Tuesday, April 26, 2005

World Terror Attacks Tripled in 2004 by U.S. Count

World Terror Attacks Tripled in 2004 by U.S. Count:

"'What it effectively means is that the Bush administration and the CIA haven't been putting the staff resources necessary and have missed 80 percent of the world's terrorist incidents' in past years, said a Democratic congressional aide. 'How can you have an effective counterterrorism policy from that?'"

Who said the United States, under Bush, had an effective anti-terrorism policy? :-(

I just have to love Juan Cole

Informed Comment: "Matthew Haughey says he won't read our blogs if we use the term 'mainstream media' (a.k.a. MSM).

"A news flash for Matt: We don't care.

"We don't care if you read our web logs.

"The difference, Matt, is that we are independent actors, not part of a small set of multi-billion dollar corporations. The difference is that we are not under the constraints of making a 15% profit. The difference is that we are a distributed information system, whereas MSM is like a set of stand-alone mainframes. The difference is that we can say what we damn well please.

"If we were the mainstream media (perhaps better thought of as corporate media), we would care if you threatened to stop reading us. Because although we might be professional news people, we would have the misfortune to be working for corporations that are mainly be about making money."

FBI protects Osama bin Laden's privacy

Keep pushing this:

out-law.com - legal news and business guides: "The FBI has used privacy protection measures to withhold personal information about Osama bin Laden, leader of the al Qaeda terrorist group, according to US anti-corruption group Judicial Watch."

It's too outrageous to believe.

p.s. JW is not an "anti-corruption group". It was set up by Richard Mellon Scaife to push impeachment of Clinton.

Politics matter because life, death issues are invovled

The Ball State Daily News - SWIMMING IN BROKEN GLASS: Politics matter because life, death issues are invovled

"If Al Gore had been elected president, we would not have invaded Iraq. The neoconservative lust for Saddam Hussein would have had no influence in a Gore administration. It's that simple."

Heck if Al Gore had been elected there never would have been a 9/11. Even if there had, everyone would have been saying "Thank God we didn't elect that dummy W!"

20 Amazing Facts about Voting in the USA

20 Amazing Facts about Voting in the USA

" Did you know....
1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S."

and guess who they work for. :-(

Democracy: it was nice while it lasted

All the President's Votes?

"A Quiet Revolution is Taking Place in US Politics. By the Time It's Over, the Integrity of Elections Will be in the Unchallenged, Unscrutinized Control of a Few Large - and Pro-Republican - Corporations. Andrew Gumbel wonders if democracy in America can survive"

. . .

"John Zogby, arguably the most reliable pollster in the United States, who has freely admitted he "blew" last November's elections and does not exclude the possibility that foul play was one of the factors knocking his calculations off course."

Lies and the lying liars that tell them

Daily Kos :: Media Debating Whether To Ignore Frist's Lie

And as if that weren't bad enough. . .

Video on GOP filibuster of Supreme Court nominee shows how the Republicans, who now claim no one ever filibustered a judicial nominee in American history, themselves were mounting filibusters within the memories of most people alive today.

Do they think people are stupid, are they just stupid (or stoned?) themselves, or what?

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Moussaoui: a window on terror trials

From the Christian Science Monitor (I love that newspaper):

Moussaoui: a window on terror trials | csmonitor.com: "For all the billions spent on investigations into the events of Sept. 11, one might reasonably have expected more results, says Mr. Hess. While Germany, and now Spain, have put accused terrorist logisticians and other figures in the dock for alleged crimes related to 9/11, the nation where they occurred has only Moussaoui to show for its efforts."

Where do I get the idea that Bush isn't interested in finding bin Ladin? Maybe it's because he's said he's not interested in finding bin Ladin. Did you know that presidents can be impeached for treason?

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Bin Laden can still be found, Rice says

Bin Laden can still be found, Rice says:

"It is more than three-and-a-half years since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, which made bin Laden the world's most hunted man.

"Speaking to a conference of American newspaper editors in Washington, Dr Rice said she is confident that he will be captured."

Also, the Chinese trade deficit check is in the mail, and W will still respect us in the morning.

Friday, April 15, 2005

Why stop John Bolton?

Who Is John Bolton? - Center for American Progress: "Perhaps the most apt critique of his nomination to this post was offered by Sen. Joseph Biden who said, 'I have always voted against nominees who oppose the avowed purpose of the position for which they have been nominated.'"

Bush's nominees, with the partial exception of Gonzales, seem to make a habit and a strategy out of lying in hearings, pretending for a few hours that they no longer believe the positions they took all their lives. What hypocrisy!

Fukuyama’s moment: a neocon schism opens

I'm sorry I only found this now. It's from last October, just before the election. It's the best analysis of Francis Fukuyama's split with mainstream neoconservatism I've seen.

The only thing that would surprise me about Francis is if he ever stopped surprising people. He has this wonderful intellectual honesty and he's never been afraid to change his mind about things. There are not too many conservatives I can say that about these days.

Does anyone reading this know a good, more recent source of information about his new magazine, The American Interest?

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Christian terrorist's manifesto

USATODAY.com - Excerpts from Eric Rudolph's statement: "I ask these peaceful Christian law-abiding Pro-Life citizens, is there any point at which all of the legal remedies will not suffice and you would fight to end the massacre of children?"

"You so-called 'Pro-Life,' 'good Christian people' who point your plastic fingers at me saying that I am a 'murderer,' that 'two wrongs don't make a right,' that even though 'abortion is murder, those who would use force to stop the murder are morally the same,' I say to you that your lies are transparent."

Just to remind us that there are Christian terrorists, too. Suicide bombing was pioneered by Hindu terrorists on Sri Lanka, and sarin gas was put on the Tokyo subway by Buddhist terrorists.

The only thing different about Muslim terrorists is that they are better at it, and Bush can't (or won't) catch them.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Should the US establish permanent military bases in Afghanistan?

CNN - Content

1. Yes
2. No
3. There is no such thing as "permanent". We should have them until they get bin Ladin.

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Bin Laden Bribed Afghan Militias

Bin Laden Bribed Afghan Militias, German Officials Says: "Osama bin Laden had been able to elude capture after the American invasion of Afghanistan by paying bribes to the Afghan militias delegated the task of finding him."

And the US wouldn't (I would never say couldn't) put up more money? Shame on W!

Videos Challenge Accounts of Convention Unrest

Think you have a right to peacably assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances? Think again:

Videos Challenge Accounts of Convention Unrest: "A videotape shot by a documentary filmmaker showed Mr. Kyne agitated but plainly walking under his own power down the library steps, contradicting the vivid account of Officer Wohl, who was nowhere to be seen in the pictures. Nor was the officer seen taking part in the arrests of four other people at the library against whom he signed complaints."

"Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" -Juvenal
(Who will guard the guards themselves?)

Entertainment Weekly's EW.com | Interview: Jane Fonda on her politics

Jane Fonda on her politics:

"People don't realize, I don't think, that I had spent three years working with active-duty soldiers in the Army, in the Navy, in the Marines, and in the Air Force — all over this country. I put together an entertainment tour, with Donald Sutherland and others, that traveled to military bases throughout the United States and in the Philippines, Hawaii, and Okinawa. [We would] perform outside of military bases. I had spoken to hundreds and hundreds of soldiers. I heard their stories. I talked to their wives. It's what later informed Coming Home, which I made in order to help people understand what was happening to men who were coming back from Vietnam. So I had this history with soldiers. It was soldiers that brought me into the antiwar movement, and soldiers that taught me everything I knew about the war."

Monday, April 11, 2005

The New Pentagon Papers

The New Pentagon Papers: "From May 2002 until February 2003, I observed firsthand the formation of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans and watched the latter stages of the neoconservative capture of the policy-intelligence nexus in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. This seizure of the reins of U.S. Middle East policy was directly visible to many of us working in the Near East South Asia policy office, and yet there seemed to be little any of us could do about it.

"I saw a narrow and deeply flawed policy favored by some executive appointees in the Pentagon used to manipulate and pressurize the traditional relationship between policymakers in the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies.

"I witnessed neoconservative agenda bearers within OSP usurp measured and carefully considered assessments, and through suppression and distortion of intelligence analysis promulgate what were in fact falsehoods to both Congress and the executive office of the president.

"While this commandeering of a narrow segment of both intelligence production and American foreign policy matched closely with the well-published desires of the neoconservative wing of the Republican Party, many of us in the Pentagon, conservatives and liberals alike, felt that this agenda, whatever its flaws or merits, had never been openly presented to the American people. Instead, the public story line was a fear-peddling and confusing set of messages, designed to take Congress and the country into a war of executive choice, a war based on false pretenses, and a war one year later Americans do not really understand. That is why I have gone public with my account."

Yahoo! News - Villagers Riot in China, 50 Police Said Injured

Hang in there, Nationalist China!

Yahoo! News - Villagers Riot in China, 50 Police Said Injured: "a string of outbreaks of rural violence as the world's most populous nation faces disgruntlement over a widening wealth gap and widespread corruption.

"The ruling Communist Party is keen to curb dissent and preserve social stability, but a spate of recent protests and their scale illustrate the extent of grievances in rural China."

When the Chinese economy inevitably tanks, maybe a democratic Republic of China can finally retake power on the mainland, if, that is, they can finally accept land reform for the inevitability it was.

Heck , if they promise the farmers their land they could really reverse the fortunes of the Communist Party!

Wes Clark's Iraq testimony before House Armed Services Committee | WesPAC

Wes Clark's Iraq testimony before House Armed Services Committee | WesPAC: "More fundamentally, with its armed occupation of Iraq, the Administration lost focus, and was substantially distracted from worldwide efforts against Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network are still at large, terrorist incidents have continued to take innocent life, and U.S. military actions in Iraq have provided a magnet for recruiting and training large numbers of extremist youth in continuing warfare. If Iraq is today the center of the war against terrorism, as some in the Administration have contended, it is not because the terrorists were there originally, but because they have been recruited there to the fight against us. Our military action in Iraq is more a catalyst for terrorists than a cure. Whatever results may ultimately come from removing Saddam Hussein from power, ending the terrorist threat against the United States of America is not likely to be one of them."

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Winning Hearts and minds by cutting them out

A recent story/interview onThe Black Commentator - New Revelations about Racism in the Military - Issue 133 confirms what has been suspected all along. Too many in the military think we are at war with the entire Middle East, or Islam, which is not often well separated in even the best American minds.

Maybe this is worse in the reserves, which are less than professional about their military vocation anyway. But then maybe we shouldn't have sent the reserves there in the first place. Maybe we shouldn't have gone into Iraq at all, starting a second war before our first war, with al-Qa'ida, was finished.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

The War on Judges

John Conyers, Jr. -- ConyersBlog has something important to say about the increasingly dangerous lawlessness of the religious right in the United States.

"My message is not subtle today. It is simple. To my Republican colleagues: you are playing with fire, you are playing with lives, and you must stop."

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Device lets you out-Fox your TV

The New device blocks Faux News!

"Formerly a registered Republican, even a precinct captain, Kimery became an independent in the 1990s when he said the state party stopped taking input from everyday members."

Why Should I Pay For Someone Else's Education? by Ernest Partridge - Democratic Underground

Why Should I Pay For Someone Else's Education? by Ernest Partridge - Democratic Underground

You have to pay for someone else's education so that instead of becoming criminals they will become tax-paying citizens, to support the system that defends your property.

The property tax is still used for it because "There could be no such thing as landed property originally. Man did not make the earth, and, though he had a natural right to occupy it, he had no right to locate as his property in perpetuity any part of it; neither did the Creator of the earth open a land-office, from whence the first title-deeds should issue."

"Every proprietor, therefore, of cultivated lands, owes to the community a ground-rent (for I know of no better term to express the idea) for the land which he holds;"

- "Agrarian Justice" by Tom Paine.

But in the 21st century it is rather anachronistic to pay for public schools with the property tax. Income tax would be better.

(More on Paine and agrarian justice)

The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 192 - Democratic Underground

The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 192 - Democratic Underground

Why stop at only ten?

"Since the Pope passed away on Saturday it seems there's been a complete blackout on any other news stories - but the Top 10 is here to remind you of the conservative idiots from last week that still deserve attention this week. Tom DeLay (1) was making threats, while the Power-Hungry Maniacs (2) were getting encouragement from his words. George W. Bush (3) and his administration were apparently not to blame for the war in Iraq, despite starting said war. And Jeff Gannon reared his ugly head once more, giving everyone an unpleasant case of Gannon Reflux (4). Meanwhile, Soggy Conservatives (5) had to ask for towels several times last week, Ann Coulter (6) was deputizing burly college boys, and Sean Hannity (7) was demonstrating how to remain polite in the face of rude liberals. Elsewhere, Condoleezza Rice (8) dabbled in a spot of projection, Jim Welker (9) was flogging bestiality, and Bay Buchanan (10) hates America. Enjoy, . . ."

UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD IRAQ

SEPTEMBER 26, 2002

"General CLARK. There is no question that Saddam Hussein is a threat. I was in the Joint Staff in October of 1994. I think the date was the 8th of October, Thursday morning. The intelligence officer walked in and said, ''Sir, you are not going to believe this. Here are the pictures. You can't believe that this is the Republican Guard. They are right back in the same attack positions that they occupied four years ago before they invaded Kuwait. And here are the two divisions, and there are signs of mobilization and concerns north, and we can't understand it.''"

Monday, April 04, 2005

Juan Cole and General Clark on Iraq

and a few other bloggers such as Armando at Daily Kos

Basie and

Juan Cole himself

It would be interesting, if premature, to speculate on Juan Cole's possible position in a Clark administration.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Clark Community Network || Broken Engagement by Wesley Clark

Clark Community Network || Broken Engagement by Wesley Clark

"a nine page essay from Wes -Washington Monthly May 2004"

"Advocates of the invasion are now down to their last argument: that transforming Iraq from brutal tyranny to stable democracy will spark a wave of democratic reform throughout the Middle East, thereby alleviating the conditions that give rise to terrorism. This argument is still standing because not enough time has elapsed to test it definitively--though events in the year since Baghdad's fall do not inspire confidence."

Daily Kos :: Good but unknown reason for Iraq invasion

Daily Kos :: Good but unknown reason for Iraq invasion: "Good but unknown reason for Iraq invasion"

It's long, but it got some interesting comments and recommendations.