April 24, 2008 archive

Its on the front page of the papers

This is their hour of need

Wheres a policeman when you need one

To blame the colour tv?

Thursday’s Headlines: Deomcratic superdelegates also divided over a prolonged race: For Children, a Better Beginning: Gaza fuel embargo blocks UN aid: Hints of progress toward a deal on the Golan Heights: Korea’s ‘comfort women’: The slaves’ revolt: Filmgoer faces jail in Thailand for sitting during the national anthem: French finally face Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo: Credit Suisse bank loses billions: Zimbabwe’s church leaders warn the world: intervene to avert genocide:    

Is it time to give up the search for an Aids vaccine?

After 25 years and billions of pounds, leading scientists are now forced to ask this question

By Steve Connor and Chris Green

Thursday, 24 April 2008

Most scientists involved in Aids research believe that a vaccine against HIV is further away than ever and some have admitted that effective immunisation against the virus may never be possible, according to an unprecedented poll conducted by The Independent.

A mood of deep pessimism has spread among the international community of Aids scientists after the failure of a trial of a promising vaccine at the end of last year. It just was the latest in a series of setbacks in the 25-year struggle to develop an HIV vaccine.

The Independent’s survey of more than 35 leading Aids scientists in Britain and the United States found that just two were now more optimistic about the prospects for an HIV vaccine than they were a year ago; only four said they were more optimistic now than they were five years ago.

You are what you think. Not what you think you are, just what you think. That miracles spark behind your eyes is very much more “You” than the whole of your body.

Sit.

Close your eyes.

Breathe.

Observe.

If you truly see nothing, watch for a while. Try to imagine nothing watching you. But, don’t try hard. Look to the edge of nothing, is there an end to it? Look around. This is where you are. You are the only one here. Look long enough, and you will learn to see what you are looking around with.

Amazing, to me, that each could be the way I see my own, if I see clearly.

But, …. The way I see it is just the way I see it, see?

So…What do you see?

Kertis Engle 1993 No title, No copyright.

First, because you may not have seen it, here is the letter. If you want to skip it, scroll to the heavy line on the next page.

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This morning, during a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee, I questioned FBI Director Robert Mueller on his agency’s response to claims – made by his own FBI agents – that the CIA was torturing prisoners.  I wanted to find out why, if the FBI’s own agents had alleged illegal actions were taking place, there was no investigation into the CIA’s illegal and immoral practices.

Mueller’s responses, which I would like you to read below, create new concerns and call for further investigation in the days ahead.

I believe Mr. Mueller owes more to Congress and the American people than the half-answers he gave in his testimony today.

I would urge you to contact the editors and news departments of your local media and ask them to look into the responses below.  It is critical that this discussion takes place beyond emails and blogs – and is covered by the mainstream media.

In two weeks the Judiciary Committee will be holding hearings to investigate the fact that the highest levels of the Bush Administration sanctioned and ordered the torture of prisoners in United States custody.  This is intolerable and we must vigorously oppose this policy that demeans our nation and offends our conscience.

Please read the below transcript of my exchange with Mr. Muller.

This is a deeply troubling interchange which should be alarming to all Americans.

Congressman Robert Wexler

Gettysburg.

When I was but a lad one of my few enjoyable experiences in Boy Scouts was camping one weekend in Gettysburg Pennsylvania.  Among other memorable events I got to take a wizz on Ike Eisenhower’s fence.

That was not the main program.  Mouldering away in some dusty storage box is my uniform shirt with my “Blue and Grey” patch.  This was 2 days of structured hiking and lectures covering salient features of the Union and Confederate lines from all three days of conflict as well as some visits to local tourist traps like the Cyclorama.  We might have visited the Cemetery for a recitation of the Gettysburg Address but if so it did not make that strong an impression on me.

Little did actually, because of the structure.  First you did the Union line, all three days, and you started out in Gettysburg and worked your way down to Little Round Top visiting each monument in line, listening to the lecture from the Scout Guide Book read by the Scoutmaster or designee (suck ups) and copying the appropriate phrase from the monument into your proof book that you turned in at the end of the hike so you could get a passing grade for not being a slacker.

It’s not very hard walking, about 10 miles a day, but it does take about 10 or 12 hours because of lectures and breaks and it kind of goes Day 1, 2, and 3; Day 3; Day 2.  The next day you do the Confederate line.

About early afternoon, on the second day of your stay, when it’s hot and the sun is high in the sky, you arrive on the edge of the wood on Seminary Ridge across the field from Emmetsburg Road and the monuments you visited the day before and you visit the monument of Edward Porter Alexander.

Then you walk across the field, climb over the fence (probably don’t let you do that now), cross the road (looking both ways as good Scouts are trained) and visit the monument of Lew Armistead (if you are as lazy as I am you have already copied down the magic phrase the day before so you can kind of ignore this part).

And then you walk back and continue your tour.

I frequently wish that I could visit again now that I am no longer 14.  I would surely structure it differently and pay more attention.

After July 3rd, 1863 the Army of Northern Virgina was no longer able to conduct offensive operations in Union territory.  Until April 9th, 1865 all they could do was retreat with occasional local counterattacks until they were destroyed in a trench warfare battle of attrition in front of Petersburg.

On July 4th, 1863 John C. Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg.  People who don’t understand that Generals study logistics and not tactics sometimes argue about the relative importance of these 2 events.  I say this-

PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR,

Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance.

On August 22, 2007, I wrote about the death of Eleazar Torres-Gomez.

Eleazar Torres-Gomez was pronounced dead on the scene after apparently being dragged by a conveyor into an industrial dryer.  Torres-Gomez was trapped in the dryer-which can reportedly reach temperatures of 300 degrees-for at least 20 minutes.

Did Eleazar Torres-Gomez Lose his Life for Company Profits?

Today, from the Wall Street Journal:

New details about the case — from internal company memos, Cintas surveillance videotapes and people close to the federal investigation — indicate that the dangerous practices that led to Mr. Torres-Gomez’s death occurred frequently in Tulsa and at other plants operated by Cintas, the biggest uniform supplier in North America.

There was a hearing of the Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee today on Cintas and safety.  That, and more, after the fold.

Also in orange earlier today: http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Following a pivotal article by Jeff Stein at Congressional Quarterly a few weeks back, today’s Washington Post published an important article today, “Detainees Allege Being Drugged, Questioned.” The story, by Post staff writer Joby Warrick, notes U.S. denials in using drug injections for coercive purposes during interrogations.

Adel al-Nusairi, a Saudi national imprisoned for years at Guanatanmo, and now released without charges, has a different memory:

“I’d fall asleep” after the shot, Nusairi, a former Saudi policeman captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2002, recalled in an interview with his attorney at the military prison in Cuba, according to notes. After being roused, Nusairi eventually did talk, giving U.S. officials what he later described as a made-up confession to buy some peace.

“I was completely gone,” he remembered. “I said, ‘Let me go. I want to go to sleep. If it takes saying I’m a member of al-Qaeda, I will.'”

^{roblisameehan (flickr creative commons)}