This Bob Dylan masterpiece was written long ago, yet the message is still just as important today. Remember that the masters of war try to control our planet with the tools of destruction, creating havoc, misery, hate and revenge for those that are brutalized by the shrapnel and bullets that fly so frequently.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Late Night Music Video
Monday, January 22, 2007
'Gem' Of The Day
“It’s like looking in a drawer full of diamonds.”
— White House spokesman Tony Snow, describing President Bush’s upcoming State of the Union address.
Cubix zirconia doesn't count Tony.
Cheney Is Wrong! Biden et al. School Fox News
Just watch the video, it is brilliant. Chris Wallace of Fox News interviews Democratic Senators Carl Levin and Joe Biden thinking he'll corner them on the war. Instead poor old rightwing-parroting Chris is taught a lesson, that Cheney has never, ever been right about anything regarding Iraq. The only thing Cheney can be given credit for is knowing how to make him and his cronies rich.
Have A Chat With Hillary Tonight
Tonight is the first of three online chats hosted by the Clinton campaign in the beginning of her Presidential candidacy. Starting at 7pm E.S.T/4pm P.S.T., those who register at her website can ask the Senator anything they want, within reason. She'll be answering selected questions on a live webcast.
So ask away people, see what she says about the war, impeaching a President guilty of high crimes and misdeameanors, an economy that is by the rich and for the rich, how she will fix the health care system (since she used the issue for a photo-op already) and anything else that comes to mind.
One question I would pose the Senator is something I saw on the frontpage of DailyKos today.
Devilstower posted a quote from Thomas Jefferson and the LA Times take on it:...Thomas Jefferson warned against the formation of an "unnatural" aristocracy of men who inherited great fortunes and political office. Both of these warnings have been overlooked in the debate over Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential run. But if she secures the Democratic nomination, wins and serves two terms, by 2017 the United States will have been governed by either a Bush or a Clinton for 28 years.
Now thats a nice piece of food for thought!
Saint Guiliani?
Immediately afterwards the two heroes that emerged in the eyes of the media and the public at large were President Bush and Mayor Giuliani. Since then Bush's popularity has dropped precipitously due to his gross mismanagement of our country and leading us into an unwinnable war.
However Rudy in the same amount of time has built a profitable company, annoited his successor Michael Bloomberg and risen to national prominence with his own candidacy for President in 2008. Now is the time for Rudy to be put under the microscope and through the gauntlet.
The Daily Gotham and new contributor Richard Rothstein takes a look at the Rudy before 9/11:
On September 10, 2001, Rudy Giuliani was an extremely unpopular mayor and considered to be one of the most polarizing politicians in the history of New York City. Many New Yorkers saw him as a racist and borderline fascist. In fact, some newspapers, columnists and community groups had nicknamed him the Mussolini of Midtown and Hitler on the Hudson. But a few hours and two crumbling towers later he was Crusader Rabbit. Today, the nation perceives him to be America's most beloved and treasured mayor and a viable Republican candidate for the White House, made national hero by a baptism of sacred white ash.
The mayoralty of Rudolph William Louis Giuliani III was based on one of the narrowest electoral margins in city history, barely 53,000 votes. In fact, he lost the popular vote in Manhattan, The Bronx and Brooklyn. His victory was based on wide margins in conservative Staten Island and conservative white sections of Queens. His other ace in the hole was the inability of the Democratic party to come up with a competent and less than painfully dull candidate coupled with that party's relentless and very public infighting. (Where have we heard that before?)
This guy sounds like the next George Bush, a man who has already proven to emulate the decider in gaining political points from national tragedies. The article continues to show how Rudy transformed parts of New York into a capitalistic treasure at the expense of genuine NYC artistic talent and people of color. Although gentrification of the city didn't start with Giuliani, it certainly sped up under his reign. Please read the rest of the article, as it exposes the litany of offenses the 'saint' committed upon our city and portends what he could do to our nation following the despotic George W. Bush.
Muslim Groups Protest '24'
From a fan website
Jack Bauer and the Fox network are at it again, pissing off segments of society for the benefit of their ratings. This isn't the first time that people have protested the stereotyping of Islamic groups on the hit show. Two years ago muslims were cast as nuclear warhead thieves planning on attacking the United States, though Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) saved the day.
The most recent episode did not have such a happy ending, where a nuclear bomb was detonated in Los Angeles, again by muslims. Some people may argue that the only people that would attack the United States are that segment of the population, but that would only show their ignorance of history and those that commit acts of terrorism. Not too long ago a man by the name of Timothy McVeigh blew up the Federal building in Oklahoma City, a few days ago Greek terrorists shot a rocket at the U.S. Embassy in Athens and terrorists around the world attack their adversaries no matter what religion they ascribe to.
CNN has more:
"The overwhelming impression you get is fear and hatred for Muslims," said Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. She said Thursday she was distressed by this season's premiere. "After watching that show, I was afraid to go to the grocery store because I wasn't sure the person next to me would be able to differentiate between fiction and reality."
She said the group had a conference call Wednesday with Fox executives to protest the current plot line and request more positive portrayals of Muslims on the show, but was not promised anything.
After a January 2005 meeting with CAIR, Fox aired a commercial in which the show's star, Kiefer Sutherland, urged viewers to keep in mind that the show's villains are not representative of all Muslims.
Well at least some action was taken, but not nearly enough. Perhaps we can see some 'American terrorists' being beaten up and tortured. You know torture is one of those moral values that we like to see acted on to protect the fair nation that we all live in. CAIR is correct on this issue. There has to be more done in this country to promote religious harmony, not the other way around. As one that has a few friends that are muslim and many that 'look Muslim' (i.e. having dark skin) have been harassed by fellow neighbor and officer of the law alike.
United States Attacks United Kingdom
The United States and the U.K. may have stopped physically fighting each other after the War of 1812 (and small naval skirmishes for the history buffs out there) but an attack against the Brits is still on-going. Instead of a battle of guns, this is a battle of ozone.
The United States has been 'launching' an ozone assault for some time now. Due to the Bush Adminstration's lack of concern over the environment and the increasing threat of Global Warming there have been many dire consequences. This post details how U.S. production of ozone has hurt the United Kingdom.
The good ozone has been beaten back by global warming, most notably seen in the increasing hole over Antartica. Yet the bad ozone in the picture does not simply sit over each particular city. Earlier studies have hinted that bad ozone can be carried by the jet stream and in this case from the United States to Europe but now it is a fact.
Therefore ozone produced in U.S. cities has increased U.K. cases of respiratory illness and it has been attributed to approximately eight hundred deaths in the European heat wave of 2003 alone. Those are not insignificant numbers we are talking about!
From the Times-U.K.:
The study, by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), suggests that up to 2,000 tons of ozone, originating in cities such as Chicago, Detroit and New York, are hitting Britain each day.
The American ozone usually boosts British levels by 20%-30%, sometimes rising to 40%, often pushing them beyond the safe limit of 50 parts per billion (ppb) set by the World Health Organisation.
.....
Scientists blame it for up to 800 of the 2,000 extra deaths caused by the 2003 heatwave, when ozone levels in Britain soared to more than 90ppb.
Of course the majority of the ozone particles that affect people come from the area they reside in, yet 20-30 percent increases are not to be taken lightly. The British government has done much to curb their own pollutants but the U.S. government hasn't done much at all.
Successive British governments have tried in vain to cut levels and the Nerc study sought to find the reason. “Our research shows British pollution control measures are not working because a lot of this pollution is coming from America,” said Alastair Lewis, professor of atmospheric chemistry at York University.
The article also notes that the NERC study to be released this week finds fifteen U.S. cities that contribute to the U.K.'s problems. These cities also emit 1,000 tons of carbon monoxide that travel to the United Kingdom. Due to the results, this shatters conventional wisdom that carbon monoxide and ground level ozone do not travel long distances. The findings will be published this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
See images of the pollutant travel here.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Blackwater USA Has No Shame
I saw this on Mia Culpa so here goes. We all know Blackwater USA is a whore of the M-I complex, bilking billions of our taxpayer dollars to defend dignitaries and U.S. government officials while carusing in Iraq.
A frenzied mob of insurgents ambushed Paauilo resident Wesley J.K. Batalona, Scott Helvenston, Jerko "Jerry" Zovko, and Michael R. Teague in March 2004 as they escorted a supply convoy through Fallujah, Iraq.
You also most likely remember the bridge outside Falluja on March 31, 2004. The story was shown all over the world and mortified the nation and most importantly the families of those contractors. The families sued Blackwater for not honoring their agreement to give them armored vehicles, resulting in a lawsuit that was stalled again and again with the resolution still undetermined.
Now Blackwater is filing a countersuit, but not against the families specifically.
From Mia Culpa:
Blackwater USA has filed a $10 million dollar lawsuit against the attorney representing the families of four American contractors who were killed, and hung from a bridge over the Euphrates River by insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq in March of 2004. Blackwater claims that the suit filed by the families of the deceased men for wrongful death in January of 2005 is a violation of the security guard's contracts with the private military contractor and security firm.
Richard Nordan, the estates administrator who filed the suit against Blackwater is specifically named in the suit, and not the family members of the deceased, or their estates. Blackwater has also asked to have a federal court send the matter into arbitration, after failing to have the suits dismissed.
Even if their contracts had stipulated this the countersuit would still be a disgrace to those that lost their lives in such a graphic manner that day. Only their suit is far from being honest.
Investigations into the deaths revealed that it was small arms fire, not explosives as originally reported, that killed the men. Armored vehicles would have protected them, and their families and attorney believe that they would still be alive today had that original contractual obligation been met. The contracts also called for the men to travel in 6 person teams, and team leader Justin McQuown -- who according to Scott Helvenston's own emails had a rather adversarial relationship -- decided to hold two men back for clerical duties, and sent just the four doomed contractors off to Fallujah, sans armored protection. In one of Helvenston's last emails to Blackwater, he spoke of McQuown having a possible hidden agenda that he referred to as "Let's see if we can screw with Scott."
The legal battle for the family members seems to have begun with the Blackwater memorial service for the dead held at the Blackwater compound. Afterwards, while gathered in a conference room, when the relatives of Jerry Zovko asked to see the after-action report detailing the last moments of his life, Zovco's mother Danica said the response was "that if we wanted to see the paperwork of how my son and his co-workers were killed that we'd have to sue them."
Well the families did file a suit in court and Blackwater fought it.
From the CNN article:
Blackwater has filed a motion to dismiss the case, providing copies of contracts signed by the four saying they would assume any risks from working under "volatile, hostile and extremely dangerous circumstances."
The only problem is that Blackwater did not show the agreement that the contractors should have been equipped with armored vehicles. Another issue with the dismissal and countersuit was that Blackwater USA did not want people knowing they were over-billing the U.S. government and then signed a sub-contract that deleted the word "armored" from the contract. Thankfully the judge reinstated the case in November, but Blackwater reacted with their countersuit.
The families see this as a shock and awe tactic:
"The $10 million is a scare tactic," said Katy Helvenston, mother of Scott Helvenston. "I'm not concerned about that at all because the whole thing's a farce. It's just another excuse to delay."
Of course we shouldn't be surprised at this. Just move along, don't look at the corruption and malfeasance. No one certainly did in Congress from 2004 to 2006. Now with our Democratic Congress, I pray that oversight and accountability finds that Blackwater USA is a disgusting war-profiteering outfit that needs serious investigations and justice for the families that have been affected by the company's negligence.
Hillary, Hillary, Hillary!
Hillary Clinton's arrival into the fray this weekend is making quite a splash across the country. New York's junior Senator has a huge impact on the nation's newsmedia and rightly so. As a former first lady turned U.S. Senator, Hillary has accomplished a lot in her fifteen years on the national stage.
It is reported that she is going to run a 'Margaret Thatcher' style race, meaning that she will be tough on foreign policy and a tough campaigner, saying she is "In to win." As a warhawk she is certainly not a light-weight that is for sure, supporting the President for quite some time until it wasn't politically expedient anymore. Nevertheless she does not go as far as other candidates such as John Edwards who wants Congress to force Bush from increasing troop size by using the power of the purse.
As the only Democratic Leadership Council candidate, she will have a strong backing from self-proclaimed moderate Democrats and from the former President which goes without saying. The problem with the DLC is that they are far from 'moderate' and more like Republican appeasers. Only recently has the group come out of the 'pro-war' shell it has been hiding in since the President called for the invasion of Iraq more than four years ago.
Despite the polls favoring Clinton at the moment, she will have to fight an uphill battle to win the support of the Democrats who typically vote in the primaries. Her pro-war stance has hurt her in the grassroots and netroots community. Announcing her candidacy online is nice, but nothing compared to actually reaching out to those that fought for the Democratic majority in 2006, something Hillary did not fight for as much as she could have.
Place Your Bets!
If you can wager money on something, chances are someone has set up a booking facility to make it happen. Here in the political world it has been taken care of well in advance of the 2008 Presidential nominations. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Iowa Electronic Markets and Intrade.com have opened up their own markets on who is going to win the Democratic and Republican nomination for the White House.
The odds are 2008 looks good for the Democrats. With a 54% chance to win the White House and a 70% chance to hold the Congress, this next election is looking pretty damn good. The numbers are based on generic matchups, though Hillary leads the pack along with McCain in his corner. This is easily explained by the long held assumptions that these two would be the nominees for some time now. Of course current events tell otherwise. Edwards and Obama are surging on the left, while McCain is being hampered by Giuliani and the rest of the pack due to his lack of religious winger support.
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