Rising Tide, Sinking Boats

Jordan Barab at Firedoglake uses a scene from the 1991 movie "Grand Canyon" to make his point about productivity and wages, and how an increase in the one doesn't necessarily mean an increase in the other.

...the Census Department released a report today showing that In 2005, 46.6 million people were without health insurance coverage, up from 45.3 million people in 2004, and 37.0 million people were in poverty, about the same as in 2004, but up from 31.6 million in 2000. Who could have imagined, but it turns out that a rising tide does not raise all boats, what’s good for General Motors (or Wal-Mart) is not good for America, and that even if you feed and nurture the goose that lays the golden egg, you may not be able to enjoy any of the benefits of those eggs. Because even though workers have been working harder, producing more and increasing productivity, they haven’t been reaping the rewards:

The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. The drop has been especially notable, economists say, because productivity — the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic wellspring of a nation’s living standards — has risen steadily over the same period. As a result, wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation’s gross domestic product since the government began recording the data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960’s. UBS, the investment bank, recently described the current period as “the golden era of profitability.”

Why, the authors ask, is “the golden era of profitability” bypassing most of us? Which brings me back to my "Grand Canyon" scene.

Economists offer various reasons for the stagnation of wages. Although the economy continues to add jobs, global trade, immigration, layoffs and technology — as well as the insecurity caused by them — appear to have eroded workers’ bargaining power. Trade unions are much weaker than they once were, while the buying power of the minimum wage is at a 50-year low. And health care is far more expensive than it was a decade ago, causing companies to spend more on benefits at the expense of wages. Together, these forces have caused a growing share of the economy to go to companies instead of workers’ paychecks.

Read the rest.

Ode to Hunter

Read Booman's tribute to Hunter S. Thompson.
Gonzo wasn't so Gonzo, after all.

I don't know about you, but this pisses me off!

It appears that now you don't have to win the election to have the office. ( Why does that sound familiar? ) All you have to do is be sworn in and no one has jurisdiction to do anything about it.

From The Brad Blog:
DEMOCRACY DENIED: SAN DIEGO JUDGE DISMISSES BUSBY/BILBRAY ELECTION CONTEST ON JURISDICTIONAL GROUNDS!

Finds Rushed Swearing in of Presumed Winner Bilbray by U.S. House — Just 7 Days After Election and 16 Days Before Certification — Transferred Power to Decide Election Outcome to Congress

A judge in the San Diego challenge to the Francine Busby/Brian Bilbray U.S. House Special Election in California's 50th Congressional District has found in favor of the defendants' motion to dismiss the case based on jurisdictional grounds, The BRAD BLOG has learned.

We have covered the defendants' argument, that the swearing in of Bilbray — just seven days after the election and a full 16 days prior to certification by San Diego County — effectively transferred power to decide any election challenges from the California courts to the U.S. House of Representatives. Those arguments are discussed in detail in several previous BRAD BLOG articles (here, here, here and here.)

Read the entire post

Give an 'Attaboy' to Chuck Schumer on his views on Net Neutrality

Matt Stoller at My DD:

I'm no fan of Chuck Schumer's political decision-making, as many of you know. As a legislator, though, he can be great sometimes. He did single-handedly keep the Bankrupcty Bill from passing for four years in the Senate. And now he's out on net neutrality.

Give credit where credit is due.

Read it.

Greg Palast: HURRICANE EXPERT THREATENED FOR PRE-KATRINA WARNINGS

It wasn’t the hurricane that drowned, suffocated, de-hydrated and starved 1,500 people that week. The killing was done by a deadly duo: a failed emergency evacuation plan combined with faulty levees. Behind these twin failures lies a tale of cronyism, profiteering and willful incompetence that takes us right to the steps of the White House.

Here’s the story you haven’t been told. And the man who revealed it to me, Dr. Ivor van Heerden, is putting his job on the line to tell it.

Van Heerden isn’t the typical whistleblower I usually deal with. This is no minor player. He’s the Deputy Director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center. He’s the top banana in the field — no one knew more about how to save New Orleans from a hurricane’s devastation. And no one was a bigger target of an official and corporate campaign to bury the information.

Evacuation plan, yeah, it's here somewhere...

Here’s the key thing about a successful emergency evacuation plan: you have to have copies of it. Lots of copies — in fire houses and in hospitals and in the hands of every first responder. Secret evacuation plans don’t work.

[...]

Specifically, I’m talking about the plan that was written, or supposed to have been written two years ago by a company called, “Innovative Emergency Management.”

Weird thing about IEM, their founder Madhu Beriwal, had no known experience in hurricane evacuations. She did, however, have a lot of experience in donating to Republicans.

IEM and FEMA did begin a draft of a plan. The plan was that, when a hurricane hit, everyone in the Crescent City would simply get the hell out in their cars. Apparently, the IEM/FEMA crew didn’t know that 127,000 people in the city didn’t have cars. But Dr. van Heerden knew that. It was his calculation. LSU knew where these no-car people were — they mapped it — and how to get them out.

Dr. van Heerden offered this life-saving info to FEMA. They wouldn’t touch it. Then, a state official told him to shut up, back off or there would be consequences for van Heerden’s position. This official now works for IEM.

And the results of the IEM plan?

“Fifteen-hundred of them drowned. That’s the bottom line.” The professor, who’d been talking to me in technicalities, changed to a somber tone. “They’re still finding corpses.”

Van Heerden's studies found that the levees were 18 inches too short, leading to their failure and the deaths of over 2000 people.

Back at LSU, van Heerden astonished me with the most serious charge of all. While showing me huge maps of the flooding, he told me the White House had withheld the information that, in fact, the levees were about to burst and by Tuesday at dawn the city, and more than a thousand people, would drown.

Van Heerden said, “FEMA knew on Monday at 11 o’clock that the levees had breached… They took video. By midnight on Monday the White House knew. But none of us knew …I was at the State Emergency Operations Center.” Because the hurricane had missed the city that Monday night, evacuation effectively stopped, assuming the city had survived.

Read the whole article

Gore lashes out at media consolidation

Jill Lawless of the Associated Press:

"Democracy is under attack," Gore told an audience at the Edinburgh International Television Festival. "Democracy as a system for self-governance is facing more serious challenges now than it has faced for a long time.

"Democracy is a conversation, and the most important role of the media is to facilitate that conversation of democracy. Now the conversation is more controlled, it is more centralized."

He said that in many countries, media control was being consolidated in the hands of a few businesspeople or politicians.

Read on...

Right and Left find agreement. Iraq war has Bush Doctrine in tatters

From the San Francisco Gate:

Analysts across the political spectrum say the Bush Doctrine -- preventive war, choking the roots of terrorism by planting democracy, and brandishing power to force others into line -- has failed. Bush's lofty goals, shared even by his critics, have been set back, perhaps decades, by the Iraq occupation.

Yet for all the criticism, neither the Democratic Party nor the foreign policy elite has devised an alternative for the post-Sept. 11 world, leaving U.S. foreign policy adrift.

No one has an endgame for Iraq. No one offers any magic bullets against stateless terrorists undeterred by conventional military power, or the dangerous regimes in Iran and North Korea that many believe to be bent on nuclear arms. The United States now faces a set of bad options -- or, at best, a deeply chastened view of the limits of American power.

This brings to mind the pivotal quote from "Wargames".
"The way to win is not to play the game."

Please, let's not play the game again.

Broken Promises: A Bush specialty

It's been a full year since Katrina devestated The Big Easy. Congress has promised 17 Billion dollars to the Department of Housing and Urban Development for the rehabilitation of the hurricane ravaged Gulf coast region. Of that sum, $100 million has actually been spent.
How much of that is parked at the Hope, AR airport in the form of 10,000 unused trailers? How big are the Halliburton dividends?
Who gives a rat's ass for the fate of the U.S. taxpayers and citizens devestated not only a natural calamity, but also by a criminally incompetent administration. Obviously, no one in this administration cares.

Paul Krugman at the NYT:

Apologists for the administration will doubtless claim that blame for the lack of progress rests not with Mr. Bush, but with the inherent inefficiency of government bureaucracies. That's the great thing about being an antigovernment conservative: even when you fail at the task of governing, you can claim vindication for your ideology.

[...]

Mr. Bush could have moved quickly to turn his promises of reconstruction into reality. But he didn't. As months dragged by with little sign of White House action, all urgency about developing a plan for reconstruction ebbed away.

Mr. Bush could have appointed someone visible and energetic to oversee the Gulf Coast's recovery, someone who could act as an advocate for families and local governments in need of help. But he didn't. How many people can even name the supposed reconstruction "czar"?

[...]

Maybe the aid promised to the gulf region will actually arrive some day. But by then it will probably be too late. Many former residents and small-business owners, tired of waiting for help that never comes, will have permanently relocated elsewhere; those businesses that stayed open, or reopened after the storm, will have gone under for lack of customers. In America as in Iraq, reconstruction delayed is reconstruction denied ‹ and Mr. Bush has, once again, broken a promise.

Read the whole column

Top 10 stupid post-Katrina quotes:

From Pensito Review:

1) “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” — President Bush, on “Good Morning America,” Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina

2) “What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them.” — Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 5, 2005

3) “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” — President Bush, to FEMA director Michael Brown, while touring hurricane-ravaged Mississippi, Sept. 2, 2005

4) “Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well.” — FEMA Director Michael Brown, Sept. 1, 2005

5) “Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?” – House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas), to three young hurricane evacuees from New Orleans at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 9, 2005

6) “We’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do … The good news is — and it’s hard for some to see it now — that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house — he’s lost his entire house — there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch.” (Laughter) — President Bush, touring hurricane damage, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005

7) “Well, I think if you look at what actually happened, I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, ‘New Orleans Dodged the Bullet.’ Because if you recall, the storm moved to the east and then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing worse.” – Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, blaming media coverage for the government’s failings, “Meet the Press,” Sept. 4, 2005

8) “What didn’t go right?’” –President Bush, as quoted by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), after she urged him to fire FEMA Director Michael Brown “because of all that went wrong, of all that didn’t go right” in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort

9) “I mean, you have people who don’t heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving.” –Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), Sept. 6, 2005

10) “You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals…many of these people, almost all of them that we see are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold.” – CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, on New Orleans’ hurricane evacuees, Sept. 1, 2005

Paper Trail Flawed in Ohio Election, Study

Computerworld:

A report questioning the accuracy of Diebold Election Systems' e-voting equipment in a recent Ohio election gives more ammunition to critics who doubt the viability of electronic voting technology.

The report, issued publicly last week, was based on a study funded by the Board of Commissioners of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. It claimed that even backup paper records meant to assure voters that their votes were tabulated correctly can prove inaccurate.

Nearly 10% of the paper copies of votes cast in the election were "either destroyed, blank, illegible, missing, taped together or otherwise compromised," the report said.

[...]

This report underscores that voting machines aren't used in a vacuum, noted Michael Shamos, a professor who specializes in e-voting and security issues at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. The devices are used as part of a huge system of people, laws and procedures, he said.

Shamos noted that the paper trails didn't guarantee a safe, reliable election. "When machines fail," he said, "the paper trail doesn't work, either."

Read the rest

Our uninformed electorate

Thoughts from the Carpetbagger on the competence of the american voter.

This has been a pet issue of mine since undergrad, so forgive me for the lengthy post here, but I strongly believe that an uninformed electorate creates a dysfunctional democracy. As Digby put it, "We simply cannot adequately govern ourselves if a large number of us are dumb as posts and vote for reasons that make no sense."

Read the post (and the comments too.)

George Bush hurts my psyche

Marc Cooper of the LA Weekly News reflects on the latest news conference of 'His Deciderness'.

The killer quote from the entire article is: "Bush’s single greatest achievement has been to unite our enemies and divide our allies."

Read the whole thing

Are you enjoying paying for Bush's war?

From The existential Cowboy

Bush would give you the impression that the Iraq war is free or cheap. But that's a hoax! The war is paid for with hidden taxes, higher prices, and American lives; the cost of the Iraq war has more than tripled since Bush declared "...major combat operations in Iraq have ended!"

War is a racket fought by the masses for privileged elites. Bush's war on Iraq is not merely fought for the benefit of no-bid contractors like Halliburton, it is financed by America's working poor and middle classes who pay for the war —with their lives abroad and with their jobs, their retirement prospects, and their access to health care at home. Bush's base —the nation's elite, his corporate sponsors, and the so-called defense industry —have paid nothing, risked nothing! Rather —they feed at the trough. The upper one percent of the population has gotten several tax cuts while the big oil companies report record profits rising concurrently with higher prices at the pump.

[...]

Like Bush's mythical "Axis of Evil" the idea that a nation can wage a free war is an evil GOP fairy tale. Wars are always paid for, if not now, later, and in ways you won't like

Read it all

A Democratic Win in November Does Not Spell V-I-C-T-O-R-Y

by Steven D at Booman Tribune

...the American electorate's disgust with 6 years of Republican misrule, lawbreaking, corruption, pre-emptive war and homeland insecurity may be so high that Republicans will find themselves unable to steal enough votes to prevent the Democrats from recapturing a majority of seats in one or both houses of Congress this November. If that happens many on the left end of the dial may feel giddy.

Well, I am here to tell you don't get your hopes up.

[...]

even if the Democrats do succeed beyond my (and your) wildest imagination this November. and Nancy Pelosi or John Murtha is elected Speaker of the House, we will not have gained anything like victory. All we will have done is fired the first salvo in what is likely to be a long and protracted battle to reclaim our government of the people, by the people and for the people from the forces of tyranny, bigotry and ignorance.

Now, many of you may be thinking to yourself (or speaking out loud to your computer screen) ...

Just hold on a minute Steven. No one is claiming the democrats regaining Congress will bring on the New Millenium or create a liberal utopia, but surely we can claim some small manner of victory this Fall should Democrats win the election. Control of only one house will mean control of Congressional committees, and with that the power to investigate and issue subpoenas. It will mean Democrats can set the legislative agenda in at least one house, and can cut of funding for Bush's war of choice in Iraq. It will mean the media will have to take Democratic spokespersons seriously and give them and their message more airtime. It will mean the neutering of President Bush Puppet and the man behind curtain, Cardinal Richelieu Vice President Cheney. It may, indeed even mean impeachment. At the very least it will mean an end to the Conservative agenda being crammed down our throats by the wingnut members of Congress.

To which I can only say, yes indeed. I plead guilty to no small measure of hyperbole. But it was hyperbole employed in a good cause. For we should not delude ourselves that the Democratic Party, as it is presently constituted, is a friend to liberals and their progressive causes. Far from it.

Read the entire post

Nine Tough Questions for Congress

Russell Senate Office Building was the scene of many troubling moments: The Teapot Dome scandal, The Army-McCarthy hearings, The Watergate hearings...


From MotherJones
September 01 , 2006
James Ridgeway

But in the past six years, congressional investigations of such bold, searching nature have disappeared. In a post-9/11 environment of silence and fear, the mood inside Congress has mirrored the bunkers and barriers outside: No one dares question the military or the intelligence services too closely, or to push the president too far. The Caucus Room continues to be used for party meetings and social events, and every so often there is a potted inquiry, as in the case of the 2003 hearings on the space shuttle. But on issues of war and peace, of corruption and graft, of civil rights, civil liberties, and constitutional breaches, meek questions are the rule, answered by dull assurances from the White House.

If the Democrats win back control of Congress (or even one of its chambers), if they can come up with the requisite moxie, and if they can muster the political will to reach out to their own base as well as to disaffected Republicans, they will have an opportunity to begin to change all that. They will need to overcome the myriad obstacles the Bush administration has created to keep lawmakers from obtaining and releasing critical information, such as its resistance to briefing congressional committees on intelligence issues, or its heavy hand in redacting congressional reports.

[...]

A Democratic majority in the Senate could, for example, place the chairmanship of the intelligence committee in the hands of Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who has largely been stymied in his efforts to spur a thorough investigation of the Niger forgeries and what he suspects may be a broader campaign of deception. Among other things, such an inquiry could lead straight to the Pentagon's shadowy Office of Special Plans; under gop leadership, no one is too eager to learn much about this office, which led the prewar intelligence cherry-picking, and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) is holding up an inquiry.

Regardless of the election result in November, a few independent-minded Republicans in key positions offer hope that important investigations may gain traction. Under Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), the national security subcommittee of the powerful House Committee on Government Reform has actually summoned the mettle to subpoena Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in its investigation of the chain of command in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse case.

But if lawmakers of either party do not begin to reclaim their constitutional powers—by asking questions such as those listed below—it's not hard to envision a time when visitors may come to the venerable Caucus Room as if to a museum, to learn about a bygone era when congressional investigations still served as a check on the imperial presidency.

Read the whole article

If September 11 Never Happened ... Die Zeit, Germany

If September 11 Never Happened ...
By Juli Zeh
Germany - Die Zeit

In democracies there is no propaganda, no incitement of hysteria against certain groups of citizens by the press or politicians. A democratic country protects innocent citizens. It doesn't take away his nail clippers, doesn't listen to his phone or read his e-mail. A democratic state controls its secret services, doesn't deploy the army in its own borders, takes fingerprints exclusively from criminals, and doesn't use cameras at tollbooths to film harmless vehicles on the highway.

Because a democracy trusts its citizens, it knows that it relies on the consent of its citizenry, because otherwise it doesn't deserve to be called a democracy. If a crime occurs, however dreadful, a democratic state turns all of its resources to fighting that crime without labeling it a "war." For "war" is a dreadful concept. War directs itself not against the individual criminal, but holds entire regions, entire countries, entire areas of the globe responsible for a few inhabitants.

That's not just what was explained to me: that's what I believed. Contrary to the concepts of God, family and native country, the democratic ideal had direct significance to me. No one would have dared insist that this was just a fair-weather opinion that darkened whenever a cloud crossed the sun. No one called democracy an ideology that showed its true face only when it was attacked from outside.

Read the post

Your Tax Dollars at Work in the Middle East

Arianna Huffington Huffington Post

George Bush has long asserted that the war in Iraq would remake the Middle East.

Turns out he was right.

According to a new report by Chatham House, a British think tank, after spending over $400 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States has succeeded... in making Iran the top dog in the region.

Read the rest

Don't you just love it when your taxe dollars are So well spent.

The Energy Entrepreneur Pioneers Take On The Oil Industry Goliath

Raymond J. Learsy At Huffington

A news report -- based on an article in Britain's Guardian newspaper -- hit the wire services earlier this week heralding a "free energy" technology.

According to Sean McCarthy, who heads Steorn, a small high-technology company in Dublin, Ireland, no one was more surprised than he when his firm hit upon a way to generate energy from the interaction of magnetic fields.

The jury is still out on whether the breakthrough is fool's gold or the 24-karat variety, but McCarthy is sufficiently convinced of the validity of the discovery that he took out an ad in The Economist inviting the scientific community to investigate his company's findings.

McCarthy is one of a new breed of entrepreneurs, challenged by the dangers our energy usage presents to our lives, our planet. He and his peers have a common goal: Drive a stake through the heart of our fossil fuel dependency, freeing us at long last from our morbid and expensive addiction.

Read the rest

Preamble? What Preamble? It Doesn't Apply Anymore.

by clammyc at Booman Tribune

Lately, I have been thinking a bit about the Constitution, and more specifically the preamble (thanks to the good folks at Schoolhouse Rock. And for those who know the words to the Preamble, you probably can share in my sadness of how every single word of the Preamble to one of the most important documents ever drafted has been repeatedly violated in every conceivable way by the war criminals and thieves that have run roughshod all over this once (and hopefully future) great country of ours.

For those who haven't clicked on the link above, or for those who don't know the powerful words of the Preamble, I have copied them below:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Back in 1987, I was in the 11th grade. To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Constitution, my high school offered an elective class that a few of my friends and I took. It was part history, part journalism and part, well, fun. Not only did I get 3 credits for taking the class, but we also got to hang out with some of the cuter freshman and sophomore girls whose lockers were near the classroom. The end result of this class was to create a video where 5 of my friends and I were "journalists", each representing a part of the Preamble (mine was "promote justice"), where we got to "interview" some of the founders through a time travel link and talk about how each of our parts of the Preamble have held up over the years. There was video inserted with our voice over, as well as commentary and interviews.

Looking back, it was much cooler than we thought it was at the time....And reading the Preamble today, I think - what a great sentence, even if it may be a bit of a run-on sentence (that was for you grammarians out there). Powerful. Simple. All encompassing. And it held up pretty nicely for just under 215 of the close to 220 years since it was written.

Until now.

Please read the rest of the post

Thank God there are journalists in the rest of the world! We only have stenographers, here.

Tip of the hat to Crooks and Liars


By Michael Collins
“Scoop” Independent Media
Washington, DC

Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the United House of Representatives, called “the peoples’ House,” now has the authority to nullify elections simply by swearing in candidates and claiming federal privilege based on one narrow section of the constitution, while completing ignoring the others, including the one stating that members of the House shall be elected every two years “by the People,” and not selected in Washington DC. Once again, the country is faced with a Bush v. Gore style selection manufactured in Washington DC, and if only the people did not know which party benefited and which party was hurt by the selection, the country would be unanimous in denouncing this power grab.

[...]

We’re clearly at the point where members of the ruling party are making up rules post hoc to justify whatever actions they wish to take. We are also at a point where there is little if any opposition to this. The House is silent. With the exception of local and national voting rights activists and Chairman Dean, the opposing party is silent. The Defendants literally argue that the Courts are powerless to stop them (without jurisdiction). Friday will reveal whether the courts are powerless to stop this abuse of power and premature termination of elections.

Read the whole article

Just one more reason the republicans have to go down!

Republican Chutzpah on Iran

This crap really takes gall!

From No Quarter

Chutzpah is a Yiddish term that means "unbelievable gall; insolence; audacity". Got to love Yiddish. No other term captures what the Republican staff members of the House Intelligence Committee accomplished today with the release of a partisan report on Iran (.pdf). According to the Washington Post account:

A key House committee issued a stinging critique of U.S. intelligence on Iran yesterday, charging that the CIA and other agencies lack "the ability to acquire essential information necessary to make judgments" on Tehran's nuclear program, its intentions or even its ties to terrorism.

Gee whiz, "lack of essential information"? Like what? Nuclear weapons? Which brings me to Valerie Plame.

Valerie's identity was exposed by Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and others in Bush Administration in the summer of 2003 while she was doing undercover work to monitor, detect, and interdict nuclear technology going to Iran.

[...]

So, the Republicans want to whine about inadequate intelligence on Iran's nuclear program while holding fund raisers for Scooter Libby, one of the men implicated in the leak of Valerie's classified identity? Excuse me? The leak did more than ruin Val's ability to continue working as an undercover CIA officer. The leak destroyed a U.S. intelligence program to collect information about Iran's efforts to get nuclear weapons material.

Read the whole post

Busy next couple of days, light blogging.

I'll do what I can, when I can...

Homeland Security reductio ad absurdum

From Homeland Stupidity

“Again and again, we hear the argument that a particular technology can be used for bad things, so we have to ban or control it,” says real security expert Bruce Schneier. “The problem is that when we ban or control a technology, we also deny ourselves some of the good things it can be used for.”

Banning this, that or the other thing won’t solve the problem of terrorism. It won’t make us any safer, but it will make our lives much more inconvenient. Only addressing the root causes of terrorism will ultimately stop it.

Read the post

Losing Afghanistan

Opinion, New York Times.

Nearly five years after American military forces help topple a Taliban government that provided sanctuary and training camps to Osama bin Laden, there is no victory in the war for Afghanistan, due in significant measure to the Bush administration’s reckless haste to move on to Iraq and shortsighted stinting on economic reconstruction.

The Taliban, operating from cross-border sanctuaries in Pakistan, has exploited Washington’s strategic blunders and Mr. Karzai’s disappointing performance to rebuild its political and military strength, particularly in the southern region where it first began its drive to power more than a decade ago. Daily battles now rage across five southern provinces. Civilian and military casualties are rising sharply, including those among the NATO forces that have recently moved into these areas.

Read the item

Mission Accomplished: How Bush and Republicans Destroyed the Military

Progressive Daily Beacon Opinion Piece

When the military wasn't able to reach its recruiting goals the Bush administration did what it always does: adjust numbers to make them look good politically. When the reign of Bush the Second is over, the American people can count on government auditors discovering ENRON-like accounting "errors" in everything from the deficit to the unemployment rate to, more than likely, the number of soldiers who have died in the administration's various wars. All -- and people can bet the mortgage on this -- will have been duly altered to make Bush and Republicans look good. They've done the same thing with military recruiting. They couldn't reach the goals required to actually keep the military functioning, so they lowered the bar to make it look good politically.

Read the whole piece

Supreme Court Strikes Fear, Bush attempting to cover his bases

George Bush, or more likely, some of the band of thieves that infest the White House, realize that should there be a serious inquiry into his mis-administration, there is a lot more out there to be discovered than a blue dress.
From the Village Voice

In June, the Supreme Court ( Hamdan v. Rumsfeld) placed commander in chief Bush and the top of his policy-making chain of command in jeopardy for the treatment of their suspected-terrorist prisoners in Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan and elsewhere.

[...]

But quietly, in fear of that ruling, the administration has drafted two changes in the War Crimes Act and in our treaty obligations under the Geneva Conventions to foreclose any prosecutions of the Bush high command. The goal is to get these amendments passed by the Republican-controlled Congress before the midterm elections that could put the Democrats in control of the Senate or otherwise significantly increase their power in Congress as a whole.

Says Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice: "This bill can . . . in effect immunize past crimes. That's why it's so dangerous." As Fidell also told the Associated Press, the intent is "not just protection of [high-level] political appointees but also CIA personnel who led interrogations" including in their secret prisons.

Read more

Recession will be nasty and deep, economist says.

From Marketwatch

The United States is headed for a recession that will be "much nastier, deeper and more protracted" than the 2001 recession, says Nouriel Roubini, president of Roubini Global Economics.

Writing on his blog Wednesday, Roubini repeated his call that the U.S. would be in recession in 2007, arguing that the collapse of housing would bring down the rest of the economy.

"This is the biggest housing slump in the last four or five decades: every housing indicator is in free fall, including now housing prices," Roubini said. The decline in investment in the housing sector will exceed the drop in investment when the Nasdaq collapsed in 2000 and 2001, he said.

And the impact of the bursting of the bubble will affect every household in America, not just the few people who owned significant shares in technology companies during the dot-com boom, he said. Prices are falling even in the Midwest, which never experienced a bubble, "a scary signal" of how much pain the drop in household wealth could cause.

Read more.

The More Bush Goes Back to New Orleans...

Hoffmania

...the more we're all reminded of the horror his inaction caused. Keep going back, George. Make nice-nice with everyone who's getting rich in what little rebuilding is happening. Find some nice black people to get photos with. Stand in front of another hurriedly-built set to show how great it all is.

Read the post

Presidential Approval and The Midterms

They really matter.

From The Next Hurrah.

There is, however, a historical correlation between presidential approval ratings and midterm Congressional election results (at least at the House level). This site compiles historical presidential approval ratings dating back to 1937, when Gallup first started doing the poll."

While not predicting a 40 seat drop for R's this year (the landscape is different with redistricting and the professional marketing of the GOP vs the amateur Dems), the graph clearly shows the historical precedent for low approval correlating with loss of House seats in a midterm.

[...]

People have made up their mind about Bush. What he now has is a thick ceiling and a thin floor in the polls. Dems will never trust him again, and indies have their doubts. Republicans will hug him like a life preserver, which won't stop them from abandoning him if it looks like they might drown.

Read the whole post

You know that the MSM sat on stories about Bush's NSA evesdropping during the 2004 campaign...

Here's Eric Boehlert's article about other questions that never were raised.

...depressing is the fact the eavesdropping story was just one of several legitimate news stories during the closing weeks of the 2004 campaign that were ignored by mainstream press outlets; stories that would have clearly hurt the Bush campaign. Stories such as the on-going Valerie Plame leak investigation, the tale of Saddam Hussein's hunt for yellowcake uranium, the looming military battle for Fallujah inside Iraq, and Bush's mysterious bulge spotted during the televised debates. I detail the media's disturbing, look-the-other-way approach from 2004 in Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush.

[...]

Meanwhile, can anyone think of a single bad-news-for-Kerry story that news outlets politely sat on during the 2004 campaign?

Read the whole article

A left handed admission of failure by Bush

Finally, much of America is awaking to the knowlege that Iraq was an ill-conceived disaster. In this WaPO article the chickens appear to have come home to roost on their favorite Shrub.

Of all the words that President Bush used at his news conference this week to defend his policies in Iraq, the one that did not pass his lips was "progress."

[...]Bush dropped the unseen-progress argument in favor of the contention that things could be even wors

The shifting rhetoric reflected a broader pessimism that has reached into even some of the most optimistic corners of the administration -- a sense that the Iraq venture has taken a dark turn and will not be resolved anytime soon.

[...]

While still committed to the venture, officials have privately told friends and associates outside government that they have grown discouraged in recent months. Even the death of al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq proved not to be the turning point they expected, they have told associates, and other developments have been relentlessly dispiriting, with fewer signs of hope.

[,,,]

The tone represents a striking change from what critics considered an overly rosy portrayal of Iraq, and the latest stage in a year-long evolution in message.

Read the whole story

From No Quarter: Walking the Thin Red Line

Larry C Johnson...

If Don Rumsfeld's latest decision to put more troops in Baghdad was described in terms of playing Texas Hold Em (a poker game), he has gone all in only holding a pair of deuces (for those not familiar with the terminology, he is betting all of his money on a weak hand). If the U.S. can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, this is the only plausible option.

[...]

The major challenge for the U.S. troops is to avoid actions that the Shia majority will view as a threat to their newly minted status as the de jure majority. Of course, U.S. intentions don't really matter. What matters is what the Shias perceive to be the truth. Here is where the trouble starts. It seems Sadr's supporters already view the U.S. arrival as the first step toward stripping the Shias of power.

Read more

Flexible display technologies to provide new twist for computing

From Computerworld...

Over the next 10 years, thin-film polymers and other flexible substrates could change how people think about and use displays. In the future, you may "print out" reports to sheets of e-paper: flexible polymer displays about as thick as a sheet of paper that can be spread out on a desk for easy comparison and analysis and then reused when the work is done. Your PDA or cell phone may incorporate a roll-up display that extends to let you view maps or Web pages on a larger screen. Your laptop may have a secondary display on the back of the case that can maintain any image you choose, such as your schedule and to-do list -- and you'll be able to refer to it even when the laptop is turned off. Some displays may be embedded on a shirt sleeve or curve around a watchband.

"We're talking about electronics we can wrap around a pencil," says Jim Brug, imaging materials department manager at HP Laboratories. He says he expects such technologies to evolve into real product designs within five years.

Read the article

"Got Competence?"

From Huffington...
Campaign Ads For The Katrina And 9/11 Anniversary Season

There are two major anniversaries just around the corner: the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and the fifth anniversary of 9/11. Both will have political implications in this election year. The Democrats need to realize that this is an opportunity, and use it to their advantage.

...Republicans are already playing hardball. Democrats shouldn't shrink from doing the same. Reminding voters that people are still suffering in New Orleans -- and that 9/11 and Iraq are not the same thing -- isn't exploiting tragedy; it's a poignant reminder that the Bush "gang who can't shoot straight" can't seem to finish what they set out to do.

...for the next two weeks or so, Americans will be inundated with images of both Katrina and the 9/11 tragedy on their television screens. Linking those horrific images with Republican incompetence in voters' minds is not dishonest in any way. New Orleans hasn't been rebuilt. We haven't caught Osama Bin Laden. To use a Republican phrase, it's all about accountability. And when the truth is on your side, negative advertising works.

Read the rest

Booman: What's Most Significant about Judge Taylor's NSA Decision?

From Booman.

Yes, I know, that opinions differ as to the soundness of Judge Taylor's decision. She's either a brave and principled jurist who finally held Bush accountable for his illegal spying program (the position of most on the left, ably expressed by Professor Stone here and Professor Tribe here) or she is a stupid, ignorant and dangerous black woman who should never have been appointed to the Federal bench by that bleeding heart idiot President Jimmy Carter (the default position of the right). We could argue for days over how well her opinion was written and her intellectual bona fides (something Mr. Heh indeedy would prefer to pontificate about endlessly), and whether or not she truly understands the threat posed by international terrorism to our very existence (i.e., the issue President Bush would love for us to ponder at length), but, as usual, Glenn Greenwald has hit on what is, by far, the most significant aspect of her decision granting summary judgment against the Federal Government:

...[A] principal reason why Judge Taylor was somewhat conclusory in her analysis of some issues, and the reason she repeatedly said that certain propositions were "undisputed," is because the Bush administration either failed or chose not to dispute them. Specifically, the Justice Department was so intent on telling the Judge that she had no right to even rule on these issues (because the NSA program is a "state secret," the legality of which the court cannot adjudicate without damaging national security and/or because the plaintiffs lack "standing"), that it basically chose not to address the merits of the plaintiffs' case at all.

...[T]he Bush administration's refusal to address the merits of the claims (which is part and parcel of its general contempt for the role of the courts in scrutinizing its conduct) meant that Judge Taylor was not only entitled, but was required by the Rules of Civil Procedure (Rule 56), to treat the ACLU's factual claims as undisputed for purposes of deciding the motion.

[...I]n plain English...

The DOJ said to the judge: "You can't decide this summary judgment motion because the NSA program is so super-secret and important that we can't let you decide whether it violates any laws or not."

The Judge replied: "Bullshit. I'm not going to disregard the ACLU's motion just because you claim it is so super secret important. Come back with a proper response as to why I shouldn't rule in favor of the ACLU and find the NSA spy program illegal."

So the DOJ came back with its response to the ACLU's summary judgment motion which said (in effect): "Dear stupid Judge, we aren't going to tell you why the ACLU is wrong about its various claims that the NSA spy program is illegal and violates federal law and the US Constitution because you don't have the right to decide if its illegal or not, because its so super duper secret. So there!"

And then the Judge replied to the DOJ: Ok smarty pants. In that case, you lose, the ACLU wins and I am enjoining you, your fearless leader (who thinks he's a King or a Dictator or some other kind of blasphomous deity) and anyone else in the Federal Government from continuing to spy on Americans under this crappy warrantless surveillance program. How do you like them apples?"

Read all the post

An American Turning Point

From Consortium News

...The new trend among Washington pundits is -- finally -- to admit that the Iraq War has been a disaster. But they are still blaming tactical errors: not enough U.S. troops, not enough realism in the hasty decision to disband the Iraqi army, not enough targeting of Shiite militias, not enough saber-rattling against Iran and Syria.

...The elephant sitting in Official Washington's living room is this intractable reality: President Bush has so thoroughly lost credibility with nearly everyone on the planet and is so widely despised that he himself has become a clear and present danger to U.S. national security. Bush has become Osama bin Laden's perfect foil, yet Bush is incapable of admitting mistakes and changing course.

Read the rest

The Loose Cannon of 9/11

How a 23-year-old Army grunt-turned-film producer is undermining the 9/11 Commission Report with $8,000 and a laptop.

It took two governors, four congressmen, three former White House officials and two special counsels two years to compile. They reviewed over two and half million pages of classified and declassified documents, consulted 1,200 sources in 10 countries, and spent over $15 million of the taxpayers' money in the process. And on July 22, 2004, the 9/11 Commission issued its final report on the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Is it possible that two twentysomethings from "a small hippie town that time forgot" could undermine that entire effort with $8,000 and a laptop?

Read it

I Love it - The No Stem Cell pledge

Jonatha Alter proposes a pledge fashioned after the 'No Tax Pledges' put forth by Grover Norquist, for all those upright Christians who want hold sacred that little life
- and to just trash the embryo's.

I can envision a no-stem pledge being proffered in a similar way. In July, 37 senators and 193 members of the House backed Bush and voted against allowing even surplus embryos headed for the trash bin to be used in federally funded research. If they have any moxie, their opponents this year will show up at debates (or press conferences in contests with no debates) and challenge the incumbents who voted with Bush to promise that they will never use any treatments derived from embryonic-stem-cell research. In other words, to put their own health where their votes are.

The actual written pledge (patterned on Norquist's) could include language something like this: "Because of my strong opposition to embryonic-stem-cell research, I hereby pledge that should I, at any point in the future, develop diabetes, cancer, spinal-cord injuries or Parkinson's, among other diseases, I will refuse any and all treatments derived from such research, at home or abroad, even if it costs me my life. Signed, ______"

Wonder how many of these wankers will put their life on the line. If the chickenhawk pattern holds true, most will have 'other priorities'.

Read the piece

Two separate items you need to read on Brad's Blog.

The Men Who Knew Too Much? NSA Wiretapping Whistleblowers Found Dead in Italy and Greece

Is someone murdering people who know too much about NSA wiretapping overseas?

Two whistleblowers — one in Italy, one in Greece — uncovered a secret bugging system installed in cell phones around the world. Both met with untimely ends. The resultant scandals have received little press in the United States, despite the profound implications for American critics of the Bush administration.

Sounds like a great trailer for a James Bond movie, not what you want to hear is going on in 'real' life

And...

CNN's Lou Dobbs: Pinellas Co. Florida E-Voting Test Fails

Logic and Accuracy Test of The County's Sequoia Machines Fails

Tonight Kitty Pilgrim reports that Pinellas Co.'s voting machines passed Logic and Accuracy (L&A) Tests until a Sequoia Voting Systems technician changed some software. A subsequent test failed so the county changed the software back and re-did the test successfully. There was no report as to what caused the problem or why Sequoia tried to install software that was, very apparently, unnecessary; or was it?

...PILGRIM: Since the machines don't have a voter verified paper trail, a problem could go undetected.

BILL BUCOLO, VOTING INTEGRITY ALLIANCE: In a case of a problem with an election, there's no way to recount the vote, because there's nothing to count.

PILGRIM: Sequoia said the software technician working with the database is stranded during testing, and they stand by the results of their machines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PILGRIM: The county also stands by their testing results and says it has no fears about accuracy. Early voting is already underway. But voter watchdog groups fear without a paper trail it's impossible to know if the results are accurate.

Why does the FBI hate america?

A tip of the hat to The Guardian...

Anti-terror police in Britain have made an angry request to their US counterparts asking them to stop leaking details of this month's suspected bomb plot over fears that it could jeopardise the chances of a successful prosecution and hamper the gathering of evidence.

The British security services, MI5 and MI6, are understood to be dismayed that a number of sensitive details surrounding the alleged plot - including an FBI estimate that as many as 50 people were involved - were leaked to the media.

There's more

They think they are Middle Class

That's a laugh.

Politicians' Middle-Class Delusions

Jonathan Schwarz at Tom Paine:

In a New York Times profile last year, (Sen. Rick) Santorum moped about the difficulty of supporting his large family on his senatorial salary of $162,100:

''We live paycheck to paycheck, absolutely,'' he says. Does he have money set aside for college? ''No. None. I always tell my kids: 'Work hard. We'll take out loans. Whatever.'"

In fact, continued Santorum, his parents "send a check every now and then. They realize things are a little tighter for us.''

According to Santorum's 2005 financial disclosure documents, his parents recently did more then send a check: They gave him two condominiums near Penn State. And while his children may be sad about their lack of a college fund, hopefully they take solace in the fact their family now owns five condominiums total as investments—each valued between $100,000 and $250,000.

Then there's Leiberman

The day before the Connecticut primary, Joe Lieberman was getting down with the folks in a restaurant in Southington, a small town near Hartford. As the American Prospect reported, a longtime state employee named Paola Roy told Lieberman she felt the middle class has been forgotten by the federal government. Lieberman responded that he shared her concerns, and for good reason: “I came out of the middle class," he said, "and, being a senator, I haven’t gone much beyond the middle class.”

...Could anything better sum up the way American politicians seem to have relocated en masse to a new planet, and forgotten how things are back on Earth? In 2005, Lieberman and his wife Hadassah—a lobbyist at D.C. powerhouse Hill & Knowlton—together made $366,084. This places them securely in the top 1 percent of U.S. households. In fact, just the money they receive each year for supervising family trusts would likely put them in the middle quintile of American families. Moreover, they have financial assets —i.e., over and above their homes in Connecticut and Washington—worth somewhere between $465,000 and $1.9 million. The comparable amount for the average U.S. family is about $30,000.

And this is saying nothing of the perks... The healthcare benefits alone are enough for the real, Middle Class guy to sell his soul for.

As the commoners said during the English Revolution in the mid-1600s:

It will never be a good world, while Knights and Gentlemen makes us laws, that are chosen for fear, and do but oppress us, and do not know the people's sores. It will never be well with us till we have Parliaments of Country-men like ourselves, that know our wants.

Read the whole thing.

The answer is never...

The Question is: When will Bush admit the obvious about Iraq?

President Bush is confident of ultimate success in Iraq, and he is patiently waiting for its achievement. I'm certain that unicorns exist, and I'm willing to hang around till they show up in my yard. We may both be deluded, but my delusion is a good deal less costly than his.

In the 3 1/2 years we have been in Iraq, there have been few months worse than July. As someone said of the economy during the Carter administration, everything that should be going up is going down, and everything that should be going down is going up.

,,, Supporters of the administration warn that if we leave now, things will get far worse. That may be. But we are not going to remain in Iraq forever, and there is no reason to think the consequences of our departure will be any grimmer three or five or 10 years from now than they would be today.

Read the rest...

Robert Parry: Is Bush a Clear & Present Danger?

We all know the answer to that question.

Thanks to Consortium News:

...Bush became the perfect foil for Osama bin Laden and other Islamic extremists. By portraying themselves as defenders of Islam against the “big crusader” Bush, the extremists moved from the fringes of Muslim society closer to the mainstream.

...The longer the Iraq War lasted the better it was for al-Qaeda.

Osama's Ploy

So, in fall 2004, with Bush fighting for his political life in a tight race against Democrat John Kerry, bin Laden took the risk of breaking nearly a year of silence to release a videotape denouncing Bush on the Friday before the U.S. election.

The intervention by bin Laden – essentially urging Americans to reject Bush – had the predictable effect of driving voters to the President. After the videotape appeared, senior CIA analysts concluded that ensuring a second term for Bush was precisely what bin Laden intended.

(Ron) Suskind wrote that CIA analysts had spent years “parsing each expressed word of the al-Qaeda leader and his deputy, [Ayman] Zawahiri. What they’d learned over nearly a decade is that bin Laden speaks only for strategic reasons. … Today’s conclusion: bin Laden’s message was clearly designed to assist the President’s reelection.”

Jami Miscik, CIA deputy associate director for intelligence, expressed the consensus view that bin Laden recognized how Bush’s heavy-handed policies – such as the Guantanamo prison camp, the Abu Ghraib scandal and the war in Iraq – were serving al-Qaeda’s strategic goals for recruiting a new generation of jihadists.

“Certainly,” Miscik said, “he would want Bush to keep doing what he’s doing for a few more years.”

As their internal assessment sank in, the CIA analysts were troubled by the implications of their own conclusions. “An ocean of hard truths before them – such as what did it say about U.S. policies that bin Laden would want Bush reelected – remained untouched,” Suskind wrote.

Read all of the article. (It's worth your time.)

Lou Dobbs is becoming the patron saint of keeping the vote honest

At least as far as touchscreen machines go...

Tonight, Dobbs reporter and stand-in Kitty Pilgrim interviews Professor Avi Rubin about his new book and about the dangers of Direct Recording Electronic voting machines.

The full transcript of the report follows that .

Read the rest

The Rightwing Nuthouse: IRAQ: QUIT OR COMMIT

This is a right wing blog, by a Bush partisan...

The evidence that has been piling up the last three years against this Administration’s management of the war can no longer be dismissed as the rantings of dissatisfied bureaucrats or the partisan attacks of critics. Fiasco by Thomas Ricks, a respected military correspondent for the Washington Post, is an absolutely devastating account of the war and how the civilians (and some Generals) in the Pentagon not only made massive and continued mistakes in Iraq but also when confronted with the facts on the ground that refuted their rosy forecasts of progress, refused to change direction. This not only cost American lives but also helped the insurgency grow.

But perhaps the most damning record of stupidity and spin comes via the book Cobra II by Michael R. Gordon and General (Ret.) Bernard E. Trainor. Much of the book is a heartbreaking recitation of erroneous assumptions, overly optimistic assessments, and finally, a risible refusal to admit mistakes and change course.

Lest one think that these books are the products of left wing loons or authors suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome, the one common thread running through both volumes is the massive amount of research and unprecedented access to documents that went into writing them. To deny the reality of all that these authors have uncovered is too much of a stretch, even for a Bush partisan like myself. Facts are facts and if the Administration had confronted many of the problems – insurgency, militias, disenchanted populace, the extent of foreign assistance to the insurgents, and sectarian factionalism to name a few – it may be that a different outcome to the war could have been salvaged.

For as it stands now, we are at a psychological tipping point in Iraq where drastic measures are needed in order to turn the situation around and give the weak Iraqi government a chance to gain control. There are many hands raised against this government and as of right now, they are losing any semblance of legitimacy due to their powerlessness in the face of the massive violence that has been unleashed.

Read the whole post

Is August 22, the date of the Apocalypse?

We shall soon see...

August 22 is a day “some Shiite sects believe…could correspond to the end of the world.” That’s enough for neoconservatives to conclude Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have “chosen to launch the apocalypse” tomorrow.

It’s worth noting that a bipartisan group military experts believe there are no good military options against Iran.

Read the post

It's time to take away Israel's car keys.

That's what you would do for a friend who was too far gone to drive. Hell, you might just save his life.

So, what do you do for a previously honest, honorable and sober country that, unfortunately, has drunk a little too much of Shrub's kool-aid?

From No Quarter:

The last thing Israel needs now are a bunch of sycophants and fawning relatives telling it how great and good it is. They need to stop acting like adolescent fools and find the moral high ground they once occuppied. One key to Israel's longterm security is to solidify its reputation as a nation committed to law and the protection of human rights. When Israeli civilians were being blown up on buses and in market places during the Intifada, international public pressure forced Hamas and Hizbullah to shift away from suicide bombings.

When Israel acts with honor and restraint it has little difficulty portraying its enemies as crazy terrorists. But, when Israel lowers itself to the level of the terrorists, it is Israel, not the terrorists, who suffer. And let there be no doubt, Israel is suffering.

Read the rest of the post.

When asked what Iraq had to do with 9/11, Bush answers "Nothing"

AArrrrgh!!

Go HERE and read the post. Read the comments too.

Here's why we HAVE to elect a democrat house! (A democrat senate would be nice too.)

Reuel Marc Gerecht, a resident fellow at American Enterprise Institute, and an expert in Middle East affairs, opined after spending an intellectually challenging morning with the Shrub, that we will be dropping nuk-u-ler bombs on Iran just in time for the 2008 election.

GERECT: Well yeah it is conceivable you go down the road 12 or 18 months that the president will say nuclear weapons in the hands of the mullahs is simply unacceptable — as he said many times. And if in fact Lebanon contributes to the hardening of the American postion, then I would say that hezbollah actions in Lebanon were a great mistake.

But I thought Shrub said Hezbollah lost. Why would they have a continuing effect in a year or so, if they were defeated?

Isn't that refreshing? We have India, Pakistan, North Korea, China and a partridge in a pear tree with nukes, but Iran?? Oh, no.
Wonder if all that oil under Iran could have anything to do with it?
Nah!

Thanks to Think Progress (which see) for the link to the video of this brilliant pronouncement.
Read the comments too!

Avian Flu - WHO changes H5N1 strains for pandemic vaccines, raising concern over virus evolution.

Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, a leading pandemic preparedness expert, said recognition of the three subclades demonstrates how diverse the virus is and how dynamically it is evolving. He said the WHO notice is more important for the questions it raises than for the vaccine guidance it contains. "Does that mean H5N1 is closer to becoming an agent that can readily transmit human-to-human? That's the billion dollar question,"

Many experts who follow the ongoing analysis of the H5N1 virus sequences are alarmed at how fast the virus is evolving into an increasingly more complex network of clades and subclades, Osterholm said. The evolving nature of the virus complicates vaccine planning. He said if an avian influenza pandemic emerges, a strain-specific vaccine will need to be developed to treat the disease.

Read the release here

The author of 'Rumpole of the Bailey' wonders where Blair is getting his legal advise. Shrub perhaps?

Britain is in danger of "selling out to fascism" in the way it is dealing with the threat of terrorism, according to John Mortimer, the QC and popular author.

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which is sponsored by The Herald and Sunday Herald, the creator of the Rumpole of the Bailey series of books criticised the government's response to terrorism.

"The changes have put us back way before 1215 AD, Mr Blair has removed us back to the Dark Ages. God knows who advises him on legal matters: although he is very near to God apparently."

Yep, Shrub!

He also disapproved of the use of "summary justice" he felt was part of the government's legal policy.

"If you get the policemen being judge and jury then you've really sold out to fascism," Mortimer added.

Sounds like people all over the world have long since gotten Dubya's number, and in this country the awakening has only just begun.

From the Edenburgh 'Herald'

Paul Krugman and the wonderful, Everything Has Changed economic miracle.

From The Sideshow:

...not so long ago that Krugman was among the many who refused to credit the Clinton administration with having anything to do with the improved economic picture of the time. (Mind you, I'm not saying what Clinton did was all good by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I think a lot of it ranged from short-sighted to deplorable, and quite a bit of it set us up to be vulnerable under Bush's far more extreme push into oligarchy. For that matter, Bill Clinton is not the member of his administration who I think can really take credit for the good parts of the economy in the '90s - that honor goes to the guy who made the Internet into such a vast and important industry: Al Gore. But Clinton's willingness to rein in costs and earn us more money certainly helped a lot.)

However, as Krugman notes, there weren't any real gains for working people in general under Clinton, who was working against an increasingly conservative Congress during a period when anti-worker propaganda had been gaining ground. It's unclear what Al Gore, as he was then, would have done to prevent things from getting worse, but Gore's openness to technological problem-solving and his interest in alternative energy programs might have generated new industry that would have helped us rebuild our economic base.

But we never got to see that future, because Bush-Cheney took control instead, and consolidated the oligarchy's gains against ordinary people. Putting their ideology into practice, they have devastated our economy. It does matter who is in power.

The take away message here - Don't eat the seed corn. You're going to need it.

Read the post

Kristopherson - Anti-war song "In The News" free on the 'net

Go, listen.

Neil Young on Colbert Report

Thanks to 'Crooks and Liars'
Go to the site, follow links to the video.

Why we are lots less fun as we age...

Protein block that makes the old less able to adapt to the new

"THEY say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. And scientists have discovered why."

"Researchers at Harvard Medical School believe that they have found the biological mechanism that makes people become set in their ways as they get older. They have identified a protein that stops new neural connections forming in adult brains."

More

Emerson Lake & Palmer - They must be terrorists!

Musings of Greyhawk at Booman Tribune:

"Incredible as it may seem, profound evidence for prescience exists in song and music from Emerson, Lake and Palmer. In 1973, they wrote music including two songs that depict the "Carnival of Evil" reigning supreme throughout today's US Government: Karn Evil 9 - 1st Impression and Karn Evil 9 - First Impression, Part II illustrate the "presidencies" of George W. Bush and the neoconservative Republican cabal to a degree that even Stephen King would find eerily accurate."

"Join me now for a brief rundown of the song and music that is, in fact, the theme of today's GOP..."

More

Hypocrisy, thy name is Right Wing.

NSA case exposes blatant GOP hypocrisy

From, The Existentialist Cowboy

"The American right wing has said repeatedly, loudly, and belligerently that they favored strict constructionist judges, strict constructionist interpretations of the Constitution. Now that they've got a decision that is as strictly drawn upon the Constitution as any decision in recent memory, the right wing responds by trashing the judge —Judge Anna Diggs Taylor! They claim she was once married to a Democrat. A sin, I am sure! The Bush administration attacks on another front, lamely resorting to the 911 argument i.e., he's a "war President" and, presumably, the Constitution no longer applies."

The spirit of the decision is summed up in a single quotation from the decision:

"There are no hereditary Kings in America and no powers not created by the Constitution."

—Judge Anna Diggs Taylor

More

How do these people live with themselves?

I understand Shrub. He hasn't enough 'self' to be embarrassed. Just an empty suit. But the judges must have some intellegence, don't they?
Well, considering their records, I guess not.

"...two Republican judges - David B. Sentelle and Stephen F. Williams - ruled that the government can't go after the tobacco companies for past wrongs."

"Yes, THIS Sentelle and Williams. Ken Starr, Iran/Contra, warrantless wiretapping, Microsoft ... and a long list."

"All the tobacco and other corporate money, all the millions and millions spent funding the Right paid off, and has left us with this country and its culture of corruption that lets corporations rob from us - even kill us - with impunity."

It appears the Israeli public isn't overjoyed with the recent adventure , either.

James Wolcott:
This morning's Financial Times (reg. required) brings grim tidings for the Israeli leadership, numbers that correlate to Nasrallah's triumphant mug on the cover of the new Economist.

"In the early days of the conflict with Hizbollah, Ehud Olmert, prime minister, and Amir Peretz, defence minister – both of whom have little military experience in contrast to many previous Israeli leaders – saw their ratings rise.

"But Mr Olmert’s approval has fallen to 40 per cent from 78 per cent at the height of the war and Mr Peretz to 28 per cent from 61 per cent, according to a poll by TNS-Teleseker published on Wednesday."

Read the rest

Simbaud on Robert A. Heinlein and how to prevent terrorists.

During my formative years R.A.H. was by far my favorite author. And I often wondered how things would be, if, for some reason it really would become necessary for people to go about their business essentially nude. It seems we're not far from finding out!

"Many of our worthy counterparts at the right-wing blogs have gone on the record as vigorously proponents of the ethnic profiling of swarthy Middle Eastern males between the ages of 18 and 40. Now the standard terrorist profile has been expanded to include their moms, wives, and girlfriends; how will they address the emerging threat of brassierofascism?"

Heinlein, thou shouldst be living at this hour:

U.S. authorities are advising women not to wear gel bras on airplanes as information developed in the foiled London plot points to an expanding role for women in smuggling explosives on to an aircraft.

Read the post

Comics - Why, oh, why?

Steve Clemmons on the possible demise of Libertarian politics

He is commenting on the thoughts of Michael Lind:
"Lind not only pronounces the end of political libertarianism, but he also includes the demise of an activist, socialist left. To some degree, while the jury is still out that the Lamont win over Lieberman may prove more anomalous than trend-setting, a good deal of his support has come from a revived, passionate left whose ideals track closely with what Lind would characterize as the socialist left."

Clemmons says, "The real question about the libertarian movement is why so much of the libertarian crowd has been silent about the massive expansion of the state, of presidential authority, and the diminishment of "liberty" at home and abroad."

Good questions raised Read it

This is fantastic. Dubai's new Diamond Ring Hotel

What a wild design... Cycle through the pictures, and see what I mean.

Lou Dobbs and the voting machine fiasco, yet again.

CNN's Lou Dobbs: An Electronic Voting Machine Debacle In Ohio's 2006 Primary Election

Scientific Report Commissioned by County says Numbers Don't Match Up: 'The current election system, if left unchanged, contains significant threats'

OH Sec. of State's Response: 'The machines work. There is nothing wrong with the machines.'

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At least there are people looking out for us

The world's astronomers keep watch for 'Planet Killer' astroids.

"Experts say there are about 1,100 comets and asteroids in the inner solar system that are at least a half-mile across, and that any one of them could unleash a global cataclysm capable of killing millions in a single blinding flash. "

"On Thursday, the International Astronomical Union said it has set up a special task force to sharpen its focus on threats from such "near-Earth objects."

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Sounds like Israeli troops were overjoyed with their 'Victory'.

I think you will see more and more articles like this. Young men who put it on the line don't appreciate having their asses being left hanging in the breeze by old, inexperienced, chickenhawks.

CBS News:
"Israeli soldiers returning from the war in Lebanon say the army was slow to rescue wounded comrades and suffered from a lack of supplies so dire that they had to drink water from the canteens of dead Hezbollah guerrillas."

"We fought for nothing. We cleared houses that will be reoccupied in no time," said Ilia Marshak, a 22-year-old infantryman who spent a week in Lebanon. "

"Marshak said his unit was hindered by a lack of information, poor training and untested equipment. In one instance, Israeli troops occupying two houses inadvertently fired at each other because of poor communication between their commanders. "

"We almost killed each other,” he said. "We shot like blind people. ... We shot sheep and goats."

"In a nation mythologized for decisive military victories over Arab foes, the stalemate after a 34-day war in Lebanon has surprised many. "

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But Mulder and Scully never had computer problems!

Wherein Booman tells us about the trials and tribulations of computing at the FBI.

"Most employees had no PCs, now that is just insane. And shared terminals just to access the internet and e-mail?! Uploading documents to the system taking 12 steps?! Was it drunk? At a time when high-end processing behemoths can be purchased for a few hundred bucks, coupled with the purchasing power of an agency the size and power of the FBI, you'd think that they could spring for a CPU for each employee who needed one. And has the FBI never heard of drag-and-drop? I think it took two hours for me to teach my in their 60s parents how to do certain functions having to do with email, certainly the best and brightest this country has to offer can figure a way to upload a .pdf quicker than a 12 step program."

"So the FBI hired Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) to do the $170M job. And after many months, in 2003, it was finally ready to be looked at by Zalmai Azmi, then an advisor to Director Robert Mueller and currently the technology chief of the FBI. And it was bad. Azmi had Aerospace Corp. have a look at it and see if it could be saved. "

From the WaPo article:
"In a 318-page report, completed in January 2005 and obtained by The Post under the Freedom of Information Act, Aerospace said the SAIC software was incomplete, inadequate and so poorly designed that it would be essentially unusable under real-world conditions. Even in rudimentary tests, the system did not comply with basic requirements, the report said. It did not include network-management or archiving systems -- a failing that would put crucial law enforcement and national security data at risk, according to the report."

"So where in the hell does that leave the FBI now? Well, with new computers [yay!] but no new system. With the death of Trilogy [the name of the SAIC system], the FBI commissioned Lockheed Martin Corp. to create a new system by 2009. The new system, Sentinel, will cost $425M."

"2009. That's two full election cycles of false terror alerts."

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We have to stop by 'No Quarter' for this one.

I love the way Larry weaves all the strands together in a thousand words to provide us with a clear look at an ugly truth. These idiots are destroying our country, and it will probably take 50 years to fix all that they have ruined. And that's assuming that it can be fixed at all.


Bush's Weapon of Mass Deception

--the plotters had not yet actually prepared or mixed a potential explosive. More importantly, they did not have a working prototype of a viable explosive charge that would pass muster at a screening checkpoint. The British plotters reportedly did have hydrogen peroxide. Big deal. Go to your local drug store and you too can buy some. Hydrogen peroxide is not an explosive and there is no easy, safe way to make an explosive with it. The plotters in Britain still had alot of work to do in order to carry out their plot.

Second, no evidence has emerged that the group had purchased tickets or even had passports that would allow them to board a plane to the United States. How exactly were they supposed to bomb planes that they could not even board.

As Keith Olberman showed the other night, the Bush Administration has been zealous about trotting out bogus threats when there is political bad news afoot. If I'm right about this latest incident, Keith Olberman has a new item to add to his list of ten.

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