News & views & colored eggs …
Back to Main
April 6, 2007
OT 07-27
Comments
Guardian: US reveals its efforts to topple Mugabe regime
The US admitted openly for the first time yesterday that it was actively working to undermine Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe.
Although officially Washington does not support regime change, a US state department report published yesterday acknowledged that it was supporting opposition politicians in the country and others critical of Mr Mugabe.
The state department also admitted sponsoring events aimed at “discrediting” statements made by Mr Mugabe’s government.
The report will be seized on by Mr Mugabe, who has repeatedly claimed that the US and Britain are seeking regime change.
…
New Yorker on Wolfowitz at the World Bank: The Next Crusade and fittingly Al Kamen on another Wolfowitz scandal: ‘Outrage’ at World Bank Over Colleague’s Generous Salary
The World Bank rank and file were most upset by our recent column noting that Shaha Riza, linked romantically with bank President Paul Wolfowitz, got some curiously hefty raises upon being detailed to work at the State Department — but remaining on the bank’s payroll.
…
Riza, a senior communications officer for the Middle East and North Africa region, was promoted to a higher-paying position on Sept. 19, 2005, the day she left for Foggy Bottom, without any of the required open competition for the job, the association said. She also got a pay raise more than double the amount allowed by the rules, the e-mail said, followed by another allegedly overly large raise.
Before these bumps up, Riza had been earning $132,660. She’s now paid $193,590.
…
“It’s ironic that Mr. Wolfowitz lectures developing countries about good governance and fighting corruption, while winking at an irregular promotion and overly generous pay increases to a partner,” said Bea Edwards, international director of the Government Accountability Project, which first disclosed the pay data.
Guantánamo: conditions getting worse
Conditions at Camp 6, which opened in December 2006, are described as “cruel and inhuman”. Detainees are confined for 22 hours a day to individual, steel cells with no natural light and minimal human contact. No activities are provided, with detainees subjected to 24-hour lighting and constant observation by guards.
According to the Pentagon, 165 men had been transferred to Camp 6 within a month of its opening. Many were previously held in Camp 4, where detainees lived communally in barracks with access to a range of recreational activities. Camp 4 is now reported to house just 35 detainees, down from 180 in May 2006.
Despite the US authorities describing Camp 6 as a “state-of-the-art modern facility” that is “more comfortable” for detainees, the conditions appear more severe than the most restrictive levels of “super-maximum” custody in the US. There is growing concern they could have a serious adverse effect on the psychological and physical health of many of the detainees.
A further 100 detainees are held in solitary confinement at Camp 5, while there may be as many as 20 on Camp Echo, a facility set aside from the others where conditions have been described as “extremely harsh”. In all, it appears that 80 per cent of detainees are held in isolation.
Wal-Mart and Target Spy on Their Employees
With Target and Wal-Mart acting as though they are entitled to spy on, stalk and imprison their own employees, we are on the road to a full-scale workplace dictatorship.
It reads like a cold war thriller: The spy follows the suspects through several countries, ending up in Guatemala City, where he takes a room across the hall from his quarry. Finally, after four days of surveillance, including some patient ear-to-the-keyhole work, he is able to report back to headquarters that he has the goods on them. They’re guilty!
But this isn’t a John Le Carré novel, and the powerful institution pulling the strings wasn’t the USSR or the CIA. It was Wal-Mart, and the two suspects weren’t carrying plans for a shoulder-launched H-bomb. Their crime was “fraternization.” One of them, James W. Lynn, a Wal-Mart factory inspection manager, was traveling with a female subordinate, with whom he allegedly enjoyed some intimate moments behind closed doors. At least the company spy reported hearing “moans and sighs” within the woman’s room.
Now you may wonder why a company so famously cheap that it requires its same-sex teams to share hotel rooms while on the road would invest in international espionage to ferret out mixed-sex fraternizers. Unless, as Lynn argues, they were really after him for what is a far worse crime in Wal-Mart’s books: Openly criticizing the conditions he found in Central American factories supplying Wal-Mart stores.
In fact, the cold war thriller analogy is not entirely fanciful. New York Times reporter Michael Barbaro, who related the story of Wal-Mart’s stalking of Lynn and his colleague, also reports that the company’s security department is staffed by former top officials of the CIA and the FBI. Along the same lines, Jeffrey Goldberg provides a chilling account of his visit to Wal-Mart’s Bentonville “war room” in the April 2nd New Yorker. Although instructed not to write down anything he saw, he found a “dark, threadbare room… its walls painted battleship gray,” where only two out of five of the occupants will even meet his eyes. In general, he found the Bentonville fortress “not unlike the headquarters of the National Security Agency.”
It’s looking more and more like Jennifer Government
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 6 2007 13:49 utc | 6
The following was in my preview of #6 right after my comment about Jennifer Government but, for some reason/somehow typepad spit it out and it didn’t post…
The Panoptic Transition
It would not be fair to say that Jeremy Bentham invented the panoptic model of domination; it was always there. Bentham was merely the scribe; panopticism was his muse. According to the widely renowned postmodern social critic Michel Foucault, ‘Panopticism must be understood as a general model of functioning; a way of defining power relations in terms of the everyday life of men… It is polyvalent in its applications.” Polyvalent indeed. Panopticism is, in fact, slowly subjugating the social world that we all call the 21st century.(…)
The United States has become the informational guard tower in the globe’s panoptic schema of domination. Or rather, Corporate America has constructed a panoptic schema wherein the American state serves to legitimate the corporate informational filter that creates and recreates the material state that benefits Corporate America. The web of this corporately rooted panoptic schema is now reaching out across the entire nation, enveloping, persuading, seducing, atomizing, reconstructing, recombining and reassembling us all into a greater whole as never before. Within this greater whole, we are all Big Brother. We are all increasingly analyzing each other’s actions as we police ourselves with ever greater detail and precision….
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 6 2007 14:40 utc | 7
more re #1
Zimbabwe: The US Government Exposed
The ongoing attempts at demonizing Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe by the U.S. and U.K. mainstream media were getting more and more ridiculous, and suddenly, most likely inadvertently, the U.S. makes the admission of what some, including President Mugabe, have been saying all along: the U.S. is supporting the opposition in Zimbabwe in their quest for regime change.
During the U.S. press briefing announcing the release of its annual report, “Supporting Human Rights and Democracy: The U.S. Record – 2006” is the exchange between a reporter and the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Barry Lowenkron:QUESTION: Yeah, can I go to — I just want to go to Zimbabwe for a second. In this it says that the United States sponsored public events in Zimbabwe that presented economic and social analyses, discrediting the government’s excuses for its failed policies. It also says that the United States continued to support the efforts of political opposition, the media, civil society, to create and defend democratic space and to support — the last bit — to support persons who criticize the government.
Now, granted, I’ve just given a cursory reading to the Zimbabwe and other — the reports on other countries with which the United States has full diplomatic relations. The ones I looked at were Belarus, Syria, Vietnam and Eritrea. There may be more. Cuba, obviously, without full diplomatic relations, doesn’t count.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY LOWENKRON: Sure.
QUESTION: My question is this: It doesn’t appear that this kind of — that these kind of things, i.e., discrediting the government’s excuses for failed policies and support — overt support for people who are critical of the government, happened, at least is being reported for these other countries. And my question is this: President Mugabe has often talked about how he thinks the West, the United States and Britain in particular, are trying to — are trying for regime change in Zimbabwe, and this is exactly what this appears to look like, what you’ve acknowledged doing through your programs in Zimbabwe. And I’m just wondering, is it the United States — does the United States believe that it’s its responsibility to discredit the government’s excuses — the government and to openly support people who criticize the government? And if it is, which is what you’re saying, why is Mugabe wrong when he says that you’re trying for regime change?And that is the question that begs for an honest answer along with how can the U.S. possibly deny their intentions of provoking a regime change in Zimbabwe?
and the other day i pointed out this from a story from south africa’s business day covering the recent southern african development community (SADC) summit in tanzania, of which one topic being addressed was the sitch in zimbabwe.
It is understood that, following the summit, the SADC is now putting together an exit package for Mugabe underwritten by western countries.
Sources close to the summit say the US and UK have drafted a five-point plan, including an economic rescue package, as part of the way forward to complement the SADC initiative.
what i gather from the summit though was that SADC called for lifting sanctions on zimbabwe and for the brits to honor their obligations WRT the lancaster house agreement, funding land reform issues. none of the countries attending the summit openly criticised mugabe & the biz press in the southern nations is highly critical of mbeki & the SADC.
there have also been recent HRW releases criticizing SADC leaders. it’ll be interesting to see how they incorporate this u.s. admission into their critiques.
aside from the more important issues raised & needing to be addressed in all this, it makes for a great media studies project.
Posted by: b real | Apr 6 2007 15:36 utc | 8
Recommended Chomsky: What If Iran Had Invaded Mexico?
This “debate” is a typical illustration of a primary principle of sophisticated propaganda. In crude and brutal societies, the Party Line is publicly proclaimed and must be obeyed — or else. What you actually believe is your own business and of far less concern. In societies where the state has lost the capacity to control by force, the Party Line is simply presupposed; then, vigorous debate is encouraged within the limits imposed by unstated doctrinal orthodoxy. The cruder of the two systems leads, naturally enough, to disbelief; the sophisticated variant gives an impression of openness and freedom, and so far more effectively serves to instill the Party Line. It becomes beyond question, beyond thought itself, like the air we breathe.
The debate over Iranian interference in Iraq proceeds without ridicule on the assumption that the United States owns the world.
…
Joe Klein in Time (I don’t like the guy, but it’s a pretty good takedown)
An Administration’s Epic Collapse
The three big Bush stories of 2007–the decision to “surge” in Iraq, the scandalous treatment of wounded veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys for tawdry political reasons–precisely illuminate the three qualities that make this Administration one of the worst in American history: arrogance (the surge), incompetence (Walter Reed) and cynicism (the U.S. Attorneys).
Haha b,
I think George Costanza (from the sienfeld show) might describe this as a case of “significant shrinkage”. How Joe Kline could know this, without actually having some physical proof — is anybodys guess. Unless, he himself has a similar obsession, and is just extrapolating, as it were.
Posted by: anna missed | Apr 6 2007 17:10 utc | 11
Europe Looks Into Possible War Crimes in Somalia
NAIROBI, Kenya, April 5- European diplomats said Thursday that they were investigating whether Ethiopian and Somali government forces committed war crimes last week during heavy fighting in Somalia’s capital that killed more than 300 civilians.
The fighting, some of the bloodiest in Somalia in the past 15 years, pitted Ethiopian and Somali forces against bands of insurgents and reduced blocks of buildings in Mogadishu, the capital, to smoldering rubble. Many Mogadishu residents have complained to human rights groups, saying that the government used excessive force and indiscriminately shelled their neighborhoods.
On Thursday, Eric Van der Linden, chief of the European Commission’s delegation to Kenya, said that he had appointed a team to look into several war crime allegations stemming from the civilian casualties. “These are hefty accusations,” Mr. Van der Linden said. “We are examining them very prudently.”
In an e-mail to Mr. Van der Linden marked “urgent,” a security adviser to the commission wrote that there are “strong grounds” to believe that Ethiopian and Somali troops had intentionally attacked civilian areas and that Ugandan peacekeepers, who arrived in the country last month, were complicit for standing by. The e-mail was provided by someone who thought that the issue should become public and its authenticity was confirmed by commission officials.
…
The European Commission has no authority to prosecute war crimes and would have to refer any findings to the International Criminal Court. But commission officials said they were investigating the accusations because the commission has provided money and technical assistance to the transitional government and the peacekeeping mission here there.
A Western official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic considerations predicted that even if there were compelling evidence of war crimes, the case would probably never get to court.
Another Western official, speaking anonymously for similar reasons, said, “At the end of the day, no one is going to want to further undermine the transitional government.”
Diplomats, and analysts from Somali and international organizations predicted Thursday that the American government would resist the European effort because Ethiopia is a close American ally, valued as bulwark against Islamic militants in the Horn of Africa.
that’s being generous…
Mogadishu’s Carnage, the Death of the TFG & its Fraudulent Reconciliation
The Ethiopian offensive has completely shattered any possibility for the TFG gaining any acceptance from the Somali people. In other words, the TFG is dead but Somalis must still move forward and work towards genuine reconciliation.
…
In a nut-shell, Abdullahi Yusuf has shown his true colors with his tribalist ranting and the TFG has died with the carnage in Mogadishu. It is now or never for Somali patriots to stand-up.
on thursday the TFG informed anyone still listening to them that it had indefinately postponed the reconcilitation conference scheduled for april 16th.
on the belarus planes hit in mogadishu last month
Belarusian Plane in Somalia was transporting armaments?
There are reports on internet according to which the first Belarusian plane Il-76 EW-78826 belonging to the state-run Transaviaexport company shot down in Somalia, was transporting not a humanitarian cargo, but infantry fighting vehicles for Ugandan troops. “A missile hit between chassis, penetrated the fuselage and hit the infantry fighting vehicle. It exploded. Engineers and loadmasters were saved by that armoured fighting vehicle. Otherwise they would be wounded by the blast and cut splinters… they were lucky and landed the plane…” an anonymous pilot informed.
As we have informed, another crew was sent to transport the equipment from the plane that had been brought down, but it was killed.
Posted by: b real | Apr 6 2007 17:11 utc | 12
a newsday story on the war crimes charges states that
Somali officials were unreachable for comment.
The e-mail comes just days before the EU was expected to release $20 million for the African peacekeeping force and could lead to its suspension, a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
The United States is also a major financial support of the Somali government and the peacekeepers, pledging more than $120 million.
there’s a report today in geeska afrika that, depite the ongoing ceasefire, which called for foreign forces to move out of the capital city, more ethiopian troops are headed into mogadishu
The Somali Residents in Baidoa, said a number of Ethiopian planes landed on Thursday carrying dozens of Ethiopian troops, who left for Mogadishu overnight.
“I have seen two huge military planes. They arrived at Baidoa airport in the afternoon (Thursday). They carried a lot of Ethiopian troops,” said Mohamed Aden Abdi, who lives near Baidoa airport.
“I have seen some nine military vehicles in the street. They were going towards Mogadishu.”
The new Ethiopian troop reinforcements headed to the Somali capital after flying into a nearby town five days after a shaky ceasefire took hold in Mogadishu.
Posted by: b real | Apr 6 2007 17:25 utc | 13
on al jazeera programme -‘inside iraq’ – a retired american general gard, has sd genereal keane told him there was a position on not protecting the population of iraq – interrogated further keane had sd that was the doctrine – nor did they possess the means to do so
that the us policy is a genocidal one clearer each day & coming out of their own mouths
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 6 2007 17:48 utc | 14
sattelite – often there is a link to the programme on their site
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Apr 6 2007 18:01 utc | 16
jcairo- thanks for the great links! LOL. peanut butter proves the existence of god.
sorry if this was already posted…I can’t keep up. anyway, this was over at Digby’s and it’s funny how things change when a political philosophy has been totally discredited…
Europe is the future, says conservative end of history guy…and if America doesn’t work, like this guy says (and he was so important to the conservatives in the U.S.) then why is the current system still operating as it is?
but this guy is a big conservo “intellectual” and he’s saying that Bush’s presidency sucks (of course, not in those words…but still…)
Posted by: fauxreal | Apr 6 2007 20:11 utc | 17
mind-numbing
The White House on Friday condemned as “unfortunate and extremely disappointing” any mistreatment by Iran of British naval personnel held captive by Tehran for roughly two weeks.
“What the sailors said this morning is unfortunate and extremely disappointing if they were treated inappropriately in any way,” national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters.
“If what they described is accurate, and I have no reason to believe it is not, if what they described is accurate then that would not seem to be appropriate behavior and action,” said Johndroe.
Posted by: DM | Apr 6 2007 23:01 utc | 18
fauxreal
i thik the best thing the good herr professor fukuyama could do is go fuck himself
all the inheritors of daniel bells endo of ideology have always wanted a bet each way but are in fact none other than straussian elitists whp lace themselves high above the quotoidian concerns of common folk like you & me
Posted by: r’giap | Apr 6 2007 23:21 utc | 19
fauxreal – you’re welcome
these OTs usually don’t veer far from the meat-grinder. a change of pace is nice now and then
and the peanut butter tale is easter themed
Posted by: jcairo | Apr 6 2007 23:39 utc | 20
fukuyama lost me at “Inspiring and hopeful as these events were ..”.
agree with r’giap – he can go fuk himself.
Posted by: DM | Apr 6 2007 23:50 utc | 21
dm
it seems before you (alan or harald)bloom(ed)& sometime after the wolf(owitz)howls outside the door & y’ve received their(richard)perle of wisdom & all the feiths have left & y have nothing to do but rove rove rove the boat ashore – then you are what the scholastic fellows would call francis fuked
Posted by: r’giap | Apr 7 2007 0:04 utc | 22
re: fuckedayama, charles jencks in his latest book has recast the eu’s circular logo of languages in its territory on top of breughel’s painting of the tower of babel, effectively completing the tower and creating – eu babylon!
Posted by: Dismal Science | Apr 7 2007 0:33 utc | 23
slothrop- he and his comment section make me want to puke. I am really sick of the war wingers escalating conflicts and then blaming liberals while the right wing has again shown how disconnected they are from reality and again create situations in which there is no way to “win” as a conventional army — and if he’s so sure this is possible, then why don’t the republican fucktards support a draft for their kids?
and, most of all, the guy is an idiot because he doesn’t acknowledge that Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 and therefore the invasion violated the nuremberg principles, of which he is surely aware, being an ex-soldier…and so now the tighty righties want the rest of us to shut up because they are murdering and torturing people because Bush wanted a republican majority for ever and ever? bullshit.
I couldn’t finish watching… why bother when it’s warmed over Rush Limbaugh puke.
Posted by: fauxreal | Apr 7 2007 1:13 utc | 25
what’s wrong w/ h. bloom? he’s a curmudgeon, sure. but he’s less of a fascist than paul demann; a man’s-man as much as hart crane.
c’mon!
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 7 2007 1:16 utc | 26
one thing’s for certain about bob parks: he hates civies.
the contempt is terrifying, given the problems that happen when defeated soldiers return home to settle scores with compatriot-traitors. yikes.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 7 2007 1:34 utc | 27
more and more, it seems we’re going to have a brownshirt problem. I mean, these people are fascists. plain as day.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 7 2007 1:40 utc | 28
ok. ok. one more.
I’m about ready to join my comrades in europe and shanghai and publish smartass admonitions about the cultural decline of empire. I’m this close.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 7 2007 2:03 utc | 29
This will be story of this Celebrate Spring Weekend – Easter for non-pagans. Hopefully, b- will give us a thread & barflies will weigh in w/reports from a range of sources. Supposedly report is based on actual data, rather than extrapolating from models.
The world’s scientists yesterday issued a grim forecast for life on earth when they published their latest assessment of the impacts of climate change.
…
The report’s release was delayed by arguments between scientists, who wrote the report, and some government representatives present, who must agree the final text and insisted some of its conclusions were weakened.
“The authors lost,” one scientist told journalists. “A lot of authors are not going to engage in the IPCC [the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] process any more. I have had it with them.” Scientists walked out of the talks at one stage and several lodged protests.
Martin Parry, who co-chaired the working group that produced the report, said it was regrettable that “certain messages were lost”, including one table illustrating the impact of climate change according to each degree rise in global temperatures. “But the report was not watered down in the broad thrust,” he insisted.
Dr Parry said evidence showed climate change was having a direct effect on animals, plants and water. “For the first time, we are no longer arm-waving with models. This is empirical data.”
…
Prof Adger said the scientists were dismayed to have a passage of the report dropped that made an explicit link between cause and effect on global warming. This had occurred due to political pressure, with China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia being particularly reluctant to endorse some findings.
*** Truth Gets Vicious Alert – please weigh in w/info. from yr. sources…***
Posted by: jj | Apr 7 2007 2:35 utc | 30
@Slothrop, et al. I can’t do video on my dial-up line. Can you give me a brief rundown??
Posted by: jj | Apr 7 2007 2:38 utc | 31
A potential Billmon scoop from lil’ ol’ me to the rest of the Whiskey Bar patrons – enjoy!
Posted by: Richard Cranium | Apr 7 2007 3:48 utc | 32
no scoop. i think this poster is who you’re looking fer.
Posted by: b real | Apr 7 2007 5:03 utc | 33
no scoop. i think this poster is who you’re looking fer.
Thanks for the pointer b real – and possibly it’s nothing – but as I noted in my post, there are some intriguing clues behind the site (as well as another one or two that I have)…
Perhaps “J” can elaborate.
Posted by: Richard Cranium | Apr 7 2007 5:46 utc | 34
@jj:
There isn’t much to add. Most of the stuff they’re talking about is published and public; you can go read it if you want details. (Trying to boil it down into a comment on a blog, no matter how long, might as well end up being “we’re probably screwed” instead.) The only comment I have to add is that, if anything, the headlines there possibly weren’t emphatic enough: “Hundreds of millions may be put at risk”? Sorry, folks, if we’re going to use conditionals and numbers together, and reflect the evidence, a more accurate line would be “billions may be put at risk, hundreds of thousands very probably going to die”. We have definitely moved from the point where “may” involves famines for minorities; “may” now involves famines for majorities instead. “May” is now the realm of Lovelock (96% of humanity dies if we’re careful enough not to kill each other off first or destroy the areas which will still be temperate). If you’re talking about serious repercussions for less than half of humanity, the word you want these days is “probably”.
It’s important to keep in mind — especially for obsessive, depressive types like me — that “may” also contains a lot of less-bleak alternatives; the less-likely possibilities extend into the optimistic as well as the pessimistic. The evidence is overwhelming that changes are coming, but it’s possible that the changes could be relatively harmless, or at least could be accomodated. (It would be irresponsible to act as though you expect that to happen, just as it would be to plan your household budget around winning the lottery, but it could happen.) We’re talking about an event so massive that just about any feedback system that can occur will occur. Everything on earth is being pulled into it at once, so any prediction is necessarily making assumptions about what will and will not happen. (They’ve tried a lot of simulations, though, and it would take some really major and more or less totally unforeseen effects to avoid serious changes.) There are a lot of vicious cycles that are known (more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means an equilibrium shift with the the carbonic acid levels in the ocean, which means ocean pH goes down, which means less algae — which currently absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide every year by separating the oxygen out via photosynthesis and using the carbon to build shells — can survive, which means more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; repeat until ocean pH is too low for any algae to survive) but there could be unknown virtuous cycles as well, and there could be effects which aren’t cyclical but are currently unknown.
One thing that I can’t stress enough, though: in the words of the old Tom Lehrer song, we will all go together when we go. If civilization collapses from global warming, you will not be able to survive by escaping to a farm you are cunningly buying in Alaska right now. Sorry, folks: if things get really bad, the elites and their armies (mercenary or national) will have the last of the fuel and the best weapons, and there’s no way you’re going to be able to defend your 40 acres and a cow, let alone your water supply. Better to put the money and effort into trying to avoid the collapse in the first place.
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Apr 7 2007 7:10 utc | 35
jj – the first video was of a polite reichwinger droning on about the schools, roads and wells being built by the US armed forces in Iraq and how the liberal media should be concentrating on these happy things and not the slaughter instigated by the US blitzkrieg 6 years ago. This man doesn’t support the troops because “troops” is too impersonal and political, he supports you (you being those suckered into joining up) – at that point I vomited from all the warm and fuzzies
the second a dumb pop song about chicks and gang signs
Posted by: jcairo | Apr 7 2007 12:46 utc | 36
Army warns of ‘jurisdiction gap’ for criminal contractors
i’m shocked…
A presentation prepared by the US Army shows that there still exist situations in which the military may not be able to prosecute private contractors who commit crimes.
apparently if the war is not ‘declared’, a loophole exists in criminal jurisdiction. didn’t we declar war on a tactic?
Posted by: annie | Apr 7 2007 13:40 utc | 37
at that point I vomited from all the warm and fuzzies
my sentiments, just another shill. i made it as far as the wmd’s probably stored in syria. yawn
Posted by: annie | Apr 7 2007 13:49 utc | 38
i’m not going to bother linking to it but cheney is still out there claiming iraq and AQ were as thick as thieves.
Posted by: annie | Apr 7 2007 13:52 utc | 39
International society was fortunate to survive the ideological wars of the 20th century. The ominous quality of the international situation in which we find ourselves today is that it now is dominated by an ideological war too. The tables have been turned. Instead of the calm and powerful superpower that knows how to use restraint, the United States has become the ideologically expansionist power itself, committed to an illusion, or simulacrum, of global democracy.
Of its old opponents in the cold war, Russia has become something resembling the classical, authoritarian, non-ideological great power of the 19th century, chiefly concerned with national interest and national security, and China’s government, in the absence of political legitimacy, tells its people to become rich — which some do, but most cannot. Neither has the least interest in universalizing its beliefs.
Only the United States remains committed to ideological crusade. This is not simply because it is deeply and desperately engaged in such a war, but because its politicians and people still believe in the ideology of universal democracy, convinced that only with that can the United States be safe – and, of course, that is a chimera.
U.S. homeprices over time as a roller coaster ride – recommended
Galveston, oh Galveston, I still hear your sea waves crashing
While I watch the cannons flashing
I clean my gun and dream of Galveston…
Hey wasn’t Jonathan Pollard from Galveston?*
*That’s Galveston Indiana.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 7 2007 21:20 utc | 42
Sunday pick of minor items – and Happy Easter to all!
Rove heckled and pelted with rocks.
LiveLeak
-video is very noisy
Nick Possum finds some old newspaper (35, Abyssinia)
possum
-with pics
Prince Nayef Al-Shaalan (Saudi) will be judged in absentia for importing two TONS of cocaine into France
Le Monde
-summary only in French, article behind pay wall
On March 26, 2007, a new federal law restricting Americans from contacting foreigners through internet dating sites was upheld by a federal court after a Constitutional challenge by an internet dating company. In European Connections v. Alberto Gonzales, 1:06-CV-0426-CC, Judge Clarence Cooper of the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia dismissed a lawsuit by European Connections which claimed that the law violated the right to freedom of speech contained in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The plaintiff had failed to challenge the law based on the First Amendment right to assemble.
cryptogon
How’s that for detachment from reality? The law seems to apply only to men, and match.com is exempt. Authoritarianism, mindless bureaucracy, corporatism (biggie exempt), fake feminism (protection of women), and probably xenophobia (all those weird foreign dames) all rolled into one in an unnoticed and unapplicable piece of legislation!
Uncle, if I invite you to visit the Mont Blanc, you’ll have to give me your bank account number first! 😉
Posted by: Noirette | Apr 8 2007 13:21 utc | 45
Report on climate change.
First, it shows that Science is subsumed to politics, not that that is new, but for it to be blatantly announced world wide is a little alarming.
Now, it is so that climate change is a very uncertain, systemically hyper complex, thus difficult topic, where ‘opinions’ or ‘gut feelings’ or ‘various povs’ do hold sway. Much of the Science can be interpreted this way or that way, as all the factors can not at present be taken into account and perfectly modeled. Solid predictions cannot be made, partly because future events depend somewhat on human decision making and action. And how it is experienced and handled depends on us.
Basically, some welcome global warming – growing wheat in southern Siberia would be kinda cool, or rather, hot – others don’t care about it because they won’t be affected or can handle the difficulties – and the rich, or big corporations, know that there will always be ppl to exploit; stress and poverty, even population reduction, are no big deal for them. For the rich West, as long as it can dominate, and global warming doesn’t literally fry the landscape or cause serious, uncontrollable riots, the breakdown of society, the hotting up is seen as an opportunity for some.
Climate change is slow: there is time to plan, to adapt; or conversely, it is noted that there is no point in considering the far future when there are the starving to feed today. Humans are not geared to these kind of long term plans – their success rests on muddling on creatively and adapting quickly to current conditions. (As opposed to the butterfly, or recently, the bee.)
The other side of the coin – Peak Oil – is far more dangerous for humans, as established and ‘emerging’ economies, set on winning in a consumerist rat race, deplete the earth of ‘energy’ in any way they can, turning food into vehicles for motors, low grade coal into jet fuel, sunlight into electricity with huge investments both in dollars and energy, and so on, exploiting every last little cranny of energy to benefit the rich and powerful, be they Nation-States, the ‘West’, other big groups, or even individuals. This competition leads to war. War which affects millions, destroys and renders land inhabitable, and smashes civilizations. It also naturally expends tremendous amounts of energy on the gamble of investing energy to gain more (Iraq, for ex.), thereby increasing warming and the destruction of the environment.
It is a winner takes all scenario. All that is left, that is.
Posted by: Noirette | Apr 8 2007 14:19 utc | 47
The Rove Heckled video from “Live Leak” as posted works for me .. You Tube has it now as well, hope that works:
YouTube, Rove
Posted by: Noirette | Apr 8 2007 14:32 utc | 49
Boston Globe: Scandal puts spotlight on Christian law school
The title of the course was Constitutional Law, but the subject was sin. Before any casebooks were opened, a student led his classmates in a 10-minute devotional talk, completed with “amens,” about the need to preserve their Christian values.
“Sin is so appealing because it’s easy and because it’s fun,” the law student warned.
Regent University School of Law, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson to provide “Christian leadership to change the world,” …
…
Not long ago, it was rare for Regent graduates to join the federal government. But in 2001, the Bush administration picked the dean of Regent’s government school, Kay Coles James , to be the director of the Office of Personnel Management — essentially the head of human resources for the executive branch. The doors of opportunity for government jobs were thrown open to Regent alumni.
…
In a recent Regent law school newsletter, a 2004 graduate described being interviewed for a job as a trial attorney at the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in October 2003. Asked to name the Supreme Court decision from the past 20 years with which he most disagreed, he cited Lawrence v. Texas, the ruling striking down a law against sodomy because it violated gay people’s civil rights.
“When one of the interviewers agreed and said that decision in Lawrence was ‘maddening,’ I knew I correctly answered the question,” wrote the Regent graduate . The administration hired him …
Thanks Noirette. The 1st one eventually loaded but the 2nd is longer.
Posted by: beq | Apr 8 2007 18:12 utc | 51
A new element
The new element has been named ‘Bushcronium. ‘ Bushcronium has oneneutron, 12 assistant
neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass
of 311.
These particles are held together by dark forces called morons, which are surrounded by
vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.
The symbol for Bushcronium is ‘W’.
Bushcronium’s mass actually increases over time, as morons randomly interact with various
elements in the atmosphere thus becoming assistant deputy neutrons in a Bushcronium
molecule, forming isodopes.
This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to believe that Bushcronium
is formed whenever morons reach a certain concentration.
This hypothetical quantity is referred to as ‘Critical Morass.’
When catalyzed with money, Bushcronium activates Foxnewsium, an element that radiates
orders of magnitude more energy as incoherent noise, since it has half as many peons but
twice as many morons.
Posted by: beq | Apr 8 2007 21:19 utc | 52
@Noirette:
Climate change is slow: there is time to plan, to adapt
You haven’t been paying attention. The thing that has everyone so worried is the methane locked under the north of Siberia (and somewhere else, I remember reading once, although I haven’t seen the other location mentioned recently so I may have misread or they may have been wrong). It’s in Lovelock’s recent book, but if you think he’s too much of a wingnut to be credible, even under Bush, NASA has announced the same thing, and so has the UK’s Royal Society. Briefly: if the world’s average temperature lowers roughly 1 degree more than it has — which, if current events are any indication, will take somewhere between 5 and 20 years — the ground out there will soften up, ice will melt, and the methane will start to be released from where it formed (via decomposition). The problem with that is that carbon dioxide’s contribution to global warming is small compared to methane — the difference is a factor of 60 initially, although methane eventually breaks down in the atmosphere into carbon dioxide and water, so the numbers decrease over time. Once the methane comes out, the speed of global warming, which has already increased over the last several decades, will become exponentially higher. Instead of a few degrees over a century, expect a few degrees over a decade, and around 10 degrees (Celsius; 18 Fahrenheit) by 2100. How hot does it get in your area in the summer? Imagine that it was 10 degrees (18 if you’re on Fahrenheit) warmer. How quickly will your area become a desert?
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Apr 8 2007 22:28 utc | 54
from lawrence wright’s so-so book The Looming Tower:
Suddenly Kherchtou felt expendable. The camaraderie that sustained the men of al-Qaeda rested on the financial security that bin Laden provided. They had always seen him as a billionaire, an endless font of wealth, and bin Laden had never sought to correct this impression. Now the contrast between that exaggerated image of bin Laden’s resources and the new destitute reality caused some of the men to begin looking out for themselves.
Jamal al-Fadl, who was one of bin Laden’s most popular and trusted men, had been chafing at the differential pay scale, which favored the Saudis and the Egyptians. When bin Laden refused to give him a raise, the Sudanese secretary reached into the till. He used the money to buy several plots of land and a car. In the narrow circles of Khartoum, such a burst of affluence was quickly noticed. When confronted, Fadl admitted to taking $1io,ooo. “I don’t care about the money, I care about you. You are one of the best people in al-Qaeda,” bin Laden told him. “If you need money, you should come to us.” Bin Laden pointed to other members of the organization who had been given a new car or a house when they asked for help. “You didn’t do that,” said bin Laden. “You just stole the money”
Fadl begged bin Laden to forgive him, but bin Laden said that would not happen “until you bring all the money back.”
Fadl considered the offer, then disappeared. He would become ajQaeda’s first traitor. He offered to sell his story to various intelligence agencies in the Middle East, including the Israelis. He eventually found a buyer when he walked into the American Embassy in Eritrea in June 1996. In return for nearly $1 million, he became a government witness. While in protective custody, he won the New Jersey Lottery.
hehe.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 8 2007 23:49 utc | 55
Arrgh! For “lowers” substitute “rises”. Cursed revisions — how many times will you foil my plans?!
Posted by: The Truth Gets Vicious When You Corner It | Apr 9 2007 0:02 utc | 56
slothrop- what does wright say of al-fadl’s credibility? r.t. naylor, in his book satanic purses: money, myth, and misinformation in the war on terror, says that al-fadl’s testimony is essentially bunk and politically-motivated.
After trying to peddle a story to various Middle Eastern countries whose intelligence services wrote him off as a lightweight fabricator, Jamal al-Fadl wandered into a US embassy somewhere to sell his services. Thanks to al-Fadl, the embassy-bombings trial would successfully consolidate an image of both al-Qa’iday and the Godfather of Terror who stood behind it that was chillingly novel yet reassuringly familiar enough for the public to understand.
the latter is a reference to the stories created about an organized mafia criminal conspiracy.
The most celebrated part of al-Fadl’s testimony was his depiction of al-Qa’idah’s corporate structure. Much the way analyses of organized crime routinely assimilate fraternal-cum-military groupings with economic enterprises, al-Fadl seemlessly merged two distinct phenomena. One was a political structure — a set of committees or councils to handle fundraising, propaganda, recruitment, theological disputation, etc. that could have been lifted directly from an Egyptian intelligence report on Al Jihad. The second was a set of commercial enterprises controlled by a Sudanese holding company owned by bin Laden. Presumably this was one thing about which al-Fadl could speak with assurance. Yet much of what he said about bin Laden’s businesses actually contradicted both what he claimed about the rest of the “organization” and the portrait of al-Qa’idah his handlers were trying to paint.
Al-Fadl described bank accounts in the Sudan and around the world held in bin Laden’s name — which would suggest either remarkable arrogance or simple innocence. His explanation for bin Laden’s de facto bankruptcy had nothing to do with speculative losses in the forward market for Stinger missiles. For example:Prosecutor: Did there come a time when the Khartoum Tannery’s ownership changed?
AF: Yes.
P: What happened?
AF: We buy it from the government.
P: Who is we?
AF: Al Qaeda group.
P: How much of the Khartoum Tannery did al Qaeda buy?
AF: We [were] owed money … from the government, from the Sudan government.
P: What did the Sudanese governmenr owe al Qaeda money for?
AF: We build the Thaadi Road.His laments about low pay don’t jibe with the portrayal of bin Laden running a wealthy transnational lavishing terror-dollars on fanatical volunteers — they seem more consistent with a skinflint boss of a struggling company committed to reducing expenses. Al-Fadl protested his own pay cut by taking secret commissions from customers of the trading divisions. which he diverted to buy land. Yet, when he was caught, leaders of this Terror International did not hang him up by his heels and light a slow fire under his head, or force him on a suicide bombing mission. Rather they told him he was at heart a fine chap and asked him to repay the money. In so doing the “al-Qaeda executives” seemed to have shown more moral fibre than the man who would become the star witness against them. Instead of coughing up, al-Fadl lit out and went knocking on doors to peddle his story. He got lucky after the 1998 bombings, when the United States decided to make bin Laden the central culprit and needed a Valachi-style “defector” to give their indictment credibility.
Of course, al-Fadl insisted that he was not paid for his testimony — all he got was an arrangement to move him and his family to the US and a “loan” of $20,000 to start a new life. If true, the government got its money’s worth. If not, it was a safe story — the prosecution was unlikely to charge him with perjury. Indeed his performance was probably worth more than the hundreds of thousands of dollars he was rumored to have actually received. [p.94-5]
al-fadl also “described his own duties in acquiring uranium for the group’s WMD progam.”
the folks writing the GWOT script were the real lottery winners on this one.
Posted by: b real | Apr 9 2007 3:42 utc | 57
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Pennsylvania’s new statewide computer system makes it possible for the first time to put a number on how many warrants remain unserved across the state – 1.4 million, including more than 100 for homicide, The Associated Press has found.
.. a quick google educates me that Pensylvania has a population of 12,429,616
Subtract – persons under 18, persons over 65. That leaves 62% (7,706,361)
Outstanding arrest warrants for 1 in 5.5 adults? (Is this a missed business opportunity for the private prison industry?)
“Because of this automation, it’s becoming harder to run from the law,” said Steve Schell, spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts.
Anyone in the US able to think outside the lock-em-up box? Already the highest incarceration rate in the world. Don’t know why this bothers me, but it all sounds like a stupid waste.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070408/D8OCIJ400.html
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42000.html
Posted by: DM | Apr 9 2007 8:15 utc | 58
what does wright say of al-fadl’s credibility?
that the guy hoodwinked everybody, and the fbi was only too happy to be hoodwinked. then he won the friggin lottery.
Posted by: slothrop | Apr 9 2007 16:07 utc | 59
Climate change is slow: there is time to plan, to adapt
You haven’t been paying attention. Says The Truth When..
I agree predictions are dire. Absolutely.
Nevertheless, most ppl in the West consider climate change a bit far off; they see plus points and minus points, certainly deluding themselves, and ignoring those ‘others’ who will suffer.
The scenario for climate change, even from the most doom embracing scientists, is a long term perspective which doesn’t really impact everyday life of the short planning span of most of us. (Gas prices? anyone?)
Nobody right now is killing someone else because of climate change.
To control oil, they are, massively, in the millions, and if one credits pessimists in this area, nukes will be used. All round death and devastation looms.
Global warming is in a way a sort of ‘soft issue’ that distracts from the real, present, extremely menacing ones. Leaders know this.
That is all I meant.
If you live in the US, have children, your loved ones will die, in war, thru economic stress, starvation, anarchism, gangsterism, Gvmt. repression, the new slave society, or Dystopia, etc. (following dire doomsters!) and not because the temperature rose 1 degree celsius in a 100 years.
Posted by: Noirette | Apr 11 2007 19:08 utc | 60
Big black boobs.
Lanas big boobs. Big boobs. Lana s big boobs.
Posted by: Lanas big boobs. | Apr 27 2010 2:04 utc | 61