And, yes, I DO take it personally

Fuckers (stronger letter to follow)

2009-07-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

they're beneath contempt...

AIG Is Preparing to Pay Millions More in Bonuses

American International Group is preparing to pay millions of dollars more in bonuses to several dozen top corporate executives after an earlier round of payments four months ago set off a national furor.

The company has been pressing the federal government to bless the payments in hopes of shielding itself from renewed public outrage.

ya know what...? the average u.s. taxpayer, myself included, is a full-on chump... we're being sheared like the sheep we are...

Full spectrum U.S. dominance of the entire planet

2009-07-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

from real news via information clearing house...

information clearing house...

The Plan is for the United States to rule the world. The overt theme is unilateralism, but it is ultimately a story of domination. It calls for the United States to maintain its overwhelming military superiority and prevent new rivals from rising up to challenge it on the world stage. It calls for dominion over friends and enemies alike. It says not that the United States must be more powerful, or most powerful, but that it must be absolutely powerful.

real news...

William Engdahl on his book Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order.

Part 1

Part 2

good stuff... a rare commodity - intelligent, in-depth, probing news and discussion of major issues directed toward an adult mentality that can tolerate give-and-take that isn't pre-digested or, worse yet, totally phony...

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize winner, speaks from an Israeli jail about the abduction of Gaza aid activists

2009-07-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

al jazeera english...

Fourteen people remain in custody after an aid ship bound for Gaza was seized by the Israeli navy on Tuesday. Among them are a nobel peace prize winner, and two Al Jazeera journalists. The Free Gaza movement sent the ship loaded with humanitarian supplies from Cyprus, in defiance of Israel's crippling 2-year blockade.

also, see previous post...

Once upon a time, Americans would have had the stones to do something about the kidnapping of a former Congresswoman

2009-07-04T08:29:00.001-07:00

no shit, professor cole...

US hostages held in foreign country on Fourth of July, including a former Congresswoman, after having been captured in a naked act of piracy in international waters after the Americans attempted to respond to a crisis provoked by crimes against humanity, as detailed by Amnesty International.

Once upon a time, Americans would have had the guts to mind such a thing.

Gazans and other Palestinians under Israeli occupation do not enjoy "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and have not been able to "institute" a "government" of their own to secure those rights. The occupation authority that rules them does not derive its "powers" from the "consent of the government." The occupation government has become destructive to these ends. I think we know what the American Founding Fathers would say the Palestinians need.

not only do we no longer have the guts to do what should be done and more than enough "courage" to do things we absolutely SHOULDN'T do, we also don't even bother to give outrages like this any media attention...

muy, muy patético...

God help us...! Sarah's going to run for President...!

2009-07-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

sometimes i think i live in the most bizarre, screwed up country in the world...

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will resign her office later this month, according to several sources familiar with her decision, freeing her to build a national political team and travel the country in support of an expected 2012 presidential bid.

The first term governor is stepping down "so that she can take the fight for her issues elsewhere," according to a Palin aide.

i hate to wish anyone ill, but i have to say i hope she makes a bigger fool out of herself than she has already which i honestly don't think she will have to work very hard to do... talk about delusions of grandeur, grandiosity and sheer over-the-top you-gotta-be-kidding-me insanity...

Oops...! We've been fingered...! Guess it's time to try to spin our way out of it...!

2009-07-03T07:32:00.000-07:00

what a bunch of fresh, steaming, fly-encrusted horseshit...

Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth yesterday canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered corporate underwriters access to Post journalists, Obama administration officials and members of Congress in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.

"Absolutely, I'm disappointed," Weymouth said in an interview. "This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren't vetted. They didn't represent at all what we were attempting to do. We're not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom."

The fliers were approved by a top Post marketing executive, Charles Pelton, who said it was "a big mistake" on his part and that he had done so "without vetting it with the newsroom."

[...]

Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said he was "appalled" by the plan. "It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase," Brauchli said. The proposal "promises we would suspend our usual skeptical questioning because it appears to offer, in exchange for sponsorships, the good name of The Washington Post."

The Post Co. fliers offered an "intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth." The fliers, which said participants would be charged $25,000 to sponsor a single salon and $250,000 to underwrite an annual series of 11 sessions, were reported yesterday by Politico.

ok... take a deep breath... clear your head... take a moment to look off in the distance and let those muddled thoughts settle... ready...? now, let's get really, really real...

these protestations of being "appalled," of "disappointment," of not wanting to do "any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom," are disingenuous in the extreme... pelton would have never done something that involved sending fliers to d.c. movers and shakers under the wapo banner advertising no less than dinner at the house of the wapo ceo and publisher unless ALL the details had been ok'd by said ceo and publisher in advance... no marketing honcho is going to put his career on the line by doing something like that unilaterally unless he's purposely angling to get fired... no siree... they blew it, big-time, and now pelton has become the whole burnt offering sacrificed on the altar of "to hell with you, i'm saving my OWN ass..."

patético...

Why do we give a shit about credit scores?

2009-07-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

do you know how many times i see this little banner ad - or ones just like it - on my computer screen every day...? well, i ain't countin' but it's got to be in the mid-double digits... it's just part of the grand plan to get everybody to think their lives ain't worth shit if they don't have a good credit score...

stop and think about it... what kind of life do you have to live to get a good credit score...? first of all, you gotta buy shit on credit, the more the better... second, you have to follow the rules set out by the banks, credit card companies, and every other institution that is angling for your money to the frickin' LETTER... this means you have to be a 110% goody two-shoes AS THEY DEFINE IT or, god forbid, you won't be able to go out and buy more of their shit...

why do we keep sitting back and playing the game according to rules set by those who absolutely do NOT have our best interests at heart...? hmmmmmmm...?

btw, who do you think are the sponsors behind the ad...? kee-rect... experian, equifax and transunion, the unholy trio that sit in judgment over our financial lives...

Hiking the Appalachian Trail

2009-07-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

i was listening to npr's wait wait don't tell me with my daughter in minneapolis on sunday... it's a very clever show that i would probably enjoy listening to more often, but, anyway, they opined that the new code for canoodling is "hiking the appalachian trail"... ya gotta love it...

And how about that economy that's rising from the ashes?

2009-07-02T06:41:00.000-07:00

i was - not by choice - watching cnbc's kudlow report yesterday... good lord, what a collection of self-important gasbags...! if they weren't fulminating about the "death tax," they were pounding the drums for just how rosy things are starting to look for the economy and how obama's stimulus package had absolutely NOTHING to do with it... i finally had to leave the room... just one of the many, many reasons my tolerance level for u.s. television is measured in nanoseconds...

look for yourself and see how long you can hold out...

meanwhile, reality, in its usual annoying fashion, insists on making its presence felt...

U.S. Unemployment Rate Rises to 26-Year High
Employers keep slashing jobs, undermining signs of progress in the economy, and making clear that the job market remains in terrible shape.

then this from the la times...

Even as the nation's economy begins clawing its way out of the worst recession in 60 years, there are growing signs that this recovery could come with an unsettling twist: The wheels of commerce may begin to turn again without any substantial boost in jobs.

Not only is the national unemployment rate, now 9.4%, likely to climb into double digits later this year, but it is also expected to remain there well into 2010, economists say. That would prolong the misery of the unemployed, squeeze retailers and other businesses, and add millions of dollars in government costs and lost productivity. It could even threaten the recovery itself.

a guy in my class asked me on tuesday night how long he could expect to be out of work (he was laid off from a local casino about four months ago)... not wanting to sugarcoat the truth, i told him that he should expect at least another year and perhaps longer... amazingly enough, he's actually begun to consider emigrating to canada, an idea i told him might not be a bad one...

From the dawn of time until 2003, there had never been a suicide bombing in Iraq

2009-07-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

juan cole takes the recent comments of one of the world's preeminent dicks - cheney - about his concerns over "wasting" the "sacrifices" the u.s. has made in iraq and tosses them into the dumpster where they so rightly belong...

a sample...

First of all, Cheney didn't make any sacrifices in Iraq. He deferred his own military service five times because he 'had other things to do.' The 'sacrifices' were caused because he purveyed falsehoods to the US public in order to get up that war, hinting around that Saddam was in bed with Usama Bin Laden and telling senators that Iraq was two years away from having a nuclear bomb. So the sacrifices were of other people's children, and his role was merely that of an Aztec high priest cutting the heart out of the victims.

why can't this despicable bastard simply retreat to his "undisclosed location" and leave the rest of us in peace...?

Follow-up: Argentine election results

2009-07-01T17:18:00.000-07:00

i read a few articles on the election results which claimed that argentine voters were repudiating a center-left government... b.s... they were repudiating an incompetent, airhead, fashionista presidente who, with her ex-presidente husband, have systematically, in true argentine fashion, lined their own pockets while claiming to be on the side of the poor, a population that is steadily increasing while the rich - as usual - get richer...

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner lost power in Congress after voters angry at her handling of a farm strike, crime and a slowing economy favored opposition candidates in mid-term elections yesterday.

Fernandez acknowledged that a slate of candidates for the lower house led by her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, was defeated in the bellwether province of Buenos Aires. She told reporters today that the government will have 35 seats in the 72-member senate and 107 lawmakers in the 257- member lower house, not counting allies from other blocs.

Fernandez, 56, relied on her coalition’s control of Congress to back an agenda that included nationalizing $24 billion in private pension funds and the country’s flagship airline, Aerolineas Argentinas SA. She angered many supporters when she tried to raise farm export taxes last year, provoking four months of road blockades and protests.

too bad, so sad, cristina... meanwhile, check out what you've done to your wonderful country...

Argentina faces having to import wheat

Argentina, which considers itself the world’s bread basket, faces having to import wheat next year after the worst planting season on record because of drought, lack of credit and government policies.

Argentine farmers are set to sow about 2.9m hectares with wheat, the smallest area since records started more than a century ago and down 30 per cent from last season’s 4.2m, according to estimates from the Buenos Aires grain exchange.

“Since records started in Argentina more than 100 years ago there is not a single season with a lower planted area,” said Esteban Copati, an agricultural analyst at the exchange. “The wheat-sowing season has started badly, on the wrong footing.”

what a crying shame...

A mere EIGHT MONTHS after the election, it looks like MN will once again have 2 Senators [UPDATE]

2009-06-30T11:56:00.000-07:00

'bout ~~freakin'~~ franken time, i say...!

Minn. court rules for Franken in Senate fight

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state's long-running Senate race, paving the way for a resolution in the seven-month fight over the seat.

The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.

Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office. With Franken and the usual backing of two independents, Democrats will have a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibusters.

i just came back from minnesota where i was visiting my daughter... it's bizarre enough to have viewed this debacle from the outside but it was ever so much more bizarre to actually be there, talk to folks, and watch them just shake their heads... thank god, it's almost over...

[UPDATE]

coleman, the quintessential prick, concedes...

Outside his St. Paul home, the incumbent, Norm Coleman, a Republican who had held the seat for one term, conceded the election to Mr. Franken, bringing an end to a lengthy battle that had resulted in thousands of pages of legal documents, cost tens of thousands of dollars, and had left many ordinary Minnesotans weary.

what a maroon... coleman's going to go down in history as a complete and total ass, finally humiliated into the loss he should have accepted as a fact months ago...

Tomorrow's election in Argentina

2009-06-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

a triumph of vacuousness... sigh...

In the waning minutes of “Showmatch,” the most popular entertainment show on Argentine television, the host managed on Thursday night to finally connect with Néstor Kirchner, the former president and now a candidate for Congress.
The suspense had been building for more than 90 minutes — “Will Néstor come?” was the title of the show — and the host, Marcelo Tinelli, periodically went to the street to check for signs of Mr. Kirchner’s motorcade. With the show nearing its end, Mr. Tinelli telephoned Mr. Kirchner at the presidential residence that he shares with his wife, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
“What’s up with you calling at this hour, Marcelo?” Mr. Kirchner asked jokingly.
Mr. Kirchner’s appearance had been rumored for days as a potential last-ditch effort to charm voters and perhaps save the Kirchners’ political future in congressional elections scheduled for Sunday. With a dearth of political television in Argentina and Mr. Kirchner’s refusal to debate his rivals, the political sketches of “Showmatch” have filled a void.
In what analysts say are further signs of desperation, the Kirchners have encouraged dozens of city council members and even Daniel Scioli, the governor of Buenos Aires Province, to run on their ticket as “testimonial candidates,” who do not expect to actually assume their positions if they win, a practice that has not been challenged in Argentina.
“This is one of the most vacuous legislative campaigns I have ever seen in this country,” said Graciela Romer, a veteran political analyst in Buenos Aires. “This is a campaign that has been almost entirely waged through Tinelli’s show.”

what a shame... argentina is such a wonderful country in so many ways and yet this is the kind of charade that passes for democracy... where's the real leadership...? that said, i could say virtually the same thing about my own country...

Detainee abuse at Bagram

2009-06-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

like we didn't know what was happening at "guantánamo east"...

There's a lot of boo-hooing going on out there...

2009-06-24T11:47:00.001-07:00

they're dropping like flies... too bad, so sad...

Governor Sanford made a stunning admission at his news conference this afternoon that he has been having an extramarital affair with a "dear dear friend" in Argentina. The affair, he said, began "very innocently" but blossomed into "something much more than that."

"I've been unfaithful to my wife," Sanford said. "As a consequence, I hurt her, you all, my wife, my boys, my friends like Tom Davis. I hurt a lot of different folks. All I can say is that I apologize."

Sanford said he will resign as chairman of the Republican Governors' Association.

what a bunch of losers... they can dictate morality and piously tell everyone else how to live their lives... but, guess what, they're only human just like the rest of us, only they want us to feel sorry for them when that turns out to be the case... sorry for them...? AFTER being preached at... she-e-e-e-e-it... in your dreams...

Juan Cole: more demonstrators were arrested in New York protesting Bush than in Tehran

2009-06-24T07:38:00.000-07:00

kinda puts things in perspective, doesn't it...?

juan cole...

The number of demonstrators arrested in Tehran on Saturday is estimated at 550 or so, which is less than those arrested by the NYPD for protesting Bush policies in 2004.

Proof positive the Iran election was stolen

2009-06-22T07:50:00.000-07:00

if you're going to steal an election, best do it in such a way as to make it at least somewhat believable...

juan cole cites the chatham house study (pdf) and sums it up this way...

The numbers do not add up. You can't have more voters than there are people. You can't have a complete liberal and pragmatic-conservative swing behind hard liners who make their lives miserable.

The election was stolen. It is there in black and white. Those of us who know Iran, could see it plain as the nose on our faces, even if we could not quantify our reasons as elegantly as Chatham House.

would that when our presidential election was stolen in 2000 and 2004, we would have had the stones to kick up a fuss the way the iranians are doing...

A headline and a lede that anyone with two brain cells to rub together should choke on

2009-06-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

'scuse ME...?!?! we fork over literally TRILLIONS to the banks, investment firms, insurance companies, automakers, and everyone else associated with the money and power structure in this country and we can't manage to come up with funding for health care...? un-fuckingly-believable...

Obama Initiatives Hit Speed Bumps
On Capitol Hill
High Price Tag For Reform Bill Prompts Sparring And a Delay

President Obama's hopes for quick action on comprehensive health-care reform ran headlong this week into the realities of Congress, as lawmakers searching for the money to pay for a broad expansion of coverage discovered that it wasn't easy to find and descended into partisan -- and intraparty -- bickering.

A set of unexpectedly high cost estimates -- arcane data that nevertheless carry enormous import in the legislative process -- sent shockwaves along Pennsylvania Avenue and forced one key committee to delay action on its bill, probably until after the July 4 recess.

In a high-level meeting at the White House yesterday, Obama conveyed his concern over early pronouncements by the Congressional Budget Office that a bill drafted by the Senate health committee would cover just 16 million additional people at a cost of $1 trillion, said one official with knowledge of the session who was not permitted to talk to reporters and so spoke on the condition of anonymity.

somebody grab me quick and slap me really, really hard... i'm rapidly losing all grip on reality...

The tragic history of the American Empire

2009-06-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

in keeping with our "school of the americas" trip down memory lane (see here), let's take yet another look at the horrors perpetrated by my very own country around the world for years...

youtube via information clearing house...

"The Secret History of the American Empire" with John Perkins, author of "Confessions of An Economic Hit Man."

Perkins zeroes in on hot spots around the world such as Venezuela, Tibet, Iraq, Israel, Vietnam and others and exposes the network of events in each of these countries that have contributed to the creation of the American Empire and international corruption in "The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth About Global Corruption" - Cody's Books

John Perkins spent three decades as an Economic Hit Man, business executive, author, and lecturer. He lived and worked in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and North America. Then he made a decision: he would use these experiences to make the planet a better place for his daughter's generation. Today he teaches about the importance of rising to higher levels of consciousness, to waking up - in both spiritual and physical realms - and is a champion for environmental and social causes. He has lectured at universities on four continents, including Harvard, Wharton, and Princeton.

Are our so-called liberal-progressive friends starting to wake up to the Obama bait-and-switch...?

2009-06-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

from the progress report...

For all of the administration's promising early steps to restore transparency and accountability, however recent developments are less encouraging. Some of these stumbling points have been simple failures of implementation; many of the administration's budget transparency websites, for example, publish inconsistent numbers. Other transparency failures, however, suggest a more disturbing trend. Despite promises to end "secret meetings" and restore the White House as the "people's house," the administration has refused to disclose the names of individuals who have visited the White House since Obama took office, while echoing similar excuses by Bush administration officials who wanted to hide secret meetings with energy industry executives. But most disturbing are recent, tenuous invocations of "national security" to cast a shade over government transparency. After the Environmental Protection Agency uncovered nearly four dozen toxic coal ash sites in Tennessee that "could cause death and significant property damage if an event such as a storm, a terrorist attack or a structural failure caused them to spill into surrounding communities," the administration choose to keep the locations of the toxic sites secret from Tennessee residents because of fears that such disclosure could present a "security risk." Similarly, despite earlier disclosure of the infamous torture memos, the Obama CIA has thus far successfully kept secret a comprehensive account of that agency's interrogation practices. Although a heavily redacted version of the report was uncovered by the ACLU, the administration insists that disclosing the full report would endanger national security. Even more alarming, however, is the Obama administration's adoption of Bush's "state secrets" claim in court cases dealing with issues ranging from extraordinary rendition to warrantless wiretapping. The "state secrets" privilege allows the administration to withhold information in a lawsuit or even dismiss the suit altogether if the subject matter of the suit could potentially reveal information that puts national security at risk. In one suit, brought by an Islamic charity challenging the previous administration's warrantless wiretapping program, a federal judge finally threatened sanctions against the Justice Department if it did not comply with an order to turn over a document to the plaintiff's attorneys. Incidents such as these led the New York Times to lament that Obama has "backtracked, in substantial if often nuanced ways, from the approach to national security that he preached as a candidate, and even from his first days in the Oval Office."

the center for american progress, the publisher of this e-newsletter and the weblog, think progress, has lost a great deal of credibility with me over the past few years... i became a regular reader when i saw that they often got the goods on the multiple abuses and outright crimes of the bush administration ahead of the rest of the baying blogosphere... then it started to dawn on me that they too often played the fawning sycophant to anyone and everyone aligned with the democratic party, frequently turning a blind eye to the fact that we have been and are continuing to be just as thoroughly screwed by the democrats as we are by the republicans, the only difference being that, with the dems, there's no sand in the vaseline...

since obama's election and inauguration, they've taken a turn for the worse, spending WAY too much time, imho, vilifying the likes of bill kristol, bill o'reilly, glenn beck, rush limbaugh, karl rove, and the like, a tactic that only serves to give those despicable characters even more air time and exposure than they already have and thus reinforcing their loathsome presence on the american scene... the best strategy in dealing with such obvious dark forces is to not give them the energy of even recognizing them... the dark feeds on attention whether it be positive or negative, and these guys don't deserve to be fed...

so, now our center for american progress friends seem to be waking up to the fact that our dear sunshine-is-the-best-disinfectant president may well be just another stooge - albeit a very well-spoken, intelligent and polished one - for those who so blithely and heedlessly pull our strings along with the strings of most of the rest of the world...

speaking for myself, i believe obama has a good heart and i would prefer to believe that some of what's going on is the result of his bowing to his handlers... otoh, if he IS a good soul, he'd better start showing it or i will be permanently checking out of the hope hotel...

School of the Americas

2009-06-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

i'm just tossing out this video clip as a reminder of my country's sordid history in fomenting torture, violence, death and destruction... i've had a number of posts (see here) on the horrors this kind of influence from the u.s. unleashed in latin america via operation condor, argentina's guerra sucia (dirty war), in chile via pinochet, and much more...

youtube via information clearing house...

One of my fondest hopes may be realized if my senator, John Ensign, has just become burnt toast

2009-06-16T14:52:00.001-07:00

John Ensign

take a look at that photo... too slick by half... he looks like a more modern and classed-up version of what we used to call a "lounge lizard," a fitting description i suppose of a las vegas native...

boo-hoo, john... this should teach ya to keep it in your pants, altho' i highly doubt it will...

Sources in Washington and Nevada say Republican Sen. John Ensign, a rising star in the Republican Party considering a 2012 presidential bid will hold a press conference later today in which he will acknowledge an extramarital affair.

Ensign, a member of the Senate GOP leadership, flew back to his native Las Vegas today in anticipation of the public announcement, sources said, missing a vote considered key to the Nevada tourist industry.

Two senior GOP political strategists, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said the announcement was imminent. They declined to say with whom Ensign had the affair.

In February 2002, Ensign took an unexplained two week leave of absence from the Senate citing "personal reasons."

When he returned from that respite, Ensign told the Las Vegas Sun that he was "not making any comments one way or the other. I'm just asking people to respect my privacy."

while you're chuckling over ensign's now tarnished star, consider the very low statistical odds of ANYONE being a las vegas native...!

"We want reforms, we want kindness, we want friendship with the world"

2009-06-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

ya know what i'd like to see...? i'd like to see this same thing happening in every country in the world with the same sentiments expressed... we all want kindness, we all want friendship with the world, we all want this world to be a better place... do ya s'pose maybe, just maybe, we're slowly approaching the day when a global "pandemic" of kindness and friendship will spontaneously erupt...? a guy can dream, can't he...?

Ayatollah Khamenei announced Saturday that the election results showing a landslide victory for Mr. Ahmadinejad were fair. But on Sunday he met with Mr. Moussavi, a moderate, to listen to his concerns. And on Monday, he promised the inquiry into the results.

Nevertheless, his announcement could not calm the anger of the people. There was so much distrust that some people said they believed the leader was just trying to buy time and to calm the crowds, rather than attempting to really investigate the outcome.

Hours later, a broad river of people in Tehran — young and old, dressed in traditional Islamic gowns and the latest Western fashions — marched slowly from Revolution Square to Freedom Square for more than three hours, many of them wearing the signature bright green ribbons of Mr. Moussavi’s campaign and holding up their hands in victory signs.

The silent march was a deliberate and striking contrast to the chaos of the past few days, when riot police officers sprayed tear gas and wielded clubs to disperse scattered bands of angry and frightened young people. When the occasional shout or chant went up, the crowd quickly hushed it, and some held up signs with the word silence.

“These people are not seeking a revolution,” said Ali Reza, a young actor in a brown T-shirt who stood for a moment watching on the rally’s sidelines. “We don’t want this regime to fall. We want our votes to be counted, because we want reforms, we want kindness, we want friendship with the world.”

i get chills just reading this... i don't think it's about one candidate as much as it's about people reclaiming their own power and standing up for what they want instead of bowing to old men whose sole concern is perpetuating their own power and control over others...

Oh, yay... Learned helplessness...

2009-06-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

a societal and organizational dynamic that i've observed for many years is what i have come to call "learned helplessness"... many of us develop that mindset when, over many, many years, we've come to believe that no matter what we do, our employer won't change a damn thing, our society will still be off the rails, and our government will still feel perfectly within its rights to do whatever it goddam well pleases no matter what we, the people, think about it...

now, i come to find out that very same dynamic, using the very same name underpins the oh-so-euphemistically labeled "enhanced interrogation techniques," known to you and me as torture, methods have been - and probably still are - so liberally applied at our < snark > club med-style < /snark > "detention" facilities, known to you and me as prisons and to our friends in russia as gulags...

well, at least panetta isn't sitting on his hands...

CIA Director Leon Panetta fired Mitchell, Jessen & Associates and all other contractors that aided the CIA in its interrogations of alleged terrorists, the New Yorker reported this weekend.

The firings took place in April, around the same time the Senate Armed Services Committee reported on the role played by James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen in developing "countermeasures to defeat" the resistance of captured enemy detainees from whom intelligence was being sought.

Mitchell and Jessen, who run the firm, had worked on a Pentagon program that taught U.S. service members how to survive harsh enemy interrogation methods. They relied on elements of that training in proposing an interrogation program for the CIA. It included methods such as sleep deprivation and other actions based on "theories of 'learned helplessness,' " the New Yorker reported.

our minders have worked long and hard to instill in us the learned helplessness mindset... we're ever so much easier to control when we feel and think that way... nothing to see here, folks... just move along...

Netanyahu will accept a Palestinian state as long as it's not really a SOVEREIGN state AND Israel keeps building settlements

2009-06-15T10:09:00.001-07:00

woo-hoo... what a pile of bullshit...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bowed to U.S. pressure Sunday and accepted the goal of a Palestinian state. But it was unclear whether the breakthrough, welcomed by President Obama, would lead to a revival of peace talks with the Palestinians, who immediately rejected the sharp limits Netanyahu would place on their nation's sovereignty.

Netanyahu said Israel needed international guarantees that a Palestinian state would not have its own military.In his first policy speech on the conflict since taking office 10 weeks ago, he also insisted that the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority give up claims to Jerusalem as a future capital, recognize Israel as a Jewish state and "impose law and order" on the Hamas militants who run the Gaza Strip.

[...]

Netanyahu's half-hour address, televised in Israel during prime time, staked out a strikingly different approach to the conflict than the one Obama offered 10 days earlier in an address to the Muslim world from Cairo. He again rebuffed Obama's call for a halt to the growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank as a first step toward engaging Arab states in a broad regional peace effort.

ok, now lemme see if i got this straight...

it's ok with israel if palestine becomes a nation (like israel has the ultimate say-so) but palestinians can't have any means to defend themselves (unlike every other sovereign nation on the planet with the most belligerent, destructive, downright NASTY country imaginable right next door, a country that's been working to wipe palestinians off the face of the earth and take all their land since the late 40s), palestinians have to give up all claims to jerusalem (one of islam's holiest sites outside of mecca and medinah), and israel will keep expanding its illegal settlements on palestinian land... oh, yeah, and btw, the palestinians have to put down the legitimately elected hamas government in gaza...

heckuva deal, dontcha think...? no wonder the palestinians are so thrilled...

Palestinian leaders dismissed Netanyahu's call to begin peace talks "immediately, without preconditions," as a nonstarter.

"Netanyahu left us with nothing to negotiate, as he systematically took nearly every issue off the table," said Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian Authority negotiator. "Nor did he accept a Palestinian state; instead, he announced a series of conditions and qualifications that render a viable, independent and sovereign state impossible."

Nabil abu Rudaineh, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the speech was "not enough to start a serious peace process."

Ahmad Bahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said the speech "proves that resistance is the only way for the Palestinians to regain their legitimate rights." Hamas' alliance with Iran, hostility to Israel and violent opposition to Abbas' administration make Israelis skeptical that any peace accord can work.

like i said, heckuva deal...