arab Nationalism in Iraq.
Posted by: jony_b_cool | Oct 22 2006 18:46 utc | 53
thanks dan,
that is probably it.
When I read that a president meets with his party and his military to win an election I tend to get worried, but then there can be other reasons then coup d’état. So thanks for finding it.
Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Oct 22 2006 21:48 utc | 54
What’s significant about this is not that is once again demonstrates the robotic, shark-like will to power of the modern Republican party — a religious cult crossed with an organized crime family. We already knew that. It’s just the standard Rovian tactic of attacking your enemy for your very own sins, and then persuading various corporate media suck asses (the Mark Halperins of this world) to write that you’ve miraculously managed to turn a weakness into a strength.
Here, in my humble opinion, is the key to modern TV politics in America. And its soluton in its own terms.
Why on earth do those slandered, Demoplicans in this case, not make “The GOP : a religious cult crossed with an organized crime family” their own theme and run the very same ads, framed in their commentary, like Truthout or Rawstory?
Use half your time slot for that and follow up with exposure of one of the Republicrat’s profane offerings on its heathen altar or of one of its organized crimes.
The meat of the ad would address the issues, which in itself explains why the Demoplicans wouldn’t do it I guess, and the delivery of the ad would cast the slimy gaming of the system in favor of the incumbents in sharp relief, which come to think of it really explains why the Demoplicans won’t do it. Forget this post.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Oct 23 2006 2:01 utc | 55
Whatever happened with the Saudi Oil Price reduction for Bush’s re-election?
And is it happening again ???
I profess complete ignorance on the topic, anyone have a real clue.
Posted by: Fiat Lux | Oct 23 2006 2:42 utc | 57
Finally, something to really fear…
Gulag Ameripelago
Most people, even among the realist hard Left, believe that massive internment is at best a remote possibility and that the Supreme Court will declare The Military Commission Act unconstitutional. Don’t bet on it. Even with a possible Democratic majority in place.
As regular readers here realize, I’m almost convinced of the likelihood of a contrived “false flag” “terrorist event” in the US prior to the 2008 presidential elections, resulting in martial law and the last brick in the blood-red road to a totalitarian police state.
Even if this doesn’t happen and there is a Democratic Party victory this November and in 2008, why do think things will change? Looking at the history of Democrats and war, there is no evidence whatsoever to believe they won’t use these terrifying laws and other mechanisms to their own advantage.
Heavy hitters among the Dems, such as Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, are already recipients of massive amounts of corporate money. Neoliberalism is no different than neoconservatism in its aims. It is ridiculous to believe that Bill Clinton was much different than the Bushes. That is a fantasy of a pathologically selective memory. And the voting records of most Democatic senators and congresspeople, especially the DLC types who still rule the party in spite of Howard Dean, are more than an adequate clue of what may be coming.
[Part 1]
[Part 2]
[Part 3]
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 23 2006 4:10 utc | 58
i’m worried about malooga. i have more than a passing knowledge of the dire straights of of his recent circumstances and i wish he would at least check in w/us. so malooga, if you are listening, this one’s for you..
all i really want to do…
Posted by: annie | Oct 23 2006 4:32 utc | 60
Got to jump in here with the music too. If only because its probably a Sunday afternoon in this bar where it was recorded, a lovely understatment.
with Dewey, Aly, and D.L.
Posted by: anna missed | Oct 23 2006 5:33 utc | 61
follow up to annie @ 60. if anyone reading lives in the boston area, please get in touch with me or annie.
Posted by: conchita | Oct 23 2006 5:45 utc | 62
One thing I really like about Malooga is his ability to challenge head on things he doesn’t believe in, and at the same time support the things he does.
With clear thought and measured reason he creates both narrative and argument.
I miss you man, let us know you’re ok.
Posted by: jonku | Oct 23 2006 6:50 utc | 63
This from the neocon Weekly Standard!
Censoring Iraq – Why are there so few reporters with American troops in combat? Don’t blame the media.
Already looking for Christmas presents: Mike Fooley action figure.
Nova M Radio, Mike Malloy’s new home.
Has he told you ‘how much he hates these bastards’, lately?
via
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 23 2006 13:20 utc | 66
“America dictating the Iraqi partition scheme”
Another item in the Al-Quds selection for this week is an editorial in the newspaper of the Muslim Scholars Association, (Sunni), Al-Basa’ir, about the recent vote on the bill respecting procedures for federalism. The editorialist says this isn’t just a case of feeling our way, of the free play of domestic politics. On the contrary this is “literally the application of the American wishes”, for a division into sect- and race-based regions. It was already their policy in the Bremer era. And the extraordinary efforts that went into passage of the bill [in the famous disputed vote of October 11] appears to have been the result of specific instructions from Rice during her visit of Oct 7. The idea is to first partition Iraq, and then to partition the rest of the region, to produce what they are calling the “New” or the “Greater” Middle East.
Posted by: annie | Oct 23 2006 15:30 utc | 67
@annie – that was obvious, wasn’t it – 8 parliament members of Allawi’s (CIA funded) party “accidently” did not boycott the vote – exactly the number needed to push it through.
after 60 years, Allied bombs are still killing Germans.
this is something the Iraqis, Lebanese, and perhaps Iranians can look forward to as well.
Posted by: dan of steele | Oct 23 2006 18:07 utc | 70
In case one cares to notice – the facists are finally officially taking over the Israeli government: Olmert appoints right-wing deputy
i would like news from or of malooga too – your voice needed
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 23 2006 22:11 utc | 72
Reuters article says October “looks set” to have the highest US casualties this year. Quick look here indicates this already is the highest casualty month this year, with 11 more deaths than in May, the second highest month.
Why the mealy-mouth wording?
Posted by: ran | Oct 23 2006 22:33 utc | 73
“Since Mr Bush is so adamant in his views, perhaps a ‘council of elders’ could persuade him to reconsider,” wrote [Harlan] Ullman, who suggested that Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner, former secretaries of state George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, and former Democratic national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski could be involved in a concerted effort to persuade the president “to appreciate the possibility that many of our policies are failing or founding and, unless we take new directions, events in East Asia could follow the disastrous trajectory of what is happening in the Greater Middle East”.
The underlying idea here is to lay the foundation of government by regency… or putsch, depending on your point of view.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Oct 24 2006 0:46 utc | 75
#71 link
Mr Lieberman’s inclusion in the Israeli government will be controversial. He advocates the transfer of some Arab towns out of the state of Israel.
if they don’t cut this crap they are seriously damaging respect for jews in general. sorry, but that’s the reality. no different than americans. we have to eat the crap for public opinion. the difference is we are a secular society. not so w/israel. they represent a religion. they slander their religion when they pull this shit. can’t have ot both ways.
they are going to be eating crow when secular jews start screaming foul in america also .
let’s hope anyway. zionists are the worst anti semites around. where the hell is malooga??
Posted by: annie | Oct 24 2006 1:14 utc | 76
speaking of malooga, there is someone in belmont, mass and cambridge, mass on the site meter right now. malooga, is it you? whoever you are, would you mind sending me an email. maybe you can help us find malooga?
Posted by: conchita | Oct 24 2006 3:35 utc | 77