Sunday, January 7, 2007

An In-Between Post for the Dial-uppers

9 comments:

capt said...

A drop into the abyss



Saddam jailed me but his hanging was a crime. Iraq's misery is now far worse than under his rule


The timing and method of the execution of Saddam Hussein proves that the US administration is still criminally high on the cocktail of power, arrogance, and ignorance. But above all racism: what is good for us is not good for you. We are patriots but you are terrorists.

The US and their Iraqi puppets in the green zone chose to execute Saddam on the first day of Eid al-Adha, the feast of the sacrifice. This is the most joyous day in the Muslim calendar when more than 2 million pilgrims in Mecca start their ancient rituals, with hundreds of millions of others around the world focused on the events. They then further humiliated Muslims by releasing the official video of the execution, with the 69-year-old having a noose placed around his neck and being led to the drop. The unofficial recording shows Saddam looking calm and composed, and even managing a sarcastic smile, asking the thugs who taunted him "hiya hiy al marjala?" ("is this your manliness?"), a powerful phrase in Arabic popular culture connecting manliness to acts of courage, pride and chivalry. He also managed to repeatedly say the Muslim creed as he was dying, thus attaching himself in the last few seconds of his life to one billion Muslims. Saddam had literally the final say. From now on, no Eid will pass without people remembering his execution.

This was the climax of a colonial farce with the court proceedings' blatant sectarian overtones welcomed by Bush and the British government as a "fair trial". The occupation also welcomed the grotesque public execution as "justice being done". Contrast this with the end of our hopes, as Iraqis in opposition, of persuading our people of the humanity of democracy and how it would, unlike Saddam's brutality, put an end to all abuses of human rights, to execution in public, and to the death penalty.

It is no good the deputy prime minister John Prescott now condemning the manner of Saddam's execution as "deplorable" when, as a representative of one of the two main occupying powers, his government is both legally and morally responsible for what took place.

It is hell in Iraq by all standards, and there is no end in sight to the plight of Iraqi people. The resistance to occupation is a basic human right as well as a moral responsibility. That was the case during the Algerian war of independence, the Vietnamese war of independence, and it is the case in Iraq now.

More HERE

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More troops are not going to reverse any of the mistakes made that have cost hundreds of thousands of lives. Bush is insane and must be impeached and stand for his crimes against humanity and crimes against the peace.




capt

capt said...

Pelosi hints at denying Bush Iraq funds



Pelosi made clear that her party supported boosting the overall size of the military "to protect the American people against any threats to our interests, wherever they may occur. That's different, though, from adding troops to Iraq." She also said Democrats would not cut off money for those troops already in Iraq.

But dollars for a further buildup in Iraq _ Bush's expected plan could send as many as 20,000 additional U.S. troops _ will get the strictest of scrutiny, she said.

"The burden is on the president to justify any additional resources for a mission," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "Congress is ready to use its constitutional authority of oversight to question what is the justification for this spending, what are the results we are receiving."

"There's not a carte blanche, a blank check for him to do whatever he wishes there," she added in an interview taped Saturday and broadcast Sunday.

Asked about Pelosi's remarks, White House spokesman Alex Conant said Bush welcomed any ideas on Iraq that "lead to success."

More HERE

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Bush welcomed any ideas on Iraq that "lead to success."

And Bush will refuse to hear any ideas that expose his failures. That simple.

I predict the troop increase will be done. The action is already underway. Pelosi and even house republicans could say or do anything including holding back funds. Nothing will stop this madman short of impeachment.




capt

capt said...

Pajamas Media — "A new method of fact-checking"




"Pajamas Media" is the $3.5 million right-wing flop founded in 2005 by "CEO" Roger Simon and LGF's Charles Johnson. Launched with great fanfare, it has thus far been almost entirely inconsequential except as an abundant source of derision. Until I just mentioned it, did you even know that it still existed? Its mission, according to CEO Simon, is to "raise [blogs'] credibility higher than they are now" and to create "a new method of fact-checking."

Pajamas Media boasts some of the most discredited and dishonest commentators around, including Glenn Reynolds as the "Knoxville Editor," warmonger Victor Davis Hanson, and Michael Ledeen, who has devoted his life to advocating an attack on Iran. Before the entire project even began, Roger Ailes presciently predicted its demise, expressing doubts (to put it politely) that "a neocon Memeorandum which relies upon the accuracy and integrity of Charles Johnson and Michael Leeden [could] be successful."

But last Thursday, Pajamas Media thought that it was finally about to make it big with its worldwide exclusive "scoop" — "reported" by Ledeen — that "Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, is dead." Nobody else had reported this bombshell. Only Pajamas! And, Drudge-like, they excitedly promoted it with bold red letters on their front page. As Michelle Malkin's Hot Air site put it when touting the Pajamas "exclusive":

This is either going to be a two-ton feather in Pajamas’s cap or a major embarrassment.

And 48 hours later, still nobody has reported this except for the increasingly lonely Pajamas. James Wolcott, doing his best to write through the scornful laughter, provides all of the ugly details here, concluding: "Pajamas Media may have just fathered its own self-inflicted Rathergate."

As I document in an article in the current issue of American Conservative Magazine, this is standard operating procedure for how pro-war, pro-Bush pundits like Ledeen (along with people like Charles Krauthammer and Peggy Noonan) function. They are completely unbound by facts and will recklessly spew the cheapest and most irresponsible innuendo as long as it bolsters their political goals. And when they are proven wrong — as they are with painful regularity — they simply move on, pretending it never happened. That, of course, is how the Iraq War was sold to Americans and how those responsible continue to parade around as wise and noble experts. But slowly (though decisively), they are all becoming exposed for what they are. There is no higher priority than doing what one can to facilitate that process.

ALSO: Both Digby and Jonathan Schwarz have superb posts highly worth reading on the complete hostility to facts and reality which drives right-wing punditry.

More HERE

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Pajama Media? Where have I heard that name before?



capt

capt said...

Mishap In Dismantling Nuclear Warhead



A watchdog group charges a nuclear warhead nearly exploded in Texas when it was being dismantled at the government's Pantex facility near Amarillo. The Project on Government Oversight says it has been told by knowledgeable experts that the warhead nearly detonated in 2005 because an unsafe amount of pressure was applied while it was being disassembled, The Austin American-Statesman reports.

The U.S. Energy Department fined the plant's operators $110,000 last month.

An investigator for Project on Government Oversight says the weapon involved was a W-56 warhead with 100 times the destructive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

The watchdog group says the problem was caused in part by technicians at the plant being required to work up to 72 hours each week.

They released an anonymous letter, reportedly sent by Pantex employees, warning that long hours and efforts to increase output were causing dangerous conditions at the plant.

A spokesperson for the Energy Department declined to respond to safety complaints in the letter.

More HERE

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I am sure there is a calculated percentage that an accident will happen. The accidents that have happened have been at civilian reactors not a weaponized nuclear device.


I think we would be much better off with all nuclear weapons disarmed and dismantled.

We have WIPP here in NM to store watse (until something better comes along). We also have uranium mines where the poison came from in the first place so there are places the stuff can go.

If getting rid of what we have is considered impossible (by some) why would we keep making more and more weapons?

We dump the "Depleted Uranium" (DU) all over the middle east when we know it will kill, deform, injure and poison for many years?

This is being done in our name. Any accident with a weapon would be many time the Chernobyl accident.




capt

Saladin said...

Thanks Capt! I was having to refresh twice to get the whole thing up, way slow!
Carey, I'm not sure what you meant but I only "jumped" on micki for posting a smartass comment rather than saying something constructive, the very thing she is always bitching about, I said nothing about the article at all. She also makes very snide, beat around the bush remarks on DWF about "certain, non-transparently right-wing" blogs, when I know very well who she is referring to, and so does everyone else. If micki wants to be treated with respect, she should treat others with respect, that means even those who disagree with her. I do not go the DEN's blog and spout off like I have seen her and alan do about us. No one is forcing her to post here anyway. If she doesn't like our comments, which she has made abundantly clear, why read them? I don't get it.

kathleen said...

Anyone see and hear Brent Scowcroft this morning on George Stephanapolous's "This Week"? Scowcroft was addressing the Israeli/Palestinian issue so honestly it was blowing my mind.

He said that when we begin to deal with this issue fairly that the whole atmosphere in the middle east will change. It was wonderful to hear his nonest words on national T.V.


If Israel unilaterally and pre-emptively strikes Iran all hell will break lose ( all ready hell for the Iraqi's). The neo-cons pushing for a U.S. strike should be locked up quick.

When will there be sanctions against Israel?

kathleen said...

Gerald I agree. Liebermann is such a special sort of combat coward, ready to put other peoples family members on the alter to slaughter.

Liebermann put your own children up for your beliefs, will get to see just how yellow bellied you are!

capt said...

Stem cell breakthrough that could end the storm



A major breakthrough in stem cell science could quell the controversy surrounding the cutting-edge medical research, it was revealed.

Scientists have shown for the first time that amniotic fluid is a rich source of stem cells, suggesting the powerful cells can be ethically harvested.

Stem cells are hugely important in the hunt for new treatments for conditions such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and strokes.

Blank cells, capable of turning into different types of tissue, they are seen as a repair kit, with the potential to regenerate damaged parts of the body.

More HERE

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I wonder if this will satisfy the fundies?



capt

capt said...

Grim images of massacre found on US laptops



There was a picture of a young boy with a helicopter on the front of his pajamas, slumped over, his face and head covered in blood and in another a mother was lying on a bed, arms splayed, the bodies of three young children huddled against her right side.


The images were contained in thousands of pages of investigative documents obtained by The Washington Post, though it was decided that most of the pictures were too graphic to publish in the newspaper.

A leaked copy of the inquiry quotes a horrified witness as saying that the marines went "crazy" after the roadside bomb.

They took revenge on the occupants of the taxi, which arrived at the scene shortly afterwards. The report described how, after telling the passengers to get out of the vehicle, the marines' squad leader, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, allegedly opened fire on the Iraqis even though some of them had their hands up. The men dropped to the ground as an Iraqi soldier attached to the marines unit looked on in horror.


More HERE

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I am curious if the civil action against Rep. Murtha will go forward?


capt