LEFT is RIGHT (blogging against The Bush-war) |
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Iraq War Cost
 
 
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| ..A large majority of Democrats (59%) say they agree that the President should be impeached if he lied about Iraq, while just three-in-ten (30%) disagree. Among President Bush�s fellow Republicans, a full one-in-four (25%) indicate they would favor impeaching the President under these circumstances, while seven-in-ten (70%) do not. Independents are more closely divided, with 43% favoring impeachment and 49% opposed... |
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| "Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let me label you as they may." - - - Mark Twain |
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Thursday Bits
The facts Bush-war failed to mention in his June 27th speech
Bush Is Right to Link 9/11 With Iraq
Tell your Senator to PRESERVE THE ESTATE TAX
Avian Flu: A State of Unreadiness
The safest family car, a holistic approach (posted especially for Michael Miller)
Bush Is Right to Link 9/11 With Iraq
Tell your Senator to PRESERVE THE ESTATE TAX
Avian Flu: A State of Unreadiness
The safest family car, a holistic approach (posted especially for Michael Miller)
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June 29, 2005
June 27, 2005 | Christopher Piper sits by the grave of his father, Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Piper, in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Piper, a special forces soldier, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan earlier this month. (Photo: Darren McCollester / Getty Images)
At this point I think only the ignorant or insane would even consider signing up for the "Army of One". Me, I'd rather be alive than a dead response to a "higher calling".
The anti-war movement, a response to the deadly illegal, immoral and unethical actions of the Bush-war Administration, is gaining momentum. Next time there is an anti-war march within driving distance of your house, go there. Participate. Get off your lazy butt and get into the streets. DO SOMETHING.
"9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq, 9/11 Iraq..."
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What a Terrible, Terrible Waste
June 27, 2005 | Christopher Piper sits by the grave of his father, Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Piper, in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Piper, a special forces soldier, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan earlier this month. (Photo: Darren McCollester / Getty Images)| I thank our military families. The burden of war falls especially hard on you. In this war, we have lost good men and women who left our shores to defend freedom and did not live to make the journey home. I've met with families grieving the loss of loved ones who were taken from us too soon. I've been inspired by their strength in the face of such great loss. We pray for the families. And the best way to honor the lives that have been given in this struggle is to complete the mission. I thank those of you who've re-enlisted in an hour when your country needs you. And to those watching tonight who are considering a military career, there is no higher calling than service in our armed forces. We live in freedom because every generation has produced patriots willing to serve a cause greater than themselves. Those who serve today are taking their rightful place among the greatest generations that have worn our nation's uniform. - - - George Bush, June 28, 2005 |
At this point I think only the ignorant or insane would even consider signing up for the "Army of One". Me, I'd rather be alive than a dead response to a "higher calling".
The anti-war movement, a response to the deadly illegal, immoral and unethical actions of the Bush-war Administration, is gaining momentum. Next time there is an anti-war march within driving distance of your house, go there. Participate. Get off your lazy butt and get into the streets. DO SOMETHING.
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Wednesday Bits
Google Earth "combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world�s geographic information at your fingertips."
Generation Chickenhawk (a.k.a. college republicans)
FBI whistleblower Rowley running for Congress (Also was Left is Right's 2004 PERSON OF THE YEAR)
Thousands riot in China, attack police, burn cars
Future climate could be hotter than thought
Flash presentation of Iraqi war coalition casualties by day
Generation Chickenhawk (a.k.a. college republicans)
FBI whistleblower Rowley running for Congress (Also was Left is Right's 2004 PERSON OF THE YEAR)
Thousands riot in China, attack police, burn cars
Future climate could be hotter than thought
Flash presentation of Iraqi war coalition casualties by day
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June 28, 2005
[click image]
Attention San Diego Residents:
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Tuesday Bits
Inside the Mind of an Iraqi Suicide Bomber
Stop Blaming the Troops -- Investigate the Real Culprits of Abuse
Iraq: A Bloody Mess
Blood Swapping Reanimates Dead Dogs
Bloggers Fighting Government Regulations
State senator questioning Guard surveillance unit
Stop Blaming the Troops -- Investigate the Real Culprits of Abuse
Iraq: A Bloody Mess
Blood Swapping Reanimates Dead Dogs
Bloggers Fighting Government Regulations
State senator questioning Guard surveillance unit
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"An Oversight Hearing on Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq"
Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing - Monday, June 27, 2005
Following is an excerpt from the hearing, where Rory Mayberry, Former KBR Food Production Manager, was asked follow-up questions after his presentation:
As much as I have admired many of the good things Clinton has accomplished since 1992, I cringe when I see something like this.
Following is an excerpt from the hearing, where Rory Mayberry, Former KBR Food Production Manager, was asked follow-up questions after his presentation:
| QUESTIONS FOR RORY MAYBERRY JUNE 13, 2005 Mr. Mayberry, representatives of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee have provided me with several questions that they would like me to ask you now. Can I begin asking you those questions? Q: Are you saying that Halliburton deliberately falsified the number of meals they prepared, and then submitted false claims for reimbursement, and that they did this to make up for past amounts auditors had disallowed? A: Yes. Q: So, when they couldn�t get reimbursed legitimately, they committed fraud by submitting these false bills? A: Yes. Q: How many meals were served at the dining hall each day? A: 2,500 meals, per meal, times four. There were four meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner and a midnight meal. Q: So, every day, Halliburton was charging for 20,000 meals it never served? A: Correct. They were charging for 20,000 meals, and they were only serving 10,000 meals. Q: Was it rare for expired food to be served to the troops? A: No. It was an everyday occurrence, sometimes every meal. Q: You�ve described routine overcharging and unsanitary practices by Halliburton, as well as shortages of food items for troops because of private Halliburton parties. Halliburton managers were not only aware of these practices, they ordered them, is that correct? A: Correct. Q: How senior were these managers? A: The managers, the main manager was a manager of all of Iraq, assigned by KBR. Q: So these practices may have been ordered at other dining halls in Iraq? A: Most likely, yes. Q: When government auditors arrived, these senior managers deliberately avoided them? A: Yes. Q: And these senior managers ordered you and other employees not to discuss your concerns with the auditors? A: Yes. We were informed if we talked, we would be rotated out to other camps that were under fire. Q: Is it fair to say that the managers used the threat of transfer to a more dangerous base to intimidate employees into keeping quiet? A: Yes. Q: When employees did talk to auditors, what happened? A: All the employees that did talk to the auditors were switched out to other camps or fired because they refused to go to the other camps. Q: Is there anything else you�d like us to know? A: Not at this time. Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Mayberry. |
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As much as I have admired many of the good things Clinton has accomplished since 1992, I cringe when I see something like this.
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Granfalloons
| "Is not nationalism--that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder--one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? These ways of thinking--cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on--have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power. "National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica, and many more). But in a nation like ours--huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction--what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves." - - - Howard Zinn |
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Yes, that same Donald
| �Accurate judgment is predicated on accurate information. Government has an obligation to present information to the public promptly and accurately so that the public�s evaluation of Government activities is not distorted. Political pundits speak of the �credibility gap� in the present administration. Indeed, this appellation is so widespread that it has become a household word.� - - - Donald Rumsfeld, congressman from Illinois - Congressional Record, 90th Cong. pg A792, 2/21/67 |
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June 27, 2005
But hey, let's look on the bright side. If the British troops really do pull out in a few weeks, as the author above surmises, I'm sure the American troops won't be far behind. So I guess we can put the anti-war movement to bed.
Until Bush-war attacks Iran.
| "This GOP has the moral certitude of Errol Flynn at a convention of underage bargirls in Bangkok. And ethics? Please! Republicans have the ethics of - well - Tom Delay and Randy "Duke" Cunningham and the Ohio Coin-gOp scandal. They quote Stalin as a means of dealing with the judiciary or anyone who opposes them, but no one makes them apologize. They call Democrats traitors, and accuse them of aiding the enemy, while at the same time, the GOP ensures their friends profit from the deaths of American soldiers. There is not a corpse in this country that these people will not stick Uncle Dick's cheney into, in order to screw themselves into a frenzy of godly power. And yet, these bilious bullies rule the political playground? Give me a break!" - - - John Cory |
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Iraq Update
| U.S. headed for disaster when efforts in Iraq collapse Red flags flapping sharply in the wind signal our country is on the verge of a major political - and economic - setback. We may now be only weeks away from a complete collapse of the Iraqi army and the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq in the face of overwhelming public pressure on Tony Blair. That is a realistic projection based on the reports of two Washington Post reporters, whose dispatches from inside Iraqi Army units and U.S. units assigned to train and work with the Iraqi military have just been published. What the Post reporters found was massive disenchantment on both sides: American forces bitterly disappointed with the Iraqi government forces, and Iraqi troops harboring similar feelings toward their American counterparts. Only a small percentage of all Iraqi troops are now estimated to be adequately trained to take over the defense of their country. Desertions are widespread. More than 1,700 American men and women sent to Iraq have returned home in body bags thus far, and more than 7,000 have been critically wounded. War dead in total exceeds 25,000, including "collateral casualties." And the price tag for our military operations tops $200 billion - and counting. Recent surveys in Iraq have shown that insurgents are overwhelmingly Iraqis, not foreign fighters. Few are associated with al-Qaida. |
But hey, let's look on the bright side. If the British troops really do pull out in a few weeks, as the author above surmises, I'm sure the American troops won't be far behind. So I guess we can put the anti-war movement to bed.
Until Bush-war attacks Iran.
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Bits
Bush Tyranny In Iraq Surpasses That Of Saddam.
A White House Creative Writing Course (video)
Rumsfeld smacks down Cheney
Eating dark chocolate may have a protective effect on the cardiovascular system in healthy people
Why I'm joining the GOP - Leaving the left for fun and profit
A White House Creative Writing Course (video)
Rumsfeld smacks down Cheney
Eating dark chocolate may have a protective effect on the cardiovascular system in healthy people
Why I'm joining the GOP - Leaving the left for fun and profit
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June 24, 2005
Mary Carey on The Daily Show last night. (video)
Bank ATMs Converted to Steal IDs of Bank Customers
Two Zingers from Oliver Willis
| The Democratic party is surely the worst case of a battered spouse in the history of this country�s great national dialogue. No matter the indignities suffered at the hands of the media or the Republicans, the Democrats keep coming back and asking to be forgiven for their perceived sins. Stop it. Stop it now. For christ�s sake, stand up for yourselves and the people who voted for you. It�s got to stop now. |
| The Republican party stands for nothing if they aren�t demonizing the Democratic party as anti-American. They did it when Bill Clinton was President, and they�ve done it since the moment George Bush obtained the White House. That is what they�re doing now. They�ve got nothing more than passing legislation that does nothing to actually help America, preferring instead to gin up the slack jawed folks who are their most ardent supporters with a neverending river of bigotry, hate, and bile. To date the left has become their enablers, preferring to play to some form of mythical �moderation� while these idiots defecate on our national foundations. Many Democrats (including myself in the past) have preferred the path of least resistance, trying to appeal to the mythical center while at the same time ignoring our core values. We have to stop this now. In order to preserve this nation, we must stop giving in to the Republicans and their hatred of America�s diversity of race, thought, ideology, and values. In the early part of the 20th century, those who championed racist hatred were in the majority. For many, the �right� thing politically would have been to walk in lockstep with the klan and their ilk. But they were wrong, and the people who supported them were wrong. We have to stand up for the right things, even if you�re in the minority, even if you�re not doing the politically expedient thing, because standing up for what�s right is the moral thing to do. To the Hillary Clintons, Harry Reids, John Edwardses, Joe Bidens, and other leaders of our side - it is time to draw a line in the sand. It is time, at long last, to cease with the smiles and the well-wishes and to make clear that the time to declare open political warfare on these people is long past due. |
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| "Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual)." (Ayn Rand) |
| "Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper." (Larry Flynt) |
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Friday Bits
Mary Carey on The Daily Show last night. (video)
Bank ATMs Converted to Steal IDs of Bank Customers
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FRIDAY FUN
Guess Which Movie (game/quiz)
Tom Cruise Kills Oprah (video)
AFI's Top 100 Movie Quotes
Brutally Honest Personal Ads
The June 22, 2056 issue of The Onion
Optical Illusions
Transparent laptop screens
What would it cost to become Batman?
An episode of Star Trek tediously written for an audience entirely composed of remote Amazon Tribesmen
Collectible Star Wars Barf Bags
Spat over ketchup stains lawyer's image
Will Ferrell as Neil Diamond (video of old SNL skit - slow loading but hilarious)
Tom Cruise Kills Oprah (video)
AFI's Top 100 Movie Quotes
Brutally Honest Personal Ads
The June 22, 2056 issue of The Onion
Optical Illusions
Transparent laptop screens
What would it cost to become Batman?
An episode of Star Trek tediously written for an audience entirely composed of remote Amazon Tribesmen
Collectible Star Wars Barf Bags
Spat over ketchup stains lawyer's image
Will Ferrell as Neil Diamond (video of old SNL skit - slow loading but hilarious)
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June 23, 2005
Hey, Parents! Check this out.
Pentagon Creating Student Database [emphasis added]
Yep. That's your Bush-war Administration, trying to find new ways to suck hapless teenagers into their Iraqi Oil Protection Program. This is a despicable move on your government's part, and a moral affront to your children's civil rights.
Well, unless of course you are part of the Christian Fundamentalist Evangelical War-Hawk Brigade. Because these so-called patriotic Americans are, I'm sure, just chomping at the bit to send their kids off to die for the noble cause of lining the pockets of the military-industrial-petroleum complex headed by Nationalist Neoconservatives.
Get angry, people. This is your life and your world that they are systematically destroying. How much longer are you going to sit back and look the other way?
When do you finally say, "Enough is enough?" When you're paying $10/gal for gas because civil war broke out in Iraq, sucking in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran? When you can find nothing but government propaganda on the news (oops, that's already happened)? When political decisions are based on whether or not it's "christian" (we're halfway there on that one)? When you can no longer speak you own mind lest you be labeled anti-patriotic and thus a terrorist? When any government official can walk into your home at any time for any reason they deem fit? When only the rich can get access to health care? When environmental protection laws are a distant memory and only corporations decide how clean to make the air you breathe and the water you drink? When Labor laws and Unions are reclassified as anti-American and methodically drummed into oblivion? When every child (except the rich ones, of course) are conscripted into the military directly out of high school?
When and where do you draw the line?
| washingtonpost.com Recruiting Tool For Military Raises Privacy Concerns By Jonathan Krim - Washington Post Staff Writer - Thursday, June 23, 2005; A01 The Defense Department began working yesterday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches. The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying. The data will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., one of many marketing firms that use computers to analyze large amounts of data to target potential customers based on their personal profiles and habits. "The purpose of the system . . . is to provide a single central facility within the Department of Defense to compile, process and distribute files of individuals who meet age and minimum school requirements for military service," according to the official notice of the program. Privacy advocates said the plan appeared to be an effort to circumvent laws that restrict the government's right to collect or hold citizen information by turning to private firms to do the work. Some information on high school students already is given to military recruiters in a separate program under provisions of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. Recruiters have been using the information to contact students at home, angering some parents and school districts around the country. School systems that fail to provide that information risk losing federal funds, although individual parents or students can withhold information that would be transferred to the military by their districts. |
Yep. That's your Bush-war Administration, trying to find new ways to suck hapless teenagers into their Iraqi Oil Protection Program. This is a despicable move on your government's part, and a moral affront to your children's civil rights.
Well, unless of course you are part of the Christian Fundamentalist Evangelical War-Hawk Brigade. Because these so-called patriotic Americans are, I'm sure, just chomping at the bit to send their kids off to die for the noble cause of lining the pockets of the military-industrial-petroleum complex headed by Nationalist Neoconservatives.
Get angry, people. This is your life and your world that they are systematically destroying. How much longer are you going to sit back and look the other way?
When do you finally say, "Enough is enough?" When you're paying $10/gal for gas because civil war broke out in Iraq, sucking in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Iran? When you can find nothing but government propaganda on the news (oops, that's already happened)? When political decisions are based on whether or not it's "christian" (we're halfway there on that one)? When you can no longer speak you own mind lest you be labeled anti-patriotic and thus a terrorist? When any government official can walk into your home at any time for any reason they deem fit? When only the rich can get access to health care? When environmental protection laws are a distant memory and only corporations decide how clean to make the air you breathe and the water you drink? When Labor laws and Unions are reclassified as anti-American and methodically drummed into oblivion? When every child (except the rich ones, of course) are conscripted into the military directly out of high school?
When and where do you draw the line?
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Are the Gloves finally coming off?
| "The Far Right stands for a weak America - weakened by significantly underfunding and compromising homeland security, by sleeping at the wheel rather than working hard to face up to real terrorist threats, by promoting those who slept at the wheel while terrorists schemed and attacked us and firing those who pointed out the truth, by promoting those who authorized anti-American acts of criminality, by breeding new terrorist havens by attacking the wrong enemy under false pretenses, by dramatically undermining the military with appalling policies, by aiding the enemy's ranks by supporting or condoning torture, by delaying or underfunding protective armor and gear for heroic American troops fighting wars to keep America safe and using the money to corruptly feed hyper-rich campaign contributors instead, by institutionalizing immorality and corruption in virtually everything they touch, thereby ensuring the survival of the greedy and most well connected - not the survival of the fittest, and by insidiously or overtly undermining Western capitalism and the basic social and economic safety net in America. The distinction is clear. The time has come for real moral clarity." - - - The LeftCoaster |
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Wal-Mart - The Movie
Go HERE to check out the trailer and cast your vote for the title of Robert Greenwald's upcoming scathing documentary about Wal-Mart. Like Farenheit 9/11, it will be shown in theatres worldwide.
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Ask President Bush to Fight Poverty
Mercy Corps is one of the world's premier humanitarian aid organizations. Their work became more familiar to many people (including me) following the recent tsunami in Asia. Over 90% of your donations goes directly to aid (i.e. less than 10% goes to administrative costs, compared to organizations such as the Red Cross and United Way, which keep well over half of your donations for administrative housekeeping (yes it's a huge scam and I never give a penny to those so-called "charities")).
Anyway, Mercy Corps asks for literally 4 minutes of your time to help influence the world's leaders in ending world poverty:
You'll never, ever see something like this on a right-wing web site. Progressives, let's help spread the word. Isn't that one reason we're blogging?
Anyway, Mercy Corps asks for literally 4 minutes of your time to help influence the world's leaders in ending world poverty:
| Ask President Bush to Fight Poverty June 7, 2005 Through its agricultural and community mobilization projects benefiting 350,000 people, Mercy Corps promotes sustainable development in Eritrea, one of the world's poorest 10 countries according to per capita GDP. Photo: Nicole Demestihas/Mercy Corps Next month, President Bush will join the leaders of the world�s eight wealthiest nations for a three-day summit in Scotland. Mercy Corps, a partner of the ONE Campaign, is asking President Bush and other world leaders to reform trade rules, cancel debts owed by poor countries and devote an additional one percent of the federal budget to end extreme poverty. Poverty and debt are high on the agenda for the July 6-8 meeting of the Group of Eight (G8), where eight men � the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada and Russia - will have the power to save the lives of millions of people who live in extreme poverty. And you can help make this happen. President Bush needs to hear that Americans strongly support bold leadership on this issue. Nearly one million people have signed the ONE Declaration, calling on U.S. political leaders to devote an additional one percent of the federal budget to ending abject poverty around the globe. The letter urges President Bush to do the following at the G8 summit: Help the poorest people of the world fight poverty, AIDS and hunger at a cost equal to just one percent more of the U.S. budget on a clear timetable; Cancel 100 percent of the debts owed by the poorest countries; Reform trade rules so poor countries can earn sustainable incomes. Read the full text and sign the letter. Learn more about Mercy Corps and the ONE Campaign. |
You'll never, ever see something like this on a right-wing web site. Progressives, let's help spread the word. Isn't that one reason we're blogging?
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Social Security: The Real Connections is a very instructive animated (12-minute) video describing the Social Security System and its relationship with the Federal Government's revenues and deficit. Great primer for most everyone. Thanks to Ratboy 56 for finding this gem.
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| "They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one�s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason." - - - Ernest Hemmingway |
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June 22, 2005
Juan Cole, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs, gives reasons for U.N. intervention in, coinciding with America withdrawal from, Iraq:
That's pretty friggin' scary. And on top of that, Bush is gearing up to attack Iran. My fellow sane citizens, we have GOT to get this administration out of Washington!
Gas for $20 a gallon? I could afford it with my Prius getting 50 mpg, but that assumes I would still have a job. Can you imagine these gas-guzzling SUV monstrosities filling up their 25-gallon tanks for $1,000 every week? That's almost hilarious.
Jack S. Kilby
Truly a great human.
Gas for $20 a Gallon
Juan Cole, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs, gives reasons for U.N. intervention in, coinciding with America withdrawal from, Iraq:
| I have been unable to convince many of my readers of what I know. A US withdrawal could well throw Iraq into civil war. Civil war in Iraq would bring in the Iranians, the Saudis and the Turks. The success of petroleum pipeline sabotage and refinery sabotage in Iraq will suggest it as a tactic to the guerrillas fighting in this Fourth Gulf War. If Saudi and Iranian petroleum production is sabotaged, gas in this country will go to $20 a gallon and the US will be plunged into the Second Great Depression. The unemployment rate will skyrocket to some 25%. Not only will you and I likely end up unemployed, but the global South will be de-industrialized. Countries making progress like India and Pakistan will be thrown back 30 years. We already saw petroleum spike to $40 a barrel in the early 80s, in 1980 dollars, which is probably $80 a barrel in our money. Cause? Iranian Revolution and Iran-Iraq War. Only a kind of MAD prevented Saddam and Khomeini from destroying each others' oil fields; at that, they were sometimes attacked. Guerrillas do not give a rat's ass about MAD. The oil shock in the 1970s virtually de-industrialized Turkey for a while, and very badly hurt the Caribbean (islands depend on boat transport even for basic foodstuffs). I have seen this kind of scenario. It is not inevitable but it is entirely plausible. Since the US military seems incapable of winning the guerrilla war in Iraq either militarily or politically, someone else will have to do it if we are to avoid Gulf War [IV] and its consequences. The Europeans cannot do it. They only have a surplus capacity of about 10,000 troops for deployment outside the continent, and they are already in Afghanistan. You could argue that they should reform their militaries so that they did have more troops for external deployment, but that would take time we don't have. That leaves a United Nations command leading troops from the global South, with perhaps, one or two remaining US divisions. The Southerners are culturally better suited to negotiating an end to the Iraq hostilities anyway, and some of them have excellent militaries. Gulf War [IV] and Very High Oil Prices would hurt them more than it would hurt the US and Europe, so they have every interest in intervening. Moreover, they will be richly rewarded with billions in future Iraq contracts, which they need more than Texas does. Some are construing this proposal as me having the poor people in the global South suffer for Bush's mistakes. But at $60 a barrel they are already suffering for Bush's mistakes. Do you know how many factories will have to close over this, or will never open in the first place, in Pakistan and India? Factories are very sensitive to energy costs, which have tripled, and could go even higher. Iraq is adding $10 to $15 a barrel to the current price because of uncertainty and speculation, and the removal through sabotage of about 1.5 million barrels a day also contributes to the problem. I am saying that the UN and the global South can solve the problem, that they have every incentive to solve the problem, and that they will be richly rewarded for solving the problem. Moreover, this way of proceeding would deeply hurt the whole American nationalist war party. It would be a victory for cosmopolitan multi-lateralism. It would dampen down US militarism by creating an Iraq Complex. It would put two US divisions under a United Nations command, setting a precedent. It would strengthen the United Nations so that the US Right can't just order around or ignore it the way the Bushes do their kitchen help. It is progressive in every way. And it is a perfect reply to the Right's insistence that the US has to remain in control until 'the job is done.' No, it doesn't. This is a job for the world. In other words, it isn't all about us, in the sense of US. It is about what would be good for the world. |
That's pretty friggin' scary. And on top of that, Bush is gearing up to attack Iran. My fellow sane citizens, we have GOT to get this administration out of Washington!
Gas for $20 a gallon? I could afford it with my Prius getting 50 mpg, but that assumes I would still have a job. Can you imagine these gas-guzzling SUV monstrosities filling up their 25-gallon tanks for $1,000 every week? That's almost hilarious.
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Inventor of the Integrated Circuit Dies
Jack S. Kilby
| Jack St. Clair Kilby, retired TI [Texas Instruments] engineer and inventor of the integrated circuit, died yesterday in Dallas following a brief battle with cancer. He was 81. Mr. Kilby invented the first monolithic integrated circuit, which laid the foundation for the field of modern microelectronics, moving the industry into a world of miniaturization and integration that continues today. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his role in the invention of the integrated circuit. �In my opinion, there are only a handful of people whose works have truly transformed the world and the way we live in it � Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers and Jack Kilby,� said TI Chairman Tom Engibous. �If there was ever a seminal invention that transformed not only our industry but our world, it was Jack�s invention of the first integrated circuit.� |
Truly a great human.
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Interested in finding where the real money is in politics? This Washington Post article gives all the eye-opening details.
At least, according to Mark Morford:
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Why Impeachment Won't Happen
At least, according to Mark Morford:
| ....Let's just say it outright: Of course Bush deserves to be impeached. But of course Bush will not be impeached, because impeachment requires a massive federal investigation and an act of Congress and the support of countless senators and representatives, and right now the GOP controls Congress with a little iron penis, and therefore any sort of uprising or scandal or suggestion of punishment gets immediately slammed down or scoffed away or buried under an avalanche of shrugs and yawns and neoconservative smugness. Isn't that right, Mr. Gannon? Mr. DeLay? Abu Ghraib? Gitmo? Saddam? Et al. BushCo survived the illegal sanctioning of inhumane torture. They survived a gay male prostitute acting as a journalist. They survived Enron and Diebold and the rigging of the first election and they will survive Downing Street simply because all the people who should be on the attack about these atrocities all work for the guys who committed them. So then, the question is not merely when will the stack of lies, of abuses become so high, so unstable, so inexcusable that the entire nation finally takes notice and the whole house of cards comes crashing to the ground in a big nasty soul-jarring spirit-cleansing patriotism-redefining whoomp and smothers the whole lot of them, but rather, can it be soon enough? And to that question, we all know the answer. |
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Attention California Teachers and Residents:
One of Groperzenegger's initiatives for the November Special Election is getting strong public support according to the latest Field Poll:
The California Teachers Association explains why the proposed law won't work:
The CTA is a powerful state political action group, but they are already expending much time, effort and resources trying to stop Groperzenegger's Administration from breaking labor unions and trying to get back the $2B that he stole from state school districts. The teachers of California need your support and especially need you to vote "no" on this bad measure in November.
| The Field Poll #2159 Wednesday, June 22, 2005 Page 2 Public School Teachers Tenure Another controversial initiative backed by the Governor is called the "Public School Teachers; Waiting Period for Permanent Status" initiative. This measure would increase the time required before a teacher can become a permanent employee and authorizes school boards to dismiss teaching employees who have received two consecutive unsatisfactory performance evaluations. Fifty-nine percent of registered voters and 64% of likely voters report having seen or heard something about this initiative. When all voters regardless of any prior awareness are read a summary of the measure, supporters outnumber opponents by a 59% to 35% margin among all registered voters and by a 61% to 32% margin among likely voters. |
The California Teachers Association explains why the proposed law won't work:
| This initiative is simply a smokescreen to divert attention from the fact that the governor broke his promise to students and schools about fully funding education and that he wants to gut Proposition 98, the law approved by California voters to guarantee minimum funding to our schools. His budget proposals cut school funding by $25,000 per classroom. This initiative is unnecessary. Existing law already gives every local school district an evaluation process to use to fire teachers for unsatisfactory performance, unprofessional conduct, dishonesty, criminal acts or other inappropriate conduct. Therefore, this initiative is unnecessary. At a time when an estimated 100,000 new teachers will be needed in the next 10 years in California, this initiative will make it harder to recruit young people into the teaching profession. It will also make it harder to attract and keep quality teachers at our most challenging schools. |
The CTA is a powerful state political action group, but they are already expending much time, effort and resources trying to stop Groperzenegger's Administration from breaking labor unions and trying to get back the $2B that he stole from state school districts. The teachers of California need your support and especially need you to vote "no" on this bad measure in November.
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June 21, 2005
[click image for source]
. . 
Maybe Bush-war can lend Arnie some of his "political capital".
Attention, All Young Republicans:
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| "As uplifting as the June 16 events [congressional hearings by Rep. John Conyers, Jr.] were, they demonstrated clearly the constant danger of American voters and activists buying into the least-worst "alternative." The Congress, in a bipartisan manner, still recently voted for the $86 billion to fund the occupation of Iraq. True and complete societal change is endangered when we stop short of our ultimate goal by saying, "There are good individuals in this present party or system." Was Bill Clinton a "better" individual, even though he presided over 8 years of sanctions against the people of Iraq, sanctions that killed over a million Iraqis? "In every corrupt system, there exist great individuals. There are "nice guy" CEOs, warm-hearted military generals, there were even conscientious people in the Nazi party who worked to do the right thing and subvert. The existence of great, progressive individuals is not in dispute -- in fact, these individuals demonstrate clearly the indomitable human spirit and the reason why struggle is necessary. Even in the most desperate, cruel, and seemingly unsurvivable situations, people have resisted, and sometimes won (let's look at the courage of the intifadas and insurgencies in Iraq and Palestine, for example). Great individuals, however, do not justify barbaric, unnatural, inhumane systems - they instead give evidence to why those systems need to be toppled, for without the repression and oppression of these systems, all of us, every one of us, could shine and be great individuals. "The task now is to remind ourselves that the progressive elected officials were pushed and dragged into action by the demonstrators in the streets, by the deluge of calls, faxes, sit-ins by anti-war citizens to their elected representatives. We need to empower ourselves with the knowledge that it was our action in the streets that enabled the recent moves by the progressives in Congress. We then must take this energy, and empower the entire international movement with this new confidence and success. In this manner, we can truly work to end all wars, and the incessant drive of profit over the safety and welfare of the world's people." - - - Virginia Rodino |
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Californians get smart about Groperzenegger
. . Maybe Bush-war can lend Arnie some of his "political capital".
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Boxer
Some excerpts from an interview with Senator Barbara Boxer:
One of the greatwomen leaders of our generation.
| Q: Do you think the cracks are beginning to show in the Republican Party? Barbara Boxer: The American people are beginning to see the Republicans� willingness to trample over 200 years of history, to step on the minority, to push everybody out of the way because they want 100 percent. It�s rubbing the American people the wrong way. One-party rule is not good. The American people as a whole are really pretty moderate. They�re not, as a whole, conservative or liberal. The right wing is marching the Republican Party off a cliff. Things are definitely not going well for this Administration because this lust for power has overtaken their common sense. Take the President�s Social Security plan. It is so obvious that the people don�t want to privatize this program that has worked so well and lifted 50 percent of seniors out of poverty. He has gone so far as to hint that the United States might default on its debts. This is the President of the United States. What a message! For sixty years they�ve been waiting for the moment when they could frighten people into thinking Social Security is going broke. When, by the way, it isn�t at all. Q: Do your colleagues think it�s OK for you to be as outspoken as you�ve been? Barbara Boxer: Not one person ever came up to me and said, �Don�t say those things, don�t engage.� What�s happened is the opposite. I see a lot of my colleagues now speaking out, forcefully. If you look at the Bolton nomination, you look at Joe Biden, you look at Chris Dodd, it is wonderful�it�s a thing of beauty. Today, Evan Bayh on the floor of the Senate standing firm on up-armoring our vehicles. And he won. After I did what I had to do, which was to ask some tough questions, other Democrats recognized, come to think of it, that�s our job. And more are doing it. And I couldn�t be more proud. I�ve always thought of myself as a catalyst. Look, it�s not without its perils. Ann Coulter called me �learning disabled.� The things people write about me. Q: What did Baghdad look like? Barbara Boxer: We were not able to drive on the road. We flew over the city in Blackhawk helicopters with machine gunners on either side and decoy helicopters all around. It looks like a desolate, dusty place with palm trees. I don�t know how else to describe it. Q: Did you get to talk to any civilians there? Barbara Boxer: You can�t. You can only talk to the people who are in the American embassy. Or we met with the country�s elected people�the Kurds, the Sunnis, the Shiites�but we weren�t really able to meet with other people because it�s just too dangerous. And everywhere we went we had two machine gunners plus bodyguards. It�s unacceptable, the situation there. Even for our embassy people. It�s just not safe. Q: What makes you stay hopeful that you can make change? Barbara Boxer: I�m an optimist, and I think you have to be an optimist to be in politics. And the thing is, it�s all about growing up. The day you realize you�re a grownup is the day you realize that you have to do something. When we�re kids, we don�t have to do anything. Then all of a sudden you realize, if I want this to be better, I�ve got to do something. Every American at some point has got to make the connection between their own hopes and dreams and who is elected to office. It�s essential. It�s very easy to pull the covers up over your head and say, �I can�t handle it. Too much.� But we just have to handle it and we have to accept that it�s our job. Each of us. Nobody is going to take care of it. Barbara Boxer is not going to make it all better. It�s got to be everybody. Everybody in the progressive community. Everybody has to take part. |
One of the great
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June 20, 2005
"The War With Iran Has Begun"
At least, it has according to Scott Ritter, and he hasn't been wrong yet. Read his sobering analysis of our current military operations against Iran.
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Bush-war's domestic weapon of choice
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DailyKos has posted a list of potential Democratic candidates for 2008:
I'll take Edwards, at this point. He's faithful to his party, a damn-hard campaigner, smart, articulate, believes in fairness and justice, and treats Americans as more than slaves to the corporate elite.
He's not a Progressive, of course, but at this point in our American political history any Progressive candidate won't have a bat's chance in hell of winning. It might work in California (and even New York), yet most of the remaining states just won't tolerate such radicalism.
We start digging ourselves out of this moral and political hellhole by either taking to the streets and revolting, or slowly weaning our hypnotized-into-conservative-numbness public off the sadistic teat of the neocon-flavored koolaid dispenser.
If we don't stop believing that something so outrageous could never happen, then obviously we haven't learned a single thing the past 4 years.
Pres 2008: First dKos presidential straw poll by kos |
I'll take Edwards, at this point. He's faithful to his party, a damn-hard campaigner, smart, articulate, believes in fairness and justice, and treats Americans as more than slaves to the corporate elite.
He's not a Progressive, of course, but at this point in our American political history any Progressive candidate won't have a bat's chance in hell of winning. It might work in California (and even New York), yet most of the remaining states just won't tolerate such radicalism.
We start digging ourselves out of this moral and political hellhole by either taking to the streets and revolting, or slowly weaning our hypnotized-into-conservative-numbness public off the sadistic teat of the neocon-flavored koolaid dispenser.
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| "Perhaps the neocons believe they've locked us into perpetual war in the Middle East so tightly that no subsequent administration will be able to get us out -- no matter what the voters want. They're certainly arrogant enough, and stupid enough, to believe it. Or does the gang have a contingency plan for coping with an outbreak of democracy in America -- and not just in Iran and Iraq? You never know. Real men may decide they can't afford to let the voters stand in their way. Not if they want to get to Tehran. That doesn't mean they'll ever get there, of course. Certainly not with this army. But it does suggest that unless they are stopped, the Cheney administration and its titular head will pursue their march of folly to the bitter end -- no matter what road it takes them down or where it may end." - - - Billmon |
If we don't stop believing that something so outrageous could never happen, then obviously we haven't learned a single thing the past 4 years.
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June 19, 2005
"Why This War is So Despicable"
A soldier's view from Iraq (excerpt):
| "But, in the end, being lied to is not really what makes me so mad. What really gets my goat, so to speak, is the fact that we haven't done much good here. No matter what the justifications for war, you would think that we'd be capable of making Iraq better than it was when people didn't always have food and Joseph's father could get dipped in acid. But, aside from the acid, we haven't done much of a job on that one at all. An Iraqi child is more likely to die of hunger now than before the invasion. Street violence is up; if most of the torture chambers have disapeared, the hole they left has at least partially been filled by IEDs and suicide bombers. Electricity and oil production still have as yet to reach pre-war levels. Iraq is not better of now than it was then, and that is an embarrasment. We made a huge friggin mess, and now we haven't done shit to clean it up. That, my friends, reflects very poorly on America as a whole. Of course, when I say "we" I'm not refering to you and me, I'm refering to the American people as a whole who, led by a lying administration, supported the invasion in the first place. Now that we're here, it is disgusting that Bush and the rest of the supporters of his war, haven't done more to rebuild Iraq." |
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June 17, 2005
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Still 3-1/2 Years To Go,
and Still So Much To Destroy. Here are the latest targets of your Bush-war Administration, whom so many of you bible-thumping, mindless idiots (re)elected:
House to cut public broadcasting funds
U.S. Pressure Weakens G-8 Climate Plan
When a study revealed that mercury in childhood vaccines may have caused autism in thousands of kids, the government rushed to conceal the data -- and to prevent parents from suing drug companies for their role in the epidemic.
House to cut public broadcasting funds
U.S. Pressure Weakens G-8 Climate Plan
When a study revealed that mercury in childhood vaccines may have caused autism in thousands of kids, the government rushed to conceal the data -- and to prevent parents from suing drug companies for their role in the epidemic.
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FRIDAY FUN
Darth Vader, DJ (video)
Mask Art
Satire of Paris Hilton / Carl's Jr. Commercial (video)
How to Launder Your Rats
Chasing Tornadoes (video)
Flying Snakes
Skateboarding Dog (video)
Wheelsurfing
Mask Art
Satire of Paris Hilton / Carl's Jr. Commercial (video)
How to Launder Your Rats
Chasing Tornadoes (video)
Flying Snakes
Skateboarding Dog (video)
Wheelsurfing
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June 16, 2005
John in D.C. comments on the Republicans who continue to support torture (a.k.a. American death camps such as Gitmo):
| "The American occupation of Iraq is something new, but the fundamental error of the United States has a long pedigree. It is the imprisonment of the human mind in ideology backed by violence. The classic example is Stalin's Russia, under which decades of misrule were rationalized as a "stage" on the way to the radiant future of true communism. As for the miserable present, it was amusingly called "actually existing communism." The future, when it came, of course was not communism at all but the disintegration of the whole enterprise. All the "stages" turned out to lead nowhere. "Once the mind is in the grip of such a system, every "actually existing" horror can be seen as a mere imperfection in a beautiful larger picture, every defeat a stage on the way to the glorious future. The simpler and more coherent an ideology, the better it can withstand the assault of fact. So today in Iraq, every act of torture, every flattened city, every gushing sewer, every car-bombing and beheading, is presented as a bump on the road to "freedom" for Iraq, or for the Middle East, or even for the whole world, in which our President has promised an "end to tyranny." (It's apparently a rule of ideology that the more sordid the reality, the more grandiosely splendid the eventual goal must be.) "But a moment comes -- perhaps it is a sudden defeat, or perhaps it is merely reading a story like Shadid and Fainaru's -- when the fantasy dissolves, and then one is left face to face with the factual truth. All the "exceptions" turn out to be the rule. When that happens with respect to Iraq, America's grotesque misadventure there -- born of lies, sustained by lies and productive of more lies every day it continues -- will be brought to a close." - - - Jonathan Schell |
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John in D.C. comments on the Republicans who continue to support torture (a.k.a. American death camps such as Gitmo):
| Apparently, the Republicans who dominate the party today, on the radio, online, and in the halls of Congress, think that the only good American is a Stalinist, a Nazi, a fascist, or any other brand of totalitarian thug who beats the crap out of innocents because he can, because we're Amurrikans, God damn it, and if we want to throw you in jail for an eternity, with no lawyer and no charges, and torture you until your head explodes and you go absolutely insane, that's our right because, well, because FUCK YOU. That's the thinking and the mantra of today's brand of Republicans who run the party and run the right-wing noise machine. The law is irrelevant, the norms of humanity are irrelevant. With God on our side - well, the Baptist fundamentalist God on our side, thank you - they can do no wrong. |
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| "I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?" - - - Barry Goldwater |
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An open letter to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan � on loyalty
Republicans kill Amtrak
Republicans kill Amtrak
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June 15, 2005
The Democratic Party has a golden opportunity to garner public support for withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, based on the latest polls which show around 55-60% of Americans think that Iraq wasn�t worth it, should withdraw at least some troops, and disapprove of Bush�s handling of Iraq. As Liberal Oasis says:
Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democratic politicians are mostly zip-lipped about discussing a withdrawal strategy. As Arianna Huffington elaborates:
Too bad. Withdrawal is what most Democrats, the majority of Americans, all Iraqis, the rest of the planet, and all US Soldiers stationed in Iraq, want.
As I've said repeatedly on this site, the only people who want soldiers in Iraq are the die-hard political supporters of Bush-war, and the entire military-industial-petroleum complex. Unfortunately the latter have most of the power, most of the wealth, and most of the U.S. media. You could say that we have the voting booth, but that has recently become a truth only in an alternate universe, thanks to electronic "voting".
So, really, we (and all Iraqis) are truly fucked. I mean, do you really REALLY think things are going to change in 2008? And you base that on what, wishful thinking? Get real, get informed, and get ready to revolt, because it's the only solution.
A Revolting Situation
The Democratic Party has a golden opportunity to garner public support for withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, based on the latest polls which show around 55-60% of Americans think that Iraq wasn�t worth it, should withdraw at least some troops, and disapprove of Bush�s handling of Iraq. As Liberal Oasis says:
| Right now, the public is pretty confused. If we captured Saddam, found no WMD, and helped organize an election, why are we still there, and why are we taking casualties? Dems should help clear up that confusion. Only then will an alternative strategy, centered on withdrawal, really make sense to the public. |
Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democratic politicians are mostly zip-lipped about discussing a withdrawal strategy. As Arianna Huffington elaborates:
| With memos pouring out of the U.K. showing there was no planning for what to do after Baghdad fell and that �intelligence and facts were being fixed,� and with the number of dead American soldiers now over 1,700, what is the Democratic leadership waiting for before they finally stand up to the White House? Where are Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Howard Dean on a moral issue of this magnitude, on which the majority of Americans oppose the administration? |
Too bad. Withdrawal is what most Democrats, the majority of Americans, all Iraqis, the rest of the planet, and all US Soldiers stationed in Iraq, want.
As I've said repeatedly on this site, the only people who want soldiers in Iraq are the die-hard political supporters of Bush-war, and the entire military-industial-petroleum complex. Unfortunately the latter have most of the power, most of the wealth, and most of the U.S. media. You could say that we have the voting booth, but that has recently become a truth only in an alternate universe, thanks to electronic "voting".
So, really, we (and all Iraqis) are truly fucked. I mean, do you really REALLY think things are going to change in 2008? And you base that on what, wishful thinking? Get real, get informed, and get ready to revolt, because it's the only solution.
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Why the California Teachers Association is raging mad at Governor Groperzenegger.
"Sullied" is not the word I would have used. Maybe "ruined", "destroyed", "shredded", "crushed"...
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| ...how can Americans avoid the charge of complicity in Bush's crimes against Iraq when Americans are in possession of such damning facts and have the power of impeachment? Why do Americans tolerate a liar and a war criminal as their president? Why has Congress voted still more money for an illegal war launched in deception? Why does the US military permit its human and physical resources to be squandered in a pointless war that has no strategy for victory and no timetable for withdrawal? How can America be so dominated by a lame-duck president that it loses all sense of itself, its honor, and its purpose? Americans are complicit in the deaths and maiming of thousands of American soldiers for no valid purpose. Americans are complicit in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi women and children as "collateral damage." No one knows how high the number is because the Bush administration does not regard Iraqi lives as worth counting. Bush's war of deception has devastated Iraq. Cities and towns are in ruins. Infrastructure is destroyed. Half the population is unemployed. Pollution and disease are rampant. By continuing to defend Bush's lies, right-wing talk radio, Fox "News", the Weekly Standard, National Review, the Wall St Journal editorial page, the NY Post, the NY Sun and the rest of the neocon establishment are Bush's willing executioners. The neocon media differs not at all from the Nazi propaganda machine. The neocon media fosters the same hatred and blood lust: kill the Iraqis, invade Syria, bomb the Iranians, devise "useable nukes" to subdue the Muslims, kill the American traitors who criticize our fuhrer, bend the world to our exceptional will. How much more shame and complicity will Americans allow Bush and his neocon brownshirts to shovel onto their shoulders before Americans say "enough!" and remove from office the war criminal who has sullied America's good name? - - - PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS |
"Sullied" is not the word I would have used. Maybe "ruined", "destroyed", "shredded", "crushed"...
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| "No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." - - - Steve Jobs (Stanford U. 2005 Commencement Speech) |
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Well, I'm having all sorts of problems with this blog this week. The Comments service, Backblog, is acting up big-time and also causing very long page-loading times, so in my attemts to turn it off I messed up the formatting so that now the page extends past the right edge of the screen, and the left margin for the posts gradually shifts to the right as you descend the page. I apologize profusely for all this and hope to find some time soon to find what's causing all this.
Dennis Kucinich has gathered responses from real people who have answered the typical political reasons for not withdrawing from Iraq. Here is one reason and some select responses:
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Withdraw
Dennis Kucinich has gathered responses from real people who have answered the typical political reasons for not withdrawing from Iraq. Here is one reason and some select responses:
| Argument: We have lost so many troops already that it would dishonor the memory of those who gave their lives if the U.S. were to withdraw. It would be a much greater dishonor to continue to allow more of their comrades to die for no reason. As the wife of a soldier I find this to be the most despicable reason ever uttered for continuing an unnecessary and unwinnable war. We honor the service of our military by making sure that all other options have been utilized before we ever place them at risk, and by taking them out of harm's way when their presence is no longer the only option. Honoring them would be ensuring U.S. citizens who volunteer to support the Constitution - i.e., troops - are never sent to die under false pretexts again. How does killing someone honor anyone? |
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June 14, 2005
| "Hard work is seeing your son's murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you're enjoying the last supper you'll ever truly enjoy again. Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son, your first-born, your kind and gentle sweet baby. Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday. Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big (brother) into the ground. Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both." - - - Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif., on Bush's comment that it's "hard work" comforting the widow of a soldier who's been killed in Iraq. |
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| "Civilians are always any war's cruelest toll. But to call them heroes is crueler still. It assumes that they would have willingly accepted their own sacrifice in a cause they believe in (tell that to a dead five year old's mother), when chances are that, whoever was doing the killing, they couldn't care less about greater causes, let alone America's grab-bag of pseudo-causes since the war began in 2003. They're victims, pointless, wasted victims whose numbers, wherever they are, have long ago reached massacre proportions. The one valid cause to have ended Saddam's reign -- to end his massacres of Iraqis -- is no longer valid." - - - Pierre Tristam |
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California Special Election Reactions
From The Capitol Morning Report for 6/14/05: Reaction to Groperzenegger's call for a Special Election:
| From Art Pulaski, CA Labor Federation, AFL-CIO � Arnold Schwarzenegger�s decision to call his taxpayer-funded special election is bad for politics and bad for California. Schwarzenegger ran for office as a non-partisan, non-political reformer. In two years he has devolved into a Bush-lite conservative politician who breaks his promises and sells out working people to satisfy his special interest corporate donors. Contact: Chloe Osmer 510 663 4051. From Exec. Dir. Rose Ann DeMoro, CA Nurses Assn., � ... Rather than improve health care access or quality, this governor is promoting a plan that will almost certainly produce severe reductions in vital health programs, while seeing to silence the voice of caregivers to protect the safety of patients and all Californians. Contact: Charles Idelson 510 273 2246. From Pres. Mary Bergan, CA Federation of Teachers � ... The supposed goal of his "Live Within Our Means" initiative is to fix the state's budget gap, which everyone agrees it won't do... His proposal to extend probation for teachers from the current two years to five certainly isn't worthy of the term "education reform."... Although so far he hasn't directly claimed the "paycheck deception" initiative as his own, his political money is mixed in with it... The $80 million it will take to run this attack on teachers, students and schools would be far better invested in our classrooms, public health clinics and fire stations. Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916 457 5546. From Pres. Bob Baker, Los Angeles Police Protective League � The Governor's initiative, misleadingly titled, "Live Within Our Means Act," is an initiative that seeks to tie the funding of local governments to the fiscal health of the state. However, as virtually every county and city analyst who has looked at the measure agrees, it will end up decimating local communities. The plan is as poorly thought out as his pension initiative ... Contact: Eric Rose 310 854 8236. From Sen. Jackie Speier � Wasteful is the only word for a November special election--no initiative is so urgent that it can't wait until next June's normally scheduled election. What could $80 million, spent wisely, provide the taxpaying public? Those wasted millions could have been a valuable investment in the starting salary of 2,000 teachers, two new elementary schools or one new high school, or 1.4 million textbooks. Contact: Tracy Fairchild 916 651 4008. From the Education Coalition � The Education Coalition finds it reprehensible that the governor wants to waste $80 million of our money on a special election but refuses to offer up another penny for our schools. In the short-term, the special election does nothing to help public schools and students. In the long-term, the centerpiece of this special election is an initiative that would exacerbate an already inadequate funding problem by eviscerating Prop 98, eliminating the minimum funding protections for our schools at a time when they cannot afford to cut anymore. Contact: Roger Salazar 916 444 8897. From Pres. Barbara Kerr, CA Teachers Assn. � The governor is wasting taxpayer money to hold an election that nobody wants and to push an agenda that will hurt our public schools, kids and local communities. And the plan announced by his advisors to use the election to create a �phenomenon of anger� against teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public employees breaks his promise to unite our state for the public good. Contact: Mike Myslinski 650 552 5324. From Doug Heller, ArnoldWatch.org � Taxpayers will pick up the $80 million tab for the extra election ... But the real sponsors of Arnold's election are the corporate heavy hitters who have plunked down millions to produce Arnold's come-back show. Here's some of how they'll appear in the next six months. From now on all campaign rallies will begin with a "Go Team Arnold" cheer from the San Diego Charger cheerleaders -- brought to you by team owner Alex Spanos, the Big A's top donor with $2,114,700 delivered. Silver chocolate coins will be handed out to children along the campaign route courtesy of American Sterling Corporation ($686,200) ... To see the Top 100 sponsors of Team Arnold, visit: http://arnoldwatch.org/special_interests/index.html. Contact: 310 392 0522. From Harvey Rosenfield of the Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights � Wasting $80 million of taxpayer money to hold his own personal election is just the latest in this governor�s abusive exploitation of the initiative process. As has been documented in the news media and in legal proceedings, Governor Schwarzenegger�s initiatives are serving as a Trojan Horse for the Governor to surreptitiously promote his image through special interest fundraising that violates the letter and spirit of state campaign laws. He has raised $40 million so far, from industries and special interests, in amounts that far exceed the $22,300 per donor limits imposed by state campaign laws ... And by holding the vote this year, Mr. Schwarzenegger evades a state law that forbids a candidate for public office from appearing in commercials on behalf of ballot campaigns within forty-five days of an election in which he is on the ballot. Contact: Rosenfield 310 392 0522 X303. From Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante � The governor wants us to believe that wasting $80 million on a special election is better than putting money into classrooms. Here are some examples of what $80 million would buy for school children and college students who are being shortchanged by the Governor. $80 million would pay for almost four million up-to-date textbooks for our students. $80 million would pay salaries for more than 2300 teachers. $80 million would reduce class sizes in nearly 6000 classrooms. $80 million would pay for 1200 new school buses. $80 million would pay college expenses for nearly 12,000 college students. Contact: Stephen Green 916 612 5934. From Asm. Alberto Torrico � The only things special about this election are the amount of money it will waste and the fat-cat special interests it will benefit ... This is a governor who called for banning political fundraising during the legislative budget session, then spent much of the last month traveling to other states to raise money for this unnecessary and ill-conceived special election. The same governor who less than two years ago said Prop. 98 could only be weakened �over my dead body� is now proposing to weaken the school-funding guarantee. Contact: Sam Delson 916 319 2723. From Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O�Connell � It is a sad irony that we live in a state that is the fifth largest economy in the world, but funding for our schools ranks ighth from the bottom of all 50 states. Wasting money on a special election does nothing to improve this sorry statistic. Contact: Hilary McLean 916 319 0818. From former Sen. Art Torres, Chairman of the CA Democratic Party � The governor is sticking it to the California taxpayers he swore to protect. $80 million for a special election so that the voters will do his job, because he won�t. It would be better to use the $80 million for needed services and for Arnold to get back to work to solve California�s problems before the taxpayers fire him!. Contact: Joe Molica 415 749 2795. From Asm. Noreen Evans � With this special election, the Governor has made history. This is the first time any California Governor has called a special election for his own initiatives. It is also a declaration of war against legislators, against Democrats, and against the interests of Californians. Contact: Sean MacNeil 916 319 2007. From Asm. Mark Ridley-Thomas � The Governor appears to be engaged in a dangerous game of brinksmanship. Use of the bully pulpit is one thing. The practice of bully politics is another. Taxpayers deserve better. Contact: Jeff Logan 213 745 6656. From Controller Steve Westly � The $45-$80 million price tag is only the beginning of the problem. What we really can�t afford is a budget gimmick like the Live Within Our Means Act that puts education and public safety at the mercy of partisanship ... The Governor was elected to turn down the partisan rhetoric. Instead, he�s turning it up. Contact: Jude Barry 650 843 0140 X315. From Pres. Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation � The cost to hold a special election will pale in comparison to what Pharma is overcharging Californians in prescription drug costs. We look forward to the thoughtful public debate that these two drug pricing initiatives will bring. The estimated $80 million dollar cost of this election is a tiny fraction of the billions that Californians are overpaying for prescription drugs. Contact: Ged Kenslea 323 791 5526 From Asm. Tom Umberg � I agree with the Governor that it is �from the people that Democracy gets its strength.� He knows that turnout in November will be lower than if he waited until the June primary. If the Governor truly believes that his initiatives represent the will of the people, he shouldn�t be afraid to hear from as many Californians as possible. That will occur in June of 2006, not in November of 2005. Contact: Larry Sokol 916 319 2069. |
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Stem Cell Stories
20 U.S. Senators refused to sign (co-sponsor) the Anti-lynching resolution yesterday:
Here are the Senators who apparently still support lynching:
UN - BE - LIEVABLE - !!!
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Unbelievable, Yet True
20 U.S. Senators refused to sign (co-sponsor) the Anti-lynching resolution yesterday:
| The Senate on Monday formally apologized for having rejected decades of pleas to make lynching a federal crime as scores victims' descendants watched from the chamber's gallery. On a voice vote and without opposition, the Senate passed a resolution expressing its regrets to the relatives as well as to the nearly 5,000 Americans -- mostly black males -- who were documented as having been lynched from 1880 to 1960. These deaths occurred without trials, mostly in the South, often with the knowledge of local officials who allowed mob lynchings to become picture-taking, public spectacles. During this period, nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress, three of which passed the House of Representatives. But despite the support of the legislation by seven U.S. presidents, the measures died in the Senate with much of the opposition coming from southern lawmakers who raised procedural roadblocks. Such legislation would have made lynching a federal crime and allowed the U.S. government to prosecute those responsible, including local law enforcement officers.... |
Here are the Senators who apparently still support lynching:
| Here are the 20 Senators who 1) refused to co-sponsor the anti-lynching resolution passed yesterday, and 2) refused a roll-call vote so they'd have to put their name on the resolution: Lamar Alexander (R-TN) Robert Bennett (R-UT) Christopher Bond (R-MO) Jim Bunning (R-KY) Conrad Burns (R-MT) Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) Thad Cochran (R-MS) Kent Conrad (D-ND) John Cornyn (R-TX) Michael Crapo (R-ID) Michael Enzi (R-WY) Chuck Grassley (R-IA) Judd Gregg (R-NH) Orrin Hatch (R-UT) Trent Lott (R-MS) Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) Richard Shelby (R-AL) John Sununu (R-NH) Craig Thomas (R-WY) George Voinovich (R-OH) 19 Republicans and 1 Democrat, a real wall of shame. |
UN - BE - LIEVABLE - !!!
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June 13, 2005
Readers: Sorry, the Backblog comments service seems to be having difficulty this morning. You are welcome to email me (see sidebar) and have me post your comments if the regular comments are not available.
Our chosen-by-god fearless leader, C+ Bush, is personally responsible for each and every one of those deaths along with, more importantly, the 100,000 or more Iraqi deaths. He is destined to become one of the top human exterminators of the past 50 years. Where is the outrage??
So, just when you've given up on finding ways to find a use for all those bottles of sheep urine you've got laying around your barn, along comes this development by an engine manufacturer.
Here it is, the most updated link to all the damning British memos showing Bush was preparing for his invasion of Iraq loooong before congress and the UN accommodatingly bent over backwards, allowing our nation's first dictator to wield his mighty pop gun.
Morgan Spurlock, who made the documentary "Supersize Me", is premiering a show on FX channel this week called "30 Days". This week's show is about how he and his wife move to Ohio and try to live on minimum wage ($5.15/hr) for 30 days. I'm setting my Tivo tonight.
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| 825 U.S. military killed in Iraq in past year MSNBC News Services Updated: 2:32 p.m. ET June 13, 2005BAGHDAD, Iraq - The military announced the killing of four more U.S. soldiers over the weekend, pushing the American death toll past 1,700 -- more than double what it was a year ago. The announcement comes amid falling support for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq, according to a new Gallup poll in which 60 percent of Americans favored withdrawing all or some forces. Since last June 13 -- when 825 members of the U.S. military had died in Iraq -- the insurgency that took shape with the fall of Saddam Hussein has increased its toll on American forces and Iraqi soldiers and civilians alike... |
Our chosen-by-god fearless leader, C+ Bush, is personally responsible for each and every one of those deaths along with, more importantly, the 100,000 or more Iraqi deaths. He is destined to become one of the top human exterminators of the past 50 years. Where is the outrage??
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Weekly Urine News
So, just when you've given up on finding ways to find a use for all those bottles of sheep urine you've got laying around your barn, along comes this development by an engine manufacturer.
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| "Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong." - - - James Bryce |
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Here it is, the most updated link to all the damning British memos showing Bush was preparing for his invasion of Iraq loooong before congress and the UN accommodatingly bent over backwards, allowing our nation's first dictator to wield his mighty pop gun.
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30 days on minimum wage
Morgan Spurlock, who made the documentary "Supersize Me", is premiering a show on FX channel this week called "30 Days". This week's show is about how he and his wife move to Ohio and try to live on minimum wage ($5.15/hr) for 30 days. I'm setting my Tivo tonight.
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June 12, 2005
"Loose Change" is a new documentary produced by a group of young and talented filmmakers. It examines the many inconsistencies in reports and evidence surrounding the collapse of the Twin Towers and Building 7 in the World Trade Center, the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of the airliner in Pennsylvania, all on 9/11/01. For example, by the time you realize that the fall of both towers and Building 7 were, without a doubt, controlled demolitions, you then ask how the explosives got into the buildings in the first place. This film will not leave you guessing. Many other disputed facts are covered, such as how the Pennsylvania crash left the plane so completely shattered that there were virtually no pieces larger than a breadbox. Our Pacifica Radio station in L.A., KPFK, is currently giving this DVD as an incentive during the Spring fundraising drive. You can also watch the movie via streaming video (Realplayer) HERE.
Loose Change
"Loose Change" is a new documentary produced by a group of young and talented filmmakers. It examines the many inconsistencies in reports and evidence surrounding the collapse of the Twin Towers and Building 7 in the World Trade Center, the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of the airliner in Pennsylvania, all on 9/11/01. For example, by the time you realize that the fall of both towers and Building 7 were, without a doubt, controlled demolitions, you then ask how the explosives got into the buildings in the first place. This film will not leave you guessing. Many other disputed facts are covered, such as how the Pennsylvania crash left the plane so completely shattered that there were virtually no pieces larger than a breadbox. Our Pacifica Radio station in L.A., KPFK, is currently giving this DVD as an incentive during the Spring fundraising drive. You can also watch the movie via streaming video (Realplayer) HERE.
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June 11, 2005
Luc Debieuvre ties the end of the U.S. occupation of Iraq with the necessity of giving Iraq the freedom to pursue their own political process (snippet):
Any reasonable-sounding solution to the Iraq debacle will always include the withdrawal of U.S. troops as the first step.
Watch this video of an Arabic-speaking former U.S. soldier who served in Iraq in 2003-04, Aidan Delgado. (part 2 here)
Former CIA Director John M. Deutch called for American troops to pull out of Iraq "as soon as possible" during a speech Tuesday (June 7) at Harvard's Sanders Theatre.
| "The brutal system of torture, corruption, lawlessness and war established in Washington by the faction of President George W. Bush is now backed by the greatest military power in history, able to wipe whole nations from the face of the earth in minutes. With the illegal invasion of Iraq and the illegal imprisonment of thousands of people in its global gulag, this faction has shown its willingness to use military force without remorse or moral compunction in pursuit of its openly-stated totalitarian vision: "full-spectrum dominance" over geopolitical affairs coupled with a radical "transformation" of domestic government into a centralized, militarized "instrument of national power" that breaks down "the old, rigid divisions between war, peace, diplomacy, conflict and reconstruction," as Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld outlined last month. This "instrument" is designed not for the people's benefit but to provide "maximum flexibility" for the commander-in-chief -- whose powers are not subject to U.S. or international law, says Bush's legal team. Is such a faction, so steeped in blood and lies, so ravenous for domination, ever likely to resign its power voluntarily through free, unfixed elections? Or will it not seek to extend its rule, by any means necessary, into the years and centuries beyond?" - - - Chris Floyd |
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The necessity of political process
Luc Debieuvre ties the end of the U.S. occupation of Iraq with the necessity of giving Iraq the freedom to pursue their own political process (snippet):
| ....it is illusory to believe that any truly national political process will emerge from a situation that is marked by the presence of foreign forces. The US wants to put the insurgency down but seems to forget that it is an occupation force willing to impose through force what it thinks is good for the Iraqi people. It goes far beyond strategic issues such as the need to protect the electricity grid or train Iraqi officers abroad. Iraq has to rebuild while avoiding both a foreign presence and a new colonisation. The country has no control over its present, how can it control its future? All Iraqi political forces, including, of course, the national Resistance, have to come together and agree to a truce based on a clear timetable for the departure of foreign troops. Once they have their independence, then the Iraqis are smart enough to design the new institutions. Otherwise, war and terror will go on and the US army will spend hundreds of millions of dollars, until a clear-sighted president decides to take off the plug when it gets too expensive. Meanwhile, people will have suffered and died. What for? |
Any reasonable-sounding solution to the Iraq debacle will always include the withdrawal of U.S. troops as the first step.
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Bits
Watch this video of an Arabic-speaking former U.S. soldier who served in Iraq in 2003-04, Aidan Delgado. (part 2 here)
Former CIA Director John M. Deutch called for American troops to pull out of Iraq "as soon as possible" during a speech Tuesday (June 7) at Harvard's Sanders Theatre.
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June 10, 2005
An excerpt from Joe Davison's essay:
Ted Rall on the repidly growing disgust by Americans of the Bush-war Administration's use of torture (snippet):
Even my hard-core Republican next-door neighbor is grumbling about the war and wondering why we don't just pack up and leave Iraq. Is the tide finally beginning to turn?
American Progress Action Fund gives its reasons for Bush-war to close Gitmo:
Hey, what's wrong with posting a fantasy now and then?
Color Test (skills game)
Shatner Does "Seven" (video)
Bonsai
The Art of Stacking Pennies
Design your own beast (game)
Guide to the Hottest Women in Classical Music
Eggcorns
Museum of Retro Technology (inventions that didn't quite make it)
This table is cool (video)
Robot Suits
The Early Days of Color Television Broadcasting
Magazine Covers of the Future
Odd Food
Unusual Sewing Patterns
What I would be thinking about if I were Billy Joel driving toward a holiday party where I knew there was going to be a piano
A Plea to the Anti-War Movement
An excerpt from Joe Davison's essay:
| ....During the Vietnam War the left wing of the US antiwar movement succeeded in pulling the entire movement left, supporting unequivocally the National Liberation Front (NLF) and successfully linking the war with the black struggle that was raging at home. This reached and permeated the ranks of the troops, which along with the tenacity of the NLF led to their demoralization and the near disintegration of military discipline and effectiveness towards the war's end. Of course, this won't be achieved overnight. It may even take years. But now surely is the time to begin the process of turning the antiwar struggle into a class struggle and thus helping the Iraqi people in their desperate resistance to a brutal occupation. So far, despite facing overwhelming odds, their resistance grows. Two years after the project to occupy and control Iraq and her natural resources was initiated by American plutocrats in Washington D.C., the next project on the list should have been underway. Given the now publicized aims of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) drawn up by neocons back in the early 1990s, we should now be protesting about US troops occupying Syria, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, even North Korea. But, no, none of that, no other invasions or occupations have taken place. Why? Simply because of the tenacity, bravery and determination of the Iraqi people. For, unwittingly perhaps, at this point in history they are holding the line against a new age of imperialism unleashed by a dominant superpower which, since the collapse of the Soviet Union back in 1991, has steadily moved towards a position of complete and irresistible global hegemony. Never since the dark days of the Roman Empire have the troops of one nation been present in so many different parts of the world. Today there are US military bases in Central Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South and Central America, and Africa. US warships and aircraft carriers patrol the seven seas in self contained battle groups, ready to deploy at a moment's notice enough destructive firepower to level a nation of their own volition. With this in mind it then follows that the Iraqi people are resisting, not only in their own interests but by extension in the interests of working, oppressed and poor people everywhere, including the United States. As such it is high time that the US antiwar movement came to their aid with more than the usual tired round of permitted marches and demos which offer little except a temporary palliative to the consciences of those taking part. Put simply, in the U.S., antiwar must be turned into class war. No less than the future and fate of the world depends on it. |
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Bush Through the Looking Glass
Ted Rall on the repidly growing disgust by Americans of the Bush-war Administration's use of torture (snippet):
| ....The Pentagon released a report finding that, despite "a consistent, documented policy of respectful handling of the Koran dating back almost two and a half years," military investigators had confirmed five cases of desecration of Islam's holy text by American soldiers. But when Bush and his dogs took to the airwaves to bark "Only five! Only five!," even owners of multiple patriotic car magnets shrugged. An Amnesty International report that called Gitmo the "gulag of our time" and declared the United States the world's most influential torture state stuck. Even Fox News asked whether the GOP would suffer in the 2006 midterm elections as a result. Standard Bush tactics of blaming the murder and torture of Muslim prisoners on "a few bad apples" like Lynndie England are falling flat. Even people who voted for Bush and supported his wars are changing their minds about torture. What's going wrong? Where there's smoke there's fire, and most Americans know that if the Pentagon confirms five cases of trashing the Koran there are probably hundreds, possibly thousands more cases, unconfirmed by official channels but no less true. Ditto for the torture allegations. How often have you driven faster than the speed limit? What percent of the time did you receive a ticket? How many times have you fudged your taxes? Ever been audited? Now consider this: How often would you get caught if you had the federal government to cover up for you? Americans know that torture is the norm and that Bush approves of it. The more they focus on what that says about America, and thus about them, the more their revulsion will grow. It will take more than the usual pooh-pooh propaganda to distract them from their growing disgust. |
Even my hard-core Republican next-door neighbor is grumbling about the war and wondering why we don't just pack up and leave Iraq. Is the tide finally beginning to turn?
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Today's Feel-Good Bush Quote
| �We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace.� - - - George W. Bush UN Speech Sept 2004 |
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"Shut Down Gitmo"
American Progress Action Fund gives its reasons for Bush-war to close Gitmo:
| It�s well past time for President Bush to shut down the prison and interrogation center at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba. The ongoing controversy about the administration�s treatment of prisoners at Gitmo has fueled massive resistance to the U.S. in the Arab world and set back our fight against terrorism. This national shame and tragedy must be ended as soon as possible. The FBI and Pentagon have confirmed prisoner abuses and religious degradation at Guantanamo Bay. A high-level investigation by the FBI concluded that �several prisoners were mistreated or humiliated, perhaps illegally.� Just last week, the Pentagon admitted "that soldiers and interrogators kicked the Muslim holy book, got copies wet, stood on a Koran during an interrogation and inadvertently sprayed urine on another copy," according to the Washington Post. The Bush administration continues to ignore the obvious: Abuse is happening and Guantanamo has undermined our efforts to fight terrorism. President Bush has said that concerns about abuse at Guantanamo are based on allegations made by "people who were held in detention, people who hate America.� Despite mounting evidence of systemic problems at the Guantanamo Bay prison, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters the same day, "I know of no one in the U.S. Government, in the executive branch, that is considering closing Guantanamo." Shutting down the prison is the smart and moral course of action. For many in the Muslim world, Guantanamo has become the symbol of American hypocrisy and has come to define the actions of the United States. Americans should never tolerate abuses perpetrated in their name. Our moral authority, honor, and national security are all on the line and Americans should demand that Gitmo be closed as soon as possible, and the prisoners should be either prosecuted or returned to their home countries. |
Hey, what's wrong with posting a fantasy now and then?
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FRIDAY FUN
Color Test (skills game)
Shatner Does "Seven" (video)
Bonsai
The Art of Stacking Pennies
Design your own beast (game)
Guide to the Hottest Women in Classical Music
Eggcorns
Museum of Retro Technology (inventions that didn't quite make it)
This table is cool (video)
Robot Suits
The Early Days of Color Television Broadcasting
Magazine Covers of the Future
Odd Food
Unusual Sewing Patterns
What I would be thinking about if I were Billy Joel driving toward a holiday party where I knew there was going to be a piano
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June 9, 2005
The Hill notes:
Well, duh! Dean promised, if he assumed leadership of the Democratic National Committee, to change the focus of fundraising from major corporate donors to the grassroots. Now that he's doing it, people are surprised?
Military Recruiters getting desperate?
Why Nuclear Bunker Busters Won't Work (video)
IRAQ: Poor power supply infrastructure threatens lives
IRAQ: Growing frustration among returnees
Dean Keeps His Word
The Hill notes:
| ....Democratic fundraisers say that there is growing concern over what they call [Howard] Dean�s lack of attention to major donors and that donors are much less likely to give money if they don�t have sufficient opportunity to meet with the party�s leadership. �When you don�t have the chairman to fundraise with, or any principals of the leadership, you can�t get major donors to help you,� a veteran Democratic fundraiser said. �You want the leaders of the party to sit down with them so they can discuss their plan.� �It�s frustrating to be the staff person in charge of that group,� the fundraiser said. �No one wants to stay in a job in which they�re not successful.� The fundraiser added that New York is a competitive place to raise money and that donors often demand detailed explanations of how the money will be spent.... |
Well, duh! Dean promised, if he assumed leadership of the Democratic National Committee, to change the focus of fundraising from major corporate donors to the grassroots. Now that he's doing it, people are surprised?
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| "It has gotten so that on the subject of Iraq, the way you can tell when Bush is lying is that his mouth is moving." - - - Juan Cole |
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Selected Bits
Military Recruiters getting desperate?
Why Nuclear Bunker Busters Won't Work (video)
IRAQ: Poor power supply infrastructure threatens lives
IRAQ: Growing frustration among returnees
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June 8, 2005
How to Survive an Interview on Fox
Liberal Oasis examines the "tipping point" we've reached regarding the Downing Street Memo.
Bits
How to Survive an Interview on Fox
Liberal Oasis examines the "tipping point" we've reached regarding the Downing Street Memo.
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June 7, 2005
CNN accidentally broadcast one hour of real news. I'm sure it's just a devious plot to confuse the Left.
Mercy Corps, an international relief organization (one of the top-rated, too) is asking for your help. It will take all of 5 minutes of your time:
Thanks.
In Defense of Amnesty International
From GMSV:
Here's an excerpt from an essay by Dr. Elias Akleh, in which he reviews and predicts the global effect of declining oil reserves:
This is a glass-half-empty view of today's geo-petrol world. All these gloom-and-doom prophets never take into account the possibility (nay, probability) of technological breakthroughs that will alleviate our dependence on oil. Problem is, the military-industrial-petroleum complex "owns" the world right now and it would not be in its best interests, financially, to support research leading to the replacement of oil as our chief energy source.
Shocking News
CNN accidentally broadcast one hour of real news. I'm sure it's just a devious plot to confuse the Left.
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Anne Bancroft - may she rest in peace
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Help Eliminate Africa�s Foreign Debt
Mercy Corps, an international relief organization (one of the top-rated, too) is asking for your help. It will take all of 5 minutes of your time:
| This Friday and Saturday, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow will meet with six of his most influential international counterparts to discuss the issue of debt relief for the world�s most impoverished countries. Releasing poor nations from their international debt obligations is a key part of the worldwide campaign to make poverty history. Too many poor countries spend more on servicing debt held by the U.S. and other well-off countries than on health care or education for their own citizens. For every $2 Africa is given in aid, nearly $1 is returned as debt payments. Although the Group of Eight (G8) wealthiest nations has formally agreed that full debt relief is desirable, there is still dispute over how to accomplish this goal. Please join Mercy Corps in sending a strong message to U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow that 100 percent debt relief is necessary and vital for the world's poorest countries. Nowhere is debt forgiveness more desperately needed than in Africa, home to the highest proportion of people living in extreme poverty. Relinquishing African nations from their burdensome debt obligations will free up resources to modernize economies, deliver health care and education and achieve higher living standards. The limited debt relief given so far has shown enormous promise: In the last five years, Mozambique has reduced its poverty rate from 70 to 55 percent; a school-building boom has put Tanzania on track to offer universal primary education by 2006; and Uganda has reduced its rate of HIV/AIDS from 20 percent to 6.5 percent. The time for debt relief is now. Please ask Secretary Snow to help forge agreement on a 100-percent debt relief plan for the world�s poorest countries, and free Africa�s resources to focus on developing its people, its economies and its future. For more information on Mercy Corps' current advocacy campaigns and how you can help, please visit mercycorps.org/advocacy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mercy Corps * 3015 SW 1st Ave. * Portland, OR 97201 |
Thanks.
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In Defense of Amnesty International
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Just the latest corporate malfeasance
From GMSV:
| In its literature, Citigroup describes identity theft as one of the fastest-growing crimes, but assures potential customers that its dedicated specialists can help victims get their lives back "quickly and painlessly." Well, those specialists are no doubt working overtime today, advising the nearly 4 million Citigroup customers whose personal data the company lost in May. On Monday, Citi, which ironically bills itself as a leader in data security, said that a box of computer tapes containing the names, addresses, Social Security numbers, account numbers, payment histories and small-loan details of 3.9 million customers were lost last month while in transit with UPS. The shipping company says there's no evidence the tapes were stolen, but then it hasn't been able to find them either. Said Norman Black, a UPS spokesman: "We're very proud of our record of reliability, but in this case we've had to tell Citigroup we have not been able to find this one package." The incident is the latest in a string of data losses or breaches that have forced financial institutions and other data collectors to warn millions of customers their personal information might be at risk. |
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| "All democracies turn into dictatorships - but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it's Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea... That's the issue that I've been exploring: How did the Republic turn into the Empire ... and how does a democracy become a dictatorship?" - - - George Lucas |
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Oil Be Saying Goodbye Soon
Here's an excerpt from an essay by Dr. Elias Akleh, in which he reviews and predicts the global effect of declining oil reserves:
| ...While the crisis of oil depletion is descending upon us, global oil corporations and their crony politicians are trying to brush the facts aside in a purposeful denial and assure the people that there are plenty of oil reserves to last for long time. By denying the existence of oil crisis they are hoping to postpone the inevitable rush of other nations to acquire as much oil as possible so that they, themselves, would have more time to acquire and to control as much oil resources as possible. The competition had become so severe that led to regional wars. No body has any doubt that American invasion of Afghanistan and of Iraq was for oil. Afghanistan is located in the path of oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian region to India, China, and Japan. Iraq has the second largest oil reserve after Saudi Arabia. It is swimming in a sea of oil, and its fields have not yet peaked. The potential of discovering more oil fields in Iraq is very promising. Iraq�s oil would supply enough gas to the American military machinery in its conquest of Southeast Asian region. Iran�s potential of boosting its oil output by another 3 million bpd has made it another target for American hegemony. United States had built military bases encircling Iran. The American administration is building nine new military bases in the Afghan provinces of Helmand, Herat, Mimrouz, Balkh, Khost and Paktia. The US is spending about $80 million to upgrade its bases at Bagram and Kandahar with new runways. It had paid off Uzbek government to build air bases in Manas and in Qarshi Hanabad. US have also made agreements with Tajikistan, Kazakhistan and Turkmenistan to use their airfields for military operations ostensibly to fight �Islamic terrorists�. Pakistan has allowed American forces to use its commercial airport at Jacobabad and to use bases at Dalbandin and Pasni. With the American battleships in the Persian Gulf Iran�s encirclement becomes complete. The aggregate of these American military bases are setup in a location that allows the US to control the energy-rich regions of the Middle East, Central Asia and South Asia. They are also located centrally to the three growing powers in the area, namely China, India, and Russia. In its greed for oil the American administration had tried twice unsuccessfully to topple the democratically elected president Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Venezuela is the largest Latin American oil producer, and supplies the US with over 15% of its oil, making it the fourth largest supplier after Saudi Arabia, Canada and Mexico. Venezuela complained that its contracts with American refineries are profitable only to the American economy while Venezuela gets only the crumbs. Chavez announced that he wants to re-write the contracts to earn higher fees for Venezuela. He also wanted to contract with other oil clients and had struck deals with China and Spain, and made special deals with some neighboring countries especially with Cuba, where he bartered oil for education and medical services without the use of the petrodollar system. After American failure to topple his regime, Chavez built political and economical relationships with Russia, China, India, and Iran in an attempt to protect Venezuela�s vulnerable oil. He is hoping that the BRIC alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) will oppose any possible American invasion of his country. He also threatened to cut off oil supply to the US if the American administration attempts another coup... |
This is a glass-half-empty view of today's geo-petrol world. All these gloom-and-doom prophets never take into account the possibility (nay, probability) of technological breakthroughs that will alleviate our dependence on oil. Problem is, the military-industrial-petroleum complex "owns" the world right now and it would not be in its best interests, financially, to support research leading to the replacement of oil as our chief energy source.
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An excerpt from Hal Crowther's Shame is for Sissies:
| ...It's my impression that the White House has no patience with principles, liberal or conservative, and no respect for people who cling to them. Principle, like shame or irony, is for sissies. Aside from a primitive, invertebrate tropism toward power, I detect no guiding principle in the Bush presidency except the first one young George learned in Texas -- that oil is good and more oil is better. If the media still hunted with live ammunition, Enron, Halliburton and the energy industry's pornographic profits since 9/11 would be enough to force this oil-soaked, sheik-beholden government to resign. (In disgrace -- remember disgrace?) The first thing every reporter was taught, back when reporters were taught things, is that the best way to find the truth is to follow the money. A student of the Bush presidency watches the money flow relentlessly uphill. Americans who earn over $200,000 a year received 97% of Bush's $1.4 trillion tax cuts, while the money to pay for his hemorrhaging abomination of a war was squeezed from cuts in food stamps, school lunches, student loans and veterans' benefits. Look it up. When shame and irony leave the hall together, no obscenity is inconceivable. Worse still than handouts to the wealthy is the reprehensible new legislation that blocks working Americans from climbing the hill where the money flows -- laws like boulders rolled downhill to crush the scrambling underclass, the estimated 80 million Americans unable to pay their bills. Think about what it means to limit personal bankruptcies, inhibit class action suits against toxic employers like Wal-Mart, protect chemical polluters (usually oil companies) from liability lawsuits and cap settlements in personal injury cases. It means trying to eliminate what little protection ordinary citizens retain against corporate leviathans that cheat, exploit, injure and poison them, trap them in hopeless jobs, renege on their health care and default on their pensions. It means stripping leverage from the people who have no leverage to spare. The Bush administration's domestic policies are the blueprint for a new feudalism, a kind of fascist plutocracy. List all the democratic safeguards that separate a working American from a slave or a medieval serf. There are many. Labor unions? Their membership has been reduced by two-thirds since the 1950s, and the White House has them ticketed for extinction. Lawyers? In rightwing rhetoric, plaintiff's attorneys like John Edwards are the devil's spawn. Courts, judges? The radical Right rains fire on responsible judges who resist its excesses and labors to replace them with pro-business reactionaries. Congress? Don't play irony with me. The media? I rest my case. If Bush has his way, the poor man, like serfs and slaves of yore, will have no one but God to protect him. And the religious right says God's a Republican. While the president chides the Russians about democracy and free speech, he schemes to reward his corporate sponsors with a lucrative new version of slavery. If this, in fact, was a class war, it's almost over, and the losers are being led off in chains. This is more serious than encouraging Fred Flintstone biology while the world laps the US in science education; more serious even than gang-raping the environment and fighting bloody unwinnable wars, launched by lies, that enrich your relatives and cronies. This is selling out America, suffocating its every dream and promise.... |
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June 6, 2005
Someone left a comment on Body and Soul regarding a letter he/she sent to Senator Barack Obama asking him to support congressional inquiry into the U.S. torture gulags at Gitmo, Abu Graib, etc. The comment included Obama's response:
So much for Obama being the next great hope for the Democrats. Looks like he's now drinking from the same Kool-Aid as most of Washington D.C. He should find out what Senator Boxer drinks.
Ongoing insecurity hampers landmine clearance
My previous post on this subject had a link to a dramatic and unnerving video. If you haven't seen it, please go watch it and think what it would be like if this was part of your daily life.
Obama: Yo' Mama!
Someone left a comment on Body and Soul regarding a letter he/she sent to Senator Barack Obama asking him to support congressional inquiry into the U.S. torture gulags at Gitmo, Abu Graib, etc. The comment included Obama's response:
| Dear Kingsley: Thank you for your email regarding the article the blog you read that asserted that the CIA has made a practice of abduction and torture around the world. I appreciate your sharing with me your thoughts and concerns on this matter. Also, I apologize for my late reply. I'm afraid it has taken me much longer than I anticipated to catch up on the nearly four month backlog of correspondence I inherited whern I was sworn into office in January. I had a chance to take a look at the article you read in "Body and Soul." Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the advent of new security efforts at home and abroad, many citizens such as yourself have become highly suspect of our nation's intelligence operations. Much of this, I believe, is a reaction to the very unfortunate and disturbing stories we have heard coming out of the war in Iraq, Guantanomo Bay and other areas regarding the torture of detainees and other questionable interrogation tactics. The truth, however, is that torture and other such practices are not condoned by the United States. The case of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, in which the soldiers found guilty of torture were sentenced to signficant and wholly appropriate prison terms, illustrates that the United States is committed to rooting out such behavior. Those prison sentences were deserved, and it is my hope that they serve as reflections of this country's resolve to end such behavior. Again, Kingsley, thank you for your email. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future on this or any issue of concern to you. Sincerely, Barack Obama United States Senator |
So much for Obama being the next great hope for the Democrats. Looks like he's now drinking from the same Kool-Aid as most of Washington D.C. He should find out what Senator Boxer drinks.
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Mines are an exploding problem in Iraq
Ongoing insecurity hampers landmine clearance
| BAGHDAD, 6 June (IRIN) - Ongoing insecurity in Iraq is hampering the clearance of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), forcing international organisations to leave the country or halt operations, experts told IRIN. �The work in Iraq has become restricted for UN staff due to insecurity, which has increased every day in the country. We have been depending on private companies to support us, which have been doing great and efficient work in the south of Iraq,� Salomon Schreuder, cluster manager of mine clearance for the United Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq (UNAMI) told IRIN from the Jordanian capital, Amman. Some of the NGOs that have stopped clearing mines are Danish Church Aid (DCA), Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA), Handicap International (HI) from France and InterSOS from Italy. Decades of war and internal conflicts have left Iraq with large quantities of UXO and mines, and in some parts of the country, depleted uranium (DU) contamination. These pose a serious threat to the safety of the population, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, while preventing access to important resources, such as agricultural and grazing land, roads, water sources and residential areas. Based on the last mine clearance survey by UNAMI in January 2005, an estimated 727 sq km were affected by mines, 6,370 sq km by border minefields, and 851 sq km were UXO/battle affected. The Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a British NGO operating in the area for more than a decade, has removed more than 1,350,000 mines and UXOs from the northern governorates of Iraq since July 2003, but security concerns have delayed its work since the beginning of 2005. According to local mine clearance officials, northern Iraq is said to be worse affected than the centre and south of the country. It is estimated that more than 12 million mines and UXO units are still present, and Sulaimaniyah in the northeast - representing nearly 200 sq km of the country�s contaminated areas - still has almost 80 percent of its area under alert conditions. Aid workers say more progress needs to be made on clearing land to ensure safety. �Despite the brave work from all agencies to clean up the mines in Iraq, many areas are still heavily mined and difficult to access. The Iran-Iraq border is the most heavily mined area and requires intensive work. We are doing the best ... [we can] and hope that in the coming years Iraqis will walk in the land safely,� Tom Molican, a local senior official of the Danish Demining Group (DDG) told IRIN. To help speed up the process, the DDG, supported by UNAMI, has begun a US $4 million initiative to set up a local NGO by December to work on demining. �It will establish a national NGO capable of dealing with a broad cross-section of explosive ordnance, as well as training and management of staff,� Schreuder explained. The figures for deaths or injuries caused by mine/UXO explosions in the country are unknown, but studies are being conducted to determine the number. In the south of Iraq all the areas cleared since May 2003 have been used for agricultural proposes and providing safe access for local communities, bringing development and an income to hundreds of families. �My land was mined by UXOs, but thanks to the UNAMI and DDG, today I can walk in it without being afraid of being a victim of decades of war in Iraq,� Abu Hussam, 62, told IRIN in Basra. �I lost my son to one of the mines ... today I have planted rice in my land again, after more than 20 years.� |
My previous post on this subject had a link to a dramatic and unnerving video. If you haven't seen it, please go watch it and think what it would be like if this was part of your daily life.
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HERE is one way of showing how excited you can be when writing in a blog. (The story is intersting, too.)
Is it finally true? (snippet)
I've lived most of my life in L.A. and I can tell you, there is no "University of Los Angeles". If you do a Google search, though, you'll find these guys working at UCLA. CSMonitor needs better editors. Anyway, maybe now we can strike "peak oil" off our list of the Top Ten Things Over Which Liberals Fret Incessantly.
[Update: I have another gripe with CSMonitor: You can't use three prepositions in a row, especially in a headline ("in out of"), without making every high school English teacher cringe.]
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| "The U.S. still behaves, when all is said and done, like a scared monkey, clinging desperately to a shiny spoon despite the trap closing in all around us, refusing to let go of this old, silly, faux-cowboy mentality of boom boom kill kill God is your daddy now sit down and shut up. Bush embodies this. He is the very emblem of this childish, polarizing, sclerotic worldview. He literally cannot speak with any complexity, depth, resonance. He cannot function in a world of deep intellect, nuance, mature perspective. He is incapable of asking for help. He is unable to admit mistakes or discuss shortcomings or expand his mind-set to include the new and the possible." - - - Mark Morford |
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The Cold Facts
Is it finally true? (snippet)
| Coming in out of the cold: Cold fusion, for real By Michelle Thaller | csmonitor.com PASADENA, CALIF. - For the last few years, mentioning cold fusion around scientists (myself included) has been a little like mentioning Bigfoot or UFO sightings. After the 1989 announcement of fusion in a bottle, so to speak, and the subsequent retraction, the whole idea of cold fusion seemed a bit beyond the pale. But that's all about to change. A very reputable, very careful group of scientists at the University of Los Angeles (Brian Naranjo, Jim Gimzewski, Seth Putterman) has initiated a fusion reaction using a laboratory device that's not much bigger than a breadbox, and works at roughly room temperature. This time, it looks like the real thing.... |
I've lived most of my life in L.A. and I can tell you, there is no "University of Los Angeles". If you do a Google search, though, you'll find these guys working at UCLA. CSMonitor needs better editors. Anyway, maybe now we can strike "peak oil" off our list of the Top Ten Things Over Which Liberals Fret Incessantly.
[Update: I have another gripe with CSMonitor: You can't use three prepositions in a row, especially in a headline ("in out of"), without making every high school English teacher cringe.]
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June 5, 2005
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Facts EVERY war supporter should have known BEFORE the U.S. attacked Iraq
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June 4, 2005
| "Now the [Bolton nomination] battle is beyond the issue of Bolton and focuses on the White House's resistance to legitimate evidence requests by the Senate. It is about the separation of powers in government. Again, the opponents of Bolton are those who are on the high road. They are defending the Senate's positive vis-a-vis the Executive Branch. The White House is trying to cripple the powers of the Senate and beat it into unqualified submission." - - - Steve Clemons |
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June 3, 2005
Has anyone else reached the point I have, where I find myself believing virtually nothing I hear on the regular news except the weather forecast and sports scores?
