October 2007 archive

Google video and youTube are releasing a beta software package that “allows” copyright holders to block clips.

http://www.youtube.c…
The 911 truth people are most upset as it means all those clips of original news footage of the day could be forever lost. Yes, we are backing up the good ones now.  Technicians will once again have to figure out a way to bypass this crap.

Today though those many websites I saw two years ago warning of the Orwellian dangers of DRM(digital rights management) and Windows Longhorn have disappeared and been replaced with the how wonderful Microshaft is.

Net neutrality was never a real issue, the real issue is will the net become just a cheap plastic shopping mall with streaming Faux News reports geared to a mental age of twelve.

Shit like this just sends me into my usual incoherent rage.

crossposted at Daily Kos and Truth & Progress

This is going to be a fairly short diary.

Television’s favorite political pundit, Jon Stewart, will continue his reign over at ‘The Daily Show’ at least until 2010

Jon Stewart Extends Deal With COMEDY CENTRAL Through 2010

COMEDY CENTRAL has reached an agreement with Jon Stewart to extend the contract of the host of the critically- acclaimed and award-winning “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” it was announced today by Michele Ganeless, president, COMEDY CENTRAL.

Stewart, whose contract was set to expire at the end of 2008, will now remain with the all-comedy network through 2010.  In addition to hosting “The Daily Show,” Stewart also serves as an executive producer and writer and is the principal behind Busboy Productions, Inc. with whom the network has a first look television agreement. 

“I love doing this show.  I feel like I work with and for the best in the business.  I look forward to using this extension to having great fun at President Colbert’s expense.”

Stewart declined to say if future President Colbert had taken any positions regarding SCHIP or the Iraq War/Occupation.

We live in an age of hypertrophic indecency and immodesty.  This is perhaps best symbolized the Presidency of George W. Bush and his aggressive wars, rendition torture, illegal search and seizure, and absolute disregard for human suffering.  A fundamental indecency and immodesty suffuses us.  We have suffered a collapse of the sense of “enoughness.”

As Seymour Hersh has reported, the Bush Administration has made a deliberate calculation to change the rationale for its warmongering against Iran. They realized that the lie about Iran’s nascent nuclear weapons program wasn’t selling, so they decided to recalibrate and relaunch with a new marketing campaign claiming Iran is a major cause of the violence in Iraq. Of course, there wouldn’t be much violence in Iraq, had Bush not launched an invason, but we’re talking about catapulting propaganda, not reality.

So, the first Iran War rollout wasn’t working, and the Administration decided on another one; because it’s not the facts that matter, it’s the selling of war. So, Iran suddenly became a dangerous influence in Iraq. And some-time general, and full-time political hack, David Petraeus was recently in England, trying to sell the same story– although the Brits aren’t buying it. Apparently, neither are the people who would actually know something about it: the Iraqis.

The New York Times is reporting:

Iraq has agreed to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants, the Iraqi electricity minister said Tuesday. Word of the project prompted serious concerns among American military officials, who fear that Iranian commercial investments can mask military activities at a time of heightened tension with Iran.

Or maybe those American officials are actually worried that it’s going to be hard to sell a war based on Iranian meddling in Iraq when Iraq itself is inviting Iranian businesses into Iraq to build power plants.

The Iraqi electricity minister, Karim Wahid, said that the Iranian project would be built in Sadr City, a Shiite enclave in Baghdad that is controlled by followers of the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr. He added that Iran had also agreed to provide cheap electricity from its own grid to southern Iraq, and to build a large power plant essentially free of charge in an area between the two southern Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.

So, Iran’s going to actually help solve Iraq’s electricity problem. Something at which we’ve not been doing such a good job.

The Chinese will be paid about $940,000,000 for their plant, and the Iranians about $150,000,000 for theirs. Don’t ask where the money’s coming from. The article doesn’t say whether it’s out of the funds we’re giving Iraq, but it would be interesting to trace it. Because we are giving them a lot. And these are expensive projects. So, it does actually seem plausible that our tax dollars will be going to Iran, to help them rebuild Iraq.

And there’s this:

More skimping…skimping ponies…

test

The New York Times continues to cover the Senate confirmation hearings for Bush Attorney General nominee Michael B. Mukasey. As the general consensus built for a Mukasey confirmation, doubts have crept in through the cracks, as it became obvious Mukasey was as adept at parsing his language regarding torture as former Justice Department head, the despised Alberto Gonzales.

This came out more clearly today, when Mukasey told a dubious Senate panel that he didn’t even know what waterboarding, a well-publicized CIA torture technique, was. Really. Would I make this stuff up?

“Is waterboarding constitutional?” he was asked by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, in one of today’s sharpest exchanges.

“I don’t know what is involved in the technique,” Mr. Mukasey replied. “If waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional.”

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

1. After four years of waiting for the Bush administration to get the electricity working again, James Glanz of The New York Times reports that “Iraq has agreed to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants, the Iraqi electricity minister said Tuesday.” Of course, the news of this deal is not sitting well with U.S. military officials who claim Iran’s involvement could “mask military activities”.

   The Iraqi electricity minister, Karim Wahid, said that the Iranian project would be built in Sadr City, a Shiite enclave in Baghdad that is controlled by followers of the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr. He added that Iran had also agreed to provide cheap electricity from its own grid to southern Iraq, and to build a large power plant essentially free of charge in an area between the two southern Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf…

   The agreements between Iraq and Iran come after the American-led reconstruction effort, which relied heavily on large American contractors, has spent nearly $5 billion of United States taxpayer money on Iraq’s electricity grid. Aside from a few isolated bright spots, there was little clear impact in a nation where in many places electricity is still available only for a few hours each day.

   A Chinese company, Shanghai Heavy Industry, will construct a new power plant in Wasit at an estimated cost of $940 million. The plant could add 1,300 megawatts of electricity to Iraq’s power grid, which currently has a total capacity “of roughly 5,000 megawatts.”

2. News from the Washington Post that Tough punishment is expected for B-52 nuke warhead errors. “The Air Force has decided to relieve at least five of its officers of command and is considering filing criminal charges in connection with the Aug. 29 ‘Bent Spear’ incident in which nuclear-armed cruise missiles were mistakenly flown from North Dakota to Louisiana, two senior Air Force officials said yesterday.”

   A formal announcement, according to WaPo is expected tomorrow “along with the detailed findings of an internal, six-week investigation into how a B-52 bomber crew mistakenly flew from one military air base to another with six nuclear warheads strapped to its wings.” “A colonel commanding one of the Air Force wings is likely to be the highest-ranking officer to be relieved”. “Letters of reprimand will be issued to several enlisted service members” and criminal charges may possibly follow.

3. Spiegel reports that Bloodstained rubies fund Burmese regime. “Large, deep red rubies from Burma command prices of tens of thousands of euros per carat, making them the most exclusive stones a gemstone dealer can offer.”

   The Burmese military regime forces workers to extract the precious stones under brutal conditions in its heavily guarded mines. Roughly 90 percent of the global supply of rubies comes from Burma. According to eyewitness accounts, mining bosses mix amphetamines into the workers’ drinking water to boost productivity. Sometimes children also work in the muddy mines…

   There are no exact figures for the junta’s gem trade. Estimates of the amount of income generated by the business range as high as hundreds of millions of dollars per year. At the state-organized gem auction in Yangon, where only middling quality stones come under the hammer, the regime has taken in some $300 million so far in 2007.

Below the fold is today’s “Guns of Greed”.

Let the DoddMania begin:

The Military Commissions Act.  Warrantless wiretapping.  Shredding of Habeas Corpus.  Torture.  Extraordinary Rendition.  Secret Prisons.

No more.

I have decided to place a “hold” on the latest FISA bill that would have included amnesty for telecommunications companies that enabled the President's assault on the Constitution by illegally providing personal information on their customers without judicial authorization.

I said that I would do everything I could to stop this bill from passing, and I have. 

It's about delivering results — and as I've said before, the FIRST thing I will do after being sworn into office is restore the Constitution.  But we shouldn't have to wait until then to prevent the further erosion of our country's most treasured document.  That's why I am stopping this bill today.

Thank you Senator Dodd. You make me proud to be a supporter of your candidacy for President.