(11:15AM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar said Friday it was not ready to let in foreign aid workers, rejecting international pressure to allow experts into the isolated nation where disease and starvation are stalking cyclone survivors.

One week after the devastating storm killed tens of thousands, Myanmar’s ruling generals — deeply suspicious of the outside world — said the country needed outside aid for those still alive, but would deliver it themselves.

The foreign ministry announcement came as a top UN official warned time was running out to move in disaster experts and supplies to prevent diseases that could claim even more victims.

Instead, the ministry said some relief workers who arrived on an aid flight from Qatar on Wednesday had been deported.

link: http://afp.google.com/article/…

Al Jazeera has an exemplary in-depth analysis of this tragedy, including an extended round table featuring UN Humanitarian Chief John Holmes, Bo Hla Tint, spokesperson for the Burmese Government in Exile and Marie Lall of the Asia Programme at Chatham House:

As outrageous as this latest move by the junta is, it’s important to know why they are doing what they are doing to see if any pressure can be put on them to change their stance and let aid workers in to help the situation on the ground.

The Associated Press gives some background on the paranoia driving these recent decisions:

“The military regime is extraordinarily xenophobic. They are afraid of everything,” said Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Australia’s Macquarie University.

Among the junta’s fears are internal uprisings, a U.S. invasion, globalization and its capacity to dilute traditional Burmese culture. In the aftermath of Saturday’s cyclone, the junta appears to be afraid of losing face with its people.

“If they can’t handle the situation and they let Westerners come in with helicopters, this will demonstrate to their own people the shortcomings of the military,” Turnell said. “They are more concerned with control and maintaining an omniscience in front of their people than saving lives.”

And this is coupled with a fear that Western governments will use this human tragedy as a reason to overthrow the junta:

“They’re afraid that if foreign soldiers come in they are the spearhead to overthrow the government,” said Josef Silverstein, a retired Rutgers University professor who studied Myanmar for more than a half century.

From the junta’s perspective: “Aid workers could be carrying weapons to give to the people, they could give them ideas of how to overthrow the government.”

snip

The junta has long mistrusted the West because of more than a century of British colonial rule that ended in 1948. A parliamentary democracy survived until the ruthless dictator Gen. Ne Win seized power in a 1962 coup. During his 26-year rule, Ne Win’s regime curtailed human rights and political opposition and closed the country off to outsiders, earning Burma, as it was then known, the nickname the “Hermit Kingdom.”

The US’s invasion of Iraq has only served to heighten these fears:

The U.S. invasions of Iraq in 1991 and in 2003 reportedly spread panic among the junta and high hopes among the people.

Some analysts believe the junta’s abrupt decision in 2005 to relocate the country’s capital from Yangon to the remote city of Naypyitaw, which it carved out of dense jungle, was driven by fears of a U.S. invasion.

link: http://ap.google.com/article/A…

If a government goes through the time, effort and energy of moving a country’s capital that pretty much shows how afraid they are of being overthrown by a foreign military.

The tragedy here is that these fears are costing the lives of people on the ground, as the risk of disease becomes less and less preventable.

What can be done? There isn’t a possibility of Geraldo going in country, holding a small baby up to the camera and crying to the world to save these children. Any foreign presence makes these folks paranoid to the point where they would rather have millions of people die rather than accept UN aid workers into their country.

The options that remain are:

1. Let the current state of affairs stand. This means a certain death sentence for thousands of people, especially for small children and babies, as the local population dies slowly and painfully due to lack of food, safe drinking water and disease.

2. Air drop supplies over affected areas. These air drops are spotty at best and have no guarantee of reaching the folks in need. Also, there is the question of violating Burma’s airspace, which will only ratchet up the junta’s paranoia even further.

3. Take up France’s proposal to pass a UN resolution under its “responsibility to protect”. If this can even get passed at the UN – and given China’s support of the military junta that’s not a sure thing – this means the world community thumbing its nose at the junta and, in their eyes, moving full speed ahead with an invasion. Don’t expect the junta to take that one lying down, and if they vent their frustration on anyone chances are it will be the same folks all of these countries are moving in to try to save.

4. Unilateral action by the US and other countries. This would mean a consortium of nations – or even one big one like the US – thumbing their nose at the UN and just delivering aid directly to the citizens of Burma. This is frought with all of the problems outlined in the previous option, with the added bonus of alienating Burma’s closest neighbors and escalating a conflict more likely than not between China and any nations who take such unilateral action.

And while the world contemplates options that range from bad to worse, people die. Children starve. And soon disease will have a foothold, entrenching more suffering and death.

I don’t envy the folks having to make these decisions right now. At this point there are literally no good options, and the decisions will have to be based on choosing the action that will do the least amount of harm.

Please keep the people of Burma, and those individuals who hold their lives in their hands, in your thoughts, prayers and meditations.

UPDATE  The Chinese government’s official news agency, Xinhua, has broken trend with international headlines and decided to focus on the military junta’s constitutional referendum vote. NOTE: if this was one’s sole source of information, one would be under the misimpression that there is nothing amiss in Myanmar right now:

YANGON, May 9 (Xinhua) — A nationwide referendum on a draft constitution will be held in Myanmar on Saturday as scheduled, with people across the country set to go to poll, except those residing in the declared natural-disaster-hit regions.

   As 40 townships in Yangon division and 7 in the southwestern Ayeyawaddy division are under declared natural-disaster-hit regions status, ballot casting in these areas is postponed to a fortnight later on May 24.

   According to official estimation, there is a total population of 57 million in the whole of Myanmar with up-to-age population, or eligible voters, accounting for about 27 million.

   Of the country’s 57 million population, Yangon represents 7 million, while Ayeyawaddy 6 million.

   According to the constitutional referendum law, it allows free and secret casting of votes on the draft constitution and open counting of the votes to ensure the referendum be free and fair.

   The polling booths are set to close at 4 p.m. (local time), after which ballot counting will be done.

   According to the draft constitution, the constitution draft can be ratified with the majority votes-in-favor out of the votes cast by over 50 percent of eligible voters.

   The 194-page 15-chapter 2008 Republic of Union of Myanmar Constitution was drafted by the 54-member State Constitution Drafting Commission in accordance with the detailed basic principles laid down by the National Convention.

   The National Convention originally started in 1993 but first adjourned for eight years from April 1, 1996 to May 16, 2004, and formally resumed on May 17, 2004.

   The referendum on the new constitution draft constitutes part of the military government’s seven-step roadmap announced in 2003.The next step is to hold a multi-party democracy general election in 2010 to produce parliament representatives to hand over power to a democratically elected civil government.

   Meanwhile, relief and resettlement work is underway in cyclone-hit areas and international relief aid is also coming in.

link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/engl…

Mind-boggling.

Tomorrow I’m chaperoning the band trip to the Music in the Parks exhibition/competition with the Cab Calloway School of the Arts middle school band, where thing 2 is the lone bass clarinetist.

We’re going to Dorney Park…and I couldnt be more excited.  Thing 1 was always my roller-coaster buddy, and i havent ridden one since the summer before her accident.  Plus i havent been to Dorney Park since i was just a skin-pup.

(im going to try to get the horn section to play that riff for me… 😉  the first trumpet is a pretty good friend of thing 2, and i feed him a lot…so im pretty confident)

Steel Force:

Talon:

Hydra:

%#&*&^ frickin’ frackin’ disabled embedding!!!  Dorney Park video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xyY…

~73v

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

The latest news suggests that the Lieberman-Warner Coal Subsidy Act (the Climate InSecurity Act, CISA) has moved from critical condition to the morgue.  As it will require 60 votes to get past any threatened filibuster (not that the Senate Democratic Party leadership could force a filibuster on anyone other than their own Senators fighting for Americans’ privacy rights),  corraling enough Senators to vote for even the CISA’s inadequate measures looks to be an impossible task.  

Death by Apathy

As Joe Romm phrased it at Climate Progress,

Serious climate legislation had been in critical condition for some months.  Doctors and family members finally pulled the plug this week, and the patient appeared to lose all vital signs. The coroner listed the cause of death as “apathy.”

While disagreeing with Joe about whether to call Lieberman-Warner serious or seriously dangerous, apathy in face of ever mounting evidence of the existing damage from Global Warming and looming threats of more damage to come is moving toward reckless endangerment of America’s and humanity’s future prospects.

What is truly sad, truly, is that so much of what is necessary can fall into a no regret strategy, with ‘win-win’ categories. We can ‘geo-engineer’ to a better planetary environment with biochar and white roofing, gaining other benefits at the same time, win-win-win paths.  We can pursue greater energy efficiency, leading toward more comfortable lives while creating good jobs, reducing pollution, and spending less money on energy.  With each day that passes, renewable energy is becoming more cost competitive with fossil fuel energy, even before we discuss making “external” costs internal to the calculation of energy prices.  We can do so much good … even without considering the climate benefits.

Thus, one hand clapping:  the Coal-Subsidy Act (fundamentally inadequate in face of the threat before us, before the US) seems unlikely to muster enough support to pass.  

One hand not clapping:  that it won’t pass because Senators are engaged in reckless endangerment and acting as if it is too strong a measure.

Sigh …

In the face of apathy, angst over the future.

But, back to the Coal Subsidy Act and its (imminent) demise.

Senator Boxer has said that she will shelve the bill if it is weakened too much.  What is “too much” might require explanation as there are efforts to weaken the bill to try to gain more votes in support.  For example, from one of the bill’s authors:

Warner yesterday said he was looking for changes before the floor debate that would allow the president to “pull back the throttle” if the legislation’s emission targets cannot be met with available technology, or if the U.S. economy was under stress through, for example, $5 a gallon gasoline.

Hmmm … Does anyone not expect that gasoline is likely to hit $5 per gallon well before Lieberman-Warner’s cap on carbon emissions would even begin to take effect?  Would this loop hole virtually guarantee leakage from any cap?  Is that weakening the bill too much?

There are Senate Democrats who are holding out for special provisions to protect polluting industries in their states, such as Sherrod Brown:

I have serious concerns about any climate-change bill that doesn’t take into account energy-intensive industries like we have in Ohio – glass and chemicals and steel and aluminum and foundries,” Brown said.

“He’s concerned,” Brown spokeswoman Joanna Kuebler explained yesterday. “He’s leaning toward a no.”

Kent Conrad wants to protect coal-fired electricity in North Dakota.  More legitimately, Maria Cantwell seems to want to ensure that those who already have low-carbon footprints are not unduly penalized in favor of those with a more polluting shoe size.

We want to make sure people who are already good at reducing CO2 emissions will continue to do that and not be penalized.

This, of course, is not even talking about those who simply don’t believe in science, like James Inhofe (R-Exxon).   Now, quite sadly, the “alternatives” being put on the table are even weaker and guarantee utter disaster, like George Voinovich’s (R-Ohio) conservative (lack of) principles on climate legislation.

Sigh.

Listening to the sound of one hand clapping.

Growing up it all seems so one-sided

Opinions all provided

The future pre-decided

Detached and subdivided

In the mass production zone

Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone

Friday’s Headlines: McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer: Bush set to veto $300 billion farm bill: An Arab veteran of 1948 recalls Palestinian ‘catastrophe’: Lebanon on the brink as violence erupts: Berlusconi imposes his authority with cabinet of cronies and beautiful women: Spain launches legal war on US ‘pirates’: Effort to control HIV in Africa ‘badly targeted’: Zimbabwe army denies attacks, Mbeki to hold talks: North Korea Gives U.S. Files on Plutonium Efforts: Japan to allow military use of space: lawmakers: President Morales agrees to Bolivian recall vote  

U.N. Pressures Myanmar to Allow Aid

With up to 1.5 million people in Myanmar now believed to be facing the threat of starvation and disease and with relief efforts still largely stymied by the country’s isolationist military rulers, frustrated United Nations officials all but demanded Thursday that the government open its doors to supplies and aid workers.

“The situation is profoundly worrying,” said the United Nations official in charge of the relief effort, John Holmes, speaking in unusually candid language for a diplomat. “They have simply not facilitated access in the way we have a right to expect.”

Support disaster relief in Myanmar (Burma)

From the BBC: Burma impounds UN aid deliveries

The World Food Programme has halted aid shipments to Burma after the contents of its first delivery were impounded on arrival in the military-ruled country.

The UN body says the Burmese government seized aid material flown in to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, which has killed tens of thousands.

The WFP said it had no choice but to halt aid until the matter was resolved.

Burma’s ruling generals have faced mounting criticism over their handling of the crisis.

The UN fears more than 1.5 million people have been affected by the cyclone, with tens of thousands made homeless and vulnerable to disease.

Burmese state media say 22,980 people were killed, but there are fears the figure could rise to 100,000.

USA

McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer

PRESCOTT, Ariz. — Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain’s 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

Bush set to veto $300 billion farm bill

Administration officials have dashed hopes among farm-state lawmakers from both parties that President Bush will sign a nearly $300 billion farm bill that they finished Thursday.

The veto warning sets up an effort by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, joined by many farm-state Republicans, to override a veto and defend government payments to farmers earning record incomes even as food prices soar.

Administration officials said the bill, which would set U.S. food policy for the next five years, is loaded with budget gimmicks that disguise a $20 billion increase in spending.

“At a time of record farm income, Congress decided to further increase farm subsidy rates, qualify more people for taxpayer support, and move programs toward more government control,” Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said.

Middle East

An Arab veteran of 1948 recalls Palestinian ‘catastrophe’

While Israelis are celebrate on Thursday their Independence Day, Palestinians prepare to mark what they call the ‘nakba.’

erusalem – Mahmoud Jadallah recalls the 1948 Arab-Israeli war as if it were yesterday. As he guides a visitor through the village he once defended against Israeli forces, the names of outposts and passwords his Arab fighters used trip off his tongue.

But the day that the Jordanians told them to stop fighting is clearest. The war was over – for the moment, at least – and an armistice had been reached between Israel and Jordan. “The Jordanians came along with us and said, ‘OK, we don’t need you anymore. You can go home. We’re in charge now. They’re a state, and we’re a state.’

Lebanon on the brink as violence erupts

· Government has declared war, says Hizbullah

· At least 10 killed and 20 hurt as clashes spread

Fighting erupted across Beirut yesterday after Hizbullah accused the Lebanese government of issuing a “declaration of war” by demanding the Shia militia shut down its private communications network.

Beirut’s streets echoed to the sound of machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades as masked Hizbullah fighters clashed with supporters of the western-backed government, evoking bitter memories of the country’s civil war and sharpening fears of a new one.

Sources reported at least 10 dead and 20 wounded, with violence spreading from Beirut to the Beqaa valley. The UN urged restraint, while government coalition leader Saad al-Hariri issued a televised appeal to Hizbullah “to stop the slide towards civil war, to stop the language of arms and lawlessness”. Hizbullah officials later rejected the overture, according to the group’s al-Manar television.

Europe

Berlusconi imposes his authority with cabinet of cronies and beautiful women

By Peter Popham in Rome

Friday, 9 May 2008

Silvio Berlusconi’s new government was sworn in yesterday afternoon, completing a changing of the guard from the government of Romano Prodi transacted at blinding speed by Italian standards.

Mr Berlusconi left opponents, allies and media observers gasping as he breezed into the head of state’s office on Wednesday with a full list of ministers already prepared. Such a thing has never happened before in messy, snail-pace, fudge-happy post-war Italy, where allocating portfolios among a baffling variety of parties often takes weeks.

Spain launches legal war on US ‘pirates’

Spain demanded the return of sunken treasure worth an estimated half a billion dollars yesterday, accusing Odyssey, the deep-sea exploration company that discovered it, of looting its shipwrecks.

Spanish archaeologists said that they had determined “with complete certainty” that the record haul had come from the Spanish colonial-era galleon Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, sunk by a British fleet off the southern coast of Portugal in 1804.

“The mystery is over,” said James Goold, a Washington-based lawyer for the Spanish Government. The treasure “belongs to the Spanish Armada”. Since announcing in May 2007 that it had found 500,000 gold and silver coins somewhere “in international waters in the Atlantic Ocean”, Odyssey has fought hard to keep details of the haul under wraps.

Africa

Effort to control HIV in Africa ‘badly targeted’

The fight against the Aids epidemic in Africa is founded on ineffective strategies and should focus on male circumcision and reducing promiscuity, according to leading scientists in the field.

HIV containment is generally based on the “three pillars” – promotion and provision of condoms, HIV status testing and treatment of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that can increase the risk of becoming infected. There is little evidence, however, that any of these methods works well in sub-Saharan Africa, where two thirds of the 33.2 million people who carry the virus live, a review for the journal Science has found. It was published in a special issue to mark the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the HIV virus that causes Aids.

Zimbabwe army denies attacks, Mbeki to hold talks

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s army distanced itself from post-election violence and sought to calm tensions ahead of a possible run-off vote, state media reported on Friday ahead of a visit by regional mediator President Thabo Mbeki.

The South African leader, whose “soft diplomacy” approach towards the crisis in Zimbabwe has triggered criticism at home and abroad, is due to travel to his country’s northern neighbor on Friday for talks with veteran President Robert Mugabe about the disputed poll.

The head of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, says he won the March 29 presidential election outright and his party says it is not planning to participate in a run-off. Tsvangirai has yet to give a final answer on whether he will contest.

Asia

North Korea Gives U.S. Files on Plutonium Efforts

North Korea has turned over to the United States 18,000 pages of documents related to its plutonium program dating from 1990, in an effort to resolve remaining differences in a pending agreement meant to begin the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Bush administration officials said Thursday.

The documents contain information about North Korea’s three major campaigns to reprocess plutonium for nuclear weapons, in 1990, 2003 and 2005, a senior official said. The official, like some others who agreed to discuss the documents, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic considerations.

Japan to allow military use of space: lawmakers

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese lawmakers voted Friday to allow the military use of space, breaking a decades-old taboo in the officially pacifist country which has an increasingly ambitious space programme.

The move came during a rare fence-mending visit to Japan by President Hu Jintao of China, which alarmed Japan last year by conducting a test to shoot down a satellite.

A lower house committee voted to reverse a 1969 parliamentary resolution that limited Japan’s use of space to non-military applications.

The bill is certain to pass in parliament as both Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s Liberal Democratic Party and the main opposition Democratic Party, which controls the upper house, support it.

Lawmakers said that Japan still opposed putting weapons into space but that the 1969 restrictions had stifled innovation, hurting Japanese companies.

Latin America

President Morales agrees to Bolivian recall vote

LA PAZ, Bolivia – President Evo Morales agreed Thursday to stand for election in a nationwide recall vote, gambling that Bolivians will re-elect him after just two years in office and shore up support for his pending reforms.

Morales first proposed a nationwide recall referendum last December amid a fierce political battle over his draft constitution, which would give Bolivia’s long-oppressed indigenous population greater power.

The idea seemed to have been forgotten until Thursday, when an opposition-controlled Senate passed a bill ordering a referendum be held within 90 days. Morales pledged to sign the measure.

“If we politicians can’t agree, it’s best that the population decide our destiny,” Morales said in a nationally televised address.

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

I’ve been trying to get around to posting a follow-up on the May One at Faneuil Hall thing. I’ve got lots of great pix but my battery went semi-dead the last week. Not the camera battery, my posting battery. Maybe it’s my digestion – of life in Bush’s America circa 2008. Turning over the compost piles and planting things has been taking up my mind. So I was thinking earlier that it’s been seven full days since then and rising up from memory comes the book of the title name. Synchronicity sends me wandering down the rabbit hole.

Seven Days in May was both a book and a movie, both of them pretty good. It’s a political thriller about a plot by the Pentagon to pull off a bloodless (more or less) coup to overthrow the president. The problem with the president is he’s not sufficiently anti-Communist for the right-wing plotters. He’s actually about to sign a treaty with the Soviets to mutually nuclearly disarm.

The plot itself, called ECOMCON (for “Emergency Communications Control”), entails the seizure of the nation’s telephone, radio and television network infrastructure by a secret United States Army combat unit created and controlled by Scott’s conspiracy and based near Fort Bliss, Texas. Once this is done, General Scott and his conspirators will control the nation’s communications assets; then, from their headquarters within a vast underground nuclear shelter called “Mount Thunder” (based on the actual continuity of government facility maintained by the U.S. at Mount Weather in Berryville, Virginia), they will use the power of the media and the military to prevent the implementation of the treaty.

The book came out in ’62 and the movie in ’64. The movie was shot in ’63 while Kennedy was still alive. He encouraged the filmmakers by heading home to the Cape when they needed to get shots done around the White House; the Pentagon was none too pleased. If written today the authors would have to add in cell phones, cable and the internet to complete the communications media needed to be controlled. Take a jump to the link above for some solid background and I’ll give you a tour of the rabbit warren. We’re going to visit Granddaddy Bush and Dick Cheney’s Undisclosed Location – Raven Rock. We’ll see an actual coup d’etat plot against FDR, Lee Harvey Oswald will jump up in a plot line you’ve probably never even heard of and you may even get a whiff of a hint of a sense of the presence behind the curtain. Who knows?

Feel free to break out the Reynolds Wrap.

From the Wiki:

Interiors for Seven Days in May were shot at the Paramount studios in Hollywood, and on location in Paris, France, Washington, D.C., San Diego, Arizona and in California’s Imperial Valley. In an example of guerrilla filmmaking, Frankenheimer photographed Martin Balsam being ferried out to the supercarrier USS Kitty Hawk, formerly CVA-63, anchored at Naval Station San Diego without prior Defense Department permission. He also wanted a shot of Kirk Douglas entering the Pentagon, but could not get permission because of security considerations, so he rigged a movie camera in a parked station wagon to photograph Douglas walking up to the Pentagon. Douglas actually received salutes from military personnel because he was wearing the uniform of a U.S. Marine Corps colonel.

Getting permission near the White House was easier. Frankenheimer said that Pierre Salinger conveyed to him President Kennedy’s wish that the film be made, “these were the days of General Walker” and, though the Pentagon did not want the film made, the President would conveniently arrange to visit Hyannis Port for a weekend when the film needed to shoot outside the White House.

Some efforts were made in the film to have the film appear to take place in the near future, for instance the use of the then-futuristic technology of video teleconferencing.

General Walker turns out to be an interesting character. He was a total right-wing whack job.  He managed to start a riot at Ole Miss when James Meredith attempted to enroll there. Two dead, six federal marshals shot. Sued the AP for libel and the case went to SCOTUS where he lost, bitterly. The good general was also Lee Harvey’s initial target and his first assassination attempt.

It was around this time that Walker got Lee Harvey Oswald’s attention. Oswald, a self-proclaimed Marxist, considered Walker a “fascist” and the leader of a “fascist organization.” A front page story on Walker in the October 7, 1962, issue of the Worker, a Communist Party newspaper to which Oswald subscribed, warned “the Kennedy administration and the American people of the need for action against [Walker] and his allies.” On October 8, Oswald quit his job and moved to Dallas, with no explanation. Five days after the front page news that Walker’s federal charges had been dropped, Oswald ordered a revolver by mail, using the alias “A.J. Hidell.”

Lee went on to greater infamy. His shot at Walker, most likely from the same rifle he used to shoot Kennedy, hit the window frame of Walker’s study. Walker only got nicked by flying debris.

At the time, authorities had no idea who attempted to kill Walker. A police detective, D.E. McElroy, commented that “Whoever shot at the general was playing for keeps. The sniper wasn’t trying to scare him. He was shooting to kill.” Kirk Newman, a 14  year old boy who lived near Walker’s residence in the Turtle Creek neighborhood said that he “saw several men jump in an automobile and speed off” after the shooting.

Must have been the Grassy Knoll Gang. By sheer coincidence, Walker ran against John Connally in the Dem primary for Texas governor in ’62. He came in sixth. If he’d won, ole Lee could have just gotten him on Nov 22 in ’63 in the front seat. But again, it was just a flesh wound.

After Gen. Walker got done inciting riots at the side of MS governor Ross Barnett he got himself some religion.

In February 1963, Walker was making news by joining forces with evangelist Billy James Hargis in an anti-communist tour called “Operation Midnight Ride.” In a speech Walker made on March 5, reported in the Dallas Times Herald, he called on the United States military to “liquidate the scourge that has descended upon the island of Cuba.” Seven days later, Oswald ordered by mail a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, using the alias “A. Hidell.”[emphasis added just for lulz]

And we can’t leave Walker without fully qualifying him as a complete right-wing whack job:

Walker, then 66, was arrested on June 23, 1976 for public lewdness in a restroom at a Dallas park and accused of fondling an undercover policeman. He was arrested again in Dallas for public lewdness on March 16, 1977. He pled no contest to one of the two misdemeanor charges, was given a suspended, 30-day jail sentence, and was fined $1,000

And here’s where the threads start morphing and twisting over time. The Reverend Billy James Hargis is considered one of the founders of the Christian right movement. He started up his own fundamentalist college and all and just to prove his right-wing whack job bona fides we have the following:

Hargis was unintentionally also partly responsible for the existence of the Fairness Doctrine. In 1964, Hargis, who was a staunch supporter of Barry Goldwater in that year’s presidential race, made false statements about a journalist who was critical of Goldwater. The journalist asked for air time in order to give his rebuttal to Hargis’ statements, and the broadcaster refused. The journalist took his case to court, and eventually the case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The high court upheld the equal-time allowance in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC (1969), codifying what became known as the Fairness Doctrine in American broadcasting.

Hargis formed American Christian College in 1971 in order to teach fundamentalist Christian principles. However, a sex scandal involving claims by two of his students who, on their honeymoon, confessed to each other that they were not virgins, and then found they had lost their virginity to Rev. Hargis. Hargis was forced out of American Christian College’s presidency as a result. Further scandals erupted when members of Hargis’ youth choir, the “All American Kids”, accused Hargis of sexual misconduct as well. The college eventually closed down in the mid-1970s. Hargis always denied the allegations.[emphasis added]

A right-wing, whack-job, fundamentalist, Christian preacher backing a crazy old Arizona Republican senator for president. Where have I heard that one before? Hargis? Sounds like Hagee?

In Hargis’ day such ideas were considered to lie on the political fringe alongside KKK, neo-nazi, and John Birch ideology. Now, over 40 years later, the mainstreaming of beliefs very similar to those of Hargis has advanced so far that a Christian leader – who alleges a vast satanic “secular humanist” conspiracy against Christian America, blames Jews for the Holocaust, says Hitler’s Nazis were doing God’s work, places gays, the ACLU, and Islamic terrorists together on the side of absolute evil, calls liberal Jews “poisoned” and “spiritually blind” and states that he hopes for a catastrophic conflict that will kill most Jews in Israel and maybe most Jews on Earth – will be addressing, this Sunday evening, at this year’s AIPAC Washington convention, perhaps 1/2 of the US Senate and 1/3 of the US House Of Representatives ; this will amount to an historic advance towards the mainstreaming of anti-Semitism.

Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United For Israel, a new and nominally “pro-Israel” American national political lobbying group, has built a career on aggressive support for hard right to fringe right Israeli politics and is now making inroads towards convincing the mainstream American Jewish community that he and CUFI are the best tactical allies Jews and Israel can expect to find.

This is the guy McCain went to, hat in hand, to beg for his backing of McCain’s presidential candidacy. Wright? So that’s one thread. Back to Granddad Bush and FDR and the coup d’etat. Remember, Seven Days in May, that’s where we started. Just a work of fiction and a movie. We’ll catch up to Cheney at the Raven Rock Corral after the coup.

The scenario of the film may have been inspired by the clash between General Curtis LeMay and President John F. Kennedy. It is suspected that LeMay, furious after the Cuban missile crisis for not being allowed to use his atomic bombs, talked to some of his staff about removing the President from power. Other observers cite as the inspiration for the story a historically-ambiguous conspiracy among major industrial leaders to enlist retired Marine Gen. Smedley Butler in a plot to infiltrate Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s inner circle, as reported by Butler in his testimony to the McCormack-Dickstein Congressional Committee in 1934. (See Business Plot of 1933.)

Ahhh, the New Deal. It’s been around for seventy-six years and they’re still trying to undo it. These bastards are nothing if not persistent. Three generations of Bushes have all taken their run at dismantling it. It looks like the latest iteration is coming close but will he make it? No. But his hand-servant John can finish the job. If only…

Smedley Darlington Butler has been in the news a bit lately. You’ve probably seen his name bouncing around the blogosphere. He’s the guy who invaded all of Central America, and some of South, for the financial benefit of various American enterprises. This is his most famous quote:

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

Smedley also was one of the first to “out” the military-industrial complex. If he was around today he would understand the entire Iraq-Iran situation in a nano-second. It is so damn obvious. Smedley is one of my all-time favorite American characters. They asked him to be the Philadelphia Director of Public Safety, on loan from the Marines, by influence of Cal Coolidge himself. Big mistake. I can’t leave Smedley without giving him his due:

Within days, Butler ordered raids on more than 900 speakeasies. Butler also went after bootleggers, prostitutes, gamblers and corrupt police officers. Butler was more zealous than politic in his duties; in addition to going after gangsters and the working-class joints, Butler raided the social elites’ favorite speakeasies, the Ritz-Carlton and the Union League. A week later, Kendrick [the Philadelphia mayor] fired Butler. Butler later said “cleaning up Philadelphia was worse than any battle I was ever in.

It was OK to go after the working class but the elites? Uh-uh. One of Smedley’s biggest deeds was to go to Washington and cough up the Business Plot. This is where Granddad Bush comes in.

In 1934, Butler came forward and reported to the U.S. Congress that a group of wealthy pro-Fascist industrialists had been plotting to overthrow the government of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a military coup. Even though the House Un-American Activities Committee corroborated most of the specifics of his testimony, no further action was taken.

This was a Daily Show moment before Jon was even born. Say what? No further action was taken? A plot to overthrow the government of the United States? Am I hearing this right?

Major General Butler claimed that the American Liberty League was the plot’s primary source of funding. The main backers were the Du Pont family, as well as leaders of U.S. Steel, General Motors, Standard Oil, Chase National Bank, and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.The 2007 BBC radio documentary The White House Coup alleged that Prescott Bush, father and grandfather to the 41st and 43rd US Presidents respectively, was also connected with the plot.[emphasis added]

During the McCormack-Dickstein Committee hearings, Butler testified that through MacGuire and Bill Doyle, who was then the department commander of the American Legion in Massachusetts,[22] the conspirators attempted to recruit him to lead a coup, promising him an army of 500,000 men for a march on Washington, D.C., $30 million in financial backing, and generous media spin control.

   [BUTLER:] I said, “The idea of this great group of soldiers, then, is to sort of frighten him, is it?”

   “No, no, no; not to frighten him. This is to sustain him when others assault him.”

   I said, “Well, I do not know about that. How would the President explain it?”

   He said: “He will not necessarily have to explain it, because we are going to help him out. Now, did it ever occur to you that the President is overworked? We might have an Assistant President, somebody to take the blame; and if things do not work out, he can drop him.”

   He went on to say that it did not take any constitutional change to authorize another Cabinet official, somebody to take over the details of the office-take them off the President’s shoulders. He mentioned that the position would be a secretary of general affairs-a sort of a supersecretary.

   CHAIRMAN: A secretary of general affairs?

   BUTLER: That is the term used by him-or a secretary of general welfare-I cannot recall which. I came out of the interview with that name in my head. I got that idea from talking to both of them, you see [MacGuire and Clark]. They had both talked about the same kind of relief that ought to be given the President, and he [MacGuire] said: “You know, the American people will swallow that. We have got the newspapers. We will start a campaign that the President’s health is failing. Everybody can tell that by looking at him, and the dumb American people will fall for it in a second.”

Given a successful coup, Butler said that the plan was for him to have held near-absolute power in the newly created position of “Secretary of General Affairs,” while Roosevelt would have assumed a figurehead role.

Reaction to Butler’s testimony by the media and business elite was dismissive or hostile. The majority of media outlets, including The New York Times, Philadelphia Post, and Time Magazine ridiculed or downplayed his claims, saying they lacked evidence. After the committee concluded, The New York Times and Time Magazine downplayed the conclusions of the committee.

The committee deleted extensive excerpts from the report relating to Wall Street financiers including J.P. Morgan & Co., the Du Pont interests, Remington Arms, and others allegedly involved in the plot attempt. As of 1975, a full transcript of the hearings had yet to be traced.

Those accused of the plotting by Butler all denied any involvement. MacGuire was the only figure identified by Butler who testified before the committee. Others involved were actually called to appear to testify, though never were forced to testify.

This old stuff is so interesting when you get into it. But I’m sure you all remember this from your American History classes. They did teach you this, didn’t they? Do you think stuff like this will be on the NCLB tests? Will your grandchildren know what’s going down today? And all from Seven Days in May.  You might just want to peruse the links to get the complete story. Jump around. 1934. 1962. 2001. 2008. It’s all the same. Just different technologies and players. And now it’s time for Dickie and his undisclosed location. The ribbons and the bow.

We go back to the movie and the plot, ENCOMCON (“Emergency Communications Control”):

…entails the seizure of the nation’s telephone, radio and television network infrastructure by a secret United States Army combat unit … will control the nation’s communications assets; then, from their headquarters within a vast underground nuclear shelter … they will use the power of the media and the military to prevent the implementation of the treaty.

Wasn’t there a guy back in the 40s who lived in a shelter? I think they used to call it a bunker back then. What’s his name? Copied Charlie Chaplin’s mustache so he’d stand out in a crowd. Anyway, no comparison with our clean-shaven Dickie. Dickie only has a million or so Iraqis under his belt. He’s got another five million to go to match up with the big guy. Maybe with Iran and some nukes in the mix he can catch up. Could be Numero Uno, who knows? In the movie it was Mount Thunder which was a ref to the for real Mount Weather. If you visit the Mount Weather entry in Wiki you’ll find a reference to a

Site R.

Site R is a United States government facility on Raven Rock, a mountain in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is located about 14 km (8.7 miles) east of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania and 10 km (6.2 miles) north-northeast of Camp David, Maryland. The R in “Site R” is an allusion to Raven Rock. The name “Raven Rock” is used to refer to both the mountain itself and the Site R facility.

At Site R, the DISA computer operations staff provides computer services to the National Command Authority, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and other United States Department of Defense agencies through memoranda of agreement. The facility functions as the disaster recovery site for the JSSC’s GMC and DISA GCC. The various service (Army, Navy and Air Force) emergency operations centers are also located at Site R. The facility provides continuous planning, installation, operation, and maintenance of over 38 communications systems (switching, transmission, data distribution, visual information, and power generation) that support its customers.

According to the Boston Globe, Site R is believed to be the “undisclosed location” to which vice president Dick Cheney retires in times of crisis.

On May 25, 2007, the Federal Register published a Defense Department policy declaring that it is unlawful “to make any photograph, sketch, picture, drawing, map or graphical representation of the Raven Rock Mountain Complex without first obtaining the necessary permission.

Raven Rock, Cheney’s home away from home. The Undisclosed Location. The backup, emergency Continuity of Operations Command Center for the entire U.S. enterprise. Wake up. Punch the alarm clock. Oops, just nuked Iran! Get up. Get out of bed. Just another day in paradise.

Coda

“In October 1988, USAISC-Site R was redesignated as the 1111th U.S. Army Signal Battalion…”

As a software guy I learned to do math and think in hexadecimal notation. The hexadecimal (16) number system runs from ‘0..F’, with ‘A’ being the equivalent of a decimal ’10’ and ‘F’ being the decimal ’15’. Hex, as we call it, comes in handy when dealing with the 1s and 0s that make up all that we do in the digital world. Hexadecimal numbers represent four-bit binary strings. E.g., ‘0000’=0; ‘1001’=9; ‘1010’=A. And last but not least, ‘1111’=F. Raven Rock is being run by “F Troop”. Coincidence? If you don’t know what that implies, ask one of your parents. Oh, and try to GoogleEarth Raven Rock. What a perfect name for a secret lair for the evil villain. Darth would be proud of him. Raven Rock. Nevermore.

We are soooooo fucked!!!!!!

The sun is rising on May 9 and I still owe the May One follow-up diary with pictures and arrows and paragraphs on the back. Later today. If you read this far, give yourself a pat on the back. Armageddon outtahere. Later.

Shanti.

As some of you know I frequent RedState myself on occasion but this particular gem I owe to TBogg.

From a discussion of McSame’s VP choices-

With respect, that’s (excluding former officials of the current administration- ek) just the wrong approach to take. We have to build up a farm team of Presidential prospects. It just does not do to create a Caste of Untouchables merely because their resumes indicate that they have been doing something fairly important at some point in time between January 20, 2001 and the present day. We deprive ourselves of talent that way. And again, we could pick the Angel Gabriel himself, the Heavenly Host could sound its approval and the Lord could issue his unqualified endorsement but at most, that would cause a 48 hour delay before the negative ads start coming in.

Additionally–and this issue cannot be emphasized enough–as much as you and I may be (and are) disappointed with various aspects of the Bush Administration’s job performance, let us remember that we are criticizing the Administration from the right. A critique from the right, however, may not emerge as the dominant critique of the Bush Administration and indeed, thus far, the dominant critique has come from the left.

If we allow the left to continue critiquing, allow that critique to become the dominant narrative and then declare that consideration of Bush Administration officials for high office is verboten, we are effectively silencing a very large portion of our counter-message against the left’s critique and allowing that critique to morph into a larger narrative against Republicans and conservatives in general. In other words, by our silence, by our cooperation in shunning very competent Bush Administration officials when it comes to considerations for high office merely because they served in the Bush Administration, we will allow George W. Bush and anyone who served with him–no matter how good–to be used as bludgeons against Republicans and conservatives for decades.

This is already happening; there have been any number of seminars and presentations on the Left that have argued that the “failures” of the Bush Administration constitute “failures” of conservatism proper. By practicing The Politics Of Leprosy when it comes to personnel decisions, we are implicitly giving running room to that critique. And don’t think it will stop there; there is no reason to think that Cabinet decisions will not be subject to The Politics Of Leprosy as well. Give the Left an inch and it will take the height of the Roman Empire.

Pejman Yousefzadeh

My emphasis.

The Politics of Leprosy.

Preach it and practice it.

George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.  He graduated last in his class at West Point.  At the end of the Civil War, Custer was promoted to major general of volunteers. In 1866, he was appointed to the regular army position of lieutenant colonel.  His title of “General” was a courtesy only.  He established a reputation as an aggressive cavalry commander willing to take personal risks at Gettysburg among other places, but was also known for the Battle of Trevilian Station, where Custer was humiliated by having his division trains overrun and his personal baggage captured by the Confederates.

And there was that Greasy Grass thing.  You could look it up.

The reason I mention it is he reminds me of somebody.

McCain – War Hero or Just Incompetent Pilot? by DrSteveB

Now as DrSteveB admits, one of his main sources is Wayne Madsen who doesn’t have a sterling reputation, but this is DocuDharma not DailyKos and conspiracy theories and questionable sources are explicitly allowed.

I thought I’d share it so you can think about it the next time you hear someone call McSame a “war hero”.

John Kerry drove a Swift Boat and killed gooks with his bare hands like Rambo.  McSame was a washout who used his daddy’s influence to get a job driving a bomb dump truck (an A-4 is not a fighter) so he could kill people from 30,000 feet.  He was a boozer and a skirt chaser.  He participated in propaganda broadcasts while captured.  He cheated on his wife who stood by him during his captivity and then dumped her when she was injured to marry a drug addicted charity thief who was prettier and richer so he could have a political career.

This is John McSame- “maverick”.