Today's Readings

Time Magazine: Geldof and Bush: Diary From the Road
A worthwhile insight on Bush and Africa and an interesting look at the president. He's sort of human when it comes to Africa but don't get me wrong, he still has a problem with just about everything else.

Regressive Antidote: Sickenme Flimflam Clinton
I know that the Clinton's are more Republican than Democrat and I know that the media's goal is to fool you, but I am missing something. Are the Clintons really such grand opportunists that no one wants them? Not the media, not the Republicans, not the Democrats? Are they an entity unto themselves? It seemed that way after reading this piece by David Green.

Other stuff:
1 in 100 U.S. Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says
One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars.
One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.
One in 355 white women between the ages of 35 and 39 are behind bars.
One in 100 black women are locked up.

Economy Slows to Near Halt

Israeli minister warns of Palestinian 'holocaust'

Ricin found at Las Vegas Motel

I presume everyone's getting ready for another ice age.

"Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling"

"Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming"

From DailyTech.com:
"Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on."

So if it's Global Cooling instead of Global Warming, who's bullshitting whom?
I've lived in the midwest for 52 years, and this is the worst winter I can remember for sustained cold AND snow.

Hit the link for more, including evidence that a lot, if not all of the climate change is due to sunspots and solar flares. Poor old Al and his buddies if it's really cooling we have to worry about. See, if warming is caused by us, it gives him and the warming advocates something to raise hell about. But if it's cooling caused by the Sun, there's not a damn thing anybody can do about it--like with showers of meteors that cause fires over large areas.

RELATED UPDATE: Cold kills 1,300 in Afghanistan
(Begins): "KABUL, February 27 (RIA Novosti) - Around 1,300 people have died as freezing weather continues to cause havoc in Afghanistan with heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures hitting 17 of the country's 34 provinces, local authorities said Wednesday.
"This winter is the coldest in the last 30 years in war-torn Afghanistan, with temperatures reaching lows of -30 degrees Centigrade (-22 Fahrenheit). Some northern regions have been without food and medical supplies for over two months."

The New York Philharmonic in North Korea

From our reader Tom in the comment section under Liz's The New Religious landscape post below:

"I had an unaffiliated religious experience of sorts last night. I just happened to catch the live broadcast from Pyongyang of the New York Philharmonic
I just had to watch it all. It was really profound as the significance of each piece sank in.
It hardly got any media attention at all, and of course, the usual suspects were outraged, as if they have any comprehension of fine art at all. Anything that can bring both sides to tears must be sinister and subversive."

Watch their performance of Arirang:



You can watch the concert in full this evening (2/28/08) on PBS - Great Performances (check local listings). Here on the East Coast it is scheduled to be on from 9:30 - 11:30 pm.

Or, you can watch it in full here at PBS.org

The New York Philharmonic's historic concert in North Korea's capital city Pyongyang premieres via satellite, with Music Director Lorin Maazel leading the orchestra in Wagner's Prelude to Act III of "Lohengrin," Dvorák's "Symphony No. 9" ("From the New World"), and Gershwin's "An American in Paris." Opening with the national anthems of North Korea and the United States, the program will be transmitted from the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre, with behind-the-scenes coverage by Bob Woodruff of ABC News. The network has had rare access inside the closed society of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, where contact with the outside world is completely forbidden to citizens. The Philharmonic visit marks the first by American artists there. "I have always felt that music is a powerful language," says Maestro Maazel, "in which those of us who are humane and intelligent can speak to each other, in defiance of political and cultural boundaries." The concert is the centerpiece of a 48-hour visit to Pyongyang by the Philharmonic.

This is one of THE GREATEST Great Performances I have ever seen on PBS, and the "behind-the-scenes-coverage" is an understatement. I never really knew or understood the history of the DPRK and Kim Jong II.

I am speechless.

crossposted at BigBrassBlog

Mean teacher outrages the nation.

A Houston mom bugged her child's backpack because the child said that the teacher was mean.

The recording revealed that the teacher told the 4 and 5 year olds, "You are all just stupid kids. I swear to God." Also captured on tape was the teacher saying, "You're just a bad kid," and "You're mean to me, so I get to be mean to you."

The mother and child appeared on Good Morning America. The nation is outraged.

Just a couple of things struck me in the article as suspect, otherwise, most everything else was worthy of parental concern since the teacher seems ill suited for her choice of career and should find another job. (This is quite a far cry from what it was like in school in the 50's and 60's isn't it?)

From the first paragraph:

"A Houston mother, who said her daughter was well-behaved at home, was worried about what was going on in her child's classroom because the girl had been suspended four times for bad behavior."

I hate to generalize, but kids who are well behaved at home are generally not so well behaved when they are away from home. Parents of well behaved children are shocked to hear this and generally over react. This of course does not excuse a teacher who belittles students. It can become a self fulfilling prophecy though:

"Now she and her husband, Oscar, are trying help Megan recover. She said that the girl still is having some problems in school and that they worry the teacher's harsh words may have affected the girl."

There is quite a discussion at the GMA message boards on this.

I think that there are many sides to this story and lessons to be learned. Don't you?
One good thing is that this episode empowered parents, but I'd hate to see this power be abused. We humans can be so frail.

The Torture Playlist

Have you caught this?

Via Mother Jones: This is the "torture playlist" that guards and interrogators use in American military prisons. There are 24 songs and the playlist below appears to work although none really caught my fancy.

Which song played over and over and really loud would make you turn in your mother?

A "Must Read" from the "whacked-out conspiracy theorist"

(As I've been referred to in the comments of Father Tyme's post below)
Anyhow, if I'm a "conspiracy theorist" I'm in damn good company. To wit:

Y'all better take a look at Mad Cow Morning News' article entitled "John McCain's Sweet Ride--Lobbyist's Plane Flew Saudi Royals After 9/11."
"Antifascist", over at Joe Cannon's Cannonfire where I first caught the article begins the description of the article thusly: "What do you get when you cross John McCain, Vicki Iseman, Christian fundamentalist broadcaster Lowell "Bud" Paxson, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Andrew "Dice" Clay, Adnan Khashoggi, Jack Abramoff, murdered Florida casino boat mogul Gus Boulis and the "mystery flights" of escaping Saudi Royals "leaving Las Vegas" just days after the 9/11 attacks?
"Why another must read investigative report by Daniel Hopsicker, of course!"

But whaddayabet if it ever makes the front pages that the semensplattered MSM focuses on the sex angle?
Buddy of mine told me there might be a big fed investigation early this year but didn't tell me what about. Maybe this is it. One can hope. Yes, one can hope, but then one remembers the Congress.

(Crossposted in the comments at The Dark Wraith Forums.)

Out of this world

US team wins asteroid competition
(No, not a steroid competition)

"A US team has won a $50,000 (£25,000) competition to design a spacecraft to rendezvous with and track the path of an asteroid which may threaten Earth.

The winning entry, led by SpaceWorks Engineering, will shadow asteroid Apophis for 300 days.

The measurements it takes will be used to refine what is known about the orbit of this 300m-wide space rock.

Apophis will make a close pass of Earth in 2029 and there is a small but real possibility it could hit in 2036." (continued)

Ewwwwwww

Conservative pud pundit, Bill Bennett dated Janis Joplin once in the late sixties. He reported that they were both disappointed. His brother claims to have sent Bill down the stairs like a "rocket ship" head first more than one time.
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Zubaz pants are back. Tune up your Camaro and turn your baseball hat around.
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The Supreme Court is considering lowering the fine imposed on the Exxon for the Valdez disaster. Oh poor Exxon. The $2.5 billion dollar fine is almost a whole 3 weeks profit!

Pending Projects ...

Or why my mind needs an external storage drive.

Something in the terabyte range, please.

As many of you know, I'm a contributing writer to the Spontoon Island website. It's fun writing furry fiction, since you can tweak the story in another direction and the story'll be all human, all the time. Hey, if Aesop could do it, why can't I?

So here's my Pending Projects list for 2008:

Luck of the Dragon (serial started in 2003):
Chapters 133-137, closing out the section 'Hobson's Choice.'
Luck of the Dragon Summer 1937 story 'Pilgrimage'
Luck of the Dragon Summer 1937 story 'Sure Thing'
Chapters 138 - ff. (starting September 1937); section 'Dealing a Cold Deck.'

Tales from Rain Island:
'Kocha Koi' (sort of a seriocomic tale of a pirate submarine)
A Leaf in the Wind (a tale of political intrigue and crime, set in a semiautonomous Chinese colony)
Independence Day (how the Rain Coast seceded in 1885)
'Rain Island: The Great Experiment Fifty Years On,' ersatz article from the International Hydrographic Magazine (July 1935 issue)

Miscellany:
The Highwayman Rides, the 'lost' first episode of the Highwayman radio serial
Fool's Gold, another episode of the Four Fools radio show
A Spontoon Island May Day story, to be titled


I think that should keep me occupied for a while.

Withdrawing from the Firing Line

William F. Buckley was found dead in his home today. He was 82, and ailing a bit.

Years ago I sat through an episode of his television talk show, Firing Line, and while I was impressed by Buckley's erudition, I was also convinced that he was quite the intellectual snob. Wealth + Yale degree = Self-righteous, Pecksniffian attitude, I guess.

He even wrote spy novels, so he wasn't all bad.

Unfortunately, although he was eulogized by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and John Boehner, I think Buckley would have been rather uncomfortable with the current crop of roadkill and white trash who masquerade as true conservatives nowadays.

The New Religious landscape

I've been reading this at Pew Research: The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey Reveals a Fluid and Diverse Pattern of Faith. They surveyed 35,000 people 18 and over. I think many of you would find it interesting.

A few quick tidbits of note from Summary of Key Findings:

16% are not affiliated with any denomination. That's more than double the number who said that they were unaffiliated when they were children.
Protestants will soon be in the minority. They make up currently 51% of the population and that is broken up into hundreds of denominations. The largest group of denominations are evangelicals which make up 26.3% of all protestants.
While American born and raised Catholics are changing affiliations in larger numbers than any other religion, the influx of Catholic immigrants makes up for it.

There are interactive charts and graphs breaking down the whole study at this link. Have fun. Come to you own conclusions.

From Huffington Post: Ralph Nader

Getting what you pay for

Man Who Should Be President Has Asymmetrical Eyebrows
FEBRUARY 26, 2008 | ISSUE 44•09

DAYTON, OH—With a wide-ranging knowledge of both domestic and foreign issues, unflappable composure, and an uncanny ability to reach across the aisle in these divided times, 42-year-old David Johnson would be this generation's greatest president if he didn't have disturbingly askew eyebrows. "On paper, he's got it all," ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos said of Johnson, who is an undeniably powerful and engaging speaker. "But those eyebrows—Christ, one is way too bushy, and the other is just all over the place." According to Stephanopoulos, Americans will instead elect the president they deserve—a superficial, eager-to-please, spineless person with immaculately groomed hair above his eyes.

Some (bankers mostly) are weeping and wailing and gnashing their teeth

Others of us, however, are merely laughing our asses off:

"Joe Lents hasn't made a payment on his $1.5 million mortgage since 2002.

"That's when Washington Mutual Inc. first tried to foreclose on his home in Boca Raton, Florida. The Seattle-based lender failed to prove that it owned Lents's mortgage note and dropped attempts to take his house. Subsequent efforts to foreclose have stalled because no one has produced the paperwork.

"If you're going to take my house away from me, you better own the note," said Lents, 63, the former chief executive officer of a now-defunct voice recognition software company."

Check it all out at Bloomberg in a delightful little article entitled "Banks Lose to Deadbeat Homeowners as Loans Sold in Bonds Vanish".

Remember Monica?

No, no, not that one, you silly children. This one. The one who helped Fredo Gonzalez wipe out eight Republican-appointed US Attorneys for no discernable reason (other than they were investigating corrupt Republican politicians or refusing to step down voluntarily so idealogues could take their places). The one who was like the number 4 or 5 official at the Department of Injustice, the liaison to the White House. The one who got this fine, well-paying position at the age of 32 or so because she graduated from Messiah College and graduated from "law school" at Pat Robertson, er, I mean Regents University. The one who said about 600 times under oath before Congress that she couldn't recall what she did at work from one day to the next.

The lovely Ms. Gooding is getting married. Woo hooo! And the toady she's marrying a is a blogger at RedState.

Maybe instead of saying, "I do" they can say "I don't recall".

Here's to hoping there aren't any spawn.

New Vanity Plate in Fla?

Honk for Confederate pride
Rep. Don Brown, R-DeFuniak Springs, has filed legislation to create a new license plate featuring the Confederate battle flag.

But the controversial nature of the flag and failure to establish a plate before makes for a difficult road to approval.

The plate, featuring four Confederate-era flags as well as buttons worn by soldiers, was designed by the Florida division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The group pitched the idea last year and got nowhere. The plate would cost $25 extra and proceeds would be used for education programs and graveyard restoration.

...

"A lot of people are making a big issue out of it," Brown said. "But all we're doing is giving individuals the right to choose to make a statement about their heritage." That's no different, he said, than people who want to see Martin Luther King Jr's name grace street signs....

Take a moment and chew on that last paragraph. hmmm.

Heritage. I thought Florida was "discovered" by Ponce de Leon. Shouldn't a heritage tag also be offered in Spanish and let's not forget Native American?

I found the comments at the story to be very enlightening. But talk about a divisive issue.

Little things to think about… or… Not so Deep Thoughts!

Didja…
Ever wonder if those animated ads you see on various sites stop animating when you scroll past them or continue to run even if you’re not there? I guess they’re kinda like the refrigerator light.

Didja…Ever wonder where a headache goes? Are there only so many headaches in the world and does yours go to someone else when it’s finished with you?

Didja …Ever wonder why mall walkers have to park so close to the entrance of the mall they walk in so they don’t have to walk so far to enter so they can get exercise – walking; same with people who go to a gym?

Didja…Ever wonder how the Evangelicals can say that un-provable religion is factual yet call evolution a theory?

Didja…Ever wonder who writes all those really stupid TV commercials today?

Or…Who the morons are that approve them?

Didja…Ever wonder why we moved most holidays so the people who already get weekends off can have longer ones? Yet those in the service industry get nothing?

Didja…Ever wonder how it is that when it snows so bad schools and offices have to be closed, those same morons expect Malls to be open so they or their kids can shop or goof off?

Didja…Ever wonder when Ice Cream started coming in 1.75 quarts INSTEAD of half gallons…and why?

DIdja…Ever wonder if the morons pushing carts in supermarkets drive the same way?

Didja…Ever wonder who the morons are that pick the final three usually not funny clips on America’s Funniest Videos?

Didja…Ever wonder what happened to the wars on poverty and drugs? The Republicans lost those for us, too.

Didja…Ever wonder what happens to used photons? I mean, do they simply vanish or rot or what?

Didja…Ever wonder why something you’re looking for is in the last place you look?

Four Year Blogaversary

I started the blog in 2004 in an effort to find some people I could talk to because I thought I might have gone insane. New Yorkers were great to talk to right after 9/11 because we had solidarity and could share our terror stories and hatred of OBL (whoever he was). A bunch of us made 9/11 music CDs. We wrote songs and were collectively nauseous for a good month or so but I started feeling quite alone in the world when the truth smacked me in the face one day while I was curled up in the fetal position on my bed with CNN on the television watching the US bring "justice" to Afghanistan via carpet bombs. Many of us parted company once the wars started and it was dangerous to speak. I made enemies in real life and on yahoo groups. Thank god for blogs.

I have made the best friends and email pals here! Thank you all for coming and blogging and commenting. It's okay if we don't agree on every thing. It's not easy to discover the truth and we all have questions. I've learned so much from so many interesting people from all walks of life. I believe that we're all keeping each other sane. Keep that popcorn popping.

Special thanks to those who've blogged here: Patricia, Peter, Jaye, Billydoom, Jersey Cynic, Red State Blues, Missouri Mule, Anntichrist, Flame, NC Gal, Father Tyme, Walt, Candy and Sara.

Connecting the Dots

What happens when you try to tell the truth.

There's a fine example in Raw Story's report of how you WILL be punished if you dare to tell the truth and cross Karl Rove.

CBS' 60 Minutes broadcast Sunday regarding the alleged political prosecution of Democratic Alabama governor Don Siegelman went black in several Alabama cities.

Only the Siegelman section went dark. According to WHNT-TV, the local CBS affiliate, the issue was caused by a technical malfunction.

......

The interview is available on the CBS website.

The White House put pressure on CBS to kill the show, those close to the case say. Journalists covering the story have been attacked. The case's most prominent whistleblower, Dana Jill Simpson, recently testified, under oath, to Congress about Rove's involvement in politicizing the Bush Justice Department

Her house mysteriously caught fire after she came forward.

UPDATE: you can watch the segment at Think PRogress.

And how about this. NY Times Holds Stories Because They're Afraid of Conservatives
If the NY Times is scared, what hope is there anyway?

Justices Shield Medical Devices From Lawsuits

Makers of medical devices are immune from liability for personal injuries as long as the Food and Drug Administration approved the device before it was marketed and it meets the agency’s specifications, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.

AND

Today, they will consider whether plaintiffs may bring state law tort claims against a drug maker, claiming that the company made fraudulent representations to the FDA....

It must not be a big deal because there really is not that much information I can find about this.

What do you think?

Big deal, or no big deal?

Aaaarrrrgghhh!

If I needed any example of my earlier post about the asses that are and run the media this POS demonstrates their mindless 21st Century Nazi beliefs.


A poll by CNN about Obama's Patriotism


If I put into words the way I feel right now, I'd be off this blog, arrested by the SS and sent to Gitmo.
That the media sucks isn't even a premise any longer. We' are truly living in the Third Reich.

Raul Castro Elected President of Cuba

A few thoughts.

Oh God, what now? More creationist blather

PZ Myers at Pharyngula asks, "Is this going to be the major creationist strategy?"

The latest strategy of the creationists is to blame the evils of mankind such as the rise of Hitler and the holocaust on that evil monster Charles Darwin (who wrote Origin of the Species in 1859.) Oh they are grasping at straws now. Humans have been downright evil towards each other since forever.

While their argument that Hitler's anti-semitism was influenced by Darwin, is simply ridiculous because even I knew that the Gospel of John in the New Testament written about 90AD (ish) was used to facilitate anti-Jewish sentiment which continues to this day, and that Passion Plays were clearly meant to incite anti-semitism throughout the ages. When people started actually reading the bible in print, hatred really flourished across Europe. What fascinated me in the post by PZ, and what I don't even remember learning in religion class is that Martin Luther was a rabid anti-semite and if nothing else his writing On the Jews and Their Lies (1543) might have had more than a little to do with anti-Jewish sentiment in Germany. After all, Hitler invoked "God" when gave speeches, not Darwin- The Gospel of John plus Germany's son, the father of Protestantism, Martin Luther clearly gave permission for the hatefulness of Hitler's mission.

So read the post over at Pharyngula and the hatred spewed by Martin Luther. One of the commenters also pointed out these interesting and ancient anti-Jewish quotes (which start halfway down the page.)

If there is hope . . . it lies in the proles" (George Orwell).

Just because YOU dismiss conspiracy theories doesn’t mean they aren’t real.

Does anyone think the Right Wing or NeoCons alone had the capacity for what has gone on these last 7 years? Could the PNAC have put together such a program without help? We’ve seen the emasculation of the Constitution by this administration while our media has looked the other way. We’ve seen partisanship unparalleled in broadcast journalism. We’ve seen incompetence in the media that makes high school newspapers look like Pulitzer winners. Why?

Did the radical right really have the wherewithal to pull off the coup on America? How could they have done it without help from the media? They couldn’t have.

We saw the media turn a blind eye toward everything that would have prevented not only the war in Iraq and the coronation of Bush but more importantly, the division of the American People. Idly the media sat by and watched 200 years of freedom bereft of us without so much as a yawn. In fact, they assisted in this debacle. Who told them to play favorites? What would be their reward? And who would provide it?

For too long we’ve heard the excuse that the American People aren’t stupid and they’ll only take so much. Well, that has certainly been proven false over the last 15 years. What other reason could there be for the complacency exhibited by such mindless, media worshiping, apathetic drones than pandemic congenital idiocy? The information these borderline sentient mental midgets somehow glean from the media is sacrosanct. Tell an NRA owner that a Democrat wants to take his gun away and you’ll get more than a knee-jerk reaction, you may get shot. Tell an Evangelical that the Left wants to eat the babies of Christians, with no evidence more than that reported by a sensationalistic media and they’ll want to draw and quarter all liberals .

Who has the real power in America? We blame the NeoCons and Radical Right for their propaganda but in truth, there must be a vaster, hidden cabal making the decisions. I used to think the Illuminati, the Bilderbergers, the Masons, the Catholics and God knows, maybe even the Boy Scouts were simply conspiracy theory stuff in their lust to control but stepping back and trying to take in the whole picture, I can’t but believe there is indeed an organized effort by some single group or entity (NOT deity) wanting to control everything. And in that grand scheme, time is immaterial; only the outcome is the desired result. Should there be limited success now, as was done in the past the baton will be passed to future generations of controllers.

Whoever the real person(s) is behind the curtain, timidity is disappearing. In the past, the influence was subtle, possibly because of the times or maybe there wasn’t the outright greed of today. Today there seems more of a lust for immediate power. And controlling the media is the tool. Forget politics; forget big business; they are perhaps only unwitting but opportunistic beneficiaries of this newly outted power; a power that doesn’t mind being acknowledged but still wants anonymity.

The influence the media is exerting in the current presidential campaign has to be coming from somewhere. To think these mindless automatons could, as a group, summarily decide who gets to play God for the next four years let alone have the intellect to execute such a plan on their own is unthinkable. We’ve seen the Right Wing “talking points” on this administration’s network, Fox, spew over to the other media. Does anyone think that they are not being told by an individual what to say; that they are doing this on their own?

That similar planted stories, actions and propaganda vomited by the media is ONLY realized by the Left Wing portion of the blogs says volumes for the success of the hidden crusade; a crusade that depends on the mind-numbing stupidity of those who sit in front of the tube, drinking watered down beer, eating cholesterol laden fast foods, inhaling carcinogens that are acknowledged to shorten life, and buying veg-o-matics and pet rocks while coveting their neighbors goods, wives and kids. Someone has to tell the robots at the networks what to do. And that person has to be told by another in a higher position. Roger Ailes surely isn’t influencing MSNBC or CNN! So it must come from someone higher.

To ignore one side of a story that could change the direction of the country, there can be no doubt any longer that media manipulation is rampant. Someone wants their agenda put forward at any cost, and has the power to do so. Rational reasons, at least to us, are secondary. Remember, the Evangelical’s gawd’s mind can’t be understood by mere mortals, just other Fundies. Looking back at the history of these repetitious occurrences it would almost seem that it’s a game being played out and we’re the pieces. The difference today from that of a hundred years ago is the ease with which the player or players controls the game; control only made possible by a duplicitous, bootlickingly subservient media.

It’s hard to win a war when you fight the wrong enemy. The real terrorists in America are those who willfully and wantonly work at the behest of this hidden organization; those who knowingly distort and lie to the American people (who for some reason think they are owed the truth); those who sell their country and their souls for a few pieces of silver and fleetingly, ephemeral notoriety.

Without these purveyors of 21^st Century 1930s propaganda, the “hidden” would have to remain just that until an acceptable collaborator or patsy could be found and they would have to wait for a later time. Unfortunately for us, they found their Faust, and their time.

The real terrorists in America are the media.

Douchebag of the Week

Ralph Nader.

Unless y'all have a better nominee . . .

The mad, mad middle class - by Isaiah J. Poole

and many more must read links from TomPaine's Campaign for America's future

Examples --

Lenders Fighting Mortgage Rewrite


The Common Sense Act Of 2008

America's Infrastructure Crisis: Are We Really A Developed Country?

THE NEXUS OF POLITICS & TERROR: "what we were told about terror, and not told, for security reasons, has overlapped considerably with.......

what we were told about terror, and not told, for political reasons"


From hyperstandard:
This is a must watch video for anyone in America, no matter what political party you support, this simply is above any of that. The video is from Thursday night's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann segment which presents a detailed time line he called "The Nexus of Politics and Terror," in which he chronicled the Bush administration's exploitation of terror threats for political gain. Olbermann's exhaustive account weaves from each revelation of an intelligence failure or a Democratic political victory to an almost immediate orange alert or "new threat" from al Qaeda.

The clip is 17 minutes long and entirely worth it, and its conclusion — "what we were told about terror, and not told, for security reasons, has overlapped considerably with what we were told about terror, and not told, for political reasons" --Please, I cannot stress how much I am hoping you take my advice and give this a look, it is important both Republican's and Democrat's learn from this, so we can prevent history from repeating itself in the future.

FYI UPDATE : The transcript of Thursday's night segment on the "Nexus of Politics and Terror" can be found at the MSNBC website. It's about halfway down the page and starts after (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) and then OLBERMANN (voice-over).

Nexus of Politics and Terror (Keith Olbermann) part 1 of 2



Nexus of Politics and Terror (Keith Olbermann) part 2 of 2

The White House's Glass Ceiling - by Amy Goodman

On Tuesday, I got a sarcastic e-mail from a Hillary supporter. She forwarded a crack made by Howard Wolfson, Clinton's media man, about Obama. "Sen. Clinton," he scoffed, "is not running on the strength of her rhetoric." To which my friend added: "Unfortunately."

These are disheartening days for Hillary supporters. Not just because of the string of losses but because of the kind of loss.

This was nothing if not a careful campaign. Neither the strategists nor the candidate had illusions about the hurdles that would face the first female president in American history. They knew women have to prove and prove again their toughness. They knew women have to prove and prove again their experience.

They began well by framing Clinton as the establishment candidate. But then the establishment became "the status quo" and the historic candidacy became "old politics." She even got demerits for experience.

Something else happened along the way. If Hillary Clinton was the tough guy in the race, Barack Obama became the Oprah candidate. He was the quality-circle man, the uniter-not-divider, the person who believes we can talk to anyone, even our enemies. He finely honed a language usually associated with women's voices.

Women of Hillary's generation were taught to don power suits and use their shoulder pads to push open corporate doors. In the 1970s, the lessons on making it in a man's world were essentially primers on how to behave like men.

But the next generation of advice books urged women to do it their own way. The old stereotypes that defined women as more compassionate and collaborative were given a positive spin. They were framed and praised as women's ways of leading.

Today's shelves are still full of titles — from "Seducing the Boys Club" to "The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch)" to "Enlightened Power" — that tell us to act like a man or act like a woman. But in many ways, the transformative inspirational, collaborative, "female" style has become more attractive. Especially to a younger generation. And — here's the rub — especially when it is modeled by a man.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee political scientist Kathleen Dolan sees Obama as "the embodiment of the gentle, collaborative style without threatening his masculine side." But she adds, "He's being more feminine than she can be. She is in a much tighter box."

This too is a bit like what's happened in business. Whatever advice they follow, women are still only 3 percent of the CEOs in Fortune 500 companies. Meanwhile, it's become more acceptable for a man to take an afternoon off to watch his kids play ball than for a woman.

Ilene Lang heads Catalyst, which surveyed more than 1,200 senior executives in the United States and Europe. This research calculated the tenacity of double binds and double standards. It showed how hard it still is for a woman to be seen as both competent and likable. And it led her to the conclusion that "What defines leadership to most people is one thing. It's male."

As for the Obama style? "Both men and women are much more likely to accept a collaborative style of leadership from men than from women. From women it seems too soft," she adds ruefully.

Hillary was quite right that she needed to be seen as the experienced, competent commander in chief. Obama was quite right about the country's desire to reach across boundaries and beyond divisiveness.

We have ended up in a lopsided era of change. After all, how many of us wanted to see male leaders transformed from cowboys to conciliators? Now we see a woman running as the fighter and a man modeling a "woman's way" of leading. We see a younger generation in particular inspired by ideas nurtured by women, as long as they are delivered in a baritone.

So, has the women's movement made life easier? For another man?



Ellen Goodman is a syndicated writer in Boston. Here is a brief bio.

The McCain Thing, or Can You Hear That Train A-Comin'?

Mr. Senator Straight Talk?

McCain: Against Lobbyists before he was for lobbyists?

Or something like that. Spread this around.

From the Washington Post The Anti-Lobbyist, Advised by Lobbyists we learn that McCain's top adviser, lobbyist Charlie Black, says he does his work by phone from the The Straight Talk Express (McCain's campaign bus.)

"...An angry and defiant McCain denounced the stories yesterday, declaring: "At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust."

Even before McCain finished his news conference, uber-lobbyist Black made the rounds of television networks to defend McCain against charges that he has been tainted by his relationship with a lobbyist. Black's current clients include General Motors, United Technologies, JPMorgan and AT&T.

Black said he is still being paid by his firm and does work for clients in his "spare time," recusing himself from lobbying McCain: "I not only do not lobby him [McCain], but if an issue comes up that I have a client on, I will tell him that and stay out of the discussion."
...snip...
But even as Black provides a private voice and a public face for McCain, he also leads his lobbying firm, which offers corporate interests and foreign governments the promise of access to the most powerful lawmakers. Some of those companies have interests before the Senate and, in particular, the Commerce Committee, of which McCain is a member.

Black said he does a lot of his work by telephone from McCain's Straight Talk Express bus.

I agree with Greg Sargent at TPM that this is key for understanding the big Times story. In fact, McCain is very tied to lobbies and special interests despite his protests. shame on him.

Pass me the popcorn, Wanderer.

hat tip to oddjob

Opening Shots in a New War?

Or just posturing?

The Turkish military announced, and the PM in Ankara confirmed, that the Turkish Army had moved some of its ground forces into northern Iraq to attack some bases of the Kurdish terrorist group, the PKK.

The Turks have bombarded part of the mountainous region (part of autonomous Kurdistan in Iraq) for a while now, but sending troops in while there's still a lot of heavy snow sounds, well, suspicious.

If you're just raiding or flexing your muscle, you don't want to have the weather reduce your troops' effectiveness.

But if you're invading, it's perfect timing - the adversary would not expect it.

The United States says that it's watching, but isn't doing anything to help either the Turks (apart from intelligence and satellite images) or the PKK (apart from allowing the Kurdish government to harbor a terrorist organization).

Now, what happens if the Turks throw the bulk of their forces in the area (estimated at about 150,000, with armor) into that part of Iraq?

Will the Kurds demand they leave, and what will they do if the Ankara government tells them to get knotted?

What will the US do? And what will our NATO ally tell us if we order them to back off?

It's already shaping up to be a very interesting year.

'Straight talk' from Senator McCain: More wars to come

Also, please see lessjobsmorewars.com

and bravenewfilms

pass them around

The AlterNet Drug Reporter Debunks the Hemp Conspiracy Theory

Pot isn't illegal because the paper industry is afraid of competing with hemp -- it's because of racism and the culture wars.

Fantastic read. Great research. A lot of history I never knew.

Snow Day

It's finally snowing like a mofo today on Long Island. Mr. BS is clearing the snow off the company gas guzzler and will head out to the highways where car crashes are occurring by the minute.

I thought that Hillary did a better job than Obama in the debate last night. She really does sound like she knows what she's talking about. I'm just saying.

Yester-me Yester-you Yesterday

What happened to
The world we knew
When we would dream and scheme
And while the time away


Where did it go
That yester glow
When we could feel
The wheel of life turn our way

I had a dream
So did you
Life was warm and love was true

Two kids who
followed all the rules

Yester fools

and now

Now it seems
Those yester dreams
Were just a cruel and foolish game we used to play


When I recall
what we had

I feel lost

I feel sad

It's Friday. You know the drill

Thank God!

Jesus approved sex toys and vibrators now available online A loving married couple shocked by the pornographic websites that sell marital aids have started their own, Book 22. Thanks to prayer and Jesus' holy guidance they add toys accordingly, avoiding those that would elicit unholy sexual activities.

"We pray about things before we add them to our site," she says. "We live our lives very openly in front of Jesus, so we just kind of pray for direction about which way he would have us go, and I have to be honest with you — he's really surprised us. ... Almost our whole entire 'special order' page has come about from that."

-----------
Thank Science!

Ultrasound can be used to locate the elusive woman's G spot.
If hubby can't find it, a team of scientists can scan the entire urethrovaginal space to check for a thicker vaginal wall near the urethra which would indicate the presence of the "controversial G spot."

-----------
But if your sex life is dead, there is some advice for reviving it. Bring it on!

Freemason Recruitment -- Has anyone heard the recent radio commercials? (Ben is worried - Secrets and Trust - Prepare for Greatness)

I just heard the Secrets and Trust radio spot.

It was kinda creepy - What do you think?

The days when newcomers could join only by a whispered invitation from an existing "brother", followed by a lengthy initiation, are coming to an end, after a steady fall in membership. ~~(2005)

I had no idea that this campaign had been going on for a few years now. Today was the first time I heard the commercial.



As the world’s oldest and largest fraternal organization, Freemasonry today is built on Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth. Through fellowship, charity, education and leadership, Freemasons are making their lives - and their communities - stronger by the day.

Inside the Masons - The fraternal order has long been the target of conspiracy theories and hoaxes. Here's the real story

Whew....I'm glad we can put all those conspiracy theories behind us now.

Right?

crossposted at BigBrassBlog

In complement to the "media" and "big brother" posts below:

There's this headline from the San Francisco Chronicle:
"Rule by fear or rule by law?.
The article begins: "Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs."

"Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.

"According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists."

POTENTIAL TERRORISTS?
I wonder if we'll be transported to the camps in boxcars.


(EDIT): Maybe they won't call them "detention centers" or "concentration camps." Maybe...well, y'all might wanna take a look at:

Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir at Terre Haute Prison’s New Communications Management Unit.
(begins):
AT PRECISELY 7 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 11, 2006, 17 federal prisoners across the country were taken out of their cells, held in isolation for two days, then bused to the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Terre Haute, Indiana. Here the government quietly began implementing the first stages of a secret new program, the Communications Management Unit (CMU)."

Is it just me?

I'm really beginning to think that there is a media conspiracy.


While Anderson Cooper on CNN said that "Hillary Clinton did indeed call Barack Obama to congratulate him on winning," the closed caption read, "been told that al qaeda did indeed call Barack to congratulate him on winning." And that was no obama/osama faux pas like this.




And they haven't even really begun the Barack Hussein Obama campaign yet.

Cults, Campaigns and Candidates

“At this moment the entire group of people broke into a deep, slow, rhythmic chant of 'B-B! .... B-B! .... B-B!'—over and over again, very slowly, with a long pause between the first 'B' and the second—a heavy murmurous sound, somehow curiously savage, in the background of which one seemed to hear the stamps of naked feet and the throbbing of tom-toms. For perhaps as much as thirty seconds they kept it up. It was a refrain that was often heard in moments of overwhelming emotion. Partly it was a sort of hymn to the wisdom and majesty of Big Brother, but still more it was an act of self-hypnosis, a deliberate drowning of consciousness by means of rhythmic noise.”

- Orwell, 1984



Political campaigns in the United States are what is known as “Hurrah” campaigns – full of colorful signs, banners, and pictures of the candidates. Slogans such as “I Like Ike!” and even campaign songs figure into the process, culminating in the carnival-like atmosphere of the Party conventions.

Which brings me to Senator Barack Obama.

Allow me to tread carefully here. I am not endorsing the Senator from Illinois, just as I am not endorsing the Senators from either Arizona or New York. However, there’s been a lot of bilge spread around liberally by various of the chattering classes regarding the creation of a “Cult of Obama,” and I felt that it requires a bit of addressing.

Chanting Obama’s name (and you have to admit that it does lend itself well to that) or “Yes We Can!” or even “U.S.A!” or even having some overwrought audience member pass out does not a cult of personality make.

A cult of personality, according to Wikipedia, is usually created by a leader’s manipulation of the national media (and we’ve seen, quite clearly, that Senator Obama does not have power over what the media is saying about him), and is an extension of regular hero worship. People hanging on every word Rush Limbaugh spews from his flabby piehole can have their devotion qualify as hero worship or a cult of personality.

Cults of personality are most common in totalitarian regimes where the State controls the Press.

And it's fairly obvious that the last thing Senator Obama controls is the news media.

What I would cite as a possible indicator that a cult may be forming is the formation of a club or similar organization dedicated solely to the figure, along with an almost religious or fanatical devotion to that person. The SA and SS from 1930’s Germany are the best examples of this, and we’ve seen a hint of it in the youth organization that has sprung up around Vladimir Putin.

In other words, when you start seeing uniforms, start getting worried.

What we’ve been seeing around Senator Obama is, in my opinion, an indicator that a growing number of people in the United States want some sort of change. It’s the “Don’t Just Sit There, DO SOMETHING!” attitude – the feeling that the nation’s leaders need to do something, anything, to get the country back on track.

And these people don’t feel that Senator McCain can do it.

Or Senator Clinton.

So they flock to hear a message that, while it may be short of specifics, resonates with the yearning they have to DO something.

WELL SAID MICHELLE OBAMA

On Wednesday, according to the Associated Press, she clarified her Monday remarks in an interview with a Rhode Island TV station:

"What I was clearly talking about was that I'm proud in how Americans are engaging in the political process," she said. "For the first time in my lifetime, I'm seeing people rolling up their sleeves in a way that I haven't seen and really trying to figure this out -- and that's the source of pride that I was talking about."

Still, her comment was in keeping with the generally bleak view of the country that is the heart of her stump speech, a departure from the usual chauvinism of the campaign trail.

But unlike her husband, she tends to dwell on the negative. America, in her telling, is a place where "regular folks," meaning the working class, can't get ahead because, as she said at Ohio State University, "folks set the bar, and then you work hard and you reach the bar -- sometimes you surpass the bar -- and then they move the bar!"

Americans, she says, have become "cynical" and "mean" and have "broken souls." For regular folks, life is bad and getting worse.

People can't raise a family on one salary anymore, she says. They can't afford to get sick even if they have insurance because of deductibles, premiums and the high cost of medication. They can't confidently send their kids to neighborhood public schools because so many of them are so bad. Young people can't afford to attend college to become teachers or nurses or journalists because those jobs don't pay enough to repay college loans.

"We don't need a world full of corporate attorneys and hedge-fund managers," she told a crowd in a Baptist church in Cheraw, S.C., last month. "But see, that's the only way you can pay back your educational debt!

"The life that I am talking about that most people are living has gotten progressively worse since I was a little girl. And this is through Republican and Democratic administrations. It doesn't matter who was in the White House. . . . So if you want to pretend there was some point over the last couple of decades when your lives were easy, I wanna meet you!"

-------------------------------------

and to be fair - lets' hear what Cindy McCain has to say:

During her introduction of Sen. John McCain at a rally Tuesday, his wife Cindy took a shot at controversial comments recently made by another 2008 spouse.

“I am proud of my country. I don’t know about you? If you heard those words earlier, I am very proud of my country,” Mrs. McCain said while revving up the crowd and introducing her husband.

When asked at a media availability afterward if they were responding to Michelle Obama’s comments Monday that this election is the “first time” she was “really proud” of her country, Sen. McCain deferred to his wife–who reiterated her previous words.

“I just wanted to make the statement that I have and always will be proud of my country,” McCain said.
Cindy McCain was asked to expound upon her thoughts about Obama’s remarks at an availability in Columbus, OH this afternoon but again resisted—instead repeating her earlier comments.

“I always have been and will always be extremely proud of my country. I have led an extremely fortunate life. It was nothing more than that. I am just extremely proud to be an American,” she said.

--------------------------------------

Well Michelle -- for the first time in my adult life I'm happy to say I'm proud of a politician's wife.

Thank you for telling it like it is. I hope that someday I will be proud of my country also. It may just happen.......

BEHIND EVERY GREAT MAN THERE IS A GREAT WOMEN

McCain: All over the news Wednesday Night

The NY Times broke this story: For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk
Who does he think he is? Rudy Giuliani? Well I never...

WASHINGTON — Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.

A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement. Continued

How does the television media cover this? By attacking the messengers. Really. Just turn it on and see, if you dare. I thought Fox was going to cut into American Idol, but they just kept turning up the heat during the commercials instead.

I especially loved Bay Buchanan on CNN feigning shock because she felt Republicans simply do not put up candidates that are not family values oriented, so this story must be a lie. I was in shock that she actually said that. But then it was revealed that she worked in the Romney campaign and it would have been nice if the Times had put out this story months ago. Well yes, when you look at it that way, I can see why she was outraged. Her candidate could have had more delegate votes. Well if this was a real conspiracy hit piece, the Times would have released the "bombshell" in October where it would have the most impact on those ever precious "values" voters.

By Thursday, this story ought to be even more juicy.

Florida Calls Evolution "Scientific Theory" - Hundreds of Monkeys at Silver Springs Prepare to Leave State

In a way, it's hard to believe that Florida should be kicking up such a fuss over the teaching of evolution.

Honestly, think about it.

You have our largest space port on the Atlantic coast, several nuclear power plants, aerospace firms and at least two oceanic biology institutes. Our universities are generally first-rate (okay, okay, I'm being generous regarding Florida State, but sometimes you have to generalize).

The State School Board of Florida accepted the new science standards by which local schoolkids will get themselves educated (hopefully) by a small margin, but not before the board members bluffed by a tiny addition of three words.

Instead of calling it "evolution," the Board called it the "scientific theory of evolution." Reaction from both sides of the specious debate that has enraged the Irrational and embarrassed the Rational was understandably muted, as the decision doesn't really satisfy anyone.

But in a way, couching the term in that manner enables teachers to explain what "science" really means, and let kids know what a "theory" actually entails (because we have to remind others that gravity and atoms are also just theories).

Think Progress reports that the bluff was inserted mainly to mollify the people I referred to in an earlier post as The Stupid, the legions of pig-ignorant people who can get whipped into a frenzy of irrationality by their shamans or right-wing politicians.

Typical of The Stupid is the Panhandle resident Think Progress highlights in the bit of video they have in their article (I caution all of you to make sure your stomachs are empty before you watch, as it'll make you retch). Which got me thinking of the earliest Evolution/Creation debates shortly after Darwin published his findings and conclusions.

In 1860 at Oxford, England, a debate was held about the merits of the work (Darwin wasn't present, being a shy and retiring person). He was ably represented, however, by biologist Thomas Huxley; the opposing viewpoint was presented by the Lord Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce. The topic was what the theory did to Humanity's place in the Universe.

At one point, Bishop Wilberforce decided to tweak Huxley by inquiring whether it was Huxley's grandfather or grandmother who was the ape.

Bear in mind, now, that in Victorian England the very idea that a man, let alone an Englishman, might be related to any other man let alone an inferior form of life was anathema. Wilberforce thought he could fluster Huxley and score some points.

He failed.

The story is apocryphal but it is related that Huxley leaned over to a friend and whispered, "The Lord hath delivered him into my hands." He then stood and delivered the following response to Wilberforce:

"If the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means of influence and yet who employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion, I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape."

Both sides thought they had managed to get their point across, and all went off to dinner together.

Now, if someone had pointed out to the wonderful rube from Florida's Backwoods that the orange WAS related, on an atomic and molecular level, and shared some similar processes in common with our own cells, I'm afraid the idea would be totally lost on him. Irrationality is at times a wonderful thing, as ignorance is bliss.

I'd much rather be rational, and know that in the depths of my own ignorance about quite a few things I can at least think, reason, acquire knowledge and reduce that level of ignorance.

But, to quote the movie Cool Hand Luke, "Some people you just can't reach."

***

But what about the monkeys? I hear you ask.

Glad you brought it up.

Way back in the 30s a troupe of rhesus monkeys were brought over from Africa and deposited in the Silver Springs area to give a bit of color to the old Tarzan flicks. They stayed, went feral and are now protected within the boundaries of the park.

I heard that after they heard that guy from the Panhandle speak, many of them have decided to emigrate back to Africa. A spokesape said, "We're moving back to a smarter country."

Lunar Eclipse

I do hope that many of you will be able to view the lunar eclipse tonight. The moon is expected to turn red and orange and brown. Regulus, Saturn and the moon will form a perfect triangle. This will be the last eclipse until 2010.

I'll be checking outside around 10pm, here in NY. This hopeless romantic loves the moon.

Oh For God's Sake. Give it a rest.

Read Cindy McCain and bloggers right to left take on Michelle Obama's late-breaking pride in America And this is the kind of bullshit that makes me unproud of my country, thank you very much.

Michelle Obama said this and it made the morons go crazy:

"What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud."

Possible interpretations:
1) Perhaps the punditry didn't take what she said in context. That's no surprise.

2) Perhaps she meant that before now, she was only just proud, but not really proud.

3) Or maybe she's proud to see that Americans are waking up for a fucking change.

4) She wasn't an adult during the glorious Reagan years. How long has her adult life been anyway? 20 years? So that covers Bush I, Clinton and Bush II. Conservatives would agree that the 8 years under Clinton sucked. Literally. Bush I was pretty pathetic for conservatives. He cut and run, didn't he? And how can anyone expect a Democrat to be happy about the Bushista years? The conservatives aren't happy with him either. So what's the problem? She'd make a legitimate point even if she meant that she wasn't proud at all, but I don't think she meant that.

5) Or maybe it's because she's black for god's sake and it's not like most black people are on the receiving end of liberty and justice for all. For the first time, there is hope collectively.

6) Oh the rich white male punditry is showing themselves for the racist pigs they are. Big fat pigs whose only interest is other big fat pigs who are always proud unless a Democrat gets a blow job. Shame shame.

Wild Monkey Love

Scientists have discovered why female monkeys scream during sex and it's not because their partner is so fabulous:

Female monkeys may shout during sex to help their male partners climax, research now reveals. Without these yells, male Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) almost never ejaculated, scientists found. Female monkeys often utter loud, distinctive calls before, during or after sex. Their exact function, if any, has remained heavily debated.

To investigate the purpose behind these calls, scientists at the German Primate Center in Göttingen focused on Barbary macaques for two years in a nature reserve in Gibraltar.

The researchers found that females yelled during 86 percent of all sexual encounters. When females shouted, males ejaculated 59 percent of the time. However, when females did not holler, males ejaculated less than 2 percent of the time.

Scientists are very pleased with themselves. They've finally captured photographs of gorillas having sex face to face.... in front of the kids, no less!

What will we ever do?

I don't mean to be a buzzkill, what with all the good news you've been reading lately, but these 2 stories are of significance to many of us who read this blog

Many Americans will fall short of current standard of living after retirement
"The Center for Retirement Research estimates 61 percent of households are "at risk" of being unable to live the way they would like and pay for their health care when they retire."

Couples mostly don't have a clue as to how much they should have in retirement savings and greatly underestimate what they will need.

"But according to EBRI, couples need to save about $300,000 in retirement to cover health expenses, assuming they live to average life expectancy and Medicare benefits remain at current levels. For those who live to 95, that amount jumps to $550,000."

Gee, with the economy tanking and great losses expected for investors and homeowners, even those who have done pretty well will have to sell their homes and settle for a lot less. So much for the "golden years." And for regular folks who live paycheck to paycheck, the prospects are gloomy for any sort of dignified older age and they'll probably just die off sooner than the somewhat wealthier.

Imagine my non-surprise when I read this in the NY Times: Midlife Suicide Rises, Puzzling Researchers

I dunno, unless you want to kill yourself or just let the nature of the "Land of Free and Home of the Brave" kill you a bit more slowly, your best bets are to move out of this country if you can do so or plan to spend yourself broke and go on Medicaid (but make sure you're in a good solid blue state). If you're really lucky and your kids don't hate you, maybe they'll take you in one day.

My plan is to urge my child to get the best education and qualifications for an exciting career abroad and then send for me... in my dreams.

McCain the "Songbird" - McCain the "Manchurian Candidate" -- McCain's Presidential Ambitions Set To Be "Swiftboated"

Activists accused McCain of stonewalling the release of POW records because they contained evidence he had collaborated with the North Vietnamese.


POW's Say John McCain Is A Lying Skunk !!!!!


"We are planning right now a counter-offensive called GOP Tea Party, and in the spirit of 1773 when the colonists rebelled against the King of England and tossed all that tea over, we're going to rebel against the Republican Party and toss McCain over," Sampley said.

"We hope to start a revolution within the Republican Party to cleanse it of all the left-leaning Republicans and McCain is a leftist if you look at his major activity," he added, pointing out that McCain has direct links to the Clintons and would be no different than having Hillary in the White House.


THE McCAIN TRAINWRECK:
"Everything I think about the election centers around there being no election. In 2004, when they determined to re-appoint Bush for four more years, they had to find a stalking horse who was actually worse. It took a while to find John Kerry, but his complete unelectability made the Bush “victory” appear more legitimate. In this election, they’re all stalking horses. They are all amazingly unelectable, and this is the signal that there will be an extension of this administration. The people will accept the suspended election because the Hillary alternative is a worse choice. So, the fake terror attack is inevitable. It seems like the logical course of action, it’s just a matter of when this will occur. Going by The Establishment’s flair for the dramatic, this event may be timed to coincide with something else; and I am guessing that this “something else” will be the torpedoing of the McCain candidacy. He is such the obvious loser in this contest, and a McCain meltdown would leave the Republicans without a candidate with only months to go in the election. This would be the most effective moment to stage the “terrorist” attack.


The McCain candidacy is the strangest aspect of this event and the most obvious feature indicating that the whole thing’s in the bag. After a nationwide search, how is it possible that a legitimate electoral process ended up with this lunatic?"


"Any questions?"

crossposted at BigBrassBlog

fix our blog?

I understand that the posts at this blog start halfway down the page or something like that if you are using IE.

Does anyone have a clue why that suddenly happened? Does anyone know how I can fix it?
We haven't changed the sidebar lately.

Thanking you.
xxx
L

How Experts Think We Will Live in 2000 A.D. (1950)

The December 27, 1950 Robesonian (Lumberton, NC) ran an Associated Press article titled, "How Experts Think We'll Live in 2000 A.D." The entire piece has been transcribed by Matt over at olderthanme

The section on politics caught my eye. Talk about a self- fulfilling prophecy --

POLITICS: Freedom Will Survive
How will this land of ours be governed in 50 years?

Much as today, perhaps – with two parties contending against each other and within themselves, with the people free to choose between them, with the winner pressured from all sides yet curbed and guided by a constitution little changed since George Washington’s day.

And yet it is easy to scare ourselves with other possibilities.

Some see us drifting toward the all-powerful state, lulled by the sweet sound of “security.” Some see a need to curb our freedom lest it be used to shield those who plot against us. And some fear our freedom will be hard to save if a general war should come.

What then?

A military dictatorship to restore the nation’s body, if not its soul from the ravages of atomic attack? Some sort of Fascism? Or, in the name of Socialism, some mild or strong control of what we do; directive here, big red “Thou-Shall-Not’s” there?

Some fear the worst. And yet:

We’ve feared the worst, while hoping for the best, ever since we have been a nation. We’ve come through wars and depression. And we’ve come through – free.

Today, almost alone among men, we have the strength – as we may need to prove – to hold the course we choose.



h/t to J-walk

We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For

This is just about THE MOST empowering piece I have ever seen.




h/t to Foiled Goil over at BigBrassBlog

She asks -- "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?"

I know what I am going to do to raise awareness in the neighborhood and get some folks talking.

THE FLAG SHOULD NEVER BE DISPLAYED WITH THE UNION DOWN, EXCEPT AS A SIGNAL OF DIRE DISTRESS IN INSTANCES OF EXTREME DANGER TO LIFE OR PROPERTY
~United States Code
Title 4 Chapter 1 - The Flag



(Photo courtesy of Citizenarcane )

The UnPatriotic Act — one nation, under surveillance, with oppression and terror for all.
~Citizen Arcane

Has this crossed anyone's mind?

World champion boxer warns that Barack will be assassinated within months if he wins presidency
I don't agree with the boxer's overall opinion, but he has a point.
I perish the thought but we all know what happened 40 years ago and history has a way of repeating itself and it will be even uglier this time around.

There is new NEW Math now.

Parents Rise Up Against A New Approach to Math
Greg Barlow, an Air Force officer in the defense secretary's office at the Pentagon, was helping his 8-year-old son, Christian, one recent night with a vexing problem: What is 674 plus 249?

The Prince William County third-grader did not stack the numbers and carry digits from one column to the next, the way generations have learned. Applying lessons from his school's new math textbook, "Investigations in Number, Data, and Space," Christian tried breaking the problem into easier-to-digest numbers.

But after several seconds, he got stumped. He drew lines connecting digits, and his computation amounted to an upside-down pyramid with numbers at the bottom. His father, in a teacherly tone, nudged him toward the old-fashioned method. "How would you do that another way?" Barlow asked.

Wow, this reminded me of when I was doing "new" math back in the dark ages and my loooong division problem took up a whole loose leaf page. My mom looked at it, sighed, and showed me how to do it in a tiny space on the page, the way she learned it. It was so easy! But nooo, I had to submit my homework the loooong way. Eventually I figured out another way to do it in my head that I can't really explain.

I felt very dismissive of this new new math when I started the article above, but as I went on though, I realized that they are teaching kids to do math exactly the way that I do it in my head.

Carol Knight, Prince William's math supervisor, said that when children break down numbers into multiples of 10 and 100, their understanding of place value and "number sense" increases.

"Memorization will only carry you so far," Knight said. "With 'Investigations,' kids understand the real values of the numbers and are not doing shortcuts. When they multiply 23 times 5, they'll do five 20s to get 100, and then add five 3s to get 15, and they put that all together and get 115. What they've done is made actual use of the numbers."

I thought this way was cockeyed and naive so I never told anyone how I calculate, but I am not so sure I could figure out a way to teach it to people who didn't already know how to do it the old way. Calling it "Investigations" however is a sure way to freak out parents on a week night at 11 o'clock.

An Era Passes (?)

It was announced by the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, Granma, that Fidel Castro Ruz, the President of the Council of State and the Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Armed Forces, will not seek nor accept those posts at the upcoming Council meeting this weekend.

I heard it about 0330 local on CNN International. Let me summarize.

Fidel Castro has resigned.

His brother Raul will act as interim President until the election, as he has done since Fidel took sick a year and a half or so ago. Whether he will be Cuba's next leader remains to be seen.

The Price of a college education.....Will it be leaving your child behind?? Connect these dots and tell me what you see.

(image courtesy of istockphoto )

Here is the recent article that got me thinking: Lenders Predict Harsher Climate For Student Loans


"There is no question in my mind that, unless something changes in the marketplace, there will be a shortfall of funds available to make student loans," says , president of the Connecticut Student Loan Foundation, a nonprofit lender based in Rock Hill, Conn. "I've been doing this since 1978, and I've never been more nervous."

I think we all know what needs to change in the marketplace --I wish I knew more about the pros and cons of regulation and deregulation in the banking industry. Did deregulation help to create this mess that is now affecting so many? Haven't our elected officials had ample time to look at the whole picture here to see how it is unfolding? I don't even know if any of this is even related, but the graphs in the article on banking deregulation from opensecrets sure spoke volumes. Check out the amounts given to dems and repubs from lobbying groups for the banking, securities, and insurance industries. From 1993-1998, the GOP was clearly the favorite.

(DOT) 1999
President Clinton signed the Financial Services Act of 1999 (The Gram-Leach-Bliley Act) which replaced the Glass-Steagal Act


Economics Journalist Robert Kuttner on the “Most Serious Financial Crisis Since the Great Depression” -- “This is the Result of Rightwing Ideology and the Political Power of Wall Street”:
(Amy Goodman Interview)
Mr. Kuttner: "some people have this picture of subprime lenders as these neighborhood predators. They were put in business by Citigroup. They were put in business by Merrill Lynch. They were put in business by the bluest chip names on Wall Street.

The prime enabler under Clinton of deregulation was Robert Rubin, Secretary of the Treasury. And Rubin comes out of Goldman Sachs, then he goes to work as one of Clinton’s top guys. He presides over the repeal of the key piece of New Deal legislation designed to prevent conflicts of interest, the Glass-Steagall Act. And then he lets a short interval go by, and then he becomes chairman of the executive committee of Citigroup, which was only able to become the kind of conglomerate it did because of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act. Now, that’s a flat-out conflict of interest."


(DOT) 2002
Bush Drops Unpopular Plan To Raise Cost of Student Loans

(DOT) 2005
Bankruptcy Bill Passes

(DOT) 2006
Concerns mount over higher rates on student loans

Congress narrowly passed a deficit-reduction bill last month that cut $12 billion from student loan programs, which was signed by the president. The new law will slash subsidies to lenders and raise interest rates on loans taken out by parents.

As part of the new bill, Congress also increased the interest rate on loans paid by parents. Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students, better known as PLUS loans, had been scheduled to rise from the current rate of 6.1 percent to a fixed rate of 7.9 percent.

But lawmakers, seeking greater savings in the budget package, boosted the rate even higher, to 8.5 percent. The change is likely to make the loans less attractive to many parents.

(DOT) 2007
Student Loan Overhaul Advances
Many Democrats have long decried subsidies to the lending industry as a waste of taxpayer dollars and have promoted direct lending by the government to students. Republicans have generally sided with the lending industry, contending that the companies bring needed competition to the market.

But several key Republicans yesterday supported the Democratic legislation.........
(I believe they are referring to this bill)
(DOT) 2007

H.R. 5: College Student Relief Act of 2007


Why the sudden turn around? I have a pretty good idea --
Did Revolving Door Lead To Student Loan Mess? "At least eight top officials in the Education Department during the Bush administration either came from student-loan or related organizations or have taken lucrative jobs in that arena since leaving the agency. Former Education Department staffers say a revolving door between the department and industry has led to lax oversight of federal financial aid."

Last month, the White House released the following Statement of Administration Policy Regarding H.R. 5—College Student Relief Act of 2007 -- the Administration opposes H.R. 5 and says that reducing student loan interest rates encourages more student debt and can also fuel today's upward tuition spiral at colleges.

So, who's minding the campus lately?

Let's hear from Peter Wood. He is the Executive Director of the National Association of Scholars and has recently written a few very informative articles on this topic for mindingthecampus--Student Loans - Sequel To The Mortgage Mess? In this essay, he links to a paper written by Andrew Gillen, writing for the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. His working paper is: "A Tuition Bubble? Lessons from the Housing Bubble"


Mr. Wood concludes that "There are not enough dots yet to draw a picture of a credit squeeze in the U.S. for student loans, but it might be a good time to start watching for more dots."

I wish I could figure Peter Wood out. He wrote this gem about
THE ANGRY LEFT.
He has also written a few books. This one caught my eye: Diversity - The Invention of a Concept here's a review: The diversity movement, hiding in the garb of peace, love, and tolerance, is working hard to destroy the qualities that make America America. Sound harsh? It is. But Peter Wood documents with names and dates.
Why is education heading down the toilet? Well, there are many reasons, but diversity is certainly a major contributor. How about the fact that what passes for art these days leaves most people cold, if they're lucky, disgusted if they're not? Diversity again.

Diversity is a new concept, as Dr. Wood scrupulously points out. It is not an American ideal, but a recently coined invention to disguise the failure of affirmative action. Its purpose is to remove judgement and evaluation, to protect the incompetent and the insignificant, and to force everyone to embrace everyone else (except those cranky, right-wing wackos...don't embrace those nasty people!)

So, what do we know about this National Association of Scholars. According to sourcewatch: The National Association of Scholars (N.A.S.) was founded in 1985, was created, according to a report by People for the American Way, " to unite right-wing faculty against 'politically correct' multicultural education and affirmative action policies in college admissions and faculty hiring that take race or gender into account."

"In addressing issues that are of academic concern across the political spectrum, the N.A.S. has recently been successful in attracting a small number of liberal and moderate faculty, but the overall thrust of the N.A.S. remains conservative.
Its advisory board lists right-wing intellectuals such as
Irving Kristol The one who spawned that monster William Kristol

Well now Mr. Wood -- I don't have to watch for any more dots. I've connected them and I see a very dark line dividing the haves and have nots. I also see a line that will soon cross out most of the middle class in America today. It's a line that has been carefully drawn by the PTB (whoever THEY are) -- I'm betting it's the bankers - the feds - the "money makers" and most of our elected politicians. The ones who let this mortgage lending fiasco proceed for years and years. The ones who printed the money, the ones who "packaged" the money, the ones who lent the money. The ones who carefully manipulate the "trends" (i.e. the PPT - plunge protection team) The Plunge Protection Team - long kept secret - was last mobilised to calm the markets after 9/11. It then went into hibernation during the long boom. But, last month, Bush convened the so-called Plunge Protection Team for its first known meeting in the Oval Office

------------------------
For any readers who are still with me (sorry I take so long), here is a must read article written by Elizabeth Warren back in June for TMPcafe --
College Loan Squeeze Play:


Any notion that the student loan industry works for students and their families vanished in the scandals over lenders' giving money to college loan officials to steer business their way. Now education policy specialist Bob Shireman exposes another ugly side of the student loan industry: Leaked documents show what the private student loan businesses have been squeezing out of Congress.


crossposted at BigBrassBlog

I get sales email

I'm one of those people who looks at the e-fliers in my email cause hey, you never know what you can buy. They come from stores that I frequently order things from because I hate shopping in real life on Long Island.

These 2 things stuck out at me today.

First, a camera detector from Edmund Scientifics
The Camera Detector allows you to quickly, easily, and discreetly conduct sweeps of your home, office, or hotel room to locate hidden wireless cameras. Seems like it might come in handy.

I just love to make comfy cozy throws out of fleece (because I have to keep the thermostat low as it costs $800/tank of oil) so I checked out the fleece at Joann's Fabrics because a 40% off coupon was attached to the email. GTF outta here! "Cuddle Clouds And Planes"?? Those aren't cuddly happy planes. I would love to know who bought this, what they made out of this fabric, etc.

And in current political news with a hint of hmmmm?

Et tu New York City?

Unofficial Tallies in City Understated Obama Vote
Black voters are heavily represented in the 94th Election District in Harlem’s 70th Assembly District. Yet according to the unofficial results from the New York Democratic primary last week, not a single vote in the district was cast for Senator Barack Obama.

That anomaly was not unique. In fact, a review by The New York Times of the unofficial results reported on primary night found about 80 election districts among the city’s 6,106 where Mr. Obama supposedly did not receive even one vote, including cases where he ran a respectable race in a nearby district. continued

---------
What is it about Obama? Is he the "messiah?"
Oh good lord no, but after 7 years of bush, I can see why people are rallying behind someone different. See the NY Times on The Charisma Mandate.
While the cult of Obama seems unsettling, God help me, the thought of McCain in the oval office and a million more years of wars and occupations is terrifying no matter how supposedly "liberal" he is.
---------

Old JFK documents may stir controversy

DALLAS (Reuters) - A batch of old documents linked to the slaying of President John F. Kennedy has reportedly been unearthed, including a highly suspect transcript of a conversation between assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald's killer Jack Ruby, the Dallas Morning News said on Sunday.
...
But one potentially controversial item is a transcript of an exchange between Oswald and Ruby in which they discuss killing Kennedy to halt the mafia-busting agenda of his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

The Morning News said one theory about the transcript was that it was part of a movie script Wade was working on with producers, for a film that was never made.

The transcript resembles one published by the Warren Commission, which investigated Kennedy's assassination and concluded Oswald acted alone. The FBI had determined the conversation between Oswald and Ruby -- this time about killing Texas Gov. John Connally -- was definitely fake, the newspaper said.

Connally was riding in the car with Kennedy and was wounded in the attack.

Hmm. Try reconciling that with this.
---------

Hey, let's get back to impeaching the Veep.
AfterDowningStreet.Org has instructions for a fast impeachment. 54% of Americans want him impeached. Perhaps more would if they even had a slight clue as to the crimes attributed to him. You can start by signing Wexler's petition. I like the honkathon too.
Or maybe you are chickenshit like me to get involved because of this. I certainly hope that they don't mean a sweet little old artist like me.
---------

An obvious conspiracy theory: The Dumbing Down of Americans. That states are even contemplating teaching intelligent design rather than actual science is quite telling.
From Patricia Cohen in the NY Times: Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge? What is scary that many Americans don't really think that having knowledge even matters. But it all makes sense because you cannot run a dictatorship with a well educated population, can you?
---------

Ack. Ack. Aaaaaack. The story that won't go away keeps adding TMI.
JFK's 'secret love child' had affair with President Bush's sister-in-law ... and she backs up his claims to the Kennedy bloodline

Sibel Edmonds in Dallas Morning News

It's a start. Her story made it to the press in the US

Her allegations are not insignificant. Among them: Ms. Edmonds claims that a former top State Department official was a person of interest to the FBI and had his phone tapped by the bureau in 2001 and 2002. Because of his senior-level position, this man had access to classified information of the highest sensitivity from the CIA, NSA and Pentagon, in addition to his own State Department.

Ms. Edmonds alleges to have heard evidence linking him to bribery from an ATC contact, to his intervening with the FBI to halt the interrogation of four Turkish and Pakistani intelligence operatives, and helping seed U.S. nuclear facilities with Turkish and Israeli Ph.D. students who in turn sold nuclear secrets abroad, primarily to Pakistan. The accused, who emphatically denies Ms. Edmonds' charges, is now a senior executive at a Washington lobbying firm.

Lions and Tigers and Bears and RAPISTS. Oh my.

Senate bill S. 2616 is to be pretty much a no brainer as it seeks to expand wilderness protection in several states, however an amendment sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. and co-sponsored by Sen John McCain is causing quite a stir because it would allow gun owners to carry loaded and accessible fire arms into national parks and wild life refuges.

Harry Reid is being attacked by Republicans for not allowing this to go to vote so that Senator's Obama and Clinton wouldn't have to vote on it during the election year (and that is a pretty good reason to keep this out of the bill since it's such a wedge issue and the Republicans would do the same if they were in power).

Teh Republicans will not hear of it. After all, the MOST important right we have in this country according to many is the right to bear arms... well except for some of us who live in suburbia and don't like the idea of vacationers with loaded guns in our national parks unless they are part of some sort of hunting expedition where regular unarmed people dare not go and are forewarned to only enter at their own risk. Or how about having a couple of "Yahoo National Parks" where folks with loaded weapons are free to roam and shoot themselves all they want? Park Rangers are concerned about public safety and poachers should an amendment like this pass. But what the hell do Senators care about public safety and poachers anyway? And obviously they don't care what park rangers think cause what do they know about parks and stuff?

AP The fight over guns comes as nearly half the Senate is pushing the Bush administration to let gun owners carry firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges.

Forty-seven senators have signed a letter asking Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to lift the Reagan-era restrictions requiring park visitors to render their weapons inaccessible. Guns do not have to be disassembled, but they must be put somewhere that is not easily reached, such as in a car trunk, said Jerry Case, the National Park Service's chief of regulations and special park uses.

Thirty-nine Republicans and eight Democrats signed the letter seeking to overturn the regulations, which were approved in the early 1980s by then-Interior Secretary James Watt.

Don't they already have hunting places in America where the most macho among us can shoot their dinner? Aren't national parks supposed to be a refuge against encroaching civilization? Haven't white men wreaked enough fucking havoc in the wilderness with their guns in this country's short history?

Now here is the excuse that really gets me in this story and it has nothing to do with protecting your ass against grizzly bears while you're camping in the great wilderness:

..."Unloaded and disassembled guns locked in your trunk are of no use when a rapist is attacking your family," Tatro [Coburn's spokesperson who should be fired] said.

Rapists? Oh good lord, I never thought of that. Is there a flurry of rape activity in national parks that I haven't read about? By all means then, Annie git my gun.

Maybe he meant that wimmin folks ought to carry loaded weapons when they are hiking and camping in the national parks so that they can protect themselves against violent men with their pants down... oh I don't know. I guess if a rapist was attacking a female friend of mine while we were hiking, I could hit him over the head with a frying pan or kick him hard while he was unzipping his fly... or something. Oh Lordy Lordy.

This gun amendment is holding up the whole expanding wilderness protection bill and for what?
/rant

The US is Still Failing Those Who Serve

I started thinking about what ever happened to the missing $9 billion in Iraq after reading that the Marines still don't have bomb resistant armored vehicles (MRAPs). A new study suggests that armoring up the Humvees the Marines were using were incapable of protecting Marines against IEDs. (No one could have predicted that the Iraqi's would be capable of making IEDs.)

I went on to read all the bureaucratic nonsense and excuses given for not getting much needed armored vehicles to those who serve the war pigs and learned that hundreds of deaths and severe injuries could have been averted. Tell that to all the proud families of Marines. The vehicles would have cost about $1 million/each and quite honestly, it doesn't sound like a whole lot of money compared to what they piss away on contractors.

This is something I have been following since 2003.

Glory, Glory Hallelujah! The Stupid Marches On!

Florida is experiencing a minor kerfuffle over its timid attempt to inject science into its educational standards, and the St. Petersburg Times has found out why:

The Stupid is extremely strong in Florida.

The State of Florida (also known as America's Soft Dangly Bits) is one of the so-called Bible States where, apparently, pig-ignorance of basic science is the norm.

Evolution does not explain the creation of the universe, despite what apparently 45% of those polled think; it's a means of explaining how we got to be what we are. Intelligent Design tries to explain everything from the formation of stars to cute kittens.

If we don't teach one of the fundamental theories at the heart of biology to our kids, what opportunities are we denying them?

And to my local school board, a majority of whom think we should toss most of modernity and reason out the door, I have three words:

Kitzmiller versus Dover.

If you do put this burden on our children's minds, I'll enjoy watching you get sued.

Because Stupidity is its own reward, and I could always use a cut of the court settlement.

"TIMELINE: Major shootings at schools, universities"

Details at REUTERS

Date Location Death Toll
March 1996 - BRITAIN - 17

March 1997 - YEMEN - 8

March 1998 - USA - 5

May 1998 - USA - 4

April 1999 - USA - 15

January 2002 - USA - 3

February 2002 - GERMANY - 4

April 26, 2002 - GERMANY - 18

September 1, 2004 - RUSSIA - 333

March 21, 2005 - USA - 9

September 13, 2006 - CANADA - 2

October 2, 2006 - USA - 6

November 20, 2006 - GERMANY - 1

April 16, 2007 - USA - 33

November 7, 2007 - FINLAND - 9

February 14, 2008 - USA - 5

BREAKING: Bomb kills one near government office in Mexico City

UPDATE: Possibly related: Two cousins from 'suicide town' hang themselves within hours as death toll rises
(Begins): "The death toll in a small town hit by a spate of suicides(All since Jan. 2007) rose to 16 yesterday when two young cousins were found hanged. They died hours apart, leaving the South Wales community of Bridgend reeling from the continuing string of tragedies."

Douchebag of the week

Joe LIEberman on water torture:

"You want to be able to use emergency tech to try to get the information out of that person," Lieberman said. Of course, Lieberman believes such authority has limits. He does not believe the president could authorize having hot coals pressed on someone's flesh to obtain that information.

The difference, he said, is that waterboarding is mostly psychological and there is no permanent physical damage. "It is not like putting burning coals on people's bodies. The person is in no real danger. The impact is psychological," Lieberman said.

WRONG!
From Physicians for Human Rights,
Break Them Down: Systematic Use of Psychological Torture by US Forces. PDF

Psychological torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment can have extremely destructive health consequences for detainees. The effects can include memory impairment, reduced capacity to concentrate, somatic complaints such as headache and back pain, hyperarousal, avoidance, and irritability. Additionally, victims often experience severe depression with vegetative symptoms, nightmares, and “feelings of shame and humiliation” associated with sexual violations, among others.

Although these short- and long-term consequences can be debilitating, the suffering of victims of psychological torture is often disregarded because they do not have physical evidence of the abuse they suffered. The lack of physical signs can make psychological torture seem less significant than physical torture, but the consensus among those who study torture and rehabilitate its victims is that psychological torture can be more painful and cause more severe and long-lasting damage even than the pain inflicted during physical torture.

Read the whole thing for more information.

Here we go again

Let's use the terrorist threat to change the subject in the House.

Wednesday: President Bush on the delay of the renewal the Protect America Act by the House after the Senate approved the renewal while giving immunity to telecoms:

"At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning new attacks on our country. Their goal is to bring destruction to our shores that will make September the 11th pale by comparison. To carry out their plans, they must communicate with each other, they must recruit operatives, and they must share information.
..

"The House's failure to pass the bipartisan Senate bill would jeopardize the security of our citizens. As Director McConnell has told me, without this law, our ability to prevent new attacks will be weakened...."

On Thursday, House Republicans stormed out of the chamber to "boycott a vote to hold 2 presidential confidants in contempt** for failing to cooperate with an inquiry into whether federal prosecutors were ousted for political reasons." (Notice when the House wants to investigate a constitutional crisis, the Republicans suddenly bring up those who want to kill us.)

"We have space on the calendar today for a politically charged fishing expedition, but no space for a bill that would protect the American people from terrorists who want to kill us," said Rep. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, the minority leader. "Let's just get up and leave," he told his colleagues, before walking out with scores of Republicans in tow. [Not only is he a big baby, his motives are very transparent.]

A short time later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she had instructed the chairmen of the House intelligence and judiciary committees to meet with their Senate counterparts by Friday to start reconciling the House and Senate eavesdropping legislation — something she predicted could be done within 21 days.

But the Republicans in the House defeated the 21 day extension so that Bush's bill could be signed into law immediately (as if waiting one second longer will bring destruction to our land and it will be the fault of the evil Democrats.) The Democrats in the House are trying to reconcile the part in the Senate Bill which gives telecoms retroactive immunity. And it's not like letting the current law will bring an immediate end to the government eavesdropping on its citizens suspected terrorists.

Existing surveillance could continue under the law for a year from when it began — at least until August. Any new surveillance the government wants to institute could be implemented through underlying FISA rules, which could require warrants from a secret court. The White House argues that this can cause "dangerous delays."

Will the Democrats cave today? It remains to be seen. This argument does appear to be purely political because as of yet, no one can give a good argument as to why the telecoms need retroactive immunity other than more terror warnings. Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, attempts to explain it in today's Washington Post but as I said, I still haven't been convinced why.

** Held in contempt were presidential chief of staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers, who failed to answer subpoenas last summer for testimony or documents issued by the House Judiciary Committee.
The panel was investigating the 2006 firing of nine U.S. attorneys, which Democrats believe was politically motivated and which contributed to the departure from the Justice Department last year of Attorney Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales.
The contempt resolution was approved by an overwhelming margin of 223 to 32.

Hillary's Solutions

I may sound as campaigning for Hillary Clinton.

The truth is, one cannot ignore reality. If you read Hillary's economic plan, it will leave you perplex: the depth, the complexity and detailed intertwining of economy with education, global warming, creation of green-collar jobs, infrastructure,universal health care, energy independence and breaking the chain of oil dependency and solving the mortgage crises in favor of the home-owners.
According to experts Hillary's economic plan is the best economic layout in half a century, better than Bill Clinton's or any other democratic president since FDR.

Even the republicans praise her work, perhaps a little jealous about her sophisticated knowledge. McCain advisor Kevin Hassett accused Obama of plagiarizing Hillary's plan:

"Obama's plan today is the most shameless piece of potential plagiarism that I have ever seen," McCain economic advisor Kevin Hassett said. The Clinton campaign helpfully e-mailed his comments to reporters.
"He basically took Clinton's words and Clinton's policies and called them his own," Hassett said. "If I were a professor I'd give him an F and try to get him kicked out of school for something this terrible ... I remember Mrs. Clinton saying shared prosperity and I remember the bill that she introduced in August for infrastructure. The fact is these are things Obama has taken as his own without crediting the source of the ideas which was Mrs. Clinton."

According to some insiders, during Bill's tenure she was the most ardent defender of the working people, arguing with Bill over NAFTA and standing up for the economic justice.

Pay no attention to the Hillary Haters and ill-intentioned pundits from CNN, MSNBC, Fox, NBC ABC etc. and go to her website and read for yourself.

After all "men can't live on hope alone"

Some "maverick." feh

Flipflopper McCain was against waterboarding before he was for waterboarding.

What war? The Integrity of Baseball is at Stake here!

Oh good Lord, break out the violins. This is fucking tragic.

"Can I look at my two children . . . and tell them you have always played the game with honesty and integrity?" asked Representative William Lacy Clay of Missouri to Roger Clemens, as if American family values will face certain extinction if sports heroes don't live up to their projected place high on the pedestal of life.

Can I face my son and tell him that baseball players are an accurate indicator of the status and integrity of the American psyche? Well yes, but I'd have a hard time trying not to laugh cynically while I was saying it.

I remember baseball heroes when I was growing up. I lived in Yankee territory. It wasn't until later on that we found out that our heroes and role models were a bunch of wild party boys who smoked and drank and caroused like there was no tomorrow. It was quite surprising given their amazing athletic prowess but they got a pass from the aging fans because it just made them more awesome that they could party and still play like superstars. And they didn't make a whole lot of money either unless they had a lot of product endorsements. They were regular guys with sports talent and thrust into idol status. Poor things. We love to create idols and gods out of other people when we're not inventing incredibly nasty but sometimes merciful sky gods.

Now I am supposed to be surprised that certain athletes use performance enhancing drugs? If they don't live up to public expectations, it could cost them millions of dollars. Talk about raising the stakes to ridiculous heights. It only makes them turn back into mere humans again, doesn't it?

The husband and his friends can sit around for hours talking about Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle as if it were yesterday. It's like they never grew up. Talk about losing your short term memory as you get older. And Congress critters have apparently forgotten what they were elected to do... you know, uphold the constitution and all that stuff.

Am I the only one who finds Congress' obsession with baseball more than a little disconcerting?

"Taxi to the Dark Side": A nation betrayed, a nation's conscience stained

"The official death certificate for Dilawar, signed by coroner Dr. Elizabeth A. Rouse, listed the "mode of death" as "homicide." The cause was "blunt force injuries to lower extremities complicating coronary artery disease." More descriptively, Dilawar's legs had been hit repeatedly, hundreds of times, until the tissues inside had broken down and turned to pulp. Internal blood clots then had broken free, traveled to his heart, lodged in a partially blocked artery and stopped the flow of blood.

"Dilawar died in the custody of the U.S. Army at Bagram Collection Point, a prison and interrogation facility about 30 miles north of Kabul. He had been there a little less than five days. Dilawar had done nothing to merit detention and knew nothing that merited interrogation. He was beaten to death by the United States of America."

There's more from Eric Mink in the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH.

UPDATE: It seems that the Discovery Channel bought the rights to this documentary but it will not air it because it's too "controversial." Read about it at Amy Goodman's Democracy Now.

Update:

Portrait of a Liar

Quislings

(This rare historical archive photograph shows the United States Senate after passage of the final Enabling Act (known as the FISA Bill With Telecom Immunity) on February 12, 2008. The assembled Senators are shown reaffirming their loyalty to the corporate masters and to Dear Leader.)


Yeah, it's a rampant violation of Godwin's Law, but what the hell? It's appropriate.

Quisling is a proper name, in this case Vidkun Quisling, who as the head of Norway's tiny and ineffectual Nazi Party sold out his country to the Germans in 1940. After his betrayal, the Germans never really trusted him, but his family name has gone down in history as synonymous with traitor.

Like Benedict Arnold.

Like Oleg Penkovsky.

Like Kim Philby.

And now like the names of all the US Senators who voted to pass this benighted, ill-bred abortion of a bill.

By affirming this bill, Senator Dodd pointed out last night, the Senate of the United States once and for all turned its back upon the Rule of Law, apparently preferring the Rule of Men and Rule by Executive Fiat.

News flash - a business is not a person. It has no right, inherent or otherwise, to immunity from any form of civil or criminal liability for its actions. The Senate's actions this week offers a lot of implications - are oil companies going to be made immune if they destroy the environment? Are mining companies to be immune from prosecution if they strip another mountain down to sea level, or logging companies for denuding our remaining forests?

I can only assume one of three things:

1. They are so bed-wettingly afraid of a group of unwashed troublemakers (or of being labeled "soft" on said troublemakers) that they buckled like soggy tacos;

2. They are bought and paid for by the telecom companies; or

3. They were threatened by Dick Cheney, who must have a lot of negatives squirreled away in his safe.

Either way, these so-called Senators (who are OUR employees, by the way) have proven themselves to be spineless weaklings richly deserving the name and dishonor of quisling. I accuse my two Senators, Bill Nelson (D) and Mel Martinez (R) or treason for violating their Constitutional oaths and the will of their constituents.

I will sooner vote Communist than throw away my vote on either of these worthless men.

Waiting for Godot is Over

Samuel Beckett's Nobel Prize for Literature play "Waiting for Godot", has earned it's purpose.

Godot has arrived.

He is a great orator, motivator, idealistic to the like of Bobby Kennedy, charming, quick-witted, with a good sense of humor, communicator to the bone, the dream of every idealist. His quest for greatness has grown to a movement, with it's own "brownshirts" enforcing the right to vote of every citizen, as long as you're voting for him. If you are going to vote for Hillary, you're mocked, ridiculized and ostracized.

The movement has grown beyond my reason to support it. I may be a skeptic, or even a cynic, but the culture I come from has a saying: " to the much praised fruit-tree, go with a small basket", or perhaps "movements" scare the living shit out of me. Is this mania a result of "slavery" guilt?

Godot is Senator Barack Obama. What an uplifting speech! What a man! What a preacher! ...But where is the beef?

The only accomplishment he's stating in his speeches, is being an organizer in Chicago's slums. What did he organize, and what did he accomplish?

Change is great when things are bad, but what kind of change is he talking about?

November comes, I will vote for him, if he is the democratic candidate for president.

I only hope, that it's not all "hot air"

I'd like to know what you think, Am I out of line, or this is just my perception?Nobody wants to talk about the primaries on this blog, so with the risk of getting my ass kicked, I dare you all!

Happy Valentine's Day

only in Berkeley

Well, maybe not only in Berkeley, but it looks like we're among the few willing to stick our necks out right now.

Here's a link to what's happened since yesterday.

It has been interesting observing how people respond to the thought of our city council telling the Marines to go away and take their recruiting office with them, and when I caught the news early this morning, councilwoman Linda Maio was having a time of it explaining the gulf of difference between protesting the recruiters, and supporting the troops themselves.

Edited to add a link to Code Pink. These are the gals who have been protesting the recruiter steadily.

Dollar Bill Conspiracy Theories Put To Rest By Your Government

Great Seal secrets revealed!
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer
Tue Feb 12, 4:03 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Conspiracy theorists take note: The myths surrounding one of America's oldest and most enduring national symbols are about to be debunked ... if you believe the government, that is.

The keepers of the Great Seal of the United States, the familiar emblem on the back of the $1 bill, want you to know what it is not. It is not a sign that Freemasons run the country, it has nothing to do with the occult, and it does not contain clues to a fabulous hidden treasure.

It is rather the nation's stamp of authority, sovereignty and power, gracing our cash and embossing the most important of documents from its home at the State Department, which has held it since the days of Thomas Jefferson, the first secretary of state.

Not that the Seal's symbols — the all-seeing eye, the unfinished pyramid, the Latin phrases, the bald eagle clutching an olive branch and arrows and the number 13 — aren't powerful.

They are, historians say. Yet their meanings have been misidentified, misunderstood and misrepresented almost since the Continental Congress first commissioned the Seal in 1776.
continued

whew.

A Sign of the Times

Almost one million people voted in the Democratic primary in Virginia yesterday. That's more than twice the number of people who voted in the Republican primary.

Awesome!

Red hereby makes a bold prediction: Come November 4, 2008, she will have to change her blogging name because she will no longer live in a red state.

A lonely housewife's lament on telecom spies

My family finds my way with door to door solicitors amusing. They told me so. Whatever. I think they are just too lazy to answer the damn door, but the husband insists that he couldn't talk to Jehovah's Witnesses the way that I do- my genuine mix of concern and relief about the last days being nigh. But lo, the latest swarm of solicitors make my heart race a little and I always regret not wearing lipstick and my wonder bra around the house.

Verizon keeps sending cuter and cuter guys to the door each week to sell the all inclusive package of cable TV, phone and internet for a much better deal and quality than Cablevision (which I currently use but am not thrilled with). Fiber optics in MY neighborhood? Wow. I'm sure that their HD is HD'er than what I have now. And more channels too? Faster internet? Oh my God, yes Be still my heart.

"Your services sound fantastic. Will YOU be doing the installation? "

His eyes meet mine. His smile melts my heart. sigh.
Jesus Christ, he is 10 times cuter than the one they sent last week. Those fucking bastards. They shouldn't be messing with middle aged ladies like this. There ought to be a law.

Oh wait. A moment of lucidity.
"I'm sorry but Verizon spies on US citizens with immunity, so I will have to say no."
Damn it. I have nothing to hide, but still... it's the principle.

This angel sent from heaven above doesn't argue with me for his tender eyes tell me that my reason for dismissal is not new to him. I try to tell him with my eyes, that I don't hold it against him personally and that he is more than welcome to stop by anytime when he's not selling Verizon services. ahem.

Oops: White House spokesman admits telecoms spied

Happy Valentine's Day From the RNC

Oh that's a good one.

The always humorous GOP.com offers you a fine selection of Valentine's Day eCards featuring Senators Obama and Clinton. If you've donated to the RNC lately, you'll be happy to know that your money has gone to such a worthy cause.


Be still, my heart.
Tax me, Momma.

Well That's Ironic

U.S. to Skirt Green-Card Check
Action Will Help Applicants Lacking Final FBI Clearance

Facing a rapidly growing backlog of immigration cases, the Bush administration will grant permanent residency to tens of thousands of legal U.S. immigrants without first completing required background checks against the FBI's investigative files.

The change affects a large but unknown number of about 47,000 permanent residency, or green-card, applicants whose cases are otherwise complete but whose FBI checks have been pending for more than six months, U.S. officials said. continued

So much for the ruse of "Homeland Security."
People can barely vacation in the US without being humiliated at the crossings and the airports, but if you want to live here, then by all means, make your application now because the FBI is backlogged.

They ought to hire Sibel Edmonds back.

Lightning strikes Christ the Redeemer in Brazil

LOL! from wonkette:

The famous Mike Huckabee (a.k.a. “Christ the Redeemer”) statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was struck by Muslim lightning Sunday, and some hobo managed to catch this on camera. This is a sign, Mike! The Muslim Jesus (John McCain) wants you out of the race, post haste.
(via DailyMail)


I gotta WONDER about this one....

What do you think?


Huffpo wonders if it's a hoax (The commenters are no help whatsoever.) At times, I WONDER if the Huffpo is a hoax.


Well, whatever it may mean, it looks like those lightning rods work!

Aha!

Whites to be minority in US by 2050: study
Immigration will drive the population of the United States sharply upward between now and 2050, and will push whites into a minority, projections by the Pew Research Center showed Monday.

...

Whites, who currently make up around two-thirds of the US population, will become a minority (47 percent) by 2050, the report said.

Photo of the...(I started to write "day", but this one's good for all year.)

(THANKS MARILYN!)

American Brownshirts

I know what are you thinking; Blackwater USA, or Haliburton, KBR.
No, the real brownshirts (or one of them) are Infragard a National Security Corporation, established in 1996, from the highest levels of corporate businesses, to do work for the FBI.
The FBI has deputized this Corporation to help out the Government in case of a National Emergency, with the right to use lethal force against potential terrorists.
That may be You, since you don't know which of your neighbors belongs to this organization, to use a national emergency situation as an excuse to eliminate people they don't like.
But read for yourself the juicy stuff at their website!

Fascinating

Have Humans Caused the Earth to Enter a New Epoch?
The Anthropocene epoch would mark the period when humans became the predominant force over the Earth's environment.

Geologists wonder if they should add a new epoch to the geological time scale. They call it the Anthropocene -- the epoch when, for the first time in Earth's history, humans have become a predominant geophysical force. Naming such a new epoch would also recognize that humans now share responsibility with natural forces for the state of our planet's ecological environment.

Geologists have been using the term informally for at least half a decade. Now members of the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London have laid out the case for giving the term official scientific status.

Presenting that case in the February issue of GSA Today magazine, the team notes that "since the start of the industrial revolution, Earth has endured changes sufficient to leave a global stratigraphic signature." It is different from anything found in the entire geological record up to that point. That means the team expects future geologists examining this record will recognize a distinct break with the Holocene ("recent whole") epoch that covers the past 10,000 years.
continued

after reading the article, I found not much to argue with, but I'm sure that the powers that be don't want to anyone to worry their little minds over the topic of the earth's sustainability when there are terrorists to fight. But I see this change of era as a positive thing at this time in history- Let's figure out exactly what humans are doing to the planet and what we can do to sustain what we have before it's too late.

American INjustice

Please see the post, The Black Curtain at Dark Wraith Forums.

OMG. OMG

Brilliant

"If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people."
Former British MP Tony Benn talks about power and democracy in this excerpt from "Sicko."

Please watch and spread it, especially to the disenfranchised and those who feel powerless.


I'm looking to see if a transcript is available. Thank you.

Just Thinkin' ...

On Liberty

Daily Doings - Iraqi Style

While so much of our attention has been attracted away from the War to Line Dick Cheney's Pockets, what with elections and caucuses and Brittney and the Chelsea Pimp Remark and all, we might have missed the following:

Five US soldiers died in separate IED attacks earlier this weekend, while US and Iraqi forces detained 22 members of a splinter group of the Mahdi Army. We're trying to tread softly around the followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, or the truce will end and we'll be back in shit up to our necks.

A diary was purportedly found in the Iraqi town of Balad, dating back to October, where the local insurgent/jihadist commander bemoans the progress made against him and his minions. If this is true, then at least the escalation worked in Balad.

And finally, two cakes were delivered to an Iraqi Air Force officer's club. They were taken home and eaten by a couple of families, who then quite inexplicably fell ill. The cakes, you see, were laced with poisonous thallium, which can cause a painful death (and according to the article was a favorite stealth tactic by Saddam's old secret police). Two children have died so far.

The idea of using thallium as a poison jumped out at me, since in 1991 a local man named George Trepal used thallium to poison his neighbors (he didn't like the noise they were making). He killed one and sickened six others, and is currently on Death Row in Florida.

So! What's happening in your neck of the woods this fine day?

Fuck MSNBC.

It should be called the Misogynistic Sexist Nonsensical Bullshit Corporate news with an agenda channel. I know that I shouldn't care because it's a POS cable news show and hardly anyone watches cable news, but still....

Why pick on Chelsea? If nothing else, the Clintons did a great job raising their daughter.
And aren't Mitt Romney's kids "serving their country" by going on the road with him? feh.

DAVID SCHUSTER (MSNBC): ...What is the Chelsea factor?
Here, again, are nationally syndicated radio talk-show host Bill Press and online columnist Bob Franken. And, Bill, there's just something a little bit unseemly to me that Chelsea is out there calling up celebrities saying, "Support my mom." And, apparently, she's also calling these super delegates.

PRESS: Hey, she's working for her mom. What's unseemly about that? I mean, during the last campaign, the Bush twins were out working for their dad. I think it's great. I think she's grown up in a political family; she's got politics in her blood. She loves her mom. She thinks she'd make a great president. Michelle Obama's out there for --

SHUSTER: But doesn't it seem like she's being --

PRESS: -- her husband, so --

SHUSTER: But doesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?

PRESS: No. She's there -- listen. If she didn't want to be there, she wouldn't be there. I mean, give Chelsea a break. I think it's great. Again, Michelle Obama's out there for her husband. What's the big deal, David? I --

SHUSTER: Well, here is the big deal. I will give Chelsea Clinton a break when she sits down and gives an interview to somebody like --
PRESS: Oh!

SHUSTER: -- Bob Franken, because if she --

PRESS: Oh, yeah!

SHUSTER: -- wants to do all this stuff, then she should face the questions, right?More here.

Good God. Why hold back? Why not make it more clear that this station holds the Clintons to higher standards than any other people ever?

Too late and I'm sick of their apologies.

NBC News President Steve Capus sent the following statement to Media Matters for America: On Thursday's "Tucker" on MSNBC, David Shuster, who was serving as guest-host of the program, made a comment about Chelsea Clinton and the Clinton campaign that was irresponsible and inappropriate. Shuster, who apologized this morning on MSNBC and will again this evening, has been suspended from appearing on all NBC News broadcasts, other than to make his apology.

----------------

John McCain speaking at a Republican dinner in 1998: "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

Nice Senator Shithead.

quotes from CPAC

Mother? oh brother

George Bush at CPAC: I appreciate the fact that you've invited Vice President Cheney here. (yay) He is the best vice president in history.(yay) Mother may have a different opinion. (laugh) But don't tell her I said this, but my opinion is the one that counts. hah. (laugh)

More reasons to be afraid of McCain

John Bolton on why you should support McCain at CPAC: I think Senator McCain’s statement here yesterday on how he would handle the Iranian program is stronger than the current Bush administration policy. And thank goodness, because the Bush administration policy now lies on the ocean floor. … I didn’t think the policy the administration was pursuing was robust enough.

bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.

From Kris & Johnny:

Well I woke up Sunday morning,
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An' I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An' stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

I'd smoked my brain the night before,
On cigarettes and songs I'd been pickin'.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid,
Cussin' at a can that he was kicking.
Then I crossed the empty street,
'n caught the Sunday smell of someone fryin' chicken.
And it took me back to somethin',
That I'd lost somehow, somewhere along the way.

On the Sunday morning sidewalk,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cos there's something in a Sunday,
Makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin',
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin' city sidewalks:
Sunday mornin' comin' down.

In the park I saw a daddy,
With a laughin' little girl who he was swingin'.
And I stopped beside a Sunday school,
And listened to the song they were singin'.
Then I headed back for home,
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin'.
And it echoed through the canyons,
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.

On the Sunday morning sidewalk,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cos there's something in a Sunday,
Makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin',
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sleepin' city sidewalks:
Sunday mornin' comin' down.

Whack!

I've been watching too many old movies lately.

In Easy Rider (1969) the protagonists run into some bigots who take issue with their counter culture appearance (long hair, motorcycles, etc). Not that the counter-culture is portrayed as nor meant to be taken as the answer to the country's problems at the time, Jack Nicholson's character had something to say about freedom after the three travelers are threatened in a Louisiana luncheonette.

George Hanson [Jack Nicholson]: You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it.

Billy [Dennis Hopper]: Man, everybody got chicken, that's what happened. Hey, we can't even get into like, a second-rate hotel, I mean, a second-rate motel, you dig? They think we're gonna cut their throat or somethin'. They're scared, man.

George Hanson: They're not scared of you. They're scared of what you represent to 'em.

Billy: Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut.

George Hanson: Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom.

Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That's what it's all about.

George Hanson: Oh, yeah, that's right. That's what's it's all about, all right. But talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things.

I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em.

Billy: Well, it don't make 'em runnin' scared.

George Hanson: No, it makes 'em dangerous.

Bam! The rednecks whack him in his sleep.

Boom!

Has anyone read Tom Brokaw's new book Boom? A friend gave it to me for Christmas and I finished it a couple of weeks ago. It's not long and a pretty easy read. I previously had read Brokaw's Greatest Generation and liked it, so I was willing to give this one a shot. The book centers around the year 1968, although it also moves backwards and forwards in time and encompasses events that, strictly speaking, did not occur in that calendar year. The book focuses on interviews with a number of people prominently involved in the happenings of the day, and follows up with the usual "where are they now" stories. Some are quite moving; some are insipid.

There is no doubt that 1968 was a year that changed the landscape of the American experience: the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy a very short two months later, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the Women's Liberation movement in full throat, the Tet Offensive and the subsequent escalation of the Viet Nam War. Many of the interviewees ponder what the world would be like if, in particular, King and Kennedy had lived: how would they have changed the course of the Viet Nam War, the lives of African-Americans in the United States, the economic disparities between rich and poor, male and female, black, brown and white, the election of Richard Nixon and the Watergate debacle? Indeed, what a year that was.

But the question I am really interested in today is whether it's time for the Boomers to step aside and hand over the reins of power to the next generation. Now, whether that means Gen X or Gen Y or the Tweeners, or Gen Millennium, I'm not sure. But one of the central tenets of Brokaw's book is that we cannot get past the political devisiveness that currently envelopes the American political scene until the Boomers are toast. Why? Brokaw's thesis is that, for better or worse, the Boomers continue to fight the Viet Nam War over and over again, and that the reverberations of that conflict cast their shadow over everything that happens in American political life today.

What do you think of that thesis? True or false? Why?

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Boomer now in my 50th year. I know many of the BlondeSense readership likewise are Boomers. So, I am interested to know whether we are ready to let go and let the youngsters take their turn at gripping the horse's mane and seeing how far they can ride.

News You Can Use

Time travellers from the future 'could be here in weeks'
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Telegraph.co.uk

"The first time travellers from the future could materialise on Earth within a few weeks.

Physicists around the world are excitedly awaiting the start up of the £4.65 billion Large Hadron Collider, LHC - the most powerful atom-smasher ever built - which is supposed to shed new light on the particles and forces at work in the cosmos and reproduce conditions that date to near the Big Bang of creation..." continued
------

NASA beams Beatles song into space
You can watch NASA beam "Across the Universe" at YouTube and/or the version with snarky British commentary

Big Brother

Exclusive! The FBI Deputizes Business
By Matthew Rothschild, February 7, 2008

Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does—and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to “shoot to kill” in the event of martial law. Continued

FBI wants palm prints, eye scans, tattoo mapping
CNN From Kelli Arena and Carol Cratty

CLARKSBURG, West Virginia (CNN) -- The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people's physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists.

But it's an issue that raises major privacy concerns -- what one civil liberties expert says should concern all Americans.

The bureau is expected to announce in coming days the awarding of a $1 billion, 10-year contract to help create the database that will compile an array of biometric information -- from palm prints to eye scans.

Kimberly Del Greco, the FBI's Biometric Services section chief, said adding to the database is "important to protect the borders to keep the terrorists out, protect our citizens, our neighbors, our children so they can have good jobs, and have a safe country to live in." continued

Fun and games with terrorist threats
Glen Greenwald

"... as leading fear-mongerer and proponent of limitless surveillance powers, Jay Rockefeller, put it today:

• "Al Qaeda has used this border safe haven to reconstitute itself and launch offensive operations that threaten to undo the stability brought to Afghanistan and undermine, if not overthrow, the Pakistan government," said Mr. Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat.
• This, Mr. Rockefeller added, gave Al Qaeda "a base of operations from which to plot and direct attacks against the United States."

After scaring everyone with the latest Al-Qaeda-is-Coming warnings, the CIA also admitted for the first time that it waterboarded detainees in its custody, but what's a little water up the nose -- or a little presidential omnipotence -- when Al Qaeda is coming to get us in our Homeland? continued

And now for something completely different...

Since we’ve all had enough depressing politics for a while and in keeping with the serious nature of this blog, I present to you a gift of music, sort of, that is dedicated especially to one particular commenter here, who shall remain nameless.

Some people have a mistaken notion of talent. They think that Mary Lou Retton or Anthony Hopkins or the like have talent. Talent comes in many abilities. That this gentleman might not be considered talented by some of you would be a travesty!

This may just be musical art of the highest form (with apologies to minstrel boy)!

These are just a few to help you through your day.

Classical Gas
No PUn intended

Bohemian Rhapsody
Ah, The Classics

Manualist
Search for More

Animated Fart Song
No explanation needed

Breaking

Romney may withdraw from the presidential race or suspend his campaign.

"We are the Dead. Short days ago ..."

One of the last two American World War One vets dies in Florida.

Farewell, Mr. Landis.

"Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie,
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be,
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill."

- Robert Louis Stevenson, "Requiem"

more on healthcare

Good Read: 10 Myths About Canadian Health Care, Busted

If you haven't seen it yet, "Sicko" can be viewed online at google video. I've been watching it again (I must be a masochist.)

From what I have been reading lately, it appears that Hillary hatred started when her husband put her in charge of healthcare and it scared the hell out of the neocons who were deadset against it. Affordable non-profit healthcare for citizens would take money out of the pockets of the corporations and not out of the pockets who can least afford it. You would think that the American corporations would want healthy slaves. Funny that the "values voters" support this crowd, isn't it?

Positive Economic Forecast for Afghanistan?

From Foreign Policy Blog: Another bumper crop year forecast for opium



And now also the world's top marijuana grower.


Troops in marijuana field in Afghanistan. Hmmm.

Headline of the year

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today begins the lunar Year of the Rat.

Of course, in regard to this Administration, the Year of the Rat started in 2000 and hasn't ended yet.

A Few Ruminations

“Super” Tuesday?

Well, we now have a clear front-runner in the Republican Party, at least, and the winner of the Fidel Castro Suffering All the Way to Havana Award goes to Senator John McCain. He stood there grinning like a maniac as one win after another was recorded, flanked and supported by the gay Governor of Florida, the man-boobalicious Governor of California, and the quisling “Independent” Senator from Connecticut.

The Political Bisexual’s delegate totals far outstrip those of the Mittbot Romneytron and His Partial Eminence the Governor-Reverend, Mullah Huckabee. I’m not really going to consider Ron Paul a candidate any longer, as he is no longer a serious factor.

Now, on the Democratic side, we’re looking at a tight race right down to the wire unless either Clinton or Obama manage to score a coup in some of the remaining large states (Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, etc.). DNC Chairman Howard Dean has already warned against a brokered convention in Denver, with the accompanying floor fights and favorite son candidates. That could conceivably split the Party, leaving an opening for Nader to leech votes away and give the White House back to the GOP for yet another four years.

Ralphie Boy needs to just STFU and retire to tend his roses. I’ll buy him a lovely mint condition 1964 Corvair if he wants.

***

Stormy Weather

My Inner Bastard surfaced during a news report on the damage to places like Arkansas and Tennessee over the past few days (my Inner Bastard is largely a product of an id gone horribly awry and my limbic system; it’s not a very amusing guest). The IB snarled aloud that, if I were given to the Magic Thinking that fundies have, I’d say that the damage was God’s vengeance on people for voting for Huckabee on Tuesday.

After slapping my Inner Bastard around, I hastened to assure onlookers that I was only kidding. I’m not into Magic Thinking.

***

Party of Three, Please

The national security apparatus of the United States apparently doesn’t believe in the adage that secrecy is toxic to a democracy. They also seem to believe that torture works as a means of extracting information.

General Bunsen Honeydew (excuse me, Michael Hayden) let slip today that we had used waterboarding –

Wait a minute. What’s this “we” shit, bitch? You got a mouse in your pocket?

Yeah, “we,” and don’t interrupt me again. Whatever they are doing behind closed doors at various rendition sites is being done in our names. We share the moral and legal taint.

Oh.

Anyway, waterboarding three al-Qaeda guys in order to obtain information which later was found to be of no or very minimal use. And there is the implication that the Dear Leader, Our President, signed off on it.

I think that he might also be responsible for the destruction of the tapes, as well. After all, once you’ve masturbated all over it, the ejaculate makes for a very sticky thing to shove into the VCR (and Laura won’t want to touch it).

***

Hey Gang! Great Idea!

Let’s re-legalize slavery! It’ll be a hoot!

A story out of NPR last night spoke of a bill before the Congress that would essentially fellate the agrobusiness community and allow them to treat their ‘guest’ workers more like slaves than they actually do – removing legal restrictions and requirements on things like minimum pay, housing, etc.

And this morning, NPR stated that they’d gotten their fingers onto a document where the United States Army apparently told the Veteran’s Administration to deny benefits to wounded soldiers.

Just perfect. We’re looking more and more like Rome every day – latifundia, mistreatment of veterans, the legislature ceding more and more power to the executive, and the chief executive acting more and more like a dictator. Historically, we’re looking at the transition from Republic to Principate, and from there it’s a simple step to the Dominate that (if the Roman analogy holds up) started about AD 200 with Domitian.

***

A Patch Job

Look at your own body (no, not THAT bit) and you’ll note a few things that don’t seem quite right. The curve of the spine, the knees, the structure of the feet, and other structures in your body (nipples on men? What’s up with that?) all point to the fact that we’re largely cobbled together as a result of our evolution and our civilization.

The good news is, according to some scientists, is that on a genetic level we’ve become so diverse and spread so widely that our evolution has accelerated, so there is some hope that at least the more glaring anatomical and systemic mistakes will correct themselves. Whether our civilization will also evolve to something a bit less amenable to our innate savagery remains to be seen.

Thoughts?

***

Six Tunes

Here are six songs I like to listen to if I'm driving long distance:

"On the Turning Away" - Pink Floyd (I love singing along)
"Radar Love" - Golden Earring
"I Love Rock 'n Roll" - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
"Fat-Bottomed Girls" - Queen
"Highway to Hell" - AC/DC
"I Can't Drive 55" - can't recall the artiste offhand.

What To Do, What To Do?

I suspect we're all still decompressing from the big Super Tuesday showdown, but I have a decision to make. So, I thought I'd ask y'all for a little input.

Next Tuesday is the so-called Chesapeake primary, when DC, Maryland and Virginia go to the polls. I am undecided on the remaining Democratic contenders. Truly and completely undecided! Which is totally unlike me, because as anyone who knows me will tell you, I have a strong opinion on just about everything. So, here are my choices:

Vote for Hillary. She's not awful, as the consummate Washington insider she certainly knows how, as they say, to pull the various levers of power in Washington, she has been through fire and rain with the press and the Republicans so we're reasonably sure there's no further dirt out there that hasn't been addressed, and she IS a woman and I'd love to see that particular glass ceiling broken. On the down side, I just can't shake the feeling that she takes her political cues by measuring which way the wind is blowing (and is that necessarily a bad thing?), and that she's all about the power for power's sake. Goodness knows, we don't need another four or eight years of power grabbing. And I just hate, Hate, HATE her position on the Iraq War. For goodness sake, woman, just admit you got stampeded and move on!

Vote for Obama. He's young, he's passionate, he brings excitement and gets independents and youngsters engaged and there's a lot to be said for charisma and inspiration. People and especially the press do not react as strongly negatively to him as they do the mere thought of a(nother) Clinton presidency. (For more on this issue, see Blonde Liz's post below, and further see MoDo's column in today's NY Times.) His positions on most issues are indistinguishable from Clinton's or insignificant enough that they do not make that much of a difference to me. On the down side, he is relatively inexperienced, and, let's not pussy-foot around the issue, he is a black man in America and even in 2008, that is a negative in some voters' minds. Notwithstanding the rhetoric, I am not sure he will do much more than Clinton to get us out of Iraq.

Vote for a Republican candidate. Virginia has an open primary, despite the best efforts of the state Republican party to require a loyalty oath of voters who participate in the Republican primary. I utilized this in 2000, when the Democratic nomination was a foregone conclusion. Yes, I voted for McCain then, not that it made any difference in the end (Shrubby won the primary big). But perhaps this time I could, you know, vote for Romney or Huckabee, so the internecine warfare continues for a bit longer in the Republican primaries.

So, have at it, I have a completely open mind and can be persuaded. If I have (for now) but this one vote to attempt to influence the process, how shall I use it?

Tuesday Recap

Obama 14 states
Clinton 8 states
McCain 9 states
Romney 7 states
Huckabee 5 states

The NY Times has a pretty good detailed breakdown of election results from yesterday. There are numerous detailed breakdowns and it was pretty interesting to spend some time checking it all out. The delegates have yet to be decided in most states.

New Yorkers are pretty private about how they vote. You don't see a lot of signs or bumper stickers, if any so I was quite surprised that Clinton and McCain won just about every county in NY. Did you notice how few people actually voted in these primaries?

From what I understand, the news guys on TV don't like Hillary or McCain, so why did they do so well? Could it be that Americans are waking up and voting against the media?

There's a nice essay by Stanley Fish at the Times called All You Need Is Hate
where he discusses Hillary hatred. All I know is that after I interview Hillary haters, not one person has been able to explain to me a decent reason to despise her which leads me to think that they just hate her because they hated Bill or hate her because she's a woman. I can see why someone wouldn't like her politics, but she's not intrinsically evil like George Bush nor a buffoon. And she's not her husband. If she becomes the candidate, get ready for an awful lot of Hillary bashing and if she becomes president, I fear it will be a repeat of her husband's time in office with the media totally dissecting her every move ad nauseum.

We haven't really discussed the internet cable breaks too much. Grab the cat and the tinfoil hat and let's chat.....

Austin Meowers - The Spy Who Scratched Me

images courtesy of care2.com
and Tin Foil Hats and Cats -

"We talk about Government Conspiracies"
"We look at pictures of Cats"
"If there is a middle ground, perhaps we'll address that too"



"The outage, which is being blamed on a fault in a single undersea cable, has severely restricted internet access in countries including India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and left huge numbers of people struggling to get online.. Egyptian officials said that around 70% of the country's online traffic was being blocked, while officials in Mumbai said that more than half of India's internet capacity had been erased, which could have potentially disastrous consequences for the country's burgeoning hi-tech industry."
(Guardian)

Let's start with the INFORMATION OPERATIONS ROADMAP released to the public in '06

Here is a summary of the document --

from knowledgedrivenrevolution - nov. 07

and from Global Research:
Pentagon: The internet needs to be dealt with as if it were an enemy "weapons system".




HAT tip to Indigo -- above links via godisnotanasshole


(I wish I could find my old pet pictures. We used to have this cat that would let us torture her with dress-up clothes. You should see the stunning feather hat we would top her with! Would make a great "mascot" Liz!)



Bonus Video - John Conway Talks About the Game of Life Part 1

Super Tuesday

Supersize me.

I wonder if anyone in NY will remember to vote since the Giants are plastered all over the front pages of the newspapers.

So what are your predictions?


And check this story out. Election theft 2008, the perfect crime: 300 million witnesses and nobody saw nuttin' ack

Barrelling into recession

Cheap oil and the quest for the American Dream house blew up in our faces. It's explained in
Something Had to Give How Oil Burst the American Bubble By Michael T. Klare

"Over the past decade, this country has squandered approximately one and a half trillion dollars on imported oil, much of which has been poured down the tanks of grotesquely fuel-inefficient vehicles that were conveying drivers on ever lengthening commutes from the exurbs to employment in center cities."

In a nutshell: We had cheap oil and cheap mortgages in the 90's. People who wanted to achieve the "American Dream" had 2 choices: Buy a home within easy commuting distance from their job and take out a tremendous mortgage because home prices near cities were very high or purchase a more affordable home far away from work and hope that gas prices stay low for that long ride. Many first time buyers did both- get stuck with crushing mortgages on homes quite far from their places of employment sold to them by unscrupulous lenders to boot. Add to that the push to trade in their cars for SUVs by the US auto industry and then a higher demand for oil by Chinese and Indian consumers.... and here were are. The value of the dollar is down, the price of importing oil has risen dramatically, money is tight for many American families as they are stuck with variable rate mortgages, gas guzzling vehicles and not able to spend and shop like they used to. Add to it all, the stock market panic. And guess who's taking over?

Read the article here.

What would John Lennon Do? - Israel invites surviving members of THE BEATLES to Jewish state's 60th birthday bash in May

From ABCnews:
Israel Apologizes for Beatles Ban, Invites Them to Play

The Yediot Ahronot newspaper quoted extensively from a letter of apology it said Israel's ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, was due to give to slain Beatle John Lennon's sister Julia Baird ......
It said copies of the letter would also be sent to relatives of late guitarist George Harrison and to survivors Paul McCartney, 65, and Ringo Starr, 67. "We should like to take this opportunity to correct the historic omission which to our great regret occurred in 1965, when you were invited to Israel," Yediot quoted the letter as saying. "We should like to see you sing in Israel." In Jerusalem, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel confirmed that Prosor would meet Baird and invite her to Israel for the gala marking Israel's founding in May 1948. But he said he had no knowledge of any letter of apology or of invitations to Paul and Ringo to perform.

From ynetnews in Israel:
Israel apologizes to The Beatles

From the BBC:
Banned Beatles get Israel invite

and
Some background from Entertainment News and Gossip:

According to Yarden Uriel, the Israeli author of two books about the Beatles, Israel was slow to realise the full force of the group's popularity. "When Beatlemania swept the world, Israel was like a side observer that didn't take part in the actual game," he said, adding that, because the country was short of foreign currency, Mr Ori couldn't get the foreign money to pay the Beatles.

He made an official application to a government committee, which was turned down on the basis, said Uriel, that "too many artists were invited to Israel anyway, and since they felt the band didn't stand on a high cultural and artistic level and had a bad influence over youth, the decision was made: no money should be given to the Beatles".

From Zionism-Israel News
Better Late Than Never - Israel appologizes to the Beatles:

"We would like to take this opportunity," the letter says, "to rectify a historic missed opportunity which unfortunately took place in 1965 when you were invited to Israel. Unfortunately, the State of Israel cancelled your performance in the country due to lack of budget and because several politicians in the Knesset had believed at the time that your performance might corrupt the minds of the Israeli youth.

"There is no doubt that it was a great missed opportunity to prevent people like you, who shaped the minds of the generation, to come to Israel and perform before the young generation in Israel who admired you and continues to admire you."

SO WHAT WOULD JOHN LENNON DO? WHAT DO YOU THINK JOHN LENNON WOULD SAY?

Happiness is a warm gun? - I should have know better? - I don't want to be a soldier? - How do you sleep? -- Revolution?

I'll pick HELP ME TO HELP MYSELF
Well I tried so hard to stay alive
But the angel of destruction keeps on houding me all around
But I know in my heart that we never really parted
They say the Lord helps those who help themselves
So I'm asking this question in the hope that you'll be kind
Cos I know deep inside I was never satisfied
Oh no, Lord help me
Lord help me now
Please help me Lord, yeah yeah yeah
Help me to help myself
Help me to help myself


Oh by the way, while I was over atHaaretz, I clicked on this "related article":


bush sr. and clinton to head US panel on plans for Israel's 60th anniversary

Then I got this error message:

There is a problem with this website's security certificate.

-------------------------
The security certificate presented by this website was issued for a different website's address.

Security certificate problems may indicate an attempt to fool you or intercept any data you send to the server.

We recommend that you close this webpage and do not continue to this website.
---------------------------

Somehow I managed to get my computer to let me link to it. Here is the story from November. I missed this one -- did anyone else cover this?

Two former United States presidents, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, will serve as honorary chairmen for the National Committee for "Israel 60" - the committee organizing celebrations to mark Israel's 60th independence day celebrations next year.

The announcement was made Friday by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

The chair and vice chair of the organization, June Walker and Malcolm Hoenlein, expressed their gratitude that two American leaders have agreed to head the committee.
Advertisement

The committee will organize events and ceremonies to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, which will be held in the United States on May 8, 2008.

'A unique relationship'

Hoenlein emphasized the special character of the events that will celebrate the unique relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

He said that leaders and personalities from different walks of life and representing a variety of communities will join the committee in the near future

Crossposted atBigBrassBlog

Tyme, Tyme, Tyme, is on my side(s), yes it is...

Politics bad...Steroids badder...
Found this on a blog. I don't think it was 'shopped.
This has to be a write your own caption picture!

Douchebag of the week

Who is this man and why is he on television and writing for the NYTimes?

From the February 3 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday:

BILL KRISTOL: Look, the only people for Hillary Clinton are the Democratic establishment and white women. The Democratic establishment -- it would be crazy for the Democratic Party to follow an establishment that's led it to defeat year after year. White women are a problem, that's, you know -- we all live with that.

[laughter]

JUAN WILLIAMS (National Public Radio correspondent and Fox News contributor): Not me!

HUME: Bill, for the record, I like white women.

KRISTOL: I know, I shouldn't have said that.

Too late.

and you thought transgendered fish in the Potomac were bad

It's a no-brainer, really.

When you ingest a medication, and excrete traces of it through the usual process and plumbing, it goes into the waste-water stream if your house is connected to a public sewer. Then it wends its way to the water-treatment plant, where solid material is skimmed, the water is treated to sterilize and render it inert, and there's tons of filtration involved in all this. Membranes, reverse-osmosis, yada yada.

The one thing they cannot remove is traces of pharmaceuticals. Metals? Yep. Acids and bases? Why not. Just neutralize those fuckers.

It makes me wonder if some of the depression and general ennui we're culturally accustomed to at this point (never mind all the obvious triggers, such as Dumbyah, Cheney, corporate welfare, et al), could be traced to trace prescription meds in the water supply.

Don't assume bottled water is safe, by the way. Here's a very short blurb that piqued my attention. In my possibly shrill and undiluted opinion, anyone who tells you the amounts are too low to have any effect is purposefully ignoring the precautionary principle, and doesn't understand body burden. Besides, they wouldn't be able to prescribe and sell these meds...

Bottoms up!

Just a thought

If you were responsible for the worst military disaster in American Military History and knew that the majority (make that a mandate) of the country wanted you strung up on a gibbet or slowly turned on a spit over progressively hotter coals, wouldn’t you want to somehow make Americans out there forget how incompetent you were? When you get 4000 American boys killed for oil and countless tens of thousands maimed for life because of your ineptitude, why not create a diversion from all that?

Now you know a few years in advance that your plan isn’t going to work and you have shady advisors helping you, the easiest thing to do may be to plan a way to take the people’s minds off of YOUR war about the time your party runs for office. Remember: You’re a uniter! You’re a decider! You’re the only one responsible. Oops!

Enter the economy. Plan B. Oil price increases that you purposely do nothing about; healthcare treated the same way; tax cuts for big business; lending problems; incompetent people in all the important positions in your administration; a clown handling the Fed; food shortages and at least one or two other problems! All having the effect about now on the economy. Pretty!

So instead of hearing about that whatever it is in Iraq or Afghanistan or..does anybody remember Iran, the Stupid American People (SAPs) now think , because you’ve orchestrated it so well, that the economy is the main issue. And with the help of the MSM, it's working. Yet, stopping the war would have a positive effect on people, jobs, business; all the things you are against; but your friends wouldn’t continue to rake in the cash off the backs of the SAPs and their children.

How's that for a conspiracy theory, folk?

Too far-fetched?

Contrary to 'MASH,' Suicide isn't Painless

Sociobiologists, according to Wikipedia, have a problem when it comes to explaining suicide. They argue about its adaptive value to society (like when a person will wander off alone into a blizzard in order to make sure there's enough food for the others), but there isn't much dispute about causative factors.

Two of those causative factors are:

1. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and

2. Suffering (an emotional or physical agony that is not correctible).

Now, some ancient cultures, like the Romans, viewed suicide as desirable if it was the only way out of an intolerable situation, one for which there was no escape. There was even an advantage to it; a person who was in Dutch to the Emperor would be invited to commit suicide. This act protected the person's family and money (this practice wasn't always followed), where an arrest, trial and execution would invariably end up with money confiscated and the family exiled or dead.

Why do I bring this up?

Well, a recent study by the United States Army has revealed that the number of suicides (actually committed, not just attempted) has jumped to an appalling 2100 last year.

2100.

2,100.

Two thousand, one hundred American soldiers, folks.

For contrast, only 350 suicides in 2002, the year before Our Happy Happy Joy Joy Military Imperial Adventure in Iraq started.

Why are they doing this? Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) put it best: "Our brave service members who face deployment after deployment without the rest, recovery and treatment they need are at the breaking point."

I strongly doubt you'll hear that from a Republican senator, and definitely not from one of the "I'll Fight From My Basement" or "Soldiering is for THOSE People, Not Me" crowd.

So, we have people who are on their third, fourth or fifth deployments, suffering from shell shock and with the prospect of shattered lives, divorce and poverty. Some may feel that there is no way out, and that their lives mean little and are worthless.

And the best some of them get is a 800 help line number.

I would surmise that some are seeing what Shakespeare described as "self-slaughter" as the only way out.

The theme song of the movie MASH was titled Suicide is Painless, but it isn't. The dead no longer care, but it is the people who live after them that have to answer the question "Why?" Some ask that question, and the answer makes them loathe their government and its leaders.

Blogroll Amnesty Day

Jon Swift and Skippy have teamed up to bring us Blogroll Amnesty Day whereby we link to blogs smaller than our own (blogs with less traffic (even though I don't know how to tell which blogs have less traffic than this one or if there are blogs with less traffic than this one.)) Apparently the big shot "A list" bloggers have cut their blogrolls. Well harumph because I don't need to read those blogs to get news and I certainly don't need to get talking points when I am perfectly capable of making up my own. (I wonder though if the reason that the traffic to this blog fell when the bigger blogs cut their blogrolls or is it because I just suck. hmmm.)

On with the show.

I like the Guys From Area 51 which features cool graphics and interesting commentary by Comandante Agí, El Serracho!, Frederick and The Culture Ghost

Wanderer's blog My Two Cents features more than he posts here at Blondesense. I think he's a good writer and he should get more attention.

Check out Sara's blog, Kitchen Sink Collective. Sara also creates artisan perfumes and soaps. Those of us who are stinky ought to check it out.

I don't know if she gets more or less traffic than we do, but nunya from Politicky Bitch has a great blog and if you like this one, you'll like hers (better).

I really like Big Brass Blog and I don't know how much traffic they get, but the contributors are awesome and the commenters are as well.

Simply one of the coolest commenters and bloggers is DBK, the blogger formerly known as GD Frogsdong, whose blog is Blanton's and Ashton's He's the only man I ever really loved.

Actor 212 usually pisses me off, but his blog is interesting to read and I like his regular commenters, Simply Left Behind

Today, I'd like to mention that if you have a blog which links to Blondesense and we do not link back, you should mention that in the comments and we shall reciprocate gladly. Blogger works better lately so it isn't such a drag to mess with the template like it used to be.

Post your favorite lesser known blogs in the comments, even if it's yours!

Frozen Grand Central Station, NY

improveverywhere.com

Watching the Tide

Michael Corleone: I saw a strange thing today. Some rebels were being arrested. One of them pulled the pin on a grenade. He took himself and the captain of the command with him. Now, soldiers are paid to fight; the rebels aren't.

Hyman Roth: What does that tell you?

Michael Corleone: It means they could win.

- Godfather, Part II

Surge.

It's interesting how water or any other liquid will flow back and forth in response to some external force imparting energy to it. Back in the Never-Never of the late 70s and early 80s some people even had small wave machines in their homes or offices. These machines would rock back and forth, causing ripples and waves in the liquids encased therein (it was, I suppose, a step up from Lava Lamps).

Now, what might this little walk down memory lane have to do with the rather inexact cited lines from The Godfather, Part II?

Not much, until you pair it up with this:

Dozens Killed in Suicide Bomb Attacks in Baghdad

Within the span of 10 minutes, two female suicide bombers blew themselves up in crowded Baghdad markets on Friday, killing dozens of people in the deadliest day in the Iraqi capital in months, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

Someone over here suggested that the two female bombers were somehow forced or duped into carrying their suicide vests into the marketplaces that got whacked. I disagree; women are every bit as capable of performing violent acts as any male, and with greater effectiveness because a lot of people don't see a woman as a possible threat. That's a cultural thing, by the way, and it holds in this country just as it does over there (who recalls Aileen Wuornos? No one expected a female serial killer).

How does this horrific act tie into two fictional characters talking about the Cuban Revolution? Well, I'll tell you, and I'll also tie it into the word "surge" as indicative of a liquid's action.

Mao famously opined that the revolutionary swims among the people as fish swim in the sea; when the "surge" came, all the insurgents had to do was melt away. Sure, we got the stragglers, the slow and stupid and those who chose to fight rear-guard actions; but once we turned our gaze elsewhere they came back.

Just as water will flow back into the void left after you sweep your hand through a kiddie pool.

Further, these insurgents are fighting for what they see as a Cause; if people are fighting for a Cause there is no way you can stop them. Even if you shoot them, chances are they're booby-trapped so after they're dead they can still take one of our troops with them.

We surged, leaving a void in our wake to mark our passing; and as the water flowed in behind us, so did the fish.

So we will be chasing all over Iraq from now until whenever, and like King Canute we'll be trying to command the tide to stop.

Ain't happening.

I find this story odd

Democrats say McCain nearly abandoned GOP in 2001

I wonder why he stayed?
And was caught doing this?

Rambling on a rainy Friday

Last night at dinner, and after a few drinks, I was telling my oldest friends (they are used to my blatherings) that I am in my "I hate whitey" mode again this week. ( I have been watching The Wire and watched "Little Big Man" and "Bury My heart at wounded knee" recently.) There's really no sense in arguing with me when I am passionate about something and enjoying cocktails to boot.

Interestingly, a woman I have known for over 30 years and I got into a discussion about how I think the country got worse in the past 30 years and she says that it's still better than the Philippines where she came from. I'll grant her that. Most of her family is here in the US now and they are mostly in the medical profession and quite well off. They got their medical degrees in the Philippines before migrating here and of course all their kids went on to become doctors and medical professionals because they earned enough money to pay for quality educations for their children in the US. I wonder if they were born poor in America if they would be where they are today though.

Her husband, my oldest friend who is from a wealthy, WASP, Republican but liberal, old money, family warned me not to talk politics with her. But I do not listen. How bad could it be to argue with her? oy. She believes that people who are poor or unemployed or both working AND poor have no excuse and are lazy. I can sort of see where she was coming from (even though I disagree heartily) after my son, the anthropologist, told me that she sort of had a personal reason to be a social darwinist (which is what I called her) since she grew up in abject poverty and is now living the American dream in a rich, white, conservative town which she may or may not have had the chance to live in had she not married my friend. She doesn't have much of a clue about how bad things are in the country since I don't think she reads a whole lot of news. She works very hard, but fails to notice that the women in her town do not have careers. They shop. They went to the finest colleges in order to find husbands. She works in Bedford-Stuyvesant part of Brooklyn which is very poor and pretty dangerous. But she thinks that they are just lazy. I wouldn't classify those folks as lazy.

Time was too short to go into how poverty begets poverty in many parts of the country and that we really don't help people rise above it. (Something she fails to understand is that many immigrants from other countries have better opportunities to get advanced degrees despite their low standing in society and this is not the way here in America for the most part.) Anyway, to make a long discussion short, I told her that she is in fact a real Republican in spirit. I didn't mean it as a compliment, but she took it that way. Then I had to throw in some stuff about the American invasion of the Philippines a hundred years ago. heh.

Her husband and I technically should be Republicans... well we are, but not in spirit. We are bleeding heart liberals and 'self hating honky's' as she calls us. Her husband and I come from similar backgrounds and grew up in that very conservative, cocktails at 5PM sharp, town. We are both artists/musicians and actually quite loser-ish in the eyes of our hometown denizens. Only our eclectic charm and who our parents were allows us to mingle in that society if we so desire. I don't. If he and I had been born to (or adopted by, in my case) anyone else, we'd be living on the fringes of society and we know it. Both he and I went to the best schools and through parental string pulling had stints in big businesses where we made excellent salaries but were miserable. I was a bond trader and he worked in imports, but now, we both are immersed in our art and if we weren't painfully married to people who were gainfully employed and didn't have dead rich folks who loved us, we would be essentially homeless. Typical artists.

When I got home last night, the phone rang and it was my cousin who's been a school teacher for 35 years. I asked her how school was (she's in a very wealthy district which also has a large Hispanic community on the outskirts of town ) She complained that teaching now sucks because of, as she put it, "Bush" and his "No Child Left Behind" bullshit. (Before this school, she taught in a $15,000/yr tuition private school and were exempt from state requirements.) She explained that perfectly bright children who aren't yet fluent in English, are expected to excel in tests that are in English, especially reading tests and it simply isn't fair to them and to the teachers. She said that some of the kids have only been in America for a year or less and not given enough time to assimilate and acquire language skills for getting high scores in testing. (You get more money from the state if your schools have high scores. So if you farm out your special ed kids and don't have immigrants, you get more money.) There were plenty of foreign students in the private school she used to teach at, but they were taught concepts and not how to take tests.)

All that matters to the state is testing so she is teaching kids how to take tests, but she laments that they really aren't learning anything else of value and no skills or critical thinking that would help them to get ahead in American life as adults. The white kids from wealthy families will do fine because they were born into doing fine. So there you go. The Hispanic kid's parents are working their balls off to give their kids a better life, but I fear that the system as it is today will not afford these kids the opportunity to rise much above where they are today. Hence there is an upsurge in gang activities on Long Island and this should not be! How long do we have to avoid driving through certain parts of town until someone gets it that we (as a society) created this mess?

In the 50's, 60's and most of the 70's in this area, everyone got a pretty decent education and most kids of any background were able to learn enough to become productive home owning adults. Many became teachers and earned Masters degrees. But today, these folks who are now teachers complain that they can't even teach kids the skills they learned that gave them the chance to rise up out of poverty or low class neighborhoods because they have to teach kids how to take goddamn tests for the state. Fuck the state. How are these kids going to survive college if they even live long enough to even get there?

I need a concise way (help me) to explain to the "have mores" that it is in everyone's best interest to give every citizen and unskilled immigrant the tools necessary to earn living wages and to collectively help out those who absolutely cannot help themselves so that they can live in dignity. Ya know, like in socialist countries in Europe. Rather than building more prisons or having to avoid certain neighborhoods for fear of being killed in the crossfire while stopped at a red light or building more and more gated communities or fighting for your right to carry a gun, it would be more economically beneficial overall and socially moral to stop deliberately dumbing down those who aren't born with silver spoons in their mouths. It would just be so much nicer if there wasn't such a great divide and so much fear. I'm sure it would cost a lot less than the "have mores" imagine.
--------------

I think I am this { } close to supporting Barack after careful consideration of the bottom of the barrel. And it's not because I hate whitey this week. The Clintons lost me for a veritable cornucopia of reasons. Being an anti-war person myself, Obama's pretty much the only choice I have. I'm not thrilled by him, but where is it written that you have to be ga-ga for a candidate? You have to vote for what you see as the lesser evil since there will never be an ideal candidate. Ideal people wouldn't be caught dead in politics. If Hillary becomes THE candidate though, I will vote for her anyway.

TOM PETTY to Perform Super Bowl XLII Halftime -- Are You AMERICAN GIRLS (and Boys) Gonna Be Watching?

I'm sure he'll rock the house! I know my house will be a rockin' -
I'm right smack dab in the middle of GIANT PATRIOT Land! Hubby is a die-hard NY fan from birth and my son is rooting for New England.

I'm just a Tom Petty fan - period.

What a great pick for this show. So many of his song titles are so apropos:

Into the Great Wide Open -You Don't Know How It Feels -I Won't Back Down - The Waiting - Running Down A Dream

Oh I hope he does a Traveling Willbury's tune
YouTube has so many videos up.

He even has his own Official Tom Petty YouTube Channel featuring the trailer for his film "Running Down a Dream":



I saw it on Sundance Channel a while back and It's a fantastic walk down memory lane. It's on again this Saturday February 2 at 10AM

ENJOY!


Oh - by the way, how to you suppose Bridgestone/Firestone got to be the "official sponsor"?

Only in America........

Stopfirestone

David Zirin - Is the NFL on the right team? A Super Bowl sponsor isn't playing fair with rubber workers in Liberia

AFL-CIO