The Wild Wild Left - Front Page

Confessions of a Recovering Catholic

Diane G — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:50:25 GMT

We, on the left, often speak about how it is possible for people like Palin to get over in this country. We stand appalled and shocked when Democrats like Stupak make sure women's reproductive health will not be covered. We don't understand when they want to force us to reproduce, no matter what our situation; then have to PURCHASE insurance for that child when born, having eliminated CHIP. How do we mentally rectify those who scream about "welfare babies" with their same yells about "no sex education, birth control or abortions?"

There can't possibly be that many fringe lunatics, I think to myself. They must be just LOUDER. I mean, the Polls say that "the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion."

I kind of get it, though. Even when you realize you were totally indoctrinated as a child, these is imagery, memories of innocence that remains warm and fuzzy. The general precepts we were taught as children weren't all bad, you know. Loving God, wanting to be good, sharing, wanting heaven, all the "little children" type teachings they gave us wasn't all tribal and separatism. That didn't come until later.

Who can hate an image like this? Yet, rationally, isn't it creepy to dress children as little "brides" of Christ, with all that implies? Its no less creepy than all those Daddy/Daughter celibacy promise events.

If the feeling of belonging to a community has a gravitational pull, and good memories an orbit; then the doubt and guilt of rejecting these ideologies can be a black hole. It remains a constant like a physics equation.

Even people like me, people who stand strong for the separation of church and state, people who are agnostic at best, people strongly pro-choice, still harbor feelings about abortion. Scientifically we know all the reasons, but still, it is hard to think of any pregnancy as just flushable meat.

This is what makes them hard to beat.

Reasonable demographics based on irrational emotional reactions, even in an evolving society shows that we are up against something ingrained.
It is easy to blame the Fundamentalists, the Mega-churchers and televangelists for things like the Stupak amendment.

But that is far, far from the whole story.

We talk about community-based organization, and for many, the Church is the glue that brings people together. It serves not only as a spiritual gathering place, but one of education, medical support, food co-ops, and clothing drives. For many, it is the stop-gap between them and the street.

Behind it all, are some very good people, people who hold human dignity and most liberal ideologies in their hearts dearly.

One cannot only blame the neo-con, rich, white Bible-Belters at fault for the direction this country is taking. There are vibrant church communities within our Black communities. The Catholic Church is a huge part of the Hispanic community.

It is hard to ignore that so many in this country are based in the Abrahamic Religions, even when so many are practicing on levels from heavily involved to non-practicing.

What is much harder for me to ignore, is that the basis, the very heart of these religions are as misogynist as hell, and this, despite the revolution of women through the 60's is again on the rise. Just as we condemn genital mutilations in Africa, and the burkas of the Middle East, our own country refuses to recognize legally that women should have equal rights.

Even as we speak, most rapes go unreported, and the system punishes rapists about the same as someone committing theft. We cannot receive medical attention and coverage for birth control or pregnancies, all while Erectile Dysfunction is covered under every plan.

The mind reels a bit when you think about that. The religious community has no problem with paying for men to have perpetual erections, so that they may get sexual gratification, but women who have resulting medical conditions due to their sexual gratification are punished by disallowing their treatment.

So, do all these religious people hate their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters? Heck no. Most of them, made to think too hard about it feel "kind of" sorry for our plight. But when it comes to the privacy of those voting booths, they cannot bring themselves to pull the lever for anyone who believes in abortion.

To them, its not just the babies, but the innate fear of condemnation by a Manly-man God, from religions that want to celebrate motherhood and virginal daughters, but sees female sexuality as the trap of their sinning, as whores who lead them astray.

So, we are living in what amounts to societal puberty tainted by the overwhelming permeation of religious fixation in this country.

We sell everything by sex-appeal, yet still condemn women as sluts, when they are not faithful little one-man-only sexual servants under marriage, while glorifying young men who manage to get laid a lot. Sure, most people will overlook a woman being sexual in a monogamous relationship outside of marriage these days, but when it comes to birth control, they think making their tax dollars to support what their God claims as sinful would be immoral on their part. They forgive the women in their own world, but cringe at the idea that all those "other sluts" will be sleeping around and flushing babies like there is no tomorrow.

Look at the numbers:

It is not the televangelist whacks we have solely to worry about. It is not only people like Palin who are trying to feed the "religious values" meme, making people harken back to those simplistic childhood memories and rethink their wavering commitment to their childhood organizations.

There are millions upon millions attending regular corner churches, churches that don't preach politics from the pulpit. These are the people we need to somehow reach.

We have to reach past those first-communion memories and make them realize that it is truly unconscionable to refuse to do public works for the poor, because they do not share your religious views.

As children, we of the Catholic denomination were taught, you give to the poor, and you don't turn away the Samaritans.

As adults, we learned, you only take care of your own. That we were a group apart, the blessed ones, the TRUE religion. As soon as they started that transitional training on me, I left the Church, even while still forced to attend their schools. They lost my heart, they betrayed their own tenets. How could I ever trust them again?

But I understand them, I remember my heart as a child, before they broke it. Many of our own, we on the far left, still don't abandon spirituality, many still seek it in non-western denominations. People can't seem to get the connected within themselves without some kind of external structure. Whatever works.

People are not ready to give up their Gods.

We cannot make them human secularists.

We just cannot, when it is the source of their community, and in many cases their safety net.

But maybe, just maybe, we can reverse the effects of how the "ideology" and "practicality" changes between the real message they teach their children and how the heads of their churches act.

Maybe we need to double renew a Woman's Rights Movement in this country, and strongly affiliate that with a GLBT Movement, that reminds the religious that we are supposed to take care of everyone.

I don't know if it can be done, but I will confess I have enough vestiges of Catholicism in me to remember when I believed that. I thought we were supposed to love EVERYONE and JUDGE NOT.

"By your actions they will know you."

I confess, sometimes I long for the right kind of preacher to come along and teach them about love. I confess I once dreamed of arguing with Jesus, and being hurt and pissed off that he doesn't set all this religious fighting to end. I asked, "Why the fuck aren't you talking to people?" He answered, with no small amount of teasing amusement, "I'm talking to you, aren't I?" Even in my dream, it was never resolved to my satisfaction.

Most of the time I just wait for the hundredth monkey. I know this religious tribalism will kill this world, and crush many of us in the process, crush us in intolerably painful ways.

But all I see is human rights in decline, and the superiority of the white male being raised, and I think that the Power Structure in this country is intentionally manipulating people by raising homophobia and misogyny to make sure it stands.

Forget the whacks, how do remind the rest that we don't hate them, we just want them to live up to their tenets? That love and non-judgment is the way.

Sighhhh.

Maybe we can only look to the young.

I confess, I have no solution.

Friday Scotus Dump

Louise — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:46:28 GMT

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ruled on Friday that 44 photos that reportedly show abuse of detainees by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan cannot be released publicly. The Obama Administration notified the Supreme Court on Friday evening of this action by the Pentagon leader, and urged the Court to set aside a lower court ruling directing release of those photos. The new brief was filed in Defense Department v. American Civil Liberties Union (09-160).
The Court may act on the new filing as early as next Monday.

The Pentagon had appealed the case to the Supreme Court, to get a ruling on whether the photos at issue are exempt from mandatory disclosure under the federal Freedom of Information Act. The government was relying on Exemption 7(F) of the Act, which protects law enforcement records that, if released, could be expected "to endanger the life or physical safety of any individual." The Second Circuit Court, however, ruled that this exemption only applies if a government agency identities at least oen specific individual who would be endangered, and it concluded that the Pentagon had not done so.
While the Pentagon petition was pending at the Court, however, Congress passed an amendment to FOIA, explicitly to overrule the Second Circuit ruling so far as it applied o the 44 military photos, some of which have been made public and some of which have been used in criminal prosecutions within the military. The new law, signed by President Obama on Oct. 28, is written so that it reaches photos taken between the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and last Jan. 22 relating to treament of individuals captured abroad by the military after 9/11.
The law gives the Pentagon chief the authority to issue a ceritifcate that disclosure would endanger U.S. military service members or U.S. civilian employees serving outside the U.S. Using that authority on Friday, Gates issued the certificate. (The document is included as Appendix B to the filing linked above.) Submitting it to the Court, Solicitor General Elena Kagan urged the Justices to vacate the Second Circuit ruling, and then take into account the new law and Gates' action.

We were all paying attention to the Matthew Shepard hate crimes provision when this twisted little bit was slipped into the 2010 defense authorization bill. Among a majority of the American people there's still an extraordinary degree of denial about torture committed and some confusion also.
(present company excluded) Our intrepid MSM has been exclusively focused on health care reform and unless you're doing your own digging, you're not going to find much of anything related to John Dunham's investigation into torture.

Bad press, boys and girls.

....and perhaps more than a little paranoia about the CIA within the CIA.

The Horror Story of U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson

gottlieb — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:52:08 GMT

VENTURA, California, Nov 13 (IPS) - U.S. Army Specialist Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother, is being threatened with a military court-martial if she does not agree to deploy to Afghanistan, despite having been told she would be granted extra time to find someone to care for her 11-month-old son while she is overseas.

Is the United States Military, the greatest purveyor of horror in the world, so despicably desperate to fill its ranks with warm bodies to staff its crimes against humanity it is willing to perpetrate crimes of humanity against its own soldiers.

The answer obviously is yes.

The single-mom who is being ordered to abandon her child in order to fulfill her duty says she can't find anyone trustworthy to take care of Kamani. The Military does not believe her and thinks she trying to get out of serving. So they arrested her and sent her kid packing into the foster care system. The plan is to send this patriot to Afghanistan for a military court martial. And anyway, what kind of American name is Kamani anyway. Obviously this woman is in league with the devil.

The issues for me aren't any of the intricacies of this story, but why is the military even contemplating ripping a baby out of its mother's arms to deploy her overseas? Isn't there any state-side job she could do? Nothing? She must be deployed or we'll lose Afghanistan to the tewwowists?

This is nothing short of sick, twisted, cruel and unusual punishment - not the arrest and court martial but the military's inhumane treatment of its own people to persecute its illegal, immoral, irresponsible project for full-spectrum evil.

It's not time to withdraw from these deadly, destructive, disastrous wars. It's time to disband the military itself. It is out of control. Rogue. The US military is an enemy of the American people.

Despicable.

Saturday Soul - Josh White Jr.

Diane G — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:08:59 GMT

I found an old friend on YouTube this morning. Josh White Jr. is just an amazing man, such talent, such an honest open person. I cannot tell you how this man emits the guileless clarity of a child, a buddha. You would never know he was the son of THE legendary Josh White, nor a legend in his own right. He was just a local guy, someone you ran into at the grocery store or the music store.

I met him working the Northville Folk Festival Huntington's Fundraisers, the brainchild of my friend Tom, owner of The Gitfiddler guitar store. He got very involved when his sister came down with Huntington's Chorea, and eventually got to know Marjorie Guthrie. Woody Guthrie died of Huntingtons. Together, they decided to try and raise awareness and funding for research for this genetically passed condition, and thus the Folk Festival was born. Eventually, she became too old to attend, and would send us taped messages. It took her years to convince Arlo to come, it was too painful for him. But eventually he did, in the end, for one of the last ones after she died. He seemed to be fighting tears the whole time, he was kindly, but understandably walled up. He chilled some after he smoked one with all of us. Heh. My Father's Parkinson's is also genetically passed, and similar in many ways. We talked more after he found that out.

The Gitfiddler was one of those places where we all just hung out, everyone from beginners to seasoned vets. We'd play, we'd meet for breakfast, go to each other's performances at places like The Raven in Salem and The Ark in Ann Arbor. Those were fine days.

So, imagine my surprise to find this video, which not only has him performing in a hot air balloon, but going over MY LAKES while doing it. Heh. Coolness. You can almost see my house, and he is goofing and having such fun. He's always like that though.

Josh played "Melissa" one time, and to this day thinks I'm the only fan of him doing it, but it was the most amazing version I ever heard, and still colours my delivery of it. I love his original work, he is an amazing writer, but that song still may be the best thing I ever heard, ever. I think he moved to Brighton nearby. I should look him up, its been years.

No politics in my open this morning, just some sweetness to enjoy.

Have a Soulful Saturday!

Wild Wild Left Radio #43 Cmdr Jeff Huber on Af/Pak

Diane G — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:37:55 GMT

Join WWL Radio cohosts Diane Gee and Michael Gottlieb tonight on BTR at 6PM Eastern Time.

Tonight we again have the honor of interviewing Cmdr Jeff Huber, contributor at Antiwar.com and Aviation Week' proprietor of Pen and Sword and author of Bathtub Admirals to help us un~weave the tangled web of our Afghanistan Policy.

Seymour Hersh echoed Cmdr Jeff's essay on WWL this week, "Hillary's Dope Deal" in his interview on NPR's Fresh Air, that there are certainly back-dealings, side dealings and intrigue afoot behind the overt McChrystal and his West Point Boy's propaganda and the media dumps coming from the White House.

So, pour yourself your favorite recreational beverage, sit back and enjoy your happy hour in brilliant, entertaining company, (and yes, that implies you as well). It will be an amazing evening.

See you there! As always, respectful questions and commentary are welcomed. Call in, or use our attached live chat function!

Join Gottlieb and Diane tonight at 6pm EDT on Wild Wild Left Radio, via BlogtalkRadio, for an interesting hour of Political Reporting and Commentary.
WWL Radio: Free Speech in Practice.
The call in number is 646-929-1264

The live chat link will go live around 5:15.
CHAT LINK:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/F...

Who's on The Island?

Diane G — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:31:07 GMT

From the time I was barely more than a rug rat, my favorite place was my Godfather's 40-50 foot boat out on the Great Lakes. When the water came up, making most of my siblings sick, it lulled me to happy nap time. Fearless, by 5, I was scrambling up to the front, to wrap my legs around the railing and ride the waves, wind rushing through my hair, the icy splashes invigorating in the hot sun. It felt like flying, and drove my Mother to panic attack. But every time they turned around, I'd be right back out there. I turned into freckle face extraordinaire. I still think of wind in knots.

I remember my brother getting uneasy, out there where you could see land in no direction, imagining us to be lost, and me pointing and saying, "Home is that way." The grown ups got a kick out of it, and played that game with me often. I just always knew. As I grew, my water attachment moved south and grew stronger.

I've been obsessing more than usual lately. My dream has always been to end up somewhere tropical; cemented by a 3 day turned into 10 day visit to Key West in 1981. I knew from that moment forward, I should have just stayed there. The best time to make grand changes is when you are young, and have little attachments. Before life sends the bird of paradise to shit parasitic vines that pretty much take over what you are trying to grow with your little tree of life: jobs, possessions, responsibilities...

There was never a Jimmy Buffett song, nor CSN sailing song that couldn't, still cannot, move to the place where I smell the Ocean, feel the sun and wind, move a bit slower, feel like I'm home.

I must have been some naked Polynesian or Caribbean heathen in some life past, and am trying to get back to that place. I still spend every free moment I can scrape up at the beach, on or in the water. Life's vines have made that rarer and rarer. I hate that.

So, our dear friend Lady Libertine and I have been exchanging links and information this past week, exploring the possibilities. (She is much better at finding these things than I.)
Many of the places we looked at were vacation rentals, and while beautiful, are obviously geared toward people with a lot more disposable income than I have. Not that having a staff masseuse is a BAD thing, but somehow if I was to have only one vacation in Paradise, I would prefer a lot more privacy. A small cottage would suffice, I could walk to town or a resort if I wanted night life other than guitars and bonfires.

I have long been looking and thinking about where I could go that would make a feasible home, with both financial security, personal safety and lines up ideologically with the footprint I would like to leave upon this planet when I leave it.

I surfed Costa Rican real estate ads for hours last night. Most US-based ones were for luxury, gated communities or income properties. I eventually found normal ones, there were some really nice houses for 20-30k.

Younger, I would have impulsively jumped right in. Now, I am considering it as no temporary solution, I would seek either permanent residence status, or full citizenship should I choose to leave this country.

I need to look at my son's future, and if he would resent me as an adult for taking him from here. I would have to look at what would happen if I could no longer work. I would have to look at my personal relationships, and if they could sustain. I would have to consider what happens if I am unable to work, or if our health fails. I would have to consider dying where I go. I would have to ponder the possibility that if things turned to shit where I moved, would it even be possible for me to return and live in this society? Would I have the money to come back?

But what struck me, mostly from LL's research is how many "commune" type communities there are out there trolling for members. One I found said the woman owning it was selling parcels at one quarter market value, if she felt the purchaser would fit in with her "vision." There were lots of "vegetarian" communes, eco-communes, and artist-communes.

All with lots of rules. Rules that again made me feel like what I want to move away from. Strangling vines.

I am so not into telling other people what to do. This blog has almost no rules, just suggestions for politeness, other than no mistreating each other. I don't have scheduled posting like DD, even that is too much for me. How can one produce on demand, not when the muse strikes? (Not that I don't manage to do so anyway, with the morning open, but still I skip it when I feel like it) Not that I'm not totally an anal about some things personally. I despise being late for appointments or work, promptness was beaten into me by the Nuns, I suppose. But! I live on "Indian Time" in my free time. The time to do anything is exactly when you do it. I could never be a "tour" tourist. I hate the idea of "Ok, 15 minutes here, then we move to there!" What if here is more interesting than there?

But I digress.

I have long joked about having a survival commune of like-minded people, something Gottlieb snarkily dubbed, "The Wild Wild Left Post-Apocalyptic Sanctuary for the Cool, Savvy and Wise." It is also something I wrote about in my "Day After Tomorrow" series, based on bringing my friends here when the shit hits the fan, since my property really has both great natural defenses and access to water and wildlife.

It always sounds like nirvana in theory. But living in close proximity, let alone under the same roof with others always necessitates a great deal of compromise: Hence the "good fences, good neighbor" adage. I love people, but also need alone time, privacy, quiet. I need that a LOT, actually. Trust me, I have taken in a LOT of wayward people in need through the years. It always works, but is never easy.

I attract a lot of "A" personality types in real life, probably because I have strong opinions, and like others who do as well. But man, there are so many of them that would be not only hard to live with personally, I am fairly sure they would kill eachother in no time. They blend in short bursts around me, but I am the compromiser. A lot of people are control freaks, really, at least among my "play-mates". I can mentally roll my eyes, and say, "Your way is fine, lets do it." I prefer everyone's input when making a plan, rather than defining it myself. (G & Ed can attest to that, example being show-prep... I always ask what they want to talk about, never set anything in stone, and go with the flow)

There is always the problem of in times of real need, people would all have to contribute. There are always slackers and workers, moods and differing abilities. Would people hide their stash, or share freely?

I know there are certain types of people I would resist with all my might joining a group effort. I do have some types I have NO tolerance for: Nitpickers, apologists for wars of aggression, liars and ego-cases. God, tribalism rears its ugly head.

I have friends that it would work perfectly with, as well. The layer of friends who gather every August. People I trust with my very life, my son's life. I have to wonder, if one of the others constantly created havoc, would we be able to vote them off the island, as it were? Would we, knowing that it may well leave them in dire straits?

People in groups almost always argue about something. I hate that. Debate, good, argue bad.

Overall, I think common property, with private, independent households is a fine solution. It would be cool to live in proximity to kindreds. But living under some de-facto leader, as most communes are built around? Not for me. I wouldn't even want to be the leader of one. People would walk all over me, and I would implode from trying to please everyone.

No, no, no. Private residences, autonomy, with joint community efforts, occasional meetings? Fine. Doing lunch or Happy Hour? Even better.

I want to live in the Island, not own or run it, or be run by others who want to define my life experiences. I don't feel the need to re-create some American society, even a "perfected" one on foreign soil, as so many of these enclaves and communes try to do. I want to join, to the extent they let me, their society. In Costa Rica, they have the highest happiness rating in the world. Why not learn from them, try it their way?

I feel the pull, the cosmic drawing to make my way to the water and the palms. Obsession.

I am trying to counter that with the reasonable: I live in a green verdant land, surrounded by lakes large and small, with huge amounts of natural resources.

I am close to Ann Arbor, a very liberal and artistic community, where music and theatre thrives. One can find sidewalks full of people, or utter isolation in 10 minutes in any direction.

Pragmatism tells me to stay, my soul screams to be somewhere else. Time itself will tell me when to go, and I am thinking it is fast approaching. So I research.

I think I'm far too picky to choose who is on the Island or not, far too independent to live communally. I would love a community, but not a commune the way most people frame them.

We are all our own islands, as it should be. A community of Islands. A joint effort Island coalition. I would dig finding a spot in Costa Rica, and having many of you move nearby.

But no Rules, OK?

It's News To M_A - 11/12/09

M_A — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:16:34 GMT

Stories of note from the WakeTheFuckUp news desk....

Here's a glimpse of some of the headlines featured below the fold:

UN investigator accuses US of shameful neglect of homeless

Texas governor says Obama 'hell-bent' on making America socialist

Climate Change and Africa's Natural Resources

Tripping in China: Barack Obama's Challenge

The great global land grab

Byron Dorgan's Financial Plan: Common Sense From The Senator Who Saw This Coming

UN investigator accuses US of shameful neglect of homeless
by Chris McGreal

A United Nations special investigator who was blocked from visiting the US by the Bush administration has accused the American government of pouring billions of dollars into rescuing banks and big business while treating as "invisible" a deepening homeless crisis.

Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing, who has just completed a seven-city tour of America, said it was shameful that a country as wealthy as the US was not spending more money on lifting its citizens out of homelessness and substandard, overcrowded housing.

"The housing crisis is invisible for many in the US," she said. "I learned through this visit that real affordable housing and poverty is something that hasn't been dealt with as an issue. Even if we talk about the financial crisis and government stepping in in order to promote economic recovery, there is no such help for the homeless."

She added: "I think those who are suffering the most in this whole situation are the very poor, the low-income population. The burden is disproportionately on them and it's of course disproportionately on African-Americans, on Latinos and immigrant communities, and on Native Americans."

Rolnik toured Chicago, New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Wilkes-Barre, a Pennsylvania town where this year the first four sheriff sales - public auctions of seized property - in the county included 598 foreclosed properties. She also visited a Native American reservation.

The US government does not tally the numbers but interested organisations say that more than 3 million people were homeless at some point over the past year. The fastest growing segment of the homeless population is families with children, often single parents. On any given night in Los Angeles, about 17,000 parents and children are homeless. Most will be found a place in a shelter but many single men and women are forced to sleep on the streets.

Los Angeles, which is described as the homeless capital of America, has endured an 18-fold increase in housing foreclosures. Evictions from owned and rented homes have risen about tenfold, with 62,400 people forced out last year in Los Angeles county.

Welfare payments are not enough to meet the rent, let alone food and other necessities. A single person on welfare living in Los Angeles receives $221 (?133) a month - an amount that hasn't changed in a decade. The rent for one room is typically nearly double that.

Rolnik said that while she saw difficult conditions in all the places she visited, the worst was on the Native American reservation of Pine Ridge in South Dakota.

"You see total hopelessness, despair, very bad conditions. Nothing I have seen in other cities compared to the physical condition of the housing at Pine Ridge. Nothing compared to the overcrowding. They're not visible, they're isolated, they're far away. They're just lost," she said.

Rolnik says that one of the greatest matters of shame is that the US has the resources to provide decent housing for everyone.

"In the US, it's feasible to provide adequate housing for all. You have a lot of money, a lot of dollars available. You have a lot of expertise. This is a perfect setting to really embrace housing as a human right," she said.

Rolnik has given a verbal report to the US state department, which has a month to respond to her observations. She will submit a final written report to the UN human rights council early next year.

Texas governor says Obama 'hell-bent' on making America socialist
(If only!...M_A)
by Raw Story

Speaking at a supportive luncheon for conservative women Wednesday, Texas' Republican governor Rick Perry declared that President Barack Obama was "hell-bent" on turning the United States red.

"This is an administration hell-bent toward taking American towards a socialist country," Perry remarked. "And we all don't need to be afraid to say that because that's what it is."

Perry praised tea party activists, who have challenged Democrats' moves on healthcare, while demanding reductions in government services.

"If you all think those tea parties didn't work, then let me tell you something," Perry continued. "When they all came home in August for those town hall meetings, they got an earful. Then they went back to Washington, D.C. and the Senate voted that public option down in committee with a majority of Democrats in the Senate."

He also said Obama was punishing Texas by sending them immigrants.

"Friday a week ago, I got not a phone call from Washington, not a letter from Washington and as a matter of fact, I don't think any member of our congressional delegation was even notified," Perry remarked. "The first time we were contacted was by the superintendent of the school and the county judge of Presidio County."

"They said, 'do you all know what's fixin' to happen?' I said, 'well, no. What's going on?' They said 'the government has just called us and said for us to get ready for an influx of illegal aliens who were captured illegally crossing the border.'"

Climate Change and Africa's Natural Resources
by William Minter and Anita Wheeler

On the eve of the climate change summit in Copenhagen this December, momentum for action still falls far short of that needed to avert catastrophe. Africa will suffer consequences out of all proportion to its contribution to global warming, which is primarily caused by greenhouse gas emissions from wealthy countries.

But Africa can also make significant contributions to mitigating (i.e. limiting) climate change. Stopping tropical deforestation is one of the most cost-effective means to slow the growth of greenhouse gases. Ending gas flaring in Africa's oil-producing countries could reduce carbon emissions and, as a bonus, also provide cleaner electricity.

Environmental activists in Africa - people like Nnimo Bassey in Nigeria, Wangari Maathai in Kenya, and Marc Ona Essangui in Gabon - are thus also on the frontlines against global warming. The damage from gas flaring and deforestation shows up both on the ground and in satellite photographs on the Internet. Reversing the damage will require both local and global action.

In Africa, as around the world, awareness is growing that climate change is not a remote threat but an immediate danger causing more frequent 'extreme weather conditions' of drought and flooding. Ice is melting at the poles and on Mount Kilimanjaro. The waters of Lake Chad are disappearing. Drought cycles in East Africa are becoming more unpredictable.

Africa is particularly vulnerable to climate change, notes the International Panel on Climate Change. Factors such as dependence on rain-fed agriculture and the impact of warming on the spread of disease reinforce multiple pre-existing stresses. Like AIDS, the threat is already here. The toll is rising. Even more damaging effects will play out over decades.

Yet global warming comes primarily from greenhouse gas emissions outside Africa. Much of Africa's share, moreover, comes from extracting natural resources to be exported.

According to the latest estimates, the entire African continent was responsible for only 3.7 percent of the world's annual CO2 emissions, compared to China with 21.5 percent, the United States with 20 percent, and the European Union with 14 per cent. Comparing cumulative emissions, a better measure of environmental impact, Africa's estimated 26.7 billion metric tons of emissions (1900-2004) were less than half the 55.1 billion tons from the United Kingdom, and only 8 per cent of the 314.8 billion tons from the United States.

African countries have prepared a common position for Copenhagen, stressing strong targets for emissions reduction by developed countries and global responsibility to aid Africa in reducing emissions and adapting to change. But attention at the conference will centre elsewhere. The United States and China are the two largest contributors to global warming, followed by Europe and emerging powers such as India, Brazil, and Russia. Africa's leverage in the negotiations is limited.

Whatever is decided in global talks, the crucial test will be what happens on the ground. When it comes to Africa's natural resources, the prospects for change depend squarely on African governments, on foreign companies and their home-country governments, and on the pressures that can be mobilised by national and international civil society.

Two sectors well illustrate the point: Oil production with its by-product of gas flaring, and deforestation, the result both of local land-use pressures and the export of tropical woods.

Tripping in China: Barack Obama's Challenge
by Robert Borosage

This week, Barack Obama trips to China as part of an eight-day trip to Asia. The White House paints a full agenda: Afghanistan, human rights, North Korean nukes, climate change, trade relations, and the economy. But it's really just the economy, stupid.

For decades during the Cold War, the U.S. gave security concerns priority over economic issues. Now the economy is our central security concern. It will simply be another measure of the administration's gathering calamity in Afghanistan if that is allowed to distract from the essential discussions about the economy.

On economic issues, Asian leaders, particularly the Chinese, are in the mood to deliver lectures, not receive them. It was the excesses of Wall Street that brought the world to its knees. And Asian nations, not burdened zombie banks or purblind conservative politicians, are enjoying a rapid recovery, after boosting demand with large-scale government spending.

But the president has a vital message to deliver. We can't go back to the old bubble-bust economy. That requires more than just financial reform. Central to that old economy was our relationship to the mercantilist nations of Asia, particularly China. For years, the U.S. consumed more than it made, running up record trade deficits. The Asian nations, particularly China, financed our consumption to increase their exports and market share. The Chinese kept their currency undervalued, hoarded dollars and bought up treasury bills, enabling the U.S. to borrow more and more without suffering rising interest rates. That helped inflate the housing bubble that finally blew up in our faces.

Correcting this imbalance-even as we move to meet the challenge of catastrophic climate change-is essential. Thus far, President Obama has forwarded this discussion carefully. He got the G-20 nations (including China) to establish a mandate for more balanced growth as part of the global economic reconstruction. The IMF has been tasked with monitoring- and pressuring-surplus as well as deficit nations to change their ways.

And the president has shown some teeth. He signed off on slapping temporary tariffs on cheap tires flooding in from China. Punitive tariffs have just been imposed on steel pipe dumped on the market by the Chinese. Serendipitously, the World Trade Organization ruled in August that Chinese restrictions on foreign publications, film and music imports are illegal.

The Chinese haven't gotten the message yet. They did a far better job than the administration in boosting their economy with a bold stimulus package, but much of the spending went to new infrastructure designed to boost exports. They continue to manipulate their currency while denying it. They decry protectionism while practicing it. They've now made a commitment to new energy, but significantly as an export industry, while continuing to open a coal-fired energy plant every week.

So what should the president do when he talks to our bankers in China? In public, for this president particularly, we can expect vision, not fireworks. We can hope for more candid discussions in private, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton there to provide the needed grit.

The great global land grab
by Red Pepper

The global food crisis has prompted various rich countries to start buying up land in the poorer world to secure their food supplies. As well as affecting domestic food supplies in the countries affected, Sue Branford says it could be a time bomb for the world's ability to cope with climate change

News of another big land deal between a rich nation and a poor developing country is becoming a common occurrence. In August a group of Saudi investors said that they would be investing $1 billion in land in Africa for rice cultivation. They are calling it their '7x7x7 project', since they are aiming to plant 700,000 hectares of land to produce seven million tonnes of rice in seven years. The land will be distributed over several countries: Mali, Senegal and maybe Sudan and Uganda.

A few weeks earlier South Korea acquired 700,000 hectares of land in Sudan, also for rice cultivation. India is funding a large group of private companies to buy 350,000 hectares in as-yet unspecified countries in Africa. A group of South African businessmen is negotiating an 8 million hectare deal in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And so it goes on. The United Nations believes that at least 30 million hectares (about 74 million acres, well over the size of the UK) were acquired by outside investors in the developing world during the first half of this year alone.

The land grab was indirectly spawned by the international financial crisis. It's interesting to trace the investors' train of thought because it says a lot about the kind of world we're heading towards. Some two years ago many financial players - the investment houses that manage workers' pensions, private equity funds, hedge funds, big grain traders and so on - saw that the sub-prime mortgage bubble was about to burst and moved money into the safer commodities market. Although there was no real shortage of food, food prices (especially of cereals, but also of dairy and meat) rose dramatically.

Countries dependent on food imports were badly hit, with a big increase in the domestic price of some food staples, particularly rice. People coped by changing their eating habits, in many cases cutting back on meals, but they also took to the streets to demand government action. By early 2008 riots had broken out in nearly 40 countries, instilling fear among the world's political elite. Panic-stricken governments rushed to increase their food imports, leading several food-producing nations to restrict exports, fearful that they too could be hit by shortages.

The big winners from the crisis were not the farmers, as one might have expected. They enjoyed a big increase in the prices they were paid at the farm gate, but all their potential income gains were gobbled up by higher production costs. The people who made a real killing were the suppliers of agricultural inputs. With their quasi-monopoly control over seeds, pesticides, fertilisers and machinery, these giant companies made obscene profits out of the higher prices squeezed out of largely poor populations.

Byron Dorgan's Financial Plan: Common Sense From The Senator Who Saw This Coming
by Dan Froomkin

He got it right last time.

Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, was one of eight senators who stood up to oppose the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act in 1999. That repeal, which was signed into law by President Clinton exactly 10 years ago today, broke down the barriers between commercial banking and investment banking, and led to the growth of behemoth financial firms that were able to take enormous risks with impunity, because they were "too big to fail."

"I think we will in 10 years' time look back and say we should not have done this," Dorgan said back then. The video of his speech has become something of a cult favorite for wonks -- ten years, a $700 billion bailout and a major financial crisis later.

Washington has an odd habit of listening to the people who consistently get such things wrong, and ignoring the ones who get them right.

So today, on this solemn anniversary, how about listening to this guy? What does he think we should do now?

"Three things," the senator told me in an interview. "One is to separate investment banks and FDIC-insured banks. Second, prohibit FDIC-insured banks from dealing in risky financial instruments on their own proprietary accounts... And third, abolish 'too big to fail.' If you're too big to fail, you're too big. Too big to fail is what I call no-fault capitalism."

All in all, it's a much more forceful agenda than his party leaders -- including his president -- are advocating.

Why isn't the administration at his side? "You'd have to address that question to the administration," Dorgan said. He did, however, express disappointment. "I would like to see them more aggressive on this issue."

But he's still hopeful. "We don't have any bill on the floor of the House or the Senate to evaluate," said Dorgan, who is not on the Senate's Finance Committee. "My hope is that we'll get a piece of legislation that will restore that separation."

Dorgan said he hasn't yet taken a position on the administration's proposed Consumer Finance Protection Agency, but "clearly there needs to be consumer protection. The question is how."

Also, he said, "I think you have to regulate hedge funds... You have to have transparency on these financial instruments."

And then there's the whole issue of accountability. "It's one of the most frustrating things," Dorgan said. "We essentially have had modern-day bank robbers -- except that they wore gray suits and not masks -- and there's been no accountability for it."

Dorgan has repeatedly called -- fruitlessly -- for a federal task force to investigate and establish accountability for the crisis. What's needed, he said, is an agreed-upon "master narrative" for the story -- and then prosecution of any criminal activity.

Dorgan, who is finishing up his third term in the Senate, is also an author. His latest book, published in May, is titled: "Reckless! How Debt, Deregulation and Dark Money Nearly Bankrupted America and How We Can Fix It".

And finally...

It's past time to wake the fuck up!

M_A

Random Thoughts / Open Thread

Diane G — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:10:11 GMT

Jesus H. Christ. My to-do list looks like a house spending resolution, and everyone is tacking on extra provisions.

Apparently, the Nursing Home my MIL is living in wants to sue Mike for custody of her, saying he isn't acting in her best interests. This is totally out of the blue, last night. Like, WTF? We pay all her bills, visit her, bring her clothes, (since hers keep getting STOLEN there) and keep up on her meds. (They were double billing for some of them and we caught them and let Mediaid know)

This has to be about reprisals for complaining.

My job is to try and get to the bottom of this, without having to pay our Lawyer to dance with them again to the tune of a couple thousand dollars we don't have. The house payment is already late and Mike's work is drying up.

Thats the biggie curdling my coffee in my stomach, the rest is mundania I can do or not do, with no repercussions.

I just KNEW I have been too happy lately and something was gonna come crushing down and stress me all to hell again. I'm still hyped about having Cmdr Jeff Huber joining us again Friday; the topic of Afghanistan is getting more and more like a mystery we may be unraveling. I was all geeked and want to stay that way, dammit.

Ah well, no sense in flipping out about it, it may be something as easily resolved as he missed signing something.

The Open is Open, and I feel totally lame for whining in it. I really WANTED to write today, I have some fairly cool things brewing in the brain prep tanks. Grrr.

The (Oil) Reserve Figures Have Been Faked

grunmann — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:55:43 GMT

Good day. Normally, I would be an "open thread" kind of guy for information like this. But, let's go ahead and post the information like this, FYI.

Today, there are several links all on the same subject. Namely, that primarily due to U.S. arm-twisting, the supposed oil reserve figures the International Energy Agency has been touting in recent reports are overinflated. And the reason for doing so has been to 'protect the markets' and maintain market stability.

In other words, to sugar coat and lie about the whole question of Peak Oil. And no doubt to delay a more rapid transition to alternative and renewable forms of energy.

Most of the rest of the diary will be links to sources where you can get more details. Read it and weep. This whole approach seems to be "modus operandi" for a failing empire, doesn't it? Same as the bank bailout, the system is all gamed to keep those in power in power, even though they don't deserve to be there anymore.
I think the first link provides most of the pertinent figures. The others do some useful finger-pointing, editorializing, how they got away with it, etc.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/envi...

excerpt -

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.
The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.
The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organisation's latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply to be published tomorrow - which is used by the British and many other governments to help guide their wider energy and climate change policies.

http://www.energybulletin.net/...

This link is to an article entitled "Just Tell Us the Truth"

(editorial comment - Ha! That'll be the Day!)

excerpt

But the International Energy Agency has stubbornly refused to come clean. And this is important: while financial analysts and investors are free to draw their own conclusions about Peak Oil (and a great many of them have seen the writing on the wall-hence recent run-ups in oil futures prices), national and local governments must rely on officially sanctioned fuel supply and price projections for all their planning. Energy policy, transport planning, agriculture policy, economic forecasting, and much more depend upon the august pronouncements of the Paris-based IEA.
There are always folks who are glad to tell us what we want to hear. Indeed, the presentation of plausible excuses for the denial of serious problems offers an attractive career track. Prominent oil optimists like Daniel Yergin and Michael C. Lynch find open doors at the New York Times and other major media outlets, and wealthy clients for their consulting services, because they reassure markets that all will be well.
Nevertheless, denial leads to complacency, not problem-solving. And the end of cheap, abundant oil is a problem that could cripple the global economy not just for another year or two, but more or less permanently.

http://www.energybulletin.net/...

This one is entitled "Can We Handle the Truth"?

(editorial comment - Well, the 'powers that be' certainly don't think so.)

excerpt

If oil traders knew the truth about declining energy availability, the per-barrel price of oil would be $300 within a week. If stock traders knew the truth, we'd see capitulation of the markets shortly thereafter. If Americans knew the truth, they just might come to grips with reality, rally together, put their collective shoulders to the wheel, and start building a better world than the ominicidal culture of make believe to which we've all become accustomed.
But we'll never know, because the cabal of morally bankrupt bankers and politicians running this country -- and also the industrialized world -- will keep playing the shell game as long as they are allowed by the impotent media. Or, more likely, until the reality of oil priced in excess of $200 per barrel interferes with their imperial ambitions.
The consequences of the shell game extend well beyond economic disaster and the likely extinction of our species. In the short term, they include hijacking the world's marketplace, complete with child labor, hunger, and pollution (especially abroad), continued decline of intellectual "capital" in our universities, ratcheting up the war machine by attacking yet more countries (perhaps bringing a rapid demise to American Empire), further extending imperial overreach, continued shrinking of our credit-based economy, continued enrichment of the financially wealthy (including $100 billion for eight of Warren Buffett's companies), continued profiteering by the insurance industry, and continued land grabs in poor countries by wealthy countries. All with a U.S. military on the verge of complete collapse and despite widespread acknowledgment that American-style capitalism is not working.

And finally, this gem about a likely course of action by the Saudis:

http://www.energybulletin.net/...

What??!! Explore means of trading for oil by means other than dollars? Don't we usually go to war for things like that? We sure did with Iraq. We sure threatened to do so with Iran. And now the Saudis?

That seems to hint just a teensy bit at the possibility of "empire in decline", don't you think?

We may or may not be the Land of the Free. We may or may not be the Home of the Brave. But one thing we ain't is the citadel/repository of Truth.

Maddow destroys Pro-SLAVERY American Corporations "You child labor endorsing, pro-slavery FREAKS!"

MinistryOfTruth — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:22:18 GMT

Very rarely does Rachel Maddow lose her temper. Rather, she usually engages even the worst issues with a snarky, cheerful grin, but if you see the look on her face at the end of this segment you will see the burning rage that I have a LOT of trouble surpressing, especially on topics such as these.

Behold the TOTAL DESTRUCTION of America's Pro-SLAVERY capitalist status quo, courtesy of the wit and brilliance of Rachel Maddow.

Partial transcript and commentary below the fold.
After discussing the two page Too Big Too Fail, Too Big To Exist legislation that has been drafted by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the Wall St Regulations drafted by Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Rachel gets into the meat of the topic to explain just how low the free market, conservative and Corporatist status quo will go to make a buck, and man, it's as low as it gets.

Maddow: " . . . As Republicans and Conservative Democrats in Congress start lining up with Corporate America and agaiinst new regulations now, consider the alliance they're making.
Populist columnist David Sirota today made this catch from the business newsletter Inside U.S. Trade, this is a D.C. based publication on trade issues, its' especially for people in international business. What else are business groups worried about and lobbying against, other than the new Wall St regulations? I wouldn't believe this if I had not seen this myself, but check this out, quote."
Business groups are worried by the potential effects of provisions banning the import of all goods made with convict labor, forced labor, or forced or indentured child labor that were included in a recent customs bill.

"American business groups are concerned, upset, worried was the actual phrase, worried about laws against using SLAVES and child labor."
"Quote"
Business sources say [the bill] could cause DHS to more-actively seek out imported products made with child labor, forced labor or convict labor"

"OH NO! How will Corporations save themselves from that onerous rule that you can't use SLAVES and PRISONERS and CHILDREN to mkae your products if you want to sell that product in the United States. Darn that liberal red tape!"
"Quote"
Sources conceded that this was a sensitive issue because business groups do not want to be seen as opposing strict measures guarding against human rights abuses. However, one souce did expect a push from lobbyists closer to the Finance Committee mark up of the bill.

"Wow. I'm guessing that business interests are OK with something like this being discussed in a subscriber only industry newsletter publication like Inside US Trade, I'm guessing they might NOT want it to be widely known that they're lobbying to stop rules against SLAVERY!"
"But actually, you never know. The Heritage Foundation is a Conservative Think Tank that has a very high profile, uh, that is very high profile in Washington, and that maintains all sorts of websites and educational public venues to maintain their ideas, and on the Heritage Foundations "Over-Criminalized" blog, the Heritage Foundation too singles out the "Child Labor Safety Acts" which levees fines and jail time for Comapnies using child labor as an example of what they call"
Trivial conduct [that] is now often punished as a crime.

"I mean, honestly! Kids these days! In my day we'd be delighted to be chained to the loom for a few pennies a day."
"For the record, the Heritage Foundation also singles out Meil, Neil Ambercrombie's bill against War profiteering as another example of making something trivial into a criminal matter."
"Business interests and their think thanks friends on the right have every right to lobby on anything they want to. Think that Wall St, despite almost destroying the whole economy of the United States, should be left to it's own devices again? You know, go ahead, make your case, I'd love to hear it. Think that child labor and slave labor and forced convict labor are cheap and therefore cool with you, go ahead, make your case, I would LOVE to hear it. But unless you are going to make your case for things like that in total secrecy, know that the case against you is there to be made too, and that will apply to any member of Congress who sides with you as well, you child labor endorsing, pro slavery FREAKS!"

Often, I hesitate to use the phrase "Wage Slave" to describe the phlight of the oppressed, struggling American worker in our class war Corproatist economy out of respect to those who are actually suffering under slavery in the world today and the Americans who are descended from actual slaves. It is an ugly subject and I wish to avoid stoking ugly memories.

But the fact that we even have to discuss the issue of FORCED SLAVE LABOR in modern day America on any level is PROOF of how low our Capitalist pig system will go to squeeze every cent they can out of other, less fortunate human beings, and all in the name of the almighty dollar.

The outsourcing fed free market system does just that, sending American jobs to places on this earth where wages are so cheap and the standard of living so low that people literally work like slaves just to be able to barely eat the next day. The same PIGS who crashed our economy and are now preparing to fight Wall St re-regulation tooth and nail are the very same people who profit from modern day slavery and the virtual wage slavery that perpetuates the class war, both around the world, and here in America today. They are the anti-union crowd who HATES when people organize and FIGHT BACK. They would prefer labor that is totally OWNED by capital, and they will call anything short of their preferred unfettered, free market slave wage capitalism socialism, because, in essence, all labor movement have their distant roots in the idea that organized labor is the ONLY thing that can negotiate with the Capitalist power brokers that fought the civil war, and continue to fight war after war after war, both bloody and silent, in order to oppress and control the labor of other human beings for their own profit.

The very same business interests that use astroturfed protests against refrom are the SAME forces that fight anti-SLAVERY laws today, TODAY, in an America that is actually two America's, one where there is a roaring 20's right now for the fortunate and a Great Depression 2.0 for everyone else.

The veil, soon, will come off on the class war, if it has not already, and the Republicans and Conservative/Moderate Democrats who will fight these reforms on behalf of their Corporate masters will soon be revealed as the tools that they are, because you can NOT be a populist and fight on behalf of the moneyed powers for too long before you are exposed for what you are, and it is our job to expose them.

But know this, and remembber itwhen you fight and confront the Corporatism that lies at teheart of the Conservative movement and their fake populist enablers. They would enslave you too if they could, and they are doing everything they can to reduce the American worker to the wage slaves that they seek. By driving up unemployment they force us to fight for smaller and smaller wages, by privatizing the public sector and de-regulating business they drive prices and profits up reduce the social saftey net to the size where it can be drowned in a bath tub. What evil lurks in the hearts of men? Probably the same evil that lets men fight to allow slavery elsewhere while feigning to fight on behalf of liberty, justice and the American way over here.

We are at class war, against a model that would rob you for profit, deny you and your family their health for profit and literally enslave your fellow man, all for 30 pieces of gold.

The Class War will NOT be televised, rather, it will be traded on Wall St and defended by the lobbyists who seek to kill Democracy and replace it with a kinder, gentler slavery, available at Walmart in a neighborhood near you.

So, thhe next time you are confronted by a Conservative, take pity on the poor fool, and try to educate them about the fact that they are fighting FOR the slave masters, they are fighting FOR their own enslavement to a slave wage for profit system that they call freedom while they fight the imagined tyranny that tehir slave masters call it when we try to take their right to enslave people away from them.

Lord, what fools we mortals be?!

Crossposted at Daily Kos Also crossposted at The Progressive Electorate.com and Docudharma.com

White Power in Black Face

gottlieb — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:38:00 GMT

DECRYING Barack Obama as "white power in black face", hundreds of African Americans marched on the White House today to protest policies of the first black US president, and demand that he bring US troops home.

Do you have to be black to say this without getting everyone's panties twisted into a Gordian knot or can we call a spade a, uh, er, or can we tell it like it is?

Blue suit, black suit, brown suit - a suit is a suit, born of a white man's colonial military uniform.

It took some pissed off African Americans to tell it like it is. And perhaps white folks don't want to hear it. Obama is such a darling of the Limousine Liberal crowd. They feel so good about themselves they were able to support and elect a man to shatter America's tortured, racist past and usher in a new, enlightened era of color-blind progress and prosperity.

And it's true. Obama's race makes no difference to his politics. His white politics. Not to say Obama isn't connected to his roots. Why, he is the first one out there to lecture African American men on their lazy, shiftless, irresponsible behavior toward their women and kids and malaise about working in the cotton fields of the minimum wage. Don't folks know it's not what job you have, but work itself is its own reward? Idle hands are the devil's workshop.

And not to put too fine a point on it, but Obama is not our first African American President. He is our first Mulatto President. He's got whitey flowing through his veins like there's no tomorrow after 2012. And maybe that's why he doesn't give a rat's ass about the poor, dispossessed and oppressed, but loves them bankers and militarists.

You see, if someone say like Congressman John Lewis were our President we wouldn't have frustrated folks in the street saying President Lewis was a minstrel show tap dancer, no siree. Because the first thing President Lewis would have done was to kick some well-deserved white ass. And about time. White folks have been uppity for far too long. Think they own the place like a global plantation.

They say the more things change the more they stay the same and one thing which never changes is the ratio of slave to slave-owner population. And for all the talk about change, it's talk for chumps because the last thing white people want is change. They got it good. White folks look out for each other. They got to. They're surrounded by billions of hungry, desperate folks who are not white and see all the resources and wealth of the world being sucked into Whiteyland.

Now don't get me wrong. Some of my best friends are white people. It's not good to generalize. White folks haven't learned that yet. But this isn't about white folks per se, after Bush most white folks are two paychecks away from trailer park living anyway, this is about white power.

Remember those good old Black Power days when the Panthers and Olympic runners raised their fists in solidarity to oppose the oppressive white power which has been a boot in the face of folks for centuries? Those were the good old days when black folks could drink from the same water fountain as whitey. They could eat in the same diners with whitey. They could live on the same street if they had the money and didn't mind cross-burnings and the occasional bullet through a window - good old boys will be good old boys.

But those days of enlightenment and equality are gone. Now all there is is white power. The old boss is back because, let's face it, the good old days never existed. Nope. Not once. Not for one single day. Just because you can sit in the front of the bus don't mean squat if you can't find a job or afford a meal.

You see, a slave gets free room and board. They get no pay, but they got no expense so what is to complain about? Except, you know, the slave part. But then after slavery, when everyone is free, well you got to earn a living because you got to buy everything. Slaves don't know how good they got it, except for the slave part. You got to buy food, clothing, shelter, booze, cigarettes and hookers just like everyone else. The problem is who can afford to buy all that as a tenant-farmer, butler, seamstress or a gas station attendant? In company towns they extend you credit to pay back with wages which are carefully calculated to keep you working for the company your whole life. Can't be slavery if you get paid, see? It wasn't companies were loyal and never laid anybody off, but no employee could afford to quit with outstanding debt. Work or starve and they call it freedom to choose.

So, it's no wonder black folk had some high hopes for Obama even though he's not really one of them. He's knows what discrimination is like. How many times during his life has he had to say, "Hey, I am half white. Cut me some slack. I'm Ivy League." Plenty. So he knows what African Americans go through in the entitled white plantation owner mentality which permeates the US like coffee and cigarettes at an AA meeting.

Yet, gosh, darn and heck of it all, Obama turns out to be more white than black. Maybe it's because he was raised by white folks. He coddles bankers and other fat cats and apologizes for white greed because they gave him millions of dollars to do just that. And Obama is nothing if not a hard-working guy with a mission to make his donors proud. He wears the white man's uniform and marches to his tune. 40,000 troops here, another million dead there all in the name of the white Christian nation called Bubbaland and its right to do whatever it wants in the 'colored' world because if God had meant the coloreds to have civilization they'd all been born in Europe - the cradle of civilization, if you don't count, you know, history and stuff.

White folks, except for that pesky little minority of Stone Age Palinites and Becktoids, love Obama. He's like a puppy or something. And his family is so cute. And Michelle, she's the next Jackie Kennedy, our favorite First Lady because she had style and pizazz and lots of clothes and cute kids too. See, Obama is the modern version of Father Knows Best. I used to love that show because he always did didn't he? Just a jovial problem solver until you crossed him and then it was a switch to the bare ass in the garage. But a justifiable switch because obedience must be learned or else you have free will running rampant which is another word for chaos which is another word for communism and back in the 50s when Father Knew Best, that was not option like the public option isn't an option today or peace for that matter too. Peace is not an option in a war economy and especially a Cold War economy when white folks don't get hurt but send the Marines out to secure our freedom against the Reds.

So, again, it's easy to understand the chagrin and befuddlement of African Americans who thought, "Yes! Happy Days are here again for the very first time." How disappointing it must be to be betrayed again by whitey who elected a Mulatto Manchurian Candidate to protect the entrenched and entitled privilege of same-o, same-o. Because, let's face it, after Obama it's back to whitey. Maybe even a whitey woman like Pelosi, who led the charge to codify the country into a new age of slavery to white corporate power. Yee-haw!

What is the word beyond ironic we have a black man as the face of white imperial power which slaughters men, women and children of the non-white third world like cockroaches with RAID. Actually, are there any white third world countries? Of course not. How embarrassing that would be. It's not a man's world. It's a white man's world and Obama is doing his best Michael Jackson impression or is that Sammy Sosa?

You see most African Americans are not a thing like Barack Obama. He's a millionaire for one. And he has a job. The African American unemployment rate is officially around 17% so what does that make it really. And the unemployment rate for young African Americans is even higher. About one in four African Americans live below the poverty level. The median income for all African Americans is right at the poverty line. One in five have no health care about double the average for whites. Most of the dodgy mortgage loans went to African Americans, which makes them the most vulnerable in the housing crisis.

And what has Obama done about any of this? Bailed out whitey. Escalated illegal wars. Sold out to insurance companies. Created a recovery for banks while the consumer slides into a morass of endless debt and suicidal depression.

So you see, to the African American community, with friends like Barack Obama, they don't need any enemies.

Come to think of it, neither do we.

Framing a Terrorist for Veteran's Day

Diane G — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:44:12 GMT

Fort Hood is not an end story. Nor is it a beginning. It is the dead middle of a planned story. It is a story about division and fear tactics, patsies and martial law. Its a story about raising the frog's bathwater incrementally to boil.

That our Muslim citizens are becoming all suspect is no less devious than the beginnings that created our ability to inter the Japanese, or what created Nazism.

Lets move back to April of 2009, when the US Homeland Security Department reclassified Right Wing American Veterans as potential Terrorists. Wow, this incident conveniently creates an atmosphere for keeping surveillance on the only people who might protect us, should a military coup create havoc in our country.

But further back in the way-back machine is the story about Northcom being deployed as of October 2008 on US soil effectively killing Posse Comitatus, for the express reasons of:

"They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control," said the Army Times when it first reported on it. These duties would be in addition to dealing with "potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack."

Nothing happens in a vacuum, and these taken together weave quite a pattern. The newest incident justifies ever less freedoms for security.
I would refer you to the Brasscheck TV link from a few days ago, reiterating my initial position on the Ft. Hood horror, posted live that night and expounded on Friday past on WWL Radio, but that video is no longer up.

Instead, I will quote the email from the creator of that site:

ONE guy shooting a hand gun killed HOW many people - and on a military
base? Are you serious?
And the one shooter is now in a coma?
And, as of now at least, there's no surveillance camera footage?
And he's a Muslim who also happens to be a serviceman with a mental disorder involving gunplay who did it with privately owned weapons?
This thing could not have been scripted or casted better if Hollywood had produced it.
Let's see:
1. Private gun ownership demonized - check
2. Muslims demonized - check
3. Military personnel demonized - check
4. Base dwelling troops at home terrorized
by a fellow American - check
5. Yet another chance to distract the public - check
If this really happened the way it's been spun, there have to be a lot of social engineers
high fiving each other at their good luck.
And what about the logic of the gunman?
He was afraid of being deployed to a combat zone...so he created one at home so he could be killed sooner? I realize the man was "crazy" but come on.
(I wonder what prescribed medically-endorsed pharmaceutical substance(s) he was one. We'll
never know because it would violate his privacy. Score another one for Big Pharma.)
13 killed and 30 wounded by one man with two pistols.
Nearly a 50% kill rate.
Ever fired a handgun? Ever tried aiming and firing two at a time? Under pressure? Ever reload a handgun under pressure? There were people shooting at him. That's
a little pressure.
We're talking about yet another superhuman performance by a "lone gunman" who is conveniently not conscious to tell the tale.
Caliber doesn't matter and the bogus non-fact that these were "automatic"
pistols is bullshit as well.
Meanwhile, we're being drowned in flags, memorials and interviews with the victims' families - and a total absence of any information that makes sense.
"But the government would never do such a thing to its own troops!"
Uh, excuse me. It's putting thousands of them through a meat grinder in a pointless, unwinnable charade of a war as we speak - in two countries, while gearing up for two more (Iran and Pakistan.)
Do you think the dead and wounded from overseas are any less dead and wounded victims from Fort Hood?
Assume the gunman was crazy. What does that make the Bush-Bama regime?
Here's a news report about another mass shooting by a lone gunman with two pistols that sneaked its way onto the air before it was pulled off and never replayed.
Reality please, just a little reality.

No one asked about friendly fire, either.

The news is now "leaking" all kinds of information claiming that the alleged shooter was radicalizing, and had poor reviews.

The Right is beefing up its "We need to be safe from Muslim Terrorists" right around the Flag-waving celebration of our War Culture that is Veterans Day. Not to insult Veterans of any sort; plenty of well-intended, brave and honorable men and women have served in our armed forces. It is merely that this authors opinion that many of these were lied to, indoctrinated and used as pawns in wars of aggression, wars of hegemony, and wars for profit; justified in the name of "Patriotism." Patriotism, a word that has become the Manchurian trigger for committing any act whatsoever Globally in order to serve the interests of the vested Elite Class.

Worse? Any one questioning the story is being branded as naive or misguided by many on the Left, who INSIST that this man, should he have committed this impossible act against his own, MUST have been guided by Religious Ideology.

"Muslim Extremism and Terrorists are REAL," they say, "and I cannot believe Liberals would defend this filthy murderer, because they think the US sucks or something."

Check: Extremists exist in every religion. Bomb the US back to the Stone Age, destabilize our governments to the point of non-existence, and see what the Clinic Bombers and Palienites create. There would be extremist groups of Christian soldiers killing and torturing in the name of their one true God. Heck, some already do. Look at how the Jewish Religious extremists act in Israel, recently beating a female journalist for daring to use a camera on the Sabbath.

We real Liberals who question this story are not in denial.

We are, however, capable of the logic and reason that tells us this man could not have possibly shot that many people no more than a magic bullet made turns and shot Kennedy from the front of the neck, while making a quick detour through the wrist, then chest of Connelly in the front seat.

We are also painfully aware that the US government is capable of scapegoating patsies and creating evidence to create a bias against a group of people by proxy: Remember the Cuban-commie that was Oswald?

I listened live, and wished I had recorded the TV coverage. When Military Personnel take down a shooter, and confirm kill live, I tend to believe them. When Military Personnel name at least three shooters, I believe their ability to count. When Military Personnel claim to have one dead, and two in custody, and then claim they are still taking sniper fire, I assume that after many deployments, taking live action and gunfire, they are quite capable, if not experts at assessing a situation, in facts are EXPERTS at such assessments.

There were in fact heinous murders at Fort Hood. Tragic, sad murders. Murders more likely caused by a bunch of brave young soldiers put at wits end, victims of PTSD gone untreated that the Army is pushing its medical staff not to diagnose.

"I am under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD" (another anonymous army psychiatrist)

Even was this Nidal Hasan involved, I would think that this fact should at least be given consideration before people jump on the "Evil Islam" bandwagon.

But, even having listened live to the trained soldiers reporting live at Ft Hood, no one dare question the official story, one man, one Muslim, in a coma. A doctor not combat veteran, shoots forty people with 12 bullets and none of the brave, trained combat soldiers could take him down.

There was a great deal more journalism alive in Kennedy's day, and far more openness to question the "evil commies" than today's transcribers have to grant a populace increasingly closed to the idea that "Islam" is not inherently evil.

The so-called enemy came from within. So now our own troops will be increasingly suspect, increasingly pressured to denounce any religion but Christianity, and Judaism to a lesser degree. They will be pressured to act as though they have no complaints with the Military, for any criticism nowk, could be used as future condemnation as a traitor.

In the American view, in this the new American Fascist State, intense paranoia serves them well.

In this, the land of increasing desertion, suicides and friendly fire (fragging) incidents, both the Military and our Citizenry just suffered a wake up call.

Be Afraid. Always be afraid. Toe the Line.

This incident was horrific, and my heart bleeds for the dead and wounded, bleeds for their loved ones.

I have no idea who the shooters were, we will never know their mindset or their reasons.

But on this day, I support our Veterans by doing the most Patriotic thing a Citizen can do. I QUESTION.

I question the what the Truth is behind the story, I question the timing as 40k+ more troops are being sent by President Obama to kill Muslims, I question why Hillary is claiming a group of 100 or less is imminent threat.

I question our very reason for these wars.

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
The best way to support our troops is to question war itself.
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
Theodore Roosevelt

Veteran's Day: The Dishonor of War Worship

Ed Encho — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:50:18 GMT

Today is Veteran's Day, a day of war worship in an immoral and rotting empire fueled by more wars. There will be plenty of sanctimonious asses posturing and pontificating patriotism, politics and 'glory' on the usual right-wing vomitories like FOX. Hell, FOX even got into it all early this year with Sunday's travesty NFL pregame show where privileged phonies like Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and the other moron ex-jocks dressed up like toy soldiers to shill for the black ops assassin General Stan McChrystal's bloodlust in overrunning Afghanistan with more American troops, cannon fodder that will not be treated with the reverence of the green Army cadavers of Ft. Hood. I mean who would have given a tin shit if the hallowed Ft. Hood 13 had been blown to smithereens by a mortar round ten seconds after they stepped off the plane to Afghanistan? It suits the neverending war agenda to paint the poor saps as victims you see, and it fuels the fires of both intellectually and economically impoverished Americans to blame it all on the horrible Muslim man who according to the usual anonymous sources is affiliated with al CIAda and if the terrursts [sic] are already carrying out nefarious plots on our military bases welllll...Sally Soccer Mom, just how long will it be before they are blowing up your children in our shopping malls? All rank horseshit, exploited by traitors and cowards to send others to die in the wars that they are too gutless to serve in. Today, as a military veteran, I want all of the right wing war lovers to line up in a single file line and come and kiss my big fat ass....oh, and don't forget to salute me first you filthy chickenhawks.

Veteran's Day Storytime: From Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun

Of course a lot of guys were ashamed. Somebody said let's go out and fight for liberty and so they went and got killed without ever once thinking about liberty. And what kind of liberty were they fighting for anyway? How much liberty and whose idea of liberty? Were they fighting for the liberty of eating free ice cream cones all their lives or for the liberty of robbing anybody they pleased whenever they wanted to or what? You tell a man he can't rob and you take away some of his liberty. You've got to. What the hell does liberty mean anyhow? It's just a word like house or table or any other word. Only it's a special kind of word. A guy says house and he can point to a house to prove it. But a guy says come on let's fight for liberty and he can't show you liberty. He can't prove the thing he's talking about so how in the hell can he be telling you to fight for it?
No sir anybody who went out and got into the front line trenches to fight for liberty was a goddamn fool and the guy who got him there was a liar. Next time anybody came gabbling to him about liberty- what did he mean next time? There wasn't going to be any next time for him. But the hell with that. If there could be a next time and somebody said let's fight for liberty he would say mister my life is important. I'm not a fool and when I swap my life for liberty I've got to know in advance what liberty is and whose idea of liberty we're talking about and just how much of that liberty we're going to have. And what's more mister are you as much interested in liberty as you want me to be? And maybe too much liberty will be as bad as too little liberty and I think you're a goddamn fourflusher talking through your hat and I've already decided that I like the liberty I've got right here the liberty to walk and see and hear and talk and eat and sleep with my girt I think I like that liberty better than fighting for a lot of things we won't get and ending up without any liberty at all. Ending up dead and rotting before my life is even begun good or ending up like a side of beef. Thank you mister. You fight for liberty. Me I don't care for some.
Hell's fire guys had always been fighting for liberty. America fought a war for liberty in 1776. Lots of guys died. And in the end does America have any more liberty than Canada or Australia who didn't fight at all? Maybe so I'm not arguing I'm just asking. Can you look at a guy and say he's an American who fought for his liberty and anybody can see he's a very different guy from a Canadian who didn't? No by god you can't and that's that. So maybe a lot of guys with wives and kids died in 1776 when they didn't need to die at all. They're dead now anyway. Sure but that doesn't do any good. A guy can think of being dead a hundred years from now and he doesn't mind it. But to think of being dead tomorrow morning and to be dead forever to be nothing but dust and stink in the earth is that liberty?
They were always fighting for something the bastards and if anyone dared say the hell with fighting it's all the same each war is like the other and nobody gets any good out of it why they hollered coward. If they weren't fighting for liberty they were fighting for independence or democracy or freedom or decency or honor or their native land or something else that didn't mean anything. The war was to make the world safe for democracy for the little countries for everybody. If the war was over now then the world must be all safe for democracy. Was it? And what kind of democracy? And how much? And whose?
Then there was this freedom the little guys were always getting killed for. Was it freedom from another country? Freedom from work or disease or death? Freedom from your mother-in-law? Please mister give us a bill of sale on this freedom before we go out and get killed. Give us a bill of sale drawn up plainly so we know in advance what we're getting killed for and give us also a first mortgage on something as security so we can be sure after we've won your war that we've got the same kind of freedom we bargained for.
And take decency. Everybody said America was fighting a war for the triumph of decency. But whose idea of decency? And decency for who? Speak up and tell us what decency is. Tell us how much better a decent dead man feels that an indecent live one. Make a comparison there in facts like houses and tables. Make it in words we can understand. And don't talk about honor. The honor of a Chinese or an Englishman or an African negro or an American or a Mexican? Please all you guys who want to fight to preserve our honor let us know what the hell honor is. Is it American honor for the whole world we're fighting for? Maybe the world doesn't like it. Maybe the South Sea Islanders like their honor better.
For Christ sake give us things to fight for we can see and feel and pin down and understand. No more highfalutin words that mean nothing like native land. Motherland fatherland homeland native land. It's all the same. What the hell good to you is your native land after you're dead? Whose native land is it after you're dead? If you get killed fighting for your native land you've bought a pig in a poke. You've paid for something you'll never collect.
And when they couldn't hook the little guys into fighting for liberty or freedom or democracy or independence or decency or honor they tried the women. Look at the dirty Huns they would say look at them how they rape the beautiful French and Belgian girls. Somebody's got to stop all that raping. So come on little au' join the army and save the beautiful French and Belgian girls. So the little guy got bewildered and he signed up and in a little while a shell hit him and his life spattered out of him in red meat pulp and ho was dead. Dead for another word and all the fierce old bats of the D.A.R. get out and hurrah themselves hoarse over his grave because he died for womanhood.
Now it might be that a guy would risk getting killed if his women were being raped. But if he did why he was only striking a bargain. He was simply saying that according to the way he felt at the time the safety of his women was worth more than his own life. But there wasn't anything particularly noble or heroic about it. It was a straight deal his life for something he valued more. It was more or less like any other deal a man might make. But when you change your women to all the women in the world why you begin to defend women in the bulk. To do that you have to fight in the bulk. And by that time you're fighting for a word again.
When armies begin to move and flags wave and slogans pop up watch out little guy because it's somebody else's chestnuts in the fire not yours. It's words you're fighting for and you're not making an honest deal your life for something better. You're being noble and after you're killed the thing you traded your life for won't do you any good and chances are it won't do anybody else any good either.
Maybe that's a bad way to think. There are lots of idealists around who will say have we got so low that nothing is more precious than life? Surely there are ideals worth fighting for even dying for. If not then we are worse than the beasts of the field and have sunk into barbarity. Then you say that's all right let's be barbarous just so long as we don't have war. You keep your ideals just as long as they don't cost me my life. And they say but surely life isn't as important as principle. Then you say oh no? Maybe not yours but mine is. What the hell is principle? Name it and you can have it.
You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else's life. They're plenty loud and they talk all the time. You can find them in churches and schools and newspapers and legislatures and congress. That's their business. They sound wonderful. Death before dishonor. This ground sanctified by blood. These men who died so gloriously.
They shall not have died in vain. Our noble dead.
Hmmmm.
But what do the dead say?
Did anybody ever come back from the dead any single one of the millions who got killed did any one of them ever come back and say by god I'm glad I'm dead because death is always better than dishonor? Did they say I'm glad I died to make the world safe for democracy] Did they say I like death better than losing liberty? Did any of them ever say it's good to think I got my guts blown out for the honor of my country? Did any of them ever say look at me I'm dead but I died for decency and that's better than being alive? Did any of them ever say here I am and I've been rotting for two years in a foreign grave but it's wonderful to die for your native land? Did any of them say hurray I died for womanhood and I'm happy see how I sing even though my mouth choked with worms?
Nobody but the dead know whether all these things people talk a;bout are worth dying for or not. And the dead can't talk. So the words about noble deaths and sacred blood and honor and such are all put into dead lips by grave robbers and fakes who have no right to speak for the dead. If a man says death before dishonor he is either a fool or a liar because he doesn't know what death is. He isn't able to judge. He only knows about living. He doesn't know anything about dying. If he is a fool and believes in death before dishonor let him go ahead and die. But all the little guys who are too busy to fight should be left alone. And all the guys who say death before dishonor is pure bull the important thing is life before death they should be left alone too. Because the guys who say life isn't worth living without some principle so important you're willing to die for it they are all nuts. And the guys who say you'll see there'll come a time you can't escape you're going to have to fight and die because it'll mean your very life why they are also nuts. They are talking like fools. They are saying that two and two make nothing. They are saying that a man will have to die in order to protect his life. If you agree to fight you agree to die. Now if you die to protect your life you aren't alive anyhow so how is there any sense in a thing like that? A man doesn't say I will starve myself to death to keep from starving. He doesn't say I will spend all my money in order to save my money. He doesn't say I will burn my house down in order to keep it from burning. Why then should he be willing to die for the privilege of living There ought to be at least as much common sense about living and dying as there is about going to the grocery store and buying a loaf of bread.
And all the guys who died all the five million or seven million or ten million who went out and died to make the world safe for democracy to make the world safe for words without meaning how did they feel about it just before they died? How did they feel as they watched their blood pump out into the mud? How did they feel when the gas hit their lungs and began eating them all away? How did they feel as they lay crazed in hospitals and looked death straight in the face and saw him come and take them? I! the thing they were fighting for was important enough to die for then it was also important enough for them to be thinking about it in the last minutes of their lives. That stood to reason. Life is awfully important so if you've given it away you'd ought to think with all your mind in the last moments of your life about the thing you traded it for. So did all those kids die thinking of democracy and freedom and liberty and honor and the safety of the home and the stars and stripes forever?
You're goddamn right they didn't.

They died crying in their minds like little babies. They forgot the thing they were fighting for the things they were dying for. They thought about things a man can understand. They died yearning for the face of a friend. They died whimpering for the voice of a mother a father a wife a child They died with their hearts sick for one more look at the place where they were born please god just one more look. They died moaning and sighing for life. They knew what was important They knew that life was everything and they died with screams and sobs. They died with only one thought in the* minds and that was I want to live I want to live I want to live.

Oddments

Miep — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:41:03 GMT

Cousin Caterpillar, Incredible String Band

Chrysler drops three electric vehicles despite having touted them to get billions in government bailout cash

http://content.usatoday.com/co...

If you believed all the talk from Chrysler about how our tax dollars would help finance its fast-track electric-vehicle future, you're in for a big disappointment.
Chrysler has disbanded the engineering team that was trying to bring three electric models to market as a rush job, Automotive News reports today. Chrysler cited its devotion to electric vehicles as one of the key reasons why the Obama administration and Congress needed to give it $12.5 billion in bailout money, the News points out.

Oh, my. Well, I'm sure the good folks at Chrysler were very pure in their motives.

&&&&

Boise homeless group sues city

http://www.kivitv.com/Global/s...

A group of Boise's homeless is suing the City over sleeping in public tickets. The group claims that Boise police have been targeting people, and that it violates their human rights.
"We would hope that the city would stop enforcing their ordinances in this manner against people who don't have shelter," the plaintiffs attorney Howard Belodoff said.
Boise shelters have seen larger than normal numbers this year, stretching the already struggling safety net for the homeless even further. The group points to the shortage of beds as one of the causes of the problem. "There seems to be something better that can be done, that should be done and we hope that will be done," Belodoff said.
The city won't comment on the case, but the City Council is looking at what the term "camping" means in the city ordinance.

&&&

Afghanistan's Sarpoza prisoners begin hunger strike

http://www.theglobeandmail.com...

Housed in a prison known for fierce beatings and electrocutions, Kandahar's most volatile prisoners have found inspiration in an unlikely source: Gandhi.
More than 350 Taliban inmates in the city's notorious Sarpoza prison are staging a hunger strike, refusing to eat in a protest over their treatment within the prison's bleak walls.
The passive demonstration, which began Sunday, has left the prison's Canadian-trained guards - accustomed to suppressing far more aggressive insurrections - somewhat flummoxed.
Late last night, government security forces bolstered the armed presence at the prison over fears the demonstration is a precursor to an attempt at a prison break on the scale of the massive escape that unleashed more than 1,000 Sarpoza prisoners on the city last year.

Hikmatyar: Bin Laden Alive;
Suggests Taliban/al-Qaeda Split

http://www.juancole.com/

Afghan insurgent and former prime minister Gulbadin Hikmatyar has told Aljazeera that Usama Bin Laden is alive and well. Hikmatyar, once the recipient of 20 percent of all the funds disbursed by US intelligence for fighting the Soviets, is now fighting US troops in eastern Afghanistan. He condemned bombings against the Pakistani military, saying that only foreign, non-Muslim troops should be targeted. He also said his group refuses to coordinate with the Haqqani Network, a rival fundamentalist militia. He said that US troops could be given safe passage to leave Afghanistan if they would agree to go.

Evening Song

Diane G — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:55:50 GMT

....heard it on my way home, and it made me happy. Paul Simon always does and his Graceland album is a perma fav. Hadn't heard this older one in ages.

Enjoy. You have just to sing along when tunes like these come on...