Scrooge

While tens of thousands of innocent human beings were perishing in preternaturally boiling seas, the president was busy sawing logs and cutting brush on vacation in Crawford, Texas. Only three days after the onslaught, now dressed in a formal suit, did he give a press conference regretting the tragedy.

The United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, had claimed that "the rich nations are not giving enough" and were "stingy." President Bush, obviously peeved during his press conference at the criticism, seemed to want to say, "I am not stingy!" But then he only replied testily that "the person who made that statement was very misguided and ill-informed." In truth, Egeland, one of the U.N.'s most serious and spirited officers, had actually not mentioned the U.S. by name at all but had only said that he thought the wealthy of the world were not giving enough to "the largest natural disaster in recorded human history."

He was right, but for a different reason than probably most observers and readers perceived.

First of all, it is true, as the president said, that the United States, including individuals and organizations, has for many years been the major donor to humanitarian disasters in the world; in fact, its donations were, last year, an impressive 40 percent of the world's, or some $2.4 billion in food, cash and humanitarian relief. But it is also true that the initial American offering this week of $15 million for tsunami victims, not incidentally most of them Muslim, was rightly considered ludicrous by a world critical of humongous American investments in Iraq.

Second of all, when we talk about another kind of aid -- not immediate disaster aid, but long-term development aid -- the story changes dramatically. America's foreign aid adds up to only 0.14 percent of the country's gross national product, compared with 0.92 percent given by the most generous nation, Norway, with barely 5 million people. The New York Times reported this week that, according to polls, "most Americans believe the United States spends 24 percent of its budget on aid to poor countries; it actually spends well under a quarter of 1 percent."

  Yahoo News article

Who are you calling stingy?

Fifteen mil was just our opener. Okay, so it took a little shaming to get us to raise it to $35 mil. Just look here:

The usual U.S. contribution during major disasters is 25 to 33 percent of total international aid, according to J. Brian Atwood, a former USAID administrator. So far, the U.S. contribution is 13 percent of the $270 million in international aid that has been pledged, the United Nations said Wednesday.

Spain has pledged $68 million, almost twice what the United States has contributed so far. Japan has pledged $30 million, Britain $29 million, Australia $27.6 million, Germany $27 million, France $20.5 million and Denmark $15.5 million, the United Nations reported.

WaPo article

As teams assessing the impact of last week's Indian Ocean tsunami report their findings, President Bush has increased U.S. aid to the region to $350 million – 10 times the initial pledge made before the disaster's scope unfolded.

[...]

The United States is leading a core group that also includes India, Australia and Japan in coordinating the international relief efforts.

Defense Link article

Take that.

The United Nations said the death toll from Sunday's colossal sea surge may be approaching 150,000 as the emergency relief operation struggled against debris-clogged harbours, power outages, washed-away roads and shattered towns from Indonesia to Somalia.

[...]

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has rejected suggestions that Washington has been trying to edge out the United Nations as leader of the international relief effort for the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Powell, during a visit to U.N. headquarters for talks with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, also denied that President George W. Bush had just increased U.S. disaster aid to $350 million (180 million pounds) from $35 million because he had been stung by criticism that wealthy nations were stingy.

Reuters article

The disaster has been turned into a debate about America's generosity. Amazing how everything is about us, isn't it?

Never mind. He makes himself look bad quite nicely all on his own.

Here's how President Bush's ended his brief meeting with reporters yesterday at the Crawford Ranch, which began with his statement that he feels really, really bad about the whole tsunami tragedy. Some eunuch ball licker from the gathered reporters asked Bush if he had any New Year's resolutions. A compassionate man at that point might have said something about resolving to help the countries through this crisis. A wise man may have said he was going to reach out more to others who are across the political aisle. There's a million things he could have said. Instead, he decided to take a giant shit on the statement of sympathy he had just given: "I'll let you know. Already gave you a hint on one, which is my waistline. I'm trying to set an example."

  Rude Pundit post

Now watch this drive.

Could that man be any more repugnant?

Americans against foreign disaster relief

Josh Marshall posts:

Ayn Rand institute says US aid to disaster victims is wrong, though private charity "may be entirely proper, especially considering that most of those affected by this tragedy are suffering through no fault of their own." (emphasis added)

I'm waiting to hear about the minority of victims suffering because of self-inflicted tsunami damage.

This is really an incredible stance to take publicly, but David Holcberg at the Ayn Rand site is taking it:

Every dollar the government hands out as foreign aid has to be extorted from an American taxpayer first. Year after year, for decades, the government has forced American taxpayers to provide foreign aid to every type of natural or man-made disaster on the face of the earth

[...]

The reason politicians can get away with doling out money that they have no right to and that does not belong to them is that they have the morality of altruism on their side. According to altruism--the morality that most Americans accept and that politicians exploit for all it's worth--those who have more have the moral obligation to help those who have less. This is why Americans--the wealthiest people on earth--are expected to sacrifice (voluntarily or by force) the wealth they have earned to provide for the needs of those who did not earn it.

[...]

It is past time to question--and to reject--such a vicious morality that demands that we sacrifice our values instead of holding on to them.

Next time a politician gives away money taken from you to show what a good, compassionate altruist he is, ask yourself: By what right?

You know, I've been asking myself that about my tax money the government uses to bomb other people into the afterlife. I think the answer is (in this administration, anyway): divine right.

It does appear, however, that this administration has not been too keen on coughing up disaster aid for those lazy, unworthy Indonesians. Holcberg will no doubt want to spend some of his discretionary dollars on all future Republican campaigns.

India barring relief efforts

Fighting to survive without water or food since the tsunami, villagers on a remote southern archipelago forbidden to outsiders are starving and desperate for humanitarian aid to reach them, survivors and officials said Friday.

"There is nothing to eat there. There is no water. In a couple of days, people will start dying of hunger,'' said Anup Ghatak, a utilities contractor from Campbell Bay island, as he was being evacuated to Port Blair, the capital of India's island territory of Andaman and Nicobar.

India has so far denied permission to international aid groups trying to gain access to go deep into the islands, the last tsunami blind spot where casualties are not known but feared in the thousands.

[...]

Relief operations on the remote archipelago - which starts approximately 300 miles northwest of the quake's epicenter - have been limited to Indian officials and local volunteers who have struggled to deliver tons of rations, clothes, bedsheets, oil, and other items, hampered by lack of transportation to the remote islands.

"We would like to be invited to join the relief effort, and to be part of any helicopter or boat trip to the area,'' an official with the Paris-based Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said at a news conference on Thursday.

International humanitarian group Oxfam also requested entry, but Lt. Gov. Ram Kapse, administrator of the federally governed territory, said no decision had been made. He said four Indian volunteer groups have been allowed to travel to the islands.

Entry to foreigners is prohibited on most of the hundreds of islands scattered over some 4,350 miles in the Bay of Bengal, and even Indians need special permits to travel there.

Some 40 percent of the densely forested area is designated as a tribal reserve where indigenous people live; the remaining area is protected for wood cultivation.

  Guardian article

How nice of mother nature to lend a hand in ridding a country of its unwanted indigenous.

I saw a news report yesterday with a film of that conference where the (very agitated) Doctors Without Borders official plead for access. "We'll let you know in the morning," said the obviously healthy government official.

These people haven't even had water to drink since Sunday. Hope they have a lot of coconut trees that held on to their fruits.

Cut a defense project? What are you? Nuts?

The Pentagon is considering cutting some of its largest programs, including the F/A-22 Raptor, to help bring down the budget deficit during the next few years and offset Iraq war costs, according to congressional and industry sources.

The proposals are considered tentative and have not been approved by the Office of Management and Budget or Congress, where they could face substantial resistance.

  WaPo article

If the Pentagon is actually offering up some programs to be cut, it's a damned safe bet that they are programs that are not needed, but are sucking up a shitload of taxpayer money which goes into the pockets of defense contractors. Know anybody by the name of Bush that might have some stake in that? It will undoubtedly be argued that we need to keep those programs, but we can cut some more food aid or health care or other social program where "our" money is being wasted.

Boo!

Terrorists may seek to down aircraft by shining powerful lasers into cockpits to blind pilots during landing approaches, U.S. officials warned in a bulletin distributed nationwide.

The memo, sent by the FBI and the Homeland Security Department, says there is evidence that terrorists have explored using lasers as weapons.

There is no specific intelligence indicating al Qaeda or other groups might use lasers in the United States, they added.

CNN article

Six commercial airliners in the past four days have had their cockpits illuminated by laser beams while attempting to land, a government official told CNN Wednesday.

[...]

"In certain circumstances, if laser weapons adversely affect the eyesight of both pilot and co-pilot during a non-instrument approach, there is a risk of airliner crash," the bulletin said.

CNN article

The Doc Holiday of laser shooters with his fast draw and deadly aim, a laser pistol in each hand, targets pilot and co-pilot simultaneously to bring down a high-flying jet.

Uh-huh.

In September, a Delta Air Lines pilot reported damage to his retina from a laser beam during a landing in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A report for the FAA in June 2004 examined the effect of laser beams on pilots. Of 34 pilots who were exposed to lasers during simulated flights, 67 percent experienced adverse visual effects at even the lowest level of laser exposure. Two high exposure levels resulted in significantly greater performance difficulties and nine aborted landings.

Then, it could be that the incidents are another military secret experiment, which will ultimately lead to nothing, but which does carry the small risk of damaging the eyesight of innocent pilots.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

That'll teach 'im from suckin' eggs

Not only did he lose his stop-loss case before the courts, but the soldier who had nearly completed eight years of military service has had his contract extended for twenty-six years.

Bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq's women

Incidents of rape and abduction by organized gangs has increased fear of sexual violence in Baghdad, deterring women from returning to work or seeking employment and families from permitting their daughters to go to school. Victims refrain from contacting the police or hospitals, for fear of being killed for bringing shame on family honor. Armed conservative religious groups are pressuring schools and workplaces to require women and girls to wear the veil under threat of acid attack or abduction. Girls enrollment and attendance is on a steep dive across the country.

  Occupation Watch article

Add one more problem

LANDMINES left from years of civil war are likely to endanger survivors and rescuers after a devastating tsunami hit Sri Lanka and other Asian countries, UNICEF said today.

“Mines were floated by the floods and washed out of known mine fields, so now we don't know where they are, and the warning signs on mined areas have been swept away or destroyed,” UNICEF's Ted Chaiban said from the agency's office in Colombo in a statement released at UN headquarters in New York.

“The greatest danger to civilians will come when they begin to return to their homes, not knowing where the mines are,” Chaiban added.

The Australian article

Spending that political capital

After all, he has a mandate now.

The president's announcement last week that he plans to renominate [federal judge candidates whose confirmations have been blocked] followed signals from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., that he was considering a rules change that would eliminate filibusters of judicial nominees. Taken together, the actions underscore Republicans' willingness to confront Senate Democrats, who return to Washington in diminished numbers[...]

  USA Today article

Damn Schroeder, trying to make Bubbleboy look bad again

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called on creditor nations Wednesday to suspend debt repayments from Indonesia and Somalia to help in their recovery from the quake-tsunami disaster.

Guardian article

We're looking to loan them more money, not forgive their debts.

GOP juggernaut rolls on

In the wake of back-to-back ethics slaps at the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, House Republicans are preparing to make it more difficult to initiate ethics investigations and could remove the Republican chairman who presided over the admonishments of Mr. DeLay last fall.

NY Times article

You don't have to slap them more than twice. Or was it three times? Like Wal-Mart when the truth of its practices gets out, it just ramps up the PR machine. When the truth of the Repukes ethics gets out, they just stomp out ethics investigations. There. All fixed.

And don't you Demwits get conceited. You've been playing along in their game. You just haven't been as good at it.

Yes, Virginia, the world is changing

Snow has fallen over the United Arab Emirates for the first time ever, leaving a white blanket over the mountains of Ras al-Khayma.

Aljazeera article

It was snowing recently in Galveston and Corpus Christi, too. And here I am trying to get to the Gulf so I can be warm. Maybe I should just stay put and wait for warm to get to me.

Climate experts are speculating about the end effect of global warming (with some saying places that are now warmed by the Gulf Stream will become frozen wastelands). On the other hand, if it's military mucking with the weather, it's bound to be a total cock-up, and the whole thing is a huge crap shoot.

Intensifying attacks in Mosul

A frontal assault on U.S. troops by dozens of Iraqi insurgents in Mosul left an American soldier and about 25 guerrillas dead in one of the boldest attacks yet on occupying forces in Iraq.

Battle raged late on Wednesday as President Bush said his forces would do all they could to make it possible to hold next month's election in Mosul and other violent cities. But many residents of Mosul say they are too afraid to vote.

The soldier died of wounds, the military said on Thursday.

He had been on a patrol that was hit by a suicide car bomb close to a U.S. outpost. Gunmen tried to overrun the area, sending in another suicide truck bomber and firing mortars and rockets in an apparent bid to wipe out an entire U.S. unit.

About 15 U.S. troops were wounded before jets screamed in low over the rooftops to bomb the attackers and force them to break off, leaving about 25 insurgents dead, U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Paul Hastings said.

[...]

The U.S. military has conceded it is not in control of some parts of Mosul and plans to send thousands more troops to Iraq's third city for the election. Many residents of the largely Sunni Arab city of two million still say they are too afraid to vote.

Bush said bin Laden's message showed the importance of an election he said would counter al Qaeda's "dark vision." "The task at hand is to provide as much security as possible for the election officials as well as for the people inside cities like Mosul to encourage them to express their will," Bush said.

[...]

U.S. generals conceded this month that they face a "sophisticated" and increasingly effective enemy.

Reuters article

But, we're still winning, eh?

As for Bubblehead's driveling, it looks to me like the people inside Mosul are expressing their will. Just like the people inside Falluja. And those additional thousands of American troops to be sent in kind of begs the question of just who it is that will be securing Iraq for elections. It's going to be sadly comical when we prop up a couple of masked Iraqi policemen (maybe - under those masks, who knows?) with a battery of U.S. troops behind them.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Republicans want a do-over in Washington

Republican Dino Rossi called for a new election in the race for Washington governor Wednesday night, a day before Democrat Christine Gregoire is to be certified as the winner by 129 votes.

Rossi, a real estate salesman and former state senator, held a press conference at his Bellevue headquarters to say he'd sent a letter to Gregoire asking for her support in seeking a new election to restore the public's faith in the outcome, which is "shrouded in suspicion."

"Quite frankly, folks, this election has been a mess," Rossi said.

Gregoire's campaign and the state Democratic Party immediately rejected the idea.

Olympian article

No shit.

For once a Democrat stood up and demanded a true count of all the votes and didn't back down. Now the Repuke wants a new vote. Maybe they think they've figured out a way to make sure they get more votes? It'll be a little harder than just rigging machines and throwing out ballots; it might cost them heavily in bribes or make them have to call in favors from da family.

We certainly are a divided country.

Funny money

Of course we all know that our monetary system is all smoke and mirrors, but it's generally too complex to try to understand how and why and what it means in the long haul. So, I thought a book titled Creature from Jekyll Island - a second look at the Federal Reserve - looked like a promising resource for some better understanding.

I see Bob is also reading it, and so maybe we'll get some comments from him. I won't promise to keep you informed, but if you think you might want to read it yourself, click on the graphic below for more information.

What I will do, is give you a few quotes from the first chapter. (And by the way, I stumbled upon Jekyll Island in one of my meanderings around the country. Very cool. A resort for the ultra rich back a hundred years ago or so. Now a Georgia state park.)

We pick up at a train station in New Jersey...

Chapter One

The Journey to Jekyll Island
The secret meeting on Jekyll Island in Georgia at which the Federal Reserve was conceived; the birth of a banking cartel to protect its members from competition; the strategy of how to convince Congress and the public that this cartel was an agency of the United States government

[...]

And so, as the passengers drifted off to sleep to the rhythmic clicking of steel wheels against rail, little did they dream that, riding in the car at the end of their train, were seven men who represented an estimated one-fourth of the total wealth of the entire world. This was the roster of the Aldrich car that night:

1. Nelson W. Aldrich, Republican "whip" in the Senate, Chairman of the National Monetary Commission, business associate of J.P. Morgan, father-in-law to John D. Rockefeller, Jr;
2. Abraham Piatt Andrew, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury;
3. Frank A. Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York, the most powerful of the banks at that time, representing William Rockefeller and the internaitonal invesment banking house of Kuhn, Loeb & Company;
4. Henry P. Davison, senior partner of the J.P. Morgan Company;
5. Charles D. Norton, president of J.P. Morgan's First National Bank of New York;
6. Benjamin Strong, head of J.P. Morgan's Bankers Trust Company;
7. Paul M. Warburg, a partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Company, a representative of the Rothschild banking dynasty in England and France, and brother to Max Warburg who was head of the Warburg banking consortium in Germany and the Netherlands.

[...]

The elite group of financiers was embarked on an eight hundred mile journey that led to Atlanta, then to Savannah and, finally, to the small town of Brunswick, Georgia. [...] [T]he Sea Islands that sheltered the coast from South Carolina to Florida already had become popular as winter resorts for the very wealthy. One such island, just off the coast of Brusnwick, had recently been purchased by J.P. Morgan and several of his business associates, and it was here that they came in the fall and winter to hunt ducks or deer and to escape the rigors of cold weather in the North. It was called Jekyll Island.

[...]

Even after arrival at the remote island lodge, the secrecy continued. For nine days the rule for first-name-only remained in effect. Full-time caretakers and servants had been given vacation, and an entirely new, carefully screened staff was brought in for the occasion. This was done to make absolutely sure that none of the servants might recognize by sight the identities of these guests. It is difficult to imagine any event in history - including preparation for war - that was shielded from public view with greater mystery and secrecy.

The purpose of this meeting on Jekyll Island was not to hunt ducks. Simply stated, it was to come to an agreement on the structure and operation of a banking cartel. The goal of the cartel, as is true with all of them, was to maximize profits by minimizing competition between members, to make it difficult for new competitors to enter the field, and to utilize the police power of government to enforce the cartel agreement. In more specific terms, the purpose and, indeed, the actual outcome of this meeting was to create the blueprint for the Federal Reserve System.

[...]

Competition also was coming from a new trend in industry to finance future growth out of profits rather than from borrowed capital. This was the outgrowth of free-market interest rates which set a realistic balance between debt and thrift. Rates were low enough to attract serious borrowers who were confident of the success of their business ventures and of their ability to repay, but they were high enough to discourage loans for frivolous ventures or those for which there were alternative sources of funding - for example, one's own capital. [...] Even the federal government was becoming thrifty. It had a growing stockpile of gold, was systematically redeeming the Greenbacks - which had been issued during the Civil War - and was rapidly reducing the national debt.

Here was another trend that had to be halted. What the bankers wanted - and what many businessmen wanted also - was to intervene in the free market and tip the balance of interest rates downward, to favor debt over thrift. To accomplish this, the money supply simply had to be disconnected from gold and made more plentiful or, as they described it, more elastic.

Now, here's where my one accounting course comes in. The one thing I remember is that banks are permitted to make loans at ten times the amount of reserves they hold. In other words, banks are loaning (to reap the rewards of interest) money they do not have.

A method had to be devised to enable them to continue to make more promises to pay-on-demand than they could keep. To do this, they had to find a way to force all banks to walk the same distance from the edge, and , when the inevitable disasters happened, to shift public blame away from themselves. By making it appear to be a problem of the national economy rather than of private banking practice, the door then could be opened for the use of tax money rather than their own funds for paying off the losses.

Here, then, were the main challenges that faced that tiny but powerful group assembled on Jekyll Island:

1. How to stop the growing influence of small, rival banks and to insure that control over the nation's financial resources would remain in the hands of those present;
2. How to make the money supply more elastic in order to reverse the trend of private capital formation and to recapture the industrial loan market;
3. How to pool the meager reserves of the nation's banks into one large reserve so that all banks will be motivated to follow the same loan-to-deposit ratios. This would protect at least some of them from currency drains and bank runs;
4. Should this lead eventually to the collapse of the whole banking system, then how to shift the losses from the owners of the banks to the taxpayers.

A number of sources say we are at number 4.

I think this will be an interesting read.

And court decisions

A court has denied the stop-loss challenge filed by a soldier ordered back to Iraq.

And speaking of lawsuit insanity

Navy SEALs Sue AP Over Alleged Abuse Photos

Yes. Those Navy SEALs. The ones who were taking pictures of torturing and abusing Iraqi citizens and then posting them on the web.

The logical conclusion of greed and insurance

Just minutes after the earthquake in the Indian Ocean on Sunday morning, Thailand's foremost meteorological experts were sitting together in a crisis meeting. But they decided not to warn about the tsunami ''out of courtesy to the tourist industry,'' writes the Thailand daily newspaper The Nation.

[...]

''We finally decided not to do anything because the tourist season was in full swing,'' the source said. ''The hotels were 100 percent booked. What if we issued a warning, which would have led to an evacuation, and nothing had happened. What would be the outcome? The tourist industry would be immediately hurt. Our department would not be able to endure a lawsuit.''

  Information Clearinghouse article

Well, they shoulda shut up, because the lawsuits will be coming now, for sure.

And when they do, I think the meterologists should enjoin or countersue the Pacific Warning Center.

Alberto Gonzales confirmation hearing is January 5

Here's your easy opportunity to voice your objection.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

9/11 chinks

Bob has some interesting quotes from a book he has read, The New Pearl Harbor (click the graphic below). Two that I find especially intriguing are these:

Marvin P. Bush, the president's younger brother, was a principal in a company called Securacom, which provided security for the World Trade Center. [T]his company was in charge of security for the WTC between 1996 until September 11, 2001, and that it installed a new security system between 1996 and 2000.

[...]

On the weekend of [September 8-9, 2001], there was a ''power down'' condition in WTC tower 2, the south tower. This power down condition meant there was no electrical supply for approximately 36 hours from floor 50 up. The reason given by the WTC for the power down was that cabling in the tower was being upgraded. Of course without power there were no security cameras, no security locks on doors [while] many, many ''engineers'' [were] coming in and out of the tower.

I had known about Marvin, but I didn't know about the "power down" (or if I did, I didn't remember it).

More on 9/11 is at my webpage here.

How goes Iraq?

I expect Bush, on his vacation, is welcoming the public distraction by the South Pacific.

Put aside the stunning fact that American officials could not figure out that people anywhere will fight for their families instead of for the foreign invaders; the recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies states that the numbers of trained Iraqi army and police are far below what is required. Only one example: As of Dec. 6, the Pentagon reported that 27,000 trained army troops were needed, but that only 3,428 were listed as "trained/on hand."

[...]

"Senior U.S. military sources in the region tell CNN the city of Mosul has been wracked by violence for weeks. Local Iraqi security forces have virtually melted away, say those officials. One senior U.S. officer tells CNN, we have no Iraqi police force up in Mosul today.

"The problem in getting Iraqis to fight the insurgency may be deeper across Iraq. The military assessment now is that the U.S. miscalculated Iraqi tribal and religious loyalties and did not realize Iraqis are likely to fight only for their brethren ... So in cases like Mosul, they simply will not fight the intimidation of the insurgents, the U.S. now believes."

And remember, until now Mosul was one of our success stories!

Yahoo News article

As the Pacific tallies her dead, America marches forward

But if there's one thing we all know about George Bush, even before Michael Moore made it starkly clear, is that the motherfucker clings to his vacation time like, say, a father holding a child clinged to a palm tree in the Maldives. Sure, sure, we're gonna see him today, when he holds a "teleconference" and make a "brief appearance" from the ranch, but this is, as all things in this arrogant President's schedule, done grudingly, only in response to the hue and cry of people who, in this case, wonder why Bush can't take a break from brush clearing and, really, "thinking" to say, in person, "Damn, bitches. This shit sucks for you." When a reporter suggested that "the actual question is whether the people of Asia and those who are suffering from all of this, whether there would be any benefit from seeing and hearing from him directly," Trent Duffy, subbing for Scott McClellan in the spread of lies and misinformation, assured us that the President had "sent letters" of condolence. Howzabout some flowers with that, huh? But we know, from another press gaggle, that Bush is "monitoring" the situation overseas by watching Fox.

Besides, as Duffy added, the President receives a morning briefing, and, in addition, he's "continuing to think about the Inauguration and the State of the Union speech; he's clearing some brush this morning; I think he has some friends coming in either today or tomorrow that he enjoys hosting; he's doing some biking and exercising as he normally does, taking walks with the First Lady; and thinking about what he wants to accomplish in the second term." Now, the Rude Pundit doesn't know about you, but "thinking" seems like a euphemism for "napping." Or "taking a dump." Or "jacking off."

On Monday, the Rude Pundit wondered how long until terrorism was somehow tied to the tsunami. Thanks to a heads up from reader Rosamond, the answer is, well, Monday, when a reporter asked Duffy, "Is there any anti-terrorism component to this? Is the administration concerned about -- that the terrorists might take advantage of the situation?" The proper answer might have been, "Deb, shut the fuck up." Instead, Duffy assured us, "we wouldn't get into any classified types of information, but the American people can rest assured that no matter what happens in the world, that the government will be doing everything it can to protect the American people from terrorism."

  Rude Pundit post

The Washington Post reports that Hastert is considering replacing the current chair of the House ethics committee, Joel Hefley, who has shown a modicum of independence by not sweeping under the rug charges levied against Majority Leader DeLay. As the Post points out, Hefley has had the temerity to say he will treat charges against the Hammer "like I would handle anything else."

Hastert is considering replacing Hefley with a pliable ally of the leadership, Lamar Smith of DeLay's home state of Texas.

  Boffoblog post

In your time of need

An American family caught in the Asian tsunami finds the American government's heart of compassion.

Once they returned to shore, the couple did what they could to help, Helen Wachs said.

"I can't describe carrying a moaning person who just saw his girlfriend killed down a hill in the middle of the night," the e-mail said. "I saw more bodies than I care to report. The hotel where we were staying is mostly gone. We lost everything, but our lives."

Faye Wachs said she was impressed by the efforts of the Thai government and the International Committee for the Red Cross, but "she was appalled at the treatment they got" from the U.S. government, her mother said.

At the airport in Bangkok, other governments had set up booths to greet nationals who had been affected and to help repatriate them, she said.

That was not the case with the U.S. government, Wachs told her mother. It took the couple three hours, she said, to find the officials from the American consulate, who were in the VIP lounge.

Because they had lost all their possessions, including their documentation, they had to have new passports issued.

But the U.S. officials demanded payment to take the passport pictures, Helen Wachs said.

The couple had managed to hold on to their ATM card, so they paid for the photos and helped other Americans who did not have any money get their pictures taken and buy food, Helen Wachs said.

"She was really very surprised" that the government did so little to ease their ordeal, she said.

 CDNN article

Hey. It's the American way.

Attacks on Iraqi police continue to intensify

Twenty-eight Iraqi policemen have died in a powerful explosion in western Baghdad.

An interior ministry official said the blast, which also wounded 18 people, occurred early on Wednesday when the police were raiding a house in which fighters were suspected to be living.

  Aljazeera article

This strikes me as a completely foreseeable turn in Iraqi resistance. After all, time and time again, the misadministration has stated that its success in Iraq lies in getting an Iraqi security force trained and working. Not to mention, the insistence that it will be Iraqi forces that secure polling places.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

How to put your head in a noose

Former US attorney-general Ramsey Clark is to join Saddam Hussein's defence team, a spokesman for the ousted Iraqi president's lawyers says.

Ziad Khasawna said on Wednesday that Clark, who held the office of attorney-general under US president Lyndon Johnson, had "honoured and inspired" the legal team by agreeing to help defend Saddam.

The former top US justice official, who arrived on Tuesday in Jordan where the defence team is based, has become known as a left-wing lawyer and firm critic of US foreign policy since leaving office.

  article

Clark, unlike our current AG, has always been a champion of civil and legal rights.

"In international law, anyone accused of crime has the right to be tried by a confident, independent and impartial court, and there can be no fair trail without those qualities," he said.

You go, Rams. Expect some serious trouble, eh?

Clark also said the US itself must be tried for the November assault on Falluja, destruction of houses, torture in prisons and its role in the deaths of thousands of Iraqis in the war.

Begging for trouble.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Rumsfiend's Freudian slip?

Tom sends a World Net Daily link to something that seems to be getting swept under the rug. At least in the mainstream. No surprise there.

It appears that in Rumsfiend's little Christmas visit to the troops in Iraq, he made either a slip of the tongue, or a confession. (Transcript)

World Net Daily decided to take on this case (which is mainly running around the internet - CNN says amongst "conspiracy theorists" - the old catch-all to discredit anyone talking about touchy subjects), and yet, what the WND article says is really not addressing what Rumsfiend said. I'm confused. Here's WND:

Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, there have been questions about Flight 93, the ill-fated plane that crashed in the rural fields of Pennsylvania.

The official story has been that passengers on the United Airlines flight rushed the hijackers in an effort to prevent them from crashing the plane into a strategic target – possibly the U.S. Capitol.

During his surprise Christmas Eve trip to Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld referred to the flight being shot down – long a suspicion because of the danger the flight posed to Washington landmarks and population centers.

Was it a slip of the tongue? Was it an error? Or was it the truth, finally being dropped on the public more than three years after the tragedy of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000?

[...]

On the Sept. 16, 2001, edition of NBC's "Meet the Press," Vice President Dick Cheney, while not addressing Flight 93 specifically, spoke clearly to the administration's clear policy regarding shooting down hijacked jets.

Vice President Cheney: "Well, the – I suppose the toughest decision was this question of whether or not we would intercept incoming commercial aircraft."

NBC's Tim Russert: "And you decided?"

Cheney: "We decided to do it. We'd, in effect, put a flying combat air patrol up over the city; F-16s with an AWACS, which is an airborne radar system, and tanker support so they could stay up a long time ...

"It doesn't do any good to put up a combat air patrol if you don't give them instructions to act, if, in fact, they feel it's appropriate."

You'll notice that WND is running with the idea that the U.S. actually did shoot down the Pennsylvania flight due to concerns for its target. And that may well be true. Afterward, then, to avoid admitting they shot it down - for any number of reasons - they may then have made up the story about the heroic passengers taking the plane down to save the would-be target. Lord knows there's lots of unanswered questions and plenty of cover-ups going on over the attacks.

But, what Rumsfiend actually said was (and WND quotes him correctly, while questioning something that he didn't say - bizarre):

And I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten -- indeed the word "terrorized" is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be. [Emphasis added]

That is saying that the "bad guys" shot down the plane in Pennsylvania. A whole new story. Is that what he meant to say? And even if not, why are the media avoiding the issue? I only see WND and CNN even bringing it up. CNN trying to sweep it under the rug of "conspiracy theory".

The Pentagon insists he "misspoke". Uh-huh. Whatever. Seems like a very specific thing to throw in to a speech that didn't need it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Such a compassionate administration

Next time you hear some politician or conservative pundit blather on about what a generous country we are, remember this; we’re devoting less than half of what Bush is planning to spend on his own inauguration to helping people recover from one of the worst natural disasters in human history.

MSNBC Eric Alterman post

Update 10:10am:

The confirmed toll resulting from the massive earthquake and tidal waves that devastated Indian Ocean shorelines over the weekend has exceeded 60,000, amid warnings it is likely to rise higher.

  Aljazeera article

Count the votes

Politics is a game played by rules. And the most important rule regarding close elections is that you don't win by being conciliatory during the recount process. Indeed, the only way a candidate who trails on election night ends up taking the oath of office is by refusing to concede and then confidently demanding that every vote be counted -- even when the opposition, the media and the courts turn against you.

That is a rule that Al Gore failed to follow to its logical conclusion in 2000, and that John Kerry did not even attempt to apply this year. Both men were so determined to maintain their long-term political viability that they refused to fight like hell to assure that the votes of their supporters were counted. That refusal let their backers down. It also guaranteed that, despite convincing evidence that the Democrat won in 2000, and serious questions about the voting and recount processes in the critical state of Ohio in 2004, George W. Bush would waltz into the White House.

Maybe someday, if the Democrats really want to win the presidency, they will nominate someone like Christine Gregoire.

Continue reading...

If you haven't been following John Kerry closely, get ready to hear of surprising developments. The vote-defrauded, potential president-in-waiting has just indicated through his lawyer that the validity of George Bush's reelection is no longer a given.

On 23 December, 2004 Kerry's lawyer confirmed to MSNBC's 'Countdown' that John Kerry will be seeking (likely on Monday 27 Dec.) to expedite court proceedings and secure evidence in an ongoing recount suit by the Green and Libertarian parties. That might sound like just another "count every vote" exercise by the Kerry campaign, were it not for two important details.

Kerry's court filing will conjoin him to existing allegations that Triad GSI, a Republican-linked supplier of voting machines to around half of Ohio counties --"orchestrated" a covert campaign to thwart a legitimate recount in Ohio. If the allegation proves well founded, it could invalidate the Ohio recount and eventually even hand the presidency to John Kerry.

Break for News article

Not that it would change the course of the U.S. as a global citizen. Skull 'N Bones is Skull 'N Bones.

Falluja - where are the reports?

The role of the media in the siege of Falluja has been nearly as extraordinary as the battle itself. The siege began on November 8, but by Nov. 15 the military had declared "victory" and the story disappeared from all the major media.

[...]

The fact is, the siege is ongoing and the final results are far from certain.

[...]

The curtain has been drawn on Falluja; allowing the military to pulverize the city beyond the scrutiny of the world community. The only news to emerge is from the eyewitness accounts of independent journalists. Everyone else has complied with the "total news blackout".

[...]

The siege of Falluja continues to be a huge story, despite the fact that the establishment media is nowhere to be found.

[...]

The extent of America's war crimes in Falluja is gradually becoming apparent. On December 24, approximately 900 former residents of the battered city were allowed to return to their homes only to find that (according to BBC) "about 60% to 70% of the homes and buildings are completely crushed and damaged, and not ready to inhabit. Of the 30% still left standing, there's not single one that has not been exposed to some damage."

[...]

Over 250,000 people have been expelled from their homes and the city has been laid to waste. The US military targeted the three main water treatment plants, the electrical grid and the sewage treatment plant; leaving Fallujans without any of the basic services they'll need to return to a normal life.

[...]

Most of the city's mosques have been either destroyed or seriously damaged and entire areas of the city where the fighting was most fierce have been effectively razed to the ground.

So far, the army has only removed the dead bodies from the streets; leaving countless decomposed corpses inside the ruined buildings. A large percentage of these have been devoured by packs of scavenging dogs. The stench of death is reported to be overpowering.

[...]

Two weeks into the campaign, the military claimed victory saying they had "broken the back of the insurgency", but the truth has proved to be far different. In reality, the assault has only dispelled the illusion of US invincibility. Pockets of resistance still maintain a tenacious grip on parts of the city and the guerilla-style tactics have negated the overwhelming force of their adversary. If anything, the siege has only emboldened the resistance and broadened its sphere of influence.

[...]

The obliteration of Falluja makes the prospects of "losing the war" all the more likely. The pointless murder of 6000 civilians (Red Cross estimate) will only galvanize the resistance and hasten the inevitable defeat of America's misguided crusade.

[...]

If the military succeeds, life in Falluja will become very similar to life in the West Bank; a demeaning daily struggle with the brutish enforcers of occupation.

Counter Punch article

All Falluja posts.

Iraq

Insurgents continued their relentless assault on Iraq's fledgling security forces today, killing at least 23 police and national guard officers in multiple attacks across the Sunni-dominated zone to the north of Baghdad.

[...]

"Today was an extraordinary day," Lieutenant Atkins said in a telephone interview from his base in Tikrit.

[...]

American officials describe the mustering of effective Iraqi security forces as the linchpin of their strategy for the country, but the campaign of murder has left many officers so frightened that they wear face masks while working.

In a looming challenge, Iraqi officers are supposed to provide the main security for national elections on Jan. 30.

[...]

NY Times article

Pipe me up another dream.

That was quick

In my earlier post, I said Mr. Egeland would probably be made to regret his statement about a stingy U.S. contribution to the Asian earthquake/tsunami victims.

Voila.

However...

The U.S. Agency for International Development is adding $20 million to an initial $15 million contribution for Asian earthquake relief as Secretary of State Colin Powell bristled at a United Nations official's suggestion the United States has been "stingy."

article

Of course, I would suggest they shouldn't count the money before it's in the bank.

Secret government experiments

Tuesday, 30 November, 2004

[...]

Jacklyn Hoerger's job was to treat children with HIV at a New York children's home.

But nobody had told her that the drugs she was administering were experimental and highly toxic.

"We were told that if they were vomiting, if they lost their ability to walk, if they were having diarrhoea, if they were dying, then all of this was because of their HIV infection."

In fact it was the drugs that were making the children ill and the children had been enrolled on the secret trials without their relatives' or guardians' knowledge.

As Jacklyn would later discover, those who tried to take the children off the drugs risked losing them into care.

[...]

When I first heard the story of the "guinea pig kids", I instinctively refused to believe that it could be happening in any civilised country, particularly the United States, where the propensity for legal action normally ensures a high level of protection.

But that, as I was to discover, was central to the choice of location and subjects, because to be free in New York City, you need money.

BBC article

It's amazing to me that people can be so ignorant about the U.S. government.

Check this link for a list of U.S. government experiments on unwitting citizens. It's a long list with a long tradition.


The government even has agreed to paying off victims after the truth comes out.

Here's a book:




How about this one:



Some things are too creepy, too sickening, to accept. Even when you have precedents.

Nothing is too bizarre to be real.

The National Lawyers Guild hates America

This report documents the ongoing reaction of law enforcement to the legal exercise of free speech in the United States. It finds that legitimate concerns regarding public safety have been abused by the United States Department of Justice. The abuses have been so aggressive that rights of free assembly and free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution are simply no longer available to the citizens of this country.

This report surveys federal and local police actions in the United States during the period 1999-2004 involving lawful public expressions of dissent and free speech. All of the police activities cited are from firsthand experience of the National Lawyers Guild, the oldest human rights organization in the country. Hundreds of Guild attorneys, legal workers, and law students around the country have served both as legal observers at First Amendment protected public assemblies and as counsel to individuals who sought to air their views at such public assemblies.

The conclusion of this survey is that rather than protecting First Amendment rights of United States citizens and prosecuting police abuses as it ought to do, the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft has systematially encouraged these abuses and acted as a cheerleader for government officials using excessive force and abusing their authority against citizens engaged in free speech.

By making enemies of those who speak out, law-enforcement agencies engage in unneccessary, costly, and dangerous practices against law-abiding individuals, wasting limited resources and frightening many from voicing their opinions. And by turning a blind eye to rampant and systemic police unlawfulness, the Attorney General is abrogating his duty to uphold the laws of the United States. [Emphasis added]

Speech, Public Assembly, and Dissent: A National Lawyers Guild Report on Government Violations of First Amendment Rights in the United States

2004

by Heidi Boghosian (pdf format)

Corporate welfare

Three California companies that paid no state income tax last year have been awarded $5 million in tax refunds, angering critics who say the cash-strapped state cannot afford them.

The California Board of Equalization, which oversees state tax policy, voted this month to give the refunds to Conexant Systems of Newport Beach, Grundfos U.S. Holdings of Fresno and Lightwave Electronics of Mountain View.

The board may also consider refund requests from 22 other companies totaling $77 million as early as next month.

State tax lawyers said the credits were intended to attract and keep manufacturers in California; lawmakers let the credits expire last year after they failed to create expected job growth.

But the board ruled the three companies applied for the refunds before the program ended.

Monterey Herald article

Mosul repercussions

The attack heightened suspicions that the bomber could have infiltrated or spent months among them, gaining first-hand knowledge of the base and preparing for the attack.

[...]

Now, the Iraqi soldiers are searched more thoroughly and more often, and there is "stricter accountability" with head counts. Their vehicles are thoroughly inspected when they return from leave or a patrol.

[...]

Security has been tightened around the Iraqi compound as it was around the American living quarters next to it, where fresh spools of razor wire were uncoiled, making it more difficult to walk around at will, and sometimes confusing soldiers driving Humvees who now have to learn the mazelike layout of new routes.

"They now suspect everyone here," said Lt. Col. Ahmed Ibrahim Ali, the commander of the Iraqi Army battalion. "We feel like we live in a prison."

Separately, Captain Uthlaut said, "We are a little more careful with searching these guys. "The fine line is treating them as partners, while not treating them like prisoners."

[...]

On a joint patrol here on Sunday, the Iraqis set off in uncovered vehicles that resembled small Jeeps, with only a few metal plates fastened to the back with plastic-coated wires or canvas straps but no armor. The vehicles would afford no protection from a roadside bomb, one of the biggest dangers on Mosul's streets.

Their American counterparts on the patrol, on the other hand, were in hardened Stryker vehicles. When one of the Strykers was hit by a bomb recently, an officer said, it still managed to recover to move 50 miles an hour on the rest of its seven wheels.

NY Times article

This is simply not workable.

Global warning

No typo.

The spectacle of the United States single-handedly destroying the mid-December meeting in Buenos Aires on global warming offered further proof, if such were needed, that the world needs to confront this rogue state. Representatives of 200 nations had gathered to develop a plan for further reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.

According to press reports, the Bush Administration's recalcitrance shocked and dismayed even longtime friends and allies like Australia. U.S. obstructionism ranged from the sublime (insisting that the Conference change the phrase "climate change" to the more ambiguous "climate variability") to the ridiculous (strongly backing Saudi Arabia's request for compensation for lost revenue resulting from reduced global oil consumption).

Our nation's antics so infuriated many participants that an exasperated Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists told Reuters, "Frankly, it might be a lot easier to do it without the U.S. and the Saudis in the room."

Continue reading...

Crime break

The Missouri Supreme Court overturned Brandon Hutchinson's death sentence in a case where co-defendant Freddy Lopez received 10 years based on ineffective assistance of counsel in the penalty phase. However, the court also noted that during the trial, Lopez's sister won the lottery, and used $230,000 of her winnings to settle a wrongful death action with the victims' family, in exchange for their agreement to recommend that the prosecutors accept a 10 year sentence. According to the court, which found no error on this ground, "Under the settlement agreement entered into evidence at the hearing, Lopez would pay the victims' family $230,000.00 if: the family recommended to the prosecutor that Lopez receive no more than ten years in prison and the judge actually sentenced Lopez to a prison term not to exceed ten years." The prosecution and court went along; Lopez got 10 years, Hutchinson was sentenced to death.

CrimProf blog post

Of course the legal system and the courts are corrupt. But this is just plain wierd. What are these people thinking? I guess the victims' (two brothers) family were thinking a quarter of a million dollars was a better deal for them than keeping a killer off the streets.

Hey, if Lopez has a beef with another member of that family, maybe he can capitalize on this deal again in ten years. By then, maybe his sister's lottery winnings will have been wisely invested, and they'll have another tidy sum to pay off another killing.

Hutchinson had better just count his blessings and keep his nose clean.

(Oh, by the way, Lopez testifed against Hutchinson. Perhaps his sister should think about coming up with some protection dinero when Hutchinson is back on the streets.)

Juan Cole comments on the bin Laden tape

It appears that Bin Laden is so weak now that he is forced to play to his own base

[...]

If Bin Laden had been politically clever, he would have phrased his message in the terms of Iraqi nationalism. By siding with the narrowest sliver of Sunni extremists, he denied himself any real impact. By adopting Zarqawi, who has killed many more Iraqis (especially Shiites) than he has Americans, he simply tarnishes his own image inside Iraq.

[...]

It is a desperate, crackpot hope. The narrow, sectarian and politically unskilfull character of this speech is the most hopeful sign I have seen in some time that al-Qaeda is a doomed political force

[...]

Juan Cole post

Okay, call me jaded and an America-hater if you must, but I haven't thought that al-Qaeda was ever truly a political force of any consequence. Where's the evidence? An attack on the WTC? It wasn't done all on their own. And even if you believe it was, where was the follow-up political gain? The increase in their power was, according to all evidence, created by the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And even that has turned into what looks most like an Iraqi - not al-Qaeda - resistance. Bin Laden began as a puppet creation of the U.S., and has remained so. Al-Qaeda has never been more than a disperse terrorist organization. Even those groups who have come together under the umbrella of al-Qaeda appear to me to simply be capitalizing on the name recognition.

I am certainly not qualified to argue with Juan Cole. I'm just saying this is the way it looks to me.

There is one sentence in Cole's post that does nothing to dispell that niggling question of whether bin Laden was ever off the CIA payroll.

Bin Laden's intervention in Iraq was hamfisted and clumsy, and will benefit the United States and the Shiites enormously.

Bingo.

P.S. If playing to your own base is a sign of weakness, then what does that make the Bush administration?

Pacific disaster

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday the United States "will do more" to help the victims of a massive earthquake and tsunamis in Asia and said he regretted a statement by a United Nations official suggesting that it hadn't helped enough.

"The United States has given more aid in the last four years than any other nation or combination of nations in the world," Powell said when asked about a suggestion by Jan Egeland, the U.N. humanitarian aid chief, that America was being "stingy."

Initially, the U.S. government pledged $15 million and dispatched disaster specialists to help the Asian nations devastated by the catastrophe that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

On Monday, President Bush sent letters of condolence and Powell exclaimed, "This is indeed an international tragedy, and we are going to do everything we can."

[...]

"We were more generous when we were less rich, many of the rich countries," Egeland said. "And it is beyond me, why are we so stingy, really ... Even Christmas time should remind many Western countries at least how rich we have become."

Asked about this on ABC, Powell said, "We will do more. I wish that comment hadn't been made."

USA Today article

And Mr. Egeland will no doubt be made to wish he hadn't said it.

From his ranch in Crawford, Texas on Monday, Bush had sent letters of condolence to the leaders of the seven countries wracked by the disaster.

[...]

Powell made condolence telephone calls and offered American assistance to the foreign ministers of Thailand, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

American ambassadors released $100,000 each to India, Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, and Powell said $4 million would be given to the Red Cross.

Bush deigns to write letters. The flunky Powell has to make the phone calls. And what's that $100,000? Did they dip into their pockets when the collection plate was passed? This is chump change. And insulting.

A spokesman at U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii said Monday that in addition to three Navy P-3 Orion surveillance planes sent to Thailand, the military also is loading five or six Air Force C-130 cargo planes with tents, clothing, food and other humanitarian goods for delivery to Thailand.

Pacific Command also is assembling small assessment teams that will be dispatched to three countries in the region to assess how U.S. military resources can best be applied in those countries.

[...]

And James D. Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, said bank teams were discussing potential assistance with the governments of the countries that suffered losses.

On Sunday, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Rodrigo de Rato, said the Fund "stands ready to do its part to assist these nations with appropriate support in their time of need."

Ah, those lucky countries. Probably why the Bush administration isn't willing to offer up more money directly and quickly. They'll profit handsomely from this disaster if the World Bank and IMF make loans.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

There's always more

Maybe you've seen this. I hadn't.

Memo dated November 22, 1963, from FBI Special Agent Graham Kitchel to the FBI Special Agent in Charge in Houston.

At 1:45 p.m. Mr. George H. W. Bush, President of the Zapata Off-shore Drilling Company, Houston, Texas, residence 5525 Briar, Houston, telephonically furnished the following information to writer by long distance telephone call from Tyler, Texas.

BUSH stated that he wanted to be kept confidential but wanted to furnish hearsay that he recalled hearing in recent weeks, the day and source unknown. He stated that one JAMES PARROTT has been talking of killing the President when he comes to Houston.

BUSH stated that PARROTT is possibly a student at the University of Houston and is active in political matters in the area. He stated that he felt Mrs. FAWLEY, telephone number SU 2-5239, or ARLENE SMITH, telephone number JA 9-9194 of the Harris County Republican Party Headquarters would be able to furnish additional information regarding the identity of PARROTT.

BUSH stated that he was proceeding to Dallas, Texas, would remain in the Sheraton-Dallas Hotel and return to his residence on 11-23-63. His office telephone number is CA 2-0395.

Of course, Bush's Zapata Off-Shore Drilling Company had been a CIA front since 1960 and had supplied the Bay of Pigs invasion (code named "Zapata") force with two of his company's ex-U.S. Navy landing craft, renamed the "Barbara J" and the "Houston." In any case, Bush's phone call to the FBI was a false lead, and Parrott was cleared. However, Bush's phone call creates more questions about him than about Parrott. First of all, there is no evidence that Bush was in Tyler when Kennedy was shot. There was no Caller ID in those days that would have allowed Special Agent Kitchel to know, for a fact, that Bush was calling from Tyler. Bush's wife, Barbara, claimed he was in Tyler but Bush once said he may have been in Port-au-Prince, Haiti that day. But Bush himself admits to the FBI that he was booked into the Sheraton Hotel in Dallas on November 22.

This is just weird. Everybody in the world who was over the age of 10 knows where they were the day Kennedy was shot. Poppy Bush, whose CIA operative status surely meant he hone a sharp mind for details, can't recall?

When he was CIA Director in 1976, Bush wanted to see all the agency's files on the Kennedy assassination. His memos specifically requested information on Oswald, Jack Ruby, and others linked to the assassination. In her book The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty, author Kitty Kelley writes that "Years later, when [Bush] became president of the United States, he would deny making any attempt to review the agency files on the JFK assassination… when he made this claim, he did not realize that the agency would release 18 documents [under the Freedom of Information Act] that showed he had indeed, as CIA director, requested information-not once, but several times-on a wide range of questions surrounding the Kennedy assassination."

Why lie about it? He was CIA director and the Kennedy assassination was always a matter of interest. That should be legitimate reason for wanting to look at the information.

The Bushes seem to have connections wherever presidential assassinations are found, and memory problems to go along with them.

Another tape

An audio tape purportedly from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged Iraqis Monday to boycott January's elections, saying anyone who takes part would be an "infidel."

The speaker on the tape, aired by Arabic television channel Al Jazeera Monday, also praised bloody attacks by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on U.S. troops and government officials in Iraq, hailing the Jordanian militant as a true "soldier of God" and al Qaeda's leader in Iraq.

article

You know, he works very well with Bush, doesn't he? Providing tapes at opportune moments - like just prior to the November elections. And now just prior to the January elections in Iraq. And what a bonus - adding weight to BushCo's claim of a Jordanian mastermind.

Perhaps bin Laden is still on the CIA payroll.

The photo

Tami Silicio lost her job for taking this picture and emailing it to her friend Amy Katz.


Source: Photojournalism at PoynterOnline.com

Katz sent it to the Seattle Times who requested permission and received it from Silicio to publish the picture.

Since then, Silicio has also lost her husband (who was fired, as well). And she is still unemployed.

Another person ground under the wheels of the mighty machinery.

Photo sales earned Silicio nearly $20,000, which was shared with Katz.

[...]

Silicio also reproduced the photo on posters and postcards, selling some of the reprints and donating profits to the Fallen Heroes Last Wish Foundation, which offers support to the minor children of soldiers killed in combat. A donation from reprint sales also was made to charity by Zuma Press, said McKiernan.

[...]

In June, the debate reached the U.S. Senate, which voted 55-39 to reject legislation that would have restored access to the Dover homecomings. Since April, the media have published no more images of coffins returning home from Iraq.

Seattle Times article

Speaking of Pakistan...

...for the third time today...

PARIS: A French judge has widened a probe into the financial network surrounding the family of Osama bin Laden after questioning his half-brother and learning of a E241 million ($425.7million) transfer to Pakistan.

[...]

Although he denied having had any contact with his half-brother for the past 20 years, the paper said, documents held by Swiss banking authorities suggest that Yeslam and Osama bin Laden held a joint account in Switzerland between 1990 and 1997, according to Jean-Charles Brisard – a private investigator hired by families of the victims of the September 11 attacks.

Yeslam told French investigators on September 27 this year that he had omitted to mention the existence of that account, while still insisting he had not mixed with his half-brother, Le Monde said.

The Australian article

The new Hitler

I always think that if anyone is anywhere close to become Hitlerian, it's the Bushites. True to form, they are pre-empting claims that might be leveled at themselves, and are pointing fingers at Putin. Justin Raimondo comments:

Putin has won the overwhelming support of the Russian people, and his party – "Unity" – dominates the Russian parliament, because he ran on a platform of smashing the "oligarchs" and completing the transition to Western-style democracy (albeit with Russian characteristics). The "privatization" of Russian state assets that took place as the old Soviet system collapsed is seen by many Russians as the Great Rip-Off: politically-connected bureaucrats suddenly transformed themselves into "entrepreneurs" and bought up the economic infrastructure for a mere pittance. Vast fortunes were acquired this way, and then secreted out of the country. Former Communists became the new red billionaires, whose "market" Leninism formed the foundations of the new state capitalism. It was, however, a system founded on corruption, and its consequences are widely resented. Putin rode this wave of resentment, and it propelled him into power, but, unlike other reformers, he actually began to keep at least some of his promises: the oligarchs were summarily targeted, in some cases jailed for theft and fraud, and in other cases forced into exile or marginalized.

[...]

Putin's drive to smash the power of the oligarchs represents Russia's final reckoning with the old Soviet ruling class. It is a push to reclaim stolen wealth and finally break the power of parasites who have been feasting on the Russian body politic since 1917.

Raimondo adds his own cautionary note:

Huge state enterprises are inherently inefficient, as well as corrupt, and while the income generated may be enough to cover up the tremendous waste of resources, it may not be enough to stave off rising social and political discontent for very long. Stability is what Putin has to offer, but if that should begin to break down, or even show signs of stress, his presently unassailable position could be significantly weakened. In re-nationalizing Yukos, Putin is sowing the economic seeds of his own destruction.

Anybody got the answer? I think we're just going round and round. And even carousel rides get boring.

We want to believe

Babies thrown from incubators, the sequel.

In all of Iraq, Jumana Hanna was the bravest witness to the horror of Saddam's regime, telling the Americans of torture, rape, and mass murder. In Washington, Hanna became a potent symbol of Iraqi liberation, and the Bush administration brought Hanna and her children to the United States for their protection.

[...]

Hanna became a symbol of survival, of the indomitability of the human spirit in one of the most repressive states in modern history. "I've been in seventy countries and taken testimony about many atrocities—including right after My Lai," said Donald Campbell, a New Jersey superior court judge who served as the coalition's top judicial advisor. "And I have to tell you that I found her story to be the most compelling and tragic I've ever heard."

Her case was given top priority by Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner who was in Iraq as senior policy advisor at the interior ministry; he assigned two military investigators to look into her claims. Their investigation lasted four months. Having heard her description of the prison concealed behind the Baghdad Police Academy, with its dead tree stumps still trussed with barbed wire for yoking and raping women prisoners, Kerik went to see for himself. "To be physically there, to look at the barbed wire that was hooked into the trees, to think about the stories she told and then actually see the devices they used . . ." He paused. "It was sickening."

[...]

The two young men were ill-prepared for the job in many ways. "I was overwhelmed," says Dryden. "I was so misinformed about what the crimes were. I was told it was a rape case, but I never imagined it would be rape, sodomy, physical and sexual torture. I never imagined so many suspects and so many victims. When I met her and heard her story directly, I couldn't believe she was in front of me. But she always smiled. I think the only thing she cared about was whether we were comfortable."

The logistics of the investigation were also a nightmare. "They all told me how high-profile and important this case was," Dryden said. "Paul Bremer, he wanted something done. Bernie Kerik, he tells me how important the job is: 'Get it done.' "

They were given few resources—not even a shovel or a backhoe with which to exhume the bodies that Hanna said lay buried in the prison yard. Frustrated, the two men started digging up the ground with a metal bowl. By the time they finally rounded up an excavation team, the water and sewer mains had burst, flooding the area and making further excavation difficult.

[...]

I'd been a reporter for twenty-five years and considered myself a professional skeptic, yet I'd been duped. I consoled myself with the thought that I was in good company. If I'd been duped, so had the Pentagon, the Coalition Provisional Authority, and one of the nation's most esteemed newspapers.

[...]

Perhaps if American officials had been more knowledgeable about Middle Eastern culture, they would have questioned her claim about her husband's heritage. His name provided a clue: Haytham Jamil Anwar is an Arabic name, not an Indian name. He was, according to numerous Iraqis who knew Hanna, an Iraqi Arab—a simple fact that undermines the very premise of her story. But the American investigators never talked to any Iraqi citizens about Hanna. Dryden and Mejia were so isolated in the Green Zone that they couldn't do basic detective work. They didn't even have a car.

"I don't think the U. S. did much to verify her story," Judge Campbell told me in September, when I called him to discuss what I was learning. "Once the Washington Post article came out, we treated it as gospel. We were skeptical; as lawyers, we are always skeptical. But once the investigators looked me in the eye and said they believed her story, I accepted it. Nevertheless, they were young men, not seasoned investigators."

[...]

Iraq, the context for her amazing story, was an astonishment of human cruelty. That is why her story was so terribly believable. She was telling a larger truth. And the American government, out of sincere altruism or rank political opportunism, responded to this truth. Even if it wasn't her truth. Even if it was, in fact, a mirage. Even if she was, after all, a liar.

[...]

Read the whole Esquire article. It's amazing for the number of claims this woman made which could have easily been confirmed or disproven, but weren't even checked out. It was a great PR story for ousting the devil Hussein.

And here's the July 2003 Washington Post article: A Lone Woman Testifies To Iraq's Order of Terror

Speaking of Caracas

Much gratitude to the Frieden brothers, one in the States and one in Thailand, for their continued encouragement for my blogging. And for their great gift recently of a movie pass to the Ragtag Cinema Cafe which shows many excellent documentaries and independent films.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara's journal of a trip he made from Buenos Aires to Caracas in his pre-revolutionary days is the subject of Motorcycle Diaries, a lovely film. I was unaware of a number of things about Che, but not that the CIA collaborated in his murder. If you get a chance to see this film, take it. (Check out that link to the website - very nice.)

And speaking of Caracas, when I was there last spring, I was surprised to see that Che's likeness is painted on buildings and walls all over the barrios. I tried to find a shirt with a picture of Venezuela's revolutionary president Hugo Chávez, but everywhere I went, the only picture to be found was that of Che Guevara.

U.S. airports post-9/11

Another of the all-too-common stories.

Daily, in every American Airport, hundreds of people from the four corners of the world are falling into the claws of these arrogant, racist, brutes, barbarian Nazis, and I think every single citizen of the globe shall contribute in whichever way they can to end this grotesc stain from the face of the free world.

[...]

Having visited the US so many times, and knowing with reasonable depth the history of this Country, I must say that the attitudes and methods of the INS Officers do not reflect the way of being and thinking of the majority of the American People, and surely do not reflect the values and ideals I referred to above.

However, the overwhelming majority of the thousands of tourists that are going daily through this sad experience in American Airports do not have this perspective, and they are going back to their countries carrying in their hearts the seeds of hatred, violence and intolerance that end up germinating in tragedies such as Sep 11.

To Mr G. Bush one suggestion: in the attempt to erradicate the World of terrorism and it's Evil Axis, start at home - in the American Immigration and Naturalization Service - INS.

[...]

Sunday Feb 24 18:00 hrs - Due to my unceasing protests, they finally allow me to make a phone call. I contact a Lawyer in LA, in the hope he'd get me out of that hell, but the information I get from him is even more surprising, and disheartening:

- Ricardo, the INS grounds at the Airport are not legally considered American soil, so I cannot invoke any civil right to take you out of there.... he tells me. How about that ???

In other words: I realize I'm in a no-man's land, a lawless place, arrested by arbitrary Nazis in the guise of INS Officers, that, due to this legal technicality, have the power to do whatever they please with you - and what is worse - with your family. I start to dream of the moment of catching a plane back home to Brazil.....however, before that, I'd still go through the worst night of my life.....

Read the rest.

When I returned from my trip to Caracas last April, arriving at the Miami airport, an arrogant jerk checking papers questioned me like I was a suspect of some crime. Why did I go to Venezuela? What was I planning to do now that I was back in the states? Luckily for me, I am caucasian and have a slight southern twang.

Speaking of Pakistan

Stratfor is the creation of George Friedman, a sometime political science professor and consultant to the intelligence community, and the author of America's Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between America and Its Enemies (Doubleday, $24.95, 353 pages). As is true of many Americans, my feelings about the Iraq war — Was it necessary? Is it being waged properly? — have vacillated the past month.

Mr. Friedman does much to put my mind to rest. In his view, forget the debate over whether weapons of mass destruction ever existed, and whether they were a proper pretext for war. In his view, al Qaeda's goal was to create an uprising in the Islamic world and overthrow secular governments, Saudi Arabia in particular. The invasion ordered by President George W. Bush was intended to isolate and frighten the Saudi government into cracking down on the flow of money to al Qaeda. He succeeded. Further, the invasion created a climate in which it has proven too dangerous for Islamic governments to work with al Qaeda or remain neutral.

Which is not to say that Mr. Friedman gives Bush & Company high praise. He faults the administration for failing to put the military and intelligence communities on a wartime immediately after September 11, and charges that "lying about why we were invading Iraq was a massive error." Nonetheless, he feels that Iraq is "manageable, even though violence will continue for years. Like Northern Ireland, it will be a generation before it calms down." And he repeats a forecast first made by Stratfor in December 2003: that the American military eventually must invade northwestern Pakistan to root out the al Qaeda command structure.

Washington Times book review

Nuclear secrets

Remember A.Q. Khan? The guy dealing in nuclear trade secrets that Pakistan pardoned, with our blessing? (Must keep Pakistan happy - they are poised to provide us with "high value targets" as the need arises. And, they actually have nukes, unlike the countries we tend to invade.)

The New York Times has a report on the frightening depth and pervasiveness of the nuclear black market led by the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan: As Nuclear Secrets Emerge in Khan Inquiry, More Are Suspected.

If the opening paragraphs don't send a little chill down your spine, you may need to cut down on your dosage.

source

From the NY Times article:

A. Q. Khan may have been unknown to most Americans when he was revealed about a year ago as the mastermind of the largest illicit nuclear proliferation network in history. But for three decades Dr. Khan, a metallurgist, has been well known to British and American intelligence officials. Even so, the United States and its allies passed up opportunities to stop him - and apparently failed to detect that he had begun selling nuclear technology to Iran in the late 1980's. It was the opening transaction for an enterprise that eventually spread to North Korea, Libya and beyond.

[...]

President Bush boasts that the Khan network has been dismantled. But there is evidence that parts of it live on, as do investigations in Washington and Vienna, where the I.A.E.A. is based.

Cooperation between the United Nations atomic agency and the United States has trickled to a near halt, particularly as the Bush administration tries to unseat the I.A.E.A. director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, who did not support the White House's prewar intelligence assessments on Iraq.

The chill from the White House has blown through Vienna. "I can't remember the last time we saw anything of a classified nature from Washington," one of the agency's senior officials said. Experts see it as a missed opportunity because the two sides have complementary strengths - the United States with spy satellites and covert capabilities to intercept or disable nuclear equipment, and the I.A.E.A. with inspectors who have access to some of the world's most secretive atomic facilities that the United States cannot legally enter.

In the 11 months since Dr. Khan's partial confession, Pakistan has denied American investigators access to him. They have passed questions through the Pakistanis, but report that there is virtually no new information on critical questions like who else obtained the bomb design. Nor have American investigators been given access to Dr. Khan's chief operating officer, Buhari Sayed Abu Tahir, who is in a Malaysian jail.

UFOs

Iran's air force has been ordered to shoot down any unknown or suspicious flying objects in Iran's airspace, an air force spokesman said yesterday, amid state-media reports of sightings of flying objects near Iran's nuclear installations.

[...]

"Flights of unknown objects in [Iran's] airspace have increased in recent weeks... [they] have been seen over Bushehr and Isfahan provinces," the Resalat daily reported yesterday. There are nuclear facilities in both provinces.

The timing of the reported increase in sightings, coming as the United States is urging allies to confront Iran over its nuclear program, has strengthened Iranian public perceptions that the objects are surveillance or hostile aircrafts monitoring Iran.

[...]

The daily Resalat had reported that "shining objects" in the sky were seen near Natanz, where Iran's uranium enrichment plant is located, noting that one had exploded, causing "panic in the region."

Haaretz article

Shi'ite leader targeted

A suicide bomber detonated his car Monday at the gate to the home of the leader of Iraq's biggest political party, killing and wounding several of the guards but leaving the cleric unharmed, his spokesman said.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq - the country's most powerful Shiite political group - was in his residence in Baghdad's Jadiriyah district when the attack occurred, said Haitham al-Husseini. He was unharmed.

Guardian article

The former head of SCIRI, Abdul's older brother, was assassinated last year.

I find this a little curious:

The residence, where Hakim has his home and offices, was previously the house of Tariq Aziz, a jailed former senior aide to Saddam Hussein who has been in prison since April last year.

Did Aziz put his home up for sale and Hakim bought it? Somehow I doubt that. Did somebody divvy up Sunni property as war proceeds? Are the U.S. military forces still camped out in Hussein's palace? Could any of these details be problematic?

Maybe I should be asking how Aziz came by the property in the first place. Perhaps he didn't acquire it legitimately. I don't know. It would be interesting information to have, I think.

Worshipping the Moon

The Reverand and Mr. Bush. Read all about it at Digby's blog.

Yep. Totally bizarre.

Regarding Iraqi elections

I recently posted my dismay at the U.S. deciding it needs to set aside some seats for Sunnis in the Iraqi elections, because the Sunnis are going to boycott those elections. Juan Cole addresses the issue, supporting it as the only way out now.

I disagree. The way out now is out now. We are refusing to postpone the elections until Iraq is calm, because we don't want a calm Iraq electing its own officials. We are calling all the shots through direct command and our puppet Allawi, all the while giving lip service to the idea of Iraqi self-governance.

Of course, Juan Cole is an expert on the Middle East, and I am not.

Update 9:30 am:

Iraq's election body has rejected a suggestion in Washington it adjust the results of next month's vote to benefit the Sunni minority if low turnout in Sunni areas means Shi'ites have an exaggerated majority in the new
assembly.

Speaking of "unacceptable" interference, Electoral Commission spokesman Farid Ayar said: "Who wins, wins. That is the way it is. That is the way it will be in the election."

U.S. diplomats in Baghdad, at pains to keep their role in the election discreet, declined comment.

Swiss Info article