January 21, 2008 archive

Docudharma Times Monday January 21

This Thread is Open 24/7

Monday’s Headlines: Highly Skilled And Out Of Work: Shut out by GOP, independents may tilt Democratic: Hardliner set for Serbia poll win: Moving day Helmand style: how to turn a farm into a fortress: Signs in Kenya That Killings Were Planned :The Populists Retreat: Frontline Blogger Covers War in Iraq With a Soldier’s Eyes

Pentagon Weighs Top Iraq General as Chief of NATO

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is considering Gen. David H. Petraeus for the top NATO command later this year, a move that would give the general, the top American commander in Iraq, a high-level post during the next administration but that has raised concerns about the practice of rotating war commanders.

A senior Pentagon official said that it was weighing “a next assignment for Petraeus” and that the NATO post was a possibility. “He deserves one and that has also always been a highly prestigious position,” the official said. “So he is a candidate for that job, but there have been no final decisions and nothing on the timing.”

Kucinich wins presidential endorsement from key Mexican American organization and more! w/poll

From Dennis’ campaign site site:

Kucinich wins presidential endorsement from key Mexican American organization

Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich gained a significant endorsement today from the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), a progressive advocacy organization based in California and well known for its work in the areas of civil and human rights.

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

The muses are ancient.  The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them.  Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward.  In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.

It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse.  Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets.  Others have been suggested throughout the centuries.  I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts.  And maybe there should be many more.

Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…

The Stars Hollow Gazette

So have you ever had it happen that you had to call up technical support?

Yes, well… I’ve been on the other end of that line and that’s one reason why I’m very considerate when I have to call.

So tonight I’ve been struggling with my cable company (hopefully for the last time) and my DSL provider and the manufacturer of my Wireless Router.

Here in Stars Hollow the BIG game was the one between the Pats and the Chargers and right after kickoff the cable went out.  Then it was on again.  Then it went out.  Then it was on again, but the picture was fuzzy, but when I unplugged my VCR and DVD it was less fuzzy but the cable modem still didn’t work.

Did I mention the BIG game?

So calling the cable company was of course useless because the lines were jammed, but the wrinkle is that I have a wireless sharing arrangement with my neighbors (who pay me off in blueberry muffins) and some of them called MY technical support hotline wondering what was up.

“Look at the Patriots!” I said and when they replied it was snowing in Foxboro I said- “There you go!”

I do have DSL also so I popped that right in the loop, but got the same result I always have before, which is that while it would plug right into any particular computer it would just not talk to my Wireless Router at all.  So I was fine but everyone else suffered and while that may seem a metaphor for our age to some I was unsatisfied with the result.

I had other boats that needed floating and the rising tide was not doing it.

You see it all has to do with your DHCP setting and I have pages of variations that don’t work and was reduced to the last refuge of the desperate.

Of course I experienced the same frustrations that everyone always does, the endless voice mail “Press 3 if you having problems with this menu” and the inevitable “We’re sorry but all our technicians are busy at this time.  The estimated hold time is…  Please leave your name and number and we will call you back.”  I’ve never actually had that work.

The DSL people were hopeless.  “You have WHAT kind of Router?  Never heard of it.”  Trendnet BTW, sold in CompUSAs across the country by the gagillion (I’ll miss CompUSA, the Manchester one is within driving distance and now I’ll have to order early and wait overnight).

So I took a nap and at 3 am I got right through to the Trendnet dude and 6 settings and reboots later here I am, just as obnoxious as ever.

Pony Party, NFL Round-up/MLK video

Rethinking Iraq: We have to do better

We are mired in a false narrative about Iraq.  Getting out of the false narrative will require us to to gain a better understanding of the political factions in Iraq, their manuverings, and their attempts to both deal with the American occupiers and to evict them.  

In brief, over the past few months political factions in Iraq have moved from making largely violent arguments in their bids for power and independence to making largely political ones.  As a result, we, the progressives in the United States who wish to end the occupation of Iraq, have been caught totally flat-footed.  We have been relying on their deaths, and the deaths of American soldiers, to make our arguments for us.  

Fin, fur and feather: Animals, Candidates and Actions

This evening I received an email forwarded by the animal behaviorist who helped us with Jack, our Alaskan Malamute, who had some initial behavioral issues.

She had received it apparently by mistake, but forwarded it on to her clients for dissemination and feedback.

I’m plopping it on DailyKos, ePluribus Media and Docudharma to open a discussion on other issues and where candidates stand on them.

I’d like folks who know of a candidate’s actions with regard to animals to put the candidate’s last name first in their subject, then ” — good” or ” — bad” next to the name, and have the content of the comment itself contain any good, bad, or additional information. I hope to tally this up later and present results. Please don’t get into candidate wars; just post what you can verify and include a link to support your statement.  Please note that this also includes Republican candidates; please follow the same procedure, if you’ve information to add.

Thank you.

cooking with Jeffinalabama, vol 1.0 Seafood Gumbo

Well, here’s a beginning, based on an off-hand request last night… cooking with me!

I’m not a master chef, but I have cooked in restaurants before, including a 2-star restaurant, at least for a short time.

However, I do love to cook, and to eat! And in this chilly time of the year– it’s about 25 here in alabama tonight, which to me is cold… I like stews, soups, and gumbos.

Come with me below the fold, and let’s talk about them!

“A weird mixture of total cynicism and moral fervour”

The Guardian has posted the first of three excerpts from a new book, Defeat: Why They Lost Iraq, by Johnathan Steele, about Tony Blair and the run-up to the Iraq war.

In November 2002, six academics with backgrounds in Iraqi history and international security met with Blair and tried to convince him that invading Iraq would be disastrous.

“We all pretty much said the same thing,” [George] Joffe [an Arabist from Cambridge University] recalls. “Iraq is a very complicated country, there are tremendous intercommunal resentments, and don’t imagine you’ll be welcomed.” He remembers how Blair reacted. “He looked at me and said, ‘But the man’s uniquely evil, isn’t he?’ I was a bit nonplussed. It didn’t seem to be very relevant.” Recovering, Joffe went on to argue that Saddam was constrained by various factors, to which Blair merely repeated his first point: “He can make choices, can’t he?” As Joffe puts it, “He meant he can choose to be good or evil, I suppose.”

— snip —

The experts didn’t seem to make much of an impression. Blair “wasn’t focused”, [Charles] Tripp [Iraqi history expert] recalls. “I felt he wanted us to reinforce his gut instinct that Saddam was a monster. It was a weird mixture of total cynicism and moral fervour.”

More below . . .

Nick Henck’s “Subcommander Marcos”

This is a review of Nick Henck’s book on Sup Marcos, the military leader of the EZLN, the subversive movement in Mexico.

(Photo from the account of Whodisan215)

(Crossposted at Big Orange)

UK Times: Official Documents Prove FBI lied to protect US officials…by lukery

(reposted with permission)

The UK’s Sunday Times has another explosive article out tonight.

   

THE FBI has been accused of covering up a key case file detailing evidence against corrupt government officials and their dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets.

The Times has obtained official documents which prove that the FBI is lying about the existence of a counterintelligence operation targeting high-level US officials and Turkish operatives.

The FBI’s comments demonstrate conclusively that either:

a) They are lying, or

b) They have destroyed the evidence of this multi-year investigation concerning the corruption of high-level US officials, the nuclear black market, money laundering and narcotics trafficking.

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Jeff Beck Group



Morning Dew

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