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Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
| Time |
Event |
| 10:12a |
Impeachment a cinch
U.S. Rep. Kucinich Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against President Bush
Ohio Congressman and former Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush [Monday], alleging the commander-in- chief is guilty of a wide-range of constitutional violations including launching a war on false pretenses, and spying on American citizens. "The House is not in order," Kucinich said to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who has said impeachment "is off the table." - MAKETHEMACCOUNTABLE | | 10:17a |
Prefer this for deeper communications
Turn to texting for the tough stuff
Some people are relying on text messages, instead of talking in person or on the phone, to get human contact when faced with a difficult personal situation. - MTA
Well its obvious people find it easier to lie on the phone because they do it all the time. Then face-to-face only really works between perceived equals. A very small proportion of exchanges. Email is not perfect but its cheaper than texting. Blogging is a form of emailing. Incidently, I'm embarrassed to report that at least one red-fascist list-serve down here has a better moderation policy than some of the anarchist lists/boards/sites I've had the displeasure of being defenestrated from. At least you will get one warning from now the lead Mod promises.
Thats one more than she gave me a couple of years ago but if its true, then it represents a far greater stated commitment to natural justice than the ' launch-on-warning', reactions of the anarchist knee-jerks.
No - I'm not thinking of leaving anarchism for the 'election promises' of Leninism!
Just sayin' we could at least try an' lift our pathetic game a little.
If yr not too busy. | | 10:27a |
Huston we have a plan problem
The New york times and the Washington post are neck deep in it
In a kind of Watergate in reverse, the Washington Post has rallied once again to defend George W. Bush’s honesty, with the paper’s editorial-page editor swatting away the latest swarm of evidence showing how the President took the nation to war in Iraq via a series of lies.
Much as the rival Washington Star in the 1970s let itself be used by Richard Nixon to muddy the Watergate waters – obscuring the mounting evidence of his guilt – now Washington Post editor Fred Hiatt and the newspaper’s hierarchy have lent themselves to the task of covering up Bush’s deceptions about the Iraq War.
This pattern started with the Post’s full-throated endorsement of the false pre-war intelligence on Iraq, continued with its ugly attacks on early war critics like former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, and has carried over to Hiatt’s latest attempt to discredit the Senate Intelligence Committee’s critical findings on Bush’s deceptions.
In his June 9 op-ed, entitled “‘Bush Lied?’ If Only It Were That Simple,” Hiatt seeks to separate Bush’s pre-war statements about Iraq – both its alleged WMD stockpiles and Saddam Hussein’s supposed ties to Islamic terrorists – from the historical context: the war fever that Bush created and exploited.
Hiatt argues that it’s unfair to say Bush lied when there was some intelligence buttressing his public case. In other words, Hiatt advances the argument, long used by Bush apologists, that the President was deceived by the faulty information just like so many others, both Republican and Democrat.
Hiatt notes that Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee which issued the June 5 report critical of Bush’s use of the intelligence, also bought into the false WMD claims in fall 2002.
Hiatt writes: “The phony ‘Bush lied’ story line distracts from the biggest prewar failure: the fact that so much of the intelligence upon which Bush and Rockefeller and everyone else relied turned out to be tragically, catastrophically wrong.”
But Hiatt’s selective history ignores the real story of how the Iraq War was sold, a case in which all the participants shared in propagating the falsehoods while still benefiting from enough ambiguity so they could point the finger at others.
It was like a modern-day execution with the task divvied up into interlocking parts – strapping down the prisoner, inserting the IV, preparing the chemicals, and releasing them. That way, each participant can deny full responsibility if it turns out that the prisoner was innocent and the death was wrongful.
In much the same way, by saying Bush didn’t lie – he was just deceived by erroneous intelligence – Hiatt advances the argument that no one is really at fault.
All Are Guilty
Yet, in the case of the bloody invasion of Iraq – committed under false pretenses and leading to the deaths of more than 4,000 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis – the truth is that all the participants are guilty.
The sequence of responsibility went like this:
--Bush and his neoconservative allies long had lusted for a decisive war against Iraq, plotting such an event from Bush’s very first days in office;
--The 9/11 attacks and the subsequent victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan created a supportive political environment for a wider war;
--The neocon-backed Iraqi National Congress flooded the CIA with wave after wave of fabricated intelligence from supposed Iraqi defectors;
--Neocons in the Pentagon and at the White House created their own ad hoc entities to collect and promote this bogus information;
--CIA analysts, whose commitment to objectivity had been eroding under political pressure since the 1980s, understood that resistance to the false tales was hopeless and likely a career killer;
--By summer 2002, CIA Director George Tenet and other intelligence bureaucrats were making sure the finished analytical products fit with the political desires of the White House (or as the Downing Street Memo revealed, the U.S. intelligence was being “fixed” around the policy);
--By fall 2002, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other senior officials were hyping the alarmist intelligence, stripping the CIA reports of even the fig-leaf caveats that the analysts had tried to put on;
--The administration worked hand-in-glove with neocon allies in the Washington press corps, including reporters at the New York Times and editorialists at the Washington Post, such as Hiatt, Charles Krauthammer and David Ignatius;
--The few voices of dissent – in government and in the media – were shouted down and ridiculed along with long-time U.S. allies in France and Germany;
--Even the administration’s more moderate voices, the likes of Secretary of State Colin Powell, were recruited into the propaganda operation, helping to further marginalize and silence the remaining skeptics;
--By the eve of war, Bush was the master of America’s political domain, with most Washington politicians in his thrall and the U.S. press corps reduced to the role of excited cheerleaders applauding the shock-and-awe bombing.
[For details, see our book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush.]
Who’s at Fault?
Though this daisy chain of activists and enablers shared responsibility for the Iraq invasion, that doesn’t wash the blood off the hands of the various participants, including Hiatt and other pro-war propagandists. Nor does it mean that Bush is NOT a liar.
In fact, the overwhelming evidence is that Bush is a willful (if not pathological) liar, in that he repeatedly misrepresented evidence that he personally knew to be true.
While it may be impossible to say exactly what Bush believed about Iraq’s non-existent WMD before the war, it can’t be seriously disputed that after the invasion, he rewrote the pre-war history to assert that Saddam Hussein “chose” war by not letting the United Nations inspectors in to check for WMD.
“We gave him [Saddam Hussein] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn’t let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power,” Bush told reporters on July 14, 2003 – less than four months after the invasion.
Facing no serious challenge from the White House press corps, Bush continued repeating this lie in varied forms as part of his public litany for defending the invasion.
On Jan. 27, 2004, for example, Bush said, “We went to the United Nations, of course, and got an overwhelming resolution – 1441 – unanimous resolution, that said to Saddam, you must disclose and destroy your weapons programs, which obviously meant the world felt he had such programs. He chose defiance. It was his choice to make, and he did not let us in.”
As the months and years went by, Bush’s lie and its constant retelling took on the color of truth. In the frequent repetition of this claim, Bush never acknowledged the fact that Hussein did comply with Resolution 1441 by declaring accurately that he had disposed of his WMD stockpiles and by permitting U.N. inspectors to examine any site of their choosing.
Prominent Washington journalists eventually began repeating Bush’s lie as their own. In a July 2004 interview, ABC’s veteran newsman Ted Koppel used it to explain why he – Koppel – thought the invasion of Iraq was justified.
“It did not make logical sense that Saddam Hussein, whose armies had been defeated once before by the United States and the Coalition, would be prepared to lose control over his country if all he had to do was say, ‘All right, U.N., come on in, check it out,” Koppel told Amy Goodman, host of “Democracy Now.”
Of course, Hussein did tell the U.N. to “come on in, check it out.”
In fall 2002, Hussein’s government allowed teams of U.N. inspectors into Iraq and gave them free rein to examine any site of their choosing. Then, on Dec. 7, 2002, Iraq sent to the United Nations a 12,000-page declaration explaining how its WMD stockpiles had been eliminated.
At the time, the Bush administration – and much of the Washington press corps – mocked those efforts as proof that the Iraqis were continuing their WMD cover-up.
The U.N. inspections continued into March 2003 when Bush decided to press ahead with war and forced the inspectors to leave. After the invasion, U.S. weapons inspectors also found no WMD and concluded that the Iraqis had been telling the truth.
The Plame-gate Affair
As the WMD search came up empty in summer 2003, Bush and his inner circle continued their campaign to punish critics and confuse the public.
The most notorious case was the behind-the-scenes assault on the reputation of former Ambassador Wilson for daring to disclose that Bush had used a false claim in his 2003 State of the Union Address about Iraq obtaining yellowcake uranium from Niger.
As administration officials fanned out to disparage Wilson with friendly journalists, several of the leakers – including Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, White House political adviser Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff – also divulged that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA.
That leak, which surfaced in a Robert Novak column in the Washington Post on July 14, 2003, destroyed Plame’s CIA career and jeopardized foreign nationals who had collaborated with her covert intelligence network.
In September 2003, upset about this collateral damage, the CIA forwarded a criminal complaint to the Justice Department seeking an investigation into the outing of Plame. As far as the CIA was concerned, her classified identity was covered by a 1982 law barring willful exposure of CIA officers who had “served” abroad in the preceding five years.
But Bush and his inner circle could still breathe easily since the probe was under the control of Attorney General John Ashcroft, considered to be a right-wing Bush ally. The White House responded to press inquiries disingenuously, claiming Bush took the leak very seriously and would punish anyone involved.
“The President has set high standards, the highest of standards, for people in his administration,” press secretary Scott McClellan said on Sept. 29, 2003. “If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration.”
A Widening Cover-up
Bush announced his determination to get to the bottom of the matter.
“If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is,” Bush said on Sept. 30, 2003. “I want to know the truth. If anybody has got any information inside our administration or outside our administration, it would be helpful if they came forward with the information so we can find out whether or not these allegations are true.”
Yet, even as Bush was professing his curiosity and calling for anyone with information to step forward, he was withholding the fact that he had authorized the declassification of some secrets about the Niger uranium issue and had ordered Cheney to arrange for those secrets to be given to reporters.
In other words, though Bush knew a great deal about how the anti-Wilson scheme got started – since he was involved in starting it – he uttered misleading public statements to conceal the White House role.
Also, since the other conspirators knew that Bush already was in the know, they would have read his comments as a signal to lie, which is what they did. In early October, press secretary McClellan said he could report that political adviser Karl Rove and National Security Council aide Elliott Abrams were not involved in the Plame leak.
That comment riled Libby, who feared that he was being hung out to dry. Libby went to his boss, Dick Cheney, and complained that “they’re trying to set me up; they want me to be the sacrificial lamb,” Libby’s lawyer Theodore Wells later said.
Cheney scribbled down his feelings in a note to McClellan: “Not going to protect one staffer + sacrifice the guy the Pres that was asked to stick his head in the meat grinder because of incompetence of others.”
Cheney initially ascribed Libby’s role in going after Wilson to Bush’s orders, but the Vice President apparently thought better of it, crossing out “the Pres” and putting the clause in a passive tense.
Cheney has never explained publicly the meaning of his note, but it suggests that it was Bush who sent Libby out on the get-Wilson mission to limit damage from Wilson’s criticism of Bush’s false Niger-yellowcake claim.
If the Washington Post were still the newspaper it was in the 1970s, it would be building on this body of evidence to make the case that Bush not only lied to the public but committed serious crimes that harmed U.S. national security.
Instead Hiatt and the Post’s editorial pages continue to cover up for a President who has abused his powers and misled the American people – a rear-guard protective role that once was assigned to the now-defunct Washington Star.
Robert Parry - CONSOPRTIUM NEWS | | 10:32a |
ISP level
X-Biz news
NEW YORK — Three of the largest Internet service providers have agreed to block newsgroups that traffic in child pornography.
No impact on the adult industry is expected.
Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner all agreed to prohibit the online dissemination of child pornography in a deal that they struck with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
The three telecom giants will shut down access to all newsgroups that traffic in the illegal content, which is traded most prolifically on Usenet, a precursor to the current incarnation of the Internet.
Online guru Brandon Shalton told XBIZ that the only possible way for this ban to have any impact of the adult industry would be if the ISPs in question cast too wide a net and wound up disabling newsgroups for legitimate adult entertainment, but even then the impact would be negligible.
Shalton said that in the past, some paysite owners scavenged for content among newsgroups.
"Some website owners, not wanting to pay for content and wanted to have thousands and thousands of images for their members, would go to the newsgroups to get their images," said Shalton, who founded the traffic analysis service T3Report.com. "This of course is clearly copyright infringement. I haven't heard of anyone doing that these days."
The pact between the three big ISPs and the New York attorney general's office came about from an investigation where police officers posed as consumers and complained to the ISPs about the ease of finding child pornography online. When their complaints resulted in no action, Cuomo's staff got involved.
Online reports indicate that other ISPs will join the initiative.
New York Attorney General Cuomo brokered a similar deal with Facebook to implement safeguards against sexual predators on the social networking giant. END
RELATED - McCain on VP Search: "Basically it's a Google" | | 10:38a |
Black Addington Darth '...Winning the Inside Battles Again By Steve Clemons - June 9, 2008, 10:36PM Last September, I wrote a Salon.com article explaining the many reasons why despite neoconservative obsession with bombing Iran, President Bush would not do so. He had tacked a different direction. Part of my case, though not all of it, rested on the fact that one of Vice President Cheney's staff members had allegedly told a private group in Washington that the VP himself was frustrated with the President's tilt towards Condi Rice, Bob Gates and others who emphasized a mix of diplomatic options over hard power gestures. More recently, however, in the last six to eight weeks, many of my sources in the State Department, the White House, and the intelligence community tell me that the losers last summer and fall are winning again. David Addington, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, is winning on virtually every battle he is fighting -- from not moving forward on new legal protocols that would be more internationally palatable on combat detainee rights to shelving the Law of the Seas Treaty ratification. But they say that the level of tension in the White House over Iran is also growing -- and the diplomatic game plan that before was dominant seems to have deteriorated significantly -- particularly since the departure of former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns and the firing of Admiral William Fallon...' - MORE ON http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/06/09/iran/'... David Wurmser allegedly (though he does deny it) said that Vice President Cheney felt it important to "tie the President's hands" when it came to Iran and to generate an event that would undermine the diplomatic track ...' 'We're a Galactic empire now, and when we act we create our own reality...' | | 10:47a |
Barry Hood
Barry is promising to have all obscene corporate payrises and golden parachutes referred back to shareholders.
Not bad.
For those rotten fucking scumbags who never shut about nosebleed ' elites' living it up in mansions the repugnant Lunar Right sure like to help create the fuckers in the first place. And this might be a useful interim measure as we move toward distributed economic accountability administered through prediction markets. | | 11:35a |
Upsidedown revolutionaries
You know all it takes to pose, preen, posture and pontificate as a revolutionary downunder.
Simply proffer an incoherent, incomprehensible and indigestible mish-mash of rehashed Fatahish garbage as a Palestine policy...then pledge undying support for Stalinism in Cuba and Peronism in Venezuela.
Bellow it all through megaphones while flogging all sorts of absolute crap literature and arse-papers at rallies.
Thats it - thats all
Yr now officially in the revolutionary business.
Oh - just one small detail. Don't tell anyone about when Lenin was acting like a revolutionary in 1917.
They might mistake you for an anarchist. | | 12:02p |
Good year for the blossom
Bad Boyfriend
by digby
They always say that when you break up with someone it's best to do it in a public place so they can't break down and go violent or hysterical on you. But I'm not sure anyone thinks this is even close to being appropriate:
“On a Sunday in midsummer, George W. Bush accompanied Karl Rove to the Episcopalian Church Rove sometimes attended,” writes Alexander. “They made their way to the front of the congregation. Then, during their time in the church, Bush gave Rove some stunning news. ‘Karl,’ Bush said, ‘there’s too much heat on you. It’s time for you to go.’”
digby
' and as the door behind you closes
the only thing I can think of is
that its been a good year for the Roses' | | 12:06p |
Good year for the anarchists?
This could be another banner year for anarchism. Here's the smart play. We all get behind our American cousins in a major anti-voting campaign. The snot-nose Bambi brats will all have kittens while the Stalinoidal old guard should give us reams of publicity. Exposure like this would cost millions in PR and advertizing yet its lying there on the ground for any small organized bunch of reasonably ballsy anarchs to pick up and run with.
I'll do what I can from this end but the US crew will have to take point. The rev may be interested.)
We could turn this into an intercommunal interzone effort that would make Barrys childrens crusade look like amateur hour. I can't think of a better more ergonomic investment of time and resources right now.
DEVELOPING... | | 12:16p |
Not voting is a revolutionary act
Not voting is a revolutionary act
Does being guilt-tripped to vote annoy you? Being threatened with social fines and even 'jail' for not taking part in what is basically fraud?
Earlier this year Tim Ferguson, formerly of funky squad, wrote an excellent article about this and you can search for that. ( 2004 au ) Word on the street is that the best and quickest way to get the oldies goat is to tell them you don't plan on voting. Many of them will arc up and even call you ' cynical', ' apathetic' and even , ' nihilistic!'
Truth is all those words apply to the bloodthirsty fascist empire we all live under now, not you.
By not voting you will be joining in and affirming the greatest traditions of rebellion and solidarity...Wat Tylers rebellion, the great peasant revolts all around the world, the Great Revolution, the revolutions of 1830, 1848 and the Paris commune. The 20th century was the age of revolutions. Spain was the high point of all human rapid evolution that ever happened. By contrast some reforms have been voted in - in every instance to save the ruling class from further revolutions!
Radical refusal of oppressive power - what could be more life affirming and positive!
Stupid or cynical and apathetic voters have turned out for the racist Democrats for 100 years and are further away from democratic socialism than when they started.
But when the participation rate consistently stays below 50% neither side can claim a mandate to do jack shit.
Only 49 per cent of Scots voted in the 2003 Holyrood elections.
Only 59 per cent voted in the 2001 General Election and at the European election in 1999, just 24 per cent of the UK electorate bothered to turn out.
Hooray for Holyrood!
I voted a couple of times in the seventies down here and as before when the ruling class felt threatened they called in the ' umpire'.
What a rigged game!
What dopey dumb mugs play in this shit... and then try to cynically and corruptly suck others into it?
Since 1975 I have not voted in 12 or 13 shell games and I've defied the authoritarians to come and jail me for it. ( Its illegal not to vote down here in this 'free' Governor-Generalate)
I despise their bullshit laws and I despise them while I look up to the great rebels like Lorenzo Komboa ...and Jim Bell whose dream was that the net would rise up and live out the true meaning of it's creed.
That is direct democracy and that is available now so why settle for less?
Not voting is not, ' not doing anything' - It's not doing anything STUPID. | | 12:49p |
Loony left re-alignment gear loose
Should the recent dearly departed DSPites continue conglomerating with other splinters they could soon easily match the two loudest death cults. Mick Armstrongs Kool-aider staters and Peter Boyles states rights Lemmings. Blues Vs the Maroons.
So the potential is clearly there for the long awaited eclipse of the largest loudest lunatic Leninist sect on the far Left. Even the death of the DSP.
Ghouls will be licking their greasy chops I'm sure. More grist for their mill. And there surely are yet more splits to come from the DSP, don't you worry about that. Boyle can't keep feeding all his lame chook's beaks and feathers.
Meantime Linda W and Ema Corro are having a cat fight. Some Stalinist tool actually defends the tanks of Tienanmen on June 4th.
Luke wanders lonely as a cloud of wet nappy piss. Glparramatta keeps spreading the news.
Whats not to like?
Like sand through the hourglass these are the days of our lives ...and me? I'm just sitting here at home laughing like a drain.
' Neighbors...got to have neighbors...' | | 1:03p |
'I'm the proliferator yup'
What on earth is the explanation for this:
Here's a quick geopolitical quiz: What country is three times the size of Texas and has more than 300 days of blazing sun a year? What country has the world's largest oil reserves resting below miles upon miles of sand? And what country is being given nuclear power, not solar, by President George W. Bush, even when the mere assumption of nuclear possession in its region has been known to provoke pre-emptive air strikes, even wars? If you answered Saudi Arabia to all of these questions, you're right. | | 1:06p |
Reagan Is Relevant, My Friends
'...My recurrent thought again goes back to Ronald Reagan tearing down all of the alternative energy modifications Carter had installed in the White House, and then immediately stepping up the political and legal attacks on any meaningful energy resource development and or conservation, not unlike Cheney's closed door policy meetings at the beginning of this current corrupt administration...' - DIGBY
There were oil price scares in 1973 and 1979. Carter did warn about fossil foolishness... even as he still advanced the doomed last empire project overseas. The Dems seem to be in as deep a denial as our own Gough Whitlam. He was on TV last night acting like his sacking was just a one-off. Until the Dems realize they have been aiding and abetting a monstrous crime wave that includes Watergate, Contragate and Clusterfuck we aren't going to get anywhere. Hey hey! Ho Ho! The stinkin' Vichy gotta go! | | 1:19p |
Bugsy Joe
Lieberman...
When we think gangster, hood, or wiseguy, we often associate these characters with such names as Capone, Luciano, or even Corleone. However, when organized crime reared its ugly head in the late 1920s in Brooklyn, at the foundation were men like Meyer Lansky and Ben Siegel--both Jews. Rich Cohen's romantic account of Jewish gangsters, Tough Jews, brings to life the story of Jewish involvement in the world of organized crime.
Cohen persuasively achieves his objective by recounting the stories he heard from his father, who grew up with his friends (including broadcaster Larry King) at the end of the gangster era in Brooklyn, finding heroes in men like "Kid Twist" Reles and Bugsy Goldstein. The intriguing tales Cohen heard, although slightly embellished over time, offer a rare glimpse into a world that can barely be related to today's generation of Jews living in America. These Jews went to prison for committing violent felonies, not white-collar crimes, and got the chair for it. Inspired by their stories, Cohen went on to conduct extensive research through old journals, police records, and court reports to uncover the real stories behind the tales he heard as a boy.
Cohen warmly discusses his father's fascination with these powerful, charismatic figures, and openly envies his experiences at a time before Jewish people lived under the debilitating shadow of the Holocaust. In addition, Cohen shows compassion for the need of his father's generation to look up to "someone who gives them the illusion of strength." - ' Tough Jews' Amazon
Then there's famous terrorists from the Irgun and Stern gang era. Many later became leaders of the Euro-colony squatting in Palestine. It pays to 'know-yr-enemy'...and never underestimate them or turn yr back on them. And even a headless rattler can sometimes still bite. | | 2:16p |
I remember you
It takes a long time to put folks out of power who have entrenched themselves the way that the Marxist wingnuts have.... I don't want people to become patient. I think impatience is a good thing.... But, this is not a one day or one insurrection struggle. This is something we have to do every single day for the rest of our lives. Every single day for the rest of our lives. And when we get knocked down, we're going to stand up again for the core principles of Anarchism, because Anarchism was knocked down by the far left wing of the Bolshevik party in the last ninety years, and by Fuck, we're going to get up and recover and stand up for what we used to stand up for. We're going to regain the moral leadership that made Anarchism a great idea and we're going to live again in Spain, and stand up and lead the world to the promised land. | | 2:22p |
Stop anti-Venezuela articles in the press
Someone in the capitalist press is telling lies about Hugo...they say he's acting like he owns all of South America and he can say who comes there and the conditions under which they come. They are making him out to be some cross between John Howard and Napoleon!
This must not stand!
Hugo speaks for Venezuela! He's not some lunatic! | | 2:32p |
Disaster communism
'...whether a crisis is final or not, is a concrete question which cannot be decided
independently of the class struggle. That overthrow is the only meaning which
can coherently be given to the notion of a 'final crisis'. At the same time, if
there is no necessity for crisis, then there is no necessary reason inherent in
capitalism for there to be a revolutionary class struggle since this means that
there is some way without doing away with capitalism to avoid or ameliorate
crises and their consequences.
This is why, at least posed in this way, the issue of crisis and collapse is
far from academic. It is precisely what distinguishes Marxism from other
varieties of socialism, as Rosa Luxemburg pointed out:
I think Naomi Klein once wrote something about this sort of ' Shock Communism'.
Bourgeois ideology such as classic Marxism, once it is entrenched anywhere, relies on the constant threat of crisis in order to perpetuate state capitalism and totalitarianism. We see this again and again over the last 90 years. Even when its imploding there are mini-crisis'. The real crisis of when they take power obviously needs closer study. 1918 -22 Russia for example. Lenin blamed crisis for everything from the Cheka to the Famine. | | 2:56p |
The crisis mongers Even that dim bulb Obama has recognized that capitalism risked a grave crisis recently - the Bear Stearns bail out. You might think Marxists would have been all over this like a red rash...but many common words seem to have a different, even opposite meaning for them. The banner headline ' CAPITAL IN CRISIS!' news at 11, could just seem like another day in the Printing office/ Book store/ Trades Hall. Then there was the Long-Term Capital Management crisis that was very similar to this one. Again you would think Marxists would be busy planning to well ' capitalize' on things as predictable as this. Maybe there's a clue why they don't right here. '...There is a point to taking a stand against “crisis-mongering”. That is that it is extremely destructive of the cadre who are members of organisations that espouse it. The experience of the movement led by Healy from the 50’s to its catastrohic explosion in the mid 80’s,of which I was part through the 70’s,underlines this. At every stage of this organisation positions ranging from extreme sectarianism to the most craven opportunism was espoused and justified on the basis of imminent explosive crisis that would lead to collapse of the “normal” social economic and political relations of capitalism and give rise to direct dictatorship with the most awful consequences to the working class and of course its most conscious section its vanguard of Healy-dialectic enlightened ones. This schema obviously had nothing to do with Marxism, apart from certain semantic congruences. It was deeply demoralising and disorienting to anyone who tried to have a political practice based on such a perspective. Greg Adler Comment by Greg Adler — June 11, 2008 @ the vatican http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/06/10/michael-heinrich-versus-the-crisis-mongerers/ | | 3:08p |
Hegel was a dangerous crackpot
This is how Bertrand Russell in his History of Western Philosophy explains
Hegel's use of the terms 'rational' and 'real':
"Hegel asserts that the real is rational, and the rational is real. But when
he says this he does not mean by 'the real' what an empiricist would mean.
He admits, and even urges, that what to the empiricist appear to be facts
are, and must be, irrational; it is only after their apparent character has
been transformed by viewing them as aspects of the whole that they are seen
to be rational."
To an extent I can understand the delight of philosophers at the time of Hegel in rediscovering logic, scientific method and the dialectic after a thousand years of mindless medieval Manicheaism.
However others used these tools to make sound progress in the field of political economy.
Locke - Voltaire - Paine - Godwin - Proudhon - Stirner - Bakunin and so on. Real progress from the Greeks.
But what have the Hegelian's done for us lately?
Basically they erected a shrine to the Golden Calf of history and given us Marxism and Fabian socialism.
In the history of political economy they are totalitarians. Dangerous totalitarians with a dialectical relationship with the truth. ( The truth of political economy remains in an essentially Newtonian space. That is why we can speak of a ' truth' that is not absolutist but steady enough for us to build on and rely on)
Bottom line Hegelian idealism lives in cloud cuckoo land. Its application to practical politics has been uniformally disastrous. After so many 'field trials' it might be time to start treating these ideas the way we treat Nazi ideas. In truth they do more harm than even the crazy race theories of their crackpots.
BTW - Hegel was actually racist in his grandiose treatment of history - and certainly sexist. ' HIS - STORY'. | | 4:23p |
Importance of anal, Hi Gene
GENE ROSS - It's a good chance that most people now in the adult industry weren't around when housewive Jennifer Dute was hauled into a Cincinnati courtroom on charges of obscenity. She was a swinger who shot swinger movies and appeared in them. Dute, who was railroaded by a corrupt police chief, went to jail. Dute was following the Max Hardcore trial and writes:
"Hi Gene, It has been a while since I have written----life for me is busy with work and kids now.
Jennifer Dute----in case you don't remember, as you keep up with so many people as such. I lost my obscenity case back in 2002---and went to prison for 224 days before the Court of Appeals let me out---Cincinnati, Ohio...
This Max Hardcore case has me completely angered---pissed off to the maximum. As I thought about it, only one thing rang bells in the similarities in our cases-----I was IN my movies.....and HE was in his movies. We both had to sit in court, all dressed appropriately, and had others who didn't want to watch the videos in question, but were
made to watch them---all the while WE sat there.
Real PEOPLE for the juries to see, and relate to-----and think, 'How could that person do such a thing!'. Elyse Metcalf---of Elyse's Passion here in Cincinnati WON her obscenity case a few years before mine came about-----SHE WAS NOT IN THE VIDEOS, though. I'm sure Max's attorneys----some the same as mine----told him not to worry about sitting in court while people watch your videos----that should be the least of the worries.
My answer to that is BULLSHIT. That is what MADE the people put him together with the videos. In my case, they had NO evidence that I was the one that SOLD or MAILED the videos-----just like Max didn't actually sell or ship the videos. My husband Allan was tried on the same charges I was, at the same time....only his face was not in the videos-----he was found NOT GUILTY.
Thank goodness for that, but all the same......it is all the more reason to believe that Max is getting fucked because he was IN the videos they were showing, just as I was in the videos that were shown at my trial. Was there a better way to handle the case? I don't know how it could have been done ---- but as much as Max has paid in legal expenses, and as much as I paid in legal expenses, someone sure the hell better find a better answer or more people IN the videos will be prosecuted for
DOING WHAT THEY WANT, CONSENTING, LEGAL adults......selling material to LEGAL CONSENTING ADULTS. What a way to get fucked!
Respectfully,
Jennifer Dute'
Cincinnati, Ohio
Jennifer was set up and shafted by a corrupt right-wing hypocritical criminal. The same one that made a jack-ass of himself chasing me. ( Ohio valley IMC 2001) She has my sympathies and solidarity as does Max. Tom fucking Brokaw was on TV last night joking about being audited if he criticized the 'gaffe prone' Bush regime. But this is no fucking joke for the 2 million in the fascist regimes Gulags. Brokaw is a tool - he ought to audited like the floor in Maxes house. | | 4:33p |
Bomb, bomb, bomb
Bomb, bomb Ira
LOS ANGELES — What violates community obscenity standards in the nation's reputed pornography capital? Federal prosecutors think they have a case.
Ira Isaacs readily admits he produced and sold movies depicting bestiality and sexual activity involving feces and urine. The judge warned potential jurors that the hours of fetish videos included violence against women, and many of them said they don't want to serve because watching would make them sick to their stomachs.
"It's the most extreme material that's ever been put on trial. I don't know of anything more disgusting," said Roger Jon Diamond - Isaacs' own defense attorney.
The case is the most visible effort of a new federal task force designed to crack down on smut in America. Isaacs, however, says his work is an extreme but constitutionally protected form of art.
"There's no question the stuff is disgusting," said Diamond, who has spent much of his career representing pornographers. "The question is should we throw people in jail for it?"
Isaacs, 57, a Los Angeles advertising agency owner who says he used to market fine art in commercial projects, calls himself a "shock artist" and says he went into distributing and producing films about fetishes because "I wanted to do something extreme."
"I'm fighting for art," he said in an interview before his federal trial got under way. "Art is on trial."
He plans to testify as his own expert witness and said he will cite the historic battles over obscenity involving authors James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence.
One of his exhibits, he said, will be a painting of a urinal by famed artist Marcel Duchamp.
Diamond said Isaacs also will tell jurors the works have therapeutic value for people with the same fetishes depicted on screen.
"They don't feel so isolated," Diamond said. "They have fetishes that other people have."
Isaacs makes a brief appearance in one of the videos he produced; others that he distributed were imported from other countries.
The business has been lucrative. At one point, he has said, he was selling 1,000 videos a month at $30 apiece. Then his office was raided by FBI agents who bought his videos online with undercover credit cards.
The government obtained an indictment against Isaacs on a variety of obscenity charges, including importation or transportation of obscene material for sale. Prosecutors have declined to comment about the case.
Jean Rosenbluth, a former federal prosecutor and law professor at University of Southern California, said such prosecutions were rare until the creation of the U.S. Department of Justice Obscenity Prosecution Task Force. Child pornography cases are handled by a separate unit.
"The problem with obscenity is no one really knows what it is," she said. "It's relatively simple to paint something as an artistic effort even if it's offensive."
The test of obscenity still hinges on a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which held that a work is not legally obscene if it has "literary, artistic, political or scientific value."
Jurors also are asked to determine whether the material in question violates standards of what is acceptable to the community at large.
"This task force was quite controversial and many in the Department of Justice felt that it was a waste of resources," Rosenbluth said. "Because of the pressure, they seem to have chosen the worst cases they can find to prosecute."
Each of the six counts against Isaacs carries a five-year maximum prison sentence. Prosecutors also are seeking forfeiture of assets obtained through his video sales.
"A lot of this is about sending a message - `Don't make this stuff. Don't put it on the Internet. We don't want it here,'" Rosenbluth said.
Rosenbluth said prosecutors would be emboldened to pursue similar cases if Isaacs is convicted, though there would be lengthy challenges on appeal.
In an unusual twist, the trial is being presided over by the chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Alex Kozinski, under a program that allows appellate judges to occasionally handle criminal trials at the District Court level. Kozinski is known as a strong defender of free speech and First Amendment rights.
When jury selection began Monday, he urged prospects to be open about their opinions and incurred an onslaught of negative statements. Within the first hour, he dismissed 26 men and women who said they could not be fair to the defendant because they were repulsed by the subject matter. By day's end, half the panel of 100 had been excused.
"I think watching something like that would make me physically ill, nauseous," said one woman. "It's affecting me physically now just thinking about it."
One man fired angry comments at the ponytailed Isaacs.
"Hearing stuff about feces made me sick and the defendant looks like my ex-business partner who did some of these things. He looks guilty as sin to me," said the man. "It turns my stomach thinking about it."
Several prospects marched up to the judge's bench for private conferences when he told them that the films also involved violence against women. They, too, were excused, as were several who cited their religious beliefs.
Asked how long they would have to watch the movies, Kozinski told them it would be about five hours and "I will be there watching with you. This is part of the job we're doing." - ADULT FYI
I have seen similar stuff on fetish sites and agree with Ira this is art under any censorship regime.
I just draw the line at slaughtering animals and Michael Stones level of performance art. ie the death of the subject or the audience. Porn Valley has to defend its frontline artists imo. No parasan. They must not pass. | | 4:58p |
Principal kills student
Principal kills student newspaper over flag-burning photo
Redding.com
Flag
The last issue of the Shasta High School Volcano had a front page photo of a student burning the American flag and an editorial inside defending the practice. "The paper's done," says Milan Woollard, principal of the Redding, CA high school. "There is not going to be a school newspaper next year." The editorial and flag-burning photo were added at the last minute, says the adviser. "I think that the students were sabotaging what should have been a positive last issue."
Posted at 6:17:38 PM - ROMENESKO
' I want something done!' | | 5:07p |
Journalism? Too hard
What happened at the Bilderberg conference? Who knows?
Slate
The 56th Bilderberg meeting of billionaires, bankers, politicians, government officials, journalists and others was held in Chantilly, Va. last weekend, and, "as in previous years, Bilderberg critics are berating the mainstream press for observing a 'blackout' of a group they believe directs a secret, shadow government," writes Jack Shafer. "Yet to be fair to the mainstream press, it's tough to report from a private gathering locked down tight by professional security."
Posted at 9:58:16 AM - ROMENESKO | | 5:09p |
Judith taking the package?
In a broad hint that we may not have brassy baggage Judith Miller to kick around much anymore Bill Keller told college and university leaders on Monday that , "For all the woes besetting our business, I believe in my heart that newspapers will be around for a long time," even if they aren't always delivered "as that lovable old-fashioned bundle of ink and cellulose."
Squid ink and cellulose...say no more Bill, say no more. | | 5:15p |
Powell fingers Bush from the grave
Powells UN pitch demonstrated some measured due diligence. He left out the 16 words. This points an accusing finger at Bush now we have been told of over a Downing st memo, over 900 lies, the former press secretary's accusations and now the senates phase 2 report. For if Bush did not lie directly he most assuredly has a strong and damning case to answer on whether he is guilty or not of the crime of criminal negligence.
Only the most well resourced and high powered independent investigation can handle this case. One led by Patrick Fitzgerald. This would necessarily involve a review of the FBI Niger forgeries and their connection with Mi6. Also a full and frank exposure of the WHIG/ Judith Miller/ 21 words following the 16 words half of the nuclear WMD 'mistake'- lie. Americans want to know these facts and they have the right to know.
What did the president know about this 'mistake' and when did he know it? | | 6:10p |
| | 6:17p |
Macca's attackers go way back
Call it a McMess and a McCrime. Anonymous opponents of the 2010 Winter Olympics claimed on an anarchist blog that they vandalized bathrooms in three Victoria McDonald's restaurants on May 31. "We cemented shut the pipes, disabling the toilets in the bathroom stalls, requiring replacement at all three locations," said the message on friendsofgrassynarrows.com. The reason given was the fast food chain's sponsorship of the 2010 Games. - INFOSHOP
I helped create a mess in a McDonalds in the seventies...using free vouchers to throw the stuff on the floor.
One day they'll erect a statue of me at Surfers. Then there was a little trial in Great Britain... | | 7:03p |
Shameless wopersyn opression Let's not fight for any of these reforms that might genuinely improve the majority of women's lives - instead let's battle to get a ruling class woman who opposes these things into the Oval Office. Then, and only then can we achieve... uh... I'm sorry, what were fighting for again? A "better" occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan? Humanitarian bombing of innocent women and children? Or perhaps merely having a woman calling the shots will make declining living standards and war hurt less than if a man were in charge. The logical conclusion of this sort of bourgeois-corporate feminism is that women ought to have an equal opportunity to be corporate plunderers... and imperial mass-murderers. Ah well, the point is moot. Now we've got a genuine Black Man (tm) whose agenda is virtually identical to Hillary's (and McCain's for that matter). Since Obama is Wall Street's man he'll no doubt make the greatest theft of African-American wealth in US history a less bitter pill to swallow (note: since one can't put a price tag on human life I'm not counting slavery in this equation). Ah, progress! Finally the Democrats have figured out the magic formula. No need to offer actually progressive policies that a majority of the public supports! Just repackage the the same old pro-war, pro-corporate formula as new white wine in old tinted bottles. http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/2008/06/gender_nationalism.html#comments | | 7:13p |
'No one gets out of here alive' Crawling King snake King Kevin...you tell em' Kevvie! Nail in head? Hand me a hammer. Kevin on a stick. Barb in the heart? Rip it out mate. Sting Ray for a drink. Wifes cunt tastes like salmon tomato? Use poo. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/11/2271675.htm?section=justinOn our selection...man of steal Rudd. Killer Kevin...just killer mate. | | 7:27p |
Lesbians are revolting
But darlings not just on Lesbos. Umbrians are reportedly taking umbrage. And up on Rooty Hill...well...you don't want to know. As for Yorkeys Knob...fuggedaboutit.
The National Press Club of Australia was established by perverted journalists, based in Canberra, to provide a genuine national forum for toilet stall divider discussion. I ran, you ran, we all ran from Mike Rann.
The National Press Club of Australia is also a great social spot, where you can mix with people of similar sensibilities. Like lesbians. | | 8:03p |
Et tu Wexler!
Wexler Too?
Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) has signed on to articles of impeachment against President Bush that Dennis Kucinich introduced yesterday.
--Josh Marshall
This could be one of those new-fangled ' netroots' campaigns I keep hearing about. Pelosi go blow me. | | 8:05p |
McCain signals shift on Cuba blockade
Or perhaps that was a shift in his colostomy bag...either way here's the hot poop on the scoop
Stickin'
McCain holds firm on golf agenda.
--Josh Marshall
El Caudillo Maximo Jefe for life Castro has already given the go-ahead for Golf tourist resorts in the Stalinist hellhole of Cuba. Brother number one Raoul 'Sleazeball' Castro indicated to Granma that Cuba already had the finest 'sand trap' hookers in the world before creating a water hazard near Guantanamo. | | 8:50p |
Anarchy for the Middle East
If there is going to be any ' two stages' theory in relation to Palestine it needs to be on the basis of first federation - then anarchism. Only federation of the region - already informally federated into two blocs - can lead to the decolonization of Palestine. And only anarchism can then break down all the state and religious roadblokes.
Marxists may talk-in-tongues like the loony-tune Condoleeza Rice about statism as much as they like.
They may suck on the spearhead of the resistance as much as they like. Vanguard to vanguard relations are considered perfectly normal these days. But only anarchists truly oppose both god and the state and only anarchists possess the tools needed to overthrow both. Through the slingshot nets the youth may pay take our rocks and bring down the giants. The twighlight of state power and religious war is truly written. Its the anarchist narrative stupid. | | 9:30p |
The Pilge Rat expose Green Left Weekly supporter and common sewer rat, John Pilger is also a red fascist...but you knew that [ People, etc ] '...such as John Pilger, have a naive view of Burchett. They tend to dismiss evidence about Burchett’s association with Stalinism as some kind of frame-up, which it isn’t. Or they treat matters such as the show trials in Eastern Europe as belonging to the distant past, and of relatively little importance...' http://ozleft.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/the-sad-and-contradictory-life-of-wilfred-burchett/The sad and contradictory world of a Burchett I met on Yahoo. | | 10:14p |
| | 10:18p |
Means motive
Opportunity. Bingo
MichaelDG June 5th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Page 8/172 about Cheneys August 26th, 2002 claim that Iraq was pursuing nuclear program.
According to a DIA report, the intelligence community continued to assess that it would
take five to seven years from the commencement of a revived nuclear program for the Iraqi
government to indigenously produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon. This same
report repeated the assessment that a nuclear weapon could be constructed much faster if
adequate fissile material was acquired from a foreign source, though an earlier CIA assessment
noted that “we have not detected a dedicated Iraqi effort to obtain fissile material abroad.
Thus the need to invent the “yellow cake” story.
Lest we forget this is a BINARY weapon of mass deception. Yellowcake was already stored in Iraq. ( And left unguarded after the invasion) So - enter the tubes - still unretracted the 21 words follow on from the 16 words and both hang together. Neither makes sense without the other. The cover up is real - the cover up is ongoing. Follow the Yellowcake road - follow the story. ' Judys little tubes of terror ' James Moore.
A man for all reasons. | | 10:24p |
Lets cut to the chase shall we
WilliamOckham June 5th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Here are some things to watch for as you read phase2a. How many times does it say something along the lines of statements before October 2002 weren’t supported by the intelligence, but those afterwards were? How many times does it say statements were supported, but only by a single source that was unreliable? How much more inflammatory are the the unsupported statements than the supported ones?
All this is old news to folks here, but the short summary for the mainstream media is that the administration took real intelligence and slanted it, pressured the IC to support their previous statements, and just flat out made up the key thing that closed the deal on the war (”Saddam has nukes and he’s going to give them to bin Laden”) | | 10:28p |
Tonys little Trot mate
MichaelDG June 5th, 2008 at 8:52 am
page16-17/172 Conclusion to Statements given by Cheney and others regarding Nuclear Weapons.
Conclusions
(U) Conclusion 1: Statements by the President, Vice President, Secretary of State and the
National Security Advisor regarding a possible Iraqi nuclear weapons program were
generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates, but did not convey the
substantial disagreements that existed in the intelligence community.
Prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, some intelligence agencies assessed
that the Iraqi government was reconstituting a nuclear weapons program, while others disagreed
or expressed doubts about the evidence. The Estimate itself expressed the majority view that the
program was being reconstituted, but included clear dissenting views from the State
Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, which argued that reconstitution was not
underway, and the Department of Energy, which argued that aluminum tubes sought by Iraq
were probably not intended for a nuclear program.
39 National Intelligence Estimate, Iraq’s Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction, October 2002.
15
Postwar Findings
(U) Postwar findings revealed that Iraq ended its nuclear weapons program in 1991, and that
Iraq’s ability to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program progressively declined after that date.
The Iraq Survey Group (ISO) found no evidence that Saddam Hussein ever attempted to restart a
nuclear weapons program, although the Group did find that he took steps to retain the intellectual
capital generated during the program. That intellectual capital decayed between 1991 and 2003,
however, and the ISO found no evidence that the relevant scientists were involved in renewed
weapons work.
(U) Postwar findings confirmed that the high-strength aluminum tubes sought by Iraq had been
intended for a conventional rocket program, and found no evidence that other dual-use
technologies (magnets, high-speed balancing machines, and machine tools) were intended for
use in a nuclear weapons program. Various ongoing activities at former nuclear sites were
apparently unrelated to any weapons program, and construction observed at the al-Tahadi highvoltage
and electromagnetic facility also had no apparent connection to any nuclear weapons
program.
(U) Postwar surveys found no evidence that Iraq sought uranium from any foreign sources after 1991.
Now its getting personal - or at least a little more local - Tony Jones might ask himself a question or two.
As known left fascist Christopher Hitchens and known right fascist Michael Ledeen are the last ones standing in defense of the Niger uranium lie what the hell am I doing encouraging the ABC paying this rotten lying fascist criminal Hitchens to come on Lateline drunk?
Am I corrupt ...or just incredibly stupid? | | 10:36p |
Enriching debate bottled
bmaz June 5th, 2008 at 9:15 am
22
In response to MichaelDG @ 7
But, and Professor Foland can come along and correct this if I am wrong, that’s the thing that has always been pretty stupid about the Iraq nuke dog and pony show. They needed extraneous “adequate fissile material”. Even if the yellowcake story had been correct, which it was not, the yellowcake is so low grade and unrefined that I don’t think it even fits the bill as described in that passage. “Adequate fissile material from a foreign source” is talking about getting some enriched uranium or plutonium; not some stinking yellowcake.
MichaelDG June 5th, 2008 at 9:30 am
24
In response to bmaz @ 22
Yes yellowcake is a long ways from 90% U-235. Can be done though, I think.
Calling Professor.
BoxTurtle June 5th, 2008 at 10:06 am
28
In response to MichaelDG @ 24
Yellowcake is the starter for enriched U235. You take that, turn it into a gas and run it through a centrifuge plant like Irans. Lot’s of work, but that’s how it’s done.
Or you build a breeder reactor that will work on low grade U235 and you surround it with U238. The neutrons will turn a portion of the u238 into Plutonium which can be extracted chemically via reprocessing. This it what the Iraqi’s were working on when Israel hit their reactor in 1981.
Boxturtle (Greatly oversimplified)
bmaz June 5th, 2008 at 10:37 am
33
In response to BoxTurtle @ 28
Right. Bottom line though, yellowcake did not satisfy their “ain’t got any fissile material” problem. so the yellowcake tripe was not only a lie, it was stupid and meaningless as to Iraq being any threat.
BoxTurtle June 5th, 2008 at 10:54 am
35
In response to bmaz @ 33
That’s always been my position. Even if the yellowcake story was true, they’d need a minimum of about 10 tons and a very long centrifuge chain to make enough for 1 bomb. And we know they had neither of those.
Boxturtle (Calling Iraq a threat was a joke in any case. We had ‘em bottled up) | | 10:42p |
Covers blown
Leen June 5th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
58
“no further contact with Mr. Ledeen was warranted or advisable”
“U) According to a July 18, 2002 cable from Ambassador Sembler to Under Secretary
Grossman, on July 4, 2002, Mr. Ledeen contacted Ambassador Sembler and at the end of a social
conversation informed him that he would be returning to Rome in early August to “resume that
program.” The ambassador advised the Under Secretary that he presumed this to be a reference
to the December meeting with Iranian officials and noted that these activities had undermined the
credibility of the U.S. Government. The ambassador also indicated that Mr. Ledeen had only
provided him with a small amount of information on the subject and went on to state that “I am
increasingly concerned that his activity borders on, or has already entered, an area which would
require explicit Presidential authorization and notification of the Chief of Mission.”134 There
was no response to the cable.”
Will Ledeen walk away from this?
He could join Rove in Israel; or Bush in Paraguay...I don't think Hitchens will get far though...past the pub. | | 10:45p |
FBI blows chunks
Leen June 5th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
61
“The U.S. Ambassador to Rome, Mel Sembler, was not interviewed, nor was
Under Secretary of State Mark Grossman, both integral to understanding fully false allegations
that DoD was involved in a covert action.”
Why not? | | 10:47p |
Just a minor burglary I'll have John Dean draw up a report on it ‘Though it may be unprepossessing, the Niger Embassy is the site of one of the great mysteries of our times. On January 2, 2001, an embassy official returned there after New Year’s Day and discovered that the offices had been robbed. Little of value was missing—a wristwatch, perfume, worthless documents, embassy stationery, and some official stamps bearing the seal of the Republic of Niger.’ http://www.vanityfair.com/poli.....cake200607We could blow the cover of a good CIA asset...BUT THAT WOULD BE WRONG! ( Directed toward lampshade) | | 10:50p |
Leen mean fighting machine
Leen June 5th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
66
They sure use the word “inappropriate” quite often in the conclusions.
#5: The limitations placed by Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz on DIA Director
Wilson’s access to the intelligence information collected in Rome were particularly inappropriate.”
So this is what happens if U.S. officials (Hadley, Wolfowitz) use “stovepipe” methods to vent false intelligence into the White HOuse…those methods are referred to as “inappropriate, ill advised, particularly inappropriate”
Calling a lack of access by the Dia Director to the intelligence information collected by Ledeen, and the rest of Hadley’s self appointed team “particularly inappropriate” seems a bit harsh, you know over the top. But thats just the opinion of a peasant just peering in trying to see just how corrupt our congress and justice system really is. Don’t slap their wrist too hard. | | 10:52p |
Every secret thing
WilliamOckham June 5th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
73
on pg. 2 of phase2b, the description of the facts around the Rome meeting are footnoted like this:
2007-1142, March 6, 2007, DoD IG Report, DOD Involvement with the Rendon Group, page 8.
I’m really curious as to why the still-secret IG’s investigation of the Rendon Group described this meeting. That’s very curious… | | 10:54p |
' The British have learned...' masaccio June 5th, 2008 at 6:14 pm 82 3/172 The Committee reviewed only finished analytic intelligence documents, with few exceptions. this did not include intelligence reports “from the field” or less formal communications between intelligence agencies and other parts of the Executive Branch. I assume this means Cheney didn’t share with the rest of the kids. Again. http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/05/phase-ii-report-working-thread/I have to take back my ' memory hole' jab - it still applies! Only just to the ' Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Media' Is our children learning yet? | | 10:58p |
Bush invades Poland
masaccio June 5th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
90
26/172 The biological weapons section says that two known fabricators were used to support the existence of mobile laboratories. END
Hey this could be groovy. Wasn't the Decider in Poland, or being interviewed by someone , where he says ' They found the weapons!' ...and then he starts on about these mobile laboratories?
Thats a slam dunk right there for gross criminal negligence if nothing else. Of course he could express remorse for lying during the penalty phase later... | | 11:08p |
Condoleeza Rice is a liar
masaccio June 6th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
112
14/172 The Committee says Condoleeza Rice is a liar. She said of the aluminum tubes that they “really are only suited … for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs.” She said this knowing, if she had read the reports, that two or three of the agencies believed something quite different. In any event, there was a known alternative purpose.
Lets see. Shes lied on Tubes. One precise half of the Big Lie. She's lied on rendering. She's lied on torture. She's lied on democracy. I do believe her though when she says she ' fell in love' with her studies of the rise of Stalin ...and when she calls Bush her 'husb...' Also you can tell she's lying when she bobs her head around. | | 11:17p |
Lying by conflation
Probably the next best thing to the mother of all fear campaigns (re The phantom nukes menace) was the Saddam/ Al Qaeda conflation. I called the ' Saddam was the 20th hijacker' meme back in 2004.
Also coming in close was biologicals as there was Anthrax Andy and all that including receipts for private sales of Anthrax spores to Iraq dated AFTER the Gulf war!
Well Lenin did say ' The capitalists will sell us the rope with which to hang them with'. And Saddam was a Leninist before he got religion. Chemicals also figured because Saddam was like the Pentagon - both gassed their own people. I get a little worked up about the nukes but it was a combinatorial thang...hell...humanitarian bombing was even slotted into the ' bureaucratic list'. ( Wolfowitz) | | 11:32p |
Whoops-a-daisycutter
Not much fun in Pakistan
U.S.-led coalition forces along the volatile Afghan border launched an airstrike that killed 11 Pakistani paramilitary troops, Pakistan's army said Wednesday. The military condemned it as an act of aggression that "hit at the very basis of cooperation" in the war on terrorism.
' To the gates of hell!' Straight talk
The U.S. has in the past used unmanned drones to attack suspected militants inside Pakistan.
Pakistan does not allow foreign troops to conduct military operations on its territory. It says aerial attacks launched from Afghanistan are a violation of its sovereignty. | | 11:40p |
DoD stonewalled - Barry lolled
Pat Roberts can't take all flack for stonewalling Phase 2. The Department of defense also took its sweet time.
Now a democrat party that was an opposition party could use its power-of-the-purse to punish them.
Theoretically.
Its a little hard when the democrat party nominee wants to actually INCREASE the worlds largest bureaucracy and he says that he LIKES the military. This is why Amerikkka needs to be nuked back to the stone age imho.
Barry O has earned killing | | 11:59p |
57 varieties of alien
Live blogging the Letterman show
In the last 60 years 57 varieties of xenomorphs have been identified by the US government...there are wormholes in space/time...these are obviously being used by aliens in order to probe earthlings...appears to be some confusion with Marxist-Leninists...cover-up in progress...volunteers needed for anal probes...Jeff Someone. Beam me up Scotty...theres no intelligent life here. |
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