July 23, 2009 archive

Obama’s “Mission Accomplished” moment

I used to think that Obama was, at the very least, a very intelligent human being.

Now I’m starting to wonder.

How smart is it when the people you listen to are all Goldman Sacks employees or ex-employees (which means future employees)?

Sure, if you’re at Goldman Sachs, things are just ROSY.

For everybody else?   Well, is he fucking BLIND?


US President Barack Obama defended his administration’s response to the economic crisis over the last six months, declaring: “The fire is now out.”

“I think that we have stepped back from the abyss. I think we’ve put out the fire,” he said in an interview with PBS, according to a transcript released by the TV station.

No, Obama, you’re either a liar or a bonehead (or both).  

The fire is most certainly not “out”.  It’s more like one of those coal seam fires in coal country, those fires that burn and smoulder for years and years, and nobody ever knows how to put the damn things out.   I mean, do you think we’re gonna go back to “home loans for all my friends!” and CDO’s and McMansions and Cadillac Escalades and cheap gas?  No, of course we’re not going to.  And you damn well know it.  The new economy has yet to be built.   You wasting billions, TRILLIONS of goddamn dollars by handing it over to your Goldman Sacks buddies and giving it to your Pentagon buddies so we can keep slaughtering our own troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and slaughtering civilians in distant countries, well that is one of the big reasons WHY we do not, and WILL NOT, have a “new economy” here.

And when your own Fed Reserve Chairman doesn’t even know where half a trillion dollars went, and who he fucking GAVE IT TO, well that doesn’t exactly bode well.

But, Barry, if you really want to go with the “fire is out” metaphor, fine.   But we’re on a ship.  And the fire is out.  But the ship is sinking.  

You’re like the captain of the Titanic saying “well at least we’re not smashing into that damn iceberg any more!  Things are looking up!”

Obama, you expect to have any credibility after this bullshit remark?

Well, you don’t.  Not any more.

You’re either a lying dumbass, or you think we’re all just fucking stupid.

Well we’re not.

We know when we’re being lied to, and you’re absolutely fucking lying to us right now.

Four at Four

  1. The Washington Independent reports Iraqi prime minister is open to renegotiating withdrawal timeline. “Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki opened the door for the first time Thursday to the prospect of a U.S. military presence in Iraq after the December 2011 deadline for troop withdrawal set by last year’s bilateral accord – something President Obama appeared to rule out during a joint appearance on Tuesday.”

    “Maliki said the accord, known as the Status of Forces Agreement, would ‘end’ the American military presence in his country in 2011, but ‘nevertheless, if Iraqi forces required further training and further support, we shall examine this at that time based on the needs of Iraq'”.

    “‘The nature of that relationship – the functions and the amount of [U.S.] forces – will then be discussed and reexamined based on the needs'” of Iraq”, he added.

  2. Bloomberg reports the Obama administration is accused by lawyers of stonewalling on terror questioning. Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay prisoners say the Obama administration is not keeping the president’s campaign pledge of transparency. “The attorneys said government officials have been no more helpful than the Bush administration in sharing transcripts of interrogations of their clients. The detainees may have been subject to harsh methods and possibly torture, the lawyers said.”

    If details of the interrogations become public, they could weaken support for the U.S. fight against Islamic militants, said Philip Heymann, a professor at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Any revelations about prisoner mistreatment “would make the public more suspicious about the war on terrorism,” said Heymann, deputy attorney general under President Bill Clinton.

    Meanwhile, the NY Times reports a U.S. judge challenges evidence on a detainee.

    The Obama administration has until Friday to decide whether to continue to defend the six-year imprisonment of an Afghan at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who was a teenager when he came into American hands.

    The decision was prompted by Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle of Federal District Court, who last week criticized the government’s case against the detainee as “an outrage” that was “riddled with holes.” Judge Huvelle’s comments, made at a hearing in district court in Washington, were not reported at the time.

    The detainee, Mohammed Jawad, … was tortured by Afghan officials before he was turned over to American forces in 2002 and was later abused at the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay…

    Military records show that Mr. Jawad was subjected to a sleep deprivation program in which he was moved from cell to cell 112 times in a 13-day period and that he was isolated, beaten and kicked by guards at Guantánamo. He attempted suicide in Guantánamo in 2003.

Four at Four continues with an update from Afghanistan, toucans and their amazing radiator bills, caribou collapse, and baseball.

Live re: Afghan from Sen. Durbin’s porch

Note from the essayist:  Please forgive me if I’ve deviated too much from protocol, but I’m posting only the lead-in of this essay/diary here.  The complete diary is at dkos.  Buhdy, I’m not yet up to speed with your dazzling blog creation skills, though I’m getting better.  ; – )   Doing a complete cross-post is beyond me today, and I apologize for any inconvenience.  

Bottom line:  this diary at dkos is how I go about Standing. The. F. Up.  and Yelling Louder!!!

Thanks, good people!

Hound Dog

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S-a-a-a-y WHAT?

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Yep, it’s true.  Sen. Dick Durbin has an office in Springfield, Illinois, right in the Lincoln Home National Historic Site.  It’s a beautiful, peaceful little park, with historic Lincoln-era homes.  Durbin’s office is in the George W. Shutt House, and Mr. Shutt was a neighbor of the Lincolns. The house is owned by the National Park Service, and Sen. Durbin has rented office space here since he was a member of the House of Representatives.

I’m blogging away, right now, on the far right side of the porch.

And, it’s no secret he has an office here.  Take a look at his Senate home page. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see the address: 525 South 8th St, Springfield IL 62703.

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Why here?

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Well, here’s one reason which is totally enough, all by itself —– because I can.

SERE Psychologists Still Used in Special Ops Interrogations and Detention

Originally posted at Firedoglake

The great novelist William Faulkner famously wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

With all the controversy over the use of Survival, Evasion, Escape, Resistance, or SERE, psychologists in the interrogation of “high-value detainees” — most recently detailed in a fascinating melange of an article in last Sunday’s Washington Post —  everyone seems to assume that terrible chapter is a thing of the past. Recent documentation that has come to my attention suggests otherwise.

The reasons no one until now has noticed the current activities of SERE psychologists in offensive military operations are that, one, no one has cared to look, and two, a specious narrative ending in the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC)  report, “Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody,” released last April, that appeared to conclude the episode was over. In its Executive Summary, the SASC concluded that, in September 2004, “JFCOM [U.S. Joint Forces Command] issued a formal policy stating that support to offensive interrogation operations was outside JPRA’s charter.” And that, presumably, was that.

Why Is The Media Still Listening To Republicans ?

Simulposted at Daily Kos

What was the last thing the Republicans got right?

Certainly not anything that would get them elected!

Immigration? ha!

The environment? Shudder!

Regulation of Wall St excesses? It is to laugh.

Equal Rights? Well…..ask your gay and Hispanic friends.

Emergency response, like to, say, Hurricanes and stuff? Yeah, right.

Foreign Policy? Emphatically no.

Running two wars? No they screwed that up good….too.

Not torturing people? They couldn’t even get that right.

The economy, as in not crashing it and harming a huge swath of regular people who trusted them? ….er, no.

And certainly not on Health Care, the costs of which have spiraled out of control under their reign.

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The Republicans, given that free reign and truly unlimited power due to the attacks on 9/11, had nearly ALL of the American people behind them, had even the Dems in Congress on their side, had expanded executive and war time powers…and had a media ready to overlook their worst mistakes and still support them.

And even with all of that, even with every advantage and break on their side….they still proved themselves…time and time again….to be base incompetents, unfit to govern, insufficient to craft successful policy, unable to manage simple tasks, unable to live up to their own ideals politically re fiscal responsibility and even unable to live up to their own moral standards and ‘family values.

Yet who are the media, the pundits, the shapers of public opinion and the “Moderate Democrats” still listening to, still in fear of, still bowing to on every single policy crafted to clean up the incredible mess they left our country with?

Those same Republicans.

Let’s just hit the highlights, shall we?

The Republicans squandered the good will of the world after 9/11 and ended up turning the world against us. They let Bin Laden escape from Tora Bora. They invaded Iraq for no reason, costing trillions of dollars on a mistake. They increased terrorism by invading Iraq and bringing Al Qaeda there. They increased it further by implementing an official policy of torture.

The Republicans left people to die in the aftermath of Katrina.

The Republicans repealed regulations that had held Wall St and the banks in check and encouraged an atmosphere of raw greed that led to the economic collapse.

As I say, those are just the highlights, as we all vividly remember …except the media and “Moderate Democrats apparently…how badly the Republicans scrwed EVERYTHING up through bad and incompetent governing, horrible policy decisions, and just plain stupidity born of ideology and insufferable arrogance.  

A Win For Consumers – National Arbitration Forum Exits Business!

If you have a cell phone or a credit card (and who among us does not in this brave new world?) then you are party to an agreement to arbitrate any dispute between you and your carrier or card issuer. Did you know that? Many of you reading this will have some awareness of this fact, but do your really know what it means? Basically what it means is you have given up your right to go to court against these companies if you have a dispute. The most common dispute is about billing or debts, but this clause covers all disputes. By signing a contract with these companies you have signed away your right to trial.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

To Protect and Serve – Serve Up Revenue

Newsflash: Cop acts like douchebag, and uses the standard charge of “not scraping enough to the man” to wrongly jail citizen.

I am of more than one mind about the incident. Had a cop come to my home when someone saw people trying to jam in the door, I would probably thank him for responding so fast and say, “Wow, had this been a break in, I am so glad you would have been here!” But of course, as a waitress and big 3 sales negotiator, (not to mention wife) I am well trained in the subtleties of diffusing any situation.

However, when cops go asshat, and try and swing their dicks just because it grates their egos to not be feared and obeyed instantly, I think the professor played it perfectly maintaining his rights within the law. His only mistake was stepping outside, wherein the bogus charge of “Public” disorderliness could be made. It could not have been made had he stayed inside his threshold.

While profiling happens, and happens a shitload in white communities, this problem is bigger than racism.

Its siege mentality, the paramilitary training and choosing of officers that would have been culled from the force in my youth as “loose cannons” with “bad attitudes.”



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Really, the FAIL comes from the Top: The For REVENUE Police State.

GBCNYC

Crossposted at Daily Kos

 I don’t need to tell you that unemployment is through the roof. U6 is at 20+% nationwide, and in NYC it is as bad as anywhere else. At some point, we as a nation need to figure out that the private sector will not save us, rather they are strangling us, but, that is not why I write today, although it is an issue that must be addressed if we are to recover from the Bush/Cheney depression anytime soon.

u6

    In New York City you can see the class warfare at it’s prime. A few bonus baby Wall St types who tanked the whole economy on us yuk it up over drinks while a ton of busboys sweat it out for that extra buck.

    Well, I have hit my breaking point. I have no job, no money, and no more patience. As much as I love the Big Rotten Apple, I have to say Good Bye, New York City.

    This town is too rich for my blue collared blood. I have tried bootstraps. I have tried denying things like health care and dentist appointments, eating out and other non-necessities.

    And I have had enough.

    If that’s moving up then I’m moving out.

Docudharma Times Thursday July 23




Thursday’s Headlines:

 U.S.-born militant who fought for Al Qaeda is in custody

Pew study: Wireless Internet use up sharply

Who shot Natalia Estemirova?

The collapse of Moscow: Architectural heritage being destroyed

Hamid Karzai pulls out of historic TV debate just hours before broadcast

China censors block President’s son from internet search results

Clinton says US would arm its allies against a nuclear Iran

Iran’s Guards keep on marching

Court ruling looms on disputed Sudan oil-town

Ambushed by a Drug War

 Obama’s Toughest Sales Pitch Is Also His Most Critical

Analysis

 By Michael A. Fletcher

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, July 23, 2009



Since taking office, President Obama has preached the urgency of implementing the big items on his long list of policy priorities. And he has been largely successful at bending public opinion, and Congress, to his will — on the stimulus package, financial bailouts and his budget, with unprecedented new investments in education and renewable energy.But six months into his presidency, as Obama stood in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday night, he faced what is shaping up as his toughest and most critical sales pitch yet: explaining to an increasingly reluctant public that health-care reform is in its best interest.

Obama used his fourth prime-time news conference to directly address the anxiety many Americans feel about emerging plans to revamp health care, plans that are reaching a critical juncture in Congress.

Wind power plan blown off course

 Closure of turbine factory undermines Government’s green pledges

By Michael McCarthy and Nigel Morris

 Thursday, 23 July 2009

The Government was facing a growing credibility gap over green jobs last night as environmental campaigners and trade unionists united to fight the closure of Britain’s sole major wind turbine plant.

Only last week, ministers proclaimed a green employment future for the UK involving 400,000 jobs in environmental industries such as renewable energy – yet this week they are declining to intervene over the forthcoming closure of the Vestas Wind Systems plant on the Isle of Wight, with nearly 600 redundancies.

Workers at the Newport factory, which makes wind turbine blades, were last night staging their third night of occupation of the plant in an attempt to prevent the closure which is scheduled for 31 July. In an alliance not seen before, they were being helped by climate-change campaigners who have set up an ad hoc camp outside the factory and yesterday helped to get food to the occupiers.

Families Send Basics To Marines In Afghanistan

For Marines serving in Afghanistan, mail call can be a little bit like Christmas in July. A package from home can supply everything from basic needs to small luxuries.

snip

At a Piggly Wiggly grocery store in North Carolina, customers have been donating goods for Marines deployed with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment out of nearby Camp Lejeune.

Assistant Manager Rosa Hamilton says some of the items catch shoppers off guard. “They were like, ‘Clothes pins, huh? I never would have thought about that.’ And we’re like, ‘Well, they don’t have anywhere to hang their clothes,’ ” she says………..Rest Here

Or bring up the NPR Player with this link amd listen to the report

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning

2009 Poems


Stain

Mistaken

They have said

we are confused

about our gender

making up stories

for illicit purposes

But we know

who we are

not playing games

but living lives

for the better

It is they

who are confused

have forgotten how

to be human

because of hatred

–Robyn Serven

–May 1, 2009

Late Night Karaoke

 Open Thread  Nikai Thursday

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