We'll never claim to be fair and
balanced, just honest and trustworthy
January 13, 2008
Asylum Street
Spankers-Magnetic Yellow Ribbon
From Robert Rouse for
Left of Centrist
It’s been a long time since I first posted
this, but I think it deserves to be seen by a lot more people.
Another day of Bush in the
middle east saying he wants Peace while he continues to instigate war
with Iran for world war causing middle east explosion From James Joiner for
An Average
American Patriot
* Now as you know, he is doing the same thing with
Iran until he finds an excuse people will fall for
or Iran will oblige him and he can get this middle
east Breakdown in full swing. He has been
instigating and using every excuse he can to get
this going with Iran. The other day it was becoming
obvious that while the IRG may have been messing
with our navy that the smoking gun of the video and
Audio may have been doctored and the Pentagon also
questioned events. The top U.S. military commander
in the Mideast said Friday that Iran runs the risk
of triggering an unintended conflict if its boats
continue to harass U.S. warships in the Persian
Gulf. Adm. William J. Fallon, chief of U.S. Central
Command, said a threatening radio call heard during
an encounter Sunday between U.S. Navy ships and
Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz was likely
connected to Iran's provocative actions. He said the
exact origin of the message was still unknown. "This
kind of behavior, if it happens in the future, is
the kind of event that could precipitate a mistake,"
Fallon told The Associated Press.
Iranian harassment could lead to conflict
* Bush will see to it. That one didn't work So now
Bush falls back on an excuse used in the past!
Attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq with bombs
believed linked to Iran -- known as explosively
formed penetrators (EFPs) -- have risen sharply in
January after several months of decline, according
to the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Iraqi and U.S.
officials indicated just a month ago that Iran was
using its influence to improve security in Iraq by
restraining cross-border weapons flow and militia
activity. The U.S. military had said in recent
months that the number of EFP attacks had gone down.
Gen. David Petraeus disclosed the reversal to
reporters after a meeting with President Bush who
was visiting troops in Kuwait. "In this year, EFPs
have gone up, actually, over the last 10 days by a
factor of two or three, and frankly we're trying to
determine why that might be," Petraeus said.
Petraeus did not say how many American troops have
been killed or wounded by EFPs in recent days.
What a surprise, fallback to an old excuse
Another day another excuse as Bush endeavors for war
with Iran so he can affect what he thinks will be
his and Israel's new middle east order. This is
still just developing and you have to believe those
30,000 troops no longer needed in Iraq will be
needed in Afghanistan or one of the other war fronts
getting ready to open up!
When we were at Camp Casey for Easter of 2006, we rode
in The Yellow Rose. Jim Goodnow, the Man with the Bus,
is a kind, dedicated supporter of Peace. I was sad to
hear today that his bus was totaled by fire. He happened
to be in the bus at the time of the fire, but got out
safely.
Please take the time to go to the
Yellow Rose site and hear Jim speak. There's a
podcast on the right side of the site (On the Road). Jim
demonstrates the respect and honor that would be good to
see more of in this country.
We don't have to agree in order to treat each other with
respect.
Jim
Goodnow (middle) and the rowdy women from Colorado at
Camp Casey, April of 2006
Here are excerpts from an email I received today
from Darla in OK:
The bus in this photo, was totaled by fire, around
9:30 pm, Friday night, 1/11/08.
This bus, often mired in controversy since the
IVAW "Dirty South" tour that left Philly in June,
and had Active Duty BBQ's @ Ft Meade, Ft Jackson,
Camp Lejeune, Ft Benning, and other Southern
Military Posts ( Including an IVAW benefit by Tom
Morello, of Rage Against the Machine, and
AudioSlave, in Virginia ) as well as backdrop for
many a Demonstration, and Ft Drum, NY, organizing
parties, has finally died.
Owner-Operator-Driver ( and Veteran ) Jim Goodnow
pulled into a South Jersey Truck Stop, to catch a
3 or 4 hour nap. Jim saw, in retrospect, some
suspicious activity outside the bus, and about 20
minutes later, the entire engine compartment, and
back of the bus was engulfed in flames.
Mr Goodnow speculates that the cause could have
been anything from ARSON, to ATTEMPTED MURDER. He
plans to notify the ATF Arson Squad on Saturday
morning.
Bill Perry
Delaware Valley Veterans For America
Disabled American Veteran, VVAW, VFP, VFW, VVA
Update
If anyone wants to donate
A fund has been set up and is tax deductible
Checks can be made out to:
Veterans For Peace, Chapter 106 (please spell this out)
Put in memo line: BUS FUND
Mail to:
Bernie Jezercak
1804 Tree LIne Drive
Carrollton, TX 75007
Who said television never does anything original? In 1963, ABC (which back then was always a bad third place network --- ABC would not become #1 for the first time until 1976) decided to "emulate" the competition (Twilight Zone on CBS) with The Outer Limits. I remember the show coming on ever week with the following words:
There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. For the next hour we will control all that you see and hear. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the Outer Limits.
I actually thought the TV was controlled by someone else (this was pre-cable and pre-remote days). The Outer Limits actually had some great episodes and writers, including Joseph Stefano (who wrote Psycho) and Harlan Ellison. Two of the Harlan Ellison episodes (Soldier and Demon With A Glass Hand) were the inspiration for the movie The Terminator.
Enough with the TV history, back to originality
On February 17, 2009 there very well might be something wrong with your TV set. On that day 70 years of analog broadcasting ends in the US, and all television stations must switch over to digital signals. This mean many televisions (any analog sets, especially those that are more than a few years old) become great big boxes of tubes - perfect for Ted Stevens and his internet. Unless they are connected to cable, to satellite or a special converter box -- they are rendered useless. I expect to see a whole bunch of television sets sitting on the curb awaiting garbage pick-up. Or available on eBay with 99 cent opening bids.
What is Digital Television (DTV)?
DTV is simply video and audio that is delivered to a TV set using a digital signal (basically a series of 1s and 0s) rather than an analog signal (which is more like a wave). DTV will allow broadcasters to offer television with much better picture and sound quality. It will also also broadcasters to have multiple programming choices, also called multicasting and interactive capabilities. Converting to DTV also will free up parts of the analog broadcast spectrum for other services, such as public and safety services (police and fire departments, emergency rescue), and advanced wireless services.
The transition to DTV has been going on for a couple of years. Here in New York (and many other cities), the major stations are already broadcasting via their assigned digital signal, some with multi-casting. They are continuing to use the analog signal to provide programming through February 17, 2009. On that date, full-power TV stations must cease broadcasting on their current analog channels, and the spectrum returns to the US government. The FCC (which oversees broadcasting) also stated that as of March 1, 2007, all new TVs must include digital tuners.
One point of confusion --- DTV is NOTHDTV (High Definition Television). DTV is the mode of delivery. HDTV is digital signal quality. More on that below.
If your television (no matter how old) is hooked up to a cable or satellite box, your provider is responsible for making sure the signal is converted, so your TV set (even if it is analog) will be still be usable. You still may need some equipment or upgrades.
The conversion is a HUGE problem for people who view television over-the-air. Around 13% of the US population still views television via antenna or "rabbit ears". This percentage varies by city - in New York only around 5% of the population views TV via over-the-air. In Chicago it is 14%, In Dallas it is 22%. Many homes that have a cable/satellite hook-up will often have a second or third TV that still uses rooftop antennae or rabbit ears. Analog TVs will also continue to work with games, VCRs, DVDs, camcorders and similar items.
Analog TVs will need a special converter box to continue to receive over-the-air television after February 17, 2009. These boxes receive the digital signals and convert them into analog format for display on analog TVs. Analog TV sets using converters will display DTV, but not with the digital quality. The US Government, in-between spying on you and fighting immoral and illegal wars, will issue $40 coupons toward the purchase of these converters (they cost between $50-75) from Jan. 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009. You can get up to two coupons. Expect them to show up on eBay with discounts. The NTIA is administering the coupon program.
If your TV is a digital set with rabbit ears -- you do not need the converter box. You probably will not need a special antenna, but your antenna must be able to receive UHF signals -- those from channels 14-83.
Cable and Satellite TV
Cable and satellite subscribers may need some new DTV equipment to view DTV programming in digital format. Your cable provider should know what you will need and when you will need it. (if you can get a human on the phone, or one that is not in Malaysia). You may need to upgrade to digital cable.
So to make this more confusing - digital cable is NOT DTV. If you have digital cable, it does not mean your set is digital. You may need to upgrade to digital cable to get DTV. Confused? - everyone is.
DTV Quality Levels
There are many quality levels of digital television programming. The most common are:
Standard Definition TV (SDTV). SDTV is the basic level of quality display and resolution for both analog and digital. SDTV may be viewed in either the traditional (4:3) or widescreen (16:9) format aka "aspect ratio". 16:9 is what you see in movie theatres.
Enhanced Definition TV (EDTV). EDTV is a step up from SDTV. EDTV comes in widescreen (16:9) or traditional (4:3) format and provides better picture quality than SDTV, but not as high as HDTV.
High Definition TV (HDTV). HDTV provides the highest resolution and picture quality of all digital broadcast formats. Combined with digitally enhanced sound technology, HDTV sets new standards for sound and picture quality in television. HDTV is viewed in 16:9 aspect ration and is either 720p (720 lines of data) or 1080p/1080i (1080 lines). The more lines, the sharper the picture.
Digital Television Facts At A Glance
DTV offers picture and sound quality that is noticeably better that analog because digital transmissions are free of snow, ghosts, or static noises. (if there are issues with the signal, you will see what is know as pixilation -- or some small boxes on the screen). HDTV offers even more significantly improved images, comparable to what you see in a movie theater. Most (but not all) digital TVs sold in the US are HDTV compatible. While TV stations will be required to convert to digital broadcasts, they are not required to offer HDTV broadcasts. Most TV stations do deliver some HD programming and are adding much more as time goes on. Most prime programs on NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, ESPN etc. are currently broadcast in HDTV.
If your favorite show (and we ALL love American Idol) is produced in HDTV, it is not enough to just have a digital TV set to see it in HD. There are two other criteria - the broadcaster must send the show out in HD and your set must be HDTV compatible (as well as digital). If both criteria are not met, you will see the show in standard digital format (SDTV). Still confused? -- so is everyone else.
How do you determine whether your television set is DTV or digital. Many manufacturers put labels or markings on them, or statements in the never-read or already-lost pamphlets that come with them, that indicate they contain digital tuners. Some key words are “Integrated Digital Tuner” or “Digital Tuner Built-In.” “Receiver” may be substituted for “Tuner,” and “DTV,” “ATSC,” or “HDTV” (high definition television) may be substituted for “Digital.” If your television equipment contains any of these labels or markings, you should be able to view digital over-the-air programming without the converter box.
If your television set is labeled as a “Digital Monitor” or “HDTV Monitor,” or as “Digital Ready” or “HDTV Ready,” this does not mean it actually contains a digital tuner. You will likely need a separate set-top box which contains a tuner in order to view programs in digital.
Then again if you don't have a television set, NONE of this matters. But your favorite bar better get on the bandwagon.
Now I have made you experts on the digital conversion. But I think you should hurry - and do this as so soon as possible. Everyone should want to watch the departure of George W. Bush on 1/20/09 with the best picture quality available -- for in this case seeing is truly believing.
Know a blog
that deserves to be featured on the Blog World Report?
Contact
Robert.
Jed
Clampett’s got
nothing on North Carolina’s
Sheriff Ed Brown.After a month of
botched investigations,
marginalized dismissals and
outright incompetence,
Sherriff Brown and his crack
team of criminalists located
the body of
Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach.Where?In the back yard of
the man who raped and
impregnated her.How?With a
dowsing rod, of
course.
Mr. Tesander
take note. On the heels of
the body’s discovery,
Sherriff Brown had this to
say:
"It doesn't take a rocket
scientist to understand if
there's a cavity out back
and blood on the inside,
that's probably going to be
a key location for where
this crime may have taken
place," Brown said.
Uh-huh.
I think I can safely say
that the terms ‘rocket
scientist’ and ‘Sherriff
Brown’ are never likely to
have anything to do with one
another – in this lifetime
or the next.
Now – I lived in North
Carolina for a number of
years.
I’m sorry to say Sheriff
Brown’s unique methodology
isn’t, well, all that
unique.
In point of fact, I could
regale you with a host of
similar tales.Now - I’m sure local
residents find Sherriff
Brown’s 19th
century forensics ‘folksy’
and ‘down home’.I have to say I
rather doubt Lance Cpl.
Maria Lauterbach’s family
sees it in quite the same
manner, however.
My heart goes out to the
victim's family and friends.
Hillary Blames
Obama for her MLK dirty tricks
From
Christopher for
From the Left
Hillary Clinton on Saturday blamed Barack Obama’s campaign for twisting her comments about slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.Clinton was questioned by reporters about South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn’s reaction to her comments last week that seemed to suggest that President Lyndon B. Johnson should get more credit for passage of major civil rights legislation rather than King.
Clyburn, in an interview in The New York Times, had expressed disappointment in the Clinton campaign over what she had said as well as former President Clinton’s remark in New Hampshire about Obama telling a “fairy tale” in his opposition to the Iraq war.
“I regret the way that this matter has been used,” Clinton told reporters. “The comments about it are baseless and divisive. I was personally offended at the approach taken that was not only misleading but unnecessarily hurtful.”
She suggested reporters consider the sources of the criticism, much of which has come from the black community.
“I think it clearly came from Senator Obama’s campaign and I don’t think it’s the kind of debate we should be having in our campaign,” she said.
The Obama campaign did not respond immediately to a telephone message seeking comment Saturday evening.
Clyburn, one of the leading Democrats in South Carolina and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, has said he will remain neutral in the Democratic presidential primary. South Carolina Democrats vote on Jan. 26.
But the reaction to Clinton’s remarks — and comments by surrogates for her candidacy — have riled many in the black community. On Friday, her husband, former President Clinton, called the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio program to say his comment about Barack Obama telling a “fairy tale” about opposing the war in Iraq has been misconstrued as a criticism of the senator’s White House bid.
“There’s nothing ‘fairy tale’ about his campaign. It’s real, it’s strong, and he might win,” Clinton said in a phone interview for Sharpton’s Radio One network talk show.
Clinton said his “fairy tale” remark on the eve of the New Hampshire primary — won by his wife — was only intended to describe Obama’s claim to have exercised better judgment about the war, not as a sign of “personal disrespect.”
Unions, Mobsters,
and Government Thuggery
From
Benjamin T. Greenberg for
Hungry
Blues
I found Jerry Moncaco’s excellent Ghosts of Strikes Past: Class Struggle, Strike Breaking & Blacklisting In Hollywood interesting on a lot of levels. I had not known, for example, about Barbara Stanwyck’s right-leaning, collusion with the anti-communist witch hunters—especially intriguing to me, since my father always claimed his Trotskyite father, whom I’m named after, had an affair with Stanwyck.
But what I’m interested in right now are examples of bad social and political consequences of government maintaining vague and overbroad powers to monitor and collect data on its citizens. The blacklist and the loyalty boards, HUAC and other similar Congressional and state legislative committees all operated on the foundation of US government surveillance of its citizens.
Jerry’s important point about the blacklist is that it
was not primarily used against Communists but against union organizers and militants. Further, the blacklist was not primarily used against writers, actors, and directors, the people we usually read about, but against set-designers, carpenters, painters, lighting-designers, etc. It is convenient for us at this late date to think of Hollywood blacklisting as mainly an activity of the past, and an activity that occurred during a limited period of time during the height of the cold war. This is indeed the case when we talk about stars and other well-known creative talent. The best way to discipline “troublesome” creative talent was to accuse them of being a communist, a homosexual. or a drug addict. Essentially, this was a form of blackmail by the bosses. But carpenters … were not blackmailed in this way. If they were union militants of any type they were simply blacklisted. After the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 this kind of blacklisting of pro-union employees was illegal, but it was still maintained, and especially advocated by extreme right-wing bosses like those who ran Disney. The blacklist of Hollywood union militants began long before the well-known Hollywood anti-Communist blacklist and lasted for a long time after.
Furthermore, the US government and industrial powers actively supported corrupt, mob-infiltrated unions to undermine militant unions that pursued the legitimate interests of workers. If there are problems with corruption in organized labor, the US government has some responsibility to help fix it. A good start would be to pass new labor laws that reverse the attacks on organizing and enforcement that began long before George Bush came to power.
The historical lesson here is something that every unionist should know. In the post-war period government and management all opposed the threat of militant unions. At this time there were more militant unions than corrupt unions. One way that management opposed militant unions was by red-baiting them. In many cases the unionists who were being red-baited were not communist or even “leftists”. They were simply good union leaders. This was the case with the CSU [Conference of Studio Unions]. Another strategy that management used in opposing militant unions was to find unions that were friendly with management and to promote the interest of those unions over and above the militant unions. A related strategy, and one of the most important, was for management to call in the mobsters and the unions allied with the mobsters. In every case across the U.S. in the post-World War II years - among electrical workers opposing General Electric and Westinghouse, among dock-workers in the east, among Midwestern Teamsters - management and government promoted unions allied with mobsters in order to defeat unions that actually had the worker’s interest as part of their program. The story of Gerald Horne’s “Class Struggle in Hollywood” is the story of how this happened in Los Angeles.
At the end of Ghosts of Strikes Past, Jerry links to a blog post by a blogging acquaintance of mine, Rokhl Kafrissen, which I missed when she first published it, Mechanics of the Blacklist, Part 1. Similar to my discussion of how suspected civil rights activists were targeted for reprisals in Mississippi, Rokhl discusses how the information gathered by loyalty boards and HUAC, through FBI surveillance and unreliable informants, was then used by the American Legion and others to target suspected Communists outside the law.
In 1947, Harry Truman (facing a hostile Congress and other political factors) enacted a piece of legislation which would screen all Federal government employees for ‘loyalty’. One of the grounds for ‘disloyalty’ was membership in a subversive organization. Truman directed that the Attorney General, with the FBI, promulgate a list of subversive organizations for use by the Loyalty Review Board in their determinations. The Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO) came to have far wider import than just its effect on Federal employees….
Once a part of the public record, the AGLOSO was seized upon by groups who believed that the government was not aggressive enough in its efforts to protect the country from the ‘Red Menace’.
There is a vast area of subversive activity still within the law about which neither the FBI nor the Justice Department can do anything. Therefor it remains the civic and patriotic responsibility of individual Americans and their organizations to perform.
(Firing Line magazine, 1949)
Firing Line was a publication of the American Legion. It’s sole purpose was to inform readers about Communism, and one aspect of that mission was publishing the names and activities of people whom they believed to be Communists. One of the sources for their information was lists like the AGLOSO. Another source was the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In addition to the Federal HUAC, 13 state legislatures had their own HUACS. Those, too, were combed for information to be published in Firing Line….
[T]he American Legion, and the hundreds of other members of the army of anti-communist vigilantes, had no use for our Constitutional due process protections.
Democrat Dennis Kucinich, who won less than 2 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, said Thursday he wants a recount to ensure that all ballots in his party's contest were counted.
The Ohio congressman cited "serious and credible reports, allegations and rumors" about the integrity of Tuesday results. See Votes
Some more statistics from the data shows that Obama in non-Diebold towns garnering 38.7% of the vote to Clinton's 36.2%. The results in Diebold towns show the exact opposite: Clinton with 40.7% of the vote and Obama with 36.2%. Not only are the positions swapped but the informal statistics have the second place candidate holding 36.2% in both cases, which could easily be a pure coincidence. What doesn't make a lot of sense to me right now and this could be a mathematical mistake on my part is where Clinton got the extra 2% of votes in Diebold towns. All the other numbers almost exact for every candidate, even Edwards who recieved 17% of the vote in Diebold towns compared to 17.6% in non-Diebold towns. That still doesn't make up for the extra 2% vote Clinton is receiving when she leads in certain towns compared to when Obama has the lead. See Obama
New Hampshire officials agreed yesterday to conduct complete hand recounts of Tuesday's Democratic and Republican presidential primaries.
It's pretty easy to see what happened in New Hampshire: We had an election in which 81% of our ballots were counted in secret by a private corporation, and this resulted in an outcome that is called into question.
That's what happened.
No recount is going to change this. What will change this is to get rid of corporate controlled secret vote counting in our elections. See New Hampshire
What this means is those states that have electronic ballots with no paper trace have no way of getting a true count of whom votes for whom and we would once again be facing what we faced during President Bush election.
Teaching of
Evolution Remains Under Attack
From
Ron Chusid for
Liberal Values
Despite the high profile victory for keeping creationism out of science classes in the Dover case, there are ongoing battles around the country to defend science. South Carolinians for Science Education reports on one victory as the State Board of Education reversed a December vote which would have led to dropping the use of a text teaching evolution. However the news isn’t as good in Florida where a former St. Petersburg City Council member and candidate for Mayor has repeated Tom DeLay’s theory linking the teaching of evolution to the Columbine shootings.
There is also controversy on a state wide level in Florida, where the word evolution is not used in science classes. One biology teacher defended the teaching of evolution explaining, “It’s very hard to teach good biological science without mentioning evolution. It’s one of the basic underpinnings of modern biological science.” He should explain this to Florida Governor Charlie Crist who, like many conservatives, confuses the scientific meaning of theory with its use in common language. Crist is quoted as saying:
I think the way it’s been handled historically in Florida is probably appropriate. It’s been introduced and discussed in terms of being a theory. I don’t know if there’s a need for a change in that. But I’ll leave the decision to the board.
I’ve frequently seen accounts of teachers having difficulty with teaching evolution regardless of the law due to pressure from religious groups. A teacher described these problems in an op-ed in FortBendNow:
I taught sixth grade in Texas for three years 2001-2004. During that time, I was absolutely warned to not begin to say the word “evolution” or we would have every preacher in the district, as well as the media, breathing down our necks, and then there would truly be no teaching or learning. Sadly, I needed the position, so I played the “hide the issue and hide the learning” game.
Every time I tell this story, usually at a dinner party, people look at me like I am reliving some ancient past. I remind them that this policy ruled only two years ago – and in their progressive community. Like many issues that are easier to disbelieve than to address, people inevitably choose disbelief.
It is more difficult for me to choose disbelief, but over time, even I can begin to question my experience. So several weeks ago, I decided to test the continued use of this policy. I interviewed with a high school in Fort Bend and asked if I could use current events in the English classroom to explore why real evolution education is often an inoculation against racism and eugenic posturing. The interviewer quickly replied, “We do not challenge the sensitive “beliefs” of our student community.”
These problems have extended beyond the public schools as last fall I reported on a community college instructor who was fired for calling the story of Adam and Eve a “fairy tale.” Even Bill Nye, the Science Guy has come under attack by the religious right for being an “evolution huckster.”
Several organizations involved in the teaching of science in the United States and Europe have issued statements favoring the teaching of evolution and not creationism in the schools. These include the Association for Science Education, the California Academy of Sciences, the UK government (whose statement explains the scientific meaning of theory), and the Council on Europe.
We also must not forget that two Republican candidates still in the race, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul, both deny evolution. Mike Huckabee has advocated teaching intelligent design in the schools, while Ron Paul simply does not believe in public schools. A panel of scientists recently warned how we are “doomed” should Huckabee be elected.
For those interested in reading more about evolution, an updated version of Science, Education, and Creationism, a book from the National Academy of Sciences, is available for free download in pdf format here.
Global
"enthusiasm" for Bush's departure
From
TomCat for
Politics Plus
The 2008 U.S. elections are attracting an “eager” audience worldwide. This past week, for example, major British newspapers “devoted more than 87 pages to news of the U.S. primaries, including 22 front-page stories.” Much of the enthusiasm, according to the Washington Post, is for the end of the Bush presidency:
But much of the enthusiasm comes from anticipation of President Bush’s departure, according to several analysts. U.S. prestige and popularity in much of the world have sunk to historic lows since Bush took office, over such issues as the Iraq war and climate change. Many analysts said the election has created high expectations that the new president will be more in tune with the rest of the world.
“In many capitals people have been waiting for this change for some time,” said Rosa Balfour, a senior analyst at the European Policy Center, a Brussels-based research group."
Does anyone remember the I'm sorry website that went up after the 2004 election theft? There was a huge outpouring of anger at the people of the US for allowing the travesty that Bush and the GOP have made our nation. Sadly, the ignorance and apathy of our own people are largely to blame, and as a nation, we owe the world a huge apology for these years.
Torture is all in
a day's work
From
Fran for
Ramblings
A few days ago a commanding officer was exonerated of all criminal charges, and his legal record wiped clean of any wrongdoing in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse.
Truthout reports a similar ruling re Guantanamo Bay prisoner abuse & torture.
Washington - A federal appeals court Friday threw out a suit by four British Muslims who allege that they were tortured and subjected to religious abuse in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a ruling that exonerated 11 present and former senior Pentagon officials.
It appeared to be the first time that a federal appellate court has ruled on the legality of the harsh interrogation tactics that U.S. intelligence officers and military personnel have used on suspected terrorists held outside the United States since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The detainees allege that they were held in stress positions, interrogated for sessions lasting 24 hours, intimidated with dogs and isolated in darkness and that their beards were shaved.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the detainees captured in Afghanistan aren't recognized as "persons" under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because they were aliens held outside the United States. The Religious Freedom Act prohibits the government from "substantially burdening a person's religion."
WHAT???!!! Not recognized as persons, because they were alien detainees?????
If that is true- George Bush is a non person alien right now- Eh?
The court rejected other claims on the grounds that then-Attorney General John Ashcroft had certified that the military officials were acting within the scope of their jobs when they authorized the tactics, and that such tactics were "foreseeable."
"It was foreseeable that conduct that would ordinarily be indisputably `seriously criminal' would be implemented by military officials responsible for detaining and interrogating suspected enemy combatants," Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson wrote in the court's main opinion.
Judge Janice Rogers Brown dissented with parts of the opinion, saying that "it leaves us with the unfortunate and quite dubious distinction of being the only court to declare those held at Guantanamo are not `person(s).'
>>well certainly the dog cage style prisoner cells, and torture tactics reflect the non-person sentiment.
'`This is a most regrettable holding in a case where plaintiffs have alleged high-level U.S. government officials treated them as less than human," Brown wrote.
>> I think it is more than "regrettable", the word "criminal" comes to mind.
After being held for more than two years, the four men were repatriated to Britain in 2004, where they were freed within 24 hours without facing criminal charges, said Washington lawyer Eric Lewis, who represented them along with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights.
Three of the men -said they sold to U.S. troops for bounty money. The three said they were unarmed and never engaged in combat against the United States.
The fourth, Jamal al Harith, said he'd planned to attend a religious retreat in Pakistan in October 2001 but was ordered to leave the country because of animosity toward Britons. When he tried to drive a truck home via Iran and Turkey, he says, his truck was hijacked at gunpoint and he was handed over to the Taliban, who jailed him and accused him of being a spy. When the Taliban fell after the U.S.-led invasion, he was detained and transported to Guantanamo.
The detainees filed suit in October 2004 against former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, former Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, who was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, and nine other senior military officers. They allege that the Pentagon officials violated the Alien Tort Statute, the Geneva Conventions, the religious freedom law and the Constitution with their harsh treatment.
In upholding a lower court's rejection of all the claims but those under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the circuit court said that the interrogation tactics, which Rumsfeld first authorized in 2002, were "incidental" to the duties of those who'd been sued.
"It is an awful day for the rule of law and common decency," said Lewis, the detainees' attorney, "when a court finds that torture is all in a day's work for the secretary of defense and senior generals. . . . I think the executive is trying to create a black hole so there is no accountability for torture and religious abuse."
Lewis said his clients intended to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling.
>> So to recap- Abu Ghraib, no higher level accountability, no criminal charges.
Guantanamo- not only no accountability, but detainees are not people, and torture and violation of International law- Geneva conventions are incidental.
US citizens protesting about the violations at Guantanamo could be imprisoned for up to 6 months.
This was the kind of hard driving rock and roll Lennon preferred, according to many sources.
Nowadays it would be Ms. Lizzie. No matter, she will still drive you insane.
That's what you want, isn't it?
Line Drawn in
the Sand - US
Not Welcome to
Fight al Qaeda
in Pakistan
From
Charlotte
Weybright for
Berry Street
Beacon
Pakistan’s
beleaguered
president,
Pervez
Musharraf,
has
made
it
clear
that
the
U.S.
is
not
welcome
in
the
Pakastani
tribal
regions
to
continue
the
fight
against
Al-Qaida.
Bush
had
been
considering
expanding
the
authority
of
the
CIA
and
U.S.
military
to
launch
aggressive
covert
operations
in
tribal
regions
along
the
Pakistan-Afghan
border
which
has
long
been
considered
a
hiding
place
for
Al-Qaida
leader
Osama
bin
Laden.
The
regions
are
also
home
to
Taliban
militants
planning
attacks
on
coalition
forces
in
Afghanistan.
Photo
Credit:
CNN
Musharraf
said
every
tribe
in
Pakistan’s
Federally
Administered
Tribal
Areas
(FATA)
has
its
own
armory,
and
they
don’t
like
intrusions
into
their
privacy
at
all.
The
FATA
is
an
area
encompassing
about
10,
700
square
miles
where
the
Pakistan
government
controls
only
nominally
by
working
through
a
combination
of
effective
Political
Agents
and
tribal
elders.
The
Tribes
are
governed
by
the
Frontier
Crimes
Regulation
introduced
under
the
British
Raj
and
are
represented
both
in
Pakistan’s
lower
house
and
in
its
upper
house
of
parliament.
Years
of
isolation
coupled
with
high
illiteracy
rates,
scarcity
of
water,
no
banking
system,
and
little
health
care
have
left
the
area
lagging
behind
socially
and
economically.
Photo
Credit:
Fata.gov
The National
Shame That is
Guantanamo Bay
From
NY Texan for
BlueBloggin
I’ve come to
the conclusion
that there will
never be a
department in
the Bush
administration
that can
function
properly. No I’m
not slow; I came
to that
conclusion when
Bush was
governor of
Texas.
Incompetence is
a joy that Bush
has now bestowed
on all
Americans.
However, I can
still be
surprised at the
amount of
incompetence and
disarray that
continues to get
revealed. So
now, it’s the
FBI’s turn in
the never ending
screw ups of
BushCo.
I know all of
you are very
familiar with
FISA and
wiretapping,
well, it appears
that the FBI
missed
opportunities to
collect key
surveillance
because they
didn’t pay their
outstanding
phone bill. The
lack of payment
caused the FBI
phone
surveillance
lines, in five
field offices,
to be
disconnected.
I’ll bet they
were right in
the middle of
discovering the
uber secret
location of bin
Laden, or the
whereabouts of
Aunt Mildred’s
fruit cake that
didn’t arrive
last
month…..when….
click.
Wait, it
actually gets
better, The FBI
accounting
system is so
poor and out of
date, that a
telecommunication
company employee
was actually
able to break
into the system
and steal
$25,000. You
know, I can
actually sleep
so much better
just knowing how
efficient our
government is.
ABC News
Investigative
Report: By
failing to pay
its phone bills
on time,
the FBI had the
line cut on a
wiretap in a
national
security
investigation
ordered
by the Foreign
Intelligence
Surveillance
Act, and missed
other
opportunities to
collect key
surveillance,
according to a
government
report released
Thursday.
“Telecommunications
carriers
actually
disconnected
phone lines
established to
deliver
surveillance
results to the
FBI, resulting
in lost
evidence,
including an
instance where
delivery of
intercept
information,
required by a
Foreign
Intelligence
Surveillance
Act order, was
halted, due to
untimely
payment,”
Justice
Department
Inspector
General Glenn
Fine noted in
the report.
According
to the report,
the
FBI uses
confidential
funds to
support its
covert and
undercover
activity,
found several
problems and
challenges in
how the bureau
tracks and
monitors these
funds,
which hide the
bureau’s
identity from
criminals,
vendors and
public
disclosure.
According to
the report, the
FBI receives
invoices from
telecommunication
carriers for
surveillance
connections and
renewal costs
each month.
“As part
of our audit,
we analyzed
990
telecommunication
surveillance
payments
made by five
field
divisions, and
found that
over
half of these
payments were
not made on
time,”
a summary of
the report
noted.
“For
example, a
primary
carrier sent a
list to one of
the field
divisions we
tested,
detailing
$66,000 in
unpaid
telecommunication
costs
resulting from
surveillance
activity.”
FBI
Assistant
Director John
Miller
acknowledged
that
the bureau’s
financial
management
system, which
dates back to
the 1980s,
is not
sufficient.
The report
also mentioned
that the loose
accounting of
the
confidential
funds allowed
a
telecommunication
specialist to
steal more
than $25,000
from an FBI
field office.
The employee
pleaded guilty
to the theft
in June 2006.
“The
investigation
showed that
the
employee took
advantage of
weak controls
over field
division
confidential
funds,
to convert FBI
moneys for her
own use,” the
report noted.
Clinton advisor
Sidney
Blumenthal
charged with DWI
From GottaLaff
for
Cliff Schecter
A senior
adviser
to
Democratic
presidential
candidate
Hillary
Rodham
Clinton
was
arrested
and
charged
with
aggravated
drunken
driving
a day
before
the New
Hampshire
primary.
Nashua
police
say
Sidney
Blumenthal
was
arrested
early
Monday
morning
after an
officer
pulled
over a
car
traveling
70 mph
in a 30
mph
zone.
Blumenthal,
59, is a
journalist
and
former
White
House
adviser
to
President
Bill
Clinton
who is
now
serving
as an
unpaid
adviser
on
Hillary
Clinton's
campaign.
He was
cuffed,
spent
about four
hours at a
police
station,
and then
bailed out
Monday
morning.
And all
that was
kept quiet
until now.
Not bad.
Imagine
how quiet
negative
news could
be kept if
Hillary
Clinton
were in
charge of
the White
House.
Not
that
there's
anything
wrong with
that.
Now
let's see
how long
it will
take for
all the
jokes,
rumors,
spin,
lies,
truths,
rebuttals,
cross-rebuttals,
rebuttals
to the
cross-rebuttals,
and
accusations
that the
everyone
in the
Clinton
organization
is an
uncontollable
alcoholic
to start
up.
And if
Mrs.
Clinton
tears up
again,
well, I'm
not
responsible
for any
subsequent
attempts
at humor
on my
part.
Especially
if I'm
drunk.
DES
MOINES, Iowa - Jane Hambleton has dubbed herself the
"meanest mom on the planet."
After finding alcohol in her son's car, she decided
to sell the car and share her 19-year-old's misdeed
with everyone — by placing an ad in the local
newspaper.
The ad reads:
"OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who
obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car.
Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who
needs to get a life found booze under front seat.
$3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet."
I have to give the mom credit for getting her
message across with a little humor. Ok...her kid
doesn't think it was funny, but good for her for
sticking to her guns! Her son said the booze was
left by a passenger, and she said she believes him,
but nonetheless, rules are rules and he broke the
big one.
Raising kids is no picnic, and any of you who are
parents of little ones, well, all I can say is enjoy
them when they are young because their problems are
usually pretty minor. It's raising teenagers that
will give you nightmares for the rest of your life.
It doesn't matter how good they are, when they walk
out the door, you never know what they are going to
have to deal with when they're out. You can just
pray that they remember what they've been taught and
hope that no one does anything to hurt them.
I have one daughter, who shall remain nameless
(because she reads my blog from time to time) who,
as a child was a handful. Most of the time she had
me laughing, because I never knew what was going to
come out of that kids mouth or what to expect from
her next. One thing she used to do was to write me
hate mail. When she was in trouble and sent to her
room, or if she felt that she was being picked on,
the hate mail came flying down the stairwell in the
form of a paper airplane. It was difficult for her
at first when her spelling skills weren't that
great. I'll never forget her calling down to me from
her room, "Mom? How do you spell "I hate you!"? I
told her to sound it out, I wasn't going to help her
with her hate mail to me. I still have many of her
gems and I'm glad I saved them. I also have the
wonderful poems she put in her Mother's Day cards
that she made at school. I remember one of those
cards seemed to have a veiled threat at the end. It
said that one day she is going to buy me diamonds
and pearls so I'll look pretty when I die. Yikes! I
had to watch my back for awhile after that one!
Needless to say, all of those are a piece of the
past that I never want to forget.
I was often told by my mom and dad to enjoy your
kids when they're young. Don't fret the housework,
go outside and play with them, sit down and color
with them, have adventures. I tried to do just that,
and I'm glad I did. Now, I'm getting down to the end
of that long road of raising my children. My
youngest will be graduating from high school in the
Spring, and it's going to be much too quiet around
here when he leaves for college. Sure, things liven
up when the grandkids come to visit, but with two of
them living out east, those visits are few and far
between. Thank goodness I still have my
granddaughter who is the child of my "hate mail"
daughter. She doesn't write hate mail to me, and I
actually think she likes me. She says that I'm the
"Coolest Me-mom
EVER" and none of her friends grandma's
taught them
how to skate board. She doesn't write me hate mail,
but she did leave written instructions taped to my
refrigerator last week when I took care of her
during her winter break from school. It read, "IT'S
A MEMOM'S JOB TO SPOIL THEIR GRANDKIDS", along with
it-- a beautiful heart with "LOVE" written in the
middle. Smart kid... it earned her a plate of
homemade peanut butter cookies, fresh from the oven.
But if I make it another eight years when she'll get
her drivers license, and I hear she had a bottle of
booze in her car or she had been drinking...she'll
regret the day she ever said I was the coolest memom
ever....I will show her how totally "un-cool" I can
be!
Stevie Ray Vaughn hailed from Oak Cliff --not what you would call the most fashionable suburb in Dallas. Were it not for great talents like SRV, Dallas would be remembered solely as the overgrown cowtown where JFK was gunned down in the middle of a street. To be sure, Oak Cliff is most often associated with Lee Harvey Oswald. Texas politics turned mean spirited and malevolent with the rise of the GOP.
Tragically, the likes of Tom DeLay, George W. Bush et al will all rot in hell for ravaging the state's environment, beating out Mississippi for "dead last" in Education, and making Texas most notable as the nation's capitol for capital punishment! Texas is not called the gulag state for nothing. It's outsourced prison system must surely rank among the worst in the world with the the possible exception of Abu Ghraib and Gitmo! Houston traffic long ago put LA in the shade. It is not only the air pollution that robs one of a decent breath, it's the breath-taking hubris found among idiots, bigots and oil barons who presume to tell the rest of the world how it should live.
Stevie Ray Vaughn --even in death a breath of fresh air -- is remembered as one of a handful of immortal guitarists, ranked by blues rock cognescenti with Eric Clapton and Jimmy Hendrix. The great B.B. King said of Stevie Ray that he literally channeled his blues licks. And so he did!
Stevie Ray in Concert
You'll get better audio quality with the following player.
Vaughan is recognized for his distinctive guitar sound, which was partly based on using heavy guitar strings (anything from 13- to 16-gauge sets) that he tuned down a half-step. Vaughan used a wide range of vacuum tube amplifiers during his career, often using multiple different amplifiers simultaneously, but is usually associated with early Fender guitar amplifiers. His influence is often credited for helping to launch the "vintage gear" movement among guitarists, which turned old musical equipment that could once be had fairly cheaply into expensive collector's items.
Vaughan's sound and playing style, which often incorporated simultaneous lead and rhythm parts, drew frequent comparisons to Hendrix; Vaughan covered several Hendrix tunes on his studio albums and in performance, such as "Little Wing", "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)", and "Third Stone from the Sun". He was also heavily influenced by Freddie King, another Texas bluesman, mainly in the use of tone and attack; King's heavy vibrato can clearly be heard in Vaughan's playing. Another stylistic influence was Albert Collins. By utilizing his index finger as a pick a la Albert Collins, he was able to coax various tonal nuances from his amplifiers. Vaughan's brother Jimmie Vaughan has stated that Johnny "Guitar" Watson was the guitarist he and Stevie studied the most.
Like Hendrix, Vaughan worked with only the support of bass and drums for a long time before Wynans joined the group. Also like Hendrix, he exhibited an amazing command of feedback, volume, and distortion. Like Hendrix, he could play lead and rhythm simultaneously with the rare ability to rattle out massive chord clusters and piercing barrages of single notes with incredible precision, drenching them in exotic tones produced by pickup switches, wah-wah pedals, and overamplification.
Vaughan preferred to make use of the immediate tonal capabilities of his guitar amplifiers in "overdrive", adding few effects. Stevie's basic effects included an Ibanez Tube Screamer and a Vox wah-wah pedal. He also used loud volumes for dynamic, coaxing effects from the natural overdriven performance of his amplifiers.
The Serious Side of the Fracical Iranian Boat "Incident"
From Libhom for Godless Liberal Homo
In a previous post, I addressed the unintentional humor in the latest effort by the Bush regime to create hysteria over Iran. However, there is a more serious side in the effort to bring us to war with Iran. Americans for Democratic Action addressed this in the 1/12/08 edition of ADA Updates.
Once again, the Bush Administration is playing fast and loose with the truth. The news that the tape of the dangerous encounter with Iranian gun boats was, in part, fabricated is but one more example of how this Administration plays a dangerous game to further its own goals. They led us into a badly misguided war in Iraq with spurious claims of weapons of mass destruction.
Now, the Pentagon has admitted that the voice-over they played on the video of the incident in the Strait of Hormuz was recorded separately. The Keystone Cops were more professional.
...
As a nation, we simply cannot countenance such deceptions. At stake are our nation’s credibility and the potential for starting a war which could escalate far beyond anything we have yet seen.
The incident in the Strait of Hormuz was, indeed, dangerous and – before anyone asks – we do not support the current Iranian government. Anything, however, which undermines American credibility in the world undermines all of us.
Contact your Senators and Representative at (202) 224-3121 and demand that oversight hearings be conducted and, then, contact Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at (703) 428-0711 and tell him, in no uncertain terms, that the situation is too dangerous to play games.
But don’t take my word for it; ask conservatives themselves.
They’ll tell you straight out.
That towering colossus of intellectual rigor, Jonah Goldberg, puts it out there, and openly says what most conservatives believe in their hearts but dare not say in the public sphere (emphasis mine):
David Frum has an interesting column on the limits of populism and the upside of elitism. These are two of my favorite themes. And since Huckabee seems to be a champion of the former and a foe of the latter, I thought (in the spirit of bloggy self-promotion) I’d call attention to one of my broadsides against populism and one of my defenses of elitism.
Regardless, I agree with David that populism is a useful and healthy passion when aimed at the liberal elite. But conservatives can get drunk on it when they proclaim that elites are bad simply because they are elites. Conservatives respect authority — the authority of ideas, traditions, morals, religion, customs, reason, law, excellence and so on. One cannot believe in this kind of authority while having a blanket hostility to elitism in any form.
The privileged son of Lucianne “Linda Tripp” Goldberg, a lifelong suckler at the conservative ‘wingnut welfare’ teat, is only echoing the tenets of the neoconservative movement, as articulated in the ideas of political philosopher Leo Strauss of the Chicago School of Economics. The basic idea is that the ‘masses’ must be controlled by the imposition of religion, authority and morality, for the sake of social stability, but that the ‘elites’ – meaning the conservative intellectuals – need not be bound by those pedestrian ideas, which are only needed to keep the rabble controllable. The fact (to them) that there really is no overriding morality would be too much for the feeble-minded public to handle without descending into anarchy and chaos, but intellectual giants such as themelves are rugged enough to withstand the mental turbulence. This means, of course, that they believe in a two-tiered morality for society – one for the ‘masses’ and one for the ‘elites’ – which, conveniently enough, always seem to include themselves! There’s nothing they like better than to sit around on their not-inconsiderable behinds and tell other people to go out and fight and die in wars that they would not for a second get personally involved in. Because, you see, it’s good for the 'little people'. Builds character and backbone. And war also presents many fine punditry and scholarly opportunities for themselves, as well as marvelous opportunities to brush aside those inconvenient and pesky notions of ‘democracy’ and ‘civil rights’ that the little people insist on yammering about. Not to mention that the warmongering (which they have no need to physically participate in, thank you!) is their method of choice to establish the United States as the lone superpower in the world, with the rest of the world our cowering subjects.
The core dimensions of conservative ideology, which according to a study analyzing 50 years’ worth of research on the conservative personality called "Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition," are acceptance of inequality and resistance to change. Neoconservatism departs from the second definition in its radical approach to imposing its vision on the rest of the country, but the ‘acceptance of inequality’ is the linchpin that binds all lines of conservatism together and differentiates them from liberalism.
‘Acceptance of inequality’ – if I had to pick only one description of the difference between the liberal and conservative outlook, this is the one I’d choose. Every conservative thought, conservative feeling, conservative policy, can be boiled down to its essence here. “There have to be poor people so there can be rich people, and that’s only natural – just as long as it’s not me!” The conservative outlook is hierarchical in nature. They really don’t believe ‘all are created equal.’ They believe that ‘some are more equal than others.’ There have to be losers in order for there to be winners. And to try to work towards everyone being winners is just plain wrong – even immoral.
Immoral – just like those pinko Founding Fathers.
Somehow, conservatives seem to have missed the message about America. America’s vision is a liberal vision, a progressive vision. The people who refused to accept the yoke of tyranny and the idea that God had placed some people above others were the people who fought for a radical new form of government – democracy of the people, by the people and for the people. The idea that all people are created equal was shocking and unheard-of. But the idea of God-given authority of a chosen few over the powerless many – this was the status quo. Acceptance of inequality and resistance to change. Back then, the Revolutionaries were progressive, and the Royalists were conservative. And it continues to this day.
Conservatives vehemently oppose anything so democratic, so American, as ‘populism’. The idea that the ‘rank and file’ should decide how they are governed is anathema to these people. That’s why they are becoming unglued at the very whiff of populism in their own ranks, as can be seen in the way that the Chattering Teeth in the conservative punditry are descending upon evangelical science-hater Mike Huckabee like a school of underfed piranhas for even whispering about economic inequality and the problems of the working man, even when the rest of his message is everything the Religious Right could ask for. Bad enough that John Edwards is calling out the greedmeisters. That’s to be expected – he’s a left-wing lunatic. But one of their own? Heresy!
Well, guess what, conservatives? The populists are coming to get you!
You can run, but you can’t hide. We do not ‘accept inequality.’ And we are eager for change. America’s vision will not be denied forever. The economic and social Royalists and their sovereign, King George, have had their way long enough. If the definition of freedom is ‘nothing left to lose’, then we’re almost there. You’ve taken just about all there is to take.
On Friday Amnesty International held a demonstration in front of the American embassy in London to mark the 6th anniversary of Guantanamo Bay. Yes, it’s been six years since this slap in the face of democracy and rule of law has been open for business.
I was there to protest, of course, and did not get arrested unlike demonstrators in Washington.
Let’s get the straw-men arguments out of the way: I am not “anti-American”, and neither do I harbour much sympathy for terrorists. I do however believe in a liberal democracy, rule of law, and Habeas corpus. And I want our governments to follow the principles they claim to be protecting.
The United States has quietly expanded the number of “enemy combatants” being held in judicial limbo at its Bagram military base in Afghanistan, a facility which has now grown to more than twice the size of the controversial and much more widely discussed military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Bagram has received just a fraction of the world attention paid to Guantanamo, but the two facilities have prompted very similar complaints – about prisoners held incommunicado for weeks or months, the lack of recourse to any system of legal redress, and persistent reports of prisoner mistreatment that many human rights campaigners have characterised as torture.
The New York Times, which has seen confidential documents relating to the running of the Bagram prison, reported yesterday that the military base north of Kabul now contains around 630 prisoners, a far greater number than the 275 still being held at a rapidly emptying Guantanamo.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Several items:
1. Fox News: We Report -- Even if We Know It's False
From Paul Begala at HuffPo: "After I told Fox yesterday that the story about me wasn't true -- and this is the surreal part -- they kept reporting it anyway. Fox's Garrett told me he'd "take it under advisement." Take it under advisement?"
2. Finally, Lee Iacocca, one of the most successful businessmen in the country, speaks with outrage and says what we have been saying all along. This essay is long overdue. Please scroll down and read it and then decide which candidate should be the next President of the United States and Leader of the Free World. But first these photos...
I was researching the ancient temples of Angkor Wat in southwest Cambodia, built by the vanished Khmer empire. I am obsessed with archaeology and the sacred sites of the world. The strange beauty of these pictures haunts me on several levels.
The roots of the iconic tree wrapped around the Temple of Ta Prohm, seem a fitting metaphor for the Bush Dynasty's parasitic grasp on our fragile democracy. (You know, elitism with its claws in our constitution.) All this came to mind because our guest on Friday's show was Jill Derby, the Chair of the Nevada Democratic Party. She had traveled to Cambodia in the early 70's when these temples were relatively untouched by tourism.
Below are the "Heads of Kings and Buddahs." The ancient Khmer regime mixed religion with politics as if they were one and the same. (Photo credit: Linkinn Angkor Wat)
____________________________________
Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
By Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney
Had Enough?
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?
I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to—as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
Who Are These Guys, Anyway?
Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them—or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.
And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?
The Test of a Leader
I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points—not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.
So, here's my C list:
A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.
If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.
A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President—the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, "Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't.
Leadership is all about managing change—whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.
A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.
A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths—for what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.
A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.
If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.
To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION—a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President—four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake.
Come on, you remember Donovan. The Scottish troubadour who was just mad about saffron. Superman and Green Lantern didn’t have nothing on him. And in his more whimsical moments, he would put on a brocade coat and sing about Atlantis.
And in between times, he would put out gems like “Season of the Witch”. Which would rank alongside “96 Tears” and “The Passenger” as one of the all-time garage classics. There was a time when every bunch of kids with a guitar and a garage to practise in would have a go at knocking out “Season of the Witch”.
What recommends it, like “96 Tears”, is its beautiful simplicity. Two chords on the guitar, and that’s really it. Sure, there might be some swirly psychedelic organ stuff, but your two chords are the base, and all you have to remember is just to speed up a little on the chorus. And then the vocals, with Donovan half-speaking throughout. He doesn’t quite reach the levels of inexpressiveness of Iggy or Lou, never mind ?, but he does manage to make his vocalisation fit the general air of bleakness.
Groovy lyrics too, if I may say so, and this is a Donovan hallmark. There are times - you get this rather a lot with Sting - when you feel the lyricist is just randomly leafing through his rhyming dictionary. There’s a bit of that here, but Donovan had enough of a poetic sensibility to make everything feel like it hangs together, even if it doesn’t make much sense. That stuff about rabbits running in the ditch just kind of fits - I’m not sure how, but it does.
Yes, a real zinger there. If Donovan had done nothing else, he’d be worth remembering for this alone. And, in the way of these things, there are a couple of covers of “Season of the Witch” worth checking out, which manage to be radically different from the original and still work - something that usually proves the worth of a song. The first version I ever heard, oddly enough, was by Vanilla Fudge, and as you might expect from the Fudge (check out their covers of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” and “Eleanor Rigby”), it’s about three times as long as the original and based around ludicrously overextended organ riffs.
Or, for a complete change of pace, the jazzy version by Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger might appeal. But yeah, Donovan’s is hard to beat. Watch To Die For if you don’t believe me.
Are the Candidates really looking at WHAT the Economy means to you and me?
From
Enigma4Ever forWatergate Summer
This photo is from the 1930's by Margaret Bourke White, she captured the Irony of the Moment. We are in another such time of Irony. 3000 people lined up for 200 New Jobs at a New Walmart, and the Media reported it shocked and stunned, like it was so unusual, and yet it is common now. The Tale of the Common Man has become just obligatory wallpaper to sensationalized tales of failed sports heros and prescious antics of celebutantes.
The Only Candidate that has consitantly gone out and talked to people about Poverty is John Edwards. He has championed this issue with great heart, even while he and Elizabeth had their own Battles. He took college kids with him down to NOLA after Katrina. I have thought about how powerful that was as a lifelong lesson, that he mentored them in what poverty really is:what it smells like, looks like in person. They will never forget the Mold, the dead bodies, rotting houses of the 9th ward. He taught them that it was alright to see the ugly mess, as long as you roll up your sleeves and offer to help. He taught them that beneath the mud and debris there was also damaged souls that needed to know they were not abandoned or forgotten. This lesson was sorely needed after the Flyover President and the Brownie Debacle. How can we not be grateful that this man was humble and caring during an Era of Entitlement ?
And yet I have not heard KATRINA mentioned once in a debate yet, the People, the Lives and Homes lost remain an Invisible Stain on all of us. And the Scattered Refugees of that Human Disaster are rarely mentioned or acknowledged. They are not even displaced and forgotten, they are Invisible. Worse yet, there has not even been preparations take to prevent another such Disaster.
And we are all in Trouble at this point. It is not just about floundering Stocks, it is about Homes, Jobs and Food on the table, and can we care for our children ? And can people take care of their loved ones if they get sick ? It gets to the point that families are juggling and trading Meds for Food for Heating Bill for Gas for the Car.....This is the Reality of living in Bush America.
What do you see as the Biggest Worry Economically ?
