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Took a while… 16 May 2009

Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, Afghanistan War, AFRICOM, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Iraq War, Seymour Hersh.
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McChrystal and Clarke Brief Press at Pentagon
ARLINGTON, VA-MARCH 22: Army Major General Stanley A. McChrystal (L), vice director for Operations, listens as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke speaks at the Pentagon March 22, 2003 in Arlington, Virginia. McChrystal and Clarke briefed the media on the latest developments of the United States led war against Iraq.
Photo: Stefan Zaklin/Getty Images
Mar 22, 2003

… for me to catch on to who McChrystal was, that we had seen a lot of him before… when I began googling for his photo, noticed him beside Tory Clarke – it all came back.  Day after day, those briefings from the Pentagon.  That dumb-fuck face of his.. this man that all sorts of venues are trilling is a “scholar warrior”.  Yes I remember when Kos used that scheisse to hose the thread commenters into supporting the mil.  Why! my goodness! they have advanced degrees… from Ivies.  Bow down.

So… do ya think Ob did his due diligence on this pick?  Or did he snooze in the bubble of the Oval?  I say he SNOOZED.  Biden (too often in the Oval with Ob for the Daily Briefing and for the Economic Daily Brief) said Yes… Rahm said Yes… Axelrod said Yes…

There at the propaganda podium for the invasion.  Side by side with Tory Clarke.  More than whiffs of torture off his command in Iraq… and then there is Tillman.

There is bound to be more.

Mrs Tillman will not be shutting up.

Considering we are swimming in blood and guts,  this should go badly.

I snagged a couple of graphs from Tiny Revolution:

It’s sickening to see Obama try to justify illegal secrecy by hiding behind the troops in just the way Bush used to do. It’s even more appalling to see him not only do nothing to hold torture commanders accountable, but promote them.

Good luck with that, Mr. President. The Tillmans are unwilling to sit quietly and let pass McChrystal’s part in the propaganda disgrace and coverup of their son’s death by ‘friendly fire’. Sy Hersh has tied McChrystal to Cheney’s assassination squads. And, if the principle of command responsibility had any force at all in the U.S. military, McChrystal would have to answer for the pervasive, routine use of torture by his dirty-war task forces in Iraq.

Late last year, confirmation hearings for his last post were held up by concerns about the torture under his command, but a private chat with members of the Senate Armed Services Committee appears to have given everyone involved the cover sought.

Photos or no photos, the upcoming confirmation hearings are going to be an occasion for looking back.

***

From one of the comments at Tiny Revolution, “oarwell” at 10:58 pm:

[B]ig money goes looking for a better return on investment. War is the most lucrative, the most profitable venture. [Smedley] Butler argues that the only way to smash the war racket is to take the profit out of war. But as long as the same concerns that profit from war own our press, that is difficult, to say the least.

Is Obama in thrall to these war pigs? Of course he is. They are cynically using him as the best mechanism by which to quell dissent. Policy is disconnected from politics. You think anyone except paid propagandists actually wants to escalate in AfPak? Elite financial interests seek access to oil in central Asia, as well as all the usual spin-offs of war (not to mention the heroin trade, which has boomed since we liberated Afghanistan). If, in their immoral calculus, releasing photographic evidence of war crimes (Hersh says it’s photos of children being sodomized in front of their parents) would interfere with rallying the public to their profitable enterprise, then enormous pressures are brought to bear to stop their release. Pressures that possibly include blackmail. You think they wouldn’t do that? And how many innocent civilians did they kill in Iraq, in Vietnam? They care only about profit, not about human rights or “liberty” or “freedom.”  …

Of course a lot of what Hersh said and wrote about the unreleased photos, he said and wrote in 2004, 2006.  IMO he would not be volunteering all of that these days.  I heard him myself, on Hardball, following his own breaking of the story, say we had done things even Israel would never do.

Give it a break Sy.  Really.

***

Last, I was very entertained by this phrasing from the press release on Ob and Mrs Ob going to Accra:

The President and Mrs. Obama look forward to strengthening the U.S. relationship with one of our most trusted partners in sub-Saharan Africa, and to highlighting the critical role that sound governance and civil society play in promoting lasting development.

Yup.  Blessed.  Double Blessed. “Sound”, “civil”, “lasting”.  I think they should take the children and the dog.  Let’s be wholesome!

***

Oh too good to pass up… MO at UCMerced today…

“Remember you are Blessed!  And remember for those blessings you must give back!”

Each word, staccato.

I think the Obs should go to Africa wearing great towering papal mitres – emblazoned with the stars and stripes.

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Comments»

1. Arcturus - 16 May 2009

Tom Hayden – McChrystal’s Rise: More Secrets, Less Daylight:

. . . there was the secret war carried out by the Special Operations forces, whose existence was denied even by the Pentagon.

Now the secret operations threaten to completely compromise what remains of the public war in Afghanistan and Pakistan with the ascension of Gen. Stanley McChrystal to top commander from his classified role in running Special Ops in Iraq for five years.

When questioned by the media or senators presiding at his confirmation hearing in a few weeks, Gen. McChrystal may have a simple answer to anything troubling: sorry, that is classified.
. . .
This expanding secret war is crucial to understand for three reasons. First, according to Woodward’s claim, it was “more important than the surge” in reducing insurgent violence in Iraq. Second, the Special Ops units served as judge, jury and executioner in hundreds of extrajudicial killings. The targeted victims were from broad categories such as “the Sunni insurgency” and “renegade Shiite militias” or other “extremists.” Third, and most important, the operation was kept secret from the American public, media and perhaps even the US Congress.
. . .
The prospect of contending with secret counterinsurgency programs is not a secret but a well-known challenge to those on the receiving end in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The real point is that Special Operations allows the Pentagon to pull the wool over the eyes of the American public, media and Congress. Nothing requires an explanation, including the actual causes of American deaths.

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2. Madman in the Marketplace - 16 May 2009

Neo-Nazis and Extreme Right-Wingers Love Joe Arpaio, and There’s Evidence that the MCSO Keeps Them Close

Arpaio’s flirtation with the fascists that day could be written off as a politically incorrect flub — if it were not for his pattern of courting extremist nativists over the past four years. It’s the natural result of Arpaio’s Johnny-come-lately stand on illegal immigration, his immigration sweeps (during which claims of racial profiling have been rampant), and his Archie Bunker-like attitude regarding racial and ethnic issues wrapped up in the immigration debate.

For instance, take Arpaio’s now-infamous statement on a November 2007 episode of Lou Dobbs’ CNN show that it was an “honor” to be called a KKK member. The clip has long since gone viral, giving ammunition to those who believe Arpaio to be an unrepentant bigot.

Yet the sheriff’s involvement with extreme hate groups is not incidental. The relationship has been prolonged and intentional, arguably helping him get re-elected last year in a county where much of the electorate is hostile toward Mexican immigrants.

Since 2007, Arpaio has appeared at nativist events, accepted awards from groups such as the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, welcomed U.S.A. leader Rusty Childress into his immigration sweep headquarters, spoken at nativist meetings frequented by neo-Nazis, and used petitions circulated by extremists to justify his immigration dragnets.

Also troubling are indications that the MCSO, in some cases, instructs U.S.A. through member Barb Heller, who has bragged about her contacts with the Sheriff’s Office to anyone who will listen, and who apparently receives instruction and advice on how U.S.A. should handle itself.

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3. mattes - 16 May 2009

Sy Hersh has tied McChrystal to Cheney’s assassination squads.

Oh my god. The poison pill. If this stands, Obama is over.

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marisacat - 16 May 2009

There are several reports around. Yesterday, I had posted a Gulf News interview Hersh did… that I got from Angry Arab.

Wayne Madsen is tying those assassination cadres to Hariri death, which Hersh does not support. LOL He claims the Americans would never kill Hariri. Never do anything like htat… my no!

What lunacy-verse is Hersh in.

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4. mattes - 16 May 2009

And now this:

Danger Room What’s Next in National Security
Pentagon Preps Soldier Telepathy Push

Forget the battlefield radios, the combat PDAs or even infantry hand signals. When the soldiers of the future want to communicate, they’ll read each other’s minds.

At least, that’s the hope of researchers at the Pentagon’s mad-science division Darpa. The agency’s budget for the next fiscal year includes $4 million to start up a program called Silent Talk. The goal is to “allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals.” That’s on top of the $4 million the Army handed out last year to the University of California to investigate the potential for computer-mediated telepathy.

snip

The military has been funding a handful of mind-tapping technology recently, and already have monkeys capable of telepathic limb control. Telepathy may also have advantages beyond covert battlefield chatter. Last year, the National Research Council and the Defense Intelligence Agency released a report suggesting that neuroscience might also be useful to “make the enemy obey our commands.” The first step, though, may be getting a grunt to obey his officer’s remotely-transmitted thoughts.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/pentagon-preps-soldier-telepathy-push/

OR…DESIGNER VIRUSES taken from labs….NO, not possible!!!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Canadian Man Caught At U.S. Border Carrying Stolen Vials Of Ebola Virus

A former researcher at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg is facing charges in the United States after allegedly trying to smuggle genetic material from the Ebola virus across the Manitoba-North Dakota border.

If security is an issue at this lab, I have to wonder what else is missing? Is this another example of the dangers of Socialized Medicine?

U.S. authorities allege Konan Michel Yao had 22 vials of the substance in the trunk of his car when he tried to cross the border on May 5. He is charged with smuggling merchandise, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 US.

U.S. customs officers allegedly found the vials wrapped in aluminum foil inside a glove and packaged in a plastic bag, along with electrical wires.

In his affidavit, the 42-year-old researcher said he was hired by the Public Health Agency of Canada to work as a PhD fellow at the Winnipeg facility. Yao told officers he was working on a vaccine for the Ebola virus and HIV.

http://conservativexpress.blogspot.com/2009/05/canadian-man-caught-at-us-border.html

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5. marisacat - 17 May 2009

Push push…

[T]he U.S. troops say they know the names of insurgent commanders who are living in the two valleys, but do not have enough forces to clear them.

In January, U.S. commanders sent an extra 700 troops to the area south of 6/4 squadron’s territory. The new troops are just “a drop of water” in the sea, said one soldier who asked not to be identified while discussing the shortage of manpower.…snip…

Push push

I read a puff piece in Newsweek tonight.. Meacham interviewing Obster. he’s worried about his daughters dating while in the WH. Something or other about them surrounded by men with guns.

Planning on two terms.

[U].S. commanders are rushing thousands of reinforcements to the south of Afghanistan to take on the Taliban in what Washington considers a make-or-break year for a war it now views as its main security priority.

Until next year is the make-or-break LIE. Then the year after…

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6. marisacat - 17 May 2009

:twisted:

Great Kos Truth Seeker McJoan sits down with Spiegel. The crapfest Englischer version that is.

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7. marisacat - 17 May 2009

hmm Times Online has a background piece on just what Baucus of MT was turning down, when he said NIMBY to any idea of Gitmo prisoners in MT. Apparently they have a newly built prison, absolutely empty. They had hoped a private prison operation would run it….

More interesting tho is this close to the article.

[S]o far the White House has given no indication that it is seriously considering Hardin or anywhere else, and many in Washington now expect the deadline for Guantanamo’s closure to be pushed back, if not abandoned altogether.

Such a move would devastate Obama’s liberal supporters, who are already in shock after the president’s decision last week to keep George W Bush’s much-criticised system of military trials for terrorists.

It would also leave the people of Hardin with a problem unique in the annals of American crime: they built a prison, but nobody came.

Oh I am so shocked. As Geraghty of National Review Online said last year, all of Obama’s statements come with expiration dates.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 17 May 2009

Obama’s liberal supporters are blinkered fools, sorry to say.

This is all sadly predictable.

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marisacat - 17 May 2009

I was reading thru Chris FLoyd during the night and a commenter mentioned that aside from the hoopla over the torture photos, his supporters have little to no trouble over the bombings… the photos coming forth from the drone actions. The accusation that the Taliban and not the US used WP.

Gotta love it.

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8. marisacat - 17 May 2009

Snagged via Instapundit… some background on the South Carolina AG vs Craigslist.

HOWEVER, Jerry Brown of liberal libertine (well some of us are) CA is also targetting Craigslist. Gee and Craig Newmark must pay a ton of taxes to CA…

I personally think the Yellow Pages are behind the pressure on Craigslist.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 17 May 2009

and the remnants of the newspaper industry. Craiglist killed their classifieds.

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9. marisacat - 17 May 2009

I thought they had finally figured out this is UNPOPULAR.

May 17, 2009
Categories: Health care
Orszag: W.H. open to taxing health benefits

It may not be President Barack Obama’s favorite idea, but the administration may support taxing health benefits to help pay for health-care reform, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag said Sunday

“It was not in the president’s campaign plan, it was not in our budget,” Orszag insisted on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

But, Orszag noted, the White House is “going to have to let this play out.”

“There are lots of ideas out there,” he said. “That’s the way it should be.”

By Andy Barr 09:04 AM
comments (1) | post comment | permalink

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10. marisacat - 17 May 2009

Kilcullen in the NYT calls for a halt to the drones

While we agree with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates that “fresh eyes were needed” to review our military strategy in the region, we feel that expanding or even just continuing the drone war is a mistake. In fact, it would be in our best interests, and those of the Pakistani people, to declare a moratorium on drone strikes into Pakistan.

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marisacat - 17 May 2009

Second, public outrage at the strikes is hardly limited to the region in which they take place — areas of northwestern Pakistan where ethnic Pashtuns predominate. Rather, the strikes are now exciting visceral opposition across a broad spectrum of Pakistani opinion in Punjab and Sindh, the nation’s two most populous provinces. Covered extensively by the news media, drone attacks are popularly believed to have caused even more civilian casualties than is actually the case. The persistence of these attacks on Pakistani territory offends people’s deepest sensibilities, alienates them from their government, and contributes to Pakistan’s instability.

well I think it is clear, both administrations value[d] expanded regional war.

LOOKS LIKE A PLAN TO ME.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 17 May 2009

I think that Americans underestimate not only the blunt impact of the deaths, but also the idea that we’re COWARDS for killing people that way.

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11. BooHooHooMan - 17 May 2009

This post mcat, truth be told , is most potent.
The release of pictures of sexual torture at the hands of the US Military and Intelligence community will show the world how desperate, how barbaric we really ARE.

And this thousand watt smiling fraud Obama in full embrace of it all.

Just over-run by cretins we are.
And frankly? It’s been inevitable if not deservedly so, in a country full of frivolous, twittering supplicants. The rest of humanity? Not so much.

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12. BooHooHooMan - 17 May 2009

Oh please. Sissy slap boxing shit, now.
…Spare me the Paranoid Jew-thug in one corner and Obama his dive artist in another…

At odds with Obama, Netanyahu begins U.S. visit
Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began on Sunday his first U.S. visit since taking office, at odds with President Barack Obama over Palestinian statehood.

Urgency in halting an Iranian nuclear program Israel has called a threat to its existence and a new approach to peace with the Palestinians that would shift the focus of talks away from creation of a state top Netanyahu’s Washington agenda.

Both issues could put the Israeli leader and Obama, who will meet at the White House on Monday, on a collision course, although Israeli and U.S. officials have been trying to play down prospects of a confrontational meeting.

“There are differences,” a senior Israeli official said on Netanyahu’s flight to Washington.

But, banging his fists together like a boxer, he added: “It’s not going to be like this.”

“There are differences,” a senior Israeli official said on Netanyahu’s flight to Washington.
But, banging his fists together like a boxer, he added: “It’s not going to be like this.”

Ah, No. Morph those faux fisticuffs into a pair masturbatory meathooks and you get the idea…

Cue smiling Negroe through mouthgaurd and slobber.

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marisacat - 17 May 2009

well… if they manfully struggle then whatever comes of the struggle will be prized! Fine and good! And a WIN!

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13. Madman in the Marketplace - 17 May 2009

FDA relied heavily on BPA lobby

As federal regulators hold fast to their claim that a chemical in baby bottles is safe, e-mails obtained by the Journal Sentinel show that they relied on chemical industry lobbyists to examine bisphenol A’s risks, track legislation to ban it and even monitor press coverage.

In one instance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s deputy director sought information from the BPA industry’s chief lobbyist to discredit a Japanese study that found it caused miscarriages in workers who were exposed to it. This was before government scientists even had a chance to review the study.

“I’d like to get information together that our chemists could look at to determine if there are problems with that data in advance of possibly reviewing the study,” Mitchell Cheeseman, deputy director of the FDA’s center for food safety and applied nutrition, said in an e-mail seeking advice from Steven Hentges, executive director of the trade association’s BPA group.

The FDA relied on two studies – both paid for by chemical makers – to form the framework of its draft review declaring BPA to be safe.

The Journal Sentinel reported last year that the trade group wrote entire sections of that draft. But the revelations contained in these e-mails show a pattern of preferential treatment over the past nine years that was not afforded to independent scientists.

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14. marisacat - 17 May 2009

Obama is fucking PUTTY. They don’t intend to even try.

My guess, the pick is what the likes of Ben Nelson and Hatch and Sessions have already agreed to. Stamp whatever memo C Boyden Gray wrote on the pick, stamp it across Obama’s backside.

Cutter is NOTHING. papier mache, not even.

Stephanie Cutter, counselor to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, will be moving over to the White House in coming weeks to coordinate the confirmation campaign for President Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, administration officials said Sunday.

Cutter, who has a Georgetown law degree, managed the Senate Democratic strategy during the confirmation fights over both of President George W. Bush’s appointees to the high court — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

Democratic officials say that the soonest they expect a court pick is during the week of Memorial Day, which is eight days away.

Like Steve Schmidt during the Bush administration, Cutter will manage a high-stakes campaign process, and can be expected to coordinate with Capitol Hill, the nominee, the White House counsel’s office and outside groups. …

Turley said of the Democratic side of the Judiciary committe in the throes of the Roberts and Alito noms that there was no evidence of either a coordinated nor in fact any thing much of a Democratic party plan. That clearly the members of the D side had barely bothered.

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BooHooHooMan - 17 May 2009

But Stephanie is CUTE.

My feeling is they are putting up three women now,
decent records on choice, only to throw them to the wolves,
paving the way for a coverup artist…it gives them a chance to sell Midge Rendell or some other asscover….

Jeebus. Chuck Schumer just installed his waterboy staffer as US Attorney for New York and another Clinton Hack in New Jersey. Schumer flat out controlled the pick. Good Luck Andy Cuomo and Pensioneers nationwide looking for any help from the Feds…Now Specter and Rendell will dictate terms in Philly and Pittsburgh and the whole congealing fuckball in Robert Rubin’s crew will reveal a Supreme Court pick after the first round back and forth. .It’s so fucking old. And obvious. The head pat to NOW preceding selection of a maid for the boys.

Hillary will be trotted out to say she is “delighted” that Ms. Judge So and So got the pick – whoever she is. .
Some Bullshit about “being lonely” among the girls at the top…

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15. Madman in the Marketplace - 17 May 2009

Puke

After 40 years in Congress, Rep. David Obey said Saturday night that he’s just getting started when it comes to making things happen in Washington for the average American.

“We’re going to do our damnedest for this country,” Obey said during the annual Wisconsin Democratic Party’s Founders Day dinner, which was held in his honor this year. “We’re going to, in the end, put government back on the side of regular average Americans.”

More than 500 state Democratic Party officials, union leaders and industry representatives gathered at the Midwest Airlines Center in downtown Milwaukee to pay tribute to Obey for his 40 years in representing northern Wisconsin in Congress.

The dinner helped raise at least $130,000 for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, according to calculations based on the number of ticket sales. Party officials declined to provide an estimate for the night’s fund-raising totals.

Obey, who at 70 is now the third most senior member of the House, spoke about his party’s commitment to approving major legislative measures to reform the nation’s health care system, fight global warming and continue to help stimulate the economy.

“Republicans may call us a lot of things,” he said. “They may call us Socialists, they may call us liberals, boo, scary. One thing they ain’t going to call us anymore, they ain’t going to call us a do-nothing Congress.”

State party chairman Joe Wineke told a story about visiting Washington in the 1990s when Obey offered to show him around the city one night after a gathering with other Wisconsin Democrats.

“We think he’s going to show us the monuments,” Wineke said. “And he starts showing us all the homeless people sitting on the grates in the city. There’s this whole other side of society, and someone has to defend them.”

Obey is one of those people who champions the rights of the little guy in Washington, Wineke said.

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16. Madman in the Marketplace - 17 May 2009
17. Madman in the Marketplace - 17 May 2009

Grasping at straws: RNC Chief: Gay Marriage Will Burden Small Business

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Republicans can reach a broader base by recasting gay marriage as an issue that could dent pocketbooks as small businesses spend more on health care and other benefits, GOP Chairman Michael Steele said Saturday.

Steele said that was just an example of how the party can retool its message to appeal to young voters and minorities without sacrificing core conservative principles. Steele said he used the argument weeks ago while chatting on a flight with a college student who described herself as fiscally conservative but socially liberal on issues like gay marriage.

”Now all of a sudden I’ve got someone who wasn’t a spouse before, that I had no responsibility for, who is now getting claimed as a spouse that I now have financial responsibility for,” Steele told Republicans at the state convention in traditionally conservative Georgia. ”So how do I pay for that? Who pays for that? You just cost me money.”

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BooHooHooMan - 17 May 2009

Such the con all around.
1. Small Business. What small business? They are comstantly selling this myth of main Street when it’s to further enrich large corps bottom lines.
2. Like they give a shit about insuring hetero spouse’s either.
3. And in any real small business that ,uh,
actually has employees,
you get 5 to 10 people involved making a go of something,
YOU GOT TEH GAYZ. LOL. In a family business? You get 5-to 10 relatives involved making a go of something ?
YOU GOT TEH GAYZ.
LOL. Jesus. You show me any Mom and Pop Apple Pie Company of any size, over any duration, YOU GOT TEH GAYZ. Either that, or you better let Junior (“the Bachelor”) eating the apple pie off his lovers hoo hoo out of the supply closet. GMAB.

As long as they can villify gays, and fuck around with the religiopolitical scam over who is ‘really married” or not , they never have to deal with single payer, nationalized, not for profit healthcare, that would obviate such drivel as to whether who is straight or gay, married or not. It’s all such fucking extraordinary bullshit.

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18. marisacat - 17 May 2009

What was all that gibber doodle from Obsterama about vanquishing the culture wars? Randall Terry is leading the protest at ND..

In other news, Bibi’s team is said to arrive in the US “tense”.

Let’s see. If this goes anything like the THREE LONG DAYS of health care “everybody at the table” [but single payer] last week… in which, Ob made grand statements of [voluntary] agreements and signed letters of this and that, health care providers and others around the nation FREAKED and called their orgs.. with the head of the AHA, the hospital association, going back in to meet one on one wiht Ob. No way no how.

It seems Ob did nto hear what the rest heard. It must be asked: DID HE LISTEN?

Then WH not-quite-a-Czarina for health De Paule comes out and says Pretzel misspoke. In a little bit she came out again and said Pretzel did not misspeak.

Knock knock!? Anybody got a plan? Cuz I hear all that is a “plan” is that by 2013 all US citizens will have to show on the IRS return that they indeed do have insurance co paid for coverage. Huzzah! I figure they plan to slap a little dressing around that and in a few months trot it out as the The Plan.

So, I figure bombing raids over Gaza in a few weeks and 250 new whacko USA settler fundies gun tottin’ homes appearing on the Golan Heights. Because the drum beat has been the GH can be given back as it is empty. LOL Just watch!

Carry on.

[I am sorry to be dismissive but these people are in over their heads and utterly dependent on headlines and the right wing patting them]

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19. Madman in the Marketplace - 17 May 2009

wouldn’t it be nice if the media payed a quarter of the attention to the protests against war, or prosecuting war crimes, as they are paying to the woman-hating zealots in Indiana?

CNN is pretty much unwatchable today.

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20. marisacat - 17 May 2009

:twisted: Norma McCorvey was at Notre Dame today and was arrested.. The famous “Roe”… who is, well what can one say, an emotional mess and in league with the anti abortion crowd. Anti women crowd.

My goodness, so much drahma today!… one might think autonomy for women was a priority with Oblation.

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21. Madman in the Marketplace - 17 May 2009

I know it makes me a “bigot”, but I find it really, really funny that a middle-aged celebate is quoting the former-Nazi celebate who runs his multinational “nonprofit” corporation/church about using REASON to better understand each other, despite his job propping up a huge, teetering pile of rank superstition, misogyny and hypocrisy.

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marisacat - 17 May 2009

god I HOPE Randall Terry is celebate.

ew and grrrr.

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22. marisacat - 17 May 2009

Gah. Interactive maps of NYC foreclosures at NYT, via Clusterstock (they link to the maps and to the article at the Times).

map alone

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23. marisacat - 17 May 2009

:lol:

“We’re fine, everybody,” President Obama said, calming the students, some of whom had stood up. He continued to ad-lib based on the theme of his speech, saying:

“We’re not going to shy away from things that are uncomfortable.”

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Madman in the Marketplace - 17 May 2009

other than torture, and war crimes, and cutting the huge military budget, or single payer healthcare or … and etc.

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marisacat - 17 May 2009

THOSE are nto great moral tragedies.

Which abortion is. I am hunting for the full text. But he referred to the tragedy of abortion so many different ways and talked of the great moral issue and so on… that it is muddled… (as to exact wording I mean)

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catnip - 17 May 2009

Blasphemer!

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24. marisacat - 17 May 2009

Of course I found the full transcript link at Sully. Who got a strong baptismal drenching from the speech:

[I] believe that these sentiments will resonate with all Catholics of good will and serious purpose. When we are called by God to oppose the evils of abortion or torture or terror, we need to remain civil and fair and attuned to the calm that comes from knowing that we fight the good fight. I have not always succeeded in this. But I do know that if we do not try to do better, in the passionate and righteous pursuit of peace and justice, we will advance neither one nor the other.

:lol:

If it is not Thatcher that has him gasping, then it is Reagan. Failing the dead or the dying he humps for Ob.

Oh ew.

Again, what god was he serving (who called Sully?) when he wanted bareback and advertised for it?

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25. marisacat - 17 May 2009

No shock, he is retaining some yet unknown amount of the greatly expanded conscience clause that Bush had draafted in HHS before he left. Sully better not stick anything odd up his butt (big polymer cruciform), becasue it is in no way limited to abortion.

It is ANYONE or any ILLNESS or any PROCEDURE that the health care provider (which can be the person operating the autoclave, that cleans instruments for a OR) is OFFENDED by. It is not religiously limited, it is (currently) personal preference.

GOOD LUCK!

So let’s work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies, and making adoption more available, and providing care and support for women who do carry their child to term. Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women.”

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Madman in the Marketplace - 17 May 2009

you can’t run a diverse civil society this way, you just can’t.

We might as well balkanize ourselves and get it over with.

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marisacat - 17 May 2009

well there have been instances of Muslim doctors in the ER considering raped women unclean, aside from Catholic and fundies who will nto hand out Plan B.

Will they consider a raped child unclean? I just read a single hospital in greater LA, the Santa Monica one, gets about 3 rape victims a DAY in their ER.

FURTHER… the offended highly moral one may choose to wtihhold INFORMATION. May refuse to offer the name of another provider.

Of course while Bush was pretzel, KGO spent over 20 hours on this. nada since Black Jesus moved in.

One tough old dame who runs HR for an unamed major hosptial in the BA called into one show and said they will tailor hiring. You can’t run a hosptial like that. She reminded that we are an “at will” work state. People can be fired at any time for any reason. Or for no reason.

so pfft.. unless of course you’re are in an area of little choice (which would be rural and not just the so called “red” states) and either high immigration from fundies/ muslims or entrenched indigenous fundies.

LOL… Good luck is all I can say!

what happens the day a white fundie won’t treat a black person with AIDS? the issue of HOW it was transmitted being the reason for denial?

Good luck!

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26. marisacat - 17 May 2009

Oh yes, he closed with this bullshit.

But as you leave here today, remember the lessons of Cardinal Bernardin, of Father Hesburgh, of movements for change both large and small. Remember that each of us, endowed with the dignity possessed by all children of God, has the grace to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we all seek the same love of family and the same fulfillment of a life well-lived. Remember that in the end, we are all fishermen.

If nothing else, that knowledge should give us faith that through our collective labor, and God’s providence, and our willingness to shoulder each other’s burdens, America will continue on its precious journey towards that more perfect union. Congratulations on your graduation, may God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

Fuck his fucking net is all I can say.

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27. catnip - 17 May 2009
28. catnip - 17 May 2009
29. catnip - 17 May 2009
30. NYCO - 17 May 2009

About a year ago the NYT did a story on a family that decided to be “cage free,” sold their house and all their belongings, and hit the road in their 25-year-old RV.

How did it end up?

Well, mom’s pregnant again, the RV is nonfunctional, dad has gone back to a steady job, and they’re looking to buy a house in Virginia.

They never did get to Vermont.

C’est la vie.

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marisacat - 17 May 2009

Lordy. I was choking by her third graph. No wonder they flew back to sod. :lol: they shoulda driven to an off the grid Mormon enclave or an Amish or similar grouping.

I dream of great communities bound together like our tiny nuclear families… of women sharing their work and children with other women; sisters, and of men working together as brothers, teachers and students. I dream of lives lived without basic needs threatened, of land and home unchallenged by greedy business.

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NYCO - 17 May 2009

Most of the blog is pretty rough going… the breathlessly upbeat outlook infused in every goddamn thing that happened to them. I’m all for optimism, but freezing to death in a broken RV and begging for milk when you’ve got 2 little kids is not “spiritual,” it’s just dumb. (and what possessed them to invest in a 25 year old RV?)

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marisacat - 17 May 2009

yeah the tone was overwhelming. Or just whelming…

people have to marshall thru.. but…………

I read a book about Sojourner Truth and talked with Quinn about how incredible and hard won are our rights in the is country. He responded with shock and awe that women, whom he seems to believe a more lovely creature, could have ever been slighted or considered lesser. His power and ambition were stoked with the understanding of the possibility of real involvement in government and was further bolstered by his great- grandmother’s obvious excitement about the evening’s promising town council meeting.

I’m all for joy.. but let’s get real.

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31. marisacat - 17 May 2009

hmm I avoided the Preakness today.. but I am just catching on that while a different horse won, the filly… it was the same jockey for both Derby and Preakness.

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32. BooHooHooMan - 17 May 2009

Jeebus, gimme a do-over.

In the end we are all fishermen. But in the beginning, well not the beginning beginning, we were fish. Just fish.
Little squigly flip floppy tryin-to-get-on- land fish…
Fish who then fought the good fight , and as landlubbers, traded in their gills and flippers and evolved into chimps. Yes, Swinging from the trees , fucking in the open, shitting in the woods, CHIMPS…

As you see, We’re not going to shy away from things that are uncomfortable.

Thus, I stand before you today, in the spirit of that Great Fish turned Chimp turned Fishermen and my Fisheating Catholic Predecessor, John F Kennedy, and I too can proudly say:

Ich bein ein Fish ‘n Chimpenheimer!”

They should have given me a shot at the mark-up.
I know these people. I was raised Catholic.
I think it would have worked.
I think it would have gone over well…LOL.

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marisacat - 17 May 2009

he’s real problem – and thus ours – is that once he hooked up with Wright, which was before he went off to HLS, he really wanted the whole hook, line, sinker and collection plate of being a pulpiteer (thanks to Otis Moss III who replaced Wright for that perfect bit of nomenclature).

He poured over Wright’s sermons (in his book but heh, nto exactly what they shoveled out when times got tough)… he took notes during services, he took the tapes and CDs of W’s sermons with him to Harvard.. he even did some ”preaching” at a non denominational sort of loose student gathering at Harvard.

So we get a fixer from the ranks in Chicago who wanted to preach and dominate people. WHo gets to the WH to play his games.

It really is twisted. Just my opinion.

I love all the quasi fake religion the two of them are shoveling out, that and their great claims of “service to the people”, their personal histories of “service ot the people”.. LOL except for his stint as a line operator in community organising, neither of them has done anything of the sort.

Unless one counts wanna-be pulpiteering – and I don’t.

I know one scenario that ”they” are developing, or I suspect they are developing, Our Only Begotten Son TRIIIIED, but the American people were not up to the challenge.

Unless this crashes big (and it may, they are reliant on the media and the hands that feed them and this Magic Negro shit) they will off load the blame.

Similar to the hideous game they (and the previous admin as well) have played with the Iraqi people. They are unable to rise to the horror of devastation from war and turn Iraq, which we then remind them is their country, to a Garden of Eden. Funny how that works.

***

Very entertained at Axelrod’s joke this weekend that maybe they should re-name Bo, “Miss California”.

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33. BooHooHooMan - 17 May 2009

Drip, Drip…

From The Editorial Page of the New York Times.

Photographs and Kangaroo Courts
Published: May 16, 2009

We do not envy President Obama as he tries to undo George W. Bush’s illegal and shameful detainee policy. {that’s charitable}

Last week, Mr. Obama faced protests from some of his top generals, and more attacks from Republicans in Congress, as the government got ready to release photographs of soldiers abusing prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq. Members of both parties decided there was political gold to be mined in complicating the president’s efforts to shut down the Guantánamo Bay prison.

But that does not change the fact that Mr. Obama was wrong when he flip-flopped and decided to resist orders by two federal courts to release the photos. We fear he is showing the same lack of resolve when it comes to Mr. Bush’s kangaroo courts — the tribunals at Guantánamo that Mr. Obama denounced passionately and frequently during the 2008 campaign.

On Friday, the president said he would seek a further continuance in several cases before the tribunals. And he proposed changes that would make the commissions’ procedures a less outrageous miscarriage of justice: among them, banning testimony obtained through abuse and torture; tightening rules on the admission of hearsay; and expanding prisoners’ access to counsel.

Unfortunately, that is not enough. The entire edifice must be scrapped and the laws that long governed military and civilian criminal trials put back in force.

{Snip}

Just as Mr. Obama was wrong to reverse field on the military tribunals, he was wrong to do so on the release of photographs showing American soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in ways reminiscent of the crimes of Abu Ghraib. Federal district and appellate judges have ordered the government to release the pictures, and Mr. Obama initially said he would.

But last week, he changed his mind, offering a jumbled set of explanations including his fear of inflaming anti-American sentiment and jeopardizing American soldiers. We share that concern,

but these pictures will come out —

through the courts or through the press. It is better for those same soldiers for Mr. Obama to release them, while declaring how he plans to change policy to ensure that these abuses are never repeated.

…Drip.

It was particularly distressing to hear Mr. Obama echo Mr. Bush by saying that releasing the pictures would not add “to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by a small number of individuals.” This was not the fault of a few individuals. It was widespread, and systemic, the result of policies set at the highest levels of the Bush administration.

Mr. Obama was elected in part because of his promises to correct these lawless policies. He must create clear rules to deal with prisoners. And there must be a full accounting of what went so horribly wrong and how. Otherwise, Mr. Obama risks turning Mr. Bush’s mistakes into his own or, in the case of the photographs, turning Mr. Bush’s cover-up into his own. More important, he risks missing the chance to make sure the misdeeds and horrors of the Bush years are never repeated.

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catnip - 17 May 2009

Shorter dkos version: Bush=Obama? Trolls! Someone hide rate the NYT!

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34. catnip - 17 May 2009

Well, looky here. I knew this was coming.

Daily Kos diarist, Tocquedeville, has been banned. This diary is a petition to get him unbanned
by Bidet

1553 comments (1553 new)

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marisacat - 17 May 2009

well he sure hung on.

Go along and get along – or eventually get going.

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35. mattes - 17 May 2009

The man still has my respect:

Obama to warn Netanyahu: ‘No more blank cheques’

http://www.freespeechzoneblog.com/diary/4305/obama-to-warn-netanyahu-no-more-blank-cheques

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marisacat - 17 May 2009

McChrystal, too? It will be a brutal killing counterinsurgency program. “Pacification” is at hand.

White Phosphorus in use again – and we blame the Taliban (that is really rich)?

Those things too, and all they represent, have your “respect”, mattes? Really?

Because those little details, unlike the Tories pressuring for their preferred endgame with Israel in the pages of the Telegraph, is what is actually happening.

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mattes - 18 May 2009

I think McChrystal will not stand.

He is dead wrong on Pakistan, all we are doing is creating more refugees and terrorists. But he is making some changes. If he confronts Israel, he will be the first president to do it so publicly that I can remember.

If he fails in on this….I will give up on him, but meanwhile I hope he knows what he is doing.

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36. marisacat - 17 May 2009

Here is Jackson Diehl’s eve of The Vaunted Great Boxing Match … LOL

There will be so much spin on, to cover whatever they really do say and agree on… that we will be dizzy.

***

meanwhile Gaza cannot even get an investigation from the UN:

[A]nd yet none of this death and destruction, not the use of white phosphorus in flagrant violation of international law, not even against the UN (if that is all the secretary-general cares about) merited any further examination.

In his 4 May letter to the Security Council accompanying the summary, Ban wrote, “I do not plan any further inquiry,” adding perhaps as an excuse that “the government of Israel has agreed to meet with United Nations Secretariat officials to address the Board’s recommendations, in as far as they related to Israel.” [...]

[B]ut the reality is that Ban has learned all the “right” lessons from the past. In 1996, then UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali published — against American “advice” — a UN report that demolished Israeli claims that its shelling on 18 April that year of the UN peacekeeping base in Qana, Lebanon, killing 106 people, was an accident. Boutros-Ghali effectively paid with his job as the Clinton Administration vetoed his bid for a second term. In 2002, after the Israeli army destroyed much of Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Security Council ordered then Secretary-General Kofi Annan to carry out an investigation. But Israel refused to allow the inquiry team into the country, and so Annan, rather than going back to the Security Council to ask for its support in carrying out his mandate, simply told the investigation team to disband and go home. …snip…

LOL Bill C looked tough canceling Boutros Ghali’s retread. BBG acted “against advice”. Kofi Anan faded into the background…

Etc.

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37. marisacat - 17 May 2009

Angry Arab (he links to Ha’aretz)

This is Zionism

“Israel allows only food, medicine and detergent into the Gaza Strip. Thousands of items, including vital products for everyday activity, are forbidden. Altogether only 30 to 40 select commercial items are now allowed into the Gaza Strip, compared to 4,000 that had been approved before the closure Israel imposed on Gaza following the abduction of Gilad Shalit, according to merchants and human rights activists. The number of items changes according to what is determined by The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. COGAT has refused the PA representative’s request for an updated list of the items permitted into Gaza in writing, and passes the information only via the telephone. Gaza merchants are forbidden to import canned goods, plastic sheeting, toys and books, although the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and other aid organizations are permitted to bring them into the strip.”

Posted by As’ad at 9:34 AM

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38. marisacat - 18 May 2009

Catchng up to MTP… at 3 am. Kaine and Steele. Truly if one adheres to the parties, they are led by dog shit.

Both Pro Life, and wearing their badges proudly.

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39. marisacat - 18 May 2009

gnu post

LINK

…………………… :roll: ………………………..

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