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Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
| Time |
Event |
| 12:06a |
Little humor
Little Britain
What I don’t think has been emphasised enough is that Little Britain is essentially queer humour with universal appeal, in the same sense that Monty Python was Oxbridge humour with universal appeal.
Ben Courtice et. al. (Write On, GLW #665) write that “we don't see why men in bad drag giggling 'Ooooh, I'm a lady’ is funny…” In at least some male queer circles, this has become a piss-take of a certain type of gay man who is being a bit pretentious and precious.
The “bad drag” is deliberate. The character is a tragic-comic figure, desiring to be gorgeous, but with obviously the “wrong” gender, “wrong” age and “wrong” fashion sense. The empowering sense of the humour comes from the fact that “we” understand this humour: we get the joke. Those in other social circles may just not get it — in much the same way that an older generation just didn’t get Monty Python.
Dale Mills
Chippendale, NSW
Not much fun in Petrograd | | 12:43a |
The Ex files '...Capitalism is self-perpetuating and self-preserving. Getting rid of it needs a popular struggle for a new social system, not an expose to stun and shock the establishment into amending their ways. Conspiracy theories are a diversion which only promote reforming the system (and thus prolonging it). Fans of conspiracy should stick to the X-files or John le Carre. Ben Courtice Footscray Vic http://www.greenleft.org.au/2002/484/28632So we should 1) Nationalize industries 2) Raise taxes 3) Support striking workers on 80k a year, many of whose kids are being sent to private schools. These are all positions advocated by Ben in the recent past. I guess fighting for peace really is like fucking for chastity. But darling, as far as I know John Le Carre never dabbled in conspiracy theory and has very little if anything to with the X-files. Fans of conspiracy theory that are Marxists is surely the most natural thing in the world. ( See post below on the Palmerston conspiracy) Its true Marx and Engels did call for abolishing the distinction between city and country. Then Lenin and Trotsky took great strides in doing this with a terror famine in the early 1920's. This technique would later be ramped up and named the Holodomor, while the Marxist-Leninists in Cambodia abolished living in cities alltogether in a 'Great Leap Forward' known as Year Zero. Ben Courtice sounds just like a Marxist, in a way, with his call for abolishing the distinction between reasoned commentary and inane babbling. I know, I know. Just because Marx did not have to deal with radioactive waste or the greenhouse effect doesn't mean his ideas and approach have no relevance to modern environmental terrorist nutcases like Ben Courtice. Thats my point actually. There are those who find these sorts of debates about rival Marxist cults as tedious as medieval debates about the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin. The terminal boredom and ennui can often lead to self-destructive behaviours such as smoking, using solariums, taking horse tranquilizers, practicing unsafe sex, making up alternative histories and complete lies, screaming insults at complete strangers, breaking up meetings, frightening small children and so on em nauseum. In old uncle Bens case it seems to have led directly through dementia and senility to parliamentary imbecility. In a sort of downunder Tijuana donkey show Ben then somehow managed to increase the lunatic red-fascist vote in Gellibrand. Its possible Ben overlooked the advertising space left vacant on his forehead. But with some of his friends in the mighty Socialist alliance couldn't he could always point to the shattering effects of acid-rain on naturally forested hilltops? Prince Charles might join! This would have been the mother of all fear campaigns... but sadly it looks like it was past time for Benjis afternoon nap. Ozleft provides a rough guide to the roller-coaster and ghost-train ride of these loopy-left DSP sects over the years. I don't generally approve of keeping files on people but we have to make exceptions for psychopaths. | | 1:04a |
Is Ben Courtice a coprophile?
Foul language
Ben Courtice (GLW # 310) misconstrues the central thrust of my denunciation of the use of foul language in Green Left.
Secular language is welcome, indeed necessary in a socialist publication. Socialists should seek to break down all religious teaching which calls on its devotees to passively accept the world as it is and wait for a better life after death.
But this is skirting the issue. It is not the swearing which necessarily offends. Being offended by swearing is not the point. The point was, and is, if one swears during an argument, one will lose the argument. It is as simple as that.
Those who swear while arguing cannot advance their argument. Once you swear, you are automatically disqualified from participating any further in the debate. I contend that Green Left in its entirety is an argument for socialism, and we cannot afford to disqualify ourselves from such an important debate.
Adam Baker
Wellington Point Qld
[Abridged.] The last supper
Coprophilia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
... a subset of 12 men from that study who engaged in bestiality was analyzed and found that 54.5% of the 12 men had engaged in coprophilic behaviors...like Ben Coprophage? Inquiring minds want to know.
The Cops logorrhea update - REVIEW BY BEN COURTICE. GEELONG — Local band Magic Dirt have produced a brilliant album of dreamy but catchy pop-leaning songs. 'Magic Dirt'...Mmm-kay | | 1:24a |
Fuck off all you cunts Their roots connect them Every so often GLW's letters column has some real gems. Last issue's (GLW #310) letter from Ben Courtice was brilliant in favour of the free speech right to swear as much as any speaker likes. Those who don't agree -- F#@% off, as Oasis would say. Chris Beale Sydney A link to the swearing Ema Corro post is here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTifRi3qDkU&feature=relatedDerek And Clive - This Bloke Came Up to me | | 1:42a |
Benji the haunted 30 something Stephen Jolly wannabe seeks fellow dilettante's , twits and losers for camping trips up shit creek Courtice uses the ' State-cap' sneer as he defends Cuba's state-capitalism. Then... Ben Courtice [“British Labour on record”] (GLW #333) borrows a “conspiracy theory” from the RCG, a British Stalinist sect apt to define almost everyone as “labour aristocracy”, to explain the British Labour Party. “The privileged craft union workers”, “an upper stratum of the working class”, have been “bought off by the capitalists”. So, for 90-odd years, capitalism in Britain has not exploited workers, but bribed them! Bribed the majority, not just a few: Labour has had its main base in the mass “unskilled” or “semi-skilled” unions. Lenin described the bourgeois character of the ALP as determined by its base of “Liberal English workers”. The British Labour Party has had a similar base. Throughout this century most of Britain's organised workers have been reformist. Because of that, they have left their party in the hands of trade-union bureaucrats and parliamentary careerists who turn the party against their struggles. We must denounce those leaders. Standing in elections against Labour may sometimes help. But it is not enough for small groups to proclaim themselves the real workers' representatives and denounce pro-Labour workers as bribed. Marxists must be with Labour workers in their reform struggles, to develop and learn from those struggles, and revolutionise the labour movement from within. Martin Thomas Graceville Qld '...Lenin wrote his book for one such debate with the so-called “left communists”, whose ideas had particular influence in Germany, but also in Italy, England and France. Often coming from a background of anarchism, the “left communist” current posited several basic principles: abstention from participation in the bourgeois parliamentary system; withdrawal from the class-collaborationist trade unions (and the founding of revolutionary ones); no compromises with the bourgeoisie and their governments. Lenin was firmly against these three principles. ..' FROM http://www.greenleft.org.au/1999/384/18134`Left Wing' Communism -- An Infantile Disorder By V.I Lenin Sydney: Resistance Books, 1999 149 pp., 10.95 Review by Ben Courtice Drawing on the historical experiences of the Bolsheviks, Lenin argued that it was necessary to explain communist politics in every forum available -- including bourgeois parliaments and reactionary trade unions. Since masses of unpoliticised workers looked (and still look!) to these bodies, it was necessary for communists to utilise them as a medium for explaining their politics. In their rhetorical fervour, the left communists declared parliament to be “politically obsolete”. Lenin pointed out that this was hardly so when millions of workers remained counter-revolutionary and looking to the parliamentary centre for political leadership. In the case of the argument for “no compromises”, Lenin made a pleasingly common sense reply: compromise can be necessary to live and fight another day; compromise can mean exploiting differences among one's enemies to play them off against one another. These are legitimate considerations for communist tacticians. On the other hand, Lenin was very careful to distinguish these compromises from those of the opportunists who seek to make compromise their raison d'être. It is necessary to continue to criticise the adversary one is reaching a compromise with; to do otherwise would risk misleading the workers whom the communists aim to reach and lead. One can still see the relevance of this argument in the case of the East Timorese liberation movement: many on the left criticised the call for UN troops to defend East Timorese on the basis that it would “sow illusions” in imperialism, and thus compromise the liberation movement. Lenin counterposes “a compromise enforced by objective conditions ... which in no way minimises the revolutionary devotion and readiness to carry on the struggle” and “a compromise by traitors who try to ascribe to objective causes their self interest”. This new edition of `Left Wing' Communism contains two addenda -- the July 1920 Comintern theses on “The Communist Parties and Parliamentarism”, which adopted and expanded on Lenin's line, and Leon Trotsky's 1922 article for the Comintern “On the United Front”. This latter article, directed particularly at the French situation, contains a useful exposition of the communist concept of the united front -- which Lenin was also advocating in his book, in an earlier form. Communists should make alliances with other (opportunist and reformist) forces, the argument was, not simply out of practical necessity, but in order to demonstrate the superiority of the communists' politics in practice. The volume is introduced by Doug Lorimer, who gives a useful synopsis of the political method behind Lenin's specific arguments -- winning over the politically advanced working-class activists, then with this group beginning the process of winning over broader masses of workers. Altogether this is a very useful edition, bringing together four edifying articles on tactics for socialists. It is rightfully remembered as one of Lenin's most important texts -- combining sharp, and still relevant, polemic, with a very readable summary of the tactics used by the party that led the first successful workers' revolution...' Benji argued that it was necessary to mangle communist politics in every forum available -- including bourgeois parliaments and reactionary trade unions in 1999. | | 1:53a |
Necrophilia with Mummy
Not selling out yet
17 July 1996
Roots
Sepultura
Roadrunner Records
Reviewed by Ben Courtice
I suppose quite a few reviewers must have had a bit of a scratch of the scalp whilst trying to describe Sepultura's latest album. No longer do they play the straight "speed" or "death" metal that they began with in the 1980s.
I would say that they have improved from their earlier days of thrashed speed riffs and fantasy/horror theme lyrics, fun though the earlier albums were. Arise marked a definite pinnacle of that 1980s-vintage style: high speed guitar licks and riffs pouring out, overlaid with vicious, lashing vocals and pitter-patter drums.
Come the '90s, they have changed sounds somewhat. Now that "alternative" music is all the rage, straight-out technical speed isn't so interesting. Texture, diversity and the unusual are more "in". Perhaps a bigger gain is the apparent increase in social awareness among these "alternative" musicians.
Sepultura have (wittingly or not) kept up with developments. The new album has changed markedly from even their previous Chaos AD (1993). Chaos AD featured less speed and more power-riffing; this album has almost given up riffs altogether in some parts, featuring far less melody, but more texture. There are some really wicked grind sounds in the guitars and voice (especially in the title track!), but most noticeable is the percussion section: traditional Indian drums from Sepultura's native Brazil are drafted in for a slightly weird (but pleasing) rhythmic thrash sludge sound.
The album has not lost any of the brutality and aggression of earlier albums. If anything, this (major) aspect of the music is more intense, even if the slower pace at first belies it. Roots is not generally as catchy, except for the more experimental tracks: "Ratamahatta" (sung in Portuguese; I don't know what it's about) and "Itsari". "Itsari" is an interesting groove, recorded in Brazil's Mato Grosso with the Xavante tribe performing a traditional healing chant and Sepultura playing percussion and acoustic guitar. It's very soothing, more so by contrast with the other songs.
If you get the limited edition first release of the CD, you also get some more interesting goodies -- a techno remix of "Chaos AD (Chaos BC)"; a cover of Black Sabbath's 1975 classic, "Symptom of the Universe"; and a live version of their earlier acoustic song, "Kaiowas".
The lyrics on Roots are not as hard-hitting as those on Chaos AD. They are less structured, with less obvious messages and more emotive statements. But still they are against injustice and exploitation ("Screaming for more justice/ Amazonia burns/ Can you hear them?").
The question will be asked, of course: have they "sold out"? Going by the music, I can't see many people replying in the affirmative, not even the most hardened "alternative" metal fans. On the other hand, a journalist from Q magazine seemed rather disappointed that they weren't the blood-drinking death metal stereotypes he wanted (in order to ridicule them more easily, no doubt), that vocalist Max Cavalera is "cuddly", that they have family lives and so on.
Max Cavalera says, "The mainstream is swallowing us little by little". Does he mean swallowing their music? It would be very easy for the corporate showbiz world to devour them, souls and all, I'm sure. Some would say that this has already begun.
The music business imposes some very solid restrictions on musicians, regardless of whether (or what) they "sell out". Albums are the standard unit of musical output for bands. Everything hangs around this or that album. "That album was OK, but on such-and-such an album the band sold out." Tours are taken and singles released with the purpose of marketing an album. Little is played live that has not been released in some purchasable form.
There is an upside to this. Each album is, generally, a very well-honed opus in and of itself, a milestone in the band's development (and at the prices the stores charge, you'd hope to get something good for your money!).
But it imposes a real straitjacket on bands -- an extremely linear development, which may evolve to become a different pigeonholed style, but only with much difficulty can go in different directions or encompass different styles. The pressure seems also to inhibit musicians' spontaneity, especially live. Sepultura do not seem to have breached these limits in any remarkable way.
All the same, Roots is Sepultura's well-honed opus, and it's worth a listen. Non-fans of punk and metal will probably appreciate it like a well-tuned electric drill in the earhole. Fair enough. But it makes my toes tap (all of them), my heart beat faster, and I feel like bellowing "Roots, bloody roots" along with the rest of the band.
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Thanks but no thanks. Ema has found her soul-mate and thats the main thing. | | 2:08a |
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign
'...while I have been here in Palestine, I have in the last
few weeks begun to have regular one-on-one discussions and email exchanges with
Canadian activists who are actively involved in the Coalition Against Israeli
Apartheid (CAIA) group and campaign, who are currently in Palestine (including
two of the founding members of CAIA).
In my opinion, the comrades in CAIA are at the forefront of the international
Palestine soldiarity campaign. In particularly I have been keen to learn from
what they have been doing - what worked, what didn't, how best to get the
message across etc.
In addition, myself and another Australian Palestinian activist have been
invited to co-author and submit a contribution for the monthly journal of a
well-known and key Palestinian NGO.
The contribution, which we are currently working on, will focus on Palestine
solidarity work in Australia, its priorities, demands, direction etc. It will
also cover the BDS campaign - as there is not really a campaign as yet in
Australia - we will look at the importance of one, including the possibilities
and usefulness of building such a campaign in Australia.
comradely, Kim...' - END EXTRACT
You can also become part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign and support CAIA.
But not you two fucking twits. | | 2:14a |
Cabaret repeating as farce '...Alexandra Kollontai is a profoundly unusual figure in the history of the Soviet Union, as she was an "Old Bolshevik" and a major public critic of the Communist Party who was neither purged nor executed by the Stalin regime...' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Kollontai'...Kollontai also raised eyebrows with her strong promotion of free love. However, this does not mean that she advocated casual sexual encounters...' ' As a matter of fact she rented by the hour...' | | 2:22a |
Black hat in the W/house
Abramoff and the Bush White House
Henry Waxman's committee has a preliminary report (.pdf) out this morning detailing the contacts between the White House and Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team.
We're going through it at TPMmuckraker. Looks like a number of White House officials, including Karl Rove and a current economics adviser to John McCain's campaign, got some of the ticket freebies that Team Abramoff regularly doled out to grease the skids.
--David Kurtz - Talking points memo
The pic of this 'Godfather' fan Abramhoff reminds me of someone...someone like... Lavrenty...Beria?
I didn't even wax her! | | 2:31a |
Cheney on Bush - ' He's out-of-the-loop' Tough Words From This Cheney on U.S. Mideast Policy By Michael Abramowitz Monday, June 9, 2008; A15 Looks as though another former Bush administration official is off the reservation. But don't expect the kind of fierce counterattack the White House and its friends waged recently against former press secretary Scott McClellan after the release of his tell-all book. On a panel at last week's American Israel Political Affairs Committee convention, former State Department official Elizabeth Cheney described the Annapolis peace process as "misguided," said the United States had been "fundamentally mistaken" to push for elections in Gaza and suggested that the Bush administration has not been tough enough with Syria. "In my view, this administration has gotten it right when we have been bold, when we have been decisive, when we have been focused, when we have used our military force when necessary," Cheney said at the conference, according to a recording posted on the AIPAC Web site. "Where we have been less effective and less successful is when we have been unfortunately not so bold, when we have not held [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad to account for the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, for the killing of American soldiers inside Iraq, for his support to Hezbollah." Cheney is, of course, a private citizen who until early 2006 worked as a principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Near East Bureau before leaving to have her fifth child. She is also close to her father, Vice President Cheney -- so much so that when she was at State, people assumed her views reflected his perspective. Whether they do now is unknown. But judging from her remarks at AIPAC, Liz is one Cheney unhappy with key elements of U.S. Mideast policy, from Lebanon and the peace process to how the White House dealt with elections in the Palestinian territories. She was also critical of Israel's performance in the 2006 war in Lebanon, citing "Israel's inability, unwillingness to do what was necessary . . . to fundamentally deal a blow to Hezbollah." "I think that getting back to a situation where our enemies in the region understand that America will stand up for its friends, that America will stand up for its principles and that we have red lines is critically important," Cheney told the friendly audience at AIPAC. "When those red lines aren't there, when our enemies like Iran and Syria begin to believe that they can act with impunity, you see situations like you have got in Lebanon today -- where Hezbollah now has a veto over that government, where Hezbollah will be able, I fear, to significantly continue its efforts to rearm in southern Lebanon, continue to threaten Israel and allow Iran a real chokehold on the region." Cheney offered critiques in a number of key areas. One was the decision, which went all the way up to President Bush, to push Israel to allow elections in the Palestinian territories, which ultimately led to Hamas taking power in Gaza. MORE ON http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060801820_pf.html"The United States was fundamentally mistaken to push for those Palestinian elections in Gaza," Cheney said, drawing applause. "I think that at the time there wasn't anybody that I spoke to in the Palestinian government . . . or the Israeli government who thought those elections were a good idea." At another point, Cheney appeared to suggest that it was a mistake for the United States to invite Syria to participate in last November's Annapolis conference: "It makes it much easier for the Europeans, for example, to say, 'Well, look, if you're not isolating Syria, if you are inviting the Syrians to Annapolis for a peace conference, why should we isolate the Syrians?' " Cheney also made clear her view that the recent efforts by Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal are taking resources away from dealing with Iran. She described a "misguided attempt right now to come to an agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, when I don't believe the Palestinians are ready for such an agreement." As for Iran, Cheney seemed pessimistic about the prospects of diplomacy to dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon. Over the years, she said, there has been "no shortage of efforts to talk to them" -- but to no avail: "We don't have the luxury to have the debate we have been having about should we talk, should we not talk. The time for diplomacy here is rapidly coming to an end." | | 2:50a |
Barry the Muslim fag
Lieberman to head pro-McCain ‘organization’ (by Steve Benen at Crooks and Liars)
It’s hard not to get the sense that Joe Lieberman is just taunting Dems at this point. Lieberman doesn’t want to just burn the bridge to the ground, he wants to pour salt in the earth around the wreckage. Wednesday, Lieberman joined a conference call coordinated by a right-wing House member to bash Barack Obama. Yesterday, he announced the creation of what he calls a “new grassroots organization,” called, “Citizens for McCain.” From the letter the McCain campaign distributed today (no link available): MTA
Its hard not to get the sense that Barry is a soft-cock. And Michelle looks like Tranny now come to think of it. | | 3:10a |
Political use
On Iraq's nuclear weapons program? The president's statements "were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates." ( Phase 2) So does it mention the dissent on the tubes?
Does it mention Andy Cards ' Product'?
The WHIGS?
Judys little tubes of terror?
Condi's lies about the tubes?
Cheneys?
Powells?
And then Tenet directly told the president to back off on a speech beating up the uranium forgery.
So how substantiated were the 16 words?
I hope the fuck some of our people are drilling down on this. Its just a matter of life or death for Iran.
Remember Cambodia happened when things were allowed to drift. Never again. Not this time. | | 3:32a |
Anarchy in Bulgaria INFOSHOP - Anarchy in Bulgaria: An Interview Describe your group: how many people are involved, how long have you been active, how do you make decisions together? What projects have you been involved in? I am part of 2 groups. The one is called “Anarchosaprotiva” (AnarchoResistance). It is based in Sofia and now we are something like 6-10 people. The group has been active since 2001. I joined this in 2004. We have a meeting every week. We don’t have any particular scheme to talk and make decisions. It’s more like a friendly conversation and when we have ideas to do some action all of us should agree and get consensus about the thing, but everyone is free to do whatever he/she wants outside of the group. The group used to publish a monthly leaflet called “Anarchosaprotiva” as part of the Bulgarian anarchist newspaper “Svobodna Misal” (Free Thought). Now there are a lot of changes in the newspaper which is published by FAB (federation of the anarchists in Bulgaria) and this supplement is stopped being publish in the newspaper. The group has done a lot small protests actions against the militarization and the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. We and our Greek friends from Anti-Authoritarian Movement Thessaloníki organized a No Border Camp in Bulgaria and No Border Actions in Greece to support the freedom of movement and the illegal immigrants jailed in a illegal detention center in Venna (Greece). Some of us also have been part of the Food Not Bombs group here in Sofia which lasted for 6 months but now is dead. We have also done some creative anti-elections actions and took part in a lot of ecological protests. We put out some anarchist leaflets and distribute them during protests, concerts and at some video screenings that we organize.This year we also organized 2 times a Free Festival (Really Really Free Market). I am also part of another group based in Razgrad. It’s not an official group. We are just a bunch of friends that do some small local actions. We are 5-6 people. The best thing is that we have started organizing this Free Festival since last year. Now a lot of people are enthusiastic by this idea of free sharing. We are very happy that we opened an Infocenter in Razgrad. It is open once a week for a couple of hours. We are a little dependent on the owners of the building. It is some school center project but the people running this place are very nice and gave us 1 big room to put literature and movies and we organize video screenings, presentation and music concerts there. My other side project is this Katarzis zine. I started doing it 2 years ago inspired by CrimethInc. I translated some texts and then got the idea to put them together, so this is how everything started. Now some people have started to help me. we write news about actions in Bulgaria, interview anarchist bands and write some our texts. Which anarchist communities outside Bulgaria do you have the most interactions with and influence from? Greece, the US, Turkey, other places? Maybe the most interactions we had with Anti-Authoritarian Movement from Thessaloníki (Greece), but we also have connections with a lot of anarchist groups around Europe. Now we get in touch with People’s Global Action network and will try to organize local Balkan network amongst the activist communities to share information, ideas, to support each other and to do some international action together. We have been influenced by the anarchist communities all around the world, but for most of us the biggest influenced is the CrimethInc. Collective. How many of the projects you carry out in Bulgaria are based on formats (such as the Really Really Free Market) that you have imported from other contexts, and how have you adjusted them to fit the context in Bulgaria? We have started with 2 projects based on such “formats” and one is now dead. Some of us were part of a Food Not Bombs group in Sofia. The idea fitted for the context in Sofia, because it is big and developed city following the western pattern. Bulgaria is also part of NATO and spent a lot of money on military actions and support the war in Iraq and Afghanistan so it was good idea to do such kind of actions. There are also a lot of homeless people in Sofia and we decided to help them in someway and to distribute antimilitaristic and vegetarian propaganda at the same time. We were collecting food from 2 big markets and from a couple of restaurants and bakeries. We managed to build good infrastructure and we did actions every Sunday for near six months, but then the summer came and most of the people hit the road and when the autumn came we were very few left, organized 3 more actions and then everything died. The other project based on such a “format” is this Free Festival we have started doing since last autumn. We have heard about this initiative in the USA and thought this was great idea and could be started here in Bulgaria. I think this is a universal model and could be put into action everywhere all around the world. In some countries there is this consuming way of life and the people could share the things they don’t need instead of throwing them; in other countries which are undeveloped there isn’t an excess of such kinds of goods, but the people could share other things like food, skills, songs, any kind of art, etc.… I think this is one of the best examples of what anarchy in practice is. In what ways is it different to hold a Really Really Free Market in Razgrad or Sofia than it is to hold one in the USA? I think there isn’t a big difference. Maybe the only difference is the living standard of the people. So while you could find a stereo system or a computer at a USA Really Really Free Market, this is almost impossible at a Bulgarian Really Really Free Market. The people here share mostly old clothes, shoes, books, music CDs, and toys. We try not to limit the event to be only a free market for products, but as a free zone where everyone is stimulated to take part, to play, to dance, to live a free life. And the good of this event is that everyone contributes to it. We only give the idea and set the date about it and the people come and do it. Do you feel the public response to Really Really Free Markets is different in countries that used to have a “communist” government than it is in countries that have always been openly capitalist? Or is the relation to property the same? I don’t think that there is big difference in the public response. Bulgaria was under “communist” government 40 years and the last 17 years of “democracy” have opened the door to unrestrained capitalism. So most of the people in Bulgaria have started to behave like the others in the Western world. You mentioned taking some influence from CrimethInc. In the United States, some people criticize CrimethInc. by saying that the ideas associated with it are only relevant to middle class people in wealthy countries, that poor people outside the USA can have no use for them. Looking at this question from Bulgaria, what is your perspective on this critique? What have the responses been to the texts you’ve translated? What have people found useful and what has not been useful? How have you changed things to make them more useful, or decided which things to focus on when picking things to translate? Maybe it’s true that most of the CrimethInc. tactics are not relevant for poor countries. For example, dropping out in a way of quitting your job and make a living by dumpster diving is extremely hard and almost impossible in Bulgaria. I agree with the idea of not supporting the capitalist system at all but sometimes and especially if you are alone it’s almost impossible to be out of this system and you need to work in order to survive. But I still think that if you live collectively with close-minded friends you could arrange your life in an alternative way. Most of the Roman (Gypsy) people in Bulgaria are kind of drop outs and they are still alive and exist somehow. This critique on such kind of CrimethInc. tactics exists here, too. Even some anarchists from FAB (Federation of the Anarchists in Bulgaria) blame us that we are fake and pseudo anarchists following the “modern” Western anarchism, that we are some kind of hippies and distract the attention from the main enemy which is “the state and the capital.” So we are also being criticized and have some conflicts even in the anarchist circles. But on the other hand I see that a lot of young people are interested in the projects we do. Most of the people like the zine we do and I think that the most inspiring thing is this romantic anarchism. In the beginning the zine was only consisted of translations from Days of War, Nights of Love and Recipes for Disaster. Some of them were not useful for the situation in Bulgaria, but it’s always nice to get some new ideas. We try to put these ideas into action and to change them to suit for the situation in Bulgaria. Food Not Bombs was one of these projects. It’s possible to do it in Sofia because it’s a big city, but sometimes we were not able to collect enough food so we had to buy some stuff. We wanted to organize a Food Not Bombs group in Razgrad too, but it didn’t happen. It’s kind of impossible. We were looking for leftover food at the market but it’s almost nothing for us. So we decided to try this Really, Really Free Market and it has suited perfectly for this small town. First—the idea is great and the people are likely to share, second—nothing interesting happens in Ragzrad and event of this kind attracts a lot of attention, even the local media was interested and supported us. We were also looking for a place to squat and do an infoshop, but there are very few abandoned houses, which in most of the cases are almost destroyed. So we got in touch we some institutional organization (a school center) and asked for a place. They liked the idea for an alternative infocenter and gave us a hand. So we have this infocenter now, we are a little dependent on the building owners and could not do whatever we want in there but for now this is the best project we have done. What are the best ways anarchists in North America can support the projects of anarchists in the Balkans? Sometimes even an encouraging word is enough to make you feel better and continue the fight. When we are desperate the only thing that help us to not give up is to know that we are not alone, that there are other people like us around the world fighting for a better life. I am not sure what are the best ways anarchists in North America could support the anarchist projects in the Balkans. Maybe first we have to get in touch and get to know each other, to exchange information and ideas about the projects we do, to share books and other propaganda materials. Please give a list of projects and groups in Bulgaria that could be useful to anarchists in the rest of the world, with contact information for each one. Infocenter “Ecotopia” – this is an alternative information center based in Razgrad. It has a reading space and library with various anarchistic, environmental, anarchafeminist, animal rights, subcultural etc. materials. The place is open for video screenings, discussions, concerts, exhibitions, etc.… so anyone who is passing nearby get in touch: infocenter.ecotopia@gmail.com Autonomous anti-authoritarian group “AnarhoSaprotiva” – this is an anarchist group based in Sofia. www.aresistance.net; aresistance@riseup.net Katarzis zine – this is a zine with news from the local anarchist scene, some texts about everyday anarchism, environmentalism, animal rights, anarchafeminism, practical tips and interviews with music bands: katarzis@riseup.net www.music.a-bg.net – this is an online zine focused on the DIY scene with a lot of information about actions, music, animal rights, practical tips, etc. . . sfti.diy@gmail.com www.a-bg.net – this is an anarchist portal of FAB (Federation of the Anarchists in Bulgaria): fab@a-bg.org Thanks so much! Thank you, too! In solidarity, xITSOx http://autonomyland.blogspot.com/ | | 8:11a |
Some good things about Marxism Lest I be accused of negativism or Marxist-bashing. I clearly recognize these as mainly... a) They call themselves revolutionaries - which is an honorable occupation b) Some of them put churches to good use - or blew them up and/or burned them down. c) Some of them got rid of a lot of left-fascists - we really can't get enough Marxists like this. Better, fewer but better indeed. Now some more light is being shed on the truly appalling state of the DSP majority ( Mensheviks) Two words almost suffice by themselves in their sheer, stark horror - Ema. Corro. But wait...there's more. The set of steak knives comes with the inexorable drift into sectarian insanity when you ignore palpable historical materialist and concrete reality. Sooner or later the walls crash in then and back on earth you are lobotomized. There are a couple of examples here... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreenLeft_discussion/message/54868'...I understand that the US SWP maintained (and maybe still does? -- I don't read their material any more) that a Soviet workers state still existed long after that was clearly not so. The US SWP's degeneration had become terminal before that, but such a position would have been enough to sink a party that had previously been more infallible than the pope. The DSP has decided to persist with the fiction that SA is a unity project or a broad left party in formation. That is not as gross an error as maintaining a belief in a Soviet workers state, so the effects have not been as gross. They do exist, however, and they are accumulating...' For a comedy of errors please track Corro's latest stooge's pilgrims progress through the socialist institutions! ( Scroll down) Yeah - no. These are all blindfolded lemmings gamboling on a sea cliff. But some are even blind under the keffiyahs. Well burrowed old mole! And mind the first step! Marx and Engels themselves don't seem to minded a bit of reformism at the end - yet another infamous last will and testament...we never really meant all that guff about being staunch revolutionary purists! Yeah right. But even if true and all things are permitted the initiate, then there is still a vast and yawning gulf between honest and open revolutionism and parliamentary cretinism. If past is prologue the cretins are setting out on a very long march indeed! Like about 100 years. This was all supposed to be sorted out in the great revisionists split of the late 19th century. ( Sear Bersteinism) Yet the incontinent mangy mammoth in the room at the GLW ( Along with the living fossil Ema Corro) is this very critical debate. Is this not a clue of the Sherlock Holmes variety? The dog that didn't bark? Asked and answered - there's nothing wrong here and we don't talk about it. Disclosure - I am an anarchist and so have an interest in sowing discord among the blood enemies of all libertarian socialists. Any Democratic socialists plagued by entrist maggots might also be interested as they have been some of the most effective opponents of red-fascism. The default anarchist position is often too suspend judgement and/or a plague of all their houses. But I often take a minority position within the movement in a personal capacity. Whenever I do so it is openly and honestly insofar as my basic identity and politics go. Naturally if someone lies about me then I assume its okay to return the favor with interest. However this modified somewhat by an adherence to a most useful heuristic in the propaganda field. 95% of the best disinformation is true. With todays Google the margin might even be calibrated higher. Anarchists expect every fact-checker to do their duty. So what would be the best outcome here? 1) Corro is deported on character and health grounds 2) Both the Mensheviks and the Bolshies try and keep each other in a headlock as they go off the cliff. ( Cliff - geddit...oh don't bother. ) 3) The sun breaks through the clouds on a great southern land now largely cleansed and born again - the last scabs and dags have dropped off. Our long national nightmare is over. | | 8:45a |
They shoot horses don't they '...DSP national executive member Dave Holmes' theory that there is something called the "transitional method of party- building", which dictates the SA tactic because of the great similarities between conditions in Australia today and in the United States in the 1930s...' http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreenLeft_discussion/message/54868They generally push loose cannons overboard. | | 8:47a |
Lenin's Right turn
If ' The state and revolution' is Leninist most 'ultra-left' document ( and the date is significant. 1917)
then ' Ultraleftism - an infantile disorder' surely represents Lenins bending of the branch the other way at its most extreme. And this is reflected in the Right turn to NEP and the banning of all opposition.
Again the date is significant. 1920. Lenin and the Polish and Lettish mercenaries he'd hired with Imperialist gold coin began systemic killings - a first for Marxism - exactly ninety years ago this year. 1918.
Socialist sources claim hundreds of thousands died. by 1920. These are eye-witnesses with impeccable records using mostly official Bolshevik documents. Clearly those quoting ' Ultraleftism etc' approvingly are ipso facto also approving of this documented Chekist slaughter. The Red Terror of which Trotsky was in charge. They have no qualms as revolution is not a tea party and you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. Both Lorimer and more recently Courtice have quoted from this bloodstained polemic.
Its impossible not to see Lenin, Trotsky, Lorimer, Gould, Courtice and many others in many fractious factions who are approving of this bloody document as de-facto red-fascist terrorists themselves.
This is less revolutionism that sheer Jacobin terrorism. ( Trotsky wrote a booklet in defense of terror)
Its supposed to be Marxist methodology to examine facts on the ground as they are. Historical materialist and concrete facts. Yet there is a strange allergy about this Aristolean scientific process when its applied to the origins of the death cults founders and its chief sustaining myth itself.
From 1918 on even the cowardly and craven Bersteinists start to look good by comparison. But then they must be judged as well on their historical materialist performance over the last 100 years. It appears at a cursory look to amount to about as much as the Alternative Liberal Party that rotten creeps like the Ghoul are so fond of. As the Pope now sings in the shower - Is that all there is?
And how many more must die in this shrieking howling cynical nihilistic abyss that is Marxism today?
How long oh fuck, how long? | | 9:44a |
A Leninist in the promised land A few additional points and clarification about the Canadian Coalition Against Israeli Aparthied: My personal opinion, from reading documents issued by both CAIA, individual activists in the group and talking to some of their members who are currently in Palestine, that the reason they have been successful is that they have been able to combine the traditional anti-occupation campaign with anti-apartheid propaganda. They have not subsumed the anti-occupation campaign under an anti-apartheid campaign but successfully tapped into and utalising anti-aparthied propaganda and combined that with the anti-occupation campaign and the central (but not sole demand) of end the occupation...' - KIM B http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GreenLeft_discussion/message/54876'...What are the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank fighting for? They are fighting to get rid of the occupation, of course -- not for the right of voting in Israel...' And '...Palestinians are not in need of lessons for how to conduct their struggle. What they need from friends abroad is understanding and solidarity, neither of which necessitates a stand on One-State or Two-State in current conditions...' And '...How to use such help is then up to the Palestinians.) Even worse would be when friends start to make their solidarity conditional on the Palestinians' taking a stand on One-State or Two-State, as some seem prone to do, especially at a time when the Palestinians themselves are not making the choice between the two an issue to be settled urgently. "In an article a few years ago, whose conclusions seem no less relevant today, Salim Tamari pointed out that, although some intellectuals in the Palestinian diaspora see in a One-State option an answer to the betrayals of the Oslo Accords and its aftermath, there is not one Palestinian political group (not even a minority one) that has adopted One-State as an objective ("The Binationalist Lure," The Boston Review, December 2001-January 2002). Nor is there an ongoing debate on the question of One-State versus Two-State between Palestinian organizations working among their own masses -- whether in the territories, in the refugee centers of Lebanon and Jordan, or inside the green line. There is no such debate, not even to clarify the implications of the two putative options...' And '...More importantly, the Palestinians with us, also said that while some amongst their community supported the one state solution, some the two state solution, EVERYONE wanted the occupation to end (and as soon as possible). | | 9:53a |
Fruit of the poisonous tree
Bush Met Abramoff At Least Six Times
The White House line is that Bush only met the jailed GOP uberlobbyist twice. Not so, says the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. And they've got the photos to prove it.
Rove Was Abramoff's Ticket to White House
Report Details Abramoff-White House Story
Aides Sought Abramoff "Fruits"
McCain Camp Adviser Linked to Abramoff
Abramoff Met Rove on Streetcorners - TALKING POINTS MEMO
Ninefinger writes, ' That streetcorners thing was old when Liddy was always promising to show us some of the finest whores from Pittsburg'. | | 9:55a |
Here it comes...
Barney to spill the beans
McClellan Agrees to Testify on Plame
The former press secretary will talk about his allegation that VP Cheney "directed" him to lie.
TPMtv: McClellan's Hits
Waxman Wants Bush/Cheney Plame Docs
New Plame Details in McClellan Book - TPM
Okay - but I was close wasn't I. Hey can you imagine Darth 'directing' some poor shlub? Twisting his trigger finger and thumb as the designated victim clawed for breath inside the Death Star. The Dark side - its inhumane.
The Harkeneokon family - worse than Dalek breeding ponds. | | 11:13a |
Pitiful mewling
'...Cheney and his fellow PNACers like Rumsfeld, John Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz and the like, were trying to reassert Corporate American dominance over the globe. Instead, they've nearly destroyed it along with our good name. Should the next occupant of the White House be Barack Obama, and this is growing ever likelier, then our image overseas will improve dramatically from the rock bottom it's at right now. But he shouldn't, and won't, take this as carte blanche to behave as Bush and Cheney have...'
Yes he'll be savaged by all these harmless, toothless Vichy lambs - the awesome silence of the poodles | | 11:22a |
10 days that shook the death star
Looks like Darth, the walking monkey with the carpet mouth, Seethreeperino, and Princess Wastemoreland Calrissian are trapped in the garbage compactor of the death star...with the walls closing in Bush Skywanker is suddenly taken by a large trouser snake. Small annoying droids are trying frantically to override the crusher and warm up the main lasar with little success. In 10 days the rebel alliance should complete their mission to destroy the death star. Only one more planet may be destroyed within this range and time-frame.
The planet Irania. Many Ewoks and Wookies died bringing us this information and some new fur coats. | | 11:32a |
Pinched '...the "Walter Pincus Page" of the Post today, placed right after the JC Penny & Auto Dealer advertisements and just before those of the "adult bookstores" he (Hiatt) could read things like this: There is an important line in last week's Senate intelligence committee report on the Bush administration's prewar exaggerations of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. It says that the panel did not review "less formal communications between intelligence agencies and other parts of the Executive Branch." More important, there was no effort to obtain White House records or interview President Bush, Vice President Cheney or other administration officials whose speeches were analyzed because, the report says, such steps were considered beyond the scope of the report. One obvious target for such an expanded inquiry would have been the records of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), a group set up in August 2002 by then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr...' http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/09/the-same-you-can-believe-in/ | | 11:34a |
Below the fold Pincus points out ever so clearly deserves exposure: ...the Iraq Group "had been set up in the summer of 2002 to coordinate the marketing of the war to the public." "The script had been finalized with great care over the summer," McClellan wrote, for a "campaign to convince Americans that war with Iraq was inevitable and necessary."... Two days later, WHIG's product placement was on display. It began with a front-page story in the Times describing Iraq's clandestine purchase of aluminum tubes that, the story said, could be used to produce weapons-grade uranium. The story said that information came from "senior administration officials."... That same morning, the message was carried on three network news shows. Cheney appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and, referring to the Times story, said that intelligence showed that Hussein "has reconstituted his nuclear program to develop a nuclear weapon." The Iraqi leader was "trying, through his illicit procurement network, to acquire the equipment he needs to be able to enrich uranium to make the bombs," Cheney said. That same day, on CNN's "Late Edition," Rice said, "There will always be some uncertainty" in determining how close Iraq may be to obtaining a nuclear weapon but, "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."... WHIG's records would shed much light on whether, as Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the intelligence panel, put it: "In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when it was unsubstantiated, contradicted or even nonexistent." - FROM http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/09/whither-the-whig/ | | 11:35a |
Wiggled my wig '...That the Senate Intel Committee couldn't be bothered to examine a WH public relations scheme for disseminating pre-war propaganda in an inquiry into Administration "truth or consequences" is news. Big news. While the WHIG's activities have been dissected on liberal blogs for years, as the Knight Ridder reporters note above from Buying The War, editors of major papers and teevee newsrooms front page cheerleading stories instead of in-depth reporting. Time and time again. When Congress could expose the WHIG's domestic propaganda operation to sell lies to the American public to gin up a war of choice? They punted. No one wants to touch this -- in the media or the political process -- because almost all of them are complicit or duped. And no one wants to admit it. Or own up to their role in it. The American public deserves to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The sordid underbelly of media manipulation was laid bare during the Libby trial, when the rock got lifted just a bit by the prosecution team during Cathie Martin's testimony. To take a nation to a war of choice is bad enough. To do so on a deliberate foundation of lies for which you have spent years tap dancing around any responsibility whatsoever? Unacceptable. The truth will out...it's only a matter of when...' http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/09/whither-the-whig/Thats more like it! Release the attack poodles! Ladies and gentlemen! Listen up please! He's been on the run for 90 minutes. Average foot speed over uneven ground bearing injury is 4 miles an hour. That gives us a radius of 6 miles. What I want out of each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, White house residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and doghouse in that area. Your fugitives name is Richard Cheney. Go get him. | | 11:45a |
Its the final countdown
Count One: Conspiracy to Wage Aggressive War
This count helped address the crimes committed before the war began, showing a plan to commit crimes during the war.
Count Two: Waging Aggressive War, or “Crimes Against Peace”
Including “the planning, preparation, initiation, and waging of wars of aggression, which were also wars in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances.”
Count Three: War Crimes
These were the more “traditional” violations of the law of war including treatment of prisoners of war… | | 12:03p |
We must be patient with the slow and the lame
While sixty years after the Nakba some Marxists are still squabbling over the correct-line to take may seem disheartening lets take a more positive, sunny and optimistic, 'glass-half-full' approach. In another 60 years I'm sure they'll all agree on the correct line!
After all it took 50 years for the council communists to finally agree with anarchism. From 1868 - 1928 | | 4:27p |
Whispering Glades Necro-tours
Caribbean cannibals? Fully booked sorry - however normal plots and crypts are always available for sale at any Necrophiliac Corporation Whispering Glades approved franchise and therefore there a is profuse adornment in the way of semi-tropical poison shrubs and flowers at every neocons tomb; and in one part is a piece of native stinky-Reagan-weed, left just as it grew, and, therefore, perfect in its charm. Everything about this cemetery suggests the hand of the Wild Goose Necrophiliac on the wing.
One flew east - one flew west
One flew over a Starlings nest
The Marxist and the modern Republican both agree on the overiding need for overwhelming state power. This is all so that it may then later wither away all-together donchaknow. Another big-ticket item agreed to by them both is the overwhelming need for large piles of peasant and lumpen proletariat dead bodies. In order to understand how anti-statists promote and encourage statism it is essential to know doublethink. One good way of learning it is to kidnap an FBI agent, saw off their skull-cap and serve their live raw brains lightly chilled with a nice chardonnay. Delicious and nutritious. | | 4:57p |
Necrocons scream for Banshee meat
McClellan to the Hill [Byron York]
The Huffington Post reports that Scott McClellan has agreed to testify before John Conyers and the House Judiciary Committee. Could be about Plame, could be about the U.S. attorneys, could be about anything. Date is June 20.
06/09 05:57 PM - WHISPERING GLADES
In the Mastodon footsteps of Erlichman - through the Byzantine passages and hallways of true North - the cry of the Roving necrocon cenobite may be heard throughout the land. Who will save this repulsive predator?
Check out Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), pleading for what passes for sanity among Republicans:
I think the people that elect us deserve to know what our plan is. The Republican side has come out with a plan. They say, "Look, we're gonna take advantage of our natural resources. We're gonna take advantage of the things that we were God-given in this land. We're gonna take advantage of our oil reserves, of our natural gas, of our abundance of coal." We're gonna take advantage of those things, and we're gonna use the technology that we've been so good about coming up with. We're gonna take and convert this shale to oil, which Hitler did in the late '20s. In the late '20s. And we don't think that we can do that today?
Lynn Westmoreland...doesn't yr second name mean anything to you?
Hitler believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year receded before the wermacht. It eluded them then, but that's no matter - tomorrow the new Nazi's will bomb Iran faster, stretch out their arms further. | | 5:43p |
Reformism Vs revolution
From one point of view the debate on the correct line for Palestine looks totally absurd. The two sides both seem to agree!
Yet looked at another way there appears to be a radical split here. This is between the local organization as reformist or revolutionary. As they both agree on so much that is reformist it might further clarify things if this squabble was defined as between one mildly reformist school and one slightly stronger reformist school.
Or between two schools of thought in Fatah. Certainly the rise of Hamas and increasing strength of Hezbollah have marginalized this argument to the extent that it increasingly resembles the scholastic debates of the Dark ages.
Lets say that there is a reformist school and a 'revolutionary' school. In this case the reformists have left and the revolutionaries have stayed put so its interesting in that sense. Much like the Bolsheviks were called the majority in spite of being the minority. I find Kim and Michaels arguments unconvincing because they don't ante up to the game as its unfolding. For all the obvious intellectual disabilities and psychopathologies of the Ema-Ben school of retard thought their revolutionary instincts are leading them in the direction of taking that critical step. To match the radical Islamic offer and raise it an anti-Sharia law demand. Maybe the reason they are not taking that step is they don't want to be kicked out of their present cosily reformist and well feathered capitalist nest. Active revolutionists are not even encouraged in the anarchist movement - until they're dead.
The labeling of the Euro-colonialist colonists in the Middle East apartheidists is not just a simple descriptor.
It criminalizes and outlaws them. All Euro-colonialists practising apartheid whether in Palestine, Green Zones, bases or carrier fleets in territorial waters is ' Sacer homo', anti-social criminals and bandits.
They may be all be killed on sight. The armed struggle is actually a small part of a fully diverse movement against colonialism. There is a large place for 'the force more powerful' and that includes the Boycott, divestment, etc aspect. There is no contradiction between violent armed struggle and pacifism so long as the anarchic principle of diversity of tactics is respected as the default consensus.
When loopy Marxists stop debating 'correct line' nonsense then they might have another look at historical materialist and concrete realities on the ground. But then pigs might fly.
As for the obvious red-fascist ' Stalinist', ' Third period', Zinovievist' etc aspects of this and the obvious potential for another split - well...I'll leave that to the bobbing Ghoul. | | 6:31p |
Thats not funny - thats sick!
When the more revolutionary-than-thou puritans make arguments as feeble as this!
Imaging Kim and Michael are back in the Vietnam era.
Our revolutionary demand is that colonialism remain in the south for now while a Bantustan is established in the North!
Or the South African era - Our revolutionary demand is for an indefinite stage where separate autonomist regions are allowed to establish themselves. We demand sovereign Bantustans NOW!
If there was any truth in advertizing these 'revolutionaries' would have to pay large fines for false advertizing.
Reminds me a bit of RAWA - the 'revolutionaries' whose main demand was the restoration of patriarchal Monarchy. The 'revolutionaries' remaining in the DSP are an even bigger joke. The minute they said of did anything vaguely revolutionary they would be out the door as a threat to business as usual.
They like to pose and preen and posture like the great booby-birds they are but of course they're flightless Dodo's with their heads up their arse.
Keep those cards and letters comin' folks!
This is entertainment. | | 7:49p |
Ransomware query software that encrypts your data, and then charges you for the decryption key? I thought that was called Microsoft Office? Posted by: Nostromo http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/07/ransomware.htmlTell me about it...the recent Kapersky story/stunt raises a question here at the RAT Institute though. What if yr files are already encrypted? If the malware can't find them then surely it can't lock them up. Anyone? Workaround basics remain - thumb drives, DVD backups, Western digital, Maxtor and others similar drives. | | 9:22p |
The timing was a thing of beauty...
Records Could Shed Light on Iraq Group
By Walter Pincus
Monday, June 9, 2008; A15
There is an important line in last week's Senate intelligence committee report on the Bush administration's prewar exaggerations of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. It says that the panel did not review "less formal communications between intelligence agencies and other parts of the Executive Branch."
More important, there was no effort to obtain White House records or interview President Bush, Vice President Cheney or other administration officials whose speeches were analyzed because, the report says, such steps were considered beyond the scope of the report.
One obvious target for such an expanded inquiry would have been the records of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), a group set up in August 2002 by then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.
The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants (many have since left or changed jobs) were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy aides led by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, as well as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.
As former White House press secretary Scott McClellan wrote in his recently released book, "What Happened," the Iraq Group "had been set up in the summer of 2002 to coordinate the marketing of the war to the public."
"The script had been finalized with great care over the summer," McClellan wrote, for a "campaign to convince Americans that war with Iraq was inevitable and necessary."
In an interview with the New York Times published Sept. 6, 2002, Card did not mention the group, but he hinted at its mission. "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August," he said.
Two days later, WHIG's product placement was on display. It began with a front-page story in the Times describing Iraq's clandestine purchase of aluminum tubes that, the story said, could be used to produce weapons-grade uranium. The story said that information came from "senior administration officials."
The story also spoke of "hardliners" in the Bush administration being "alarmed that American intelligence underestimated the pace and scale of Iraq's nuclear program before Baghdad's defeat in the gulf war." They "argue that Washington dare not wait until analysts have found hard evidence that Mr. Hussein has acquired a nuclear weapon. The first sign of a 'smoking gun,' they argue, may be a mushroom cloud," the Times story said.
That same morning, the message was carried on three network news shows. Cheney appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and, referring to the Times story, said that intelligence showed that Hussein "has reconstituted his nuclear program to develop a nuclear weapon." The Iraqi leader was "trying, through his illicit procurement network, to acquire the equipment he needs to be able to enrich uranium to make the bombs," Cheney said.
That same day, on CNN's "Late Edition," Rice said, "There will always be some uncertainty" in determining how close Iraq may be to obtaining a nuclear weapon but, "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
On CBS's "Face the Nation," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was asked about the Times story and whether Hussein had nuclear weapons. "Is there a smoking gun here?" host Bob Schieffer asked. " 'Smoking gun' is an interesting phrase," Rumsfeld said, and then he went to the same message his colleagues had given.
"The problem with that is the way one gains absolute certainty as to whether a dictator like Saddam Hussein has a nuclear weapon is if he uses it . . . and that's a little late." Bush picked up the slogan a month later in his nationally televised speech on the threat from Iraq.
McClellan wrote that WHIG was not used to "deliberately mislead the public" but that the "more fundamental problem was the way [Bush's] advisers decided to pursue a political propaganda campaign to sell the war to the American people.
"As the campaign accelerated," he added, "caveats and qualifications were downplayed or dropped altogether. Contradictory intelligence was largely ignored or simply disregarded."
WHIG's records would shed much light on whether, as Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the intelligence panel, put it: "In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when it was unsubstantiated, contradicted or even nonexistent."
National security and intelligence reporter Walter Pincus pores over the speeches, reports, transcripts and other documents that flood Washington and every week uncovers the fine print that rarely makes headlines -- but should. If you have any items that fit the bill, please send them to fineprint@washpost.com.
So the WaPo catchs up with the HuffPo of Aug 2005 Judy and the Little Tubes of Terror - better late than never...and cong rats to James Moore...but what if Woodstein had allowed a nearly THREE YEAR GAP!
Nixon could have been re-elected for a third term. | | 9:30p |
Cloudforest Adobe joins Linux foundation...cloud computing platform. '...Adobe Systems, the company that has given us PageMaker, InDesign, PhotoShop, Illustrator and many more down-to-earth programs, is the latest to put its head in the clouds. It has created Acrobat.com, a website that takes on Google Docs, ZoHo, ThinkFree and other players in this new growing world of online computing. Cloud computing, in case you haven't caught up with the term, was originally an idea coined by IBM and others to convey the notion of delivering supercomputing power to academia and big business over the internet. Increasingly, however, it has come to also cover pretty well any software accessed over the internet. Some of the best-known examples are Google Apps and Docs, which deliver access to a free suite of office software to anyone with a web browser, much to the consternation of Microsoft...' - MORE ON http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23836711-5013037,00.htmlThere would seem to be large trend opportunities here for massive new remailer nets and translucent user-controlled data-banks in the wildnets. Open source but encrypted and remailed P2P data-banks could easily rival government and corporate ( MS) centralized and vulnerable versions. Much to the consternation of Nanny Statists and Marxists...but I repeat myself. |
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