what now?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 17 2007 8:43 utc | 4

The push-back against AIPAC is getting some power:
George Soros – On Israel, America and AIPAC

The debate in Israel about Israeli policy is much more open and vigorous than in the United States.
…
One explanation is to be found in the pervasive influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which strongly affects both the Democratic and the Republican parties.[2] AIPAC’s mission is to ensure American support for Israel but in recent years it has overreached itself. It became closely allied with the neocons and was an enthusiastic supporter of the invasion of Iraq. It actively lobbied for the confirmation of John Bolton as US ambassador to the United Nations. It continues to oppose any dialogue with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas. More recently, it was among the pressure groups that prevailed upon the Democratic House leadership to drop the requirement that the President obtain congressional approval before taking military action against Iran. AIPAC under its current leadership has clearly exceeded its mission, and far from guaranteeing Israel’s existence, has endangered it.
…
Supporters of Israel have good reason to question AIPAC’s advocacy and they have begun to do so. But instead of engaging in critical self-examination, AIPAC remains intransigent. Recently, the pro-Israel lobby has gone on the offensive, accusing the so-called progressive critics of Israel’s policies of fomenting anti-Semitism and endangering the very existence of the Jewish state.
…
The pro-Israel lobby has been remarkably successful in suppressing criticism.[4] Politicians challenge it at their peril because of the lobby’s ability to influence political contributions.
…
Whether the Democratic Party can liberate itself from AIPAC’s influence is highly doubtful. Any politician who dares to expose AIPAC’s influence would incur its wrath; so very few can be expected to do so. It is up to the American Jewish community itself to rein in the organization that claims to represent it. But this is not possible without first disposing of the most insidious argument put forward by the defenders of the current policies: that the critics of Israel’s policies of occupation, control, and repression on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem and Gaza engender anti-Semitism.

Posted by: b | Apr 17 2007 9:51 utc | 6

@Anna Missed
If we’re going to abandon the doctrine of ‘Force Protection’ at all costs, a necessity in order to actually conduct any kind of traditional counter-insurgency (CI) ops, then leaving the bunkers and bases will inevitably result in increased casualties amongst the light infantry and supporting elements.
Truly yet another tragedy, though not the greatest, amongst a myriad, as the conflict in Iraq has ceased to be ‘winnable’, in any traditional sense, for at least more than a year or two … not with ~80% (?) of Iraqies stating it’s A-OK to attack the ‘coalition’ …

Posted by: Outraged | Apr 17 2007 11:30 utc | 8

if all 26,000 students were armed this would not have happened – according to the logic of the NRA

Posted by: jcairo | Apr 17 2007 11:51 utc | 10

Folks and friends, from my last post (doo doo) you’ll be able to tell I’m a bit new to this (there’s probably somewhere I can introduce myself off this ‘list thing’ – no offence! – but buggered if I can find it), I was lucky enough to stagger across billmon (I know, in my dreams) some moons ago, when, as a Brit who had lived in Warsaw for 3 years, I was heading for the States thinking they all had shit for brains, but you bar-flies put me right (and I’ve been lurking for some time and know you’re not all American).
So, that’s not much of an introduction is is? More to come…fingers, toes and eyes uncrossed.
Anarchy, peace and freedom,
As we said in the days before this new-fankled web-stuff 😉
P.S. I’m now in ‘the States’ – hell mend me…

Posted by: Raveheart | Apr 17 2007 12:12 utc | 12

Wotcher, Raveheart.
Interesting country you’ve found yourself in – not just for us foreigners but for all the sensible Americans too. Somewhere out there there’s an America Of The Soul to take refuge in – I think RGiap knows where it might be, but anyone else have an opinion? Anyway, I’ve put the wheels in motion and I’ll be gone within the year. Meanwhile this place will continue to be my bolt-hole for reason, sanity, insanity and sheer bloody-mindedness.
Fancy a pint?

Posted by: Tantalus | Apr 17 2007 12:43 utc | 14

I think the NRA might want to investigate Iraq to solidify their argument that an armed populace makes for a ‘polite society.’ Politesse is at the behest of the finger on the trigger, n’est-ce pas?

Posted by: Tantalus | Apr 17 2007 12:45 utc | 16

Thanks Outraged @ 15
I’ll go experiment with these ‘tag’ things somewhere I can’t be seen 🙂

Posted by: Raveheart | Apr 17 2007 13:23 utc | 18

@b
Thank you and R’Giap for the opportunity to purchase some ‘fruit cake’ … I laughed harder and heartier than I have in a long, long time 🙂
You have a wicked sense of humour mes ami 😉
Salud, with a Guiness

Posted by: Outraged | Apr 17 2007 13:42 utc | 20

Many thanks Barkeep
I’m settlin’ in nicely, but
I must have whiskey…

Posted by: Raveheart | Apr 17 2007 13:55 utc | 22

b,
regards your recent observations on Novak and Soros here…
did you read any of the comments to Novak’s last column?
here’s a taste of the slime they’ve poured over Soros :
George Soros Revisited

‘ In a New Republic article, “Tyran-a-Soros”, Martin Peretz – a neoconservative intellectual who disagrees with Soros’ criticism of U.S. policy in the Mideast – accused Soros of collaborating with the Nazis. He quoted a 1998 interview Soros did with Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes…
Kroft: “You’re a Hungarian Jew …”
Soros: “Mm-hmm.”
Kroft: “… who escaped the Holocaust …”
Soros: “Mm-hmm.”
Kroft: “… by posing as a Christian.”
Soros: “Right.”
Kroft: “And you watched lots of people get shipped off to the death camps.”
Soros: “Right. I was 14 years old. And I would say that that’s when my character was made.”
Kroft: “In what way?”
Soros: “That one should think ahead. One should understand that–and anticipate events and when, when one is threatened. It was a tremendous threat of evil. I mean, it was a– a very personal threat of evil.”
Kroft: “My understanding is that you went … went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.”
Soros: “Yes, that’s right. Yes.”
Kroft: “I mean, that’s–that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?”
Soros: “Not, not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don’t … you don’t see the connection. But it was–it created no–no problem at all.”
Kroft: “No feeling of guilt?”
Soros: “No.”
‘
…
‘ The unedited transcript, dug up by Media Matters, reads:
KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted godson.
SOROS: Yes. Yes.
KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.
SOROS: Yes. That’s right. Yes.
‘ In other words, Peretz removed the reference to the official who was protecting Soros – making it look as if Soros, himself, was collaborating with the Nazis to steal property from Jews who had been sent to the camps. ‘
…
‘ Before we evoke the Holocaust in our political talk, though, we should look long and hard at this reality: what was done, what people lived through, what was lost. It is not a small thing to call an oppressive government a Nazi state; nor is it forgivable to throw around false accusations of collaboration to discredit someone with whom you disagree. ‘

Coupled with the Return of Citizen K the other day, and Slothrup’s sitting straight up in his coffin… I think the Neocons’ hands are on the pulse of people’s anger and revulsion with Israel and that they are kickin’ out the jams to head it off.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 17 2007 14:29 utc | 24

“I really think he thinks democracy is the answer.”
Jeez, I wouldn’t expect someone as astute as Hersh to fall for that “democracy” horseshit Bushco shovels.
These murderous criminals make it abundantly clear on a daily basis that they don’t give a flying flea-flick of a fuck about democracy, here or abroad.

Posted by: ran | Apr 17 2007 17:00 utc | 26

a couple articles to give a flavor for the first round of polling in nigeria last w/e. the presidential election is this w/e.
Nigeria: Urgent Action Needed to Rescue Election

The month of April 2007 once seemed to hold great historic promise for Nigeria. The general elections offered a possibility for the country to experience its first ever transition of power from one civilian leadership to another. So far, however, it only seems to be an unfolding disaster.
The process was marred from the start: preparations for the elections produced dubious and shoddy voter registration lists; the parties’ primaries selected candidates using stolen state funds and violence; and the campaign itself was the most violent in the country’s 47-year history, devoid of any new ideas for improving governance.
Things went from bad to worse during the first phase of actual voting, the elections for governorships and state assemblies, held on 14 April. Three areas of vital weakness were revealed.
…

Human Rights Watch: Polls Marred By Violence, Fraud

Voting on April 14 in key Nigerian states including Rivers and Anambra was so marred by fraud, intimidation and violence that the results in at least those states should be canceled and the polls re-run, Human Rights Watch said today. Nigeria’s regional and international partners should press the Nigerian government to make all necessary changes to hold a free and fair presidential election on April 21, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch researchers monitoring the conduct of elections in both Rivers State, Nigeria’s largest oil producer in the restive Niger Delta, and Anambra State in southeastern Nigeria, observed the open rigging of an electoral process that deprived voters of the opportunity to cast their ballots in many areas. Voting failed to take place in many areas where Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) later reported voter turnout in excess of 90 percent. In several areas of Rivers State, local observers and foreign journalists watched ballot boxes being stuffed with ballots marked in favor of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in full view of the public. The extremely high voter turnout as reported by INEC was not borne out by the situation witnessed on the ground, indicating that the elections in those two states were systematically rigged in favor of the PDP.

Posted by: b real | Apr 17 2007 18:36 utc | 28

washington post blog reporting that kucinich has published a letter indicating he will begin impeachment proceedings on cheney after the furor dies down over virginia tech.

Posted by: conchita | Apr 17 2007 18:48 utc | 30

secrecynews: Special Operations Command: A Twenty Year History

As the missions and budgets for U.S. Special Operations Command steadily expand, a new official history looks back at the origins and development of SOCOM.
“Since its creation in 1987, USSOCOM has supported conventional forces and conducted independent special operations throughout the world, participating in all major combat operations,” writes SOCOM Commander General Bryan D. Brown.
The new account, prepared by the SOCOM history office and obtained by Secrecy News, describes in new detail the major SOCOM operations of the past two decades up through the present.
…
See “United States Special Operations Command, 1987-2007,” SOCOM History and Research Office, MacDill Air Force Base, April 2007 (143 pages in a very large 32 MB PDF file).

Posted by: b real | Apr 17 2007 18:58 utc | 32

i don’t sling around nazi references. it seems quite clear there are those who will not be satisfied w/anything from iraq except what they came for. as long as there are iraqis that will never give up, and i assume the invader knows their will be, they are preparing for the inevitable. do i think their desire and intention is to wipe them all out? not neccessarily. but comeon,, we’ve all heard the ‘make a desert call it peace’ plan. so yeah, if they don’t get their submission, this is the outcome and the gating is the preparation for it. i don’t think hitler would have been satisfied w/merely having jews in submission. so no, i don’t think it’s the same. is it as bad. well hell yeah. either one believes the invasion was and is ‘clean’ or you assume it is taking advantage of every single crime warriors sign up for, including false flag operations, instigating the civil war, the whole ball of wax. i think there is an element, not neccessarily including every member of the military, but certainly members of the cia or mossad or whatever intelligence options they have, that is willing to stop at nothing for their aims.
that is why outing them is such a threat. the image of the US being a force of good is their strongest weapon, and exposure it isn’t is the biggest threat. imagine trying to gate that city if those people thought they were never getting out. there are still a considerable amount of people in iraq, even if they don’t want the occupation, who believe the violence is primarily coming from ‘insurgents’.

Posted by: annie | Apr 17 2007 22:02 utc | 34

Why is the Peace Movement Silent About AIPAC?

I have been told by leaders of the peace movement that AIPAC is a distraction from the main thrust of the antiwar movement. And so we should not engage it; AIPAC is to be immune. But with all due respect to the sentiments of that leadership, immunity for AIPAC is a prescription for disaster. To use a military analogy, which I do not especially like, suppose that we were trying to take a hill in Germany in 1944. And suppose we said that we would not attack one pillbox, which kept devastating our forces. Leave just that one pillbox alone! The result would be devastating; we would be cut down with every succeeding attempt at advance. So it is with AIPAC which campaigns relentlessly for war on Iraq, war on Iran, war on Syria, war on Lebanon and the slow genocide of the Palestinian people. AIPAC constantly puts the peace movement on the defensive while it is free to be on the offensive all the time.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 18 2007 1:15 utc | 36

New threat to skilled U.S. workers

The master plan, it seems, is to move perhaps 40 million high-skill American jobs to other countries. U.S. workers have not been consulted.
Princeton economist Alan Blinder predicts that these choice jobs could be lost in a mere decade or two.
Blinder was taken aback when, sitting in at the business summit in Davos, Switzerland, he heard U.S. executives talk enthusiastically about all the professional jobs they could outsource to lower-wage countries. And he’s a free trader.

And you think the madness of spring, the VT shooting, and the ME is bad now, wait until middle aged white guys start losing their mortgages, marriages, and 401 k’s/life savings. There will be hundreds of VT incidences every frickin day.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 18 2007 1:48 utc | 38

sounds like things are heating up again in somalia after failure of the ethiopians to agree to begin withdrawals from the country. the fighting is reportedly heavy in the north tuesday night.
Scores of Ethiopian troops flee Somalia to Yemen

Scores of Ethiopian army troops have arrived off the coast of Yemen onboard two boats belonging to smugglers after they fled fighting with Islamic insurgents in Somalia, a press report said on Tuesday.
Some 89 Ethiopian soldiers arrived in the Arqa area in southern Yemen after crossing the Gulf of Aden from Bosaso city in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeast Somalia, the al-Ayyam daily newspaper said in a report on its website.
…
An Ethiopian army officer was quoted as saying that he and his comrades had fled the ranks of Ethiopian troops in Somalia after a dramatic escalation in fierce fighting with Somali Islamic insurgents.
‘I am a member of the Ethiopian army and I took part in toppling the rule of the Islamic courts (in Somalia),’ said the officer, identified as Muhammad Hassan.
‘We did not expect the fighting to reach this level of fiercity or that it could turn into a guerrilla war,’ he said.
The officer added that many other Ethiopian troops had decided to flee Somalia after they found themselves stuck amid a ‘flaming hell.’

Posted by: b real | Apr 18 2007 4:59 utc | 40

Hmm – Electronic Attack Squadron CO Relieved

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, Persian Gulf — The commander of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7, Capt. Scott Stearney, relieved the commanding officer of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 140, Cmdr. Christopher Rankin, April 16 due to a loss of confidence in his ability to lead his crew and carry out essential missions aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69).
…
VAQ 140 is part of CVW 7, and is currently embarked aboard Eisenhower deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility in support of Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and maritime security operations. VAQ 140 is based out of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash.

What did or didn’t the guy do?

Posted by: b | Apr 18 2007 9:13 utc | 42

Just saw in a swedish paper that Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait has closed/is closing their borders for iraqi refugees. No mention of other countries, so I guess people can still flee to Syria, Iran and Turkey.
Read the garoweonline article. Interesting, thanks. Something that was a bit unclear is wheter the troops were fleeing from fighting in Puntland, or if Puntland was just a transit area. If there is fighting in Puntland now that is news to me.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Apr 18 2007 10:59 utc | 44

askod @44
the fighting there started several days ago. i haven’t read of the ethiopians being involved in that battle though.
on the puntland/somalialand battles see
april 14: Fighting in northern Somalia between Somaliland, Puntland forces

Gun battles erupted in the town of Dhahar Saturday afternoon following last week’s clashes, residents and officials said.
The fighting was between forces loyal to the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, and the self-governing Puntland region to the east.
Reliable sources said Puntland security forces attacked the position of Somaliland troops who were in the town heralding a Somaliland Cabinet delegation that reportedly included the breakaway region’s defense minister.

april 16: Somaliland and Puntland troops face off in Harad, north Somalia

The semiautonomous regional authority of Puntland claimed it recaptured the controversial settlement of Harad in Sanag province, northwest Somalia, where troops of Puntland and troops of the secessionist government of Somaliland battled in the past week.

in mogadishu, the heavy fighting of last night calmed down by morning today. shabelle is reporting that at least ten were killed.
Artillery exchanges kill more than 10 in Mogadishu overnight

Mogadishu 18, April.07 ( Sh.M.Network) Heavy mortar and artillery exchanges between Ethiopian troops based at Mogadishu’s presidential compound and insurgents took place in the capital Mogadishu last night. The fighting that started around 8:35 pm local time immediately sparked the displacement of many people after tank shells fired by the Ethiopian forces exploded in different neighborhoods in Mogadishu.
At least ten civilians died and more than 20 were wounded in last night’s artillery battles, according to hospital sources.
…
Residents in the areas where the missiles hit told Shabelle that the Ethiopian troops at Villa Somalia (The presidential palace) were targeting at Florence Junction in Hamar Bille neighborhood and Mogadishu football Stadium in Yaqshid neighborhood, north of the capital, areas the government believes to be the stronghold for the Hawiye clan militia and the insurgents.

Posted by: b real | Apr 18 2007 14:38 utc | 46

Some center-left blogs have flagged a report by Lawrence J. Korb from the Center for American Progress. He was five days in Iraq on some evaluation mission.
Greetings from the Red Zone. While the report has some interesting observations, I have to ask how useful such an “expert” is:

April 9 … The city was in lockdown, 10 American soldiers had died the day before, and the citizens of Najaf and the Sunni Scholars were calling for an end to the occupation. Yet we had a seven-course meal and the American officials and the Iraqis were exchanging diplomatic pleasantries about the progress they were making.

Najaf? The Sunni Scholars? al-Sadr and Sistani?

There is no doubt that this is one reason none of the Iraqi ministries have yet to spend even 25 percent of their investment budget. If they do not do this by the end of June, the Finance Minister has threatened to take the money back (my suggestion that they use these unspent funds to fund the war until the supplemental passes was not greeted enthusiastically by the American officials).

To use IRAQI money for the occupation – now that would certainly help …

Posted by: b | Apr 18 2007 16:09 utc | 48

speaking of larry korb..military news

The Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony Tuesday that increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps may not resolve severe and growing personnel problems. There was even talk of returning to the draft to fill the ranks.
“It is better to take a smaller force than to lower your standards,” said Lawrence Korb, a former senior Pentagon personnel official now affiliated with the Center for Defense Information and the Center for American Progress.
“The current use of ground forces in Iraq represents a complete misuse of the all-volunteer military,” he said.
The all-volunteer force was never designed for a protracted ground war, but that is exactly what it faces, he said.
“If the United States is going to have a significant component of its ground forces in Iraq over the next five, 10, 15 or 30 years, then the responsible course is for the president and those supporting this open-ended and escalated presence in Iraq to call for reinstating the draft.”

has anyone here posted about the 200 deaths from market bombings in iraq today? my god. what if this is just the beginning?

Posted by: annie | Apr 19 2007 0:40 utc | 50

annie :
The Redirection
The undead from Iran Contra, at the helm of this Neocon regime since it’s inception, are funding Al Qaeda again.
Someone needs to tell the American troops, the surging, fifteen month tour extended, multiple tour serving American troops, that they are being murdered by “the contras” funded by their real enemies and ours… in Washington DC!

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 19 2007 2:08 utc | 52

And speaking of dumb fucking ideas, anybody watching the unfathomable descent into propaganda PBS series “Crossroads”? So far, puts FOX to shame, like following richard perle all over the globe like a starving child begging for crumbs from the master. I haven’t got so pissed at the TV since dennis miller was on the lenno show wacking off to the codpiece, just after the invasion. If you’re suffering from low blood pressure, I recommend it.

Posted by: anna missed | Apr 19 2007 2:48 utc | 54

Oh, it gets better…
Update on Waxman’s Hearings into Sibel Edmonds’ Case
From lurky…

Oh – and for those of you who are saying ‘Huh? AIPAC? Israel? I thought Sibel’s case was about Turkey and the American Turkish Council (ATC)!’ Sibel says that both AIPAC and the ATC both essentially operate as fronts for the same criminal organization.

Question: As I look over the above post, I find myself wondering — are these three separate short stories, or are we dealing with three chapters of a single, much larger tale?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 19 2007 3:21 utc | 56

interesting to note that no one here has mentioned the scotus decision today which basically banned abortions beyond the first trimester without taking into consideration health risks for the mother. they have basically said that women are second class citizens. damn the 18 dems who voted for cloture on alito.

Posted by: conchita | Apr 19 2007 3:35 utc | 58

“like following richard perle all over the globe like a starving child begging for crumbs from the master.”
I got from the show that richard perle was a man of peace. You know; The peace of the cemetary. After you’ve killed everybody there is this wonderful sense of peace.

Posted by: pb | Apr 19 2007 4:29 utc | 60

Yes, Conchita. I’ve been checking regularly hoping against hope that there was one person around here who wasn’t a card-carrying woman hater. Having monitored this place for so long, I’m hardly surprised that’s not the case. Do you have any links to the list of the 18. I trust that’ll sink HC’s campaign, as she helped put these woman-burning fascists on the court.

Posted by: jj | Apr 19 2007 7:43 utc | 62

Part Two
Seligman went on to apply this to humans, with “learned helplessness” as a model for depression.
He doesn’t exactly apply it as model. What he does is train cretins to pressure humans to affect happiness. He tied up the dogs he tortured and drove them insensible with remorseless cruelty. The humans whose conditioning he concocted can’t be tied up under most circumstances, but they can be fired or refused jobs. People who are battered by unsolvable problems don’t just “feel” it. The problems exist! There is agency to creating them. Someone initiated them, just like Seligman tied up the dogs he tortured.
Seligman and others have recently been given huge contracts to teach adolescents and pre-teens how to be happy.
This cretinization crusade of loner’s and outcasts, outsiders*, and what have you, that seems to be coming, is old wine in a new bag. In other words, reworked and re-branded but the same old ‘blame the victim’ routine. Never mind the fact that we live in a world where, our consumer/scarcity model throw away society has brought us to this point.
People aren’t depressed, you see, because they work 70 hours a week instead of their parents’ 40, because are completely dispensable and can be laid off at a moment’s notice, at which point they’ll lose their already inadequate health care–people aren’t depressed because they can look forward to having the remaining safety nets taken away by cheese movers who will tell them that their anger over their stolen autonomy is a fussy infantile self-indulgence that can be changed to glurgy optimism will just a little willpower! People aren’t depressed because the age of mom-and-pop entrepreneurship has been irretrievably replaced by Wal-Marts and cubicles, or that their timidly opposition party doesn’t dare to stand up to anything for fear of offending and seeming rude to the powerful. People aren’t depressed because oligarchic thugs have taken charge of the country with their rigged voting machines and are cheerfully rolling back a half century of civil liberties, bringing their lunatic antidemocratic fundamentalist armies in tow and giving them the theocratic keys to the republic, or that we’ve sunk our defenses and economy into a war which gathers from a pool of people of caste whom just can’t pull themselves up by their boot straps. People aren’t depressed because the cheerful newsheads are talking about pre-emptively nuking a country with about the same level of moral perspicacy as if it were a fraternity dart game, and people aren’t depressed because there is no verifable evidence that we’re facing up the coming energy and environmental crises in anything resembling an adult manner.
Don’t worry be happy.
Seligman and his ilk of ‘happy coaches’ now wants to bar “depressives” from corporate employment, and has full backing of the Government and their elites.
Let us also not forget Emperor Bush’s mental health decree.
Bush wants to be your shrink
[b]”Next month, President Bush plans to unveil a broad new mental health plan called the ‘New Freedom Initiative.’ Never mind that it couldn’t have less to do with freedom; if you’re a thinking American, this initiative should scare the hell out of you.”[/b]
Which in turn brings to mind has anyone here seen the latest BBC docu .
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom
by British filmmaker Adam Curtis, well known for other documentaries including The Century of the Self and The Power of Nightmares
which can be seen in full online here thanks to b.
Interesting in light of recent comments, blogs and news and others theories into the Va. Tech shootings regarding the dissidents, loner’s, alienation etc…
Total institution:
I recently sent a friend a link on the Total institution from answers.com, in it it describes Total institutions as social micro-cosmos dictated by hegemony and clear hierarchy. Total institutions include some boarding schools, concentration camps, prisons, mental institutions and boot camps. But wait, that is only the beginning, the ones you can see.
I suggest we look at this transmogrification as if it were a continuum, if we take it a logical step further, you can see the continuing Panopticon like institutions and systems you can’t normally see through this lense. Answers.com points out that, “..sociologists [anthropologist’s and other scientists have also recently pointed out that] tourist venues such as cruise ships and theme parks are acquiring many of the characteristics of total institutions. Tourists may not be aware that they are being controlled, even constrained, but the environment has been designed to subtly manipulate the behavior of patrons.”
What about shopping malls , college campuses, gated communities, retirement communities, POST OFFICES, city/State government e.g. the DMV etc, of the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA).
I have stated before, it seems as if we are covertly and methodically being herded into a mental plantation, by a system that has gladly inherited the worst of both the Soviet and Nazi Germany type authoritarian means of control and governship.
A “quasi-Soviet/facist/totalitarian system.” A “Kafkaesque” bureaucratic i.e. State induced non- static labyrinth. Whose rules change only for the elite and not the governed.
Does anyone else feel creepy by the use of the coloqualism, “lockdown” when used for universities and other mediums? In light of the VT shootings? Isn’t ‘lockdown’ used mostly from such things as prison riots?
Tones of Article 58? the Russian SFSR Penal Code?
*Here I have in mind Colin Wilson’s work entitled: ‘The Outsiders’
Note: I know b has stated that he was wanting to do something on the BBC docu I mention above. Perhaps, this will give him incentive to do so.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 19 2007 8:01 utc | 64

jj
take a deep breath. I don’t have a card and there are also many here who are women who did not think the scotus decision was earth shaking.
this is a hot button issue and is very difficult for anyone to discuss calmly. partial birth abortion has been framed in a very ugly way with graphic descriptions of babies being cut into pieces while still alive in womb. who could possibly be in favor of something like that?
I do agree that it is a first step toward total ban and a dangerous development but wonder just who benefits from the vehement opposition to partial birth abortion. pro choicers will be painted in the most distressing way and anyone on the fence is likely to view pro-choice as a bunch of fanatics who insist on the right to kill their babies at will.
I think Bill Clinton had the best take on this I have heard, he says that abortion should be legal and rare. I couldn’t agree more.

Posted by: dan of steele | Apr 19 2007 8:15 utc | 66

@jj (#62)
“I’ve been checking regularly hoping against hope that there was one person around here who wasn’t a card-carrying woman hater.”
Now slow down on that score, please. I’m still playing catch-up and simply had not heard about this before now. I have no opinion on the man/woman, white/black, Mars/Venus dichotomies… I’m strictly an individual liberty sort. This decision infringes individual liberties, whether I am biologically capable of carrying to term or not, and I am therefore against it. I was adamantly opposed to the bankruptcy act of 2005 and have never had the intention of declaring bankruptcy, either.
What I am not surprised about is that there are so many fascists-in-Democrat’s clothing in the US congress to have gotten this measure passed… and relatively quietly from where I am sitting.
Yes, conchita, please pass on the names of those supporting this when you have a moment. I don’t tend to forget transgressions. Personal failing of mine.

Posted by: Monolycus | Apr 19 2007 8:38 utc | 68

interesting to note that no one here has mentioned the scotus decision today
you mean because it has been headlined on all the main blogs? interesting framing conchita. both you and jj, take a bow.
thnx for the info btw

Posted by: annie | Apr 19 2007 9:48 utc | 70

Ladies, you need to rise up and take this nation from the hands of the male civil rights Luddites who prefer you in the kitchen making them supper while your womb is busy cooking their next reason to pound their chest and swing from tree to tree.
Me, Tarzan, you, Jane, get me an effing martini, and snap to it, bitch!
America’s future is looking more and more like America’s past.
Randy (a dude)

Posted by: jcairo | Apr 19 2007 10:23 utc | 72

many are lashing out at the Supremes for this decision completely overlooking the fact that it is law made by a Republican controlled congress headed by a Republican president. The Republicans ran on an anti abortion/no choice platform and were elected. Every Republican woman who voted for this and every other woman who could not be bothered to vote at all are just as much if not more to blame for this predicament than are men.
just sayin…

Posted by: dan of steele | Apr 19 2007 11:14 utc | 74

Is The CIA Trying to Kill Hugo Chávez?

“I want to kill that son of a bitch,” said the Capitan of the Venezuelan National Guard, Thomas Guillen in a recorded telephone call with his wife. In the call, played on Venezuela’s state TV channel last month, the Capitan reveals his and his father’s plans to kill President Hugo Chávez. The next day, the Capitan and his father, retired General Ramon Guillén Dávila, were arrested and taken into custody for conspiring to kill the President of Venezuela. [1]
In recent weeks, Hugo Chávez has increasingly warned that the United States has plans to kill him and is stepping up its activity against him and his government. Chávez has also claimed that the CIA is working with associates of the famous Cuban terrorist and CIA agent Posada Carriles, designing plans for his assassination. But could there be any truth to all of this? Could this be a classic CIA-conspiracy to kill another official “enemy” of the United States? A quick look at the connections between the CIA and the General Ramon Guillén Dávila shows that it definitely is a possibility.

Posted by: b real | Apr 19 2007 14:32 utc | 76

Video and (some) text: ‘So Many Wrongs To Right’: Helen Thomas At McDaniel College

Posted by: b | Apr 19 2007 17:10 utc | 78

mccain’s response to question about u.s. tensions with iran:
“Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,” he sang to the tune of Barbara Ann.
you don’t believe it?

Posted by: conchita | Apr 19 2007 21:23 utc | 80

79, god help them.

Posted by: annie | Apr 19 2007 22:34 utc | 82

melamine tainted corn gluten now found in south african dog food. like the wheat and rice gluten it appears to be from a chinese source. and it seems even more likely that it is being fed to hogs which are then eaten by humans. link to goldy at horses ass

Posted by: conchita | Apr 20 2007 0:12 utc | 84

From the Daily Times, April 20, 2007

27 Taliban killed, 2 coalition troops hurt in Afghanistan
* Afghans recapture highway near Kabul
* NATO sees more suicide raids from Taliban
KABUL: US-led coalition and Afghan forces clashed with Taliban fighters and called in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan, leaving 24 suspected militants dead, while three more died in an ambush in the west, the coalition said on Thursday.
The joint forces battled Taliban fighters for seven hours after they were ambushed while patrolling on Wednesday in the volatile Sangin district of Helmand province, a coalition statement said.

Uncle (#83), you have a good brain so you probably don’t need suggestions regarding questions for Richard Boucher. I do have these most basic questions regarding Afghanistan:
1) What is the Afghan death toll from military action since the U.S. invasion?
2) When will the U.S. and coalition forces depart from Afghanistan?
3) What is the current and future involvement of U.S. Corporate investment in Afghanistan?

Posted by: Rick | Apr 20 2007 2:51 utc | 86

I don’t know how much credence to give this report
on the “real reason” for SecDef Gates visit to Israel, but if true it would
seem to confirm the general rule of thumb that the “American citizenry will be the last to know”.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Apr 20 2007 5:02 utc | 88

America, in the eyes of the world, in two short paragraphs.

“‘Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,’ he sang to the tune of Barbara Ann,” the paper notes.
McCain then added, “Iran is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. That alone should concern us but now they are trying for nuclear capabilities. I totally support the President when he says we will not allow Iran to destroy Israel.”

Posted by: DM | Apr 20 2007 9:12 utc | 90