Virtual, but permanent.
The stupidity to which American citizenship condemns us all.
Defence ministry apologises for gay discrimination | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited
In the US, “don’t ask don’t tell” has merely turned explicit institutional discrimination into soft, implicit institutional discrimination. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has progressed from the complete decriminalization of homosexuality in their military in 2000 to a sincere apology today.
At the present rate, the only apology the Pentagon is likely to issue is “We’re sorry we asked”.
Cheney claims a non-executive privilege – Los Angeles Times
The United States Constitution is a remarkably multi-faceted document. Scholars have studied it for centuries, and they continue to find surprises therein. Read the above Los Angeles Times article to find the latest revelation of the Constitution.
This revelation was discovered by the staff of Dick Cheney, and it states that Dick Cheney is a heretofore forgotten fourth branch of government. A branch that is part of both the Executive and Legislative branches defined in the Constitution, but beholden to neither. This Cheney branch of government is free to dominate the CIA and to doctor its intelligence findings and to award unlimited contracts to Halliburton. This latter provision was, of course, a personal request from George Washington for the wonderful job Halliburton did delivering his wooden teeth on time and under budget.
At least, the Cheney branch would argue that such quid pro quo is perfectly legitimate.
DNA – World – Arafat’s Peace Prize stolen in month of Nobel thefts – Daily News & Analysis
The man, Arafat, squandered unprecedented opportunity for peace. His legacy is one of a shattered, a deeply fragmented and a hopelessly confused Palestinian people. Once they had hope in fighting for themselves. Now, they don’t know who that “self” is. Hence, there is nothing left for which to fight. They are a people born of an artificial identity foisted upon them by the West, and now, the reality of this ersatz identity is manifesting itself with spectacular violence.
And, nothing captures the Palestinian hopelessness better than the purloining of the Nobel Prize Arafat was awarded for attempting a political solution with Israel. Of course, the Nobel committee members who elected to resign rather than to award Arafat the prize are now completely vindicated: they said that Arafat’s attempt was not sincere, and now they have been proven right, irrevocably. The man’s reputation as a thief, an incorrigible power monger and a selfish brute is now indisputably established by the nightmare of his legacy.
To be sure, Hamas will blame Israel for everything, but the evidence, for those sane enough to read it, condemns nobody except Palestinians themselves.
No Nobel prize. No hope.
If you don’t trust Indian sources, here are over 5,000 others that Google News cited.
No Drop in Iraq Violence Seen Since Troop Buildup – washingtonpost.com
This may be true, but there is something to be said for that warm fuzzy feeling you get every time you say the words “troop surge” or “surge in troops”.
At this moment, the nation is given no greater rationale for the escalation than a “warm fuzzy feeling”.
Putin suggests new missile defence site | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited
This is perhaps the final chapter, the climax, the coup de grace of post cold war political evolution. The US has survived by sheer economic power and unchallenged military might, and its rivals have survived by becoming supremely cunning, as demonstrated by Baathists in Iraq, by Iran in Lebanon and Iraq, and today, by Vladimir Putin in Germany.
The Iraqi war displayed America’s military might yet again. The aftermath of the war, however, has showed America’s impotence in the face of clever propaganda perpetrated by Iran and guerrilla warfare being executed to perfection by Baathists that the Coalition Provisional Authority foolishly disenfranchised. By developing incredible cunning, the Baathists, the Taliban and Iran have engineered a spectacular opposition to the military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The US did indeed win the battle on the ground, but the opposition has thus far made a spectacular showing in the fight for the hearts and minds of the people in the middle east. We can claim no political victories there. Not in Iraq, not in Iran, not in Afghanistan, not in Syria and not even in Lebanon, who was humiliated by a brazen war started and effectively won by a rogue faction, Hezbollah, i.e., Iran and Syria.
Similarly, just when George W Bush’s White House was thinking that it had succeeded in its campaign to place a “missile defense shield” in Poland and the Czech Republic unilaterally, without soliciting any reaction from Russia, Putin responds with the most cunning, the most devilishly clever of retorts: Russia wants to suckle on America’s teat, too. Coupled with Russia’s posturing of the previous weeks–that it will target its missiles at Europe if this shield is deployed in Eastern Europe–Putin has completely neutralized the American argument, and he has entangled Bush with the absurdity of Bush’s assertions that it is an America at peace with a defeated Russia that desires to protect Europe from “rogue regimes”.
By accepting this proposition on face value, Putin has flipped this argument on its head. First, Putin asserts the US is the victor. Second, he posits the obvious fact that Azerbaijan is a better geographic location from which the US may intercept missiles from Bush’s favorite rogue regimes. Third, the US will be protecting Europe by preventing Russia from targeting European cities. It is the trifecta that the US has been salivating to get, and Russia takes home the purse!
Germany’s influence is expanding at an unbelievable pace. Iran exercises near hegemony in the middle east. Now, Russia is hanging George W Bush with Bush’s own arguments. In the face of such cunning, one must wonder if evolution is favoring the US.
Va. Tells NYC to Stop Gun Stings – washingtonpost.com
Ah, yes, the fractious reality of the Republican Party is beginning to percolate to the surface for everyone to see. Soon people may even remember that the Republican Party as founded by Lincoln and propagated by the likes of Eisenhower, Rockefeller, Romney, Reagan and even Nixon is indeed a socially progressive and fiscally conservative movement. With Giuliani’s vehement defense of his pro-choice stance today, the right fringe’s stranglehold on the Republican Political apparatus may finally be loosening.
It is a good time to harken to the postal anthrax scare that besieged the country soon after September 11, 2001. As if the hysteria created by the 9/11 disaster needed to be fueled any further, many FBI experts asserted that the anthrax spores found in the tainted letters were weapons grade, of the highest lethality, and composed of materials that assured maximum dispersal. From this Chemical & Engineering News brief in late 2006:
But FBI scientist Douglas J. Beecher refutes that description (Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2006, 72, 5304). He writes that “a widely
circulated misconception is that the spores were produced using additives and sophisticated engineering supposedly akin to military
weapon production.” On the contrary, he writes, the anthrax powders in the letters “were comprised simply of spores purified to
different extents.” The FBI would not make Beecher available for interviews.
What are we to make of this? Certainly, this revelation lends credibility to all the conspiracy theorists who have been proselytizing since 9/11. So, why would the FBI refuse to allow its scientist, Beecher, speak?
The conspiracy theorists, of course, have plenty of answers for this question, and it is perhaps in the interest of the FBI and the “powers that be” for conspiracy theorists to push these answers in the absence of any legitimizing response from the government. “Divide and conquer” was the Roman motto, and the American government seems to be evading accountability by dividing up its own constituents into two classes of gullible people–the theorists and the reactionaries to the theorists.
And, this is precisely the sort of recklessness that reduces a government’s legitimacy. Ronald Reagan was wrong. The problem with government is not that it wastes money. The problem is that our government is sowing the seeds of mistrust and, thus, undermining the trust in government that is vital and fundamental to democracy. If people cannot have faith that a government that they elect is going to act on their behalf, they will have no reason to participate in the system. A system with no participants is by definition not a democracy.
Click on the thumbnail above to view the brief as a jpg image, or click here to download this news brief in pdf format.
Only a Bush-appointed EPA chief can claim progress in reducing green house gases (GHGs) when the report issued by the agency he heads states pointedly that GHG emission had risen 16% by 2004, relative to emissions in 1990. Here is a direct link to the report at the EPA:
EPA : Global Warming : Resource Center : Publications : GHG Emissions : US Emissions Inventory 2006
Here is a local link to the “Fast Facts” document, which is also accessible through the above link:
US Emissions Inventory 2006
One wonders why GHG generation was down 1.3% in 2001. Could it have anything to do with airplanes not flying for a few days after 9/11? Or the economic slowdown that followed?
After examining the document, one might find it interesting that carbon dioxide emission increases as auto fuel efficiency decreases, and that emissions for electricity generation hold relatively steady. Clearly, regulations have an effect, and when cars–SUVs, specifically–aren’t regulated, the results are unsurprisingly dismal.
U.S. Cites 91 Percent Rise In Terrorist Acts in Iraq – washingtonpost.com
It would seem as if the war against terror is yielding as much success as the war against drugs: thus far, the war against terror has had as much effect on terror as the war against drugs has had on drug abuse. One can only pray that this “war against terror” does not last as long as the one against drugs.
Heaven help those who are about to die. They can expect help from no other source.
Epilogue: Angelides never went on the offensive against Ahhnold, and lost handily. Given Angelides’ total lack of backbone, I was all too happy to vote for the Green Party’s Candidate, Peter Camejo. I proudly counted as part of the 2.3% of disenchanted Californians who voted for the only rational candidate on the ballot, according the official election results. One wonders how much traffic, how many potholes, how much air pollution, how little public education and how expensive of a public university system people will tolerate before they vote for somebody who is dedicated to making California livable again.
09.28.2006 – Study highlights UC as tech-transfer powerhouse
It is utterly perplexing that Phil Angelides is losing his campaign to the embodiment of the stereotypical vapid politician. The Governator is also incompetent to boot. I hope the Angelides campaign uses this idea for their final campaign.
Read the above UC Berkeley byte about the Milken Institute report about technology transfer in California. The Milken Institute–hardly a “liberal” tank of any sort–concludes that the UC system is a an economic powerhouse, transferring much knowledge and expertise to the private sector in the form of technologies that have made California an economic powerhouse.
What does Arnold do with this economic engine that is the UC system? He cuts funding.
The Angelides campaign ought to take this report and juxtapose it against Arnold’s campaign ads claiming that Arnold intends to take Kahlifornia forward, and speak power to the truth. Is an economic policy that favors Indian casinos going forward? Does cutting funding to the academic institutions that gave birth to companies like Intel, Apple, Genentech, Amgen and countless others constitute any form of progress?
The Angelides campaign ought to make it very clear. The choice is between minimum wage jobs at Pechanga casino and high-tech jobs at Intel, Apple, Pixar, Genentech, and so on. Angelides ought to hit this point hard. Arnold is eroding the institutions that made California a powerhouse. Arnold does not deserve another chance.
