dave chappelle’s black bush. jamie fox plays a damn good blair.

Posted by: annie | Feb 24 2008 16:12 utc | 4

I think The Political Compass has a point in differentiating between the left-right and the centralised-decentralised power axis. Ron Paul would be down from the main bunch of candidates, while Nader is down and to the left.

Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Feb 24 2008 17:34 utc | 6

#5&6: indeed
I should’ve written “conventional political spectrum”, which doesn’t distinguish centralized/decentralized — I realize the meme does perhaps more harm than good…
But anyway, just saying, the fact that Nader (the only real opposition candidate) isn’t getting 40%+ of the popular vote bespeaks how “Orwellized” our society is.

Posted by: Cloud | Feb 24 2008 18:17 utc | 8

@askod – @6 – interesting – I ended up a bit south-west of Ghandi. But maybe I cheated …

Posted by: b | Feb 24 2008 18:58 utc | 10

@#4 annie *lmao*
Gawd. Where do you find these things?
Good one!

Posted by: Jake | Feb 24 2008 20:45 utc | 12

Does anyone want to mention inflation?
Bernanke is keeping rates low for the stock market, giving money free to the banks, and we are about to get the Japan treatment from China and the Saudis. Right? Anyone?
Am I missing something? What will stop runaway inflation? This is just another part of the bucks-trap laid for the dems. A sharp overall downturn will equalize much of the credibility loss for the RNC under Bush.
That is, if pro-nuke, new-face, dream-recall Obama can overwin in november enough to beat the vote fraud. It will take 60% and then the fight starts: bring the boys home, bring the dems back to the people. Should only take 7 of the next 9 election cycles or so..
🙂

Posted by: bellgong | Feb 24 2008 23:18 utc | 14

Hunter Thompson quote from shortly before his Exit (3 yrs. ago): (clipped from post on JHK’s site)
The American nation is in the worst condition I can remember in my lifetime, and our prospects for the immediate future are even worse. I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it. Our highway system is crumbling, our police are dishonest, our children are poor, our vaunted Social Security, once the envy of the world, has been looted and neglected and destroyed by the same gang of ignorant greed-crazed bastards who brought us Vietnam, Afghanistan, the disastrous Gaza Strip and ignominious defeat all over the world.
The Stock Market will never come back, our Armies will never again be No. 1, and our children will drink filthy water for the rest of our lives.
The Bush family must be very proud of themselves today, but I am not. Big Darkness, soon come. Take my word for it.
Even HT would be astonished at how much more they’ve managed to ravage in 3 short years. This almost sounds like a Golden Age…

Posted by: jj | Feb 25 2008 10:55 utc | 16

@Onzaga – NYT, Feb 12, 2002: Clintons Accused of a Failure To Disclose Gifts’ True Value

The Clintons underestimated the value of dozens of gifts they received while in the White House and failed to disclose others, according to documents released today by Republican Congressional investigators.
The documents show that the former president and first lady received scores of gifts that the couple did not report because their value was set below the threshold for reporting gifts on disclosure statements. The threshold was $250 from 1993 to 1998, and $260 from 1999 on.
…
The findings are in a report that provides the most detailed account to date of the gifts the Clintons received in the White House. It was released this morning after a yearlong investigation by Republicans on the House Government Reform subcommittee.
…

Your welcome 🙂

Posted by: b | Feb 25 2008 13:33 utc | 18

@joel – believe it or not, I DO have to work for a living once in a while …

Posted by: b | Feb 25 2008 17:32 utc | 20

b, not one young lower middle to upper class person in the *World* considers Israel a place ………
Russia? Israel is a crime haven for mafia “no-extradition” types, sex workers etc.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Feb 25 2008 19:40 utc | 22

Can you say debtors prison?
From Fpif (Foreign Policy In Focus)
Capitalism in an Apocalyptic Mood

Skyrocketing oil prices, a falling dollar, and collapsing financial markets are the key ingredients in an economic brew that could end up in more than just an ordinary recession. The falling dollar and rising oil prices have been rattling the global economy for sometime. But it is the dramatic implosion of financial markets that is driving the financial elite to panic.

You want a half turnip in your cabbage soup, citizen camp worker?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 25 2008 20:20 utc | 24

Who would have thought …
Pentagon Releases Projections for Forces

The Pentagon is projecting that when the United States troop buildup in Iraq ends in July there will be about 8,000 more troops on the ground than when it began in January 2007, a senior general said Monday.
…
General Ham also announced that the Pentagon believed that United States force levels in Afghanistan would be at 32,000 in late summer, up from about 28,000 now.

Posted by: b | Feb 26 2008 5:58 utc | 26

The price of US support for Turkey’s incursion into Iraq:
· Turkey sending an operational brigade of soldiers to Afghanistan.
· Turkey opening up the way for US soldiers to transfer out of Iraq using Turkish soil.
· The setting up of a missile system in Turkey.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Feb 26 2008 10:25 utc | 28

& fuck me dead joel@19. b is on top a great deal more than anyone can reasonably expect. always meat. always sourced. always a journey
the expertise & a capacity to demand us to do our own researches & feed them back – b real, ubcle tangerine, cloned – many many many people here i’m very very thankful for
in lieu of wasting time you make time richer

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 26 2008 19:08 utc | 30

b,
I never don’t check in every day. you (& the rest of y’all regulars) cover far more than I could get by searching everything I could possibly search for 12 hours on a daily basis, and yet here, I check in for roughly 10 to 120 minutes and get the depth that will help me & y’alls move this world and our species back toward some sanity & perhaps even longivity.
Thanks everyone, just once again. I’m always here and appreciative.
Juannie

Posted by: Juannie | Feb 26 2008 19:39 utc | 32

sounds like they have the support of the local populations too.
Yep – that’s the key in guerillia fights. And the Ethiopians are certainly not welcome.
Still – a lot of big transport flights form the Emirates to Puntland smells of big US arms or even special forces shipment …

Posted by: b | Feb 26 2008 20:22 utc | 34

puntland and somaliland both have close relationships w/ u.s. intel, given their geostrategic location. interaction w/ somaliland has stepped up though, as we’ve pointed out. DoS seems ready to recognize them. they really want that port & airstrip. rather than puntland, could the flights be to that strip to provide support for somaliland’s grab for sanaag?
from that recent analysis by weinstein

A more serious threat to the transitional institutions is evidenced by the visit of Somaliland’s president, Dahir Riyale Kahin, to Washington and an unprecedented return visit of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer to Hargeysa. In December, the Washington Post reported that elements of the U.S. Defense Department were urging that the goal of reconciling Somalia be abandoned in favor of recognizing Somaliland’s independence and allowing post-colonial Somalia to be cantonized in order to isolate the militant Islamists and to gain a military foothold in Somalia. At that time, the Post reported that the U.S. State Department was resisting the cantonization strategy, but Frazer’s visit casts doubt on its resolve, although the official position remains that Washington will only consider recognizing Hargeysa if the A.U. moves first. It is telling, however that the State Department called Somaliland a “region” when Riyale visited Washington and that Frazer called it a “country” when she visited Hargeysa.
[TFG PM] Hussein responded to U.S. contacts with Somaliland by welcoming them and praising Somaliland’s political achievements, while insisting on the unity of post-colonial Somalia. Although it is far from certain that Washington is moving towards recognizing Hargeysa, its new initiatives cast doubt on its commitment to the transitional institutions, weakening Hussein’s credibility.

—
more western press on ethiopia’s brutal oppression in the ogaden
csm: In Ethiopia, does staying silent save lives?

Posted by: b real | Feb 26 2008 20:34 utc | 36

Jesus Christ what a circus…
Sometimes all you can do is shake your head at the spectacle…
Clift notes Josh Marshall at TPMtv attempts to shed some light on the subject. [video]

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 27 2008 0:24 utc | 38

quick – what do these three countries in the following headline all have in common?
reuters: Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq top index of weak states

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Somalia, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq are the four weakest states in the world, according to an index of fragile nations released by two U.S. think tanks on Tuesday.
The Brookings Institution and the Center for Global Development ranked 141 developing countries according to their performance in four core areas — economic, political, security and social welfare.
Using those indicators, Somalia, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo headed the list and were designated as “failed states.” They were followed by Iraq, Burundi, Sudan, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, Liberia and Ivory Coast.
“Given the role that weak states can play as incubators and breeding grounds for transnational security threats, building state capacity … should be a higher priority for U.S. policy,” said the report.
A weak state is defined as one lacking the capacity to establish and maintain political institutions, secure the population from violent conflict and control their territories or to meet the basic needs of the population.
…
But the Brookings Institution’s Susan Rice, who co-authored the index, said there had not been a big enough focus, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where most critically weak states were located.
“For all of our newfound rhetoric after 9/11, the U.S. government has yet to generate any kind of coherent approach to strengthening the capacity of weak states,” Rice, who is also an adviser to Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, told Reuters.
…
The report also included a “watch list” of countries that should be monitored by policymakers because of their significant weakness.
Those included Syria, Algeria, the Philippines, Cuba and Paraguay, but also Russia, which ranked 65 on the overall list as well as India at 67 and China at 74.
“We have to get out of the habit of assuming that states we have come to believe are rising powers — China, Russia and India — are all strong states,” said Rice.
…
It also urged that aid should be better targeted in failed and weak states with an emphasis on improving security.
For example, in Iraq and Afghanistan where the United States is most deeply involved, the report said U.S. troop levels were inadequate to stabilize both nations.

still feel like voting democrat?

Posted by: b real | Feb 27 2008 4:47 utc | 40

Today’s other Big Story. Did anyone else have lightbulbs go off when wall from Gaza to Egypt was broken & people fled?? Is that their solution – force Gaza upon Egypt & West Bank upon Jordan?? More evidence they’re implementing that. Israel now cutting off power so that each will be getting it from those countries…beginning of more extensive integration, or am I making a mountain out of a mole hill???
The West Bank town of Jericho was connected to the Jordanian power grid on Monday in a move a Palestinian official said was meant to reduce dependence on Israeli electricity supplies.
A Palestinian official responsible for the project said the connection cost $10 million and means the ancient town of Jericho and its surroundings no longer depend on Israeli electricity.
“The aim of this step is to reduce our consumption of Israeli electricity and hook up with the Arab network,” said Omar Kittaneh, head of the Palestinian Energy Authority.
Kittaneh said the Palestinian Authority was buying 20 megawatts of power from Jordan and that the hope was to add other West Bank towns to the grid later.
He said Jordan was part of the Arab electricity grid that also included Egypt, Syria and Turkey.Palestinians plug Jericho into Jordan’s power grid
Gaza to get electricity supply from Egypt: company This story actually is old.

Posted by: jj | Feb 27 2008 6:50 utc | 42

fallin’ off the chart of “normality”…
I expected nothing less from you 🙂

Posted by: b | Feb 27 2008 16:12 utc | 44

wondering if this ties into #31 at all
shabelle: Kenyan anti-terrorism forces pull out Somalia border

(Shabelle.net/english-27.02.08) – Kenyan special RDU anti-terrorism armed and border patrolling forces have entirely withdrawn from their main army base on the border with Somalia on Wednesday residents said.
These forces from several countries were parts of USA’s AFRICOM command forces have been on the frontier between Somalia and Kenya for long time and the residents close to the force’s campgrounds have expressed additional concern on the soldier’s behavior.
Residents also told Shabelle English service that the troops have vacated from more ten locations of their military camps on the border.
Its unidentified the motivation behind the force’s withdrawal although as Shabelle made contact with some Kenyan officials no comment could be available from them apropos of the troop’s pulling out from the border.
The inhabitants nearby the border between Kenya and Somalia have expressed extra satisfaction about the withthrawal.

as far as i’m aware, CJTF-HOA is still under CENTCOM & wasn’t to be turned over the AFRICOM until september. the rest of the article lifts txt from a jane’s report and another article i don’t recognize right away & haven’t bothered to find.
—
ips: U.S. Investors Sought for Southern Sudan

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (IPS) – Business lobbies and groups opposed to the Sudanese government are seeking to drum up investment in Southern Sudan, once a front in efforts to install a more pro-U.S. regime in Khartoum.
Groups promoting business engagement say commerce will ensure stability in and beyond the war-torn territory.
“Engagement in Southern Sudan can help lift the region’s people and its economy out of the turmoil and have positive effects to stabilise the entire country,” said Adam Sterling, director of the Sudan Divestment Task Force, a member of the Genocide Intervention Network.
In Southern Sudan, the U.S.-based network of students’, rights, and religious groups opposed to violence in Darfur has found common ground with the National Foreign Trade Council business lobby and USA Engage, a trade association opposed to unilateral U.S. sanctions.
U.S. businesses and individuals are barred from doing business with Sudan, the government of which the United States accuses of genocide in the western region of Darfur.
The ban does not extend to Southern Sudan, which won autonomy in 2005, after the signing of a peace agreement between the central government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
“While sanctions are in place restricting trade and investment in the North, it is not widely known that companies acting within OFAC regulations can conduct business in Southern Sudan,” said Jake Colvin, director of USA Engage. He referred to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control.
“U.S. government sanctions are fairly nuanced in this regard and there is an important distinction that allows trade and investment by international businesses and donors,” added Colvin.
Under the 2005 peace deal, the SPLA formed a government in the Southern Sudan city of Juba. The SPLA chief serves as the territory’s president and as Sudan’s senior vice president. Full independence from Khartoum could follow a referendum scheduled for 2011.
…
Since 2005, Southern Sudan has received hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid money and in profits from Sudan’s booming oil industry but there has been little development to show for it.
…
In 1996, Washington funneled nearly 20 million dollars worth of military equipment through Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda to help the Sudanese opposition overthrow the government of President Omar al-Bashir. U.S. officials quoted at the time denied the aid was destined for the SPLA despite media reports to the contrary.

Posted by: b real | Feb 27 2008 19:37 utc | 46

Economic Left/Right: -8.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.28
i guess i am stalin’s son on speed

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 27 2008 20:28 utc | 48

@47
Britain yesterday said that the Kenyan army is now “by far the best option” to stop a sectarian bloodbath as peace talks in Nairobi between the government and opposition were suspended.
how about fresh elections ? Theres nothing stopping Britain & the USA from calling for fresh elections. Its not like they have hidden motives, is it ?
the lingering feeling I get more & more is that the Western govts really underestimate the intelligence of Kenyans, particularly the opposition.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Feb 28 2008 0:08 utc | 50

The PNAC is back – same old liars with a brand new name
by CA Libertarian
Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 04:22:36 PM PST
There’s a new think tank on the loose, guys, and it’s called the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. They’re on a veritable rampage, penning articles and missives to the editor on a set of issues we are all too familiar with.
It doesn’t take long to see these clowns for what they are, another front for the neoconservative agenda: anti-U.N., pro-Iraq war, shills for Israel via proxy (in this case, Lebanon), and pro-Iran invasion.
But let’s take a closer look at who is behind this.
Here is the roster.
Board of Directors
Steve Forbes – original signatory, PNAC
Jeanne Kirkpatrick, signatory, PNAC letter to Bush
Jack Kemp, Mr. supply-side economics himself, linked to Kirkpatrick and William Bennett (another PNAC signatory) via Empower America, which also happens to have Steve Forbes as a director
Distinguished Advisors
Louis Freeh
Newt Gingrich, the man who did the PNAC’s inside dirty work in 1998, leading the charge for Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998 while simultaneously the Republicans were pushing action against Iraq
Max Kampelman, PNAC signatory on Hong Kong letter
Joe Lieberman, the so-called independent who has supported the neoconservative agenda at every step
James Woolsey, PNAC signatory on Iraq Clinton letter and several others
Board of Advisors
Gary Bauer, PNAC signatory
Eric Cantor
Eliot Engel
Frank Gaffney, PNAC signatory
Marc Ginsberg, signatory, PNAC letter on Russia
Charles Jacobs, noted anti-Muslim racist
Charles Krauthammer, signatory, PNAC Iraq Clinton letter
Bill Kristol, founder, PNAC
Richard Lamm
Jim Marshall
Zell Miller, another Democratic traitor who backed W in 2004
Richard Perle, the prince of darkness itself, and of course a PNAC signatory
Steven Pomerantz, former FBI, an intelligence profiteer
Oliver “Buck” Revell, former FBI, another intelligence profiteer
There is also a good profile of FDD on Rightweb.
The formula is the same — neoconservatives, war profiteers, and Israel-firsters banding together to create more war and more terrorism — but this time not in the name of U.S. security but even more cynically in the name of spreading democracy.
We have already seen the results of this policy in Iraq. It is an abysmal failure.
Any questions?

FDD leverages the power of the media and our network of contacts in government and the policy community to bring powerful stories and compelling new voices before American and international audiences. Our campaigns shape how the public and policy makers view the war against terrorism and the worldwide effort to promote democratic values.

Good afternoon, boys and girls. Today, our word will be MOSSAD. Can you spell MOSSAD?

According to the FDD, the organization “was founded shortly after 9/11 by a group of visionary philanthropists and policymakers to engage in the worldwide war of ideas and to support the defense of democratic societies under assault by terrorism and Militant Islamism.” A 2003 report published by the American Conservative indicates that the origins of FDD can be traced back to an effort to gain support for Israel’s response to the Palestinian Intifada and to diminish public outcry against Israeli actions. Its predecessor was known as EMET [which means “truth” in Hebrew]: An Educational Initiative, Inc., which was founded in early 2001 by the same donors who provided the initial support for the FDD. EMET was conceived as a public relations effort to support Israel through offices in Washington and Israel. In addition to its media work, EMET initiated educational tours to Israel for U.S. university students and professors (see Daniel McCarthy, “Most Favored Democracy,” American Conservative).
After 9/11, EMET evolved into FDD, with Clifford May as president and Nir Boms as vice president; Boms had been the central figure in EMET. (Boms, a member of Benador Associates, is no longer with FDD.) FDD operates an educational exchange program, similar to what EMET did but on a larger scale, which accepts students and professors who are interested in being activists in Israeli counterterrorism.
Although the FDD’s mission statement makes no mention of Israel, the foundation’s public statements and operations concern Israel to a great degree. ,b>FDD associates and staff are outspoken proponents of the hardliners in Israel, including May, Krauthammer, Perle, and Bill Kristol. FDD adviser Charles Jacobs has been a prominent spokesperson for the National Unity Coalition for Israel (NUCI), which according to Jacobs is “giving voice” to pro-Israel evangelical Christians (New York Times, January 21, 1998).
Numerous FDD principals have been associated with the Project for the New American Century, a neoconservative institute that was one of the leading promoters of the Iraq War and the Bush administration’s aggressive security doctrine. These include Woolsey, Gaffney, Kristol, Forbes, Perle, Kirkpatrick, and Krauthammer.
In spring 2002, in an apparent effort to thwart Bush administration initiatives to reopen peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, the FDD aired 30-second television spots that conflated Yasser Arafat with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Opening with the words “The Suicide Strategy,” the ads stated: “It was used by terrorists against America on September 11. It’s being used by terrorists against Israel day after day. … The suicide strategy threatens all of us—all those who are hated as ‘infidels.’ … If we appease terrorism, we’ll get more terrorism. Our way of life is threatened. … Never appease terrorism” (Inter Press Service, April 26, 2002). The video’s producer was Boms, the former officer of public and academic affairs for the Israeli Embassy in Washington who served as FDD’s vice president (Alternet, October 10, 2003).
Although the FDD is an ardent critic of terrorism, it has not criticized actions taken by Israel against Palestinians that arguably fall into this category. Wrote Ismail Royer, a former researcher for the Council on American-Islamic Relations: “FDD Senior Adviser Walid Phares has had a long and close relationship with the Guardians of the Cedar, a pro-Israel Lebanese militia. The group, which in 1976 led the massacre of at least 3,000 Palestinian men, women, and children at the Tel al-Za’atar refugee camp near Beirut (and continues to call the massacre a ‘cleansing’), is labeled ‘an extremist Christian group’ by the U.S. State Department. The Congressional Research Service labels them an ‘extremist Maronite militia and terrorist organization‘” (Antiwar.com, September 26, 2002).
In late February 2004, the FDD submitted a supporting brief to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which was considering a Palestinian petition to have the massive wall Israel is building condemned as a breach of international law. …
According to the FDD, it receives money from “a diverse group of individual philanthropists” and “does not accept any government funding.” An investigative report in the American Conservative put the FDD’s annual budget at close to $3 million (American Conservative, November 17, 2003). According to the American Conservative report, the FDD relies on the support of 27 individual high-end donors, including Leonard Abramson of U.S. Healthcare; New York financier Michael Steinhardt; Edgar S. Bronfman Sr., patriarch of Seagrams and president of the Jewish World Congress, and his brother Charles Bronfman; and Lynn Schusterman, widow of Oklahoma oil executive Charles Schusterman. In 2002, the FDD received $250,000 apiece from Edgar Bronfman, Michael Steinhardt, and Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus. Other donors who each gave $100,000 included Abramson, Charles Bronfman, Lynn Schusterman, and Dalck Feith (father of Douglas Feith). In its Form 990 tax form for 2004, FDD indicated that Ameriquest Capital had donated a generous $1.55 million to the foundation. The forms also showed Clifford May’s salary at more than $305,000 a year in 2004. The FDD also receives funding from the State Department for its democracy programs and has worked in tandem with the U.S.-government funded NED. In 2004, the Sarah Scaife Foundation granted the FDD $125,000 for general operating expenses, and a combined $275,000 in 2005 for program and project support. In 2005 FDD had assets of close to $5.5 million, according to MediaTransparency.org.

Foundation for Defense of Democracies
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1475
I have my reasons for not linking to them above, I don’t want them here, or backtracking to here nor do I want them to know we are talking about them.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 28 2008 7:03 utc | 52

Some good news from Pentagon of all places…Several Generals/Admirals set to resign if boyking Attacks Iran

Posted by: jj | Feb 28 2008 8:08 utc | 54

jj @ 53
you can find chuckie at the the wayback machine

Posted by: dan of steel | Feb 28 2008 10:48 utc | 56

tantalus
fisk great tôme is a solid work
& yes it is depressing as hell
without equivocation – he understands clearly – as walter benjamin understood perhaps metaphysically – that it is ‘western civilisation’ which is the cultrue of barbarians

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 28 2008 15:32 utc | 58

Adding to Tantalus – James Petras: The Israeli Agenda and the Scorecard of the Zionist Power Configuration for 2008

The strategy of the Jewish state is the complete Zionization of Palestine, the takeover of land, water, offshore gas (estimated to be worth $4 billion dollars) and other economic resources and the total dispossession of the Palestinian people. Tel Aviv’s tactics have included daily military assaults, giant walls ghettoizing entire Palestinian towns, military outposts and controls undermining commerce and production to force bankruptcy, poverty, severe deprivation and population flight. The second priority of the Israeli colonial state is to bolster the Jewish state’s political and military supremacy in the Middle East, using preposterous arguments of ‘survival’ and ‘existential threats’. The key postulate of Israeli Middle East policy is to destroy or intimidate the principle adversaries of its Zionization of Palestine and its expansionist Middle East policy.
…

Recommended …

Posted by: b | Feb 28 2008 15:58 utc | 60

Wired has so far unpublished Abu Graibh pictures. There must be many more. Show them!

Posted by: b | Feb 28 2008 19:20 utc | 62

Just saw Scahill on DN. He was great and he raises great questions. I do believe Obama will pursue an aggressive foriegn policy. But it will be more discrete. He will use special forces and black ops.
Just before I turned to DN I watched that weasel Tucker and he had Susan Rice, one of Obamas foriegn policy people. She was good at putting forth Obamas position and she is very on the ball. But yes, he will be interventionist, only you will only hear about it through news after its already done. We will be using the Kennedy model.

Posted by: jdp | Feb 28 2008 23:41 utc | 64

if the USA is lucky, it may undergo a process of de-militarism under the next president.
in fact it has already began. The increasing turn to mercenaries is proof that open & public militarism (i.e. shock & awe) has tended towards diminished returns. And its only a matter of time before the weaknesses of mercenary-militarism are exposed. We’ve been though that cycle before.

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Feb 29 2008 2:09 utc | 66

zbig wrote But the little secret here may be that the vagueness of the phrase was deliberately (or instinctively) calculated by its sponsors.
no shit. is someone supposed to be surprised?
there was a very deliberate effort to do this not long after carter was pushed out & his emphasis on human rights was replaced by reagan’s war on terror, well before the son of a bush got the nod.
edward peck

In 1985, when I was the Deputy Director of the Reagan White House Task Force on Terrorism, they asked us—this is a Cabinet Task Force on Terrorism; I was the Deputy Director of the working group—they asked us to come up with a definition of terrorism that could be used throughout the government. We produced about six, and each and every case, they were rejected, because careful reading would indicate that our own country had been involved in some of those activities.
After the task force concluded its work, Congress got into it, and you can google into U.S. Code Title 18, Section 2331, and read the U.S. definition of terrorism. And one of them in here says—one of the terms, “international terrorism,” means “activities that,” I quote, “appear to be intended to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.”
Yes, well, certainly, you can think of a number of countries that have been involved in such activities. Ours is one of them. Israel is another. And so, the terrorist, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.

or whoever controls the PA system

Posted by: b real | Feb 29 2008 5:50 utc | 68

per b‘s #62…
Stanford University’s Philip Zimbardo makes the case that it wasn’t inherent rottenness, but the “Lucifer Effect” which turned all those good, honest, God-fearin’ US soldiers into sadistic, twisted tormentors at Abu Ghraib.
“The Devil made me do it.” Yeah. In a Christian theocracy, that defense will, nauseatingly, go pretty far. At least it’s slightly less patently disgusting than “These were just frat pranks.”
Why doesn’t anyone twig on to the obvious answer that the culture produces sick, twisted fucks? Oh, yeah… this is an election year and we don’t won’t want to actually tell anyone that their baby is ugly.
But the apologist Dr. Zimbardo comes tantalizingly close to making a very genuine observation while pussyfooting around with the trite rationalizations: “If you give people power without oversight it is a formula for abuse.”
Now, where-oh-where can we look for people given “power without oversight”…? I’m sure the dank, dungeons of Iraq or some other third world hole will give us all manner of “powerful” and “unsupervised” folk. No need to look for that in your own backyard. No need to apply that formula to the TASER-happy cops on every street corner of the USA or the bullying TSA agents waiting in every airport to flex their authoritive muscles. We should certainly not apply that maxim to a demonstrably corrupt executive, legislative and judicial branch of US government who only classify something as torture if it might be applied to them.
Let’s keep coming up with excuses about how what happened at Abu Ghraib is exceptional and does not represent who we are. And, you know, I’m aiming this scattershot at non-US citizens and governments as well. Western culture produces sickness… maliciousness… inhumanity… exceptionalism… and all the rest. US citizens are not psychologically, genetically, culturally or in any quantifiable way special enough for this to only apply to them. Every new piece of data which points to the inescapable conclusion that humans are disgusting causes us to jump through new hoops to point to why it is “those guys” that are really the disgusting ones… or “that circumstance” that caused them to be that way.
The root of exceptionalism is that we don’t see any of this as applying to us.

Posted by: Monolycus | Feb 29 2008 16:32 utc | 70

Weekend Reading Barflies??
In 1965 executives at Shell wanted to know what the world would look like in th year 2000. They consulted a range of experts, who speculated about fusion-powered hovercrafts and “all sorts of fanciful technological stuff”. When the oi company asked the scientist James Lovelock, he predicted that the main problem i 2000 would be the environment. “It will be worsening then to such an extent that i will seriously affect their business,” he said
“And of course,” Lovelock says, with a smile 43 years later, “that’s almost exactly what’s happened.”
As with most people, my panic about climate change is equalled only by my confusion over what I ought to do about it. A meeting with Lovelock therefore feels a little like an audience with a prophet. …
…
On the day we meet, the Daily Mail has launched a campaign to rid Britain of plastic shopping bags. The initiative sits comfortably within the current canon of eco ideas, next to ethical consumption, carbon offsetting, recycling and so on – all of which are premised on the calculation that individual lifestyle adjustments can still save the planet. This is, Lovelock says, a deluded fantasy. Most of the things we have been told to do might make us feel better, but they won’t make any difference. Global warming has passed the tipping point, and catastrophe is unstoppable.
“It’s just too late for it,” he says. “Perhaps if we’d gone along routes like that in 1967, it might have helped. But we don’t have time. All these standard green things, like sustainable development, I think these are just words that mean nothing. I get an awful lot of people coming to me saying you can’t say that, because it gives us nothing to do. I say on the contrary, it gives us an immense amount to do. Just not the kinds of things you want to do.”
He dismisses eco ideas briskly, one by one. “Carbon offsetting? I wouldn’t dream of it. It’s just a joke. To pay money to plant trees, to think you’re offsetting the carbon? You’re probably making matters worse. You’re far better off giving to the charity Cool Earth, which gives the money to the native peoples to not take down their forests.”
You’re never going to get enough energy from wind to run a society such as ours,” he says. “Windmills! Oh no. No way of doing it. You can cover the whole country with the blasted things, millions of them. Waste of time.”
This is all delivered with an air of benign wonder at the intractable stupidity of people. “I see it with everybody. People just want to go on doing what they’re doing. They want business as usual. They say, ‘Oh yes, there’s going to be a problem up ahead,’ but they don’t want to change anything.”
Lovelock believes global warming is now irreversible, and that nothing can prevent large parts of the planet becoming too hot to inhabit, or sinking underwater, resulting in mass migration, famine and epidemics. Britain is going to become a lifeboat for refugees from mainland Europe, so instead of wasting our time on wind turbines we need to start planning how to survive. To Lovelock, the logic is clear. The sustainability brigade are insane to think we can save ourselves by going back to nature; our only chance of survival will come not from less technology, but more.
Nuclear power, he argues, can solve our energy problem – the bigger challenge will be food. …
…
“There have been seven disasters since humans came on the earth, very similar to the one that’s just about to happen. I think these events keep separating the wheat from the chaff. And eventually we’ll have a human on the planet that really does understand it and can live with it properly. That’s the source of my optimism.”
What would Lovelock do now, I ask, if he were me? He smiles and says: “Enjoy life while you can. Because if you’re lucky it’s going to be 20 years before it hits the fan.” Guardian’s Welcome to Spring Interview w/Jim Lovelock
This is what happens when we’re trapped under an arrogant elite. Even the hippies knew things had to be changed quickly to save the earth & our sanity…
Everything you hate about the mass press – zero attempt to marshall evidence in favor of his thesis that we’ve passed the tipping point…but the Good News is 20 year explosion of hedonism, make Abortions a Sacrament so there are fewer humans to suffer, and keep your pistol handy for convenience on Reckoning Day.

Posted by: jj | Mar 1 2008 22:55 utc | 72

Kind of interesting to see what kind of information is collected about us who visit here.

Posted by: dan of steele | Mar 2 2008 10:11 utc | 74

dos#74,
Try seeing what they have to say about other blogs, most of what I read they either have no info, or similar to MoA profile. Think they’re trolling for potential advertisers.

Posted by: anna missed | Mar 2 2008 10:43 utc | 76

@anna missed (#76): I’m looking into my crystal ball here and proposing that most people who visit your target site either own or have access to a computer…
That’ll be two thousand dollars, please.

Posted by: Monolycus | Mar 2 2008 10:50 utc | 78

ref my #74
if you view the source code of the html at MoA you will find all the way at the bottom a Quantcast tag which runs a javascript and uses a very small gif (35 bytes) to tag us. I assume that gif is searched for in our browser temporary files folders when we visit other sites that are running the Quantcast tracker.
I had heard of single pixel trackers before but honestly this is the first time I see it in action.

Posted by: dan of steele | Mar 2 2008 11:22 utc | 80

if you view the source code of the html at MoA you will find all the way at the bottom a Quantcast tag which runs a javascript and uses a very small gif (35 bytes) to tag us. I assume that gif is searched for in our browser temporary files folders when we visit other sites that are running the Quantcast tracker.
Thanks for finding that Dan – I certainly did not put it there and it is not in the page design I can access. Seems like Typepad put it there without informing their customers. Again a reason to raise hell with them.

Posted by: b | Mar 2 2008 12:57 utc | 82

thanks for the NoScript plugin snafu.
that’s seem to be just what I was looking for

Posted by: dan of steele | Mar 2 2008 19:15 utc | 84

utilize wildcards to realize the full power of adblocking
*.quantserve.*
ad.*.*
ads.*.*
*.*/ads/
and so on

Posted by: b real | Mar 3 2008 4:09 utc | 86

@dan of steele #74
The funniest thing about that stats page is the graph showing that 100% of the MOA audience are “passers by” and 0% are “addicts.”
Obviously bogus data… LOL.

Posted by: Bea | Mar 3 2008 6:03 utc | 88

thank you, conchita. means is very adept at generating publicity. important point too about reponsibility & freedom. recently heard john trudell remind us that there can be no freedom w/o responsibility. what’s the point of freedom if all you’re doing is giving another the freedom to exploit you or anyone/thing else? so any rhetoric that focuses solely on advancing freedom is not to be trusted.
i wish means & the lakota republic the best in realizing their objectives & goal. however, i have to say that crazy horse’s dream & the prophecy it foretold for both himself & his people has occupied my mind for a long time, examining & re-examining the message contained w/i. granted, the dream was for tasunke witko (“his crazy horse”), or, more accurately, jiji kin (“the light-haired one”), which was what he was called at that time, prior to his father passing over his own, and it occured in a specific context & period of time, having nothing to do w/ any of us. but the way his life played out, the magnitude of the changes which he & his people experienced in their lifetimes, and the very stark choices they were faced w/, all combine to present, IMO, a lesson about ourselves & our way of living that must be addressed. we are already warriors. much as the main problem crazy horse was faced w/, to defeat our enemies (ourselves) we must come to know them (ourselves) in every way.
from joseph m. marshall’s the journey of crazy horse: a lakota history

The dream began at a lake, a small still lake. Bursting upward from the blue calmness, a horse and its rider broke through the surface and rode out across the land. The rider was a man, a slender man who wore his hair loose. A stone was tied behind his left ear, a reddish brown stone. A lightning mark was painted across one side of his face. On his bare chest were blue hailstones. Behind them to the west as they galloped was a dark, rolling cloud rising higher and higher. From it came the deep rumble of thunder and flashes of lightning. The horse was strong and swift and it changed colors: red, yellow, black, white, and blue. Bullets and arrows suddenly filled the air, flying at the horse and the rider, but they all passed without touching them. Close above them flew a red-tailed hawk, sending out its shrill cry. People, his own kind, suddenly rose up all around and grabbed the rider, pulling him down from behind. And the dream ended.

Posted by: b real | Mar 3 2008 6:46 utc | 90

Re: data-mining and profiling dissent, I’d encourage MOA’s to download and read the Rand corporations project called,Atypical Signal Analysis Processing.
Found here: Out of the Ordinary: Finding Hidden Threats by Analyzing Unusual behavior (pdf)
the schema works like this: Information on “watched entities”–people, places, things, and financial services suspected as being relevant to terrorist activity against infrastructure or commerce or of course, the status quo by collecting all data: Washington Post: Bush Wants Telecom Immunity Because Lawsuits Could Reveal That “Everybody In The Country” Has Been Spied On and running it through linguistic, semantic and syntax processing to find neural speech text behavior patterns. And I suspect auditory processing, I have long suspected that they are recording out voices for future nefarious uses. Highly speculative of course, but if there’s a buck to be made in the credit/debit procurement department…
Just as back in the late eighties when the whole menu, press 1 for ____ or 2 for___ crap started, it was billed as a service to better serve you. Remember that? Well we all know it wasn’t to serve us, but part of the business model to put the burden onto the customers and save millions in not having to pay for customer care. Anyway, how many people here have experienced the new Menu 2.0 Adaptive voice recognition menu method and system which is different from the voice and speech recognition software. The Voice-recognition phone menus have automated speech-enabled responses to caller requests for information which prompts caller requests for information from a menu that lists different choices. It conditions us to interact with machines software on a cognitive scale. Creepy no? Anyway… there’s more…
Dr. Disney Haseltine is the Big Brother doing the National Security Agency’s Total Information Awareness surveillance and data mining DARPA project surveillance of our everyday lives cleverly called by NSA a nice sterile academic name…”informatics.”
NSA looks to informatics to connect dots “Informatics?” Cool!
Gosh, who doesn’t want to be…”informed?” Sounds downright democratic, doesn’t it?
Finally,
Interesting IP sniffing stuff here

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 3 2008 11:30 utc | 92

differing accounts right now on the missile strikes in dobley
from the nyt report

American naval forces fired missiles into southern Somalia on Monday, aiming at what the Defense Department called terrorist targets.
Residents reached by telephone said the only casualties were three wounded civilians, three dead cows, one dead donkey and a partly destroyed house.
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman in Washington, said the target was a “known Al Qaeda terrorist,” and another American military official said the attack was carried out with at least two Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a submarine. The official said the missiles were believed to have hit their targets, but did not elaborate on the targets.
Witnesses on the ground, though, described the attack differently.
“I did not know from where they were launched, but what I know is that they hit a house in this town,” said Mohammed Amin Abdullahi Osman, a resident of Dhobley, a small town in southern Somalia near the Kenyan border.
Mr. Mohammed said two missiles crashed into the house around 3:30 a.m.

a voa rpt

In Somalia, several dozen residents of Dobley town, near the Kenyan border, are reportedly trying to cross into Kenya following a U.S. military air strike that was aimed at terror suspects in the area. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has details from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.
Eyewitness Abdi Mohamed Ali tells VOA that the residents of Dobley, about six kilometers from the Kenyan border, were shaken from their beds early Monday by a huge explosion that flattened a house in the middle of town.
Ali says he does not know who was in the house or who carried out the attack, but he says residents believe it was a bomb dropped by a plane, seen flying over the town in recent days. He says many people are leaving Dobley for fear of another air strike.
…
In an interview with Agence France-Presse news agency, local Somali elders and a senior leader of the al-Qaida-linked Somali al-Shabaab group, Muktar Robow, claimed a U.S. Air Force AC-130 plane, hunting for Islamic militant hideouts, bombed three targets, including two houses.
VOA was not able to verify a local elder’s statement that four civilians were killed in the attack.
…
The Shabaab functioned as the militant wing of the ousted Islamic Courts Union, whose top leaders are in exile in Eritrea. But in early February, the Shabaab broke off ties with the courts, complaining that its leadership was not committed to establishing Islamic rule throughout the world through jihad.
Late last month, a skirmish between supporters of the Islamic Courts Union and Shabaab fighters reportedly killed several people in Dobley before the town was seized by forces loyal to Hassan Turki, a Shabaab leader in the Lower Juba area.

the AP doesn’t bother to get into specifics and rpts that

A radical Islamic movement that ruled much of southern Somalia in 2006 took over Dobley last week, led by senior official Hassan Turki. Turki, who is rarely seen in public, is on U.S. and U.N. lists of suspected terrorists for alleged ties to al-Qaida. His fate after the strike was not known.
…
The Islamic movement, the Council of Islamic Courts, seized control of much of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu, in 2006. But in early 2007, troops loyal to the U.N.-backed interim Somali government and the allied Ethiopian army defeated the Islamic group.
The Islamic council now appears to be re-emerging.

the nyt article in the first link doesn’t differentiate either

Dhobley lies in the growing swath of southern Somalia that seems to be falling under the control of the country’s Islamist movement once again. The Islamists rose to power in 2006 and brought a degree of law and order to Somalia for the first time since the central government collapsed in 1991.

Posted by: b real | Mar 3 2008 20:14 utc | 94

The Day the Earth and Sky Traded Places
Gazan Holocaust

Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit who bellowed that if it were up to him, Israeli soldiers going into Gaza should shoot “everything that moves” ­like babies and toddlers, grandfathers and mothers, orange trees and wasted-away donkeys pulling cartloads of rotten vegetables; like flowers and seabirds, chickens and goats, rats and cockroaches. A scorched-earth policy will suffice. They’ll create their apocalyptic wilderness and will call it peace.
No one needed Sheetrit to legitimize the strategy of creating oblivion from hell. Untermenschen who can be denied food, water, fuel, electricity, medical supplies, the right to leave and return home, the right to not to die in an ambulance that without the proper permits, the right to their own land and their own nationhood precisely because they are lesser human beings can also be picked off one by one or in groups or in families or because they are “militants,” or all of the above, who deserve no fair hearing, due process, photographs, names, headlines, stories, grief or televised tear-jerker funerals to commemorate their sacrifices.

but forget that, RICIN RICIN RICIN!! Terror Terror Terror, ELF elf!!! Terror at home!

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 3 2008 20:50 utc | 96

Terror Terror Terror, ELF! Domestic terror at home!!! ELF!! ELF!!
Manchurian candidate lone gunman shooting!!!
The world is dangerous! Terror! Terror! Trust us, we will protect!
Don’t run, we’re your friends…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Mar 4 2008 0:35 utc | 98

an indication of where the humanitarian do-gooders in empire’s new unified combatant command are looking to target their next missions of mercy, perhaps?
from an article in defense news on the DIA’s new language-training program

Hammersen said the agency is having difficulty meeting the demand for what are known as the less commonly taught languages. There are more than 7,000 languages in the world, with Africa alone accounting for 2,000 of them.
“Very few academic institutions offer undergraduate language courses in Pashto, Farsi or the Iraqi dialect of Arabic – much less the languages of sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia – despite a significant demand across DoD and the [intelligence community] for individuals who are proficient in those languages,” he said. “In addition to the recruiting challenge, it is difficult to find appropriate instructional materials and qualified instructors with appropriate security clearances to offer classes in these languages.”
Some of the combatant commands present particular challenges, such as the new U.S. Africa Command. Nigeria alone, for example, has more than 90 million people who speak 516 languages.
“The challenge facing us is to determine which languages are the most critical to current and future mission needs,” Hammersen said. “Which of the 516 languages in Nigeria should DIA be teaching its personnel, for example? Adding to that difficulty is the fact that there are very few qualified instructors, and there simply isn’t a corpus of material or literature available to use for training purposes.
“Also compounding that difficulty are the limits on our ability to test individuals who speak these languages,” he added. “At present, we can only test three of the sub-Saharan African languages. Even if we can find qualified instructors to offer classes in other high-priority sub-Saharan African languages, we cannot yet adequately measure the progress or proficiency of the student.”

Posted by: b real | Mar 4 2008 4:06 utc | 100