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Facing Reality (aka The Writing on the Wall)
There's much discussion underway in the blogosphere and in the media on the use of the term civil war to describe the violence in Iraq in the mainstream news media. ![humpty_dumpty[1].jpg](http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/humpty_dumpty[1].jpg)
NBC applied the term yesterday on the Today Show and in its nightly news broadcast--after much editorial forethought.
The conclusion that the sectarian violence in Iraq was a civil war is not new. It was drawn over five months ago by Monica Duffy Toft for the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. It was confirmed through the scrutiny of six questions identifying the players, their roles and the type of conflict for this country. And the blogosphere has been saying the same thing for the last three years. Check out Steve Gilliard's 2003 post on Daily Kos (hattip to Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake for the heads up).
The use of the term civil war has raised serious red flags in the White House, who are now engaged in a full fledged jihad against the use of the term. The mission: to keep all ten fingers and toes in the holes of the leaking seawall of fact. Yesterday, in the face of the use of the term civil war, the President blinked, and instead of seeing or acknowledging the writing on the wall, today, he just saw the wall.
It's interesting to watch the twists and turns of the bubble reality and acrobatic contortions of the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Set as they encounter this new concept called reality. How much more reality will it take before it's acknowledged and something can be done? How can we allow one more American or Iraqi to die for a mistake when a mistake can't even be recognized?
http://www.epluribusmedia.org/columns/2006/20061122_last_laugh.html
Related - on the role of comedy in the media re elections - what is acceptable to talk about, and laugh about
Snakes - The Architects of War - Where are they now?
http://thinkprogress.org/the-architects-where-are-they-now/
Name that neocon - doesn't Abrams look diabolical?!
Dangerous plan
After the mid-term elections and weeks of adulation of the Baker Iraq Study Group, the only question seems to be how and when we get out of Iraq. But today's Times provides the first sign of the counter-attack by White House Cheney-ites who want to stay Iraq forever and find new rationales for the conflict that point to escalation rather than withdrawal. Unnamed administration/officials are telling the New York Times that Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia backed by Iran, is training members of Moktada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, the most powerful and rejectionist Shia militia in Iraq. Whether the particular charge is true or not, I can't tell you, though the credibility of the source speaks for itself. But watch this new debate and line of reasoning develop. Because this is the new argument for permanent deployment in Iraq: we can't leave because the battle there is really a proxy war against Iran.
Josh Marshall - Talking Points Memo
The article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/28/world/middleeast/28military.html?hp&ex=1164776400&en=62594e5a560b87cf&ei
which could be used as justification for fighting Hezbollah, fighting against Iran, staying in Iraq, 'defending Israel' etc. - I can't imagine we have the personnel, equipment etc. - not to mention what it would do to our standing in the world
Tricky
Jason Leopold:
DOJ Probes NSA Spying, Democrats Suspicious
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806Z.shtml
The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General announced Monday that it will immediately launch a probe into the agency's involvement with the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program, raising suspicions among Democrats, who believe the timing of the investigation is an attempt by the Bush administration to circumvent Congressional hearings into the issue when they assume control of the House in January.
circumvent - they do it alot
Bush? Presidential library?
His dad already has an Airport - complete with a statue of himself reading a book - posed like the Statue of David in Florence - same lighting and configuration. I saw it, on my way to Paris where I saw the Egyptian Pharoah, Louis XIV, Napolian self-tributes right after & knew what they were up to!
from http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Comedy writers all across America have been buoyed by news that President Bush is looking to raise half-a-billion dollars to build his legacy-burnishing presidential library. The punchlines write themselves: What's it going to house, 100,000 copies of The Pet Goat? Will there be exhibits on waterboarding and the quaintness of the Geneva Conventions? A room devoted to the nobility of the Hanging Chad? The Abu Ghraib Game Room? But it's no joke that the names of donors to the library don't have to be made public. Bush 43 may be a lame duck, but he still has two years left in which he can throw open the doors of the White House favor bank. Whatever happened to the concept of government transparency?
One thing the Democrats need to do:
Contractors Face More Scrutiny, Pinched Purses
Democrats Vow to Examine Large Deals
After riding high for five years, government contractors are bracing themselves for increased oversight, tighter budgets and stepped-up regulations as Democrats take over on Capitol Hill and vow to keep a closer eye on how companies spend taxpayer dollars.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/27/AR2006112701286.html?nav=rss_politics
They're more likely to leave if there is less money to be made.
Great Moments in Daily Show Writing
(from Atrios, also seen on Crooks and Liars)
Stewart: Certainly from an Iraqi perspective, what this is called makes no difference.
Oliver: Oh, really? If you have lost a loved one in this conflict, and statistically if you're an Iraqi you have, wouldn't you rather know it wasn't in a Civil War but rather a territorial arglebargle of regional qualms?
Stewart: 3,000 Iraqis died just this month. To argue over what to call it seems like semantic quibbling.
Oliver: Semantic quibbling? Oh, well, I wouldn't call it that.
Stewart: What would you call it?
Oliver: A minor linguistic flareup between two parties of different terminological points of view.
Stewart: It's really the same thing.
Oliver: It's "same-ey." For now let's agree to disagree on how we state our agreements. Agreed?
http://www.commentisfree.guardian.co.uk
Beyond the brink
While politicians and large sections of the media are still reluctant to admit it, Iraq appears to be in the throes of civil war already.
Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, has become the latest public figure to warn that Iraq is teetering on the brink of civil war: "In fact," he said, "we are almost there."
Less than 24 hours earlier, the king of Jordan said in a TV interview: "We could possibly imagine going into 2007 and having three civil wars on our hands," the three being Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
There is an understandable reluctance on the part of politicians and large sections of the media to admit that civil war has broken out in Iraq. Instead they continue talking about "fears" of civil war and how it might be averted, but as far as most political scientists are concerned it's a civil war already.
Take this more-or-less standard definition from Wikipedia:
A civil war is a war in which parties within the same culture, society or nationality fight for political power or control of an area. Political scientists use two criteria: the warring groups must be from the same country and fighting for control of the political centre, control over a separatist state or to force a major change in policy. The second criteria is that at least 1,000 people must have been killed in total, with at least 100 from each side.
By that measure, Iraq is not only in the throes of any civil war but one of the bloodiest in recent history.
"It's stunning; it should have been called a civil war a long time ago, but now I don't see how people can avoid calling it a civil war," Nicholas Sambanis, a political scientist at Yale university told the New York Times the other day. "The level of violence is so extreme that it far surpasses most civil wars since 1945."
Some people might argue that this is just a matter of semantics: violence is violence, whether you call it a civil war or not. The point, though, is that being honest about the nature of the conflict helps us to see its true nature more clearly - and possibly to have a better idea of what might be done about it.
(lots more at the link)
Thought you all might enjoy this one from Tom Tomorrow at This Modern World...
http://thismodernworld.com/3359
Confirming the obvious …
Anyone who’s spent any time reading right wing blogs already understood this to be true:
Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.
Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse’s explanation.
“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says. “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”
The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on.
The study used Modified General Assessment Functioning, or MGAF, a 100-point scale that measures the functioning of disabled patients. A second scale, developed by Rakfeldt, was also used. Knowledge of current issues, government and politics were assessed on a 12-item scale devised by the study authors.
“Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry,” the study says.
-----------
The complete article from which Tom took the above excerpt can be found here...
http://www.ctnow.com/custom/nmm/newhavenadvocate/hce-nha-1123-nh48bushbash48.artnov23,0,1695911.story
dwahzon:
That confirms what we already knew.
Here's another: BLOVIATION 101
Limbaugh on Middle East: "Fine, just blow the place up"
On the November 27 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, in response to claims made by King Abdullah II of Jordan on the November 26 edition of ABC's This Week that "we could possibly imagine going into 2007 and having three civil wars on our hands," Rush Limbaugh said: "[W]ell, let's just have them. Let's just have the civil wars ... because I'm just fed up with this." Limbaugh then asserted: "Fine, just blow the place up. Just let these natural forces take place over there instead of trying to stop them." Additionally, Limbaugh claimed: "[E]verbody comes to us. ... So we go and try to fix it and our own people, Democrats and the left in our country do their best to sabotage our efforts, and then we get blamed for trying to clean up the messes that these people start."
According to Talkers magazine, The Rush Limbaugh Show reaches more than 13.5 million listeners each week, the largest talk radio audience in the nation.
From the November 27 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: So anyway, [This Week host George] Stephanopoulos asks King Abdullah II of Jordan if this is the case:
ABDULLAH [audio clip]: George, the difficulty that we're tackling with here is we're juggling with the strong potential of three civil wars in the region. Whether it's the Palestinians of Lebanon or of Iraq, and I hope my discussions at least with the president --
LIMBAUGH: [heavy sigh]
ABDULLAH [audio clip]: -- will be to provide whatever we can do for the Iraqi people, but the same time we do want to concentrate ourselves on the core issues which we believe are the Palestinians and the Palestinian peace process, because that is a must today --
LIMBAUGH: Oh, give me a break.
ABDULLAH [audio clip]: -- as well as the tremendous concern we have had over the last several days with what's happening in Lebanon. And we could possibly imagine going into 2007 and having three civil wars on our hands.
LIMBAUGH: All right, well, let's just have them. Let's just have the civil wars and let the crumbs crumble and the cookie crumble where -- because I'm fed up with this. The Palestinian situation -- for 50 years we've had the Palestinian situation, and it's not going to be solved until the Limbaugh Doctrine is imposed or tried. And that is, this is a war, and until somebody loses it, it isn't going to stop. And now, you know, we've done everything we can to make Lebanon a democracy, and it's crumbling because Syria keeps killing the popular leaders there. Meanwhile, the Hezbos [Hezbollah] keep expanding their influence in Lebanon.
But what the hell! We're going to bring Syria and Iran in to fix Iraq, why not let them just fix the whole region? If we're heading to civil war -- I mean, everybody comes to us: "You got to fix this and you got to fix that." So we go and try to fix it, and our own people, Democrats and the left in our country do their best to sabotage our efforts, and then we get blamed for trying to clean up the messes that these people start. And then they come on our television show: "[Gibberish] George [gibberish] civil war [gibberish] we gotta do something. Palestinians it's a must, it's a must, we must [gibberish] right now [gibberish] war."
Fine, just blow the place up. Just let these natural forces take place over there instead of trying to stop them, instead of trying to use -- I just -- sometimes natural force is going to happen. You're going to have to let it take place. You can spend all the time you like with diplomacy, and you can spend all the time you want massaging these things with diplomatic -- you're just -- you're just delaying the inevitable.
Hey, now... Wendy From Oz, aka 'woz', who posts here from time to time, In Real Life is named Wendy Lohse.
Coincidence? Conspiracy? You make the call... *ahem*
one never knows do one,
Otter
Limbaugh .. how did someone so stupid ever get a forum?
How is it that he's taken so seriously the Vice President has gone on his program? It's a complete embarrassment. My math says 1 in 24 people listens to his show in this country. (13.5 million rounded into 300 million) So he's touching some sick nerve. Either something's wrong with our educational system or something. It unfathomable.
Posted by: DiAnne at November 28, 2006 03:18 PM
It's actually not that unfathomable. I have no trouble whatsoever believing there are at least 13 million abjectly blind followers of evil in this country.
No Chide Left Behind
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."
—- H. L. Mencken
Here's an article from the Washington Times that's getting a great deal of coverage in the winger blogs but not in left blogistan.
[...]
Passengers and flight attendants told law-enforcement officials the imams switched from their assigned seats to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks -- two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin.
"That would alarm me," said a federal air marshal who asked to remain anonymous. "They now control all of the entry and exit routes to the plane."
A pilot from another airline said: "That behavior has been identified as a terrorist probe in the airline industry."
[...]
According to witnesses, police reports and aviation security officials, the imams displayed other suspicious behavior.
Three of the men asked for seat-belt extenders, although two flight attendants told police the men were not oversized. One flight attendant told police she "found this unsettling, as crew knew about the six [passengers] on board and where they were sitting." Rather than attach the extensions, the men placed the straps and buckles on the cabin floor, the flight attendant said.
The imams said they were not discussing politics and only spoke in English, but witnesses told law enforcement that the men spoke in Arabic and English, criticizing the war in Iraq and President Bush, and talking about al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
The imams who claimed two first-class seats said their tickets were upgraded. The gate agent told police that when the imams asked to be upgraded, they were told no such seats were available. Nevertheless, the two men were seated in first class when removed.
A flight attendant said one of the men made two trips to the rear of the plane to talk to the imam during boarding, and again when the flight was delayed because of their behavior. Aviation officials, including air marshals and pilots, said these actions alone would not warrant a second look, but the combination is suspicious.
"That's like shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater. You just can't do that anymore," said Robert MacLean, a former air marshal.
-----------
The complete story is here...
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061128-122902-7522r.htm
I do have to argue with the headline editor who went for sensationalism and I take the Washington Times with a grain of salt at all times but presuming the story here is corroborated by other media sources, then the US Airways crew did act prudently.
Otter - I did a double take there. At least Lohse was the researcher and not the researched. But here is one nut case who wouldn't have voted for the little dictator - no matter how definite and ordered and neat he was. Hell, I didn't vote for our little dictator here.
I'm happy to note this morning that the Americans are taking on our government over the AWB fiasco. Our government did its own designated probe into the scandal and wrote the terms of reference to ensure that no government official could possibly be accused or tainted in any way. And the PM cheers loudly that the Cole Report has vindicated the government. How dumb are we supposed to be these days?
For those who may not know it - the Australian Wheat Board has been accused (from within and without) and individuals face criminal charges over bribes paid to them by Saddam Hussein's regime during the "Oil For Food" program.
Our government was either a bunch of kindergarteners who couldn't work out what was happening when alerts were being raised from far and wide across the world. Too hard. It would have meant that at least one of them had read his/her own mail.
Incompentence? Negligence? Corruption? On the part of the Australian Government? Nahh, says our peacock-prancing PM - total innocence - the Cole Report proves our innocence.
Thanks Otter - good to laugh at this hour of the morning. I think.... And it's good to make a wild leap of faith that those of us who vote the other way are completely sane and intelligent. I can spend today feeling self-righteous and mentally healthy!
I can spend today feeling self-righteous and mentally healthy!
Posted by: woz at November 28, 2006 03:51 PM
Pass that down, or up, as it were.
I Brake For Pacifists
This is a pretty clear outline of the AWB/Saddam Hussein kick-back scheme. Hopefully your politicians will make good on the threat to investigate the Australian Government's passive acceptance of all that was going on.
Here's the article.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/awb-faces-13b-lawsuit/2006/11/29/1164476240415.html
AWB faces $1.3b lawsuit
November 29, 2006 - 7:26AM
A potential $1.3 billion-plus class action lawsuit by American farmers against the AWB will likely be filed in the US in coming weeks, the US lawyer leading the case said today.
If the lawsuit is successful, all farmers in the US hurt by the Australian wheat exporter's illegal dealings with Saddam Hussein's former Iraqi government could be compensated.
L. Palmer Foret, a Washington DC-based lawyer, said the damages could exceed $US1 billion ($1.29 billion).
The legal move followed the release of this week's damning Cole Commission report into the AWB's corrupt payments of $290 million in kickbacks to the Hussein regime.
Mr Foret said he had examined the Cole report and described it as "very helpful" for the class-action lawsuit.
"It's got a wealth of information in it," Mr Foret said today.
The lawsuit was originally filed in the US Federal Court in Washington DC earlier this year, but Mr Foret said it was withdrawn so the legal team could examine the Cole report.
"Quite frankly we knew the Cole Commission report was coming out and even though I think we knew what it was going to say, we wanted to see that," he said.
"The lawsuit will be re-filed, I hope, by the end of the year."
The lawsuit originally represented six farmers from Kansas and Virginia, but the legal team requested it be certified a class-action suit so that all US farmers who lost money be compensated.
The suit did not request a specific dollar figure in damages if successful, but Mr Mr Foret said it could exceed $US1 billion.
"All the wheat farmers in the US, and probably other countries too for that matter, they all lost business under the UN program that the AWB got as a result of their illegal activities," Mr Foret said.
"There is no doubt there was criminal activity ongoing by the AWB with the payment of the money to the Iraqi government as a result they got practically an exclusive marketing right,"
The lawsuit is just one adverse reaction in the US to the release of the Cole report, with US politicians calling for fresh investigations into the AWB scandal.
Mr Foret congratulated the Cole Commission on its report.
"Obviously it's an excellent report," the lawyer said.
"Commissioner Cole did an excellent job and basically says what the AWB was up to."
AAP
Fe - that Limbaugh drongo (good aussie word that) - do people really pay attention to him? He seems worse than our most outspoken bigots - well, no - we've got Allan Jones. A radio broadcaster - in hate - not religious hate - all-encompassing hate.
Anyone who doesn't still believe that there is racism today should turn on the Ed Schultz today and listen to some of the callers' comments about Tom Tancredo's comments about Miami being a third world country. Several of the callers have used language that we heard back in the 1950s stereotyping minorites. Its amazing that these attitudes have become fashionable once again in the last 6 years and shows how much real damage that has been done to this country. I love listening to Ed Schultz but sometimes feel that he goes too far trying to be fair with his callers and allowing that kind of garbage on the air without cutting them off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_words
'nuff said,
Otter
Report says EU govts knew of CIA prisons
November 29, 2006 - 7:44AM
© 2006 AP DIGITAL
http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Report-says-EU-govts-knew-of-CIA-prisons/2006/11/29/1164476240783.html
Am watching James Earl Carter being interviewed by Tweety's lame stand-in on MSNBC even as we type. Tarnation, but that man still impresses the heck out of me. (Mr. Carter, that is, not the lame Tweety stand-in.)
Homeowners Association OKs Peace Wreath
http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/homeowners-association-oks-peace-wreath/20061128070109990002?ncid=NWS00010000000001
http://www.dailykos.com - top now
San Francisco Values
by kos
Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 01:03:52 PM PST
Did you hear that O'Reilly invented the slur "San Francisco values"? Yeah, he also thinks he invented sliced bread and fire.
But let's talk about "San Francisco values", you know -- tolerance, entrepreneurship, and creativity.
Since O'Reilly boycotts everything he hates, I look forward to his boycott of all Bay Area-origin products. Same with every conservative who bashes San Francisco and the Bay Area. So no iPods or anything Apple. No HP computers. No Google. No Yahoo. No eBay. Those conservative bloggers using Blogspot, MovableType, or TypePad? Sorry. Those products are Bay Area-based.
Also no Adobe or Macromedia products. No computers, either, since most run on AMD or Intel. No tax preparation using Intuit products. Cancel your Netflix subscription. Cancel your TiVo subscription. Remove your Network Associates or Symantec virus protection software from your computer. Unplug your Netgear wifi router.
Don't wear Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, or buy your kids Gymboree. Avoid LeapFrog learning toys. Boycott Pixar movies. Boycott any movie using George Lucas' ILM special effects shop. Stay away from Treos and other Palm devices. Don't let Charles Schwab manage your portfolio. Don't bank at Wells Fargo.
Yeah, those "San Francisco values" sure are dragging the region down. Making it weak as it falls behind the rest of the country -- the parts that don't share "San Francisco values" -- economically and socially.
Or, maybe -- just maybe -- it's made the region a magnet for the world's smartest, most innovative, most entrepreneurial individuals and an incubator of the world's most dramatic technological advances.
Aussie word - drongo
In dingo land, the bloke who said "arstuffit, let's bury the bastard right here in the middle of the road" came to be cursed by many a traveller as "who was the stupid bloody drongo who thought this one up?"
www.mining-australia.com/drongo.htm+drongo&hl=en&gl=au&ct=clnk&cd=4
predictions allegedly from a member of the Iraq study group
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/28/102252/39
I heard president Carter endorsed Gore for 08. I don't think he cares for the Clinton's that much.
What are the positives and negatives about Hilary Clinton? And how do you feel about Gore?
Yeesh. I got a bad paw. Please don't ask me to discourse about what's wrong with Hillary Clinton as an '08 candidate, I can't type that much.
woz -
Hillary's only mildly criticized DimWit's war in Iraq, and she's too middle-to-right leaning for many Dems. She hasn't come out against the Iraq war, and that's a sticking point. [I used to like her when she was First Lady, when she had a Medicare plan. I no longer favor Hillary because she has favored DimWit's war in Iraq.]
Plus which, our way-too-flaming-right-wing Lamestream Media shoves Hillary down our throats every week as a potential '08 prez candidate, they've done so for years, as have right-wingnuttia pundits, and they use the threat of her candidacy as a scare tactic. I'm not quite sure why they dislike her, but they do want her as a candidate (other than she's the wife of Bill Clinton, the most well-liked ex-president, with the exception of Jimmy Carter), if only to prove she can be defeated soundly and keep neoCons in charge of the executive branch of government, passing on the dictatorial rule of the Bu$hites. There's just too much misogyny in this country to accept a woman as president for the time being.
Oh, and I think Gore's already said he won't run. He's moved on to other things, notably environmental issues, his strong point.
Since both Gore and Kerry "lost" in questionable elections to that monstrous idiot whose IQ is lower than a rock, and neither one put up much of a fuss about their losses at the time, I doubt either one would be accepted by many Dems in '08.
I think the Dems are going to have to look for fresh blood for the '08 presidential election cycle, someone who hasn't run before.
Bush Says US Won't Pull Out of Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806A.shtml
President Bush, under pressure to change direction in Iraq, said Tuesday that he will not be persuaded by any calls to withdraw American troops. Recent US elections added fuel to the argument from Democrats that US soldiers need to come home. But Bush has resisted that, even while projecting the need for a different approach.
{{{What is "the mission" in Iraq? What's DimWit's definition of "victory?" How can there be a victory since the invasion of Iraq was a war crime? All that vagueness.... Does anyone beside kool-aiders actually buy his propaganda any longer...?}}}
David Swanson | New Downing Street Memos From Down Under
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806C.shtml
David Swanson writes: "On February 27, 2002 - just five months after 15 Saudis, 2 Lebanese, and 2 Yemenis flew airplanes into US buildings - Trevor Flugge, who was then chairman of AWB, the Australian Wheat Board, a private corporation, told AWB's board that John Dauth, who was then Australia's ambassador to the United Nations, had revealed to Flugge the plans of the US and Australian governments for war on Iraq. Tragically for war profiteers everywhere, somebody took minutes of the meeting."
Nat Hentoff | What the Democrats Must Do
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806D.shtml
"The Congressional Democratic leadership, eager to start investigations into the failures and cover-ups of their Republican predecessors, have a list; but so far, the 'black sites' of the CIA are far from a priority. But the president - who gave the CIA 'special license' in 2002 to operate outside the law in kidnapping suspected terrorists and sending them to torture prisons abroad for interrogation - has already protected its interrogators with provisions he and Dick Cheney inserted into the Military Commissions Act of 2006," writes Nat Hentoff.
Supreme Court Rules Against NY Times in Leak Probe
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806G.shtml
The Supreme Court ruled against the New York Times on Monday, refusing to block the government from reviewing telephone records of two Times reporters in a leak investigation concerning a terrorism-funding probe.
NATO Strives to Mend Rift Over Its Future Role
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806E.shtml
NATO was struggling Monday to resolve differences between the United States and France over the future role of the military alliance at a time when it is facing a crucial test in Afghanistan.
Jeff Cohen | TV Blowhard Barks at Iran: Let's Hold CNN Accountable
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806H.shtml
Jeff Cohen writes: "How can we hold media leaders accountable - those talking heads and 'experts' and news executives who steamrolled us into war? How can we change the faces of those who speak for us in the media? We need a media consumers' revolt to match the voters' revolt. We must raise our voices to demand balance - and dissenting hosts and experts - on cable news and PBS and NPR and elsewhere."
{{{I saw a GMA segment this morning (not on purpose) with this idiotic Beck character. I threw something at my TV, but luckily it was soft so I didn't break anything.}}}
Nonny0,
What "fresh blood" are average voters interested in right now? Someone like Obama, Edwards, Clark, a governor like Richardson? It's understandable that some may be looking for a darkhorse candidate or someone to come out of nowhere (i.e. Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter)
Do you think the media will go easy on them? I hope I am being serious because if the "new blood" fresh face person hasn't figured out how the corporate media works, than it will be a struggle in 08.
NonnyO
I think you're right the Gore and Kerry or whoever the cheated-out-of-office candidate was should have put up a major fuss - the press would have tried to crucify them but maybe at least some of the public would have seen through it.
Mexico still has a parallel government because some of the disenfranchised in the south refuse to give in - not that they have much power but it's been months now.
The election is two years away - just can't imagine all the things that can happen between now and then.
Have been snowed and iced in today, which is unusual. We close at our clinic when the schools close. Am supposed to go to a buffet which I paid 50 bucks for but I think I'll just donate it (it's a benefit anyway) but I think I'll just sit here at the computer rather than drive on ice to eat a few shrimp.
Julian Borger of the Guardian weighs in on the topic of this thread. He's always assigned the US beat (has travelled with Bush on the campaign trail, been one of the first on Hurricane Katrina turf etc.) I enjoy it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1959479,00.html
I particularly like the end:
Howard Kurtz, media correspondent for the Washington Post, said the current dispute over the words "civil war" will ultimately be seen as equally irrelevant. "This is a sideshow," he said.
"Americans are smart and have already figured it out. Anyone with a TV set can see that something resembling a civil war is raging there."
Otter - I wouldn't want you to get RSI of the paw - got the message re Hilary. Read a 2005 Time online article by Joe Klein, which cleared it up pretty well.
NonnyO - that was my thinking - she must be too right-wing.
Some days I am so entertained by you guys. And it's free! Thanks.
And it's free! Thanks.
Posted by: woz at November 28, 2006 08:52 PM
Sure, it's free now, 'til someone loses an I.
Woz:
Have we told you lately that we love you?
just askin',
Otter
monkey:
Stop that! You'll put your I out!
yeah mom and timmy's down the well too,
Otter
methinks NonnyO is a closet-GMA watcher
COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- Wearing Superman pajamas and covered with his Batman blanket, comic book illustrator Dave Cockrum died Sunday.
The 63-year-old overhauled the X-Men comic and helped popularize the relatively obscure Marvel Comics in the 1970s. He helped turn the title into a publishing sensation and major film franchise.
Cockrum died in his favorite chair at his home in Belton, South Carolina, after a long battle with diabetes and related complications, his wife Paty Cockrum said Tuesday.
At Cockrum's request, there will be no public services and his body will be cremated, according to Cox Funeral Home. His ashes will be spread on his property. A family friend said he will be cremated in a Green Lantern shirt.
At Marvel Comics, Cockrum and writer Len Wein were handed the X-Men. The comic had been created in 1963 as a group of young outcasts enrolled in an academy for mutants. The premise had failed to capture fans.
Cockrum and Wein added their own heroes to the comic and published "Giant-Size X-Men No. 1" in 1975. Many signature characters Cockrum designed and co-created -- such as Storm, Mystique, Nightcrawler and Colossus -- went on to become part of the "X-Men" films starring Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry.
Cockrum received no movie royalties, said family friend Clifford Meth, who organized efforts to help Cockrum and his family during his protracted medical care.
"Dave saw the movie and he cried -- not because he was bitter," Meth said. "He cried because his characters were on screen and they were living."
Cockrum was born in Pendleton, Oregon, the son of an Air Force officer. He set aside his interest in art while serving in Vietnam for the U.S. Navy.
He moved to New York after leaving the service and got his big break in the early 1970s, drawing the Legion of Super-Heroes for DC Comics before moving to Marvel.
In January 2004, Cockrum moved to South Carolina after being hospitalized for bacterial pneumonia. As his diabetes progressed, his drawings became limited.
His last drawing was a sketch for a fan, who attended a small comic book convention in Greenville, Paty Cockrum said.
Meth said Cockrum will be remembered as "a comic incarnate."
"He had a genuine love for comics and for science fiction and for fantasy, and he lived in it," Meth said. "He loved his work."
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/28/comic.death.ap/index.html
Posted by: woz at November 28, 2006 04:38 PM
woz:
Unfortunately, ALOT of Americans listen to Rush, which is the reason why the conservative movement took root, just like how the blogosphere united progressives.
Rush was able to "dialogue" and create community amongst the backward, and we have seen a pinnacle of that community-building with the impeachment of Clinton, the bend-over-until-they-can-see-daylight-behind-them media, and then the selection of Dear Leader.
Posted by: Bubba at November 28, 2006 04:44 PM
bubba:
We shouldn't be surprised at the likes of a Coulter, Malkin, Glenn Beck, O'Reilly existing nowadays alongside the Tom Tancredos of the world. They have given each other and the country's bigoted, hate-filled, ignorant and intolerant permission to express themselves.
That kind of thing starts at the top and leaks downward. Bush, Norquist, and the croney lot of them.
I knew something was up back in the late 1990's when there was talk about "compassion fatigue" and the constant backlash against being "politically correct". It was when we let it happen to the institutions that were fought for in the battle for Civil Rights, that the American Unenlightenment Movement found force.
Posted by: monkey at November 28, 2006 09:08 PM
"Dave saw the movie and he cried -- not because he was bitter," Meth said. "He cried because his characters were on screen and they were living."
I've never heard of Cockrum - but I wish I had. He had the best wardrobe! What a great tribute that was. And what a truly GOOD person.
Well, about the Coulters and Limbaughs .. my brother is a construction worker near Colorado Springs, one of the most conservative places in America. He meets and works with alot of conservatives but alot of them, he says, are not too bright. They start putting down "Liberals and Democrats" and he listens for awhile (to their anti-immigrant, pro-war etc views) and then says, "I'm a Liberal and a Democrat but I like to listen to all sides." They may then sometimes back off some and say, "I'm really an independent" and they also start to listen to him. But he feels that were he to espouse some conservative view they would be equally malleable and middle-of-the-road.
He then has gone onto some bloggy-type things, mostly oriented around his AOL. He finds some of the discussions and polls to be idiotic, yet they're starting to trend like 80:20 antiBush. We agreed that it had become socially acceptable among the mainstream to trash him - it is nothing really provocative any more - whereas same people right after 9/11 would be off waving flags and calling people traitors for saying what they themselves are now saying - now that it's not so radical.
WaPo covered Florida voting disparity story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801382.html
Common sense on polls, from Mark Barrett:
http://www.thepremise.com
Civil War: You Be the Decider
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/
Q: Do you maintain it’s still not a civil war in Iraq?
Mr. Hadley: Well, it’s interesting, the Iraqis don’t talk of it as a civil war; the unity government doesn’t talk of it as a civil war. And I think the things they point to when they say that are, one, that at this point in time the army and the police have not fractured along sectarian lines, which is what you’ve seen elsewhere; and the government continues to be holding together and has not fractured on sectarian terms.
But, look, the point is, it is what it is. There is a high level of sectarian violence. It is a challenge for the Iraqis. It’s a challenge for us. We need to be talking about a way forward and a strategy for dealing with it. And that’s really what the President has been focusing on and where we need to focus — how to deal with this particular challenge going forward.
Q: — the President fears that were he to –
Mr. Snow: (inaudible) — civil war? No, but you have not yet had a situation also where you have two clearly defined and opposing groups vying not only for power, but for territory. What you do have is sectarian violence that seems to be less aimed at gaining full control over an area than expressing differences, and also trying to destabilize a democracy — which is different than a civil war, where two sides are clashing for territory and supremacy.
Q: Can I just follow on — isn’t the President’s fear that were he to acknowledge that it is a civil war that there would be a further bottoming-out of public support? There certainly have been Republicans and others who have said the public would not stand by for U.S. forces to be in the middle of a civil war. So isn’t there a political dimension to this that nobody wants to admit, including the Iraqis, that it is a civil war?
Mr. Hadley: I don’t think Americans have any — I think they — through the media and other things, there is a high degree of awareness, obviously that there is a lot of sectarian violence. You know, you show it on your TVs and it’s in the newspapers. This is something that they’re well aware of and they’re obviously very concerned about it and want to know what our strategy is going forward, in light of this phenomenon — which has really served us, since February and the bombing of the Shia mosque.
So it is a new element on the security scene; it is a real challenge to the government; it is something that the government needs to address. The unity government is clear and aware of that. And it’s a big challenge, and people understand that. So I think people are aware, they’re concerned, they want us to work out a strategy with the Iraqi government that offers the prospect of dealing with this problem. And that’s what we’re going to try to do.
Q: Can you explain how something that started in February is a new phase?
Mr. Hadley: I said it is a new phase that started in February, and obviously we have seen more of it in recent days. I think one of the things one has to recognize is that while we call it sectarian violence, there is evidence, for example, that Saddamists, and particularly al Qaeda, are trying to foment and encourage the sectarian violence. You have heard it, you have read al Qaeda’s words — it was clearly part of Zarqawi’s strategy. We continue to see evidence that this is being something that is triggered in order to encourage the kind of effect it has the society.
So we call it sectarian violence — but I think one has to recognize that for certain Saddamists and al Qaeda, particularly, this is premeditated, this is a technique they are using. The effect of it, of course, is very destructive, it sets communities against one another. And it is something that we have addressed. It is, as you know, largely centered at this point in Baghdad. We have been trying to address that through a Baghdad security strategy. We have been through two phases. And I think the answer to that is, at this point, it has not proceeded well enough or fast enough. And, therefore, one of the subjects on the agenda is what is a better approach to the challenge in Baghdad.
So it is new, that appeared in February; it is something we have been dealing with and trying to adapt to with the Iraqi government. But, again, we have not done well enough or fast enough to be satisfactory to Prime Minister Maliki and his government, or to the President. That’s just the facts.
Ever hear so much bullshit in your life?
Sectarian violence - sounds like some kind of rare flower. I guess it means when one group of people fights another group of people but it's not a war because it's inside one country and between neighbors. I prefer the older term "civil war." It's more to the point and better understood. "Sectarian violence" sounds so, well, I don't know, elitist? Inside-the-beltway Washington know-it-all-speak? I guess if I was a bit smarter I'd know what two-dollar phrases like "sectarian violence" mean. But since I'm not that clever I'd prefer to call a civil war a civil war.
Chuck in Houston
Also, on Rush Limbaugh, we have to remember that people that listen to him think it's OK for rich white guys to do drugs, but anyone else ought to go to jail for twenty years for doing the same thing.
Chuck in Houston
Bubba,
You should not be surprised at the racisim reflected in those callers comments.
Down here they call that 'tuesday'.
Bush Adviser’s Memo Cites Doubts About Iraqi Leader
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 — A classified memorandum by President Bush’s national security adviser expressed serious doubts about whether Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq and recommended that the United States take new steps to strengthen the Iraqi leader’s position.
The Nov. 8 memo was prepared for Mr. Bush and his top deputies by Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, and senior aides on the staff of the National Security Council after a trip by Mr. Hadley to Baghdad.
The memo suggests that if Mr. Maliki fails to carry out a series of specified steps, it may ultimately be necessary to press him to reconfigure his parliamentary bloc, a step the United States could support by providing “monetary support to moderate groups,” and by sending thousands of additional American troops to Baghdad to make up for what the document suggests is a current shortage of Iraqi forces. (Text of Memo)
The memo presents an unvarnished portrait of Mr. Maliki and notes that he relies for some of his political support on leaders of more extreme Shiite groups. The five-page document, classified secret, is based in part on a one-on-one meeting between Mr. Hadley and Mr. Maliki on Oct. 30.
“His intentions seem good when he talks with Americans, and sensitive reporting suggests he is trying to stand up to the Shia hierarchy and force positive change,” the memo said of the Iraqi leader. “But the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action.”
An administration official made a copy of the document available to a New York Times reporter seeking information on the administration’s policy review. The Times read and transcribed the memo.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/world/middleeast/29military.html?hp&ex=1164776400&en=e26b5b9841cd9c54&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Down here they call that 'tuesday'.
Posted by: Christy at November 28, 2006 10:55 PM
I'm an aussie, Christy - why 'tuesday'?
DiAnne:
I tried to read what Hadley was saying, and, well, to call it bull shit is to do a great disservice to cattle. Actually, if you read it closely, what Hadley is saying is almost psychotic, if that's the right word. I mean it's delusional, like the man is living in fairy-tale land. He's more into what "we are seeing on TV" than what people in Iraq are living. That is weird.
Chuck in Houston
Chuck
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, it probably is a duck.
Collateral damage, precision bombing, weapons of mass destruction, sectarian violence - some of the euphemisms from military activities in the middle east.
The worst crime in the eyes of our government has always been for any country to attempt to nationalize its petroleum or other resources.
Christy:
Thanks for that citation! Hadley's got it! Maliki just has to reconfigure his parlimentary bloc when it's ultimately necessary and all will be well! Why didn't I think of that?
Chuck in Houston
PS: Again, I hate to call that bull shit. I mean, bull shit is normal, natural, and can be used for fertilizer. Hadley, on the other hand....
Woz,
Tuesday, because here it is everyday. Racisim here is as common now as it was in the 50s. Same sh*t, different day.
I live in the deep south, Louisiana.
The old ways just will not die.
DiAnne:
I'm not sure I'd agree about that nationalization bit, in two senses: (1) sometimes US foreign policy is driven by quite different considerations than nationalization of industries, and (2) sometimes nationalizations of insdustries are carried out by corrupt thugs so it's good to resist them.
Chuck in Houston
Christy:
Just to mix the pot, would you consider racism a form of "sectarian violence?" I think I would. I think that is about what "sectarian violence" means, as far as I can understand it. Which I guess also argues that you can have sectarian violence and a civil war all at the same time, i.e., they are not mutually exclusive terms but rather mutually reinforcing phenomena.
Chuck in Houston
And yes Woz, I am aware you are aussi.
I'm a notorious aussi-lover.
No Chuck, I can not equate racisim with violence.
However I do believe racisim followed to its natural logical conclusion can ONLY lead to violence.
And oppression.
And slavery.
Christy:
I guess I would disagree with that a little. Racism, like any form of hatred against some abstract "other," be it race or religion or other personal attributes, provides a sanction for violence and encourages violence and therefore is violence. Maybe it is one, of many, necessary but not sufficient causes of aggressive violence. And I would argue that it is "sectarian" because it doesn't make any sense unless you arbitrarily divide people up into abstract "sections," (sectars????) like race. Actually, re-reading your post, I think we agree on that.
Chuck in Houston
You know, on some levels I actually enjoy watching the shock of someone not from here just have it laid in their lap, boom, just like that.
I love watching people, and in some ways it really is hillarious to watch their reaction to someone just dropping the N bomb in their laps.
That jaw drops and the eyes go misty in spite of blinking a thousand times per second.
I always resist the urge to laugh of course, because I am always curious how they will deal with it.
I hate to say most suddenly go... tharn... and pretend it is not happening, it was not said. I usually have to demand it stop immediately. I will not let it keep happening.
Some people come out swinging though, and by God those moments watching a true redneck get scalded and mauled is just damned inspiring.
It always surprises me at how surprised the outsider is.
I think, EVERYONE in this country knows 'there is a race problem down south', but it never really occurs to most people what exactly that MEANS.
I have thrown relatives out of my house because they refused to sit on my couch. Why? Because a black friend of mine was sitting on it prior.
This VERY close relative of mine chose to sit on my floor. I told her she did not need to ever return.
My mans mother hates me cause as she recently explained to our niece, 'I do not have any problem with Christy except she does not stand against the black people'.
That is a direct quote I made sure she remembered the words as precisely as possible.
She told this kid 'She thinks WE owe them something...'
I told her, 'Yes darlin, that is true. They are owed an apology and the truth about our collective history together. We owe them our friendship and even kinship."
And then I had to teach my 8 year old why her black friends calling Mr. Hanky , Mr. Honkey was so NOT freaking funny and what the true definition of that word was. Needless to say she is one little confused half Mexican right now.
But she ust passed her belt test and I do believe has just achieved her first degree BROWN BELT!
One day she will be your President US Citizens, do take note.
No more walls around our nation.
Siempre.
Also, on a deeper level, "sectarian violence" can be seen as some community, feeling threatened, "circling the wagons" as it were and striking out against any intruders as a kind of survival instinct regardless of any right or wrong.
Chuck in Houston
Chuck
In terms of nationalization, I was thinking particularly of BP and Iran in the 50s when Mosadeque was overthrown in Iran, and the unease nowdays at Ahmedinejad's new palsyness with Hugo Chavez.
Christy
Racism seems to me to happen when the races don't mix socially. When I was in lst grade, I was part of a colorblind classroom on the rez. Same thing happened to my son in this city. By 2nd grade, kids were starting to be more racially aware and by high school they had separated into ethnic groups. But it wasn't innate in those under 7 to do so.
My favorite environment is a dance club where everyone is beautiful in their own way and there are probably about equal representations of each gender, orientation and race. I have seen this mostly in San Francisco. Music is then the great equalizer, along with dancing and libations.
Well, Christy, if it makes you feel any better this son of a daughter of rednecks has all but called out several people much bigger than me for that sort of behavior and though it never went out to the parking lot I always won so far on the moral level. One of these days I suppose I'll get whupped good, though I'd expect to get some damage in too. The fact that I haven't had to go to that level, I think, means we are making progress as a people.
Chuck in Houston
PS: Hope that made sense.
Diane, what was that MLK said?
Something like,
"There is no hour in this nation more segregated than 10 am every sunday morning."
Here schools are still refferred to as 'the black school and the white school' and yes I mean public schools.
Socially it is acceptable.
I was once the only white girl in an all black middle school. It was the first time my grades ever dropped and I started skipping school.
I have always been a fighter, but some battles are just suicidal.
It is sometimes very hard to explain what is happening here.
It is a social fabric that is not just torn but mutilated and soaked in blood.
Two histories exist in one place, one written and one wispered, they are so different they are literally alien to each other.
Yup Chuck, me too.
I have never once lost such a confrontation, and it is because of an absolute lock on the moral highground.
Me, too. One day I will get whupped good.
But until then I am prepared to stomp a Louisiana mudhole in someone over it. And the ones I tell to shut up know it.
I could not live with myself if I wasn't ready too. It MUST be stopped at all costs.
Posted by: Indie Liberal at November 28, 2006 07:53 PM
I don't know what the answer is. It's a given that whoever the Dem candidate is, Lamestream Media will still crucify them, and the Cons will be given all the praise and publicity through whatever slant they give to any story. I'm taking that for granted two years ahead of time.
What I will be watching for in '08 is a Dem candidate who will be anti-war, willing to get the guard and reserve troops out immediately and regular troops redeployed from Iraq (since they won't be out during DimWit's dictatorship), willing settle things in Iraq and Afghanistan through diplomacy, investigation into the illegal war, and willingness to press war crimes charges against the current administration, and whoever the candidate is, he or she MUST have an IQ above a rock and able to think on her/his feet and answer media questions with coherent answers (like Clinton did).
I will likely change my mind a few dozen times in the next two years, depending on who shows any signs of running against a nasty right-wing press and a well-oiled slimeboat machine, and if I can throw pretty faces and anti-war sentiments into the choice, at this immediate moment I'd pick Russ Feingold and Wes Clark.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
methinks NonnyO is a closet-GMA watcher
Posted by: woz at November 28, 2006 09:03 PM
Actually, no. I was awake all night and and channel surfing this morning before going to sleep.... ;-) I've grown to detest GMA because they always set up these artificial 'conflicts' - like those moronic reality TV things I see advertised and refuse to watch - or they present "news" as infotainment. This morning Sawyer pitted an Imam against that idiot Beck. I thought it very unfair. ABC, on the whole, with all their news, has gone WAY too right-wingnuttia for me, did so several years ago, and unless I catch them flipping channels when commercials are on other networks, I just don't watch. I do try to catch BBC news on PBS when I can, if I watch any TV news and take it seriously. I get any serious news from e-newsletter links.
Well, I have to turn in, but I thought I'd like to leave one more bit. One of my favorite authors is Josef Conrad. He wrote a book about "sectarian violence" in Russian before the revolution (civil war?) called "Under Western Eyes." The preface in my edition had an anecdote about Northern Ireland (Ulster). It went like this. Two guys were sitting together on a train. One asks the other: "So, are you Protestant or Catholic?" The other answers "neither, I'm Jewish." To which the other inquires: "But are you a Protestant Jew or a Catholic Jew?"
The moral of the story is that it often happens that people get into a situation where they have to take sides, neither of which they may agree to, but they have to join one to survive. I'll leave it to Fe's discretion as to when that is "sectarian violence" and when that is "civil war." I guess it's a matter of degree.
Chuck in Houston
Chuck:
Damn, bro, we always miss each other. But if you want to distinguish between sectarian violence and civil war, I think one is the precursor to the other, and the outcome is civil war.
Christy
I really want to spend some time in the south, see first hand. I've been twice to New Orleans and was told not to cross certain streets, which I didn't like.
Here the public schools are supposed to be pretty well integrated but the system still leaves alot to be desired - the class and racial distinctions may be more subtle but they're still there. There are plenty of people who send their kids to religious or private schools or even homeschool.
We were very pleased with our son in the public schools though. I absolutely loved the teachers and I felt everything was going int he right direction, just not far enough fast enough. & under the Republicans it's harder to keep the momentum going that we'd worked for.
I like it here and I like going to Minneapolis, NYC, SF. Would like to see alot more of the country. Want to spend more time in Denver next time I go see my brother.
Damn chances of foreign travel and going down and down with the decrease in the value of the dollar - I think it takes two dollars to buy a pound now. Travelling there now would be like being from Mexico and travelling here - everything costs double. Or being from Thailand - that's about the same.
Posted by: DiAnne at November 28, 2006 08:16 PM
Sounds like a plan. Your weather is headed this way, however. We got rain, complete with thunder and lightning overnight, and I had to unplug my computer by early morning (which accounts for my channel surfing before falling asleep this morning - I wish I had been asleep to miss that drivel). The temps have been steadily falling all day, and we're due for freezing rain and/or snow in the next couple of days.
William Fisher | Good News, Bad News
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806J.shtml
"The worst news to come out of Washington this week was the appointment of Eric Keroack to head family planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services," writes William Fisher. "The Times details his qualifications: Medical director of an organization called A Woman's Concern, which runs pregnancy counseling clinics in Massachusetts. Its counseling consists of trying to persuade women not to have abortions, and includes the totally discredited old wives' tale that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer."
Excerpt:
What puzzles many Washington-watchers is exactly why we should expect sound policy and competence in policy implementation from people who are either clearly unqualified or who are driven by ideology rather than inconvenient facts.
As for any new spirit of bipartisanship coming from the White House, forget it. The Decider will keep on deciding - he'll just try to steer clear of the Senate confirmation process.
Fe
I agree sectarian violence could be the prelude to civil war.
I was reading some comments on one of the newspaper blogs on the subject and one person said the threshold for civil war had been breached months ago and things had now descended into past anarchy to nihilism. Sounds dramatic anyway.
Andrew J. Bacevich | Iraq Panel's Real Agenda: Damage Control
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806K.shtml
"Even as Washington waits with bated breath for the Iraq Study Group to release its findings," writes Andrew Bacevich, "the rest of us should see this gambit for what it is: an attempt to deflect attention from the larger questions raised by America's failure in Iraq, and to shore up the authority of the foreign policy establishment that steered the United States into this quagmire. This ostentatiously bipartisan panel of Wise Men (and one woman) can't really be searching for truth. It is engaged in damage control."
John F. Borowski | Science Teachers' Organization Rejects Gore Video
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806N.shtml
"The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) has spurned 50,000 free DVDs of Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' and is squandering a golden opportunity to educate tens of millions of youth in the United States!" John F. Borowski asks why. When questioned, "The NSTA wrote that acceptance of the DVDs would place an 'unnecessary risk upon the capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters.'"
Tom Engelhardt | Elizabeth de la Vega: Bringing Bush to Court
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806O.shtml
Tom Engelhardt presents the first of three excerpts from Elizabeth de la Vega's latest book. In it, writes Engelhardt, "De la Vega has drawn up that indictment - a 'hypothetical' one, she hastens to add - convened that grand jury, and held seven days of testimony. Yes, it's a grand jury directly out of her fertile brain, and the federal agents who testify are fictional, but all the facts are true. She understands the case against the Bush administration down to the last detail; and she's produced, to my mind, the book of the post-election investigative season: 'United States v. George W. Bush et al.'"
Three House Races in Dispute
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806P.shtml
Contested elections in Franklin County, Ohio, Florida's 13th District, and in North Carolina are among unresolved races across the country since Election Day.
Democrats Win Control of Pennsylvania House After 12 Years in Minority
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806T.shtml
Democrats won control of the state House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years Tuesday, as Chester County officials settled a pair of hotly contested House races three weeks after the election.
Posted by: DiAnne at November 28, 2006 01:35 PM
Yes, the campaign is on, BIG time. Lamestream is pouring it into the news places. They are trying desperately to make a case that it isn't a civil war, that Al Qaeda is responsible for the fighting in Iraq. That's an old ploy, but now they are adding that Iran is set to take out Israel first, then the West.
We absolutely have to get as many facts as we can, and decide what our individual and collective stances are on Iran.
It is a full fledged campaign. I can see the Shrubites in '08's election campaign using this to the maximum for their benefit, especially if we pull out of Iraq in the next year or so.
Just how dangerous is Iran, really? I feel this is one of the most important considerations anyone can make in the political arena in the next few years. We simply must make the correct one. It will make or break the win in '08.
Posted by: NonnyO at November 29, 2006 12:33 AM
To the west of you, Nonny, by just a few miles. Last night and today were very chilly, couldn't get warmed up until just a bit ago.
Jason Leopold: DOJ Probes NSA Spying, Democrats Suspicious
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112806Z.shtml
The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General announced Monday that it will immediately launch a probe into the agency's involvement with the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program, raising suspicions among Democrats, who believe the timing of the investigation is an attempt by the Bush administration to circumvent Congressional hearings into the issue when they assume control of the House in January.
Truth Shall Prevail
Yes they have an informant who says Hezbollah is affiliated with not only Iran but Iraq - so they'll want to fight Iran by continuing to fight in Iraq, which is madness.
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at November 29, 2006 12:39 AM
Inspectors and official sources say Iran is not a nuclear threat to us - or anyone else.
Until they say otherwise, I'm going with their assessment.
We all know what the Bu$hista's record of truth-telling is.... I didn't fall for the lies the first time, and journaled about it, including my assessment during the Y2K prez debates that if DimWit was elected he'd invade Iraq to finish his daddy's war. They're lying again, and this time at least many people are suspicious, because all previous lies have been exposed. We all know hundreds of thousands have died for lies and control of Iraqi oil fields now. No one who was able to read the lies for what they were the first time gets any pleasure in saying 'I told you so.'
Truth Shall Prevail
My mom is iced in in ND and I am iced in here.
This is a series in our paper, about a woman reporter who is returning to Iran to see what it's like now .. while it's still intact.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/iran/293845_irantrip28.html
I saw a good history with this, in the hard copy version, but don't see it on-line. It talked about how Iran had a democratic leader that we and the British overthrew, then the son of a former tyrant who supported the Nazis came to power, then when he was overthrown, religous extremists came to power. The Russians helped build a reactor for consumer power, the Iranians promised not to use it as a weapon, then as they have gotten to be on worse terms with this admin, they have stepped up their belligerence quotient, much in the pattern of North Korea.
It wasn't smart to go talking about the Axis of Evil. Even those we distrust need to be approached cautiously, in life and in diplomacy. There is no point in hostile rhetoric - it only begets the same, and someone smaller and cornered can indeed be dangerous to a bully.
Posted by: DiAnne at November 29, 2006 01:09 AM
Iran is a very serious issue.
I can't help but believe that Rove is just lying low, and it seems like he was a bit in '06 races too. Seems to me he or whoever orchestrates the neocon schemes loves putting his adversaries in a no-win situation. If Dems can't or won't do anything about "fixing" Iraq (like Fe says it looks "unfixable") and leave our troops in, they will say Dems are do nothings. If Dems take them out, they will say we are cut and runners. They are pumping the fear of Iran wanting to wipe out the West in the media.
I think my biggest concern for the moment is getting to the bottom (as much as we can) of the Iran threat, and develop a game plan for Dems stance on Iran.
I remember reading articles a while back DiAnne that you posted stating that America and Iran are using proxies. I admit I am not sure what is truly going on, and could use some help figuring it out. Article, anyone?
Posted by: DiAnne at November 29, 2006 01:15 AM
Thank you, Dianne.
Yep, your mom and I are so near each other, and it was COLD yesterday. Wind chill was -8. I walked to work and just now thawed out. It's hard to believe that a place that is so beautiful from April to November and that reaches 105 in the summer can get so cold. That artic blast is brutal. At least I won't be driving long distances in it this winter.
Two histories exist in one place, one written and one wispered, they are so different they are literally alien to each other.
Posted by: Christy at November 29, 2006 12:07 AM
Christy, I always relate to so many of the things you write. I love your passion and your sense of justice.
Sadly Australians are now more intolerant and abusive than I've ever known. And the government has set it up this way. Intolerance feeds the fear that our appalling leader dishes out daily.
I have an easy stopper to the colour critics in my home - following the very first comment, I say quietly and firmly, "My grandchildren are Aboriginal." Everyone then falls over themselves trying to be "less" racist than the next person - this is actually more offensive to me. So, congratulations for the stand you take. Little by little it will change.
Did anyone see the long and excellent interview with Jimmy Carter. On The News Hour - on pbs I think. I couldn't believe how much he said about the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. He spoke of the numbers of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel - hundreds of whom are children - when Hezbollah captured a soldier to use for negotiating the release of Palestinians. As an *Act Of Self Defence*, Israel pummelled Lebanon civilians for 30 days - for their one single captured soldier. And they used American cluster bombs which will go on killing for a long time yet.
Thank goodness the palestinians have a voice. I just wish more of the media would expose these US sponsored bullies the way Jimmy Carter just did. I believed this to be true without really knowing for certain. It was good to have it confirmed. Surely Israelis, if they know the truth, would never approve of these massacres.
I get there in the end:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/july-dec06/carter_11-28.html
The interview with Jimmy Carter.
Judge: Bush can’t designate groups as terrorists
Executive order establishing power was unconstitutional, ruling says
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutional and vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday.
The Humanitarian Law Project had challenged Bush's order, which blocked all the assets of groups or individuals he named as "specially designated global terrorists" after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
"This law gave the president unfettered authority to create blacklists," said David Cole, a lawyer for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Constitutional Rights that represented the group. "It was reminiscent of the McCarthy era."
The case centered on two groups, the Liberation Tigers, which seeks a separate homeland for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, and Partiya Karkeran Kurdistan, a political organization representing the interests of Kurds in Turkey.
U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins enjoined the government from blocking the assets of the two groups.
Both groups consider the Nov. 21 ruling a victory; both had been designated by the United States as foreign terrorist organizations.
Cole said the judge's ruling does not invalidate the hundreds of other designated terrorist groups on the list but "calls them into question."
Justice Department reviewing options
Charles Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, said, "We are currently reviewing the decision and we have made no determination what the government's next step will be."
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15941646/
Text of memo described in: Posted by: Christy at November 28, 2006 11:01 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Text of U.S. Security Adviser’s Iraq Memo
NYT link: http://tinyurl.com/yaol6a
RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Reports circulated Wednesday that one of President Bush's top advisers has serious doubts about the Iraqi prime minister's ability to stem the violence in his country, as President Bush headed for a meeting with embattled Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
The White House has avoided saying that Bush will be pressuring al-Maliki at the meeting in Amman, Jordan, to do more to stop the bloodshed.
National security adviser Stephen Hadley says that the Iraqi prime minister pushes himself and that Bush will be listening to al-Maliki's ideas, not imposing plans on him.
But in a classified November 8 memo following his October 30 trip to Baghdad, Hadley expressed serious doubts about whether al-Maliki had the capacity to control the sectarian violence in Iraq, and recommended steps to strengthen the Iraqi leader's position, The New York Times reported in Wednesday editions.
"The reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions, or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into action," the story quoted the memo as saying.
A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the White House would not dispute the accuracy of quoted material in the story.
more...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/29/bush.trip.ap/index.html
Dianne,
I know what you mean about those that say 'Don't cross throse tracks, or stay north of this street.'
I still hear it all the time but I have learned how to deal with it.
Simply do not listen to them and cross those tracks anyway. Take a deep breath and just come south. Do not listen to what you know is wrong.
Even though I am considered 'white' here, I am not afraid to walk any of these streets. The only reason I am not afraid is because I did finally quit listening and found out that there are good people every where I go.
Once you learn to...deal with.. the fear, it melts away completely.
And Woz, really, your grandchildren are Aboriginal? I find that race absolutely fascinating.
I am amazed at the evolution of African black compared to Aboriginal black. I am always struck by how different and same they are and the ways each developed independant of the other.
I have never met an Aborigine but I would love too. I've always wanted to touch that silver hair just to see what it feels like.
When I compare them with the ones I am surrounded by every day, it really makes me remember how very beautiful we ALL are.
"The mission: to keep all ten fingers and toes in the holes of the leaking seawall of fact."
Best line I've read in a week! Thanks for the morning laugh!
I think all this debate on the semantics between civil war vs. sectarian strife should be simply dismissed.
Civil war is like porn.
We know it when we see it.
We also know 'chaos' when we see