28 November 2004
stonewall, obfuscate, and hide
This guy voted for Bush, and hates John Kerry... and, I gotta say... I'm shocked.
Moral of the story - don't tell the NCAA anything, let them figure it out themselves. If that sounds dishonest, well, honesty buys you nothing with this group. Stonewall, obfuscate, and hide as much as you can. I won't do you any good to be honest.
25 November 2004
24 November 2004
23 November 2004
Dolphins are officially the coolest animals on the planet
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Reuters) - A pod of dolphins circled protectively round a group of New Zealand swimmers to fend off an attack by a great white shark, media reported on Tuesday.
Lifesavers Rob Howes, his 15-year-old daughter Niccy, Karina Cooper and Helen Slade were swimming 300 feet off Ocean Beach near Whangarei on New Zealand's North Island when the dolphins herded them -- apparently to protect them from a shark.
"They started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us," Howes told the New Zealand Press Association (NZPA).
Howes tried to drift away from the group, but two of the bigger dolphins herded him back just as he spotted a nine-foot great white shark swimming toward the group.
"I just recoiled. It was only about 2 meters away from me, the water was crystal clear and it was as clear as the nose on my face," Howes said, referring to a distance of six feet.
"They had corralled us up to protect us," he said.
The lifesavers spent the next 40 minutes surrounded by the dolphins before they could safely swim back to shore. The incident happened on October 30, but the lifesavers kept the story to themselves until now.
Environment group Orca Research said dolphins attacked sharks to protect themselves and their young, so their actions in protecting the lifesavers was understandable.
"They could have sensed the danger to the swimmers and taken action to protect them," Orca's Ingrid Visser told NZPA.
sleep tight
"There is no question in my mind that there are suicide bombers in the U.S., but they don't want to do anything yet because they want to wait to make a statement and hit us hard."
- Jerome Hauer c/o Washington Square News
democracy under assault
'Stinking Evidence' of Possible Election Fraud Found in Florida
"On the porch was a garbage bag," Bev said, "and so I looked in it and, and lo and behold, there were public record tapes." Thrown away. Discarded. Waiting to be hauled off. "It was technically stinking, in fact," Bev added, "because what they had done was to have thrown some of their polling tapes, which are the official records of the election, into the garbage. These were the ones signed by the poll workers. These are something we had done an official public records request for."
When the elections officials inside realized that the people outside were going through the trash, they called the police and one came out to challenge Bev. Kathleen Wynne, a www.blackboxvoting.org investigator, was there
"We caught the whole thing on videotape," she said. "I don't think you'll ever see anything like this - Bev Harris having a tug of war with an election worker over a bag of garbage, and he held onto it and she pulled on it, and it split right open, spilling out those poll tapes. They were throwing away our democracy, and Bev wasn't going to let them do it."
"I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President next year." - Wally O'Dell, CEO Diebold
Clear Channel propagandizing for Bush
A billboard recently put up in Orlando bearing a smiling photograph of President Bush with the words “Our Leader” is raising eyebrows among progressives who feel the poster is akin to that of propaganda used by tyrannical regimes.
RAW STORY confirmed the billboard’s existence Monday evening. At our behest, a member of an Orlando media organization drove past the billboard on two occasions and verified that it was indeed the one pictured.
The billboard pictured, which is on I-4, says that it is a “political public service message brought to you by Clear Channel Outdoor.”
The member, who declined to be named out of concern for their employer, discovered a second billboard bearing the same image along the same route, paid for by Charles W. Clayton Jr.
The Clear Channel-sponsored billboard was not lit up for drivers Monday evening. The Clayton billboard was.
Clear Channel Outdoor Orlando said they could not respond to requests for comment this week because their press person was “away.” They referred calls to their San Antonio corporate parent, which did not return two messages for comment.
22 November 2004
DOJ sells out another reporter
CNN.com - Reporter convicted of contempt
A Providence, Rhode Island, television reporter was convicted of criminal contempt Thursday for refusing to say who gave him an FBI videotape showing a city official taking a bribe. Jim Taricani, of WJAR, is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres on December 9. The undercover tape was aired prominently and repeatedly by the station. Taricani faces up to six months in prison.So, when does Novak go to jail?
how to create terrorists: part MCDXVII
CNN cameraman Kevin Sites, has written an open letter to the Marine unit in which he was embedded during the recent 'sweep' through Fallujah (for background, MSNBC has this).
(excerpt)
One can only wonder how many more similar occurences have taken place since we sent America's finest young men and women to fight in Iraq. These soldiers, many of them KIDS, are fighting against people whose perspective they are thoroughly unprepared to understand. "Officially", we brought war on Iraq to 'liberate' it's people from Saddam... but with every mistake like this one, we undermine our ability to succeed LONG TERM by amplifying an already fervent anti-American sentiment. Unofficially, our actions in Iraq validate the rhetoric of actual terrorists... and THAT does not keep you safe. Worse than that, I'm not conviced that the architects of this war really care....We hear gunshots from what seems to be coming from inside the mosque. A Marine from my squad yells, "Are there Marines in here?"
When we arrive at the front entrance, we see that another squad has already entered before us.
The lieutenant asks them, "Are there people inside?"
One of the Marines raises his hand signaling five.
"Did you shoot them," the lieutenant asks?
"Roger that, sir, " the same Marine responds.
"Were they armed?" The Marine just shrugs and we all move inside.
Immediately after going in, I see the same black plastic body bags spread around the mosque. The dead from the day before. But more surprising, I see the same five men that were wounded from Friday as well. It appears that one of them is now dead and three are bleeding to death from new gunshot wounds. The fifth is partially covered by a blanket and is in the same place and condition he was in on Friday, near a column. He has not been shot again. I look closely at both the dead and the wounded. There don't appear to be any weapons anywhere.
"These were the same wounded from yesterday," I say to the lieutenant. He takes a look around and goes outside the mosque with his radio operator to call in the situation to Battalion Forward HQ.
I see an old man in a red kaffiyeh lying against the back wall. Another is face down next to him, his hand on the old man's lap -- as if he were trying to take cover. I squat beside them, inches away and begin to videotape them. Then I notice that the blood coming from the old man's nose is bubbling. A sign he is still breathing. So is the man next to him.
While I continue to tape, a Marine walks up to the other two bodies about fifteen feet away, but also lying against the same back wall.
Then I hear him say this about one of the men:
"He's fucking faking he's dead -- he's faking he's fucking dead."
Through my viewfinder I can see him raise the muzzle of his rifle in the direction of the wounded Iraqi. There are no sudden movements, no reaching or lunging.
However, the Marine could legitimately believe the man poses some kind of danger. Maybe he's going to cover him while another Marine searches for weapons.
Instead, he pulls the trigger. There is a small splatter against the back wall and the man's leg slumps down.
"Well he's dead now," says another Marine in the background.
I am still rolling. I feel the deep pit of my stomach. The Marine then abruptly turns away and strides away, right past the fifth wounded insurgent lying next to a column. He is very much alive and peering from his blanket. He is moving, even trying to talk. But for some reason, it seems he did not pose the same apparent "danger" as the other man -- though he may have been more capable of hiding a weapon or explosive beneath his blanket.
But then two other marines in the room raise their weapons as the man tries to talk.
For a moment, I'm paralyzed still taping with the old man in the foreground. I get up after a beat and tell the Marines again, what I had told the lieutenant -- that this man -- all of these wounded men -- were the same ones from yesterday. That they had been disarmed treated and left here.
At that point the Marine who fired the shot became aware that I was in the room. He came up to me and said, "I didn't know sir-I didn't know." The anger that seemed present just moments before turned to fear and dread.
The wounded man then tries again to talk to me in Arabic.
He says, "Yesterday I was shot... please... yesterday I was shot over there -- and talked to all of you on camera -- I am one of the guys from this whole group. I gave you information. Do you speak Arabic? I want to give you information."
because they're smart
The Washington Post opposes the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General.
Read the full editorial here.
America's failing schools
Only a Third Believe Darwin's Evolution Theory
Furthermore, forty-five percent "also believe that God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago. A third of Americans are biblical literalists who believe that the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word."
20 November 2004
18 November 2004
operation eliminate smart people
I haven't really posted my own thoughts on the ravaging occuring over at CIA... yet. I've been grappling with how to adequately express (as even-handedly as physically possible) how much this bothers me... but its starting to look like I'm the only person on the frickin planet who hasn't already said something about it. Maybe I'll just throw down these thoughts, and then post the all the articles that I saved... and be done with it.
I think it's outrageous. I think it affects everyone... short term and long term. At the same time it's a glimpse into the looking glass of the how Bush administration intends to conduct business during its second term; more my way or the highway stuff.
The "purge of the possibly soon-to-be disloyal" deals a major blow to intelligent decision-making. Certainly these folks could have helped prevent many bad decisions from occuring in the first place. But the administration’s problem here is its approach, which generally does not embrace an environment conducive to debating issues. Decisions often seem to just get made… period. End of discussion. That's a pretty poor framework for intelligent decision-making.
As best I can tell their replacements have been chosen based on 2 factors: 'how close are they to the President?' and 'how loyal will they remain if things go bad?'. Rarely has the Bush administration replaced outgoing members of it's administration with officials based on qualifications or merit. I find that disturbing.
I titled this "operation eliminate smart people", because hey, when in doubt be as direct as possible and call something exactly what it what it is. 'Operation purge dissent', 'operation eradicate intelligence', and 'curtail dissent' all sounded too simple, or too gratuitous, or just hackneyed to the point that they had no effect. By now the purge itself is no mystery... but the marginalization of these same people began long ago. Most probably back to the first day of the Bush administration.
Look, terrorism was Clinton's problem, and from the Bush cabinet's perspective the nature of the threat from bin laden was overstated... right up until 9/11 happened. Terrorism didn't make it into the Bush administration's inner circle because they were interested in invading Iraq. They say so themselves. But that doesn't mean that people weren't working to hunt down al qaeda long before January 20th, 2001. Why do you think these guys are quitting?
Bush and company's systematic disposal of employees who don 't parrot political messages, flawed as many [read: most] of them are, is happening because these people remain an unmitigable risk for the Bush administration. There have been too many opportunities for intelligence officials to contradict public statements made by the President... whether it involves Iraq, WMD, al qaeda, whatever.
This week the sharp end of the loyalty sword has cut through the CIA. The new director of intelligence has told his workforce at Langley:
"We support the Administration and its policies in our work. As Agency employees we do not identify with, support, or champion opposition to the Administration or its policies. We provide the intelligence as we see it - and let the facts alone speak to the policymaker." [via War and Piece]
That's pretty straight forward.
Which agency is next is anyone's guess… fear is that next week, or sometime in the not-too-distant future, similar things will occur at State. More cutting will occur though, you can count on that. The Bush administration has a bad habit of looking for creative new ways to deal with whistleblowers.
We played a lot of games and stretched a lot of facts to to legitimize the war in Iraq in the first place. And Saddam never struck me personally as threat that warranted the extent of destruction that we've already seen. America was told that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction... and that the use of these weapons by Saddam Hussein's regime, or the threat of the transfer of these weapons to terrorists constituted an emerging threat, unlike the type of threat that traditional rules of war were formulated to address. Namely, that YOU (if you're an American citizen) were directly impacted by this threat, and that by not dealing with it you may find yourself in peril. So it was incumbent upon the President to address this threat... preemptively... or else a mushroom cloud might appear over some city, somewhere sometime, which may or may not kill hundreds of thousands of people. When that didn't work we figured we'd better be liberating Iraqis instead.
The problem? Seems to me reality in Iraq didn't materialize the way those who pushed so hard had expected. All of their screaming from the proverbial mountaintops about how Bill Clinton was so delinquent with his means of dealing with Iraq proved to be hollow, venomous, and barely more than partisan rhetoric. Rather than admit that they were wrong, they chose this route: 'blame the cia, claim the agency is in turmoil and then overhaul it in our favor'. That's the appearance anyway.
This makes it easy for the Bush administration to exact revenge against many of the same folks who could have warned the administration before or during our march to war that: a) the weapons weren't there, or b) the War on Terror doesn't point to Iraq, or c) our military is stretched too thin, or perhaps most importantly d) our actions in Iraq are contributing to an increased threat of terrorism against Americans; the actual threat to you.
Sorry for sounding so... whatever... but we must allow for honest dialogue to take place between competing points of view, especially when making decisions about issues that affect so many people, not just Americans. If we don't we're going to see a hell of a lot more mistakes like the ones we've already seen.
Of immediate concern to me is how are these new people going to help fix the mess in Iraq? And I'm concerned that they're about to sidetrack themselves, again.
--------------------------------------------------------
CIA Official Challenges Agency on Terrorism: LATimes
CIA whistleblower sees 'long war': BBCNews
Deputy Chief Resigns From CIA: WashingtonPost.com
CIA plans to purge its agency: Newsday.com
Two Top CIA Officials Quit Amid Revolt at Spy Agency: My Way News
C.I.A. Shakeup Continues as 2 Senior Officials Quit: The New York Times
Purging the disloyal at the CIA: Salon.com Politics
CIA veterans clash with new chief: MSNBC
It's war: the CIA vs Bush: The Australian
An internal war at the CIA: Christian Science Monitor
Goss Isn't Done With Housecleaning at CIA: LATimes
CIA staff told to avoid politics: BBC NEWS
the text of the DCI’s Statement to the Workforce: War and Piece
PORTER GOSS' STATEMENT TO THE WORKFORCE: The Washington Note Archives
prewar iraq "intelligence" report
The U.S. Senate Committee on Intelligence has (oddly) decided to publish their report on the the intelligence community's pre-war intelligence assessments on Iraq. Here are the report's conclusions.
16 November 2004
the great divide... go check it out
haven't read the book, (until today I hadn't even heard about it)... regardless, it's definitely worth reading what's there. Here's their press release.
15 November 2004
Atlantis... discovered?
Robert Sarmast says 'definitely'. He's the lead explorer who found evidence of an ancient civilization buried under the Mediterranean Sea, halfway between Cyprus and Syria.
BBC has more here.
powell resigning
Not unexpected, but still pretty sucky. Our government could use a few more men like Powell.
...well, except for that embarassment-in-front-of-the-UN thing.
'mapping the election'
Tom Engelhardt over at MotherJones.com pulled together this piece [Mapping the Election]... a nice compilation of the various Election 2004 maps, including this one covering just 18-29 yr old voters.
14 November 2004
13 November 2004
1984 redux
High school students pose threat to President with Dylan lyrics
for what it's worth, I don't think Jesus will forgive him either...
12 November 2004
what comes after
outrage fatigue?
Cause that's where I am right now. Just not feeling very much like blogging lately.
AHA! I know what I'll do... I'll cheer myself up by spending a few minutes trying to drop a brain into George's head.
why Josh Marshall doesn't get paid enough
Check out this morning's post (early this morning) about Robert Blackwell, former Iraqi policy director at NSC and his new association with the lobbying firm BGR. Apparently he, much like former FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, will be focusing his attention on making lots of dough, now that we've "liberated" Iraq.
the new Firefox browser
Go download it... you won't be sorry. It's pretty damn cool.
Also, if you use Bloglines like I do, then check out the Bloglines: Firefox Center for the latest extensions.
Arafat... poisoned?
Jordanian doctor, Ashraf al-Kurdi, says it's quite likely. More, along with coverage of the funeral, here
10 November 2004
Alberto Gonzales: tough on crime (or... not)
from FT.com
"Mr Gonzales has also been at the centre of other high-profile disputes, including efforts to bar top White House officials from testifying before the commission that investigated the September 11 attacks, and the investigation into whether White House officials wrongly leaked the name of a CIA operative."So, let's see if I understand this correctly. Our nation's top prosecutor: 1) doesn't believe in honoring international law and thinks the Geneva Convention is "quaint", 2) provided legal counsel to Enron, 3) staunchly supports the continued secrecy of Cheney's Energy Policy Task Force, despite the Supreme Court's interest in the issue, 4) worked to protect White House officials from testifying to the 9/11 Commission, 5) worked to shield White House officials from the Plame investigation. I'm sure some people are happy about Gonzales' nomination, but I'm certainly not one of them. I think he's a paid-off legal loyalist, and a scourge to the rule of law and justice. Period.
BLOCK HIM IN CONFIRMATION
BBC: Bush 'picks new attorney general'
oh... and what he said.
oh#2... forgot that he was also once General Counsel for Enron, and participated in energy policy meetings.
There you have it folks. A major win for Cheney's Energy Policy Task Force... and a major obstacle for anyone investigating corruption, conficts of interest, and/or straight up fraud with intent to bilk the energy market for a short term gain. I'm sure that Grandma Millie is pissed right about now.
oh no
no no no no no
The man behind all the President's bad decisions, from Gitmo to Abu Ghraib, is the front runner to be the new Attorney General.
the JURIST'S Paper Chase has more about Gonzalez here.
The man behind all the President's bad decisions, from Gitmo to Abu Ghraib, is the front runner to be the new Attorney General.
the JURIST'S Paper Chase has more about Gonzalez here.
sorry World
but you're getting 4 more years of this. And no... we're not thrilled either.
photo courtesy of sorryeverybody.com
photo courtesy of sorryeverybody.com
bad news for...
spammers. Cool, now they can bother their cell mates about Viagra, Vioxx, hair growth treatment, or refinancing.
ya don't say
According to Jim Warren (deputy managing editor, Chicago Tribune), one of his 'best childhood friends' was Bill Kristol (managing editor, The Weekly Standard). Hmmmm, who knew?
update: this is interesting
liberation hypocrisy
Sunday's Washington Post has this editorial about the genocidal violence that's been occurring in Darfur, Sudan for years with (until recently) little or no international attention. In this case innocent civilians are being killed en masse by radical fundamentalist Islamic militias supported by the Sudanese government.
Based on our rationale for the war in Iraq, this presents a quandry for the Bush administration. Did we go to war to liberate the Iraqi people? Was it about ending a state that supports terrorism? Was it about oil? The situation in Sudan involves ALL of these things, so it seems pretty hypocritical that we sit on our hands while scores of Sudanese civilians are killed or displaced by precisely the kind of people we should be targeting in the "War on Terror".
Have we lost our priorities? Is our military stretched too thin? Or does political haymaking trump the lives of Sudanese men, women and children?
05 November 2004
Prepare to be liberated
bitches!
Earlier today, residents said U.S. planes dropped leaflets urging women and children to leave the city
Today's Disinfopedia factoid
on the military-industrial complex:
Each major element of the George Walker Bush administration's national security strategy -- from the doctrines of preemptive strikes and "regime change" in Iraq, to its aggressive nuclear posture and commitment to deploying a Star Wars-style missile defense system -- was developed and refined before the Bush administration took office, at corporate-backed conservative think tanks like the Center for Security Policy, the National Institute for Public Policy and the Project for a New American Century.
Unilateralist ideologues formerly affiliated with these think tanks, along with the 32 major administration appointees who are former executives with, consultants for, or significant shareholders of top Defense contractors, are driving U.S. foreign and military policy.
may as well bring this back to the top
editoriale: regime change for iran... to remind everyone of what's in store for the next 4 years. YAY! More wars!
from the 'sleep tight files'
The Australian: Terrorists threaten 'unbearable hell'
Nice going red state yahoos.
want the answer?
Q: Was Grover Norquist working for Islamic terrorists?
A: seemingly, and rapidly approaching 'probably'
related note: I encourage everyone to read the full text of Abdurahman Alamoudi's indictment, originally posted in June. It is revealing.
stating the obvious
I love Josh Marshall... I think he's a brilliant, insightful and invaluable reporter... but this post about the GOP's campaign tactics does little more than state what has been plainly obvious to me for a long time. From a GOP campaign perspective, this is all you need to know, and it's been no mystery that this is their approach to winning the hearts and minds of American voters:
"Tear the country apart. And once it's broken, our chunk will be bigger."
The only question I had was: could this calculated devisiveness be as effective as they had hoped it would be? Or would people finally begin to see through the fog and realize that they're being played? Obviously it worked. And don't think for a moment that it's going to get better from this point. Karl Rove has been positively reinforced... and the American voting public proved they were about as informed as I expected (not very). Karl lowered America's expectations of their President, and an underwhelming perfomer won his reelection bid as a result. Expect 4 more years of rhetoric, wedge issues, and an even more divided electorate in 2008, because what Bush plans to accomplish in this 2nd term will make his first term look sterile.
03 November 2004
so much for the hope for...
rational governing. We've got a mandate for culture war instead, at least according to Andrew Sullivan. I agree.
Today is JUST BE GLAD YOU'RE DONE WITH YOUR APPLICATION day
it's also the End of the World as we know it... but we're gonna try and forget about that for a while.
some mandate
No More Mister Nice Blog has this rundown of previously successful incumbents. Check it out. The short version: In the history of successful incumbent Presidents, none has ever won by so small a margin. But we're about to start hearing about a Bush 'mandate'.... ?
can Dems heal and move on?
reading this from Josh Marshall may help... or, maybe it won't. Who knows?
I do know this though, the Bush administration has (from their perspective) taken from this election the belief that they've received a mandate from America to continue pushing their backwards, outdated agendas. With more than 50% of the vote, and a stronger Republican majority in both houses of Congress, there isn't much chance that anyone can stop them.
Enjoy the next 4 years, America. You're about to get what you asked for, I hope you like it.
Diebold's Political Machine
Diebold's Political Machine
"I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year"
today is TAKE BACK YOUR COUNTRY day
regretfully, it's also still finish your damn application day. But some things are more important.