April 11, 2008 archive

Felt Like a Week

Took a half day yesterday because it was the first 70 degree day of spring.  There is something natural and primitive with horses that puts you in their time frame.  That is to say horses have no concept of time, maybe we should not be obsessed with it either.  Vacation is about a change.  Change of scenery, change of setting, but mostly change of mind.

The Death of a Blogger: Coins for the Ferryman

Down in New Orleans, they are burying the noted blogger, rabid Saints fan and local bon vivant ashley morris today. He leaves behind a wife and three young kids, and they need your help.

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Ashley Morris

Four at Four

  1. The New York Times reports Gunmen kill aide to al-Sadr in Iraq. Sayyed Riyadh al-Nuri, “a senior aide of Moktada al-Sadr… was killed in Najaf, the Shiite holy city south of Baghdad, as he returned home from prayers on Friday in what Sadrists officials said was an assassination carried out by unknown gunmen.” So, who could have carried out the assassination? Don’t know, but there are a lot of mercenaries in Iraq. “The killing is certain to increase tensions between Mr. Sadr’s Mahdi Army and government security forces, who fought a huge battle in Basra last month and have been engaged in heavy fighting in Mr. Sadr’s eastern Baghdad stronghold, Sadr City.”

    Meanwhile, the AP reports “Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he doubts that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr… would be subject to arrest by U.S. forces… When pressed about the prospect of arresting al-Sadr, he added, ‘I would be surprised along those lines _ a move to arrest him. He is a significant political figure. We want him to work within the political process. He has a large following. It is important that he become a part of the process, if he is not already.'”

    Arrest al-Sadr? Right, you and whose army? We saw how inept the Iraqi army was in Basra last month and does the Bush administration really want to drive up the U.S. casualties this summer? Plus, since al-Sadr is the man who apparently can turn the violence on or off in Iraq, arresting him would mean no one is controlling the spigot.

    According to Reuters, Iran cleric rejects Bush’s accusations on Iraq.

    “Iran has never interfered in Iraq … such claims are sheer lies made by Iraq’s occupiers to continue Iraq’s occupation,” Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a senior advisor to Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told worshippers in a Friday prayers sermon at Tehran University.

    “Iran supports the establishment of peace, security and freedom in Iraq as well as the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq,” added Rafsanjani, also head of a powerful arbitrary body.

    Bush, who has accused Iran of backing militant groups in southern Iraq and providing explosives to extremists in the country, said Tehran had to choose between peace or war… The United States also is leading efforts to isolate Iran over its nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to acquire nuclear bombs. Tehran says its atomic work is solely to generate electricity.

    And, Bush has been a big advocate of nuclear energy… They’re all nuts.

Conyers to Hold Hearings on Torture

While adding a comment to Bhudydharma’s FP Essay:   The Torture Conspiracy:  Will They Get Away With It? I came across this:   Newsrelease:  Conyers Plans to hold May 6 hearings on Torture Memo & Executive Power.  

Excerpts Below, as well as Contact links for the Chairman of the Judiciary and the Speaker of the House:

The Torture Conspiracy: Will They Get Away With It?

It has become obvious that left to her own devices Nancy Pelosi WILL let them get away with it….no matter what they do or how horrendous “it” is. She is the only one with the real authority to stop them. And she, apparently, will not. The answer then, seems to be: Yes, they will. And a new administration is not the answer either.

The implications here are truly chilling. If the Democrats won’t pursue prosecution….We are faced with a government with NO internal or external checks. A government not subject to the law. A government which can wage aggressive war and torture with complete impunity. That is NOT hyperbole, it is where we stand at this very moment in time.

A I wrote yesterday and wish to emphasize:

The latest revelations from ABC News clearly point to a high level, willful conspiracy to commit torture:

Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects — whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.

The high-level discussions about these “enhanced interrogation techniques” were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed — down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.  

At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

CLEARLY a conspiracy to commit illegal acts, and not a technical conspiracy, see my bolding above.

I am not a lawyer, but if you are charged, as the Democrats are as the alleged Opposition Party, with the duty and responsibility of oversight and holding the government accountable for illegal acts…..indeed, if you are the only one capable of it….and you choose not to act, the you become part of the conspiracy to commit illegal acts.

If both Parties are conspirators, our government can do whatever it wants with complete impunity, with no responsibility or accountability. They can, and so far have, literally get away with murder.  

Updated: The IOC on Athletes and Tibet: What ARE They Thinking?

Some folks out there may remember that I wrote a while back on the IOC’s decision to give the Olympic games to China, asking rhetorically, “What were they thinking?”

Right now, given the IOC’s desire to see the Bubblelympics continue free of any influences of the world outside the Olympic village, I’ve just gotta ask, “What are they thinking?”

The Times UK covers the recent “decision” of the IOC regarding whether or not athletes at the games can make any political statements. Calling displays of the Tibetan flag potential propaganda, the IOC stated that athletes could be banned for such displays.

Ah, yes, but how to handle that whole “freedom of speech” thing?

Follow me under the fold for the machinations…

Pony Party, Serendipity, and Toad

Toad the Wet Sprocket, “All I Want” (probably their most popular song after “Walk on the Ocean”, which was so overplayed I wont even include it here 😉

Native America Go Home????

MEXICO CITY (AP) – The Absolut vodka company apologized Saturday for an ad campaign depicting the southwestern U.S. as part of Mexico amid angry calls for a boycott by U.S. consumers.

The campaign, which promotes ideal scenarios under the slogan “In an Absolut World,” showed a 1830s-era map when Mexico included California, Texas and other southwestern states. Mexico still resents losing that territory in the 1848 Mexican-American War and the fight for Texas independence.

But the ads, which ran only in Mexico and have since ended, were less than ideal for Americans undergoing a border buildup and embroiled in an emotional debate over illegal immigration from their southern neighbor.  [more]

150+ years’ worth of history of “owning” said land vs. tens of thousands of years’ historical habitation?  Which much of the US public insists those narsty NATIVE AMERICANS (whom Lou Dobbs et al refer to as “illegal aliens”) forget they ever inhabited?  OK…

Brother Bobby Tellin It Like It Is, Muller That Is

Shorter Iraq Deployments Aim to Ease Strain on U.S. Forces

Assessing the burden on soldiers

I am not the fine man you take me for

I am not the fine man you take me for.  No no.   I come in April to sell a string of horses and try my luck in the streams.  What I got for the stock I lost at the wheel, and the flake I washed up I drank the fuck away.  I don’t know as I’ll get home at all.  I sold my boots.  I owe $9 to a whore.

~Deadwood

There is something that troubles me about blogging.  What troubles me is that we choose what we post, what we share about ourselves, how we present ourselves to others.  I wouldn’t have it any other way; relationships with other people online are ill-defined at best, and as much as I like many of you, you are by and large strangers.  You are not entitled of more of me that I choose to give you, which is a two-way street, of course.

Like most of you, I try to be intelligent, thoughtful, and courteous when I post.  I hope that I succeed more than I fail.  But what I think is that being smart or being nice doesn’t mean that I am good.  I don’t know that I’m a good person, and I don’t know that y’all are either.

Muse in the Morning

Art Link

Bleeding

Bleeding the Colors

I have bled blood red

Three decades later than

I would have liked,

aided by a surgeon’s knife,

but I have bled blood red.

I’ve bled before,

just not that color.

It’s the shade

I was missing

in my world.

I’ve bled the sickly yellow of fear

and the desolate blue of sadness,

the empty grey of loneliness

and the worn out brown of long years

of waiting.

I’ve bled the bluish purple of pain

and the emerald green of envy,

the dark scarlet of anger

and the all-consuming black

of depression.

I’ve bled the purplegreengold

sparkles in my vision

as I fell asleep

to dream of a life that

I couldn’t live.

I’ve bled the tarnished silverpink

of a love that I thought

was real but was

an illusion/delusion

and abusive and wrong.

I’ve bled the dusky rainbows

of confusion and turmoil

and the toxic hues

of insanity and dis-ease

and death.

I’ve bled the colors

until they ceased existing

and I would have joined them,

but I finally bled

the blood red of life.

I’ve bled red twice now

and the colors are back,

sharp and crisp

and bright and airy

and joyful.

I’ve bled red twice now

and the colors are real,

and they don’t need me

to bleed them,

for I have bled blood red.

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March, 1995

Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…

Pony Party, Serendipity, and Toad

Toad the Wet Sprocket, “All I Want” (probably their most popular song after “Walk on the Ocean”, which was so overplayed I wont even include it here 😉

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