Tag: Open Thread

Need a break?

This has nothing to do with todays topic, but I thought it was pretty cool.  Click on the note to enlarge.

http://www.north-by-northwest….

On with the show.

I’m bitter.

What drives me nuts is that they think we’re stupid.

Too stupid to see what vacuous gas bags they are.

Too stupid to remember what they said.

So stupid that we’ll continue to buy their crap and vote for them.

They’re wrong.

Everyone gets the same TV and we can see them strut and preen and lie all day and you know what?

We hate them.

I don’t know why any of them thinks I haven’t spit in their coffee.

Because I have.

1. The Washington Post reports Rising food costs unravel schools nutrition initiatives. “Sharp rises in the cost of milk, grain and fresh fruits and vegetables are hitting cafeterias across the country, forcing cash-strapped schools to raise prices or pinch pennies by serving more economical dishes. Some school officials on a mission to help fight childhood obesity say it’s becoming harder to fill students’ plates with healthy, low-fat foods… This year, the U.S. Agriculture Department is giving schools $2.47 per lunch to serve free meals to children from the poorest families, up from $2.40 last year, a 3 percent increase. In the same time, milk prices rose about 17 percent and bread nearly 12 percent… The average cost of preparing and serving a school lunch runs from about $2.70 to $3.10, according to the School Nutrition Association.”

   This is just the begining of the impact on the food crisis here in the Unite States. Worldwide, Spiegel reports on The fury of the poor; people are dying before our eyes. “Around the world, rising food prices have made basic staples like rice and corn unaffordable for many people, pushing the poor to the barricades because they can no longer get enough to eat. But the worst is yet to come… Food is become increasingly scarce and expensive, and it is already unaffordable for many people. The world’s 200 wealthiest people have as much money as about 40 percent of the global population, and yet 850 million people have to go to bed hungry every night.”

   Meanwhile, The New York Times reports Despite tough times, the ultrarich keep spending. “We’re trying to spend on what we feel is important,” one said.

Four at Four continues below the fold with stories about greenhouse gas emissions, “The Madness of Ben Bernanke”, and 1,300 fired for desertion in Iraq.

Eek! It’s that time of year again. I’m an American living in Soviet Canuckistan, so I have to file in both countries. I just filed my automatic extension form (if it’s automatic, why do I have to file? Hmmm…), because my Canuckistan taxes haven’t yet been filed. But what a complete and total pain to have to file in both countries. At least it’s easier in Canada, especially since I hand everything over to an accountant!

Anyone encountering female horses in the night about their taxes? (Heh) My advice – use your jar as a tax shelter – works for me!

Yup.  That “Surge” sure is working-

Anxiety Rises Over Vulnerable Housing In Iraqi Green Zone

By Sholnn Freeman, Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 8, 2008; Page A08

BAGHDAD, April 7 — A little after sunrise on Easter Sunday, a mortar shell or rocket crashed into Paul Converse’s trailer inside the Green Zone, the rigorously defended seat of U.S. power in Iraq. Converse, who once told his brother he felt safer in Iraq than on American freeways, died the next day.

Converse’s death has underscored the vulnerability of housing facilities in the Green Zone to artillery and missile attack, spreading fear among thousands of security contractors, interpreters, American soldiers and embassy personnel.

A 56-year-old government auditor, Converse was the first of four Americans to die in Green Zone shelling in the past two weeks. Four days after Converse’s death, Mazin Zwayne, a 62-year-old American civilian working for the Defense Department, was killed in a shelling attack. On Monday, shells killed two American soldiers and wounded 17 others. It is so far unclear whether the others were also killed in trailers, in part because the U.S. Embassy, citing security concerns, generally refuses to give details of where shells and rockets hit.

Crackdown on Militias May Add to Instability in Iraq

By JAMES GLANZ and STEPHEN FARRELL, The New York Times

Published: April 8, 2008

BAGHDAD – A crackdown on the Mahdi Army militia is creating potentially destabilizing political and military tensions in Iraq, pitting a stronger government alliance against the force that has won past showdowns: the street power wielded by the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr.

…

But the badly coordinated push into Basra has unleashed a new barrage of attacks on American and Iraqi forces and has led to open fighting between Shiite militias.

Figures compiled by the American military showed that attacks specifically on military targets in Baghdad more than tripled in March, one of many indications that violence has begun to rise again after months of gains in the wake of an American troop increase. Overall attacks on Baghdad more than doubled, to 631 in March from 239 in February, reflecting new strikes against the Green Zone, the fortified headquarters for Iraqi and American officials, as well as renewed fighting in Sadr City between the Mahdi Army and American and Iraqi forces.

So let’s bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran-

Next Hot Topic In U.S. Campaign: The Iran Question

^{Sharp Differences In Viewpoints Echo Discord on Iraq Issue}

By YOCHI J. DREAZEN and LAURA MECKLER, The Wall Street Journal

April 8, 2008; Page A3

WASHINGTON — Iran might end up sharing center stage when Gen. David Petraeus and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, testify Tuesday before Senate panels featuring the three presidential candidates.

Iran is emerging as a hot-button campaign issue, with the candidates differing sharply on what approach to take toward Tehran and its hard-line leadership. Likely Republican nominee John McCain, who has been delivering warnings on Iran, told reporters ahead of the hearing, “I think you’re going to hear more about the Iranian influence, the arms they’ve provided, the money, the training, particularly the extent of their influence in southern Iraq. It’s pretty extensive, and I think he’s going to be talking about that.”

…

The three candidates differ over Iraq, but the disagreements about Iran are just as striking. Sen. Barack Obama has offered to negotiate with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions. His rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, has described Iran as a threat to U.S. interests across the region and voted in favor of labeling Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist force. Sen. McCain favors tough sanctions against Iran and has hinted that he would use force to prevent the country from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Sweet dreams.

Bush aides put upbeat spin on summit

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent

2 hours, 31 minutes ago

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE – White House officials waged an extraordinary campaign during an 11-hour Air Force One flight to put a positive spin on the outcome of Sunday’s summit talks between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Four times on the long flight back to Washington from Sochi, Russia, Bush aides trooped back to the press cabin to make the case that the summit had turned out well, particularly on missile defenses.

It was the heaviest lobbying campaign veteran reporters could recall ever occurring on the president’s plane. Press accounts of the summit had been sent to Bush’s plane and administration officials thought they were too negative. Clearly, Bush’s aides were disappointed.

Because of course, it’s only the lipstick that matters.

The Blithering Idiocy of the DC Establishment

by dday, Hullabaloo

Sunday, April 06, 2008 05:34:00 PM

We’re going to hear a lot of crap in the next week out of the Administration and their spinners, and robots like Cokie are going to lap it up because, you know, “Americans would prefer to win.” That’s just an ignorant and dismissive remark, and it sadly represents the depth of understanding of the tragedy in Iraq inside The Village. Of course, Cokie’s just repeating what “real Americans” think; that it happens to line up with establishment opinion and helps provide cover for their epic mistake of going along with the initial invasion is just a nice perk.

St. McSame?  Beltway Media darling?

He Didn’t Mean What He Meant

by digby, Hullabaloo

Saturday, April 05, 2008 12:51:00 PM

On the best of days, John McCain’s fanboys rival 12 year old girls screaming themselves faint in the front row of a Jonas Brothers concert, but this rush to ensure that that mean Barack Obama didn’t “get away” with using McCain’s own words against him on the stump was a profile in Xtreme Flyboy-love. Once again, McCain is excused for saying something completely shocking because his scribbling sycophants are sure he “didn’t really mean it.” One can only imagine what it would be like if all candidates were given the benefit of the doubt on such matters.(I’m sorry Jay, but this proves once again that they have not learned any lessons from their irresponsible behavior of the past few years.)

The U.S. establishment media in a nutshell

by Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

Saturday April 5, 2008 08:11 EDT

Needless to say, these serious and accomplished political journalists are only focusing on these stupid and trivial matters because this is what the Regular Folk care about. They speak for the Regular People, and what the Regular People care about is not Iraq or the looming recession or health care or lobbyist control of our government or anything that would strain the brain of these reporters. What those nice little Regular Folk care about is whether Obama is Regular Folk just like them, whether he can bowl and wants to gorge himself with junk food.

Our nation’s coddled, insulated journalist class reaches these conclusions about what Regular Folk think using the most self-referential, self-absorbed thought process imaginable. The proof that the Regular People are interested in these things is that… the journalists themselves chatter about it endlessly.