NPR Fail

The world is falling apart but out here on Block Island...it is paradise.

An ombudsman (English plural: conventionally ombudsmen) is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some external constituency while representing the broad scope of constituent interests.

alicia shepard - not an ombudsman

murder - enhanced argumentation technique

...why Homeland Security is receiving $242M to fight pirates off the Horn of Africa and run operations in the Persian Gulf...

Just who's coast is the Coast Guard guarding???

House passes $44B Homeland Security spending bill

By ANDREW TAYLOR – 6 days ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed a $44 billion spending bill Wednesday that awards the Homeland Security Department a 7 percent budget increase, with money for more border patrol agents and for anti-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia.

[...]

The House homeland security measure would fund more than 20,000 border patrol agents, about double the number employed before the 2001 terrorist attacks. It also provides $10 billion for the Coast Guard, including $242 million in funding for operations in the Persian Gulf and against pirates off the coast of Somalia.

AP

They call it paradise
I don't know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye ....

nicely done...

Good post Sammy.

i'm sure the ceo of exxon or shell could explain it to you.

you gotta listen to the audio. alicia shepard is a real piece of work

I just don't understand why the US Coast Guard would be deployed to Africa to do it.....

//a media matters video capture from a glenn beck show where the person being interviewed says that the only thing that will save us from the tyranny of obama and the democrats is having osama bin laden destroy an american city with a nuclear weapon//

Submitted by dan on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 7:33am.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/1/748665/-GBCFOX

it's going to take blood to cleanse us of this nazi mentality
so we will be the next greatest generation

anyway, if my car breaks down
i will pray that jesus solves the problem
so i can continue polluting the planet
ty, jesus
ty, lord

[waits for 5 minutes, but the car still doesn't go]

please fix my car, jesus

[waits for 5 minutes, but the car still doesn't go]

please fix my car, jesus

[waits for 5 minutes, but the car still doesn't go]

hmmm...
my only recourse is to blame immoral behaviour

The Divine Answer To Our Economic Woes: More Prayer, Less Debauchery
http://www.commondreams.org/further/2009/06/30-1

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105510752

Zombies: Still Undead, And Suddenly Everywhere
by Beth Accomando
---------
Included in the article (text or audio) is this bonus video treat:

Dead Snow, a Norwegian horror movie, is the latest entry in a storied genre. The new twist? This time, the zombies are Nazis. IFC Films
---------
When I think zombies, I think Chubby Bubba.
When I think Nazi zombies, I still think Chubby Bubba.
Even if there were a TV show called "Dancing With The Zombies," I'd think Chubby Bubba.

this jazz nazi displays the same flat-footed wit
intended for our bemusement

and hangs around to be first
while not bothering to inform anyone that there's a new thread

yet these jazz nazi's consider themselves to be the pinnacle of civilization

your car broke down because your were jumping with catharine on one of your many adventures.

i wish

Pioneering solar-powered aircraft unveiled
Saturday, 27 June 2009 05:58 Agencies

Whereas flying too close to the Sun was to be Icarus' downfall, it is to be the salvation of his modern-day heir Bertrand Piccard.

For Piccard aims to circumnavigate the globe on an aircraft fueled by the rays of the Sun, and the first version of his mount was unveiled in Zurich, Switzerland on Friday.

The aptly named 'Solar Impulse' is a light-weight giant. Light weight, because it weighs no more than 1,600 kg (3,527 lbs), and giant because its wing span of 63.4 meters (208 ft) is greater than that of the Airbus A340 wide-body airliner.

It is the result of six years of work by some of the brightest engineers, who aim to prove that it is possible to fly with zero carbon emissions.

The power for the 'Solar Impulse' comes from 11,628 silicon cells placed on the upper surfaces of the aircraft. These provide enough power not only during day-time flying, but at night too, by drip-feeding the onboard storage batteries with enough power during the day.

The propulsive elements are four 10-hp electric engines driving 2-blade propellers.

The present version of the aircraft is designed to carry one pilot for up to 36 hours.

The ultimate version, intended to cross the Atlantic Ocean and eventually circumnavigate the globe, will have a pressurized cockpit to shield the pilot from the effects of high-altitude flying.

The pilot of that momentous mission will be no other than the aviation pioneer Bertrand Piccard.

The Swiss psychiatrist and aeronaut became the first person - along with his co-pilot Englishman Brian Jones - to circumnavigate the globe non-stop in a balloon in March 1999, breaking numerous endurance and distance records.

The 51-year-old father of three, who is also one of the directors of the 'Solar Impulse' project, said at the Friday's unveiling ceremony: “Yesterday it was a dream. Today it's an airplane, and tomorrow it will be an ambassador of renewable energies and energy savings - flying day and night with no fuel and no pollution.”

Also attending the ceremony was the director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Giovanni Bisignani. He praised the event as a “great, great event” which “shows the world that carbon-free flight is possible.”

He did not say that sweet revenge is possible too. In this case, the revenge of Icarus.

Link

Beck Falsely States The U.S. Bought Alaska In The ‘1950s’ So We Could Drill

While appearing on Fox & Friends this morning, Glenn Beck managed to make a trio of mistakes when he attacked the Waxman-Markey clean energy bill passed by the House last week. The Fox News pundit falsely asserted the legislation’s effect on our oil dependency would be “none.” Beck then pointed out, incorrectly, that the U.S. purchased Alaska in the “1950s” and that we did so because of our interest in its “resources,” a subtle way of advocating for more drilling in Alaska:

CARLSON: But nowhere in that bill is anything about reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

BECK: None. […]

You know Donald Trump, I want to talk to this guy. When he was on the show just a few minutes ago I was thinking how can you not be laughing at us? How can the world not be laughing at us? We have all these resources. Why did we buy Alaska in the 1950s? We bought Alaska for the resources. And now we say no!

[...]

Think Progress

Vid at link...

Remember when Oloofa got pwned by Jessica Alba on Swedish nuetrality during wwII? These guys are dressed up thug propagandists...nothing more.

...
NATHANIEL FRANK:....President Obama does have the power to stop the firings. He can act unilaterally to use his powers of stop-loss through a statute, 12305 from 1983, in which Congress itself gives the President the power to stop separations in the military for a variety of reasons. And so, he has said that he wants to stop the firings, and he actually has the power to stop the firings. And so, it's really been very unclear to many of us why he's unwilling to take that step. The White House has been --

AMY GOODMAN: You mean it would be an executive order?

NATHANIEL FRANK: It would be an executive order halting all separations while we are under a national emergency, which the statute defines as being -- having the National Guard mobilized, as it currently is. And then he could go to Congress some months down the line and say, "Look, we've had openly gay service officially" -- incidentally, we already have openly gay service; thousands of people are serving openly, notwithstanding the policy. But he could turn to this situation officially and say, "We have openly gay service because of this executive order. The sky hasn't fallen. Now, Congress, let's move to get this off the books permanently." So it would be a one-two punch. And that is an option that Obama has. And he's been asked about it, the White House has been asked about it, and they haven't given a good reason why, given what he said about wanting to stop the firings, he's continuing to let the firings go, when he has the power to do otherwise.

http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2009/06/iraq-snapshot_30.html

how about
nrps

?

http://www3.clearlight.com/~acsa/nrdiscog.htm

later...
~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

chickenshit...

...or maybe just full of it....

I could see his reluctance to use this method to put a hold on DADT until Congress could repeal it, as it could be attacked as a unilateral abuse of power, but considering his use of signing statements already, it would be hypocritical for him to hide behind that argument.

BRAWWWWKKKKK!!!!

The lost NASA tapes: Restoring lunar images after 40 years in the vault

A Mac Pro and 40-year-old tape drives are helping restore the original Lunar Orbiter tapes

By Lamont Wood
June 29, 2009

Computerworld - Liquid nitrogen, vegetable steamers, Macintosh workstations and old, refrigerator-size tape drives. These are just some of the tools a new breed of Space Age archeologists is using to sift through the digital debris from the early days of NASA, mining the information in ways unimaginable when it was first gathered four decades ago.

At stake is data that could show Earth's risk of an asteroid strike, shed light on global warming and -- perhaps -- even satisfy those who think the moon landings were a hoax.

Con't

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

CAP, Wal-Mart, SEIU Join Forces in Support of Employer Mandate

The Center for American Progress, the Service Employees International Union, and Wal-Mart joined forces today to release a letter (PDF) endorsing the dual ideas of an employer mandate to provide health insurance and “triggers” to automatically reduce costs if health care spending gets too high (more on that here). You can find details on policy courtesy of my man Igor Volsky. And as Jeff Young notes, there’s important politics here:

The so-called employer mandate is adamantly opposed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business and virtually every major business trade association in Washington. But the backing of Wal-Mart, which employs about 2 million people, could give a big boost to President Obama and Congress’s effort to levy such a requirement on companies. [...] The decision by Wal-Mart to break away from the Chamber and its ilk marks the first visible crack in the business coalition on healthcare reform.

The highly ideological behavior of the business community, and high degree of class solidarity exhibited by the executive class, has been a hugely important element of the story of American politics over the past thirty years or so. The willingness of much of the business community to break with Chamber ideology on Waxman-Markey and now on health care is an important sign of change in the air.

Yglesias

It's going to take a few days to get my brain around that one...

Henry got to Mexico and he turned his truck around
He's talkin' to the man who has it growin' from the ground
Henry tasted, he got wasted, couldn't even see
How he's going to drive like that is not clear to me

As lawmakers weigh health-reform plans, it’s becoming increasingly clear that just having coverage won’t necessarily protect individuals from financial disaster, the New York Times reports. Some three-quarters of those bankrupted by health care costs were insured at the time of their ailment. “Underinsurance is the great hidden risk of the American health care system,” says a law professor. “People do not realize they are one diagnosis away from financial collapse.”

Thus some are arguing for laws that guarantee “a base level of coverage” and protect against plans that are “relatively worthless,” the Times notes. Limited-benefit plans may pay, for example, for room and board at a hospital, but not for operations. Until “meaningful” insurance can be made more available, says a senator, “any presentation of limited-benefit plans ought to be completely straightforward, and not misleading in any way.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/business/01meddebt.html?_r=1&hp

The number of uninsured people has increased as more have fallen victim to deceptive marketing practices and bought what essentially is fake insurance. - Former Cigna executive Wendell Potter

Citi Jacks Up Card Rates on Millions of Accounts

As many Citigroup customers are already painfully aware, the lender has drastically increased rates on some 15 million credit card accounts, the Financial Times reports. Holders of Citi cards co-branded with retailers such as Sears saw their interest rates climb by as much as 24%—or 3 percentage points—between January and April if they failed to pay off their full balance each month.

“It’s hard to tell if rate hikes on existing balances being put in place now are the result of prior bad business decisions or getting in under the wire of the new law,” says the Democratic rep from New York who authored upcoming legislation that makes such practices illegal.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e1d0c610-65c7-11de-8e34-00144feabdc0.html

Easy on the Tylenol: FDA Panel

An outside panel reporting to the Food and Drug Administration recommended today that the maximum daily dosage of Tylenol be reduced and the Extra Strength variety of the painkiller be available only by prescription, Bloomberg reports. The panel of advisers, whose suggestions are nonbinding, noted acetaminophen’s effect on the liver. The panel also recommended that prescription painkillers Vicodin and Percocet be banned.

“The most important target for our action is unintentional harm,” one member said of the Tylenol. “Education is a weak intervention and we really are looking for more concrete steps.” Tylenol-maker Johnson & Johnson argued that the move would push people to use ibuprofen products like Advil, which can cause gastrointestinal bleeding.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a0oDgCVIC_NY

The Dominionist's wife must be prepared for this, and it will be acceptable to her because the Dominionist's wife will realize that being the vessel of her husband's seed is an honor.

And the Dominionist reasoning? Maybe it is: Isn't it better to be his 'vessel' than to be his 'ball-and-chain'? Display your Christianist sharing with your sisters. Let another sister be his 'soulmate'. All women in his Dominionist Christian Harem have their role and 'duty'.

EGAD.

Jenny Sanford is showing the world “a new and improved version of the betrayed political spouse—neither enabler nor victim,” writes Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post. She’s not taking the stand-by-the-cheater for the cameras approach; she hasn’t released a “supportive” and “euphemistic” statement. Instead, she’s “concluded that the person who is humiliated by her husband's affair is, in fact, her husband, not her.”

Sanford isn’t "standing by" her husband’s “side, but she is not hiding in a hole, either.” While he rambled to the press, she released an “elegant and thoughtful statement.” She took a “mature view of adultery,” a “practical vision of real love,” and showed “investment-banker steel,” Marcus writes. “Now she still has her feet on the ground even as her husband is head over heels—with another woman.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR200906...

Been there, done that!

Flush his viagra down the toilet like I did!

Thought I read a warning about that once. Maybe it was for individuals who had a risk factor, like lupus....can't recall....

Aspirin DEFINITELY causes gastrointestinal bleeding and death -- to the tune of 12,000 deaths a year....

They are all risky. But those tylenol folks are disgusting, fighting victims in court and resisting package warnings about how combining tylenol with alcohol destroys the liver. Incredible profiteers at any cost.

If its deposed president isn’t reinstated within 72 hours, Honduras will be kicked out of the Organization of American States, the group’s secretary-general said today, in the latest sign of Manuel Zelaya’s overwhelming international support. Zelaya spoke before the UN yesterday, and the General Assembly voted by acclamation to demand his restoration. But his newly installed replacement, Roberto Micheletti, says only an invasion will unseat him.

Zelaya said he plans to return accompanied by the head of the General Assembly, the OAS secretary-general, and the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador. “When I'm back, people are going to say, 'Commander, we're at your service' and the army will have to correct itself,” he told the UN. But Micheletti warns that Zelaya will be arrested if he attempts to return.

http://www.newser.com/article/d995k4o00/oas-gives-3-day-deadline-to-hond...

SC attorney general calls
for investigation of governor
South Carolina's attorney general is asking for an investigation into Gov. Mark Sanford's travels after he admitted seeing his mistress more times than previously disclosed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090630/ap_on_re_us/us_sc_governor_investiga...

Biden to take charge of Iraq withdrawal

Agence France Presse

President Barack Obama has asked Vice President Joe Biden to take on a new role overseeing the US departure from Iraq and Washington's effort to promote internal political reconciliation there.

[...]

Alternet

Health Insurance No Guarantee Against Ruin
Submitted by toniD on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 10:46am.
As lawmakers weigh health-reform plans, it’s becoming increasingly clear that just having coverage won’t necessarily protect individuals from financial disaster, the New York Times reports. Some three-quarters of those bankrupted by health care costs were insured at the time of their ailment. “Underinsurance is the great hidden risk of the American health care system,” says a law professor. “People do not realize they are one diagnosis away from financial collapse.”

Thus some are arguing for laws that guarantee “a base level of coverage” and protect against plans that are “relatively worthless,” the Times notes. Limited-benefit plans may pay, for example, for room and board at a hospital, but not for operations. Until “meaningful” insurance can be made more available, says a senator, “any presentation of limited-benefit plans ought to be completely straightforward, and not misleading in any way.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/business/01meddebt.html?_r=1&hp

The number of uninsured people has increased as more have fallen victim to deceptive marketing practices and bought what essentially is fake insurance. - Former Cigna executive Wendell Potter

============================

Predators circle the herd, picking off the sick and weak first.

Every primary plan must be a COMPREHENSIVE plan, and when the insurance companies refuse it's because they don't care if sick Americans die living out of a shopping bag under an overpass.

Myopril, fish oils,curcumin,boswellia serrata . for joint issues green lipped mussels,Hyalauronic Acid,PH Balancing.accupuncture,neurotransmitter pathway rebuilding nutrients,natural blood thinning nutrients..magnesium for muscle relaxation,adrenal gland nutrients,general body detoxification

or take a lot of tylenol and a couple of shots of vodka

.

Howard Dean Joins With TP’s Igor Volsky And Faiz Shakir To Author Book On Health Care Reform

bookIn recent months, Howard Dean — the former physician, Governor of Vermont, and DNC Chairman — has been passionately advocating for health care reform that contains a public health insurance option. Now, he’s written a book fleshing out his detailed ideas for comprehensive progressive health care reform. And I, along with Wonk Room health care blogger Igor Volsky, are honored to be his co-authors.

The book — which is being released in paperback today — is titled “Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Health Care Reform.” (If it’s not available in your local bookstore, you can purchase a copy online here.)

The book is being released in the midst of a heated policy debate over health care reform. A number of so-called “moderate” Democratic senators -– including Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Joe Lieberman, and others — have indicated they are opposing President Obama’s efforts to include a public plan. Our book is part of an effort to ensure that Congress and the Obama administration do not abandon core principles that the vast majority of the public supports. As we write in the book:

Americans need real healthcare reform, not just insurance reform, and nobody should mistake the two. If we only get reform that requires insurance companies to provide coverage to everyone who applies, charge everyone the same premiums, and end their predatory practices, that would be great insurance reform. But that is not healthcare reform.

Igor and I recently sat down with Gov. Dean to discuss our book. Gov. Dean taped this message specifically for the ThinkProgress community. Take a look: at link

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/01/dean-igor-faiz-book/

Also, Gov. Dean recently discussed the book on The Colbert Report. Watch it here.

http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/watch-dean-clashes-with-colbert-on-r...

Investment banker steel... More like "investment banker steal."

Investment banker steel. Jeezus christ.

PBS Sam? You made me listen to PBS? WTH!

It took me a while to comprehend how wrong the ombudsman was. Not because I'm too dim. Not because I couldn't follow the conversation. No.

It's because I kept reeling into narcolepsy. How is anyone supposed to listen to that station without spiraling into an instant comatose state brought on by extreme boredom?

I'll never have those minutes back and now I'm freaking cranky and groggy.

*snark*

Blessed with a super majority we find the democrats becoming even more conservative. It has been very interesting to watch and see just what the dems don't do. For years the dems were eager to tell us what they would do if not for Bush and the evil, evil, republicans. But with total Democrat control we find George Bush's policy have never had so much support from congress.

So it turns out congress and the dems were bluffing all along, now the mask has been pulled off and accountability has been substituted for political bullshit. Who says God doesn't love and watch over this country?

"I believe all these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world."

George W. Bush

Journalists like her cannot write a clear, simple story lead. You know the who, what, when, where, how thang? Not her; she has to check the secret lexicon and figure out which words are okay so that we aren't misdirected to think the Bush-style Inquisition of the Innocents is a bad thing. Huh???

She's setting a rule that is ABSURD! It's like she's saying a 'fair', 'unbiased' journalist must not say the woman was wearing a RED DRESS. But must instead figure out another way to describe a red dress without calling it a red dress. "The woman was wearing a garment open at the bottom end and it was a strong, bright color somewhere between orange and maroon."

If she is willing to use ONLY the Bushism "enhanced interrogation", WHY IS THAT? Why doesn't she insert the term INQUISITION TECHNIQUE instead? Why use the Bush euphemism??? NPR's Alicia Shepard's choice of words is DAMAGING to journalism, it doesn't champion journalism's role.

Good on Glenn Greenwald for calling out this NPR newspeak crud.

They should have had NPR on !!

====
I can't have it on in the car because it downs me out to a dangerous level.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday gauging registered voters’ views of health care reform underscores the political complexity of the issue, with the results offering ammunition to both the supporters and opponents of President Barack Obama’s No. 1 legislative priority.

The national poll of 3,063 registered voters showed that 69 percent believe Americans should have the option of purchasing government-run health insurance. But only 28 percent of those polled said they would take advantage of government-run insurance, a number that could suggest a lack of confidence in Washington’s ability to administer coverage. - RollCall

This is where the Whores are separated from the Nuns. There is only one remaining party. We must make examples of dissenting votes.

anti inflammatory pain relief
Submitted by taozen on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 11:30am.
Myopril, fish oils,curcumin,boswellia serrata . for joint issues green lipped mussels,Hyalauronic Acid,PH Balancing.accupuncture,neurotransmitter pathway rebuilding nutrients,natural blood thinning nutrients..magnesium for muscle relaxation,adrenal gland nutrients,general body detoxification

or take a lot of tylenol and a couple of shots of vodka

=======================================

Hi, Taozen!

Yes, tylenol will give one PERMANENT pain relief! Corpses don't feel a thing.

Here's another food-based anti-inflammatory -- bromelain from raw pineapple. Right?

Why are the liver and kidneys so overtaxed by these pharmaceuticals? WHy are there so many side effects? I think it is because they are synthetic testtube inventions that are essentially toxic to the living organism. There are natural poisons too, but we pretty much had those figured out for a long time. The synthetics are an invention of the last 60+ years. It's a big experiment and we are test cases (lab animals) who actually PAY money to be tested.

Hi Mom!

Guess what....I'm in a head.

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Ask yourself: Do you think the Allies completed the job of denazification (Nazi fascism, Mussolini Fascism) in Europe after World War II.

I was under the impression we had done a fairly successful job.

This book I'm reading -- "The Beast Reawkens" by Martin A. Lee -- is clarifying that 'denazification' was only a word but never a real effective method or event!

Bernie Sanders Demands Democrats Commit To Stopping Health Care Filibuster

First Posted: 07- 1-09 09:44 AM | Updated: 07- 1-09 11:06 AM

One of the Senate's most vocal progressives is demanding that the Democratic Party commit to voting against filibustering health care legislation now that, with the impending arrival of Al Franken, the party has 60 caucusing members.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), called on the White House and Democratic leadership in Congress to ensure that party members agree unanimously to support cloture on legislation that would revamp the nation's health care system. Democratic senators on the fence, he added, could still oppose the bill. But at the very least they should be required to let the legislation come to an up-or-down vote.

"I think that with Al Franken coming on board, you have effectively 60 Democrats in the caucus, 58 and two Independents," Sanders said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "I think the strategy should be to say, it doesn't take 60 votes to pass a piece of legislation. It takes 60 votes to stop a filibuster. I think the strategy should be that every Democrat, no matter whether or not they ultimately end up voting for the final bill, is to say we are going to vote together to stop a Republican filibuster. And if somebody who votes for that ends up saying, 'I'm not gonna vote for this bill, it's too radical, blah, blah, blah, that's fine.'"

[...]

HuffPo

The pharmaceutical lobby group PhRMA and the consumer health care advocate group Families USA are launching today a “multimillion-dollar national television advertising campaign to urge lawmakers to pass quality, affordable health care reform.” Watch the ads here.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24384.html#ixzz0K0lzP4fO&C

Reuters reports China has asked to debate proposals for a new global reserve currency at next week's Group of Eight summit in Italy and the issue could be referred to briefly in the summit statement, G8 sources said on Wednesday.

Chief Justice John Roberts succeeded in leading the Supreme Court on a “patient and steady move to the right” this term. While the court took “mainly incremental steps in major cases,” Roberts’ “fingerprints were on all of them, and he left clues that the court is only one decision away from fundamental change in many areas of the law.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/us/01scotus.html

things not allright with the world?

Get out there and empty those pots...you dumbass Swamp Yankee!

National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones told U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan last week that the Obama administration wants to focus on carrying out a strategy for “increased economic development, improved governance and participation by the Afghan military and civilians in the conflict.” “The piece of the strategy that has to work in the next year is economic development,” Jones told Bob Woodward.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR200906...

I've been checking the mail, daily.

Hi Mom!

Get to work.

that is what aspirin comes from. the Indians used it . Bromelain and quercetin are other very good anti inflammatories. I wish people had access to progressive Doctor's. like the Drpressman .com I mention alot. The Chinese doctor I go to has many plant based anti inflammatories and with accupuncture and diet changes he can help you just to feel better all over.
Lowering out of control blood pressure,lowering excessive body weight,improving liver and kindey detoxification,stabilizing blood sugar peaks and valley's all have an effect on feeling good and not in pain.

NORA you are right to see that modern medicine and the drug companies are just out of control like the stock market.

As long as Sanje Gupta and John Stossil (fossil) are confusing the people with reader's Digest Science profits will come before cost effective healing.

Modern medicines are too strong and the side effects kick in early. The Chinese and most herbalists and nutritionalists use formulas that have many small amounts of various components just to be safe.
===
Over weight people have a diminished sexual response. It is summer try to take a cure. Eat those local vegetables cut down on sat fat , drink your green teas poof cheers ( or something like that..

Said that the Southern States are the fattest in the nation.

Mississippi has the most of obese people.

nothin better than low country cooking.

i had a relative in tennessee who's idea of fried eggs started with a half inch of crisco in a frying pan.

does that include bernie sanders and that miserable excuse from connecticut?

Submitted by toniD on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 11:07am.
...and [Jenny Sanford] showed “investment-banker steel,” Marcus writes.

Submitted by dada on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 11:42am.
...Investment banker steel. Jeezus christ.
---------
Uh-oh. dada is wearing his politically-correct policeman's hat.

How about "showed the steel of a poker player"? No, that implies a bluff.

How about "showed a hawk's steel"? No, that implies a predatory resolve.

How about "showed the steel of a Marine"? What? A bayonet?

How about "showed the steel of a disgruntled postal worker"? (Sorry, maggiesboy.)

How about "showed the steel of a crack-crazed homeless person"? Or "showed the steel of a labor dispute arbiter"? Or "showed the steel of Kim Jong-il"? Or "showed the steel of a rock band drummer recently evicted from his girlfriend's couch"?

Methinks dada is looking for stuff to bitch about in a world that already has too much stuff to bitch about.

I got the allusion without hesitation. It wasn't an allusion that I would have used but the point came across loud and clear.

If dada wants to infer an insidious and carefully planned pro-investment banker cultural message hidden in an article about Jenny Sanford's public reactions to her husband's peccadillos, that's his choice. I'm pretty sure that the writer was implying that Jenny Sanford does not have the shakes during a period of high risk.

This much is certain: If every instance of a literary device is discarded when someone objects, we will all be grunting like Thag.

And Alcoa stock will go through the roof.

Inhofe On Franken: "We Are Going To Get The Clown"

In an interview with Tulsa World, Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe said confidently that a climate change bill wouldn't pass the Senate.

Democrats wouldn't be able to hustle up 60 votes to stop a filibuster, the Republican said. "I'll tell you what a lot of people are thinking, and that is it looks like things are going to be over and we are going to get the clown from Minnesota ... They are not going to get more than 35 votes."

Asked if he was referring to Al Franken, Inhofe confirmed that he was. "I didn't mean to be disrespectful. I don't know the guy, but ... for a living he is a clown. That's what he does for a living."

Inhofe has previously compared people who believe in global warming to Hitler's Third Reich and called "An Inconvenient Truth" a "science fiction" movie.

HuffPo

They ask themselves everyday, how big is my caucus? Then, if they are Republican, they go hiking in Appalachia.

That is soooo wrong!
The only correct way is to fry two pounds of bacon first and then gently cook the eggs in the rendered fat.

Weird Al - Fat (YouTube)
You ain't fat, you ain't nothin'!

Hey Dragon. What have you been up to?

Judge Overturns Bush Administration Logging Rule

by Jeff Barnard
GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal judge has struck down the Bush administration's change to a rule designed to protect the northern spotted owl from logging in national forests.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled from Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday that the U.S. Forest Service failed to take a hard look at the environmental impacts of changing the rule to make it easier to cut down forest habitat of species such as the spotted owl and salmon on 193 million acres of national forests.

"I am hopeful that this is the last nail in the coffin to (President George W.) Bush's assault on our public forests," said Pete Frost, an attorney for the Western Environmental Law Center in Eugene, which represented plaintiffs in one of two cases challenging the rule.

At stake was a provision of the National Forest Management Act that required maintaining viable populations of species that indicate the health of an ecosystem, such as the spotted owl. The Bush administration changed the rule last year so it required a framework of protection, rather than maintaining viable populations of wildlife.

The ruling marked the third time federal courts have turned back attempts to change the 1984 version of what is known as the viability rule within the National Forest Management Act.

The judge wrote that an environmental impact statement done by the Forest Service "does not evaluate the environmental impacts of the 2008 rule," and the agency failed to comply with Endangered Species Act requirements to consult with other federal agencies on whether the rule changes would jeopardize the survival of endangered species.

Instead, the Forest Service argued that the rule changes themselves had no direct environmental impact until they were applied to specific projects.

The judge admonished the Forest Service for simply copying legal arguments already rejected in two court rulings into their latest justification for the rule change.

Forest Service spokesman Joe Walsh said in an e-mail that he could not immediately comment on the ruling.

Andy Stahl, director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics in Eugene, said until the National Forest Management Act was enacted in 1976, the Forest Service had wide latitude to do as it pleased with little oversight - a situation the Bush administration hoped to recreate.

After President Bush was elected in 2000, his administration systematically worked to increase national forest logging by changing the rules for enforcing environmental laws, but was consistently turned back by federal court rulings.

"This court decision sends the Forest Service back to square zero and upholds the promise ... that forest plans be meaningful and they actually protect forests," he said

Link

What a concept....

Submitted by dan on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 12:41pm.
...i had a relative in tennessee who's idea of fried eggs started with a half inch of crisco in a frying pan.
--------
Maybe "shortening" refers to life expectancy?

they count Bernie and the douche from CT...

The Supreme Court Term In Review, Part I: The Environment

water-pollution(The following is the first in a multi-part series on the Supreme Court’s recently-concluded 2008-2009 Term)

No one fared worse before the Supreme Court this Term than the Earth. The justices heard five environmental cases, and they sided against defenders of the environment in every single one. Among these cases, the Court upheld a Bush-era regulation that placed costs to power plants above destruction of aquatic life; it absolved from liability a chemical company that allowed pesticides to spill into the environment for years; it erected new obstacles to environmental organizations challenging federal environmental policy; and it upheld a mining company’s plans to dump literally millions of tons of mining waste into a pristine lake.

Two of these cases in particular highlight the Court’s disregard for laws intended to protect the environment:

* A New Loophole For Polluters (Coeur Alaska v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council)

Using a technique known as “froth-floatation,” a mining company in Alaska plans to extract new gold from a mine that has been closed for decades, but this technique would produce approximately 4.5 million tons of “slurry,” thick waste-product laced with toxic elements such as lead and mercury. Even worse, the mining company’s intends to dispose of this waste by dumping it into a nearby lake, a plan which would eventually kill all the lake’s fish and nearly all of its other aquatic life, decrease the depth of the lake by fifty feet, and flood the surrounding 40 acres of land with contaminated water.

Although federal law forbids “[t]he use of any river, lake, stream or ocean as a waste treatment system,” the Supreme Court created a massive new exception to this law. Under Justice Kennedy’s decision in Coeur Alaska, pollutants are exempt from this law so long as they have “the effect of . . . changing the bottom elevation of water.” In other words, polluters now have a free hand to dump whatever they want into pristine waters, so long as their waste products are solid and significant enough to reduce the depth of the lake, river or stream. As Justice Ginsburg wrote in dissent, such a reading of federal law “strains credulity” because it allows “[w]hole categories of regulated industries” to “gain immunity from a variety of pollution-control standards.”

* Placing Profits Before The Law (Entergy v. Riverkeeper)

Power plants’ cooling systems collectively remove more than 214 billion gallons of water from the nation’s waterways every day, in the process killing over 3.4 billion aquatic organisms per year. The Clean Water Act requires that EPA regulate these cooling systems based on “the best technology available for minimizing adverse environmental impact.” During the Bush administration, however, EPA ignored this direction and instead employed a skewed cost-benefit analysis in deciding how to regulate. As a result, power plants were allowed to forgo the advanced technology required by the plain language of the law in favor of cheaper but far less protective measures.

Ignoring the law’s plain language, Justice Scalia’s decision in Riverkeeper upheld the Bush administration’s action. As Justice Stevens explained in dissent, Congress determined that the costs of requiring power plants to pay for environmentally friendly technology “are outweighed by the benefits of minimizing adverse environmental impact” when it enacted the Clean Water Act, but the Court substituted the Bush Administration’s judgment for that of the law.

Notably, Riverkeeper reversed a Second Circuit decision by Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a hopeful sign that President Obama’s nominee for the high Court does not share her future colleagues’ willingness to rewrite environmental legislation to benefit big industry.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/07/01/scotus-environment/

You sure are reading alot into my little post. I had to couch my play on words in some context. How should I have presented it?

FINALLY - eye-roll.
...at least yea for this bloody decade... the ending - plus, thus, July 1, 2009c.e.
/|\)0(

Hot-Button Health Issue: Is Medicaid or Private Insurance Better for the Poor Uninsured?

By Mary Agnes Carey
Jul 01, 2009

Medicaid’s role in health reform is emerging as a flash point, exposing policy and political rifts not only between the two parties but also among Democrats themselves.

As part of efforts to extend health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans, congressional Democrats are pressing for a major expansion in the state-federal program for the poor and disabled. As a result, Medicaid, which now covers 60 million people, could pick up more than one-third of the 46 million uninsured. Those numbers are far from final, given that overhaul legislation is still being written and negotiated.

The disagreement centers on a critical issue: What’s the best way to cover impoverished Americans? Is it by expanding Medicaid? Or by providing subsidies for the poor to buy private insurance on new health insurance exchanges to be created by the legislation?

Most Democrats come down squarely on the side of Medicaid, saying it’s the most efficient and least expensive way to cover the poor. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said the program is "one of the best ways" to make sure lower-income people are covered.

Most Republicans, leery about expanding a big government program like Medicaid, argue that private insurance is a better way to go. Some moderate Democrats agree. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., calls Medicaid a "caste system" that hurts poor people’s choice of doctors and the care they receive. "I want poor people in this country to have the kind of quality of care and dignity that members of Congress have," he said. And some governors worry that, sooner or later, they’ll end up paying for a big chunk of any Medicaid expansion.

In the end, though, Medicaid’s role in health reform may be bolstered by simple math: Studies suggest that enrolling people in the program would be substantially cheaper than giving them subsidies for private insurance. That could have a big impact on lawmakers trying to figure out how to pay for a health overhaul.

Medicaid, which spent $330 billion in the 2007 fiscal year, is considered one of the most complicated of government programs. Overall, the federal government provides 57 percent of the money and the states chip in the rest. The federal matching rate varies from state to state, with poor states getting a higher rate.

Under federal rules, certain poor people must be covered. That includes pregnant women and children under age six whose family incomes are below 133 percent of the federal poverty level, or $28,200 for a family of four in 2008, and children age six to 18 whose family incomes are below 100 percent of the poverty level, or $21,200 for a family of four. Beyond that, the federal government lets states set their own eligibility rules, which vary greatly. (See related story).

Here are some of the issues being debated by lawmakers:
More...

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/July/01/Medicaid.aspx

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/1/748644/-FL-Sen:-Another-potential...

Daily Kos

"So the question will then be -- at what point will Crist realize that he's in deep shit? It took collapsing poll numbers for Specter to hit the "panic!" button and switch parties. That's probably what it'll take for Crist to realize his problems, and when he does, he'll have a tough call to make: go down with his party, or pull a Specter and ditch it for better electoral prospects on a different line. That could mean a switch to the Democratic Party where he'd likely be no worse than the other senator from Florida, Bill Nelson -- a marginally good Democrat, a step up from Landrieu, Nebraska's Nelson, and the Wal Mart Twins (and no better). Or it could mean an independent run, where he might be able to pull a Lieberman (complete with a Joementum fundraising campaign visit) and work to attract independents, mainstream Republicans, and Democrats disaffected by their poor field and try to win a split three-way field."

From Wikipedia:

Al Franken---...He attended Harvard College and graduated cum laude in 1973 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science...

...Franken and Davis were recruited as two of the original writers (and occasional performers) on Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1980 and again from 1985 to 1995, although in the latter case, only Franken returned as a performer, while Davis usually stayed behind the camera...

...Franken has written five New York Times best-selling books, three of which reached #1...

James Inhofe---...Inhofe received a B.A. degree [economics] from the University of Tulsa in 1973, at the age of 38.

In his business career, Inhofe was a real estate developer and became president of the Quaker Life Insurance Company. That company went into receivership while he managed it; it was liquidated in 1986...

It is the security services on which the regime’s fate ultimately hinges. If they decide their best interests lie with the powers that they have protected, and that have protected them, they will stick it out. If they decide they are more likely to prosper under new leadership, power can collapse at the speed of a show trial. - NYT

While it provides a mirror image of words one might use to describe the GOP V Dem flip in our own recent elections. Follow the money.

Submitted by dada on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 1:11pm.
You sure are reading alot into my little post. I had to couch my play on words in some context. How should I have presented it?
-------
Sorry. I thought your wordplay was an outgrowth of your distaste for the writer using an investment banker as a symbol of being unflappable under stressful circumstances.

My mistake. I apologize for making much ado about nothing.

(...or it was my elaborate ruse to slip in a drummer joke.)

a.k.a perfect SAT math score Franken....

Minnesota Republican Norman Coleman is one of the administration's leading butt boys. - Al Franken

Link

This is interesting:

"Who Would Benefit: The expansion would have the biggest impact in states with high numbers of poor uninsured people and tight Medicaid eligibility standards. That tends to be states in the South and the West."

It seems that the constituents of the Southern Repubs and Dems need the Medicaid program more than the North and yet they consistently vote against their best interest. Why? Because their pollys always tell them their taxes will go up. Many of these people don't pay taxes or lower taxes as it is. It's the rich in these areas whose taxes will rise and with a good accountant, they can hide alot already.

Obama is on now talking about health care.

here's a better link

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22886841#22886841

the pnc ad in the upper right keeps playing over and over.

At BoingBoing: Shaming Congress into voting against the industries who bribed them to stop public healthcare

Lawrence Lessig's new anti-corruption organization Change Congress recently used online ads to shame Sen. Ben Nelson in his home state for opposing President Obama's public health insurance option while taking $2 million from the health and insurance interests that are leading the fight against it. And it worked. After an 11-day public fight, Nelson switched from calling the public option "a deal breaker" to saying he is open to it and promising not to join Republicans in a filibuster against it.

Now, Lessig has set his sights on Sen. Mary Landrieu, who also opposes the public option and took $1.6 million from the same special interests. Today, Change Congress announced a new TV ad targeting Landrieu and they are asking the public to chip in to help air it in Louisiana. Democracy for America and MoveOn.org are also partnering on this ad. It features Karen Gadbois, a local hero who helped root out corruption after Hurricane Katrina -- who shares her compelling personal health care story:

Help us get this ad on the air in Louisiana!

Lessig's blog on Nelson (May 28, 2009):
http://lessig.org/blog/2009/05/gsc_senator_ben_nelson_is_angr.html

might increase efficienys but it seems like a real threat to personal freedom. they talk about privacy but can you really believe that they won't let some bueracrat go snooping?

how long till the government outlaws anything it considers unhealthy behaviour?

I see a future in tofu. But hey, if it makes us a healthier country, I support it.

heh.. that's pretty much what I thought.

At my first quick glance, I thought the angel was picking her nose.

Brett...

"Mr. Zelaya, who took office in 2006, has moved steadily to the left during his presidency, railing increasingly against the country’s elite, who he says have opposed his politics of inclusion. Critics accuse Mr. Zelaya, who comes from a well-off family of landowners, of blatant populism and of doling out cash to try to solidify a shaky political base."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/world/americas/01honduras.html

3.9 RE: Crank Bait on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 1:21pm.
jus say'n ... some... fellow D&D gamers, brilliant folks ... as COM SCI dudes (M& eventually 1 F{not me=BFA}), and then some...
with a friend as a Q...... P........ "YOUNG lecturer" in Oxford, ENG.... before ... & me & Wolves .. ;)
kewl...{e-r}
*poof*

I thought she was hitting a bong...zen indeed....

Oh, I know, this is so last week. It's over already. The twittering has stopped, the protesters have been beaten into retreat, the Youtube videos aren't being uploaded at the same frequency. This week is all about celebrities turned zombie. Still, indulge me for a moment. This image of Ahmadi the pious populist, I think, arises in part from a certain spectacle positioning. After all, the corporate media find it difficult to construe someone as an enemy without also implying that they are some kind of 'commie', one of those heretics who rejects the sacred wisdom of property rights, free markets etc. The election commentary, with its condescending subtexts about Ahmadinejad's ability to win over the ignorant poor by tossing sacks of potatoes their way, surely reflected this. And anyway, it is not within the media's repertoire to explain the underlying divisions in Iran's ruling bloc, or to give anything but a crayola account of the class politics of elections. Partly, I suspect, such crude plot devices is what drove Juan Cole to dismiss the issue of class in his own analysis. Some belated analysis worth paying attention to, then, includes this discussion of labour under Ahmadinejad; this discussion of privatization and accumulation in Iran; and this useful discussion of the elections from the Middle East Research and Information Project.

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2009/06/ahmadinejad-and-accumulation.html

Obama is so easy to admire imo.

Where have I heard that one before....?

did murdoch finally succeed in buying the ny times?

... coming from Inhofe.

Submitted by cent on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 12:50pm.
Inhofe On Franken: "We Are Going To Get The Clown"

"how long till the government outlaws anything it considers unhealthy behaviour?"

They are already doing that with smoking in a way and plan to follow suit with sugar sodas and drinks. By taxing the heck out of them so people can't afford their bad habits.

Fernando,

Nearly each time a President takes questions from ordinary citizens, the old Firesign Theatre sketch (at the Future Fair) replays in my head.

(From memory which could easily be faulty):

citizen: "...and my wife is sleeping with the BEES! Mr. President, when am I gonna get a JOB!"

Automated Nixon voice: "Many busy executives ask me that very question..."

No more zeppolis at san genero...booo

Former Evangelist Fears Right-Wing Lunacy Will Lead to More Murder

Conservative pundits and GOP lawmakers must try to cure the sickness of their right-wing followers -- before it explodes again. Or don't they care?

Uh, they are Republicans. Of course they don't care.

what else can you say other than:

squeeze the wheeze

WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and

WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery;

Though Kern denies that her proclamation is timed to coincide with gay pride celebrations across the country, critics say otherwise. Kern’s proclamation specifically criticizes President Obama for recognizing June as LGBT Pride Month. “Whereas, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior,” reads the proclamation.

~-~-~

Hey, Sally... you fucking breeders get the other eleven months to be immoral. You've done such a wonderful job with marriage and morality so far.

The Pentagon has denied it has any military operations under way in Pakistan

Natives believe its real:

'US drone' hits Pakistan funeral

Up to 80 people have been killed after missiles were fired from a US "drone" at the funeral of a suspected Taliban commander of the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan, Pakistan officials have said.

The attack by the unmanned aircraft was carried out in the village of Najmarai in the Makeen district on Tuesday, Pakistani intelligence officials and witnesses said.

"Three missiles were fired by drones as people were dispersing after offering funeral prayers for [Taliban commander] Niaz Wali," an intelligence official told the Reuters news agency.

"I saw three drones, they dropped bombs," Sohail Mehsud, a resident of Makeen, said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/06/20096244230395712.html

its hard to believe this single action could pay for healthcare.

did i hear obama wrong?

remember when they denied operations in cambodia?

Inoculate them against the coming onslaught of Corporate MSM misinformation and propaganda...

Very good, but it needs to be done with more force and more frequently...

'I Quit the Evangelical Movement in Disgust'
Submitted by GBC on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 2:16pm.
------
I think that Disgust is a town in West Texas.

(Probably should defer to Fernando on this one.)

Stewart: Cheney's 'nuts may be the size of baby elephants'
David Edwards

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been critical of the plan to pull US troops out of Iraq cities. Did he forget that those plans were made while he was in office? Jon Stewart thinks Cheney may have a medical condition which causes him to forget inconvenient facts.

"You know what, Sourpuss McMonkeyheart is right," Stewart said. "What idiot came up with the idea to pull troops out of Iraqi cities by June of '09?"

Stewart then played a video of former President George W. Bush talking about the plan last December.

"I think it's become very clear that Dick Cheney is now in full blown stage 4 Balzheimers," Stewart joked. "I believe that his nuts now may be the size of baby elephants."

Stewart first joked about the "disease" in April when he said that Cheney and Karl Rove "are now suffering from Balzheimers Disease. Why didn't I see it before? Balzheimers is a terrible illness that attacks the memory -- and gives its victims the balls to attack others for things they themselves made a career of. There is no known cure."

This video is from Comedy Central's The Daily Show, broadcast June 30, 2009.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Stewart_Cheneys_nuts_may_be_size_0701.html

Israel Declares War On US: Takes Ex-Congresswoman Hostage!

In another(1) despicable act of open aggression towards their supposed 'ally', Israel has taken former Congresswoman and 21 other human aids activist hostage (2) - They have crossed the line.
http://theoryofeverythyng.blogspot.com/2009/06/israel-declares-war-on-us...

is that anywhere near the chicken ranch? it would explain a lot.

Churchill in court to ask to teach again at CU

DENVER—A University of Colorado professor trying to get his job back says he sued the school over academic freedom and should be reinstated.

Ward Churchill is in a Denver court arguing for his job. He was fired after writing an essay in which he likened Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi.

A jury has already sided with Churchill and said the university wrongly fired him after the incendiary essay. But that lawsuit did not settle whether Churchill gets his job back. The University of Colorado is contesting his return, and a judge will decide whether Churchill may resume teaching at the university. Churchill told the judge that he did not sue CU for money, but to stand up for academic freedom.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_12730234?source=rss

we just killed another 80 people over there yesterday afternoon, it's not even news.

...was focused waist-high. At hands. Like a hawk.

Troop Movement, Not Troop Withdrawal

by Dennis Kucinich

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made the following statement on June 30, 2009 regarding the announcement that U.S. troops have left the cities and towns of Iraq and turned over formal security to Iraqi security forces:

The withdrawal of some U.S. combat troops from Iraq’s cities is welcome and long overdue news. However, it is important to remember that this is not the same as a withdrawal of U.S. troops and contractors from Iraq.

Link

Like Stewart put it...they aren't leaving, just moving to the ex-burbs...

Really!! Enough of Michael Jackson.

There are things happening in the world that badly effect people and the MSM is droning on about Michael Jackson.

I really have had enough!

i was referring more to the fact that the pentagon has a history of saying whatever it wants to.

We have a Happy and a Paradise Texas. We do have Hells lake here though.

I support the use of drones in Pakistan ghettodefender - what's your point? That we have no reason to pursue that path? That war is a beautiful thing? That these problems do not exist? What would you do that would be better?

Green Party of the United States calls on Obama, State Department to demand release of McKinney, others
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2009/06/30/green-party-of-the-united-stat...

you're welcome to take over my ownership of the jingoism thread.

Submitted by toniD on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 2:37pm.
...I really have had enough!
--------
Bait: "Did you hear the news? Michael Jackson die--"

[Scuffling, strangling, gasping, gurgling sounds.]

toniD: [Dusting off hands] "Thanks. I needed that."

Bait: [In a wheezy, whispering voice] "Don't mention it."

US suspends military activities with Honduras: Pentagon

The United States has suspended all military activities with Honduras until further notice, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday, days after President Manuel Zelaya was deposed in a coup.

"We've postponed any activities in Honduras right now while we are assessing the situation," Bryan Whitman told reporters, adding that he was referring to relations between the armed forces of both countries.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_suspends_military_activities_wit_0701200...

The next sound you will hear is the rattle of Chavez' sabre...

Honduras really needs to rethink this...

this doesn't jive with all the talk about the cia running the coup. maybe cheney's fifth column has gone rogue.

I loved that movie. :D

~-~-~

Sorry, Crank. Disgust, TX was taken out yesterday by one of Fernando's drones.

Did you know that Fernando's drones are bombing Pakistan too? It's true!!

when a country is acting to protect itself. We are fighting against forces that are actively engaged in black market nuclear proliferation.

It's very irresponsible imo to proselytize ideology in the face of that demonstrated multi-generational threat. I don't call it jingoism when that benefits the region there just as much as the entire world. Saying that forcibly denying these plans purely benefits this country isn't accurate. GWB made a mistake in pursuit of profits and took his eye off the ball. That makes all of us weary at war. I get that.

Tell me, ghettodefender, are you ok with the way the ISI is plotting against Americans?

Blast From the Past ...

TPM Reader CM flags a couple of unequivocal statements on health care by Joe Lieberman during his 2006 campaign against Ned Lamont. They're pretty interesting in light of Joe's low profile on this issue of late -- well, until he announced his opposition to a public option yesterday:

July 6, 2006 primary debate:

And what I'm saying to the people of Connecticut, I can do more for you and your families to get something done to make health care affordable, to get universal health insurance, to make America energy independent, to save your jobs and create new ones. That's what the Democratic Party is all about.

Sept. 21, 2006, during the general election campaign:

After spending most of his Senate career advocating piecemeal health care reforms, Joseph I. Lieberman said Wednesday he strongly supports universal health care.

Lieberman devoted a conference call with reporters to an issue that his main rival in the U.S. Senate race, Democratic nominee Ned Lamont, has highlighted in recent days.

"I have long supported the goal of universal health care," Lieberman told reporters. "Ned Lamont can talk about it. I've been doing something about it all the time I've been here."

--David Kurtz

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/07/blast_from_the_past_1....

Happy Canada Day...

If for nothing else than Canada giving North America ice hockey, for which I am eternally grateful...

Pawlenty, Ritchie sign election certificate for Franken
By Chris Steller 6/30/09 7:25 PM

Al Franken’s election certificate was signed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie early Tuesday evening, only hours after the state’s high court turned down Norm Coleman’s appeal of Franken’s win.

Read below what the document says, or see the full document, seal and all, along with a cover letter, in this pdf.

http://minnesotaindependent.com/38279/pawlenty-ritchie-certificate-frank...

"Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud. "

BOOOooooo....

So duck and cover all you Pakistani innocents, the drones are coming to bomb your villages into rubble to keep us safe from the all the nukular al qaedas...

Ya, That's top Secret Serviceman Hawk Steel.

I think there may be some truth to this statement. We prepare the ground for this sort of thing, by providing the rightwing with military and financial support, and our tacit approval. Plus our covert operators have way to much freedom to do as they please. It's a recipe for disaster. I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of this kind of thing happening in the future.

10 Senators, 6 Newspapers Call For Sanford's Resignation

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- At least 10 Republican South Carolina senators are calling for Gov. Mark Sanford to resign.

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, of Gaffney, said Tuesday's revelations from the governor about his affair raise doubts about Sanford's ability to lead the state.

Five other senators joined Peeler in a letter, while four more have told reporters they want to see the governor leave.

In a lengthy, emotional interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford described seven meetings with the Argentine woman he described as his “soul mate.” That includes two multi-night stays with her in New York.

http://www.foxcarolina.com/news/19914110/detail.html

If this woman is into power, even if he leaves office and goes to Argentina to be with her, she'll bounce him!

Karl Malden has passed away at 97.

per MSNBC

to believe those things cent. But that's not true in the case of Pakistan. In fact the old plans that were obtained in the 90's for building a nuclear program in Iraq actually came from Pakistan as a part of their proliferation effors. Not all threats are imaginary cent. The corruption and manipulation of the Pakistani people is very real and has been for a long time. The election fiasco alone should indicate what a dangerous and delicate situation exists.

I would prefer that drones only be used with Pakistani permission or request. Pakistan has rarely acted as an ally of America no matter what the news tells you. They granted Al Qaeda asylum in the Northern province that is the source of the turmoil there. Now their own government is fighting them to maintain sovereignty. Al Qaeda and the Taliban has political leverage against the responsible actions of Pakistan that might try to limit their proliferation agenda. They have to prove they have the political will to stop this before their own government can have any credibility. They haven't had that, ever imo.

That's all well and good, but you don't ever seem to factor in how our meddling in the region is a great influence in causing conflict over there. To read your comments, you'd think the US is a totally innocent bystander in Pakistan.

Inflamed CNBC host calls bloggers ‘digital dickweeds’

By John Byrne

Published: July 1, 2009

Television is a place of maturity and thought. The blogosphere is a place of dickweeds.

That’s according to CNBC host Dennis Kneale, who’s declared the recession over, and went postal on critical financial bloggers Tuesday.

A livid Kneale described bloggers who he alleges have dubbed him “irritating,” “unwatchable,” “Beaker,” “super dipshit” and “clueless” and purportedly compare his show to a Saturday Night Live skit. Some of it, he says, is funny.

“Less funny,” he said sharply, “was comparing me to a 350-pound woman in a thong bikini on the beach.”

His response?

“That was no comedy sketch. That was hope and fortitude, you digital dickweed.”

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/01/9473

I want Pakistan to be a sovereign country. It has been a lawless land for many years. These are the same issues that we were once not involved in because Russia was trying to get control. Absent that force, lawless corruption took over and the race for black market profits has been on for decades. You write like you have an example of America's aggression towards Pakistan before 2001. What example would you have that is so egregious? The US has a horrible foreign policy but I do not remember the US being an aggressor to Pakistan. Their history is in conflict with India. America is a recent target because we happen to be trying to address the proliferation that confronts us now.

I don't see how any responsible person or group can ignore these hard ugly facts. And again, that's NOT what Iraq was engaged in.

They have never attacked us Fern...

The argument for preemptive war is untenable...

We have been through this already.

i like beavers

Bgurl playing with the doggers and doing lawndry.

i'm poised for gardenin.

beauty day here.

To Discuss Emergency Management Issues

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate met today with Maj. Gen. Yair Golan of the Israeli Defense Forces Home Front Command (IDF/HFC), continuing to foster a working relationship with Israel and bolstering the exchange of information on common emergency management practices.

Administrator Fugate and Maj. General Golan will serve as co-chairs of an emergency management work group designed to discuss problems and issues and to exchange information on a variety of topics such as long-term community recovery, exercise programs, policies and procedures.
...

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=48950

that seems ominous

that's not true. They have been harboring the forces that provided us with 9/11. 9/11 was an attack even if there were complicit officials here.

What is untenable is conflating Iraq with Pakistan and their roll in global security.

How Military Academies Are Being Used to Destroy Public Education

...
Many of the lies and excuses used to justify school militarization in Chicago and Georgia may well be used in other cities as militarism grows.

Not for Recruiting?

A favorite lie used to defend the expansion of military academies is that they are not used to recruit for the military.

"This is not a training ground to send kids into the military," Dekalb Schools' Superintendent Crawford Lewis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in March. Those same words could have come straight from Col. Rick Mills, director of military academies and JROTC in Chicago, who explained away recruitment in a similar fashion.

"This is not a recruiting tool, but a way to help students succeed at whatever career they might choose," Mills told the Chicago Tribune.

Yet military academies receive money from the Department of Defense (DoD).
...

http://www.alternet.org/story/141034/the_military_invades_u.s._schools%3...

"The only chance we have as a country right now is" for bin Laden to "detonate a major weapon" in U.S.

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906300039

125% loan to value ratio. -borderline criminal

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHVHVQAbwbvY

The global community has been addressing a lot of the developments in various places. I read The Carnegie Endowment and consider them credible.

I updated the link so it talks to the plan I hope we are on. The drones are instrumental in achieving goal #6 although it is conflict with the nationalistic impulse of the citizens of Pakistan when we do it unilaterally.

similarly....

Playing whack-a-mole with air strikes trying to hunt down terrorists is something completely different.

Fern, the world is not on your side in this argument...we are being condemned for indiscriminately killing innocents in Pakistan by most of the rest of the planet.

There are reports out there that say Mexico is our GREATEST threat to national security...would you approve drone air strikes to kill drug lords in Mexican villages? Of course not.

I have no problem hunting down terrorists Fern. Even in Pakistan. I will never approve of doing it with air strikes because we kill too many civilians...

We are not at war with the Pakistani people. We have got to reduce the killing of innocents or stop the operations all together.

The internal crisis wrenching Pakistan today cannot be separated from the impact of decades of U.S. military aid and continuing intervention to support military dictatorship there.

Washington has actively supported political repression, including martial law, suspension of civil liberties, the detention of many thousands of lawyers, trade unionists and political activists and a growing number of “disappeared.”

Billions of dollars in U.S. military aid have encouraged corruption on a vast scale at all levels of the military and political parties. It has distorted the civilian institutions, led to political fragmentation and impoverished the country. U.S. intervention has exacerbated ethnic and religious divisions and strife.

For decades Washington has made generous funds available for police and intelligence agencies while infrastructure development, education, health and other social needs have been neglected. Pakistan is more than $40 billion in debt, much of it for U.S. military equipment. A few powerful land-owning families still hold the greatest share of wealth.

http://www.iacenter.org/o/world/pakistan-crisis021108/

You're not being honest with yourself, Fernando. Keep calling everyone else irresponsible and irrational. See where it gets you. When you've isolated yourself entirely with your ridiculous arguments, I hope you stop and consider, perhaps you were the one who was being irresponsible.

It does no service to us or anyone else for you to keep sliding to the right like this.

cent - you are wrong about that. Anyone can claim to be innocent, but it doesn't make it so. You and I aren't even innocent. The attacks are against the same groups that are fighting the elected government of Pakistan (who I support). It's not targeted against groups outside of that region. It's just not true that this isn't a war zone.

My arguments aren't ridiculous to most people dada, and they are not even my arguments. They are positions I agree with. They are positions that most global security experts agree with. Find one that doesn't think Pakistan is a global threat.

Mexico is currently being attacked by very bloody Cartels again in pursuit of black market proliferation (albeit not nuclear). Drones wouldn't be called for because the drugs are not like nuclear weapons. But I would support American intervention into Mexico IF Mexico was complicit and facilitating that crime as a country. If they harbored and protected the cartels. That has never been the case other than the corruption of a hand full of government officials. Pakistan has and continues to harbor nuclear proliferators that exchange weapons of mass destruction for profit. This isn't a fantasy or conjecture. This is well documented. Do not conflate Iraq and Pakistan.

And dada - your "proof" of America's cause of hostility proves nothing. Not to me, that's for sure. And Pakistan doesn't have a dictator. They have a democratically elected government.

Submitted by Alice on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 3:50pm.

Fannie, Freddie to refinance for homeowners with 125% loan to value ratio. - borderline criminal

===

my reasoning is rather simplistic. on a 30 year mortgage you pay next to nothing on the principal the 1st 15 years. cramdown allows a judge to force the loan companys to accept a loss on the mortgage and allows the owner to avoid foreclosure. considering that the banks were stuffing their pockets with excessive interest payments on these subprime loans, i think they have room to eat some of the loss.

Which makes every Pakistani a legitimate target, therefore there is no collateral damage...is that your argument?

Dude you are dangerously close to the moral event horizon on this.....

that's not my argument and now you are just trying to not see it.

I could be brutal but I have no reason to do that to people I respect.

The group we are fighting against slaughters families when the parents do not force their children to fight as martyrs for their proliferation profits.

The group we are fighting has a history of abuse towards women.

The group we are fighting will take money from anyone or any state for any requested violence on anyone, including the people of Pakistan.

I'm not ok with backing down from that obvious aggressor who is real. I do not support a preemptive strike. These people have already attacked us as well as their own. There is nothing preemptive about it.

Thanks very much for this, Cent. An eye-opener.

Why do they do these incredibly misleading things? Does it really work?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/01-15

[excerpt]

This is not a great victory for peace. On May 19, the Christian Science Monitor reported that Iraqi and U.S. military officials virtually redrew the city limits of Baghdad in order to consider the Army’s Forward Operating Base Falcon as outside the city, despite every map of Baghdad clearly showing it with in city limits. In fact, according to Section 24.3 of the “SOFA” U.S. troops can remain at any agreed upon facility. The reported reason for this decision is to ensure U.S. troops are able to ‘help maintain security in south Baghdad along what were the fault lines in the sectarian war.’

This troop movement should not be confused with a troop withdrawal from Iraq. In reality, this is a small step toward Iraqi sovereignty as Iraqi security forces begin assuming greater control over security operations, but it is a long way from independence and a withdrawal of the U.S. military presence.

Dennis Kucinich is US Congressman from Ohio.

[end excerpt]

When is it okay to kill innocents using air strikes?

What ratio of terrorists to innocents is an acceptable number?

How does some kid in a trailer on a US military base know what he is bombing?

The miscommunication is a simple one Fern...you are looking at it from 20,000 ft....I am the goat herder in the house next store to the one being bombed, those are my wife and children you just "murdered"...put yourself in my shoes, and see what argument would make their deaths okay with you.

It is never okay to kill civilians. When you do it it is supposed to sting badly so you try to find ways to keep it from happening in the future. Simply saying it is "acceptable" relinquishes you from responsibility...and over time can turn people into sociopaths....

Sorry man. We will never agree here....

it's really disturbing your acceptance of right wing propaganda and "talking points" that has been debunked here many times.

true. We may never agree.

Goat herders shouldn't be put into a situation where they are forced to give up their babies to fight for that cause. But they are and they tolerate it. I'm not ok with that.

If you lived next to me and told me you would kill me and the rest of my family if you couldn't take my daughter so she could commit an act of violence against my own government for your personal profits. I would actually have to stop you. I wouldn't hesitate, even if the only way to do that means blowing up your house. I draw no distinction between my geographical neighbor on my street and my global neighbor.

This is nuts even for him

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907010015

-Atrios 15:51

National defense isn't a right wing issue Catharine. That's a gross simplification. Lying to the public to start fake wars of choice using preemption for multinational corporate profits are a right wing talking point.

I fundamentally disagree that conflating the two (as you are doing) is appropriate.

Turning them into collateral damage is not one of them...

actual threat happening and preemptive strike.

When people start talking about or actually using "Preemptive strike" they are either 1) Using it [fabricating it] as an excuse to get something else [ie the manufactured WMDs and al qaeda links to Saddam Hussein to justify going into Iraq when what they really wanted was Iraq's land and oil]; or 2) They are people who start to feel insecure for one reason or another in their lives and start seeing danger lurking in places that don't likely contain any. Theoretically, there is danger and the threat of physical harm lurking in every situation, every day. But it is irrational and immoral to kill everyone before they possibly kill us.

is a "topic", to which the propaganda is applied. Your justifications for our actions in the area of "national defense" are parallel to the right wing propaganda.

I am not the one "conflating".

Same results. Kill for an ideology indiscriminately and nothing will get straight. If You go after the Law breaking terrorists correctly you will get universal support. It is so bad for the environment to always be at war.

Is it possible out of frustration Americans take out their anger on other peoples because we can't get to cheney/or Rumsfeld?

Catharine your comment seemed non sequitur to me. Not sure how it fits in. I apologize for confusing you with Catherine. I'm dyslexic anyway and the typed distinction is almost non-existent to my eyes.

But when I put on my tin foil hat, I believe the Bush Administration cooperated with the Musharraf administration and did America no favors. I've always been concerned with Cheney's ties to proliferators in Turkey too.

Both of those administrations have been replaced and I'm hoping for something good to happen for a change. Pakistan has asked that we just give the drones to them so they can launch them against this mutual enemy of the Pakistani people. America can't really concede that because Pakistan has demonstrated that they will bend to the whim of this very group of insurgents while officials just walk away with the assets taking no responsibility as they exile in London.

June 30, 2009, on Charlie Rose (video 27 minutes)
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10433

We are getting Osama and so what if there is a little collateral damage.
Lets make more friends in the Muslim world by killing innocents and never getting to the dangerous fanatics.

worked their way into one of my pots today. Guess what I'm having for supper tonight.

To the guy that calls himself air ono who seems to like to hassle everybody in here....suck my cock and go fuck yourself. I don't like you. You are a boring, fuckhead. Eat shit and die, you squirrely meth addict.

Stay the fuck off of Block Island if you ever come to the states. I'll shove a bushel of quahogs up your useless ass.

Is like The American medical system. It makes more money when it is broken.I can lead us out of the endless cycle of greed death and pain. but it will cost you. swami viagrananda

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Militants ambushed a Pakistani military convoy in North Waziristan on the Afghan border this week killing 16 soldiers and threatening to open a new front for the army in its campaign against the Taliban.

However, a military spokesman said this week unspecified action would be taken in response to the Sunday ambush. Analysts expect a limited response, perhaps involving air strikes. - Reuters

Not sure why you would invite A/O to do any of those things to you Noodles. You know it turns him on.

It's not belligerent
Submitted by Fernando on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 3:08pm.
when a country is acting to protect itself. We are fighting against forces that are actively engaged in black market nuclear proliferation.

It's very irresponsible imo to proselytize ideology in the face of that demonstrated multi-generational threat. I don't call it jingoism when that benefits the region there just as much as the entire world. Saying that forcibly denying these plans purely benefits this country isn't accurate. GWB made a mistake in pursuit of profits and took his eye off the ball. That makes all of us weary at war. I get that.

Tell me, ghettodefender, are you ok with the way the ISI is plotting against Americans?

» ==================================

Fernando: Imperialists plan ahead.

Playing Pakistan off India was in the cards. (Look at the history with Kissinger and Nixon playing BRINKSMANSHIP during the break-up of East and West Pakistan into Bengladesh and Pakistan.)

Look at Brzezinski, the zombie-creator of the mujahideen in Afghanistan during the Carter years, coming back now to peddle his 'the sky is falling' death diplomacy -- a very easy thing to do, seeing as he engineered the sky's falling: the Taliban and Al Quaeda are the children of his sick laboratory of the Geopolitick!

To think in terms of white hats and black hats, good guys and bad guys when considering these current situations seems naive to me. The history is more complex than an even match between a small country and the giant militarist nation on Earth.

Pakistan didn't conjur nuclear materials out of thin air. The nations with the technology were the source. Being bombed as Pakistan is now being bombed, is it time to be allowed to observe that Pakistan may be a pawn of the Imperialists in the this new Central Asia Theater war for oil, mining resources, territory and hegemony?

Pakistan has received consistent aid from the USA; that's the known funds. Could Pakistan's ISI receive additional funds through the black budgets of the CIA/NSA/MilitaryIntelligence? I'm just wondering.

I appreciated his performance in that movie.

Drone Attacks on Pakistan's Indigenous Tribes

By LIAQUAT ALI KHAN

In a case filed with the Pakistan Supreme Court, the petitioner states: “The Americans, like in Musharraf’s time, have also been given a free hand by President Zardari and fundamental rights of the (indigenous) people are being violated daily in tribal areas and (in northern areas of) Dir, Swat and Chitral. A large number of (indigenous) people have migrated from these areas and suffered tremendous losses with no hope of returning to their homes because of US drone attacks, but the government is sitting as a silent spectator.”

Since August 2008, nearly 60 drone strikes in tribal and other northern areas have massacred over 500 individuals belonging to a population that qualifies as indigenous people under international law. The majority of victims are poor and frightened men, women, and children. They have little to do with militants who are fighting the NATO occupation forces in Afghanistan. To escape future drone massacres of their families, thousands of residents living in target areas, have left their homes and businesses to seek asylum in other parts of Pakistan. Wretched stories of these internally displaced persons (IDPs) and their trail of tears have made little news in the international media.

After extending a hand of friendship to the Muslim world in his inaugural speech, President Barack Hussein Obama has personally authorized the continuance of drone attacks. In hopes of destroying the nesting places of Muslim militancy, the Obama administration is poised to expanding the drone warfare to other parts of Pakistan. Presuming that Pakistan is secretly supporting drone strikes, the vengeful militants have begun to attack the citadel cities of Lahore and Islamabad. As drone attacks continue to kill and generate the IDPs among the indigenous population and as militants undertake retaliatory measures in major cities, the nuclear-armed Pakistan is predicted to plunge into uncontrollable chaos and carnage threatening international peace and security.
http://www.counterpunch.org/khan04212009.html

Thanks for that Cat Chew....

IMO, he was right on the money with health care...as per his usual...

Krugman is always a voice of sanity in this crazy time...

They had their own scientist design the weapon. He was educated in Karachi, the Netherlands, Belgium and Amsterdam.

It's just not true that we helped develop that in 1972 while he worked at URENCO. Since then, the technology has been used for proliferation for profit. I'm just not sure about where you get those facts nora. I also wonder about the more recent entanglements between the previous dictator and our previous regime however.

Leah, It's the responsibility of the Indigenous people of Swat to resist these anti-Pakistani militants. They are not doing that. Instead, they are scumming to the ultimatum that militia places on these families to surrender their children. That makes them active participants in that militia. I hate being on this side of the argument because I deplore war. But I'm not going to condone harboring Al Qaeda or the Taliban either. I sadly disagree with Counterpunch there.

Andy Borowitz

In his most candid interview to date, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford admitted more indiscretions with women today, telling the Associated Press, "I was a nonstop fucking machine."

How Gov. Sanford's latest admission will play with his constituents remains to be seen, but many of the comments he made during his nine-hour interview are likely to raise eyebrows at the very least, especially instances when he referred to his penis as "the Lieutenant Governor."

"I crossed lines with women," he said. "And when I say lines, I mean tan lines."

Free Democracy

Submitted by taozen on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 5:22pm.
...It is so bad for the environment to always be at war.

Is it possible out of frustration Americans take out their anger on other peoples because we can't get to cheney/or Rumsfeld?
========================

Important issues not mentioned enough! Thanks for bringing them up, Taozen.

I share these concerns.

Every place the the US military drops bombs is a place contaminated with depleted uranium, another Death Zone with a future of being a Dead Zone. For example, what is the future of the Swat Valley now?

And, Taozen, when you ask a psychological question, it is logical. What makes individuals embrace militarism and foreign entanglements without using other methods whole-heartedly first?

What a great improvement on the bad old days when Bush used to neglect Afghanistan and forget to change its litter. Back in those days, the US would simply deny and dismiss Afghan casualty counts. Now, we are able to simultaneously deny them, deride them, lampoon them, acknowledge them, and then agree with them, while at the same time addressing lingering doubts about the possibility of knowledge left over from Descartes.

Apparently, however, this occupation with a human face and generals who care and wear fatigues nonsense stops on the northern side of the Durand Line separating Afghanistan from Pakistan. If you are a Pakistani civilian, it’s still fire in the hole! Americans last week launched by far the deadliest airstrike of the war inside Pakistan, targeting the funeral of a mid level Taliban commander in the hopes of nailing a few of his friends, lobbing as many as four missiles from an unmanned aerial drone at the funeral cortege itself and then at cars fleeing the carnage. This attack killed about 60-80 people, at least half of whom were civilians, including 10 children aged five to 10 years and four local tribal elders, based on local hospital sources. This act of daring do demonstrated to the Pakistanis that we are not getting soft, or beginning to actually give a shit about innocent lives, thereby winning major kudos from the people who really care about winning the War on Terror, who have always disagreed with the Bush era policy against, and general human revulsion at, attacks against funeral processions. As the ever polite Brits at the Guardian put it, "bombing a funeral is unusual and may be unprecedented," but the strike was justified by the possibility that some big Taliban fish, including the elusive warlord Baitullah Mehsud could have been in attendance. Alas, subsequent reports have confirmed that all the senior level Taliban had either left the funeral before attacks, or were never in attendance, and in fact, "only relatives and close friends of the commander [remained at the funeral] when the drone fired two missiles at them."

But if you’re one of those people who watches news footage of Hamas fighters parading through the streets of Gaza during a funeral for one of their fighters, surrounded by throngs of women and children, and thinks to yourself, "Why doesn’t Israel bomb this procession right now, they are all gathered together perfectly and the women are already in mourning!" then this will fill you with optimism. The gloves are off! In Pakistan. And we are wearing beautiful fancy gloves in Afghanistan! But don’t feel too bad for the Pakistanis – since the current propaganda offensive isn’t aimed at them, at least they don’t have to endure an endless torrent of bullshit after every attack.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/6/30/746333/-Chronicles-of-the-Go...

No one is safe from the endless torrent of bullshit.

It is time to wage a war on our Politicians. they had a day to digest the Franken victory. It is hot this Summer but we must barrage the Senators with single payer demands.Hit the Big news organizations. corner Rachael and NPR
(not public radio) with our demands. Obama needs some spontaneous class action. . Glorioski knows whati I mean.

I would think twice about believing everything you read in Foreign Policy, or from the Carnegie Endowment or the like. The thinktanks all have an agenda. Take their opinions with a few grains of salt.

Amidst world wide fears that the Taliban would take over Pakistan, and are within the striking distance from Islamabad, Pakistani analysts believe that their country would never fall into the extremists’ hands.

Experts said that the paranoia about Pakistan’s collapse was created by the United States, which has lost its objectivity in carrying on its ‘war against terror’ in the region.

“The Americans have become paranoid about Pakistan. They are losing their objectivity, and I think they need a reality check,” a retired Pakistan military General, Talat Masood said.

Experts are of the view that there are number of reasons because of which the insurgents may not be able to expand their writ in the country.

Reasons such as the geography, ethnicity, military inferiority, and ancient rivalries would prevent the Taliban from expanding their foothold in Pakistan, The Christian Science Monitor reports.

Another military expert, Rifaat Hussain said that the main reason of the Taliban’s success was that they reside in the tough terrains in the North Western parts of the country,, and the support they have garnered over the years from local tribes.

“The moment they begin to move out of the hideouts, they are exposed. If you have 100 truckloads of Taliban on the Peshawar Highway, all you need is two helicopter gunships to wipe them out,” said Hussain, a military experts at Islamabad’s Quaid-i-Azam University.

Moreover, there are 5,000 Swat Taliban, and the total from all factions in Pakistan is estimated at tens of thousands, at most, while the Pakistan military, the world’s seventh-largest army, numbers more than half a million.

“There would have to be a collapse of will on the part of the Army to defend the country. Yes, it’s a state that’s under stress, but it’s not a failed state in the sense that people refer to Somalia or Afghanistan,” Hussain added.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/taliban-can-never-take-ov...

I believe the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace for a variety of reasons. I don't just take their word for anything. Their goal of encouraging International Peace and Democracy has been supported by their publications.

Militarism near and far and farther...

But some folks have a vision for the future that is peaceful--

Here's their Space Preservation Treaty.

http://www.peaceinspace.com/sp_treaty.shtml

...and it is something many Americans seem to have forgotten...not all Taliban are terrorists, and even fewer are Al Qaeda.

They might have some pretty screwed up ideas about how people should live their lives, but that does not mean they need to be exterminated to the last man...

Our interference is only exacerbating the militancy problem, as it always does.

go to the bar and find a blue collar illiterate and bring him into the blanket of love.flirt with republicans and awaken their inner flame of compassion.start teaching in a way that gets over. It is our time now.

*

...
NIKOLAS KOZLOFF:....And so, I think if you were just reading the reports in the mainstream media, you might get the impression that this coup is just about term limits in Honduras and it’s just a conflict over whether Zelaya will be able to extend his constitutional mandate of one four-year term. And my point is that there is an ideological component to this coup. You know, what did the coup plotters do? When they came into power, they roughed up the Venezuelan ambassador. They threatened and harassed a journalist working for Telesur, which is a satellite news network that’s run by Uruguay, Argentina, Cuba and Venezuela. So there’s a definite ideological component to this. And Roberto Micheletti, the new president, had actually opposed many of this—of foreign policy reorientation that Zelaya had favored in recent years.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Didn’t he also, Zelaya, take other stands that were diametrically opposed to US policy? For instance, he began coming out questioning whether the drug war was a legitimate war and should—there should be a possible legalization of drugs. And also, didn’t he raise the minimum wage substantially in a country where there’s a lot of free trade zones and people working in factories for foreign companies?

NIKOLAS KOZLOFF: Well, right. I mean, the first salvo against the Honduran elite was his moves to raise the minimum wage by 60 percent. And you’re right. I mean, this is a country where you have these maquiladora assembly plants, and the Honduran elite were, to say the least, displeased by the moves.

And then, after that, he started taking some very controversial foreign policy initiatives, probably most controversially, as you point out, criticizing the US war on drugs. And that’s not surprising, given that in recent years drug violence has exacted a heavy toll in Honduran society. You have these drug gangs that carry out gruesome attacks, beheadings, eye gougings, very gruesome kinds of tactics. And so, Zelaya actually called for the legalization in order to lessen the violence in Honduras. And then the US ambassador, actually the outgoing US ambassador, Charles Ford, remarked as he was leaving Honduras that, well, actually, remittances of Hondurans to Honduras are mostly drug-related, as I think that was a sort of punishment against Zelaya for taking unpopular foreign policy initiatives. And then, actually, that just prompted Zelaya to shoot back that, you know, the US is responsible for a lot of the drug violence in Central America.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Nik, the letter that President Zelaya wrote to President Obama.

NIKOLAS KOZLOFF: Well, I think it’s a very audacious move for the leader of a small Central American nation to write Obama personally. And this was in December of 2008, right after the election, even prior to the inauguration. And not only did he criticize US foreign policy in this letter, but what I think is really interesting is that he made it public, because he was upset by some of the remarks that the former US ambassador had made. And in his letter, he criticized the interventionist policies of the US ambassador.
...

They're just like Kirk navigating the Enterprise through some nebulous anomaly.

Yeah, they're a real bunch of heroes.

Rolling Stone expose: Goldman Sachs behind every market crash since 1920s

Goldman Sachs has played a crucial role in creating every market bubble since the 1920s -- and has profited from not only the bubbles, but from the crash that followed as well, says a new expose in Rolling Stone magazine.

An article in the July 9-23 issue of the magazine, written by Matt Taibbi, lists five asset bubbles that the 140-year-old investment bank helped create -- and one that Taibbi asserts the firm is currently working to make happen.

The five bubbles the article says Goldman was central to creating are the Wall Street stock bubble in the 1920s, which led to the Great Depression; the tech-stock bubble of the late 1990s, which ended in the 2001 recession; the housing bubble of the past decade, which resulted in the current economic crisis; the oil price run-up last summer, when oil shot up to $140 a barrel, likely helping tilt the entire world into recession; and what Taibbi describes as "rigging the bailout," when Goldman Sachs' well-placed alumni inside the U.S. government engineered last fall's bank bailout in such a way that the company profited massively.

Taibbi writes that Goldman Sachs has traditionally been a late arrival to market bubbles, getting in once others have started the trend, but, once in, the company quickly ramps up the bubble, predicts its bursting, and then hedges its bets so as to make money from the bubble crash

con't

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/07/rolling-stone-expose-goldman-sachs-behi...

http://www.laprogressive.com/2009/06/30/music-video-on-a-shoestring-heat...

The kids from Herman Put Down the Gun who produced "Lonely Street" did not even have "modern" technology, an iMovie update, or the world's fastest and best media-ready computer. Give them chops for knowing how to use social media sites like MySpace and Facebook, and they are off and running with a very sweet little video.

Pakistanis turn on Taliban, but resent U.S. -poll
Wed Jul 1, 2009 9:00am EDT

* Opinion poll shows big swing against Pakistani Taliban

* Overwhelmingly negative views of U.S., Obama also seen

* Pakistanis express opposition to the war in Afghanistan

By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent

WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - Public opinion in Pakistan has turned sharply against the Taliban and other Islamist militants but Pakistanis still do not trust the United States and President Barack Obama, a poll showed on Wednesday.

The WorldPublicOpinion.org poll, conducted last month as Pakistan's army fought the Taliban in the Swat Valley, found that most Pakistanis see the Pakistani Taliban and al Qaeda as a critical threat to the nuclear-armed country.

Those Pakistanis who view Islamist militants and local Taliban as a critical threat to their country rose to 81 percent, up from 34 percent in a similar poll in late 2007, the University of Maryland polling project found.

Respondents who described al Qaeda's activities as a critical threat to Pakistan rose 41 percentage points to 82 percent in the same period.

The findings were based on face-to-face interviews of 1,000 adults in the Urdu language across Pakistan from May 17-28. The findings have a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points, the University of Maryland polling group said.

The university's Program on International Policy Attitudes conducts polls around the world.

In the poll, seventy percent voiced sympathy for their government over the Pakistani Taliban in the fight for Swat, a scenic district near Pakistan's capital that was overrun by Islamist militants earlier this year.

Seventy-two percent said they were confident Pakistan's army could handle the situation.

WIDESPREAD REVULSION

The shift in Pakistani public opinion on Islamist militants operating within Pakistan represented a "sea change" caused by "widespread revulsion" at brutal tactics and undemocratic policies of the Taliban when they briefly controlled Swat, poll research director Clay Ramsay said in a statement.

He added that the poll indicated "the U.S. is resented just as much as before, despite the U.S. having a new president."

Sixty-two percent of those questioned expressed low or no confidence that Obama would do the right thing in world affairs. Only 32 percent stated they thought his policies would be better for Pakistan than predecessor George W. Bush's policies.

U.S. drone attacks on militant camps within Pakistan were called unjustified by 82 percent of those in the poll.

Large majorities opposed all aspects of the U.S.-led war in neighboring Afghanistan.

On Afghanistan, 61 percent said it would be bad if the Taliban took over that country, while 87 percent said Taliban groups who seek to overthrow the Afghan government should not be permitted to have bases in Pakistan.

Obama's election did not boost the popularity in Pakistan of the United States or U.S. policies, the poll indicated.

Seventy-two percent disapproved of the war in Afghanistan and 79 percent wanted it ended now, while 86 percent disapproved of Obama's decision to more than double the number of U.S. troops in that country, to 68,000, by the end of 2009.

Asked about Obama's goals, 93 percent agreed with the view that he sought to impose American culture on the Islamic world, and 90 percent supported the notion that he wanted to weaken and divide the Muslim world, the survey showed.

Reuters

Sometimes it's enough just to plant a seed or two. Step by step, how else can it go.

Rush: Jackson ‘flourished’ under Reagan, ‘died’ under Obama

Did Democratic presidents kill Michael Jackson? It appears that Rush Limbaugh may think so.

“I have an observation about this Jackson thing,” Limbaugh began on his radio show Wednesday. “Jackson’s success paralleled the rebound of the United States under [Reagan]. Jackson’s biggest successes took place the in 80s … He flourished under Reagan, he languished under Clinton [and] Bush, and he died under Obama.”

Then he added, cryptically: “Let’s hope this parallel does not continue.”

Arguing, presumably, with his producer off-screen, Limbaugh asked: “What about what I said is not true?”

And then, as if turning Jackson’s death into a partisan issue wasn’t enough, Limbaugh went after the race angle.

“Michael Jackson died during the era of the first black president,” he said. “How about if I say it that way?”

The following clip is from The Rush Limbaugh Show (via Media Matters), broadcast July 1, 2009.

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/01/rush-jackson-flourished-under-rea...

and thats the way they like it, uh uh....

we read about the crash over the past two years and the trillons of dollars "lost" but the reality is that cash was transferred from party a to party b and party b is having a big fucking party as we speak.

Bombing a funeral is unusual, and may be unprecedented.

Possible cause of the bizarre increase in human obesity?: Factory Farm animals are given GROWTH HORMONES to make them grow faster so that the animals are ready for market when the time suits the market (not the normal maturity of the animal), for the purpose of providing more PROFITS for the factory farmers.

Americans who eat the animals' flesh are eating those increased levels of GROWTH HORMONES in that meat.

How does the obesity problem correlate with the use of these GROWTH HORMONES used in animal husbandry?

And are they still using Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) to make each cow (painfully) produce more quantities of milk? Might this affect children, too.

I think I just found my new name for you, crank.

Taibbi & Goldman Sachs
Submitted by FilthyRich on Sun, 06/28/2009 - 2:03am.

FilthyRich's link for text version of
THE GREAT AMERICAN BUBBLE MACHINE

Magazine page scan version (via BoingBoing)

Investment bankers in a period of high risk
Submitted by dada on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 7:42pm.
They're just like Kirk navigating the Enterprise through some nebulous anomaly.
Yeah, they're a real bunch of heroes.
---------
Whoops! Time to rescind my apology.

I called your undercurrent exactly as it flowed.

hormone inbalances are really running havoc on men and women. The baby bottles with bad plastics is where it all begins.

By Amy Goodman

The first coup d’etat in Central America in more than a quarter-century occurred last Sunday in Honduras. Honduran soldiers roused democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya from his bed and flew him into exile in Costa Rica. The coup, led by the Honduran Gen. Romeo Vasquez, has been condemned by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, the Organization of American States and all of Honduras’ immediate national neighbors. Mass protests have erupted on the streets of Honduras, with reports that elements in the military loyal to Zelaya are rebelling against the coup.

The United States has a long history of domination in the hemisphere. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton can chart a new course, away from the dark days of military dictatorship, repression and murder. Obama indicated such a direction when he spoke in April at the Summit of the Americas: “[A]t times we sought to dictate our terms. But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership. There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations.”

Two who know well the history of dictated U.S. terms are Dr. Juan Almendares, a medical doctor and award-winning human rights activist in Honduras, and the American clergyman Father Roy Bourgeois, a priest who for years has fought to close the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Ga. Both men link the coup in Honduras to the SOA.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090630_undo_the_coup/

Three sites I would recommend are: http://aliveinhonduras.org/

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/

Sites that really tell u what is going on in South America

Fernando, the USA has had a lot of influence on Pakistan. The Pakistanis tackled the feat of making their own nuclear warheads (or rather, 200 or more of them possibly), but, although non-proliferation in the 1960s was the USA's position, where was the consistency?--

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/nuke/

[excerpt]

Intermittent US Sanctions
On several occasions, under the authority of amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on Pakistan, cutting off economic and military aid as a result of its pursuit of nuclear weapons. However, the U.S. suspended sanctions each time developments in Afghanistan made Pakistan a strategically important "frontline state," such as the 1981 Soviet occupation and in the war on terrorism.

[end excerpt]

What occurred in those lapses?

Also, we have been participants in ISI workings.

WIKIPEDIA on Pakistan intelligence:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter-Services_Intelligence

[excerpt]

The Soviet-Afghan war of the 1980s saw the enhancement of the covert action capabilities of the ISI by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). A special Afghan Section was created under the command of colonel Mohammed Yousaf to oversee the coordination of the war. A number of officers from the ISI's Covert Action Division received training in the US and many covert action experts of the CIA were attached to the ISI to guide it in its operations against the Soviet troops by using the Afghan Mujahideen.

After much criticism, the Pakistani Government disbanded the ISI 'Political Wing' in 2008.[4]

[end excerpt]

Oh, that's cute.

May I design a costume for that Crank persona?

Given the current economic swindle, 'investment banker steal' was a good one. You have to give me that, at least.

may your beard touch the ground, but never get caught in your fly.

Submitted by dada on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:44pm.
...'investment banker steal' was a good one. You have to give me that, at least.
------
They're isn't a homophonephobic bone in my bod, d.

yes!

Estrogenic
Submitted by taozen on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 8:21pm.
hormone inbalances are really running havoc on men and women. The baby bottles with bad plastics is where it all begins.

====================

That is the clear hard plastic, right?

Is that the kind the dieter gets to carry home his salad to go?

Talk about pitfalls everywhere one turns!

More than 1 million people have fled the Swat region of Pakistan in one of the worst humanitarian crises since the slaughter in Rwanda during the mid-1990s.

[...]WHY DID the Obama administration push Pakistan to abandon the peace deal?

THE U.S. doesn't respect any Pakistani rules or laws. It has its own imperial ambitions and priorities in the region. So it pressured Pakistan to essentially rip up the peace deal, and go on this brutal offensive.

The peace deal with the Taliban that was struck by the ruling party in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) was pragmatic. The Taliban had been upping its threat in NWFP. It had killed ruling politicians and threatened their families. The civilian ANP government in the province also got no support from the army, and so was backed into a corner and had to accept the peace deal.

But the U.S. told the Pakistani government to ignore that deal after the Taliban attack on Buner.

Still, that's only the superficial cause for the U.S. to back the assault on the Taliban. Tom Hayden has a fabulous piece in The Nation entitled "Understanding the long war" that goes a long way to explaining what U.S. ambitions are.

To understand those, you have to step back and examine the whole "war on terror." It's in reality a renewal of the "Great Game" of rivalries in the region over who's going to control the oil and natural gas resources. Beyond that geopolitical battle, the military industrial complex has a material interest in perpetual warfare.

The U.S. wants to wind down its occupation in Iraq, which it sees as a distraction, and push ahead with a much larger scenario--what the U.S. State Department calls the arc of instability, from North Africa to the Middle East to South and Central Asia. The U.S. is gearing up for, in the shocking words of one official, 50 years of warfare in this area.

The question of resources is central. This is the new Great Game--between the U.S., Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Iran, to name a few--that we have been observing since the beginning of the war in 2001. The U.S. had planned a pipeline to go from Central Asia through the Pakistani province of Balochistan. It saw Afghanistan as strategically important in these designs.
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21548

Thanks Cat Chew

Paul Krugman on health care
Submitted by Cat Chew on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 5:35pm.

I saw that last nite on the Tv. and was wondering if that was current, or an older interview. I missed the begining.

That Matt Taibbi Looks to be a good one, I'll
head to the Book Store this week to find a Hard Copy
to save on my bookshelvs

Voters For Peace

I am writing to urge you to remove John Rizzo, CIA Acting General Counsel, and Jonathan Fredman, an attorney in the office of the National Director of Intelligence, to be removed from office.

These lawyers used their legal license to facilitate torture. They approved torture by the CIA before the Department of Justice attempted, with false legal memoranda, to legalize torture. They approved torture by CIA officers, CIA contractors, and foreign governments working with the U.S. in military prisons at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Bagram, Afghanistan, and Abu Ghraib in Iraq as well as in other U.S. detention centers.

Con't..

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1312/t/9050/campaign.jsp?campaign_K...

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

its jaquard metallic stripes -- even in the palest moonlight of the slightest sliver of the Moon -- should his signature gray wool burnous-y hooded cloak float open while he lurks in the shadows, waiting.

No time to chat. I'm off to design The Elusive One's rawhide boots which I envision having a slight peaked-toe, and a sole so so soft his footsteps cannot be heard.

OTM interviewer did a good job of showing the absurdity of NPR's use of euphemism rather than simple noun in the so-called debate. What is revealed is the fear that NPR will lose corporate funding if they leave the former Bush administration out to dry.

Corporations: We are in charge no matter who gets elected.

This is the place..

http://www.1payer.net/action-alerts/send-a-free-efax-to-policymakers.htm...

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

...I heard it said exactly like that on that horrid NPR on the way home...

Aren't we nice how we go protect, and rebuild Afghanistan?

*

Thousands of U.S. Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops moved into Taliban-infested villages with armor and helicopters Wednesday evening in the first major operation under President Barack Obama's revamped strategy to stabilize Afghanistan.

The offensive was launched shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday local time in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold in the southern part of the country. The goal is to clear insurgents from the hotly contested Helmand River Valley before the nation's Aug. 20 presidential election.

Dubbed Operation Khanjar, or "Strike of the Sword," the military push was described by officials as the largest and fastest-moving of the war's new phase. British forces last week led similar missions to fight and clear out insurgents in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar provinces.

"Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said in a statement.

Southern Afghanistan is a Taliban stronghold but also a region where Afghan President Hamid Karzai is seeking votes from fellow Pashtun tribesmen.

The Pentagon is deploying 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in time for the elections and expects the total number of U.S. forces there to reach 68,000 by year's end. That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008, but still half of much as are now in Iraq.

While Marine troops were the bulk of the force, recently arrived U.S. Army helicopters were also taking part in the operation in Helmand province.

In March, Obama unveiled his strategy for Afghanistan, seeking to defeat al-Qaida terrorists there and in Pakistan with a bigger force and a new commander. Taliban and other extremists, including those allied with al-Qaida, routinely cross the two nations' border in Afghanistan's remote south.

The governor of Helmand province predicted the operation would be "very effective."

"The security forces will build bases to provide security for the local people so that they can carry out every activity with this favorable background, and take their lives forward in peace," Gov. Gulab Mangal said in a Pentagon press release.

Obama's strategy aims to boost the size of the Afghan army from 80,000 to 134,000 troops by 2011 — and greatly increase training by U.S. troops accompanying them — so the Afghan military can defeat Taliban insurgents and take control of the war. The White House also is pushing forces to set clear goals for a war gone awry, to get the American people behind them, to provide more resources and to make a better case for international support.

There is no timetable for withdrawal, and the White House has not estimated how many billions of dollars its plan will cost.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://smargus.com/2009/07/federal-agents-conducting-house-by-house-gun-...

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/4972

Health Justice..Send A Free Fax..
Submitted by MMRules on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 9:55pm.

:)

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/4972#comment-350593

Helloooooooo :)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14168

...

They cited an information revolution using advanced "computerized information and communications technologies and related innovations in organization and management theory." They foresaw "the rise of multi-organizational networks" using information technologies "to communicate, consult, coordinate, and operate together across greater distances" and said this ability will affect future conflicts and warfare. They explained that "cyberwar may be to the 21st century what blitzkrieg was to the 20th century" but admitted back then that the concept was too speculative for precise definition.

The 1993 document focused on military warfare. In 1996, Arquilla and Ronfeldt studied netwar and cyberwar by examining "irregular modes of conflict, including terror, crime, and militant social activism." Then in 1997, they presented the concept of "swarming" and suggested it might "emerge as a definitive doctrine that will encompass and enliven both cyberwar and netwar" through their vision of "how to prepare for information-age conflict."

They called "swarming" a way to strike from all directions, both "close-in as well as from stand-off positions." Effectiveness depends on deploying small units able to interconnect using revolutionary communication technology.

As explained above, what works on battlefields has proved successful in achieving non-violent color revolution regime changes, or coup d'etats by other means. The same strategy appears in play in Iran, but it's too early to tell if it will work as so far the government has prevailed. However, for the past 30 years, America has targeted the Islamic Republic for regime change to control the last major country in a part of the world over which it seeks unchallenged dominance.

If the current confrontation fails, expect future ones ahead as imperial America never quits. Yet in the end, new political forces within Iran may end up changing the country more than America can achieve from the outside - short of conquest and occupation, that is.

A final point. The core issue isn't whether Iran's government is benign or repressive or if its June 12 election was fair or fraudulent. It's that (justifiable criticism aside) no country has a right to meddle in the internal affairs of another unless it commits aggression in violation of international law and the UN Security Council authorizes a response. Washington would never tolerate outside interference nor should it and neither should Iran.

Submitted by Alice on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 10:38pm.
...I heard it said exactly like that on that horrid NPR on the way home...
----------
Former NPR reporter Sarah Chayes has been living and working in Afghanistan for several years. She organized a cooperative that sells local products for use in perfume and soap and food.

Some people would say that I am a foolish sucker to believe what she says, especially since it jives with other information I gather from sources that only a foolish sucker like me would believe.

But, ya know, Sarah Chayes fuckin' lives there and has devoted her life to helping the people of Afghanistan after learning its ways while reporting on the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Fuck the tin foil hat folks. I believe what I believe from certain news sources because it's better than the wild conjecture based on fruitcake theories which are spewed from stateside Barcaloungers neatly parked in air-conditioned homes.

Major military operation under way in Afghanistan
new
Submitted by Alice on Wed, 07/01/2009 - 10:38pm.
...I heard it said exactly like that on that horrid NPR on the way home...

Aren't we nice how we go protect, and rebuild Afghanistan?

*

...

============================

A militarized nation in our image. Police State-ization passing as democratization....And the Military Industrial Complex PROFITS are so-o-o sweet when there's a captive purchaser.

;)

(JK)

National Guard volunteers will be used to support the existing 'counter'-drug program on the border with Mexico.

That includes in Texas and New Mexico. The plan is being finalized between the Defense Department and Homeland Security. The program would use guardsmen for surveillance, intelligence analysis, and aviation support.

They would also supply ground troops who help at border crossings.

now 2 quickly Brew more Tea Cheers.
;)

^

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