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Dialogue for
Saturday, Mar. 1, 2008
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Sort of like Stalin
Re Ethanol scam
I am not surprised that there is such an amazing amount of things wrong around this ethanol fuel. While I am tempted to be flippant and say stuff about what else would you expect from one of Bush's programs (Me, sarcastic? Moi?) the fact are that it has a lot against it as presently operated.
First and foremost it looks exactly like the way petroleum is handled. We are making ethanol from corn and just the corn kernels. A hell of a lot of waste. Brazil used to make fuel from the waste of their sugar industry. We and the major oil companies took them to court and made it politically difficult for them to allow petro fuels to be used again. I used to read how they were running solely off the fuel made in country. Maybe some of you folks have old issues of the original Mother Earth News around. They used to often feature articles about people who were making their own fuels like producer gas (methane et al) and running engines on alcohol brewed up from farm and household waste.
As is, we now use only the corn seed, and it is that one of the expensive and hard to raise gene altered corns requiring lots of imported made from petro fertilizers that is fermented in large plants run on coal!!!! (What idiot came up with that... the coal board?) All very centralized and intensive in ancient non-renewable fossil fuels as well as money. Hell there is a weed (Name similar to sagebrush, can't recall it just now!) [Switchgrass. --H&HH] that produces twice as much alcohol per pound and doesn't need all that fertilizing or the constant care which requires you to fire up the gas burning giant tractors nor anywhere as much water so the cost is also lower. But no! We are doing it this way. Heavily centralized and just what the investor class needs rather than what the country needs. And again we are relying on one thing like the oil centric model so of course this drives up the cost of all foods. We are raising on less and less farm land remember not more.
I believe Ethanol is part of the answer, but not this way! This is just like oil which is still subsidized (Like they need it?) As they say on the chans "Epic Fail". We are so screwed! And they didn't at least take any of us put to dinner and the theater first...
We need to get away from the big companies. People complain about "big government" but how does that differ from "big oil" or any of the others so far Ethanol has benefited Cargil, Monsanto et al, not the rest of us. When they said we need to run the gov't. like a business we neglected to ask which particular business did they mean. The 50% of new ones that fail each year? The ones like Enron? Oh the ones that try to make us pay an arm and a leg and through our ears? I see!
This is how you make sure things don't work. Sort of like Stalin deciding to give the people what they "want" and he thought what they wanted was a return of Ivan the Terrible. Stalin a commie? A socialist? Nah, just another tyrant hiding behind words they don't mean. Sort of like "conservative with a conscience" ...
No, that was unfair. Eisenhower was a conservative. This recent bunch have nothing in common with him. They appropriate the name but then they also talk about supporting the troops. Only if you consider hanging them up by the scrotum to dry in the wind as "support". That goes for what they do to the women in uniform to but by another part of anatomy.
Oh enough of my ranting. Firstly I am saying it all so poorly and also the foam from my mouth is ruining this keyboard.
I hate when that happens...
(Thank the Goddesses for built in spell checkers!)
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Re Bottomless
Okay. this is now personal! Wig has gone from to bottom in one post... if not beyond. This is WAR! Now it is puns at 20 paces at dawn... I assume he has his seconds picked out.
No leftovers this week so I won't bring seconds...
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Jos (who actually likes what Wig posts!)
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Well, the only thing you've written that I have to disagree with is "enough of my ranting." Not enough yet, sir, and it's a tonic to see someone making sense. Plz don't stop.
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CounterSpinning
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Mar. 1, 2008 |
I have a nagging fear that some readers of UnknownNews insist on listening to so called "main stream media" and the pseudo independent NPR news shows. The usual rationalization I hear is that they feel they need to hear the "other side." This is not a rational choice since they have no access to the other side of the "other side."
If you must take the poison of bald propaganda at least take the antidote. For those who can not break this trance like self poisoning I recommend regular doses of the weekly show by fair.org, CounterSpin. Their site lets you locate their show in your area and has complete archives. This is the only place I know of that addresses mainstream propaganda directly and names names as well as identifying professional lying. I just tune in at kpfa.org's site and click on the schedule if I miss their two o'clock PM Friday show.
Today they covered:| |
Excerpt: This week on CounterSpin: Criticisms of NAFTA from Democratic presidential candidates Obama and Clinton made the New York Times feel a need to explain to readers that, despite appearances, the two politicians are not, actually, “hostile to free trade”. But that says less about the toughness of their criticisms than it does about the rareness in the corporate media world of ANY criticism whatsoever of what they insist on calling ‘free trade’. More on that from Lori Wallach of Global Trade Watch.
Also on the show: When we talk about media policy fights over ownership rules or network neutrality, what we're really talking about are the public airwaves, and how we use this enormously valuable resource known as the electromagnetic spectrum. But understanding the intricacies of how spectrum is allocated -- and to whom -- can be hard to understand. Does it have to be? J.H. Snider of the Shorenstein Center doesn't think so, and he'll join us to explain. |
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Re Screamers
What about The Terminator series? Life imitates bad art imitating worse art. Witness the political career of the Gropeinator.
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Herb Ruhs, MD
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UPDATE to the UPDATE
Re UPDATE on the current Turkish military operation
The Turkish TV channels are now announcing that the military operation has ended and that the ground forces are now returning to Turkey. Live TV coverage showing the troops returning has been going on for the last several hours, but without the official announcement, the scenes being shown were interpreted as being the return of SOME of the troops, but now it seems that they will ALL be returning.
A new report in Today’s Zaman indicates that Turkey plans to establish 11 temporary bases in northern Iraq near the Turkish border in locations that will enable them to block PKK access to mountain passes they have used to reach their camps and to cross into Turkey. Whether or not they are actually set up will depend on Iraqi approval. The article mentions that there are already several Turkish bases in Iraq manned by an estimated few thousand Turkish soldiers. This topic has not been mentioned at all during the recent hours of continuous reporting.
The abrupt ending seems to have surprised everyone while the fact that it comes so shortly after US Sec. of Defense Gates’ visit and Bush’s speech has “bothered” some. It is being explained as a coincidence. Yesterday, Turkey’s top general was quoted as responding to Gates’ comments with “short term is a relative concept. Sometimes it is a day , sometimes it is a year.” This time it was a DAY!
Of course, the parliamentary approval for the government to order cross-border operations to fight the PKK was for one year -- the parliamentary vote was on Oct. 17, 2007. SO, there is still time for Turkey to carry out more operations.
Finally, the official announcement noted that the timing for the Feb. 21 - Feb. 29 operation was directly related to the snowy weather. It prevented bomb attacks against the Turkish forces.
Thankfully, some of the more dire predictions related to this operation will NOT come true.
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Marie K.
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A "threat" to pull out of NAFTA?
If you believe that bullshit about NAFTA being a mutually beneficial trilateral agreement to lower tariffs and facilitate fair competition with equal terms to all three countries, then you're sorely mistaken.
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Chris D.
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Didn't suck
I watched a CMT (Country Music TV) movie starring Toby Keith, "Broken Bridges". I was prepared for it to really suck, and it didn't!
First of all, if you can survive to the end it has some musical rewards, including Willie Nelson and some chick singing a song.
Also, Toby Keith's political views may be distasteful and repugnant, but hey, he's just some guy with a guitar. Who gives a shit what he thinks as long as his music doesn't stink a whole lot?
Anyway, two stars :-)
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I'll have to take your word for it. No cable, and no tolerance for Toby Keith. Then again, I probably wouldn't recognize Toby Keith if I saw him on TV... When i was a kid country music was just another format on the radio. I preferred rock'n'roll, but country was OK. These days country seems about as right-wing as rock'n'roll was once left-wing.
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Helen & Harry
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'Surge' of false claims
Iraqis don't vote in our elections.
Iraq lies in tatters beneath a 'surge' of false claims
So our media aren't interested in what's going on in Iraq.
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Wig
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Downers
by Marshall S.
| Mar. 1, 2008 |
White House official resigns after admitting plagiarism| |
Excerpt: A White House official who served as President Bush's middleman with conservatives and Christian groups resigned today after admitting to plagiarism. Twenty columns he wrote for an Indiana newspaper were determined to have material copied from other sources without attribution. |
Such a little offense and he resigns! If Bush and Cheney were to be punished for their offences, the world would have a hard time coming up with a punishment good enough.
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Reformer: Trial Will Reveal 'Cesspool' of Obama's Allies| |
Excerpt: With the corruption trial of one of Sen. Barack Obama's longtime friends and supporters set to begin Monday in Chicago, Ill., reform watchdogs say it will reveal the "cesspool" of Illinois politics in which Obama came of age and has said little about in his campaign for president.
Indeed, even after he was elected to the United States Senate, Obama involved Rezko in a land deal that enabled the senator to buy his current home on Chicago's South Side.
Obama has since called his decision to involve Rezko "a bone-headed mistake." |
May he with the cleanest laundry cast the first stone.
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Vitamin E linked to lung cancer
Taking high doses of vitamin E supplements can increase the risk of lung cancer, research suggests. It follows warnings about similar risks of excessive beta-carotene use.
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2 of 3 tests of new ballot scanners fail| |
Excerpt: Chief Investigator Duane Pohlman reported that the board ran two tests of the scanners on Friday, and during both tests, the computer repeatedly showed an error message. |
However, a third test ran successfully.
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USDA rejects 'downer' cow ban| |
Excerpt: Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer told Congress yesterday that he would not endorse an outright ban on "downer" cows entering the food supply or back stiffer penalties for regulatory violations by meat-processing plants in the wake of the largest beef recall in the nation's history. |
Who is this Ag Secretary? A buddy of Bush's from elementary school who got no more education than that?
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Marshall S.
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An embarrassment to herself
Clinton unveils fearmongering anti-Obama TV ad| |
Excerpt: If you vote for Barack Obama, your children are going to die in their beds. This is the message of the latest Clinton television ad running in Texas. The spot starts with a moonlit shot of a blond toddler in the warm tangle of her sheets and then cuts to a close-up of an infant also in deep REM sleep. For the next 15 seconds, the images shift from one cherubic sleeping face to another. You'd think you were watching a Baby Ambien ad if the narrator weren't giving you nightmares: "It's 3 a.m., and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House, and it's ringing. Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call. Whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military -- someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world." At this point, we see our first adult, a concerned mother, opening the door and peering into her children's bedroom. "It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep," the narrator repeats. "Who do you want answering the phone?" |
In her run for the Presidency Hillary Clinton has degraded herself, over and over again, and reduced herself -- at least in my estimation -- from a woman I disagree with on some political matters, a woman who retained her dignity during her husband's embarrassing infidelity and scandals, a woman I felt had been unfairly smeared by (as she said) a vast right-wing conspiracy, to a woman I have no respect for whatsoever.
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Lee M.
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Whatever Bush wants
Bush demands immunity because telecom trials would reveal administration criminality| |
Excerpt: It's because those lawsuits are the absolute last hope for ever learning what the administration did when they spied on Americans for years in violation of the law. Dismissal via amnesty would ensure that their spying behavior stays permanently concealed, buried forever, and as importantly, that no court ever rules on the legality of what they did. Isn't it striking how that implication of telecom amnesty is never discussed, and how little interest it generates among journalists -- whose role, theoretically, is to uncover secret government actions? |
The more Bush and his criminal gang lie about the so-called Protect America Act, the more they demand immunity for telecoms, the more I'm certain the Democratic-controlled Congress will give in, and give Bush everything he wants -- immunity for telecoms, war without end, maybe a backrub.
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Rebecca
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Dialogue for
Friday, Feb. 29, 2008
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UPDATE on the Turkish military operations in Iraq
Re Turkish military operations & cultural differences
The Turkish newspaper “Today’s Zaman” has been putting up a lot of reports about the operation and events in northern Iraq. Just for the record, I thought I’d list some of the main points that have been presented in 4 reports dated Feb. 28, 2008. The links are below. I WILL be checking on how correct they all turn out to be.
FROM LINK 1)
**Turkey’s President Gul emphasized that Turkey has no intention of invading northern Iraq.
**He also said that the ground offensive is aimed solely at rooting out terrorists and that Turkey has already declared that it does not intend to stay for a long time.
FROM LINK 2)
**Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister said that given the harsh winter conditions in the mountains where the ground forces are located, no one wants to keep them there any longer than necessary.
**He also stated that civilians are NOT being killed because the areas where the operation is concentrated do not contain civilian populations.
**Finally, rejecting comments made by others, he said that the government has no plans to leave troops in a buffer zone in the area after the operation is completed and that Turkey has no interest in taking the lands (such as Mosul and Kirkuk) of any other country.
FROM LINK 3)
**US Sec. of Defense Gates, in Turkey for talks, is quoted as saying ”it’s very important that the Turks . . . be mindful of Iraqi sovereignty.”
**Also noted is that yesterday’s Today’s Zaman reported that Turkish ground forces entered Iraq for a “clean-up operation” of the PKK bases (many of which were destroyed during the air raids) and that they were expected to return home in a couple of weeks.
**Finally, mentioned is that Afghanistan is likely to be discussed during Gates’ talks and that there has been speculation that the US, having aided Turkey in this operation, may now press Ankara to send combat troops to Afghanistan. To this the article says that Turkey previously had pledged to contribute with around 24 officers to train Afghan military personnel while refusing to send additional troops for combat missions.
FROM LINK 4)
**Mentioned are experts who are saying that the recent support of Turkey by the US could mean that the US is now more accepting of Turkish arguments “that Iraq’s territorial integrity must never be harmed -- through expansion of Kurdish influence in the north -- and that the oil-rich city of Kirkuk should retain a special status.”
**Similar ideas by Joost Hiltermann, a deputy program director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), presented at a Jamestown Foundation panel discussion in Wash. DC on Feb. 26 are also noted along with his point that “Iraqi Kurds have a desire to control Kirkuk and eventually gain independence.”
[As I see it, this article seems to be indicating that the US and Israel have altered their Project for a “New Middle East” (no Free Kurdistan?) and dropped their backing of the Iraqi Kurds.]
I can also report that there have been several large funerals for the Turkish soldiers that have died. The top military and government leaders are attending them.
1. todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=135115
2. todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=135101
3. todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=135116
4. todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=135102
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Marie K.
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Dollar disaster
Today the US Dollar decisively broke through its all time low and is into its next leg down.
Monthly chart, 10 Year Period
Today's move continues yesterday's 1% sell-off, which itself was a violent crushing blow (1% in a day is a huge move in the global currency markets.)
The immediate cause of the two day carnage was Fed Chairman Bernanke's appearances before the House and Senate in which he gave bland, clueless answers about how inflation is a risk that they will look at sometime in the future and meanwhile they'll keep trying to pump up the economy to avoid recession.
His primary inflation argument is that he doesn't expect oil prices to climb as much in 2008 as they did in 2007. But his reasoning is completely bogus insofar as he is not predicting a recession yet expects inflation to moderate.
If a recession does not occur then there is no reason to believe that inflation pressures from past commodity price increases would not work their way through the economy as wage pressures. Especially since the U.S. has a massive trade deficit and as the dollar falls our necessary imports will become more expensive. So either Bernanke is just clueless and wrong, and a recession will occur to violently drive away inflationary pressures or -- more likely -- he is just parroting the Bush Regime's "Stay the course" strategy, but in America instead of Iraq.
One other note, if you look at the monthly chart of the dollar index you see that going into 2005 the dollar was recovering. But when Bush gained re-election the entire planet decided to flee Bush and his currency. Since January 2005 Bush and his cronies have continued to destroy value and squander resources in every direction, which is an actual causative factor in the U.S. dollar's decline.
I expect the current sell-off to climax within a month or three, but unless the US government goes cold-turkey on currency debasement and resource squandering activities, the middle and lower-class people in the economic food chain are going to be making soup from shoe leather.
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My understanding of economics is far from expertise, but dang me, you make this corner of the coming collapse make some tragic sense to me. It's kinda like having the soot wiped off my glasses just in time to see a big ol' truck barreling right at me ... |
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Helen & Harry
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Empire
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Feb. 29, 2008 |
One of the basic methods of oppression is to induce confusion in the thinking of the oppressed. Many people, me included, believe that action without clear understanding can not promote the cause of liberation, and its concomitant, spiritual health. The Buddhist might say that Right Action springs from Right Understanding. In these days, as it has been for millennia, right understanding of politics needs to include an accurate understanding of the system of imperialism. I suggest that folks tune into the lecture series, available from IndyMedia, presented Dr John Marciano called "Empire as a Way of Life.".
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Herb Ruhs, MD
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Screamers
Automated killer robots 'threat to humanity'| |
Excerpt: Increasingly autonomous, gun-totting robots developed for warfare could easily fall into the hands of terrorists and may one day unleash a robot arms race, a top expert on artificial intelligence told AFP.
"They pose a threat to humanity," said University of Sheffield professor Noel Sharkey ahead of a keynote address Wednesday before Britain's Royal United Services Institute.
Intelligent machines deployed on battlefields around the world -- from mobile grenade launchers to rocket-firing drones -- can already identify and lock onto targets without human help. |
This is spooky as it reminds me of the SciFi short story "Second Variety" and the rather cheesy movie "Screamers based on it. If your not familiar with ether, the plot is that "Killer Robots" are developed to fight a war. These Robots are self replicating but soon develop their own "intelligence" and a human form and then go about destroying ALL humans they come across.
Bottomless
Are the Pentagon's pockets bottomless?
$150,000 bonus offered for some Special Forces
Looks like military service is not based on patriotism but monetary bribery.
Are they serious?
by Marshall S.
| Feb. 29, 2008 |
House votes to end big oil's tax breaks| |
Excerpt: The House of Representatives brushed aside threats of a White House veto yesterday and voted 236 to 182 in favor of an $18 billion tax package that would rescind a tax break for the five biggest oil companies and use the revenue to boost incentives for wind and solar energy and energy efficiency. |
Are they serious, or are they just extorting the oil companies for more campaign contributions?
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Afghanistan mission close to failing --US| |
Excerpt: After six years of US-led military support and billions of pounds in aid, security in Afghanistan is "deteriorating" and President Hamid Karzai's government controls less than a third of the country, America's top intelligence official has admitted. |
Yeah, but Afghanistan is makin' some killer opium, and those pipelines the oil companies wanted are singin' along. That's no failure in the Neo-con's book.
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'Phantom' police on payrolls in Iraq| |
Excerpt: Iraq's government has spent millions of dollars on "phantom" police officers who left the force or died, but whose names remained on department payrolls while others illegally pocketed their salaries.
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They are learning a lot from us.
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McCain endorsement angers Catholic League President| |
Excerpt: The president of the Catholic League today blasted Sen. John McCain for accepting the endorsement of Texas evangelicalist John Hagee, calling the controversial pastor a bigot who has "waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church."
"Senator Obama has repudiated the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, another bigot. McCain should follow suit and retract his embrace of Hagee," Donohue said. |
McCain is sure in a hurry to make himself over as Bush III.
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Disturbing new photos from Abu Ghraib| |
VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Excerpt: As an expert witness in the defense of an Abu Ghraib guard who was court-martialed, psychologist Philip Zimbardo had access to many of the images of abuse that were taken by the guards themselves. For a presentation at the TED conference in Monterey, California, Zimbardo assembled some of these pictures into a short video. Wired.com obtained the video from Zimbardo's talk, and is publishing some of the stills from that video here. Many of the images are explicit and gruesome, depicting nudity, degradation, simulated sex acts and guards posing with decaying corpses. Viewer discretion is advised. |
And this is what makes Bush horny?
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The ethanol boom is running out of gas as corn prices spike| |
Excerpt: Spurred by an ethanol plant construction binge, corn prices have gone stratospheric, soaring from below $2 a bushel in 2006 to over $5.25 a bushel today. As a result, it's become difficult for ethanol plants to make a healthy profit, even with oil at $100 a barrel. |
Ethanol was a fake and a fraud from the beginning. They can't lie about it anymore.
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More than 1 in every 100 Americans now behind bars| |
Excerpt: For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars. |
Our high prison population does two things for the Corpratocracy: 1) big bucks are being make by private prisons. 2) a cheap source of labor is found.
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US labor market could grind to a halt - Conf Board| |
Excerpt: "The latest data on job advertising in print suggests there's virtually no chance that labor market activity will improve over the next few months. To the contrary, there is a chance the labor market could grind to a halt," Goldstein said. |
Then those who have jobs may see reductions in pay, because there will be lots of desperation out there, and in here.
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Army overhauls purchasing amid rash of fraud probes| |
Excerpt: The Army is ordering a major overhaul of the way it buys supplies for troops in combat zones as the number of criminal investigations into wartime contract fraud nears triple figures. |
A joke on top of a joke.
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Marshall S.
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Ethanol scam
by Angry Annie
| Feb. 29, 2008 |
I paid little attention to ethanol talk and support until the Bush administration started backing it. That's all I needed to know, to know that a scam was underway.
The ethanol boom is running out of gas as corn prices spike
Under my hat
Re Stylishly hairy and Hair by Wig:
Just off the top of my head, but is somebody having us on? I wanted to say more but decided best to keep it under my hat.
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Jos
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Dialogue for
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008
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Stylishly hairy
Re HairBy the by, does anyone know how the actual Mohawk people feel about the 'Mohawk' haircut? Just wondering...
Wonder if they get kicked out of school for the hairstyle?
Ah, for the good old days when School Boards were more interested in keeping teachers from unionizing then student behavior.
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Well, when I was a kid it wasn't uncommon for kids to be booted for "controversial" haircuts. Longhairs, mostly. Near as I can guess, all that's changed is what's "controversial." Hell, my dad had a 'Mohawk' cut when HE was a kid, and when I had one it was "retro" cool. Next thing they'll be banning "23 skidoo".
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When I was a kid... LOL! I'm an old old liberal free thinker whose time has passed.
New name for Gaza
by Herb Ruhs, MD
| Feb. 28, 2008 |
One of the greatest ironies in this age of irony is that Israel, a state founded in the wake of the immense tragedy of the genocidal policies of the Nazi regime and fueled by sympathy for the Jewish victims of that regime, has adopted the very same methods that the Nazis used in their expansionist and racist program of lebensraum in relation to their non-Jewish neighbors.
If I were in a position to advise the residents of Gaza, I would recommend that they change the name to The Warsaw Ghetto.
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"Minimum wage with no benefits" defines a condition of slavery worse than chattel slavery, for it does not provide a survivable condition.
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On minimum wage, in reading just that one sentence, I went from "Oh, come on" to "Hmmm" to "Well, I can't really argue with that...".
On Israel: it was a straight line to the truth.
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Helen & Harry
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From which he sprang
by Angry Annie
| Feb. 28, 2008 |
The death of William F. Buckley is the first really good news I've heard all week. He was the embodiment of the robber-baron culture from which he sprang.
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Angry Annie
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Whale preserves
by Marshall S.
| Feb. 28, 2008 |
McCain says Bush should get more credit| |
Excerpt: During a town hall meeting, the Arizona senator said President Bush should get more credit for protecting the country. He said the president is part of the reason why there haven't been any attacks on American soil after the Sept. 11 attacks. |
That's because President Bush was part of the reason for the Sept. 11 attacks on American soil.
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Iraq vet goes berserk, chases wife, kills his two kids, then self| |
Excerpt: Thorson had been under the care of a mental health professional, Brig. Gen. Lori Robinson said. She would not say whether his mental problems were related to stress from his crumbling marriage or his experiences in Iraq. |
Gee, Doc, maybe his experiences in Iraq led to his marriage crumbling. Of course, that would be an argument against war in general and the Iraq war in particular.
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Court considers OKing class action lawsuit against mortgage firms| |
Excerpt: A federal appeals court is nearing a decision on a battle between Chevy Chase Bank and a Wisconsin couple that could for the first time enable homeowners across the country to band together in class-action lawsuits against mortgage firms and get their loans canceled. |
A lower court ruled that the couple had been deceived by the bank. Will justice prevail? Or will Wall Street lobby the judge (bribe)?
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Iraqi leaders veto law Bush administration hailed as political breakthrough| |
Excerpt: Iraq's three-man presidency council Wednesday announced that it's vetoed legislation that U.S. officials two weeks ago hailed as significant political progress. |
Iraqi's government is spurning Bush while our Congress sucks his d*ck.
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9/11 redux: 'Thousands of aliens' in U.S. flight schools illegally| |
Excerpt: Thousands of foreign student pilots have been able to enroll and obtain pilot licenses from U.S. flight schools, despite tough laws passed in the wake of the 9/ll attacks, according to internal government documents obtained by ABC News.
"Some of the very same conditions that allowed the 9-11 tragedy to happen in the first place are still very much in existence today," wrote one regional security official to his boss at the TSA, the Transportation Security Administration.
"Thousands of aliens, some of whom may very well pose a threat to this country, are taking flight lessons, being granted FAA certifications and are flying planes," wrote the TSA official, Richard A. Horn, in 2005, complaining that the students did not have the proper visas. |
Golly Gee, do you think they want it to happen again?
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Pennsylvania Democrats demand Nader pay $61K for Dems'
2004 court case against him in 2004 before being allowed ballot access in 2008
The Democrats are angry, that's for sure.
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Marines call new body armor heavy, impractical| |
Excerpt: The Pentagon and Marine Corps authorized the purchase of 84,000 bulletproof vests in 2006 that not only are too heavy but are so impractical that some U.S. Marines are asking for their old vests back so they can remain agile enough to fight. |
Another of many (most) Congressional earmarks gone bad.
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The world's growing food-price crisis| |
Excerpt: Soaring prices of staples -- which have risen about 75% since 2005, driven by growing demand, rising oil prices and the effects of global warming -- have sparked riots in several countries, as people reel from sticker shock and governments scramble to feed their people. |
Accident of Bush policies, or intention?
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Unsold whale meat forced into Japanese school lunch program
I wonder if it tastes fishy? Or like chicken? Aren't we trying to preserve the whales, not create new markets that demand their slaughter?
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Nobel laureate estimates wars' cost at more than $3 trillion| |
Excerpt: When U.S. troops invaded Iraq in March 2003, the Bush administration predicted that the war would be self-financing and that rebuilding the nation would cost less than $2 billion.
Coming up on the fifth anniversary of the invasion, a Nobel laureate now estimates that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing America more than $3 trillion. |
A trillion dollars here, a trillion dollars there, soon we're talking about real money.
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Marines halt study critical of MRAP program| |
Excerpt: The Marine Corps has ordered a civilian scientist to stop work on a report critical of its efforts to obtain new armored vehicles, saying he exceeded his authority, a Marine official said Tuesday. |
The Marines fear nothing, except the truth.
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Mike Bloomberg claims vote 'Fraud'| |
Excerpt: Mayor Bloomberg charged yesterday that "fraud" was behind the unofficial results in the New York Democratic presidential primary that produced zero votes for Barack Obama in some districts. |
Hey, Bloomberg's found his cahones.
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Sick 9/11 workers rally in rainy D.C. for more help| |
Excerpt: Chanting "$25 million isn't enough!" dozens of sick 9/11 first responders stood in the rain on Capitol Hill Tuesday and urged President Bush to restore funding to help pay their medical bills. |
Bush turns his back to injured 9/11 workers. Bush turns his back to injured Iraq vets. Apparently, tragedy is only for his propaganda. Appreciation and gratitude are not in his consciousness.
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Marshall S.
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Just wondering ...
by Roseann D.
| Feb. 28, 2008 |
Re Anti-depressants don’t work
... what other drugs don't work?
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Roseann D.
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Refreshingly cranky
I just wanted to let you know that I've enjoyed reading your website during the past several years. It's a refreshingly cranky contrast to the tabloid culture of CNN and other major news outlets.
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Kind sir, you're sweeter than a fresh buttered crumpet with raspberry jam, and I thank you kindly and sincerely. We'll keep your email handy and re-read it next time we need cheering up.
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Helen & Harry
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9/11 all over again
'Thousands of aliens' in US flight schools illegally
Your immediate panic is requested, so Homeland Security can hire a few thousand more jackbooted thugs.
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Slice13
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Dialogue for
Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008
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The forever war, in fact and fiction
If you haven't read this book by Joe Haldeman, "The Forever War", then I shouldn't spoil the plot for you. But it has quite a bit in common with other pointless, endless optional wars -- like Viet Nam, and Iraq. Science fiction, of course. Takes place in outer space. The enemies are dastardly creatures. For many years of the war no human had ever seen one, had no evidence beyond a charred bit of DNA or two. We just knew that we'd lost a ship after a "collapsar jump" and took the generals' word for it that Planet Earth needed to fight a long, long, long war. Long!
Anyway, it is kind of witty in parts:| |
Excerpt: Most of us didn't feel too enthusiastic about making a collapsar jump, either. We'd been assured that we wouldn't feel it happen, just free fall all the way.
I wasn't convinced. As a physics student, I'd had the usual courses in general relativity and theories of gravitation. We only had a little direct data at that time -- Stargate was discovered when I was in grade school -- but the mathematical model seemed clear enough.
The collapsar Stargate was a perfect sphere about three kilometers in radius. It was suspended forever in a state of gravitational collapse that should have meant its surface was dropping towards its center at nearly the speed of light. Relativity propped it up, at least gave it the illusion of being there . . . the way all reality becomes illusory and observer-oriented when you study general relativity. Or Buddhism. Or get drafted. |
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Wow ... I read The Forever War when I was a child, and I don't remember a damn thing about it except liking it a lot. The concept of war without end was new to me as I read it, and I'll wager from your recommendation and my indistinct but fond recollection that there was some seed-plantin' subversion in there...
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Helen & Harry
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Double standard
IRS investigates Obama's denomination| |
Excerpt: The IRS is investigating the United Church of Christ over a speech Sen. Barack Obama gave at its national meeting last year after he became a candidate for president, the denomination said Tuesday. ...
The UCC had invited Obama to speak a year before he announced he was running for president because of his involvement in the denomination, Guess said.
Church leaders consulted with lawyers before the event on following IRS rules. Before Obama spoke, a top church official told the crowd that the senator's talk was not a campaign-related event and that no leaflets or other signs of political support would be allowed. |
I haven't heard of any IRS inquiries into right-wing charlatan millionaires like Pat Robertson and Oral Roberts or Benny Hinn or James Dobson or on and on and on, but when a middle-of-the-road denomination invites a middle-of-the-road Democrat and consults lawyers to try to follow all the rules, there will be hell to pay.
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Mike E.
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Pond scum
Scientists predict when world will end| |
Excerpt: In fact, we've only got a billion years left before the slowly expanding sun boils off the oceans and reduces our planet to an uninhabitable cinder, says Smith.
That may sound like a long time, but in fact life on Earth's been around a lot longer than that -- a total of 3.7 billion years, according to the latest estimates.
For those first three billion years, true, we were nothing but pond scum. Still, the new figures indicate the long story of life on our fair blue-green planet may be entering its last act. |
Of course there are those who never got beyond the pond scum stage. Like the people who make up and watch this network and most, if not all, Republicans.
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Antidepressant drugs don't work – official study| |
Excerpt: Professor Irving Kirsch of the University of Hull, who led the study published in the online journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine , said the data submitted to the FDA would also have been submitted to the licensing authorities in Britain and Europe. It showed the drugs produced a "very small" improvement compared with placebo of two points on the 51-point Hamilton depression scale.
That was sufficient to grant the drugs a license but did not meet the minimum three-point difference required by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) to establish "clinical" significance. Yet Nice approved the drugs for use on the NHS in the UK because it only had access to the published trials, which showed a larger effect.
Professor Kirsch said: "Given these results, there seems to be little reason to prescribe antidepressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed to provide a benefit. This study raises serious issues that need to be addressed surrounding drug licensing and how drug trial data is reported." |
Why does this not surprise me. This is the best news I have read about this. However I'll bet it makes some pharmaceutical company CEOs a bit depressed. Well they could always take some Prozac... but wait it doesn't work, now does it. Maybe exercise or friends (if they still have any).
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Chris M.
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Hair
6-year-old barred from school over 'Mohawk' haircut
A country of IDIOTS ...
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I had a 'Mohawk' haircut for a few months when I was a kid, but it wasn't controversial then, just cool. My dad did it with his clippers (we never went to barbers) and I wasn't even the only kid in my class with a 'Mohawk'.
By the by, does anyone know how the actual Mohawk people feel about the 'Mohawk' haircut? Just wondering...
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Happy birthday, Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon's 80th birthday is "marked with tremendous sadness"
I don't think any decent human being can be saddened that that particular basilisk is no longer in a position to mass produce misery.
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David S.
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Global climate change is good for business
by Marshall S.
| Feb. 27, 2008 |
Global warming melts new sea lanes for Norilsk, ConocoPhillips| |
Excerpt: Global warming, while threatening environmental disasters, is creating economic opportunity for shippers, makers of ocean cargo vessels and tour operators. New routes may expand access to the world's second-biggest oil supply, deliver U.S. wheat to Asia 30 percent faster and increase Arctic tourism as much as 50 percent in a decade. |
That's convenient. Using lots of oil caused global warming which melts polar ice which enables more convent shipping of oil, which will cause more global warming, and who knows what new, wonderful things will happen.
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Army: Combat tours must be cut| |
Excerpt: Top Army officials have told a Senate panel that the Army is under serious strain and must reduce the length of combat tours as soon as possible.
Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, said "the cumulative effects of the last six-plus years at war have left our Army out of balance." |
As the Bush era wanes, reality and courage is coming back. Where are the consequences they have feared for 7 years?
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GOP helps advance bill to cut off funds for Iraq war| |
Excerpt: Senate Republicans today helped advance a Democratic-pushed bill to cut off money for the war in Iraq, saying the additional debating time would allow them to hail progress there. |
Bush will veto it. Why should he deprive defense contractors of oodles of moola.
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Republican Party halts effort to retrieve White House e-mails| |
Excerpt: After promising last year to search its computers for tens of thousands of e-mails sent by White House officials, the Republican National Committee has informed a House committee that it no longer plans to retrieve the communications by restoring computer backup tapes, the panel's chairman said yesterday. |
In other words, Bush simply said "F*ck You" to anyone messin' 'round his bizness.
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There's not a word in the article even invoking the concept of a subpoena. The Congress "asked" for the emails, and the Republican Party said golly, we'll try to find 'em, and now the Republican Party says, nah, we won't even try. And without a subpoena it's all just a bipartisan cover-up.
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Helen & Harry
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Bosh
by Vampire Eleven
| Feb. 27, 2008 |
Cuba in fear of the unknown as Fidel Castro fades
Oh, bosh. People get old, sick, and eventually die, and guess what: Cubans understand this.
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Vampire Eleven
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Dialogue for
Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008
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Reaping what you sow ... |
