March 20, 2008 archive

Pony Parti Pris-TIGSETTASS

Thursdays I Get Someone Else To Think About Stupid Shit

Yeah,, it’s me again, always the fill-in host, never permanent.  RiaD is clearing brush while battling the flu.  Our guests tonight include the Indominitable Candye Kane.

(not the best lighting ever)

Our topic today is……..META, or is it HYPER, or PARA, it’s some Greek prefix anyway.  Sometimes reading down the recent comments list, it seems that the subject lines form a little dialogue of their own.  I put this together from yesterdays comments.  I think I only misplaced some of them when extending the columns, but the good thing is….it doesn’t matter. ( They consist of only the parts of the line visible from the front page.)  Only when something is really hot are the comments in reply to one another.

In order to play the game, go to the FRONT PAGE, read the subject lines of the recent comments, either up or down.  See if you can make little conversations. Then read the essays to which the comments are posted.  Then add your comments to the list.  Repeat as needed.  See what fun!

Like those puzzles in Harpers or the Atlantic , you have to put the breaks in the right place for it to work.  

And n00bs, please Don’t Rec This Bastid.

Clinton, Obama Coal Comments Criticized by Environmental Group

In a press release I received today, Friends of the Earth Action criticized both leading Democratic presidential candidates for their recent anti-environment, pro-coal comments.  

Senator Hillary Clinton expressed enthusiasm for coal and failed to condemn mountaintop removal during an interview yesterday on West Virginia Public Radio.  Today, Senator Barack Obama delivered a speech in West Virginia advocating so-called “clean coal” as a solution to global warming.

Both are wrong.

These comments raise serious questions about whether the Democratic candidates are as committed to clean energy as they claim to be,” Friends of the Earth Action President Brent Blackwelder said.  “Coal is not clean-period.  And it is especially dirty and damaging when it is mined through the mountaintop removal process, in which mountains are literally blown to pieces, wiping vast swaths of nature off the map and polluting valleys, streams and rivers.”

Four at Four

  1. According to the Washington Post, al-Qaeda still is impervious to spies after a decade at war with west.

    A decade after al-Qaeda issued a global declaration of war against America, U.S. spy agencies have had little luck recruiting well-placed informants and are finding the upper reaches of the network tougher to penetrate than the Kremlin during the Cold War, according to U.S. and European intelligence officials.

    Some counterterrorism officials say their agencies missed early opportunities to attack the network from within. Relying on Cold War tactics such as cash rewards for tips failed to take into account the religious motivations of Islamist radicals and produced few results.

    Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said, al-Qaeda has tightened its internal security at the top, placing an even greater emphasis on personal and tribal loyalties to determine who can gain access to its leaders.

    Alain Chouet, former chief of the security intelligence service of the DGSE, France’s foreign spy agency, said it can take years for informants to burrow their way into radical Islamist networks. Even if they’re successful at first, he said, new al-Qaeda members are often “highly disposable” — prime candidates for suicide missions.

    He said it might be too late for Western intelligence agencies, having missed earlier chances, to redouble efforts to infiltrate the network. “I think you cannot penetrate such a movement now,” he said.

    At the same time, those agencies have made their task harder by blowing the cover of some promising informants and mishandling others.

    One name: Valerie Plame. So, it’s fitting that today, according to The Hill, Scooter Libby was disbarred in District of Columbia. “Libby, whose presidential pardon last year was a touchstone for Bush administration critics, was ejected from practicing law by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The D.C. court cited Libby’s 2007 conviction for lying to a grand jury and federal officials investigating the identity leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson.”

  2. The Los Angeles Times examines if A new Great Depression is possible. “There are vast differences between the 1930s and today. U.S. unemployment reached 25% during the Depression; last month it was reported at 4.8%. The international industrial economy was a shambles in the ’30s. Today it is coming off a global boom.”

    “I’ve been asked many times whether we will have another Great Depression,” said David M. Kennedy, a Stanford University history professor and the author of Freedom From Fear, a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of the Depression and World War II. “My standard answer is that we won’t have that one again — I’d be surprised to have one of that seriousness and duration. But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have a catastrophe we haven’t seen before.” …

    The Fed’s recent actions were “a temporary palliative” to the fundamental problem in the economy, which is the rapid fall in home prices and its ripple effect on mortgage bonds and other securities, said Barry Eichengreen, a professor of economics and political science at UC Berkeley. “You have to reorganize the system, but the discussion about that has only begun.”

    The Huntington Herald-Dispatch reports that Obama links war and economy. At the University of Charleston, West Virginia, Sen. Barack Obama spoke to a standing room only crowd of 600. “Obama said it is crucial citizens do not overlook the war’s impact on the American economy. ‘At a time when we’re on the brink of recession, when neighborhoods have ‘For Sale’ signs outside every home and working families are struggling to keep up with rising costs, ordinary Americans are paying a price for this war,’ he said. ‘When you’re spending over $50 to fill up your car because the price of oil is four times what it was before Iraq, you’re paying a price for this war.'”

    Reuters adds Obama says Iraq war drag on economy. “Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Thursday said the $500 billion cost of the Iraq war is a drag on the U.S. economy and attempted to lay some of the blame for it on Republican rival John McCain. ‘How much longer are we going to ask our families and our communities to bear the cost of this war?’ the Illinois senator asked in a speech… ‘No matter what the costs, no matter what the consequences, John McCain seems determined to carry out a third Bush term,’ Obama said.”

Four at Four continues below the fold with stories on the Pentagon’s divisions over Iraq, China’s suppression of protesters in Tibet, methane detected outside our solar system, global coal shortages, and wind-powered computers.

“These are not the blacks you’re looking for.”

Um, I’m sorry. There seems to be some kind of mistake.

When we talked about being open to having… what do you call them… “African-Americans” in leadership positions we were talking about the OTHER KIND.

The “ain’t no big thang” kind.

You know… happy black folk!

Congressional races round 2: New York

continuing through the alphabet

NY has 29 representatives: 23 Democrats and 6 Republicans (5 of whom are on the DCCC list

Filing deadline is July 17, primary is Sept 9

Short Takes: Obama, APA, & Omar Khadr

Arch-neocon William Kristol and the New York Times seem bent on shoving their racial swiftboating tactics down our throats. Kristol was forced to issue a partial retraction after writing a story that claimed Barack Obama lied when he said he wasn’t present at a sermon by his pastor Jeremiah White that purportedly blamed blamed “the ‘arrogance’ of the ‘United States of White America’ for much of the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks.” Kristol and the right-wing want to paint Obama as a racial extremist, or someone who cynically manipulates racist extremists, and this to frighten white Americans.

Of course, Obama was never at such a sermon. And frankly, it wouldn’t have mattered if he were. Obama spoke his piece on the anger of black America the other day, in a well-received speech on the impact of racial divisions on the United States. While I think Wright’s comments weren’t “divisive” — comments Obama felt he had to disavow — nevertheless, he said they were understandable, given the history of slavery, Jim Crow, and other racial discrimination. And that’s more than any other U.S. politician would give towards the validation of black rage, much of it, as Obama pointed out, directed impotently at misplaced or non-powerful targets, or turned inward.

+++++++++++++++

Noted bioethicist and physician, Steven Miles, comments favorably on my analysis of the APA’s new resolution language concerning a ban on psychologist participation in torture in Bush’s prison gulag abroad:

Short Takes: Obama, APA, & Omar Khadr

Arch-neocon William Kristol and the New York Times seem bent on shoving their racial swiftboating tactics down our throats. Kristol was forced to issue a partial retraction after writing a story that claimed Barack Obama lied when he said he wasn’t present at a sermon by his pastor Jeremiah White that purportedly blamed blamed “the ‘arrogance’ of the ‘United States of White America’ for much of the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks.” Kristol and the right-wing want to paint Obama as a racial extremist, or someone who cynically manipulates racist extremists, and this to frighten white Americans.

Of course, Obama was never at such a sermon. And frankly, it wouldn’t have mattered if he were. Obama spoke his piece on the anger of black America the other day, in a well-received speech on the impact of racial divisions on the United States. While I think Wright’s comments weren’t “divisive” — comments Obama felt he had to disavow — nevertheless, he said they were understandable, given the history of slavery, Jim Crow, and other racial discrimination. And that’s more than any other U.S. politician would give towards the validation of black rage, much of it, as Obama pointed out, directed impotently at misplaced or non-powerful targets, or turned inward.

+++++++++++++++

Noted bioethicist and physician, Steven Miles, comments favorably on my analysis of the APA’s new resolution language concerning a ban on psychologist participation in torture in Bush’s prison gulag abroad:

Where Is The Line?

Is there a line anymore? Who determines the line? Is the fact that the folks who claim to determine the line, like Faux News, are the ones who usually cross it relevant?

To wit: Is John McCain senile?

This is at least the fourth time that McCain has asserted a direct Iran/al Qaeda connection.

Is he too senile to be President? Or is he just incredibly stupid? EVERYONE who knows anything about Iraq knows that Iran would not train and equip Sunni insurgents/Al Qaeda. But especially if you buy into the alleged existential threat that the Republicans peddle that includes Iran trying to take over Iraq, they would be training the very folks who would be insurgents against them! After five years of this crap, the Republican fear mongering lies have woven such a ridiculous net of lies, that they can’t even keep them straight in their own heads.

Especially the senile ones, like John McCain.

He calls it a slip, but says he is the best qualified….after ‘slipping’ four times.

Asleep ‘at the switch’ of the Straight Talk Express. Best qualified indeed.

Photobucket

Couldn’t protest? Join me here anti war video

Cross posted at KOS

This was meant to be posted yesterday but unfortunataly Youtube was down for maintenance, so here it is a day late.

I couldn’t be in D.C. today, I imagine that was true for most of you. My solution was to put together a quickie anti-war video. Follow me below the fold for part what this war has meant. Feel free to add you own comments, this is a protest after all.

Economic News: Things You Should Know

I thought that with all the discussion regarding the US economy recently, and after the Bear Stearns fire sale to J.P. Morgan, it might be a good time to look at what is going on in America, overall.

Now, remember!  Presnit Bush sez that we are in a bit of a rough patch, but that all the leading indicators show a robust economy!  Or somes such drivel.

Unemployment Claims Surge In Latest Week

New filings for unemployment claims rose more than expected last week, matching the highest level since 2005, according to a report released Thursday by the Labor Department.

According to the report, 378,000 people filed for unemployment for the first time in the week ended March 15, up 22,000 from a revised 356,000 reported in the previous week.

The 378,000 reading, which is subject to revision, matched the number reported for the week ended Jan. 26. New jobless claims last exceeded that number on Oct. 1, 2005 when they hit 385,000.

A consensus of economists polled by Briefing.com had expected to see initial jobless claims to rise by 4,000 to 360,000.

The level of new jobless claims can be used as a recession indicator. “I think it confirms that we’re in a recession, or at least in a period of negative growth,” said Ethan Harris, chief U.S. economist for Lehman Brothers.

Have you ever noticed that since the Bush administration has come into office (Thanks again, SCOTUS!) that when a number is adjusted, it is always worse than when first reported?  Coincidence, I’m sure.

What are you and me gonna do about Iraq?*

They’ll discuss it in Detroit.

They’ll write letters in Cornwall, Ct.

They’ll march in Duluth, rally in White Plains, and vigil in Cincinnati.

And they’ve been getting arrested in San Francisco.

Friday is Iraq Moratorium #7, and people across the country are marking it in dozens of different ways, from rallies, marches, protests, vigils to individual actions to call for an end to the war and occupation.

There’s even been a bit of civil disobedience by people willing to make arrest to make their point.

It all fits (as long as it’s non-violent) under the umbrella of the Iraq Moratorium, a loosely-knit national grassroots movement to end the war and bring the troops home.

Updated – Tibet: China Admits Protests Spreading After Footage Aired

…And Gordon Brown steps in to fill the Western void.

First, the footage. After this was aired on CTV in Canada and then picked up by other Western news outlets, China has formally admitted that the protests have spread outside Lhasa:

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