August 1, 2010 archive

Scott Horton Interviews Julian Assange

Posted July 30, 2010 by Youtube user AntiwarRadio (Antiwar.com/Radio/) – Scott Horton interviewed WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange:

Julian Assange, co-founder and spokesperson for WikiLeaks, discusses the 15 thousand unreleased intelligence reports from Afghanistan, efforts to get the WikiLeaks Garani massacre video ready for public release, the warning from Seymour Hersh that government officials were ready to ignore the rule of law to silence him (Assange), indications that the supposedly leaked 260,000 diplomatic cables never made it to WikiLeaks, the secret rendition program from Somalia to Kenya and how Bradley Manning’s confinement in Kuwait is essentially rendition.



Scott Horton, July 28, 2010 – transcript below

There is also an mp3 version of this interview.

“Native languages in ‘a state of emergency'”


Native voices heard at national language summit By Rob Capriccioso

Cultural Survival Quarterly recently reported that “unless dramatic action is taken now, more than 70 Native American languages will become extinct within the next 10 years.” The publication helped sponsor the summit, citing its concern about the situation.

AP: If there is a new Great Depression, it’s YOUR FAULT.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

In a Sunday article, labeled Double Dippers could enable what they fear Tom Raum, writing for the Associated Press, proclaimed:

Their warnings could become self-fulfilling prophecies if they frighten enough people into holding tightly onto their wallets. With consumer spending accounting for two-thirds of economic activity, anything that further rattles consumers can undercut recovery hopes.

Mr. Raum offers not one shred of factual, statistical evidence that economists scaring people to hold onto their money would actually cause a Double Dip recession to occur.

As proof of his assertion, Mr. Raum offers nothing more than a lame quote and an opinion

Are double dippers becoming recovery party poopers?

“If consumers are hearing a lot of bad economic news and they’re already scared, they might pull back some more,” said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight.

So, if we are to believe Mr. Raum, who offers quotes and vapors to justify a perspective put out as news by a major news organization, we are to believe that it’s those Evil Doomsaying Voodoo Economists scaring the witless public with their talk of Economic Catastrophe, Casting a Voodoo Spell over the Public, to Make them Afraid of Buying and Buying More and More Useless Stuff.  If such a catastrophe were to actually happen, in Mr. Raum’s world, it would be all the fault of those terrible terrible economists, with their Voodoo Graphs and Numbers, who refuse to Wear A Happy Face and tell everyone Don’t Worry Be Happy and Buy Buy Buy, who will be the cause of the Greatest Economic Disaster since the Great Depression.

Oh, if they would only Shut THE HELL UP!  Then everything would be fine.

I am forced to ask if Mr. Rahm has looked at a single chart, read a single blogger who, you know, actually looks at numbers and stuff, or even a well respected columnist who explains in grim, factual detail why American workers and families have every reason to be frightened out of their wits and save, rather than spend, their money.

What people like Raum say is, the jobs are never coming back, but the American worker can apparently lift himself up by his own bootstraps, just by spending more money.  Only those voodoo economists with their voodoo spells (facts) and stuff, just won’t keep the worker in the dark, and thus prevent a New Great Depression.  But it’s these economists, who look at numbers and graphs and trends, who are fantastical pony riders.  They are going to put a voodoo curse on the American Public, and Ruin it for Everyone.

However, more sinister than this, in my view, is the idea that Americans, while having every reason to be frightened out of their wits, they, and the economists who “frighten them” are to be BLAMED should an economic double dip occur.  Blamed for not spending.  Blamed for not CONSUMING.

Really?  Really, Mr. Raum?

It’s not like they’re actually frightened because they are one step from being homeless and stuff.  Perish the thought!

I had the sneaking suspicion I was being fed a fact free narrative designed to make once again the American worker look bad, selfish and lazy, while corporations and their cash hoarding, employee head chopping ways were being let off scott free, you know, in that responsible, fact free, happy face, McDonald’s way so characteristic of the “responsible” mainstream media.

So I did some digging.

BP to offer claimants a One-time Payment

I think “Breaking” is the correct adjacent …

BP offers one-off payouts to stem Gulf oil spill lawsuits

Lump-sum compensation offered in return for waiving the right to sue,

but uncertainty remains for those indirectly affected


Tim Webb, guardian.co.uk — August 1, 2010

BP will begin its legal offensive this month to cap its liabilities from the Gulf of Mexico disaster by offering those affected one-off compensation payouts in return for them waiving the right to sue.

[…]

The fund does not cap BP’s liabilities at $20bn. But privately the company believes that it will not have to pay out anywhere near this sum. BP has hired a battery of lawyers to protect itself, and so far it has paid out $261m in claims.

[…]

According to BP, 1.8m gallons of dispersant have been pumped into the Gulf. Scientists say that the resulting high toxicity levels could harm marine life for years to come.

Hmmm … Seems BP is a bit worried about the long-term effects of that 1.8 Millions of gallons of Corexit, they used — to help make that spill problem disappear?

Houston, We got a New Problem — BP’s Oil has ALL Disappeared!?

OH  NOES!

Just when you thought the worse was over …

BP to scale back some oil response units, new leader pledges to stay for long haul

by Doug Mouton / Northshore Bureau Chief

wwltv.com — July 30, 2010

How much oil is in the Gulf now is up for debate.  Several Louisiana leaders, including St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis have argued that million of gallons of oil are underwater, waiting to surface.

We haven’t found that,” [Bob] Dudley [new BP CEO] said.

Dudley said six ships and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are working to locate underwater oil.

It’s a big hunt going on right now,” Dudley said. “It’s going to keep going on.”

Hey BOB! — MAYBE you haven’t “found it” because of 1.8 Million Gallons of Toxic Dispersants you managed to spray — Kept much of it Underwater, eh?

They’ll find ALL that missing Oil — just give them some more time … that’s all they ask …

Open Radio

Photobucket

Ok… Caption This



WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Art is weird. Money is beautiful.

Art
Rich people observe an artist in the Hamptons

The artists are pretty well gone now, all but the wealthiest ones. Everybody knows that Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner couldn’t find a quarter-share in a renovated chicken coop in a market where even a teardown in Sag Harbor – long since elevated from its lowly status as the poor relation of hamlets like East Hampton – is priced at $1.8 million.

Wainscott7

Or maybe money is weird, and art is elsewhere.

Docudharma Times Sunday August 1




Sunday’s Headlines:

Targeted Killing Is New U.S. Focus in Afghanistan

More than 70 countries make being gay a crime

USA

Insurers hold billions in federal death benefits in unprotected accounts

Oil-damaged wetlands may just have to wait it out

Europe

Russia brings in troops to battle wildfires

Lone preacher: the Serb mayor who is trying to heal Bosnia’s scars of war

Middle East

Israelis and Palestinians unite for peace – and theatre

UAE ‘moves to suspend some Blackberry services’

Asia

Helmand despatch: ‘Pakistan is the true enemy’

Thousands cut off in Pakistan flood

Africa

Wary Rwandans choose strongman Paul Kagame – and peace – over democracy

Sudan to monitor movements of UN peacekeepers

Wikileaks Has posted An Insurance File

Wikileaks has posted an encrypted file simply called Insurance the file is 1.4 GB which is larger than the original Afghan War Diaries file.

Cryptome, a separate secret-spilling site, has speculated that the new file added days later may have been posted as insurance in case something happens to the WikiLeaks website or to the organization’s founder, Julian Assange. In either scenario, WikiLeaks volunteers, under a prearranged agreement with Assange, could send out a password or passphrase to allow anyone who has downloaded the file to open it.

From the Daily Beast  Pentagon investigators are trying to determine the whereabouts of the Australian-born founder of the secretive website Wikileaks for fear that he may be about to publish a huge cache of classified State Department cables that, if made public, could do serious damage to national security, government officials tell The Daily Beast.

The officials acknowledge that even if they found the website founder, Julian Assange, it is not clear what they could do to block publication of the cables on Wikileaks, which is nominally based on a server in Sweden and bills itself as a champion of whistleblowers.

Late Night Karaoke

Something tells me you’re gonna want this at some point……

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