Josh Marshall asks

By Hook or By Crook

Does that group doing voter-suppression calls in North Carolina have ties to the Clinton campaign?

Yes it does.

The organisation which did the robo-calls that mislead on voter registration in NC and elsewhere is, as your folks have found, the Women’s Voice Women’s Vote with its website at "wvwv.org". That domain is registered as:

Registrant ID:42386600-NSI
Registrant Name:Womens Voices. Women Vote
Registrant Organization:Womens Voices. Women Vote

Registrant Street1:1707 L Street NW
Registrant Street2:Suite 750
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Washington
Registrant State/Province:DC
Registrant Postal Code:20036

The same suite is used by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

Institute for Women’s Policy Research
1707 L Street, NW, Suite 750
Washington, DC 20036

The President of that organization is Heidi Hartmann. She is also a signee of the manifest Feminists for Clinton as is the Vice President & Director of Research of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Barbara Gault.

There is also the likely significant fact that the notorious Clintonite John Podesta is a member of the WVWV Leadership Team.

Proof? Not really, but hints abound. Could some journalist spend some leather and check that suite?

Note: This is not a partisan note but the answer to a research request. Fudging with voter voices is evil independent of what side of a race is doing it.

James Petras compares military empire building, as practiced after the second world war by the United States and Israel, versus economic empire building by Europe and Japan and now China and India.

He finds that the national economic rent of the first model is negative, while the second model’s results are positive.

Petras includes this thought on the relation between Israel and the U.S.:

Israel is one of the few – if not only – military-driven ‘emerging imperial powers’ and that is part of the reason for the ‘resonance’ between Jewish leaders in Israel and Washington policy-makers. This is the real basis of the often stated and affirmed ‘common interests and values’ between the two ‘countries’. Military-driven imperial powers, like the US and Israel, do not share ‘democratic values’ – as even the most superficial observer of their savage repression of their conquered peoples and nations (Iraq and Palestine) can attest – they share the military route to empire-building.

The thesis of common interest is also reflected in a right wing op-ed in today’s Haaretz. It contrasts the U.S. and Israel with a "pacifistic" Europe.

And indeed there is a common denominator to the European criticism of Israel and the U.S., and this common denominator apparently also stems from the lessons of that war. It is the phenomenon of European pacifism, the desire to avoid the use of any kind of force, to avoid any forceful confrontation even with evil regimes.
…
That is to say, the European sin is not anti-Semitism but rather pacifism, especially when dealing with the Europeans’ attitude toward force on the part of a Western country.

The author explains what he sees as reason for such unrighteous European behavior. The Europeans, in contrast to the U.S. and Israel, lack the will for "national and sovereign existence."

In this sense, there is apparently a deep connection
between the Europeans’ pacifism and the low birth rates on the
continent; both of them indicate a policy of "eat and make merry
because tomorrow we may die;" a deep lack of trust in life in the long
run because the wish to live – which is not merely that of an
individual but rather of the civilization in which he lives – does
indeed demand victims.

It requires the effort that is involved in raising children as well
as the effort and the risk involved with waging a war on behalf of the
values of freedom or on behalf of a national and sovereign existence so
that these may be ensured for generations to come.

"These cheese eating surrender monkeys no longer strive for a 1000 year Reich – damned they be."

Lunatic. But it again throws up questions I am mulling over for quite some time.

Is it, as Petras claims, simply the communality of the method of expansion that unites the U.S. and Israel, or is there, as Yair Sheleg asserts, some deeper connection?

And if there is some deeper connection, what is it?

Some U.S. Christian conservatives are up in arms over some Vanity Fair pictures of one Miley Cyrus. I never heard of her before and from what I can gather she is some young rich girl doing TV. The "scandal" created 864+ google news links that will help her to move into Jodie Foster territory and sell her new CD. The blame is now moved away from Disney, the general profiteer of the case, onto Annie Leibovitz who took those quite decent shots. Well, one can always blame the Jews …

Not availabe as major U.S. MSM news is how Afghan officials pulled some Indian soap operas from Afghan TV for being "un-Islamic". To say so in U.S. media would somehow be ‘controversial’. Who would want to confess that the U.S. supports conservative religious nuts judging over media content in a U.S. managed foreign country?

Better to look at some religious nut in Iran, who warns against the obstructive cultural danger of Barbie puppets. A story that already ran in 2002. But don’t bother to say so – the sheeple will not notice the repeat.

Recently
in Jerusalem some hundred orthodox Jews protested against the sale of leavened bread to anyone during their passover. Okay – not much sex in that story unless you have some interesting fantasies. It is simply another attempt to put some old-book-based interpretation of one’s own life onto others.

We should somehow export all those folks. Can we please find some lone island on this planet to unify all these idiots?

Fred Kagan has written a somewhat schizophrenic piece in the Weekly Standard on A definition of success in Iraq

Virtually everyone who wants to win this war agrees: Success will have been achieved when Iraq is a stable, representative state that controls its own territory, is oriented toward the West, and is an ally in the struggle against militant Islamism, whether Sunni or Shia.

Further into the piece we learn that:

– Iraq is largely stable

Violence is the most obvious indicator of instability and the easiest to measure. The fact that violence has fallen dramatically in Iraq since the end of 2006 is evidence of improving stability.

– Iraq is a representative state

Cont. reading: Kagan declares: “Success is achieved”

We welcome your comments on news & views …

by Debs is Dead
lifted from a comment
with additions by b

Incidentally one of the innumerable talking heads that have been
popping up to give their take the economy, the universe and everything
of late did have one interesting contention.

That the flight from the dollar has caused spec- sorry investors,
(his words not mine) to move into commodities such as cereal and grain
when they pull outta the dollar.

This bloke pulled a number of between 20% and 25% of the value of food
and other essentials all of which have increased in value by at least
100% in the last year, saying well nearly a quarter of the value is an
increase as a result of ‘investors’ not speculators, he said buying
into essential commodities as they look for alternatives to the $US
that are stable.

If that is true then the world’s problems are going to get worse that even our dire predictions.
The flow across to essential commodities will increase as ‘investors’
report better earnings from investing in food, but any attempt to
reverse the flow, indeed any reverse of that investment may be as
catastrophic for the hungry and poor as continued speculatory
investment is (my words).

Crops as commodities are very different to oil, gold and diamonds,
the latter tend to be extracted at a very predictable rate with long
lead times (building new mines, drilling new wells) required for marked
increases in amounts of resources extracted.

This isn’t true of crops whose prices and productivity go up and down
like a whore’s drawers. The recent rise in grain prices has stimulated
production on formerly fallow land that had been ‘retired’ after
agricultural economies were forced to abolish the tariffs on heavily
subsidised imports from amerika and europe.

Countries from Haiti
to Thailand that had been net grain exporters and whose production
dropped drastically following the effects of globalisation, have begun
farming again.

If the floor drops outta the new prices because
‘investors’ have moved on to the next big thing small holders around
the world who have bet their balls and their villages’ wealth on a
return to farming will lose their shirts once more. More humans will be
driven off the land and into useless anti-human metropolises.

Even worse many small nations will lose yet another slice of economic sovereignty.
Further I’ll stick my neck out with a huge prediction. The chaos that
ensues from this evil speculation on what we humans eat could be the
disaster monsanto needs to force acceptance of it’s genetically
modified monopoly on the world’s food supply.

—

b adds:

Thanks Debs – I was thinking about this today too. Below are a few excerpts from a developing discussion.

Cont. reading: Consequences of Agro-Commodity Speculation

In an short interview with CNBC Prof. Roubini is asked about his expectations on the value of the U.S. dollar.

Roubini says he doesn’t expect much change for now, because the economies of Japan and Europe are slowing down and that will lead to expectations of interest rate cuts in Japan and Europe.

One often sees this argument in the U.S. centric financial media. Last week the Dollar bounced off a record low of $1.60 per Euro to $1.5630. This promptly led to false analysis.

Bloomberg:

"The dollar will continue to rebound," said Benedikt Germanier, an analyst at UBS AG in Stamford, Connecticut. "The Fed has the bulk of its easing behind it, while the ECB has the bulk of its easing ahead of it."

Reuters:

Europe is really not insulated and its economy is beginning to show signs of a slowdown," Meadows, [a market analyst at Tempus Consulting in Washington,] said. "While most people now believe the Fed is about to end its easing cycle, a growing number of investors believe the ECB may have to start cutting rates really soon."

These people are wrong. Sure, differences in interest rates are one reason for Euro preference by investors, leading to a decline of the value of the dollar. It is also correct that the economy in Europe is slowing down. But the European Central Bank will not cut interest rates and any expectation of such is mistaken.

Cont. reading: The Dollar Decline Will Continue

"It is all relative," says the Queen of Hearts U.S. Justice Department.

"The fact that an act is undertaken to prevent a threatened terrorist attack, rather than for the purpose of humiliation or abuse, would be relevant to a reasonable observer in measuring the outrageousness of the act," said Brian A. Benczkowski, a deputy assistant attorney general, in the letter, which had not previously been made public.
…
In one letter written Sept. 27, 2007, Mr. Benczkowski argued that “to rise to the level of an outrage” and thus be prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, conduct “must be so deplorable that the reasonable observer would recognize it as something that should be universally condemned.”

Sandy Levinson pinpoints the weakness of this claim:

There is, of course, a certain logical paradox here: The very fact that the some US interrogator would suggest that some particular conduct is "reasonable" in some situation would, by definition, mean that there is not "universal" condemnnation of the practice.

The easy test for such arguments as Mr. Benczkowski puts forward  is of course to apply them to the other site. When the U.S. threatened war on Iraq would Saddam have been justified to nuke New York? "Yes," says the Justice Department.

The fact that an act is undertaken to prevent a threatened terrorist attack, rather than for the purpose of humiliation or abuse, would be relevant to a reasonable observer in measuring the outrageousness of the act.

Levinson again:

Once one allows what might be termed "purity of utilitarian motive" to dominate the analysis, the game is over, for there will always be those who will argue that it is worth doing practically anything to forestall any "terrorist attack."

by Debs is Dead

I thought this had been swept under the carpet, but apparently not:

Hacker testifies News Corp unit hired him

SANTA ANA, California (Reuters) – A computer hacker testified on Wednesday that a News Corp (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) unit hired him to develop pirating software, but denied using it to penetrate the security system of a rival satellite television service.

Christopher Tarnovsky — who said his first payment was $20,000 in cash hidden in electronic devices mailed from Canada — testified in a corporate-spying lawsuit brought against News Corp’s NDS Group (NNDS.O: Quote, Profile, Research) by DISH Network Corp (DISH.O: Quote, Profile, Research).

The trial could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage awards.

I know I have posted about this scurvy scandal at MoA previously but since the best account of what happened has disappeared down the black hole of a ‘site under construction interweb error message, I thought I might recap a little.

Cont. reading: The Skeleton in Rupert’s Closet

Fed Rate Cuts Kill People, I wrote in February. Silence … BTW: The death toll is much bigger than the Iraq catastrophy we diligently try to follow on this blog.

But finally others catch on. Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture now asks (and answers positively) Is the Fed Causing a Global Food Crisis?

Yes, the Fed does so by two mechanisms. Unfortunately Barry only points to the first. Low Fed rates lower the comparative value of the dollar and make commodities, which are mostly dealt on a dollar base, more expensive in dollar terms. Many countries have linked their currency to the dollar and their citizens now pay the higher prices.

The other mechanism is the expansion of credit.

Cont. reading: Some Now Notice How the Fed Kills People

The "video", a slideshow of text, computer animations and photos alleged to be from a Syria nuclear reactor, has been released.
The presentation has, as David Sanger in the NYT characterizes, "the feel of a cold-war-era newsreel about the Korean War."

There are some inconsistencies in the presentation, at least for me, and I’ll discuss those along with pictures below the fold.

The presentation is an elaborate information operation. If one sees it only once and is not really concentrated it is even convincing. But if you analyze it you will find that it jumps in time and space and adds stuff in animations and graphics that are not supported in the photographed evidence.

The chutzpah of the presentation peaks some eight minutes into it. There one
slide shows some undefinable structure in a very blurry aerial photograph next to
a CIA computer graphic and the text says:

Internal Structure of Destroyed Building Matches Reactor Computer Model

One
really wonders how that could be. These CIA indeed managed to paint a
computer graphic so that it fits their interpretation of a very blurry photograph. Who would have
expected such a capability within that organisation?

For the purpose of further discussion I have made screenshots from the presentation all of which you can see here (may load slow for you). The timer of the slideshow at the McClatchy site runs backwards. I have marked the pictures with those timemarks. The total length of the presentation is 11:40.

There is not much reason to believe the U.S. assessment that Syria was building a nuclear reactor. The presentation only adds to suspicion towards that claim. But some were convinced by it just like they were convinced by Powell’s show on Iraqi WMD at the UN. The Leader column at the Guardian is one example:

The images, taken before the structure was attacked, indicate that North Korea helped build the reactor, which closely resembles the one at Yongbyon which they have just disabled.

The pictures certainly don’t indicate anything like that.

Some of these pictures are manipulated. Others might have been made in a different context and at a different place than alleged. Some are outright misleading.

I have four specific question:

Cont. reading: The “Syrian Reactor Show” – a Fake?

These are screenshots taken from a slideshow presented to congress.  A McClatchy piece explains the issue.

More thoughts and comments on some of these these pictures in this thread.

For comparison first four aerial pictures released (pdf) by David Albright’s ISIS, which are suposed to show the "Box-on-the Euphrates" in Syria which allegedly Israel bombed last September. Blue before and red after the raid.

bigger

bigger

bigger

bigger

Now the screenshots. The video I used has only a backward timecounter, so I used that to mark these pictures. The total video time is 11:40.

Judging from the shadows and the direction of the river the pictures are oriented towards north, that is the top of the picture is north.

The slideshow starts with this picture which is orientated towards east
(time left in the video: 11:39).

The slideshow zooms onto the center building in the above picture (11:26). But this isn’t only a photograph. The "windows" and lines on the facade are much finer than other details of the picture and exactly horizontal.

Also note that the lower level part of the building on the lower part of the picture is centered on the western side of the building, while in the ISIS photo the lower western part is asymetrical attached to north western corner of the bigger building. This "fassade" of the building is likely photoshoped with a higher resolution than the original picture.

An alleged raw view of the building (11:15).

A computer animation of all four sides of the building (9:55) (9:51)

Construction pictures (9:49) (9:44) (9:40)

It is not obvious from these pictures where they have been taken.

This supposed to be the top of a reactor vessel. Note that the alleged Syrian one is smaller than the North Korean one (8 or 9 pots in the longest row instead of 11).

Alleged steel liner of the reactor vessel (7:56)

Construction of the reactor vessel (7:43)

Part of a computer animation to show cooling water supply. Again the fasade of the building seems to to be photoshopped into the picture. Also why would one bury a water tank? (7:07)

Construction of the water outlet pipeline and pumping house for water inlet (6:43)

Pumping house (6:36)

The big box. Picture orientation seems to be eastwards.  (6:31)

Persons: I find some parts of this photo unconvincing, marked those with red circles and zoomed one part. The "pixilation" of the outline of the person in blue seems to be different from the rest of the picture. (6:03)

The box – picture orientation east (4:36)

The bombed box – the pic orientation seems to be westwards (4:34)

Alleged building of some camouflage holding columns (4:08)

The North Korean installation is certainly the bigger one (3:50)

"after curtain walls and roof were added" If these are added why does this fit the construction pictures above? (3:40)

Destroyed box

Destroyed box – not sure where they see tarpaulins here (2:54)

(2:45)

Remainder after Syria blew up the wreakage supposly showing the main parts left. I have no idea how this fits the other pictures in orientation or size. Does it? (2:39)

"Internal structure of destroyed building matches reactor computer model" How nice – my model fits the photo after which I made it. (2:12)

Further demolished site. How does this fit the detail above? (1:54)

Covering up (1:49)

New building at the site (1:30)

New building of unknown but not nuclear function (how do they know that?)(1:28)

Please comment your opinion on these pictures  here.

Yesterday’s LAT: CIA to describe North Korea-Syria nuclear ties, today’s NYT: Video Links North Koreans to Reactor, U.S. Says and today’s WaPo: N. Koreans Taped At Syrian Reactor

A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers today.

Turns out – there is no video:

Cont. reading: The “Video” and on Granting Anonymity

Are AP and Bloomberg writing about the same numbers?

U.S. Durables Orders, Excluding Transportation, Rise

April 24 (Bloomberg) — Orders for U.S. durable goods excluding transportation equipment rose more than forecast last month, indicating demand from overseas may be helping factories weather the housing-led economic slowdown.

Bookings for durable goods, designed to last several years,
rose 1.5 percent excluding transportation equipment, the Commerce
Department said today in Washington.

Durable goods orders fall for third straight month

AP News – Apr 24, 2008 08:03 EST – Orders to factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell for a third straight month in March, the longest string of declines since the 2001 recession.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that demand for durable goods dropped by 0.3 percent last month, a worse-than-expected performance that underscored the problems manufacturers are facing from a severe economic slowdown.

I can’t find the original Commerce Department press release, but it seems Bloomberg is wearing some rosy, republican glasses here.

"Excluding transportation" – In its piece Bloomberg doesn’t tell its readers that orders for autos slumped 4.6 percent. Instead they emphasize an increase in aircraft sales making one think that transportation orders actually rose.

A problem with both pieces is that they don’t provide year-over-year numbers and don’t say whether the month-to-month numbers are seasonally adjusted. The numbers as given are essentially meaningless without that information.

Can anyone find me the real statistics?

Three Israel-Palestine issues and questions:

1. Guardian

The UN is to halt food handouts for up to 800,000 Palestinians from tomorrow because of a severe fuel shortage in Gaza brought on by an Israeli economic blockade.

John Ging, the director of operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees, said there had been a "totally inadequate" supply of fuel from Israel to Gaza for 10 months until it was finally halted two weeks ago. "The devastating humanitarian impact is entirely predictable," he said.

and LAT

The United States, France and Britain walked out of a Security Council debate on the Middle East on Wednesday after Libya compared the situation in the Gaza Strip to that of Nazi "concentration camps," diplomats said.

How is starving in Auschwitz different from starving in Gaza?

2. Washington Note

In a closed congressional session tomorrow, Israeli intelligence officers will provide Members of Congress with details regarding Israel’s air raid last September on an alleged nuclear installation Syria was constructing with North Korean assistance. However, there is no solid evidence to date that Syria was actually building a nuclear facility, according to highly-placed U.S. intelligence officials.

When was the CIA replaced by Mossad?

3. WaPo

A letter that President Bush personally delivered to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon four years ago has emerged as a significant obstacle to the president’s efforts to forge a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians during his last year in office.

Cont. reading: Three I-P Issues and Questions

Don’t blame me – they say so – I only added the names and corrected the headline  …

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – International organized crime groups control "significant positions" in global energy and strategic materials and are expanding holdings in the U.S. materials sector, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.

A strategy on fighting organized crime released by the department also says such groups manipulate securities exchanges and conduct financial fraud to steal billions of dollars. It says they systematically corrupt public officials, use computer networks to target victims, and provide logistical support to terrorists and foreign intelligence services.

"The activities of transnational and national organized criminal enterprises [Exxon  Mobile, Halliburton, BP, Shell, Chevron, Maraton, Mobile, Imperial Oil Limited, Barrick, Billiton etc] are increasing in scope and magnitude as these groups continue to strengthen their networking with each other to expand their operations," said FBI Deputy Director John S. Pistole.
Organized crime penetrates energy sector: U.S.

The current official Information Operation campaign on Iraq tells us that Maliki and the Iraqi army are fighting criminals in Basra, Sadr city and elsewhere.

A TIME piece gives some doubts:

[A]t least one American soldier said he was angry that the role of Iraqi troops was exaggerated after the battle. "A gunfight broke out and we were fighting [the Mahdi Army] for about four hours," the soldier told TIME. "The army article made it sound like we were just there supporting the Iraqi Army, but we did all the work. We just had four humvees out there with some Iraqi [troops]."

The BBC adds:

US and UK special forces are carrying out operations in Basra in southern Iraq against Shia militiamen, a Western military source has told the BBC.
…
Basra was the scene of intense fighting some three weeks ago, after Iraqi forces made an attempt to disarm militias operating in the city.

At that time, the BBC understands that 550 US troops embedded with the Iraqi army also joined in the battle.

…
There are understood to be about 150 British troops from the Royal Regiment of Scotland embedded with Iraqi units in Basra.

Some are mentoring Iraqi soldiers while others are protecting local personnel engaged in combat operations.

U.S. and British soldiers "protecting local personnel engaged in combat." Now that is a fine expression for "covering their ass." But are they really doing that? To me this sounds more like the U.S.u.k. is taking the lead in all of this:

Cont. reading: Who is fighting Sadr?

CNN: U.N.: 100,000 more dead in Darfur than reported

The number of deaths in Sudan’s Darfur region since 2006 may have been
underestimated by as much as 50 percent, the U.N.
undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said Tuesday.

AP via IHT: UN officials say Darfur conflict is worsening

The conflict in Darfur is deteriorating, with full deployment of a new peacekeeping force delayed until 2009 and no prospect of a political settlement for a war that has killed perhaps 300,000 people in five years, UN officials said.

In The News: 300,000 lives: The cost of five years in Darfur

More than 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur since fighting
broke out five years ago, the United Nations humanitarian chief has
said.

Watch for the coming shitstorm of new Janjaweed horror stories.

These headlines and reports are bullshit: Wrong numbers, wrong conclusions, wrong focus.

The number 300,000 is an estimate based on numbers from a 2005 study. The real death number is either higher, or the death rate in Darfur has dramatically improved. But even more important, these death counts are mostly natural death which have little to do with the resource conflict and are nothing extraordinary.

Here is how the new number arose:

Cont. reading: Outrage over Darfur Numbers

New low for Bush, new high for the Euro.

Bush’s disapproval rating worst of any president in 70 years
Euro Surpasses $1.60 for First Time on ECB’s Inflation Outlook

There seems to be some correlation between these numbers.

See this Bush approval graph (a better one but Flash) and this currency graph (sorry, no time to plot these together).

But what is the interaction mechanism here?

While Asia Times Online often has some readable pieces of non-mainstream news, it today disgraces itself with putting a sensational nuclear Iran piece by intelligence consultant Richard M Bennett at the top of its homepage.

The piece is false from the first letter to the last dot.

Mr Bennett starts by asserting that the recent NIE, which claimed Iran had stopped a nuclear weaponization program in 2003, is wrong:

However, in late 2007, the flawed and now largely discredited NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) report, "Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities", was published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in Washington and simply discarded years of supposedly hard intelligence.

Then Mr. Bennett sets out to "report" several bites of "news" to make believe that an Iranian weaponization program (which may well never have existed) has, as he asserts, not been stopped;

Cont. reading: Asia Times Online Needs A Better Editor