December 2, 2008 archive

What’s LEFT Of Blogs?

Magnifico reports today in his Four at Four on the Washington Post story today: Nuclear or Biological Attack Called Likely.

The story tells in a very serious “objectively journalistic” matter of fact manner of a new report produced by the “Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism”.

WAPO’s article notes that:

The odds that terrorists will soon strike a major city with weapons of mass destruction are now better than even, a bipartisan congressionally mandated task force concludes in a draft study that warns of growing threats from rogue states, nuclear smuggling networks and the spread of atomic know-how in the developing world.

The sobering assessment of such threats, due for release as early as today, singled out Pakistan as a grave concern because of its terrorist networks, history of instability and arsenal of several dozen nuclear warheads. The report urged the incoming Obama administration to take “decisive action” to reduce the likelihood of a devastating attack.



…the creation of the commission, chaired by former senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.), with former congressman James M. Talent (R-Mo.) serving as vice chairman, was one of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, which explored the causes of the 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.

I don’t recall the 9/11 Commission ever doing any “exploring” of the root causes of the 2001 terrorist attacks or of the root causes of the oppresssion and imperialism and the general foreign policies of messing internally with other countries militarily and via CIA fomented insurrections, destabilization campaigns, and false flag operations to fog the minds of Americans over the past six or more decades.

I don’t recall the 9/11 Commission ever doing anything other than their job: creating justifications for the “war on terror” fearmongering and propaganda campaigns that replaced the “cold war” mentality of ‘political rule on behalf of multinational corporate stripping the earth bare like a swarm of locusts the rest of the world’s human beings are our property and resources to be used till exhausted with no regard for their humanity‘ American Exceptionalism that was behind all the lies and deceits of the ten year sanctions war and eventual invasion and occupation of Iraq that was directly responsible for the deaths, maimings and poisonings of over a million Iraqis; men, women, and children.

But “explore the causes”? Deluded misinformation at best, and pure manipulative propaganda at worst.

Boo! The boogeymen are out to get you.

This story is all over the left blogs today, and most of what I read is people lapping it up as easily and thoughtlessly as the 26 percenters lapped up all of Bush’s years of Rovian manipulations, and using it as justification for “pragmatic” hide their heads in the sand denial of Barack Obama’s obvious miltarist tendencies and full intentions to continue the war on terror memes and determination to militarily dominate the earth while blaming the blowback on “terrists” on behalf of the corporatocracy that rules America.

Have we learned nothing in eight years?

Glenn Greenwald: How Beltway reporters mislead the country

by: ek hornbeck

Sun Nov 25, 2007

I think this is the arena that we are most effective in, media criticism.

The press is a gang of cruel faggots.  Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits – a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.

(I)t (is) a low trade and a habit worse than heroin, a strange seedy world full of misfits and drunkards and failures. The business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs.  There’s also a negative side.

Objective journalism is one of the main reasons American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long. – Stockton

I think this is the arena that we used to be most effective in, media criticism. But no longer, it seems.

What’s LEFT Of Blogs?

HONORING THE FALLEN: US Military KIA, Iraq & Afghanistan/Pakistan – November 2008

If you visit any of the lists of the KIA’s or Injured in the Iraq Theater one thing you’ll notice, the Only Occupation Forces numbers rising, being Killed and Maimed, are American Forces these last number of months!! I find myself wondering how many are on a first tour, or second, or third, or forth…………………………….., in Both Theaters!!

Four at Four

  1. The Washington Post reports Nuclear or Biological Attack Called Likely.

    The odds that terrorists will soon strike a major city with weapons of mass destruction are now better than even, a bipartisan congressionally mandated task force concludes in a draft study that warns of growing threats from rogue states, nuclear smuggling networks and the spread of atomic know-how in the developing world.

    The sobering assessment of such threats, due for release as early as today, singled out Pakistan as a grave concern because of its terrorist networks, history of instability and arsenal of several dozen nuclear warheads. The report urged the incoming Obama administration to take “decisive action” to reduce the likelihood of a devastating attack.

    “No mission could be timelier,” says the draft report of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, which spent six months preparing an assessment for Congress and the new president-elect. It adds: “In our judgment, America’s margin of safety is shrinking, not growing.”

    The report, ordered by Congress last year, concludes that terrorists are more likely to obtain materials for a biological attack than to buy or steal nuclear weapons. But it says the nuclear threat is growing rapidly, in part because of the increasing global supply of nuclear material and technology.

    Another Bush administration failure. Hopefully, Congress and Obama will take positive, corrective action before its too late.

Four at Four continues with news from the UNFCCC, James Jones connection to climate change deniers, and Europe’s plan to save the honeybee.

Dear Joe, I want an Electric Train for Christmas (Pt. 1)

Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence (also in Orange)

Joe talks about trains to the National Governors Association:

(h/t Ryan Avent, Matthew Yglesias)

Three special Federal tasks are the provision of a coast to coast system of electric trains, support for a nationwide “Rapid Rail” network, and support for inter-regional corridors providing true High Speed Rail.

If we pursue the opportunities available to use now, using existing, well tested technology, we can have a big chunk of this job finished within eight years, and can have set things in motion to see an absolute Energy Revolution in inter-regional transport in this nations by 2024.

So it may not be this Christmas, but if we hit hard on this issue, its possible for us to say, “New York, you get an electric train. Boise, you get an electric train. Detroit, you get an electric train. Atlanta, you get an electric train. Amarillo, you get an electric train. …”

More, including maps, after the fold

Proposal: A New Net-wide Petition Drive…Targeting Bushco…..HELP!!!

HELP!!!

A madman has ruined our country and helped set the world on fire!!!

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He has committed War Crimes, domestic crimes, and crimes against humanity. And now he is about to retire to his ranch and drink himself to death. With no meaningful consequence and setting a precedent for Presidential Criminality that cannot be allowed to stand.

HELP!!!

The Netroots helped elect Obama and give Democrats a near Supermajority (pending the outcome of the Georgia and Minnesota pennant Senate races) and now is floundering about looking for something to coordinate on to flex it’s now even stronger muscles!!!

HELP!!! I am going through a personal transition (nearly over) and my brain is not fully functional yet, but there is IMPORTANT WORK TO BE DONE!!!

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Revelations.

In a sign that they may have been a tad too obsessed with the daily squabbles on The View, The National Bureau of Economic Research made the shocking and unexpected announcement yesterday that  the economy has been in recession for over a year.

The NBER followed up their “recession” revelation with the BREAKING NEWS that the really hot chick in the Crying Game was really… a dude.

In other news that you already knew…

Melamine Scandal Far More Widespread Than Thought

This from Richard Spencer in Beijing, this morning:

A statement posted on online government media overnight said that 294,000 babies and young children had suffered “urinary system abnormalities” after drinking formula milk from Sanlu, the company most seriously affected, and other brand names.

It now says as many as six infants died and up to 294,000 suffered from urinary tract ailments including kidney stones. That figure is a lot higher than had previously been reported. More than 850 children are still being treated in hospital; at least 150 of them are said to be seriously ill. Why? Last year, China’s dairy industry was worth $18 billion. That’s a whole lot of dairy products.

Real News: Obama’s Foreign Policy Team: Pragmatic Chump Change?



Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice,
Gen. James L. Jones, Robert M. Gates

On Monday President-elect Barack Obama announced the makeup of the core of his incoming administrations foreign affairs team with what Jeremy Scahill, Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at the Nation Institute, yesterday called “Barack Obama’s Kettle of Hawks“:

The absence of a solid anti-war voice on Obama’s national security team means that US foreign policy isn’t going to change.



[T]he real rivalry that will play out goes virtually unmentioned. The main battles will not be between Obama’s staff, but rather against those who actually want a change in US foreign policy, not just a staff change in the war room.

When announcing his foreign policy team on Monday, Obama said: “I didn’t go around checking their voter registration.” That is a bit hard to believe, given the 63-question application to work in his White House. But Obama clearly did check their credentials, and the disturbing truth is that he liked what he saw.

The assembly of Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, Susan Rice and Joe Biden is a kettle of hawks with a proven track record of support for the Iraq war, militaristic interventionism, neoliberal economic policies and a worldview consistent with the foreign policy arch that stretches from George HW Bush’s time in office to the present.

Obama has dismissed suggestions that the public records of his appointees bear much relevance to future policy. “Understand where the vision for change comes from, first and foremost,” Obama said. “It comes from me. That’s my job, to provide a vision in terms of where we are going and to make sure, then, that my team is implementing.” It is a line the president-elect’s defenders echo often. The reality, though, is that their records do matter.

Hillary Clinton was confirmed as Obama’s Secretary of State, and three other appointments were confirmed as well: his closest foreign affairs adviser Susan Rice becoming UN ambassador with a seat at the cabinet table, former NATO commander General James L. Jones as national security adviser, and current Secretary of Defense Bush appointee Robert M. Gates to remain in that role.

What is the symbolism and what is the actuality of Obama’s appointments?

On the flip The Real News CEO Paul Jay talks to Lawrence J. Korb and Phyllis Bennis to analyze the overall message about ongoing US foreign policy that is sent out to the world by Obama’s choices.

“There Is Such A Fact As Death”

149 years ago today, at 11:15 in the morning John Brown was hanged by the neck until dead in Charles Town, Virginia, for the crime of trying to start a slave insurrection.

Henry David Thoreau said in his breathtaking A Plea for Captain John Brown:

This event advertises to me that there is such a fact as death; the possibility of a man’s dying. It seems as if no man had ever died in America before; for in order to die you must first have lived.

I read Thoreau’s piece this morning. Rather than quote it at length, or editorialize about John Brown, I encourage you to take a little time today and read it yourself.

Today, as in 1859, there are great crimes being committed on our soil and around the world by the rulers of these United States, committed in our name, with our taxes.

Let John Brown’s example encourage us to try and stand, like him, “with the oppressed and the wronged, that are as good as you.”

Crossposted at Fire on the Mountain.

Pilot Of The Airwaves

From AllAccess.com:

It’s a huge loss for the radio industry, as ALL ACCESS reported on SATURDAY (NET NEWS 11/29) that radio legend BILL DRAKE died from lung cancer at age 71 in LOS ANGELES. DRAKE passed away SATURDAY at WEST HILLS HOSPITAL in the SAN FERNANDO VALLEY.

DRAKE streamlined the Top 40 format, using modern methods, such as market research and ratings demographics, to maximize the number of listeners. He believed in forward momentum, limiting the amount of disc jockey chatter, the number of advertisements and playing only the top hits, as opposed to less-organized programming methods of the past. DRAKE created concepts such as 20/20 News and counter-programming by playing music sweeps, while his competitors aired news.

I frickin worked at KYNO briefly in the 80s.

And here I am. Still spinnin’ the hits.

RIP Bill Drake.

Without you, I’d be a different me.

Open Thread

 

Brother, can you spare a thread?

Hmmm, WBT gives the boot to conservative

Could this be part of the ‘Change’ we’re not only looking for but this Country needs?

Just caught a short report on Charlotte’s local news at WCNC 36, not up on the site yet, about the firing of a Conservative Radio talk show host, one Jeff Katz.

Don’t know him and never listened to him, frankly conservative radio and tv news shows give me a freakin headache, and I don’t get headaches, no news just blathering opinion, which we find way too much all over the span of the mainstream outlets now, as they say “like assholes, everyones got one!”.

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