Light and Dark 26 October 2007
Posted by marisacat in California / Pacific Coast.trackback
Driving down Highway 18 evacuating Lake Arrowhead. (Submitted to YourScene – LA Times – by s_stockley)
I noticed New American Media a few months ago… we still have, on KQED our local PBS station, a pretty liberal, open local news roundup on Friday nights… Occasionally a reporter from NAM will be on.
They hve this report at their site, about the non white and hidden face of the ‘fire this time’:
Invisible Fire Victims in the Canyons
Enlace, News Report, Hiram Soto, Translated by Elena Shore, Posted: Oct 25, 2007
CARMEL VALLEY, Calif. — They were kicked out of the canyon, literally, laying their suitcases full of clothing and other items on the side of a tomato field. This was their evacuation. They stayed there for hours while they tried to figure out a plan B.
These farm workers and Mixtec peasants who have lived in the open air in the McGonigle Canyon for years are among the most destitute residents affected by the forest fires. But while some left the area, many remain in the canyons, either because they do not want to or can’t leave.
“We’ve been telling them that they are in an evacuation zone but they don’t want to move because they have all their stuff in the hills and because they’re afraid of the police and the people,” said Juan Ramon, an activist with the Indigenous Front of Binational Organizations.
Many of these immigrants have been targets of harassment and frequent protests by groups like the Minutemen, and have been evicted by the police several times. [snip]
There is some outreach but it is easy to see, the situation is more than ordinarily difficult… and close to dire.
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The Santiago Fire rages above Foothill Ranch. (Submitted to YourScene / LAT By jwlchr)
The flip side….
[A]IG’s Wildfire Protection Unit, part of its Private Client Group, is offered only to homeowners in California’s most affluent ZIP Codes — including Malibu, Beverly Hills, Newport Beach and Menlo Park — and a dozen Colorado resort communities. It covers about 2,000 policyholders, who pay premiums of at least $10,000 a year and own homes with a value of at least $1 million.
Carrier and his 15 crew mates sprayed retardant on and around more than 160 homes in Malibu, Lake Arrowhead and the hardest-hit areas of Orange and San Diego counties this week. They claim to have saved a dozen homes.
Jim Moore of Malibu, for one, was grateful for their services.
“Just picture it,” said Moore, whose house was sprayed by Firebreak early Monday. “Here you are in that raging wildfire. Smoke everywhere. Flames everywhere. Plumes of smoke coming up over the hills. Here’s a couple guys showing up in what looks like a firetruck who are experts trained in fighting wildfire and they’re there specifically to protect your home. . . . It was really, really comforting.” [snip]
An eerie cloud of smoke above a pocket of clean air. Sierra exit on I-15 (Submitted to YourScene / LAT by kathy)
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From the previous thread, as it came up late, pulling some comments forward… A congressional House bill that has passed and is moving on to the senate…
marisacat |
when I saw this over at PFF, I thought it was a joke.
Legislating against radical idealogy – with references to homegrown violence as diversion (that is my take, they already spy on anti war Quakers… and sic the FBI/Homeland Securitat on librarians).
It’s not. Put forward by Jane Harmon, pro war, pro Israel… and 14 co sponsors.
Don’t miss the Bloooooooooooo Dogs… and the shits (Dan Lundgren is a fucking nutter). It passed the House, now goes to the Senate.
Rep. Christopher Carney [D-PA]
Del. Donna Christensen [D-VI]
Rep. Yvette Clarke [D-NY]
Rep. Charles Dent [R-PA]
Rep. Norman Dicks [D-WA]
Rep. Al Green [D-TX]
Rep. James Langevin [D-RI]
Rep. Zoe Lofgren [D-CA]
Rep. Nita Lowey [D-NY]
Rep. Daniel Lungren [R-CA]
Rep. Ed Perlmutter [D-CO]
Rep. Ted Poe [R-TX]
Rep. Dave Reichert [R-WA]
Rep. Bennie Thompson [D-MS]
Oct 25, 10:56 PM —
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Text of HR 1955 as it was referred to the Senate, via thomas.loc.gov
BooHooHooMan opened up the text and posted this comment:
BooHooHooMan |
That Bill passed 404 – 6.
After reading that Bill, its hard to know where to begin
I’m going to throw in a few bits here on this
ONE:It shows clearly the bipartisan interest in a police state:
`
(c) Composition of Commission- The Commission shall be composed of 10 members appointed for the life of the Commission, of whom–`(1) one member shall be appointed by the President from among officers or employees of the executive branch and private citizens of the United States;
←→`(2) one member shall be appointed by the Secretary;
`(3) one member shall be appointed by the majority leader of the Senate;
`(4) one member shall be appointed by the minority leader of the Senate;
`(5) one member shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives;
`(6) one member shall be appointed by the minority leader of the House of Representatives;
←→`(7) one member shall be appointed by the Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives;
`(8) one member shall be appointed by the ranking minority member of the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of Representatives;
`(9) one member shall be appointed by the Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate; and
`(10) one member shall be appointed by the ranking minority member of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate.
`(d) Chair and Vice Chair- The Commission shall elect a Chair and a Vice Chair from among its members.[snip}
Reading the markup language is a trip:
The Bold below ironically was in the first draft.
Cops and Contractors all getting paid in the Jane Harmon Zionist Stasi Jackboot Center. `
(e) Qualifications- Individuals shall be selected`(1) for law enforcement activities, except for appointment`(2) to the Commission solely on the basis of their professional qualifications, achievements, public stature, experience, and expertise in relevant fields, including, but not limited to, behavioral science, constitutional law, corrections, counterterrorism, cultural anthropology, education, information technology, intelligence, juvenile justice, local law enforcement, organized crime, Islam and`(3) to construct buildings or other world religions, sociology,`(4) to acquire land; or`(5) for any State or terrorism.
Oct 26, 1:27 AM —
************ close of BHHM comment ************
Oh yes… the vote:
10/23/2007 Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 404 – 6 (Roll no. 993).
—- NAYS 6 —
| Abercrombie Costello |
Duncan Flake |
Kucinich Rohrabacher |
—- NOT VOTING 22 —
| Barrett (SC) Bilbray Bishop (UT) Carson Conyers Cooper Cubin Davis (IL) |
Davis, Tom Feeney Hunter Issa Jindal Johnson, E. B. McKeon Moore (KS) |
Paul Peterson (PA) Reyes Sherman Wilson (OH) Woolsey |
I feel just great .. don’t you? Plus they have the CBC and the Hispanic Caucus in lock down. Or lock-jaw.
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UPDATE 3:09 am
Anotehr post from BHHM, pulled from previous thread:
BooHooHooMan |
Further on HR 1955
Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007
Point Two: A Setup for rampant contractor abuse delving into political opponents of the bipartisan PTB leadership that controls the thing.
.
(i) Powers of Commission- The powers of the Commission shall be as follows:`(1) IN GENERAL-
`(A) HEARINGS AND EVIDENCE- The Commission or, on the authority of the Commission, any subcommittee or member thereof, may, for the purpose of carrying out this section, hold hearings and sit and act at such times and places, take such testimony, receive such evidence, and administer such oaths as the Commission considers advisable to carry out its duties.
`(B) CONTRACTING- The Commission may, to such extent and in such amounts as are provided in appropriation Acts, enter into contracts to enable the Commission to discharge its duties under this section.
`(2) INFORMATION FROM FEDERAL AGENCIES-
`(A) IN GENERAL- The Commission may request directly from any executive department, bureau, agency, board, commission, office, independent establishment, or instrumentality of the Government, information, suggestions, estimates, and statistics for the purposes of this section. The head of each such department, bureau, agency, board, commission, office, independent establishment, or instrumentality shall, to the extent practicable and authorized by law, furnish such information, suggestions, estimates, and statistics directly to the Commission, upon request made by the Chair of the Commission, by the chair of any subcommittee created by a majority of the Commission, or by any member designated by a majority of the Commission.
`(B) RECEIPT, HANDLING, STORAGE, AND DISSEMINATION- The Committee and its staff shall receive, handle, store, and disseminate information in a manner consistent with the operative statutes, regulations, and Executive orders that govern the handling, storage, and dissemination of such information at the department, bureau, agency, board, commission, office, independent establishment, or instrumentality that responds to the request. [ SURE political and ideological counter intelligence will be handlead appropriatly!@&%!! . Not even taking the bait to argue over the missing language dealing with the outcome that it won’t. ]
`(j) Assistance From Federal Agencies-
`(1) GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION- The Administrator of General Services shall provide to the Commission on a reimbursable basis administrative support and other services for the performance of the Commission’s functions.
`(2) OTHER DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES- In addition to the assistance required under paragraph (1), departments and agencies of the United States may provide to the Commission such services, funds, facilities, and staff as they may determine advisable and as may be authorized by law.
`(k) Postal Services- The Commission may use the United States mails in the same manner and under the same conditions as departments and agencies of the United States.
`(l) Nonapplicability of Federal Advisory Committee Act- The Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to the Commission.
Oct 26, 2:50 AM —
***** close of BHHM comment ******
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Marisacat 
How nice, Think of it as EXPORT/ IMPORT
It is being referred to as the ‘thought bill’. And our friend, Pinche Butt Cheeks is in the thread about it, selling it as Dem plot to ‘show those Repubs that we can go after skinheads’. That is some spin!
http://politicalfleshfeast.com/showComment.do?commentId=38609
Hilarious. If it was worth my time, I’d link to mcjoan et al, trying to sell Harman as a ‘friend of the netroots’. Lots of defenses for her on DK last summer. We were supposed to forgive her politics because she came to talk to them!
I remember she (Harmon) gave McNerney money … she has a “SecurityPAC” iirc.
LOL.
Eat me, Meathead.
Lavish Party? Naww.
They were probably grilling on Sunday in SoCal. Cash , That is.
At last until the winds kicked in……
hmm I made it back to the PFF thread on the HR 1955…
reading pinche comment re Harmon primary challenge.
NO netnutroots DID Not embrace WInograd. They pretty much ignored her to the extent that I hear WInograd has some pretty tart words for the nutboyos.
My guess is this is just a way for Harman et al to bust the RWers chops since they are all paranoid about Al Qada sleepers but ignore the KKK and Skinheads like the OKC bombers.
This isn’t going to sound politically correct, but I think that fear of the KKK, Skinheads and McVeigh is as overblown as fear of Al Qaeda.
Why should I give up any part of my freedom because some losers want to go out to a compound in Idaho and masturbate while listening to Prussian Blue records?
And even when the Iraq war vets come home and start shooting up the local McDonalds because commies like me stabbed them in the back and prevented them from “finishing the job” I don’t need the government spying on me.
I’d rather risk getting shot.
well, THIS was a scary read first thing in the morning.
well, THIS was a scary read first thing in the morning.
I know you STRONGLY disagree and think David Niewert is above politics and not a Democratic Party operative, but a lot of the smearing of Ron Paul leading up to this is very suspicious to me.
Right wing opponents of the war are racists and potential terrorists.
Then the week later we get a bill like this.
My most paranoid side sees the coming lockdown of dissent from the right IF Hillary wins (if she loses we’ll hear no more of this).
There will also be lockdown against opposition to a draft and since a lot of that may come from the right, voila, I give you the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.
Fear of Scary Muslims
Fear of Scary Environmentalists
Fear of Scary White Guys
When do I get the “fear of scary government” bill.
Oh right, it’s called the “Bill of Rights” and Habeas Corpus. And that’s what we won’t be getting back.
And note, the left is already locked down.
Tomorrow I’m going to go to an anti-war protest in NYC sponsored by UFPJ.
I’ll march behind some police barricades for a few hours then go home. Why does that scare?
Then again, maybe I’ll be wrong. Maybe they’ll be 2 million angry people in the streets tomorrow and the DLC blogs will have to pull out the “oh they’re waiving Free Mumia signs and dress funny” smears.
Hair Club, no. 6,
We already risk this every day, the prevalence of guns in our society and culture being so ingrained. It will be different psychos doing the shooting for different reasons, but won’t really be any more frequent than it already is.
That’s a truly frightening piece of legislation. A Democratic presidency will result in a program (not announced until after the election results are confirmed of course) something like “Mobilization For Total War,” with the accompanying WWI style anti-free speech legislation Wilson foisted on us and detention centers/concentration camps such as those FDR created for US citizens of Japanese descent. And a program of “National Service” that will be a de facto military draft.
Damn, that’s some power grabbin’, little people stompin’ bill. Looks like the party in power gets to decide who’s a terrorist and who’s just a whiney assed dissident. (not that the parties won’t negotiate, behind doors, on that decision. LOL)
Ooo, I can see an election call to vote for “our” team or risk getting labeled a terrorist. (And we all know what happens if you’re labeled a terrorist in this country.) The SC threat is gettin’ a little worn around the edges, ya know… 😉
Only six of the elite voted against this. Christ, we are so far beyond screwed.
The no votes and the no shows are interesting. Kucinich is a no. Paul and Conyers are no shows. There are some right wingers on the no list. Woolsey’s a no show.
This won’t be a right vs. left bill. It will be a who’s got connections bill. If you’re right and connected (and not a threat) you’ll be a dissident. If you organize march behind the police barricades protests you’ll be a dissident.
If you’re a radical environmentalist, you WOULD be a terrorist but they’re all in jail already.
For serious dissenters on the draft, you can EASILY cut off possible support from the left by trumping up some terrorist charges against some liberal.
Don’t say “someone’s against the draft”.
Say “he’s a potential McVeigh and he had plans to blow up Maxine Waters office”.
Now most of this probably WON’T happen. But it COULD.
That’s why I don’t like Gary Kasperov but I like the idea of Gary Kasperov. The people who run this country think several moves ahead. The “left” doesn’t.
HC
The spittle about KKK and skinheads came from an apologist for the bill over at PFF. If you follow the link to the original PFF thread, you will see.
As if Harmon gives a flying hoo hoo about the right wing violence.
“This won’t be a right vs. left bill. It will be a who’s got connections bill.”
Oh, I agree but still feel it will be the party in power (which has nothing to do with right vs left) who will decide. You’re only connected if you are, somehow, of use to the party in power. That “inside the beltway” construct, the centralist, they pandered to the powerful in both parties. Win/win as Big Whitey loved to say. 😉
Just my opinion…
Oh, I agree but still feel it will be the party in power (which has nothing to do with right vs left) who will decide.
(The Very Demonized) Ward Churchill is by far the best person to read on this kind of crap.
Read his books on Cointelpro. He’s extremely lucid on how the state uses repression in a progressive way according to how much is needed.
On another note, the anti-immigrant crowd is going after Spitzer. The NY State rep is making the point that the KKK has bascially just been folded into the Minutemen.
MarketTrustee over at PFF comment.
He/She links to a couple more “trendlines”…
Market Trustee says “Bernie Thompson’s fingerprints are all over this”.
Who’s Bernie Thompson. His link is broken.
I am not sure who he means either… BENNIE Thompson, who is a Dem from MS iirc, is a co sponsor.
Not sure what MT means.
Bernie Thompson (D-Mississippi) is House Homeland Security Committee Chair.
Oops that’s Bennie Thompson.
Pepe Escobar in ATIMES has a piece up on Iran and the new sanctions. [thanks to Madman]
Escobar’s article is a follow-up to this one, from last night.
Attack Iran and you attack Russia
i posted this in the earlier thread. but i’ll ask the question here again.
i wonder what reason lies behind peeder’s decision not to front page that post?
after all, it should be front paged by anyone who gives a shit.
thoughts?
Good for Putin in this instance even if it is self-serving. I hope that China and Russia do not cave in.
In case anyone is wondering why the ‘nutroots’ has zero credibility with anyone who has been paying attention, this diary at Docudharma ought to explaiin it. And why people reacted so badly to DD in the first place. Buhdy seemed puzzled about the reaction to his choice of ‘administrators’.
The author of the diary wants to know why Daily Kos is still running the Chevron ad. The diary lists the atrocities committed against the people of Burma by the military junta and how Corporations like Chevron are finacially supporting them. Government sanctioned rape, murder and torture etc.
As expected into the thread came the DK apologists, NPK leading the charge, riding the fence as usual in what she believes is ‘reasonable’. And she delivers the usual excuses for taking the blood money from Chevron.
I notice they’ve added the ‘you’re guilty too if you drive etc. etc. as did the ‘pinche’ character on Pff.
http://www.docudharma.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1719
How clever she is, or thinks she is. Pass Chevron’s active participation in supporting a violent regime onto to all those silly liberals who have to get to work every day. That’ll shut them up.
Of course she ignores the fact that Chevron does not have to help the regime buy weapons and that there is a law here forbidding US Corps from doing business with them, so someone thought there was a difference between getting to work in order to survive, and profiting voluntarily by directly funding such a regime.
And this made me laugh, from the other DK apologist in the thread:
Of course they dragged out Meteor Blades to slam Chevron. Very clever of them. And they get the planned result, Turkana can point to that, as if it did any good with Chevron ad directly above his post, and do what he just did to Breathingstill, the author of the diary.
‘One of the most respected writers in the blogosphere’
Since when? Before I went to DK I never heard of any these people and had been online for four years by then. I had heard of Chris Floyd, Dahr Jamail, Robert Fisk, Robert Scheer and many other real writers who actually were doing something other than propping up the Dem Party, but never even came across a post by Meteor Blades or any of the other DK ‘stars’. I doubt more than a couple of thousand people have heard of them even now. And when he posted his anti-Chevron screed directly under the Chevron ad, with one hand taking their money and the other saying ‘I don’t like what you do but hey, it’s Kos’ blog and not my business how he makes his living’.
Do they think people are thoroughly stupid? To continue to drag out the same old lame excuses? Had they been around during the Nazi era, no doubt they would have seen nothing wrong with doing business with them because ‘how would it help their victims if we stop’?
Good for Breathinglife for trying, but on a site with so many Kossack apologists, it’s no surprise to get the same response you’d get on DK itself, where the author said s/he was afraid to post the diary.
That diary should explain to anyone wondering why DD got such a poor reception. Even though there are good writers there, as there are on DK, the Kos Kops are fully operative, beating down any kind of criticism of what is the mainstream media of the blogosphere. The are exactly what we were supposed to be fighting against. Taking big Corp money is one of the reasons why we no longer have a free press.
Bayprairie, which post?
sabrina, this one
Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007
aemd # 14 Oh, I agree but still feel it will be the party in power (which has nothing to do with right vs left) who will decide. You’re only connected if you are, somehow, of use to the party in power.
The Right is the Power. Certainly over the last 30 years The Parties are incidental, and morph to that. I don’t buy the idea that either Party shakesdown the corporate or generationally wealthy. Hardly. They are beggars to the ball at best, recruited for th most part to cater the affair. Its not about gay bashing but one helluva metaphor when you have a Senator- any Senator – literally grovelling on a restroom floor to suck and be sucked….
At one time, Servants’ Balls were quite the annual affair in London. A hideous excercise in highbrow “slumming” where the Masters and Servants of the larger houses traded places for one eve’s formal affair…
This quote from the New York Times in 1921 STILL works:
bay
not sure peeder is around … I just looked and think nothing had been FPed this am. And goodness knows I am not a peeder apologist… 😉
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sabrina…
ugh.. I never looked at docudonot after the first week. IMO butterfly net and a tree house for Armando. And an easy poke for PFF, let me add.
😉
YUM.. shades of Kissinger…
But he’s still jetting around Old Europe.
finally got a chance to open the DemNOw! link… :
We’ll see.. think iirc (and I know I did a piece on it at the time) it was Ratner and his NY public law collective that filed against Rummy and Gonsalez in German courts, about 3 years ago or so…
The money is on Il Duce Giuliani as the republican nominee
http://www.intrade.com/
some more:
It’s sad, I long ago settled with it, I would be happy if this sort is denied breakfast at the Ritz.
33
Hillary is happy…
Too bad such a complaint has not been filed here in the country where they actually broke the law. But then, they refuse to even answer subpoenas here, they have so little regard for the law or for Congress.
But I doubt anything will come of it. Although it”s at least good to see that people outside the US know what they did.
I have always known nothing will come of it.. that is the reason I am satisfied if this sort is denied France. Like Kissinger.
I sure never, not for a minute even, fantasised about the Hague.
let’s get real… much of the world is supplying assistance of some kind. If only to, as was said at the onset of GW1, “not be on the menu”… Or hoovering up antiquities, or joining in the bloodbath games in Afghanistan… etc.
CSTAR, thanks. I agree with Marisa though, I don’t think peeder promoted anything to the FP today. Someone in one of the threads said they had posted it at DK and were threatened with being banned. But there was no link, so I don’t know whether it was a diary or a comment.
Re DD, well troll kops don’t make good administrators, and watching them spin to try to defend DK acceptance of Chevron money, slightly more politely than they do it on DK, is just sickening. Good people, who have a conscience like the author of that diary, are the ones she and her troll patrol cohorts facilitated the silencing of.
But unlike the others, she’s always on every side of the issue ‘Well, I understand your pov, a case can be made for it, but really, I see no harm being done by kos letting them waste their money, so I really don’t see making a fuss over it etc. etc.’
I don’t know which is worse, people who openly support anything their side does, or those who pretend to see why others might have a problem with it, but will not take a stand. I find the latter to be far worse as they claim to see a possible problem, but brush it aside for partisan reasons.
Which is why I despise Colin Powell far more than Rumsfeld et al. They have no ability to see how wrong they are. He did and went ahead anyway rather than step down. I can imagine what NPK might have said back then. ‘But what good would it have done if he stepped down? They would have just replaced him with someone else and done what they wanted to anyway. This way he thought he might be able to reign them in etc. etc.’
They are so predictable, these apologists who refuse to take a moral stand. But if everyone who is uneasy about something, did take a stand, rather than rationalize everything, we might not be where we are.
Colin Powell was fully on board… IMO he ws used cynically by Bush. So fascinating to watch all the commenters at Kos in 2003 assume that Colin is some moderate and would have some influence. Geesh.
Then they said the same of BLair. Who is really a christian extremeist in my view. Able to drool about lifing UK children out of poverty … but fine to wage an exterminating, eliminationist xtian war. And tie Bush’s shoe laces.
Quite the display, for many years now.
Rumsfeld will have get used to roaming the earth like a Pinochet or a Galtieri.
Rumsfeld will have get used to roaming the earth like a Pinochet or a Galtieri.
I don’t know. I remember that endless Pinochet detention in England a few years ago and actually believing he was going to do some time.
And that was only Chile. No country’s going to risk pissing off the USA to put Rumsfeld in jail. The only thing that’s going to do anything about any of these criminals is an impeachment hearing.
And that’s not on the table.
Re: The Code Pink Protester who confronted Condi Rice last week.
I just figured out why that photo is so powerful and why that protest worked so well.
The usual modus operandi for Code Pink and like groups is to call them crazy, to wink and make sly accusations of female hysteria. This goes from the crazy whackjobs on the right like “Zombietime” and the liberals at DKos.
But the woman who confronted Condi smeared her hands with blood. It signals both a murder and female anger/menstruation. She pre-empted the charges of “crazy” by going right past crazy into “avenging spirit out of Greek mythology”.
Note. You’ve seen very little of that photo on right wing sites, not even to say “oh look how scary the crazy woman could have assassinated Rice”.
interestng aboutthe Code pink confrontation. I liked the pic a lot. And i saw the film of the confrontation, taken from behind and slightly right of the CP woman… so I was able to see Condi’s face.
well they are killers. This country is a killer.
My own remedy that I posted at Dkos during invasion was that the lot of them be rounded up, heads shaved and tied together and set loose inside Iraq at some day in the future.
About as a likely as true condemnation. Again, I long ago settled for some hope that some of them may be denied, at the very least, free access to France and thus are denied a power table at petit dejeuner at the Ritz
I think part of what makes it so unlikely that Rice or Rumsfeld or Cheney or Wolfowitz or Kissinger is going to do any time is the guilt the American people feel over their own complicity.
Somewhere deep inside we all know that we’re no different from the Germans or the Japanese or the Turks or anybody else who’s committed massive atrocities.
But we like to fool ourselves. OUR leaders aren’t like Pinochet or Hitler. Bush isn’t a hard ass war criminal. He’s just stupid and inarticulate. Rumsfeld’s not the torturer in chief. He’s just a guy who talks funny. Even when it’s obvious that the politician in question is stone cold evil, he’s elevated into a caricature of stone cold evil, Cheney as villain in an Austin Powers movie.
Once any of these people go to jail then the psychological damn breaks and we see ourselves not as Americans, but Germans. Then we all become afraid even to leave the country because we admit to ourselves how people see us.
To picked up the AP story:
well Nixon was “unindicted co-conspirator”, about as close as one would ever get and that was nearly 25 years ago and pre Reagan. Same nation that never bothered much but to dissemble and cover up assassinations.
I never had any illusions about “responsibility” from the Bush regime. Sme issues as with Clinton, they start parsing verbs. To be or not to be, is we is or is we not. What is the meaning of is… and so on. And NO ONE in power will insult the millions who vote[d] for him – or who might vote for Hillary. All about those useless elections.
It falls to gibberish.
The News Hour doing a roudn up piece on Burma… will post the transcript when it is up… which is likely Monday.
21,000 imprisoned, and 1900 killed… from a long time Burma dissident (left in the late 70s)… and still ongoing. Military goes around at night and picks people up. The regular political (Inslein) prison is full so they are using the old buildings of Rangoon Univ.
OT but funny as hell, Matt Taibbi on Mitt Romney.
“The most common thing you hear from voters after a Romney event is how impressed they are by his demeanor and delivery, his obvious vitality, by the fact that he looks like he could do this twenty-four hours a day and twice on Sunday, taking off only twenty-six minutes once a week to make monogamous, missionary-position love to his baby-factory wife. And that’s precisely the way Romney wants it: He wants voters focused on him the man, this unblemished, in-control Example for All who, unlike his Republican rivals, is in no danger of collapsing onstage, or getting caught on camera with his cock in some bruise-covered stripper or Jack Russell terrier.”
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16983679/mitt_romney_the_huckster
He is so strong and so powerful he avoids the men’s room entirely. Esp in Flyover Land.
I know you STRONGLY disagree and think David Niewert is above politics and not a Democratic Party operative, but a lot of the smearing of Ron Paul leading up to this is very suspicious to me.
When did I type that? I said whether Niewert is or isn’t is immaterial to the long history of Paul working with racists, nativists and misogynists. Niewert is a good writer and an easy link to find, so I linked to him. If you click on HIS links, you can find supporting materials.
I cheer when Paul speaks truth about the war and the assault on civil liberties, but it’s important to know what he is.
This is the fifth time Rumsfeld has been charged with direct involvement in torture since 9/11.
I’d love to see him get the Pinochet treatment.
I cheer when Paul speaks truth about the war and the assault on civil liberties, but it’s important to know what he is.
I wasn’t talking about criticizing Paul. I was talking about language like this.
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2007/10/ron-paul-goes-after-coveted-unabomber.html
Ron Paul Goes After the Coveted Unabomber Vote
It’s one thing to argue that “one wouldn’t want to vote for Ron Paul because of his anti-abortion, anti-immigrant politics”.
I’d actually make that argument myself.
BUT, Niewert is someone who presents himself as an impartial monitor of right wing hate groups. Most of what he writes is fine and most of the people he goes after (eg Michelle Malkin) are horrible and deserve to be gone after.
But note he’s not saying “Malkin’s a potential terrorist”. That’s what a lot of the Niewert inspired (and I’ll admit Niewert didn’t write it himself) attacks on Paul imply, that his followers are dangerous, potential terrorists, potential McVeighs.
WOA. It’s actually quite the opposite. The “bad” anti-immigrant, anti-abortion Ron Paul (as opposed to the “good” anti-war Ron Paul) isn’t creating terrorists. He’s actually doing the opposite. He’s taking potential terrorists and giving their views mainstream expression.
Niewert thinks that’s bad, that the margins will infect the mainstream and have to be supressed.
I think the opposite. I actually read through a lot of the Stormfront threads on Paul and what’s interesting about them is that they’re the only places on Stormfront that aren’t completely insane. They resemble a more mainstream political site.
You could look at this from another angle. Take Al Qaeda followers. What if a charismatic Palestinian American politician were running in the Democratic primary and expressing anti-Israel, anti-US-interventionist politics in a mainstream, legitimate forum?
We’d like that. I don’t really see those rednecks on Stormfront being much different. We WANT THEM to be talking about ending the war in Iraq BY VOTING and not going out and bashing Jews or Mexicans.
I just think Niewert’s misguided in his approach, fundamentally reactionary and exclusionary at his core.
I link to Raimondo too, who believes crazy libertarian bullshit that I otherwise don’t agree with, but he’s damned good on the war. I think I’ve even quoted American Conservative on the war a few times, too.
Life is complicated, and despite what so many like to insist about me, I’m not such a purist that I won’t work with people I find reprehensible on issues of importance. That being said, I certainly wouldn’t vote for Paul, but I’m damned glad he’s there on the stage like a Greek Chorus speaking truth behind all the other Republicans’ bullshit when it comes to the war. A racist Greek Chorus, but still glad he’s there.
Romney’s shtick:
“I-know-the-way-because-I’ve-made-shitloads-of-money act.”
As matter of fact all these guys and gals are pathetic actors. Their show has become too unbearable for anybody with a modest sense of dignity to pretend they are paying any attention. It should have become obvious to us (at least to me) with Kerry’s “reporting for duty shtick” in 2004. The american electoral process on the national scale has ceased to be about politics and has become a very bad theater production. There may be differences between these clowns. But I can’t pretend anymore that I have any interest.
Mounties do their best American cop imitation:
Danger Room has a contest running to pick a new logo for Blackwater, which announced recently that it was going to redesign it’s logo as part of its recent PR offensive.
I like the Hello Kitty inspired one, myself.
What Is Rahm Emmanuel Talking About?
POLITICS: U.S. Military Ignored Evidence of Iraqi-Made EFPs”
I remember them accusing the Iranians of supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents. But those charges were debunked. Now they are trying to say it’s happening in Afghanistan. They don’t even bother with a new script, just use the one that worked on the American people before. And they’re right. People I know, including liberals, are being influenced by the news on Iran.
If someone lies blatantly to you for a number of years, why would you believe anything they have to say after that without a ton of proof. The only ‘proof’ we ever get is ‘A spokesperson for the military said today in Afghanistan that Iran has been supplying weapons to the Taliban’. And right away, tens of thousands of people believe it without queston.
I believe not a single word they say and find it hard to understand why anyone does.
What’s happening with Canada? Four or five years ago most of the Canadians I met online were in shock over the police state we live in here. I remember asking them many times how Canadians viewed their military, and most said they did not treat the military there they way we do here. There was no flag-waving, hysterical patriotic fervor apparent when they went to Afghanistan, eg. Someone’s been influencing them.
Life is complicated, and despite what so many like to insist about me, I’m not such a purist that I won’t work with people I find reprehensible on issues of importance.
I DO agree with you when you say that Paul is a symptom, not a solution.
His supporters are only a tiny percentage of Americans who oppose the war. I see from anti-war.com that Justin Raimondo’s speaking at the UPFJ rally with Michael Lerner. I doubt he’s going to bring out more than a few dozen supporters. What we REALLY NEED is for Al Sharpton to mobilize his people in New York tomorrow. But the Democrats have bought him out so he won’t, any more than he made a fuss about the 2000 pre-emtpive arrests during the RNC.
And I DO agree that there’s a reason the media makes sure criticism of Israel only comes from Pat Buchanan and the right and not from someone like Noam Chomsky and criticisim of the runup to war with Iran comes only from someone like Ron Paul and not a more left-wing source (although they do let Seymour Hersch and Wesley Clark, also not exactly leftists, make the same criticisms).
But something just made me blow a gasket when, in the aftermath of the Columbia Nuremberg rally against Iran, Paul emerged as the most articulate critic of war with Iran in the media, and gutless Democrats started yelling “he’s a Nazi”.
Niewert grew up in rural Idaho and I grew up in New York so maybe he’s just got personal issues with militia types that I don’t. Racism for me looks like Rudy Giuliani and the NYPD, not Ron Paul and the militias.
I also think there’s something more to it. Paul is a very articulate, very direct critic of US imperialism. Even Chris Matthews is starting to quote him (“Ron Paul told me sanctions are a declaration of war”). And yes, it’s too bad that such an articulate critic of militarism is also a leader in the nativist movement.
But comeone gutless Democrats (not referring to you), if you want to say that Paul is a flawed critic of the runup to war with Iran, first get your own anti-war credentials in order.
I don’t know what I find worse, Pauls disgusting views on birthright citizenship or Ned Lamont’s digusting cheerleading for mass murder in lebanon.
Chris Floyd in Salon
That being said …
Four or five years ago most of the Canadians I met online were in shock over the police state we live in here. I remember asking them many times how Canadians viewed their military, and most said they did not treat the military there they way we do here.
I was talking via IM to a Canadian friend on the day of 9/11.
I said something like “holy shit they just blew up the world trade center for real”.
And she was like “I know. I’m watching it on TV. Are you suprised. Don’t tell me you arrogant Americans don’t deserve it”.
OK. That sounds like it came right out of a right-wingers wet dream but it was true. It was her first reaction. And it’s not as if we oppress the Canadians.
A lot of people felt like that. Chalmers Johnson was talking about how he had people e-mailing him from Okinawa telling him stuff like “what did you expect”.
Then the world started feeling guilty and started with the candlelight vigils and expressions of sympathy. We blew that sympathy to hell in all of a few months.
But note, that for all the anger there is in the world against Americans, you never see right-wingers with signs that say “Canadians Gloated on 9/11” the way they have their “Palestinians Danced on 9/11” signs.
And after what we’ve done to Iraq part of me thinks “yeah. We deserved it”.
“Americans Danced on 9/11, Retroactively”.
Of course I also realize that Jose the undocumened busboy didn’t deserve to have 110 stories fall on his head just because he went to work one morning, any more than that Iraqi girl deserved to have her parents blown away in front of her.
That sounds a little too radical for Greenwald. Is that Chris Floyd instead?
HC…
it probably is Chris Floyd, the link was a run-on thru the entire text so I fixed it working from the URL.
Even as I scanned it as i fixed the link, I thought, shit Greenwald will even post what he does not believe (as I have said, not a fan)
Will fix the link words.. LOL
oh, sorry … yup, it’s Floyd.
I got suspicious about the fact that it was under 2000 words.
Writer’s block is one thing Mr. Greenwald does not suffer from.
Speaking of Nazis, a Croatian Nazi is going to play a concert in NYC next month and people are organizing against it.
http://onepeoplesproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1267&Itemid=2
Now I’m not quite sure how to express this, but, um, isn’t there something a bit more important Americans should be protesting? Like the war in Iraq?
I dunno. Maybe I’m just a closet Nazi sympathizer but then again, what if Germans in 1943 had spent their time protesting the KKK and Jim Crow.
Wouldn’t we have said “guys. Clean your own stables first” or “um piss off you stinking Krauts and stop changing the subject. You’re gassing your minorities. We’re only making ours use seperate toilets and occasionally lynching a few”.
But I guess they think that buy protesting the nasty Croation rock band they’re protesting racism everywhere, including the kind of racism that made us destroy Iraq.
I guess.
HC
well you know, Genocide In Darfur (Don’t look at Katrina!). See Clooney run (over there!), see Bono praying (over there!).
Same thing, see Croatian Nazis.
Etc.
I don’t think I’d describe it as radical, though. I think that political discourse has become so debased that a strong opinion built upon a firmly historical outlook SOUNDS “radical” compared to the nonsense we’re usually spoonfed.
well you know, Genocide In Darfur (Don’t look at Katrina!). See Clooney run (over there!), see Bono praying (over there!).
Someone once accused me of thinking “America does all the evil there is in the world” and I had a very simple answer.
No. America is not respnsible for all the evil in the world. Other people do plenty of evil. How can you tell? If the USA has a monument to an atrocity, it’s probably something the USA didn’t do.
So a Holocaust museum in DC? Yes.
A Lynching Museum in DC? No.
All the names of the Americans killed on 9/11 on monuments? Yes.
Any Vietnamese names or Vietnamese villages on the Vietnam memorial? Are you kidding?
Reperations for Jews killed by the Germans? Yes
Reperations for Slavery? Heard Conyers mention that lately?
Reperations for Jews who lost their money to Swiss banks? Yes.
Repreations for Jews who lost their money to American banks during the Holocaust? Who would enforce it.
Basically. We’re not Germans. We’re the Japanese or the Turks.
We didn’t do anything, really.
Until the 1970s, such debates were considered a fringe topic in the media. In the Japanese media, the opinions of the political centre and left tends to dominate the editorials of newspapers, while the right tend to dominate magazines. Debates regarding war crimes were confined largely to the editorials of tabloid magazines where calls for the overthrow of “Imperialist America” and revived veneration of the Emperor coexisted with pornography.
Ooops.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes
Cheney is going hunting this weekend. A lot of men have heart attacks on hunting trips (and when having extramarital sex); I have always wondered about that, is it just such a thrill to kill, legally?
I just talked to a brother in San Diego-apparently the couple that had the fire photo-op with dubya are Democrats, associates of his years back associate. The latter said…well, you just can’t tell the president to just get the hell out of here. To which my bro replied “Why not?”
Jesette Christine, a high school student called out Nixon on Vietnam at some WH ceremony.
The latter said…well, you just can’t tell the president to just get the hell out of here. To which my bro replied “Why not?”
GO FUCK YOURSELF MR. CHENEY
ugh. caught snippets of the NYC Hillary Birthday bash. With Bubba Bill and the kid.
These people are rolling in it.
elvis costello sang
happy birthday mrs prezeldent.
gahhhhhhhhh.
yeah, evidently he wasn’t. the piece is front paged there now though and i’m catching up on some good thoughts expressed within.
the bill and its passage sure isn’t being discussed very much elsewhere (other than here) that i can see. although, i do also see a post at howdydoodydharma. the rest of the “progressive” north-dallas servers are so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
the pushback in the thread at pff indicates to me, suspicious as i am, that there might have been some discussion of the votes on the bill occuring on something very much like the townhouse list. if you close your eyes you can almost hear the little voices imploring shhhhhhhhhh. don’t want to wake the sheep.
the pushback in the thread at pff indicates to me, suspicious as i am, that there might have been some discussion of the votes on the bill occuring on something very much like the townhouse list. bayprairie
hmmm mmm
pinche cheekngum seems very oleaginous and practised. IMO, that is.
just caught a reference from a reporter in This Week, pbs local news roudn up…
sounds like Boxer is running again in ’10
75-that does it ElvisC-it was bad enough when you married kralling. as if jazz was about glee club awards.
rebels to revels. yuk.
Bayprairie, the pushback came mostly from one source. The same person was very defensive of the Dems in another thread last night. I did ask if s/he worked for the Party but haven’t seen him/her since.
This is so indicative of how far gone we are as far as the press in this country. But it’s hilarious at the same time because you have to wonder why they are so incompetent.
FEMA fake reporters at news conference
Lol – I wonder is Brownie still working behind the scenes? You have to wonder whose idea this was and why they thought they would not get caught!
I don’t thnk there is any reason or evidence to think that FEMA is anything but what it was two years ago.
I always read about and sometimes post on the CA fires… but I would never compare it to Katrina…. 3000 homes vs 300,000 homes. Flood v fire. Considerable difference in land mass affected… and so on. The list is long.
And despite bad management for almost a hundred years (officially, total fire suppression is the rule – this thwarts nature) again, we do this every year, several times a year. The same entities are involved over and over again… To some large measure, we do know the response game.
So, there is no reason to think that FEMA is anything other than a republican agent for denial of peoples’ needs.
Bush came to CA specifically to get a bump. Arnold rides his strange goosestepping ‘green am i’ neo con revolution.
About it.
I agree re FEMA, but to use fake reporters is crossing a line even for an agency totally under the thumb of the Bush administration. It’s not unusual for the Bush administration to do so, but this was so blatant.
I wonder if the usual disaster vultures have figured out to make a profit from this tragedy.
I agree too that there is no comparison to Katrina. We really don’t even know that whole story, how many died etc. It was a horror and should caused the entire administration to be removed from office.
Just saw a report that police shot a man they suspected of being an asronist. Not much info on why he was a suspect.
All I meant is that the government, state and federal, is USING a non related incident (Ca wilfires – a cyclical disaster) to look good.
Won’t wash. But will fly for a while as PR. Vautned Qualcomm is looking ragged too. ‘Security” not sure if that is police or what, turned in for deportation.
I just don’t see any reason to be surprised at what this government (and the next and the next) does.
They shot a suspected arsonist in an unrelated incident (of suspected attempt to set a fire) a few days ago, think that is the one.
soemone popped me this diary at Dkos. “Secret” list of whistleblowers revealed.
Gotta love the House Judiciary under the Dems. Secrecy is ON THE TABLE, impeachment is OFF THE TABLE.
FEMA is hegemonic.
Now Texans want to keep prisoners in tents:
http://www.ketknbc.com/home/ticker/10796721.html
A South Carolina candidate for Congress engaged in sexual activity with a young girl less than ten years old.
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071026/APN/710260862&template=apart
a former candidate, who ran unsuccesfully in 2000. Kind of different.
To be blunt, all manner of slugs and slime in politics.
A Republican from Queens raped a grandmother:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18955656&BRD=2731&PAG=461&dept_id=574901&rfi=6
Now Texans want to keep prisoners in tents:
Aside from the fact that tents for Smith Co. inmates are off the table, this idea is nothing new. South Texas sheriffs have tried the same thing, and under Gov. Bill Clements, the state prison system did it in the mid-80s. There were huge 20-man white tents all around the front of the main Walls Unit in Huntsville, until Federal Justice Wayne Justice (not a typo) put a stop to it.
But that was then, this is now, and today every sheriff wants to be Joe Arpaio when he grows up.
thanks moiv.
aunti hege / louisianagirl / pointecoupeedemocrat is a little slow on the uptake.
When not selling John Breaux or sucking the Dem party tit.
[chomp chomp chomp on the Cajun Corn]
🙂
88
charged with rape. A 52 year old grandmother he met in a bar and took to his offices. Some small town councilman, one more insect under the political rock..
…
but as you are a spammer, you are long gone.
ta ta
😉
jesus. Get out a hankie.
OK, I’ll bite. Just how embattled is he?
That means how much are they willing to give him to get him to leave — that’s what the real battle’s all about, no?
moiv
LOL they don’t even hide the lede, the very next story on him is:
There is a punch line… the board is considering, as replacement, a Mr Fink of BlackRock.
Gotta love money people. They are just so fun.
If the parachute is all that golden, I wish to hell they’d fire me.
Atop the Rec List of the great dailykos, America’s finest liberal blog and divorce counseling website for “mommys bodybuilders, political junkies and wannabee writers”. …And I’m just quotin the author’s profile!. I’m sorry. I’ll put myself in the naughty chair.
What gullibalistas can be punked and owned so easily by this kind of turdplay??? LOL.
My husband is leaving me.
by Strawberrybitch
Fri Oct 26, 2007 at 08:25:01 PM PDT
It’s been 10 days since he got back from Iraq and he announced to me that after 15 years together and three children, he’s leaving me for a 20 year old Turkish art student he met on the internet. I’ve been waiting for three years for him to get home so we could rebuild our relationship that has been battered by 12 years in the military followed by three years as a contractor repairing ITAS systems for the military in Iraq. I thought finally, we could set aside all the hurt, pain and distance to finally heal.
I know this is a very short diary but Daily Kos has been one of the few things that has helped me maintain my sanity these past three years waiting for him to return and right now I feel more lost and alone than I ever have when he was gone.
I was fortunate enough to get him to go to counseling yesterday and the wonderful woman that had the balls to undertake this trainwreck of a marriage told us that she is putting in 12 hours a day, damned near seven days a week with the overload from near by Fort Lewis. Business is booming for marriage counselers.
If there are any Kossacks with advice for me on how to win him back please let me know.
* Strawberrybitch’s diary :: ::
*
Tags: Iraq Fallout, personal, Recommended (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions
Permalink | 214 comments
*
((((((((Strawberrybitch))))))) (113+ / 0-)
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n/t
“2009” The end of an error
by sheddhead on Fri Oct 26, 2007 at 08:28:03 PM PDT
I thought finally, we could set aside all the hurt, pain and distance to finally heal.
apparently not….
Kosmaniac Dem Lady, MaryCh, noweasels, Mother Mags, Strawberrybitch, BalanceSeeker
so……the diarist rec’d the comment too…???
(whoever it is)
Hug thyself. Sounds like DkosWhacks
just noticed this at Counterpunch…
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says it will require some diplomats to serve in Iraq because of a lack of volunteers willing to work at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Beginning Monday, 200 to 300 diplomats will be notified they have been identified as prime candidates to fill 40 to 50 vacancies that will open next year at the embassy, said Harry Thomas, director general of the Foreign Service.
Those notified they have been selected for a one-year posting will have 10 days to respond. Only those with compelling reasons, such as a medical condition, will be excused from duty, Thomas said Friday.
He said those being sent to Iraq will receive extra pay and vacation time. About 50 diplomats will be needed in Iraq by January, in addition to the current level of 200.
However, those refusing Iraq duty may face disciplinary action up to and including dismissal for failing to uphold their oath to serve the United States and the Constitution, Thomas said.”
Serve the Constitution. Thick irony.
Somehow I think Harman and the rest are hoping to use it against Code Pink …
The California Wildfires and the American Social Crisis
So very sad
What Does It Mean When Kos Accepts Clinton
Marcos is an operative, and I wish more people would confront that fact.
sabrina said
yes, pinchecheek’ngum is so obvious he’s probably posting from an IP coming in from domain * dot gov. the lawyerly coyote is more circumspect but is pushing back as well. he’s simply better at it.
doesn’t quite pass the smell test though.
that’s at least two pffers who appear to be democratic party minders “calming the waters” of the threads of the fab honorary texan, señor peeder.
re: the 6 ‘looters’ who were deported . . .
there was an excellent report on this (& the plight of migrant workers in the fires) yesterday on FlashPoints Radio
This is from the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium:
Easy enough for our imaginations to conjure terror in the face of an out-of-control conflagration. Now imagine the terror that leads someone to choose facing/risking that over dealing w/ an of an out-of-control gov’t. One that sees (ala N Klein) this disaster as yet another ‘opportunity.’
The War in the Media
Glad to see you found NAM! The late Chauncey Phillips was involved w/ that project.
y mas:
Via a link at Opinion Mill: Charles Peirce:
speaking of pushback on HR 1955… this is the quick bio of the Counterpunch writer who pushed back agaisnt Harmon (link at 104):
113
seems to me Arcturus, there are more dead bodies to be found at immigrant encampments. The reports of not being released from work are just horrific.
111 – Arcturus
too bad people refuse, absolutely refuse, to see the goosestepping.
***********
Madman – 107
Gosh:
I am surprised… SF City and County (which is the same) is barely more than 600K and we are on (they say) 49 or so sq miles. The extra quarter of a mil in pop. is the bigger issue…
8)
************
Miss D – 105
be nice if the administration stopped talking about the Const… all things considered. We might be a tad safer.
117–no sooner had you spoken:
“Craig to claim sex sting arrest unconstitutional
ACLU agrees, says senator’s foot-tapping in stall was protected speech”
i wonder if he will lead a wide-stance toe-tapping protest in nationwide stalls. Set his fly on fire.
Witch School fails to charm town – Community on edge after Wiccans arrive
I’m constantly amazed how little comfort xtians actually get from their superstitions.
Of course, Reich doesn’t ever admit that he helped the Donklephants GET like this, but still, this sums them up pretty well:
“Moral hazard” is one of those terms invented to provide a patina of intellectual respectability to the dirty task of shifting the burden of risk on to the poor. See for instance The Great Risk Shift by Jacob Hacker (not a great book, but it does provide interesting examples in the area of health insurance).
Risk is one of those marketable entities that are notoriously difficult to correctly price (I am hesitant to say “commodity” because it doesn’t have the obvious properties of a commodity, but it is marketale) . It is one of those quirky little things that can make life unpleasant even for the very rich.
In this regard today’s FT has a report on the financial consequences of the the SoCal fires. Of note is the following excerpt from the article
Clearly, the concept of moral hazard applies only to the less affluent.
SCHIP and the Rigged Health Insurance Game
Mohawk Warriors Unite with Zapatistas at Encuentro
I guess this conspiracy theory isn’t verbotten on Kos.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/27/18588/298
Barns & Noble Suspressing Valerie Plame-Wilson’s “Fair Game”?
PA LEEZE. My local Barnes and Nobles, right in the middle of suburbia, has Jimmy Carter, Walt and Mersheimer and Noam Chomsky all on front tables.
They also have Ann Coulter and those idiots from “Protest Warrior”.
It’s all about who PAYS for a front table. Nothing to see here. Move on.
when I first read of the paid for front tables at B*N and whoever else… I assume that also means window displays are paid for as well as the book racks facing the Front Door.
One of the good things about old time non chain book stores was the staff input- in display tables and in house Best Seller lists, etc..
SO, we should assume the Wilson/Plame publisher did not pay the premium?
Geesh.
Talking about old-time non-chain bookstores I was saddened to find a few weeks ago that the old Cody’s on telegraph ave is no more, after their SF venture failed. There is still a Cody’s somewhere else in Berkeley, but I was told by Moe’s daughter next door at her bookstore that it was not quite the same as the old one. To be quite clear, she urged me twice to pay them a visit, but no thanks. That part of Berkeley, has become too gentrified I’ve been told.
Co-op advertising is one of the MOST important things in any chain book or music store. Employee choice things are only if there is left over room, and generally away from the front door.
CSTAR… I loved the old Cody’s… I have many many paperbacks tht I bought there… anthropology and history. Several on the early conquered Americas.
It was a sad day when it closed, esp as it was near Moe’s. Noe’s is where I got my copy of Nancy Cunard’s “Negro” that I got down off a shelf once, to read again, when I was so appalled at how ignorant the Koswhacks were/are about all the things that bedevil America.
**
Madman
One thing I can say for my local video store, it is true the racks that face the cash registers (where people walk past coming in and stand and look at as they wait to check out) are def co-op adverts/placemtn… but there is a decent rack of staff selections, place right at the break in the store between first run video releases and the Foreign, Cult, Mystery and Horror fims. And LOL you def get a different film buff back there.
A few years ago when it was clear we were down for the count, no easy, short run of authoritarianism and repression, i went there to rent everything by Fassbinder… and think but for the very most obsure they had everything. Fassbinder and Germany seemed a good study moment… LOL
8)
I was pretty surprised when I saw a huge stack of Walt and Mersheimer’s “The Israel Lobby” on a front table surrounded by books by Jimmy Carter, Chomsky, Paul Krugman (don’t know how he feels about being in that crowd), Susan Faludi, and Naomi Klein. It was like a big leftist (or rather two paleocons with a leftis chorus line)smack in the face as soon as you walked through the door.
Plame’s book is also lurking about the front. No hiding it.
Now on first glance, this would seem to indicate that Barnes and Nobles is well disposed to the left but wait.
Mersheimer (University of Chicago), Krugman (NY Times and Princeton), Chomsky (MIT), etc. are first rate intellectuals.
On the other hand, there are dozens of (almost unreadable) books by people I’ve never heard of with no credentials at all warning of “The Islamic Menace” and very few books by left wing nobodies.
one gets a vibe seeing the front table stuff, and usually avoids, unless there happens to be a book one is looking for, no?
a lot of readers don’t “shop” for books without something in mind, I think.
I read about 12 books my last 2-week vacation and indulged most of the genres I like, but out of the 3 book purchases I made during that period, the 2 real-crime books were the biggest disappointment. and neither were high-profile crimes; I choose one because it promised to look into the impact on the criminal’s family–which is something I am always curious about–but it was quite banal.
I grew up on The Boston Strangler and In Cold Blood for crime, and it’s tough to top them.
I love ”True Crime’… and it is true, almost all are disappointments. Banal and often badly written.
I loved the old crime magazines of the 50s and 60s.
well, the management of B&N does lean left, but they lean toward the dollar first, and Regnery and the other winger publishers spend TONS of money on co-op advertising.
and Regnery and the other winger publishers spend TONS of money on co-op advertising.
I once got caught moving the Jerome Corsi book on John Kerry (UInfit for Command) to the fiction section.
That’s when the swiftboating of Kerry actually made me angry. When I realized he wasn’t going to stand up for himself, I got over it.
I tried to read the hagiography on Kerry, but I couldn’t even make it to vietnam. he resembles hillary in that the ambition side has robbed them of personality.
I had to wait for the Newsweek “book” their magazine round up of the election for the moment i had anticipated….
They quoted poor Edwards post election when he learned of Kerry in Paris, meeting with S Vietnamese political affiliates of N Vietnam. Apparently he [nearly] screamed, he met with TERRORISTS?
So tired of the stupid running. But I got a really good laugh out of that one. Poor white Southern boy, out in thw big big world. Bigger than some jury of yahooos, that is for certain.
Poor white Southern boy, out in thw big big world.
Do you know his father actually worked in a mill?
LOL I have always been entertained by the party affiliation in the Edwards household. Father was white souterhn dixiecrat, til he got a promotion at the mill, then Republican to identify iwth management. Son claims to have gone Democrat, somehting to do with Vietnam. LOL Something vague!
So they say. choking on the cotton dust from the mill…
Wow. From a mill worker father to a high priced lawyer to running for president.
You know, sometimes I think there are almost “two Americas” and Edwards is the guy to bridge them.
Antiwar March a Manipulation
What it really looked like
as in, no one — or ws that the tag end of the march?
Where were you? Manhattan?
as in, no one — or ws that the tag end of the march?
It was the usual Manhattan UPFJ route, from 23rd Street down to Foley Square. It’s a weekend, so the cops barricade Broadway all the way and just rope the whole street off for the marchers.
It was also raining so it was very sparsely attended. You had clumps of a few dozen people, then a lot of empty space, then a few clumps of a few dozen people, then a lot of empty space and so on.
Maybe 2000 people. Last April the same route drew over 100,000 people.
You get ot the end and everybody sets up their tables.
You had:
1.) The usual Marxist parties hawking newspapers
2.) The major anti-war organizations (UFPJ, Code Pink, Answer, etc.)
3.) 9/11 Truthers
4.) A couple of Ron Paul supporters
5.) A couple of Obama supporters
6.) A couple of Hillary supporters
7.) Maybe 3 or 4 right wingers trying to do the usual thing of provoking fights by shoutng abuse from behind police barricades. It didn’t work because there were 50 cops and 50 UFPJ Marshalls blocking them off.
All in all the same old shit with few numbers.
well I am nto surprised…
I have not seen film yet of the march here (dropped out this afternoon) but did see some still shots someone sent of Cindy Sheehan marching … and crrying her campaign logom (good one, I think, fist iwth a peace sign on the wrist).
There is no political partner for the anti war…many groups co-opted, etc (as I see it) and unlike Vietnam era, it stands alone.
Some day there may come a poor peoples’, workers’, immigrants’ rights, anti war movement in the nation, but it does not exist now.
What I think:
In 2002 and early 2003 these big permitted anti-war marches served a puprose. They broke the “united we stand” mentality that came out of 9/11 and very loudly said “a lot of people dissent”.
I distinctly remember the pro-Palestinian (and other issues) march in April of 2002 in DC. The fact that there could be tens of thousands of people in the streets that soon after 9/11 sent a clear message. The media didn’t cover it, at all, barely mentioned it.
I also remember the huge February 15th march in NYC in 2003, Gigantic, over 100,000 people in the 10 degree cold. It was violently supressed by the police.
But what happened in 2005. You had Cindy Sheehan and Katrina. Both stripped Bush of his aura of legitmacy. In September of that year you had what might have been the biggest anti-war march of the past few years in DC but it had no affect.
Because once you get past the idea that “it’s OK to dissent, then where do you go”. For most people, it’s an internal thing. You know you can’t influence what the government does but you still reserve the privilage of hating it. Those early marches said it was OK to hate it, something you can easily express by showing up on a Saturday and carrying a sign.
But to really have an affect, you need to do more. You need to disrupt, risk getting beaten up or going to jail. Medea Benjamin does this for a living. Ann Wright is retired and has a military pension. etc.
These people have an effect because they do it 24/7. Most of us can’t, simple as that.
Interesting question.
What if the San Francisco march had been successful beyond anybody’s wildest dreams and caused so much disruption they had to bring national guard troops back from Southern California and the fires?
That would have been a bad thing, horrible. There are (not many but some) times you want to get out of the way and actually let the government work.
Of course there was never any danger that would happen. But it would have been rather symbolically powerful (and destructive) had it been.
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I agree with that… it is just common sense really.
I really support the b lockading of congressional offices, esp on home turf. To me this is strategic and operational. The Democrats are the problem, esp for a left of the dial voting electorate.
I much enjoyed the blockading of the Doris Matsui offices in Sacto. LOL And if anyone wants to bitch and moan aobut South Seas Pearls, she has the finest in the congressional line-up, that i have seen. And I am sure hers are “gifts” from off shore supporters in Australia or HKong or Tokyo.
…
The government rolls on, no matter the presidential approval numbers or the crashing approval ratings for the Democratic congress.
The endorsements for Hillary roll in from people who have presumed to care for specific causes for years.
Predictable.
Some day there may come a poor peoples’, workers’, immigrants’ rights, anti war movement in the nation, but it does not exist now.
Mohawk Warriors Unite with Zapatistas at Encuentro
Zapatismo in Spanish Harlem
The Movement for Justice in El Barrio, Inspired by the Zapatista Other Campaign, Brings New York Communities Together to Fight Gentrification
I agree madman… there are glimmers.
AND in the big spring of 06 immigration marches, we saw another seed: Asians came out here in San Francisco and joined in. There was discussion of the local numbers of Irish who are illegals… and so on.
There is hope… but it will take a long while I think. Just as the country will fall apart in sections.. much of it hidden from other parts of the country. As is poverty, abandonemtn and despair now…
SF Gate/SF Chron on the march today, and some roundup on the national marches.
One of the coolest things about the Telegraph Avenue Cody’s was that nonfiction table right in the front as you walk in the door. They always had the latest stuff on econ and politics from progressive perspectives. And their sociology section was huge. The Fourth Street Cody’s – not so great. It is very upscale, and it’s pretty discombobulating in there, the layout just isn’t that user-friendly. ~ “Last Man Out” presentation November 1 at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland, Cindy Sheehan will be there.
earth to meg
Not sure I was ever in the Fourth St Cody’s… last I was on that street was probably 12, 15 years ago for brunch lunch drinks. Seemed to be what it was good for – tho I remember nothing special about any of it..
Yes the old Cody’s was very accessible, wonderful to shop in…
new thread…
LINK