Pet Shop Boys
May 2009 archive
May 05 2009
Late Night Karaoke
May 05 2009
Advice for Contacting Congress
This essay was inspired by an interesting exchange in the Dog’s Weekly Torture Action Letter. The Dog’s work is excellent and we should continue to support his efforts. However, there was a bit of a discussion about the best tactics for contacting your legislators. I want to chime in with some thoughts of my own.
I want to say that the Dog’s letters are excellent. Please keep those letters moving, whether you are using the these letters or composing your own. We can make a difference.
Instead, this essay is more of a general primer for contacting your member of Congress or Senator about any topic. First a little about me. I am not bragging, just establishing credentials. I am a graduate student in American politics in Washington. I have several friends who are Capital Hill staffers and my professor for a class in the Legislative process works on the Hill. I have not personally worked at the Capital, but that is mostly because I cannot afford to do the requisite unpaid internship in order to get a regular job (and I am starting a much cooler job tomorrow anyway). Before that, I wrote for a newspaper and regularly communicated with state and federal legislators. I am in a position to comment on this.
This advice is centered on contacting federal legislators, but the same advice applies to contacting state officials.
May 05 2009
Early Retirement Window
The suckiness of life is only exceeded by the suckiness of people who suck. In this case the suck factor applies to those who have to follow “the rules” even if they make zero sense.
May 05 2009
Adjusting to Success
Disclaimer: This essay in no way suggests that we should lessen our efforts or become complacent and uninvolved!!!
After eight years of failure, we are starting to succeed. Can we handle that?
On torture for instance, by far the greatest danger was that the change in administrations would cause the Bush War Crimes to be swept under the rug. Now we can see that it will not be.
That is a success!
There is still much work to be done of course, but hey, we won! We cleared the first hurdle after eight years of having everything we were trying to achieve shot down at the first hurdle by Cheney’s Assassination Squads.
Now political success is always relative. It IS the art of compromise. But that was a lost art under Bush. The absolute key to compromise, to negotiation, is asking for more than you want and then in the best case scenario, compromising down from those demands to getting to what you actually wanted in the first place. Asking, for that first goal, asking for too much is OUR job, the job of the Far Left.
And right now, as reality is showing us starkly and plainly…..anyone to the Left of Arlen Specter is the Far Left!
So yes, WE do ask for European Style Socialism and safety nets, WE call for an end to war, WE call for every economic policy that will take power from the Ruling Class and give it to the poor.
And that means that we will ALWAYS “lose.”
Because we won’t get what we ask for. We will always get something less. We will get compromised.
And that, my Far Left friends…..is success.
Because for the last eight years, we haven’t gotten squat.
So keep Yelling!
But also quietly acknowledge our successes when they come.
Because now they WILL come.
May 04 2009
Feinstein’s Secret Torture Probe May Nix Public Hearings
Sen. Feinstein’s ongoing, secret torture probe is ostensibly only a 1-year “review” or “study.” In reality, these proceedings are a functional equivalent of proposed public Congressional inquiries. The Feinstein probe covers the same substantive issues that would be investigated by Congressional probes that are still languishing in the debate stage. The Feinstein probe will review classified CIA documents and “interview” witnesses so that it can formulate US torture policy. CIA witnesses will be key to both the Feinstein probe and any Congressional hearings. Given the number of pressing issues and crises facing the US, will Congress be motivated to conduct a public investigation after Feinstein’s probe is completed? If not, then the Feinstein probe will be the only torture investigation. Moreover, the Feinstein probe will formulate US torture policy in secret without public knowledge or participation and a report from this probe may never be released to the public. In short, some in DC have may have decided to implement the move-forward policy whether you like it or not.
May 04 2009
Four at Four
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The Guardian reports Pakistan’s expanding nuclear projects raise fears. “Pakistan is continuing to expand its nuclear bomb-making facilities… The Khushab reactors are situated on the border of Punjab and North-West Frontier province, the scene of heavy fighting between Taliban and government forces. Another allegedly vulnerable facility is the Gadwal uranium enrichment plant, less than 60 miles south of Buner district, where some of the fiercest clashes have taken place in recent days.”
McClatchy adds the U.S. is still confident that “the Pakistani military, which maintains a special 10,000-man force to guard its nuclear facilities, is taking extraordinary steps to protect its nuclear sites, as well as the warheads themselves.” But, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thinks the Taliban’s advance is a “mortal threat” to the United States and the world.
“If the worst, the unthinkable, were to happen, and this advancing Taliban encouraged and supported by al Qaida and other extremists were to essentially topple the government for failure to beat them back, then they would have the keys to the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan,” she said…
“‘There is a rising tide of jihadist sympathizers within the Pakistani military,’ asserted the U.S. defense official.”
Spiegel reports on The battle for control of Pakistan.
A British regional expert with top intelligence agency connections recently told an exclusive circle of members of parliament in London: “The ally Pakistan does not share our interests.” He said Islamabad intends “to topple Afghanistan’s President Karzai, install a Pakistan-friendly Pashtun government and drive the British, the Americans and NATO out of the country.”
…Pakistani courts have not convicted a single prominent Islamist since 2001…
Pakistan’s key vulnerability may not actually lie with the security system for its nuclear warheads. A greater threat to the 166 million Pakistanis appears to emanate from the country’s immeasurably corrupt society, with its stark class differences. The rich elite ignore the miseries of the poor, and there is no compulsory education or functioning health-care system. This makes society’s underprivileged particularly receptive to any form of attention, even from the otherwise dreaded Islamists. The militants at least offer income and opportunities to rise through the ranks…
By contrast, the powerful army is more concerned with pursuing its own business deals than with protecting the Pakistanis from Islamist aggressors.
The NY Times adds Pakistan’s Islamic schools fill a void, but fuel militancy. “With public education in a shambles, Pakistan’s poorest families have turned to madrasas, or Islamic schools, that feed and house the children while pushing a more militant brand of Islam than was traditional here.”
“We are at the beginning of a great storm that is about to sweep the country,” said Ibn Abduh Rehman, who directs the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent organization. “It’s red alert for Pakistan.”
Even if the madrasas do not make militants, they create a worldview that makes militancy possible. “The mindset wants to stop music, girls’ schools and festivals,” said Salman Abid, a social researcher in southern Punjab. “Their message is that this is not real life. Real life comes later” – after death.
Four at Four continues with Iraq, U.S. collapsing from debt, swine flu ebbs in Mexico, and crowded oceans.
May 04 2009
Did you say “crabby”…?
May 04 2009
Weekly Torture Action Letter 9 – China And Rule Of Law
Welcome to the 9th in the Dog’s letter writing campaign series. This series is dedicated to taking action (even if it is a small action) every week on the issue of torture. Here is how it works, each week the Dog writes a letter highlighting some aspect of the torture issue and making the point this requires investigation. The Dog sends these letters to the President, the Supreme Court, AG Holder, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid and Rep. John Conyers, the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Your part, if you chose to act is pretty easy. Simply cut and paste the letter and send it under your own name.
May 04 2009
The war on small scale food producers moves into brewing
Not for the first time, craft brewing is under attack by the big boys. The Brewer’s Association, a consortium of professional and home brewers and the parent organization of the American Homebrewing Association, has formed a coalition to bring national awareness of issues concerning this industry to the general public. The AHA sent a disturbing message out this morning to it’s members living in the State of New York, which I’ve cut and pasted because it puts it more succinctly than I can. I’ve put it below the fold as non-New Yorkers might not be interested and it’s pretty space intensive. This IS an action alert, so if you live in NY State please take a look.
May 04 2009
We Need Someone To Take On Torture Apologists.
It’s Monday so usually the first thing the Dog writes is the weekly torture letter,that is going to be a little later but there is something going on that he thinks the DD crew is uniquely suited to address. We are seeing a massive increase in the number of torture apologist articles in the newspapers and on the Web. This is the an attempt by the pro-torture camp, aided by the weakest kneed of the pundocracy to set the frame for the issue with the vast majority of population who are troubled about torture but not yet on board with investigations and prosecutions.
