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April 23, 2009
Links April 23 09
  • Important – American Violet: docu-drama about racism and the drug-war – (Boing Boing)
  • Sadism – Report: Abusive tactics used to seek Iraq-al Qaida link – (McClatchy)
  • Incomplete – INTERROGATION TIMELINE – (WaPo)
  • Allied sadism – Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh – (ABCnews)
  • Funny – Jane Harman: Angry, partisan, civil liberties extremist – (Greenwald)
  • Right but already backtracking – Kerry: Administration lacks 'real strategy' for handling Pakistan – (USAToday)
  • Logistics – Militants burn NATO fuel tankers in Pakistan – (AP)
  • Gareth Porter – U.S. Lacks Capacity to Win Over Afghans – (IPS)
  • Be very afraid … – Taliban Seize Vital Pakistan Area Closer to the Capital – (NYT)
  • Brown's recent "very big terrorist plot" – Britain: Last in ‘Terrorist Plot’ Freed – (NYT)
  • "[E]xemplary primary health care and sanitation" – Tehran's Health Patrol – (Time)
  • Can't let them have that – Hillary Clinton: US will organise 'crippling' Iran sanctions if diplomacy fails – (London Times)
  • Orwellian legislation "Iran Diplomatic Enhancement Act" – US may target Iran gasoline imports – (Press TV)
  • Organized crime – Replacing Iraq's money was a rip off – (Iran Affairs)
  • He knew the real numbers – Police investigating death of Freddie Mac official – (TPM)
  • 50% is not going to be enough – UK raises tax for top earners – (FT)
  • Jeffrey D. Sachs – Water wars – (Zaman)

Please share your links, news and views in the comments.

Posted by b on April 23, 2009 at 06:36 UTC | Permalink
Comments

The world according to Moshe Kantor, president of European Jewish Congress (from Haaretz):

“I have seen two movies recently made by Jews in Hollywood,” said Dr. Moshe Kantor. “One was Valkyrie, which is a pro-Nazi film. The other is Slumdog Millionaire, which deals with the Muslim population in India, and in which one of the characters says, ‘Allahu Akhbar’ before dying.”
“This is strange in my opinion,” Kantor said at a press conference at the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University.

Is it just me, or the more I read this the less it makes sense?

Posted by: andrew | Apr 23 2009 10:04 utc | 1

Hillary Clinton on Iran, hawkish as usual.
Brzezinski’s G-2 grand strategy.

Posted by: andrew | Apr 23 2009 10:19 utc | 2

Andrew: Frankly, I don’t know on which planet theses guys are living…

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Apr 23 2009 11:14 utc | 3

b-
The world is becoming crazier at a viral rate… maybe it would be easier for MoA to just start posting links to the good things politicians and businesses do… Save a lot of space 🙂
Damn the tons of feces pouring down history’s sewer pipe and covering everyone in the stench. What bugs me is the knowledge that deep in the majority of human’s hearts they just want to get along peacefully with each other. It is the greedy, evil ten percent that screws this up for all of us.
What the world needs is a “human whisperer” to pull humanities head out of humanity’s ass so we can see that we’re all pretty much just the same. All this killing and fighting is for what? To keep us safe? For peace? Or is it just to keep the money flowing uphill?
It’s easy to find fault with the world in it’s present form… harder to figure out how to fix it. I have an easy solution: kill the televisions! While televisions themselves are easy to kill, the population’s jones for them isn’t. It would be easier to try taking an Aspenite’s bindle at 1:30 in the morning, a heroin addicts opiate or maybe even some of the Pentagon’s money, than remove the television sets from American homes, RVs, hotel rooms, bars, restaurants, airports, doctor’s offices, cars, checkout lines, gas stations, phones, ect…

Posted by: DavidS | Apr 23 2009 11:29 utc | 4

@4-damn those nitzy english errors. Possessive forms: Humanity‘s head out of humanity’s ass… You’d think english was my second language – barely.

Posted by: DavidS | Apr 23 2009 11:43 utc | 5

TeeVee and the population’s jones for [it].
The Internets are a substitute.
1. You Tube
2. Hulu
Uncle’s link on another thread cost me three hours.

Posted by: rjj | Apr 23 2009 12:24 utc | 6

The poor people … The Wail of the 1%

Their world has been turned on its head. After years of enjoying favorable tax rates, they are facing an administration that wants to redistribute their wealth. Their industry is being reordered—no one knows what Wall Street will look like in a few years. They are anxious, and their anxiety is making them mad.
Their anger takes many forms: There is rage at Obama for pushing to raise taxes (“The government wants me to be a slave!” says one hedge-fund analyst); rage at the masses who don’t understand that Wall Street’s high salaries fund New York’s budget (“We’re fucked,” says a former Lehman equities analyst, referring to the city); rage at the people who don’t “get” that Wall Street enables much of the rest of the economy to function (“JPMorgan and all these guys should go on strike—see what happens to the country without Wall Street,” says another hedge-funder).
…

Posted by: b | Apr 23 2009 12:38 utc | 7

Anyone remember the story I posted a good while back, (possibly years ago) on Bush literally having someone’s head delivered on a platter? I spent some time in the MOA archives, but can’t find it. And it seems to have been scrubbed from google.
Anyone?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Apr 23 2009 13:20 utc | 8

DavidS @4&5, your language is superb and very welcome!
Part of an answer may be in Dmitri Orlov’s refreshing & challenging book “Reinventing Collapse” where he says (p 74)
‘American schools fail to educate because that is not their function. Their function is to instutitutionalize chldren at an early age. In due course they will go on to other institutions: jails, psychiatric hospitals, the military or, for those who learn obedience while retaining some semblance of sanity, colleges and universities. ‘
I’ve heard that in choosing who deserves a graduate fellowship, here in Canada, the straight A record may simply indicate someone who’s expert at pleasing adults… and who will do badly in advancing knowledge… and also that Canadian graduates are very welcome in US departments because they have more hands-on experience…
If we have to deal with institutionalized addiction blocking the path of the “people whisperer” – well, the human spirit *does* love life-giving newness, and sense it!
On with cap and bell choices, rehearsals and awarenesses, preparations for having our humanities merging and emerging!
Thank you.

Posted by: lambent1 | Apr 23 2009 13:31 utc | 9

oops!
I meant *might* do badly at advancing knowledge!

Posted by: lambent1 | Apr 23 2009 13:32 utc | 10

“He knew the real numbers – Police investigating death of Freddie Mac official.”
Bankers who are living off the public dole have already proven they are thieves, so it wouldn’t shock me in the least to find out they are murderers as well.

Posted by: Cynthia | Apr 23 2009 14:19 utc | 11

Suicide attacks in Baghdad kill at least 50

BAGHDAD — Two massive suicide attacks killed at least 50 people and possibly dozens more in Iraq on Thursday.
The first explosion took place in Baghdad around 12:30 p.m. and killed at least five, Iraqi police said.
Witnesses estimated that many more died. They said the bomber was a woman and that she blew herself up near a crowd of humanitarian workers delivering aid.
In the second attack, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest detonated inside a crowded restaurant in the southern Iraqi province of Diyala, killing at least 45 people and injuring scores more, police said.
That explosion happened around 2:30 p.m., lunchtime for Iraqis, at a popular restaurant along a heavily used road east of Baquba.
Travelers and religious tourists frequent the restaurant, and on Thursday, most patrons inside were Iranian pilgrims, according to police.

Posted by: b | Apr 23 2009 14:27 utc | 12

If the Taliban poses such a huge mortal threat to global security, as Hillary points out, then it doesn’t make sense to me why American allied forces, including forces from China and Russia, aren’t bending over backwards to help the US in its mission to wipe the Taliban off the face of the Earth!

Posted by: Cynthia | Apr 23 2009 14:51 utc | 13

b @ 7….that’s satire, isn’t it? Please tell me it’s satire.

Posted by: Obamageddon | Apr 23 2009 15:06 utc | 14

Slumdog Millionaire was great.
We are all Chai Wallahs to the Plutocracy.

Posted by: Obamageddon | Apr 23 2009 15:12 utc | 15

Interesting new Sibel Edmonds interview.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Apr 23 2009 15:51 utc | 16

rjj@6- I don’t think three hours at one of Uncle $cam’s links is time wasted… No, the internet isn’t television… maybe a sub-species but far removed from what you find on the tube. That’s not to say people don’t waste time on the computer, I’m as guilty as anyone, but at least there is a bit of effort to surf the net, television is like an IV bottle feeding you crap.
lambent1, thanks for the kind words. But does anyone trust the opinion of an iceback from “way up north” 🙂 just a joke… all real americans love canada and canadians; why do you think we stick canadian stickers on our backpacks when traveling overseas? I’m in a silly mood too much coffee!
But I agree with you about the institutionalization of the youth. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received was from a photojournalist who had two college degrees; I was bemoaning my lack of education and he’d pointed-out that it was actually a blessing because as he put it, “I hadn’t been institutionalized.” …and you now use the same term. What a small world.
What you say is true about straight “A” students… This is why so many have problems dealing with the world outside of school… Life doesn’t grade on the curve (or at all) and trying to guess the lesson plan for Life is a waste of time.
A good quote is; Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” John Lennon
Uncle $cam… I remember seeing that, I thought it was one of Saddam’s kids or maybe Chemical Ali… Damn I suffer from CRS (can’t remember shit), I’ll see if I can find it lurking in one of the Net’s dark corners.

Posted by: DavidS | Apr 23 2009 15:57 utc | 17

For Uncle $cam…
Bush and the head of his class…
Should it be any surprise a guy who belongs to a club which may or may not have Geronimo’s head on display would be collecting other skulls. Gives a whole new meaning to skulling.

Posted by: DavidS | Apr 23 2009 16:08 utc | 18

My sympathies are not with AIPAC’s congressional spear carriers, but
this contrarian position is worth weighing carefully. As I take it, the major upshots are 1) so far
the case against Harman is hearsay and smacks of an organized campaign to “get her”, and 2) the fall-out from successful prosecution of the pending AIPAC case could well be negative for those seeking to shed light on “classified” government activities.
Speculation regarding 1) is the order of the day. Point 2) may come under the category of “be careful about what you wish for”.
One other relevant question: does anyone know if Larry Franklin is actually in the slammer serving his 12 year sentence? Or has his cooperation earned him some sort of parole?

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Apr 23 2009 16:15 utc | 19

Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to Hillary (and all the brilliant minds in Obama’s War Cabinet} that beefing up our armed forces in what they affectionately refer to as “AfPac” has turned a molehill of a threat into a mountain of one. I for one smell a pig sty full of war profiteers in all this.

Posted by: Cynthia | Apr 23 2009 16:40 utc | 20

b, the McClatchy article says:

The use of abusive interrogation — widely considered torture — as part of Bush’s quest for a rationale to invade Iraq came to light as the Senate issued a major report tracing the origin of the abuses and President Barack Obama opened the door to prosecuting former U.S. officials for approving them.

I know I’ve been away for a few days, but I thought Obama just gave gov’t officials immunity – when did he ‘open the door’ for prosecution??

Posted by: Jeremiah | Apr 23 2009 17:47 utc | 21

wadosy,
Noyice that AFPAC and AIPAC look a lot alike, and if the “F” is taken out of AFPAC, the two sound exactly alike.

Posted by: Cynthia | Apr 23 2009 18:10 utc | 22

oops — notice

Posted by: Cynthia | Apr 23 2009 18:12 utc | 23

Thanks for correcting me, wadosy… If I fail to mess up an acronym, I’m bound to mess up an abbreviation, and vice versa. So, it’s best that I stay clear of the two altogether.:`(

Posted by: Cynthia | Apr 23 2009 18:48 utc | 24

@all – I just again deleted a bunch of comments by some “wadosy” who is obviously a racist and who’s comments I am not willing to tolerate here. Some comments of cyntia in response to “wadosy” comments above seem thereby unrelated but are not.
@Jeremiah – I thought Obama just gave gov’t officials immunity – when did he ‘open the door’ for prosecution??
1. Obama does not have the power to give immunity. He can pardon after a judgment, but not before that process took place. I am sure the U.S. Justice Department is quite miffed about Obama’s claim.
2. If the US does not prosecute torture this opens that legal realm to the world. Any country that signed the Geneva Torture agreements may prosecute anyone who’s country is unwilling to prosecute that. So by blocking further investigation Obama opens the venue of international trials.

Posted by: b | Apr 23 2009 19:29 utc | 25

b,
To be perfectly honest with you, I didn’t understand wadosy’s comment enough to know that there was anything racist about it. For instance, “The Samson Option” is a term which is totally foreign to me. So if my response came across as being racist in any way, please know that I certainly didn’t mean for it to be.

Posted by: Cynthia | Apr 23 2009 20:41 utc | 26

by way of Silverstein at Harpers, a reply to b’s link to The wail of the 1%.

Posted by: Sgt Dan | Apr 23 2009 21:19 utc | 27

I keep a faint hope that the Harman affair will lessen Israel’s strangle hold on US foriegn policy. The public at some point has got to get angry that so many of our congress people seem to put the interests of a right wing party in a far away land ahead of our own. I doubt it will hapen but I hope. More likely MoA will know it’s hit the big time when 90+ senators vote on a resolution censoring it as a dangerous bed of anti-semitism.

Posted by: Sgt Dan | Apr 23 2009 21:28 utc | 28

@Cyntia – if my response came across as being racist in any way, please know that I certainly didn’t mean for it to be.
Your response did not come across as racist.
“The Samson Option is a term used to describe Israel’s alleged deterrence strategy of massive retaliation with nuclear weapons as a “last resort” against nations whose military attacks threaten its existence, and possibly against other targets as well.”

Posted by: b | Apr 24 2009 14:30 utc | 29

B,
You write: “Some comments of cyntia in response to ‘wadosy’ comments above seem thereby unrelated but are not.”
Two negatives usually add up to a positive, so I assumed that you detected racist undertones in my comment. Plus I’ve noticed that you misspell my name whenever you are pissed off with me.;~)
Let me also add that because I’m not nearly as tactful as many of you here at expressing disdain for the Israel lobby and how it’s undermining democracy in America, I’m at greater risk than the rest of you of coming across as a racist. Perhaps I oughta take a lesson or two from someone who’s a brilliant tact-tician such as yourself on how to slam the Israel-Firsters without being slammed as a David Duke type.

Posted by: Cynthia | Apr 26 2009 10:48 utc | 30

Cynthia, you are being a bit paranoid here. b deleted some of wadosy’s comments to which you had replied to, he was merely trying to clarify to others why it seemed you were addressing someone who had not posted. there is nothing else implied as far as I can tell.

Posted by: dan of steele | Apr 26 2009 12:24 utc | 31

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