February 27, 2009 archive

Friday Constitutional 17 – Amendments 15 -17



Happy Friday and welcome to the 17th installment of Friday Constitutional! Sorry for the late posting, the Dog has been in meetings all day! For those of you that are joining us for the very first time, this is a weekly series taking a layman’s look at the Constitution of the United States. If you are interested in the previous installments, you can find them at the following links:  

Four at Four

  1. McClatchy reports Obama sets a 18-month Iraq withdrawal timetable, with 50,000 troops to stay until the end of 2011. President Obama announced today all U.S. combat troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by August 31, 2010. However, up to 50,000 troops will remain in Iraq until December 31, 2011, the date the Bush administration set for withdrawal.

    “The 18-month timetable for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq is two months longer than he promised during his campaign… Under Obama’s plan, a force of between 35,000 and 50,000 U.S. troops would remain in Iraq after Aug. 31, 2010, to train, equip and advise Iraqi forces, help protect withdrawing forces and work on counterterrorism.”

  2. The Washington Post reports the U.S. economy shrinks by 6.2%.

    The U.S. economy shrank by a larger-than-expected annualized rate of 6.2 percent during the final three months of 2008, the worst showing in about 25 years, according to a revised government estimate out today.

    The new estimate of the fourth-quarter gross domestic product from the Commerce Department is far worse than the initial estimate of negative 3.8 percent, and also larger than the 5 percent drop in growth most analysts had anticipated.

    It’s the largest contraction in one quarter since the first quarter of 1982, when the economy shrank by 6.4 percent.

Four at Four continues with Capitol coal and an octopus prankster.

Senator Whitehouse Prepares the Nation for Torture Horrors

Senator Whitehouse is on both the Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary Committee. Thus he perhaps more than anyone else has access to ALL of the available information on the Bush Torture Network. Including the remaining pictures and videotapes from Abu Ghraib that were concealed from the public view. Pictures and videotapes that even Rumsfeld was shocked by, even though, as has become apparent since, he authorized them….or at least the programs that led to them.. Before he was implicated he had this to say…


What is shown on the photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison that the Pentagon has blocked from release? One clue: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress last year, after viewing a large cache of unreleased images, “I mean, I looked at them last night, and they’re hard to believe.” They show acts “that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane,” he added.

A Republican Senator suggested the same day they contained scenes of “rape and murder.” Rumsfeld then commented, “If these are released to the public, obviously it’s going to make matters worse.”

And that is only one of the horrifying aspects of what has occurred in the Bush Torture Network. Thus Senator Whitehouse’s warning to the nation.

H/T tahoebasha!

Whitehouse starts at about 50 seconds in. And here is the most relevant text, thanks to Greenwald.

As we work toward a brighter future ahead, to days when jobs return to our cities, capital to our businesses, and security to our lives, we cannot set aside our responsibility to take an accounting of where we are, what was done, and what must now be repaired.

We also have to brace ourselves for the realistic possibility that as some of this conduct is exposed, we and the world will find it shameful, revolting. We may have to face the prospect of looking with horror at our own country’s deeds. We are optimists, we Americans; we are proud of our country. Contrition comes hard to us.

But the path back from the dark side may lead us down some unfamiliar valleys of remorse and repugnance before we can return to the light. We may have to face our fellow Americans saying to us, “No, please, tell us that we did not do that, tell us that Americans did not do that” – and we will have to explain, somehow. This is no small thing, and not easy; this will not be comfortable or proud; but somehow it must be done.

IF the full story of the Bush Torture Network is ever told out loud, on televison, it will shock the nation…and perhaps even the jaded and inattentive conscience of a nation that has been buried under eight years of horror upon Bush horror. None worse than what was done to our fellow human beings, in our names.

WWL Radio Week 8 tonite at 6 E.T. ~ Armageddon Edition!

Welcome to the Armageddon Edition.

To shamelessly steal one of Gottsy’s favorite images, (and then defile it,) this is the Episode in which we discuss the many ways:

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Join Gottlieb, Ed Encho and I as we cheerfully discuss the many faces of the coming Armageddon.

Fascism is on the March, we have troops taking over Iowa towns, soldiers on active duty in country, military training its F.N.G. grunts to be used on US citizens and a planned takeover for “cyber security” our internet.

Habaes corpus, Posse Comitatus, the Constitution, all slain by the Police State coming to a town near you!!!!

The Pentagon investigating the Pentagon says Gitmo is A-Ok!!! Feel safer yet?

Which Global trigger will start WW3?

Hill growling at Israel, Israel wiping out all the Palestinians, both of us saber rattling at Iran?

Pakistan, Afghanistan, where’s Bin Laden and why did he kill Kenny?







For an even more enjoyable “twelve gauge enema” we will be discussing the Economic Armageddon to come, replete with ball-hanging a few bankers!!!!

Come one, come all.

Who says the End Times can’t be rantilicious fun?!?!?!

The call in number is 646-929-1264 USE IT!

Click the shiny button at 6 to live stream the show.

Listen to The Wild Wild Left on internet talk radio

The live chat link will be active after 5:45.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/h…

Of interest to those monitoring the “Surveillance State”

OK campers (happy and/or otherwise),

10 points and a kewpie doll to anyone who can tell me what the following is a shadow of.

Big hint here.

And some bonus reading from Bruce Schneier’s blog.

(Update II )Mccain Supports Obama Plan, Pelosi and Reid now more anti-war than many Kossaks.

(Cross posted from Daily Kos.  http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

It speaks to more than just Daily Kos, though.  It speaks to what the netroots are, a cheerleading group for Obama on all decisions or a progressive movement.  When Pelosi and Reid are to the left of the “progressive blogosphere, something is truly screwed up!)

What has happened?  I opposed the invasion of Iraq back in 2002 and 2003.  When I came to Daily Kos in October 2006, the vast majority wanted withdrawal from Iraq ASAP.  Yet in some diaries this week, I saw many kossaks defending leaving 50,000 troops in Iraq after 2010.

Well, I never thought I would see it.  Pelosi and Reid now are more antiwar than many who like to see themselves as crashing the gates.  Yes, Pelosi and Reid now are more antiwar than many on Dkos

After  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) complained that the level of troops — 50,000 — who would remain in Iraq is too high, other senior Democrats voiced similar concerns. Not one member of the Democratic leadership, except for  Sen. Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), defended the new Obama plan, which will take three months longer than he promised and still leave a significant force structure on the ground.

WAPo: Democrats Assail Plan For Pulling Out Troops?

More, after the fold.  (Updated with “The Silence of the Liberals”)

JOBS: Research and Science

A little back round. There once was a Huge Linen Factory, called Cannon than Pillow Tex {sp?}, than something else after I moved here of which the name eludes me. Well they closed it down a few years ago with thousands of job loses not only within but the supporting small companies. It was one of the biggest, if not thee biggest, collective job loss numbers in North Carolina.

They finally tore down the old factory and rearranged the whole area it stood on and around it. In it’s place they’ve now got three goodsize buildings and a parking garage, more is to come but because of the economic situation expansion has stopped. What they are putting in place of this once thriving factory is the North Carolina Research Campus {NCRC}

I’m posting this up, just this one time, as I realize there may be someone, or a few, who might have already lost their jobs or they fear that’s coming, and so far I have No Qualifications for any positions they are seeking, so why not help others with the information.

Docudharma Times Friday February 27

CPAC Fools And Racists

Writ Large




Friday’s Headlines:

Senate to investigate CIA’s actions under Bush

Mutineers forced to surrender after massacre in Bangladeshi capital

Slumdog children return to heroes’ welcome

Tangled justice for Kosovo

Engines stalled before Turkish Boeing plunged into Schiphol field

Ariel Sharon, comatose former Israeli Prime Minister, turns 81

After Gaza war, a harder coexistence for Jews and Arabs

Sierra Leone verdict warns world’s warlords

Mugabe Refuses to Dismiss Two Officials

Betancourt vilified by fellow hostages

Obama Plans Major Shifts in Spending



By JACKIE CALMES

Published: February 26, 2009


WASHINGTON – Proclaiming a “once in a generation” opportunity, President Obama proposed a 10-year budget on Thursday that reflects his determination in the face of recession to invest trillions of dollars and his own political capital in reshaping the nation’s priorities.Mr. Obama would overhaul health care, begin to arrest global warming, expand the federal role in education and shift more costs to some corporations and the wealthiest taxpayers.

In a veiled gibe at the Bush years, Mr. Obama said his budget broke “from a troubled past” and attributed the current economic maelstrom to “an era of profound irresponsibility that engulfed both private and public institutions from some of our largest companies’ executive suites to the seats of power in Washington, D.C.”

Genital mutilation: Women fight Africa’s taboo



They broke the silence from tribal elders and politicians – but paid a high personal price for trying to protect millions of young girls from the knife

By Katrina Manson in Sierra Leone


Friday, 27 February 2009

The female journalist was snatched by members of a secret society, forcibly stripped and made to parade naked through the streets. It might sound like an atrocity from the time when Sierra Leone was ripped apart by a bloody civil war, but in fact the public humiliation was exacted in the diamond-rich eastern town of Kenema just this month. The woman’s alleged crime was reporting on female genital mutilation.

While the attack was condemned by media watchdogs as “disgraceful behaviour worthy of a bygone age”, one woman who was not surprised was Rugiatu Turay. When she was 12 Ms Turay was stolen away by family members and underwent what some politely refer to as “circumcision”. She calls it “torture”. For the past six years, she has been waging a war against the practice, which many in Sierra Leone, including senior politicians, see as an initiation rite.

 

USA

‘Combatant’ Case to Move From Tribunal To U.S. Court



By Carrie Johnson and Julie Tate

Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, February 27, 2009; Page A01


The Justice Department is preparing to announce criminal charges against Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri for allegedly providing material support to al-Qaeda terrorists, sources said, a groundbreaking step that would place the alleged sleeper agent in the purview of the U.S. courts rather than before a military tribunal.

Marri is the last remaining “enemy combatant” in the United States, and he has spent 5 1/2 years in a military brig in South Carolina. Indicting him in a federal district court in central Illinois could avert a Supreme Court ruling that would tie the Obama administration’s hands in dealing with future terrorism suspects.

Lawyers for Marri said yesterday that they will press ahead for a Supreme Court hearing in April, hoping to use his case as a vehicle to formally repudiate the Bush administration’s position that enemy combatants can be held indefinitely by U.S. authorities.

Soylent Red, White and Blue

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Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

-H. L. Mencken

I: Republican Ratfucker Dead-Enders

“May you live in interesting times” goes the familiar and eerily relevant Chinese curse and America circa 2009 is an eerie example of what whomever came up with that one had in mind. The economic collapse is gaining in momentum with the fraudulent markets in freefall, the ripple effects of the implosion of the FIRE economy now spreading into the real economy and the system desperately trying to save itself even if it must destroy the country itself in order to do so. In a land gripped by growing madness the dead-enders of the fascist Republican party become more angry, irrational and outright seditious with each passing day. The latest outrage this week is the ugly public tantrums of several Republican governors who are shamelessly and publicly balking at accepting funds for some programs from the diluted economic stimulus package that was signed into law last week by President Barack Obama. It is once again political party before country for these miscreant thugs, the whores of the oligarchy and their religion of tax cuts for the wealthy, an endless fountain of corporate welfare and a dumbed-down and desperate populace that is more easily controlled.

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

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Measuring Time

The tick tick tick of time

registers the seconds and minutes

hours and days

years and decades

of lost youth

years spent unfrugally

squandered

for the benefit of others

more important than me

or so it seemed

Poe’s pendulum swings

measuring the beat beat beat

of my heart

as time ebbs away

compressing my future

and the hope

of hearing Freedom’s ring

signally the day

when being gay will be okay

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–January 23, 2009

Late Night Karaoke

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The Stars Hollow Gazette

So yesterday I mentioned that I life guarded at the most dangerous natural swimming hole in town.  I should temper that by saying that in mumblety-mumble years of life guarding I can only recall 2 times when any sort of rescue demanded my attention at all, both at a world class ultra modern Olympic caliber pool.

The first one scared the crap out of me.  A little kid, about 6 or 7 was screwing around on the lip of the pool and had one leg slip into the gutter and fell down.  I was sure I’d be dealing with a broken leg if not teeth sprayed out like Chiclets and a concussion.  Kid bounced up almost before I could get to him, giggled, and ran back to his mom.

Hey!  No running on deck!

The other time I was in the chair when some poor kids came in.  I know they were poor because one of them couldn’t afford a bathing suit, only a t-shirt and a bathing cap.  None of them could swim very well but they were staying by the side of the pool and not in any danger that I could see when my supervisor dove in and “rescued” the one with the t-shirt.

Personally I think it was simply for swimming while poor.

And if you happen to think that was icky you never had to deal with the severely learning disabled kids crapping their suits during lessons.  What the hell do you think the chlorine is for?

I haven’t quite gotten to my dangerous swimming hole yet but it will have to wait for another installment while I leave you with this story-

I once worked an outdoor pool in a park where, when people weren’t trying to climb the razor wire after dark, the drunks would amuse themselves by tossing their beer bottles over it so that they would shatter on the edge of the deck and spray the broken glass in the bottom.  The Budweiser and Heineken weren’t so bad, but you really had to look out for the Miller.

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