September 3, 2008 archive

Sep 03 2008

Diverse People in Diverse times

Even though I want to ride the Apocalyptic horse I still like to broaden my horizons.  We have that prophet Nostradamus with dire predictions for 2008-2012.  Then we have the Mayans, an ancient civilization with seemingly very advanced astrological knowledge ending their calendar in 2012.  Then we have the new agers, mystics,gnostics and eastern religions, many with their own interpretations of doomsday and what that means.

http://www.projectcamelot.org/

In my searches of the paranormal here is another interesting one from the Hopi Indians.  Sure seems to ring true.

Sep 03 2008

Charges of sexism: whence do they come?

Crossposted on Daily Kos and My Left Wing.

The latest defense of Sarah Palin is that those on the left who are asking questions and criticizing are being sexist. Those charges are coming from a couple of interesting places.

Firstly, Mike “I’m Still Relevant” Huckabee weighs in:

Calling media critiques of Palin “unprecedented” (“they never did this to Chelsea Clinton,” he said), Huckabee predicted that Palin’s victimization would rouse support even from non-Republicans outraged by sexist sentiment.

Sep 03 2008

Whining ……………(meta, sorta)

This is personal and inspired by what happened to pff, better to get it out of my system than to “pull a peeder,” (politicalfleshfeast.com) I hope. Thus do I proceed to whine.

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I don’t like “owning” a blog. It is no fun. It is certainly not as much fun as blogging. Sigh,  I used to love blogging!!! Especially all the exclamation points!!!

Being “The Boss” blows. It is a burden and a responsibility and the weight of it has caused me to inhibit myself. I do not feel free to be me. My comments here carry too much of that weight, when they are from The Boss and not from good ole buhdy. It is not a weight that y’all feel from me, but it is one that I feel inside of me. Acutely. There is pressure to be exceedingly fair, there is the responsibility to make judgments. I like to think I am good at it, but in order to be fair I have to constantly second guess myself, and when I fuck up, it hurts.  I take it seriously. Maybe too  seriously. I am sensitive to others feelings and this ‘job,’ as it turns out,  involves hurting peoples feelings. As well as the unwelcome task of deciding whose feelings deserve to be hurt. That sucks.

They say that those who want power shouldn’t be entrusted with it, which is why I thought I would do a good job. I don’t want power. I didn’t start the blog so that I could have power. And it turns out, I don’t like wielding power on this level, it is not like construction, where I wielded power for the specific task of building a house. You guys don’t work for me and I can’t tell you what to do. I have to be careful of THAT too. Sigh. Thank God for the other admins! They are supportive and give excellent counsel, if it wasn’t for them….and for you….I would have thrown up my hands a few times and did what peeder has done….flee.

And really, when it comes right down to it, Docudharma doesn’t need me,  to be successful. If I ever do burn out, I will hand it over to youse guys. But I did sign up for this from my own free will, so there ya go. I am not going anywhere, but I may need to whine every once in a while!

Sep 03 2008

Four at Four

  1. Disunity amongst the Republicans! The Boston Globe reports Ron Paul and thousands hold counter rally.

    “It’s amazing because, believe it or not, I still think of myself as a country doctor who has gone to Congress, and I’m a quiet congressman from Texas,” Paul said. “But in the past 18 months, it was discovered that the ideas of liberty and the revolution were alive and well and we’re celebrating it here tonight.”

    When he criticized US fiscal policy – the federal monetary system, heavy government borrowing, and deficit spending – the crowd erupted in loud chants of “End the Fed!” the Federal Reserve System that expands the supply of money.

    Paul criticized the Patriot Act and the extension of government power, and tore into President Bush’s foreign policy and the principle of “preventive war – actually starting wars.” He drew cheers when he declared, “We do not need a national ID card,” and condemned the war on drugs as “a total failure.”

    10,000 tickets were sold to event at the Target Center in Minneapolis. The LA Times reports “As many as 12,000 disillusioned Republicans and independents… converged… for a boisterous push-back against the Republican establishment.”

  2. Meanwhile, the disunited Democrats and independents have helped Obama’s support climb to 50%, according to The Guardian. “Barack Obama has reached the 50% mark in polling of US voting intentions, giving him a clear lead in the race for the presidency. A well-received acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in Denver last week, coupled with the fallout from John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as running mate, helped Obama gain five percentage points in yesterday’s Gallup tracking poll.”

    And ABC News reports Joe Biden Rips the Bush administration. “Looking to the future but with one eye on the past, Biden also promised that an Obama-Biden government would go through Bush administration data with ‘a fine-toothed comb’ and pursue criminal charges if necessary.” It’s the “if necessary” part that worries me…

Four at Four continues with the near disaster in New Orleans and Thai web censorship for sites “disturbing social order”.

Sep 03 2008

First U.S. troop incursion into Pakistan alleged, 20 dead

The United States may have ‘invaded’ Pakistan.

The Washington Post reports, U.S. and Afghan troops kill 20 in Pakistan. This marks the “first known instance” that U.S. forces “conducted an operation on Pakistani soil since the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan began”.

According to the NY Times, NATO Accused of Civilian Deaths Inside Pakistan. The incursion and subsequent attacks were made “a little after 3 a.m. when three U.S. army helicopters carrying American and Afghan troops landed in Musa Nika in the Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan… Troops then left the helicopters and launched a ground assault on three houses where Taliban fighters were believed to be hiding.”

Pakistan is not amused. The “hot pursuit” of Taliban forces across the Afghan-Pakistan border is contentious issue with Pakistan.

Sep 03 2008

My RNC so far

It’s not so much free speech under attack, as Freedom of Assembly.

Working solo, I’ve been able to fly signs right up to the gates where the delegates are searched before entering Excel. Anything that appears to be a group over 5, however, gets excluded from the perimeter.

Easiest access is by taxi. The police stereotype of bad demonstrator has you entering on foot.

During Mondays brawl by the river, I was directly behind the National Guard line, posing with my “This is a test of the Emergency Free Speech System” sign. The only police interference with my activity was an admonishment to “wait for the walk sign.”

Tuesday, Vermin Supreme and I worked the line of delegates awaiting searches. Vermin had his everpresent bullhorn. “To assist in the process, please remove your shoes. Then drop your pants and spread your cheeks for the rectal probe. President McCain asks that you retain this position for the next four years.”

I was upstream, at first flashing a “STOP GOVRERNMENT SPYING” banner, then riffing with Vermin. “You folks look like you’re here for a funeral. Where’s the Republican Team Spirit?” Vermin would then try to lead them in a cheer. “When I say ‘John’, you say “McCain. Got it?” JOHN… silence. JOHN… silence.

Whenever a delegate grinned at our antics, I’d point him out. “That one smiled. He’s an infiltrator. Waterboard him.”

I had the exiting delegates to myself. “Funeral’s over, time to liquor up!”

Sep 03 2008

Hope!

H/t to Devin at Dkos

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Joe Biden….excuse me, future Vice President, Joe Biden:

“In an Obama-Biden administration, we will not have an attorney general who blatantly breaks the law,” Biden said at a town-hall meeting in West Palm Beach, Florida, his voice at times drowned out by applause. “We will not have a president who doesn’t understand the Constitution. And I will not be a vice-president who thinks he’s not part of any of the three branches of government.”

snip

Looking to the future but with one eye on the past, Biden also promised that an Obama-Biden government would go through Bush administration data with “a fine-toothed comb” and pursue criminal charges if necessary.  

“If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation,” he said, “they will be pursued, not out of vengeance, not out of retribution – out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no one, no attorney general, no president, no one is above the law.”

Encouraging stuff, especially when reinforced by Obama’s previous statement to Will Bunch:

Sep 03 2008

When you’re hot, you’re hot

and when you’re not, you’re not.

(this diary is dedicated to Miss Devore)

Singer-turned-actor Jerry Reed, known as “The Guitar Man” of country music, has died aged 71.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Reed released more than 40 albums over a long career that started when he was just 18.

After scoring US hits like Amos Moses and When You’re Hot, he broke into cinema in the 1970s, appearing in all three Smokey and the Bandit movies.

The star, who had quadruple bypass surgery in 1999, died on Monday of complications arising from emphysema.

Sep 03 2008

The Remedial Education Of Sarah Palin

Palin Meets With AIPAC Even Obama had his session. It must be e pre-req for the American Executive Branch. Don’t know about you guys but I really disliked pre-reqs and GERs. If Sarah nods her head and genuflects at the proper moments she will get vetted by AIPAC and be acceptable to the PTB. Does this strike anyone but me as un-American?

Maybe Palin thought the AIP was the American-Israel Party – not the Alaska Independence Party. AIP, AIPAC. all these acronyms; it gets so confusing. I guess there’s more to life than getting your barrel properly sighted.

It will be interesting to see how this newly hatched duck begins to fervently adopt memes that would be beyond her ken in Alaska politics.

On the Who Knews front, Rick Davis announced yesterday that this campaign will not be decided on the issues. It will be decided on vague perceptions of personalities. If the tabloids get involved I expect a constant barrage of calls for DNA tests to prove that the most recent daughter is actually her granddaughter. This would tie in nicely with Chinatown and Brie’s storyline on Desperate Housewives.

This stuff hurts my eyes to see. Might be early-onset glaucoma. Maybe some preventive herbal remedy would help…

Sep 03 2008

The Shifting Geopolitical Balance Of Power

On August 14 we saw F W Engdahl explain in Nuclear War By Miscalculation, and The Russo-Georgian War and The Balance of Power how Russia went into Georgia to essentially deliver a message to America and the world that Russia was not prepared to submit to being encircled by the US and was taking steps to reassert its power on the global stage and limit neocon expansion.

In that same post we also read an in-depth intelligence background briefing from George Friedman, president of Stratfor, on the situation in Georgia and explaining the re-emergence of Russia as a major world power.

Friedman then on August 18, 2008 described for us “The Real World Order” that has been developing while Bush and the neocons were busy getting the US bogged down in quicksand in the Middle East.

Today Engdahl elaborates on the theme to expand our understanding of world events as he describes an “ironic” US foreign policy of trying to create an ‘iron curtain’ around Russia, and following the video George Friedman in “The Medvedev Doctrine and American Strategy” once again provides a very detailed geopolitical intelligence briefing of the current situation, it’s roots, and the multipolar world that is being forced upon an unwilling US foreign policy establishment and a political leadership in denial.

September 3, 2008 – 4 min 45 sec

F W Engdahl : US in decline as Russia asserts its rising power

US tries to create an ‘iron curtain’ around Russia

President Dimitri Medvedev criticized the European Union for having a biased approach in regards to the Georgian conflict. Medvedev however stated that the EU acted in a rational manner by not implementing sanctions against the Russian Federation. F William Engdahl believes the EU response mirrors its dependence on Russian oil and gas. Engdahl goes on to further state that the US provoked Russia to respond militarily and the US as the dominant power is beginning to stumble and “to look desperately for ways to hold on to that power.”

F William Engdahl is an economist and author and the writer of the best selling book “A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order.” Mr Engdhahl has written on issues of energy, politics and economics for more than 30 years, beginning with the first oil shock in the early 1970s. Mr. Engdahl contributes regularly to a number of publications including Asia Times Online, Asia, Inc, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Foresight magazine; Freitag and ZeitFragen newspapers in Germany and Switzerland respectively. He is based in Germany.

Sep 03 2008

St. Paul Arrests – What you should know

That law enforcement in St. Paul set out specifically to intimidate any potential protester is not news.  The charge, however, should be…

Sep 03 2008

Election Toolkit 2008

Upfront: I’m not attached to nor have anything to do with the group below, except as an Old Voting Adult.

Yesterday I received a little booklet in the mail, I’m sure many others have as well. In case you hadn’t I thought I’d pass on who sent it and how you can get one.

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