I haven’t read DailyKOS for some time, with reason. This post by Pen at Booman Tribune explains why and signs off with my own sentiments…
Markos Moulitsas (Kos) getting a little too defensive?
Pen, Booman Tribune, November 16, 2008
KMA, Markos.
michael :: Nov.19.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
Dennis Kucinich “Racketeering On A Scale This Country Has Never Seen Before!!!”
Via Singularity.
michael :: Nov.18.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
A Ticket to The Hague for Dick Cheney? — Scott Horton, Harpers, November 13, 2008; … A large part of the population still credits the Bush Administration’s absurd claim that it never embraced or applied torture to detainees as a matter of policy. [Taxi to the Dark Side and Torturing Democracy] investigate the administration’s policies and conduct. … The administration did its best to spike both films. … No one who sits through these films, I believe, will be able afterwards to accept the official version of events. George Bush has good reason to be afraid of too many Americans watching these documentaries.
Democrats Cover Up Bush Era War Crimes — Global Research, November 18, 2008; The Associated Press writes: “Two Obama advisers said there’s little—if any—chance that the incoming president’s Justice Department will go after anyone involved in authorizing or carrying out interrogations that provoked worldwide outrage.” And when Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy was asked if Bush officials could face war crimes, he responded: “In the United States, no. These things are not going to happen.” …
michael :: Nov.18.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
Jade, Clarence, Ginger, Precious, Moki, and Samantha
An offer extended and accepted.
Hanging out.
michael :: Nov.14.2008 :: Cats, Gallery :: No Comments »
The Audacity of Depression
Rage fatigue, plastic dirt and happy hour in techno-totalitarian America
Joe Bageant, Deer Hunting With Jesus, April 4, 2008
… Lately though, I don’t hear so much outrage. In fact, the readers seem to be suffering from what someone aptly called “rage fatigue.” Which is another way of saying the bastards have simply worn us out. And it’s true.
I am not kidding when I say rage fatigue victims have fallen into an ongoing mid-level depression. (Looks to me like the whole country has, but then I’m no mental health expert.) The less depressed victims can be found lurking near the edges of the Obama cult, consoling themselves that a soothing and/or charismatic orator is better than nothing. Obama may yet be borne through the White House portico by a Democratic host of seraphim, but he cannot do much without the consent of a bought and paid for Congress. Only George Bush can do that, and we can only hope God broke the mold after he made George. And like whoever else wins the presidency, Obama can never acknowledge any significant truth, such as that the nation is waaaaay beyond being just broke, and is even a net debtor nation to Mexico, or that the greatest touch-me-not in the U.S. political flower garden, the “American lifestyle,” is toast. But then, we really do not expect political truth, but rather entertainment in a system where, as Frank Zappa said, politics is merely “the entertainment branch of industry.”
Still, millions of Americans do grasp at The Audacity of Hope, a meaningless marketing slogan of the publishing industry if ever there was one. At least it has the word Audacity in it, something millions of folks are having trouble conjuring up the least shred of these days. And there is good old fashioned “Hope” of course — that murky, undefined belief that some unknown force or magical unseen power will reverse the national condition — will deliver us from what every bit of evidence indicates is irreversible, if not politically, then economically and ecologically: Collapse. …
michael :: Nov.14.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
The goal is not to tear him down. The goal is good government.
Can we talk about the real Obama now? - Sam Smith, Under News, November 5, 2008
Making Him Do It - digby, Hullabaloo, November 6, 2008
Plus:
Peace Activists Welcome Obama, Will Push Him - Aaron Glantz, Inter Press Service, November 7, 2008
And (added November 13):
Sparing Obama Criticism Isn’t Doing Him (or Us) Any Favors - Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com, November 13, 2008
michael :: Nov.07.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
This is Obama’s moment. He and his supporters should rejoice. But stay grounded, people.
From the candidate I voted for:
An Open Letter to Barack Obama: Between Hope and Reality - Ralph Nader, November 4, 2008
Obama and Democrats are like water compared to the oil of McCain and Republicans. Oil and water are different, sure, but breathable air is a completely different level of different. Obama’s record and his positions don’t promise that level of change by any means, but who knows - maybe events and the man will bring it on anyway.
michael :: Nov.05.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
To win by a margin that makes cheating impossible is no small feat.
Congratulations.
michael :: Nov.05.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
Never. But if they know the election is so far lost as to be unriggable, they will regroup.
The GOP may concede the election - Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy, October 24, 2008
No bets on what will happen election day.
I’ve also noticed how quickly the press now goes after stories that hurt McCain. If blood in the water were enough for these Jackals, the Bush administration supplied plenty. But when they know the wounded can’t strike them back, they go after them.
“As much as U.S. news media stars present themselves as straightforward journalists, they actually operate with a powerful bias in favor of the powerful. To keep their high-paying jobs, they figure out whom they can smear and whom they must treat with respect.”
– Robert Parry, Why Listen to Colin Powell, or Brokaw?, Consortium News, October 20, 2008
Wonder how they’ll treat former Bush administration officials when there’s no longer a downside.
American politics as pack mentality. Interesting.
Plus: Non Sequitur.
michael :: Oct.26.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
Not everyone has made their choice and even those who have may be interested in the discussions that follow (in the comments sections of) these two articles:
2008 Is Not the Year for McKinney or Nader - Dan Coleman, Common Dreams, October 24, 2008
Chomsky, Zinn, and Obama - Mickey Z., Dissident Voice, October 24th, 2008
I voted lesser of two evils for the last time in 2004.
The 21st Century American Revolution - Tim Gatto, LiberalPro, October 21, 2008
michael :: Oct.24.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
Global Warming: Faster, Stronger, Sooner - The Daily Green, October 21, 2008; WWF Report: Climate Change Accelerating Beyond U.N. Predictions
michael :: Oct.24.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
Earth In Midst Of Sixth Mass Extinction: 50% Of All Species Disappearing - ScienceDaily, October 21, 2008; — “The current extinction event is due to human activity, paving the planet, creating pollution, many of the things that we are doing today,” said co-author Bradley J. Cardinale, assistant professor of ecology, evolution and marine biology (EEMB) at UC Santa Barbara. … the last mass extinction near the current level was 65 million years ago, called the Cretaceous Tertiary extinction event, and was probably the result of a meteor hitting the Earth. [Via Singularity]
Mass Extinctions Rise Among Plant Species - Lauren Davis, io9.com, October 22, 2008; Entire species of plants are dying off in droves, just like mammals.
Feds Rush To Ease Endangered Species Rules - Dina Cappiello, Associated Press, October 22, 2008; Rushing to ease endangered species rules before President Bush leaves office, Interior Department officials are attempting to review 200,000 comments from the public in just 32 hours, according to an e-mail obtained by The Associated Press.
The Earth After Us: What Legacy Will Humans Leave in the Rocks? - Review by Philip Ball, The Sunday Times, October 19, 2008; Forget lurid images of blackened or flooded cities, says Zalasiewicz, and fast-forward 100m years. The slate will have been wiped clean: wind, rain and the grinding of tectonic plates will remove all signs of humanity from the planet’s surface. All the passions and follies of our race will be compressed into a geological stratum, in some places no thicker than a cigarette paper and in others literally atomised as the churning earth swallows its crust.
michael :: Oct.22.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
From Consortium News.
Why Listen to Colin Powell, or Brokaw?
Robert Parry, consortiumnews, October 20, 2008Not only did Powell lend his personal credibility to Bush at key moments – from the Florida recount battle to the Iraq War to Election 2004 – but a serious examination of his career would reveal a person who consistently has put his career ahead of his country’s best interests. …
As much as U.S. news media stars present themselves as straightforward journalists, they actually operate with a powerful bias in favor of the powerful. To keep their high-paying jobs, they figure out whom they can smear and whom they must treat with respect. …
The U.S. news media’s fawning over Colin Powell also has not been a victimless exercise. By holding Powell up as a near-perfect hero, the news media has allowed Powell to steer public opinion at key moments – from his work containing the Iran-Contra scandal in the late 1980s, to his political embrace of Bush during the Florida recount battle in 2000, to his selling of the Iraq War in 2003, to his support for Bush’s second term in 2004. …
Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien: Obama’s New Advisor Stands By His War Crimes
Just to be clear, Barack Obama’s brand-new foreign policy advisor, Colin Powell, wants you to know that he continues to support the decision to launch a war of aggression against Iraq in March 2003 — an act that, according to principles established by the United States and its allies at Nuremberg in 1945, is a war crime punishable by death.
In fact, the only thing that Powell — the wise and steady statesman, the “grown-up,” the “moderate” — can find to criticize in the conduct of the war he helped launch is the fact that it wasn’t savage enough to begin with. We should have “surged” those sand monkeys from the git-go, he told CNN, as he aligned himself with the genocidal philosophy of noted moderate, grown-up legal philosopher Glenn “Gomer Says Hey” Reynolds, noted for his Augustinian endorsement of the “more rubble, less trouble” school of warcraft.
(continued…)
From Dissident Voice
Hitler Endorses Obama
Joe Mowrey, Dissident Voice, October 20th, 2008Okay, that title is a cheap sensationalist tactic to get you to read this article. [The author then goes on to waste a paragraph explaining the title, which is why he should have chosen a different one. The rest is a refreshingly disrespectful take on Powell's endorsement.]
Powell is the guy who, as a bright young 31 year old Army Major, did his level best to keep information about the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam from becoming public. … Queried about his participation in the attempted white wash of My Lai, some 40 years later Powell said, “I mean, I was in a unit that was responsible for My Lai. I got there after My Lai happened. So, in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again…” Personally, I think he sounds really sorry. …
…Like I always say, if your going to support a candidate who doesn’t represent any of the values you believe in, then you can’t have too many bloodthirsty war criminals endorsing him.
From Ranger Against War (emphasis in original)
He Could’ve Been a Contender. . .
October 19, 2008Colin Powell has thrown his weight behind candidate Obama, saying we need a “transformational figure” (Powell Endorses Obama).Well, you would know from transformational change, Mr. Powell, you who, as Secretary of State, lied before the United Nations in February 2003 shilling for your master George Bush in his trumped up end run to war. You helped effect the most devastating transformational change our society has suffered in recent memory. …
I would not think the endorsement of a war criminal would do much for one’s credibility. Of course, this has nothing to do with race, but Obama already has 95% of the black Democratic vote in the bag.
I’m sure Powell won’t make much of a difference.
michael :: Oct.21.2008 :: Politics :: 2 Comments »
The Illusion of Democracy - Tim Gatto, Liberal Pro, October 15, 2008; Real change has to come from outside these two corrupt and self-serving political parties. The charade needs to end.
The Idiots Who Rule America - Chris Hedges, Truthdig, October 20, 2008; We will either recover the concept of the public good, and this means a revolt against our bankrupt elite and the dynamiting of the corporatist structure, or we will extinguish our democracy.
Americans Unwilling to Face Reality - John R. MacArthur, InTheseTimes, October 19, 2008; Things have to get really bad before a politician has the right to trade in hard truth. So far, I don’t think they’ve gotten bad enough.
Fool Me Once… - Tim Gatto, Liberal Pro, October 19, 2008; Sadly, the time for change has already come and gone.
The Revolution Has Arrived - Jeanmarie Simpson, CommonDreams, October 20, 2008; The hippie notion that simple living and non-violence was the way to dissolve the established societal paradigm is an idea whose time has come.
Prosecute Bush for ‘Nazi’ Atrocities and Crimes Against Humanity - Len Hart, Existentialist Cowboy, October 20, 2008; The time has come to organize a world-wide resistance that will bring Bush and his ‘material support’ to justice in the international courts.
Questions from Women for Sarah Palin - Stories in America; October 2, 2008; They first chuckle, then take a deep breath, and say, “Where do I begin?”
A glimpse of Life in Iran, via Mercury Rising.
michael :: Oct.20.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
I vote for universal healthcare
Jean Hannah Edelstein, Guardian/UK, October 18, 2008
John McCain’s healthcare policy makes me sick - but, unlike many Americans, I can afford to see a doctor in the UK
Case Grows for HR 676, Universal Healthcare
Inglewood Today, October 16, 2008
In 2003, U.S. Rep. John Conyers first introduced HR 676, the United States National Health Insurance Act (USNHI). Under H.R. 676, health care would be publicly financed and privately delivered. Medicare would be extended and improved so that all individuals residing in the U.S. and residents living in the U.S. territories would receive high quality and affordable health care services. They would receive all medically necessary services by the physicians of their choice, with no restrictions on what providers they could visit. If implemented, the United States National Health Insurance Act would cover primary care, dental, mental health, prescription drugs, and long term care.
Why single-payer health care is not the answer
Eli, Left I on The News, October 16, 2008
Single-payer health care … if it eliminated the insurance companies … would without any question be a major forward step. But without changing the entire profit system, and recognizing that a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” has to run all aspects of the system - the research, development, and production of drugs, the education of doctors and other health care professionals, and the administration of health care … real gains in health care cannot be achieved. Just as public education forms the bulwark of the educational system in this country, so must public health care form the bulwark of the health care system.
michael :: Oct.20.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
Block the Vote
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. & Greg Palast, Rolling Stone, October 30, 2008 Edition
Will the GOP’s campaign to deter new voters and discard Democratic ballots determine the next president?
michael :: Oct.19.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
The man who knows too much
Rachel Cooke, The Observer/UK, October 19 2008
He exposed the My Lai massacre, revealed Nixon’s secret bombing of Cambodia and has hounded Bush and Cheney over the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib… No wonder the Republicans describe Seymour Hersh as ‘the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist’. Rachel Cooke meets the most-feared investigative reporter in Washington
michael :: Oct.19.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
Yesterday, my wife called me over to see a skunk milling around our screen porch. This was about 4:00 in the afternoon, which seems early for a skunk to be out and about. Unlike the previous one (no pics), which had a glossy coat and took off the moment I said “Go on! Git!”, this one was a bit shoddy and pitiful. It acted like it wanted in, but was probably just scouring the screen for bugs (the screen is fiberglass and can hold the weight of our cats without tearing, so no worries there). This skunk was also limping with a bum rear foot and, unlike the previous one, smelled. I suspect it had been attacked, sprayed the attacker, and still had stink-oil on its own fur. Our cats were bonkers, running up and sniffing, which we tried to stop. Not that the skunk felt threatened in the least.
The first thumbnail doesn’t show it, but if you click, you’ll see Samantha (our black & white cat) running up to see the skunk.
It was not shy at all. In this photo, I’d opened a door to take a picture and it acted like I was offering it a place to stay. As it waddled towards me, I snapped an out-of-focus photo before slamming the door.
The skunk shrugged and kept milling around…
michael :: Oct.19.2008 :: Gallery :: No Comments »
Interesting reads:
Mike Davis, Casino Capitalism, Obama, and Us - Tom Dispatch, October 15, 2008
Author Naomi Klein discusses bailout, economy at Stanford - Tim Simmers, San Mateo County Times, October 17, 2008
Torture by Any Other Name - Bush White House Won’t Call Waterboarding Torture - Daphne Eviatar, Washington Independent, October 17, 2008
Attack on Iran Off the Table? - Ray McGovern, Consortiumnews, October 18, 2008
James Bamford: “The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America” - Democracy Now! interview, October 14, 2008
ACLU Files New FOIA Requests for NSA Spying Documents. EFF Charges Telecom Amnesty Unconstitutional - Tom Burghardt, Global Research, October 18, 2008
Dangerous Territory For US Liberal Democracy - tjfxh, Agonist, October 19, 2008
Iraqis march for freedom from US - Deborah Haynes and Sarmad Ali, Baghdad, Times/UK, October 18, 2008
Photo essay: Colonialism in the West Bank - Scott Weinstein, The Electronic Intifada, 17 October 2008 [via The Angry Arab News Service]
The Insiders - How John McCain came to pick Sarah Palin - Jane Mayer, New Yorker, October 27, 2008 edition
Cuba estimates offshore oil reserves of 20 billion barrels - Global Research, October 18, 2008
Nowhere near complete, the above list hardly scratches the surface of current events.
michael :: Oct.19.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
More pictures of the cats adopted by three of us where I work, at the Clemson University Research Foundation Information Technology Center.
ITC (Itsy) is solid grey, Lucas is a white and grey tabby.
ITC was the first to show up hungry but took the longest to catch. Both have now been caught, neutered, vaccinated, treated with Revolution for fleas and released.
Lucas is a complete attention hound. He’s always nearby, easy to pick up and handle, and not at all shy. He’s also jealous and always interferes when we try to give ITC attention. We have to tag-team, with one person keeping Lucus occupied while another works with ITC.
ITC is still shy and while you can get very close - even get him to touch his nose to a fingertip - he won’t let you pet him. Yet.
michael :: Oct.17.2008 :: Cats, Gallery :: 3 Comments »
michael :: Oct.16.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
On Presidential Blindness and Economic Catastrophe - Mike Davis, Tom Dispatch, October 15, 2008
michael :: Oct.16.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
US Journalists & War-Crimes Guilt - Peter Dyer, Consortium News, October 15, 2008; Six decades ago, the Nurenberg Tribunals established that propagandists shared in the guilt for crimes against humanity, but today, U.S. journalists casually advocate for war crimes.
michael :: Oct.16.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
In the (tarnished) White House, of course:
Torture’s Smoking Guns
Dan Froomkin, Washington Post, October 15, 2008Had they embarked on a serious inquiry into the legality, morality or even utility of torturing terror suspects, members of the Bush administration would have had no alternative but to conclude that what they were authorizing was illegal, unconscionable, and ineffective to boot. But soul-searching, evidently, was not a high priority.
The people closer to the operational level did, however, spend plenty of time making sure their asses were covered.
And the result is documentary evidence that perhaps some day will serve as Exhibit A that White House officials at the highest levels explicitly endorsed tactics that by any reasonable standard constituted torture, violated domestic and international law, and cast aside the respect for basic human dignity that has so long been central to our values as a country. …
michael :: Oct.15.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
This one is all inclusive. I intend to vote for Nader or McKinney, so I’d like to see what they have to say. (Business party candidates are also invited.)
Sunday’s C-Span opportunity: 3rd-party candidates debate
Maria Recio, McClatchy Newspapers, October 15, 2008WASHINGTON — Third-party presidential candidates finally will have their own debate: at 8 p.m. Sunday at Columbia University in New York.
The debate, which will be announced Wednesday, will include at least three of the four third-party candidates — independent Ralph Nader, the Green Party’s Cynthia McKinney and the Constitution Party’s Chuck Baldwin. Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr said he has a scheduling conflict, but debate organizers say he wanted to appear only with Nader. (Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain are also invited.) …
I hope to actually watch this debate. More importantly, I hope it is worth watching all the way through.
michael :: Oct.15.2008 :: Politics :: No Comments »
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