July 20, 2008 archive

Jul 20 2008

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Afghan officials: US-led forces killed 9 police

By NAHAL TOOSI, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 46 minutes ago

KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S.-led troops and Afghan forces killed nine Afghan police Sunday, calling in airstrikes and fighting on the ground for four hours after both sides mistook the other for militants, Afghan officials said.

In a separate incident, NATO said it accidentally killed at least four Afghan civilians Saturday night. A NATO soldier also was killed in the east.

The two cases of accidental killings could further undercut popular support for the government and foreign forces operating here. President Hamid Karzai has pleaded with the U.S. and other nations fighting resurgent militants to avoid civilian casualties.

Jul 20 2008

The Panther

His vision, from the constantly passing bars,

has grown so weary that it cannot hold

anything else. It seems to him there are

a thousand bars, and behind the bars, no world.

As he paces in cramped circles, over and over,

the movement of his powerful soft strides

is like a ritual dance around a center

in which a mighty will stands paralyzed.

Only at times, the curtain of the pupils

lifts, quietly. An image enters in,

rushes down through the tense, arrested muscles,

plunges into the heart and is gone.

~~Rainer Maria Rilke

(Translated by Stephen Mitchell)

Jul 20 2008

Stand Up And Oppose Pastor John Hagee

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

From Monday, July 21 through Thursday, July 24, Pastor John Hagee will be in Washington, D.C. to lead the national gathering of his infamous Christians United For Israel.  The CUFI conference is studded with rightwing zealots and features workshops like “Radical Islam: In Their Own Words,” led by neo-conservative Daniel Pipes and former right-wing Senator Rick Santorum; and “The Basics of The Arab Israeli Conflict,” led by representatives of the pro-occupation David Project and StandWithUS and Gary Bauer, president of anti-choice, homophobic American Values.

Unbelievably, the Anti Defamation League (ADL), the supposed bigotry watchdog, has not condemned Hagee for his anti semitic, anti gay, anti Muslim rhetoric.  To the contrary, ADL has given him a free pass. In fact, in a recent letter to Hagee, John Fox, president of ADL wrote, “We wholeheartedly support your efforts to eradicate anti-Semitism, including its historic antecedents in the Christian community. We especially appreciate your extraordinary efforts to rally so many in the Christian community to stand with Israel.”  This is utter, embarrassing nonsense.

As a result of ADL’s unprincipled behavior, Jewish Voice For Peace and others have condemned the conference and are calling on the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to stand up against Hagee’s pervasive bigotry and to condemn his statements.

Join me in DC.

Jul 20 2008

Turtle, Crevasse, and River

What do a turtle, a crevasse, and a raging river have in common? I don’t know. Perhaps you can tell me after reading these words of wisdom that, for some reason, came together in my mind today.

Jul 20 2008

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Men about women



Hall and Oates:  Maneater

Jul 20 2008

Does Democracy Have a Future?

While in a discussion in yesterday’s essay We’re Not In Kansas Anymore  NLinStPaul asked me to expand my comments on the fact I believed that democracy cannot function the current cultural atmosphere and that we should hope that the oligarchs that run the joint can be wise.

To me this is an easy statement to make because democracy, as we have come to understand the term, is not a natural or common state of human culture. History and social science has shown us that most people inevitably follow authority and will follow authority. It also shows that power corrupts and that, in many ways, both the powerful and the weak cooperate in a kind of sado-masochistic scene (check out the Stanford Prison Experiment). People want and need norms and authority and will tend to gas Jews or torture prisoners if asked by the powerful to do so (see the Milgram Experiment). People will tend to conform to cultural views of reality even when it clashes with their own direct perception (see the Asch conformity experiments–you don’t even have to read about that to see how it has happened in this country particularly during the lead-up to the Iraq War).  

Jul 20 2008

Docudharma Times Sunday July 20



Iraqi Prime Minister

Nouri al-Maliki

Has A

Sock-Puppet

CENTCOM

Who Knew!




Sunday’s Headlines:

Obama’s paid staff dwarfing McCain’s

Brussels the key in battle for Belgium

The flashy playboys taking over the mafia

Poachers terrorise Zimbabwe’s rhinos

For Darfuris, justice is the enemy of peace

Car restrictions begin in Beijing  

Too much adoration at Cambodia’s Angkor temples

Iraqi leader: US should leave as soon as possible  

Al-Qaeda ‘may be shifting focus’  

The mystery of Rio

Iran given two-week deadline to end the nuclear impasse



Julian Borger in Geneva

The Observer,

Sunday July 20, 2008

Iran was given a fortnight to agree to freeze its uranium enrichment programme yesterday or face further international isolation.

After a day of inconclusive talks in Geneva, a six-nation negotiating team warned the Iranian delegation that it had run out of patience and demanded a ‘yes or no’ answer to a proposal it put forward five weeks ago.

Under that offer, sponsored jointly by the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, Iran would not expand its uranium enrichment programme, while the international community refrained from imposing further sanctions. This phase would last six weeks, possibly paving the way for suspension of enrichment and more comprehensive talks.

Somali Killings of Aid Workers Imperil Relief



By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

Published: July 20, 2008

NAIROBI, Kenya – At a time of drought, skyrocketing food prices, crippling inflation and intensifying street fighting, many of the aid workers whom millions of Somalis depend on for survival are fleeing their posts – or in some cases the country.

They are being driven out by what appears to be an organized terror campaign. Ominous leaflets recently surfaced on the bullet-pocked streets of Mogadishu, Somalia’s ruin of a capital, calling aid workers “infidels” and warning them that they will be methodically hunted down. Since January, at least 20 aid workers have been killed, more than in any year in recent memory. Still others have been abducted.

USA

Obama Gets Look At Afghan War Zone

Iraqi Leader Backs 16-Month Pullout Plan, Magazine Reports

By Candace Rondeaux and Dan Balz

Washington Post Foreign Service

Sunday, July 20, 2008; Page A01

KABUL, July 19 — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama got his first look at deteriorating conditions in war-torn Afghanistan on Saturday, meeting with U.S. military commanders and local officials and touring part of the country by helicopter on the first day of a highly anticipated visit abroad that drew a fresh rebuke from Republican rival John McCain.

Obama, traveling as part of an official congressional delegation, landed in the Afghan capital on Saturday morning under tight security amid a surge of Taliban activity in recent weeks.

Jul 20 2008

The Real News: Obama and the National Security System







Gareth Porter: There is no leader yet in site who can lead a movement for basic change

In the second part of his interview to Pepe Escobar, investigative historian and military policy analyst Gareth Porter expands on what awaits Senator Barack Obama when he deals with the power of the national security state. Porter also examines what kind of movement and leader would it take to really try to change a very rigid system, and the proposition of Obama as a new Bobby Kennedy.

Jul 20 2008

Netroots Nation Going GREEN!!!

Sometimes those of who focus on energy and global warming issues seem to screaming into the wind, with little attention from others in the community.  Netroots Nation‘s announcement for the 2009 put those emotions to the side. The Netroots Nation staff worked hard to find a site and location that meets the types of standards that are hoped to from us.

To be held at the nation’s leading edge LEED Green convention center,

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is close to major US cities, with a good rail network providing options to get there from New York, Washington, DC, and Chicago.

Jul 20 2008

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Men about women



Hall and Oates:  Maneater

Jul 20 2008

“It’s gonna be a bloodbath,”

Stars and Stripes

Sgt. Jacob Walker and Spc. Tyler Stafford talk about the attack

   

Jul 20 2008

Pony Party

~♥~ Pony Party is an Open Thread. Please don’t wRECk the pony. ~♥~