Cafe Talk Aggregator

Fort Hood Attack was an Act of war

2009-11-08T01:18:18Z

"Fort Hood shooting: Texas army killer linked to September 11 terrorists

Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a "spiritual adviser" to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001."

All the facts are not in yet, but it looks to me like Hasan chose sides and took action. Some will call it an act of terrorism. However, I think "terrorism" implies the killing of innocents for political reasons. This seems to me like a direct strike on the U.S. military. It was an act of war.

Ft Hood vs Orlando, or, An Armed Society Is Dangerous

2009-11-08T01:06:35Z

Ft Hood: 13 dead, 30 wounded.

Orlando: 1 dead, 5 wounded.

In both cases, there was a single instigator. Why were so many more killed and wounded on an army base, where so many people had access to weapons, vs the Orlando office, where so few had access?

(The title proposes a theory, but I'm not actually ready to generalize from a single example.)

OBVIOUSLY, YOU AREN'T A HUNTER.....

2009-11-08T00:01:39Z

I had been wanting to write something about how the MSM does not understand anything about guns and the people who use them, be it for food, sport or "spreadin' democracy", but Hippie Killer captured my feelings a lot better than I could:

http://hippiekiller.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/obviously-youre-not-a-golfer/

We could still hunt like we want here in WV if there were reasonable gun restrictions that could help prevent shit like Fort Hood. I think most of my friends agree with me even though they all belong to the NRA.

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2009-11-07T22:30:28Z

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BABIES, RACCOONS AND HEALTH CARE

2009-11-07T22:08:16Z

Representative Shadegg:

I wish this was my granddaughter," Shadegg said. "This is Maddie. Maddie believes in freedom. Maddie likes America because we have freedom here. And Maddie believes in patient choice health care. She asked to come here today to say she doesn't want the government to take over health care. She wants to keep her plan."
The chamber was either a bit freaked out or slightly humored. It was difficult to say.
"Mr. Speaker that was a remarkable child and a great ventriloquist," responded Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/07/house-health-care-vote-br_n_349468.html&cp

Shortly thereafter, Representative John Boner brought his raccoon up to the dais:

Mr. Speaker, this is somebody's grandson; not my grandson. But this raccoon, sure as I am standing here today in the never ending fight for truth, justice and the American way, had a mother and a father. The raccoon's parents had their own parents. And, therefore, this raccoon is somebody's grandson.

Now political correctness will not allow me to refer to these critters as 'coons' anymore, but suffice it to say that they are really not the masked bandits as they were once portrayed. I will just refer to him as Rush, the magic raccoon.

Now Rush was born free in the forest. Rush was free from government interference and you can see that ole Rush is healthy, as healthy as a raccoon can ever be. Rush is free to see any vet his heart desires.

Of course he has to work hard and save up enough acorns--oops wrong word in this context--enough eggs to feed himself and his family. But Rush is free to visit that vet of choice and they can work out the details of payment. It is up to them. Not you or me or the govement.

I am so sick of all of this I could puke. Rush knows that he has to keep up his health, he cannot get too fat, he is not allowed to be come lazy. He cannot feign 'mental' debilitation.

Rush here is THE TRUE AMERICAN.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I watched CSPAN this morning. A caller quoted some repub as saying that the Health Care Bill throws the baby out with the bathwater.

Shaking, the caller noted that he was one of the 47 million uninsured in this country and that he did not like to be referred to

AS BATHWATER.

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2009-11-07T21:23:14Z

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Slippery Slope of Securitization: poem

2009-11-07T21:08:59Z

You, O America, are the nation of nations.

And wherever on earth the people dwell,

or the icons of the web do sell,

and planes of air descend,

you inspire their poverty to end.

Then do they bid you adieu, like they did the British

before you.

Your golden-headed ingenuity hath inspired them all;

still, do you evade the final margin call?

In days of old, your silver-shielded inclinations gave breath to greatness.

Not hateness.

With your strong-armed enterprise enabling masses to bust the hardscrabble,

O America! how your simple speech doth strive to overcome the Babel.

Back in the day, your bronzen halfbacks scampered,

unhampered

through smoke of kamikazis

past the ghoulish camps of Nazis

which now you accuse each other of becoming.

You're so cunning.

Not!

Oh iron-legged one, who runneth at the game

and at the mouth,

in all directions north and south,

what will you do now upon your feet of iron and clay?

Shall I compare thee to a tragic play?

Entropy doth assail thee like a worthless m-b-s,

which thou doth seek to unload before it can digress.

Yet it sachs thee to the ground, bearly stearns thee round and round;

with jolting, bofa torts, you fall like ponzied citicorpse.

Oh! quoth the raven evermore,

upon thy credit-defaulted shore:

Prosperity, prosperity, burning bright

in the newshours of the cabled night

what financial convoluting instrument

can forestall thy fateful detriment?

What prophetic lens or scope could foresee such slippery slope?

Upon what back of mortgaged securitee

will he who bailed the bank bail thee?

But wait! What light through yonder window breaks?

What hope, what blessing, for what

God's sakes?

Arise! and go, and fly with me

into uncharted

opportunity.

Presented By:

2009-11-07T21:08:59Z

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2009-11-07T20:38:21Z

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You Can't Hate Government and Love the Constitution

2009-11-07T20:21:42Z

It's probably a fool's errand to make attempts at parsing the paranoid, hysterical rhetoric that's been flying around in the healthcare debate, but that's never stopped me before. So, I'm watching the fun on C-SPAN this afternoon. Listening to some of the "against" calls, I noticed something that I probably should have noticed before, which is this: The bizarre dichotomy of professing your undying love for the Constitution, while breathlessly spewing venom at the fundamental evil of the government.

Folks, I have to tell you that I love you very much for your dogged support of the Constitution. I'm with you. I believe that it's been a net positive for humanity despite its flaws, which in many cases have been adjusted over the years in a manner that, I would contend, has been largely for the better. Through our history, we've righted some serious wrongs by broadening and deepening our commitment to the ideas that are embedded in that oft referred to document. And we may yet have some way to go in that respect.

However, it should be noted that the one thing the Constitution does, first and foremost, is establish a government. I must say that the people who cling tenaciously to the Constitution while hurling invective at the very institution that the document creates have perhaps missed the point.

Don't get me wrong. It's perfectly valid to criticize that institution and its operations. Not only is it valid, but it's necessary for the health of the system in my opinion. However, that's a debate that acknowledges the question of whether or not to have a government at all as settled. We can disagree with specific things that the government does, but that's different than attacking the very notion of government itself.

Now, you could be a bona fide anti-statist. Hey, that's fine. You're entitled to that point of view. However, you can't be an anti-statist and claim allegiance to the Constitution at the same time. It's fundamentally nonsenscial. The Constitution establishes a state government. If you really believe that the state is fundamentally evil, then the Constitution is the bane of your existence.

And this goes for people who make silly claims like it's un-Constitutional to pass a healthcare reform bill. If you're referring to the Constitution that I know and love, then you know that Article I gets the party started by establishing a legislative body and describing how that body will be selected and proceed. Well, that body is using the power vested in it by Article I to pass law. Again, you could be somebody who fundamentally disagrees with this scenario or the power of legislators to legislate, but their doing so is anything but un-Constitutional.

And lest we think that the people who make this argument are just random callers into C-SPAN, I listened to a Republican member of the House again invoke the notion that a healthcare reform bill is un-Constitutional as I typed that last paragraph.

In closing, I would go one further and put it that fundamental hatred of the government is un-American. America is nothing if not a state. Again, you're perfectly entitled to hold the idea of state in question, but debating how that state should function and whether or not there should even be a state are different things. I'm fine with having both debates, but it's either terribly erroneous or perhaps even disingenuous to confuse the two. And that confusion seems to underline a sense of alienation from government rather than ownership of it.

---

Cross-posted @ dagblog.com, where the snozzberries taste like snozzberries

Lula McBoeing-Boeing

2009-11-07T19:37:21Z

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
- Sir Walter Scott

It's a two billion dollar deal or better. Brasil is shopping for 36 jet fighters. The contenders are:

The French Rafale (Squall) by Dissant. US$82.3 million

Swedish JAS 39 Gripen (Griffin) by SAAB. US$40-61 million.

F/A-18E/F Super Hornet by Boeing. US$54.7 million

It seems like eliminating the French fighter on the basis of price tag is a slam dunk, yet Brasil is leaning in that direction. Purchasing hi tech war machines is a tangle web, however. A big issue, for example, is technology transfer. In France, for further example, unions are trying to nix the deal between Lula da Silva and French President Sarkozy, because the aircraft workers see loss of jobs down the line. Why?

Dassault designed and builds the Rafale fighter-bomber which France is prepared to sell to Brazil.
On signing a major military hardware agreement with French president Sarkozy, Lula da Silva said he was inclined to choose the French fighter Rafale because France is prepared to transfer sensitive technology and would also allow them to be assembled in Brazil.

I'm knowledged challenged about these kinds of thing - I just want to map out the complexity of military hardware sales between nations, especially how that "tangled web" plays out in the context of international diplomatic missions.

When first we practise to deceive!

Boeing has been jumping up and down to assure its shareholders that business is great; they have a large backload of orders to keep them busy for the next several years, yadda yadda yadda. Yet Boeing recently laid off over 4K workers, and posted a larger than expected loss of $1.6 billion, and cut its 2009 profit estimate. Airliner sales, which has sustained many of the world's aircraft manufacturers, have fallen off sharply due to the recession, and the focus is now on military aircraft. I would think that being nice to Lula da Silva would be a top priority of our State Department, including sending one of State's top negotiators to Brasil, Tom Shannon.

Biography

Thomas A. Shannon, Jr.
Assistant Secretary
Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs
Term of Appointment: 10/07/2005 to present
Thomas A. Shannon was confirmed as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs on October 7, 2005.
A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Mr. Shannon served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council from 2003 to 2005. From 2002 to 2003, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the Department of State, where he was Director of Andean Affairs from 2001 to 2002. He was U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS) from 2000 to 2001.
He served as Director for Inter-American Affairs at the National Security Council from 1999 to 2000; as Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela from 1996 to 1999; and as Regional Labor Attaché at the U.S. Consulate General in Johannesburg, South Africa from 1992 to 1996.
During his career as a Foreign Service Officer, Mr. Shannon also served as Special Assistant to the Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, Brazil from 1989 to 1992; as Country Officer for Cameroon, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe from 1987 to 1989; and as the Consular/Political Rotational Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, Guatemala from 1984 to 1986.
Mr. Shannon holds a Doctorate and a Master's degree in politics from Oxford University, and a B.A. in Government and Philosophy from the College of William and Mary.

ring...ring..."Secretary Clinton"

"Madame Secretary, Jim DeMint here."

"How can I help you, Senator?"

"Well, how about recognizing the elections in Honduras without Mel being reinstated, for starters?"

"I can't do that. The Accord clearly states that Zelaya must be reinstated. That's been our policy all along."

"Are you kidding me? With all due respect, the Accord is so ambiguous and fuzzy We can read anything into it that we want. Are you on board?

"Where is this going, Jimbo?"

"OK, tell you what. You tell me you'll recognize the elections no matter what, and I'll lift my hold on Valenzuela and Shannon. It's a good deal. I know you're anxious to get your boy down to Sambalandia, right?"

"Unnggg....good deal? Hmmmm, well, OK." [hangs up phone]

So Valenzuela gets confirmed Thursday evening. DeMint is a man of his word. Next on the agenda, Thomas Shannon. But the Republican Party is out of control - fractured, headless, no sense of reality. Enter freshman Senator George LeMieux - you know, resigned Florida Senator Mel Martinez' appointed replacement - and sabotages DeMint's deal with Clinton.
The Cubans in Florida are really pissed off at Shannon for his role in the Cuba OAS resolution.

This is just a off-the-top example of the complexity of US/Latinamica policy - there are several other burning issues informing the Obama Administration's Laninamerican policy. But it seems to me that Republicans are playing too large a role in determining this policy. DeMint's recent Honduran adventure is yielding GOP paydirt. That's not a good thing. The Obama Administration has sunk a few notches in reputation in Latinamerica, and the State Department is looking downright incompetent.

Mint-condition Franklin

2009-11-07T19:32:31Z

Like the Pep Boys and brownbanded cockroaches, Larry Franklin evidently is in it for the long haul - even if it means blogging from the pokey.

You remember Franklin. He's the only defendant imprisoned in the abandoned "AIPAC spy scandal". A Defense Department functionary and part of Douglas Feith's Office of Special Plans staff, he took the hit for passing on secret information about Iran to Israel via the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, while co-defendants (and AIPAC honchos) Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman walked.

This week, in a Foreign Policy post, My Secret Plan to Overthrow the Mullahs, Franklin offers part apologia and part rabble-rousing from his lonely prison cell.

Interestingly, he reveals his own reservations about the infatuation Feith and his cronies had for Iraqi Shiite (and, as it turned out, Iranian agent) Ahmed Chalabi in the run-up to the Iraq invasion:

In fact, I knew from my sources that Tehran had already prepared an entire network of operatives, proxies, and weapons ready to challenge the United States as soon as it toppled Saddam Hussein. I also knew it would be foolish to assume - as many in the Bush administration did - that Iraq's many pro-Iranian political and religious leaders could be trusted to cooperate with the United States' stated goal of building "a peaceful ... democratic, and united Iraq." ... I suspected that many of these individuals were essentially Iranian agents -- including the opportunistic "man for all factions" Ahmad Chalabi, a suspicion eventually confirmed when I was later told he had encouraged the pro-Iranian Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to "dig in" against the U.S. Marines in Najaf.

Franklin maintains his whole part in the AIPAC "information sharing" was to slow the rush to war in Iraq - and push the U.S. to move against the Persian republic. For the neocons in the White House and Pentagon, the battle order was just the opposite.

And still is. Just as those cockroaches have stayed the course, little changed by evolution in 200 million years, so, too, the neoconservative soul (and regime-change template) remains durable:

I often wonder what would have happened had we fully committed to overthrowing the Islamic Republic. Inside the Pentagon, I had long argued that regime change, not accommodation or war, would be our best policy... My plan was designed to shake the foundations of Iran's mullahcracy without resorting to military action. I urged the United States to recognize a government in exile, perhaps in a nearby Central Asian country with a Persian heritage. I proposed a sophisticated propaganda offensive, planting stories both true and otherwise in the Persian-language media to undermine Iranians' confidence in their leaders.

We can be pretty sure that strategy is at work today in Iran. Opposition so lionized by the Western media in June's still-disputed national elections even has its own color code - green - just like the Western-tweaked "democracy" movements that triumphed - and now stagnate - throughout eastern Europe and southwestern Asia over the past decade or so.

Trouble is, Iran's opposition isn't exactly warm and cozy regarding Western ambitions in the region. Former prime minister Mir-Hussein Mousavi, who's current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chief rival, supports Iran's nuclear program and detests Israel with all the passion of the everyday "Arab on the street". That keeps up, and we'll eventually have to regime change the changed regime.

That faction also knows how to play the U.S. like an oud: The Obama Adminstration clearly wants the Iran opposition movement to shift away from those troublesome policies on nukes and Israel, but as soon as the U.S. announced it was suspending funding for Iran opposition, the "green" camp said it would mark the 30th anniversary of the Iran Hostage Crisis this week by apologizing to the U.S. for that inconvenience (and Reagan boon in 1980). How can we let such nice folks twist slowly in the wind?

Obama is stretched to the limit on domestic issues like health care and the economy, and Afghanistan is the biggest foreign policy cesspit with which he must deal, so he seems willing to let Iran's Mullahs fade on their own; if that's the case, history shows he may be in for a long wait.

On the other hand, Israel's seizure of a purported arms ship this week shows that long, drawn-out cold war could go hot any moment. Israel claims weapons it recovered came from Iran and were destined for Lebanon and Hezbollah and/or Palestine and Hamas; everyone else denies it, evidence is sketchy, blah, blah, blah. At the same time, the Israeli defense minister vows threats to attack Iran are sincere, there's a much-ballyhoo'd "report" that Israel will attack next month... blah, blah, blah.

In the event of war with Iran - a petroleum-producing dynamo sitting atop the maritime bottleneck through which most Gulf Oil transports - we can look forward to gasoline at $10-$15 a gallon, blowback in the form of terrorist violence in our own backyards and more enmity from the rest of the world. Israel may attack, but you can be damn sure we'll be left to clean up the mess.

That's one handicap, I think, that's stymied such a bomb run on Iran's nuclear facilities so far: We simply can't afford it. Maybe it's the blessing from the ongoing recession - we can't very well launch a new stage in the neocon/Likud Mideast pacification plan on a maxed-out credit card. Perhaps, if Wall Street news gets any brighter, we should get ready to duck.

Franklin's own fever-dream war game would be less pyrotechnic, and have us supplying the opposition with GPS and high-tech video technology to spur a stealth regime change; he even suggests hiring opposition snipers to take out Iranian military snipers (!) that so plague anti-establishment marches. Some eggs must shatter, after all.

Finally, let's play with fire and provoke a government backlash:

U.S. action might well precipitate a massive crackdown, though such a move by the clerical-military junta could spark widespread resistance. At last, the great majority of Iranians who oppose tyranny might rebel. In one scenario, the regime would end with a bang of terrible bloodshed, chaos, and reprisals. But if Iranians were coaxed into mobilizing a long-lasting general strike, the regime would end in a whimper. Then, we could finally toss Iran's vicious Islamic Republic -- a regime that has murdered and wrongly imprisoned thousands of its own citizens -- on the ash heap of history.

As Lenin put it, "worse is better".

But... better for who?

How Quickly We Forget...

2009-11-07T19:18:42Z

Does anyone remember Sgt. John Russell? He shot and killed five US soldiers at Camp Liberty in May 2009. He killed his psychologist. It was big news for a couple days, but now you can barely find it on the web.

Lapses Found in Case of Sgt. John Russell

I have read many articles about Sgt. Russell, but I still have no knowledge of his religious beliefs.

US soldiers are facing an epidemic of suicides. The current model of sending the same people back to tours of duty in war zones time and time again is a disaster. If your goal was to create PTSD in your troops, this would be the recipe.

Doctors in the military are pressured to clear people to return to combat duty. However, it actually doesn't matter whether the physician has cleared the soldier or not, as the ultimate decision is made by the commanding officer.

In particular, when I was active duty I refused to clear a sergeant to go to Iraq due to ongoing medical problems. That's when I found out it didn't matter what I, his doctor, had to say about his medical condition. His commander felt his condition was not serious enough, so off he went to Iraq. He barely lasted two weeks until he was sent back. I received an angry phone call from his physician in Iraq asking why I had cleared someone not fit for duty. I got angry right back, told her to read the damn paperwork, and promptly hung up on her. When this soldier returned stateside he was promptly discharged by a medical board.

I don't know about the rest of the military, but from what I saw during my time, the medical corps is run by incompetent fools. Physicians in the military don't have the necessary autonomy to provide excellent medical treatment.

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2009-11-07T19:15:14Z

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FREEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!

2009-11-07T18:09:13Z

Dammit, I want my country back. I want my freedom-loving, free country with it's free people fighting for their freedom back. Now. Because Paul Revere loved FREEDOM. And also, Martin Luther King. Because he was free. Well, once he got out of jail he was. FREEDOM!! Freedom is important and we should all fight against those people who want to take away our freedom. In fact, I'm going to go out and protest against people who hate freedom. Just as soon as check a few things off of my to-do list. For instance, I have to buy a gun on the internet. Then, I have to write a letter that will most likely be published in my local newspaper about why I will go all REVOLUTIONARY on anybody who hates my freedom. Then, I have to go outside. It's dangerous outside. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN!! There are so many people who want to take away my freedom that I have to be CONSTANTLY VIGILANT as I walk to my car. Somebody might stop me, for example, to say "Good Morning." Bastard. What if I'm not having a good morning? STOP TAKING AWAY MY FREEDOM TO HAVE A BAD MORNING. Once I finally get to my car, I have to drive on the streets paid for with tax dollars. Fucking taxes. More government taking away my freedom. And what's with all the other cars? They should get out of my way because I'm very important and I have important places to go and those other drivers are in the way of my FREEDOM. Why do other drivers hate America? And don't even get me started on those fascist pedestrians--buy a car you hippie assholes. This is AMERICA where we buy big cars because we love FREEDOM. Speaking of America and freedom, immigrants get the fuck out. This is my free country, not yours. RONALD REAGAN!! I love the smell of freedom in the morning. Because I am a PATRIOT! And I want my country back. FREEDOM! Why did those anti-American, freedom-hating bastards get in government anyhow? I know why. Because Acorn hates my freedom. I know what to do about Acorn. Cut down all the trees. BECAUSE TREES HATE FREEDOM. With all the wood, I can make sign posts for all the signs I'm going to put around so that everyboy will know how much I love FREEDOM! That's what freedom fighters do. We make FREEDOM SIGNS out of trees that will never grow another acorn again. Hah. And all you anti-freedom fascists can suck it. Get out of my way, get out of my country. Go live in Canada if you love your anti-freedom, socialist medicine so much. THOMAS JEFFERSON! NATHAN HALE! PATRICK HENRY! FREEEEEEEEEEEDOM!
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Cross posted at the fascist, anti-freedom, communist, liberal, shaggy, long-haired hippie, tree-hugging Dagblog.

Obama's people told us unemployment wouldn't reach 8.0%

2009-11-07T17:57:31Z

I just wanted to point out how wrong Christina Romer (now chair of the Council of Economic Advisors) was in early January when she was selling the stimulus package. It would result in a jobless rate that would not hit 8.0% at all. Maybe we should have spent more money on a larger stimulus Look: