Just a couple items this afternoon….this little “column” has me surfing youtube (which I never do) looking for cool shit.  I found something genuinely beautiful, if flawed and unfinished, and wanted to share.

Remember, don’t rec the pony parties!

“Who thought they were only mad, when Baltimore gleamed in supernatural esctasy…”

Ginsberg’s Howl, animated by Mark Mentzer.  I could only find the first two thirds of the poem.  And I embedded only the first one…the second one is way not work safe (heck, the poem isn’t work safe) so I simply linked it…

I thought about finding more innocuous fare…heck, I looked for such…but in the end thought this was, at the least and in it’s way, truthful and lovely, for all it’s flaws, and Ginsberg’s.

and part two…as link (not work safe.  it’s an animation of the middle of Howl! ‘nuf said…)

http://www.youtube.c…

And the third part, I suspect, is still being done…

Be excellent to each other…jessical is the one to complain about :))

This is an OPEN THREAD. Here are four stories in the news at 4 o’clock to get you started.

1. The news from Burma today.

   • Spiegel brings this chilling story out of Burma: ‘They Come at Night and Murder the Monks’.

     …It is completely quiet for a moment in the car park. Then a young man emerges from the darkness. He was obviously waiting for a chance to be alone with foreigners. He is poorly clothed, but speaks English that is somewhat understandable. “Please don’t believe what the junta says,” he whispers. “The repression is continuing every night. When there are no more witnesses, they drive through the suburbs at night and kill the people.”

     …It was around midnight when the long convoy of military vehicles drove into the district. They contained police officers from the anti-insurgency unit and the so-called “Lome-Ten,” a unit of gangsters and ex-convicts, who do the regime’s dirty work.

     They surrounded a monastery on Weiza Yandar Street. All the roughly 200 monks living there were forced to stand in a row and the security forces beat their heads against a brick wall. When they were all covered in blood and lay moaning on the ground, they were thrown into a truck and taken away. “We are crying for our monks,” said the man, and then he was gone.

   • The Guardian reports the surviving monks are fleeing the crackdown as reports of brutality emerge. “Scores of Burmese monks were stranded in Rangoon’s railway station yesterday while trying to flee the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests that has left thousands languishing in prison. ¶ Bus drivers refused to take the russet-robed monks, fearing the security forces would cut off fuel supplies for their vehicles if they accepted the fares, even as the military conducted further raids and made dozens of arrests… ¶ Fearing the violence that was to come, a Burmese army major, Htay Win, deserted from his unit in Rangoon before the killings began. He fled to Thailand in search of asylum, and yesterday explained why. ‘I knew the plan to beat and shoot the monks, and if I had stayed I would have had to follow those orders,’ said Major Htay, 43, yesterday. ‘But because I’m a Buddhist I didn’t want to follow those orders. I did not want to kill the monks.'”

   • According to The Independent, a French oil firm is accused of complicity with military regime in Burma. “The French oil giant Total faces a renewed inquiry into claims that it was complicit in crimes against humanity committed by the military regime in Burma. ¶ The federal prosecutor’s office in Belgium has re-opened a five-year-old case brought by four Burmese refugees, who allege that France’s largest company financed human rights violations and used forced labour supplied by the junta to build a gas pipeline in the 1990s. A preliminary court hearing is expected later this month, according to Alexis Deswaef, the Belgian lawyer acting for the refugees. ¶ The Belgian government’s decision, following a ruling by the country’s constitutional court, is a further blow to Total as it struggles to defend its presence in Burma.”

   • The Independent reports Burmese troops round up activists. “The Burmese regime has stepped up its search for democracy activists in the aftermath of last week’s demonstrations – rounding up suspected participants and dividing them into ‘passers-by’, ‘those who watched’, ‘those who clapped’ and ‘those who joined in’. ¶ Patrolling the streets of Rangoon before dawn in trucks equipped with loudspeakers, troops broadcast a series of messages that warned: ‘We have photographs. We are going to make arrests!'” In another story, The Independent adds that many protesters are staying put to battle junta as world waits on Burmese border. “At the Moei river in Thailand there is sticky sunshine, jungle and the world’s media in waiting. Yet there is no flood of refugees from across the border in Burma… ¶ In recent years, analysts have argued that non-violence against such regimes doesn’t work, generalising from the failure of non-violent struggles, such as that of the Tibetans against the Chinese, to make significant headway. It worked for Gandhi because the British were soft-hearted foreigners who had to worry about elections and who in any case would have gone home some day anyway. But against pitiless regimes such as that in Burma, hands dripping with blood, it is futile… ¶ this new generation of rebels is bent on proving them wrong.”

   • BBC News reports Burma sets conditions for Suu Kyi. “Burma’s military leader, Gen Than Shwe, has agreed in principle to meet the detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, state media has reported. ¶ In return she must drop her support for international sanctions and abandon her confrontational attitude, it said. It is the first time during his 15-year rule that Gen Shwe has indicated he may be ready for dialogue with Suu Kyi.”

The rest of today’s Four at Four can be found below the fold. Today’s stories are:

2. Gonzales’ secret DoJ opinion condoning torture.

3. The daily Blackwater news round-up.

4. Sailing the Northwest Passage and climate change legislation in Congress.

Plus, there’s a bonus story today. Happy 50th anniversary day, Sputnik!
More below the fold…

2. The New York Times reports of the Bush administration’s secret endorsement of severe interrogations.

   Soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

   The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

   Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.

   The classified opinions, never previously disclosed, are a hidden legacy of President Bush’s second term and Mr. Gonzales’s tenure at the Justice Department, where he moved quickly to align it with the White House after a 2004 rebellion by staff lawyers that had thrown policies on surveillance and detention into turmoil…

   Associates at the Justice Department said Mr. Gonzales seldom resisted pressure from Vice President Dick Cheney and David S. Addington, Mr. Cheney’s counsel, to endorse policies that they saw as effective in safeguarding Americans, even though the practices brought the condemnation of other governments, human rights groups and Democrats in Congress. Critics say Mr. Gonzales turned his agency into an arm of the Bush White House, undermining the department’s independence.

   This is a must read. It is further evidence of the war crimes of the Bush administration. Congress still must impeach Gonzales and bring legal actions against him. Cheney and his minions must follow. And Mr. Comey, you may think your hands are clean, but you knew. A patriot would have spoken out. Your silence is your tacit approval. Responding to the news, the Washington Post reports the White House Denies Torture Assertion.

3. Here is the snapshot of some of today’s Blackwater news.

   • The news from Reuters is that Iraq PM Maliki questions future of Blackwater. “Maliki appeared to toughen his stand again against Blackwater over a September 16 shooting in Baghdad… ¶ ‘I believe the big numbers of accusations directed against (Blackwater) do not make it valid to stay in Iraq,’ Maliki told a news conference in Baghdad.” Removing Blackwater from Iraq would be the strongest vote of confidence the Bush administration could make in the future of Iraq.

   • John Broder of The New York Times reports Ex-Paratrooper Is Suspect in Killing of Iraqi. “The former Blackwater USA employee who is the sole suspect in the killing last Christmas Eve of a bodyguard for an Iraqi vice president is a 27-year-old former Army paratrooper from Montana who now lives in Seattle, where he spends much of his time renovating his small home. ¶ The former employee, Andrew J. Moonen, is identified in numerous government and company documents and is known to scores of Blackwater and government officials, but Congress, the State Department and the company have been keeping his identity confidential… ¶ Mr. Moonen said the situation made him uneasy. ‘There’s a lot of dust being kicked up, and I’ll be glad when it settles,’ he said… ¶ Stewart P. Riley, a Seattle lawyer, confirmed that he was representing Mr. Moonen in the investigation into the Baghdad shooting… ¶ Mr. Moonen served in the 82nd Airborne Division from April 2002 to April 2005, according to Army personnel records. He served a seven-month deployment in Iraq, from September 2003 until early April 2004. Army records indicate that he was honorably discharged, but do not show any special medals or commendations.”

   • The New York Daily News first reported that Blackwater to guard FBI team probing it. “The agents plan to interview witnesses within the relative safety of the fortified Green Zone, but they will be transported outside the compound by Blackwater armored convoys… ¶ In the past, FBI SWAT or hostage rescue team members protected other agents in the war zone. But the hostage rescue team force has been shrinking under the strain of bodyguard duty, leaving the FBI to rely increasingly on Blackwater when military escorts aren’t available, sources said.”

     But, according to the Washington Post that has changed; Karen DeYoung reports in Federal Guards to Protect Agents in Blackwater Investigation that “The FBI said yesterday that a team of agents assigned to investigate allegations of misconduct by Blackwater contractors in Baghdad will be protected there by U.S. government security rather than Blackwater guards… ¶ State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that security for the team would be handled by the department’s Diplomatic Security Service. ¶ The New York Daily News reported yesterday that Blackwater personnel would be protecting the FBI agents. That prompted Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees State Department operations, to urge Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to bar Blackwater employees from the investigation. ¶ McCormack said the issue was under discussion before Leahy’s letter to Rice was received and he did not know whether Rice had seen it.”

   • AFP reports that the FBI takes lead in probe over Blackwater crisis. “The FBI has taken over the lead from the State Department on the investigations into the affairs of private security company Blackwater USA… ¶ ‘They are going to take the lead, the FBI, with the arrival of an FBI (probe) team in Baghdad’ in the near future, department spokesman Sean McCormack said… ¶ McCormack cautioned against any assumption that criminal charges would be filed against anyone.” The State Department requested the FBI to take over the investigation.

   • Both former Senator John Edwards and Senator Barack Obama urged Congress to call for more accountability for private contractors. The New York Times reports New Rules for Contractors Are Urged by 2 Democrats. Edwards “called for ending the outsourcing of military and security missions to contractors. He presented a plan to expand the jurisdiction of American law enforcement agencies to cover contractors overseas and used the case to highlight his opposition to the Iraq war and Bush administration tactics. ¶ ‘The Bush administration is keeping the war in Iraq going, despite the overwhelming opposition of the American people,’ Mr. Edwards said.’And they are doing it in part by performing an end-run around the all-volunteer force.’ … ¶ Obama presented a plan to make the contractors more accountable by creating a special F.B.I. unit to enforce federal law. He criticized the administration as failing to supervise companies like Blackwater. ¶ ‘This isn’t just about broken laws or wasted tax revenues,’ Mr. Obama said. ‘This is about our claims to moral leadership in the world. We cannot win a fight for hearts and minds when we outsource critical missions to unaccountable contractors.'”

   • The Los Angeles Times reports Congress moves to rein in contractors. “Backers expected the bill, sponsored by Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.), to pass with bipartisan support in a House vote today. Senate supporters were preparing to offer a corresponding measure. Administration officials did not say whether a veto would be considered if the measure passes.” “The White House, backed by some of its allies in Congress, expressed ‘grave concerns’ and said in a statement that the measure would place ‘inappropriate and unwarranted burdens’ on the U.S. military in war zones.” “Some Republicans defended the status quo as necessary to advance the U.S. war effort — even though lax oversight of the contractors has drawn sharp criticism from the Iraqis and their fledgling government… ¶ The House bill would attempt to clarify long-standing confusion over whether U.S. laws apply to government contractors working in other countries… ¶ While existing statutes subject Pentagon contractors to U.S. law, the status of contractors hired by the State Department and other U.S. agencies is less clear. In particular, legal experts are undecided whether the other contractors are covered by the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which applies U.S. laws to contractors working abroad.” DeYoung of the Washington Post has further clarification of the Bush administration’s position.

     The White House said it is opposed to a House bill that would extend current federal law covering Defense Department contractors overseas to those working for the State Department. A statement from the Office of Management and Budget said the bill was too vague and would have unspecified “intolerable consequences for crucial and necessary national security activities and operations.”

     The AP reports the House passes a bill to prosecute contractors. “The House passed a bill on Wednesday that would make all private contractors working in Iraq and other combat zones subject to prosecution by U.S. courts. It was the first major legislation of its kind to pass since a deadly shootout last month involving Blackwater employees.” The vote was 389-30. “Senate Democratic leaders said they planned to follow suit with similar legislation and send a bill to … Bush as soon as possible.”

   • Sudarsan Raghavan of the Washington Post Traces the Paths of Five who Died in a Storm of Gunfire and is today’s must read.

     The victims were as young as 11 and as old as 55, according to hospital records. They were middle class and poor. They included college students, day laborers and professionals vital to rebuilding Iraq. There was a mother and her daughter. The daughter lived. There was a taxi driver, only 25, who was the sole provider for his parents and seven siblings. He died…

     The carnage has sparked outrage and demands to reform the private contractor industry. Almost three weeks later, the collective memory of Iraqis at the scene is raw.

     “It was catastrophic. So many innocent people were killed,” recalled Zina Fadhil, 21, a pharmacist. That day, she huddled in fear inside her store about 100 yards from the square as Blackwater helicopters hovered above. Like other eyewitnesses, she said she saw Blackwater guards firing down from the helicopters, an allegation the security firm denies. “I am a peaceful person, but I wished I could have shot those people in the helicopters,” Fadhil continued, her soft voice rising…

     After the shooting stopped, Zina Fadhil cautiously walked out of her pharmacy. Cars with blown-out tires were moving slowly. For a few minutes, an eerie silence filled the air. Then she saw police pickup trucks fly by, carrying the wounded and dead, stacked on top of one another. “I could see only their legs,” she recalled.

     Haider and Mariam Ahmed, whose mother and older brother were killed by Blackwater in the massacre, also are interviewed. (The two children were in a NY Times story yesterday.) “Mariam was born in the last phases of the Iran-Iraq conflict. Her eyes filling with tears, she said she wanted to leave: ‘I was born in one war, I don’t want to die in another.‘” Read this piece. I cannot do it justice.

   • Some number-crunching and analysis from a Financial Times editorial, Blackwater and the outsourcing of war. There is a “growing awareness of how dependent the US military has become on mercenaries. ¶ The number of US troops in Iraq is now at a peak of 168,000; but they rely on an even bigger army of 180,000 contractors, employed by more than two dozen private companies. Many of these people do the cooking and laundry. But about a quarter of them are fighters… ¶ But privatising war is, in reality, financially, politically and militarily very expensive. The lawlessness of some of these outfits has stained America’s reputation and stirred up rage against its troops… ¶ US commanders already have instructions to hold contractors to military rules of engagement – but these are rooted in the doctrine of force protection, which in practice has led to heavy loss of civilian life in both Iraq and Afghanistan. ¶ Neither of these different endeavours has a chance, much less moral validity, unless the US and its allies adhere to the rule of law they claim their forces are there to defend. That includes ending the impunity, under US and Iraqi law, of mercenaries. Better still: end reliance on these private armies altogether.“

   • The Los Angeles Times looks at Erik Prince’s campaign contributions. Prince has donated $230,000 to federal campaigns and causes in the last decade. Almost all of that money has gone to Republicans… ¶ Prince’s latest donation was in July, when he gave $20,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. California recipients of Prince’s $1,000 checks include Reps. Jerry Lewis and Duncan Hunter, a current GOP presidential candidate, and former Rep. Richard Pombo.”

   • According to McClatchy Newspapers, Blackwater flies injured Polish diplomat to hospital. Blackwater “turned a helicopter into an air ambulance Wednesday after bombs wounded the Polish ambassador to Iraq and members of his staff. The helicopter evacuated Ambassador Edward Pietrzyk and three security guards to a U.S. military hospital.”

   • In Blackwater project foes hope for backlash, the LA Times reports “Opponents of Blackwater USA’s proposal to build a training facility east of San Diego hope that the growing controversy over the private security firm’s conduct in Iraq will help their drive to thwart the project… ¶ Meanwhile, a local congressman has submitted a bill to block Blackwater’s proposal to build the 220-acre camp in unincorporated Potrero, 45 miles east of downtown San Diego near the Mexican border… ¶ Rep. Bob Filner (D-Chula Vista) last week introduced a bill to allow the training of ‘mercenaries’ — a term rejected by Blackwater — only on property owned by the federal government… ¶ Although land-use disputes are common in local rural areas, the Blackwater dispute has reached an emotional pitch rarely seen. Three dozen sheriff’s deputies and San Diego police officers were on hand during an April planning department ‘scoping session,’ the kind of pro forma meeting that is usually sparsely attended.

4. Jon Tevlin of the Star Tribune writes about the first American sailboat to complete the 6,600-mile Northwest Passage in ‘Sailing into a new era‘.

   They had been on the water for more than a month, ‘staring holes through the fog’ and expecting the ice to finally come.

   Retired Minnesota hog farmer Roger Swanson and his wife, Gaynelle Templin, were nearing the spot on the Franklin Strait where their attempt to travel the Northwest Passage ended in 2005. ¶ But this time a ham radio operator called Swanson’s 57-foot sailboat, Cloud Nine, with good news. The gap in the ice was still open.

   “At that point I knew we had a chance,” said Swanson, who is returning to Minnesota this week.

   Assisted by climate changes that have made the Northwest Passage ice-free into September, Swanson and his six-person crew completed the 6,600-mile journey through the Passage in 73 days, setting several firsts along the way.

   Cloud Nine was the first American sailboat in history to transit the Passage from East to West, according to David Thoreson, an Iowa photographer who was on the boat’s crew. It’s the route taken by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who needed three years to complete his voyage, in the early 1900s.

   In related news, the Washington Post reports that Congress will proceed on climate plan. “Legislative leaders in the House and Senate said yesterday that they plan to press ahead with proposals to limit U.S. emissions linked to global warming, focusing on mandatory, economy-wide caps of the kind that… Bush explicitly rejected last week in a climate conference he hosted. ¶ While the bills are less ambitious than many climate scientists and environmental activists have wanted, they indicate that Congress plans to press ahead with a sweeping climate change proposal despite the president’s opposition. ¶ Yesterday, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee issued a white paper outlining a cap-and-trade system that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent to 80 percent below current levels. Under the system envisioned by Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and a key subcommittee chairman, Rick Boucher (D-Va.), the federal government would distribute greenhouse gas allowances that could be bought and sold, though the lawmakers left open the possibility of using taxes as well.”

5. Today is the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik. AFP reports that Russia marks Sputnik anniversary. “Russia on Thursday marked the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the tiny satellite whose crackly beeps launched the Space Race between the Cold War superpowers. ¶ ‘We Were First,’ trumpeted a headline in the popular Izvestia daily. ‘At 22:28 Moscow time on October 4, 1957, humanity entered a new space age. The Soviet Union sent the Earth’s first artificial satellite into orbit.’ ¶ Veterans of the Soviet space programme laid flowers near the Kremlin wall at the grave of Sergei Korolyov, the pioneer who created Sputnik yet whose name remained a state secret all his life. ¶ A monument to the satellite, whose name means fellow traveller, was unveiled near Moscow.”

   NASA has a small website dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Sputnik, where this sound recording of Sputnik I telemetry is from.

   I had this bit in Tuesday’s Four at Four, but here it is on Sputnik day once again. Joel Achenbach writes for the Washington Post about 50 years ago, the launch of a new world — Sputnik. “Sputnik and its aftermath are a familiar tale at this point… ¶ Fifty years later, however, the standard narrative of disaster, recovery and triumph is being overhauled by historians. They’re more likely to speak of Sputnik’s impact as a shock to the system that incited political maneuverings and media misinformation. Much that seemed certain in October 1957 turned out to be misunderstood or purely illusory. ¶ Humans have not set up space colonies or left boot prints on Mars, as widely predicted, but we have launched a stunning number of new Sputniks — thousands of satellites for communications… ¶ One result of Sputnik had nothing to do with space. It was the creation of the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a technology think tank that went on to develop a computer network called Arpanet. Arpanet evolved into the Internet.”

So, what else is happening?