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Monday, May 16, 2005
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A Puritan Country With a Perverted Populace.
Between Dr. Hager's forced sodomization of his narcoleptic wife, John
Bolton's penchant for swinging, Jack Ryan's repeated attempts to force
his wife into group sex, Rush Limbaugh's multiple divorces, and all the
rest of it, don't you think it's...
[Ezra Klein]
7:12:29 PM 
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Nuclear Option May Blow Up on Frist.
Over the weekend Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell said he believes
he “will have the votes” to ban the use of filibusters against judicial
nominees through the nuclear option. It’s hard to understand where he
gets his confidence. Here’s a look at where key members of his own
party stand: Sen. ...
[Think Progress]
3:49:07 PM
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Foreigners Decrease Treasury Purchases. Bloomberg noted: ” International investors accumulated U.S. assets in March at the slowest pace in almost a year and a half, suggesting record current account and budget deficits may be damping foreigners' confidence in the world's largest economy.
From CBS. Marketwatch: “Foreign demand for U.S. securities slowed sharply in March, the Treasury Department said Monday.
Net capital inflows fell to $45.7 billion in March from $84.1 billion
in February as foreign central banks became net sellers of U.S. assets
for the first time in nearly two years.
[BOPnews]
10:38:15 AM
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Future Five. There
is a major misunderstanding when talking about energy, and it is about
the need for a systematic change in our energy system. Right now our
energy system relies on four steps: extract energy, package energy,
transport energy, apply energy. We extract high energy density
materials, such as coal, oil and uranium, primarily by mining. We then
package them as either electricity, using a generator, or as
combustibles using a refinery. They are then transported to consumers
and used by running electrical motors, transforming back to heat, or
use in a combustion engine. [BOPnews]
10:37:22 AM
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The Right's crusade against truth.
Bill Moyers:"The
more compelling our journalism, the angrier the radical right of the
Republican Party gets," he explained. "That's because the one thing
they loathe more than liberals is the truth. And the quickest way to be
damned by them as liberal is to tell the truth."
Arthur Silber on the Newsweek Koran story.
Censorship is what they're after, and don't let them tell you
otherwise. They announced this goal unmistakably at least a year ago.
(Here's the classic, regret-filled formulation: "And here's a question:
Freedom of the press, as it exists today (and didn't exist, really,
until the 1960s) is unlikely to survive if a majority--or even a large
and angry minority--of Americans comes to conclude that the press is
untrustworthy and unpatriotic. How far are we from that point?") Of
course, they "regret" that censorship might be necessary. It's a
terrible shame and all that. But damn it, if magazines like Newsweek
ARE GOING TO GET PEOPLE KILLED...well, what can we do? We obviously
have to shut them up. They brought it on themselves. It's their own
damned fault. Of course, we'd like to have a free press, but THEY'RE
GETTING PEOPLE KILLED!
As Silber (a Libertarian) notes, these people aren't too woried about
another series of stories, based on lies, that are STILL getting people
killed in a country half a world away. The Poor Man, on Instapundit jumping on the bandwagon: People
died, and U.S. military and diplomatic efforts were damaged, because --
let's be clear here -- Newsweek was too anxious to get out a story that
would make the Bush Administration and the military look bad. Ah-ha.
This is coming from a guy who spent every week agitating for war with
Iraq on the grounds that Saddam was probably involved in 9/11, and
trumping up every half-baked rumor which seemed, if you squinted
really, really hard, to back that up. Then, after the 9/11 commission
confirmed what everybody already knew, Glenn and the entire jingosphere
howled that the commission had no credibility. And then he went to back
to dropping dark hints that Saddam was behind the Oklahoma City bombing.
Interestingly, this lie, one of many which Glenn enthusiastically
promoted up to and beyond the point of absurdity, was instrumental in
launching a war which has killed, to date, over 1,600 American
soldiers, and an estimated 100,000 Iraqis. People died, and the US
military and diplomatic efforts were damaged, because -- let's be clear
here -- because of a concerted effort by the Administration and its
"New Media" toadies to convince America that Saddam posed an imminent -
no, a completely active and long-standing - threat to US civilians. It
didn't. Conservatives can't deal with facts when it fails their world view. Hence their jihad against the truth.
[Daily Kos]
10:36:14 AM
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Unclassified Annoyance.
A new report on Rumsfeld’s new plan to overhaul U.S. military
bases overseas pulled the report from its commission’s website. Why?
The Pentagon set up a roar that the report “divulged classified
information.” Hmmmm. The government-appointed panel says that’s not
true - the information in the 262-page report was based ...
[Think Progress]
10:21:43 AM
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Marty Kaplan: Homo pomo I
thought it was liberals who were supposed to be subjugated by “the
dictatorship of moral relativism” (as Cardinal Ratzinger put it in his final campaign speech). Actually, looks like it's Republicans who've succumbed to the spell of postmodernism. Turns out it’s Homo pomo on the right who’s intent on replacing fact-finding with politics.
Yalta? Forget what actually happened there, or what historians
who’ve studied it say. Putting Joe McCarthy’s smears in W’s mouth
trumps objectivity.
Darwin? Screw scientists; let’s put it to a vote.
Does Social Security privatization screw the middle class? This is
too important to ask economists or the Congressional Budget Office;
truth comes from the barrel of an online poll.
The triumph of postmodernism was the conquest of reality by the cacophony of “he said/she said.” It’s ironic that the mainstream media
is trapped by pomo’s straitjacket (and irony’s the name of the
postmodern game). But who would have thunk that all those flaming
Republican reactionaries would have fallen head-over-heels for
something so French?
- Marty Kaplan (martyk@usc.edu)
[The Huffington Post | Full Blog Feed]
10:21:06 AM
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15 month enlistment.
Things are looking bleak in military recruitment land.The
Army, faced with a severe and growing shortage of recruits, began
offering 15-month active-duty enlistments nationwide Thursday, the
shortest tours ever. The typical enlistment lasts three or four years; the previous shortest enlistment was two years.
Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle, the head of the Army Recruiting Command,
said 2006 could be even worse than this year, a continuation of "the
toughest recruiting climate ever faced by the all-volunteer Army."
What's worse, no one will believe these are really 15-month
enlistments. Soldiers are currently held long past their enlistment
dates, while other soldiers in the Individual Ready Reserve and even
those out of it are being called up in a backdoor draft. And a
15-month enlistment will only apply to "grunt" type jobs -- infantry,
truck drivers, etc. -- exactly the type of jobs that will earn you a
quick trip to beautiful Iraq. But, if nothing else this new
enlistment should be heaven sent to the chickenhawk brigade who won't
just serve, but won't encourage their followers and readers to serve.
Those War Preachers, War Politicians, War Pundits and the 101st
Fighting Keyboardists should pounce on this opportunity to extoll the
virtues of military service to provide the military the manpower it
needs to keep their war running. Cheerleading from the sidelines
is no longer enough to show "support for the troops". They can do their
part for their war effort beyond tough words. Will we see it? We
haven't yet. (Oh, and if things weren't bad enough, there's the AWOL crisis as well.)
[Daily Kos]
8:17:05 AM
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Just shut up and pretend we're winning...
Looks like Operation Matador wasn't all it appeared to be:
Cpl. Alexander Kalouf snapped an ammunition clip into his M-16 assault
rifle and strapped grenades to his chest in the crowded hold of an
armored vehicle, bursting into excited snatches of songs with other
Marines as they headed into hoped-for battle.
Two seats away, Cpl. Jason Dominguez shouted...
- tbogg
[»«TBogg»«]
3:39:02 AM
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Tavis Smiley: The Nightmare of Leaders Without Dreams In his post, Mike Nichols
precisely identified the problem with much of our leadership today --
no one dares to dream. To dream that we can be better, do better.
It bothers me that these days we're navigating politically more out
of fear than hope. This constant peddling of fear is both
counterintuitive and counterproductive. If fear is all we have to sell,
then we're selling our future away.
I reckon we need more leaders who truly are profiles in courage -- not profiles in cowardice. - Tavis Smiley (testing@testsite.com)
[The Huffington Post | Full Blog Feed]
3:30:48 AM
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Ecuador Gets Chavez'd.
Greg Palast meets with Washington's newest bête noire of Latin America,
Ecuador's President Alfredo Palacio, and discusses the confidential
World Bank agreements that shackle his nation.
George Bush has
someone new to hate. Only twenty-four hours after Ecuador's new
president took his oath of office, he was hit by a diplomatic cruise
missile fired all the way from Lithuania by Condoleezza Rice, then
wandering about Eastern Europe spreading "democracy."
[Greg Palast]
3:28:14 AM
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For those keeping score at home
Newsweek may or m...
For those keeping score at
home
Newsweek may or may not be correct about Koran-flushing and, whoah,
Nelly:
OOPS [Jonah Goldberg]
Newsweek apologizes for getting the Koran in the toilet story wrong,
sort of.
Something tells me that if the White House made a mistake which
resulted in riots, deaths, etc there'd be a just a smidgen more outrage
than we'll hear about this.
Yeah. You'd think
- tbogg
[»«TBogg»«]
1:02:45 AM
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Krugman Takes Up The Downing Street Memo.
Krugman decides to push the story: There
has been notably little U.S. coverage of the "Downing Street memo" -
actually the minutes of a British prime minister's meeting on July 23,
2002, during which officials reported on talks with the Bush
administration about Iraq. But the memo, which was leaked to The Times
of London during the British election campaign, confirms what
apologists for the war have always denied: the Bush administration
cooked up a case for a war it wanted...(You can read the whole thing at
www.downingstreetmemo.com.) ... Why did the administration want to
invade Iraq, when, as the memo noted, "the case was thin" and Saddam's
"W.M.D. capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran"?
Iraq was perceived as a soft target; a quick victory there, its
domestic political advantages aside, could serve as a demonstration of
American military might, one that would shock and awe the world. But
the Iraq war has, instead, demonstrated the limits of American power,
and emboldened our potential enemies. Why should Kim Jong Il fear us,
when we can't even secure the road from Baghdad to the airport?
At this point, the echoes of Vietnam are unmistakable. Reports from the
recent offensive near the Syrian border sound just like those from a
1960's search-and-destroy mission, body count and all. Stories filed by
reporters actually with the troops suggest that the insurgents,
forewarned, mostly melted away, accepting battle only where and when
they chose. The Iraq Debacle has slipped from the
country's consciousness. Good to see Krugman bringing it back into the
conversation. Cuz it is a Debacle.
[Daily Kos]
12:53:41 AM
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Protecting Women.
Ayelish McGarvey has written the single most devastating profile of a
public hypocrite that I've ever read. Some of you may remember David
Hager, the FDA appointee who recommends belief in Christ as the best
medicine for female ailments...
[Ezra Klein]
12:10:34 AM
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New U.S. Bill Would Let the Undocumented Work and Stay.
William Fisher | New York | May 15
IPS - Seven influential U.S. lawmakers have introduced bipartisan
comprehensive immigration legislation designed to strengthen border
security and enforcement of immigration laws and reduce the flow of
illegal immigrants by offering them visas to work in the United States.
Sponsors of the proposed legislation include John McCain, a Republican
from the Mexican border state of Arizona, and Democrat Edward Kennedy
from the northeastern state of Massachusetts.
[The Agonist]
12:09:29 AM
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As Nations Lobby to Join Security Council, the U.S. Resists Giving Them Veto Power.
Joel Brinkley | Washington | May 15
NYT - A U.N. balancing act: the old guard and the new world order: The
United States has warned four nations campaigning jointly for permanent
seats on the United Nations Security Council that it will not support
their cause unless they agree not to ask for the veto power that the
five current permanent Council members hold, senior diplomats and
administration officials said. The four nations - Brazil, India,
Germany and Japan - are unhappy about that position. "The Security
Council is not like an aircraft, with first class, business and economy
seats," said Ryozo Kato, Japan's ambassador to the United States. But
the four are nonetheless plunging ahead with an ambitious worldwide
lobbying campaign....
[The Agonist]
12:08:23 AM
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Senators Say Bush Lags on Creating Terror Panel.
Eric Lichtblau | Washington | May 15
NYT - The White House has been slow to establish an oversight board
charged with ensuring that the government's campaign against terrorism
does not erode privacy and civil rights, a bipartisan group of senators
said in a letter released Friday. Five months after the board was
created, President Bush has yet to name any members or an executive
director, and the $750,000 budget for the board proposed by the White
House is far less than the budgets of other federal panels, the
senators said. "We urge the White House to take the steps necessary to
allow the board to begin functioning effectively as soon as possible,"
the senators said in a letter to Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House
chief of staff. The letter was signed by Susan Collins, Republican of
Maine, who leads the Committee on Homeland Security, and by three
Democrats: Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Joseph I. Lieberman of
Connecticut and Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont.
[The Agonist]
12:07:10 AM
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Free trade crushes world's poorest farmers: British charity.
Free trade crushes world's poorest farmers: British charity London |
May 15AFP - Free-trade development strategies designed by the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have devastated
poor countries and left their farmers worse off, a British aid group
said in a report. Three case studies illustrate the costs of what the
group termed the "free market credo": in India, the crop farmers have
been driven to suicidal despair; in Ghana, it has crushed poultry
producers and threatened democratic institutions; and in Jamaica sugar
cane production has plummeted, sending women into drug-running and
prostitution.
[The Agonist]
12:06:14 AM
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Dana Milbank on the Bolton Nomination.
He writes: A Defection on the GOP Side: Lugar, as shepherd of Bolton's
nomination, was scarcely more helpful.... It was, perhaps, not the
ideal slogan for confirmation: Bolton -- not a criminal. Only four days
earlier, Lugar predicted that Bolton would be endorsed by the committee
on a party-line vote. Yesterday, he was reduced to urging colleagues
not to 'reject Secretary Bolton without even granting him a vote on the
Senate floor.'The difference, of course, was Voinovich, who challenged
Bush and GOP leaders in a way few of his colleagues have dared. 'What
message are we sending to the world community?' he asked about Bolton.
Though he said that 'all things being equal' he would support a
presidential nominee, 'all things are not equal.' Responding to a main
White House argument, he added: 'To those who say a vote against John
Bolton is against reform of the U.N., I say, 'Nonsense.' ' Lugar held a
thin smile while Voinovich talked. Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), who
took a political risk by backing Bolton, stared at his water glass and
looked as if he were about to cry......
[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal]
12:03:19 AM
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Insane:In one of several points of conflict in recent months, the
chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which allocates
federal funds for public radio and television, is considering a plan to
monitor Middle East coverage on NPR news programs...
[War and Piece]
12:01:46 AM
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Anti-American Riots and the Koran Desecration Question
You
are probably aware that several Muslim countries have anti-American
riots right now. The immediate cause is supposedly a small story that
appeared in Newsweek about
the Koran being flushed down the toilet in Guantanamo Bay. Desecrating
the Koran is a crime punishable by death in some Muslim countries, and
the possibility that something of the sort took place in a prison run
by Americans is a very good match to use to light the big jihad fire.
But now we learn that Newsweek got it wrong, that perhaps there was no such desecration in the first place:
Newsweek
magazine on Sunday said it erred in a May 9 report that said U.S.
interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to
the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.
"We
regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our
sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught
in its midst," Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest
issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday.
Whitaker said
the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had
confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed
the Koran down the toilet.
The report sparked angry and violent
protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed
and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan to Indonesia to Gaza. In the
past week it was condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia
and by the Arab League. On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to
call for a holy war against the United States.
The weekly news
magazine said in its May 23 edition that the information had come from
a "knowledgeable government source" who told Newsweek that a military
report on abuse at Guantanamo Bay said interrogators flushed at least
one copy of the Koran down a toilet in a bid to make detainees talk.
But
Newsweek said the source later told the magazine he could not be
certain he had seen an account of the Koran incident in the military
report and that it might have been in other investigative documents or
drafts.
The acknowledgment by the magazine came amid a
continuing heightened scrutiny of the U.S. media, which has seen a rash
of news organizations fire reporters and admit that stories were
fabricated or plagiarized.
The Pentagon told the magazine the
report was wrong last Friday, saying it had investigated earlier
allegations of Koran desecration from detainees and found them "not
credible."
The May 9 report, which appeared as a brief item by
Michael Isikoff and John Barry in the magazine's "Periscope" section,
had a huge international impact, sparking the protests from Muslims who
consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with
deep reverence.
Desecration of the Koran is punishable by death in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Did
they or didn't they? And will we ever know for certain? There are two
possible explanations of what happened here, and only one is that the Newsweek
got its facts wrong. In any case, whether the news is true or not will
not make much difference in the Middle East, according to some observers. The anti-American sentiment is strong enough to ignite riots on its own.
But
it's still true that the U.S. administration must take some blame for
events of this sort. Abu Ghraib did happen, and stories about using
fake menstrual blood to upset Muslim believers were there before the
Koran desecration story.
At the same time, I think that killing
people for destroying a book is a good example of what is wrong with
literalist religions in general. And so is the idea that there is
something so filthy about women and their sexuality that menstrual
blood could be used as a method of torture.
Did I already mention today how I feel caged between two religious fronts here?
[ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES]
12:01:14 AM
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© Copyright
2005
Michael Mussington.
Last update:
6/1/2005; 1:34:15 AM.
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