Gore speaks

Bush is 'renegade rightwing extremist'

In an interview with the Guardian today, the former vice-president calls himself a "recovering politician", but launches into the political fray more explicitly than he has previously done during his high-profile campaigning on the threat of global warming.

Denying that his politics have shifted to the left since he lost the court battle for the 2000 election, Mr Gore says: "If you have a renegade band of rightwing extremists who get hold of power, the whole thing goes to the right."

Ok, now I'm leaving for real. Got to pack.

Coming to a magazine stand on friday...

Bobby Kennedy Jr. to question 2004 presidential election in major Rolling Stone feature article - Says 'Evidence Shows High-Level Republicans Suceeded in Scheme to Steal Election in Ohio'...

An inconvenient goodbye

Travelling tonight until Friday. Hope everyone is well... I leave you with this upbeat thought.

My friend Ryan's dad is a famous polar zoologist. Several years ago, I asked Ryan what his dad thought about 'the whole global warming thing.'

'Well, my dad's an optimist about global warming,' Ryan said.

I breathed an inward sigh of relief.

'He's not nearly as dark as a lot of his colleagues.'

I began to hope that maybe the crisis had been exaggerated.

'My dad just thinks that global warming is going to kill off all the indigenous peoples and most of the wildlife in the arctic.'

From here.

Biological clocks

Apparently they tick for guys too

whatever.

Lawmakers told to brace for Haditha fallout

Charges of murder, cover-up possible against Marines

The stink of Cunningham and the Bush problem

GOP Fears in a Bellwether Race

Staffers from the National Republican Congressional Committee are quietly telling GOP House members to prepare for a possible loss in the June 6 special election to fill the seat of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, now in prison for taking bribes. The Southern California district is heavily Republican, but some GOP insiders believe that Democrat Francine Busby will defeat former GOP Rep. Brian Bilbray and go on to win a full term in November. More alarming some worry that a Bilbray defeat could signal the GOP's loss of control of the House. The NRCC has already pumped $3.1 million into the race. "It is becoming more and more likely," says one GOP strategist, "that Bilbray will squeak out a victory." But another longtime Republican operative isn't so sure. "This is a district we should never lose," he says. "It's the stink of Cunningham, and the Bush problem."

What a plan!

Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation's history to develop America's own alternative sources of fuel -- from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.

Too bad it was said by Carter in 1979.

From here, which is part II of a Tomdispatch Interview: Bacevich on the Limits of Imperial Power

What a Pittolie!

Angelina Jolie gave birth to a daughter, Shiloh Nouvel, on Saturday in Namibia

While the news was certainly big in the United States, it apparently led to dancing in the streets in Namibia and talks about granting the baby citizenship, with the governor of the region where the couple has been staying writing Us Weekly to say: "Just like Angelina, this precious Namibian-born baby will be our ambassador. This family has opened the doors for us to the world, who now look upon Namibia with new eyes." On Tuesday, the Jolie-Pitts went one further, announcing they are giving $300,000 to help Namibian hospitals and $15,000 to a local community center.

WTF?

Treasury Secretary Nominee Says Failure To Ratify Kyoto Undermines U.S. Competitiveness

sounds like a very sane man.

Salon.com Books

Going beyond God - Historian and former nun Karen Armstrong says the afterlife is a "red herring," hating religion is a pathology and that many Westerners cling to infantile ideas of God.

Well, what do you say to the scientists, especially the Darwinists -- Richard Dawkins would be the obvious case -- who are quite angry about religion? They say religion is the root of much evil in the world. Wars are fought and fueled by religion. And now that we're in the 21st century, they say it's time that science replace religion.

I don't think it will. In the scientific age, we've seen a massive religious revival everywhere but Europe. And some of these people -- not all, by any means -- seem to be secular fundamentalists. They have as bigoted a view of religion as some religious fundamentalists have of secularism. We have too much dogmatism at the moment. Take Richard Dawkins, for example. He did a couple of religious programs that I was fortunate enough to miss. It was a very, very one-sided view.

Well, he hates religion.

Yeah, this is not what the Buddha would call skillful. If you're consumed by hatred -- Freud was rather the same -- then this is souring your personality and clouding your vision. What you need to do is to look appraisingly and calmly on other traditions. Because when you hate religion, it's also very easy to hate the people who practice it.

GWOT

From here

Poodle for 10, please

Blair Bowed to U.S. Pressure in Speech

According to the Sunday Telegraph, Blair made "significant" last-minute changes to his major foreign policy address and that "objections by President George W. Bush's inner circle played a key role in the alterations." An official at Blair's 10 Downing Street office, speaking on condition of anonymity as is standard practice here, said it was "categorically untrue that any White House objective played any part" in the speech.

I have met the enemy

and he puts horrible images on our TV screens

A battlefront in the war on terror is, of course, Iraq. And people in our country are unsettled because of the war, and I understand that. I fully understand why people in America are disquieted about what they're seeing on their TV screens. There's a concern about whether or not we can win. There's no doubt in my mind we will win. And our objective is to have an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself, an ally in the war on terror, and an example for others in a region that is desperate for freedom.

The enemy cannot defeat us on the battlefield, but what they can do is put horrible images on our TV screens. And it's really important for those who wear our uniform, and the enemy, and the people of Iraq to know that the United States of America will complete the mission, and in so doing, will make our country more secure and will be laying the foundation for peace. (Applause.)

- Commander Codpiece,
Pennsylvania Congressional Victory Dinner
May 24, 2006

A crisis of trust

U.S. residents don't trust leaders

Only 3% of the population (3%!!) trust congress, and only 24% think G.W. can be trusted.

One major influence, besides all the corruption scandles, lying, and secrecy, is that when you don't show trust, you generally aren't trusted yourself, and right now, the US govt. isn't showing any trust in the people.

Damn does the US need leadership right now.

Although I should note that the lack of trust in the US government has been on a fairly consistent and significant decline since the seventies, I believe.

Iraq Is the Republic of Fear

IPower drills are an especially popular torture device

I have spent nearly two of the three years since Baghdad fell in Iraq. On my last trip, a few weeks back, I flew out of the city overcome with fatalism. Over the course of six weeks, I worked with three different drivers; at various times each had to take a day off because a neighbor or relative had been killed. One morning 14 bodies were found, all with ID cards in their front pockets, all called Omar. Omar is a Sunni name. In Baghdad these days, nobody is more insecure than men called Omar. On another day a group of bodies was found with hands folded on their abdomens, right hand over left, the way Sunnis pray. It was a message. These days many Sunnis are obtaining false papers with neutral names. Sunni militias are retaliating, stopping buses and demanding the jinsiya , or ID cards, of all passengers. Individuals belonging to Shiite tribes are executed.

Under the reign of Saddam Hussein, dissidents called Iraq "the republic of fear" and hoped it would end when Hussein was toppled. But the war, it turns out, has spread the fear democratically. Now the terror is not merely from the regime, or from U.S. troops, but from everybody, everywhere.

Not to detract from this incredibly depressing article, but I was watching an old episode of Lost the other day (Chile is a series behind). They had a scene where one guy tortures another guy - and it made me realize how much the idea of torture has entered into America's psyche. First 24 and now this. Anyway, just a thought. The fact that it is even debated now makes it a scary time and I hope the country comes out of it rejecting it as a value. That is if we don't move slowly but surely to a police state given our endless war...

Blueberry Pancakes

Posted a long time ago, but thought I'd repost becuase damn they are good.

Ingredients
1 cup sour milk or buttermilk (I substitute yogurt diluted with a little milk)
1 egg (or egg substitute - i.e. Egg Beaters)
1 Tbsp. sugar 1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. salad oil
1 cup blueberries (if frozen, thaw under cold water)
(I usually double this amount for 4-5 people)

Mix all ingredients except blueberries until all dry ingredients are moistened, then add blueberries. Bake on a lightly greased (best to use a solid shortening - Crisco) griddle (or skillet) which has been heated to medium high until dry around the edges and bubbles are beginning to pop on the top. Flip and bake about 3 to 5 minutes more, until bottom side is lightly browned. Turn only once.

Photos convince investigators that Marines 'executed' Iraqi civilians

Could face death penalty - One took pictures on their mobile telephone.

Phony outrage

Like Nick, I am a bit confused as to what is going on in the minds of our fearless leaders in the executive and legislative branches with respects to the raid on Jefferson's office and the sealing of the documents by Bush. One thing that seems clear, however, is that the only value this congress (and by that I mean the republicans) seems to hold is self protection. All this posturing by the Congress, however, seems to me nothing more than self-interest - all the blather about separation of branches of government didn't mean anything when Bush was doing all the "signing statements". Personally it seems to me that the FBI should be able to raid the office of a Congressperson, as long as there is the proper oversight. But then again, with an executive branch that doesn't respect the rule of law...

Top 10

Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State

My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.

I was wondering why Bush ordered the evidence taken from an FBI raid on William Jeffefersons congressional office to be sealed for 45 days, now we know: AG, senior officials were prepared to quit over evidence seized from Congressional office

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and senior officials and career prosecutors at the Justice Department told associates this week that they were prepared to quit if the White House directed them to relinquish evidence seized in a bitterly disputed search of a House member's office, government officials said Friday.

Media

Matters

So how do we change it?

Kissinger history

WASHINGTON - Henry Kissinger quietly acknowledged to China in 1972 that Washington could accept a communist takeover of South Vietnam if that evolved after a withdrawal of U.S. troops — even as the war to drive back the communists dragged on with mounting deaths.

Play Paul Revere

Five simple ways individuals can fight global warming

Vote for change

Donate your time and money (to progressive candidates)

Drive efficiently

Run a smart home

Play Paul Revere

Get your laugh on

Its good for the kidneys

We have met the enemy. And he adores Judy Garland.

We are in our sixth year of government by gonads

Rovhack

Did Rove-Novak make up a nice cover story??

And if they did - does this mean that Rove will walk? Video here.

Invisibility Cloak???

This is not a good idea.

Instead, like a river streaming around a smooth boulder, light and all other forms of electromagnetic radiation would strike the cloak and simply flow around it, continuing on as if it never bumped up against an obstacle. That would give an onlooker the apparent ability to peer right through the cloak, with everything tucked inside concealed from view.

I don't think I'd ever feel safe again.

CBC is pissed

Pelosi move triggers revolt

Furious black lawmakers, rallying behind Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), were pulled back from the brink of open revolt against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an emergency meeting with her yesterday.

The meeting with a handful of CBC members was called after Pelosi wrote the embattled lawmaker, who is at the center of a massive bribery scandal, a curt note requesting his immediate resignation from the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

Outraged that one of its members was being picked on even though he has not been charged with a crime, the Congressional Black Caucus had intended to issue a defiant statement against their leader but agreed after the meeting to pause, at least briefly, for reflection.

I think they are wrong on this one, I understand it - but they have to know that it is a culture of corruption thing, and not discriminatory. Although, the raiding of a congresspersons office in the time of the high and mighty executive office is a bit scary - and also considering all the investigations concerning republican lawmakers and suddenly the raid the office of a democrat? Hmm...

Depressing

The Last Days of the Ocean - Lot's of pieces on the state of the ocean. A good primer for when you go see Gore's movie slide show.

WTF?

Desperate for Supporters, DeLay Turns to Stephen Colbert

He even posts a video of Colbert on his legal fund's website. This has got to be a joke, are these people really that stupid?

Add another bad apple (or not?)

to the mix

Federal officials say the Congressional bribery investigation now includes Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, based on information from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government.

For more information on how this investigation may change politics in DC, check out "The End of Legal Bribery".

Apparently the US Justice Dept says Hastert not under investigation.

Gaza melts down

Hamas vs. Fatah: With Hamas and Fatah forces shooting at each other, Gaza stands on the edge of civil war.

Facing Corruption Charges, Ney Helps Watchdog Group Fundraise

The irony

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has been hounding Rep Bob Ney who has been trying to discredit them by claiming they recieve money from George Soros...

After Ney and his spokesman, Brian Walsh, repeatedly insisted her group was funded by Soros, Sloan (of CREW) brought their claims to Soros' foundation.

"'We kept saying, They say you are already funding us. Shouldn't you?'" recalls Sloan, who said the group got its first grant in January.

Freeganism

What is a Freegan?

The Freegan Philosophy here.

Here is an interview with Adam Weissman, a Freegan.

Colbert still cookin

That After-Dinner Speech Remains a Favorite Dish

An audio version of the roast of President Bush by Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central rose to the rank of No. 1 album at Apple's iTunes store on Saturday, three weeks to the night of the White House Correspondents Dinner.
...
Earlier this month, C-Span ordered more than 40 versions of the speech removed from the popular video sharing sites youtube.com and ifilm. C-Span said it ordered the clips removed to assert its copyright on recordings of the performance, and shortly thereafter allowed Google Video to stream it free. In the two weeks since, it has been at or near the top of Google's most popular videos. Over the weekend, it was still No. 4 there.

Cheney could be called as witness in CIA leak case

Video here

Somebody get this guy to resign

Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) Has No Plans to Resign

Jefferson was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from a Northern Virginia investor who was wearing an FBI wire, according to a search warrant affidavit released yesterday.

A few days later, on Aug. 3, 2005, FBI agents raided Jefferson's home in Northeast Washington and found $90,000 of the cash in the freezer, in $10,000 increments wrapped in aluminum foil and stuffed inside frozen-food containers, the document said.

Just for a rainy day, I'm sure

Room 641A at 611 Folsom Street

Wired has the former At&T technician Mark Klein's evidence on the NSA wiretapping program

In 2003 AT&T built "secret rooms" hidden deep in the bowels of its central offices in various cities, housing computer gear for a government spy operation which taps into the company's popular WorldNet service and the entire internet. These installations enable the government to look at every individual message on the internet and analyze exactly what people are doing. Documents showing the hardwire installation in San Francisco suggest that there are similar locations being installed in numerous other cities.
...
In San Francisco the "secret room" is Room 641A at 611 Folsom Street, the site of a large SBC phone building, three floors of which are occupied by AT&T. High-speed fiber-optic circuits come in on the 8th floor and run down to the 7th floor where they connect to routers for AT&T's WorldNet service, part of the latter's vital "Common Backbone." In order to snoop on these circuits, a special cabinet was installed and cabled to the "secret room" on the 6th floor to monitor the information going through the circuits. (The location code of the cabinet is 070177.04, which denotes the 7th floor, aisle 177 and bay 04.) The "secret room" itself is roughly 24-by-48 feet, containing perhaps a dozen cabinets including such equipment as Sun servers and two Juniper routers, plus an industrial-size air conditioner.

The movie they make about this in the future needs to be called: Room 641A.

The End of Legal Bribery?

How the Abramoff case could change Washington

The suspense!

Rove's legal team expects decision 'at any time'

Bush: Gore's film to inconvenient

Bush Not Likely to See Gore's Film

'New technologies will change how we live and how we drive our cars which all will have the beneficial effect of improving the environment,' Bush said. 'And in my judgment we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives and at the same time protect the enviroment.'

And this premonition by Gore is actually a bit scary:

Speaking Saturday in France at the Cannes Film Festival about global warming, Gore said, "I even believe there is a chance that within the next two years, even (President) Bush and (Vice President) Dick Cheney will be forced to change their position on this crisis," he said. "One can only attempt to create one's own reality for so long. Reality proper has a way of insisting itself upon you."

More of the same

“Fairy Tales”: The (lack of) intelligence underpinning Bush's Iraq policy

Rove indictment (?) update

Truthout v. Team Rove

Is Fitz going after Cheney? Is Truthout truthed-out?

Conservative Republicans

Still waiting...

Conservatives tolerated the No Child Left Behind Act, an extensive intrusion into state and local education, and the budget-busting Medicare prescription drug benefit. They tolerated the greatest increase in spending since Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society. They tolerated Bush's failure to veto a single bill, and his refusal to enforce immigration laws. They even tolerated his signing of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance overhaul, even though Bush's opposition to that measure was a key reason they backed him over Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) in the 2000 primaries.

In 2004, Republican leaders pleaded with conservatives -- particularly religious conservatives -- to register people to vote and help them turn out on Election Day. Those efforts strengthened Republicans in Congress and probably saved the Bush presidency. We were told: Just wait till the second term. Then, the president, freed of concern over reelection and backed by a Republican Congress, would take off the gloves and fight for the conservative agenda. Just wait.

We're still waiting.

Hey Moammar...

from here

Iraq Uncensored

HBO documentary: "Baghdad ER" that chronicles the 86th Combat Support Hospital for two months comes out today. I don't think I have the heart to see it, but I do think that the realities of war need to be understood, over and over and over again. I guess Saving Private Ryan was still too far removed.

Here's hoping

Religious Liberals Gain New Visibility

Although I believe it when they get as much facetime on national tv as the Dobson types.

A new development

No Rove indictment yet... but Ex-deputy secretary of state new figure in CIA leak probe

Gore 2008?

Buzz around Gore fuels talk of another run for president

and, Americans don't like President Bush personally much anymore, either.

What a headline.

Incompetence investigated

Misjudgments Marred U.S. Plans for Iraqi Police

Depressing. They were too distracted by their need to guard the oil ministery to send the amount of police trainers necessary.

... the officials said they wanted to minimize the American presence and empower Iraqis. "The strategic thought that we had is that we are going to get into very big trouble in Iraq if we are viewed as our enemies would have us viewed," Mr. Feith said. "As imperialists, as heavy-handed and stealing their resources."

I can actually see that reasoning, you don't want to have a large 'occupying' force - but talk about not seeing the forest for all the trees. They really did think they would be greeted as liberators. And all the other actions they did that made them look like occupiers - war of choice, guarding the oil ministry, establishing major basis, reopening Abu Gharib, etc...

Strange life experiences

Today Carolina and I had lunch with a CEO/President of a very large office supply company (and some others in Columbia) and the Columbian Military Attache to Chile and drank out of wine glasses with "Presidente Pinochet 1973-1990" printed under his visage. Carolina was served rabbit which apparently this CEO eats every day with different people.

The guy I chatted with thought that the states had not given Bush the chance to govern.

Strange world.

Good news

Cunningham to cooperate

After a recent report that he was not fully cooperating with ongoing probes, Randy Cunningham is ready to assist in a new examination of congressional corruption announced by the House ethics committee this week, his attorney said Thursday.

Artificial immune systems

How our body's defences aid computers in distress

Most such approaches so far have tended to mimic the way the white blood cells of the immune system watch out for molecules that are not "self", such as proteins made by viruses, bacteria and parasites. These approaches used software to police the network in a similar way. However, in computer systems this tactic means dangerous activity can be overlooked if it appears legitimate, such as a virus disguised as an ordinary email.

The Nottingham team's approach is instead based on an alternative model of how the immune system works, called danger theory. According to this, the immune system does not attack foreign molecules whenever it detects them, but only if they start to cause trouble, says Julie McLeod, an immunologist at the University of the West of England in Bristol.

Things we need to know

"carbon dioxide is “essential to life” because “we breath it out.”"

Sometimes I wonder how these people look themselves in their full-length mirror at their hawaiin mansions.

Because I like to read things that would make me happy

The GOP begins to implode

President Bush's nationally televised address on immigration Monday night was intended as a grand gesture to revive his collapsing presidency, but instead he has plunged the Republican Party into a political centrifuge that is breaking it down into its raw elements, which are colliding into each other, triggering explosions of unexpected and ever greater magnitude.

The nativist Republican base is at the throat of the business community. The Republican House of Representatives, in the grip of the far right, is at war with the Republican Senate. The evangelical religious right is paralyzed while the Roman Catholic Church has emerged as a mobilizing force behind the mass demonstrations of millions of Hispanic immigrants. Every effort Bush makes to hold a nonexistent Republican center is generating an opposing effect within his party.

I agree with the point that he makes that the natavist pent up fear of the other riled up by Bush after 9/11 is looking for a new swarthy target.

I think a lot of the Malkin types have become bored with the whole "War on Terror" business, which provided them good, strong emotional sustenance for the last four years. But September 11 is now almost five years away. There have been no good "battles" for a long time; we don't even pretend to capture or kill any high-ranking Al Qaeda members any more; and while invocations of "war" will always be good for some blood-rushing excitement, the whole thing seems so distant and abstract at this point. It's just not enough any more.

They're also clearly tired of slogging through the political and ethnic complexities of Iraq. That country just doesn't lend itself to any morally clear good/evil dichotomies. There are no good cartoon villains to hate. Calls for increased "ferocity," less "sensitive" approaches ("bomb some more mosques!"), and less discriminate bombings can generate some temporary enthusiasm -- as it did for a day or so with Shelby Steele's column -- but Iraq is so muddled and ambiguous, and not all that emotionally satisfying. It's pretty depressing, actually, to think about how everything they said would happen there is not happening, and trying to figure out solutions, ways out, is just not very invigorating stuff for those who thrive on Hating and Warring Against Evil.

As a result, attention gets turned to immigration -- Mexican immigration specifically. It entails the opportunity to rail against "appeasement" (of Vincente Fox); to create the anti-terrorist/pro-terrorist dichotomy on which they thrive; and to demonize a clear, foreign enemy as threatening not just our economic prosperity but also our national security (the "Mexican invaders"). And if the weakened, ready-to-be-tossed aside failure, George Bush, is one of the spineless appeasers this time, so be it.

Thie Land is My Land

Read Alan Wolfe's review of Samuel Huntington's book "Who Are We" as well as a little back and forth between Wolfe and Huntington.

Jill the Ripper?

The notorious serial killer who stalked London's East End, butchering prostitutes and terrorising the population, may not have been Jack the Ripper - but Jill. Actually, they think her name was Mary.

Hilarious!

The identity of the BBC's latest star

This could be a scene in your "office"-like tv sitcom episode where you wonder why people try to muddle their way through and you have to laugh with your uncomfortableness. His reaction to his introducion is priceless!

All your uteruses are belong to us

Forever Pregnant

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

I see the next logical steps as:
1) pre-pregnancy camps where we keep potentially pregnant women feed and in shape in compliance with the health requirements
2) Potential jail sentences and fines for women who in some way act to bring potential harm to their uteruses (that is, breaking the "America Loves Babies Act", a pre-fetal protection law that also allows for the drilling of ANWR)
3) Ensuring that the potential mates for these women undergo adequacy testing to make sure they have they meet the prerequisite genetic standards - of course this entails a segmentation of the population in those who are certified and non-certified pre-fathters.
4) Yearly highly ritualized procreation and birthings sessions

of course all this will require all the other necessary social adaptations as documented, for further specifications, see Handmaidens Tale, The.

Or am I crazy?

Sociology Book

Here's Why by Charles Tilly

Argumentative Indians

Amartya Sen and Salman Rushdie in conversation Amartya

Bubble

Laura Bush doesn't believe bad polls on husband

Shirin Ebadi

Any attack on Iran will be good for the government

I tend to buy this argument. Generally, as long as there is war or the threat thereof, the nationalist fear mongers generally maintain control and the voices of moderation are oppressed.

Tracking calls made by ABC News...

ABC News: Federal official says US tracking calls made by ABC News, New York Times, Washington Post

Is it true?

Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators

I won't believe it til I see it on Fox, but this just might be true!

[update] and how high will it go? Hand-written notes by the VP surface in the Fitz probe. Original MSNBC article here.

Cheney's notes, written on the margins of a July 6, 2003 New York Times op-ed column by former ambassador Joseph Wilson, were included as part of a filing Friday night by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the perjury and obstruction case against ex-Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
...
In the margins of the op-ed, Cheney jotted out a series of questions that seemed to challenge many of Wilson's assertions as well as the legitimacy of his CIA sponsored trip to Africa: "Have they done this sort of thing before? Send an Amb. [sic] to answer a question? Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?"

It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for Cheney's own notes to be made public. The notes—apparently obtained as a result of a grand jury subpoena—would appear to make Cheney an even more central witness than had been previously thought in the criminal probe. Fitzgerald's prosecution has created continued problems for the White House. Karl Rove, the President Bush's chief political advisor, recently made his fifth grand jury appearance in the case and remains under scrutiny while Fitzgerald weighs whether to file criminal charges against him. For now, Libby is the only figure charged in the case.

For now...

WHEW!

Newsweek Poll: Americans Wary of NSA Surveillance

Has the Bush administration gone too far in expanding the powers of the President to fight terrorism? Yes, say a majority of Americans, following this week’s revelation that the National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone records of U.S. citizens since the September 11 terrorist attacks. According to the latest NEWSWEEK poll, 53 percent of Americans think the NSA’s surveillance program “goes too far in invading people’s privacy,” while 41 percent see it as a necessary tool to combat terrorism.

Thank goodness it isn't as bad as I thought. An issue that I don't hear discussed too much is the lack of trust people have in Bush - or at least I think people have (42 percent of Americans believe he is honest and ethical). This lack of trust makes it much harder to implement programs like the NSA wiretapping, even if people think it might be a good idea in theory.

The case for globalized labor

Although it won't happen in our lifetime

Dani Rodrik, an economist at Harvard, estimates that a worker in the first world earns 10 times more than someone with similar qualifications in the third. Even a light loosening of immigration restrictions, Rodrik argues, would provide a far bigger boost to the world's poor than knocking down all the famously crippling agricultural subsidies. After all, for many in those countries, their biggest asset is their labor, and the current system forces them to sell it at much lower than market value. If free trade is a tide that lifts all boats, then so is free labor. But this time, the smallest boats get the biggest boost. If we're going to ask countries to let in our goods, we should be willing to let in their workers.

Abolishing visa restrictions may be an impossible political sell. The poor and unskilled in Europe and America would confront competition from new immigrants, who would bring with their willingness to work a host of cultural change. But the same argument could have been made against the abolishment of slavery or apartheid, both of which took decades of work and preparation to overturn. It's worth considering the scale of the inequality under the current system. The U.S. poverty line, defined by the Census Bureau in 2005 at $10,160 for individuals under 65, outstrips the per capita income of every African country. There's no reason our poor should stand on the backs of people who can't get enough to eat. If we don't want them coming here, we should get serious about helping them over there.

Like he writes, politicaly it is a difficult sell - just look at the potential immigration crisis in Europe.

To whet your appitite

Rove Informs White House He Will Be Indicted

First company sued over NSA

Verizon Sued for $5 billion

Slowly but surely

the truth may come out: "NSA Whistleblower To Expose More Unlawful Activity: ‘People…Are Going To Be Shocked’"

A former intelligence officer for the National Security Agency said Thursday he plans to tell Senate staffers next week that unlawful activity occurred at the agency under the supervision of Gen. Michael Hayden beyond what has been publicly reported, while hinting that it might have involved the illegal use of space-based satellites and systems to spy on U.S. citizens. …

[Tice] said he plans to tell the committee staffers the NSA conducted illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of U.S. citizens while he was there with the knowledge of Hayden. … “I think the people I talk to next week are going to be shocked when I tell them what I have to tell them. It’s pretty hard to believe,” Tice said. “I hope that they’ll clean up the abuses and have some oversight into these programs, which doesn’t exist right now.”

Happy 2,550 b-day

to the Buddha

attend the party

here you can get the story of the buddha made for primary students.

and the related book Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is a very interesting read.

Immigration

Pentagon considers sending troops to border

This must be part of Bush's immigration plan that he will supposedly talk about today in a prime time speech.

What me worry?

Poll: Most Americans Support NSA's Efforts

The new survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort. Another 35 percent said the program was unacceptable, which included 24 percent who strongly objected to it.

A slightly larger majority--66 percent--said they would not be bothered if NSA collected records of personal calls they had made, the poll found.

Damn. I was in the middle of a group-think where everyone assumed that the US felt the same about the NSA wiretapping as I did... This makes the wiretapping story much less explosive than I had hoped it would be.

President Bush’s job-approval rating

29% !!
according to a new Harris interactive poll. He may just finally beat out his dad in this one.

One more...

Not to focus on the negative, but another member of the GOP is indicted: Grand jury indicts Kentucky Gov. Fletcher

NSA

Now Spying on Americans

I bet google must be drooling at the possibility to get the contract to mine the NSAs groovy new massive database of Amercian's phonecalls. (some Q 'n As to answer your questions about the program)

So now we are getting a better idea what the NSA was/is up to. An interesting question that is surfacing is whether or not Gonzales lied to Congress about it (good thing for him they didn't make him take the oath...)

NADLER: Number two, can you assure us that there is no warrantless surveillance of calls between two Americans within the United States?

GONZALES: That is not what the president has authorized.

NADLER: Can you assure us that it's not being done?

GONZALES: As I indicated in response to an earlier question, no technology is perfect.

NADLER: OK.

GONZALES: We do have minimization procedures in place...

NADLER: But you're not doing that deliberately?

GONZALES: That is correct.

I'm no laywer, but... hmm. He was certainly misleading. The current administration take is - we are just collecting, not eavesdropping, trolling, or data mining.

Today:

"The government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval," said Bush, without confirming the program of the National Security Agency. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."

Makes you wonder why they want to collect all that data. They are not "mining or trolling through the personal lives..." Ah ha! they can mine phone conversations but not people's personal lives - I bet their technology can't quite handle that yet. Google, get on it!

Turns out that your favorite telecomm carriers are complicit:

AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications Inc., and BellSouth Corp. telephone companies began turning over records of tens of millions of their customers' phone calls to the NSA program shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, said USA Today, citing anonymous sources it said had direct knowledge of the arrangement.

But, not Qwest communications, so you may want to switch your carrier.

[update] turns out Qwest might have made a smart move, turns out the telecomms might be liable to the tune of billions of dollars!

[update 2] Seventy two members of Congress filed papers late Wednesday seeking to end President George W. Bush's warrantless NSA eavesdropping program. 71 Democrats and 1 independent.

The 71 Democrats and one independent filed an amicus brief in two federal courts reviewing challenges to the warrantless wiretapping program in Detroit and New York, joining the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights. Both suits demand the program be stopped.

Of course, the program is illegal, so they really shouldn't have to ask... but oh well. Maybe this time, if they ask extra nicely.

Every bit personal

Google to add personalized searches

HUD on the radar (and other blips)

For all the rubbing, he isn't too bright.

The home and urban development Secretary Alphonso Jackson breaks out with this winner in a speech (!!)

After discussing the huge strides the agency has made in doing business with minority-owned companies, Jackson closed with a cautionary tale, relaying a conversation he had with a prospective advertising contractor.

"He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years," Jackson said of the prospective contractor. "He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president.'

"I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.' I thought to myself, 'Brother, you have a disconnect -- the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don't tell the secretary.'

"He didn't get the contract," Jackson continued. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

Where does Bush get these guys?!? No wonder they hate government, if it is filled with people like them I want a government so small I can drown it in my bathtub too. What the hell was he thinking? Is D.C. really so insular and corrupt now that he feels like this would be considered normal? Not only is it not so smart in the first place, but he may have broken the law. Well, the Inspector General of the HUD is launching an ivestigation. Of course, now Jackson insists that he was just joking around, tee-hee, silly he, it never happened, it isn't true.

And just to keep up with the myriad of other alleged wrong-doings...

Noe intends to plead guilty to 3 federal charges of illegally funneling money into the Bush reelection campaign.

Apparently the whole Duke Cunningham thing is bigger than expected.

So many investigations, and the Democrats aren't even in control of any branches of the government!

One investigation did come to a stop however, the NSA wire-tapping probe. Looks like the NSA denied the DOJ super top secret passes and they have to shut down their probe. Who likes a probe anyway, sounds so invasive. I'll take an investigation anyday.

Play Pump

Something to file away in your memory bank:

South Africa: The Play Pump
Turning water into child's play

Our Inequality Anxiety

What should be a higher priority: reducing inequality or alleviating poverty? It is, of course, tempting to answer that they are equally important. Or, that the question is moot because reducing poverty will automatically shrink income disparities; or that policies that lower inequality will inevitably reduce poverty.

These answers may be tempting, but they are also wrong. Although China and India’s economic booms have lifted millions out of poverty, they have also led to markedly greater disparities in income. Cuba’s economic inequality is perhaps less severe now than when Fidel Castro took power 47 years ago, but the average Cuban is far poorer today. In the United States, poverty has not risen substantially, but the gulf between haves and have-nots is much wider.

read the article to find their answer.

A bit more on Rove

Rove's Time in Limbo Near End in CIA Leak Case

more poll stuff

Bush does something good

Darfur needs U.N. peacekeepers: President, optimistic about peace accord, presses Congress to approve food aid.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush called Monday for the United Nations to take over peacekeeping in the Darfur region of Sudan and promised to expedite food aid. He welcomed a proposed peace accord as "the beginnings of hope" for Darfur's poverty-stricken population.

A Rove Update

Chill the champagne: On Countdown Shuster said he's convinced that Rove will be indicted.

If he is indicted, he will be forced to step down from his position as chief political advisor, or whatever. Besides the obvious psychological blow this would be to the republicans who view him as a genius, does this really exclude him entirely from participating in some capacity as a political consultant, or does it?

Beyond DeLay

13 Ethically Challenged Members of Congress

Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-CA)
Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL)
Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA)
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)
Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH)
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA)
Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC)
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN)
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)

You know, with all the republican scandals I don't really think about Democrats, but sure there are some. When I think about it I get incredibly dissapointed. Almost like *our side* should know better.

International Courts

Think Again

Human-rights activists envision international courts as a source for justice and peace. Author Helena Cobban, however, questions the worth of international courts, especially when cases are prolonged as in the case of Slobodan Milosevic, former president of Serbia. In Rwanda, the court has spent more than $1 billion prosecuting about 25 cases from the 1994 genocide. Cobban says the court organizers have good intentions, but the “threats of prosecution can actually impede peacemaking, prolong conflict, and multiply the atrocities.” For her, the evidence is not clear that international courts deter war crimes or genocide. Cobban recommends speedy resolutions to conflict, basic protections and rights for citizens in troubled nations, accountability and a system that makes courts a part of a political process that pursues economic and social rehabilitation and not merely punishment. Initiatives such as education or economic development can also end conflicts and contribute to reconciliation. – YaleGlobal

Foggo Bottom

CIA number 3, facing bribe probe, quits

Bush basher buzz

Colbert has set off an internet buzz

Ever since Stephen Colbert opened his mouth at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner and pointedly mocked Bush in front of Bush, online buzz on the fake newsman has reached scalding temperatures. The response started with a kind of did-he-really-do-that shock. Then it escalated into furious takes on whether Colbert was funny or not, why the mainstream media blew it off, and how the great blogosphere struck back—or just seized another opportunity to parade its own virtues.

There's a boulder-coming-at-Indiana Jones quality to the story now. Searches on the eyebrow-raising comedian are up 5,625% this week and picking up speed. Trajectories for "Colbert speech" and "colbert video" are racing off the chart. And "The Colbert Report," its fan site Colbert Nation, and the newly created ThankYouStephenColbert.org also launched upward in Buzz.

[update] Google is trying to make up for past bad deeds and agreed to some sort of contract with cspan and is now hosting the video

Bush losing the base

31% in USA Today/Gallup Poll

When it hit 39% I was pleased but surprised, 35% shocked and I figured he had hit bottom - but 31%... damn! The erosion is complete with liberals (7% approval) and moderates (28%). Now he is losing conservatives (52%).

"You hear people say he has a hard core that will never desert him, and that has been the case for most of the administration," says Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin who studies presidential approval ratings. "But for the last few months, we started to see that hard core seriously erode in support."

[update] I didn't realize that Truman hit 22%, Nixon 23%, Carter 28%, and Bush 41 29% approval rating at their lowest points. Of course, approval rating is only one half of the story. Disapproval ratings are important too. Truman and Nixon had the worst of these at 65% and 66% respectively, Bush is currently at 65%! Wow. So, this may actually be the celing of disapproval, but the approval rating may still drop. I suppose when your guy is the failure, it is easier to say you no longer approve than it is to say you disapprove, it hurts just a little less.

The practical (utilitarian) ethicist

Takes on "The Way We Eat" and the right of chickens to express their natural behaviour. According to Singer, if we would like to maximise our ethical eating we should buy organic and fair trade and be vegan - but at a miniumum avoid intensive animal agriculture and you are 80% of the way there.

On speciesism:

The argument, in essence, is that we have, over centuries of history, expanded the circle of beings whom we regard as morally significant. If you go back in time you'll find tribes that were essentially only concerned with their own tribal members. If you were a member of another tribe, you could be killed with impunity. When we got beyond that there were still boundaries to our moral sphere, but these were based on nationality, or race, or religious belief. Anyone outside those boundaries didn't count. Slavery is the best example here. If you were not a member of the European race, if you were African, specifically, you could be enslaved. So we got beyond that. We have expanded the circle beyond our own race and we reject as wrongful the idea that something like race or religion or gender can be a basis for claiming another being's interests count less than our own.

So the argument is that this is also an arbitrary stopping place; it's also a form of discrimination, which I call "speciesism," that has parallels with racism. I am not saying it's identical, but in both cases you have this group that has power over the outsiders, and develops an ideology that says, Those outside our circle don't matter, and therefore we can make use of them for our own convenience.

That is what we have done, and still do, with other species. They're effectively things; they're property that we can own, buy and sell. We use them as is convenient and we keep them in ways that suit us best, producing products we want at the cheapest prices. So my argument is simply that this is wrong, this is not justifiable if we want to defend the idea of human equality against those who have a narrower definition. I don't think we can say that somehow we, as humans, are the sole repository of all moral value, and that all beings beyond our species don't matter. I think they do matter, and we need to expand our moral consideration to take that into account.

and where we might buy food from:

In your book you say that socially responsible folks in San Francisco would do better to buy their rice from Bangladesh than from local growers in California. Could you explain?

This is in reference to the local food movement, and the idea that you can save fossil fuels by not transporting food long distances. This is a widespread belief, and of course it has some basis. Other things being equal, if your food is grown locally, you will save on fossil fuels. But other things are often not equal. California rice is produced using artificial irrigation and fertilizer that involves energy use. Bangladeshi rice takes advantage of the natural flooding of the rivers and doesn't require artificial irrigation. It also doesn't involve as much synthetic fertilizer because the rivers wash down nutrients, so it's significantly less energy intensive to produce. Now, it's then shipped across the world, but shipping is an extremely fuel-efficient form of transport. You can ship something 10,000 miles for the same amount of fuel necessary to truck it 1,000 miles. So if you're getting your rice shipped to San Francisco from Bangladesh, fewer fossil fuels were used to get it there than if you bought it in California.

and another reason not to eat US meat:

... each of the 36 million cattle produced in the United States has eaten 66 pounds of chicken litter

The chicken industry produces a vast amount of litter that the chickens are living on, which of course gets filled with the chicken excrement, and is cleaned maybe once a year. And then the question is, what you do with it? Well, it's been discovered that cattle will eat it. But the chickens get some slaughterhouse remnants in their feed, and some of that feed they may not eat, so the slaughterhouse remnants may also be in the chicken litter. So that could be a route by which mad-cow disease gets from these prohibited slaughterhouse products into the cattle, through this circuitous route.

and some final motivation:

if you switch from a typical U.S. diet, about 28 percent of which comes from animal sources, to a vegan diet with the same number of calories, you'll cut your carbon-dioxide emissions by nearly 1.5 tons per year.
...
After reading this interview, some readers might be inspired to change their diets. If you could suggest one thing, what would it be?

Avoid factory farm products. The worst of all the things we talk about in the book is intensive animal agriculture. If you can be vegetarian or vegan that's ideal. If you can buy organic and vegan that's better still, and organic and fair trade and vegan, better still, but if that gets too difficult or too complicated, just ask yourself, Does this product come from intensive animal agriculture? If it does, avoid it, and then you will have achieved 80 percent of the good that you would have achieved if you followed every suggestion in the book.

A Setback for Democracy

The US-led invasion in Iraq interrupted the Middle East’s gradual movement toward liberalization

An elected Iraqi government is about to take office in Baghdad – the first since the brief democratic experiment that began with direct multiparty parliamentary elections in 1953 and ended with the 1958 anti-royalist military coup. Yet, despite Washington’s belated justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein as a victory for democracy, why is there no sign of joyous celebration among Arabs aspiring for democratic rule? The sad answer is that most Arab intellectuals view the evolution of this elected government in Iraq as giving a bad name to democracy and setting back the cause.
...

This state of affairs combined with the recent floating of partitioning Iraq by some American defense experts has provided powerful ammunition to authoritarian Arab regimes resistant to political reform. They warn that the American model of democracy will tear apart national identity and create divisive sectarian and ethnic identities, turning the region into mini-states along the post-Yugoslavia model.

This argument resonates with many Arab intellectuals. They realize that every major Arab country is susceptible to such a carve-up. In Syria, for instance, Sunnis are only two thirds of the population, the rest being Alawi, a sub-sect within Shiite Islam, as well as Druze and Christian. In Egypt, the most homogenous major Arab state, almost 10 percent of the population is Christian. In Saudi Arabia, 8 percent of the population is Shiite, with almost all based in the oil-rich Eastern province and victims of official discrimination.

Also helping the authoritarian and semi-authoritarian Arab regimes is the intense anti-Washington sentiment prevalent throughout the Muslim world due to the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq for reasons that turned out to be false. The regimes have little difficulty in marginalizing the advocates of political liberalization by describing them as allies of the much-hated Bush White House, often branding them as anti-patriotic.

All in all, instead of initiating and aiding a democratic wave in the Arab world, Bush’s invasion of Iraq has inadvertently achieved the opposite result.

Bush and Policy

"This administration may be over ... By and large, if you want to be tough about it, the relevancy of this administration on policy may be over"

Too bad they only mean in terms of policy influence and not literally. This is, however, definitely a good thing, but they still have plenty of potential to completely politicize institutions like the CIA and others.

Oh how I yearn for the day of effective governmnet and a little evidence supported policy.

Could Globalization Fail?

Policies that spawn economic inequality rather than free trade could bring about an economic crisis.

Activists are not alone in grumbling about globalization. Financial crises in Latin America, government restrictions of foreign takeovers in Europe, increased outsourcing of both blue- and white-collar jobs in the US, and potential loss of social benefits in all countries have increased anxiety about globalization in recent years. Even supporters of globalization wonder if the process could hit a limit and then collapse. Economies tend to become insular when trouble hits, and the early 20th century offers lessons for analyzing globalization’s future. After the First World War, nations withdrew from trade, and economic policies resulting in uneven distribution of prosperity led to the financial crash of 1929. Modern financial institutions are less fragile than those of the late 1920s. However, modern globalization has a contradictory quality that poses dangers, contends author Thomas Palley. The current economic system depends on massive consumption, yet encourages companies to escape from communities or countries with high social-benefit costs. Polices that deregulated the financial markets mask stagnant wages and allow the consumption to continue. But those policies lead to excessive debt that has essentially hollowed out the middle-class, and the consumption cannot last without some increase in wealth. A weakened middle class with massive debt could produce another economic crash, warns Palley, and many critics will blame free trade and globalization. He analyzes possible responses to such a crisis, all of which challenge the elite. To both maintain globalization and support a social democratic mass-consumption economy, Palley recommends a new domestic and international system of rules to reduce extreme economic inequality. – YaleGlobal

Conservatives, the Hate America First Crowd

Conservatives Drive Bush's Approval Down

Why let your values get in the way of value

N.Y. Lawmaker Sues Google Over Child Porn

and they censor in China

not just censoring, google helps in maintaining an illusion of freedom by rigging search results

Free-speech advocates continue to reproach the world’s technology and media giants for ready cooperation with the Chinese government’s moves to censor the internet. Yahoo offered up information about users’ email accounts that led to the convictions of so-called dissidents in 2003 and 2005. Microsoft pulled the plug on a major blog that drew the ire of Chinese censors. Cisco sold equipment that aided Beijing in barring access to sites it deemed unacceptable. No company, however, has served the purposes of restriction more actively than Google, which unveiled a new engine tailored specifically for China – Google.cn. Before, users could hit on blocked links and detect government censorship. Now Google.cn strives for an illusion of freedom. For example, a search for the “Republic of China” does tell you about Taiwan, but provides information dating from 1912 to 1949, before the Communists had gained power. Likewise, the single photo of the Dalai Lama shows a young man greeting senior officials before 1959. More blatantly, the search engine hides recent history: A search for photos of Tiananmen Square replaces the iconic image of a man blocking a row of tanks, with soldiers raising the national flag and happy tourists taking snapshots. Google.cn is an innovative search engine – but only in its capacity to rewrite history.

they are going to have to work on their motto.

Prosecutors may have more on Rove

and potentially more problems for Libby

Olbermann: And movement in one of the other major scandals' investigations underway in the capital, Scooter Libby denied access to records documenting Ambassador Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger, and a revelation that in July 2003 Libby was warned about the potential damage of outing Valerie Plame's name and identity. The judge also signaling that the prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into Karl Rove might be nearing the close, noting that he expects resolution in the foreseeable future of the problem of documents in the case that have been withheld because they touch on Rove, and because he is part of an ongoing investigation.

The president is not amused

You all saw Colbert rip the pres from 3 meters away. Now watch the President watch Colbert rip the president from 3 meters away (unfortunately the clip only has the part where the president is watching the colbert WH pres secretary video)

He did not look too amused, and seemed visibly uncomfortable when Helen Thomas was asking her question. From that point on, it was pretty much him sweating it out. I almost felt bad for the guy.

Who's the Goss?

In case you haven't heard, the CIA director Peter goss suddenly resigned. Why you ask? Dunno yet, but here is some speculation and scuttlebutt:

For those practiced in connecting the dots, little artistic training is needed to speculatively link Goss' here's-your-hat-what's-your-hurry departure with the bribery scandal surrounding jailed former GOP Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

NBC News reported Thursday night that the CIA is investigating whether a top agency official, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, improperly steered a $2.4 million contract to his close college friend Brent Wilkes, a defense contractor implicated in the Cunningham case. Wilkes reportedly supplied prostitutes to Cunningham at poker parties that Foggo also attended, though the CIA official denies seeing the female entertainment.

There is no obvious connection between Goss and Cunningham, aside from their having served together in the House for 13 years. But the real mystery is how Foggo became the CIA's executive director, the official in charge of day-to-day operations at the entire agency: He was a midlevel field officer with a procurement background when Goss appointed him in 2004. A CIA spokeswoman, who did not want her name used, said Thursday that the two men met when Foggo testified before the House Intelligence Committee, which Goss chaired from 1997 until 2004, when Bush made him the CIA director. No date was provided for Foggo's testimony before Goss' committee.

Of course, the Foggo-Wilkes connection may have nothing to do with the sudden change in Goss' career arc. Daalder posed the speculative question, "Was there an intelligence blunder that we don't know about -- and that we may never know about?" Certainly, given the disarray at the CIA, it is plausible that the agency could have made a major misjudgment about, say, the Iranian or North Korean nuclear programs.

Apparently Foggo is resigning and under a federal crminal investigation.

Heres some more scuttlebutt on why he resigned.

Hope in Nepal?

My Kingdom for Some Peace

After a month of daring demonstrations, Nepalese protesters, with the help of Maoist rebels, have brought King Gyanendra to his knees. Since just last week, Gyanendra has already abdicated much of his authority, agreeing to restore parliament, which has not met in four years. And the insurgents, who have been fighting a savage resistance for a decade, have declared a unilateral ceasefire, offering Nepal its first opportunity for peace and serious political reform in a long while. In his Foreign Affairs article last fall, "Nepal at the Precipice," Human Rights Watch's Brad Adams explained how Nepal might be saved from the grip of both the Maoists and the royal army. In a new postcript, he explains why the latest developments are only a first step in the right direction.

Hear we go again: Election year politics

Get your red meat here

GOP leaders are gearing up to bring a number of issues on the Christian conservative agenda to the floor of the House and Senate in the next few weeks, including gay marriage, broadcast decency, the 10 Commandments Act, a cloning ban, and laws protecting 'under God' in the Pledge of Allegiance.

There's going to be some trouble down the road if they don't get on the ball," said Dr. James Dobson, in an interview with the Fox News Network on May 1. He's the chairman and founder of Focus on the Family, a Christian organization based in Colorado Springs, Colo., which is helping to organize some 40,000 events for the National Day of Prayer.

International criminals

UN to quiz Washington on torture

"Huge significance!" they say

This is the first time since 2000 that the US has testified publicly before the committee, which, as a signatory to the UN Convention against Torture, it is required to do.

Ten legal experts will cross-examine the US team, led by State Department legal adviser John Bellinger in public hearings that are due to continue until Monday.

The hearings have huge significance, says Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch. What makes this so remarkable is that this is the first time the United States is accountable for its record on torture with regard to some of the practices implemented after 9/11," she says.

Well, actually, as the article says, the UN has no formal powers to do anything:

The UN committee does not have formal powers and cannot impose sanctions, but signatories are expected to act on the recommendations it will publish following the hearings.

But at least the signatories are expected to act on the recommendations... which would be what, stop torturing? The US will add a special clause by its signature saying that while this is all nice a stuff we can ignore it, like 750 or so domestic laws. Like they will give a rats ass what the UN says.

Another rude american

First Colbert makes the president and press feel all bad and now Rumsfeld is subjected to such atrocities. We should not countenance such a lack of patriotism!

VIDEO: Rumsfeld Called Out On Lies About WMD

Transcript here. Apparently it was 27-year CIA veteran Ray McGovern

Modern Conservativism

Explained

At its heart, the modern Republican election machine is nothing more than a scam to put money in the pockets of right-wing billionaires. It works like this: the rich conservatives don't want their taxes raised, so they want to keep Democrats out of office at all costs. That means they have to elect Republicans. But the problem is, the demographic for people who want to cut rich peoples' taxes just ain't very big. This is where the conservative 'values voters' come in. The rich Republican elite promise to end abortion, ban gay marriage and seal off the U.S-Mexico border, even though they have zero intention of following through on any such promises. Once elected, they swiftly cut taxes and then do their best to ignore the concerns of the Christian right. In the past, they've blamed their inactions on obstructionist Democrats, activist judges or Bill Clinton's penis. But now that they've controlled all three branches of the federal government for the past four years, they're running out of excuses.

Proving modern conservative fiscal policy wrong

Stoking the Beast

This is fascinating, simple yet elegant.

Even during the Reagan years, Niskanen was suspicious of Starve the Beast. He thought it more likely that tax cuts, when unmatched with spending cuts, would reduce the apparent cost of government, thus stimulating rather than stunting Washington’s growth. “You make government look cheaper than it would otherwise be,” he said recently.
...
Niskanen recently analyzed data from 1981 to 2005 and found his hunch strongly confirmed. When he performed a statistical regression that controlled for unemployment (which independently influences spending and taxes), he found, he says, “no sign that deficits have ever acted as a constraint on spending.” To the contrary: judging by the last twenty-five years (plenty of time for a fair test), a tax cut of 1 percent of the GDP increases the rate of spending growth by about 0.15 percent of the GDP a year. A comparable tax hike reduces spending growth by the same amount.

Again looking at 1981 to 2005, Niskanen then asked at what level taxes neither increase nor decrease spending. The answer: about 19 percent of the GDP. In other words, taxation above that level shrinks government, and taxation below it makes government grow. Thanks to the Bush tax cuts, revenues have been well below 19 percent since 2002 (17.8 percent last year). Perhaps not surprisingly, government spending has risen under Bush.

“I would like to be proven wrong,” says Niskanen. No wonder: for the modern conservative coalition, the implications of his findings are discomfiting, and in a sense tragic.

What irony. Then again, the funny thing is that this is what the WSJ argued when they had that editorial on "lucky duckies". You have to tax those who don't make anything so that they 'hate government'.

... the root-canal economics of pre-Reagan conservatism was right all along: the way to limit the growth of government is to force politicians, and therefore voters, to pay for all the government they use—not to give them a discount.

Second, conservatives who are serious about halting or reversing the dizzying Bush-era expansion of government—if there are any such conservatives, something of an open question these days—should stop defending Bush’s tax cuts. Instead, they should be talking about raising taxes to at least 19 percent of the GDP. Voters will not shrink Big Government until they feel the pinch of its true cost.

And the most ironic news of all, Clinton (and the first president Bush) policies of raising taxes and cutting spendings are the best way to constrain government spending. unfortunately, this probably won't make any difference.

The conservative movement is in no position to accept or even acknowledge those implications, now that tax cutting has become the long pole in the Republican tent. Therein lies the element of tragedy. By turning a limited-government movement into an anti-tax movement, conservatism has effectively gone into business with the Big Government that it claims to oppose. It is not starving the beast. It is fueling the beast’s appetite. And the beast has a credit card.

2006 National Geographic Roper

How much do you know about the world?

Findings such as: Only 37% of young Americans can find Iraq on a map—though U.S. troops have been there since 2003. here

Btw, what's a Roper?

Home Economics

How much would you pay your stay-at-home mom?

A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, an amount similar to a top U.S. ad executive, a marketing director or a judge, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The Mexicans are coming, the Mexicans are coming!

Migraphobia

Hilarious

US National Anthem sung in Spanish during Bush campaign events

Perhaps Bush forgot when he said that the Anthem should only be sung in English.

And US Gov commissioned Spanish-Language Star-Spangled Banner in 1919.

What will the thinned-skinned right say now? I know! Spanish Language Anthems are pre-9/11 thinking.

Why isn't the richest country in the world the healthiest country in the world?

A new study found that Americans are sicker than the English.

The study, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, adds context to the already-known fact that the United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation, yet trails in rankings of life expectancy.

The United States spends about $5,200 per person on health care while England spends about half that in adjusted dollars.
...
The upper crust in both countries was healthier than middle-class and low-income people in the same country. But richer Americans' health status resembled the health of the low-income British.

I've seen what they eat, how is that possible?

Waaaaaah

image from here

Skewering comedy skit angers Bush and aides

Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert's biting routine at the White House Correspondents Association dinner won a rare silent protest from Bush aides and supporters Saturday when several independently left before he finished.

"Colbert crossed the line," said one top Bush aide, who rushed out of the hotel as soon as Colbert finished. Another said that the president was visibly angered by the sharp lines that kept coming.

"I've been there before, and I can see that he is [angry]," said a former top aide. "He's got that look that he's ready to blow."

Bush v. Nixon

Who will win? This could go to the wire.

When sudden death shootouts are ok

Priests and imams to play ball in a game of two faiths

King Colbert

ThankYouStephenColbert.org

The truthiness hurts - a piece done by Sherer in Salon

It was Colbert's crowning moment. His imitation of the quintessential GOP talking head -- Bill O'Reilly meets Scott McClellan -- uncovered the inner workings of the ever-cheapening discourse that passes for political debate. He reversed and flattened the meaning of the words he spoke. It's a tactic that the cultural critic Greil Marcus once called the "critical negation that would make it self-evident to everyone that the world is not as it seems." Colbert's jokes attacked not just Bush's policies, but the whole drama and language of American politics, the phony demonstration of strength, unity and vision. "The greatest thing about this man is he's steady," Colbert continued, in a nod to George W. Bush. "You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday."
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n the late 1960s, the Situationists in France called such ironic mockery "détournement," a word that roughly translates to "abduction" or "embezzlement." It was considered a revolutionary act, helping to channel the frustration of the Paris student riots of 1968. They co-opted and altered famous paintings, newspapers, books and documentary films, seeking subversive ideas in the found objects of popular culture. "Plagiarism is necessary," wrote Guy Debord, the famed Situationist, referring to his strategy of mockery and semiotic inversion. "Progress demands it. Staying close to an author's phrasing, plagiarism exploits his expressions, erases false ideas, replaces them with correct ideas."
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A day after he exploded his bomb at the Correspondents' Dinner, Colbert appeared on CBS's "60 Minutes," [video clip here] this time as himself, an actor, a suburban dad, a man without a red and blue tie. The real Colbert admitted that he does not let his children watch his Comedy Central show. "Kids can't understand irony or sarcasm, and I don't want them to perceive me as insincere," Colbert explained. "Because one night, I'll be putting them to bed and I'll say ... 'I love you, honey.' And they'll say, 'I get it. Very dry, Dad. That's good stuff.'"

I never send mass emails but today I sent around the link to the to complete clip to almost everyone on my email list. The press may be ignoring it (although do they ever give play to the comedian at the event that Bush made so popular with his "where's the WMDs" skit - I didn't know until this year that there even was one) but I figure the blogs will push it and it will make the email rounds. It is too good to be ignored.

May 1st Day of Action

US immigrants stage boycott day

Immigrant workers in the United States are staging a day of nationwide action in a major protest against proposed immigration reform.

Millions are expected to stay away from work and school, and avoid spending money, in an effort to show how much immigrants matter to the economy.

Citizen prostitutes

Sharp Reaction to G.O.P. Plan on Gas Rebate:

The Senate Republican plan to mail $100 checks to voters to ease the burden of high gasoline prices is eliciting more scorn than gratitude from the very people it was intended to help.
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"The conservatives think it is socialist bunk, and the liberals think it is conservative trickery," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, pointing out that the criticism was coming from across the ideological spectrum.

Angry constituents have asked, "Do you think we are prostitutes? Do you think you can buy us?" said another Republican senator's aide, who was granted anonymity to openly discuss the feedback because the senator had supported the plan.

What this article doesn't mention is that this is also incredibly inefficent policy. I am amazed that the they so desparately reached into their magic hat and pulled out this canard. It is so painfully obvious political pandering on an issue where they potentially look really bad. The Dems need to keep making the "two oilmen in the white house argument". It goes right to the heart of the issue - people can not trust their behaviour becuase this administration has competing interests. This is a highly salient point; it is true, easy internalizable, and easy to communicate.

The thing I didn't consider was the potential negative reaction from the right - the "this is socialism" reaction. They never cry out that it is corporate socialism when coporations get all sorts of breaks - but that is another matter.