Let the howling begin

What does Karl Rove's comment say about the Republican party? To refresh your memory, he said: "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

Now think about that a second. Let's parse it:

"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war..."

--Forget that old "innocent until proven guilty" bullshit, of course. Investigation? Bosh! Investigation schminvestigation.

Clearly, then, someConservatives knew who did it, without even looking. How might they have been so sure? Considering the evidence that the various 911 commissions couldn't cover up, complicity or willfull stupidity seem the only options. And only complicity could leave one so certain: stupidity would just leave you saying "huh?"

Then he went on, "...liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers."

--In other words, it wasn't enough for him to say "Conservatives don't give a shit about your stupid constitution," he wanted to say "those stupid liberals are soft (i.e. compassionate)."

Karl's little comment says so much about the conservative mind-set: it says not only that "We knew who did it even before it happened," (or more generously, "We're so certain of your guilt that we don't even have to investigate," which is just as dangerous) but also, and perhaps more importantly, that "violence is an appropriate first resort."

Kinda reminds me of the Godfather. Except, he had a conscience.

Let the howling begin.

what could be worse than wal-mart?

So..... what happens if --no, when- prisons-for-profit start to lobby Congress? Yesterday you couldn't protest the President at an official event. Sure, the penalty isn't severe, but we're not in a time of crisis. Doubtless, anti-presidential demonstrations would be tolerated much less gracefully in such times as 9/12/01- it doesn't take much to imagine protesters on such a day being arrested and detained. Today the House passed an anti-flag-burning amendment (House: "you can't say that." ahem). It has to pass the Senate, and be ratified blah blah blah, which is to say it's ultimately not very likely, but still, it represents an incremental encroachment on true, responsible, freedom of expression. I'm not sure what the penalties would be, but imprisonment would certainly not be a surprise. What's tomorrow, then? Ever-increasingly draconian legislation, that's what. To the point, eventually, where people like you and I will no longer be officially US anymore. Maybe I'll dress wrong. Maybe you won't be able to pay your debts. Use your imagination: watch Brazil, read 1984 or Brave New World- as natural resources dwindle, the Power Elite will find more reasons to exclude those they don't like, and those definitions will be made in the halls -and sewers- of power. For the powers behind Corporate Prisons: the more people in prison, the better. More prisoners, more money. Longer terms! Put those dangerous pot smokers away for good! And how might they go about getting more prisoners? Lobbying Congress -or maybe Alberto Gonzales- for heavier sentences, broader definitions of federal crimes, easements on use of inmates as labor, silly things like that.

Think about it. All conscious critters -I think- naturally divide the world into US and them (in various and shifting ways, as circumstances and needs change). On a societal scale among humans, the sides are determined by our purportedly impartial leaders and ruling class of politicians and judiciary. Let's not be coy: the socio-political elite.

As resources threaten to dwindle, it should come as no surprise when the ruling class narrows the definition of what's legal and acceptable -eventually to a point at which you and I are their them.

Now taking bets on when that point will come...

How long can "last throes" last?

Very good short flash thingy explaining the Downing Street memos.

If you have a credit card, you should read this. Thanks, Washington. Good stuff from David Sirota.

This is rich: "During a White House press conference, journalist Terry Moran asked Scott McClellan whether the insurgency in Iraq was in its "last throes," as had been claimed by Vice President Dick Cheney, or was not. McClellan gave a vague answer, so Moran repeated his question five more times. "Is there any idea," he finally asked, "how long a last throe lasts for?""
more here

Hmm. Must be nice to have affordable healthcare, eh? Fuck you, Saxby Chambliss, you ass-sucking election thief. (Oops, did I just say that?)

Robots (scary). We're on the road to obsolescence, folks. In the meantime, you might consider a career in tech support insurance...

Former Chief Economist in Bush's Labor dept, declaring that the Official Story of 911 is BS. Good solid stuff.

So why isn't anyone asking the officials at FEMA about why they broke the law after 911 by destroying evidence and a crime scene? This is outrageous. Nothin' makes me think "coverup" like -um- covering up the evidence. DUH Looking for the banal? Here ya go. Nothing outlandish about it at all: Someone at FEMA said "clean this up." Who gave what orders, and why?

A Sherlock Holmes Type Twist To The 9/11 Murder Mystery. Verrrrry interesting...

Shell Chairman sez we're in trouble: "The boat is sinking, and we have to use everything that we possibly can." and "We have roughly 45 years. And if we start NOW, not in 10 or 15 years' time, we have a chance..."

They thought no one was looking.

A new 767-page book is out, called Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election? Essential Documents. Apparently someone wants us to think that there's some doubt. The documents, however, don't leave much room for that. The link (if you haven't followed it yet) is to an article about the book.

As I've been saying for five years now, IMPEACH already, geez. How many crimes does he have to commit before someone holds him accountable?

What's the matter with Ohio? They thought no one was looking.

Memos show British Fretting Over Iraq War Troops' families aren't too happy about it, either, says this article in Stars and Stripes


US tries to derail G8 hearings on climate change: memos leaked

I have to say, sometimes politics -even just following it in the news- gets discouraging. I'm a radical, I won't lie about it, so I don't ever expect to hear my views on the news, or to read them echoed in some editorial somewhere; I can deal with that. Lately, though, I have felt so far out there that I don't even feel like I'm in the same political galaxy as Washington (hell, even Topeka).

The Republican party has been working toward a stranglehold on Washington and national politics for over twenty years. Having achieved control of both houses of Congress and the White House, some republicans -in statehouses and Washington alike- are actually devising ways to control -or make irrelevant- our judicial branch.

It's getting ugly.

Sad times for Democracy

Tempers flare in the House this is getting good...

Another damaging memo from Downing Street ...really good...

Betcha won't see this in the Washington Post. How the mighty have fallen: after Watergate, the Post might have been as important as the New York Times. These days, however, it's all too clear that they (i.e., the publisher, who calls ALL the shots) are happy to act as a propaganda organ for an illegal junta. Sad, sad times for democracy.

Don't tell me boycotts don't work

Don't tell me boycotts don't work: I'm tired of hearing those self-defeating arguments. DON'T SHOP AT WAL-MART, YO. Fuck the man. It's easier than you think.

Howard Dean rocks. We should all be so outspoken.

Downing Street Memo comes under Judiciary Committee scrutiny. My hat's off to Representative John Conyers for this. There's a man with cojones. Representative Moore, are you listening?

Culture of death

Culture of what?

Impeachable offenses. Excellent letter. Time to bring the bitches down. Approval ratings are so low right now, that many Republicans are jumping ship: now is the time to pressure your Representative to support the introduction of Articles of Impeachment!

Don't believe the network news: America is still fundamentally progressive. Religious conservatives only have the upper hand because they're loud and have a few charismatic leaders (who happen to have ingratiated themselves to the Bush cartel). WE ARE THE MAJORITY, we just need to raise our voice. Speak up! Time to be heard!

Contact your congressman

Sign Rep. Conyers' letter demanding Bush answer to the Downing Street Memo

kicking ass and taking names

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan may be getting close to making real trouble for the Bush administration. He needs your signature on a letter, that's all, just to show that we mean business. Check it out.

Does this monkey know something we don't?

I'd say "told ya!" because I saw this coming, ...but I don't think I actually said anything about it here. This rift is something that I've been predicting since November. I'll keep the rest of my prognostication to myself, lest I jinx it.

This might be a good time to learn Mandarin. China has been leveraging its position as the West's manufacturing bitch for some time now, and is on the verge of turning the tables. Very interesting article.

I've been reading a lot here recently. He covers a lot of territory, some of it troubling, some simply disturbing. He and I seem to share many interests, and seem to be approaching similar hypotheses about UFO-related phenomena, but I first got hooked when reading some of his research into the surprisingly widespread phenomena of ritual sexual abuse and pedophilia. This is scary, scary stuff. Listen: if your kids tell you something that sounds crazy, believe them. Believe them. They haven't learned how to use their cultural blinders, so they may well see more than we do.
In the words of Norman Brown, "all that is, is metaphor." Chew on that a while.

I got a rock.

"Oh, that's where I left it..." Too weird for comment.

Everything you need to know about how Newsweek embarrassed the Bushistas

George Galloway (MP) kickin' ass and taking names! Did you hear this guy? WOW. I heard some of his testimony on AirAmericaRadio, and let me say this: our congress should be ashamed of itself. I have never heard such an eloquent and stinging (not to mention well deserved) dressing-down in my life. Transcript here.

The mainstream US press promptly dropped this story like a hot rock. Why? Because all the fingers the senators were pointing, eventually pointed back to their friends. Go figure.

B-b-but it's not racketeering when we do it...

*click*

True Tales from the Underbelly

Harper's Weekly, it's just a column. "Just" a column. Check it out. Hang on to your hat.

True Tales from the Underbelly Halliburton: Your tax dollars at work!

George sez "Strip malls for everybody! If a crack develops in the integrity of another culture, American greed will be ready to fill it."

More and more every day, people are flocking to cities. The implications of this are huge. Go ahead, use your imagination: what do you think might change as this comes to pass? Among other things, short-term natural disasters like earthquakes or storms will have greater impact when they hit cities. Long-term natural disasters like droughts or El Nino may have greater impact too: both development of arable land, and the flight of rural populations to cities will leave us with a less flexible agricultural infrastructure, less able to adapt to change (like, say, long- and short-term climate change).

And that's to say nothing of this. What then?

Irony: not for children

Here's irony for ya: Mainstreaming 'creation science' is evolution at work. Or more specifically, "In the long run, the teaching of 'creation science' to children will produce evidence of evolution."*

It's not newsworthy. Stories like this (Kansas Board of Education is having a hearing about including creationism/excluding science in the curriculum...) and the story about the girl in Florida who got cold feet on the day of her wedding (and then lied about it, telling cops she had been kidnapped...) are not newsworthy. We have instantaneous access to information from all corners of the world, every second of every day, and this is what we're told is news?

Hey, major media, listen: Fuck you.

We're expected to believe that nothing newsworthy is going on anywhere else in the world? We're expected to be that self-indulgent, that self-involved, that we would be more interested in whether or not some normal girl gets prosecuted at the local or state level for ditching her finace? Is that really our business? Why are we being told that it's news?

Because the rest of the world is reporting on things like this, or this, or -god forbid- this, and your handlers don't want you to get upset. You are theirs, their prey, as long as you watch.


*Here's how: The world is watching. The appearance of poor education in America will lead to waning confidence in Americans. Simple.

Agape

Amazing ants. This goes beyond simple "tool use."

Primate language acquisition research goes to a new level. This is exciting stuff- the days of trying to teach apes to speak English are gone: these researchers are trying to find common ground with Bonobos, while providing the Bonobos with innovative challenges and stimuli. What happens when we can no longer pretend that we're the only animals with emotions, culture, and complex motivations? Our awareness of the world, our consciousness, will be irrevocably altered. You watch!

Hippos are aggressive. They've been known to eat people. This one drinks coffee with them. I've read this story over and over, and I'm still slack-jawed: she drinks coffee, and nudges people out of the water. Amazing.

Fork tongued, red handed

Hilarious: a call to Unitarian Jihad!

Condi Rice is BUSTED

Au revoir, rational politics. Frightening. Excellent essay though.

Wow! Some of FDR's radical ideas revisited. It's sick that the Neocons, having only been able to climb the American socio-political ladder because of FDRs policies, now want to dismantle them. "Burn the ladder behind you!" There's good thinkin'!

We don't need no education

Worst invention ever? 1. It fails utterly to encourage communication of ideas between humans. Rather, it encourages students -who should be asking questions- to let machines solve their problems and tell them the answers, in lieu of turning to the giants on whose shoulders they're standing (the giants are apparently napping, or out driving their SUVs to their giant therapist appointments). 2. It presumes -and forces all users to similarly presume- that there is one correct "best" way to express an idea. Sayonara, creativity! But gosh, how convenient for the teacher/professor -er, shall we say operator.

We have always been at war with Iran...

Other nominees for Worst Invention Ever include the gas-powered leaf blower, the wristwatch videocamera, and chocolate covered Cheez-its. What would you nominate?

Go, Turkmenbashi! Never a dull moment in Turkmenistan. I wonder if one has to be a citizen, to run?

Wal-Mart hates you. Encouraging companies to pay sub-standard wages, invites poverty and crime into your community. Resist! Shopping there is only saving you a few dollars a week, if that, and even then you'll have to replace that crap you bought too soon, because it's crap. Further, it's costing your city more than that to keep them here, and you'll pay that bill too, when taxes come due. Who do you think paid for that parking lot, and those traffic lights? Wal-mart: it's not worth the scar.

The goods behind the hoo-hah

The goods behind the hoo-hah about Tom Delay.

Bill Bradley speaks up after what seems a long media silence. Sen. Bradley ran a helluva race against Gore in the 2000 primaries; I say Gore won because of his proximity to Clinton, while Bradley should have won because he'd have fought harder. Maybe this suggests he'll want back in for 2008?

Animals laugh. This story blew my mind. Anyone who knows me, knows that I try not to underestimate non-human intelligence, especially in social animals, but laughter? Wow! I had never thought of it this way before.

My mind already having been blown yesterday, I then tripped across this gem. A new theory of yawning, now based on actual evidence! I've always found it curious that we have traditionally attributed yawning in humans to anoxia (lack of oxygen, from shallow breathing I guess?), while attributing it in other apes to shows of aggression or dominance. Curious, and often amusing, as I watch who yawns in the company of whom. Even more fun now!

Not pretty, but important.

Scott Ritter, no holds barred. Tough!

We've been had.

That's right: Secret plans for Iraq's oil fields were being drafted just weeks after George took office in 2001. Weeks. Long before the "new Pearl Harbor" (in the words of the PNAC) of 911. Ahem. From the brilliant Greg Palast: as usual, well written and thoroughly documented. That's right, folks: we've been had.

So, why is gas still so expensive? Primarily because oil companies are in business for one reason: to make money. Cha-ching!

South America Watch: Otto "The Fourth" Reich versus the Western Axis of Evil, Hugo! and Evil Genius Fidel Castro

The Long Emergency. Scary.

Kill your television

Are you listening? AirAmericaRadio has been doing The Work for over a year now. The morning show, "Morning Sedition," is great mix of humor and news/analysis, and Randi Rhodes (late afternoons) is probably one of the best-informed personalities on the air. Janeane Garofalo comes across better on screen though. Al Franken, well... let's just say he comes across better on paper... but he's on while I'm at work, so I don't hear his show. Good stuff! Stay informed! Kill your television!

Very good, short essay from Noam Chomsky. Say it with me now: Kill your television!

Syria's relationship with Lebanon is more complex than George seems able to understand.

Who's surprised by this, at this point? Hussein wasn't really captured hiding in a hole.

Congressman Tom Feeney told a then-employee to "design a software prototype that could "flip" the vote in South Florida voting machines." If this bothers you, as it probably should, take a minute to write a letter to whatever paper you read/news show you watch asking them: where's the coverage of this?

Scary thought.

Is it getting hot in here?

Is it getting hot? Seems like fights are breaking out all over...

The emotional lives of... cows. Fun, funny article about a subject with staggering implications.

And in robot news... yikes.

and proud we are of all of them

An excellent point.

Hugo and Hu, go

Yikes!

Hugo!

Hugo calls George out, bam! Hugo Chavez is a man to watch. He's no freaked-out paranoid little Napoleon, either: the Bush administration has every reason to fear him, and vice-versa. Venezuela is one of our biggest sources of oil, and Hugo has no intention of selling it cheap, like so many other little dictators have done in the name of greed and nepotism. In fact, within a year of Chavez winning the Presidency -legally and transparently, I might add- the Bush administration sent flunky Otto Reich to organize a coup (it failed: Chavez's support among the people was genuine). Typical of the Bush administration, they didn't even have a viable candidate to put in Chavez's place had they managed to pull it off....

This could be very big. I mean, what if -all of a sudden- Africa could stand on its own again? You think India is a big market? heh

VERY interesting take on the Putin/Bush press conference following their meeting last week.

Just a few of the many reasons to boycott WalMart. Who wants a crappy neighbor?

Who to smite?

Paul Krugman on Social Security: . Sorry, but it's important.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Whoaa. Beautiful -if frightening- illustration of how just a few people control all of the news. Also a chilling portrait of DC society, and Presidential politics. Robert Parry is a journalist with integrity.

Umm... isn't this feudalism? Didn't we fix that or something?

Great. Faith-based environmental policy. Let's hope it's better than our faith-based intelligence on Iraq and North Korea.

Science news. I don't really think a device like this could 'predict the future,' but the implications of their findings are immense anyway. What do you think? Seems to threaten the notion that consciousness is isolated to our brains, doesn't it?

Georgie wargie

Excellent -excellent- speech given to the House on Wednesday. Forget that he's a republican; he's asking hard questions about our foreign policy, questions that no one else in government seems to be asking. It's about damn time!

This is hardly news, but little Georgie is lying to you again. -er, still.

Third columnist found in Bush's pocket. Perhaps Georgie's most blatant, flagrant flaunting of US law yet. And further evidence that he -and the rest of his neo-con pals- are utterly bereft of ethics and morals.

Good essay. Let's kick some ass.

Don't look. No, don't. It's not funny. Stop laughing!



And in robot news...

"Bag o' skin, comin' right up!" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/4184627.stm

Social security: divided we fall

FINALLY someone refutes the idiotic Bush rhetoric about Social Security. Thank you, Rep. Rangel.

Social Security is only threatened by privatization. Social Security is what keeps many elderly people housed and fed.

Who might benefit from "privatization" anyway? Well, we're expected to invest it all in the stock market; it will cost us to play that game. So the first to benefit will be the stock traders, who extract a portion of your invested money as fees for their services (let's call it a "privately levied tax," because it is). Stock trading is VERY restricted, a very private club. They're not interested in you, they're only interested in your money. Do you want to trust your future to someone who is only interested in your money?


But you have to have a certain amount of money to even make it worth their time to deal with you. So, if you don't have $1,000.00 or so (minimum) laying around to get started with, get started on saving that (if you work for minimum or near-minimum wage, you'll know how difficult this can be, but I don't think anyone more privileged can imagine). Once you get that saved up, it's time to look around at how best to invest.

Obviously we want to earn interest, to make sure our investment is growing faster than inflation (otherwise, we're losing money). Savings accounts don't do that. Ever. Checking accounts -even "free" ones, or ones that pay interest, cost money. Money market accounts and CDs sometimes offer higher interest, but rarely exceed the official rate of inflation, so we're still losing money on our money.

How much money does it take, to make money? Inflation right now is supposedly low -about 3-4%- but you should know that fuel and food prices are NOT included in that figure, so let's include that for our own adjusted inflation rate, which I'll estimate at about 7% (on the basis of the rising food and fuel prices I've seen, and which affect me directly). So, we want to be earning at least 7% interest on our money, just to be breaking even. To get rates like that, we would either need to a) have enough money to get a banker's or broker's personal attention (a mere grand is not enough, trust me), b) be really good at poker, or c) make some very lucky picks on the stock market. Or I suppose we could get on a game show and get really lucky, but in the end, it's all about getting lucky.

Luck. The real problem with having everybody depend on the stock market for their safety net, is that the very nature of the stock market is that someone has to lose. The whole point is "every man for himself." Every profit results from someone else's loss. Dependence on this cruel system is what got us this economic disparity in the first place.

Destroying Social Security in the name of "ownership" and "privatization," will only serve to send more money into the hands of the wealthy, and further isolate the less-fortunate in shitty minimum-wage service-sector jobs.

Divided we fall, my friends: divided, we fall.

Armstrong Williams is a whore, and George Bush is his john.

I can't believe this shit.

American politics sinks to new lows every day under the Bush administration. Ethics shmethics.

I suppose we all sell ourselves, one way or another, to make a living. Such is life in a money economy. But there are whores, and there are prostitutes: whores will sell anything, just for the sake of a buck, but prostitutes have limits. Whores sell their self-respect, their ethics, heritage, their grandmothers, for a little bling-bling. Prostitutes sell a service, to put food on the table.

Kill your television.

I mean it.


I'm so tired of harping about the Bush junta, that I'm not even going to touch the problem of our President, the Leader of the Free World, buying journalists.

Is it even news anymore?