I can remember when the Coast Guard was thought of as the fire department of the sea, it’s primary function being to rescue. Not so in “this post 911 world”.
September 12, 2009 archive
Sep 12 2009
So Today’s The Big Day!
Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 05:00:00 PDT
Fri Sep 12, 2008 at 05:00:00 PDT
Time to start making our marks.
We look sharp, time to be sharp.
Sep 12 2009
Quagmires: 8yrs. After 9/11
Public Views Shifting on War in Afghanistan
Jeffrey Brown speaks with editorial page editors about the public’s view on the war in Afghanistan and increasing doubts over sending more troops.
JIM LEHRER: The prospect of expanding the American presence in Afghanistan ran into new opposition today. It came as the nation marked the anniversary of 9/11, the event that triggered the war in Afghanistan.
Ray Suarez has our lead story report……..Rest of Transcript Here
Sep 12 2009
Docudharma Times Saturday September 12
A Year After a Cataclysm, Little Change on Wall St.
By ALEX BERENSON
Published: September 11, 2009
Wall Street lives on.
One year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the surprise is not how much has changed in the financial industry, but how little.Backstopped by huge federal guarantees, the biggest banks have restructured only around the edges. Employment in the industry has fallen just 8 percent since last September. Only a handful of big hedge funds have closed. Pay is already returning to precrash levels, topped by the 30,000 employees of Goldman Sachs, who are on track to earn an average of $700,000 this year. Nor are major pay cuts likely, according to a report last week from J.P. Morgan Securities. Executives at most big banks have kept their jobs. Financial stocks have soared since their winter lows.
US ready for N Korea direct talks
The US says it would hold direct talks with North Korea to persuade it to return to stalled multilateral talks on ending its nuclear programme.
The BBC Saturday, 12 September 2009
A spokesman for the US state department said that there had been no decision on when such talks might take place.
Philip Crowley insisted the move was not a policy shift and talks would take place within “the six-party process”.
North Korea pulled out of multilateral talks in April after international criticism following a rocket launch.
“It’s a bi-lateral discussion that (is) hopefully…within the six-party context, and it’s designed to convince North Korea to come back to the six-party process and to take affirmative steps towards de-nuclearisation,” Mr Crowley said from Washington.
Sep 12 2009
Official story of 9/11 “almost entirely untrue”
Well, even though it’s now 9/12, I didn’t have time on 9/11 to do much of anything at all, so here’s my one-day-late 9/11 essay.
It is a direct copy of the piece that got me banned from DK. It’s also a story of gross corporate media censorship, of a kind that should scare us all half to death.
Okay, I’m not gonna copy it word for word. Because that wouldn’t let me tell the story of how the book — and my piece was about a book that was written by a 9/11 Commission insider, John Farmer — has been “disappeared”. I mean, this book seems to have simply vanished.
Here’s the original story I wrote over at Dailykos. In it, I simply describe John Farmer, and his forthcoming book.
John Farmer is pretty impressive:
John Farmer served as Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission, where his areas of responsibility included assessing the national response to the terrorist attacks and evaluating the current state of national preparedness for terrorist attacks and natural disasters, he also served as attorney general of New Jersey (1999-2002), as chief counsel to Governor Whitman, and as a federal prosecutor. He recently served as a subject matter/rule of law expert on security to the special envoy for Middle East regional security. He is currently a partner of a New Jersey law form and an adjunct professor of national security law at Rutgers University Law School. His editorials and articles have appeared in “The New York Times” and elsewhere.
I have since discovered an amazing site called “History Commons”. If you do a search for John Farmer over there, you discover that it was he who constantly brought attention to the bullshit the Commission was receiving from the Pentagon, the FAA, and many others. It was he who asked the questions that nobody would answer.
Well, he decided to write a book. And being who he was, none other than Houghton Mifflin Harcourt decided to publish it.
Here’s what the book was going to look like:
It was scheduled to have been released by now.
Sep 12 2009
All Groups favor choice of Public Option — in Mid August!
SurveyUSA conducted a Poll in Mid-August — prior to Obama’s well-received Speech in September — and they found that across the spectrum of Demographics Groups, a majority of Americans thought it was Extremely Important to have a Choice of a Public Option!
Here is the Question which was asked, in a Survey of 1200 Americans, from all around the Country:
In any health care proposal, how important do you feel it is to give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance — extremely important, quite important, not that important, or not at all important?
All Groups
Margin of Sampling Error: ± 2.9%
Survey by SurveyUSA
Geography: USA 50 States
Data Collected: 08/19/2009
Release Date: 08/20/2009
Sponsor: MoveOn.org PAC
Sep 12 2009
Live Blogging YELLING LOUDER on Air America
Good evening, my fellow dharma bums. My name is Jesse LaGreca, and I hope you enjoy my first interview on Air America Radio.
You can listen in on your computer by clicking here at airamerica.com/listen
Or you can find out which radio station in your area broadcasts AirAmerica by clicking here
It’s midnight Friday Night or Saturday Morning here on the east coast, We’ll be discussing progressive politics, President Obama, the important roll bloggers have in American Politics, and YELLING LOUDER with Nicole Sandler for the next hour, and I’ll be live blogging it here at Docudharma during the commercial breaks.
Time to kick ass.
Wish me luck.
Sep 12 2009
Attorney General Holder Needs to Resign
So, we learn today that Attorney General Eric Holder will not prosecute Bradley Schlozman for perjuring himself before Congress:
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder has decided not to bring any criminal charges against a former Bush administration official who lawmakers said lied to them in sworn testimony.
If the Attorney General will not enforce the law, he needs to resign his office.
Sep 12 2009
The Stars Hollow Gazette
What a long strange trip it’s been.
Well, anniversaries are supposed to be times of introspection and remembrance. If I concentrate a little on my own feelings and less on those of others it’s because I value everyone’s contribution so much that I don’t trust myself not to forget one or two.
I’ve spoken before about this being a team blog, indeed tomorrow at 8 am I’ll repost my opening day essays and the first Pony Party to start the celebration. We publish a good amount of content, most of which is excellent.
I like to feature the essays of others on the Front Page, but it’s a mixed blessing. You only last about a day unless you’re picked up on the Rec List which is a dKos and a half (12 to the uninitiate). It ages in 3 days which is just about long enough to keep it filled through Thanksgiving and eksmas.
I’m not likely to feature personal stories because I’m not sure how much you really want to share although I can think of occasional exceptions.
I have my Recent Essays set to 50 and essays age in about 3 days there too. In terms of volume of original content I’d compare our collective output to some pretty active sites though I have no statistics at all to support that.
I look at DocuDharma pretty much as a interactive Daily Newspaper, Literary Magazine, and Gossip Column, so those are the kind of stories I tend to promote, but there are other editorial voices and I’m very responsive to recommendations.
I expect the future will pretty much resemble the past. I think that after the election it’s going to be quite a problem to enact a progressive agenda. but I am sure what the results will be if we don’t at least try.
My hopes for DocuDharma are rather modest, that it remain a place where people are not afraid to express themselves creatively or politically and that through discussion we can generate some activity and awareness that percolates up.
Sep 12 2009
Robert Greenwald, of Brave New Films, comes through AGAIN!
As you know, WE’ve been screaming and yelling for over eight years now and we’ve been heard, WE’ve simply been ignored. On ALL of the issues of UTMOST importance, we have lost, i.e., the many anti-war movements and marches, the multitudinous efforts to have Bush and Cheney Impeached, thwarted by Ms. Pelosi (Impeachment would be “too divisive”), and the ensuing ills that were foisted upon us thereafter — AFTER taking Impeachment “off the table.” Well, I think everyone knows the issues we have fought on. We have fought endlessly for investigations and prosecutions of our “war criminals.” And now, we are seeing a “limited investigation.”* There are endless efforts to “expand” the wars the aggressions and the funding thereby. This, of course, pertains to our International failings.
On a domestic level, I consider the healthcare reform issue as large an issue, as the International issues. To me, both of these International and domestic issues are a “symbol” of our nation and how we are defined and the direction we are headed. We are DEFINITELY at a pivotal point in our history as to WHO we are as a nation. It’s not looking good — more closely related to “3rd world country.”
Somehow, I almost feel like the “healthcare issue” will be our FINAL defining point of us, as a people, and the epitome of our direction, as a country. WHY? Because if we cannot FINALLY (after so many years, and way long after so many other nations), decide on the importance of US, as plain, ordinary human beings and AMERICANS, then, I truly believe this will be our final “signal” as to a nation lost to fascism, or whatever you wish to call it.
So, can we reverse the “trend” of the healthcare situation? Well, if ALL of us DO NOT FIGHT LIKE HELL, we will “lose” again. It’s your choice! We NEED to be supportive of those “groups” who are genuinely supportive of us!
And, so, here is the sign-up to help support Brave New Films, in so many ways!
This effort, and Mad As Hell Doctors (reporting regularly) are worth our efforts! DO SOMETHING!!!!
The Truth Behind Public Option
Time to Get to WorkFormer Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains what a public option for healthcare coverage really means for working people.
We thank Jacob Kornbluth for directing and producing the Robert Reich interview portion of this piece.
We can’t let the insurance companies decide who gets care and who doesn’t.
Pass it on to everyone you know.
Then contribute to Brave New Films so we can continue to get the word out on the real truth behind public option.Also see: The video expose on Stephen Hemsley, CEO of UnitedHealth Group>
Learn more about the insurance company CEOs [Just looking as these faces is enough to get you ill.]
My instincts are speaking loud and clear — I hope yours are, too!
* (I hope that this limited investigation will not “run out the statute” (our national one) for those detainees still “alive,” as that particular statute will run out soon. I need to check on that, as I don’t know how this particular investigation affects that issue, but it’s something to consider. Yes, the investigation of the “dead by torture” is a war crime punishable by death and a good one to pursue, but the “dead” can’t speak on their own behalf.
