For example…BBC: Bush’s Grandfather Planned White House Coup…
Most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all. -unknown

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 13 2009 16:17 utc | 4

albeit that link poops on the idea, perhaps, one can think for themselves?
spacifically…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 13 2009 16:28 utc | 6

Cheryl, check your link…
Chris floyd: The Plot to Sieze the White House by Jules Archer
Now for those whom don’t have any history w/me and my postings, I’m not saying buy all this, I’m saying think, meta narrative, critically, and compare and contrast history then and now, and don’t get caught up in names and labels etc…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 13 2009 17:07 utc | 8

Thank Goddess you are here, Uncle $cam. You keep me sane, if you can believe that.
Chomsky spent half a lifetime documenting why governments never choose economic programs which make sense and work, but only choose boondoggles. Short answer for those activists who don’t have time to actually read Chomsky: because they are non-redistributive and serve to keep the population in check.
For a deeper look down the rabbit hole of Keynesian urban design as control mechanism, “THE RIGHT TO THE CITY” by David Harvey, is highly recommended.

Posted by: Malooga | Jan 13 2009 17:41 utc | 10

The basic message from the village and DC politicians is that things will get better. When analog TV is turned off, tens of millions will no longer hear their communications. The only question is when it will sink it that life is worse.
American workers are in a competition with Chinese for wages. The economy cannot get better until workers are paid a developed world wage. Tax cuts only aid the flow of money into offshore bank accounts. Every penny in stimulus has to go for jobs until the government stops to avoid default.
Afghanistan will be at war as long as it is occupied. Pakistan will be tumble into anarchy as long as it is bombed by outsiders and its government does nothing to stop it.
20th century history from the Great Depression to Vietnam has brightly illuminated America’s future. But, each generation has to learn things all over again. January 20th will usher in new younger leaders but it is looking like they won’t be able to stop the water rushing into the Titanic.

Posted by: VietnamVet | Jan 13 2009 18:22 utc | 12

a couple articles on the united states’ favorite east african dictatorship, both from january 12th
ETHIOPIA: Political Space Narrowing

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 12 (IPS) – Bertukan Mideksa has a reputation in Ethiopia as a competent politician, but voters will not be able to cast ballots for her in the next national election. The revocation of her 2007 pardon has sent a chill through Ethiopia’s opposition parties.
After the 2005 elections, opposition protests against irregularities in the polls were followed by violent clashes in the streets. More than 100 opposition leaders were arrested. Mideksa was charged with treason, outrage against the constitution, inciting armed rebellion and more.
She spent two years in jail before being convicted and sentenced to life in prison in July 2007 along with 34 others. They were immediately pardoned by President Girma W. Giorgis; the government announced that they had requested a pardon and expressed remorse for their wrongdoings.
But while on tour in Europe in November 2008, Mideksa denied making a request for state pardon for the post-election violence. And on her return to Ethiopia, she told Unity for Democracy and Justice party adherents that her release from jail was the result of political negotiations, not government sympathy.
The Ethiopian government responded furiously with an ultimatum demanding that she categorically retract her claims within three days or face revocation of the pardon.
…
Her re-arrest has caused great indignation among opposition politicians who have condemned the act as part of a familiar pre-election strategy by the ruling party to intimidate its opponents ahead of elections scheduled for May 2010.
Mideksa is not the only opposition politician to be thrown in jail of late. On Oct. 30, the federal police commission arrested Bekele Jirata, the secretary general of another opposition party, the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement. He is accused of having a clandestine links to the rebel group Oromo Libration Front (OLF).
Opposition politicians are worried that the signal sent by these arrests will reinforce those who think peaceful political change in Ethiopia is not viable.
After their release in 2007, Mideksa and Dr. Berhanu Nega, at the time mayor-elect of Addis Ababa, debated this question. Nega came out of prison believing that armed struggle is the only way to attain political power in Ethiopia. Mideksa resisted the idea vehemently. Nega is now in the United States heading Ginbot 7, a new political party.
In an opinion piece published in the largest Amharic weekly Addis Neger, in reaction to the government’s ultimatum, it was argued that the government’s actions would make Nega feel vindicated.
“The government is totally reducing us to nothing,” says Professor Beyene Petros, opposition MP and chairman of the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces. “The ruling party that first assumed power with a coup is indirectly telling the opposition to follow suit; that gaining power through the ballot box is impossible.”
The veteran politician sees a country sliding backwards in terms of creating a competitive political landscape. “The door that was half opened in the 2005 election is now fully closed,” he said.

meanwhile,
u.s. embassy in addis ababa: Launch of American Chamber of Commerce in Ethiopia Heralds New Era in Trade Cooperation

anuary 12, 2009 (Addis Ababa) –Minister of Trade and Industry Girma Birru and U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Yamamoto today joined the board of the newly established American Chamber of Commerce in Ethiopia for the organization’s official launch. The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Ethiopia aims to promote economic development by strengthening Ethiopian-American business partnerships and trade and investment between the two countries.
…
U.S. Ambassador Donald Yamamoto praised the newly formed organization, saying, “The establishment of an American Chamber will create a new paradigm for how we do business in Ethiopia. This is a milestone in our two countries’ partnership, and it shows our commitment to a more prosperous tomorrow for all Ethiopian citizens.”

also see the indian ocean newsletter brief Ethiopia: Dignitaries active in business (requires no-charge registration)

Now that the EPRDF has been in power for almost two decades, its leaders have had time to accumulate wealth. We make a roundup – by no means exhaustive – of their activity.

Posted by: b real | Jan 13 2009 19:57 utc | 14

How bout’ this?
The U.S. government declares a moratorium on all mortgage payments for one year. It would be a voluntary program whereby any holder of a (single lived in house) mortgage can elect to not make their payments for up to a year. For every monthly payment missed, that monthly payment would be tacked back on the back end of the overall payment schedule, as in a “reverse mortgage”. This way the obligation would not be eliminated but simply deferred until a later date. The program would be easy , cheap, and quick to administer. It would act to support relative real estate values. It would STOP most home foreclosures. It would free up the massive amount of money that would normally be paid to the banks, and inject it into the actual productive economy. It would allow people the time and resources to re-adjust to new economic realities, reinvest in education, re-location, and general refurbishment of sinking assets – they might even buy a new car. Or, they could continue paying their mortgage as usual, under much better circumstances.

Posted by: anna missed | Jan 13 2009 20:02 utc | 16

scum surfacing & sucking one/anotherh

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jan 13 2009 22:56 utc | 18

The Place Where Industry, Military & Government Converge

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 13 2009 23:28 utc | 20

(NPR) Nation Propagenda Radio: [hawk] Transcript Of Clinton’s Confirmation Hearing
In these prepared remarks to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her testimony as Secretary of State-designate, Sen. Hillary Clinton said America must use “smart power” — which includes diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural tools.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 13 2009 23:51 utc | 22

so subtle, yet so definitive – this small passage in italics at the end of a NYT article about Al-Jazeera today:
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 13, 2009
An article on Monday about Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Gaza conflict misidentified the streaming service that the television network uses to put its content online. It is Livestation, not LiveStream.
touche

Posted by: bea | Jan 14 2009 1:20 utc | 24

Further mining of the link to the series The Place Where Industry The Military And Government Converge

Despite the Fed’s action, reconstituted M3 estimates can now be found on the internet which tell an intriguing, if somewhat frightening, tale. What these charts show is that somewhere around mid-2005 the growth of the M1 money supply began to trend significantly downward to zero and below while the growth of the M3 money supply began to trend dramatically upward, increasing some 12% in a little over three years. [John Williams’ Shadow Government Statistics: Alternate Data Series]
Because the only difference between the M1 + M2 measurement and the M3 measurement is the addition of huge institutional funds it is clear that these funds are where nearly all the new money was being created — and it was being done primarily through the highly leveraged, non-transparent, risk-laden, “off-balance sheet” derivatives market. This market of course is the exclusive playground of heavy rollers who have the where-with-all to deal with large institutional funds not to mention incredible risk.
In other words, a new “off-balance sheet” highly leveraged and highly privileged money creation system — a shadow banking system if you will — has in effect been operating through the derivatives markets. Until recently and without question, this new system of money/debt creation has been on steroids, as reflected in M3 growth.
But what goes up must come down, and that means that tax-payers will increasingly be put on the hook for “capital building” otherwise known as taxpayer debt — which helps to increase M1 figures. This is born out by data provided at John William’s Shadow Stats website for the relevant months of 2008 showing an up-tick in M1 as “liquidity” was being pumped into the system through taxpayer funded bailouts — and a corresponding down tick occurring in M3, as the “off balance sheet” money supply began to implode.
Interestingly, the most recent M1 data posted at Shadow Stats shows a decisive down-tick in M1. Could the reason for this be due to the Fed’s aggressive use of its reserves to inject liquidity into the global market place as well as here at home? If so, the decline in reserves may be at least part of the reason why taxpayers were required to immediately fund a $700 billion Wall Street bailout, since the corresponding government debt would increase reserves. No matter, because as one analyst remarked, “Net net, all these liquidity injections are merely moderating the collapsing credit facilities, and not actually injecting much in the way of credit into the economy.”5
Despite the current and substantial contraction taking place in the M3 money supply, the fact is that over the long term — and especially since the 1980’s — the U.S. money supply has increased dramatically, going from less than $2 trillion in 1980 to an estimated $14 trillion in 2008. Significantly, in 1980 total public and private debt totaled roughly $5 trillion, with about $1 trillion of that representing public debt. Today public and private debt totals roughly $50 trillion, with over $10 trillion of that representing public debt.
[note: above shows that money supply increased by 7 times since 1980, but debt increased by 10 times.]
What these figures clearly show is that total debt has been outstripping the money supply for many decades due to the cumulative effects of unpayable interest. This fact alone makes it ever more difficult to deny — among all but the most hardened apologists — that the entire money creation system is, as Dick Distelhorst of the American Monetary Institute wrote in a recent newsletter, “an oxymoron — ‘the more money we have, the deeper in debt we are.’ This is ridiculous on its face, and yet we continue to accept it.”
Tragically, our collective, continued acceptance of the current money creation system means that we will be forced to participate in what may well be the most massive upward transfer of wealth in history, even as we face the potential of an almost limitless, globally connected daisy chain of meltdowns, for which governments will increasingly be looking to taxpayers for the funds needed just to keep their economies going.

Posted by: jonku | Jan 14 2009 3:00 utc | 26

This is a mean rant. Not much new in it, probably not even any truth, just my crazy views on life at the moment. I had to spew this somewhere–try not to get any on you and remember to flush when finished.
The news has me in a funk.
Listening to Democracy Now! Driving home from a buddy’s house and hearing pro-israel supporters at a rally talking about killing Palestinians and sounding exactly like rednecks, but with funny, whiny accents. They were vomiting hate and shitting-out horror fantasies of what needed to be done to Gaza. After about three minutes of their racist anger, the program switched to a group of jewish folks condeming israel’s actions, and voicing their support for the Gazaans.
This group, by design or luck sounded like scholars compared to the hate mongers, when discussing the plight of Gaza and the horrors caused by the IDF. The contrast between how both groups sounded when talking got me thinking, and then I started to feel even worse as I realized I was hearing the voice of typical political thuggery from one group and the voice of the soon-to-be disappeared intellectuals out of the other.
I felt a darker sadness wash over me as I thought about what is about to happen in the world… And I’d suggest you find extra copies of the books you care about, and hide them someplace very, very safe.
History is the same tired, three-act play preformed over and over. The script doesn’t change; the leading actors spend most of their time lying and seeing who can bugger the most extras before the curtains close. Think Caligula, the movie, and the moment his lard-covered fist…Which shows how things have gotten worse, as they don’t even bother with the lard these days.
I’ve read too many books, too much about history to see any quiet future left for me. Instead I see but a bunch of those “interesting times” the Chinese like to curse others to enjoy.
I think reading Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Fitzgerald’s, A Diamond as Big as the Ritz would show you some of the possible futures we might experience. But there is also part of me that could be convinced of a future earth as seen though the eyes of Douglas Adams
I feel like I’m viewing the past through a stained-glass window; the exact same scene, but a different color and shade, depending upon which pane you choose to look through. Looking out my magical multicolored window at the Obama moment and I can see many different possibilities through the slices of tinted glass.
I have the most unpleasant feeling come over me while thinking about what the next months of Obama’s administration are likely to bring. The sensation is similar to food poisoning in that I don’t know if I want to puke, shit or both.
It isn’t that Obama himself makes me sick. He is just another in a long list of actors who play their part with enthusiasm and gusto on the public stage. He’s done a damn fine job of saying his lines and making his audience believe he is the second coming of both dead Kennedys, and the Black Jesus, all rolled-up into one.
America’s Summer-of-Love-Woodstock-hippies let Nixon walk and ended up voting Reagan into office after tiring of the touchy-feely former nuclear submarine commander called Carter.
They did this while snorting coke in urban hot tubs and proclaiming that, “Greed was good!” which they have continued to shout loudly for 29 years, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
The Baby Boomers, which are a mighty generation of massive, mindless, television worshiping degenerates who have, though laziness and ignorance, squandered the country their parents and grandparents saved pennies to buy–while fighting two terrible world wars to protect (well, at least this is what they thought they were fighting for.)
Voting Obama into office is a wishful, wistful way the spoiled generation of Boomers is hoping to prove they didn’t really sell-out and the “justice” they fought for was finally realized. This, they think, will be their legacy when like Bush’s, it’s just more of the same old crap, repackaged all nice and touchy-feely.
“Oooh, we’s finally gots us one of them colored fellows elected president, damn ain’t we progressive?”
Obama will do to and for the average black dude, what the typical white politician does, and that’s screw him. Just like what happens to the average white dude and average Hispanic dude, ect. I just wonder how hard a screwing the middle class will take before they wake-up and realize their poopers hurt even worse than before.
The reason for their rectal pain is easy to understand, what will happen because of it is another thing.
I’d venture to guess the voting-block that brought Obama to the white house will refuse to see the obvious, like the emperor who’d heavily invested in a new set of clothes. This combined with their increased chance of age-related dementia, prescription drug use and general grumpiness will give the State an endless army of rats, informers and willing prison guards who all vote Democrat, so they can’t be evil? Can they?
I don’t want to believe that a society that can give us Dunkin’ Donuts, the Internet and Madonna is but inches away from stepping right back into some backwoods bullshit past. But from where I sit it looks like it wouldn’t take a very big, or very slippery, banana peel to cause us to slip right back into some feudal freak show with thumb screws and hot irons.
Them good old Inquisition dayz are here again, Dawg.

Posted by: David | Jan 14 2009 5:07 utc | 28

David @28: The Baby Boomers, which are a mighty generation of massive, mindless, television worshiping degenerates who have, though laziness and ignorance, squandered the country their parents and grandparents saved pennies to buy–while fighting two terrible world wars to protect (well, at least this is what they thought they were fighting for.)
maybe a little mean, but i have launched similar diatribes against Boomer’s cultural signature: a hedonistic “me-ness” that was all too easy to co-opt, providing enticing justifications for their subsequent complicity in looking the other way as the gloves slowly came off to expose a giant corporate fist sizing up the elasticity of our rectums.
and i think it’s important to consider the impact of their approaching/already here mass retirement, and how difficult it will be for such a prolific, self-absorbed generation (many who have very old parents if they’re still breathing, and kids returning home in droves, sunk by college debt with job prospects drying up) to mentally adjust to whatever path we choose to go down.
*
i started a weekly writing group as part of a larger curriculum i’m helping develop at this new drop-in center for homeless folks (who can’t stay sober enough to stay at our main shelter), and the center opened just in time for a brutal cold snap. doing what i can for them makes me feel a little less guilty about the horrible things i support through citizenship and submission to taxation.
i still believe the words we say can have actual, powerful effects. the words from our leaders are sugar-coated cyanide pills, sure, but when words form songs and lines of verse and fiction that tears our heart out, the effect can be transformative.
here you can find my attempts. there are still some kinks, but what the hell.
and though it’s been derided here by some, i use the “k” instead of the “c” when spelling the name of my country, partly because i believe the decision makers who have run this show always had certain beneficiaries in mind, and the others have always been expendable to them.

Posted by: Lizard | Jan 14 2009 7:06 utc | 30

Lizard,
Thanks, and regarding the mass retirement of the boomers, I think the current financial mess is going to help cover the asses of companies that have massive lingering commitments with up-coming retirements. My gut feeling is the way most american’s retirement was structured between the 1960’s and the 1980’s,they were designed so the companies could loot these funds with different speculative schemes that were supposedly to benefit the workers. Also, the current financial debacle will be an excuse to basically stop payment on many retirees. Not a pleasant thought, but probably some truth in it.
I’m pulling my hair out trying to find some type of foundation to plant my psyche upon as everyday brings with it news of some medieval horror which has survived into the new millennium. The world has become so crazy, so fast, it is like there is some sort of global “shock and awe” campaign being waged against everyone, everywhere, regardless of all the usual labels WE humans use to separate ourselves from THOSE humans.
I wish I had access to the HAL2000…I betcha if we could plug every major event, and every major player into a super-computer, have it crunch all these seemingly separate events and see what patterns it could discover–the results might surprise us.
It’s good there are still some places willing to help the hopeless homeless. I become very conflicted when I see the multi-million dollar second, third or what-ever homes of the wealthy, that often remain empty for months at a time, some houses might only be occupied for two weeks every other year. The rest of the time they remain vacant with their lights on, heaters set to 70 degrees and the driveway melting any falling snow before it becomes ice. Growing up poor, I can understand why a person might want and feel justified owning such a space, but when tonight there will be people in america that freeze to death because they don’t have any place to go, it becomes impossible for me to consider such a waste of space and resources anything more than pathetic, sad and aggravating.
And the politicians in our country have the audacity to criticize the conditions of other country’s citizens? Rrrrrr!
“So I’ll meet you at the bottom if there really is one
They always told me when you hit it you’ll know it
But I’ve been falling so long it’s like gravity’s gone and I’m just floating” The Drive-By Truckers, Gavity’s Gone

Posted by: David | Jan 14 2009 8:39 utc | 32

Thanks for celebrating the life of new york which I think must still continue, except probably not on 42nd street anymore.
Brooklyn has its life last time I was there, even though the soulless are still trying their best.
Lighthouse Cafe on 3rd Ave. at 75th Street is still full of the smell of fried eggs and coffee as must be every other breakfast joint and deli. If I could only walk into a deli and ask for a tuna and cheddar cheese sandwich on whole wheat, with mustard and mayo on whole wheat (my own recipe!) and then a regular coffee at the register, total elapsed time about two minutes, before lighting a smoke for the short walk back to work … then I could show you what the benefits of urban living are.
Instead I don’t smoke any more (yay!) and I make my own sandwiches to have with my herbal tea.
The story of the city is also the story of energy efficiency and social support, not to mention happening on a gallery opening or wedding celebration, or just a bodega selling cervezas on your way home.

Posted by: jonku | Jan 14 2009 8:57 utc | 34

Such good writing! Too bad I am written out for the night.
Good to see you around, jonku.
If #27 is true, which I know it to be, then #26 explains my assertion yesterday of how commodities markets are being manipulated.
And I do get angry when people refuse to believe that what we are seeing is in the words of U$, “Clinical, methodical and systemic.”
If you refuse to see and act on that information, and you continually make excuses for our rulers calling them “incompetent,” then no matter how you view yourself, there is no difference in your effect upon the system and others, than the worst sort of reactionary.

Posted by: Malooga | Jan 14 2009 10:00 utc | 36

Brief, hard-hitting dose of realism is provided below by Alastair Crooke, former Mid-East negotiator:
The War in Gaza: A view from the Arab street
The culture of resistance in the Arab world has become more uncompromising and more anti-European as a result of the attacks on Gaza and the round of international diplomacy that has followed it. Israel and its supporters have already suffered a major strategic defeat.
By Alastair Crooke, former EU mediator with Hamas
(The article is part of a RUSI.org forum containing different perspectives on the crisis in Gaza and the Middle East)
The round of international diplomacy that has just concluded has left this part of the Arab world incredulous, extremely angry and polarised. The demonstrations in Syria this weekend were marked by use of extreme slogans seldom heard in public, and images of Osama bin Laden were paraded at protests in Jordan. The feel is of strategic tremors that hint at some fundamental shifting of the plates of Muslim opinion.
The searing images emerging from Gaza have long since undergone a subconscious transfiguration: from originally being about Hamas they have metamorphosed into an archetypal image of Israel attacking the Gazan people, the Palestinian people and Islam. Happening as they did during Ashura, the Shia commemoration of the martyrdom of Hussein – providing the backdrop to the speeches by the Secretary General of Hezbollah Sayed Hassan Nasrallah that have gripped the region – the attacks have Islamiised political discourse and given events in Gaza the aura of Hussein’s sacrifice in the face of injustice.
The conviction of injustice has drawn added passion from a UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution that would allow Israel to keep its troops in position in Gaza after ceasefire, whilst postponing any resolution – until some later and indeterminate dialogue – of the opening of the crossings into Gaza. This was the very issue that was the cause of the earlier ceasefire to collapse.
The prime aim of the UNSC Resolution was to exclude Hamas as a main party to any political process – other than to be deemed in breach of the Resolution – were the smuggling across the Egyptian border through the tunnels to persist. The Resolution simply ignores the need to lift the siege of Gaza, and to secure a normalisation of the life of Gazans, as the key to a solution.
The real anger, however, has been reserved for the proposals advanced by the Egyptians and conveyed to Hamas during bilateral meetings in recent days. It has been plain that this initiative, encouraged by European leaders and the US, is intended to bypass the now solidly united Gazan movements by bringing back the West’s favoured Palestinian interlocutor Mahmoud Abbas, whose term in office as President expired on 9 January, as the authority in Gaza.
The Egyptians also proposed to Hamas the indefinite postponement of elections and internal Palestinian reconciliation, while demanding that Abbas be authorised to negotiate an agreement with Israel free from Palestinian political scrutiny or constraint. The Egyptians propose that only when all is complete – the resistance ended, the Rafa’a crossing and Gaza returned to Abbas’ control, and Abbas’ negotiations with Israel concluded – would the possibility of elections (under Abbas’ control) become possible.
This represents yet another attempted coup against the movement that overwhelmingly won the 2006 parliamentary elections. Unsurprisingly, it was rejected categorically in a speech by the Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau Khaled Mesha’al on Saturday, and has been rejected, similarly, by all the movements in Gaza. It seems that a fresh crisis has been ushered in by the European and American desire to land a blow on the so-called ‘arc of extremism’. The price will be paid by the Gazans.
The aim is clear enough: Israel and the West intend to damage Hamas so severely that it will send a message to Hezbollah, which will in turn chasten Syria and ultimately weaken Iran. This, the proponents of the new ‘Great Game’ such as Tony Blair hope, will strengthen the moderates and secure Israel.
From the evidence to date, it will do neither. Whatever the outcome with Hamas in Gaza – and the outcome there is by no means assured because at the time of writing the military formations of Hamas and the resistance have not been significantly degraded – the culture of resistance in the region has solidified and become more uncompromising and anti-European.
Palestinian unity has fallen pawn to a bigger game of tilting the regional balance of strength towards the so-called forces of ‘moderation’. But even were this to succeed in this particular phase of the struggle in Gaza, its proponents do not seem to grasp that Gaza and the Palestinian conflict has become the iconic image for Muslims of the struggle between the West and the Muslim world – for which the western ‘Great Game’ of moderates versus ‘extremists’ is no more than a cynical ideological device.
When it does end, Israeli and American experts will point to the benchmarks of claimed success: militants killed, tunnels destroyed, homes levelled. But the fact of their strategic defeat will be lost within this torrent of pseudo-empiricism.. Archetypal images in this region are more powerful than benchmarks: Gaza has become the Sunnis’ ‘Kerbala’ (the battle at which Hussein was killed) and Hamas the new Hezbollah. This round has already been won.

Posted by: Parviz | Jan 14 2009 14:24 utc | 38

Lizard,
I just flew over to your page-sweet sadnesses and soulful symbolism. Good stuff, thanks for sharing.

Posted by: David | Jan 14 2009 15:36 utc | 40

Talking on the phone to a friend and I realized how damn appropriate the name Gaza is for the area of Palestine being attacked. The way the israelis are going, every citizen in Gaza will be soon wrapped in gauze…
Malooga@41
And according the awful people I heard being interviewed at a pro-israel rally, those babies are just terrorist seeds and should be killed before they can sprout. Sick, sick, sick. And our sanctimonious politicians just sit by nodding their heads together in agreement like a pack of Bobble-headed dolls riding in the back seat of an israel tank. Each time its weapon is fired the pack of heads heads nodding even more vigorously up and down in agreement.

Posted by: David | Jan 14 2009 16:28 utc | 42

Round for the house in honor of MOA’s poet laureate, Lizard. I’ve taken the opportunity to blog about his sublime and seminal work at my place: here.
I’m so honored to be among some of the best thinkers, poets, writers, artists and muckrakers in the blogshpere, from beq, to anna missed to the untold extraordinary commenter’s and essayist’s, b you have a national treasure museum and a fine fine bar here…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 14 2009 17:09 utc | 44

b you have a national treasure museum and a fine fine bar here…

Indeed. MoA’s OT-threads are pure goldmines, this one being another leading exemplar. Even tho I’ve been quietly frequenting this bar for years, the depth and width of b’s forum still astounds me. Much appreciated.

If you refuse to see and act on that information, and you continually make excuses for our rulers calling them “incompetent,” then no matter how you view yourself, there is no difference in your effect upon the system and others, than the worst sort of reactionary.

Malooga, as always you’re putting the finger right on the wound. The apathy amongst people, the more or less silent consent, given year in year out by the ever chewing sheep in the paddock, is one of the main reasons for the dilemma mankind finds itself in today. Following our ancestors footsteps, repeating the behavior patterns which for millenniums now have allowed the balance of power to hang crooked, war and murder to go unpunished, if not rewarded. It almost seems as if it is a fundamentally human condition to walk through life with eyes wide shut.
I recently came across this profound piece of writing which I feel somehow expresses my thoughts on this existential problem much more elegantly than I ever could:
_____________________________________
Everybody knows things are bad in the world. Everything is not peachy. The problems are innumerable, the economy, our freedoms, our happiness, our quality of life, we are suffering in all aspects of life and though we hope for a better future we feel as though the things which are outside of our control will only get worse. The situation we are in is overwhelming, we feel like there is something we can do but we don’t know what to do! Whenever anyone is faced with this overwhelming situation, the question always becomes “what do we do about it?”
Do we run out on the streets? Do we protest and go on strike? People do not really know what to do, they just do nothing or else they go and look for an out to it all. They join some political party or they become religious or they start drinking or taking drugs. They try to make money or work their way out of it, or they try to pleasure their way out of it with food or sex.
There are many different paths people can take, but what they all have in common is this: Avoidance.
When a person says “what do we do about it” they are looking for an out. They want a savior to come and save them from it all, or they want to find some distant world where they escape it all. This is totally normal and perfectly reasonable. There is nothing wrong with people for feeling this way, I am as guilty of it as anyone else and I am not above it.
The problem we are in is not one of our making. Once again: the problem we are in is not one of our making. History is filled with butchery and murder, tyranny and theocratic oppression is the norm. We’ve all been born into a nightmare and we’re just now waking up to how terrifying and all encompassing it all is. We are searching for outs but there are none, we are hoping to one day wake up and find it was all a bad dream. This is why it’s not uncommon to hear the question “what do we do about it?”
There are endless people who say they have found the outs.
“It’s the economic system!” they say,
“It’s the government!” they say,
“It’s the religions!” they say.
None of these things are at the root of the problem. How do I know this? Because none of these things are actually real. History has been dominated by these three systems but what do they all have in common… ?
They are all faith-based belief systems.
Economics is not actually a science, the entire system is based on faith. If no one believed the money they or anyone else had was worth anything, it would not be worth anything. Are you starting to get the picture? It’s a belief system, it’s based on faith and nothing more. Many people realize this, what most do not realize is that “government” is the same thing. There is no such thing as a “government.” Government is an idea, to quote GHWB on the New World Order, “It is a big idea.” People think that the government is something real, they see the huge buildings and pillars and statues and they feel like it is a separate entity unto itself which rules over things. This is an illusion. And this is where we start to get to the root of the problem.
Let me introduce you to a word which is in almost no ones vocabulary. The word is hypostatized. As I type it right now my Firefox spell check says it’s not a word.
hypostatized
hy⋅pos⋅ta⋅tize
–verb (used with object), -tized, -tiz⋅ing.
to treat or regard (a concept, idea, etc.) as a distinct substance or reality.
Also, especially British, hy⋅pos⋅ta⋅tise.
Origin: 1820–30; < Gk hypostat(ós) (see hypostatic ) + -ize This word describes the exact problem which is at the root of all other problems people believe they suffer from. We live in a faith based system, we live in a belief system, we think it is real and a distinct substance but it is not, we are only regarding it as such. Just as the power of money would cease to exist if people did not believe in it, the power of government would cease to exist if no one believed in it. And I say that knowing what I'm talking about is a nonexistent entity which does not exist outside of peoples minds. You see, when you understand this the problem is not what do we do about it, the problem is why have people ceased for thousands of years to realize this extremely basic fact of life? Why do people believe this nonsense and let it run their lives? Because at the root of everything is the most basic human condition and the most basic and all pervasive of human problems, the avoidance of the obvious. Everybody knows what is wrong with the world and themselves, the problems are not complex, but people avoid the basic solutions which are staring them right in the face. They do not want to face up to the truth, they do not want the responsibility which it implies, they are afraid of life and of actually living. This is the real problem with the world, it's blatant and it's staring you in the face. When you look at a puppy or a child they are free, they don't recognize the false belief systems and fake systems of control which we "civilized" adults all believe are basic and real, all they recognize is life, their feelings, their soul, their spirit, these things are the essence of life. People believe themselves to be their beliefs, they say things like "I'm a Christian," "I'm a Democrat," "I'm a Philosopher," "I'm a Salesman," No. That is what you believe yourself to be. What you really are is your spirit, you are your mind, your soul, you are your feelings, you are your yearnings and your hopes and dreams. You are the spirit you had in you as a child and the spirit that is in a gallant puppy dog at the park. You've been tricked into hypostatizing so many beliefs to the point where you actually think that they are what you are. I am here to tell you that you are not your beliefs, you need to wake up to this, this is the only thing keeping you from being truly free… __________________________ Truly free, huh? At that point I think the piece drifts slightly into the metaphysical and therefore imho also slightly out of context. I mean, "Freedom", try to define it. For me freedom has always been more a question of time than of location, being able to leave when I want overrides the freedom to go where I want. Anyway, as important as philosophical discourse is, it's besides the point, very little relevance to the actual suffering I set out to address. Mankind was doomed the moment the first time a man rammed a stake into the ground proclaiming it to be his now, and everybody else believed him. With land comes wealth and power, peasants who'd pay taxes. Taxes buy warriors, which rob more land. From AD to BC, right up to today, Iraq, Palestine, the story hasn't changed. The actors have, the fashion of clothes has, but the script has been the same, it appears forever. Collectively we need to wake up to the comforting fact that without us, the worker bees, the obscenely wealthy parasites in their security patrolled uptown residences would not be able to exist. As a species, we need to discover a sense of responsibility, stop blaming others, and start to actively contribute to the revolution that is needed to bring back equal rights.

And our sanctimonious politicians just sit by nodding their heads together in agreement like a pack of Bobble-headed dolls riding in the back seat of an israel tank.

That is right, but lets not forget that we knew that Israel would attack again, we knew that the politicians we voted in would be sitting there with their nodding heads agreeing to the mayhem. And yet we voted for them. Which by my deduction means we are at fault. I repeat, we are at fault. Why? Because we have the power to change things but don’t use it.
Our complacent and spineless governments exist because we put them there in the first place, don’t do jack shit about their shocking performances, re-elect them even, letting one generation of war criminals after another walk scot-free. Sad but true, the blame lies with us, for believing in and thus enabling our heartless system. The public discourse is impregnated with petty issues, leading upfront the most trivial issue, even well before what type of cocktail Paris Hilton had three weeks ago, the Democrat v. Republican charade. Almost the entire civic bandwidth is taken up by us discussing the minuscule differences between two parties, fully falling for the sham. Instead we could be thinking, discussing, formulating alternative forms of government and wealth distribution, much to the despair of our incestuous elites.
Public opinion is the elephant in the room. In order to sway it, we need to do the job the MSM is not doing, conveying the awful truth. In order to get the population’s attention, and Obama can confirm this, any revolutionary movement would need a lotta cash. To gain the citizenry’s attention, for the heads to rise from the feeding trough, the messages has to be loud, and the MSM sells exactly that, volume. If we, the ones pissed off enough with the current system that we stopped believing in it, start to believe in ourselves instead, embraced our civil strength and reach, we would in no time be able to fill a war chest with all the silver needed to spread the word.
Should BO or HRC only mention the words invasion or military intervention, mass strikes across the nation need to convey the people’s message that those days are well and truly over and any further steps in that direction would mean a run on the banks and large scale civil disobedience. Maybe I am just waffling here, but I do believe that where there is a will there is a way. Where is the will?

Posted by: Juan Moment | Jan 14 2009 21:06 utc | 46

malooga
the president of the general assmebly of the un who i have been follwing seems to be a good, good man – old & pained enough not to use the baton but sufficiently sane to speak the truth – i now little about him but what i have seen impresses me
& yes salut to our greek comrades

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jan 14 2009 22:36 utc | 48

Lizard – So much to digest. For now, I’m full. But I’ll be back.
Thank you.

Posted by: beq | Jan 14 2009 23:59 utc | 50

& in the west the govts consume the catastrophe as ifthe brown blood of palestinains is chocolate

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jan 15 2009 0:20 utc | 52

Has any MOA’s been keeping up with the Connell plane crash news? The reason I ask, is I don’t see any of my usual blogs discussing this…
New information sheds more light on GOP IT guru’s tragic death
This is becoming pretty bizarre…
Snip:

Connell is also alleged to have been involved with the scrubbing of emails from White House staff which had been sent through an alternate system hosted on Republican National Committee servers.
Information “Lockdown” – Details Withheld from Fire Department
Capt. Geisner expressed considerable frustration during several Raw Story interviews over what he alleges was the withholding of critical details by authorities.
“While en route to the fire, I asked dispatch to learn the size of the plane and the number of souls on board,” Geisner explained. “This was not provided us.”
Such details allow fire department officials to determine whether additional equipment is needed and if a wider search and rescue is required. Within fifteen minutes of the crash, after officials from Akron-Canton Airport had arrived on the scene, Geisner again sought to confirm the number of passengers.
“After calls were made I was told that the ATC [Air Traffic Control] was ‘all in lockdown,’ and that they said ‘we can’t release that information,‘” Geisner said.
Todd Laps, Fire Chief of the Akron-Canton airport fire department and a liaison to the Transportation Security Administration and the Air Traffic Control, echoed Geisner’s account.
“I had some phone calls placed to see if I could get that number [of people on board]. It didn’t come in a timely enough fashion,” Laps said.
But Laps says that the words “lock down” were not used. When asked to clarify his earlier comments, Gaisner insisted that the words “lock down” had been used in reference to information.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 15 2009 2:38 utc | 54

With regards to poetry of late, and not to distract from our Lizard, at all, at all, but for myself, there is some kind of weird thing that happens between reading and listening to it spoken, not that one is any more powerful than the other, they both move me, but in different ways, however, there is something in the cadence of the sound of it, the oral tradition? that accesses a different part of my,-perhaps limbic- brain and can be euphoric in a unexplainable way.
I wanted to not like the following, at first I though, yeah yeah, some emo kid, but my body over ruled my mind and I liked it, it moved me….perhaps you will too:
Death, Decay and Windy Days

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 15 2009 3:19 utc | 56

And here is the blogg where I found the above link.
http://discussions.flightaware.com/viewtopic.php?t=7433&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=&sid=ab616af2747c94f2144d17920eaa7a9f
Mostly pilots and some raised interesting questions, but one poster did have a rather sober take on how it could have been pilot error.

Posted by: David | Jan 15 2009 3:31 utc | 58

Jesus fucking Christ…
Army routinely used unlicensed psychologists until 2006

Soldier’s suicide spotlights troops’ mental care
“WASHINGTON – In 2005, an Army captain in Iraq asked for a mental health evaluation for one of his soldiers, a private first class from North Carolina who was known to put the muzzle of his weapon in his mouth. The case was assigned to a psychologist who was unlicensed — a common practice in the early years of the war, when the Army rushed mental health counselors to the combat zone even if some weren’t certified or fully qualified.
The psychologist reported that a screening indicated the 20-year-old private, Jason Scheuerman, was “capable of claiming mental illness” to manipulate his superiors and did not have a mental disorder. Three weeks later, Scheuerman stepped into a barracks closet and shot himself to death. He had nailed a note to the closet that said, “Maybe finally I can get some peace.”
His death, the subject of an internal Army investigation exposed to The Associated Press by his family, casts light on the armed forces’ reliance on unlicensed counselors before the Army policy was changed to exclude them in 2006.
At the time of Scheuerman’s suicide, unlicensed psychologists and other counselors were allowed to examine soldiers provided they were supervised by licensed professionals. The same rules are common in civilian evaluations.
It is not clear whether the psychologist in Scheuerman’s case, Army Capt. Chris Hansen, was supervised according to those rules before he sent the soldier back to duty…”

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 15 2009 9:53 utc | 60

You know that I’m as conspiratorially minded as the next person, but I don’t understand how someone as bright as Connell would not know to secretly get his information out to others before even hinting that he was having thoughts of spilling the beans. Once stuff is out in the public domain, your life is, to some small degree, safer.

Posted by: Malooga | Jan 15 2009 10:44 utc | 62

@beq:
One of my good friends around here, a lifetime Marxist, was drafted and about to be sent to Vietnam. Among the myriad forms one has to fill out, is a benficiaries form: where will the insurance money go if you are killed in battle? Most people put down their wives or their parents. He wrote in the most radical anti-war group he knew. And it saved his life! They made sure that he was never put in a potentially harmful situation.
So we do have small ways to resist and to save our own hides.

Posted by: Malooga | Jan 15 2009 15:48 utc | 64

Here is a link to a blog about the mumbai attacks. Some great investigating with links, interesting read.
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/9390

Posted by: David | Jan 16 2009 1:02 utc | 66

Below is a link that I think is a great listen to for all in the U.S. by Gerald Celente. Probably important points there to ponder for all of us everywhere. I used a relevant quote from this interview in the Hamas Performance thread moments ago.
Link to Celente Interview

Posted by: Rick | Jan 16 2009 9:49 utc | 68

b, malooga’s ‘Everything you wanted to know about how Zionists control US policy’ link will not open for me, either the extended link, the comments link, or the links in the right hand column leading to the thread. all the other links seem to work.

Posted by: annie | Jan 16 2009 23:13 utc | 70

An idea has recently coalesced in my mind regarding the election of Obama. I’ve come to the conclusion that many of his supporters are really closet racists and probably don’t even realize it.
The reason I say this is from my experience of waking up to my own racist beliefs, which, up until the time I met Vernal, I’d never admitted to having.
Vernal was one of the group of twenty-somethings I’d hangout with to drink beers when I’d get off work serving the lunch counter at Moma’s, down on Gerry St in SF (that’s for you annie.)
Those were good times: It was ’95 and the earthquake almost forgotten, the city less than 70% occupied, rents were cheap (I lived in my van anyway, it was even cheaper) the Cannabis Club was still located in a small upstairs loft between the Lower Haight and the Castro District, but one could feel the changes coming faster and faster (during the eight months I’d lived there, the population boomed and rents went back up.)
Almost every night I’d drink beers at the studio apartment of two brothers on walkabout from Australia. The group hanging-out there most often and drinking were; a girl from Columbia; a white kid from South Africa; Vernal, the black kid most recently from Atlanta; a couple of girls from Argentina; a kid from Peru, and the random flotsam of searching humans, all having washed-up in San Francisco from Somewhere Else and had found this strange little spot to drink.
One night I’d asked Vernal where he was from and he told me that he’d lived in San Diego, Seattle, Virginia and Florida with his family, and had went to collage in Georgia, which is how he ended up in Atlanta. I made a quick assessment of the places he’d lived, his skin color, and since he’d moved so much, I took a stab and asked, “Was your dad in the military?”
He laughed and said, “I’ve been moved.”
“Huh?”
Me, having grown-up country, didn’t get the reference, but then Vernal explained that his dad had worked for, “IBM…I’ve Been Moved, get it?”
I shall never forget that moment. It was then I realized how insidious racism is, how it is part of every human to some degree, and often it isn’t even noticed. I found it ironic that this black guy had grown-up even whiter and more middle-class than I had. I grew-up somewhere between food stamps and government cheese (what an ungrateful wretch I turned-out to be) and I’d just assumed that his dad was a military guy because Vernal was educated, well spoken and well, black.
We learn, but there is still more learning for me to do, that’s for sure.
Now, after that damn, longwinded soliloquy, how does having voted for Obama make a person racist?
It is in how they chose to perceive Obama as a “black” candidate and all the labels that go along with it. Think about what everyone has assumed about Obama because he’s black. Most folks expect, and hope, that he’ll be a big change. They can’t believe Obama won’t be any different than the rest of the nincompoops we’ve elected since president Reagan, ONLY because he’s black. A black democrat has got to be better than those white republicans, right? No, he doesn’t, and will probably be the last nail in the coffin of American politics.
I feel, despite all the “static noise” during the election, Obama was selected president four-years-ago when he gave the speech that “launched” his career at the convention. One might even think of that as his first acceptance speech, everything since has been the dog and pony show.
Obama was chosen because he is black. The powers that be knew Obama would be able to use his race as an advantage against any criticism. One doesn’t want to be labeled a racist any more than anti-semitic and this fact should play well during the next four or eight years.
I didn’t vote for Obama, but regardless of that, I too hoped that he might be something different. I realize now, any hope is probably for naught.
While he was running, I thought if he won he’d invite a lot of diverse people to come join him at the table of American politics, but since the election I see most of us are again going to be dodging the diner’s boots while fighting each other for crumbs on the floor.
One of the photos I cherish more everyday is the one I shot of my voting card with the vote for Cynthia colored in, nice and black.

Posted by: David | Jan 17 2009 5:38 utc | 72

Obama: I Always Thought Bush Was a “Good Guy”
Obama minimalism? Has to be, because he has made it pretty clear he’s not stupid. And if it’s minimalism, politics as usual, pandering then where’s the ‘change’?

Says he thinks Bush made “the best decisions that he could at times under some very difficult circumstances.”

Nah, it isn’t even dishonest pandering, IT’S FUCKING LYING!
Un fucking believable…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 17 2009 10:30 utc | 74

Part Two:
In “Psychoanalysis of Culture, Ideology and History”, one finds, “the social structure and ideology of an entire nation were [/are] shaped, in great measure, by the phantasies of a single individual”. Or I suspect a group of individuals, such a million dollar think tanks.
In other word’s -as clumsily as I am trying to convey- they are playing us on a mass scale like a violin. Using every tricks at their disposal. In addition, I’m reminded, of a phenomena that takes place in communication theory, in an interactive event that happens in which our unconscious brain fills in for missing signals, for instance with music. In many 4/4 time music, and driving hypnotic beats, an exceptional perpetual pattern develops in our neuro pathway’s, this is much more evident and clear in house/techno/ trance beats that are anywhere from 90 to 100, even 120 beats per minute (bpms) this real time signal, once it has been acknowledged and anchored by our brain’s real-time processing can then be removed and our brains will continue to recreate it in our head, even though the primary beat has stopped. It’s interactive.
In other words, their is the physical action of the beat (snare, cymbal, whatever) played (outside) and once it’s physically stopped, the pattern continues for a time (inside) your head. Hence the interaction between the two separate phenomenons. Physically beat outside the senses, re-patterned inside the mind.
Finally, it’s a grown up version of the Delphi technique
They are the shamanistic DJ’s, and we dance to their tunes.
If anyone has followed me thus far, I may try to unpack this further, if there is any interest, however, for now, any thoughts or insights would be welcome.
* not to denigrate community college, I’m thinking more the fiscal expenditures here.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 17 2009 12:28 utc | 76

someone from another board asks what I consider a pertinent question:
Was the 2008 election fixed and if not, why not?

The core of my question is in the thread title, really. Like RFK Jr., Greg Palast, Mark Crispin Miller and others have convincingly argued, every major election since at least the 2000 presidential election saw all kinds of graft and fuckery, including the congressional elections. After Obama won, there hasn’t been so much as a peep about election irregularities (to my knowledge at least). Which is kind of understandable because Obama won. But still: where were the Diebold discrepancies, the odd differences between exit polling and final results? Did the elections go so smoothly this time because the field was so thoroughly vetted and weighed against the Repubs beforehand so that no blatant graft was necessary on the day itself?

And I ask, was it clinical, methodical and systemic?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 17 2009 17:09 utc | 78

Fuckery, That’s a damn fine word that I wish I’d invented!
Regarding Edward Bernays, as I’m new to his work and honestly haven’t read much deeper than Malooga’s post on him, but regardless, I already have formed one of them damn opinions and to me he reads like the Proto-manual to propaganda from which later organizations and people refined to fit their individual needs.
Since it’s the weekend and I’m feeling really really kooky, I’ll share the belief I formed when I was still trying to fit all this crazy world into a perspective I’d understand.
I came to the conclusion that earth was nothing more than a god-egg. From my understanding of eggs, once the chicken has laid one, everything the embryo needs to keep it alive is contained in the egg… at least for time.
As the embryo develops it uses-up the resources of the egg and at the same time it is polluting the tiny environment with waste. At some point before the waste becomes completely overwhelming, and the resources are completely diminished, the chicken will have to break-out of the egg to live.
And this is where I came up with the crazy earth/god-egg belief system (send $19.95+3.95 S/H for more info. Act now and I’ll include FREE! The Seven Deadly Mistakes; a book on simple ways to avoid mail fraud)
People are really nothing more than tiny cells flitting about here and there with no real rhyme or reason. Obstacles appear and cells gather at these points and begin working together to over come the obstacle. Larger and larger obstacles appear and larger and larger groups of cells become jammed there until they over come the larger object and this continues on and on. At some point there will be such a large challenge that it will take every cell working in perfect union to overcome this mother-of-all obstacles.
At this point the individual cells will have lost their own identity out of the necessity to become one with every other cell in this new creation – call it what you will – so that the whole is able to survive.
Human experience has shown we are a herd animal gathering in ever greater numbers each generation, despite challenges from Nature and our own love of killing one another off. Some how a larger group is able to survive and even flourish, regardless of the pockets of cancer eating at some cells and creating small abscesses like Gaza.
The eventual outcome of all this, is a future great challenge that requires everyone to give up themselves to save the group. Non-conformist and individualist will need not apply, if any even remain at the time of this hideous future.
The powers that be are constantly winnowing the chaff from the wheat though their policies, wars and propaganda. Unfortunately we’re the chaff because we are the ones who continue to ask why?
Eventually humans will have made such a damn fuckery of earth we won’t be able to survive unless we become this one thing rather than all us individual things. At this point we’ll be a “god” and will have to hatch or die.
And with thoughts like this it’s a good thing that I stay far, far away from politics and neo-conartist think tanks!

Posted by: David | Jan 17 2009 18:52 utc | 80

I’m very disappointed that nobody commented on the Gaza song I posted on another thread, so I’m trying it on the general thread in case the other thread was inappropriate. The song is the most heart-rending (text, rendition and video) I’ve come across:
Please distribute this message as widely as possible and contribute to the UNWRA as requested by this singer with a conscience who has distributed it free:

WE WILL NOT GO DOWN (Song for Gaza)

Posted by: Parviz | Jan 18 2009 15:29 utc | 82

Entropa

Posted by: beq | Jan 19 2009 0:47 utc | 84

and just because i am a romantic …….
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
good luck USA, may the new president be smart, wise, and compassionate. May he looks at his girls and may he sees his future grandchildren when contemplating every decision he takes. Good luck USA.
Maybe just maybe…….hope, ey?
and a big thanks to B and the community here (yes you to Slothrop), thanks for laughs, company, kinship, shared outrage, and many many hangovers. The last couple of years have been a wild ride in what can only be described as the best company ever.
Here is to the new POTUS – Cheers!!

Posted by: sabine | Jan 19 2009 5:54 utc | 86

once upon a time
there was a pet goat
and this time the link works!

Posted by: sabine | Jan 19 2009 8:29 utc | 88

beq,
hope, we all hope for something, but hope without trust is not a nothing, and will quickly turn into ugly despair.
I think about an essay written about a year or two ago, in which the author posits that first one has to abandon hope, than they can force change. Unfortunately i am really useless with names/titles (they just never seem to stick) otherwise i would go link hunting). but i did agree with the writers, as long as we hope things change without our doing, nothing will change. It is us that forces change, usually after we have lost everything that was dear to us.
Potus Obama needs no hope, he seems to have enough, he needs to gain trust. We will see.

Posted by: sabine | Jan 19 2009 18:48 utc | 90

O, and here’s a cynical use of hope that i pointed out in another thread the other night, from the CSIS Commission on Smart Power in 2007 november:

America’s image and influence are in decline around the world. To maintain a leading role in global affairs, the United States must move from eliciting fear and anger to inspiring optimism and hope.

O boy

Posted by: b real | Jan 19 2009 19:14 utc | 92

John Robb discusses ‘open source’ warfare and Israel’s latest tact of hiring an “army” of bloggers to harass blogs and websites.

Halfon said volunteers who send the Absorption Ministry their contact details by e-mail, at media@moia.gov.il, will be registered according to language, and then passed on to the Foreign Ministry’s media department, whose personnel will direct the volunteers to Web sites deemed “problematic.”

Anyone here know the Hebrew word for “problematic?”

Posted by: Jeremiah | Jan 19 2009 20:18 utc | 94

A comprehensive framework, Hannah K. O’Luthon, though not without its quandaries.
One little example might serve as a part for the whole: I have a friend, an MD/PhD, who’s been doing some very promising research on the genetic (DNA) transmission of prostate cancer. Hers is a thoroughly vetted project, conducted under the auspices of the most exacting institutions in the field, and yet her only available long-term funding, to my astonishment, comes from the DOD. The NIH, for whatever reason, has declined to participate. If she loses that DOD funding, her project will have to close down. This is irrational; it’s also a fact, a given, historically speaking.

Posted by: alabama | Jan 20 2009 11:04 utc | 96

@Parviz – MoonofA_at_aol_dot_com

Posted by: b | Jan 20 2009 14:09 utc | 98

Sabine and b real:
Thank you so much for looking for/supplying the Beyond Hope link. I’ve also been looking for that article this month.

Posted by: catlady | Jan 20 2009 16:45 utc | 100