Why there's no truth on TV

Here's a couple of paragraphs from a column about how and why big media echoes the Bush administration party line. The article details how the media shifted from blaming Bush for the Katrina mess to blaming local officials (except for Republican Governor Haley Barbour)as the White House spin machine regained control.

You know most of this already, but having it spelled out clearly will disgust you.

...If big media look like they’re propping up W’s presidency, they are. Because doing so is good for corporate coffers — in the form of government contracts, billion-dollar tax breaks, regulatory relaxations and security favors. At least that wily old codger Sumner Redstone, head of Viacom, parent company of CBS, has admitted what everyone already knows is true: that, while he personally may be a Democrat, “It happens that I vote for Viacom. Viacom is my life, and I do believe that a Republican administration is better for media companies than a Democratic one.”

When it comes to NBC’s parent company, GE’s No. 1 and No. 2, Jeffrey Immelt and Bob Wright, are avowed Republicans, as are Time Warner’s Dick Parsons (CNN) and News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch (Fox News Channel). (Forget that Murdoch’s No. 2, Peter Chernin, and Redstone’s co–No. 2, Les Moonves, are avowed Democrats — it’s meaningless because Murdoch and Redstone are the owners.)...

Link

via Kos

Pensions, now you got one, now you don't

I'm opposed to capital punishment, but in this case, from today's NYT, it makes me wonder if I should be so certain. Here's Robert Miller, a corporate hero of the plutocracy who makes his living guiding companies to default on pension plans. Shed of it's huge pension obligations the troubled company now becomes an attractive acquisition target and is sold for huge windfalls for himself and other already rich fellow executives. Pockets stuffed with pension cash promised to retired workers, the insatiable, Grendel-like Mr. Miller moves on to another company to cancel pensions and cash in on the misery of loyal, long time employees.

Mr. Miller's actions should be a hanging offense.

Whoops! There Goes Another Pension Plan

ROBERT S. MILLER is a turnaround artist with a Dickensian twist. He unlocks hidden value in floundering Rust Belt companies by jettisoning their pension plans. His approach, copied by executives at airlines and other troubled companies, can make the people who rely on him very rich. But it may be creating a multibillion-dollar mess for taxpayers later.

As chief executive of Bethlehem Steel in 2002, Mr. Miller shut down the pension plan, leaving a federal program to meet the company's $3.7 billion in unfunded obligations to retirees. That turned the moribund company into a prime acquisition target. Wilbur L. Ross, a so-called vulture investor, snapped it up, combined it with four other dying steel makers he bought at about the same time, and sold the resulting company for $4.5 billion - a return of more than 1,000 percent in just three years on the $400 million he paid for all five companies.

The ghoulish Mr. Miller is still on the pension stealing job. Follow the link and see if your company is next in line.

Link

Zombies

The fiasco in the Gulf is causing many to see the true self of the naked emperor. Even the fascist staging of his silly speech in NO, the melodramatic but temporary lighting of the set and motorcade route, and the chicken strut across the lawn, turned goofy in the minds of any not yet brain dead long before they doused the lights, packed up the generators, returning NO to darkness, and flew away.

Except of course, for the ultra faithful. Billmon:

...The true Bush cultists are hanging in there, following every loop and corkscrew in the party line like a carload of zombies on a rollercoaster.

Link

Not much better are the sickenly ineffective Democrats who, handed a golden opportunity to mount a serious challenge, continue to act as if a critical whisper in the bathroom is real opposition and that compromises with the neo fascists are responsible government.

Just think about it. Karl Rove is in charge of rebuilding the Gulf coast with our money and we're standing for it quietly, acquiescent as zombies.

Gold rush 2

Atrios:

...Everything this admininstration touches turns to shit. $200 billion for the Gulf is going to be put in the hands of Karl Rove and a team of 22 year old Heritage foundation flunkies so they can proceed to hand it all over to powerful interests with no strings attached.

Link

Gold rush

Here’s how the Bush Gulf Coast recovery plan works.

First, push through a wage cut plan that lowers wages from the princely “prevailing rate” of $7 or $8 an hour to the federal minimum $5.15 per hour. Then, he makes sure his gluttonous corporate cronies, Halliburton, etc, get the lucrative contracts and, with the reduced labor expenses, they haul away obscene profits, all paid for by taxed Americans.

It's a gold rush, for Bush loyalists only.

The rebuilding of NO is turning into a fabulous scheme, looting by corporate plutocratic insiders on a mind bending, near mythic scale. It is unbelievable and so blatantly obscene, right in the faces of the cowardly Democrats that it seems the Bush crime family has abandoned any pretenses of propriety, legality, ethics, and morality. If we were not all paying for it and if innocent poor people were not suffering because of it, the Bush program of institutionalized looting would be a wonder to behold.

Bush/Cheney and their corporate coconspirators have simply accumulated so much power, so successfully intimidated and co-opted the media and the Democrats that they can operate as flagrantly as they please.

This is the new face of fascism, unmasked thuggery and raw greed arm in arm with crazy Christian fundamentalism, military adventurers and Blackwater mercenaries. Get used to it. They aren’t going anywhere and there is no effective opposition.

I’ll post more later (I have to work) but if you want to follow the gold rush closely, just go over to Josh Marshall.

More storms, less Florida

Storms with the power of Hurricane Katrina are becoming more common, in part because of global warming, according to a report from a team of researchers that will be published Friday.

Link New York Times

A record loss of sea ice in the Arctic this summer has convinced scientists that the northern hemisphere may have crossed a critical threshold beyond which the climate may never recover. ...

...The greatest fear is that the Arctic has reached a "tipping point" beyond which nothing can reverse the continual loss of sea ice and with it the massive land glaciers of Greenland, which will raise sea levels dramatically.

Link The Independent on line

Bird flu vaccine

Mass production of a new vaccine that promises to protect against bird flu is poised to begin, as the government on Thursday agreed to stockpile $100 million worth of inoculations.

The new contract with French vaccine maker Sanofi-Pasteur marks a major scale-up in U.S. preparation for the possibility that the worrisome virus could spark an influenza pandemic.

link

Some people, either with more foresight, or more paranoia than I have, are stockpiling Tamiflu purchased via websites, mostly in Canada.

We are overdue for a pandemic, which, given the population densities and global interactions, could spread more rapidly than ever before. The goverment clearly believes, $100 million worth, there is a real threat.

Eisenhower speech, 1961

Now's a good time to be reminded of Eisenhower's military industrial complex speech. I am old enough to remember when this speech was given, though not wise enough then to appreciate its importance. Too bad we seem to have forgotten it.

Here's a few paragraphs from Eisenhower.

...This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together....

The rest is here.

One more thing. Here's a quote from Bush, from Josh Marshall:

"It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces - the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice."

(edit. The Bush quote is not in the New York Times transcript, likely released before the speech. It is in the MSNBC version which is probably a transcript of the actual speech as it was delivered. It is in the middle of the paragraph, six up from the bottom of page 4, that begins, hilariously, "I also want to know all the facts...")

It gets worse

Could Bush/Cheney have done anything more offensive than putting the despicable Karl Rove in charge of rebuilding NO? Well, yes he could. He is also awarding the reconstruction and recovery contracts to corporations run by his cronies in the plutocracy. As Josh Marshall says this evening:

Let's all be clear about one thing.

As we suggested last night, and as President Bush has now put us on notice, the Gulf Coast reconstruction effort is going to be run as a patronage and political operation.

That's not spin or hyperbole. They're saying it themselves.

BAGnewsNotes (a reiteration)

Earlier ("Anybody in charge?" two posts down) I posted a link to BAGnewsNotes. A while ago I went back to the site and wandered around. It's an interesting place, great images and analysis, and very much worth a visit.

Maher

I don't know where he found this but Eric Alterman attributes it to Bill Maher

Mr. President, this job can't be fun for you any more. There's no more money to spend--you used up all of that. You can't start another war because you used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. Listen to your Mom. The cupboard's bare, the credit cards maxed out. No one's speaking to you. Mission accomplished.

Now it's time to do what you've always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the baseball team. It's time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man? Now I know what you're saying: there's so many other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don't. I know, I know. There's a lot left to do. There's a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.

But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You've performed so poorly I'm surprised that you haven't given yourself a medal. You're a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes.

On your watch, we've lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you're just not lucky. I'm not saying you don't love this country. I'm just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: 'Take a hint.'

Anybody in charge?

Go to Bagnewsnotes and check out the photos and accompanying analysis. You might as well get some sardonic amusement out of your halfwit, psychopathic president.

The "out takes" (by which I mean, the wire photos that didn't circulate widely because they weren't as "fit" as Mannie's) suggest even more, however. Bush's expression in this home run photo by AP's Susan Walsh might turn out to be one of the more revealing portraits of the Bush presidency. Sadly, it is reminiscent of the "My Pet Goat" photo taken on the morning of 9/11. In this case, however, the "Oh my God" is replaced with a look of "What the hell do you expect me to do about it?" Clearly, its a rare glimpse of Bush without the mask, or the script, or the teleprompter, or the Rove or Cheney, or the transmitter -- and he knows it. ...

...On the other hand, it is much harder to take the President's posturing at face value when you can see evidence of the stage and the actor, one pose after another. At that point, you can see that this is simply a photo shoot, and the President, rather than being somebody at this critical moment, is trying to look like someone instead.

Thanks to Digby

No surprise

Senate kills bid for Katrina commission

Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina.

Cheney again

Here's a story, "Power crews diverted Restoring pipeline came first", from the Hattiesburg American.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.
That order - to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. - delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt....
"We were led to believe a national emergency was created when the pipelines were shut down," Compton said.

...White House call

Dan Jordan, manager of Southern Pines Electric Power Association, said Vice President Dick Cheney's office called and left voice mails twice shortly after the storm struck, saying the Collins substations needed power restored immediately.

Jordan dated the first call the night of Aug. 30 and the second call the morning of Aug. 31. Southern Pines supplies electricity to the substation that powers the Colonial pipeline....

Article found via Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo.

There are so many fascinating implications suggested by this call from Cheney; Josh Marshall covers many. If true, Cheney clearly was monitoring the storm and its aftermath and chose to intervene where it suited him and to ignore any other situations (like a drowning city) that didn't. It suggests what we all know anyway, that Cheney is the real power ("President Cheney" as Billmon insists) and he is constantly keeping his eye on what matters to his branch of the plutocracy, and so on. I'm sure your imagination on this one is as good as mine.

More on NO mercenaries

Why do we need combat ready mercenaries in a disaster area? Is it appropriate for the government to use them to counter civil unrest in the U.S.?

In general the growth of the mercenary industry is unsettling, perhaps ominous, especially for a boderline paranoid like me who believes the current government, that does not appear to have any respect for the Constitution, will do anything to preserve their power. When it becomes clear that they stole the last elections and will steal the next and people get very pissed off when they realize it, will it be Republican hired mercenaries that squash unrest and protect the process of election fraud?

Heavily armed paramilitary mercenaries from the Blackwater private security firm, infamous for their work in Iraq, are openly patrolling the streets of New Orleans. Some of the mercenaries say they have been "deputized" by the Louisiana governor; indeed some are wearing gold Louisiana state law enforcement badges on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards on their arms. They say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force....

Two men we spoke with said they plan on returning to Iraq in October. But, as one mercenary said, they've been told they could be in New Orleans for up to 6 months. "This is a trend," he told us. "You're going to see a lot more guys like us in these situations." ...

complete article from here, via the Side Show

Intimidation

If you criticize these guys they always make sure you become a public example of what happens if you do. Dr. Ben Marble, after saying “Fuck you Mr. Cheney,” was handcuffed and detained for a short time. And,

A state agency lawyer quoted in a nationally-circulated news story as questioning Karl Rove's eligibility to vote in Kerr County is out of a job and feeling twice burned.

Elizabeth Reyes said she was fired Tuesday as an attorney in the elections division of the Texas secretary of state's office because she appeared in a Washington Post story Saturday about the presidential adviser....

from here via Whatever already.

Where's Dick? (2)

Speculation has not ended about the whereabouts of Cheney at the start of the Katrina mess. Why wasn't he put in front of the cameras earlier? Are he and Bush no longer pals? Nora Ephron poses the questions and provides some answers.

And in case you need to be reminded about how important Cheney is, (from the same Ephron post)

It’s always been clear to me that five years ago, when all those Republican guys got together and realized that George Bush could be elected president – and that he wasn’t remotely capable – they came to an understanding: they would walk him through it. I’m sure it seemed like a swell idea, especially because it meant that they’d be in a perfect position to convince him to do all sorts of exciting things they had always wanted to do.

Cheney was the point man. Cheney was the guy they put on Meet the Press. Cheney was the person who seemed always to be the first responder. Cheney was the official they put into the bunker last May when a plane flew too close to the White House; Bush, who was bicycling in Maryland, wasn’t even told about the episode until forty minutes after it was over. Even Laura Bush, who was in the bunker with Cheney, publicly questioned the decision to keep the President in the dark.

But if you look at the chart in Sunday's New York Times, which tells you who was where when Katrina struck, Cheney doesn’t even get a listing. It’s Bush, Chertoff, Brown. Bush I and Bill Clinton were summoned to help. But Cheney didn’t even turn up back in Washington until last week, when he was sent off for a day of spouting platitudes while touring the flood zone.

Via Talk Left

Ethnic cleansing

While residents are having their guns seized 150 or more armed Blackwater mercenaries are on the job in NO. You can be sure they are not there to protect the poor or rescue impoverished victims. They are there to protect individuals wealthy enough to afford them, to protect corporate assets and probably to protect the private, Bush crony and Halliburton affiliated companies selected by Cheney, Inc. for lucrative cleanup and reconstruction contracts.

How is it that Blackwater operatives get to have guns and citizens don't?

Blackwater’s presence disturbs me. Few presences would frighten me more than 150 armed mercenaries operating in my neighborhood who answer only to Republican paymasters. In fact, I don’t know whether I would be more frightened by efficient Blackwater mercenaries or mobs of disorganized looters.

Come to think of it, with the Abu Ghraib tortures in mind and a government that flagrantly holds people indefinitely, without charges, without trials, in Guantanamo, I don’t think I’d be too happy to see combat armed U.S. troops marching down my road either. I don’t trust them anymore.

In NO it seems people are being removed from their homes, reportedly sometimes at gun point and shipped out without being told where they are going. Think of it. You’re yanked from your house in NO (which may even be on dry land) and put on a plane and when you land, you find out you’re in Utah without money and with no way to reach relatives who might have been deported to Texas. You have no idea how the hell you’re going to get home or if home itself will be there when you get back. In a strange place, with no money, are you really free to leave the "shelter"? Or, are you a prisoner?

Personally, unless my house was under water, I think I'd prefer to stay home and risk disease, looters, fire and whatever, than entrust my well being and the security of my property to mercenaries and the feds. If my house was under water, I would prefer to take my chances getting out alone. I'd rather rely on the kindness of strangers than the good will of the authorities that are responsible for this mess. I would not willingly leave my dogs behind.

Once NO is emptied of residents, who is going to look out for the interests of the poor, now concentrated in distant camps? Who will object if part of the reconstruction by the Bush favored companies is to bulldoze the poor neighborhoods while restoring the business base and the neighborhoods of the wealthy?

If the impoverished, largely black population of NO is removed and conditions created that make it impossible for them to return, is that Ethnic Cleansing?

Link to Blackwater article.

Link to Military dictatorship article

More Cafferty

Here's some more from CNN's Jack Cafferty. I lifted the lengthy quote entirely from Atrios's Eschaton blog.

Somewhere along the way FEMA became a dumping ground for the president's political cronies with little experience in disaster relief. The agency's first director was Joe Albaugh. He was president Bush's 2000 campaign chairman. Albaugh brought in the current failure Michael Brown. His previous work was with Arabian horses. The number two guy, Brown's top deputy at FEMA, is a fellow named Patrick Rhode. He worked for the 2000 election campaign. The number 3 guy at FEMA is Brooks Altshuler. He used to work in the White House. His job was planning presidential trips. FEMA's long term recovery director is a guy named Scott Morris. He produced television and radio commercials for the Bush campaign. The federal agency charged with handling national emergencies is staffed at the very top by a bunch of political hacks with virtually no experience that qualifies them to respond to something like Katrina. But I digress.

...

Where are the qualifications of these people? None of these guys is qualified based on the stuff I'm reading, to head up an emergency management agency. One of these guys worked with Arabian horses, The rest are all off the campaign trial. Planned presidential trips. Produced TV commercials. Don't you need somebody at the top running the organization who has some semblance of an idea of what the hell is required when there's an emergency?

Katrina truth

Here’s a link to an account of an extraordinary Katrina odyssey that vividly conveys the truth of the NO mess. Do not miss reading this. It is the complete account, linked by Billmon, and referred to in the previous post.

Paramedics'journey: "Hurricane Katrina-Our Experiences"

on edit, here's a new link the one above no longer works. And if this one doesn't work, this site is also carrying the story: The Socialist Worker on line

Go fuck yourself Mr. Cheney

Crooks and Liars has the "go fuck yourself Mr. Cheney" tape.

Billmon, at The Whiskey Bar, has some informative comments and quotes about working class "heroes and sheroes" and the racial divide in NO.

Repression

The feds, with too much too late, are now occupying nearly every inch of NO and are tightly controlling the media, prohibiting, for example, photos of dead bodies. This is a typical move of a repressive government. Even the traditionally responsible Josh Marshall says so

Take a moment to note what's happening here: these are the marks of repressive government, which mixes inefficiency with authoritarianism. The crew that couldn't get key aid on the scene last week is coming in in force now and taking as one of its key missions cutting public information about what's happening in the city.

This is a domestic, natural disaster. Absent specific cases where members of the press would interfere or get in the way of some particular clean up operation or perhaps demolition work there is simply no reason why credentialed members of the press should not be able to cover everything that is happening in that city.

Think about it.

Talking Points Memo

Mother

Here's what Barbara Bush said, while touring the Astrodome.

What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overhwlemed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle)--this is working very well for them.

From Atrios. If you read the entire post, there is also the transcript of an editorial (rant) from Olbermann

Hacks

FEMA Director Michael Brown got his job as a political patronage position, with no relevant experience and the last item on his resume getting fired from a job as a manager of horse shows. Last year he was caught giving out FEMA money as political pork with an eye to the 2004 elections. But that shouldn't surprise since people who get hired as part of patronage operations do their jobs as part of the patronage operation. That's the idea.

from this post by Josh Marshall

Front of the line

At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses pulled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the Superdome since last Sunday.

"How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?" exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.

AP via Yahoo News

Cheney

Cheney continues to be on vacation in Wyoming.

New Orleans blogger

Here's a link to a live blogger in New Orleans. To get a sense of it, it is a good idea to go to the bottom of the page and hit "previous" until you get to the first entry, right before the storm hits, and read through to this morning's entry.

Who can we invade?

The Bush administration has only one gear when it comes to disaster response: create a target, attach blame and attack.

With Katrina, no target could be blamed, thus no action.

Bad news, good coverage

Steve Gilliard, The News Blog, is providing a good roundup of news coverage of New Orleans. (scroll down)

Barber adds more wind

Professional blowhard, political hack and, unfortunately for Mississippi, Governor Haley Barber on CNN this morning said people had ample warning to evacuate New Orleans, and elsewhere, but chose to stay, thus completely ignoring the obvious fact that many people, the poorest people, and the sickest, had no means to evacuate.

Barber also said the Feds were doing a great job. Like most of today’s Republicans, when the facts are uncomfortable Barber resorts to lies.

At least, for once, a CNN interviewer (Miles O’Brien) pressed him.

Atrios asks, this morning, if anyone in the administration is competent enough to run even a lemonade stand and links to this, from Gilliard

My touchstone for this disaster is last winter’s ice storm that left me powerless for four miserable days. No heat. Flushed the toilets with stream water hauled up in buckets. Filled the small generator that kept the sump pumps running in two houses every three hours. No running water. It was miserable and cold and I felt very helpless. I can’t imagine sitting on a roof for days in hot sun and nights without water, night and day with mosquitoes, hoping for help, trying to decide whether to risk wading out or staying.

The feds lack of effective response is unforgivable. Before Bush took the helm I thought if it had to, the U.S military could move mountains on very short notice. All those fast little shallow draft boats for landing on beaches, squadrons of helicopters, huge trucks, big supply and hospital ships, bulldozers, giant airplanes stuffed with supplies, instant wireless communications networks…. I thought handling a disaster like this would be a cinch. Instead, we find ourselves doing no better than much poorer countries when faced with the tsunami.

Our helplessness should be an important wake up call. All we take for granted is on very fragile foundations and these foundations themselves are being left to rot or are willfully being whittled away by the nutcases in the White House.

Here’s a link to a Washington Post column, via Josh Marshall, that discusses the Bush gang’s trashing of FEMA, beginning in 2001.

Check out this story, "No one can say they didn't see it coming" by Sidney Blumenthal in Salon.

Everything Bush touches turns to shit.

I do not believe he gives a damn about what happens to the people of New Orleans.

We know where the National Guard is, but just what does Homeland Security do anyway?

I take instant access to information for granted. I sit here obsessively flipping from coverage to coverage, avoiding Bush, dodging the worst of hard hearted Paula and boot lick Wolf, and from time to time I have to remind myself that the people in New Orleans, with no TV’s, no phones, few radios, have no sense of the big picture of this disaster. Not that it would be a comfort, but I can’t help but think knowing water is everywhere and is going to be there for weeks would help people make good decisions about how best to survive. A cheap portable radio would be priceless.

I think there are an awful lot of people that are unaccounted for.

If families are separated, there is no way to find out who is alive, who is safe or where anyone is. Think of the heartache of that.

Get ready for the fuel crisis.

Haves leave. Have nots stay

When they give evacuation orders what do you suppose people do who don’t own automobiles or have enough money to buy tickets on public transportation?

Seems to me recent evacuations assume most people have cars or somehow can buy their way out. Looking at the videos from New Orleans it looks like there’s a lot of poor people that were stuck there. I guess the alternative for the largely invisible and rarely considered poor was walk to the Superdome.

Haves leave. Have nots stay.

Their ought to be a better way.

The Whisky Bar

Maybe it's the late hour, maybe it's too much time spent listening to blather, but tonight I read four of five posts at Billmon's The Whiskey Bar and was blown out of my socks by the insights and the skillful way they were presented. Go there, be amazed and be grateful Billmon's on our side.

Some lose, some win

Weapons labs, defense firms, and pundits who also have financial stakes in war-related venture funds and investments like James Woolsey clean up in times of low-trust and high-fear. If things go back to normal, these players lose. There is a zero-sum game underway where return to stability and normality is something that many in the Washington establishment will vigorously, though in nuanced and subtle ways, fight.

From Talking Points Memo (but not Marshall, from sub Clemons)

Secret truth you always knew

It is finally dawning on the Panglosses on the more centrist left that things are not what they seem. We do, in fact, live in a plutocracy; that the nuevo aristocrats in the media and government, Democrats and Republicans, are all in the same bed and conspiring to keep truth, wealth and power from you and me. It's for the good of the country, they tell themselves, when it is really for their own selfish interests. Hopefully this new realism showing up in posts by some of the super star leftist bloggers signals an awakening and raises some interesting questions. Is it at last a viable time for a third party to emerge? Should we oppose any and all insider candidates, Hillary and Biden, for example, and any other Democratic senators for that matter?

If you've been puzzled by the acquiescence of the Democratic Senators and the media, these two posts, Digby's (linked in the previous post) and The Tiny Revolution's will answer your questions, but not with answers you might wish to receive.

Here's a couple of paragraphs from A Tiny Revolution

...I grew up in the Washington area and went to school with lots of children of government and media types. Then I went to Yale, which is also full of such offspring. What I saw was that the corporate media—places like the New York Times, Washington Post, the networks, etc.—and government figures are blatantly, brazenly in bed with each other. And not just metaphorically; it's often literally true. There's Andrea Mitchell & Alan Greenspan; James Rubin & Christiane Amanpour; Judith Miller & a cast of thousands; and so on.

In any case, whoever they're shtupping, they share a mindset: the government and corporate media self-consciously see themselves as a governing elite that runs things hand in hand. That's why Nicholas Kristof is anxious that if the hoi polloi keep calling George Bush a liar, it may make America "increasingly difficult to govern."

From near the end of The Tiny Revolution's post:

...If you're not part of their little charmed circle, believe me, all your worst suspicions about them are true. They do think you're stupid. They do lie to you. They do hate and fear you. Most importantly, they think you can't be trusted with the things they know—because if you did know them, you'd go nuts and break America. ...

That would be their America. The America many of us live in is already broken.

Digby

Digby has a clear vision of what Washington and the press are all about. You should read it all.

Poetry

Sometimes you come across something that is just too good to let go by. Here's a post by someone looking at Van Gogh looking at the world. Pretty fine stuff.

A Hole in Vincent's Head

A special post.

Gas from coal

Here's something that might give pause to even the darkest views of the most hardened pessimists.

Montana's governor wants to solve America's rising energy costs using a technology discovered in Germany 80 years ago that converts coal into gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel.

The Fischer-Tropsch technology, discovered by German researchers in 1923 and later used by the Nazis to convert coal into wartime fuels, was not economical as long as oil cost less than $30 a barrel....

...Montana is "sitting on more energy than they have in the Middle East," Schweitzer told Reuters in an interview this week.

"I am leading this country in this desire and demand to convert coal into gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel. We can do it in Montana for $1 per gallon," he said.

"We can do it cheaper than importing oil from the sheiks, dictators, rats and crooks that we're bringing it from right now."

The governor estimated the cost of producing a barrel of oil through the Fischer-Tropsch method at $32, and said that with its 120 billion tons of coal -- a little less than a third of the U.S total -- Montana could supply the entire United States with its aviation, gas and diesel fuel for 40 years without creating environmental damage.

From here via Kos

American Legion

If you missed the American Legion's fascist like call for suppression of dissent you can go to Billmon and catch an interesting juxtaposition of their position today and their position when Clinton was facing the mess in Yugoslavia.

Needless to say, it's a 180 degree change of direction.

What's a blog?

One more point -- people fundamentally misunderstand this medium. Blog writing isn't like any other kind of writing. There are no drafts, no editors, no time buffers that allow for more careful consideration of the words used. So people latch on to posts and say, "oh, if only these three words weren't used, then this post would've been fine". That's not how this medium works. It's raw. It's immediate. And sometimes, that one "offending" word gets in. It's an occupational hazard, and one I'm comfortable with.

And ultimately, it's a package deal. You get the good and the bad.

from Kos

Nutcase mullah revealed to be lying weasel

Not only is Robertson a nutcase, blood thirsty fanatic, he also reveals himself to be a lying weasel.

"I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time," Robertson said on "The 700 Club" program.

Here's what Robertson said Monday:

"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it," said Robertson on Monday's program. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war."

Both quotes from CNN

Dumb

Digby (Hullabloo) sums it all up very nicely and indirectly helps me understand the phenomenon of "Sportsmen for Bush." Armed with Digby's analysis and given what I know about Americans, I won't be surprised if they win it all next time without even having to fix the election.

From the Digby link:

I keep hearing that the beltway insiders have their money on George Allen to be the Republican nominee in 2008. I assume it is because he is just as stupid as George W. Bush....

...The Republicans have determined that they do better with nominees who make their constituents believe they are smart enough to be president. It's the right's version of the self-esteem movement.

George Allen is an extremely dumb guy. Really dumb. Awesomely dumb.

Who do we have that's dumb enough to beat him?

I've been trying to think of a way to make this simple little point for quite a while. Maybe I'm dumb enough to win some votes from people pleased to discover they are as smart as I am.

Christianity, right wing style

Here's an illuminating quote from Pat Robertson made today on the 700 Club broadcast, from Media Matters via Atrios.

You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he (Chavez, President of Venezuela) thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.

You good Christians might want to let us know where assassination fits into the gospels.

Y2K

Computerized voting machines and other instruments of voting for funsies are in place, or are about to be, even here in Pennsylvania.

Many Democrats continue to believe those presently running our country can be voted out of power. These Democrats will soon be energetically whirling around gathering votes and contributions as if votes will be fairly cast and honestly counted and we will all get sucked into particpating in the charade. Unfortunately, fair elections are not going to happen again. The Republican extremists have been in power long enough to perfect their vote fraud techniques and they do not intend to let go of control.

Maybe the reason Democrats choose not to face election theft issues is because they have no answers. Pretending there are no problems makes the issue go away for awhile. And, for those of us with no power whatsoever, but nonetheless looking eagerly forward to the next election, what fun it is to take polls with our blogs, have serious discussions about positions and imagine fantasy candidates cruising to victory, or to losses by respectable, better than anticipated margins, and oh what unbridled joy it is to pretend the loony nitwit Santorum is humbled in defeat and the freshly discovered Hackett celebrates a Senate victory in Ohio....

We better wake up.

Election 2000 was stolen, more coup than election. Election 2004 was also stolen, though more smoothly. The plain truth is: once in power fascists are difficult to dislodge.

Read Krugman.

Sweet dreams.

Bush supports Islamic Republic of Iraq.

It really doesn't get much nuttier than this, from Talk Left and, via link there, to Juan Cole.

In Iraq, the U.S. is now supporting formation of a fundamentalist Islamic state, like Iran and similar in function (though not in sect) to Taliban Afghanistan. This is not good news for Iraqi women, nor for secular Iraqis. Thanks to us, many Iraqis will be worse off without Saddam than they were with him.

Support for Bush has become support for a crazy Sharia governed state. I wonder how many Senators would have voted for the war if they were told it was being fought to establish a fundamentalist Islamic republic.

Bush will take anything that lets him get out of Iraq; anything that provides enough cover for him to call Iraq a democracy and say "mission accomplished". No doubt many Americans will admire these new clothes our naked emperor will wear, including many of our "centrist" Democrats. The Right will claim victory. Centrist Democrats will say "it's not a complete victory, but Saddam no longer threatens us and that is at least a small victory." And the decks will be cleared of Iraq and we will be off to more manageable invasions. Cuba for example, or better yet Venezuela, because it has oil and because Chavez pisses Cheney off.

If you are interested in keeping track of events in Iraq, the great Juan Cole is the best. After checking out Juan Cole, read a few of the also great Billmon's recent posts. Following these two bloggers keeps you on an easy path to being an expert. For informed takes on breaking news before it breaks, stick to Atios, Kos and Talk Left (see right margin). To gain wisdom while being entertained, go to Noutopia.

If you prefer to be a fool or simply well versed in the administration's positions, watch and believe CNN, FOX and the New York Times. That course will keep you brain dead.

Judy Miller

For a comprehensive, but brief, update on the Judy Miller drama, go to Talk Left. If you want more follow the links to Ariana.

Wal-Mart blues

Wal-Mart is worried about rising gas prices, as well they should be. Most of their stores are completely car dependent and as gas prices rise it becomes less attractive to motor to a store in a paved over corn field to do some recreational shopping and savor the free air conditioning.

Also, we all know the people who feel the gas price (and rising interest rates) squeeze first fit the profile of typical Wal-Mart shoppers and employees-- hard working people who are paid shit, are treated like shit, and operate with no financial safety net at all; people who rely on hope and day dreams fueled by lottery winning fantasies to maintain some sanity and remain compliant participants in a brutally unfair society.

Tough shit Wal-Mart. Maybe you should offer free fill ups.

Back

I am back from Reno/Tahoe. In the first hour I won $425 dollars at the Siena crap table and walked away with it. Their 10X odds are the best I’ve ever seen and Siena is my favorite, hotel—on the high side of my budget ($99 weeknights, $149 weekends) but in range for vacation splurges.

(on edit: rates change with the seasons and how you order. Do so on line seems to be the cheapest.)

While in Reno I saw regular gasoline as high as $290. I got my best flight rates from America West and found myself better treated and slightly less jammed in than on recent trips on American and United. I spent time at Squaw Valley which is a great place to sit outside, drink coffee, shoot the shit and enjoy wide mountain vistas and light air which seemed to open me up and send thoughts soaring. Unlike the thick, heavy, humid air recently dumped here in Pennsylvania that closes you in and pushes you down.

This morning I looked around and read two great posts at Billmon (today and yesterday's) and found out that Ambassador Bolton recently visited Judy Miller in jail.

By the time I left Reno I gave back the $425.

(On edit: Make that three great posts by the absolutely awesome Billmon.)

vacation

Back on August 15

More like him, hopefully

Here's a Republican appointed judge,Judge John Coughenour, who says exactly what some of us have thought since 9/11 and the stupefying right wing crazy attack on the Constitution that followed. Bad enough New York gets attacked, but worse when the Constitution goes up in smoke because of it.

The judge's remarks were apparently made during his sentencing of would be bomber Ahmed Ressam. Today these remarks are inspiring. Amazing, since we used to take what he is saying for granted, as a birthright, as a part of the definition of who we are as a people. No more.

Hopefully there are more out there (somewhere) like Judge John Coughenour.

Secondly, though, I would like to convey the message that our system works. We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, or detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant, or deny him the right to counsel, or invoke any proceedings beyond those guaranteed by or contrary to the United States Constitution.

The above quote quoted from Hunter at Kos. There's more here and it is all good.

Visit Ohio in Harper's

Mark Crispin Miller has an article in the current Harper’s about how the 2004 presidential election was stolen in Ohio. There’s an introduction on Harper’s web site, here and a more detailed summary here.

People seem to be so sick of this administration’s ability to get away with outright theft and corruption that they just don’t want to look at it. Corruption, lies and criminal acts by the Bushistas and their supporting media agents is part of the landscape and we should all just get over it, stuff our embarrassment and depression and go quietly about our business like good Germans in the 30's.

I don’t think so. First, check out the links above and then go buy Harper’s and pass it around. Then resolve to challenge them every way you can, even in casual conversations with those that support these crazy pricks.

Resistance begins in your own livingroom and in the corner saloon.

Thanks to the Mahablog and The Sideshow

One more time

Everyone who pays even a half assed attention to political news and has even an occasional ability to think objectively should know by now that the 2000 and 2004 elections were rigged.

That means efforts to win votes are futile if votes are not cast and counted fairly.

One way to fight back against this coup is for candidates to refuse to concede and to exhaust every challenge in every lost election.

In case you need a refresher on what happened in Ohio in 2004, read the paragraphs below and go to Taibi's article and read the rest.

Here's a link to the New York Press article "HIGHLY IRREGULAR The Ohio election story is going to come back," by Matt Taibi.

Here's the thing about Ohio. Until you really look at it, you won't understand its significance, which is this: the techniques used in this particular theft have the capacity to alter elections not by dozens or hundreds or even thousands of votes, but by tens of thousands.

And if we ignore this now, we're putting proven methods for easily ripping off major elections in the hands of the same party that had no qualms whatsoever about lying its way into a war in Iraq. In the hands of a merely corrupt political party, a bad election or two would be no big deal. But these clowns we have in power now imagine themselves to be revolutionaries, and their psychology is a lot like that of the leadership of Enron, pre-meltdown—with each passing day that they get away with it, they become more convinced by a delusion of righteousness.

via the Mahablog

Here we go again

The Pentagon is laying the groundwork for beginning a withdrawal from Iraq, even as it is weighing the risk of moving so quickly that Iraqi security forces collapse without U.S. support.

From The Washington Post

Have we forgotten Vietnam? Remember the stampede when we began to withdraw? People on the embassy rooftop grabbing hold of helicopter struts?

Seems pretty likely we are in for it all over again. We begin to leave and the rate of descent into complete chaos accelerates until it is stabilized by Iran or an Iran friendly, fundamentalist strongman. Is that what we are fighting for? Does that make their=our oil any safer?

Go see Billmon again. He has another great post.

Floridian

Sooner or later Democrats are going to get it through their heads that working to win elections is a pointless effort if the votes are not fairly cast and honestly counted. Until they do we will continue to spin our wheels, burn rubber and go nowhere while Republicans manufacture just enough votes to stay in power.

Here’s the inimitable Billmon on the Schmidt/Hackett "election."

Manchurian president

I don't accuse President Bush of being a foreign agent, but can anyone imagine how a real Manchurian Candidate could have weakened the United States any more effectively?

This is a conclusion that follows a list of reasons (I'm sure you can probably guess most of them) from BuzzFlash, here.

Via The Sideshow

A hard left to the gut

Here's another terrific response to Will Marshall, Republican Lite at the DLC. Read the whole thing, it will make you feel good.

...Will, it's not that I don't sympathize with you on the surface. If all you do is sit around watching Fux News and suck your thumb, you do indeed come to the conclusion that people hate Democrats and think they're traitorous bastards who despise America. If all you do is listen to Rush, if all you do is listen to your asshole Republican brother in law at the family barbecue, if all you do is stand there and let them tell you, day after day, what is wrong with you, I can see coming to the same conclusion you have. It's so hard, isn't it. Everybody's so mean.

But what we have do, Will my love, is not "come to terms" with what our opposition says we are and promise, really promise, the American people we'll change. What we need, Will, is not some national apology session in which we say we regret opposing a war that was in fact wrong and that we did in fact lose. What we need is not some sort of press conference to announce that we're sorry we hurt all those segregationists' feelings all those years ago by opining timidly that perhaps police should not turn hoses on peaceful protestors and that we should all just drink out of the same fountain. Because when you talk about protest culture, Will, that's what you're talking about. That's what they're really mad about....

The link may load a little slowly because Atrios also posted a link and very likely the hordes that visit Eschaton are crowding the doorway.

One big union

Instead of watching passively as unions drive the final nails into their coffins, maybe we should all get together in a single union for all workers.

Iran is winning the Iraq war

In case you're feeling good about things this Monday morning you can bring yourself down, way down, by reading Billmon's very smart post on the situation in Iraq.

Spreading freedom

Most likely you are not wondering what happened to the release of the additional Abu Ghraib torture photos and videos but if you are then follow these links to Kos for an explanation and some sickening descriptions of what they contain. Here and here.

Legal lynching

Keeping religion out of politics is always a good idea. Too bad it’s an idea that may not be realized much longer.

In Iran, where politics and religion are the same, they hung two boys for homosexual acts. Go to this post at Talk Left and follow the links.

Miller blast from the past

For those who missed it or forgot it and for those who think Judy Miller is a journalist here's a link to Ed Said's review of her book:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=19960812&s=said

From a few paragraphs into the review:

...Writing about any other part of the world, Miller would be considered woefully unqualified. She tells us that she has been involved with the Middle East for twenty-five years, yet she has little knowledge of either Arabic or Persian. It would be impossible to be taken seriously as a reporter or expert on Russia, France, Germany or Latin America, perhaps even China or Japan, without knowing the requisite languages, but for "Islam," linguistic knowledge is unnecessary since what one is dealing with is considered to be a psychological deformation, not a "real" culture or religion.

What of her political and historical information? Each of the ten country chapters (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan) begins with an anecdote and moves immediately to a potted history that reflects not much more than the work of a name-dropping college sophomore. Cobbled up out of various, not always reliable authorities (her pages of footnotes are tainted by her ignorance, whether because she can only cite the sources she already knows she wants in English, or because she quotes only authorities whose views correspond to hers, thereby closing out an entire library by Muslims, Arabs and non-Orientalist scholars), these histories are meant principally to display her command of the material, but actually expose her lamentable prejudices and failures of comprehension. ...

Roberts

Roberts is a great litmus test. Show people one of the photos of Roberts being posted around and if they say “looks like a bigoted, right wing, hypocritical nutcase to me” you know they’ve got their perceptions and politics in correct alignment. If they say “what a fine looking, clean cut man” clam up immediately, excuse yourself and slip out the door.

Cheney/Miller

The more Rovegate unfolds the more it looks like a smaller piece in the puzzle than the more important Cheney/Miller connection. Check out Talk Left's exploration of the winding paths from Cheney/Miller to the headlines the Plame leak may have taken.

It could be that Rove and Novak have concocted a story that will pretty well cover Rove. If Rove is covered it makes perfect sense that Cheney and his hoods are delighted to let him divert attention from Cheney. The real shit storm could be unleashed if Miller ever testifies to what actually occurred. Of course she will not give it up because her story probably goes right to the VP and because her shameful story reveals her to be more Republican operative than journalist.

It's back to Gannon

At the least it’s entertaining that Rove Gate comes all the way around to Judy Miller's fellow journalist and teammate Jeff Gannon. After reading Josh Marshall it becomes easier to understand why Gannon got so much preferential treatment. He could bring house down.

Krugman

If you read only one column a day, or in your life, read today's New York Times column by Paul Krugman.

The gang can't shoot straight

"Bush admin may be responsible for botching effort to thwart London bombing"

One of the great fake auras that cling to Cheney, Bush and the other right wing coup leaders is the myth of competence. This mass delusion is so powerful it withstands every fuck up from drunken stumbles to the disastrous Iraq war. If you are on the right and you scare the shit out of people, wear a suit, have a deep voice, a snarl and grab bag full of lies, people think you know what you’re doing.

It isn’t so. For the details on one fuck up that resulted in the London bombs go to Americablog.com and read the linked post.

These asses will do anything for a little political leverage.

update: Visit Juan Cole for more.

Where's Dick?

We’ve been wondering what Cheney’s role in Rove Gate was and found some of the questions are cleared up here. Questions, of course, that lead to more questions. Could it be that Cheney is the real target of the Fitzgerald investigation?

Cheney is the real power. Bush is an empty suit dancing on a short leash, allowed to shoot off his mouth, strut, bully and act out within the strict confines of a script written elsewhere. The viciousness of the Plame outing suggests both Cheney and Rove and my guess is that the junta is delighted that Rove is getting all the attention and Cheney, so far, is skating.

Check out the link here and above to Talk Left for a masterful assembling of information that points to Cheney’s involvement.

Pa opens a door

If you're considering elective surgery here's something to think about.

More than 11,600 patients contracted infections during hospital stays in Pennsylvania last year _ and nearly 1,800 of them died, according to a new report by a state agency that tracks health care trends.

Pennsylvania is one of at least a half-dozen states that require hospitals to report information on infections, and it is the first state to publicize its findings....

Since hospitals are not anxious to report this information unless required to do so and apparently the states are even less likely to release the information, we could use more requirements. It's the kind of information you like to have when picking a hospital.

Congratulations to Pennsylvania.

"The Big Lie About Valerie Plame"

Here's an informative article on Valerie Plame and the damage done to her.

The misinformation being spread in the media about the Plame affair is alarming and damaging to the longterm security interests of the United States. Republicans' talking points are trying to savage Joe Wilson and, by implication, his wife, Valerie Plame as liars. That is the truly big lie.

For starters, Valerie Plame was an undercover operations officer until outed in the press by Robert Novak. Novak's column was not an isolated attack. It was in fact part of a coordinated, orchestrated smear that we now know includes at least Karl Rove.

Valerie Plame was a classmate of mine from the day she started with the CIA. ....

via Atrios

The script

Raw Story has posted a document with the Republican "talking points" on Rove/Plame.

Mostly they say it's a Democratic Party smear campaign.

Who cares what you think

Rove is not going anywhere.

Most likely they will throw out a few face covering lies for consumption by the faithful and then stonewall it to the end.

Remember: "who cares what you think?" That early incident clearly defined what their attitude toward us, the law, congress and any opposition and gave us a very accurate preview of what we were in for in the years to come.

They are gangsters and will respond only to force, not truth, reason, law, and especially not public opinion.

Cold Winter

If a minor tropical storm can raise the price to record highs, imagine what a real disaster would do, a serious terrorist attack on refineries, for example, or who knows what.

CNN Money

Oil surged to a record high above $61 a barrel Wednesday as a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico fanned worries about refiners' ability to bolster fuel supplies ahead of next winter....

The energy crisis is going to get nasty I think more quickly than we can imagine. When things begin to break down the rate of break down always seems to accelerate. The most memorable examples that occurred in my lifetime were the collapses of Vietnam and of the Soviet Union.

Update:

Record oil prices may increase to $80 a barrel this year, options contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange show. Investors are speculating OPEC won't produce enough oil to compensate for any disruption to supplies.

From Bloomberg via Atrios

$100 a barrel anyone?

Birds of a feather

Once they get elected to the ruling class, most Democrats in Congress are more comfortable with their Republican colleagues than they are with their constituents, excluding, of course, rich contributors.

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Kos

...Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is trying to get voters to hold the Republican Party responsible for the "culture of corruption" he sees in Washington, but Dean is getting virtually no help from fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives....

...House Democrats are victims of "a kind of mindset that too often creeps in in Washington —to get along, go along," Bell said in a telephone interview from his law office in Houston. "There's not a more adversarial act you can take in the House than an ethics complaint, and some people just don't have the stomach for it."...

So, which is it? Are the Democrats more worried about being exposed as thieves themselves? Are they more concerned about protecting their Republican buddies from too much scrutiny?

Probably both and a desire for stability. Since our congressional Democrats are in such a comfortable spot the last thing they want to do is rock the boat. Things are good, they say to each other, let's leave them that way and go play golf.

Leaving the coop

From the NYT

An outbreak of bird flu among migratory waterfowl in China suggests the disease -- which could trigger a dangerous flu among people -- may be poised to spread to India, Australia, New Zealand and eventually Europe, scientists warn.

If the migrating birds carry the H5N1 flu virus beyond its current stronghold in southeast Asia, it could devastate poultry farms and raise the risk of a deadly flu pandemic in people, experts said....

...If a bird flu virus infects a person who also carries a human flu virus, the result could be a hybrid bug that passes easily from person to person. ''That's the spark that sets off the forest fire of a global pandemic, and that's what everyone is worried about,'' said flu expert Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University....

Lucky strike

Brother-in-law died Thursday afternoon. He was 51 and the cause was lung cancer. He shared custody of his 16 year old daughter. His 80 year old mother lived with him.

The plant where he worked for 26 years closed a while ago (three of my wife’s five brothers lost long held jobs through plant closings) and he finally found a job as a laborer at a defense contractor installation near here. He collapsed at work in March, refused to go home and finished the day. On the weekend he went to the ER (he did not have a regular doctor) and X-rays revealed the cancers. He opted for treatment, deteriorated over the next months but was lucid to the final hours, until great pain led to large amounts of morphine.

He may have noticed symptoms early enough to be more effectively treated, but he repressed the awareness. As time passed he likely thought he had waited too long and did not want to face the consequences. Maybe he secretly hoped that if he didn’t look at the problem it would go away. Whisky helped him avoid the issue. He smoked to the end.

Theirs and ours

From the BBC, via Gilliard.

Iranian officials on a visit to Belgium have upset their hosts by trying to ban alcohol from the lunch table and refusing to shake women's hands.
Belgium's parliament speaker, Herman De Croo, decided to cancel a lunch rather than hosting a meal with no wine.

Strict Islamic teaching instructs Muslims to avoid looking at alcohol, as well as to avoid drinking it.

Belgian Senate president Anne-Marie Lizin later cancelled talks with the visitors over the handshake issue.
From the BBC

"We tried to find a solution, but they held fast to their position of not wanting to shake her hand," spokesman Patrick Peremans said.

The Senate said the meeting with the 12-strong delegation had been called off because of the "continued refusal" of Ms Lizin's counterpart to shake her hand.

From The American Prospect's Tapped, via Atrios

Larry Diamond, a former senior adviser to the coalition government in Iraq and a current fellow at the Hoover Institution, lays out where America went wrong in Iraq in a piece in today's San Jose Mercury News:

....One young political appointee (a 24-year-old Ivy League graduate) argued that Iraq should not enshrine judicial review in its constitution because it might lead to the legalization of abortion....

No matter what the religion fundamentalists are all nut bags.

Train wreck 2 (avalanche)

From Juan Cole "Guest Opinion:Iraq Avalanche Unstoppable"

"The Iraq Avalanche Cannot be Stopped"

by Alan Richards

University of California Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA
June 24, 2005

...There is a way, however, in which I am troubled by what I perceive as a tacit assumption--a very American assumption,--underlying most of the discussion. It seems to me that even "pessimists" are actually "optimists": they assume that there exists in Iraq and the Gulf some "solution", some course of action which can actually lead to an outcome other than widespread, prolonged violence, with devastating economic, political, and social consequences.

I regret to say that I think this is wrong. There is no "solution" to this mess; it is sometimes not possible to "fix" things which have been broken. I can see no course of action which will prevent widespread violence, regional social upheaval, and economic hammering administered by oil price shocks. This is why so many of us opposed the invasion of Iraq so strenuously in the first place! We thought that it would unleash irreversible adverse consequences for (conventionally defined) US interests in the region. I am very sorry to say that I still think we were right. ...

There is much more and this post, unsettling as it is, is worth following the link to Juan Cole's site and the few minutes it takes to read it.

The post ends with this paragraph:

So let me close where I began: I think it is delusional to imagine that there exists a "solution" to the mess in Iraq. From this perspective, the folly of Bush, Cheney and Company in invading Iraq is even worse than most informed observers of the region already think. Starting an avalanche is certainly criminal. It does not follow, however, that such a phenomenon can be stopped once it has begun.

Delusional to imagine there is a solution to the mess in Iraq and it is delusional to imagine there will be an easy way out of the consequences of our stupid reliance on oil. Rather than leading to a stable, imperial control of what oil remains in the ground, which is lot of the Bushista agenda, our actions in Iraq put our sources in greater jeopardy. Withdrawal from this addiction will not be pretty.

Train wreck

The railroad bridge is out. You see the bridge. You see the train rushing headlong toward disaster. You know the people on the train have no idea what’s ahead. If they do, maybe they think the engineer is so masterful he will make a miracle. They don’t know there is no masterful engineer; a crazed monkey is at the controls and it is already too late.

I didn’t watch the speech. But I am watching the train wreck. It is happening in slow motion but it is happening. It takes a long time to stop a train.

I plan to heat with wood and because I am old I plan to die before the process of foreclosure catches up.

Two fronts

I thought Taliban resistance in Afghanistan was well into its final throes stage.

From CBS/AP

...Concerns already have been on the rise that rebel attacks here have been escalating into a conflict on the scale of that in Iraq.

More than 660 people have been killed in Afghanistan since March —
including 465 suspected insurgents, 29 U.S. troops, 43 Afghan police and soldiers, and 125 civilians — a level unprecedented since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001....

Hunting liberals

David Neiwert puts Rove's recent remarks about Liberals/Democrats into a meaningful historical context.

From Neiwert's Orcinus

...This is how propaganda is supposed to work: Circulate ideas on the popular level first, perhaps disguised as "humor" or "edgy commentary," until they become part of a broadly popular "conventional wisdom." Seemingly "outrageous" ideas gradually gain broader acceptance, leveraging the populace toward the movement's agenda. Then, when these notions are enunciated at the official and most powerful levels of government, any outrage that might be voiced is easily ignored....

via Noutopia

Bird flu

Over population is not a stable state. There is always a correction. Maybe this time it will be Bird Flu.

From "Preparing for the Next Pandemic", New England Journal of Medicine

...An influenza pandemic has always been a great global infectious-disease threat. There have been 10 pandemics of influenza A in the past 300 years. A recent analysis showed that the pandemic of 1918 and 1919 killed 50 million to 100 million people,1 and although its severity is often considered anomalous, the pandemic of 1830 through 1832 was similarly severe — it simply occurred when the world's population was smaller. Today, with a world population of 6.5 billion — more than three times that in 1918 — even a relatively "mild" pandemic could kill many millions of people.

Influenza experts recognize the inevitability of another pandemic. When will it begin? Will it be caused by H5N1, the avian influenzavirus strain currently circulating in Asia? Will its effect rival that of 1918 or be more muted, as was the case in the pandemics of 1957 and 1968? Nobody knows. ...

And some other links

UK says bird flu "as grave a threat as terrorism"

The Flu Wiki

From the Birds

Clubs left in the closet

The public golf course a couple of miles down the hill from my house, in northeast Pennsylvania, has been mostly empty this summer, even more so than last year. I walked the course on Saturday with a friend and it was empty. A few years ago it was packed every rain-free weekend and crowded on weekdays. This is not a luxury club but it has four very attractive nines. You can golf in your blue jeans and a T shirt if you like. The course mainly attracts working class golfers, with a very large percentage coming from New Jersey and New York City, groups of cops and firemen for example, and industrial workers.

My impression, supported by years of driving by the course parking lots, was confirmed by club employees I met at the supermarket. “I don’t know where everyone went.” one said. “Golf is over” another said, “except for the luxury courses,” and then went on to cite a competing, slightly more upscale course that went bankrupt this year.

There could be a lot of reasons for the waning local interest in golf, but my guess is there are two basic reasons. One is economic. People are more worried about money than before. They can’t justify spending a $100 dollars a day on golf, counting expensive gas, food, beer and green fees. Many are also working longer hours than ever before and can’t blow off a Saturday on golf because there are more urgent demands on their time.

The other reason is attitude. People (in these mostly blue areas) seem less playful, tenser than they were in the peaceful, even joyous Clinton years. They are also more fearful of losing jobs, retirement, health benefits and so on and I think they feel keenly alone, expendable and under a government that does not include their interests in its agendas. Not many among the depressed and anxious care to pass a frivolous day on the links.

Anyway, it seems likely that during a move from prosperity to depression the impact will first be felt on the fringes, like public golf courses. Those that depend on customers who drive hours to get there will also give early indication of the impact of more than $60 per barrel oil (today’s price).

Part of the script

Rove public statements are on message and part of a plan.

Shakespeare's Sister has a provocative take on the Rove comments and the storm they generated. Go here for the details.

Today, the RNC issued talking points obviously constructed in support of Rove’s statement, in addition to an attack ad against Dick Durbin based on his Gitmo comments.

And so the red herring is cast ashore for all to admire.

This is their defensive play—deflect all interest in the Downing Street Documents by some controversy and force liberals to defend themselves…again.

It’s nothing but subterfuge, designed to detract from this major issue with their usual disingenuous bullshit. The Good News: This is their last line of defense against something that’s big and bothersome for them, so we’re on the right track. The Bad News: This line of defense has worked for them before and it will work again, if we don’t call them on it.

Via Majikthis

Out foxed

There are still some ripples around from the Susan Estrich/Fox news teapot tempest.

Yesterday this was posted on Talk Left

I've done legal commenting on Fox News for eight years, mostly from Denver but many times at their New York studio. I've never been paid a dime by them, although I've asked a few times. I can underscore they never, ever tell you what to say and you can say whatever you want. Their producers are top notch. They are appreciative, professional and a pleasure to interact with. I may not share the views of their anchors, but on a personal level, I like every one of them.

I've never met Roger Ailes, so I don't have anything to say there, but I think the attacks on Susan are catty and misinformed. Susan is a law professor and expert on politics and feminist issues. I don't always agree with her either - I'm far to the left of her - but the attacks on her embarrass me. Liberals need to stop eating their own.

Talk Left is a fine blog but I disagree with almost everything in this post. Even the worst people can be polite and socially gracious and characterizing Fox that way is a meaningless defense.

There is no need to “tell you what to say” because your message is not going to be heard. You are not there for an exchange of ideas, or to provide content. You are their to play a part in simple play. The Fox propaganda maestros know that in their territory when you are painted “liberal” you have no message of your own. You are a stooge in a political theater. The more earnest you appear the better it is for them.

Here’s how Rove characterized girly men liberal reactions to 9/11.

…liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers….

An ambitious liberal, even an eloquent and informed one, goes on Fox news, thinks he or she is making a point, is bullied, insulted, shouted down and, tail wagging, limps back for more. That simple, repeated play makes Rove’s point. Liberals are flower children, never to be entrusted with the responsibities of real power in a dangerous world. Only conservatives are strong enough to protect us.

No liberal should ever go on Fox news. But some will and will be out foxed. Being on TV is a high few ambitious egos are able to resist even though playing a part in their propaganda theater advances their message, not ours.

Lefties on Fox news embarrass me.

China Chevy to the levee

This Jim Hightower column,"Chevy's Revolting Revolution" caught my eye. I saw a version today in the Pocono Record.

...Check out Chevy's "Equinox," for example, a new SUV that's a central feature of the company's current star-spangled ad campaign. Chevrolet doesn't want you to know it, but there's not much that's American in the Equinox – it's assembled in Canada, its transmission is made in Japan, and – well, here's something revolutionary – its engine is made in China!

While General Motors has been shutting down its auto plants in Michigan, Maryland, and Ohio, it has been quietly investing more than a billion dollars in joint ventures with China's ruling elite to make cars and car parts there for export back here to the USA....

GM plans to layoff 25,000 workers in the U.S. by 2008 and blames the job loss on pension and health insurance costs. It looks like GM sees its future as being elswhere.

Now is not a good time to be an American who works.

Related Christian Science Monitor article

Made in China link

Dick Durbin

Why is it that so many Democrats can't wait to cave in? What possibly could have turned the man?

Senator Durbin, you should have held fast to the course. Your apology betrays us and encourages the crazy rightwingers.

Steve Gilliard is more forthright.

Dick

Whatever Cheney says, it’s a safe bet that the opposite is true. Yesterday, visiting Talk Left, I was reminded of the obvious: Cheney says Dean never won anything. Dean was elected Governor of Vermont five times.

And, there’s Cheney's truth forgotten statements on these issues: the “final throes” silliness, the WMD lies and all that stuff about being welcomed with bouquets from grateful Iraqis.

Or, maybe they’re not lies. Maybe Cheney's nasty ego is so inflated he actually believes that any thought he has is true simply because it is a Cheney thought.

It is amazing how far a crazy white man with a deep voice can go in this country. Even a pasty one like Cheney who is not especially bright, has few if any talents, spent most of his life shuffling papers and thinks shooting dozens of pheasants as they are released from cages is hunting.

What a country.

The big picture

If you’re in the mood to think big, here’s something to mull over, “A Future Timeline of Humanity and the Universe” which I linked to from Juan Cole’s “Cole on Knowing his Own History; and Isaiah Berlin”.

Fox fun

Here's an entertaining slugfest. DC Media Girl beats the shit out of Susan Estrich and others pile on.

DC Media Girl

Wolcott

The Sideshow (always hours ahead of most of us)

Steve Gilliard

Follow the links exercise

Go here, to Atrios, and follow the link there to the Star Tribune. Read the editorial and then go here to get Richard Durbin contact information and then send him some encouragement.

Zero

With Coke Zero, Coke has done it again. Confused me completely.

In case you haven’t seen it, Coke Zero is the new Coke in the black, vaguely goth bottle—a package where I’d expect to find an Everclear and ground glass cocktail or maybe a new launch of Mad Dog 20-20

Here’s what Coke has to say on their web site:

“Coca-Cola Zero is exactly what young adults told us they wanted—real Coca-Cola taste, zero calories and a new brand they can call their own,” said Dan Dillon, vice president Diet Portfolio, Coca-Cola North America. “Young people today do not want to compromise on flavor or calories and we think Coca-Cola Zero’s taste and personality will appeal to them.”…

From the Q & A in the press release quoted from above:

Q. What’s wrong with Diet Coke?
A. Absolutely nothing. Diet Coke is the #1 diet cola in America and continues to grow. Coca-Cola Zero will provide non users of current zero calorie colas a great tasting option.

Q. What will Coca-Cola Zero taste like?
A. It has real Coca-Cola taste, with zero calories.

I'm still confused. Except for the bottle is it the same as Diet Coke?
Zero they call it. Zero it is.

Here's some other links that young adults told us they wanted:

goth

Everclear

Mad Dog 20-20

Intelligent debate

From an AP story "Bill would allow 'intelligent design' lessons in schools" (PA schools that is) published in today's Pocono Record

Experts on both sides of the debate over whether public schools should teach "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution — a question already before a federal court — sparred in front of a state legislative panel Monday.

The House Subcommittee on Basic Education heard testimony on a bill that would allow local school boards to mandate that science lessons include intelligent design, a concept that holds the universe must have been created by an unspecified guiding force because it is so complex.

It is hard to believe that legislators are actually ingnorant enough or intimidated enough to sit down and talk seriously about this.

I need to scream. aaaaaaaargh.

Overdraft

From the Socialists.

The US balance of payments deficit hit an all-time high for the first quarter of the year, rising to $195.1 billion, up 3.6 percent from the previous record of $188.4 billion for the final three months of 2004 and well above market predictions of $190 billion. The latest figure means that the US payments deficit is running at an annual rate of $780 billion, requiring $2 billion a day from the rest of the world—mainly provided by Japan, China and other Asian nations—to finance it.

We can’t afford to send enough troops to Iraq. We can’t afford to properly equip those that are there. We can’t afford to draft reserves and the National Guard, stripping towns of all the people that know how to do useful things.

It’s hard to afford to do anything while giving tax cuts to the rich and funding wildly out of control war profiteering by Halliburton and other favored companies.

You don't need to be a wizard to see that as long as we continue to underwrite the gluttony of the extreme Right elites we can’t afford the basic structures we working people counted on. If this continues we will lose medical coverage, access to higher education, quality public schools, ability to own our homes, cheap travel, retirement and much more.

We are an empire in decline. It should be apparent to all that the Bush dreams of seizing control of the world’s energy resources are delusional.

To raise our spirits maybe we can invade Grenada again or take a shot at Venezuela. Or, we could once again create a society so attractive everyone would want to be a part of it or duplicate it in their own countries. Nice idea, but not likely to happen with a government that insists on stripping rights and economic independence from working people and rule them by keeping them insecure and terrified. Who wants that?

The pump

From Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation.

Iraq is not Vietnam, all right, because there is no way the US can pull out now without severe consequences, namely the loss of our access to all the oil in the Middle East -- where two-thirds of the world's remaining oil is

From a Patriot News (PA) editorial

...It may be true that the world has 40 years of oil left. But it doesn't have 40 years to figure out how it will manage once the Age of Petroleum expires. Long before then, the price will make oil too expensive to burn. ..

America and the world needs leadership today to begin moving beyond the assumption we can drill and pump our way through any potential energy shortfall. Better to act now than wait until the geological realities of oil depletion hit the world economy with full force.

From The Pocono Record:

"I definitely drive a lot less," said 18-year-old Greg Bremer of Brodheadsville, who carpools to his job in Quakertown to conserve gas.

Filling the two tanks of his light brown, 1988 Ford F-150 truck costs him $80. Bremer pumped $30 into one tank Monday evening and admitted he misses the 4-cylinder Nissan Stanza he drove before it was wrecked in an accident.

Also from the Pocono Record is this link to cheap gas in your neighborhood

New way to make war pay

Sell equipment to soldiers.

Marines going to Iraq are being urged by superiors to buy their own special equipment, including armored vests. Begin following the links here.

Or go here.

(via Sideshow)

From the birds

An estimated 675,000 Americans died of influenza in the 1918 epidemic.

We are overdue for another, possibly worse, epidemic and it may well be bird flu. So far (according to this site) there are more than sixty reported cases of people with bird flu, 28 people hospitalized with symptoms and 13 with confirmed bird flu.

Compared to the past, our population is so dense and travel between continents so common that once a virus gets started it could be impossible to contain. We can’t count on drug companies to be able to configure vaccines and manufacture them quickly enough to keep up with virus mutations.

(Working people can be comforted by the certainty that if such an epidemic occurs, their beloved leaders in Washington will be first to be safely vaccinated as will the adored super-rich and the super star journalists. Hopefully, some vaccine will trickle down to help many of us as well.)

The possibility of a major epidemic is real but it remains on the edge of the public radar because there are so many other issues in focus, like torture, Iraq, runaway brides, and Michael Jackson.

Here’s a link to a very ambitious project, in infancy, planned as a base for grass roots action against bird flu. And a link to Majikthis who also has her eye on health issues and where I found the Effect Measure link.

Peaking? Peaked?

Oil scales new peak, eyes $60 on demand
Sun Jun 19, 2005 10:23 PM ET

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices soared to a new record high over $59 a barrel on Monday, extending last week's surge as a threat against Western consulates in OPEC member Nigeria jolted traders already worried about tight supplies.
Oil prices climbed more than 9 percent, or nearly $5, last week, drawing additional buying interest from trend-following hedge funds as they surpassed the previous early April high.

Just in time for the Monday morning 80 mile plus commute from my neighborhood to NYC.

Too much joe

Here comes Biden. The next Lieberman. link