January 2008 archive

FISA: Glen Greenwald Pisses Me Off!

Because he is so damn good on FISA that I want to just reprint his whole column…hell, ALL his columns on FISA. I have severe blogger envy.

So that’s how the Protect America Act — like most other laws drastically expanding the President’s unchecked powers — was born: in a climate of rank fear-mongering and exploitation of the Terrorist Threat: If you don’t give the President these new extraordinary powers, we’re all going to die.

Call Now!

# Bayh (202) 224-5623

# Carper (202) 224-2441

# Inouye (202) 224-3934

# Johnson (202) 224-5842

# Landrieu (202)224-5824

# McCaskill (202) 224-6154

# Mikulski (202) 224-4654

# Nelson (FL) (202) 224-5274

# Nelson (NE) (202) 224-6551

# Pryor (202) 224-2353

# Salazar (202) 224-5852

H/t mcjoan

Pony for Greenwald! Photobucket and more below the fold.

And PLEASE don’t forget to call YOUR Senators and tell them to support Dodd as well!!! You can contact them using that form over there on the right of the page.

Pony Party: Stonehenge

G’morning, all.

I watched a classic movie over the weekend – This is Spinal Tap. I hadn’t seen it in years and I was reminded of just how funny a movie it is. Christopher Guest and Michael McKean are hilarious together. So, I wanted to share one of my favorite scenes: Stonehenge.

Congressional races by state: Ohio

Intro: This is the first in a series that I’ve been running at dailyKos and SwingStateProject… the series isn’t over in either of those places, so I’ll post more quickly here, if there is interest, so that eventually all three places will be getting the same stuff.  It’s also a bit of an experiment – I’m feeling out the territory here. If you like the series, let me know, and it will continue.  If not, well, I do have two other outlets for it.  Most of those diaries covered more than one state.

The order of states was by the date of their filing deadline, but it’s a bit messed up now.

I am all for running everywhere, and the 50 state strategy.

But neither we nor the Republicans are running everywhere (at least not yet!) In this series, I will look at where we are running and not running; and where the Republicans are running and not running (I am not going to look in detail at where Republicans are not running, as I have no desire to help Republicans, however modestly)

This diary is partly inspired by the great work done by BENAWU, and informed by the great Race Tracker Wiki (links throughout).

Following the Money to Babylon: a meditation on irony


…for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.

Ancient Neo-Babylon was to its time exactly what the US has been to the contemporary world:  the predominant ruling military/religious superpower of the ancient world.

Whether one believes in the actual reincarnation of a people (and this would be a most convincing case) or would view it simply as the repetition of pattern, it is a marvel that the modern superpower has chosen to wage war on the site of its ancient likeness.

While ancient Babylon fell and was repeatedly rebuilt, the original Babylon of the Biblical infamy is particularly concerned with the times and reign of Nebuchadnezzar:

The term Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean refers to Babylonia under the rule of the 11th (“Chaldean”) dynasty, from the revolt of Nabopolassar in 626 BC until the invasion of Cyrus the Great in 539 BC, notably including the reign of Nebuchadnezzar   source

For the purposes of this writing, “Babylon” refers to the Neo-Babylonian era incarnation of the great city.  The people of that time were a Semitic tribe unrelated to the current Persian occupants of the region.

“Babylon” means confusion.  And Babylon’s name is confusing, because the name “Babylon” can be interpreted as ‘babilu’ or ‘gate of the gods:’

…in the Old Testament, the name appears as ??? (Babel), interpreted by Genesis 11:9 to mean “confusion”, from the verb balal, “to confuse”.

America, have a look in the mirror

Compare the US to ancient Babylon again in military stature, for the ancient city was to its time what the US is to our contemporary world:  the biggest economic engine on earth.  The Babylonians grew rich on the spoils of war, the wealthiest people on the planet in their day.  To keep the great economic engine alive and in tune, Babylon constantly was at war to bring in steady streams of slaves and spoil.

Ancient NeoBabylon is also the site of the world’s first religious-military-imperial-corporate-capitalist-investment banking complex which coincidentally lies minutes from the war du jour of the world’s current premiere imperialist superpower in decline.

Wakey Wakey Eggs and Bacey :)

Rise and Shine Bostonian Dharmamaniacs!

Photobucket

Look, I made you breakfast :p

Pony Party, No Football Monday :(

Docudharma Times Monday January 28

This is an Open Thread: Locked doors? What locked doors?

Monday’s Headlines: Races Entering Complex Phase Over Delegates: Economy, War To Dominate State of Union: Global markets tumble again on recession fears: Kremlin bars last independent candidate from presidential poll: Iraq contractors tap Latin America’s needy: ‘If there is no change in three months, there will be war again’

Return to Fallujah

Three years after the devastating US assault, our correspondent enters besieged Iraqi city left without clean water, electricity and medicine

By Patrick Cockburn

Monday, 28 January 2008

Fallujah is more difficult to enter than any city in the world. On the road from Baghdad I counted 27 checkpoints, all manned by well-armed soldiers and police. “The siege is total,” says Dr Kamal in Fallujah Hospital as he grimly lists his needs, which include everything from drugs and oxygen to electricity and clean water.

The last time I tried to drive to Fallujah, several years ago, I was caught in the ambush of an American fuel convoy and had to crawl out of the car and lie beside the road with the driver while US soldiers and guerrillas exchanged gunfire. The road is now much safer but nobody is allowed to enter Fallujah who does not come from there and can prove it through elaborate identity documents. The city has been sealed off since November 2004 when United States Marines stormed it in an attack that left much of the city in ruins.

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning

The muses are ancient.  The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them.  Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward.  In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.

It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse.  Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets.  Others have been suggested throughout the centuries.  I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts.  And maybe there should be many more.

Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…

Just One Heartbeat Away

In The Things They Carried, a compelling condemnation of war every American should read, Vietnam veteran Tim O’Brien describes the physical and psychological burdens young American soldiers had to carry for 365 days and nights, through the rice paddies and hamlets of a foreign land 10,000 miles from home, haunted by the knowledge that sudden and violent death might be just one heartbeat away. . .    

They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die.  Grief, terror, love, longing-these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.  They carried shameful memories.  They carried the common secret of cowardice . . . Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to.

Because refusing to kill other human beings would have been so embarrassing, 50,000 young Americans went off to boot camp and came back in body bags from the Ia Drang Valley, the Central Highlands, the streets of Hue, or a sandbagged bunker at Khe Sanh.  The killing went on and on, because losing that shameful war was a consequence politicians in Washington wanted to avoid as long as possible.  Sitting in their plush offices, they concluded that 50,000 slaughtered Americans and 2,000,000 slaughtered Vietnamese was a bargain basement price to pay for Peace With Honor.

America’s shameful occupation of Iraq is being prolonged by politicians in Washington with the same craven disregard for the sanctity of human life.  Instead of Impeaching the criminals responsible for five years of war crimes, they deny the harsh realities staring them in the face, and tell America “uplifting” war stories about that “heroic battle against terrorism” they sent the sons and daughters of other people off to fight in a country where 40 percent of the world’s oil just happens to be, instead of in Afghanistan and Pakistan where all the terrorists are.                    

Tim O’Brien doesn’t tell uplifting war stories.  There is nothing uplifting about human beings killing each other so politicians can parade around as patriots and war profiteers can get rich . . .  

If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.

The Stars Hollow Gazette

Super DuckAh. Everyone still loves Don Vito and the Corleones on the rock hard hockey puck chicken circuit.  At least that’s what they say to my face.

Why I even had my friend Vincenzo drop by.  We were very civil.

While I sometimes speak ex cathedra there is only one capo di tutti.

I wish to make it clear that 200 – 500 words and a graphic is only a suggestion for a front page piece, not a requirement.  It’s actually rather easy to be Front Paged here, all you have to be is good.  We’ll make it look pretty if you don’t have artistic sensibilities to be offended.

Not that being good or Front Page aspirations are a requirement to post- you get 2 (count ’em) TWO! essays a day so you can easily change your mind about what’s important, follow BREAKING!!! developments if you care to.

On the other hand there are three Pony Parties a day (@ 9, noon, and 6) if all you have is a comment for an Open Thread and Muse in the Morning, DocuDharma Times, and 4 at 4 are also there for your convenience.

We encourage participation of all kinds.

Why I’m Leaving APA (hint: something to do with torture)

I’m sending a letter off to the American Psychological Association (APA) explaining my decision to resign membership from that organization, stimulated by APA’s failure to address the torture issue. The text of the letter follows below (with hypertext links added here to assist the reader with context).

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

January 27, 2008

Alan E. Kazdin, Ph.D.

President, American Psychological Association

750 First Street, NE

Washington, DC 20002-4232

Dear Dr. Kazdin,

I hereby resign my membership in the American Psychological Association (APA). I have up until now been working with Psychologists for an Ethical APA for an overturn in APA policy on psychologist involvement in national security interrogations, and I greatly respect those who are fighting via a dues boycott to influence APA policy on this matter. I hope to still work with these principled and dedicated professionals, but I cannot do it anymore from a position within APA.

What Happened to Fallujah?

When Bush gives his state of the union address in a few days, he will probably talk about Iraq and the “surge”, but he probably won’t mention Fallujah.

In 2004 Fallujah, Iraq, a city of 600,000 persons was attacked by the US after a handful of mercenaries from the firm Blackwater were killed while transporting refrigerator supplies to a military base.  There was a news blackout about the siege, but there were reports of many civilian deaths and the use of illegal weapons by the US.

Now,three years later, the situation in Fallujah is still bleak. A correspondent for the Independent entered the city and reported for the paper.  He must be a long term resident, because the city is still under siege. There are 27 checkpoints along the road to Fallujah making it the most difficult city to enter in the world.

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