I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Is that a pun?
no, typo and blogger keeps not letting me edit it
AH, SUCH INTEGRITY. AND SO SMART, TOO.
Dean Says He Misspoke on Social Security
NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said Wednesday that he misspoke when he told the AFL-CIO he never favored raising the retirement age for Social Security benefits to age 70.
Dean acknowledged that he had called for such an increase when the country was faced with a deficit in 1995, but said he no longer thinks it is necessary. He said former President Clinton set an example of balancing the budget without raising the retirement age.
"Clinton proved that if you run a decent economy and have a budget surplus and some jobs, then you don't need to raise the age to extend the life of Social Security," Dean said in a telephone interview after The Associated Press questioned conflicting statements he has made on the issue.
The current retirement age for receiving full program benefits is 65 years and two months. The retirement age will gradually rise to 67 over the next two decades.
Dean's false statement came Tuesday night during an appearance at the AFL-CIO's Democratic presidential candidate forum....
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
DAVE THE FAG IS SLEEPY.
it's not really politics (since the writer is a dyed-in-the-wool, lower-taxes Republican from what I can tell), but does anyone here besides me read Paul Kasriel's pieces for Northern Trust religiously?
while we disagree strongly on policy, I find him very strong on the facts -- pretty much the opposite of the current administration, where faith trumps fact every time.
see http://www.ntrs.com/library/econ...ekly/
index.html
Just noticed two great books while wandering around the bookstore at lunch... Pirates and the Mouse, about the epic battle between the great cartoonist, Dan O'Neill, and the Disney Corporation over O'Neill's attempt to "liberate" Mickey Mouse, and Rat Fink: the Art of Big Daddy Ed Roth. (Sorry, not available through Amazon.)
Fucking Haloscan...
Here are the links -
Pirates and the Mouse:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido...=glance&
s=books
Big Daddy Ed Roth:
http://www.lastgasp.com/cgi-bin/...76&
bookid=20223
Finally, a place for GNAWTU, "Walter Cronkite" and the rest of the wingnuts to put their news stories about how well the economy is really doing, and how the Iraqis love us.
Do you see this, guys? This is where you put those links to Newsmax. No more hijacking completely unrelated threads, okay?
I swear, it's housebreaking a puppy.
Can I get anyone else to share the outrage over this article about junk food companies lying about their market to children?
I note cryptome has ceased it's call for leaking the 28 pages...
I just caught the beginnings of the evening news. CBS led with Bali, Baghdad, and Afghanistan. NBC
& ABC led with...yep, Swarzeneggar.
Sad. Frustrating. Stupid.
Sorry, that last line should read "It's like housebreaking a puppy".
The newspaper, Fido, not the floor.
Please come and read my blog, Kausfiles, at Slate.
I've got some really clever little observations to share with you. I think you'll be impressed.
Don't believe all those people who tell you I'm a hack. It's not true.
eh. looks to me like Bustamente is the new governor anyhow, either now automatically or in March with primary turnout. I just can't see the CA Supes allowing the election to go forward as currently constituted.
Big dumb moments in the California Recall Election against Davis. If this thing goes off, and hopefully it won't we are doomed as a nation. I may very well dig a hole into the ground and live there for the next few years, until the next real election cycle.
its official, atrios has punted
maybe he needed a longer vacation?
So now that Gore has attacked Bush's record on national security and called him on his Iraq deceptions, will Lieberman, Al From, Evan Bayh, etc. go after Gore?
C'mon Lieberman, tell us how Gore is an evil "liberal," leading the party down a "a road to nowhere."
Didja see Steve Gilliard has a new blog?
Kos is looking for a new upstart to fill in over there.
From a Tom Delay email alert:
I NEED YOUR HELP! Request from Tom DeLay PLEASE COME HELP!!!!
Runaway democrats Garnet Coleman and Rick Noriega are attempting to mobilize all democrats in the city of Houston in support of their cowardly colleagues in the Texas Senate. The Harris County Democrat Party, along with the Houston Young Democrats, has organized a protest in front of my office in Stafford tomorrow from noon until 2pm.
I am calling on you today!
I am asking you to please come out to my district office at 10701 Corporate Dr. #118, Stafford,so that we may offer a counter-protest. I feel it is extremely important that the truth be told and that the media get both sides of the story.
Please help demonstrate to the entire State of Texas that we Texans do not run from a fight! It is vital that they realize that they were elected to represent the people in Austin not New Mexico or Oklahoma.
Together we can defeat those who try and flee from their constitutional duty.
If anyone here is planning on attending this protest tomorrow, watch your ass. Looks like Delay is calling the goon squad out.
Want something positive to watch tonight?
What if a major policy speech was given, and no one in the American Jingo Media, including Public Television, chose to tell you about it?
I guess maybe it was assumed you would find out at Eschaton, or through email if you are a member of THAT PINKO ACTIVIST GROUP!
MajorPolicySpeechPresentedtoPINKOActivistGroup
Just in case HaloScan butchers:
http://netstream.nyu.edu:8080/ra...30807-
algore.rm
http://tinyurl.com/jctg
I talked with a Democratic congressman today. He's from a heavily Republican district and doesn't get too involved with national party politics, but he said he'd had lunch with Wesley Clark two to three times in the last couple of months. The rep. is hoping and encouraging Clark to run. Said he and Kerry were the only Dems who could stand up to Bush 5-4 on national security.
This week Time mag gives a 1/2 page side bar noting that the special forces have been pulled away from the Hunt for Osama. They were sent to invade Iraq and then hunt for Saddam. The concern is this helped loosen the knot on Osama's boys; who are feared to be grouping for more attacks.
Then Time mag has a nine page spread, "Hot on Saddam's Trail", complete with six cool action pictures.
Which one of these guys was behind the recent murder of thousands of US civilians?
By the way, the congressman's bluebook --or whatever they call that handheld messaging device they got after 9/11 -- gave him a message today instructing him to "duck and cover." Seems a vendor punched up the message while servicing the system.
Btw, I am proud as hell to be a PINKO
Member, sorta like a Recondo badge for Political junkies...
http://moveon.org
Transcript here:
http://www.moveon.org/gore-speech.html
A mental Martini for my friend Atrios. I fear we'll need a thousand real ones between now and 2005.
From AOL link - NEW YORK (Aug. 7) - Former Vice President Al Gore, assailing U.S. policies in Iraq and at home, on Thursday argued that the Bush administration ''routinely shows disrespect'' for the ''honest and open debate'' that produces the truth.
''I think it's partly because they feel they already know the truth, and aren't very curious to learn about any facts that might contradict it,'' Gore said in a 35-minute speech at New York University.
The 2000 Democratic presidential nominee, addressing about 600 people in a speech sponsored by the liberal activist group Moveon.Org, said the nation's military and economic policies under President Bush had upset many Americans.
''The direction in which our nation is being led is deeply troubling to me, not only in Iraq but also at home, on economic policy, social policy and environmental policy,'' Gore said.
''Millions of Americans now share a feeling that something pretty basic has gone wrong in our country, and that some important American values are being placed at risk, and they want to set it right.''
Gore, who was cheered throughout the speech by the partisan crowd, also called on Bush to rein in Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The Department of Defense's planned surveillance system, Total Information Awareness, was ''right out of George Orwell's '1984,''' Gore said. The plan was renamed Terrorism Information Awareness after complaints by politicians and civil liberties groups.
Gore argued that the administration used false pretenses to launch the war against Saddam Hussein, including claims that the Iraqi leader was involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and was on the verge of providing terrorists with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
''As a result, too many of our soldiers are paying the highest price for the strategic miscalculations, serious misjudgments and historic mistakes that have put them and our nation in harm's way,'' Gore said.
The Democrat, who captured the popular vote but lost the electoral count in 2000, delivered the speech amid talk that he should enter the presidential race. On Wednesday, former New York governor Mario Cuomo urged Gore to jump into the already-crowded Democratic field of nine contenders. Gore reiterated that he would not seek the nomination, although he promised an endorsement down the road.
Gore said the administration has also given false impression about the results of tax cuts, and he called the federal budget deficit ''an emerging fiscal catastrophe.''
In both Iraq and the economy, Gore said, the common factor is a dishonesty in the dissemination of facts. ''That really is the nub of the problem,'' he said.
Sorry BC--that's old, old news. Ever watch Sat. morning cartoons? TONS of sugar cereral and junk food ads.
You know, sometimes people DO have to take personal responsibility--and for children that means their parents. EVERYONE knows junk food is fattening and bad for you and it's a poor idea to eat only junk food.
GORE LEANING AGAINST BUSH!
"I've just about concluded that the real problem may be the president himself and that next year we ought to fire him and get a new one," Mr. Gore said.
Did anyone see the NYTimes article about the plan to (a) let Iraqi troops handle patrols (so they get killed guarding stuff) and (b) the Army's proposed reorganization? I've got more here, but basically this sounds like a bad move. Making units "modular" sounds like something that looks great on paper and works like shit in practice. But the bottom line is, they've got too many troops tied up in Iraq to seriously threaten the other countries they want to intimidate, so they have to find some way to draw the number of troops down under 100,000.
Anyone here ever hear of a band call MEN'S CLUB? They were real popular in S.F. Haven't played in 5 years but just played a show in S.F.
Heavy, fast, Grand Funkish three piece. Had an album out on Bar None Records.
What a great live band...
Anyone want to play connect the dots with regard to theHelp America Vote Act?
The Voter Integrity Project, VIP's founding chairwoman is Helen Blackwell, wife of Ronald Reagan’s staffer Morton Blackwell, founder and president of the Leadership Institute.
Just before the November 2000 election, VIP presented its special Voter Integrity Award to DBT -- at a VIP conference substantially paid for by . . . ChoicePoint's DBT unit, the company that gave Florida the bogus list of 'felons.' Noting proudly that “DBT is the company tasked with helping Florida clean up the State’s voter registration records,” VIP then launched into a campaign to take DBT’s Florida methods to other states. VIP announced it had “entered into an agreement with DBT Online to identify small communities with demonstrated need for similar pro bono voter rolls ‘scrubbing.’ ” - Greg Palast
If the links don't work here they are in order of appearance:
http://www.citizen.org/congress/...les.cfm?
ID=8510
http://www.workingforchange.com/...fm?
ItemID=15419
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general...t.aspx?
oid=4244
All this crazy Republican shenanigans has got me thinking - what are the odds we get "rogue delegates" from the Blue States in 2004? The way I understand it, the delegates have no legal liability to vote with the majority from their state.
Any thoughts?
Anyone want to play connect the dots with regard to theHelp America Vote Act?
The Voter Integrity Project, VIP's founding chairwoman is Helen Blackwell, wife of Ronald Reagan’s staffer Morton Blackwell, founder and president of the Leadership Institute.
Just before the November 2000 election, VIP presented its special Voter Integrity Award to DBT -- at a VIP conference substantially paid for by . . . ChoicePoint's DBT unit, the company that gave Florida the bogus list of 'felons.' Noting proudly that “DBT is the company tasked with helping Florida clean up the State’s voter registration records,” VIP then launched into a campaign to take DBT’s Florida methods to other states. VIP announced it had “entered into an agreement with DBT Online to identify small communities with demonstrated need for similar pro bono voter rolls ‘scrubbing.’ ” - Greg Palast
If the links don't work here they are in order of appearance:
http://www.citizen.org/congress/...les.cfm?
ID=8510
http://www.workingforchange.com/...fm?
ItemID=15419
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general...t.aspx?
oid=4244
Which one of these guys [Saddam or bin Laden] was behind the recent murder of thousands of US civilians?
Yeah, Mark, but which one of them embarrassed Bush's daddy? Bush does have his priorities and he'll pick being a good son in a hot second over not endangering the 450 million Americans to whom he is not related.
Hey, Martha. Thanks for the reply! I think what irritates me isn't so much the simple fact that junk food companies market to children -- you're right -- that's an old story. But I'm annoyed when I read that these companies are lying about it. Here's one relevant quote from the article:
"Kari Bjorhus, a spokeswoman at Coke, said: 'We absolutely don't market to children. Our feeling with Harry Potter is it really appeals to the whole family.'"
Clearly Bjorhus is equivocating, and I'm always up for outrage over that.
Furthermore, I get annoyed because some of these promotions strip kids of their freedom to choose healthy alternatives. For example, many high schools have vending machines which only contain sugar water. A thirsty kid can't choose something like orange juice -- the marketing deal her school district made with the junk food company precludes such a choice. I agree with you that people have to exercise personal responsibility. But it's hard for a kid to exercise personal responsibility when the healthy choices aren't even available.
Holy Jeebus, did anybody hear about this? Wolfowitz finally admits that Iraq was not involved in 9/11 and didn't have ties to Al-Qaeda. See for yourself here: http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/
tr20030801-depsecdef0526.html.
Stupid HaloScan mangled the URL: here it is for copy-n-paste purposes:
http://www.defenselink.mil/
trans...secdef0526.html
Bring 'Em On
Now we know that the reason for the Iraq invasion was to liberate the people from a despotic, tyrannical dictator. Yeah, it had nothing to do with oil or weapons of mass destruction.
Well, what about doing the same in Cuba? Or in North Korea? Or in China?
Or does the US only invade countries that it knows it can beat up? Just the way bullies behave!
grand funk-ish?
mark farner where are you?
J.T.
-geezer in waiting
CP, the pundits on Fox tonight said Bush and his gang NEVER said there was a connection between Iraq and 9/11. They also said Bush NEVER said Iraq posed an imminent threat. Gore just went "over the top" (Kondracke),as usual, in his speech today when he accused them of saying those things.
the repugnicans sure love them caps. My dear passed granpa was a faithful contributing republican and ever once in a while i would get my hands on some Repugnican PROPAGANDA and they were ALWAYS FULL OF CAPS.
and Bush is all FAITH. he believes a damn lot, but KNOWS NOTHING.
The shrub doesn't fall far from the tree.
One thing that the Bush family is said to be worried about is the release of General Manuel Noriega from jail in the USA. If this happens he could spill the beans on the CIA's links to the cocaine industry in Latin America that played such a vital role in the arming and financing of the Contra terrorists in Nicaragua during the 1980's. Also, there is the possibility that, at last, the CIA and ex-President Bush will be held accountable for the murder in Washington of Letelier and their support for the coup in Chile that bought the fascist General Pinochet to power.
Bush family STINKS.
Papa Bush - Crimes Against Humanity and the American People
GW's Father has a long history of war crimes, including plotting the overthrow of foreign governments, murder, and espionage. That's what we pay the CIA to do, and that's who informs our current president.
Source: SeᮠMac Math�� 2002-06-12 00:00:00.000
Candidate: President George Bush
Accusation no 1: Bush alleged to have killed Japanese fishermen
Former US president and CIA chief George H. W. Bush, the father of the current US President George W. Bush, has been accused throughout his life of being involved with terrorism, the Mafia, and drug trafficking, either during his time as CIA director (1976-1977) or his term as Vice President (1980-198
or President (1989-1992).
Apart from his alleged involvement in the CIA during the Kennedy assassination, he is also said to have carried out violations of the Geneva Convention as a US Fighter Pilot during World War II. He was alleged to have killed Japanese trawler men in a lifeboat whilst a fighter-pilot during the Second World War. The latest and perhaps most well connected person to make these allegations is the former Panamanian dictator and CIA stooge, General Manuel Noriega, who is presently serving a 40 year jail sentence in the USA. Calling Bush a "cold blooded killer", Noriega repeats the story that Bush found Japanese trawler men in a lifeboat. They all had their hands up, but Bush shot them anyway. According to The Observer, Bush has always refused to respond to accusations that he killed Japanese trawler men whose ship he sunk in 1944.(1)
In his interview with The Observer, Noreiga also alleged that Bush, when he was CIA chief in 1976, was responsible for a bomb blast in Panama that destroyed a car owned by William Drummond, a prominent US resident of the American occupied Canal Zone. Drummond was a vocal critic of sensitive negotiations between the US and Panama, and the blast was said to have been "arranged" by the CIA in an attempt to pressure US residents to end their resistance to the treaty. Noreiga says:
"the US embassy in Panama didn't known about 'Bush's scheme' and got nervous . . . so Bush had to calm the embassy down - he created a problem to solve a problem".
Bush denies Noreiga's claims.
Bush was CIA director from
Aug 7 1953
Eisenhower signs legislation retroactively granting Ohio official statehood for the previous 150 years. In 1803, apparently everyone just assumed that Ohio was a state, even though Congress had never passed legislation to that effect. The nation remained blissfully unaware of this fact until nosy historians began snooping around in preparation for Ohio's sesquicentennial.
continued-
Papa Bush - Crimes Against Humanity and the American People
GW's Father has a long history of war crimes, including plotting the overthrow of foreign governments, murder, and espionage. That's what we pay the CIA to do, and that's who informs our current president.
Source: SeᮠMac Math�� 2002-06-12 00:00:00.000
Candidate: President George Bush
In his interview with The Observer, Noreiga also alleged that Bush, when he was CIA chief in 1976, was responsible for a bomb blast in Panama that destroyed a car owned by William Drummond, a prominent US resident of the American occupied Canal Zone. Drummond was a vocal critic of sensitive negotiations between the US and Panama, and the blast was said to have been "arranged" by the CIA in an attempt to pressure US residents to end their resistance to the treaty. Noreiga says:
"the US embassy in Panama didn't known about 'Bush's scheme' and got nervous . . . so Bush had to calm the embassy down - he created a problem to solve a problem".
Bush denies Noreiga's claims.
Bush was CIA director from 1976 until 1977. Some background information on this period discussed by William Blum in The CIA: A Forgotten History. During the mid-seventies, the CIA poured money into the Cuban exile terrorist groups such as Omega 7 and Alpha 66, that used the US soil as a "safe haven" to launch attacks on Cuba and it's perceived supporters in the US. In 1976, a bomb was discovered at the New York Academy of Music shortly before a celebration of the 1959 Cuban Revolution was about to begin and a bombing of the Lincoln Centre after the Cuban Ballet performed.
Japan indicts Bush as war criminal
In early 1997, Bush was further indicted as an alleged war criminal by the Japanese government. This was in response to the US decision to bar 16 Japanese citizens from the USA for alleged war crimes committed during the Second World War. A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hiroshi Hashimoto, announced that 10 American's would be barred from Japan for their "war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violations of human rights". Top of the list was George Bush for "the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, including thousands of children, in attacks on Iraq and Panama" in 1990 and 1988. The other alleged war criminals were: General's Colin Powell and "Stormin" Norman Schwarzkopf, former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, and other US military and government figures such as Colonel Oliver North, Henry Kissinger, Robert MacNamara, CIA director John Deutch and Elliot Abrams.(5)
Accusation no 2: Echoes of Lockerbie - the bomb that blew up a Cuban airliner in 1976
But by far the most serious act of terrorism alleged against the CIA while Bush was chief was the blowing-up of a Cuban Airlines plane shortly after it took of from Barbados on 6th October 1976. The attack, which was claimed by a then new Cuban Exile terrorist
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Mid...t/
EH07Ak01.html
ANALYSIS
Insider fires a broadside at Rumsfeld's office
"What I saw was aberrant, pervasive and contrary to good order and discipline," Kwiatkowski wrote. "If one is seeking the answers to why peculiar bits of 'intelligence' found sanctity in a presidential speech, or why the post-Saddam [Hussein] occupation [of Iraq] has been distinguished by confusion and false steps, one need look no further than the process inside the Office of the Secretary of Defense [OSD]."
Kwiatkowski went on to charge that the operations she witnessed during her tenure in Feith's office, and particularly those of an ad hoc group known as the Office of Special Plans (OSP), constituted "a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-option through deceit of a large segment of the Congress".
Kwiatkowski's charges, which tend to confirm reports and impressions offered to the press by retired officers from other intelligence agencies and their still-active but anonymous former colleagues, are likely to make her a prime witness when Congress reconvenes in September for hearings on the manipulation of intelligence to justify war against Iraq.
According to Kwiatkowski, the same operation that allegedly cooked the intelligence also was responsible for the administration's failure to anticipate the problems that now dog the US occupation in Iraq, or, in her more colorful words, that have placed 150,000 US troops in "the world's nastiest rat's nest, without a nation-building plan, without significant international support and without an exit plan".
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjo...nal/
6424570.htm
Career officer does eye-opening stint inside Pentagon
By Karen Kwiatkowski, a recently retired Air Force Lieutenant colonel.
After eight years of Bill Clinton, many military officers breathed a sigh of relief when George W. Bush was named president. I was in that plurality. At one time, I would have believed the administration's accusations of anti-Americanism against anyone who questioned the integrity and good faith of President Bush, Vice President Cheney or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
However, while working from May 2002 through February 2003 in the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Near East South Asia and Special Plans (USDP/NESA and SP) in the Pentagon, I observed the environment in which decisions about post-war Iraq were made.
Those observations changed everything.
What I saw was aberrant, pervasive and contrary to good order and discipline. If one is seeking the answers to why peculiar bits of ``intelligence'' found sanctity in a presidential speech, or why the post-Hussein occupation has been distinguished by confusion and false steps, one need look no further than the process inside the Office of the Secretary of Defense. I can identify three prevailing themes.
• Functional isolation of the professional corps. Civil service and active-duty military professionals assigned to the USDP/NESA and SP were noticeably uninvolved in key areas of interest to Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith, Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld. These included Israel, Iraq and to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia.
When the New York Times broke the story last summer of Richard Perle's invitation of Laurent Muraviec to brief the Defense Policy Board on Saudi Arabia as the next enemy of the United States, this briefing was news to the Saudi desk officer. He even had some difficulty getting a copy of it, while receiving assignments related to it.
In terms of Israel and Iraq, all primary staff work was conducted by political appointees, in the case of Israel a desk officer appointee from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and in the case of Iraq, Abe Shulsky and several other appointees. These personnel may be exceptionally qualified; Shulsky authored a 1993 textbook Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence.
But the human resource depth made possible through broad-based teamwork with the professional policy and intelligence corps was never established, and apparently, never wanted by the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld organization.
• Cross-agency cliques: Much has been written about the role of the founding members of the Project for a New American Century, the Center for Security Policy and the American Enterprise Institute and their new positions in the Bush administration. Certainly, appointees sharing particular viewpoints are expected to congregate, and an overwhelming number of these appointees having such organizational ties
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjo...nal/
6424570.htm
• Cross-agency cliques: Much has been written about the role of the founding members of the Project for a New American Century, the Center for Security Policy and the American Enterprise Institute and their new positions in the Bush administration. Certainly, appointees sharing particular viewpoints are expected to congregate, and an overwhelming number of these appointees having such organizational ties is neither conspiratorial nor unusual. What is unusual is the way this network operates solely with its membership across the various agencies -- in particular the State Department, the National Security Council and the Office of the Vice President.
Within the Central Intelligence Agency, it was less clear to me who the appointees were, if any. This might explain the level of interest in the CIA taken by the Office of the Vice President. In any case, I personally witnessed several cases of staff officers being told not to contact their counterparts at State or the National Security Council because that particular decision would be processed through a different channel. This cliquishness is cause for amusement in such movies as Never Been Kissed or The Hot Chick. In the development and implementation of war planning it is neither amusing nor beneficial for American security because opposing points of view and information that doesn't ``fit'' aren't considered.
• Groupthink. Defined as ``reasoning or decision-making by a group, often characterized by uncritical acceptance or conformity to prevailing points of view,'' groupthink was, and probably remains, the predominant characteristic of Pentagon Middle East policy development. The result of groupthink is the elevation of opinion into a kind of accepted ``fact,'' and uncritical acceptance of extremely narrow and isolated points of view.
The result of groupthink has been extensively studied in the history of American foreign policy, and it will have a prominent role when the history of the Bush administration is written. Groupthink, in this most recent case leading to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, will be found, I believe, to have caused a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-optation through deceit of a large segment of the Congress.
I am now retired. Shortly before my retirement I was allowed to return to my primary office of assignment, having served in NESA as a desk officer backfill for 10 months. The transfer was something I had sought, but my wish was granted only after I made a particular comment to my superior, in response to my reading of a February Secretary of State cable answering a long list of questions from a Middle Eastern country regarding U.S. planning for the aftermath in Iraq. The answers had been heavily crafted by the Pentagon, and to me, they were remarkably inadequate, given the late stage of the game. I suggested to my boss that if this was as good as it got, some folks
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjo...nal/
6424570.htm
I am now retired. Shortly before my retirement I was allowed to return to my primary office of assignment, having served in NESA as a desk officer backfill for 10 months. The transfer was something I had sought, but my wish was granted only after I made a particular comment to my superior, in response to my reading of a February Secretary of State cable answering a long list of questions from a Middle Eastern country regarding U.S. planning for the aftermath in Iraq. The answers had been heavily crafted by the Pentagon, and to me, they were remarkably inadequate, given the late stage of the game. I suggested to my boss that if this was as good as it got, some folks on the Pentagon's E-ring may be sitting beside Hussein in the war crimes tribunals.
Hussein is not yet sitting before a war crimes tribunal. Nor have the key decision-makers in the Pentagon been forced to account for the odd set of circumstances that placed us as a long-term occupying force in the world's nastiest rat's nest, without a nation-building plan, without significant international support and without an exit plan. Neither may ever be required to answer their accusers, thanks to this administration's military as well as publicity machine, and the disgraceful political compromises already made by most of the Congress. Ironically, only Saddam Hussein, buried under tons of rubble or in hiding, has a good excuse.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/healt...lth/
3128753.stm
Penis is a competitive beast
Statue
A marvel of evolutionary design?
Scientists believe the shape of the penis may have evolved to help men remove the semen of love rivals during sex.
http://
www.informationclearingho...article4381.htm
The Conceited Empire
A historian credited with predicting the downfall of the Soviet Union in the 1970s now says that the US has been on its way out for the last decade
by Martin A. Senn and Felix Lautenschlager
translated by Andreas Artz
07/26/03: The power and influence of the United States is being overestimated, claims French historian and demographer Emmanuel Todd. "There will be no American Empire." "The world is too large and dynamic to be controlled by one power." According to Todd, whose 1976 book predicted the fall of the Soviet Union, there is no question: the decline of America the Superpower has already
begun.
Emmanuel Todd compares the US to 16th century Spain, arguing that US economic power is being undermined by the decline of its industrial base and its increased dependence on other countries to feed its consumption. The power and influence of the United States is being overestimated, claims
French historian and demographer Emmanuel Todd. "There will be no American Empire." "The world is too large and dynamic to be controlled by one power."
According to Todd, whose 1976 book predicted the fall of the Soviet Union, there is no question: the decline of America the Superpower has already begun.
This article was originally published in Neue Zuricher Zeitung (The New Zuricher, Sunday morning).
That should be enough to gnaw on.
Is there a new episode of Street Time tonight? I can't recall when their season starts.
This week Time mag gives a 1/2 page side bar noting that the special forces have been pulled away from the Hunt for Osama. They were sent to invade Iraq and then hunt for Saddam. The concern is this helped loosen the knot on Osama's boys; who are feared to be grouping for more attacks.
And from Stratfor by way of Hellblazer:
Stratfor sources have confirmed reports from a Web site maintained by Muslim jihadists that the Taliban has regained control of most of Zabul province in southeastern Afghanistan. This marks the first time that Taliban fighters -- in concert with al Qaeda forces -- have retaken a province since being ousted from power by the U.S. military in November 2001. It also underscores the stalemate between the U.S.-backed Afghan forces and the Taliban.
Read more:
http://www.hellblazer.com/archiv...ves/
001639.html
OOPS - that article is interesting. It lends credence to the gut feeling I've had for a number of years. I think we peaked more than a decade ago. I just wonder what a backwater US will be like; Britain is truly pitiful in many ways since its fall from Empirical glory. We may end up being even more pitiful.
I'm sure that to some that sounds like I hate America. I don't, I just don't have any illusions and don't have to believe it's the biggest baddest-ass country on earth to love it. Fine with me if the ol' US slips out of the spotlight and gets quieter.
Shouldn't this story be getting more coverage?
GFR We're an American Band had that little lettering on the circular thirty-three and a 3rd label instructing you to turn your Sears Silvertone, or Marantz, or SCOTT, or KLH, or whatever you were using, to the heavens after laying the SHURE down...
Man do I miss being twelve years old, and stoned blue on Michelob with the gold tinfoil, and, well, awe phuck it, sober since 91' lets not feed the Monkey...
Yes GFR was very meaty and I am glad to have lived during that time very much....
Stop Lookin' Back was my favorite track off that very short offering...
In an alley somewhere in New York,some time this afternoon Gore mugged and henceforth beat the crap out of Lieberman,Kerry and Edwards. He was basically saying Dean has the right idea take Bush to the rack..HARD!!
Update: Kerry and Edwards have been released from the hospital under Beltway insiders care. Lieberman remains in intensive care due to being pimp slapped more than the other two.
Gore distorts and Dean gets making conflicting statements. Or are they lies?
Did you see that the guy who won the big powerball a while back, something like $27M, and gave 10% to churches...
Well, he just got drugged and robbed at a -- now get this -- tittie bar where he was a patron...
Had over half a million dollars in a briefcase in his car to spend at a tittie-bar! But, oh so pious!
Heard a little about this on NPR this evening, so I searched Google News ("Cheney defendant Halliburton")to look into it, and here's what's there from today:
Law firm sets sights on Halliburton
By Sheila McNulty
August 7 2003 1:16
Financial Times
Dick Cheney, US vice- president, faces being cited as a defendant in an accounting fraud lawsuit against Halliburton, where he was formerly chief executive, after escaping inclusion in earlier lawsuits allegedly because of political considerations.
On May 30, the energy services contractor announced it had reached a $6m agreement to settle 20 lawsuits arising from allegations that Halliburton used deceptive accounting practices starting when Mr Cheney ran the company. His name, however, was excluded because of political sensitivities with the country at war, a lead plaintiff in the case has said.
Scott + Scott, which represents one of four lead plaintiffs, has not signed the settlement and, if the law firm gets its way, the case against the Houston-based company will face trial. This time, Mr Cheney is likely to be named as a defendant.
It is attempting to have Schiffrin & Barroway removed as lead counsel in the case and Judge David Godbey, US district judge in Dallas, has agreed to permit Scott + Scott to show at a hearing on August 25 why it wants the removal and the class freed from its proposed settlement.
Connecticut-based Scott + Scott is accusing Schiffrin & Barroway of violating court orders by agreeing to a settlement without the participation or consent of its lead partners.
[more . . .]
URL: http://news.ft.com/servlet/
Conte...d=1059478759375
News link for above powerball winner - tittie bar story:
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/
MG...GAKZWKG3JD.html
Wesley Clark, I always liked him. I think he should run as president not as vice president. Heck he's got more experience running things than the hopefuls. I find Kerry very wooden and there's something about him that chills me. Wesley, on the other hand, has sex appeal, never dismiss this as unimportant, if it were the idiot wouldn't have stuffed a dozen socks in his crotch...
Cheney faces something? Oh reaaaally?
I used to be one of those naive asses that believe in justice, not anymore, just like I don't believe there's a higher power anywhere or all those criminal bastards would have already gotten their just desserts.
What goes around comes around? yes? NO
Oh, I love that story about Cheney. It may all go away, but I think it's great that someone wants to stick it to that undead ghoul who operates President Sock Puppet.
Sure with it would stick.
So Gore is distorting the role of Halliburton and the dangers of the Patriot Act?
Strange.Why go to a blog with blatantly transparent conservative leanings when you can see the speech in it's entirety and judge for yourself? If the democrats are going to win they're going to have to go after Bush. If the republicans pan Gore's speech the democrats have to take that to mean he said saomething right.
Thanks, Tena. Ought to make a bit of a splash, at least, especially as legal news.
Here's more:
Schiffrin & Barroway claims three of the four lead plaintiffs and their counsel have already approved the settlement, adding there is no evidence that the firm failed in its responsibilities to represent the class. But Scott + Scott say that only one plaintiff has actually signed the settlement.
The firm says Pennsylvania-based Schiffrin & Barroway did not convene a single meeting of the lead plaintiffs, refused to give the other firms evidence it had investigated the charges and then settled the case for $6m, even though some have estimated damages as high as $6.8bn, according to Scott + Scott documents.
Neil Rothstein, counsel for Scott + Scott, said in documents obtained by the Financial Times that Richard Schiffrin of Schiffrin & Barroway "admitted that Cheney may have risk involved in this lawsuit but he was not named as a defendant because it would be inappropriate to do so in a 'time of war'."
In court papers, Mr Schiffrin admits meeting with Mr Cheney's attorneys but said: "Lead counsel acknowledges only that these discussions were conducted at a time when this country was focused on its war efforts against Iraq."
In an interview, Mr Schiffrin said he had sought the meeting to explain, as a courtesy, that the vice-president would not be named in the lawsuit. "My point was that there was no basis to name him as a defendant," he said. "Particularly in a time of war."
Terrence O'Donnell, private counsel to Mr Cheney, said: "We have never requested anyone to forego litigation against the vice-president because the country was at war."
Because the case centres on an accounting issue, and Mr Cheney was chief executive, there was nothing that tied him into the decision-making process on the alleged fraud, Mr Schiffrin said. Nonetheless, his firm named David Lesar, who replaced Mr Cheney as CEO, in the lawsuit. Mr Schiffrin told the Financial Times yesterday that he "honestly can't remember" why Mr Lesar was named.
The class action covers May 1998 to May 2002, a period in which both men led the company.
Mr Rothstein alleges that Schiffrin & Barroway admitted it had reached a verbal agreement with Halliburton lawyers to stall the case until it could be settled. "Lead counsel's conduct has brought a cloud over this matter," Mr Rothstein says.
[end]
http://news.ft.com/servlet/
Conte...d=1059478759375
The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
http://bit.ch/164.php
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -
MYOB: The continuous use of the word patriotism as a filter against those who oppose the GOP platform. The attempts by all these conservative idiot women in the country who seem to think that raising US flags where there is no need somehow will be the cureall to all our ills.
This defies the first commandment.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights -
MYOB: Opposition to any or all civil rights legislation. Willingness to treat foreigners as less than human. Support for the death penalty. Guantanamo Bay detention center. Ashcroft and his ties to KKK groups.
This betrays the 5th, 7th, and 8th commandments.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause -
MYOB: Racism, liberal-bashing, intellectual-bashing, race baiting, Freedom fries rather than french fries.
This betrays the 8th commandment.
4. Supremacy of the Military -
MYOB: Star Wars program, U.S.S Ronald Reagan carrier, etc.
This betrays the 7th and 10th commandments
5. Rampant Sexism -
MYOB: Just about everything in the book on this one.
This betrays the 4th, 6th, and 8th commandments.
6.Controlled Mass Media -
MYOB: Faux News, Clearchannel. Do we need any more proof?
7. Obsession with National Security -
MYOB: The Patriot act, Patriot act II masquerading as the Victory act.
I can't think of any commandments this betrays but it's application has no doubt resulted in the breaking of several commandments.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined -
MYOB: The influence of the religious right. The illegal political actions of religious icons in defiance of their taxfree status requirements. The hiring of hardcore zealots. The religous freedom acts, and the use of christian-only organizations for social program and charity work paid for by the fed. Claiming christ is your role model when you didn't start emulating it until your mid-late 40's.
9. Corporate Power is Protected -
MYOB: Enron, haliburton, EPA rollbacks, Oil industry blanket protections in Iraq or elsewhere, Worldcom, Tyco, etc...
10. Labor Power is Suppressed -
MYOB: Attacking unions, attacking minimum wage.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts -
MYOB: Attacking college professors who show democratic or liberal tendencies. Demanding colleges hire conservatives, etc...
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment -
MYOB: Death penalty obsession, attacking lenient judges.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption -
MYOB: Most of the Bush admin' officials are ex-oil execs or high ranking business members. people who assisted in the 2000 election in florida have been given cushy jobs in positions for which they have no experience.
14. Fraudulent Elections -
MYOB: 2000 election, Electronic voting machines with no paper trail.
GOP=FASCISM
MYOB'
So, I was wondering if anyone else thought that these touch screen voter machines that are being set up at strategic places around the country will be used to pull a Florida in '04. As neer as i can tell, there's just enough of them and they are just unreliable enough for them to throw the ballot counts into suspician and require the SC to step in and declare a winner, again.
Am I being paranoid? Observant? Pessamistic? Unamerican?
HMMM, something to consider.
From the Empire article
" The US leadership doesn't know anymore where to turn. They know that they
are monetarily dependant on the rest of the world, and they are afraid of
becoming inconsequential. There are no more Nazis and Communists. While a
demographic, democratic, and politically stabilizing world recognizes that
it is increasingly less dependant on the US, America is discovering that it
is increasingly dependant on the rest of the world. That is the reason for
the rush into military action and adventures. It is classic.
Classic?
The only remaining superiority is military. This is classic for a crumbling
system. The final glory is militarism. The fall of the Soviet Union took
place in an identical context. Their economy was in decline, and their
leadership grew fearful. Their military apparatus gained in size and stature
and the Russians embarked on adventures to forget their economic
shortcomings. The parallels in the US are obvious. The process has
significantly accelerated in the past few months."
Atrios:
It looks like there's real demand for open threads, but it's a little too much stream-of-consciousness for me.
Maybe an open thread and a couple of directed-semi-closed threads....?
What do I know?
Oh, "Thanks". THAT I know! An I don't type it often enough.....
Jorge
Touch screens are being looked at seriously right now. Most of the interest was generated by Bev Harris and her website.
Wired had an article today,
http://www.wired.com/news/
privac...8,59925,00.html
" Following an embarrassing leak of its proprietary software over a file transfer protocol site last January, the inner workings of Diebold Election Systems have again been laid bare.
A hacker has come forward with evidence that he broke the security of a private Web server operated by the embattled e-vote vendor, and made off last spring with Diebold's internal discussion-list archives, a software bug database and more software.
The unidentified attacker provided Wired News with an archive containing 1.8 GB of files apparently taken March 2 from a site referred to by the Ohio-based company as its "staff website."
The eye is on Diebold right now, and the, uh, flaws in their software.
Hudson
This is just right. Everyone has their own take on what is relevant.
Sometimes we overlook something that someone else sees.
What sites does everyone start their news day with?
Mine
rotten.com
doonesbury
boondocks, via msnbc
Wired
Whatreallyhappened.com
Rense.com
Gregg palast
Buzzflash
Here or DU
DU or here.
I run through these sites a couple of times a day
adding later in the day
Bartcop and MWO
With the conspiracy sites, it is fairly easy to filter the, uh, fringe elements.
Anyone else willing to share their list?
AGM - Cheney wasn't a named defendant because it was considered inappropriate "in a time of war."
Forget oil, people, now we know the real motivation for invading Iraq - to keep Cheney out of court. And thus, out of the daylight, which of course would kill him.
I forgot a point of the congressman's discussion on Clark. Clark will decide in early September, he said.
Unscientific survey: Do you post under more than one name? If so, pick ONE of them and just say "yes."
commenter curious,
"Unscientific survey: Do you post under more than one name? If so, pick ONE of them and just say "yes.""
Which personality are you talking to?
What ever happened to the time-traveling stock trader who was arrested for insider trading? As I recall he offered Osama's location (or rather, the location at which he would eventually be found)in exchange for safe passage to his time machine. Anyone have an update?
Tena - Gotta love the "courtesy" contact with Cheney's counsel, eh? Especially given Rothstein's other allegations about Schiffren & Barroway's "settlement" procedure.
S&B's amnesia about the reasons for naming the other (non-Cheney) CEO is an additional hoot.
If only for noisy nuisance value - and to stir up a little more national conversation about political / corporate accountability - let's hope this continues to get interesting. I'll be keeping an eye out for hearing results on August 25.
MYOB,
GOP=FASCISM
More left-wing fantasy. From Freedom House.
CAN ANYBODY here really believe that OUR ATRIOS posted the cover for Victory - an album by The Jacksons?! (yes, Michael, Tito, Jermaine, Randy and that other guy
There's actually 2 songs on that album that I think would fit Ashcroft's bill better - "State Of Shock" and "Torture"
This posting can only confirm what we've secretly known all along:
ATRIOS IS MICHAEL JACKSON
Chris
Bush associate to head Iraqi business efforts
President George W. Bush has chosen a businessman who is a personal friend and a leading Republican fundraiser to rescue the failing Iraqi corporate sector.
http://news.ft.com/servlet/Conte...agename=FT.com/
StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059478807151&
p=1012571727088
websurfing includes: Salon.com first because I pay for it. Then (in no particular order) this site, CNN.com, BBC news, NY Times, Daily Howler, Tom Tomorrow, possibly Counterspin Central, BuzzFlash, Common Dreams, Romanesko's sites, Greg Palast, Howard Dean's official blog, Drudge Report. Occasionally: BartCop, ABC News, Memory Hole, Mother Jones, Smoking Gun. These are just the political-related websites I frequent, I do look at shopping and entertainment websites on occasion.
Note to Tomato -
Farner sighting here on LI a couple of weeks back. A friend of mine went to see one of what are called 'has-been nights' in some circles - Leslie West, Foghat, and Mark Farner's Grand Funk Railroad. (For the record - my friend said Foghat sucked, with only one member of the old band, and Leslie's got Corky Laing playing with him and rocked like the days of old).
He said it was Farner and two other guys, he's a born-again but kept the Gawd talk to a minimum (but DID say it was time to bring the troops home!), and that he and his band were stunningly good.
So there ya go. Mark Farner, coming to a small venue near you, prolly.
hey oops here's mine:
at least once everyday:
dKos
Atrios
Buzzflash
BBC
MarketWatch.com
StarTribune.com
TulsaWorld.com
frequently:
TalkingPointsMemo.com
Billmon
DU
the mighty BartCop
Digby
The thing that gets me about Arnold and the support he is getting from the Right is that six months ago, when folks like Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover were speaking out against the war, virtually every media mogul in the land mocked them for overstepping their bounds as entertainers. But now that there will likely be a vacancy in California, all these Righties are saying "Arnold's the best man for this job." Huh?
Can I get anyone else to share the outrage over this article about junk food companies lying about their market to children?
hey BC, read Fast Food Nation by Schlosser
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido...=books&
n=507846
more food industry outrage for ya.
They use their tongues to deceive,
The venom of snakes is under their lips,
Their mouths are full of bitterness and curses,
And in their paths nothing but ruin and misery,
The fear of God is not before their eyes,
They have taken the hearts and minds of our leaders,
They have recruited the rich and the powerful,
And they have blinded us to the truth,
Our human spirit is corrupted,
Why do we worship greed?
Because, outside they limit of our sight, feeding on us,
Perched on top us from birth to death,
Are our owners, our owners,
They have us,
They control us,
They are our masters,
WAKE UP!
They are all about you, all around you
-Street Preacher in John Carpenter's "They Live"
I'm glad Gore and Move On got together. That's a good sign.
Okay,which one of you liberals poked a hole in my tin foil hat?
I start the day with:
Eschaton
The Dumbya Chronicles
The Horse
Bartcop
San Franciso Chronicle
The Guardian
The Mirror
BBC International
The foreboding in Gore's NYU speech was awesome. Made you realize how crazy New York City is going to get with Bush and the Repuglicans coming next year. The GOP could do New York City a favor and stay away. And get this, W's theme is going to be the "bring 'em on" campaign. What will Karl think of next?
The GOP could do New York City a favor and stay away
Any actual> New Yorkers who come within 15 miles of the GOP Convention will be shot on sight, I'm sure. And the irony of it all will be lost on the nation.
New Yorkers are getting ready already: RNC Not Welcome
The GOP convention will be one for the history books. The opposition will be heard, whether Rove likes it or not.
Lotta love for our Muslim brothers…
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-b...73605-
2780r.htm
Excerpt from the article: Ann Coulter, Professional Smartass
By John Bloom
UPI Reporter-at-Large
NEW YORK, Aug. 6 (UPI)
'American citizens' were getting a little tiresome. The implication was that librarians in Boise, Idaho, were at risk of being thrown in jail as enemy combatants at any moment. Yes, technically, by law, Yasser Esam Hamdi and Jose Padilla were 'American citizens.' Talibanist John Walker Lindh was an 'American citizen,' and shoe bomber Richard Reid was a 'British citizen.' But then you'd see the AP photo and it was always a picture of some orangutan."
That one really did snap my head back, I told her. "I know exactly what sentence you're talking about, because that was the biggest fight with my editor. Normally what he does is remove my punch lines on the manuscript, and then I go put them back in. But look at the pictures! Long hair, unkempt, unshaven -- orangutan! It has nothing do with race."
In the Bill of Rights, does it say anywhere, "American Citizen"?
Either you hold these truths to be self evident, or you do not.
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/p...ojects/baghdad/
Bad day
Helicopters are flying close tonight. I can hear the whump whump of the propellers concuss on the windows as they pass by. They are buzzing our building every five minutes; probably because some hours ago, in broad daylight, resistance fighters blew up a humvee right outside the Rabiya, our hotel. Thankfully we were attending a press conference at the Iraqi Forum and listening to General Sanchez, commander of forces here in Iraq, talk about the attack on the Jordanian Embassy earlier, which killed 12 people and injured scores. Coming back from the conference, we find several blocks of Karada Kharij closed off, guarded by tanks and armored cars while choppers circle overhead. Clouds of smoke are coming from somewhere up the street, but we aren't sure exactly from where. What the hell is going on? Is it our building that's on fire? We wonder. I have that sinking feeling in my stomach -- more like plummeting, really -- and for once it's not the food we've eaten: We have read tons about the attacks on U.S. troops of course and we drive by the places they have occurred daily. But now they have fallen on our doorstep.
A soldier at the blockade tells Adam the road wouldn't be clear for a couple hours but he won't tell him what happened. Feeling helpless, we move on. At the Hamra Hotel some two miles away, we try to call our hotel, but it's busy. Adam visits the AP guys in their hotel room office. They are "in the thick of it," he says. What they hear is a humvee was completely destroyed in the attack, with two soldiers dead and another without a kneecap. We have a beer at the Hamra cafe with another journalist who was just at the other scene -- the Jordanian Embassy bombing -- which is across town from our hotel. He said he saw smoking car parts 300 yards away from the blast site. That's how he could tell it was a car bomb. In addition to car parts and debris, he said he also stepped over a small girl's severed head on his way to the grisly scene at the embassy.
We call our hotel and upon receiving word that the road is open, we drive back. Our driver/translator Abu Abdullah was right in saying over and over to us that no place is safe in Iraq, but even he didn't know how right he was. Karada is a place where many troops came and shopped. They had been relaxing their guard a bit as they did so, interacting with the shop owners and exchanging jokes with the Iraqi kids who would gather in droves to talk to them. As we pull in front of Rabiya, we see the twisted, upturned concrete on the median where the humvee had been. Some windows of the hotel lobby have been broken, most likely by the impact of the blast. In the lobby, we talk to an eyewitness. His name is Mohammed, a driver for the military contractors who are staying in the apartment above ours. He tells us that the rebels put an IED in a flowerpot and used a remote control to detonate the bomb. The blast sent the vehicle
http://
turningtables.blogspot.co...es_archive.html
i hope they find nuclear missile silos filled with i.c.b.m.'s spouting steam and gas from their sides...i hope we find chemical factories filled with barrels of mustard gas and nerve toxins...i hope we uncover all the banned weapons that we said were here...i hope we find it all...every last bit...then all of this will have served a glorious purpose that no one can argue with...and we were over here doing the right thing...i need to feel that...i need to know that i helped unplug a dangerous beast before it striked...i need to know that for all those that have died their deaths were not in vain...i need to know that we have prevented horrendous events from transpiring...and i want all of this to go down in history as 'the right thing to do'...but for that to take place there are still a lot of things that need to happen...
i'm here because i was ordered to be here...that is my reason...my sole reason...my personal feelings mean nothing...i was not asked...and i will not be asked...i'm cool with that...because i don't work in a democracy...i work for one...
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/
p...00993.html#more
August 08, 2003
Images
I.
A man who works downstairs tells me this morning over sweat tea and bread that he rushed two Iraqis to the hospital after the humvee exploded in front of our apartment yesterday. He witnessed the whole scene and was interviewed by TV news, Al Arabiya. He tells me he saw two American soldiers who had their legs severed from the blast. This image stays with him. Other witnesses have their own images. The AP photographer I spoke to yesterday said a soldier had his knee cap blown off. A San Francisco journalist still had the image of the severed head of a little girl from the Jordanian Embassy car-bomb, as he drank his tonic water and laughed uncomfortably in the Al Hamra cafe. Graham, the Getty Photographer, and his wife, "She's a shooter too, man," had their images, but they weren't talking about them. He was lounging poolside. His wife was swimming. He was waiting to order beer. "He's fuckin' lyin' man," when I ask him about the little girl's head. "I didn't see anything like that." But other reporters saw the same scene, the detail about the little girl was written into Reuters and AP stories. The war photographer doesn't believe the image. He sent his images back to London. They were already in circulation on the web, would be in tomorrow's newspapers. "This is what we come here for man," he said.
II.
Two days ago we were in Al Waiya children's hospital, talking to a man whose son stopped eating just after the U.S. bombed Baghdad during the first Gulf War. The son was 6 months old at the time. Now 13, the boy, Shwakat is totally wasted. His skin is a powdery white, his eyes are rolled into the back of his head, his bony hands are like dead crabs on his chest. His father spoons him milk from a small glass, then squeezes his nose to get him to swallow. The father is haggared, has the face of a drunk too many years in the gutter. He wears a wool, grey glove on one hand, the hand holding the milk. He's angry at the U.S. for bombing, he's angry at Saddam, at his sons, who starved the people of Iraq. The boy wheezes when he breathes. Like a weak, boy Christ he bleeds from his ankles. He wears diapers. He's epileptic the doctor informs us. He has permanent brain damage. I could post the photographs, but their affect is numbing, too real, or not real enough. In life, he looks like the worst suffering boy, a horror. In the photographs, he looks like a puppet created in a Hollywood studio.
Hey bird dog, didn't your momma ever tell you that if an organization has the word "Freedom" in its title, it's a probably a front for the CIA, or for some wacky-ass right-wing dictator the US likes to impose on third world countries? Get with the program, already.
Empires will always crumble. The issue is how much suffering they cause in a) becoming an empire, and b) denying that their time has passed.
The US has failed to progress on a path of enlightenment; instead being hijacked by violent, primitive thinkers leading the country to wallow in false glory: past, present, and fantasized future.
OOPS:
I surely take your meaning, but it extends to me. I guess I don't see the relevance of this thread for me.
Irony alert: Of course I do; it's just that I'd read more stuff in three or four semi-structured threads than in this free-for-all. Ah, nuance!
Here's my day:
I hit Tom Tomorrow's "This Modern World" links page for:
Altercation
Atrios
TPM
My home page for:
WorkingAssests/WorkingForChange
Cursor.org (occasional)
NYT OpEd (often) Oooh! Today is Friday! Gotta go check in on the Shrill One......
Thanks for sharing daily sites.
next question
Has anyone else stopped watching ALL television news, and just using internet news?
I got so tired of the lies, and the gf got tired of me yelling at the tv, that I stopped ALL tv news. Even C-SPAN.
I found I was more informed than waht was passing for " news" on television.
I even only read the semi-local, largest big city near me, paper on Sunday ( keeping up with Prince Valiant).
Anyway, for me it has been about eight to ten months, since I last watched, or listened ( unless you are trapped in the car with nothing else) to media news.
Withdrawal from TV news has been tough for me.
The All-Chandra all-the-time, except for shark attack mentality made me crazy. Then there was the "abducted" girl in Utah. I found myself (also) yelling at the TV, "It's NOT NEWS!"
Then the run-up to war made me watch Powell in the three rings of our cable news circus.
About a week into the war I could bear FoxNews no longer. At that point they simply never ever made any sense to me.
I just had a two-week vacation and did not miss CNN or MSNBC at all. I'll watch Olbermann if the remote control button sticks. Otherwise I throw things at the TV until the channel changes.
The NewsHour on PBS and NOW with Bill Moyers are programmed into my TiVo.
Oh yeah, did I mention that I gave up all local news a decade ago?
And there are great ink-and-paper sources out there: The Nation, The Progressive, Harper's (not strictly political, but worth the cover price for Lewis Lapham), the Hightower Lowdown....
Sites I check regularly are:
Here
The Chicago Sun Times
This Modern World
Working for Change
Not the NYT op-ed page so much since I have a subscription.
I should also ask how many people use Newsgroups? Or belong to e-mail, news groups ( I can't recall the term now, but they are essentially newsgroups shared via e-mail instead of through a server)
Maybe to refine the question a bit, other than websites, where else on the net do you get information?
Thanks
I just caught the beginnings of the evening news. CBS led with Bali, Baghdad, and Afghanistan. NBC
& ABC led with...yep, Swarzeneggar.
Sad. Frustrating. Stupid.
Thursday morning ABC led with The Zero-Term-inator, second story was two US soldiers dead in Iraq and the Jordanian embassy car-bombed.
Add "irresponsible" to that list of adjectives, please.
Wha'cha gonna do when the West Nile Virus comes for you?
My regular surfing destinations
Atrios
dKos
MWO
Bartcop
Tbogg
Salon
cnn
TalkingPointsMemo
Neal Pollack
SomethingAwful.com
The Onion - every wednesday
Strongbad - Every monday
All time favorites! I'd also HIGHLY recommend:
Satre's cookbook
http://pvspade.com/Sartre/cookbook.html
Things my girlfriend and I have argued about:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mil...ton/
things.html
For sale by mental patient:
http://www.total.net/~fishnet/
The best page in the universe:
http://maddox.xmission.com/
My regular surfing destinations
Atrios
dKos
MWO
Bartcop
Tbogg
Salon
cnn
TalkingPointsMemo
Neal Pollack
SomethingAwful.com
The Onion - every wednesday
Strongbad - Every monday
All time favorites! I'd also HIGHLY recommend:
Satre's cookbook
http://pvspade.com/Sartre/cookbook.html
Things my girlfriend and I have argued about:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mil...ton/
things.html
For sale by mental patient:
http://www.total.net/~fishnet/
The best page in the universe:
http://maddox.xmission.com/
television news - oxymoron alert!
>What sites does everyone start their news day with?
http://www.antiwar.com/
http://www.democracynow.org/
http://www.flashpoints.net/
http://news.bcc.co.uk/
http://www.sfgate.com/
THis website is filled with criticism of the President of the United States, and it's terribly unfair. The President of the United States never lied about Iraq. He never tried to get us into war with Iraq. The President of the United States never proposed large tax cuts for the rich, and he never appointed ex-felons like John Poindexter to positions of authority in the government.
Al Gore is completely blameless on all these points. Let's remember that the next time someone criticizes the President of hte United States...as opposed to the squatter who currently illegally occupies the White House, in the manner of transients who illegally occupy condemned buildings in Britain in the desperate hope that sheer length of stay will somehow make their occuption of the property legal.
George W. Bush is not the President of the United States. He's an unelected drunk-driving cokehead who happens to command the junta currently occupying the Executive Branch. The elected President of the United States gave a fine speech this Thursday, ctiticizing the junta commandant, and we shouldn't blame the President for not trying to take back the White House from the squatters by force. They'll be evicted in due time, when 2004 rolls around.
I'm with you. I always use the phrase "former governer Bush" or "the former governer of Texas, George Bush" or words to that effect.
Personally, I just like living in the real world and using real language.
Sites I surf everyday, in no particular order:
Salon
Drudge
Romenesko
Lileks
Horse
Buzzflash
Atrios
OpinionJournal
NRO
WeeklyStandard
Page3
Altercation
NYT
WP
Wired
ChicagoTrib
LAT
NYP
CNN
MSNBC
FoxNews
CBSNews
USAT
WSJ [the only one I pay for]
CBSMarketWatch
FuckedCompany
ZDNetNews
Various Weather Sites
Most Days (in addition):
ChiSun-Times
Milwaukee-JS
San Diego UT
Barrons [comes with WSJ sub]
TheStreet [free stuff only]
Village Voice
Reason
Once In A While:
The Nation
New Republic [rarely since they started charging]
Many Other Metro Newspapers
Every Wednesday:
NYP
Onion
NYO
Not Any More:
Rittenhouse
Progressive
FrontPage
TomPaine
In other words: I spend way too much time on this stuff! I'm a news junkie, I guess.
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