Funkalicious Friday: Interesting Days

Yessireebob, indeed, indeed yes indeedy do…..no doobt aboot it, by golly…ayup, ayup uh-huh



heh

Surprise! McCain BBQ attendees skew their reporting of him

For starters, a hat tip to Daily Kos community member Jay Ackroyd for pulling together a list of those corporate media talking meatsticks who attended John W. McCain’s BBQ lovefest at the beginning of March.  I’ve put that list at the end of the diary, so we can all keep tabs on this.

In looking over some of these attendees’ recent reports, columns and newscasts, there has been identifiable bias towards John W. McCain, and should be called out on their misleading behavior and irresponsible journalism.  There are over 25 on this list, but I’ll point out a few of the offenders here.  Needless to say, we are not just fighting against McCain, we are fighting against the media, who is already pointing out that since they stopped reporting on Iraq, people’s opinions about it have improved.

To be fair, I did find a critical article written by the AP’s Libby Quaid about his temper, but this was pretty much the exception.

As pointed out by Media Matters, CNN’s Dana Bash (an attendee of the McCain BBQ) misled viewers about McCain and his trips to Iraq in her segment earlier this week:

Reporting about John McCain’s upcoming trip to Iraq, CNN’s Dana Bash read from a statement in which McCain said: “Had I not traveled to Iraq, I doubt I would have been informed enough to understand what we were doing wrong and what we should do to correct our mistakes.” But Bash and host Wolf Blitzer did not report that just before and during a previous fact-finding trip to Iraq, McCain made claims about the safety of Baghdad neighborhoods that were widely criticized as misleading and that McCain later admitted he had “missp[oken].”

Michael Shear from the Washington Post has written a few articles since the BBQ, nothing overly glowing, but certainly fluff stories and downplaying the Democratic criticism.  Another to keep an eye on.

On the other hand, Newsweek’s Holly Bailey shares her “dear diary-like” post about her experience at the BBQ, describing what he wore, how he “gushed” at a mother bird teaching her baby to fly and what he had in his living room, closing with this statement:

McCain’s living room is decorated with historic Navajo rugs-“Worth a lot of money,” he said-and other Southwest-themed art, including a massive watercolor of the Grand Canyon that sits above his fireplace. A mechanical telescope sits in one corner of the room, while pictures of his family and awards McCain has received over the years decorate mantels and tabletops. His bookshelf includes tomes by Henry Kissinger, a biography of Jesse Ventura and Sen. Jim Webb’s book, “The Emperor’s General.”

On the back porch McCain talked at length about the Zen he gets from grilling. “Nothing makes me happier,” he said. “I have a lot of nervous energy … It keeps me moving.” A few minutes later it was reporters who were moving, ushered back to buses by campaign aides. “We’ll have to do this again,” McCain called, waving. “See you tomorrow!”

In her next article, she described him as “the underdog”.  And as some have noted in the comments, she is the one who is swinging in the tire in the video posted by McCain’s daughter.

USA Today’s David Jackson has been awfully kind to McCain as well, especially since the BBQ with mainly fluff pieces, including this one about receiving Bush’s endorsement, telling how Mr. 32%’s endorsement could be a positive because it will help McCain shore up his base.

MSNBC’s Adam Aigner excused McCain’s campaign finance law breaking and gave him a pass on the “100 years in Iraq, no, I really mean it will be over soon” comments the week of the BBQ.  He also defended McCain in the Boeing contract issue, and used the NYC recruitment center bombing incident as an excuse to praise McCain on a number of issues that had nothing to do with the incident.

And finally (for now), CBS’ Andante Higgins bragged about his BBQ experience, closing with this wistful comment:

For McCain the icing on the cake will be clinching the GOP nomination next week.

If that happens, McCain and his press corps can expect a change. Increased security could limit their unfettered access and intimate gatherings and McCain’s barbecue ribs could be off the menu.

The following weeks were filled with such important issues like McCain ruling John Kerry out as his running mate (2 stories) as well as his response to Hillary Clinton’s “3AM call” ad.  Such hard hitting journalism.

********************

Here is the full (as far as I know) list of the attendees of the McCain suck up BBQ of 2008:

Dana Bash,CNN

Washington Post reporter Michael Shear

Reuters’ Jeff Mason

CBS’s Dante Higgins

Newsweek’s Holly Bailey

Libby Copeland Washington Post Staff Writer

Joseph Curl, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Dan Nowicki , The Arizona Republic

Scott Orr, Newark Star-Ledger

Michael Cooper

Kelly Shannon, AP

Politico’s Jonathan Martin

Laura Meckler, WSJ

Ana Marie Cox, TIME

Gerald Herbert, AP

Khue Bui, Newsweek

Libby Quaid – AP

Jill Zuckman – Chicago Tribune

Sasha Issenberg – Boston Globe

Adam Aigner – NBC

Mosheh Oinounou – FOX

Brett Hovell – ABC

Tasha Diakides, CNN (bylined on blog article)

Evan Glass , CNN (bylined on blog article)

David Jackson USA Today

Steve Hayes, Weekly Standard

Let’s keep an eye out – this is the height of conflict in interest, and we must make sure that people like this are called out when they violate their journalistic responsibilities (which happens all too frequently).

Friday Philosophy: Horton Hears a Boomer

I’m not sure when I became aware of the idea.  It’s certainly not original.  And it is so simple.

Life is not about becoming what one is destined to be.  It’s not even really about becoming who one is destined to be.  It’s about becoming who one wishes to be.

Or rather about becoming who one wishes to be while one is becoming someone even better, because there is surely never going to be a time when one reaches attains this particular vision.  At least I can’t see how that could ever be the case.

I remember growing up and being asked or (more probably) encouraged to be something.  Be an athlete.  Be a scientist.  Be a good boy.  Be a man.

It troubled me that so often I didn’t know how to do those things…and wasn’t really interested in learning how to be any of those.

Not that I am not a thing.  I am.  I’m a teacher.  But being a teacher also allows one to experience being a who.  Maybe when someone finds some thing that they enjoy doing, one can turn one’s attention towards the “Who?” question.  For me it was being a teacher.

Now I’m told I haven’t been teaching, but rather have been engaging in indoctrination.  What kind of a mind would think that?

For whatever reason  “Who?” was a hard question for me.  Always.  Still is…in some ways.

I remember trying to explain to a former girlfriend that it was impossible for me to explain in worlds who I was deep, deep, deep down inside…even to myself.  Part of it is that I may not have arrived there yet and part of it is that I haven’t yet located the words to describe what I see.  When she tried to force me to do so, it brought me to tears.

When I looked hard to discover who I am, I also saw who I have failed to be.

The thing about a human existence is that there are always other directions to look, new areas of oneself to be explored.  If the roof is leaking in one room, it is very tempting to go inhabit another.

If there was nothing else about my life I wanted to share with my daughter, it was that.

Be who you want to be, who you desire to be.

At the time I was myself rather unaware about the process one must go through to who that was.  I thought I knew, but it proved to be more complicated than that.

Does that mean I was a bad parent?  A bad adult?  A bad human being?  Just because I was born in 1948?

Damn.  If that was the case, what was the point of living this life?  What was the point of doing what I have done?  What was the point of being who I was?  And what was the point of becoming the person I have become.

I understand I’m supposed to think I have some sense of huge entitlement.  I’m not sure what I am supposed to think I am entitled to have, but I’m told it is there.

Alternate point of view:  I’ve spent my life trying to make sure my daughter is entitled to a better life than I was.

Is that something to be excoriated for?

I’ve always hoped that my daughter understood that having not much was probably going to be a state of my life forever…and that I was truly sorry that meant she would not be able to have much either.  I hoped that she would develop the same detachment from material things that I have.  But I always thought that was up to her to figure out for herself.  I was there to be a helping hand and a friendly ear.  Because of the third person always present, that wasn’t always possible.  But I hoped.

After I began transition, we got a chance to be adults together and have done so on too rare a schedule as the years have passed.  But I learned about her, both in those interactions and through what I have observed and heard second hand.  I’m proud of her.

She told me she grew up to be a taoist, just like me.  Since we never, ever talked about it in earlier that I can recall, I thought that was cool.  

And I’m told she is very much like me in many other ways.  It’s hard for me to judge.

I’m curious as to how treating my daughter like a human being and spending my life teaching young people how to learn makes me a bad person.  But I keep forgetting that I was born in 1948.

I’m sure that was my fault.  According to someone somewhere.

I’ve been told I helped ruin the world for the generations that have followed.  I think maybe it has something to do with the fact that I haven’t convinced other people my age to listen to this transsexual women and change their ways and instantly undo all the wrongs perpetrated by all the past generations and simultaneously prevent the spread of unmitigated greed that broke out in the Ronnie Raygun years.  Maybe it’s because the current mouthpiece-in-chief for those past generations and their minions was born in 1946.

Young people don’t understand the difference between 1946 and 1948.

Day and night, dude.  Someone who doesn’t understand that doesn’t know how absurd talking about Boomers as an entity is.

But rationality has so often been left far behind.


The Lure of the Gold

Entitlement

Shouldn’t entitlement

be an increasing function?

Should not our children

be entitled

to more freedom

liberty, joy

and happiness

than we were?

Shouldn’t their children

if they have any

deserve still more?

Or do you speak

of material things?

Do you look to me

as the reason

you don’t have more?

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 14, 2008

“All Roads Lead to Rove.” – Siegelman

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

All roads lead to Rove.  That was the message scrawled as an afterthought in the lower left-hand corner of the envelope I received in yesterday’s mail.  It contained a letter from an old and dear friend of mine.  His name is Don Siegelman.  He is the former governor of Alabama and he is being held as a political prisoner of the Bush administration in a Federal prison in Louisiana.

Don-Siegelman-back-in-the-day

They don’t allow Don the luxury of stationary so he must write his letters on whatever he can find.  He wrote me on a xeroxed article he wanted me to see.

Don's-letter

FREE-don-siegelman_2

Here’s an excerpt from the article in Don’s letter in a more readable form.

The House Judiciary Committee voted in July to hold Mr. Bolten and Ms. Miers in contempt. The House’s Democratic leadership has been trying to figure out the pros and cons ever since. The public needs to hear the testimony of these officials (along with Karl Rove, who is also refusing to appear), and the full House should vote as quickly as possible to hold them in contempt.

The House should also approve a resolution authorizing the Judiciary Committee to go to court to enforce the contempt citations if the current attorney general, Michael Mukasey, as expected, refuses to do so.  (emphasis Don’s)

The stakes are high. There are people in jail today, including a former governor of Alabama, who have raised credible charges that they were put there for political reasons. Congress’s constitutionally guaranteed powers are also at risk. If Congress fails to enforce its own subpoenas, it would effectively be ceding its subpoena power. It would also be giving its tacit consent to the dangerous idea of an imperial president – above the law and beyond the reach of checks and balances.

The founders did not want that when they wrote the Constitution, and the voters who elected this Congress do not want it today.

New York Times

Time-to-Vote-Contempt

I met Don in Montgomery, the capitol of Alabama in 1978 shortly after getting out of prison.  I was a prison reform and anti-death penalty activist.  Don was a young mover and shaker in the Alabama Democratic Party sympathetic to my cause, and we were both martial artists.  Another activist and mutual friend introduced us and we became instant friends.  He was running for Secretary of State at the time and I ended up working on his campaign (in a minor role).  He was successful in becoming Secretary of State, going on from there to have a truly brilliant political career.  

Don Siegelman is the only person in the history of Alabama to be elected to serve in all four of the top statewide offices: Secretary of State, Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor and Governor. He served in Alabama politics for 26 years. Until he won his last election, sweeping into the governorship with 57% of the vote, including over 90% of the African-American electorate, Don had never been accused of corrupt or criminal acts.

A Brilliant Political Career

Don-Siegelman-HE-Day_500px

Don has always been committed to the general welfare of the people of Alabama and people in general.  I was for a time the director of the Alabama Prison Project and an ardent anti-death penalty advocate.  I devoted a lot of my time to making speeches around Montgomery about my issues, and there were many who could not be bothered to listen – but Don did.  He not only listened, he heard, understood and actively supported me at a time when there was absolutely nothing in it for him.  He is a remarkable guy.  He’s never had a job outside of politics, he’s never been involved in business and he has never enriched himself in any way.  Throughout his career he has been an honest public servant.  A lot of people lay claim to that title but Don’s actually done it.

Don is as solid a progressive as I have ever known.  For all the same reasons that I love him, the Republicans hate him – and they have gone after him with a vengeance.  

I moved from Montgomery while Don was Secretary of State, and eventually moved out of state.  I lost touch with Don and our Montgomery friends, but I followed his career and continued to support him at a distance.  

When I first heard of Don being prosecuted for corruption my heart sank.  I didn’t know what to think.  It had been years since we’d spoken and the press made it sound awful for Don (what else?).  Of course I had no idea what was really going on.  Now that I do I am horrified…and furious.

Don is a formidable force in Alabama politics.  His friends are loyal and his supporters enthusiastic.  They re-elected him Governor in the midst of a bogus corruption trial engineered by the Bush Justice Department at the behest of Karl Rove who takes orders from you-know-who.  Don campaigned for re-election throughout the early phases of the trial.  On election night he was declared the winner, but Karl Rove’s minions stole the election overnight by manipulating the ballots in Baldwin County.  It was classic Rovian/Republican election theft.  They did it with computers and electronic voting machines.  Don went to bed the re-elected Governor of Alabama, and woke up an unemployed defendant.

In case you missed the 60 Minutes piece about Don’s political persecution and wrongful imprisonment for being a progressive Democrat, here it is:


Here’s an excellent Dan Abrams piece about the Bush administration’s abuse of the Justice Department and how it was used to prosecute Don for political purposes.




A profoundly important interview with Don, Part 1:




A profoundly important interview with Don, Part 2:


Something that has not been reported is that they have been physically beating Don.  I don’t know the extent of his injuries or exactly how many times it has happened – but it has been multiple times.  

There are no words for the fury I feel.  This is an outrage.  And it is the most un-American thing I have ever heard.  I cry bitter tears of frustration and rage.

Please everyone.  We have to help Don, and we have to crush these thugs and put them out of the business of perverting our democracy.  We must investigate and prosecute the responsible parties, not for political reasons, but to actually serve the interest of justice.  The cause of justice calls upon us to hold these criminals accountable.  We must bring them to justice and stop such travesties from ever again happening in our United States of America.

Please hear Don’s plea, and write Congress to encourage them to take the next important steps to the truth:

E-mail Congress

Ask for a full investigation by a Special Prosecutor.

Hon. John Conyers,

Chairman,

House Judiciary Comm.

[email protected]

Senator Patrick Leahy,

Chairman,

Senate Judiciary Comm.

[email protected]

As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.

Justice William O. Douglas

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Elie Wiesel

As I said, Don has always been a man of modest means.  He also needs our help to pay legal expenses.  Please help if you can.  

Mail-Contributions

About Don

Donate to Don’s Legal Defense at the following site:

Free Don Siegelman

mckay_small

If We Must Die

If we must die–let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursed lot.

If we must die–oh, let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

Oh, Kinsmen!  We must meet the common foe;

Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Claude McKay

Thank you.

OPOL

American coinage now based on unsecured mortgages loans.

And here comes the bailout! I freaking knew this was coming. I mean, all you had to do was watch the game tape from the Savings & Loans scandal. Nothing like socialism for the rich! Of course, when someone gets bailed out, someone has to pay. That person is you, me and your grandma.

As you have probably heard by now, the Fed and JP Morgan are coming to save their boys at Bear Sterns. I suspect JP Morgan will be owning Bear Sterns by Q3 of this year, but that’s a whole different matter. That’s private capital, they can do whatever the hell they want. The Fed, on the other hand, is public capital. Again, you, me and your grandmother are the backers of the Fed.

Of course the Fed is a private organization, so there is no accountability for the asshat moves they are making this week. Here is one of my favorite moves:


The borrowings from the Fed will be secured by collateral furnished by Bear Stearns, and the Fed, not J.P. Morgan, is bearing the risk of losses if that collateral falls in value.

Thats a pretty sweetheart deal for J.P. Morgan. So basically the Fed has let Bear Sterns swap their unholy securities backed by mortgages for safer Treasury bonds. What this means is that the Fed is now backing the US Dollar on said mortgages.

By fiat, our coinage is now backed by the defaulting loans across America. This has to be one of the stupidest ideas ever. I challenge anyone to find a historical model of where a country got out of a economic slump by devaluating their own money. History will not be kind on this move.

And the worst part is Bear Sterns is not a bank. Never has been a bank, never will be a bank. It is an investment house. So technically they cannot even use the Fed’s discount window to access yet another $200 billion dollars the Fed is injecting into the  money supply. They have to get JP Morgan to do that.

Wait, $200 Billoon new dollars in the system you say? Yes, last week, the Fed announced an industry-wide rescue package that would provide as much as $200 billion in loans to banks and investment houses and allow them to put up risky home-loan packages as collateral.

Again, our dollar is now being back by the home-loan meltdown. This is so stupid that the Swiss Franc caught the dollar today. The rest of the world has officially stopped all dollar buys, and all but refuses to even pick up the phone if Bear Sterns or other such cash strapped banks and investment houses are calling from America.

See, investment houses are like a dude with a black box. You are never allowed to see inside the black box, but the dude assures you there is quite a bit of loot in that box. Plus, if you put your loot in the magic black box, it will magically grow like they are magic beans. Of course, everyone needs to believe in the power of the black box for this to work.

If people no longer believe there is loot in the black box, they will stop putting money in said black box. If enough people lose faith quickly enough, the black box is complete worthless and the dude goes broke.

Bear Sterns is that dude right now.

The intervention by J.P. Morgan and the New York Fed shows Bear “didn’t have enough money to turn the lights on this morning,” said Carl Lantz, strategist at Credit Suisse. “And in a big picture sense, this isn’t that comforting.”

Wait, I remember this story!

Went something like this:



Bear Sterns is the Duke Brothers, except in reality we have Republican Socialism that keeps private enterprise from failing. If only the Duke Brothers lives in our fantasy world instead of the one Hollywood creates.

But in the world of Republican Socialism, the Duke Brothers are saved by you, me and your grandmother. And when you are paying $10 lb for chicken, you will have the Fed to think. And the Fed doesn’t get a crap about what you think, because they are a private organization.

And the first thing to solving the riddle of Republican Socialism is to make the Fed accountable to the people of these United States of America, and not the hedge fund row, and only to the hedge fund row.

Why the coinage of the US dollar is not under government control is probably one of the best kept secrets in America.

And as always, it has to do with money.



Bonus:

The entire wealth of the USA is also in a black box. The world has recently decided that our black box is pretty worthless. In effect, they have decided our dollar is pretty worthless.

What these means, as Republican Socialism fails, it exposes the ugly truth that the rich are only rich because they say they are rich. If you take away their black box, they would be eating out of dumpster by the end of the month.

Of course to distract the people from this inconvient truth, you better do something drastic. Especially when even Nobel Prize winners calling Republican Socialism a form of looting.

Something crazy, oh say, like attacking Babylon.

Four at Four

  1. Ozone Rules Weakened at Bush’s Behest

    The Washington Post is reporting that “The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on smog-forming ozone after an unusual last-minute intervention by President Bush, according to documents released by the EPA.”

    EPA officials initially tried to set a lower seasonal limit on ozone to protect wildlife, parks and farmland, as required under the law. While their proposal was less restrictive than what the EPA’s scientific advisers had proposed, Bush overruled EPA officials and on Tuesday ordered the agency to increase the limit, according to the documents.

    “It is unprecedented and an unlawful act of political interference for the president personally to override a decision that the Clean Air Act leaves exclusively to EPA’s expert scientific judgment,” said John Walke, clean-air director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

    The president’s order prompted a scramble by administration officials to rewrite the regulations to avoid a conflict with past EPA statements on the harm caused by ozone…

    When asked about Clement’s role, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: “The White House sought legal advice from the Justice Department and made its decision based on that advice.”

    Glad to see science and the health of the American people taking such a big role in Bush’s decision.

  2. FBI Misuses Security Letters


    Click to enlarge.

    The Washington Post reports, “the FBI has increasingly used administrative orders to obtain the personal records of U.S. citizens rather than foreigners implicated in terrorism or counterintelligence investigations, and at least once it relied on such orders to obtain records that a special intelligence-gathering court had deemed protected by the First Amendment, according to two government audits released yesterday. The episode was outlined in a Justice Department report that concluded the FBI had abused its intelligence-gathering privileges by issuing inadequately documented ‘national security letters’ from 2003 to 2006, after which changes were put in place that the report called sound….”

    “Because U.S. citizens enjoy constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, judicial warrants are ordinarily required for government surveillance. But national security letters are approved only by FBI officials and are not subject to judicial approval; they routinely demand certain types of personal data, such as telephone, e-mail and financial records, while barring the recipient from disclosing that the information was requested or supplied.”

  3. The Associated Press reports Bush a clueless idiot and economic moron. “Trying to calm jitters about the economy, President Bush conceded on Friday that the country “obviously is going through a tough time” but expressed confidence about a rebound. In a speech to The Economic Club of New York, Bush said this was not the first time the economy has been rattled and that he is certain that it will ride out its troubles. ‘These are uncertain times,’ he said.” Bush also blamed Bill Clinton and 9/11 for America’s economic problems. In his remarks, Bush said:

    And I want to spend a little time talking about that, but I want to remind you, this is not the first time since I’ve been the President that we have faced economic challenges. We inherited a recession. And then there was the attacks of September the 11th, 2001, which many of you saw firsthand, and you know full well how that affected our economy…

    Fortunately, we recognized the slowdown early and took action. And it was decisive action, in the form of policies that will spur growth…

    The Federal Reserve has taken action to bolster the economy. I respect Ben Bernanke. I think he’s doing a good job under tough circumstances…

    I believe strongly that NAFTA has been positive for the United States of America, like it’s been positive for our trading partners in Mexico and Canada…

    A confident nation accepts capital from overseas. We can protect our people against investments that jeopardize our national security, but it makes no sense to deny capital, including sovereign wealth funds, from access to the U.S. markets. It’s our money to begin with. It seems like we ought to let it back.

  4. The Oregonian reports Coastal areas brace for salmon shutdown. “Fishery managers have shut down salmon fishing off Oregon’s coast through April to protect collapsing fish stocks, presaging what could become the largest West Coast closure in history. The biggest factor is the plummeting returns of normally robust chinook salmon to the Sacramento River in California, although salmon numbers in many Oregon rivers are down sharply, too… While past years have seen poor salmon numbers in certain regions, this year the decline seems to extend along almost the entire West Coast…”

    Next month, federal fishery managers may close ocean salmon fishing from May through its typical end-date in mid-November from northern Oregon to the Mexican border. At a minimum, the key fishery will be severely restricted, Oregon officials said… Biologists are stunned by the failing returns to the Sacramento River, typically one of the healthiest and most abundant stocks on the West Coast.”

Election Day in Iran

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Iran holds its parliamentary elections today, March 14th, to fill the 290 seats of the Islamic Consultative Council.  It is also expected to be a referendum on Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is in the third year of a four-year term.  Currently the Iranian Parliament seats consist of 190 conservatives, 50 reformists, 43 independents (or centrists), 5 seats reserved for religous minorities, and 2 other seats.  Voting will conclude at 2:30 PM EDT today, and preliminary results can be expected Saturday and Sunday.  Official results will probably not be announced for a few days after that.  

The once-promising reform movement that seemed more open to the West is expected to lose ground in today’s election.  One reason is that the government’s vetting process for candidates has already limited the reformists’ participation.  According to The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, about 2000 potential reformist candidates were disqualified from running, and the reformist candidates that were approved to run initially could only compete for about 30 of the 290 available seats.  The vetting process is designed to ensure the candidate meets some basic requirements and they are committed to the constitution and the Islamic republic.

Two of the reformist leaders, former Iranian presidents Akbar Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, met with Khamenei on January 27 to discuss the exclusion of candidates by the Guardian Council of Iran.  Khamenei eventually relented and allowed the reformists to compete for about 120 seats.  

But the reform movement has other problems too, as the Washington Institute for Near East Policy went on to say:

“…the reformists lack the social power base required to take advantage of electoral opportunities in the first place. Political ambivalence and voter apathy led to the failure of reformist candidates in the most recent presidential and municipal elections because the Iranian people have lost faith in their ability to change the system and make real reforms. Indeed, the current disqualifications have provoked little popular reaction, even among the traditional student constituency. Similarly, the lack of middle-class support has led many political analysts to conclude that even without the Guardian Council decision, the reformists would not have done well in the elections.”

The campaign and election process in Iran is strictly controlled by the ruling clerics and has inherent disadvantages for reform-minded candidates.  The exclusion of reformist candidates by the Guardian Council blocked many well-known politicians from running at all, leaving relatively unknown reformers to contest the limited seats.  A candidate faces huge hurdles without widespread name recognition.  Official campaigning is only allowed for one week prior to the election.  A March 10th article in the Washington Post detailed some of the other difficulties facing Iranian candidates for Parliament:

“Campaigning has been muted. Parliament banned any poster larger than a playing card bearing a candidate’s photo, a move it said aimed to cut down on wasting paper.

But the effect for Iranians has been to make the overwhelming number of candidates – some 4,500 nationwide – even more anonymous.

The slates provide some clue as to candidates’ stances – but not a sure one since the lists are as much a product of political dealmaking as ideology.

In Tehran, each voter will choose 30 names to fill the capital’s 30 seats from among 800 candidates. They can check all the names on a single list but many voters pick and choose from several lists, or go with independents, often based on name recognition.

Voters appear to be paying little attention, focused instead on shopping for the March 20 holiday of Nowruz, the Iranian calendar’s New Year’s Day.”

Voter turnout is critical to the reformists’ efforts if they are to regain the majority in Parliament that they last held in 2004:

Turnout among the estimated 44 million eligible voters is a key issue. In 2004 elections, which were swept by hard-liners after most reform candidates were barred from the race, turnout was around 51 percent. In previous votes won by reformists, it was closer to 80 percent. Reformists say they have the support of a silent majority that, if it votes, swings elections to them.



Reformists held parliament from 2000 to 2004. During that time, they loosened Islamic social restrictions. But hard-liners, who control the unelected clerical bodies whose powers trump the parliament and president, prevented deep political change.

If the hardline Islamic fundamentalists gain more power with additional seats in Parliament, it is doubtful that Iran will improve its human rights record any time soon.  For example, the recent story of Mehdi Kazemi’s request for asylum illusrates how homosexuals in Iran live in fear.  Homosexuality is illegal in Iran, and Kazemi stated in his request for asylum that his boyfriend had been executed in Iran for admitting a relationship with Kazemi.  England and the Netherlands have both turned down Kazemi’s asylum request.  His uncle said “If anybody signs his deportation papers and says, look, he’s got to be deported to Iran, that means they have signed his death sentence.”  

Iran’s conservative fundamentalists do not always march in lockstep.  Ahmadinejad does not appear to have the unquestioned support of the clerics he once enjoyed.  Even the Supreme Leader of Iran, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, publicly sided against Ahmadinejad recently over a dispute between Ahmadinejad and Parliament over deliveries of natural gas to remote villages.  Ahmadinejad did not deliver the natural gas, claiming Parliament’s legislation requiring him to do so was unconstitutional.  But Khamenei rebuked Ahmadinejad’s claim, saying “All legal legislation that has gone through procedures stipulated in the Constitution is binding for all branches of power” in a letter to Parliament settling the dispute.  This was the first time Khamenei had publicly refused to back Ahmadinejad.

The measure of Ahmadinejad’s support will be reflected in the election performance of two conservative factions.  The United Front of Principlists is a pro-Ahmadinejad faction, while the Inclusive Coalition of Principlists is largely critical of Ahmadinejad.  A strong showing by Ahmadinejad’s critics could weaken him for the Iranian presidential election in 2009.  Most complaints about Ahmadinejad center around his economic policies, but complaints about his foreign policy are becoming more common too, including his handling of Iran’s nuclear program and the resulting U.N. sanctions.

The resignation of Admiral William Fallon as CENTCOM chief on March 12th renews speculation that the Bush administration could proceed with military action against Iran.  Fallon had made statements in the past advocating diplomacy with Iran, such as:

“We’re trying to encourage dialogue and find resolution.  In fact, that’s our message to the Iranians out here, given that everybody is nervous and anxious about their activities, is to come forth and explain what they are doing with all the people in the region.”

If the Bush administration found it necessary to push Fallon aside, and the Iranian elections result in stronger control by Islamic fundamentalists, an already bad relationship between the U.S. and Iran could grow much worse.  The announcement in December that Iran had halted its nuclear program in 2003 eased tensions somewhat, but the Bush administration seems intent on keeping the pressure on Iran, and Ahmadinejad continues his harsh rhetoric towards the U.S.  The two countries remain on a collision course.  

Other Resources

The World Fact Book – Iran  (Central Intelligence Agency)

Election Guide Profile – Iran  (ElectionGuide.org)

Election Tracker – Iran  (Angus-Reid.com)

Boogeymen and amputations

There’s a haunted mansion ride at the amusement park near my family’s house.  I used to be terrified, more than anything else in my life of opening my eyes inside this haunted mansion.  I would cry and cling to whoever was riding with me while pictures of horrific monsters and ghosts played in my head.  One time when my grandmother rode with me she made me open my eyes and promised it would be ok.  She held my hand and promised.  So between the tears and stubborn cries I finally opened my eyes.  I saw what I had been fearing the whole time.  And it was nothing.  Just an old house filled with cheap pop-ups and chipped paint set to music.  

I felt foolish.

She told me that sometimes what we create in our imagination is scarier than the truth.  I used to believe that.  

My grandfather always had to walk slowly and with a cane.  Most old people I knew walked with canes, so I didn’t think anything of it.  I didn’t know his leg was amputated.  I didn’t know his back was scar tissue.  I didn’t know his remaining ankle barely functioned.  I was about 5 at the time and of course following my grandparents around and telling stories, singing silly songs, whatever.  He was getting ready for bed and started to roll up his pant leg.  I had only seen glimpses of his leg before.  This time though I saw enough to recognize it wasn’t real as he carefully detached his wooden prosthetic.  

What was left of his leg was cushioned with gauze, scared and red with scabs and blisters.  I just stared.  I didn’t know what to do or say.  My grandfather had just pulled his leg off and there was nothing there but a knobby, sowed up “knee”.  Skin all puckered in.  He rearranged his body as his leg moved up and down while he settled in place.  I followed the movement of his injury before looking him in the eyes again.  He smiled at me and laughed.  My grandmother continued folding her clothes in the background.  

I just stared.  

I finally asked him if he could still feel his leg.  He said he could sometimes.  He would get itches that could never be scratched.  ‘What do you do then!’  

Well, I just have to wait for it to go away.

For all the men in my family who have served in the military I’ve never heard any of them talk about their combat experiences.  From what I understand most won’t.  I briefly dated an Afghanistan war vet who had served two tours.  He was worried about being sent back before his contract was up.  That was the most he talked about it.  I later met an Iraq war vet in my classes who had also served two tours.  We always studied together and often ended up talking about anything other than quantum mechanics.   His father was in the Marines, we had a lot in common.  One day he told me about his experiences there, the way he felt, what he saw.  The most haunting thing he said to me was ‘I no longer feel love anymore’.  I don’t blame him. His brother was sent over in the last deployment of the ‘surge’.  He was not happy about that to say the least.  ‘I fought so he wouldn’t have to’.

Around the new year I was dreaming my teeth fell out.  I broke them off and pulled out the pieces in satisfying chunks and collected them on the bed next to me.  At first I was pleased with what I had done, admiring my work…until I realized what I had selfishly turned myself into.  Suddenly I flashed realizations and images of war and torture.  Embarrassed, I was thankful it was only teeth.  Even in my dreams I’m aware of the horrors of our outside reality.  My imagination can’t compete anymore and hasn’t been able to for some time now.

Sometimes an injury becomes so mangled that you need to cut your losses and move forward with what you have left.  Scar tissue and all.  It might not be pretty, but not everything can be.  This country has so many festering wounds right now that I don’t even know where to begin.  Personally I decided that protests are the best way to go (well in addition to blogging, calls, emails, letters, petitions, etc…).  The more people out on the streets the harder the wounds are to hide, the more connections are made, the more other people feel comfortable speaking out in public.  The media can only refuse to cover so much until good old fashioned word of mouth overtakes the lies.  Ignoring the underlying infections and hoping something else will fix it is slowly (or not so slowly) killing this country.  Not impeaching our war criminal president is just rubbing salt in the wounds.  

My bus to DC leaves Tuesday morning and I’m so excited to get back out again.  I’d do it everyday if I thought enough people would join me.  Maybe one of these days I really will just totally loose it and actually start knocking on people’s doors and shaking them…or maybe the economy will collapse and I won’t have to.  Or maybe nothing will happen and the country will slowly descend into some bizzaro credit bubble induced, war mongering, wiretapped, overworked, morally bankrupt pseudo democracy….

You never can tell these things.

Tibet

           Photobucket

Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said the protests were a result of public resentment of the “brute force” employed by China to maintain control of the region for more than 50 years.

“I therefore appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people,” he said in a statement issued from his base in India.

“I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence.”

(CNN) — Opponents of Chinese rule in Tibet set fire to vehicles and shops on Friday as tear gas filled the streets and gunfire rang out in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, according to witnesses and human rights groups.

The protests — initiated by Buddhist monks — have been growing since Monday, the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule. Tibet, an autonomous province, has long sought independence from China.

snip

In a statement, the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader and the head of the Tibetan government in exile, said he was “deeply concerned” by the developing situation and said the protests were “a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people” under Chinese rule.

Chinese authorities have blamed the Dalai Lama, exiled since 1959, for the unrest.

A report by a U.S.-funded radio station said two people had been killed. The European Union called on China to show restraint and Washington said Beijing needed to respect Tibetan culture.

snip

The largest demonstrations in nearly two decades against Beijing’s 57-year-rule over Tibet began Monday, coming at a critically sensitive time for China as it attempts to portray a unified and prosperous country ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

              Photobucket

For God’s Sake, Don’t Tell Anyone!

Okay, look, we got a secret spy sat going up. Even more under the cover is that we will be sending it up on our new version of the Atlas 5 rocket. But for the love that is all good and proper, don’t tell anyone! Especially the Russians and Chinese, they will be pissed.

Oh, and also, do not tell anyone we launched yesterday, Thursday, March 23, 2008, at exactly 3:02 a.m. Because then they could track it, they being THE PEOPLE YOU MUST NOT SAY A WORD TOO! I mean, my god, if they knew when and where (VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California, Space Launch Complex-3 East (SLC-3E), but plz stfu about this!) it was shoot off, it could easily be tracked! They would know about our secret sat before it even achieved its orbit!

I mean my god, why won’t you shut up about the 191-foot-tall rocket that carried a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency that oversees the nation’s constellation of spy satellites.

No one is to know! So please, forget that super duper secret sat has successfully reached orbit.

And whatever you do, don’t tell the media!

What? Really? Oh for pete’s sake:

U.S. launches secret satellite



http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/s…

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (AP) — An Atlas 5 rocket carrying a secret U.S. satellite lifted off before dawn Thursday, officials said.

The 191-foot-tall booster blasted off from the southern end of the Central Coast air base at 3:02 a.m.

“It went great,” said Mike Rein, a spokesman for United Launch Alliance, which made the rocket.

But Rein said he couldn’t confirm whether the satellite had successfully reached orbit, “because of the nature of the launch.”

The Atlas 5 carried a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency that oversees the nation’s constellation of spy satellites. No details of the mission were released.

The launch was delayed for two weeks as a precaution against possible space debris from a failed U.S. spy satellite that was blown up by a missile launched from a Navy ship.

The Atlas 5 is made by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. The rocket is designed to reduce costs and provide reliable access to space for heavier military payloads.

USA! USA! USA!

At least there isn’t a YouTube video of the Atlas 5!

What? You dirty apes! This is called national security?

Another Day, Another Market Downer – UPDATED (7:45 PM)

The negative hits just keep on a-rollin’!

From MSN Money:

Things at Bear Stearns (BSC, news, msgs) were worse than anyone thought — and that realization sent shockwaves through the market this morning.

The financial services giant said it has received financing from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York — funneled through JPMorgan Chase (JPM, news, msgs) — to help boost liquidity. JPMorgan will be the conduit for Bear’s collateral and it won’t be held liable for any defaults, the New York Fed said this morning.

“Bear Stearns has been the subject of a multitude of market rumors regarding our liquidity. We have tried to confront and dispel these rumors and parse fact from fiction,” Chief Executive Officer Alan Schwartz said in a press release. “Nevertheless, amidst this market chatter, our liquidity position in the last 24 hours had significantly deteriorated. We took this important step to restore confidence in us in the marketplace, strengthen our liquidity and allow us to continue normal operations.”

Earlier this week, Schwartz told CNBC that things at Bear Stearns were OK. my emphasis

Shares of Bear plunged a whopping $23.73, or 41.6%, to $33.27 in morning trading.

 

The DOW at exactly 11:30 AM today is trading down -183.26.

This, after an initial jump this morning to 12,193.61 from yesterday’s close of 12,145.74, or +47.87.

Oh well, the day is early.  Perhaps another roller coaster ride in in the offing for this afternoon?

In other market news, Consumer Confidence is taking a dive once again.

Adding to market jitters today was a dismal report on consumer confidence.

The Reuters/University of Michigan survey on consumer confidence fell to a reading of 70.5 in March — down slightly from a reading of 70.8 in February and the lowest reading since February 1992.

“Consumer conditions have deteriorated dramatically since the end of last year,” said Lena Komileva, head of research at Tullett Prebon in London, to Bloomberg News. “A recessionary labor market, tighter lending, negative housing equity and a higher cost of living are bearing down on the consumer.”

Just remember.  Presnit Bush sez we are NOT in a Recession!  Its all just bad luck or something.  

(I think I’m going to go with the “or something”, how about you)?

UPDATED:

UPDATE:  

The Dow Jones Industrials closed down today -194.65 on further news of … well, the economy is doing pretty shitty.  Including more Bear Stearns news.

A panicky day of selling ended Friday with investment bank Bear Stearns (BSC, news, msgs) likely to be sold and investors watching how the Federal Reserve and the federal government cope with continued stress in the financial markets.

The Dow Jones industrials finished the day down nearly 195 points, or 1.6%, to 11,951. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was down 27 points, or 2.1%, to 1288, and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 51 points or 2.3%, to 2,212.49.

The market tumbled on news reports that Bear Stearns had obtained financing from JPMorgan Chase and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Bear’s shares plunged, and major rating agencies cut their ratings on the stock.

Ever the optimist, I would suggest investing in digging a hole to China.  If you can get there by early summer, the Summer Olympics are being held in Bejing and as an American, and a born-and-raised-capitalist, you should make a killing selling to the tourists.

I suggest selling the following:

o  Pork and beans.  Now that says America!

o  Tube tops.  Now that the Chinese have food, they have  bosoms.

o  Napkins.  WE still have a few trees left.

o  Spam.  Of course they won’t eat it, but think of all the cans of it that they can shoot into space, recover 100 years from now and serve at the 2108 Little Rock, Arkansas Olympics!  Its like a savings account for future generations of Chinese families.

o  National Secrets.  Wear sunglasses.  Talk in whispers.  Make shit up.  Never smile.  Until you are back on US soil, with the money.  Then change your name and get the hell out of the US.  BushCo will want a cut, and you know it.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Media finds increased support for Iraq occupation since reporting on it stopped

In the latest head smacking example that shows just how much impact the corporate media has on how people feel about things, we see that people’s views of Iraq are “better” over the past few months.

It is also interesting to note that there has been a decrease in the overall reporting about Iraq from 15% of the total stories as recently as last July to a mere 3% in February 2008.  And what do we get in that time period?

We heard Charles Gibson chastise the Democratic candidates in a nationally televised debate, telling them that “the surge is working”, neglecting the fact that there has been basically no progress on any benchmarks in any measurable manner.  We hear how there has been a “general downturn in violence”, neglecting the fact that violence has pretty much decreased because of al Sadr ordering his militia to stop attacks and the fact that there has been major sectarian cleansing throughout the country.

And yet, if you look at the most basic things going on in Iraq, you will find that things are most certainly NOT good or improving for Iraqis.  Or for the troops, outside of not getting killed as quickly as they were 6 months ago.  But as for their mission, still nothing.  The goals – still nothing.  The metrics – nothing.

The “success” of the “surge”?   nothing.

So, no wonder that with the absolutely abhorrent lack of coverage of what is happening in Iraq, only 28% of people knew that nearly 4,000 troops have been killed, almost half as many people as just last August that knew how many troops have been killed.  In fact, the Project for Excellence in Journalism came out with a report that showed how much impact the media had on people’s perception of how things were going in Iraq.  This should stand out:

And as the year went on, the narrative from Iraq in some ways brightened. The drumbeat of reports about daily attacks declined in late summer and fall, and with that came a decline in the amount of coverage from Iraq overall.


This shift in coverage beginning in June, in turn, coincided with a rising sense among the American public that military efforts in Iraq were going “very” or “fairly well.”

This was a study of around 1,100 news stories from over 40 different sources for 2007.  Absolutely stunning in the irresponsibility of the so-called “fourth estate”.  So it is no doubt that we see headlines from CBS News that say “Iraq fades from view for many Americans”, or that CQ Tracker crows that “Americans more positive about Iraq, but divided on pullout” – all while burying the fact that 63% want an immediate or phased withdrawal.  

What is more ironic and frustrating is that just yesterday, Pew (the ones who conducted the poll) noted that there was a likely explanation of this increased optimism:

Pew suggested a possible link between the simultaneous increase in the numbers of Americans belieiving progress was being made in Iraq, with a sharp decline in news coverage of Iraq and public interest in Iraq news.

Gee, do you think that if there is a near complete blackout of the events going on in Iraq, and whatever news does get reported is “cheery” and optimistic instead of the truth and full story that people will either lose interest or think things are better than they really are?  But if we look at the coverage in Politico, we really see what is happening here.  Titled Support for war effort highest since 2006, it completes the Karl Rove self fulfilling prophesy that people don’t care as much about Iraq because it isn’t being reported.

But if you look right below the surface, we see where this is going – right toward the media’s massive man crush on John W. McCain:

The repercussions will be most acutely felt in the presidential contest. Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton remain committed to a staggered pullout, while Republican John McCain holds steadfast in his support for the Bush administration’s military surge.

—snip—

Democrats’ resolute support for the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces may soon position them at odds with independent voters, in particular, a constituency they need to retake the White House.

—snip—

The uptick in public support is a promising sign for Republican candidates who have been bludgeoned over the Bush administration’s war policies. But no candidate stands to gain more than McCain.

“How could Democrats possibly hand McCain a better issue than to let him run on his record of advocating a robust U.S. presence in Iraq with all the positive battlefield news that is filtering out of that country?” asked Michael O’Hanlon, a national security adviser at the Brookings Institution who has been at the center of the Iraq debate since the war’s outset.

Just remember – we are not just fighting against McCain.  We are fighting against a very strong narrative that is patently and blatantly false and biased.

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