October 15, 2009 archive

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

Now with World and U.S. News.  44 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 40 dead as militants ambush Pakistan police

by Nasir Jaffry, AFP

52 mins ago

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) – Militants unleashed attacks in Pakistan on Thursday that left 40 people dead, storming police offices in Lahore and bombing targets in the northwest to escalate 11 days of carnage.

The coordinated assaults underscored the power of armed radicals to strike in the heart of Pakistan, and the weakness of poorly equipped security forces, despite promises of a new offensive against the Taliban.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led fight against terrorism, is reeling from two years of Taliban-linked attacks that have escalated with over 160 people killed since October 5.

The Protesters .vs. Sen. Lindsey Graham

So, I’ve seen some comments here and elsewhere (DKos) that mock the people calling out and protesting against the crooked GOP agenda of Lindsey Graham (and the Elitist pro-Establishment interests that he represents).

But you all should be rooting for the protesters here, and not accepting the U.S. Media line that the status-quo GOP agenda is somehow to be perceived as less “extreme”.

For it is the well heeled LindseyGraham-GeorgeBush-RushLimbaugh Republicans who are the fascists, the Human Torture enthusiasts, the buddies of the Wall Street crooks, the racists, and the War Mongering World Empire murderers — not the people shouting out in protest at Lindsey Graham.

The protesters of Lindsey Graham, who Graham himself decries for calling Bush a “War Criminal” (which of course he is), are largely Libertarians and old-school Constitutional Republicans that disapprove of the GOP War and Wall Street agenda.

Watch:

 

It’s Obama Time!

Simulposted at Daily Kos

In his diary about our feckless majority leader, math4barack has a darn good roundup of the politics that the Public Option is being subjected to.

The reality is this, either Fightin’ Fleein’ Harry Reid includes the Public Option in the final Senate Bill that merges the Senate Finance Bill and the HELP Committee Bill or the final Senate Bill has no Public Option.

The House Bill WILL have a Public Option provision thanks to the Progressive Caucus standing strong and Pelosi supporting them. Without the Progressive Caucus, there would be no Public Option in the House Bill. (More on that in a bit.)

In which I emit a primal scream in the general direction of the DSCC

/* begin Primal Scream

PLEASE! MOMMY!! MAKE IT STOP!!!

Dear Eileen,

Meet President Obama. October 26, 2009, Miami, FL. Contribute $5 today for a chance to win a trip to Miami and dinner with President Obama! Contribute now.

BARACK OBAMA IS NOT A ROCK STAR! I DO NOT WANT HIS GODDAMN AUTOGRAPH! WE VOTED FOR HIM!!! WE ELECTED HIM!!! HE WORKS FOR US, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!!

How would you like to meet President Obama – and get your picture taken with him? Here’s your chance.

I DON’T WANT HIS GODDAMN PICTURE! I WANT MY DAD TO HAVE SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE! YOU P.R. FLACKS TRIED THIS LAME ASS “ROCK STAR” SHITE WITH HILLARY TOO AND LOOK HOW WELL THAT WORKED!!!

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is hosting a special dinner Oct. 26 in Miami to celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime leader, and you and a friend could be there. You’ll also receive a keepsake photo, so you’ll always remember the night you met the president.

I WOULD MUCH RATHER ATTEND A SPECIAL DINNER WHERE WE ARE ALLOWED TO TAKE SLEDGEHAMMERS TO THE NSA WARRANTLESS WIRETAPPING DATA SNIFFERS, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! IF YOU CHARGE A DOLLAR A WHACK I AM BETTING YOU WILL RAISE AT LEAST ENOUGH FOR A TARP BAILOUT FOR THE WALL STREET KISSASS OF YOUR CHOICE!!!

If you make a contribution to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee today, you will be automatically entered to win you and a guest a trip to Miami (airfare and hotel included) to meet President Obama and other Democratic leaders at our special event.

PRESIDENT OBAMA IS A PRETTY COOL PERSON FOR ALL THAT HE DRINKS BUD LIGHT, BUT HE IS NOT A FREAKING ROCK STAR AND UNTIL HE CAN SING “STARSHIP TROOPER” LIKE JON ANDERSON OR AT LEAST SHUT OFF THE MOTHERFUCKING NSA WIRETAP DATA SUCKERS AND GET MY DAD AND MY SISTER AND MY FRIEND MARY AND ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE WHO ARE LIVING HAND TO MOUTH SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW FROM THIS!!!

I DON’T DRINK “GOV LIGHT”!!! THIS IS NOT THE UNITED STATES OF DISNEYLAND!!! GIVE ME SOME ROBUST TOASTED MALT AND CASCADE HIPPIE HOPPY FLAVA IN MY GOVERNMENT OR GO THE FUCK AWAY!!!

/* end Primal Scream

Educated Guesses, Past Lessons, and Brave New Worlds

I admit I have been reluctant to write about the War in Afghanistan for each and every one of the reasons and reservations shared by most Progressives.  For starters, this is an inherited, hand-me-down conflict that is not Mr. Obama’s War and I am not motivated to hang an undeserved albatross around his neck.  While I understand the reasons why the President has committed troops, precious resources, and money we really don’t have to win this fight, I wonder if this is the best way to refute the long-held conservative myth that Democrats are unwilling to take up arms to defend our country.  Republicans love to invoke President Carter and in so doing, never let us forget the depressing sight of a downed helicopter, destroyed by impact—the final resting place of Marines deployed on a hastily conceived and poorly planned rescue mission to Iran to liberate hostages.  Obama should be given credit for seeking to counteract that conception, but Afghanistan might not be the best means to accomplish said objective.    

Some have tried to make a tentative contrast between this war and Vietnam, which is neither an accurate, nor a congruent comparison.  Many leftists, myself included, were understandably quick to draw parallels between the Iraq War and that horribly divisive protracted conflict, and indeed, some of those characterizations did hold water.  It also helped that the war was being waged quite incompetently and by our political opposition.  However, this struggle easily resembles nothing we have dealt with before and if I were forced to make any contrast with other wars in our nation’s history I might concede that it is more closely akin to the Korean conflict.  Both are sloppy, inexact, confusing, and contradictory affairs that are as confusing to those who lived, fought, and died as they are to scholars and pundits attempting to make sense of them.  When our Afghan struggle draws to a close, whenever that shall be, few concrete conclusions will be drawn and those attempting to point at evidence to support their assertions will have their work cut out for them.    

Afghanistan nor Korea have many clearly defined objectives, satisfying victories, nor demoralizing defeats, but what they do have are perplexing stalemates reluctantly adopted to avoid the very real fear of expanding the fight to nearby hostile regions or adjacent unfriendly nations.  The Korean War might very well have been the first instance in American history where we realized superior military force does not necessarily translate to resolute and inevitable victory because, in part, acting too aggressively threatens to draw in neighboring countries and, in so doing, transform proxy war into hot war.  Creating a wholesale conflagration between major players is as much bad policy and potentially catastrophic outcome then as it is now.  Nearly sixty years ago, the United States could not afford to start a declared war between itself and the Red Chinese, specifically since a war with the Communist Chinese always ran the risk of a shooting war with the Soviet Union.  Nowadays, particularly when one contemplates how much of our debt China holds, I can’t help but be grateful that cooler heads prevailed.  Though China may own us, their own developing economy is dependent upon our recovery, and if we fall, so do they.  

In Afghanistan, we are utilizing a strategy honed in Iraq which believes that the best way to combat terrorist groups and in so doing eliminate them is to use small, precise skirmishes in a highly strategic fashion.  The gloriously sweeping open field battles of yore may forever be a thing of the past.  What we are trying to avoid, of course, is expanding the fight into Pakistan in means other than the occasional specifically targeted bombing raid.  Even so, resentments have been created when we act in that fashion, particularly because Pakistan’s leaders believe we are threatening their sovereignty in launching raids, though it must also be added that they themselves have never firmly committed to eliminate Al-Qaeda from within their own borders.  Threatening the stability of the entire Middle East is the foremost omnipresent threat we must keep in mind and while a wholesale invasion of neighboring countries might be a temptation to some, it is hardly any solution.  Warfare in the Twenty-First century has proven to be a different kind of containment that puts out fires as they are discovered and faces a guerrilla enemy who recognizes full well that the only way to stay alive to fight another day is to resort to a strategy of hit and run.  In an older era, this was considered unsightly, cowardly, and against the unwritten rules of engagement.  The Taliban feels no shame, nor any compulsion to adhere to a antiquated standard that, if adhered to, would quickly lead to its demise.

In Korea, the one wholesale success of UN forces was General Douglas MacArthur’s amphibious Inchon landing, which succeeded in occupying almost all of the Korean peninsula.  In response, Chinese dictator Mao Zedong deployed a exceptionally large contingent of troops to combat the threat and reclaim lost territory.  These soldiers owed a large share of their funding and support to Soviet leader Josef Stalin, whose infamous paranoia might have worked in his own favor for once in this situation.  As such, UN forces were driven back past the 38th Parallel and into South Korea; it is at this juncture that the war reached an unsatisfying Mexican standoff which still is in place today.  The Korean War technically never ended.  A state of war still exists between North and South, though it has been superseded by an long-standing truce.  The effects of this can be seen today with the saber-rattling and manipulative posturing of the North Korean government, particularly with its desire to obtain a nuclear program or at least its desire to play cat-and-mouse with the rest of the world.

Though the United States may have the most formidable weaponry and military, this alone will not necessarily produce victory.  I often doubt whether war over terrorism will ever be firmly declared with any satisfaction, or whether the best we can ever hope for is a kind of mutually agreed upon ceasefire and even partition.  The only way one could really destroy every terrorist cell would be to either invade or bomb a garden variety of countries, most in the Middle East, which would inflame tensions around to the world to such a fevered pitch that World War III would certainly become a strong possibility.  Changing the mindset of those won over to a combination of radical Islam married to terrorist tactics might be a better option.  Proving how such attitudes are counter-productive, counter-intuitive, and ultimately futile would be needed strategies in accomplishing this task.  

A combination of skillful diplomacy and a policy of military containment would seem to be as plausible as any strategy yet attempted.  In saying this, I hasten to use the phrase “military containment” because it is beholden to another age where it served as frequent justification to stem the spread of Communism.  Perhaps we ought to redefine for our own age what containment really means, and in this regard, I don’t think it connotes long term occupation of any country.  I do not have the answers and do not advance a strategy, because I am as flummoxed as even those in charge seem to be.  Even those in the driver’s seat of this operation have little more than educated guesses themselves upon which to justify their decisions and my hope is, as always, that we will embrace the most sensible course of action and always be willing to learn from what came before, regardless of whether it is welcome or unwelcome.          

Too Sad for Words

.

 I don’t know if this (reported last Saturday) has already been covered here, but if so I dare say it’s worth taking another, sad look at:

 

 Florida Man Kills Fiance on Eve of Wedding

  WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. – A man who thought there was an intruder in his house shot and killed his fiancee the day before they were to be married, police said Friday.

“Right now everything points to a tragic accident,” Police Chief Kevin Brunelle told The Associated Press, adding investigators were awaiting forensic results.

John Tabutt, 62, told investigators he got his gun when he thought he heard an intruder, then fired at a figure in the hallway, according to Brunelle. It was Tabutt’s live-in fiancee, 62-year-old Nancy Dinsmore, who family members say he was going to marry Saturday. Tabutt told authorities he thought she was next to him in bed the whole time.

.

 “Over three quarters (76.3 percent) of the homicide victims knew their assailant. Nearly one third (31.7 percent) of the homicides occurred during a family argument, 15.4 percent during a robbery, 4.1 percent during a drug deal, 0.2 percent during an abduction, and 44.1 percent for other unspecified reasons. In 4.5 percent of the homicides, multiple circumstances were reported. . . .”  

 From the American Journal of Epidemiology.

 Alas.

Mu . . .

 

Least Common Denominator

A micro test of political orientation.  Rather they want to tell you what you are based upon obsolete/meaningless/trivial questions.

http://www.theadvocates.org/qu…

I shall do it step by step.  Who is on crack cocaine here!

Docudharma Times Thursday October 15




Thursday’s Headlines:

Public Option Is Next Big Hurdle in Health Debate

Money and Mandarin lessons fuel China’s African invasion

Stagnant Prices Prevent Social Security Increase

Healthcare triumph gives way to heightened battle

Dozens killed as militants attack Pakistan police buildings

French troops were killed after Italy hushed up ‘bribes’ to Taleban

Hyper-active Swiss curator tops artworld power list

Berlusconi backs his old friend Blair for role as EU President

World Focus: Why Palestinians have lost faith in Obama

West Bank settlers use ‘price tag’ tactic to punish Palestinians

Nicaragua’s newest tycoon? ‘Socialist’ president Daniel Ortega.

Today is the Second Anniversary of the Doucdharma Times

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

Pierce:



(Click on image for larger view)

The muses are ancient.  The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them.  Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward.  In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.

It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse.  Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets.  Others have been suggested throughout the centuries.  I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts.  And maybe there should be many more.

I know you have talent.  What sometimes is forgotten is that being practical is a talent.  I have a paucity for that sort of talent in many situations, though it turns out that I’m a pretty darn good cook.  ðŸ™‚  

Let your talent bloom.  You can share it here.  Encourage others to let it bloom inside them as well.

Won’t you share your words or art, your sounds or visions, your thoughts scientific or philosophic, the comedy or tragedy of your days, the stories of doing and making?  And be excellent to one another!

Late Night Karaoke

Open Thread

Obama’s “Tinkle-Stop Tour” of NOLA

Today Obama will be making an extremely short stop in New Orleans. Or what my favorite NOLA blogger calls a “tinkle-stop tour.” In New Orleans, he’ll be visiting a charter school and participating in a town hall meeting in the Lower 9th Ward.

(In contrast, his next stop will be San Francisco, where he’ll be spending four times as much time–16 hours. This has caused Harry Shearer to say,

Total elapsed time in SF: sixteen hours.  They must have experienced a hell of a federal disaster there.  Four times worse, you figure?

Arianna Huffington calls for Biden to resign?

Did you read that right?  Resign?

I have an idea for how he can capitalize on all the attention, and do what generations to come will always be grateful for: resign.

Why, yes you did…

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