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Like it or not, you're involved
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| August 30, 2007 |
In the hot war against the weak and the poor you may consider
yourself a bystander, but that is just because it is not your turn yet.
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I do feel sometimes that I've received my invitation.
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The Other Butcher of Baghdad
by Chris D.
| August 30, 2007 |
Re Bush pornography
I disagree when you say it fits Bush to a tee. You see, from an abstract point of view a pornographic portrait of someone can be interpreted as them being confident, open, honest, true to themselves, and comfortable with who they are. None of this describes The Other Butcher of Baghdad as I find him to be, lacking in direction, secretive, dishonest, and a consistent phony. The only trait he does embody is how disgustingly comfortable he is with his incompetence, inadequacy, and in consideration in his duties and responsibilities not only as president of a country but as a human being.
* * *
Re Cop gets probation for
beating up little boys
I hope you don't think less of me but I'm actually on the fence about this one. I don't
know the extent of the boys' injuries and can't comment on the use of force but I'd have
to say for once that getting a message across to those kids might have been the most
important thing in that case. One mother saying that cop had 'ruined her son's life' is
melodramatic and probably incorrect.
I certainly agree that [the cop would] be under the magnifying
glass on a hot summer day rather than the charges being swept under the rug so quickly if
he had been a random citizen rather than a cop. I don't advocate violence against children
but understand this:
I've too often seen kids get away with some extremely dangerous stuff
simply because there was no consequence. Sometimes, this is rare, a smack upside the head
is warranted. Those kids were shooting at cars in the street with a paintball gun. There
is a rather large chance that had they continued they would have startled a driver enough
to cause them to lose control of the vehicle or shot through an open window striking the
unprotected flesh of an occupant. That could cause blindness if it hits the eye, or death
if it hits the throat or temple.
Failing any of these things, they might have gotten bored
and came back to try it again with air rifles. I've seen that FAR too many times. You know
how kids often spit on cars and people from an overpass? After being 'warned' against that
behavior several times by cops but ultimately unpunished either by the law or by their
parents some kids around here began dropping rocks. I tell you, if they'd gotten a smack
upside the head or a swift kick in the ass after the first rock they dropped there'd be
twenty fewer cars that needed new windshields and one less person with severely impeded
mental functions as the result of a rock falling on their heads.
Getting rough with
youngsters might not be acceptable behavior for a policeman but let's not forget that
vandalism and assault with a projectile weapon isn't acceptable behavior for ANYONE let
alone preteens that think they're untouchable.
Had I caught them I would have taken their
paintball guns and I'd have shot them a couple times with them. Would that have been
right? Jury's out on that one, and I admit there'd be a strong case against me in court.
But if they realized through personal and painful experience they could have seriously
hurt someone or even if they just expected to get the same treatment the next time they
went shooting at cars I doubt they'd do it again.
Stinky badges are a blight on the
society they're sworn to protect but I think failing to teach our kids right from wrong
and the consequences of their actions is an even worse sin. After all, we don't teach them
right from wrong who's to say they won't be the ones stinking up the badge one day?
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By my count, your observations on child-rearing are generally correct. I knew my brother's kids would grow up to be criminals when he told me he and his wife had decided to raise them without ever spanking them. I'm a fan of old-fashioned methods, and obviously, kids so irresponsible that they'd shoot paint guns into traffic need a whipping, and they need to have their paint guns confiscated and never returned. When I see out-of-control kids, I want to physically assault their parents upside the head ... but I don't do it, or at least I haven't yet.
But all that's a whole different problem from bad cops, and none of it excuses what the cop did. It just ain't a cop's job to be dealing out beatings to kids, any more than it's his job to beat up on low-character adults. And of course, no matter who's doing the punishing, any form of discipline that ends up with a kid going to the hospital is a crime. |
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Helen & Harry
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Blame it on Iran
by Ralph S.
| August 30, 2007 |
Re The quickening pace of war preparations
What worries me is HOW they are going to manipulate the truth to justify a war on Iran. Are they going to allow another 9/11 incident and blame it on Iran?
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Ralph S.
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Watching you
by JR Mooneyham
| August 30, 2007 |
CNN dumps Reuters| |
Excerpt: "This is all about us, not Reuters. This is about content ownership," CNN spokesman Nigel Pritchard said. "Everything is changing and content ownership is king." ...
CNN will continue to use news provided by the Associated Press and Associated Press Television News, which competes with Reuters. |
CNN going the Fox news route: noise rather than news
* * *
Thieves hacking security cameras?| |
Excerpt: The FBI is investigating fifteen store robberies in eleven states, committed via phone and internet. The perpetrators hack the store's security system so they can observe their victims. They then make customers take their clothes off and get the store to wire money. From the article, "A telephone caller making a bomb threat to a Hutchinson, Kan., grocery store kept more than 100 people hostage, demanding they disrobe and that the store wire money to his bank account. ... officials were investigating whether the caller was out of state and may have hacked into the store's security system. "If they can access the Internet, they can get to anything," Hutchinson Police Chief Dick Heitschmidt said. "Anyone in the whole world could have access, if that's what really happened." |
Just one of the many dangers of increased surveillance...
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I concur entirely, that hackability is one of the fine arguments against security cameras, or at least, against networked security cameras.
It also sounds to me like there's a heavy dose of sheep mentality involved here, at least as I understand the excerpt at Slashdot. If I'm in a store and the clerk tells me someone's phoning in a bomb threat, I'm not taking off my clothes and wiring anybody money. I'm just leaving. But tragically, I think a lot of people would fold their clothes in a neat pile and enter their credit card numbers ...
Regarding the rotting corpse of CNN, I don't know what the cost difference is, between Associated Press and Reuters, but as a news junkie I perceive Reuters as far superior to A.P. or, for that matter, CNN... |
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Helen & Harry
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Same glassy look in their eyes
by Kevin K.
| August 30, 2007 |
Re Libertarians' blind spot
the article was right on the money!!....I have no respect for libertarians, they don't think, they worship corporations....and they still believe the Federal Reserve is a government institution -- when I tell them it is a group of PRIVATE BANKERS....their eyes glaze over and don't understand, it is quite funny. the Ron Paul followers remind me of Reaganites of the '80's....same glassy look in their eyes when they describe their "hero".
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I have respect for lots of libertarians. It's a philosophy built on principle, and I respect the principle (freedom is damned important) even as I reject the philosophy. And I don't have a lot of patience when libertarians start reciting the dogma I've heard a thousand times before. Talk about eyes glazing over, you should see my eyes when someone starts telling me the roads should be privatized ...
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Thanks Helen; the freedom that libertarians seem to be endorsing, to me,
always ends up being that we should allow corporations to do as they
please, no matter the cost to anyone else; they might think they are
talking individual freedoms, but, I believe that is how they are brought
into the movement....I agree with you about the privatizing
road/interstate maintenance, I would glaze my eyes over too:)....my eyes
glaze over when a libertarian says we don't need a minimum wage law,
because we can "trust the personal honor of the manager/business owner
to be fair".....:) that one is a real gem!
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Libertarians have lots of real gems like that -- really, a seemingly inexhaustible supply of grand theoretical principles that sound serenely sensible to people who know nothing of the real world.
I was a libertarian when I was young and idealistic, but as I got older I noticed that the ideals of libertarianism are best described in novels by Ayn Rand. 'Cuz they're fiction. Take those ideals off the printed page and insert 'em in a society filled with flesh and blood human beings, and things get a lot uglier.
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Bamboozle me once
Re The quickening pace of war preparations
As a nation, most of us (be very honest) were bamboozled into supporting the so-called war in Iraq. Luckily, our eyes were opened, and we can now see the truth. We can NOT let this madman get us involved in a far worse conflagration.
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Tru S.
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The rich as guinea pigs
by JR Mooneyham
| August 29, 2007 |
Re Universal health care, with one condition
Yes, there's definitely a huge gap between the healthcare enjoyed by the rich and everyone else (especially where no universal healthcare exists). But there's also a big gap between the research lab and the hospital -- which you may be inadvertently adding to the normal mountain of woe.
Not all the lab breakthroughs will be beyond the reach of all but the rich. Some lab findings can be put to use immediately by anyone who can make it to the grocery store -- like when they announced cinnamon can be helpful both for lowering bad cholesterol, and for blood sugar maintenance. Or back years ago, when they announced they'd found anyone having a heart attack could greatly improve their chances of surviving with minimal damage by taking an aspirin.
But usually new lab findings require some sort of special expertise or new technology in order to be used -- and it almost always requires anywhere from 3-15 years for such new expertise or tech to be made widely available to hospitals in general. Often the rich must wait through that delay along with the rest of us, for many new treatments. And in the cases where their money CAN buy them early access, such access is usually to still buggy tech or methods -- and so success rates may not be nearly as good as they might be later.
So in some things, the desperate or impatient rich serve as early guinea pigs for the rest of us.
Plus (unless it gets abolished) you and I WILL eventually get to have Medicare-- which can be a pretty big help on bills, based on what I've seen of my parents' paperwork.
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I've never been one to be jealous of the rich. Generally speaking, I think I enjoy my poverty more than Bill Gates enjoys all the wealth he's earned and stolen. But I do find myself getting a bit grumpy about the lack of health care, holding out until I'm a gray-haired old lady and qualify for Medicare, if it's still there ...
Feel free to disregard me, JR. I'm just a little weary of what ails me.
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Helen & Harry
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Bush pornography
by Chris M.
| August 29, 2007 |
Republicans hammer Brit artist's Bush| |
Excerpt: A spokesman for the Texas tentacle of the Republican Party chipped in with: "This picture is very distasteful. Why would anyone want to make a picture of our President from pornographic material?" |
I don't believe he would actually ask that question. Talk about clueless clod in delusion.
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The answer is, as Yeo explained at the meisterwork's launch: "I did it for fun, not to offend, but I'm pleased with it. I did it to amuse." |
Personally it fits Bush to a tee. A portrait of a sleaze president done with sleaze material. Works for me.
Carcasses of economic roadkill
by William H.
| August 29, 2007 |
The Federal Reserve will be forced to
embrace a recession, just as a cancer
patient accepts chemotherapy. Some cells
must be sacrificed to save the rest. Why is this so?
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S&P/Case-Schiller
Home Price Indices
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Home prices have nearly doubled in the last five or six years while inflation adjusted ("real") incomes have stayed the same or fallen slightly. Thus, homes are on average, unaffordable. At the same time, mortgage loans are harder to obtain.
Home prices must fall somewhat, and incomes will need to rise somewhat for equilibrium to be restored (PLUS foreigners and rich people will swoop in to scavenge the carcasses of the economic roadkill.)
Thus, the Fed *will* lower interest rates, somewhat, but to prevent hyperinflation a Recession will be prescribed by Doctor Bernanke (or his computer simulation.)
The hard truth is that some people need to be taught harsh lessons about gambling. Not everyone who deserves punishment will receive it, but Examples Will Be Made! Some corporations will go belly up and some families will be evicted...but just enough to maintain the fiction that America is a predominantly capitalist society, and not socialist or communist (the truth is closer to crypto-fascist, but let's not go off on a tangent :-)
Tactically, this all boils down to observing the Fed and Treasury Dept. fight to prop up the stock market while foreign central banks perform currency manipulations to prevent a total collapse of the US dollar.
In time home and stock prices will stabilize, lower...until then...
As oversold conditions in the markets are alleviated, the best trade may be to sell into the rallies. The stock market is under "distribution", wherein the rich/smart players unload their crap paper on the poor/stupids. So we are in upside down mode now: instead of buying low and selling high, switch the order of trading to sell high and then buy low. Inverse ETF's such as "SDS" are available. SDS goes up twice as much as the S&P 500 falls, percentage-wise.
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William H.
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Good questions, fella
by annemarie j
| August 29, 2007 |
Re I will not defend them
So Leon, what are you -- some kinda' Cassandra? ;)
Good questions that you posed there fella'. Still... does it really
matter if they are pod people, fascists, or mere ostriches? Nope, not
imo. The net results of their hateful actions or their indifferent or
selfish inactions will be the same. Won't it.
Nope. I will not defend them either. Thanks for the piece.
p.s. Hallo Helen 'n Harry. Long time no parlez-vous. Glad to see that
yer still active and kickin' traitorous butts :)
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We're still here trying our best to mount a resistance, and when we stop it'll just mean we're dead -- carry on without us, please.
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Helen & Harry
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30 seconds to high noon
by David S.
| August 29, 2007 |
God forbid that the dumbed down masses should see the truth. They may follow the
leaders that are protesting now.
We know that when she goes (economy political systems etc...) and it will, it is the media
that will lose more than anyone else. Running more scared than the rest they know they will
be out of business. So they do everything to keep it contained.
Today America is like a balsa wood box with an A-bomb inside of it and the timer
on the fuse reads 30 seconds to high noon.
keep up the good work you ought to be delivering the nightly news and not the scam artists
that are deceiving us now
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Thank you kindly and please spread the word ... not even the word about us, but the more important word that America is in peril.
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Helen & Harry
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Universal health care, with one condition
by JR Mooneyham
| August 28, 2007 |
Here's a way to do away with organ shortages completely AND give a tremendous boost to the living standards of working Americans in at least two different ways: enact universal health care, with one condition being you will be an organ donor upon death, and beyond that possibly a cadaver for medical schools or medical research, too. ... MORE ...
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JR Mooneyham
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The quickening pace of war preparations in the Middle East
by The Canadian
| August 28, 2007 |
The brutal heat of the Summer is almost over in the Middle East and the September UN meetings concerning Iranian sanctions are picking up where the ambiguity of July left off. ... ... MORE ...
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The Canadian
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And this is the crux of it
by Chris M.
| August 28, 2007 |
Katrina plus two years: This is not a home| |
Excerpt: So Jean lists the frustration of trying to get anything done:
"The same groups of scuzzbuckets that stole money in the past
still want the government contracts...the lack of
infrastructure...the slow time to get anything done..." Yeah,
one thing that angers the Rude Pundit as much as anything
else whenever he goes to New Orleans is that the streets
aren't swarming with construction and clean-up crews. You'd
expect the allegedly most powerful nation on Earth to
re-flood New Orleans with men and women rebuilding the city.
Yes, there is more construction going on, but New Orleans
demonstrates the failure of the privatization of the American
government. Instead of the government just goddamn hiring
people, everything has to be contracted, subcontracted,
filtered, and diffused through idiotic, incompetent agencies
like the Road Home, as well as corporations and companies who
each want a taste as the money dribbles through. And now the
federal government isn't even organized to do anything of the
scale of, say, the TVA. |
And this is the crux of it. This schizoid belief that corporate
America can do a better job than a well planned and well run
government project could.
We wonder just how the Hover Dam would
have turned out if Halliburton were in charge of it. How soon
the TVA would have been completed if Enron had the contract.
The school I went to in Ohio was built under the WPA and is still
standing and in use. How many of the newer ones are still used or
can be used?
The one thing that the current crop of upper crust
on the left and right refuse to accept is that corporate America
is only interested in the bottom line. Period. They have not had
any interest in the final product for quite some time.
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Chris M.
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Re-enlist and die
by Kathy Fisher
| August 28, 2007 |
Re-up and you get 20 thousand bucks and go right back to Iraq ...
SUCKERS!
Hannity and Limbaugh make more that every month!
What’s wrong with the stories
on the home page of Unknown News
by Marie K.
| August 27, 2007 |
U.S. general says Iran trains enemy in Iraq
This same story is covered by others who wisely show a little skepticism. They also point out that Major. Gen. Lynch offers no evidence, and they include more information that puts the whole story in question. Let’s see -- 50 Iranians (IRG, who are the guardians of the Iranian revolution) are potentially involved. However, the Major Gen. also admitted that in his area of command after two months of patrolling the Iran-Iraq border NO Iranians have been captured nor have ANY illegal weapons been found. There’s also the Major Gen.’s “logic” -- the accuracy of the “insurgent” mortars has increased and the roadside bombs are becoming more sophisticated, THEREFORE the Iranians are there and providing training. GIVE ME A BREAK. Perhaps the “insurgents” have gained some experience after 4 LONG years of resistance fighting.
CIA dropped the ball on Al Qaeda -- but not until Bush took office
Although there are a lot of good criticisms of Bush and his team, there are two major problems. First, the article does not question the government’s explanation of 9/11. Considering the wealth of good research into the controlled demolition of the WTC buildings (one not even hit by a plane), the true story of 9/11 may have nothing at all to do with al-Qaeda or Bin Laden. Preparing those buildings would have taken weeks of work by experts who had all of the security passes and access they needed. There is also the FACT that the FBI has never charged Bin Laden with 9/11 because they never gained the hard evidence needed to indict him. This indicates a very different explanation of 9/11. Secondly, the article seems to be saying that the Democrats have really achieved something important by “forcing the release” of this report. Actually, they were elected to get the US out of Iraq in a timely manner. Instead they’ve done a whole lot of posturing while approving the monies and whatever else has been required to keep the US STILL in Iraq. Maybe some voters also hoped that they might have gotten a REAL investigation into 9/11 carried out. Maybe some voters hoped that they would see to the impeachment of Bush and Cheney (and others?).
Intel report: "Surge "is making Iraq even more sectarian, unstable
This article is so filled with crap that anyone with half a brain ends up wanting to scream. Obviously, the report being referred to was written by the nation’s UNINTELLIGENT agencies. To start off, were extra troops REALLY sent as “security forces” (whatever they are)? What do such forces provide anyway -- do they hand out food and medicine, provide electricity and clean water, etc.? If “security” means killing more people and preventing the repair of Iraq’s infrastructure or wreaking more of it so that there are fewer Iraqis around -- more are dead and more flee, then I guess they’ve provided “security” -- for themselves in their Green Zone. However, despite the security gains (oh, sure), the Iraqi government couldn’t “take advantage of it” -- how can the Iraqi government take advantage of more death and destruction?
Moving on, we now have the unable to “heal deep sectarian rifts” Iraqi government. There are two problems here -- are there really deep sectarian rifts and how effective can a puppet government be? Having recently read about the alliances between Sunni and Shia resistance fighters, I see no sign of sectarian divides. There were no sectarian problems before the US arrived, either. As for a government run by the US, if they remain collaborators, then the Iraqi resistance will attack its government forces. If the government gains a little independence, then the US will start calling it “paralyzed” and incompetent, etc.
Again moving on, we have the argument that if the US leaves, the sectarian violence will increase. That’s the biggest load of crap ever. If the US leaves, the Iraqis will be free to put their broken country back together again -- just what the US doesn’t want. They want total compliance and access to the Iraqi oil which is still nationalized and which NO (non-collaborator) Iraqi wants privatized with foreign companies taking it over and stealing it. Excuse me, Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, but your implication that the Iraqis would be “upset” to lose the US “commitment” (to kill) is ridiculous. Then, we have the (so-called) Democrats who want to “change course” but are “worried” that the “troop increases” (formerly the surge) failed to promote political progress. I guess those Iraqi leaders haven’t been good enough puppets. The only rival Shiites are the collaborator ones and the resistance ones. If the US leaves, the worst of the collaborators will flee. Those remaining will do just fine along with their fellow Sunni politicians to set up a representative government the way they did in the past. As for al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, those foreign-led (from the US private “security” companies, from the CIA??), forces, I guess the Iraqis finally noticed that they are killing THEM instead of the occupiers.
Now we have page 2, here we find out that the report was a “mixed assessment” and YET the WH strategy was “headed in the right direction.” The report also contains “criticism” of the approach the Democrats advocate “withdrawal” (of the troops who don’t stay). No surprises there. Then, we have Warner again who figures the Iraqis (although upset) could handle some limited troop “drawdowns.” BUT, whoa, what about those nasty neighbors of Iraq all ready to leap in to “exert influence” (very sinister) over the “feuding factions” despite the fact that they used to basically respect the Iraqis sovereignty. Finally, the unintelligent officials “reminded” the Iraqi leaders “to find political solutions” (to getting that oil law written by the US signed). All that I can say to the authors Steven, Sheryl, and Jeff -- YOU OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES.
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Nicely done. I love a good bucket of debunkery. Always wish we had more time to write such comments ourselves, and more readers writing their own comments like Marie's done here.
Please, Marie and anyone else who's got something to say, consider yourself invited. Just send a link (preferably to a news report from a mainstream source) and add your reactions. If your comments are well-written, pertinent to the news we give a damn about, and ready to go before our once-weekly big update on Mondays, we'll publish your debunkery right there on the main page, accompanying the links in question...
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Helen & Harry
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More important things
by UselessEater
| August 27, 2007 |
FBI now sees war on terror as its primary focus
(Great news for Mafia dons, bank robbers, and kidnappers)| |
Excerpt: The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has increasingly supplemented its traditional law enforcement role with new intelligence and counterterrorism functions, now says its paramount objective is to "prevent, disrupt, and defeat terrorist operations before they occur." |
The War on Crime is over!? (Not that the FBI was all that concerned with stopping organized crimes anyway.)
No depression here, no sir
by Chris M.
| August 27, 2007 |
US could be heading for recession| |
Excerpt: Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers warned that the United
States may be heading into recession as the biggest victim to date
of the sub-prime mortgage debacle was humiliatingly sold for a token
sum in Germany. |
Heaven forbid anyone should refer to the coming economic collapse
as a "Depression". That would be sacrilege.
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Chris M.
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Thousands, hundreds, and none at all
4000 protesters march through Kennebunkport, ABC says "hundreds", and most media says nothing at all...
LINK LINK
Video: LINK LINK
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E13
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Pain right about here
by Kevin Good
| August 27, 2007 |
Re Simplified theory of civilization
Hey Doc, I got this pain right about here.
I believe in evolution and I think I'm getting smarter but the KNOWN NEWS
keeps telling me I'm getting dumber. What is your 'reasonable and customary'
advice?
Oh crap! That was nasty! Sorry, I have to go; they just shit in my nest
again.
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Kevin Good
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Part 2, A Dangerous ratcheting up of
(recycled) accusations -- Is Iran guilty or not?
by Marie K.
| August 26, 2007 |
Re Dangerous recycling
Part 1 tentatively concluded that Iran has NOT ventured into disregarding international conventions/law mainly because it is unlikely that Iran is involved with the Shia Mahdi resistance fighters connected to al-Sadr (who is the young head of a very influential Shia religious family). However, Iran has been involved with the SCIRI organization/political party (now called the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council -- SIIC) and the Badr corps connected to it. Interestingly, the Badr corps members have been working with the US backed Iraqi government by entering the “New Iraqi Army” and police force clearly making them “collaborators.” Thus, part 2 examines the formation of the Badr corps and Iran’s involvement with it, considers whether there are other resistance groups not already mentioned that Iran might be involved with, and concludes by noting the meaning of sovereignty and by briefly considering international law and whether Iran may have committed illegal acts.
According to Wikipedia, the Badr corps is the armed wing of the SCIRI/SIIC, the SCIRI participated in the 2005 Iraqi election and is a part of the alliance that PM Maliki (less of a puppet these days) is involved in (some al-Sadr movement supporters are also part of this alliance). The Badr corps was originally formed in Iran during the Iran-Iraq war (1979-1988). It consisted of Iraqi Shia exiles, refugees, and defectors who did not support the secularist Baathist party and Saddam Hussein. Actually, since Iran has 2 parallel military organizations -- their traditional armed forces (including the army, navy, and air force) and the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), it’s hard to say which groups actually trained the Badr corps. The IRGC seems to be the smaller organization, about 1/4-1/3 the size of the regular armed forces. Their name indicates that they are the “guardians” of the revolution. The Badr corps fought alongside the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq war. The individuals involved then remained in Iran (along with more Shias who fled after the 1991 Gulf War). They only returned following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The US saw them as an asset in getting rid of Saddam Hussein and the Baathists. I can only assume that other Iraqis must consider them DOUBLE traitors. It doesn’t seem likely that they require funding from Iran, either, since they are being supported by the US. I assume the US only allows them to have light arms. That they would be attacked by the resistance groups, both Sunni and Shia (such as al-Sadr’s Mahdi fighters), doesn’t seem the least bit surprising.
Calling attacks on the Badr corps by Sunnis “sectarian violence” instead of “resistance attacks” as well as accusing Iran of supporting the “insurgents” is clearly misleading. It is also crucial -- international law DOES consider it illegal for a country to intervene in another country’s civil war on behalf of the opposition/the insurgents (rebels). However, Article 51 of the UN Charter speaks of the “inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations.” In other words, individuals or groups in a country have the right to engage in resistance efforts when under attack. Again, semantics matter.
As for funding from Islamic countries in general, since funding for Algerians (during its civil war, 1992-2002) and Palestinians has been viewed as funding terrorism, it has become riskier for Islamic countries to provide funding to Iraq. At the very least countries can face sanctions. I assume they are all totally aware of this. Regarding other armed resistance groups in Iraq (some of their names do use the term “resistance”), there are the secularist Baathists (I assume both Shia and Sunni), the Salafi Sunnis, a religiously conservative group, Sunni Islamist groups around the country, and small numbers of foreign volunteers allied to the Sunnis and NOT calling themselves al-Qaeda. It’s hard to imagine Iran backing any of these groups. By the way, when you see the lists of groups it looks very similar to the lists of French WWII resistance groups.
Finally, there is the principal of sovereignty -- countries being free from interference in their internal affairs and free from external control. Has Iran disregarded the sovereignty of any country? Firstly, international law does NOT give states the right to engage in acts of aggression or unlawful use of force. So what is aggression? According to the UN General Assembly Resolution 3314, proxy wars (where states direct and control the actions of the armed forces they send) ARE considered aggression. However, funding, training, and arming is not considered aggression although it may be considered illegal. Also seen as aggression are invasion, bombardment, blockades, attacking the armed forces of another state, and a state allowing a second state to use its territory for an attack on a third state.
Secondly, there are the international law principals of necessity and proportionality. If every particular act is not necessary, then it is illegal. If the use of force is not proportional, e.g. a response to an attack by a small group ONLY involving that small group, then it is illegal. You can’t bomb a city in response. In other words, even if Iran has provided funds, training, and arms at some point, responding with force is NOT a necessity nor would attacking the whole country be a proportional response. Sanctions could be called for, but the US has already placed various sanctions on Iran for 27 years (Dec. 2006, R. Nicholas Burns, State Dept.). In general, they prohibit the sanctioned country from receiving loans and investment monies and place significant limits on that country’s exports and imports. Over and over Iran/all Iranians were blamed for small-scale terrorist acts that could easily have been false flag operations or carried out by others. Sometimes they were brought on by Iran’s nuclear energy program. A summary of sanction episodes (1914-2006) by the Peterson Institute indicates that frequently the policy goal was the destabilization of a country/particular leaders or regime change. In fact, such efforts ARE violations of sovereignty, and “leading” BY FAR is the US in instigating sanctions. By the way, Iraq faced severe sanctions for 13 years (1990-2003) resulting in 1.5 million dead. The use of sanctions often reeks of double standards and hypocrisy, but it generally does kill fewer people. As for the US providing funds, training, and arms, it now seems clear that the US has done so for at least the last 27 years while nothing is said or done about it.
Based on the “logic” the US has used against other countries, I wonder how many years of sanctions the US itself would have received, and how many countries would have seen the US as an “imminent threat” and attacked us. Of course, it’s only the US that is allowed to offer up a “barrage” of unsubstantiated or illogical accusations in order to attack a country that is making some attempts to cooperate and that does NOT seem to be “guilty.”
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6627
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Marie K.
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Simplified theory of civilization
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| August 26, 2007 |
First step for a human species newly aware of its impending
extinction brought on by its own destructive behaviors: don't shit in
your nest. Second step: do something about those who don't get step
one.
The secular, capitalist Robin Hoods
by Stanrick K.
| August 26, 2007 |
Re Give the gift economy a chance
You can notice tendencies and have no plans to correct them. It's pretty obvious that economies tend to become more divided, with the wealth concentrated among a small percentage of the population. Basically, this has always happened. The wealthy have always been more politically powerful, for obvious reasons, and so their needs and desires get satisfied. If you regulate, this happens anyway. If you break up monopolies, they form back. If you redistribute wealth, it clumps back together. Eventually, unless the community expands into new territories, the economy eventually collapses. You can't have an equilibrium.
The point being: it's gonna happen. We're going to see more inequality. More war. Etc. There isn't solution to this problem. Societies haven't matured enough to get around it. It's just the way civilization works. Maybe in this mediated world, where reputation is more and more important, the billionaires and trillionaires will become the secular, capitalist Robin Hoods.
My two cents. I'm just talking.
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Stanrick K.
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Think about it for a second
Re Give the gift economy a chance
It's a nice idea. It comports well with my own belief that wealth should be more evenly distributed, and that redistribution would have broad, beneficial social effects. Unfortunately, the statement is empirically false. This is not unlike the argument that "poverty causes terrorism."
Think about this for a second. If either of these related assertions were true, India, with huge numbers of people in poverty and institutionalized wealth disparities, would be the most war-ravaged, terroristic society in the world. It's not.
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gmcg
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What's the 'Advantage'?
by JR Mooneyham
| August 25, 2007 |
Windows Genuine Advantage suffers worldwide outage| |
Excerpt: We contacted our sources at Microsoft, who told us off the record that the company is aware of a major WGA server outage affecting users across the globe. |
Windows Genuine Advantage is an anti-piracy device: so the main people hurt by its problems are law-abiding, paid customers -- NOT pirates.
Lord knows Windows users have plenty enough problems without Microsoft adding a demented software sheriff to their machines too.
An older version of WGA gave me some error messages in an automatic update on one of my PCs a year or two ago (and I am NOT a pirate). So recently, when yet another update to WGA was going to try to install itself on my PCs, I didn't allow it.
Now it appears I may have saved myself a lot of trouble -- as that particular update seems to be the subject of this article.
* * *
3-year-old charged with leading Indian riot
You can find similar reports of children being accused of terrorism in the USA.
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Sounds like you're lucky, dodged a bullet :)
I'm not a geek, not really very knowledgeable about software, but I'm a happy user of several non-Microsoft products. When a Microsoft product is my only choice I find it, almost as a rule, clunky, counterintuitive, unforgiving of mistakes, and eager to make its own mistakes. |
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Helen & Harry
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Giant Lie
by Madeline Zane
| August 25, 2007 |
Magic "Petraeus report" scheduled for 9-11
We already know that this report is being written by the White House instead of General Petraeus, whether his name is on it or not. Now we find out that it is scheduled to be released on 9-11 for maximum propaganda value.
So instead of the factual account of the war's progress that we have been promised, we're going to get a pre-scripted advertisement for the war, based in part on the Giant Lie that Iraq has any connection to 9-11. And this is how we're supposed to decide what to do next about Iraq? America would do better basing its foreign policy on tarot cards than on this so-called "report."
* * *
Intel report: "Surge "is making Iraq even more sectarian, unstable| |
Excerpt: The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes has soared since the American troop increase began in February, according to data from two humanitarian groups, accelerating the partition of the country into sectarian enclaves.
The assessment, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, casts strong doubts on the viability of the Bush administration strategy in Iraq. |
The Bush administration is trying to spin this news (and most of the media is going along) to say that it actually BOLSTERS their argument that we absolutely can't leave Iraq anytime soon, because of how unstable it is. This is similar to a person with a can of gasoline refusing to stop pouring it on a fire and walk away, because look how awful the fire's getting!
* * *
Army drops two most serious charges against Abu Ghraib officer| |
Excerpt: A military judge dismissed two of the most serious charges yesterday against the only officer charged with abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, after an investigator [changed his earlier testimony to say that] he failed to read the defendant his rights.
In court yesterday morning, the prosecutor, Lieutenant Colonel John P. Tracy, announced that the investigator, Major General George Fay, had contacted prosecutors Sunday to say that he "misspoke" when he testified during a pretrial hearing that he advised Jordan of his rights during an interview in 2004.
Fay interviewed many other soldiers during his investigation. In his report, he concluded that Jordan's tacit approval of violence during a weapons search on Nov. 24, 2003, "set the stage for the abuses that followed for days afterward." |
I had to revise the AP's first paragraph -- they buried the fact that this investigator suddenly changed his testimony at the last minute in paragraph six. Most stories I saw on the court martial didn't mention this at all.
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Madeline Zane
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Quick thinking
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| August 25, 2007 |
Real men make peace.
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Herb Ruhs, MD
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"Free trade" and traitors
by Kathy Fisher
| August 25, 2007 |
Red China is threatening economic warfare. They demand "free" trade, while on the other hand our 'traitors' gave our entire manufacturing base away, thus making it is possible for them to threaten Economic Warfare and scare us to death. Don't blame China folks, look in the mirror and then look in your wallets!
Business arson in Greece
Greece declares emergency after fires kill 47| |
Excerpt: With swathes of the Peloponnese peninsula, the island of Evia and even eastern suburbs of Athens burning, thousands fled the blaze and hundreds of homes and businesses went up in flames, along with tens of thousands of acres of forest.
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said the rash of forest fires "can't be a coincidence". He vowed the culprits would be found and punished, implying arsonists were responsible. |
I saw a report saying that these kind of fires are not unusual in Greece, and are mostly a result of arson set by land developers.
They set fire to a forest -- which is protected and cannot be used for building -- (In most of Europe there is building land, and agricultural land, and even if someone owns the property they cannot build on it unless the land is approved for building), and after the forest has burned down, they can get the approval for building since the trees are gone and would take many years to grow again. Sometimes this is apparently done in collusion with local politicians.
This time, they grossly miscalculated the weather situation, and the result is truly a horrifying disaster.
Will they still get their building land at the end?
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If there's money, that's usually all that matters.
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Helen & Harry
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A wasteland of ignorance and mediocrity
you're busy, so don't reply.. you can reply if you want to, and it's always a bright ray of sunshine when you do. i feel as though we are friends, our minds touching across a vast gulf. between us, a wasteland of ignorance and mediocrity. its nice to know that in life, now and then, you get to see another bright light shining up from out of the dark. like a kind mind in mordor we though often terribly alone, manage to anchor and uplift each other from afar.
my heart hurts and is soothed by your website at the same time. ow, how confusing this life is.
i am 3 years from my degree and as soon as i am the professional so and so i want to be...i can't wait to send you some money.
meanwhile... thanks.
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I don't know you very well, but by any worthwhile definition we're friends indeed. Don't let your heart hurt too much -- just speak out, get things off your heart, and you'll always feel a little better afterwards.
I appreciate anyone who’s awake and honest and concerned enough to be speaking against what's going on, and I appreciate that probably lots more than any money you might eventually send. You'll have student loans to pay off, so forget the money, and anyway, it's depressing to envision that we might still be fighting these battles in three years. I suspect, win or lose, the major battle for America's soul will be over by then. Keep in touch, please.
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Helen & Harry
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Lethal attacks when the opportunity presents itself
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| August 24, 2007 |
First came the New Deal under Roosevelt, then the Fair Deal under
Truman, then the No Deal under Reagan, and now the Crooked Deal under
Bush.
* * *
Re Everyone's political football
Well, I read the two pieces at the link. To the extent that I
believe anyone in this matter, I am inclined to agree that Tillman's
murder was a case of some kind of "friendly fire" (friends don't let
friends shoot each other).
But there is the same problem that arises whenever one of these
coverups is launched. When plausible deniability is invoked to cover
up crimes then any story is plausible. Is the new story the next
version of the cover up? Not that I have reason to doubt the
author. When military psychological operations get involved sincere
people are generally taken in, that is the point of the work of psyops.
Regardless, does it matter if Tillman was murdered as part of a deep
plot hatched at the highest levels of government like some bad
Hollywood movie? In the heat of combat annoyances can turn into
homicidal fury. Perceived betrayal can become a capital crime.
What is missing for me in the story, the dog that didn't bark, is any
mention of disaffection with the war that Tillman was supposed to
have been talking about prior to the incident. Ideological
differences that lead to a little shouting at a domestic
demonstration can lead to lethal attacks when the opportunity
presents itself. That is what happened to me in Viet Nam, but the
shooter was using a revolver from about thirty feet and I was able to
escape.
If Tillman stood up, with his hands up facing the shooters, was
wearing distinctive gear, and had thrown a smoke grenade prior to the
shooting and there was adequate lighting, and the shooters knew that
a detachment of their own had gone down the canyon before them, as
the author says, then I find the current "friendly fire" explanation
harder to swallow than before. This is not your usual fog of war story.
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Herb Ruhs, MD
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Captain Pike and Vina
by Chris M.
| August 24, 2007 |
Out-of-body experience recreated| |
Excerpt: The visual illusion plus the feel of their real bodies being touched made volunteers sense that they had moved outside of their physical bodies.
The researchers say their findings could have practical applications, such as helping take video games to the next level of virtually so the players feel as if they are actually inside the game. |
I don't know why, but I feel very uneasy about this. Maybe an old episode of Star Trek is why.
"So the Talosians who came underground found life limited here, and they concentrated on developing their mental power. But they found it's a trap, like a narcotic. Because when dreams become more important than reality, you give up travel, building, creating. You even forget how to repair... the machines left behind by your ancestors. You just sit, living and reliving other lives... left behind in the thought record." [The Cage]
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Chris M.
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Our hatwe filled website
by Chris Fortney
| August 24, 2007 |
Re Silly poltical hatred
Don't cry -- whining is okay. I stand by my original statement. I love freedom and fought for it. What is silly is your hatwe filled website which has nothing to do with freedom and everything to do with your own weakness. And if you think my poost qualified as hate mail you are even more lame then I originally thought.
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Not since about third grade have I cared about insults from strangers, so we're not crying, just chuckling.
I care about America, though, and you describe yourself as an "American Patriot," so I wonder -- have you noticed that thousands of Americans are being slaughtered for nothing in Iraq? Do you care about that, dear patriot? Have you noticed that America's President is setting up a dictatorship where the Constitution once was? Does that trouble you in the slightest? Does it matter to you that every principle America allegedly stands for is being trampled by treason in the White House?
If you give a damn about your country, I would politely urge you to snap out of your stupor and join the battle to save this nation.
Or, if all you care about is e-mailing strangers to tell them that they're "lame", well then, I guess your work here is done.
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Helen & Harry
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