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Tuesday, December 8
Forgive my cynicism about your doubtsAs I recall, the infamous 16 words in Bush's 2003 SOTUA, providing the most substantial basis of justification for invading Iraq, were based on planted forged documents supposedly written on letterhead from the Niger embassy in Rome. Forge the evidence, plant it, discover it, reveal it, and then use it as rationale for what you were planning to do all along. True patriots don't ask questions.Now we have a British institution whose email system was recently hacked, supposedly thereby revealing political bias in the scientific community against critics or criticism of climate change research. So, that suddenly means Al Gore was Cassandra and Inhofe was a friggin' oracle? http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/energy/2009/11/30/hacked-e-mails-give-inhofe-fuel-for-climate-change-debate.html Please indulge a personal anecdote. In 2002, I did a week-long training exercise with a certain high-testosterone Army unit at Fort Hood. My group was providing IO (Information Operations) support, primarily serving as coordination for the efforts of other groups which previously tended to conflict with one another (in other words, this was before IO went offensive). One member of our group was a young energetic Capt. Smith from Arizona, who was serving as our Intel liaison officer. Capt. Smith was running back and forth between the secure Intel space and the other part of the training facility where the rest of us were. He had brought a laptop with him, but had the mistake of taking it into the secured Intel space, which meant he couldn't take it back out. I was able to lend him one of the extra laptops we had, and he used that to communicate via email. Since I was bored, and since we had extra laptops, and since I had my little "security" toolbox handy, I "searched" the user accounts database for an account that had been created but never used. Knowing the default password for new accounts, I was able to "acquire" and use this "extra" account for some "extracurricular activity". It just so happened that the account I thus obtained had been created for an Intel officer. When I accessed the email Inbox for this account, I found a bunch of messages from our Capt. Smith. He had been emailing the Intel group trying to get the information he needed, but they had never answered him. Since I was bored, and since I had gone to the trouble of accessing an account that noone else had thought to use, I decided to start replying to Capt. Smith's messages. For two days, I had this guy running back and forth between the secured Intel space and the non-secured area where the laptop was. He was sitting right next to me sending messages to this account that I would turn around and answer. After a while, I just started totally jerking his chain in the messages and eventually told him the truth. By then he was so fried he didn't care anymore. An email system in England gets hacked, so that means that everything we know about climate change has to be thrown out? Just like when the British Government learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa, so we had to invade Iraq. Well, if the British Government says it, it must be right... Friday, July 17
Max Keiser: “Goldman Sachs Are Scum”Via Matt Taibbi:"They are literally stealing a hundred million dollars a day. Goldman Sachs is stealing every day on the floor of the exchange. They should be in the Hague, they should be taken on financial terrorism charges. They should all be thrown in jail."If you haven't read Taibbi's recent article in Rolling Stone, I highly recommend it: "The Great American Bubble Machine: From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression - and they're about to do it again." Friday, April 24
Cheney Says Torture Works... never mind that torture is a war crime.The AP headline from Tuesday reads, "Cheney: US gained information from interrogations." Cheney said Monday that what hasn't been revealed publicly is what the U.S. gained as a result of these actions.Why would Cheney try to justify war crimes by claiming that committing them created desirable "consequences?" If I understand his reasoning, he doesn't care whether waterboarding or other means constitute torture because the ends justify the means. It's as simple as that. (Oh, and why would Cheney claim that he requested declassification of the memos if he did not? Because Dick Cheney is a pathological liar.) It doesn't take a legal scholar to explain the dangers of heading down this slippery slope. Still, Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley did so smartly back in December on Countdown with Keith Olbermann: Whether Dick Cheney thinks torture works or not is irrelevant. Torture is a war crime. The law is not in question. The question is whether we will continue to stand silently and watch men break our laws without question, without prosecution. Monday, April 20
Life Imitates ArtIn some circles Muntazer al-Zaidi, the Shi'ite TV reporter who threw his shoe at former President George Bush is a barbarian. In other circles, he is a hero. But no matter your opinion of al-Zaidi, it is hard to argue his indelible impact on modern culture. Writes Bappa Majumdar for Reuters, "India's politicians contesting in the general election, fearful of shoes hurled at them by disgruntled voters, have asked for more security and are erecting metal nets at rallies." [Emphasis added.]The idea of showing your disapproval (or in some cases approval) by hurling objects is by no means a novel idea. Made in 1980, the following video stands as evidence that al-Zaidi has simply redefined an age-old tradition: Monday, April 6
F*ck Cornyn!I realize I haven't contributed to this site in a LONG time, but this item compelled me to say something.If the president releases the Bush torture memos, Republicans are promising to “go nuclear” and filibuster his legal appointments. Scott Horton reports on a serious threat to Obama’s transparency. Since I am now a resident of the great state of Texas, the respectable senator from Texas is MY representative in the Senate. Ya know what I say!? Fuck John Cornyn! Call their mother fucking bluff! If the Republicans want to have their entire agenda based on protecting a failed - whatever you want to call the last 8 years - then LET THEM! They want to shoot their wad for W's sake - LET THEM! In fact - MAKE THEM put their money where their mouths are! Call their bluff and make them go on the record (Officially) as supporting the continued suppresion and denial of Bush ero defiance of international and human law. Don't back down. Do not compromise. Do not strive for bipartisan cooperation. Do not adjust policy to avoid the filibuster. Let them go on the record as officially condoning and supporting the suppression and denial of a failed adminstration's defiance of international law. In the end, what do they have to lose?! Monday, March 23
"AIG is chump change -- let's find corporate America's hidden billions"Joe Conason writes in Salon.com ("AIG is chump change") that, "it's time to reform offshore banking, and see what untaxed wealth big business is hiding in overseas tax shelters."According to the Government Accountability Office, nearly all of America's top 100 corporations maintain subsidiaries in countries identified as tax havens. As the GAO notes, there could be reasons other than avoiding the IRS to set up branches in places such as Singapore, Luxembourg and Switzerland, where taxes are light or nonexistent and keeping clients' illicit secrets is considered a matter of national pride. Sunday, March 22
"Are We Home Alone?"Thomas Friedman writes in today's New York Times ("Are We Home Alone?"):I ran into an Indian businessman friend last week and he said something to me that really struck a chord: “This is the first time I’ve ever visited the United States when I feel like you’re acting like an immature democracy.” Friday, February 6
Obama Takes the OffensiveIn today's New York Times ("On the Edge") Nobel Economist Paul Krugman criticizes Republicans for stalling and prods President Obama to move forward on the stimulus package, before it's too late.Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old clichés about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts. I'm hopeful that President Obama is now taking the offensive, based on comments he made earlier this week:"Now, in the past few days, I‘ve heard criticisms that this plan is somehow wanting, and these criticisms echo the very same failed economic theories that led us to this crisis in the first place—the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems. I reject those theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change."There are other indications that Obama is losing his patience with the Republicans. In an off-the-cuff moment during his speech to House Democrats at a retreat in Virginia, the president ribbed Republicans, including former rival John McCain, who call the recovery package a "spending bill."On Monday, President Obama, in his first formal press conference as president in prime-time, will make his case directly to the American people. Let's hope that they're listening. Wednesday, February 4
"Is President Obama losing the stimulus battle?"I thought that I could relax for just a bit, maybe catch my breath after Obama was elected...but it's not possible. Republican politicians are beyond self-reflection and logic.Joan Walsh writes in Salon ("The new Great Communicator ... isn't"): Obama is the Democrats' Great Communicator, our Ronald Reagan. It's fitting that his highest priority will be reversing the tax and spending priorities Reagan enshrined as a new American compact almost 30 years ago, and reviving the notion of government as an engine of capitalist growth -- not merely the safety net provider, but the catalyst for organizing our public resources around what makes the economy strong. We've been arguing at the margins during these last two years of pain: Government should regulate more, or less. Tax rates should be higher, or lower. But there's a dangerous civic illiteracy in our country about what the larger role of government in a modern economy is, or should be, and I don't think Obama will ultimately prevail if he doesn't start to take it on. Tuesday, December 30
"Add Up the Damage"Bob Herbert writes in yesterday's New York Times ("Add Up the Damage"):When Mr. Bush officially takes his leave in three weeks (in reality, he checked out long ago), most Americans will be content to sigh good riddance. I disagree. I don’t think he should be allowed to slip quietly out of town. There should be a great hue and cry — a loud, collective angry howl, demonstrations with signs and bullhorns and fiery speeches — over the damage he’s done to this country. March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 June 2006 August 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 July 2009 December 2009 ©2003-2008 TestPattern.org |
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