Mo’ Meta Betta.
September 2007 archive
Sep 08 2007
Durbin Takes The Iraq Pledge: No Funding Without End Date For the Debacle
AP:
The No. 2 Democrat in the U.S. Senate said on Friday he could no longer vote for funding the war in Iraq unless restrictions were attached that would begin winding down American involvement there.
“This Congress can't give President (George W.) Bush another blank check for Iraq,” said Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin, who has always opposed the war but until now voted to fund it.
“I can't support an open-ended appropriation which allows this president to continue this failed policy,” he said in a speech at the left-leaning Center for National Policy.
Where's Obama?
Sep 08 2007
Is OPOL in the HOUSE????
Sep 08 2007
How to Promote Defundamentalism
(Isn’t that title cute? I just came up with that. It doesn’t even show up on Google.)
While I am not a Defundamentalist, I’m happy to see those of you are help to influence the political debate so long as (per Turk’s stance) it avoids ripping apart the party. I just don’t think that blaming the Democrats in toto or concentrating fire on Pelosi (who would likely be succeeded by someone worse, Hoyer or Emanuel) is helping. You need a concrete and theoretically achievable plan if you want to truly “make them fear us,” as y’all like to say. So here, direct from a comment on DKos, is what I think you should do:
Sep 08 2007
Banner stuff
Sep 08 2007
Friday Night at 8
Oh the old intertubes aren’t working very well at casa del Nightprowlkitty, but hopefully I’ll get this posted in time. If I don’t comment right away, you’ll know why.
Does anyone else share the feeling I have today, a feeling of something impending? Because I don’t have anything to say about current events or culture or even personal anecdotes. I feel a sense of apprehension. And of course it’s about America.
I think even the boys at the big blogs are now aware that business is not as usual. We’ve even got kos yelling at the Democrats over their incomprehensible behavior when it comes to opposing this misAdministration.
Something has changed. August was the lull before the storm. Folks all over the country are waiting for someone to pull the plug on these criminals. Everyone agrees they are criminals, everyone knows they want to take us into a world of unending war, unending governmental incompetence, unending theft and corruption. That’s simply how they operate. They don’t know how to do anything else.
And now we are all awaiting a report by David Petraeus and everyone already knows the White House has rewritten it, everyone knows this misAdministration is doing its best to discredit the GAO’s report, shout down any dissent on what is going on in Iraq. And here we sit, wondering what’s going to happen.
This isn’t like Viet Nam. We’re older and wiser now. We see this happening in real time, all of us. It’s strange and surreal in so many ways.
Sep 08 2007
I/P
Over at the Admin site, Turkana wrote this-
maybe it’s time we discuss how to deal with i/p. otherwise, we’ll have an israel-bashing diary on the rec list, every day, and the same poison that infects every site where these people take their hatred. i wish there was a button to prevent a diary from going rec list. any ideas?
To which buhdy’s response was-
Let’s talk to them!
Once again transparency and sunshine….
If someone does something we don’t like, let’s have a short convo here to define it….and them tell them about it!
I will be happy to lead this effort….when I can again …..sniff!
My thoughts below the fold.
Sep 08 2007
Friday Philosophy: Nonviolence
I was raised in a violent atmosphere. Our house was not filled with the physical violence that leads to bodily injury. But there was physical violence that results in psychological trauma and much verbal and emotional abuse. It’s difficult growing up knowing that one is not good enough, that one’s talents and skills are not appreciated, and that who one is less important than who one might be perceived to be.
My father was an angry man. While practicing his bowling in the living room and simultaneously arguing with my mother, he “accidentally” threw his ball through the living room wall. Because he was having trouble with the Christmas tree one year, the tree was thrown through the plate glass window in front of which it was to supposed to stand. That his anger did not produce physical violence against his children is testament to my mother’s fortitude. But there was always the mental abuse. All four of us kids are just starting to cope with that…40 years later.
Sep 08 2007
Pony Party!
This is an Open Thread but it’s very important you don’t promote or recommend it.
The concept is that like Booman’s Frog Pond or TDS/TCR this be visible in the ‘Recent Diaries’ list for people who want to participate for a limited time.
There are going to be three chances-
* 9 am (mega slacker)
* 12 Noon (slacker)
* 6 pm (now)
If that is not enough punishment we will increase the level of abuse.
I thought we were here for an argument.
This is an Open Thread.
Sep 07 2007
Weakness
How many iterations have there been of this, my now favorite theme: The Democrats are afraid of looking weak… of being perceived as weak… they don’t want to look anti-military… they don’t want to be perceived as weak on defense… not a week goes by that Democrats aren’t using the we’re afraid we’ll look weak defense.”
Sep 07 2007
Four at Four
Four stories in the news at 4 o’clock. Simple, huh?
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Ouch. Bush’s Gilded Age economy has ground to a halt. The New York Times reports, 4-Year Growth in Jobs Ends; Stocks Plunge. “Employers eliminated 4,000 jobs in August… If the jobs report had been merely lackluster, it might have been welcomed by investors as a sign that fears of inflation had abated sufficiently to make the prospect of a Fed rate cut all but certain. The reversal in job growth, however, went far beyond expectations, raising fears that corporate profits will weaken as the market upheaval moves beyond the housing and financial sectors and casts a chill on the broader economy.” (As profits weaken, expect corporations to cut even more jobs.) “The nation lost 4,000 jobs in August, the first time employment has shrunk since August 2003,” the Washington Post notes. “The dollar tumbled to a 15-year low today,” The Guardian adds. “The American economy is poised for an impending recession,” The Telegraph predicts.
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The death toll from Hurricane Felix continues to climb. Hundreds still missing as Felix toll reaches 98, according to The Guardian. ‘The death toll from Hurricane Felix rose to 98 today, with hundreds more people still missing. Rescuers working in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, pulled bloated bodies from the sea while villagers used canoes to search for survivors. Residents of the remote area claimed they had been given little warning of the hurricane’s approach, leaving many fishermen stranded at sea… Hurricane Felix hit Nicaragua’s north-eastern Miskito coast early on Tuesday as a category five storm, the highest on the scale.”
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The Sydney Morning Herald reports from the APEC meeting, Not much civility from police chiefs, but scant civil disobedience.
Superintendent Stephen Cullen, the head of the NSW Police Riot Squad, laid it on the line this week. Sydney, he said, was on the brink of violence and civil disobedience on a scale never witnessed here.
Violent agitators were “well-drilled and disciplined” and the police intelligence was disturbing, cautioned the burly police veteran, who also carries the title of Civil Order Commander for APEC. “I have absolutely no doubt that minority groups will engage in a level of violence not previously experienced in Sydney,” he said. “Never in my career have I held such serious concerns for public safety.”
They are the kind of comments that have flown thick and fast from the lips of politicians and police for months, as they justify the huge expense of the APEC security operation. But, even as the city braces for the main anti-APEC protest rally today, they are sentiments that are looking increasingly shrill and alarmist.
As of yesterday afternoon, APEC-related arrests in Sydney have encompassed 11 members of a comedy troupe, a man who squirted tomato sauce on a pro-US banner and another individual who apparently used bad language. All low-level stuff considering the security wall and police powers introduced for the summit, not to mention the spending on riot gear.
“It’s out of proportion,” said Alan Behm, a security analyst and former senior defence official. “The security measures are excessive, the amount of money spent is not proportionate to the threat, and it set a new precedent in dignitary protection which is above the standard of any other country that I’m aware of.”
Now that is the kind of reporting, we don’t see anymore in the America’s traditional media.
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Spiegel Online brings this sticky news from Germany: Chocolate Sauce Blocks Autobahn. “Thirteen tons of chocolate melted and flowed across the German Autobahn on Thursday night after the truck carrying it caught fire. ¶ Willy Wonka would have approved. Apparently, the truck suddenly caught on fire as it was cruising through the night near Ludwigsfelde just south of Berlin… ¶ The driver was able to separate the tractor from the trailer, but the chocolate wasn’t nearly so lucky. The heat from the fire made quick work of the sweet cargo and before long, a mini chocolate river was flowing across the highway.” Send in the Oompa-Loompas!
One more story below the fold…
Sep 07 2007