hmm 16 March 2010
Posted by marisacat in Chile - Bachelet, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, WAR!.90 comments
Viña del Mar, Chile: People ride on a bus during a blackout [Eliseo Fernandez/Reuters]
Looks like a familiar feeling…
And I will say it for a third time, all the blacks, white libs and Jews who voted for Obama and are of military age, would join up. Pronto. If they vote for him again, join TWICE… 😆
It would only be fair. Or what passes for fair!
It is so good that the high muckety mucks deal so conscientiously with the really important stuff. As though bin Laden, dead or alive, matters. As tho they, the HMMs, have not been beating up the universe in an effort to find him and get Ob’s numbers back up in the stratosphere. Tho I doubt “finding” bin Laden would do that.
”Finding” bin Laden won’t put food on anyone’s table…
****************************
Mid-week 2 March 2010
Posted by marisacat in California / Pacific Coast, Chile - Bachelet, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.47 comments
Tsunami damage in Talcahuano [Daniel Garcia/AFP/Getty Images]
Lesseee… Latest update, Paterson says he will not resign. This could go on for a few days. Jerry, who was governor of Cali already for 8 years from late 70s into the 80s, is running again – officially finally. Meg and Jerry, what a match up…. AND Mickey Kaus of Slate is considering entering to oppose Boxer.
The future is bright. So bright.
*****************************
It’s official 28 February 2010
Posted by marisacat in Chile - Bachelet, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.68 comments
People look at destroyed cars by a collapsed bridge over the Biobio rive linking Concepcion and San Pedro de la Paz
Photograph: Francesco Degasperi/AFP/Getty Images
Chileans are “looters”… The first three pics in this gallery are of “looters”… the fourth is of people crowded and pressed, trying to enter a grocery to BUY food and being held back by the police.
It is inevitable, what are people going to be doing a day or two after disaster? Trying to get food, water and supplies, however they can.
************************
Pacific ripple 27 February 2010
Posted by marisacat in California / Pacific Coast, Chile - Bachelet, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, San Francisco, The Battle for New Orleans.59 comments
According to reports, the Hawaiian authorities are currently evacuating all the coastal areas today ever since the Hawaii tsunami warning was issued. [UK Today]
It seems whatever tsunami raises itself from the quake is due in Hawai’i later today, Japan tomorrow. I also read projections of 1 metre… some reports of 8 feet.
I noticed it took us, that would be liberal SF, a few minutes to figure out the percussive force in the water was headed in the wrong way, out to sea and away from us… and we finally alerted we would not be affected. We probably had so many [very dry gin] martinis, our official bird!, on Friday, we had to think long and hard on that one.
From CNN:
Ongoing developments in the Chilean earthquake and the tsunami warnings that followed. All times are local in Chile, which is two hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the United States.
(CNN) — 2:36 p.m. — The earliest estimated arrival time for a wave that could affect Hawaii is 11:05 a.m. HST(4:05 p.m. ET), according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The center had earlier reported the first wave could arrive at 11:19 a.m. HST.
2:15 p.m. — The government of a Chilean province says a large wave killed three people and 10 were missing on the island of Juan Fernandez, 400 miles off the coast of Chile.
2:02 p.m. — U.S. State Department now says two of its Embassy employees in Santiago are missing, after earlier reporting that all 118 were accounted for.
1 p.m. — Evacuation sirens sounded in Hawaii at 6 a.m. (11 a.m. ET) alerting residents and visitors of a possible tsunami. The earliest estimated arrival for a wave that could affect Hawaii is 11:19 a.m. (4:19 p.m. ET), according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
12:40 p.m. — Death toll in Chile rises to 122, according to President-elect Sebastian Pinera. ….
From what I read (and see in the pics) the runways are operational at Santiago airport, but the airport is severely damaged.
Well…I have on La Boheme, live from the Met, the mail box a little later should be stuffed with incoming Netflix, but I can promise in other parts of Cali, there is ever growing hope for a killer quake to enable the clearing of the flatlands in the East Bay. New Orleans model. I am sure they call it something like, “effective triage”…
Someday they get their wish…
‘Til then, and to forget what is coming, blast the opera louder and louder…
*******************
UPDATE, 11:07 am on the Pacific
I just saw this at MSNBC
USGS
This color-coded map shows earthquakes that have been recorded over the previous seven days. The size of the box indicates the quake’s strength, and the color indicates how recently the quake occurred. Notable quakes include the cluster of red boxes in Chile, and the blue box indicating a seismic event in Japan.
The article manages to be interesting as well, mostly on the Ring of Fire:
[W]hile the Chilean earthquake wasn’t directly related to Japan’s 7.0-magnitude temblor, the two have some factors in common.
For one, any seismic waves that made their way from Japan to the Chilean coast could play a slight role in ground-shaking.
“It is too far away for any direct triggering, and those distances also make the seismic waves as they would pass by from the Haiti or Japan events pretty small because of attenuation,” Arrowsmith told LiveScience. (Attenuation is the decrease in energy with distance.) “Nevertheless, if the Chilean fault surface were close to failure, those small waves could push it even closer.”
In addition, both regions reside within the Ring of Fire, which is a zone surrounding the Pacific Ocean where the Pacific tectonic plate and other plates dive beneath other slabs of Earth. About 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes occur along this arc. (The next most seismic region, where just 5 to 6 percent of temblors occur, is the Alpide belt, which extends from the Mediterranean region eastward.) snip
Suffer the little children… 13 July 2009
Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, Afghanistan War, AFRICOM, Border Issues, Chile - Bachelet, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Europe, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Iran, Iraq War, Israel/AIPAC, Italy, Mexico, NORCOM, Pakistan, Somalia, Venezuela - Chavez, Viva La Revolucion!, WAR!.38 comments
Islamist insurgents and Somali government forces engage in running battles in Mogadishu: More than 200,000 people have been displaced in the past two months, while hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed and wounded [AFP/GETTY]
… and we do cause them to suffer, in our job as Gawd.
Let’s see… Centcom is happy as clams… they are focus war one, 27 countries under their command and hot beds a plenty. No end of mischief and murder, for decades. Mercy is on hold. WMD abound, Iran wants a bomb… ? Hell, I want one! Or, at the least, a gun.
Southern Command salivates to bring “restive” S and C America under control. Bill C to do bed checks in Haiti.
Africom bubbles along. “Somalia has not had a government in 18 years”.. oh surely we can help? That is what we do. Goodness and Kindness and Mercy. We follow people all of their days.
Did you know that Ob visited a slave embarcation point? (How could you miss it?) Yes he did. And a pregnancy clinic in Ghana. Yes he did. Took Michelle along. Optics.
Who can keep track of the wars? I cannot. Who can keep track of the Pretzel Global Tours? I cannot.
And then there is Norcom. That is us. And Canada and Mexico. Big plans there, you can feel it.
Stories all over the place… from Tora Bora, new ones.. to CIA looking odd… are they trying to say they are new at this? Why, I think they are! Hell, in that story, everybody is lying. Panetta and Nancy.. and everyone else. We are total fictions, that is what we are. Ghosts with guns and bombs and planes loaded down with bombs, pack mules of a sort, we send forth to kill and kill and kill again. Drones run out of Nellis Air Force Base, in Nevada.. It’s like video games, they say that as recruitment tactics.. and, it really is. Optics.
Nellis sits in a ”Federal Preserve”, of sorts, encompassing Area 51… and, over all, larger than Switzerland. Classifed.
Sasha wore not one but two – count them if you can – one two buckle your shoe – peace symbol t-shirts in Italy. Here, have some peace, rub their noses in it.
Optics.
Amber waves of torture 17 August 2007
Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, Beirut, Chile - Bachelet, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Iraq War, WAR!.142 comments
Let us denounce Orwellian euphemism and call a spade a spade. Let those presidential candidates that go for easy almost lynchmob applause “waving the bloody flag” of “toughness” on the campaign trail be made to confront the fact that what they are saying means that their party stands for torture.
Is that what the Republicans stand for? Is that what the Democrats stand for? Is that what I am getting if I cast my vote for this candidate or that candidate?
Just a link and a snip or two from a posting at Jurist:
In a just-published article in the New Yorker magazine entitled “The Black Sites: A Rare Look Inside the CIA’s Secret Interrogation Program,” Jane Mayer documents what only those in hopeless denial can avoid knowing: the United States has tortured people in the so-called CIA “black sites”. In the course of describing the horrendous violations of international and domestic law that have been committed, the author also mentions that the International Committee of the Red Cross has submitted to the United States a report on its investigation of the CIA black sites and the interrogation techniques used there. It appears from comments in the article by those who have been permitted to see the report that it is a devastating critique that calls those techniques tantamount to torture.
I don’t know about other Americans, but for the past five years I have heard members of the Executive and Legislative of both parties, academics, and lawyers in private practice defend various interrogation programs by saying that they are “enhanced interrogation techniques” or that “we do not condone torture” or that “this has been vetted by the lawyers” or “there were only a few bad apples at low levels involved at Abu Ghraib” or “this is humane treatment consistent with military necessity” and on and on.
I have heard presidential candidates almost to a man (and woman) say that they support the “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
I hereby urge all people of good will to DEMAND of the Executive and the Legislative that one of them release to the American people the full unexpurgated unredacted un-whatevered version of the ICRC report on the CIA black sites. I further urge that the earlier reports on U.S. detention also be released.
And a snip from a post at HuffPo:
Now that a U.S. citizen has been convicted of being a “terrorist,” one can only hope that his treatment in the brig, which has been declared a “state secret,” will be declassified so that it may see the light of day in appeals court which is where this case is heading.
Psychologists, and those who have visited with Jose Padilla over the past three plus years of his incarceration say that they see profound emotional wreckage as a result of his detention. Regardless of whether Mr. Padilla’s treatment can be tweaked such that it conforms with his constitutional entitlements, as an American, there is no way in hell that anyone can justify turning an otherwise healthy 36 year old into the shell of a man.
If the treatment he received at the hands of his captors is ethical and aboveboard, then why is it classified?
Clearly, too, the time has come to put the entire infrastructure of an illegal, and ominous so-called war on terror on trial, and show that those who maim, humiliate, kill, and psychologically torture in the name of counterfeit, homogenized purity are the true terrorists.
Call America to pull out of Disneyland, Six Flags America, Jumping Dolphin and Porpoise Land, Lindsay – Britney – Paris Land and face a few truths.
But I won’t be holding my breath…
***********************************************
Just saw this, as part of a comment from JJB in the previous thread, so will pull it forward as it fits:
Shepherd Bliss on a US sponsored atrocity that still is an open wound for another country:
On another September 11, 1973, Gen. Pinochet–with the proven support of U.S. President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger–toppled the democratically elected government of Chilean President Salvador Allende.
[snip]
Pinochet became Latin America’s most notorious dictator-the model of evil. He exported his state terrorism elsewhere in South America through Operation Condor. Pinochet wounded Chile and its people, though a few continue to sing his praise. He did succeed in bringing order with his authoritarian rule. One can still enter some homes and offices in Chile and see photos of Pinochet.
Pinochet’s knife went to the heart and soul of Chile. Many people merely want to forget what happened under Pinochet. But such forgetfulness makes it difficult to build an authentic future based on historic memory.
[snip]
In December of 2004–after interviewing 35,000 survivors of human rights abuse-a Chilean commission reported that torture was a habitual practice of the dictatorship. Some of those survivors have entered a bank or other office to find themselves facing their torturer. The names of some torturers are known, but they have not all been charged. Such impunity keeps the trauma alive.
Here in the U.S. our current president and the head of the “Justice” Department take actions that indicate they feel above and beyond the law.
Chile may seem a long ways from the U.S. and Frank’s execution may seem long ago. But it is important that U.S. citizens pay attention to the matter at this historic and challenging moment in our history. Chile contains lessons for U.S. citizens, including understanding the Iraq War today. By studying Chile, we may better understand what is happening in the U.S., as our civil rights diminish and torture occurs in Guantanamo and elsewhere.
*******************************************
UPDATE, 2:07 pm
The WP comment system is not permitting me to comment to the thread, or not after my last comment.
I get an error screen that says I am posting too quickly. And to “slow down”.
gah. My apologies if this is happening to anyone else.
I did send in a report form to WP help desk.
HELP!
3:39 pm
still blocked from commenting… I have sent another complaint and lodged a request in the forums.
Gah.
IMPEACH! – they won’t – DE FUND THE WARS! – they won’t – Then: WITHHOLD THE VOTE! 16 July 2007
Posted by marisacat in 2008 Election, Afghanistan War, AFRICOM, Beirut, Bolivia - Evo Morales, Brazil - Lula, Chile - Bachelet, DC Politics, Democrats, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Iran, Iraq War, Israel/AIPAC, Lie Down Fall Down Dems, Russ Feingold, South America, The Battle for New Orleans, Venezuela - Chavez, Viva La Revolucion!.123 comments
A partial repost from September 24, 2006, the week Morales, Chavez, Lula, Bachelet and Ahmadinejad spoke at the UN:
Budapest protests this past week. Protestor stands against the
water volleys from the police. [AP photo via BBC]
Full text [English version] of the Evo Morales speech at the UN: We Need Partners, Not Bosses. The last few grafs:
[F]inally president, the indigenous peoples, the poor come especially from a culture of life and not a culture of war, and this millennium will really have to be to defend live, to save humanity and if we want to save humanity we have the obligation to save the planet. The indigenous peoples live in harmony with mother earth, and not only in reciprocity, in solidarity, with human beings.
We feel greatly that the politics of hegemonist competitions are destroying the planet. I feel that all countries, social forces, international organisms are important, let us begin to debate truthfully, in order to save the planet, to save humanity.
This new millennium, the millennium that we find ourselves in needs to be a millennium of life, not of war, a millennium of people and not of empire, a millennium of justice and equality and that any economic policy needs to be orientated towards ending, of at least lessening these so-called asymmetric differences between one country and another country, those social inequalities.
We are not trying to implement policies that allow the economic humiliation or economic looting; when they cannot loot according to the norms, they use troops.
I want to ask with great respect, that it is important to withdraw troops from Iraq if we want to respect human rights, it is important to withdraw economic policies that allow the concentration of capital in only a few hands.
And for this, I feel president, that these events should be historical in order to change the world and to change economic models, interventionalist policies. Above all else we want them to be times that allow us to defend and save humanity
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Danny Schechter at News Dissector has a bang up series of links and snips dated the 16th… he can be irritating (and people write to him and say so) he can be sloppy with links and sometimes not link, so a few excerpts to follow, it is jampacked…
Start with the worst:
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AP) – The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It’s outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.
The Reaper is loaded, but there’s no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada.
The arrival of these outsized U.S. “hunter-killer” drones, in aviation history’s first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill.
That moment, one the Air Force will likely low-key, is expected “soon,” says the regional U.S. air commander. How soon? “We’re still working that,” Lt. Gen. Gary North said in an interview.
The Reaper’s first combat deployment is expected in Afghanistan, and senior Air Force officers estimate it will land in Iraq sometime between this fall and next spring. They look forward to it.
“With more Reapers, I could send manned airplanes home,” North said.
IMPEACH! WITHHOLD THE VOTE: NO ONE is ending the wars. NO ONE WILL END THE WARS…
***********************************************
Danny linked to and excerpted the from DAHR JAMAIL’S LATEST DISPATCH:
TARGETING AFRICA
When President George W. Bush announced the formation of a military command for Africa (AFRICOM) this past February, it came as no surprise to the Heritage Foundation. The powerful right-wing organization designed it. The Heritage Foundation, founded in 1973 by ultra-conservatives Paul Weyrich and Joseph Coors and funded by such right-wing mainstays as the Scaife Foundation, has a strong presence in the Bush Administration. While not as influential as the older and richer American Enterprise Institute, it has a higher profile when it comes to Africa policy.
Back in October 2003, James Jay Carafano and Nile Gardner of the Heritage Foundation laid out a blueprint for how to use military power to dominate that vast continent. ”Creating an African Command,” write the two analysts in a Heritage Foundation study entitled U.S. Military Assistance for Africa: A Better Solution, “would go a long way toward turning the Bush Administration’s well aimed strategic priorities for Africa into a reality.”
While the Bush Administration says the purpose of AFRICOM will be humanitarian aid and “security cooperation,” not “war fighting,” says Ryan Henry, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy.
The Heritage analysts were a tad blunter about the application of military power:
“Pre-emptive strikes are justified on grounds of self-defenseAmerica must not be afraid to employ its forces decisively when vital national interests are threatened.” Carafano and Gardner are also quite clear what those “vital interests” are: “The United States is likely to draw 25 percent of its oil from West Africa by 2015, surpassing the volume imported from the Persian Gulf.”
IMPEACH: The plan is to spin as much of the world to war as they can – what else does it look like?. ”THEY” is both parties.
WITHHOLD THE VOTE: They won’t de-fund!
DE FUND THEM!
****************************
Last from Danny, is from Matthew Rothschild at The Progressive:
It’s NOT BUSH’S PLAN – IT’S ”THEIR” PLAN:
Bush’s Manual for Containing Protest
By Matt Rothschild in the Progressive:
After a myriad of stories about people being excluded from events where the President is speaking, now we know that the White House had a policy manual on just how to do so.
Called the “Presidential Advance Manual,” this 103-page document from the Office of Presidential Advance lays out the parameters for how to handle protesters at events. ”Always be prepared for demonstrators,” says the document, which is dated October 2002 and which the ACLU released as part of a new lawsuit.
In a section entitled “Preventing Demonstrators,” the document says: “All Presidential events must be ticketed or accessed by a name list. This is the best method for preventing demonstrators. People who are obviously going to try to disrupt the event can be denied entrance at least to the VIP area between the stage and the main camera platform. … It is important to have your volunteers at a checkpoint before the Magnetometers in order to stop a demonstrator from getting into the event. Look for signs they may be carrying, and if need be, have volunteers check for folded cloth signs that demonstrators may be bringing.”
In another section, entitled “Preparing for Demonstrators,” the document makes clear that the intention is to deprive protesters of the right to be seen or heard by the President: “As always, work with the Secret Service and have them ask the local police department to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route.”
The document also recommends drowning out protesters or blocking their signs by using what it calls “rally squads.” It states: “These squads should be instructed always to look for demonstrators. The rally squad’s task is to use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform.
If the demonstrators are yelling, rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protestors (USA!, USA!, USA!).
Think it will not be that way if Hillary goes in?, along WITH Obama – as Anna Quindlen is already calling on Hillary to do (and as Glen Ford at BAR has said since February, is the plan)
IMPEACH! DE FUND THE WARS — WITHHOLD THE VOTE!
They won’t be listening to polite pleas…
****************************************************
Remember all of those nasty winger judges the Vichy Donks couldn’t filibuster? Remember the civil liberties they couldn’t fight for, women’s issues and worker’s issues they ran away from? Remember the war they wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t slow down, still won’t de-fund? Remember the Gang of 14, the SEVEN Donklephants that cozied up to the ‘Thugs to prevent even the HINT of a filibuster?
The OLD Donklephants … the Dixiecrat version, used to filibuster all the time to preserve Jim Crow. Oh, and lest you think that there is much difference between the current Donklephant and the ole’ Dixiecrat, think hard about how much fight they’ve put into protecting the vote. Maybe they don’t say “colored” out loud where we can hear them, but they don’t care about black people any more, or poor people in general, than Bush does, let alone more than they did back before LBJ told them they should (as he was undermining it all sending men off to kill poor yellow people).
Anyway, that invertebrate known as the senior Senator from Illinois is upset because the
theofascistauthoritariancorporatist…. ummmm … rightward-half-of-our-one-political-party is actually practicing politics and using the rules of the Senate to fight for it’s base’s priorities! SHAME ON THEM!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
DE FUND THE CONGRESS: Withhold the Vote!
They will still be sitting on the US taxpayer paid for toilets as the years roll by:
DE FUND THE CONGRESS: WITHHOLD THE VOTE!
They won’t do it: WITHHOLD THE VOTE
Life and death, over and over.. 14 September 2006
Posted by marisacat in 2006 Mid Terms, Chile - Bachelet, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Israel/AIPAC, Sex / Reproductive Health, WAR!.19 comments
International
Cartoon Festival-Occupation
2006 — Cuba
Miriam Margarita Alonso Cabrera
I have read various numbers for the estimate on how many land mines, cluster bomblet leave behinds (genocide anyone?) are in South lebanon, but as this comes from Ha’aretz… I call it the count to rely on:
What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs,” the head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war.
Quoting his battalion commander, the rocket unit head stated that the IDF fired around 1,800 cluster bombs, containing over 1.2 million cluster bomblets.
In addition, soldiers in IDF artillery units testified that the army used phosphorous shells during the war, widely forbidden by international law. According to their claims, the vast majority of said explosive ordinance was fired in the final 10 days of the war. […]
Venezuela – Manuel Loayza
‘Excessive injury and unnecessary suffering’
It has come to light that IDF soldiers fired phosphorous rounds in order to cause fires in Lebanon. An artillery commander has admitted to seeing trucks loaded with phosphorous rounds on their way to artillery crews in the north of Israel.
A direct hit from a phosphorous shell typically causes severe burns and a slow, painful death.
International law forbids the use of weapons that cause “excessive injury and unnecessary suffering”, and many experts are of the opinion that phosphorous rounds fall directly in that category.
Oh… pardon me, but wouldn’t that be EVERYTHING in use inside the battlespace???
The International Red Cross has determined that international law forbids the use of phosphorous and other types of flammable rounds against personnel, both civilian and military.
IDF: No violation of international law
*************************************************************************
A second article from Palestine Chronicle by Meron Rapoport has more quotes on cluster bomb use and phosphorous in the Lebanon campaign.
According to the commander, in order to compensate for the rockets’ imprecision, the order was to “flood” the area with them. “We have no option of striking an isolated target, and the commanders know this very well,” he said.
He also stated that the reserve soldiers were surprised by the use of MLRS rockets, because during their regular army service, they were told these are the IDF’s “judgment day weapons” and intended for use in a full-scale war.
The commander also said that at least in one case, they were asked to fire cluster rockets toward “a village’s outskirts” in the early morning: “They told us that this is a good time because people are coming out of the mosques and the rockets would deter them.”
Romania – Florian Doru Crihana
************************************************************************
On a happier note:
Birth control AND Plan B is FREE for all women over 14 in CHILE.
Yes! we are behind – among others – France (Plan B is available in the lycees from the nurse), Ireland (Plan B is OTC) and Chile:
The Chilean government recently decided that contraception will be publicly available for all women over the age of 14. According to IPS, all public health centers must dispense birth control, including emergency contraception (EC), free of charge. The decree also ensures that younger women can without authorization from their parents obtain a prescription for birth control pills.
The Catholic Church and conservative politicians are already criticizing the decision that aims to give women of all ages and incomes control over their sexual and reproductive lives.
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, a pediatrician, responded, saying to the Santiago Times, “The obligation of the state is to provide alternatives, and the obligation of families, of each one of us, is to communicate with our children, explain things to them, and to teach them.”
Brava!
And I think Madman’s latest piece belongs here, on domestic terrors. Meaning white guys using vehicles as weapons. Don’t think they will be getting prison terms in the same way that ‘eco-terrorists’ recently got, iirc, 6 years…
While the FBI directs it’s attention toward so called “eco terrorists” (who attack what this government REALLY cares about, PROPERTY), the Republican party ramps up it’s adoption of the hateful rhetoric of the far right, people who are genuine dangers to the public are treated as common criminals at best, ignored at worst.
Like the white supremicists caught in Texas, an arrest all-but ignored by the media, and NOT trumpeted by the government, we can only call someone a “terrorist” if their attack, plot or violent fantasies encouraged by a government agent provocateur fits the narrative of scary brown people or muslims aching to blow up suburbanites and eat the flesh of their dead children’s corpses. Or who will steal their jobs … or burn up their SUVs. The “be afraid” story MUST be maintained and stoked.
***********************************************************************
UPDATE, 12:30 pm
David Plotz in Slate has heard back from two of the people photographed on 9/11 with the city scape of Manhattan in the background. And rather callously – and capriciously – characterised by Frank Rich and the photog, Heopker…
Here is a snip from one:
[I] am also a professional photographer and did not touch a camera that day. Why? For many reasons including a now-obvious one: This somewhat cynical expression of an assumed reality printed in the New York Times proves a good reason. (Shame on Mr. Rich and Mr. Hoepker—one should never assume.) But most of all to keep both hands free, just in case there was actually something I could do to alter this day or affect a life, to experience every nanosecond in every molecule of my body, rather than place a lens between myself and the moment. (Sounds pretty “callous,” huh?) I also have a strict policy of never taking a photograph of a person without their permission or knowledge of my intent. [snip]
*************************************************************************
UPDATE, 2:20 pm
Oh she is such a “type”… Hillaree I mean. Just noticed this in Hotline On Call:
NH 01 Dem candidate Carol Porter Shea took telephone calls from Sen. John Kerry, Sen. Russ Feingold and a gaggle of the usual suspects.
No HRC, though.
And this quick snip on Shea-Porter from yesterday’s On Call, to clarify what she achieved:
In New Hampshire, Carol Shea-Porter, the chair of the Manchester Democrats and a jazzy anti-war candidate, upset NH House Min. Leader Jim Craig in Democratic primary to take on Rep. Jeb Bradley (R). The DCCC had endorsed Craig but long ago decided the race against Bradley was not winnable. They may reconsider.
La$t but not lea$t…
I just read and am hunting backwards* for the link… but Lamont crashed more cash into his run. A million and half in two chunks, on August 22 and again on Sept. 11.
I feel pretty sure that the Kos+Whackians promised him more cash. From the ”little people”, that is… Whomever they may be….
* Found the link on the Lamont cash infusions – it was an AP report via TO.
***************************************************************************
UPDATE: 3:15…
I have been leafing thru (virtually… 😉 the Iranian Holocaust cartoon international contest. Incredibly interesting… Thought I’d pop up the link for anyone who might be an afficionado of political cartoons. I don’t care who they skewer… And Israel, it seems to me, has outrun the communion of suffering. They disrespect the dead. All the dead.
Sometimes the connection is a little shakey or works better in some browsers. I don’t know if it is sometimes blocked – or what… but I keep trying and get back thru.
AND,
I am just hearing Frist on PBS The News Hour say that the Democrats are “waving the white flag of surrender” to the terrorists with blah blah blah di blah blah di blah.
I also heard the reprehensible John Yoo (Mr Torture) literally warn a caller this am on Washington Journal to “be careful” about what he says. Now the caller did call Mr Yoo a “traitor”…
…but Mi Lord, is this not common parlance in the land?… an accusation from the rulers to the ruled?
The problem is a serf spoke up… dared one of the lords.
************************************************************************
UPDATE, 6:00 pm
Ooooo Just too good… Military Mary bit the bullet and slammed back hard at the “traitor” and “surrender” rhetoric.
From Crooks and Liars [thanks Madman]
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), for one, decided she’d had enough.
“In light of the rantings that went on for 30 minutes by two colleagues from the other side, I’d like to state for the record that America is not tired of fighting terrorism; America is tired of the wrongheaded and boneheaded leadership of the Republican party that has sent six and a half billion a month to Iraq while the front line was Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. That led this country to attack Saddam Hussein, when we were attacked by Osama bin Laden. Who captured a man who did not attack the country and let loose a man that did. Americans are tired of boneheaded Republican leadership that alienates our allies when we need them the most. Americans are most certainly tired of leadership that despite documenting mistake after mistake after mistake, even of their own party admitting mistakes, never admit they do anything wrong. That’s the kind of leadership Americans are tired of.”She concluded,”I’m not going to sit here as a Democrat and let the Republican leadership come to the floor and talk about Democrats not making us safe. They’re the ones in charge and Osama bin Laden is still at loose.”
Check out the video too
Just be sure and say it next week.. Too.
I think, if they really care, the Democrats should walk out. If they care. And as representatives of a large swath of the American people… they should care.
*************************************************************************
Marisacat 