And, yes, I DO take it personally

The Afghans are concerned about more troops - the United States must want the fighting to go on

2009-11-08T04:09:00.000-08:00

Moises Saman for The New York Times
At a bazaar in Charikar, north of Kabul, many Afghans said they
felt vulnerable to the Taliban, unprotected by their own government
or the American forces.

yeah, no shit...

In bazaars and university corridors across the country, eight years of war have left people exhausted and impatient. They are increasingly skeptical that the Taliban can be defeated. Nearly everyone agrees that the Afghan government must negotiate with the insurgents. If more American forces do arrive, many here say, they should come to train Afghans to take over the fight, so the foreigners can leave.

“What have the Americans done in eight years?” asked Abdullah Wasay, 60, a pharmacist in Charikar, a market town about 25 miles north of Kabul, expressing a view typical of many here. “Americans are saying that with their planes they can see an egg 18 kilometers away, so why can’t they see the Taliban?”

Such sentiments were repeated in conversation after conversation with more than 30 Afghans in Kabul and nearby rural areas and with local officials in outlying provinces. The comments point to the difficulties that American and Afghan officials face if they choose to add more foreign troops.

If the foreign forces are not seen so by Afghans already, they are on the cusp of being regarded as occupiers, with little to show people for their extended presence, fueling wild conspiracies about why they remain here.

The feeling is particularly acute in the Pashtun south, but it is spreading to other parts of the country. More American troops could tip the balance of opinion, particularly if they increase civilian casualties and prompt even more Taliban attacks.

The grass-roots view among Afghans is at odds with those of top Afghan officials, as well as many American military commanders, who strongly endorse a full-blown counterinsurgency strategy, including a large troop increase.

now, check this interesting perspective...

Mr. Wasay and several friends visiting his pharmacy were discussing the Taliban’s killing of a police chief in a rural part of the province. The rumor was that Taliban fighters had severed his head and delivered it to his son, according to one of Mr. Wasay’s friends.

True or not, the anecdote was part of a growing mythology of Taliban power and a general perception that neither the Afghan government nor American troops were protecting Afghans.

Daily life continues to be so precarious for many people interviewed, especially those outside Kabul, that they have come to believe that the United States must want the fighting to go on.

“In the first days of the war, the Americans defeated the Taliban in just a few days,” said Mohammed Shefi, a graduate student in the pharmacy school at Kabul University. “Now they have more than 60,000 forces and they cannot defeat them.”

gee... endless war... now, ain't THAT an interestin' concept...?!?!

What a load of shit - "Despite the apparent end of the Great Recession" [UPDATE]

2009-11-08T03:39:00.000-08:00

[BUMPED]

if it's all the same to you, nyt, i'd like to know just who the F-U-C-K this "Great Recession" has "apparently ended" FOR...?

The American unemployment rate surged to 10.2 percent in October, its highest level in 26 years, as the economy lost another 190,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The jump into the realm of double-digit joblessness — from 9.8 percent in September — provided a sobering reminder that, despite the apparent end of the Great Recession, economic expansion has yet to translate into jobs, leaving tens of millions of people still struggling.

it ain't over for you, it ain't over for me, and it sure as SHIT ain't over for those poor bastards desperate for work and not finding it...

[UPDATE]

oh, yeah, let's hear it for 17.5%... what a cool number...! much more mind-blowing than 10.2%, wouldn't you agree...?

For all the pain caused by the Great Recession, the job market still was not in as bad shape as it had been during the depths of the early 1980s recession — until now.

With the release of the jobs report on Friday, the broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment tracked by the Labor Department has reached its highest level in decades. If statistics went back so far, the measure would almost certainly be at its highest level since the Great Depression.

In all, more than one out of every six workers — 17.5 percent — were unemployed or underemployed in October. The previous recorded high was 17.1 percent, in December 1982.

kee-f'ing-rist... so much for that vaunted "recovery"...

Carter, Goldstone and Gaza

2009-11-06T22:41:00.000-08:00

once again, one of our foremost truth-tellers comes forward...

Goldstone and Gaza

By JIMMY CARTER

Published: November 5, 2009

Judge Richard Goldstone and the United Nations fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict have issued a report about Gaza that is strongly critical of both Israel and Hamas for their violations of human rights. On Wednesday, a special meeting of the U.N. General Assembly began a debate on whether to refer the report to the Security Council.

In January 2009 rudimentary rockets had been launched from Gaza toward nearby Jewish communities, and Israel had wreaked havoc with bombs, missiles, and ground invading forces. Judge Goldstone’s claim is that they are both guilty of “crimes against humanity.” Predictably, both the accused parties have denounced the report as biased and inaccurate.
It is good to remember that Judge Goldstone, from South Africa, is one of the world’s most widely respected jurists, with an impeccable record of wisdom, honesty and integrity. He is a devout Jew and has long been known as a fervent defender of Israel’s right to peace and security.
In April 2008 I personally visited Sderot and Ashkelon, Israeli communities near enough to have been hit by rockets fired from within Gaza. While there, I condemned these indiscriminate attacks on civilians as acts of terrorism, and I consider their condemnation by Judge Goldstone to be justified.
A year later, after the Israeli attack on Gaza, I was able to examine the damage done to the small and heavily populated area, surrounded by an impenetrable wall, with its gates tightly controlled. Knowing of the ability of Israeli forces, often using U.S. weapons, to strike targets with pinpoint accuracy, it was difficult to understand or explain the destruction of hospitals, schools, prisons, United Nations facilities, small factories and repair shops, agricultural processing plants and almost 40,000 homes.
The Goldstone committee examined closely the cause of deaths of the 1,387 Palestinians who perished, and the degree of damage to the various areas. The conclusion was that the civilian areas were targeted and the devastation was deliberate. Again, the criticism of Israel in the Goldstone report is justified.
He has called on the United States, Israel and others who dispute the accuracy of the report to conduct an independent investigation of their own. Hamas leaders have announced that their investigation is under way, but Israel has rejected Judge Goldstone’s request.
Putting this dispute aside, it is important to examine present circumstances and the need to prevent further suffering. The rocket fire from Gaza is now being severely restrained, perhaps because of the certainty of Israeli retaliation, but the punishment of the 1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza continues. Now and for the past 10 months, Israel has not permitted cement, lumber, panes of glass, or other building materials to pass their entry points into Gaza. Several hundred thousand homeless people suffered through last winter in a few tents, under plastic sheets, or huddled in caves dug into the debris of their former homes. The weather was warmer when I was there several months later, but the description of suffering through the winter cold was heartbreaking.
Another winter is now approaching, and neither the Israelis nor the international community has taken steps to alleviate the Gazans’ plight. United Nations agencies and leaders in the European community have offered to provide an avenue of channeling funds and building materials directly to the people in need, completely bypassing the Hamas political leaders. These officials, both in Gaza and in Damascus, have assured me that they would accept this arrangement.
There would be no chance for the misuse of such assistance for weapons, military fortifications, or other non-humanitarian purposes.
I was informed recently by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia that he has pledged $1 billion, and other Arab leaders have added an additional $300 million for this purpose. There is little doubt that other nations would also be generous.
Without ascribing blame to either of the disputing parties, it is imperative that the United States and the international community take steps to assure that the rebuilding of Gaza be commenced, and without delay. The cries of homeless and freezing people demand relief.
Jimmy Carter was president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and is a member of the Elders.

bless jimmy carter...

Auschwitz-Birkenau: the incredible banality of pure evil

2009-11-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

today i visited the auschwitz-birkenau extermination camp... i had visited dachau a number of years ago but the scale and number of the deaths at auschwitz-birkenau were beyond imaginable...

the staggering number of victims...

Auschwitz Concentration Camp was set up for Poles, and Poles were the first political prisoners there. The number of prisoners grew steadily as a result of the constant arrival of new transports. In 1940, nearly 8 thousand people were registered in the camp. Almost all of them were Poles. There were also small numbers of Jews and Germans in the camp. At that time, the latter usually held supervisory functions as capos and block supervisors.

In 1941, over 26 thousand people were registered in Auschwitz (about 15 thousand Poles, 10 thousand Soviet POWs, and more than 1 thousand Jews).

As a result of the inclusion of Auschwitz in the process of the mass extermination of the Jews, the number of deportees began to soar. About 197 thousand Jews were deported there in 1942, about 270 thousand the following year, and over 600 thousand in 1944, for a total of almost 1.1 million. Among them, about 200 thousand people were selected as capable of labor and registered as prisoners in the camp.

In this same period, from 1942 to 1944, about 160 thousand Poles, Gypsies, Byelorussians, Ukrainians, French, and others were registered as prisoners and given numbers. There were also more than 10 thousand people, mostly Poles, Soviet POWs, and Gypsies, not entered in the camp records or given numbers.

The mass deportation of Jews to Auschwitz that began in 1942 radically changed the makeup of the prisoner population. After three months of deportation, in mid-1942, Jews already made up the most numerous ethnic group, and their share of the population rose steadily from about 46% in June 1942 to about 68% at the peak of the camp’s population, in August 1944. A total of about 400 thousand prisoners were registered: 195 thousand non-Jews and 205 thousand Jews.

Ethnicity/category

number

Jews

1.1 million

Poles

140-150 thousand

Gypsies

23 thousand

Soviet POWs

15 thousand

Others

25 thousand

Total

Approx. 1.3 million

Year

Men

Women

total

1940

8,000

-

8,000

1941

26,500

-

26,500

1942

61,500

28,000

89,500

1943

96,000

56,000

152,000

1944/1945

67,500

47,000

114,500

1941-1945

9,000*

2,000*

11,000*

Razem

268,500

133,000

Approx. 400,000

here's a video clip i took today at auschwitz...

U.S. extraordinary rendition takes a hit in Italian courts

2009-11-05T00:04:00.000-08:00

why should the italians have a stronger sense of justice than u.s. courts...?

An Italian court sentenced 23 former CIA agents to up to eight years in prison yesterday for their role in the abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect in the first trial relating to “extraordinary renditions”.

The Americans were all tried in absentia, but the verdicts were hailed by human rights campaigners as a victory that could open the way to further prosecutions. Two agents of the Italian military intelligence agency Sismi were sentenced to three years each.

None of the convicted CIA agents is in Italy, and successive Italian governments have refused to ask for their extradition. Robert Seldon Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan, was given an eight-year sentence while 22 other agents received five years each. Classed under Italian law as “fugitives”, all were represented by Italian lawyers who had little or no contact with their clients.

at least SOMEONE thinks there should be accountability for extraordinary rendition... too bad it's italy and not our own courts...

Eugene Robinson on the desperate slowness of Obama's "change" "change

2009-11-03T23:37:00.000-08:00

and i think the jury is still out on whether we're witnessing any real "change" at all or whether, in fact, we ever will...

Like many people who desperately want to see the country take a more progressive course, I quibble and quarrel with some of President Obama's actions. I wish he'd been tougher on Wall Street, quicker to close Guantanamo, more willing to investigate Bush-era excesses, bolder in seeking truly universal health care. I wish he could summon more of the rhetorical magic that spoke so compellingly to the better angels of our nature.

But he's a president, not a Hollywood action hero.

yeah, ok, eugene... i concede he's not a hollywood action hero, but.............. when our country has been brought as low as it has to the extent that people - and i'm one of them - have begun to despair of it's ever being made right, maybe an action hero is what we need...besides, when i see obama deliberately continuing some of the very worse abuses of the previous administration, it's very hard for me to hold on to any hope for this president...

Abdullah's withdrawal

2009-11-02T01:30:00.000-08:00

from al jazeera...

juan cole...

Matthew Green of the FT, reporting from Kabul, suggests that Abdullah Abdullah may still be open to a post in Hamid Karzai's cabinet. That outcome is not impossible given Afghanistan's mercurial politics. But it seems to me unlikely, since Abdullah is accusing his rival in the country's presidential contest, Hamid Karzai, of having attempted to steal the Aug. 20 election, and of running interference for corrupt members of the electoral commission. The reason Abdullah gave for pulling out of the race, that the elections were not going to be conducted transparently, is more of a thunderous condemnation than a coy offering of himself as a cabinet member. Still, Euronews also notes that Abdullah has not ruled out playing a role in a national unity government.

i chatted online this morning with a couple of afghan friends... the consensus seems to be that abdullah pulled out because he knew he was going to lose... one friend said that she was planning to vote for karzai even tho' she hates him just to keep abdullah from winning... the other friend said he wasn't planning to vote at all nor did he vote in the first round... he just sees it as choice between two different piles of shit...

All Saints' Day by Night at Powązki Cemetery, Warsaw

2009-11-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

we took a walk through warsaw's powązki cemetery this evening and, i must say, it was quite a sight... it was ablaze with candles and packed with people... some of the graves of the famous were literally aflame... i've never seen anything quite like it... here's a link to an article and some photos of this unusual all saint's day celebration...

Poles celebrate the All Saints' Day in unusually solemn way. The cemeteries and graveyards are decorated with candles, flowers and wreaths through the day and they shine through the night.

here's my video of the scene taken earlier this evening...

Jon Stewart, a Jew himself, displays cast-iron cojones and takes on the Israel-Palestine issue

2009-10-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

how cool is this...?

Anna Baltzer and Mustafa Barghouti advocate a non-violent approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in this complete, unedited interview.

Daily Show
Full Episodes

part 2 here...

evidently it's caused some controversy...

from raw story...

Jon Stewart's comedy news show The Daily Show is reportedly under fire from pro-Israeli groups for giving airtime to two pro-Palestinian figures on Wednesday night.

Stewart hosted Palestinian democracy activist Mustafa Barghouti and human rights activist Anna Baltzer, author of A Witness in Palestine, who explained the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspective of the Palestinian side.

According to a letter reportedly written by Baltzer and circulated by blogger Eric Johnson, the show "was overwhelmed with angry emails and phone calls prior to the appearance, and up until the last minute it seemed like they might cancel."

"During the taping the show had its only heckler in 11 years," Baltzer wrote. "The entire staff were very nervous and may come to regret the monumental decision (and not make it again) as they will surely be inundated now that the show has aired."

how about freedom of discussion...? how about freedom to debate major issues openly...? and how about a comedian tackling one of the most repressed topics in the world...? yay, jon stewart...

Oops...! House Ethics Committee screws up...!

2009-10-29T21:16:00.000-07:00

you gotta think that if the ethics committee has identified 30 naughty little kids in the ranks of congress, how many more must there REALLY be...?

House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July.

The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee said Thursday night that the document was released by a low-level staffer.

[...]

The 22-page "Committee on Standards Weekly Summary Report" gives brief summaries of ethics panel investigations of the conduct of 19 lawmakers and a few staff members. It also outlines the work of the new Office of Congressional Ethics, a quasi-independent body that initiates investigations and provides recommendations to the ethics committee. The document indicated that the office was reviewing the activities of 14 other lawmakers. Some were under review by both ethics bodies.

imho, the level of corruption and the number of seriously ethically compromised congresspeople AND senators would be staggering if we knew the whole story...

More details on how much torture was used and how people were kept alive so they could be tortured some more

2009-10-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

as i sit here in kabul, the day after the mess at the un guesthouse across town and the horror just over the border in peshawar, and several days after the terrible carnage in baghdad, it's sickening to read about the atrocities perpetrated by my own people, the very people who were all over the news yesterday, decrying the bloody actions of terrorists...

According to human rights lawyer John Sifton, the CIA tortured some of its detainees in the War on Terror so severely that it had to take measures to keep them alive so they could continue being tortured.

Sifton, who the executive director of One World Research, told an interviewer for Russia Today that there was both a CIA detention program and a military detention program and that "The CIA program was by far the most secretive. ... That's the one that only had a few dozen detainees at any given time -- but it's the one that saw the biggest abuses, the most serious forms of torture."

"In the military, there was actually a larger number of deaths than with the CIA," Sifton continued. "The CIA engaged in some horrendous abuses, but they appear to have taken precautions to have actually prevented people from dying -- which might sound humanitarian, but in fact was kind of sickening."

"The military wasn't so careful," Sifton added. "The military subjected a lot of people to the same techniques, but without the precautions, and as a result a large number of detainees in military custody died. ... While they didn't use the worst forms of torture, like waterboarding, they often used sleep deprivation, forced standing, stress positions. ... When you combine these techniques ... they cause excruciating pain ... and the military used them on thousands and thousands of detainees."

Sifton commented that what he found most shocking was "the cold, clinical fashion in which they went about designing the program. They didn't want to commit outright physical torture ... so they went to psychologists and lawyers and they tried to design a program which was, in their minds, legal. ... They tried to make it legal and safe, but they just made it even more grotesque."

don't think for one second the afghans i work with aren't tuned in to what's happening in the world... they are just as horrified as you and i about the havoc their very own people are wreaking in their country but they're also very well aware of what we, the american people, are allowing to go on in our names...

Firefight ongoing in Kabul [UPDATE 1, 2 & 3]

2009-10-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

[BUMPED]

i came to the office early just as this was coming down... not a lot of details yet except to say it's still going on... we had to take an alternate route as the one we regularly use passes right through the middle of the area where it's all happening... the good news is that everybody else was told to stay home so i've pretty much got the office to myself... such peace and quiet...!

Heavy gunfire has erupted at a guest house used by U.N. staff in Kabul, and Afghan police said five people were killed. A U.N. spokesman said U.N. staff were believed to have fled the building and efforts were under way to determine if they were all safe.

The fighting broke out Monday after dawn. The crackle of automatic gunfire reverberated through the streets.

U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards confirmed the guest house was used by U.N. staff but he believed all had fled the building. He didn't know how many international staff were living there.

sigh...

[UPDATE 1]

about 45 minutes ago, there were several mortar rounds that landed in the vicinity of the serena hotel in central kabul which isn't far from where i'm sitting here in the office... we had to go to the safe room for a while but evidently things have quieted down and i'm now back at my desk...

this is the latest news report i've been able to find...

Afghan forces exchanged gunfire with a group of militants holed up inside an international guest house in the centre of Kabul on Wednesday, police said.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said it was possible some of its staff and other foreigners were inside.

Intense automatic weapons fire and an explosion resounded in the capital, and plumes of black smoke rose above buildings.

A Reuters witness said a number of streets had been cordoned off by the police as the gunfire continued, and sirens reverberated across the city.

"There are five or six terrorists inside," said Waheed Sadiqi, a policeman at the scene.

double sigh...

[UPDATE 2]

here's more...

Gunmen with automatic weapons and suicide vests stormed a guest house used by U.N. staff in the heart of the Afghan capital early Wednesday, killing at least seven people including three U.N. staff, officials said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility, saying it was meant as an assault on the upcoming presidential election.

Heavy gunfire reverberated through the streets shortly after dawn and a large plume of smoke rose over the city following the attack on the hostel in the Shar-e-Naw district. Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahman said seven people were killed, including some attackers.

U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards confirmed that three U.N. staff were among the dead and one was seriously wounded. He said 20 U.N. staff were living at the guest house, some of them known to be registered there but he was unsure whether all were there at the time of the attack.

Flames could be seen on the roof of the guest house. Hours after the attack began, three explosions could be heard but it was unclear if they were from that location.

triple sigh...

[UPDATE 3]

this is the sight that greeted me this morning on my way to the office...

Smoke can be seen rising in central Kabul Wednesday Oct. 28, 2009.
Gunmen attacked a guest house used by U.N. staff in the Afghan capital
of Kabul early Wednesday, killing at least seven people including three
U.N. staff, officials said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility,
saying it was meant as an assault on the upcoming presidential election.
(AP Photo/Bob Reid)

Ok, Hamid, let's have that little talk about Wali...

2009-10-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

you can make of this what you will... for me, it just adds to my deep, dark suspicions that the our esteemed cia has long been heavy into the drug trade and that our dark overlords have managed to maintain their power over us in large part financed by proceeds from that dark business... it would only be to their interest to keep a drug lord on the payroll...

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.

gee, what a great morning...! just FULL of all kinds of breaking news...!

In a failed state, the criminals are INSIDE the government

2009-10-26T22:41:00.000-07:00

paul craig roberts appearing with max keiser...

Part 1

Part 2

Get your U.S. green card...!

2009-10-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

whenever i'm out of the u.s., this ad constantly appears on websites i visit... teh google obviously groks the fact that i'm connecting from a non-u.s. isp and responds accordingly...

the satellite internet service that we use at the project here in afghanistan shows me as logged in from an ip address in the uk... i bet if the ip address was afghanistan, i wouldn't be seeing this...!

Some real data on U.S. healthcare costs - $800B annually and for WHAT?

2009-10-26T03:40:00.000-07:00

reuters has actually done some research...

One example -- a paper-based system that discourages sharing of medical records accounts for 6 percent of annual overspending.

"It is waste when caregivers duplicate tests because results recorded in a patient's record with one provider are not available to another or when medical staff provides inappropriate treatment because relevant history of previous treatment cannot be accessed," the report reads.

Some other findings in the report from Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters:

* Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure makes up 37 percent of healthcare waste or $200 to $300 a year.

* Fraud makes up 22 percent of healthcare waste, or up to $200 billion a year in fraudulent Medicare claims, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams.

* Administrative inefficiency and redundant paperwork account for 18 percent of healthcare waste.

* Medical mistakes account for $50 billion to $100 billion in unnecessary spending each year, or 11 percent of the total.

* Preventable conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes cost $30 billion to $50 billion a year.

"The average U.S. hospital spends one-quarter of its budget on billing and administration, nearly twice the average in Canada," reads the report, citing dozens of other research papers.

"American physicians spend nearly eight hours per week on paperwork and employ 1.66 clerical workers per doctor, far more than in Canada," it says, quoting a 2003 New England Journal of Medicine paper by Harvard University researcher Dr. Steffie Woolhandler.

notably not chronicled and all the more visible due to its absence: healthcare industry profits...

WTF...?!?! Rich Germans want to pay MORE taxes...?

2009-10-26T01:55:00.000-07:00

how cool is this...? when i first read the headline, i had to go back and read it again...

Rich Germans want to pay higher taxes to help with recovery

A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes. The group says they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany’s economic recovery.

[...]

The group says the financial crisis is leading to an increase in unemployment, poverty and social inequality. Simply donating money to deal with the problems is not enough, they want a change in the whole approach.

"The path out of the crisis must be paved with massive investment in ecology, education and social justice," they say in the petition.

Those who had "made a fortune through inheritance, hard work, hard-working, successful entrepreneurship, or investment" should contribute by paying more to alleviate the crisis.

this is precisely the spirit our arrogant, self-centered, obscenely self-pleasuring super-rich elites need to start adopting... when billions of people around the world are going hungry and dying, for them to continue their insane quest to acquire more, more, more is a sad and pathetic display...

Bearding the banksters at the Chicago American Banking Association conference

2009-10-25T22:52:00.001-07:00

this kind of thing is only going to grow... people are pissed - and rightly so...

Gay and pedophile-ridden Catholic church woos homophobic Anglicans

2009-10-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

i read this story last week but, for some reason, the stunning irony and jaw-dropping hypocrisy didn't sink in until late last night as i was tossing and turning, trying to get back to sleep...

The Vatican announced Tuesday it was making it easier for Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism -- a surprise move designed to entice traditionalists opposed to women priests, openly gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions.

The decision, reached in secret by a small cadre of Vatican officials, was sure to add to the problems of the 77-million-strong Anglican Communion as it seeks to deal with deep doctrinal divisions that threaten a permanent schism among its faithful.

nobody could make this shit up...

The #1 surveillance society in the world, the UK, focuses on "domestic extremism"

2009-10-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

make no mistake... these same tactics are being used in the u.s., it's just that the u.s. doesn't have as deep a tradition of investigative journalism that is willing to ferret them out...

all emphases added...

Police are gathering the personal details of thousands of activists who attend political meetings and protests, and storing their data on a network of nationwide intelligence databases.

The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor "domestic extremists", the Guardian can reveal in the first of a three-day series into the policing of protests. Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime.

Senior officers say domestic extremism, a term coined by police that has no legal basis, can include activists suspected of minor public order offences such as peaceful direct action and civil disobedience.

[...]

• The main unit, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), runs a central database which lists thousands of so-called domestic extremists. It filters intelligence supplied by police forces across England and Wales, which routinely deploy surveillance teams at protests, rallies and public meetings. The NPOIU contains detailed files on individual protesters who are searchable by name.

• Vehicles associated with protesters are being tracked via a nationwide system of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras. One man, who has no criminal record, was stopped more than 25 times in less than three years after a "protest" marker was placed against his car after he attended a small protest against duck and pheasant shooting. ANPR "interceptor teams" are being deployed on roads leading to protests to monitor attendance.

• Police surveillance units, known as Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) and Evidence Gatherers, record footage and take photographs of campaigners as they enter and leave openly advertised public meetings. These images are entered on force-wide databases so that police can chronicle the campaigners' political activities.

then there's this lovely item innocuously called a "spotter card"...

This kind of highly confidential document – pictured above – is rarely seen by the public.

These so-called "spotter cards" are issued by police to identify individuals they consider to be potential troublemakers because they have appeared at a number of demonstrations.

The photographs are drawn from police intelligence files. This card was apparently dropped at a demonstration against Britain's largest arms fair in 2005.

"H" is Mark Thomas, the comedian and political activist. Asked why it was justifiable to put Thomas, who has no criminal record, on this card, the Metropolitan police replied: "We do not discuss intelligence we may hold in relation to individuals."

Thomas had been acquitted of criminal damage after attaching himself to a bus containing arms traders at a previous fair.

The Met said: "This is an appropriate tactic used by police to help them identify people at specific events … who may instigate offences or disorder."

so, now peaceful direct action and civil disobedience, so-called "minor order public offenses," along with protest, an act of free speech, are defined as "domestic extremism"...?

there's a phenomenon called "psychological reciprocity" which, loosely defined, means that when people are treated a certain way, they tend to respond in the manner in which they're treated... in my professional life, i've seen it a million times... management characterizes front line workers as "lazy," "untrustworthy," "cry-babies," and generally no damn good and, guess what...? they tend to respond that way which, in turn, justifies management's attitude...

to quote kurt vonnegut, "and so it goes"...

Juan Cole on yesterday's Baghdad blasts

2009-10-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

professor cole...

The US Republican Party's avaricious and illegal war on Iraq destabilized the eastern Mediterranean, perhaps for decades, creating long-term challenges to US and global security of which the Baghdad blasts are very possibly only minor omens.

Billionaires for Wealthcare - Public Option Annie

2009-10-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

great stuff...

AHIP is the powerful insurance lobby that spends 5 million dollars a week trying to kill health care reform. Billionaires for Wealthcare is a grassroots network looking to stop them - with song.

• AHIP and other insurance and HMO interests spend nearly $5 million per week undermining real health care reform, including a public option.

• AHIP has resorted to out-right lying and scare tactics to block health care reform. They sent letters that lie to seniors about what health care reform means for Medicare, and they issued a report on the costs of health care reform legislation that is so misleading even the reports embarrassed authors distanced themselves from the way AHIP used their work.

• Every year, 45,000 people die because they cant get access to the health care they need. Yet AHIP continues to stand in the way of health care reform that would provide coverage to millions of Americans because the industry is more concerned with protecting profits than saving lives.

Grayson tells a bit of Dick Cheney truth

2009-10-24T00:09:00.000-07:00

grayson only says what i have been saying for a long, long time... dick cheney is devil spawn...

Speaking on Hardball, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) denounced Cheney's attacks on President Barack Obama, who posited that Obama was "dithering" in failing to endorse a troop surge.

"I have trouble listening to what he says sometimes, because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he's talking," Grayson quipped. "But my response is this: He's just angry because the president doesn't shoot old men in the face. But by the way, when he was done speaking, did he just then turn into a bat and fly away?"

Matthews, somewhat aghast, replied: "Oh God -- we gotta keep a level here. Let me ask you this: Don't you have any Republican friends?"

Grayson laughed.

if grayson was referring to anyone else, such a statement could possibly have been construed as an insult... with cheney, however...

Afghanistan earthquake

2009-10-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

i went to a going-away party on thursday night and, as is my wont, came back early to hit the sack... i was awakened by the entire guesthouse shaking which was then followed by a heavy jolt... it was clear just from the feel of it that, had it been a few notches stronger, there would have very likely been structural damage... i heard my colleagues buzzing about in the hall but, as is also my wont, when i didn't feel any more temblors, just rolled over and went back to sleep... i don't mean to appear blasé, but i guess i am, so much so, in fact, that i didn't even think to look up the news story until this morning...

A strong earthquake centered in the towering Hindu Kush mountains shook a wide area of eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan early Friday, swaying buildings in the Afghan and Pakistani capitals.

There were no initial reports of damage or casualties from the quake, which struck about 12:21 a.m. Afghan time (3:51 p.m. EDT Thursday). However, the temblor was centered in a remote mountain area where communications are poor and reports of casualties would take time to reach the capital.

The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 and was centered in the mountains about 167 miles northeast of Kabul and 140 miles west of Mingaora, Pakistan, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Buildings shook in the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Islamabad, the capital, and the quake was felt as far east as Lahore near the Indian border, Pakistani television stations reported.

The Afghan Interior Ministry said it had no immediate reports of deaths or damage.

the epicenter was supposedly in the afghanistan province of badakshan near the city of faisabad...

Abu Ghraib - truth-telling and its consequences

2009-10-23T20:28:00.000-07:00

courtesy of consortium news...

Editor’s Note: On Thursday night, former Army Sgt. Sam Provance received a letter of commendation from Common Cause – signed by former President Jimmy Carter and 15,000 others – for his “uncommon courage in defending the rule of law and standing up against torture.”

In 2004, Provance was the only uniformed military intelligence officer at Abu Ghraib who broke the code of silence and challenged the Bush administration’s insistence that the grotesque prison abuses were simply the work of a few “bad apples.”

After military policeman Joseph Darby turned over the infamous Abu Ghraib photographs to investigators, Provance spoke out about the role of intelligence officers and other higher-ups in encouraging the humiliation and torture of prisoners. He gave statements to the Army’s internal investigation, at a congressional hearing and to the press.

For his brave integrity, Provance was punished, threatened with a court martial and pushed out of the military. Since then, Provance has faced severe financial and family pressures, struggling to find work that pays enough for him to meet child support obligations and other basic needs.

So, when Provance accepted Common Cause’s commendation, it was a bittersweet moment that illuminated the grim reality of trying to tell important truths in this American era:

I wish I could share with you a “success” story as a result of my being a “whistle-blower,” but the reality of things simply do not presently allow it.

I admit to you that at one time I did believe that my life would eventually turn for the better, in spite of it all, especially fighting under the banners of “doing right,” “standing up for others” and “speaking the truth.”

But it has been a very long and arduous path I have found myself upon with no end in sight. Rather than a karmic “good” winning in the end over “the forces of evil,” I have experienced what I feel like is a slow and intimate wrath in response to my actions.

However, I have sometimes thought perhaps it has been best. Perhaps I might have grown enthralled with the ensuing drama or seduced by the attention garnered. But I have been humbled many times and kept humble nonetheless.

Others I have seen in this and other scandals took the bribes of some media or gave in to others' insinuations that they embellish their testimony for a better “copy.” Still others got lost in drugs or, more tragically, had mental breakdowns under the unique stress.

Their efforts in this regard were effectively sabotaged, losing their credibility, if not their lives.

Perhaps I could have much to gain from indulging in the spotlight or kill a lot of the pain in the fantasies of inebriation, but I know that if what I have said or done is to maintain its meaning – what I have been sacrificing so much for – I have to stay true. I have to stay the course.

I realized that one cannot allow others to take away their credibility or the integrity of the act itself, otherwise, all will be for naught. Sometimes, as in my case, my credibility is all I have left.

i don't think it takes being a whistleblower to fully appreciate what provance is experiencing... a lot of us have been working for many years to tell the truth - at least the truth as we see it - and have felt like voices crying in the wilderness... all we can do is keep on keepin' on...

Ethnicity/category	number
Jews	1.1 million
Poles	140-150 thousand
Gypsies	23 thousand
Soviet POWs	15 thousand
Others	25 thousand
Total	Approx. 1.3 million

Year	Men	Women	total
1940	8,000	-	8,000
1941	26,500	-	26,500
1942	61,500	28,000	89,500
1943	96,000	56,000	152,000
1944/1945	67,500	47,000	114,500
1941-1945	9,000*	2,000*	11,000*
Razem	268,500	133,000	Approx. 400,000