Labels: capitalism
"Iraqi Lawmakers Walk Out to Protest 'Humiliating' Green Zone Treatment"Although I recoil mentally every time I think of the systematic genocide of the Iraqi people being conducted by America so we can steal their oil, there is no group of Iraqis for whom I have less sympathy than the government of al-Maliki and the Iraqi parliament.
Labels: Ashcroft, disinformation, propaganda, snark, Torture
Credit flowing to American companies is drying up at a pace not seen in decades, threatening the creation of jobs and the expansion of businesses, while intensifying worries that the economy may be headed for recession.And all the jobs the Rethugs like to brag that they have created? This is also a myth:
The combined value of two leading sources of credit — outstanding commercial and industrial bank loans, and short-term loans known as commercial paper — peaked at about $3.3 trillion in August, according to data from the Federal Reserve. By mid-November, such credit was down to $3 trillion, a drop of nearly 9 percent.[…]
Not once in the years since the Fed began tracking such numbers in 1973 has this artery of finance constricted so rapidly.[…]
Policy makers at the Federal Reserve are growing increasingly alarmed about the problem, which is an outgrowth of the woes of the housing and mortgage industries.[…]
By themselves, commercial bank loans have actually surged: large companies have tapped prearranged lines of credit to weather the financial chaos that has accompanied the unraveling of the American real estate market.
But this source of finance has been nowhere near enough to compensate for the virtual shutdown of the short-term commercial paper market. Much of this debt had been pledged against the value of mortgages, making them effectively radioactive in markets around the globe.
A slowdown among smaller companies could be especially costly to the economy in terms of jobs. More than half of American jobs are at companies with fewer than 100 workers, according to Moody’s Economy.com.May through October is six months, which translates to the creation of a truly anemic average of only 63,000 new jobs a month, nowhere close to the number of jobs that must be created just to keep up with people entering the job market for the first time (the last figure I saw said over 150,000 new jobs must be created each month just to provide work for the new entries into the job market.)
In recent months, smaller companies have been adding jobs even as larger firms have been shedding workers, according to the ADP National Employment Report, which tracks changes at companies with payrolls overseen by ADP. From May to October, 276,000 of the 378,000 jobs added were at companies with fewer than 50 employees, the report found.
Labels: Bush, Conservatives, corruption, disinformation, Economy, GOP, hypocrisy, jobs, neocons, propaganda
Celebrate Turnaround in Iraq Just YetAnd we could provide you with all kinds of stats and reasons that the surge didn't work, but as Time Magazine's
I just got back from Baghdad last week, and it was clear that violence has decreased. But it hasn't gone away. It is only back down to the 2005 level -- which to my mind is kind of like moving from the eighth circle of hell to the fifth.
I interviewed dozens of officers and none were willing to say we are winning. What they were saying is that at least now, we are not losing.
The Last Bar-B-QuePersonally, I would have gone with "The Last Schtupper", but that's just me.
the investigator investigating Karl Rove is being investigated ... for quashing investigations.Bassets! ... uhh, I meant Bastards!
Labels: blogtopiates
Citi's ability to secure a capital injection raised hope others might be able to do the same.How does that work exactly? And why do they say that? I personally think it has to do with the fact that Citigroup is too big to fail and that Abu Dhabi knows that and is just propping it up so the whole thing doesn’t come crashing down. It has nothing to do with being able to “secure a capital injection” and everything to do with fear of the sky falling.
Labels: Economy
Labels: blogtopiates
...the Bush Administration did not want Congress to vote on the Iraq War resolution in the fall of 2002, because they thought it should not be done within the context of an election. Rove, you see, did not think the war vote should be "political".Wow.
Moreover, according to Rove, that "premature vote" led to many of the problems that cropped up in the Iraq War. Had Congress not pushed, he says, Bush could have spent more time assembling a coalition, and provided more time to the inspectors.
So it was Congress’ fault the US bombed Iraq when it did.
Labels: iraq war prep, rove
20,000 vets' brain injuries not listed in Pentagon tally*******************
At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY.
The data, provided by the Army, Navy and Department of Veterans Affairs, show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also are not reflected in the Pentagon's official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327.
[...]
One base released its count of brain injuries at a medical conference. The others provided their records at the request of USA TODAY, in some cases only after a Freedom of Information Act filing was submitted.
Houston Police and Homeland Security using military spy planes on Americans******************
Houston police started testing unmanned aircraft and the event was shrouded in secrecy, but it was captured on tape by Local 2 Investigates.
Military Probe Focuses on Iraq Contracts
[...]
One of the most striking aspects of the fraud investigations has been the number of those caught up in it who have apparently killed themselves _ at least three Army officers so far.
[...]
Labels: blogtopiates
Today, by contrast, wage gains for most workers are being swallowed by inflation. In fact, the reality for lower- and middle-income workers may be worse than the official statistics say, because the prices of necessities like food, transportation and medical care are rising considerably faster than the Consumer Price Index as a whole. One striking statistic: the cost of a traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner was 11 percent higher this year than last year.Totally supports the M3 reconstruction data that says inflation is running over 15%. So, not only is the dollar worth nothing overseas, it's getting worthless over here too.
Labels: inflation
The U.S. military has stepped up chartering of tankers and requests for extra fuel in the U.S. Central Command area, which includes the Gulf, shipping and oil industry sources say. A Gulf oil industry source said the charters suggested there would be high naval activity, possibly including a demonstration to Iran that the U.S. Navy will protect the Strait of Hormuz oil shipping route during tensions over Tehran's nuclear programme.That crazy idiot is really going to start a war with Iran.
Labels: iran war prep
Labels: air travel, fear mongering, propaganda
Labels: Thanksgiving
The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments.I mean, it’s easy to understand why the MILITARY would come up with such a thing. But the people who actually have to carry it out? Well, it makes you wonder what kind of people they are. Many people have aspects of their job where they have to tell themselves, “it’s only a job” but at some point, one must draw a line between their job and their humanity.
Labels: military
Labels: big pharmaceutical, capitalism
"I have been receiving calls from the mainstream media all day," Edmonds recounted the day after we ran the story announcing that she was prepared to violate her gag-order to disclose all of the national security-related criminal allegations she has been kept from disclosing for the past five years.Yes, indeed, it is disgusting. She's willing to do one knock-them-down, drag-them-out interview and nobody in the great US of A is willing to do it. Not even Keith Olberman.
"The media called from Japan and France and Belgium and Germany and Canada and from all over the world," she told The BRAD BLOG.
"But not from here?" we asked incredulously.
"I'm getting contact from all over the world, but not from here. Isn't that disgusting?" she shot back.
Labels: journalism, MSM
Labels: blogtopiates
MANUEL VÁSQUEZ: So that is the kind of dual sort of identity. Some people use the term bifocality to talk about that. That is that in the bifocals, you are, you have in the same lens, you have an integrated dual vision that allows you to see near and to see far at the same time and to function in both situations. And perhaps that's one of the things that threatens some of the people who are restrictionist, that they see some of these immigrants maintaining loyalty: maintaining their language, maintaining their culture to some extent. And, for them, this is a threatening situation because they think of sovereignty very much in an exclusivist way.And here's the best exchange:
BILL MOYERS: But yet the debate about immigration today is framed in terms of illegal immigrants and amnesty.Read the whole thing. It's brilliant. I'll never call anyone an 'illegal' again.
MANUEL VÁSQUEZ: Amnesty.
BILL MOYERS: What does that do to the conversation?
MANUEL VÁSQUEZ: It closes the conversation. And I think the term illegal really forecloses any kind of discussion. And I've asked myself, why is it that the term is being used? And so, my answer is that I think America is going right now through a very tough period. You know, we have all sorts of moral questions, you know, whether this is torture, whether this is not torture. Should we have gone to Iraq? Should we not have gone to Iraq? In a certain sense, we want moral certainty. I mean, these are moral uncertain times for America. We, you know, we're under attack from the outside. We perceive ourselves under attack. Our economy is not doing as well as it was doing ten years ago, right? And so, we have all sorts of pressures. And I think the population, the native population is feeling this.
The average worker in Peoria, Illinois, is, I think, feeling all these pressures and feeling the pressures of globalization. And so, I think when you use the term illegality, you have a certain moral, you have a moral certainty that I think provides a, almost like a sense of satisfaction, right? You know, for once, I can say that this is a black and white situation. So, trading on moral absolutes I think at a time of uncertainty is a, it pays off. And that's why I think a lot of these politicians are having a lot of traction with the term "illegal."
Labels: immigration
Labels: elections, Illegal immigrants, snark
Taking some time off from my angst, I found an article about a surfer dude who may have beat string theory to the punch. A while ago, I went all agog over this E8 Lie structure. It's got 248 dimensions and somebody graphed it into a purdy drawing that I now have pasted up all over the place. (remember, I'm a geek)He has high hopes that his new theory could provide what he says is a "radical new explanation" for the three decade old Standard Model, which weaves together three of the four fundamental forces of nature: the electromagnetic force; the strong force, which binds quarks together in atomic nuclei; and the weak force, which controls radioactive decay.Here is the link to his paper, if you dare. I have no idea if he's right or wrong, but I can recognize the brilliance. When I looked at the E8, I thought it was pretty important. I just didn't have a clue why.
The reason for the excitement is that Lisi's model also takes account of gravity, a force that has only successfully been included by a rival and highly fashionable idea called string theory, one that proposes particles are made up of minute strings, which is highly complex and elegant but has lacked predictions by which to do experiments to see if it works.
Labels: physics
I know how it is. You've had it up to here. There are only so many stories about blood and death and pain you can take, only so many times you can hear about random shootings and corporate malfeasance and how BushCo's squad of scabrous flying monkeys have, say, supported torture or endorsed wiretapping or gouged the nation for another $200 billion to pay for a failed war. Your nerves are raw and your heart is tired and the media will just not shut the hell up already about the sadness and the war and the mayhem and the Cheney and the doom doom doom.Yeah. What he said. Read the rest of it while I take a few days off to contemplate my naval ... or maybe someone else's navel.
It is outrage fatigue, and it is epidemic. It's that feeling that we are being hammered unlike any time in recent history with so many appalling and disgusting and violently un-American incidents and scandals and manipulations that our b.s.-detectors are smoking like an old V-8 engine on a hot summer's day and it's all we can do to get up every day without screaming.
Labels: MSM, propaganda
Between the strike in NY and the strike on the west coast, main-stream entertainment has come to a crawl. Nature knoweth no wrath like a tourist with orchestra tickets to The Little Mermaid facing a dark theater.
One visiting teacher with 44 kids on her hands looked around for an open show and took them to Die Mommie Die. Either we've got a real progressive chaperone here or one who doesn't know drag from shinola. (Postscript: The 44 kids loved it.)
If she wanted a B'way show, she could've taken them to The Ritz. That's open. In more ways than one.
The real stickler here is that there are a LOT of actors who'd like to picket the picketers, but Equity members aren't allowed to protest or cross the lines. Meanwhile the Equity website says: "We deplore the strike and the harm it does to the City, the industry, and theatre-going public. Indeed ... to all the actors, musicians and other talented people who make Broadway magical."
But Equity expects its members to respect the other unions so that the other unions will respect Equity's picket line next time 'round.
Fun fun fun.
A friend e-mailed me he had tickets for Is He Dead for Saturday night. Earlier in the week he saw Seafarer, Farnsworth, and Rock 'N' Roll. Re: Rock 'N' Roll, he said it took him a while to really get into the play. He wasn't sure if it was the script itself or "if it was because of the Wednesday matinee audience that was so unruly. At intermission, I spoke with an usher who told me, she had worked at that theater for 34 years and 'never saw a poorer behaving audience.' And that is quite a statement."
Is Rock 'N' Roll actually attracting rock 'n' roll audiences? If so, they evidently don't know what a play is.
Any strike in the entertainment field is scary business. Just when one finally gets real money coming in ...
I was watching "Inside Washington" on PBS Friday night and the two snotty conservative pundits went on and on and on about "Why is everybody so scared right now? The economy's in GREAT shape! Unemployment is low, there's no recession ..." and this, I kid you not, is a direct quote: "... sure there's a little war going on, sure 3,000 have been killed, but that's tiny compared to other wars. What's everybody so unhappy about?"
For fiscal conservatives, the idea of spending hundreds of billions on a "little war" doesn't seem to unnerve them. Although they're thrilled Bush vetoed children's health insurance 'cause 30 billion was simply too much.
To quote John Stuart Mill:
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative." "
Labels: broadway, nyc, unions, wga strike
Almost two weeks into Pakistan’s political crisis, Bush administration officials are losing faith that the Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, can survive in office and have begun discussing what might come next, according to senior administration officials.[…]So, has bush now, through ignorance and arrogance, turned over the nuclear keys to the kingdom in Pakistan to Islamist radicals?
Several senior administration officials said that with each day that passed, more administration officials were coming around to the belief that General Musharraf’s days in power were numbered and that the United States should begin considering contingency plans, including reaching out to Pakistan’s generals.
More than a dozen officials in Washington and Islamabad from a number of countries spoke on condition of anonymity because of the fragility of Pakistan’s current political situation. The doubts that American officials voiced about whether General Musharraf could survive were more pointed than any public statements by the administration, and signaled declining American patience in advance of [Deputy Secretary of State] Mr. Negroponte’s trip.
Officials involved in the discussions in Washington said the Bush administration remained wary of the perception that the United States was cutting back-room deals to install the next leader of Pakistan. “They don’t want to encourage another military coup, but they are also beginning to understand that Musharraf has become part of the problem,” said one former official with knowledge of the debates inside the Bush administration.
That shift in perception is significant because for six years General Musharraf has sought to portray himself, for his own purposes, as the West’s best alternative to a possible takeover in Pakistan by radical Islamists.
Labels: Bush, cheney, Conservatives, disinformation, GOP, hypocrisy, more Bush lies, neocons, nuclear weapons, Pakistan, propaganda
Labels: Daily Show, MSM
Intensifying his battle with Congress over federal spending, President Bush on Tuesday vetoed an appropriations bill for the first time, rejecting $150.7 billion in spending for school aid, healthcare and other domestic programs.Nice. No matter that we need that money right here in the United States, the richest country in the world.
But as he complained about the cost of that bill, which would have increased spending on these programs by 4.3% over last year, Bush signed a $471-billion defense appropriations bill that pushed up military spending by more than 9.5%.
More than 35.5 million people in this country went hungry in 2006 as they struggled to find jobs that can support them, a figure that was virtually unchanged from the previous year, the Agriculture Department said Wednesday.
Single mothers and their children were among the most likely to suffer, according to the study.
Labels: christian hypocrisy
If this strike lasts longer than three months, an entire season of television will end this December. No dramas. No comedies. No Daily Show. The strike will also prevent any pilots from being shot in the spring, so even if the strike is settled by then, you won’t see any new shows until the following January. As in 2009. Both the guild and the studios we are negotiating with do agree on one thing: this situation would be brutal.If it goes on long enough, maybe, just maybe, we can all get our minds back. Maybe we can start talking and thinking again.
Labels: MSM
Intel Chief Blasts 'Cherry Picked' IntelIn the first place I'm not willing to trust a guy who says he doesn't know if water boarding is torture, and his excuse of 'not being briefed on it' is lame considering it's already been classified and prosecuted as torture by the US, but one also has to wonder at his integrity when he implied it was OK to cherry-pick the data resulting in National Intelligence Estimates if it wasn't used "in an inappropriate way."
WASHINGTON -- National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said Tuesday he would resign if administration officials mischaracterized or "cherry-picked" intelligence to support their own political agenda.
"If it were cherry-picked in an inappropriate way, then for me, that's a professional obligation to object, and I would submit my resignation," McConnell told reporters.
A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear programme, and thus make the document more supportive of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's militarily aggressive policy toward Iran, according to accounts of the process provided by participants to two former Central Intelligence Agency officers.More here.
[...]
The draft NIE first completed a year ago, which had included the dissenting views, was not acceptable to the White House, according to the former intelligence officer. "They refused to come out with a version that had dissenting views in it," he says.
Labels: iran war prep, iraq war prep, more Bush lies
Labels: blogtopiates
Despite this, there remain two political parties. One is prompted to ask "why?" If each party is basically the same, with respect to ideology, why do they not merge into one party? The answer to this question is best found in viewing each political party according to its true nature. American political parties are, for all intents and purposes, organized crime units. American political parties have more in common with the Mafia than they have with their counterparts in more democratic societies. Like Mafia, each political party competes for control of territory in order to maximize the benefit to their business constituency. Like Mafia, the political parties attempt to mold the system to maintain their positions and access to resources. Like Mafia, the political parties force the average citizen to pay "protection" under the threat of violence (taxes). Like Mafia each political party uses the "protection" money collected for its own advantage.
By defining our political system in terms of the "majority" and the "opposition," our Constitution enshrines this two mafia system into law. Each Mafia passes laws to exclude new comers from the game while focusing the rest of its energy in destroying the other Mafia.
Thus, any resistance movement that chooses to become an organization is in competition with these Mafiosi. The deck is stacked and the power of the state, wielded by these organized crime units known as the Democratic and Republican parties, will waste the time and resources of any newcomer. A newcomer can only succeed by rejecting the political system, draining its resources, and undermining the rule of the state.
Labels: democratic party, mafia, politics, republican party
What's going on here? As far as we know, this the world’s first attempt to design an apartment building in open source fashion. The building at issue is 580 Sterling Place, on the edge of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. It will be a green, modernist, 8-unit, walk-up building.I guess when it comes to development in Brooklyn, resistance is futile. It might as well be open source. At least that way, you can take part in blighting your neighborhood.
We're sad to report that Brooklyn is in the process of losing another piece of history, as demolition is set to begin on St. George's Church at 203 York Street in Vinegar Hill. (Workmen on site confirm that the entire structure is coming down.) The 10,000-square-foot church and adjacent 5,000-square-foot parish hall were purchased from the Roman Catholic Diocese on October 24 by the Tocci family, a long-time landowner in the area, for $3,200,000. The Toccis, formerly proprietors of a waste management business, already have an illustrious track record in the neighborhood: they were responsible for tearing down another church, St. Ann's, at 251 Front Street back in 1992, and paving it over after their own business expansion plans failed. The lot is now, charmingly, lined with corrugated metal and rented out as truck parking. They've wasted little time on their latest anti-beautification effort, as a small rear addition on Gold Street has already been reduced to rubble (inset).What I like about it is the little line that says, "The Toccis, formerly proprietors of a waste management business,..."
I also noticed, with a jolt, the sign above the door that reads "The Anthony Anastasio Memorial Wing—Brooklyn Longshoremen's Medical Center." Now, if memory serves, this sign was covered up for some years by a LICH placard. Sorry if I'm slow on this, and the old sign was uncovered some weeks ago, but this is the first I noticed it. Staring at it was a chilling reminder of the nabe's vicious past and how much South Brooklyn was once in thrall of the Mob. Anthony "Tough Tony" Anastasio was a union boss who ruled the Brooklyn docks with an iron hand and the threat of reprisal by his mad brother, Albert Anastasio, head of Murder, Inc. He was no sweetheart and I can just imagine that, back in the day, that sign served as a reminder to locals to stay in line.Only in Brooklyn.
Labels: brooklyn, development
[…]Senior Republicans on Congress' Joint Economic Committee, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KN) and Rep. James Saxon (R-NJ) are calling on Democrats to retract a staff report alleging the hidden costs of the Iraq war could total more than $1.5 trillion.I don't think any reasonable person could look at these estimates and disagree that the GOP is directly responsible for the deplorable economic state in which we now find America.
In a joint statement issued to the Washington Post, the committee's Republicans called the report "another thinly veiled exercise in political hyperbole masquerading as academic research."[…]
The Democratic analysis claimed that President Bush's six-year invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq would end up costing Americans about $1.5 trillion, or nearly twice as much as the White House has actually spent to fight its wars, because of unseen costs like inflation, rising oil prices and expensive care for wounded veterans.
The estimate was revealed in a Democratic staff report from Congress's Joint Economic Committee. The staff report, titled "The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War," estimated that the Iraq and Afghan wars have cost the average family more than $20,000.
The White House apparently vastly underestimated the war's costs, the authors assert. It requested $804 billion -- just more than half the total costs -- to keep up its wars and occupations through 2008.
"The report argues that war funding is diverting billions of dollars away from "productive investment" by American businesses in the United States. It also says that the conflicts are pulling reservists and National Guardsmen away from their jobs, resulting in economic disruptions for U.S. employers that the report estimates at $1 billion to $2 billion," the Post's Josh White wrote Tuesday.
Israel Klein, a spokesman for the committee's majority, replied in the Post.
"Instead of dealing with the substance of this report, the White House is once again trying to deflect attention away from the blistering costs of this war in Iraq," he said.
Labels: Bush, democratic party, Economy, GOP, hypocrisy, liars, war funding
Labels: Illegal immigrants, insurance, licenses
Today we're introducing our new format in a style not seen before on the web. It's eye-catching, innovative (if we do say so ourselves, and we do!), and the new look will add greatly to easy readability. Though the style may have changed we will continue to bring you the very best of our opinions in this new showcase look and rest assured we will continue our reverent and irreverent, insightful, logical and illogical, respectful and not-so-respectful commentary, as always, right or wrong. Visit often, please enjoy, and we look forward to your comments regarding the change - or any other subject!
Labels: bloglift
"On the very first hour, of the very first day on January 20, 2009, as I have fought for over the last number of years in this administration -- I will restore to the American people, the Constitution of the United States."Why can't, or won't, the rest of the candidates speak in such a forthright way?
"You're gonna get your Constitution back! You're gonna get your Constitution back."
"No more Abu Ghraibs!"
"No more Guantanamos!"
"No more torture!"
"No more rendering!"
"No more providing retroactive immunity for companies that turned over their records to the Bush Administration without a court order!"
"No more waterboarding!"
"No more denying people habeas corpus in this country, a right that has existed for 900 years!"
"And there will be no more Attorney Generals of the United States who believe an American President is above the law."
"That's gonna change."
Labels: Chris Dodd, civil liberties, civil rights, democratic party, US Constitution
1. If you are elected will you renounce forever the theory of a "unitary executive" with powers not spelled out in the Constitution?I could go on all day with the issues and questions I would like the have asked and answered by our candidates for the Democratic nominee for president.
2. Will you commit to open government again and end all attempts to block people from obtaining information?
3. Unlike bush, will you commit to restoring the checks and balances of our Constitution and restoring habeas corpus?
4. If elected will you work with both bodies of congress to outlaw and end forever "signing statements" that simply spell out future intent to abrogate the law and ignore inconvenient portions of legislation signed into law? Will you work to insure that any past or future signing statements are of no legal consequence whatsoever in any American court?
5. Will you commit to not using American military forces except as a last result and not the first? Will you eliminate the proposed "future combat system" based upon dozens of unknown and yet to be invented technologies that will cost untold billions of dollars to "maybe" make it work? And then use that money to the benefit of Americans?
6. Will you once again sign back onto treaties such as the NPT and actually work to eliminate nuclear weapons?
7. Will you renounce the neocon dream of using American military might to invade and conquer countries in order to obtain their natural resources?
8. Will you call for the immediate resignation of each and every person appointed to office or hired by the bush administration and replace them not with cronies, but people actually qualified to do the job?
9. Will you agree to submit America to the jurisdiction of the International Court at the Hague and aid that court in prosecuting any and every current government official shown to have committed war crimes?
10. Will you genuinely stop the practice of kidnapping citizens of other countries for the purpose of torturing them and holding them in confinement forever with no hope of a hearing in court? Will you put an end to Gitmo and the secret "black prisons" of the CIA?
11. Will you stop all the bellicosity of the bush administration and recognize other countries rights to handle their affairs without threat of "regime change" simply because you might disagree with that form of government?
12. Will you stop the insanity of sending every borrowed dollar into the black hole of Iraq and instead use American funds to the benefit of the poor, the young, the elderly, the infirm, and to help the least of those among us?
Labels: Bush, cheney secrecy, civil liberties, civil rights, diplomacy, foreign policy, hegemony, neocons, presidential candidates, Torture, US Constitution, war crimes
Labels: Conservatives, disinformation, GOP, hypocrisy, Iraq war, liars, neocons, propaganda
A federal judge Monday ordered the White House to preserve copies of all its e-mails, a move that Bush administration lawyers had argued strongly against.Geez, I can't believe that the most lawless administration in American history would not want to preserve all the evidence as to where all the bodies are buried, who committed what crimes, and when.
U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy directed the Executive Office of the President to safeguard the material in response to two lawsuits that seek to determine whether the White House has destroyed e-mails in violation of federal law.
In response, the White House said it has been taking steps to preserve copies of all e-mails and will continue to do so. The administration is seeking dismissal of the lawsuits brought by two private groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive.[…]
Justice Department lawyers had urged the courts to accept a proposed White House declaration promising to preserve all backup tapes.
"The judge decided that wasn't enough," said Anne Weismann, an attorney for CREW, which has gone to court over secrecy issues involving the Bush administration and has pursued ethical issues involving Republicans on Capitol Hill.[…]
The White House has provided little public information about the matter, saying that some e-mails may not have been automatically archived on a computer server for the Executive Office of the President and that the e-mails may have been preserved on backup tapes.
The White House has said that its Office of Administration is looking into whether there are e-mails that were not automatically archived and that if there is a problem, the necessary steps will be taken to address it.
Kennedy issued the order following recommendations to do so by a federal magistrate who held a hearing on the matter.
Labels: Bush, cheney secrecy, conspiracy, corruption, Courts, disinformation, GOP, Iraq war, liars, more Bush lies, propaganda
The Last of the Light BrigadeSong writers who said it better than I can:
In Flanders Field
Dulce Et Decorum Est
War Is Kind And Other Lines
Eve of Destruction by Barry McGuireMy humble offering:
The Grave by Don McLean
Masters of War by Bob Dylan
When we send our men and women to die for us, people who volunteered to die in a just cause, we are honor bound to tell them the truth and make sure the cause is truly just.
We are honor bound to equip them as best we can afford.
We are honor bound to take care of their families while they serve, and especially while they are deployed.
We are honor bound to take care of them when they come home.
No matter how they come home, whether it is only as memories, remains, wounded or relatively whole.
We are honor bound to our veterans, and if we sever those bonds we've sacrificed our children and our honor.
Labels: Veterans Day
Last sail of the season edition.Labels: Sailboat Blogging
Excerpt: Former Arizona Governor Fife Symington will moderate a distinguished panel of former high-ranking government, aviation, and military officials from seven countries to discuss close encounters with what the US Air Force describes as Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). Representatives from France, England, Belgium, Chile, Peru, Iran and the US will call for the US Government to join in an international dialogue and re-open its investigation – which the Air Force shut down over 30 years ago – in cooperation with other governments currently dealing with this unusual and controversial phenomenon. While on active duty, the panelists have either witnessed a UFO incident or have conducted an official investigation into UFO cases relevant to aviation safety and national security.For more info, go to the Coalition for Freedom of Information website.
Labels: ufology
Last year there was a, pardon the expression, $hitstorm about the Heralded Iraq Police Academy a 'Disaster'And now, over a year later, after all the promises made by Parsons, nothing has changed:
BAGHDAD, Sept. 27 -- A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished, U.S. investigators have found.
The Baghdad Police College, hailed as crucial to U.S. efforts to prepare Iraqis to take control of the country's security, was so poorly constructed that feces and urine rained from the ceilings in student barracks. Floors heaved inches off the ground and cracked apart. Water dripped so profusely in one room that it was dubbed "the rain forest."
"This is the most essential civil security project in the country -- and it's a failure," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an independent office created by Congress. "The Baghdad police academy is a disaster."
Iraqi Police Academy Remains Largely UnusableBastards. Lying bastards.
BAGHDAD, Nov. 5 — More than a year after the Parsons Corporation, the American contracting giant, promised Congress that it would fix the disastrous plumbing and shoddy construction in barracks the company built at the Baghdad police academy, the ceilings are still stained with excrement, parts of the structures are crumbling and sections of the buildings are unusable because the toilets are filthy and nonfunctioning.
[...]
“They used bad pipes for the sewage system,” said an officer who gave his name as Lt. Selah, a maintenance adviser, as he pointed through a ruptured drop-ceiling that had been ruined by waste leaking from faulty pipes above it.
The concrete used in the construction was substandard and is already collapsing in places because of the constant rain of sewage, Lieutenant Selah said, barely able to contain his anger.
[...]
A company spokeswoman, Erin Kuhlman, said that Parsons, which is based in Pasadena, Calif., had strictly abided by the terms of the contract it had received from the United States Army Corps of Engineers to do the work at the academy.
[...]
But dire problems with the project were discovered in inspections in August and September 2006 by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent agency led by Stuart W. Bowen Jr.
[...]
Mr. Bowen’s report also stated that inspectors had found “indications of potential fraud” in the project and had referred the case to its investigative division.
Those indications are apparently still being studied.
[...]
On Sept. 28, 2006, as the inspector general’s report was released, Earnest O. Robbins II, a senior vice president at Parsons, testified before the House Government Reform Committee that the company would fix the problems at no extra charge. “We are repairing it at no cost to the government,” Mr. Robbins said in response to questions by Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland.
Labels: corporate greed, corruption, Iraq war
Anti-war Vets Slam Parade BanOh, the irony! What better way to show gratitude for what veterans have done than to bring them home from an illegal war!?
LONG BEACH - Iraq veteran Jason Lemieux might not be marching in the 11th annual Long Beach Veterans Day Parade on Saturday.1108 08
The Marine, who served three tours of duty in Iraq and is now against the war, was hoping to march as a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a national organization that calls for immediate withdrawal of troops in Iraq.
The group’s application, however, was rejected last month because of its political views, parade coordinators said.
“I wanted to march like the rest of the Iraq veterans,” said Lemieux, a 24-year-old Anaheim resident. “I served my country. I’m a veteran of a foreign war. I think I deserve that respect.”
Iraq Veterans, along with the groups Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out, applied to march together in the parade this year under the entry “Military Patriots.”
After reviewing each group’s mission statement, the Veterans Day Parade Committee, a non-profit group that organizes the event, voted unanimously to reject the application, said parade coordinator Martha Thuente.
“They do not fit the spirit of the parade,” she said. “The spirit being one of gratitude for what the veterans have done. We do not want groups of a political nature, advocating the troops’ withdrawal from Iraq.”
City Attorney Bob Shannon on Wednesday said the parade committee is a private, non-profit organization, and therefore reserves the right to choose its participants.Yet another example of this war being about the oil.
[...]
Each year, the parade generates funds through community fundraisers and corporate sponsors, Thuente said. Paramount Petroleum Corporation donated $10,000 this year.
The city provides the staffing, flags, banners, utilities and police protection, Shannon said, but does not play any role in the approval of parade participants.So taxpayers provide the streets, the staffing, the flags, the banners, the utilities and the police ... but it's a private event. Yeah, Bob, there's a disconnect ... between you and reality.
“The fact that the city does provide staff is a disconnect,” Shannon said.
“It feels like I’ve been betrayed by the very people I fought to serve,” he said.
Labels: Freedom of speech, Iraq war
Labels: bush as chimp, cheney, humor, snark, State Department
Labels: dave
The Bush administration blocked a Marine Corps lawyer from testifying before Congress today that severe techniques employed by U.S. interrogators derailed his prosecution of a suspected al Qaeda terrorist.Man, ya just can't beat being able to violate any law you wish, especially one as offensive and morally repugnant as torturing human beings, and then order all the witnesses, under pain of courts martial for disobeying, not to talk about the illegal acts they have witnessed.
The move comes as the administration seeks to tamp down concerns about detainee policies that flared up after attorney general-designate Michael Mukasey declined to tell senators whether he believes that waterboarding, or simulated drowning of prisoners, constitutes torture. The debate has focused on whether severe interrogation practices, some of which critics consider to be torture, are legal, moral or effective.
Labels: big brother, Bush, Censorship, civil rights, disinformation, executive orders, military, neocons, Torture
Labels: Bush, Congress, corruption, democratic party, disinformation, Economy, propaganda
Labels: Economy, inflation, reconstructed M3
Excerpt: The Pakistan People Party of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto says police have arrested hundreds more of its supporters. Party officials say the arrests are aimed at sabotaging a Friday rally called to protest President Pervez Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule, as VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Islamabad.So, he’s making a big display and arresting people and squelching free speech and whatnot, which is giving him a HUGE image problem.
Labels: free speech, Freedom of speech, protest
Excerpt: While the White House must beware not to inform our enemies what to expect if captured, today’s clueless anti-waterboarding rhetoric merits this tactic’s vigorous defense. Waterboarding is something of which every American should be proud.What, what, what??! Proud? Is he crazy?
Waterboarding makes tight-lipped terrorists talk. At least three major al-Qaeda leaders reportedly have been waterboarded, most notably Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
Labels: Torture, waterboarding
Excerpt: Al Qaeda cyber-terrorists have announced they will launch an “electronic jihad” against online Western interests later this month, according to an Israeli news website.(The information comes from DEBKAfile which, if you're paying attention, has a pretty bad reputation on the web.) Anyway, when I read the article, I remembered reading about the Storm Worm virus and how nobody really understood it, and anyone who probed the thing would have their systems attacked. My feeling about that was that the Storm Worm has a sort of benign, annoying exterior, but could be sitting there, waiting to turn into something really nasty. And I don't think FOR AN INSTANT that al Qaeda created it. It's more than likely created right here at home as a sort of internet kill switch for when the government needs to shut down the internet. Now, why would they need to shut down the internet on the 11th?
Labels: propaganda, staged terror, storm worm, technology
BUSH: I spoke to President Musharraf right before I came over here to visit with President Sarkozy. And my message was that we believe strongly in elections and that you ought to have elections soon, and you need to take off your uniform. You can't be the president and the head of the military at the same time.Really!?
And then pardoning the creep.Labels: more Bush lies
RON PAUL: DARK HORSE OR REAL CONTENDER?They must be really freaking out. I mean, here's someone they haven't christened for chrissakes. How dare he?! They're even going to try to keep out of the next debate in Iowa. The republican party in Iowa has announced that a candidate must have:
Media Infers Ron Paul Is A Terrorist
and my favorite:
Ron Paul, Fruitcake
Garnered at least 5% of the national electorate as determined by an average of the most recent national telephone polls of registered voters conducted by non-partisan public opinion polling organizations leading up to the registration deadline as determined by Fox News Channel and the Republican Party of Iowa or garnered an average of at least 5% in the most recent polls of Iowa voters conducted by the American Research Group and the Des Moines Register.But, there's a funny thing about that 5% in the polls number. Seems he can't get 5% of the polls if HE'S NOT MENTIONED IN THE DAMN POLLING QUESTIONS.
Excerpt: A cursory glance of national polling data will reveal to anyone, even the most diehard supporter of corporate media’s integrity, that the mainstream polls used as statistical proof of Ron Paul’s low chances more often than not do NOT include Ron Paul in the polls. There have been dozens of major media polls, from the largest corporations to small college campus polls, supported by marketing firms and the like, and a large percentage of these showcase what seems a concerted effort to remove Ron Paul from pollsters lips, minds, and choices. Talking heads on FOX or MSNBC might often refer to Ron Paul as a ‘third tier’ candidate, or even a ‘dark horse’, but the comment is usually always followed with a remark about how he has no chances at winning, and the polls are cited as proof. Well, that might sound well and good. But how many voters or concerned media watchdogs actually then go out and read these national polls? Is it possible that the mainstream media could be united in purpose in suppressing a ‘rogue’ candidate such as Ron Paul? Yes, it is.Boy, anyone who has the media bending this far backwards has GOT to having something going for him.
Labels: 2008 election, MSM, propaganda, ron paul
[…]Countries are growing weary of losing money on the falling dollar. Many of them want to protect their financial interests, and a number of them want to end the US oversight that comes with using the dollar. Although it’s not clear how many of these countries will actually follow through on an abandonment of the dollar, it is clear that its status as a world currency is in trouble.The list of countries? Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China, Venezuela, Iran, Sudan, and Russia. By coincidence these are all oil exporting countries or heavy oil importers, so switching to, say, euros instead of dollars, they won't lose 39% of the value of their investments because of the plummeting dollar.
Obviously, an abandonment of the dollar is bad news for the currency. Simply put, as demand lessens, its value drops. Additionally, the revenue generated from the use of the dollar will be sorely missed if it’s lost. The dollar’s status as a cheaply-produced US export is a vital part of our economy. Losing this status could rock the financial lives of both Americans and the worldwide economy.
Labels: disinformation, Economy, propaganda
"America's reputation, standing and influence are at all-time lows, and possibly sinking further," the report by a 20-member think-tank commissioned by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said, citing half a dozen opinion polls from around the world.While I agree with every sentiment expressed here, we cannot forget that "the war on terra" was simply a construct used by bush/cheney to justify attacking Iraq for control of its oil fields, so the job of restoring our honor will be much more difficult as bush continues his systematic genocide of the Iraqi people to accomplish that goal.
"The terrorist attacks on 9/11 caused America to become a frightened and angry nation," it said.
"We reacted in ways that alarmed people the world over ... we relied excessively on hard military power to fight the war against terrorists and violent extremists.
"Ultimately this is a battle that will be won by ideas, not bullets. Just like the Cold War, we will prevail when the world chooses the opportunities we defend over the despair offered by our enemies."
The report, which was more than a year in the making, said the United States has focused too much on the war on terror and relied too heavily on military might in its foreign policy.[…]
It called on the next US president to chart a new course towards a "smarter" foreign policy that balances hard power -- "wielding carrots and sticks to get what you want" -- and soft power -- "the ability to attract people to our side without coercion."
By shifting its foreign policy focus from the war on terror to championing the global good, the United States will not only defeat terrorism but will also restore its greatness, the report said.
Labels: Bush, cheney, Conservatives, conspiracy, corporate greed, diplomacy, disinformation, GOP, Oil, propaganda
vidiotspeak: vɪdiətspik [vid-ee-uht-speek] -noun
1.(sometimes capital letters 'V' and 'S' with no space) a style of writing or saying something using emotion and/or logic and snark, esp. in order to elucidate the obvious while pretending to be objective.
2. anything written by The Vidiot, The Sailor, Mr. Vidiot and anyone else they allow to post on the blog “vidiotspeak”
[Origin: loosely based on new + speak, coined by George Orwell in his novel, 1984 (1949)]
Click above to download the album, click below to contact
And for godsakes, stay away from FOX, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC.
It's ALL CRAP!!!
Watch the BBC news or ITN news instead.
