Friday, June 30, 2006
Why Bob Herbert doesn't get printed often in the Columbus Dispatch
Playing Politics With Iraq
By BOB HERBERT
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
If hell didn't exist, we'd have to invent it. We'd need a place to send the public officials who are playing politics with the lives of the men and women sent off to fight George W. Bush's calamitous war in Iraq.
The administration and its allies have been mercilessly bashing Democrats who argued that the U.S. should begin developing a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces. Republicans stood up on the Senate floor last week, one after another, to chant like cultists from the Karl Rove playbook: We're tough. You're not. Cut-and-run. Nyah-nyah-nyah!
"Withdrawal is not an option," declared the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, who sounded like an actor trying on personas that ranged from Barry Goldwater to General Patton. "Surrender," said the bellicose Mr. Frist, "is not a solution."
Any talk about bringing home the troops, in the Senate majority leader's view, was "dangerous, reckless and shameless."
But then on Sunday we learned that the president's own point man in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, had fashioned the very thing that ol' blood-and-guts Frist and his C-Span brigade had ranted against: a withdrawal plan.
Are Karl Rove and his liege lord, the bait-and-switch king, trying to have it both ways? You bet. And that ought to be a crime, because there are real lives at stake.
The first significant cut under General Casey's plan, according to an article by Michael Gordon in yesterday's Times, would occur in September. That, of course, would be perfect timing for Republicans campaigning for re-election in November. How's that for a coincidence?
As Mr. Gordon wrote:
"If executed, the plan could have considerable political significance. The first reductions would take place before this fall's Congressional elections, while even bigger cuts might come before the 2008 presidential election."
The general's proposal does not call for a complete withdrawal of American troops, and it makes clear that any withdrawals are contingent on progress in the war (which is going horribly at the moment) and improvements in the quality of the fledgling Iraqi government and its security forces.
The one thing you can be sure of is that the administration will milk as much political advantage as it can from this vague and open-ended proposal. If the election is looking ugly for the G.O.P., a certain number of troops will find themselves waking up stateside instead of in the desert in September and October.
I wonder whether Americans will ever become fed up with the loathsome politicking, the fear-mongering, the dissembling and the gruesome incompetence of this crowd. From the Bush-Rove perspective, General Casey's plan is not a serious strategic proposal. It's a straw in the political wind.
How many casualties will be enough? More than 2,500 American troops who dutifully answered President Bush's call to wage war in Iraq have already perished, and thousands more are struggling in agony with bodies that have been torn or blown apart and psyches that have been permanently wounded.
Has the war been worth their sacrifice?
How many still have to die before we reach a consensus that we've overpaid for Mr. Bush's mad adventure? Will 5,000 American deaths be enough? Ten thousand?
The killing continued unabated last week. Iraq is a sinkhole of destruction, and if Americans could see it close up, the way we saw New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, they would be stupefied.
Americans need to understand that Mr. Bush's invasion of Iraq was a strategic blunder of the highest magnitude. It has resulted in mind-boggling levels of bloodshed, chaos and misery in Iraq, and it certainly hasn't made the U.S. any safer.
We've had enough clownish debates on the Senate floor and elsewhere. We've had enough muscle-flexing in the White House and on Capitol Hill by guys who ran and hid when they were young and their country was at war. And it's time to stop using generals and their forces under fire in the field for cheap partisan political purposes.
The question that needs to be answered, honestly and urgently (and without regard to partisan politics), is how best to extricate overstretched American troops — some of them serving their third or fourth tours — from the flaming quicksand of an unwinnable war.
By BOB HERBERT
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
If hell didn't exist, we'd have to invent it. We'd need a place to send the public officials who are playing politics with the lives of the men and women sent off to fight George W. Bush's calamitous war in Iraq.
The administration and its allies have been mercilessly bashing Democrats who argued that the U.S. should begin developing a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces. Republicans stood up on the Senate floor last week, one after another, to chant like cultists from the Karl Rove playbook: We're tough. You're not. Cut-and-run. Nyah-nyah-nyah!
"Withdrawal is not an option," declared the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, who sounded like an actor trying on personas that ranged from Barry Goldwater to General Patton. "Surrender," said the bellicose Mr. Frist, "is not a solution."
Any talk about bringing home the troops, in the Senate majority leader's view, was "dangerous, reckless and shameless."
But then on Sunday we learned that the president's own point man in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, had fashioned the very thing that ol' blood-and-guts Frist and his C-Span brigade had ranted against: a withdrawal plan.
Are Karl Rove and his liege lord, the bait-and-switch king, trying to have it both ways? You bet. And that ought to be a crime, because there are real lives at stake.
The first significant cut under General Casey's plan, according to an article by Michael Gordon in yesterday's Times, would occur in September. That, of course, would be perfect timing for Republicans campaigning for re-election in November. How's that for a coincidence?
As Mr. Gordon wrote:
"If executed, the plan could have considerable political significance. The first reductions would take place before this fall's Congressional elections, while even bigger cuts might come before the 2008 presidential election."
The general's proposal does not call for a complete withdrawal of American troops, and it makes clear that any withdrawals are contingent on progress in the war (which is going horribly at the moment) and improvements in the quality of the fledgling Iraqi government and its security forces.
The one thing you can be sure of is that the administration will milk as much political advantage as it can from this vague and open-ended proposal. If the election is looking ugly for the G.O.P., a certain number of troops will find themselves waking up stateside instead of in the desert in September and October.
I wonder whether Americans will ever become fed up with the loathsome politicking, the fear-mongering, the dissembling and the gruesome incompetence of this crowd. From the Bush-Rove perspective, General Casey's plan is not a serious strategic proposal. It's a straw in the political wind.
How many casualties will be enough? More than 2,500 American troops who dutifully answered President Bush's call to wage war in Iraq have already perished, and thousands more are struggling in agony with bodies that have been torn or blown apart and psyches that have been permanently wounded.
Has the war been worth their sacrifice?
How many still have to die before we reach a consensus that we've overpaid for Mr. Bush's mad adventure? Will 5,000 American deaths be enough? Ten thousand?
The killing continued unabated last week. Iraq is a sinkhole of destruction, and if Americans could see it close up, the way we saw New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, they would be stupefied.
Americans need to understand that Mr. Bush's invasion of Iraq was a strategic blunder of the highest magnitude. It has resulted in mind-boggling levels of bloodshed, chaos and misery in Iraq, and it certainly hasn't made the U.S. any safer.
We've had enough clownish debates on the Senate floor and elsewhere. We've had enough muscle-flexing in the White House and on Capitol Hill by guys who ran and hid when they were young and their country was at war. And it's time to stop using generals and their forces under fire in the field for cheap partisan political purposes.
The question that needs to be answered, honestly and urgently (and without regard to partisan politics), is how best to extricate overstretched American troops — some of them serving their third or fourth tours — from the flaming quicksand of an unwinnable war.
Poem
********** Out! Out!**********
I’ve had enough of Death.
and old Sam Donaldson
(before they swept him out the door)
(before we had this fucking war)
Saying: “If we go to Iraq once more,
we should kill him –
this time !!”
I’m tired of the handsome, empty heads
who took Sam’s place
demanding death, with earnest face:
“Death death death –
We killed some more today!!
Death to terror – bombs away
Shock and awe!
Let us pray.”
I’m tired, too, of the Monkey Man who had a plan –
long before his term began - to kill Saddam and then Iran –
“Dead or alive” - So cock sure,
Cloaked inside his bloated pride.
Bring ‘em on; let’s have some fun!!
Kill the bastards, every one;
Liberty, you see, is on the move
Starbucks – Wal-Mart – Jiffy Lube.
The sacred Market has decreed
who will live and who will bleed,
Who will prosper, who will breathe,
Who will die and who will grieve.
Death, destruction, grief, and rubble
Profiteers earn
and oil …
bubble.
- - -
Thrice the brindled cat hath mewed
Thrice and once the hedgepig whined
The Holy Writ is misconstrued
The best of us have lost our minds.
And by the pricking of my thumbs,
Much that’s wicked has been done.
- - -
So, bring ‘em on; let’s have some fun !!!!!
Kill the bastards, every one;
Yeah! kill the bastards, every one;
Kill us all !!! Everyone !!!
(when all are dead
our show is done)
- Uke Man
I’ve had enough of Death.
and old Sam Donaldson
(before they swept him out the door)
(before we had this fucking war)
Saying: “If we go to Iraq once more,
we should kill him –
this time !!”
I’m tired of the handsome, empty heads
who took Sam’s place
demanding death, with earnest face:
“Death death death –
We killed some more today!!
Death to terror – bombs away
Shock and awe!
Let us pray.”
I’m tired, too, of the Monkey Man who had a plan –
long before his term began - to kill Saddam and then Iran –
“Dead or alive” - So cock sure,
Cloaked inside his bloated pride.
Bring ‘em on; let’s have some fun!!
Kill the bastards, every one;
Liberty, you see, is on the move
Starbucks – Wal-Mart – Jiffy Lube.
The sacred Market has decreed
who will live and who will bleed,
Who will prosper, who will breathe,
Who will die and who will grieve.
Death, destruction, grief, and rubble
Profiteers earn
and oil …
bubble.
- - -
Thrice the brindled cat hath mewed
Thrice and once the hedgepig whined
The Holy Writ is misconstrued
The best of us have lost our minds.
And by the pricking of my thumbs,
Much that’s wicked has been done.
- - -
So, bring ‘em on; let’s have some fun !!!!!
Kill the bastards, every one;
Yeah! kill the bastards, every one;
Kill us all !!! Everyone !!!
(when all are dead
our show is done)
- Uke Man
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Letter to La-La Land
Hey Folks,
Here's what we're up against. Sen. Rick Santorum, the man who thinks gay marriage will lead him to sex with dogs, says "Ahha!! WMD" when he finds some ancient, rusting tins of Hellmann's Mayonnaise. Then the brain-dead Ms. Parker feels the need to come to the aid of her party-line and writes a column. Then the Columbus Dispatch ("Ohio's Greatest Home Newspaper") feels the need to come to the aid of its party-line by printing Ms. Parker's insane rant in support of the Doggy-Boy.
Mr. San(i)tor(i)um's entire notion was so ridiculous on its face, from its first utterance, that one must wonder at the depth of stupidity that allowed such crap to be taken seriously!
Read below, and judge for yourself.
- Uke Man
Dear Ms. Parker,
Below is an excerpt from one of your columns. Below that is an excerpt from one of Trudy Rubin's columns. How would you explain the stark contrast?
Did you not know what Ms. Rubin knew and subsequently published? Or is it your opinion that Ms. Rubin is wrong? Or is it that you are committed to supporting the Right regardless of the facts?
Perhaps there is another reason. If so, please fill me in.
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
P.S. I should mention that I had become aware of most of the facts Ms. Rubin eventually presented before I read your column, and I was startled that you took the position you did.
Strange battle brewing over WMD
Monday, June 26, 2006
KATHLEEN PARKER
If you thought Democrats and Republicans were divided over the war in Iraq, you haven’t seen anything yet. The real battle apparently is being waged under the radar among the White House, the intelligence community and Congress.
At the center of the skirmish is a newly unclassified document released
Wednesday that seems to confirm evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, including degraded and possibly lethal chemical agents.
According to the document, coalition forces have recovered about 500 munitions since 2003 that contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agents. Other key points are that these chemicals could be used outside Iraq and that "most likely munitions remaining are sarin- and mustard-filled projectiles."
Which is to say, we don’t know what other stores may remain, or where they are, or who else may know about them.
Most significant, perhaps, is the assertion that while such agents degrade over time, "chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal," according to the released document.
In other words, degraded doesn’t necessarily mean "nothing to worry about." Moreover, Wednesday’s document is but a small piece of a much larger document that remains classified and that Republican insiders consider very significant.
The unclassified document was released Wednesday by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., to thin fanfare and much speculation. Why are we hearing about these findings only now? Why is the White House so quiet about them?
Those questions have had congressional offices buzzing the past couple of days, while theories have offered little comfort or clarity.
Competence, not drawdown, is main Iraq question
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
TRUDY RUBIN
The debate in the Senate last week over when to exit Iraq was disgraceful.
Americans deserve an honest airing of the most important foreign-policy issue facing the country. But this congressional circus had little to do with policy and everything to do with election-year politics.
Democrats looked hapless, and many Republicans were flat-out dishonest. The Pinocchio prize for devious discourse went to Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum.
I’m surprised his nose didn’t grow a foot when he claimed a recent Army intelligence report proved Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The report, released under Republican pressure in the midst of the debate, says about 500 munitions have been recovered in Iraq since 2003 that contain degraded mustard or sarin gas.
Mind you, these munitions were picked up in ones and twos and date to Iraq’s war against Iran in the 1980s. There was no operative chemical weapons program after 1991.
Such weapons degrade over time. According to David Kay, the head of the U.S. team that hunted for WMD in 2003-04, these gases by now would be "less toxic than most things that Americans have under their kitchen sink." Their "poor condition" was affirmed by intelligence officials in a media briefing.
But Santorum insisted this report proved Saddam had WMD that could have reached terrorists. Such silly claims only bolster the evidence that U.S. intelligence is being manipulated for political reasons.
Why would terrorists want old, degraded munitions when within potential reach are much-more tempting targets, such as unsafe Russian nuclear storage dumps? Has Santorum been demanding that more money be appropriated to help Russia secure its nuclear waste?
Here's what we're up against. Sen. Rick Santorum, the man who thinks gay marriage will lead him to sex with dogs, says "Ahha!! WMD" when he finds some ancient, rusting tins of Hellmann's Mayonnaise. Then the brain-dead Ms. Parker feels the need to come to the aid of her party-line and writes a column. Then the Columbus Dispatch ("Ohio's Greatest Home Newspaper") feels the need to come to the aid of its party-line by printing Ms. Parker's insane rant in support of the Doggy-Boy.
Mr. San(i)tor(i)um's entire notion was so ridiculous on its face, from its first utterance, that one must wonder at the depth of stupidity that allowed such crap to be taken seriously!
Read below, and judge for yourself.
- Uke Man
Dear Ms. Parker,
Below is an excerpt from one of your columns. Below that is an excerpt from one of Trudy Rubin's columns. How would you explain the stark contrast?
Did you not know what Ms. Rubin knew and subsequently published? Or is it your opinion that Ms. Rubin is wrong? Or is it that you are committed to supporting the Right regardless of the facts?
Perhaps there is another reason. If so, please fill me in.
Yours - Tom Harker, Ukulele Man
P.S. I should mention that I had become aware of most of the facts Ms. Rubin eventually presented before I read your column, and I was startled that you took the position you did.
Strange battle brewing over WMD
Monday, June 26, 2006
KATHLEEN PARKER
If you thought Democrats and Republicans were divided over the war in Iraq, you haven’t seen anything yet. The real battle apparently is being waged under the radar among the White House, the intelligence community and Congress.
At the center of the skirmish is a newly unclassified document released
Wednesday that seems to confirm evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, including degraded and possibly lethal chemical agents.
According to the document, coalition forces have recovered about 500 munitions since 2003 that contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agents. Other key points are that these chemicals could be used outside Iraq and that "most likely munitions remaining are sarin- and mustard-filled projectiles."
Which is to say, we don’t know what other stores may remain, or where they are, or who else may know about them.
Most significant, perhaps, is the assertion that while such agents degrade over time, "chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal," according to the released document.
In other words, degraded doesn’t necessarily mean "nothing to worry about." Moreover, Wednesday’s document is but a small piece of a much larger document that remains classified and that Republican insiders consider very significant.
The unclassified document was released Wednesday by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., to thin fanfare and much speculation. Why are we hearing about these findings only now? Why is the White House so quiet about them?
Those questions have had congressional offices buzzing the past couple of days, while theories have offered little comfort or clarity.
Competence, not drawdown, is main Iraq question
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
TRUDY RUBIN
The debate in the Senate last week over when to exit Iraq was disgraceful.
Americans deserve an honest airing of the most important foreign-policy issue facing the country. But this congressional circus had little to do with policy and everything to do with election-year politics.
Democrats looked hapless, and many Republicans were flat-out dishonest. The Pinocchio prize for devious discourse went to Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum.
I’m surprised his nose didn’t grow a foot when he claimed a recent Army intelligence report proved Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The report, released under Republican pressure in the midst of the debate, says about 500 munitions have been recovered in Iraq since 2003 that contain degraded mustard or sarin gas.
Mind you, these munitions were picked up in ones and twos and date to Iraq’s war against Iran in the 1980s. There was no operative chemical weapons program after 1991.
Such weapons degrade over time. According to David Kay, the head of the U.S. team that hunted for WMD in 2003-04, these gases by now would be "less toxic than most things that Americans have under their kitchen sink." Their "poor condition" was affirmed by intelligence officials in a media briefing.
But Santorum insisted this report proved Saddam had WMD that could have reached terrorists. Such silly claims only bolster the evidence that U.S. intelligence is being manipulated for political reasons.
Why would terrorists want old, degraded munitions when within potential reach are much-more tempting targets, such as unsafe Russian nuclear storage dumps? Has Santorum been demanding that more money be appropriated to help Russia secure its nuclear waste?
Olbermann massacres O'Reilly
Hey Folks,
If you missed "Countdown" last night - or even if you didn't - you'll feel sooooooo good if you just click below, and then when the site comes up, move down to the picture of Bill O'Reilly and a blue Circle with "Factor" in it (3rd one down at the moment)!!
The first two and a half minutes are about the "swift-boating of Rep. Murtha - the rest is a total annihilation of O'Reilly.
Enjoy !!!!
- Uke Man
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=311a48a0-8ca8-4ad0-bc52-709084cfbb18&p=News_Comment%20-%20Analysis&t=c1149&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/&fg=
If you missed "Countdown" last night - or even if you didn't - you'll feel sooooooo good if you just click below, and then when the site comes up, move down to the picture of Bill O'Reilly and a blue Circle with "Factor" in it (3rd one down at the moment)!!
The first two and a half minutes are about the "swift-boating of Rep. Murtha - the rest is a total annihilation of O'Reilly.
Enjoy !!!!
- Uke Man
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=311a48a0-8ca8-4ad0-bc52-709084cfbb18&p=News_Comment%20-%20Analysis&t=c1149&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/&fg=
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
OK, Folks! You decide which one:
1) Fought for his country. 2) Is most interested in personal wealth. 3) Is an ignorant ass. 
Kill the witch (and everything will be all right)
Hey Folks,
Here are some things people have believed in the past; some people still believe it:
Cows die and crops fail because of witch’s spells.
A curse or blessing really works and once uttered cannot be called back.
Taking someone’s picture captures his soul which is then trapped inside the picture.
The mentally deranged are inhabited by evil spirits.
The earth is flat.
Kings are chosen by God.
It is the white man’s “burden” to “civilize” the black and brown peoples of the world.
The rich are rich because God blesses them; the poor are poor because they are sinful.
The South won the Civil War.
Women aren’t fit to vote.
WW I was fought to make the world safe for Democracy.
Poking needles in a voodoo doll can harm an individual if a bit of his fingernail or hair has been placed in the doll’s “mojo” bag.
Japan committed no atrocities in WW II.
The Holocaust never happened.
It was good to drop the bomb on Japan.
There is no global warming.
Saddam is in league with Al Kaida
And these same folks believe that Cuba is a terrible threat to our beloved democracy, our capitalism, our religion, and our domestic cigar industry - not to mention professional baseball's farm-team system. It is their belief that Cuba must be subjugated at all costs; we can’t even let on that Cuban children might smile every now and then
-Uke Man
ACLU sues Fla. schools over Cuba book ban
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI -
The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge to stop the Miami-Dade County school district from removing a series of children's books from its libraries, including a volume about Cuba which depicts smiling kids in communist uniforms.
The ACLU and the Miami-Dade County Student Government Association argued in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Miami on Wednesday that the school board should add materials with alternate viewpoints rather than remove books that could be offensive.
Last week, the board voted 6-3 to remove "Vamos a Cuba" and its English-language version, "A Visit to Cuba" from 33 schools, stating the books were inappropriate for young readers because of inaccuracies and omissions about life in the communist nation.
The book, by Alta Schreier, targets students ages 5 to 7 and contains images of smiling children wearing uniforms of Cuba's communist youth group and a carnival celebrating the 1959 Cuban revolution. The district owns 49 copies of the book in Spanish and English.
The school board also decided to remove 24 other books in the series, including ones on Greece, Mexico and Vietnam, "despite not having received a complaint about those books and without having reviewed the books in its administrative process," the suit said.
The ACLU noted the books have received favorable reviews in nationally recognized publications including Publishers Weekly and the School Library Journal. The suit also cites staff recommendations to keep the books.
"The Miami-Dade School Board's decision to defy U.S. law prohibiting censorship and ignore the recommendation of their own superintendent and two committees is a slap in the face to our tradition of free speech and the school board's own standards of due process," said JoNel Newman, an attorney working with the ACLU.
School district spokesman Joseph Garcia said the district will go to court to defend the board's decision.
The controversy began in April when a parent who said he had been a political prisoner in Cuba complained about the books' depiction of life under communist rule.
The lawsuit alleges the books' removal violates students' rights to a free press and that the volumes were removed without due process.
Here are some things people have believed in the past; some people still believe it:
Cows die and crops fail because of witch’s spells.
A curse or blessing really works and once uttered cannot be called back.
Taking someone’s picture captures his soul which is then trapped inside the picture.
The mentally deranged are inhabited by evil spirits.
The earth is flat.
Kings are chosen by God.
It is the white man’s “burden” to “civilize” the black and brown peoples of the world.
The rich are rich because God blesses them; the poor are poor because they are sinful.
The South won the Civil War.
Women aren’t fit to vote.
WW I was fought to make the world safe for Democracy.
Poking needles in a voodoo doll can harm an individual if a bit of his fingernail or hair has been placed in the doll’s “mojo” bag.
Japan committed no atrocities in WW II.
The Holocaust never happened.
It was good to drop the bomb on Japan.
There is no global warming.
Saddam is in league with Al Kaida
And these same folks believe that Cuba is a terrible threat to our beloved democracy, our capitalism, our religion, and our domestic cigar industry - not to mention professional baseball's farm-team system. It is their belief that Cuba must be subjugated at all costs; we can’t even let on that Cuban children might smile every now and then
-Uke Man
ACLU sues Fla. schools over Cuba book ban
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI -
The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge to stop the Miami-Dade County school district from removing a series of children's books from its libraries, including a volume about Cuba which depicts smiling kids in communist uniforms.
The ACLU and the Miami-Dade County Student Government Association argued in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Miami on Wednesday that the school board should add materials with alternate viewpoints rather than remove books that could be offensive.
Last week, the board voted 6-3 to remove "Vamos a Cuba" and its English-language version, "A Visit to Cuba" from 33 schools, stating the books were inappropriate for young readers because of inaccuracies and omissions about life in the communist nation.
The book, by Alta Schreier, targets students ages 5 to 7 and contains images of smiling children wearing uniforms of Cuba's communist youth group and a carnival celebrating the 1959 Cuban revolution. The district owns 49 copies of the book in Spanish and English.
The school board also decided to remove 24 other books in the series, including ones on Greece, Mexico and Vietnam, "despite not having received a complaint about those books and without having reviewed the books in its administrative process," the suit said.
The ACLU noted the books have received favorable reviews in nationally recognized publications including Publishers Weekly and the School Library Journal. The suit also cites staff recommendations to keep the books.
"The Miami-Dade School Board's decision to defy U.S. law prohibiting censorship and ignore the recommendation of their own superintendent and two committees is a slap in the face to our tradition of free speech and the school board's own standards of due process," said JoNel Newman, an attorney working with the ACLU.
School district spokesman Joseph Garcia said the district will go to court to defend the board's decision.
The controversy began in April when a parent who said he had been a political prisoner in Cuba complained about the books' depiction of life under communist rule.
The lawsuit alleges the books' removal violates students' rights to a free press and that the volumes were removed without due process.
Some Comfest Photos
Hey Folks,
Here are a few shots from Comfest. I'll have a few more tomorrow. The "Blogger" software is being REALLY STUBBORN today!!
- Uke Man
Here are a few shots from Comfest. I'll have a few more tomorrow. The "Blogger" software is being REALLY STUBBORN today!!
- Uke Man
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Quote with Comment Interspersed
Hey Folks,
How stupid ARE we??
For much of our lives we might be excused for accepting all the bullshit they feed us, but AT SOME POINT we need to tell them to shove it. As Harold Pinter said - quoted by Gunter Grass directly below:
"You have to hand it to America. It has exercised quite a clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's brilliant, even witty, a highly successful act of hypnosis."
And it's NOT just the rest of the world who's been brilliantly hypnotized!!
Wake up, Folks!!!
- Uke Man
New jobless claims up 11,000 last week
By David Lawder Thu Jun 22, 9:04 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers claiming an initial week of jobless aid rose 11,000 last week, broadly in line with expectations [Whose expectations??] and signaling a still-healthy job market [Yeah? Tell that to the 2,421,000 “officially” unemployed], a government report showed on Thursday [and you can trust the government!!] .
First-time claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 308,000 for the week ended June 17 from an upwardly revised 297,000 claims the previous week, the Labor Department said.[the ginks – even after they raised their “estimate” – missed it – LOW – by 11,000 and they call THAT a “positive report” – positive for whom? And they call the upward adjustment a "moderation of claims"].
"I would say this is largely a positive report. With jobless claims now moderating again, it gives us more confidence in the resilience of the economic expansion," said Patrick Fearon, senior economist at A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc. in St. Louis. "It won't necessarily come to a screeching halt" [it will for 11,000 who will join the 2,421,000 officially unemployed and the – who knows how many others who are not counted simply because they have become so discouraged that they’ve given up? - "moderating again"????].
After claims peaked this year at 344,000 in mid-May, the recent moderation of claims [ a 36,000 drop out of 344,000 over several months] adds to evidence for the Federal Reserve to justify another interest rate hike next week [ If you pay attention to the Federal Reserve’s behavior, you know that a major reason the FED raises interest rates is to keep inflation down. You also know that what the interest rate increase does is to dampen hiring, which dampens demand for labor, which undercuts pressure for wage increases, which dampens inflation by keeping wages down – i.e. capitalists’ profits stay up or increase by freezing or reducing what workers receive!! That’s why the shitheads keep saying it’s a GREAT ECONOMY while wages and the standard of living of regular folks is degraded further and further – it IS a positive sign for the sucks who already have it made but want more ].
- Uke Man
complete story at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060622/bs_nm/economy_claims_dc
How stupid ARE we??
For much of our lives we might be excused for accepting all the bullshit they feed us, but AT SOME POINT we need to tell them to shove it. As Harold Pinter said - quoted by Gunter Grass directly below:
"You have to hand it to America. It has exercised quite a clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's brilliant, even witty, a highly successful act of hypnosis."
And it's NOT just the rest of the world who's been brilliantly hypnotized!!
Wake up, Folks!!!
- Uke Man
New jobless claims up 11,000 last week
By David Lawder Thu Jun 22, 9:04 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers claiming an initial week of jobless aid rose 11,000 last week, broadly in line with expectations [Whose expectations??] and signaling a still-healthy job market [Yeah? Tell that to the 2,421,000 “officially” unemployed], a government report showed on Thursday [and you can trust the government!!] .
First-time claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 308,000 for the week ended June 17 from an upwardly revised 297,000 claims the previous week, the Labor Department said.[the ginks – even after they raised their “estimate” – missed it – LOW – by 11,000 and they call THAT a “positive report” – positive for whom? And they call the upward adjustment a "moderation of claims"].
"I would say this is largely a positive report. With jobless claims now moderating again, it gives us more confidence in the resilience of the economic expansion," said Patrick Fearon, senior economist at A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc. in St. Louis. "It won't necessarily come to a screeching halt" [it will for 11,000 who will join the 2,421,000 officially unemployed and the – who knows how many others who are not counted simply because they have become so discouraged that they’ve given up? - "moderating again"????].
After claims peaked this year at 344,000 in mid-May, the recent moderation of claims [ a 36,000 drop out of 344,000 over several months] adds to evidence for the Federal Reserve to justify another interest rate hike next week [ If you pay attention to the Federal Reserve’s behavior, you know that a major reason the FED raises interest rates is to keep inflation down. You also know that what the interest rate increase does is to dampen hiring, which dampens demand for labor, which undercuts pressure for wage increases, which dampens inflation by keeping wages down – i.e. capitalists’ profits stay up or increase by freezing or reducing what workers receive!! That’s why the shitheads keep saying it’s a GREAT ECONOMY while wages and the standard of living of regular folks is degraded further and further – it IS a positive sign for the sucks who already have it made but want more ].
- Uke Man
complete story at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060622/bs_nm/economy_claims_dc
Nobel Laureate flays Bush
By Haroon Siddiqui Asheville Global Report No. 386 June 8-14, 2006
http://agrnews.org/?sectionfiltered=news&news_sectionfiltered=6&#Nobel%20Laureate%20flays%20Bush
Jun. 1- Gunter Grass, celebrated German novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, sculptor and commentator,is a living legend. When this Nobel Laureate speaks,people listen.
His address in Berlin to the annual Congress of International PEN, the worldwide organization of writers, had been much anticipated, especially given his long admonition to intellectuals to speak up on the political and moral issues of the day.
He himself has done so all his life, most famously against the Nazi past and contemporary neo-Nazism and xenophobia.
Grass, at 78 still spry and energetic, quickly gets into his topic, "The hubris of the world's only superpower," and proceeds to offer a sweeping critique.
His words find resonance among the writers gathered,including another Nobel Laureate, South African novelist Nadine Gordimer.
"Armed force is used by this superpower to defeat the terrorism it is itself responsible for," Grass says,citing Osama bin Laden, the by-product of US support for Afghan jihadists in the 1980s. "The war [on Iraq],deliberately started in blatant disdain of the laws of civilized societies, produces still more terror."
Yet George W. Bush is searching for new enemies and targets.
"Dictatorships, and there are plenty to choose from,are referred to as rogue states and threatened vociferously with military strikes, including the deployment of nuclear weapons. But it only further stabilizes the fundamentalist power systems in those countries.
"Whether the term 'axis of evil' is used to refer to Iran or North Korea or Syria, politics could not be more stupid and hence more dangerous. Yet the entire world is watching and pretending to be powerless."
Grass quotes liberally from the blistering speech given last year by British playwright Harold Pinter in accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature: "The United States supported and, in many cases, engendered every right-wing military dictatorship in the world after World War II - Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil,Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador and, of course, Chile...
"Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place in those countries... but you wouldn't know it. The crimes of the US have been systematic, constant, vicious, and remorseless but very few people have actually talked about them.
"You have to hand it to America. It has exercised quite a clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's brilliant, even witty, a highly successful act of hypnosis. How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal?"
Having cited Pinter, Grass adds his own condemnation of "the hypocritical method of keeping the body count" in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Although we meticulously keep count of the victims ofterror attacks - terrible though their number is -nobody bothers to count the dead caused by American bombs or rocket attacks."
The death toll from America's "three Gulf Wars," as he called it - "the first one having been fought by Saddam Hussein against Iran, with support from the UnitedStates" - runs into hundreds of thousands.
"In Western evaluation, not only are there first-,second- or third class citizens among the living, but also among the dead."
As for Bush and Tony Blair, he says, "whenever their lies lack persuasive power, they put God into harness.Hypocrisy is written all over their faces. They are like the priests and missionaries of old who used to bless weapons and carry death with their Bibles into distant countries."
The enormity of US-initiated death, destruction and torture, places a burden on the citizens of democracyto be more vigilant: "Who wanted this war? What are the lies that have disguised its true purpose? Who profits from it? Whose shares go up because of it?"
In a post-speech interview, I ask Grass about governments ignoring the electorate between elections,as those did in Britain, Italy and Spain, which joined the war on Iraq despite overwhelming public opposition.
"In the last 10 years, lobbies have become stronger than the government, in the US and other democracies,"Grass responds. "They cannot change policy, for example, on health without the pharmaceutical industry,or farming policy without the farm groups. Lobbies are too powerful," the most powerful being the ones wanting war.
Source: Toronto Star
By Haroon Siddiqui Asheville Global Report No. 386 June 8-14, 2006
http://agrnews.org/?sectionfiltered=news&news_sectionfiltered=6&#Nobel%20Laureate%20flays%20Bush
Jun. 1- Gunter Grass, celebrated German novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, sculptor and commentator,is a living legend. When this Nobel Laureate speaks,people listen.
His address in Berlin to the annual Congress of International PEN, the worldwide organization of writers, had been much anticipated, especially given his long admonition to intellectuals to speak up on the political and moral issues of the day.
He himself has done so all his life, most famously against the Nazi past and contemporary neo-Nazism and xenophobia.
Grass, at 78 still spry and energetic, quickly gets into his topic, "The hubris of the world's only superpower," and proceeds to offer a sweeping critique.
His words find resonance among the writers gathered,including another Nobel Laureate, South African novelist Nadine Gordimer.
"Armed force is used by this superpower to defeat the terrorism it is itself responsible for," Grass says,citing Osama bin Laden, the by-product of US support for Afghan jihadists in the 1980s. "The war [on Iraq],deliberately started in blatant disdain of the laws of civilized societies, produces still more terror."
Yet George W. Bush is searching for new enemies and targets.
"Dictatorships, and there are plenty to choose from,are referred to as rogue states and threatened vociferously with military strikes, including the deployment of nuclear weapons. But it only further stabilizes the fundamentalist power systems in those countries.
"Whether the term 'axis of evil' is used to refer to Iran or North Korea or Syria, politics could not be more stupid and hence more dangerous. Yet the entire world is watching and pretending to be powerless."
Grass quotes liberally from the blistering speech given last year by British playwright Harold Pinter in accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature: "The United States supported and, in many cases, engendered every right-wing military dictatorship in the world after World War II - Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil,Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador and, of course, Chile...
"Hundreds of thousands of deaths took place in those countries... but you wouldn't know it. The crimes of the US have been systematic, constant, vicious, and remorseless but very few people have actually talked about them.
"You have to hand it to America. It has exercised quite a clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's brilliant, even witty, a highly successful act of hypnosis. How many people do you have to kill before you qualify to be described as a mass murderer and a war criminal?"
Having cited Pinter, Grass adds his own condemnation of "the hypocritical method of keeping the body count" in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Although we meticulously keep count of the victims ofterror attacks - terrible though their number is -nobody bothers to count the dead caused by American bombs or rocket attacks."
The death toll from America's "three Gulf Wars," as he called it - "the first one having been fought by Saddam Hussein against Iran, with support from the UnitedStates" - runs into hundreds of thousands.
"In Western evaluation, not only are there first-,second- or third class citizens among the living, but also among the dead."
As for Bush and Tony Blair, he says, "whenever their lies lack persuasive power, they put God into harness.Hypocrisy is written all over their faces. They are like the priests and missionaries of old who used to bless weapons and carry death with their Bibles into distant countries."
The enormity of US-initiated death, destruction and torture, places a burden on the citizens of democracyto be more vigilant: "Who wanted this war? What are the lies that have disguised its true purpose? Who profits from it? Whose shares go up because of it?"
In a post-speech interview, I ask Grass about governments ignoring the electorate between elections,as those did in Britain, Italy and Spain, which joined the war on Iraq despite overwhelming public opposition.
"In the last 10 years, lobbies have become stronger than the government, in the US and other democracies,"Grass responds. "They cannot change policy, for example, on health without the pharmaceutical industry,or farming policy without the farm groups. Lobbies are too powerful," the most powerful being the ones wanting war.
Source: Toronto Star
Monday, June 26, 2006
Quote with Comment
Hey Folks,
Our hero, Rush, tries to get things straight, and the government steps in and ruins everything! Damned socialists!!! Stole his viagra!!!
- Uke Man
Limbaugh detained at Palm Beach airport
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -
Rush Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours Monday at Palm Beach International Airport after authorities said they found a bottle of Viagra in his possession without a prescription.
Customs officials found a prescription bottle labeled as Viagra in his luggage that didn't have Limbaugh's name on it, but that of two doctors, said
Paul Miller, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators confiscated the drugs, which treats erectile dysfunction, and Limbaugh was released without being charged.
(full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060627/ap_en_ce/limbaugh_viagra )
Our hero, Rush, tries to get things straight, and the government steps in and ruins everything! Damned socialists!!! Stole his viagra!!!
- Uke Man
Limbaugh detained at Palm Beach airport
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -
Rush Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours Monday at Palm Beach International Airport after authorities said they found a bottle of Viagra in his possession without a prescription.
Customs officials found a prescription bottle labeled as Viagra in his luggage that didn't have Limbaugh's name on it, but that of two doctors, said
Paul Miller, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators confiscated the drugs, which treats erectile dysfunction, and Limbaugh was released without being charged.
(full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060627/ap_en_ce/limbaugh_viagra )
Quote with Comment
Hey Folks,
Thank goodness this recent report is just based on “science” and isn’t mentioned in the Holy Bible – there goes that stupid “reality-based community" again !!
If we didn't know better, it could convince people that hating gays is as stupid as hating blondes or tall people.
As Rev. Phelps will tell you, “Jesus hates Science almost as much as he hates gays!! – ‘Satan’ and ‘Science’ start with the same letter!!!”
- Uke Man
Men with older brothers more likely to be gay
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Having several older brothers increases the likelihood of a man being gay, a finding researchers say adds weight to the idea that there is a biological basis for sexual orientation.
"It's likely to be a prenatal effect," said Anthony F. Bogaert of Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada, "This and other studies suggest that there is probably a biological basis for" homosexuality.
S. Marc Breedlove of Michigan State University said the finding "absolutely" confirms a physical basis.
"Anybody's first guess would have been that the older brothers were having an effect socially, but this data doesn't support that," Breedlove said in a telephone interview.The only link between the brothers is the mother and so the effect has to be through the mother, especially since stepbrothers didn't have the effect, said Breedlove, who was not part of the research.
Bogaert studied four groups of Canadian men, a total of 944 people, analyzing the number of brothers and sisters each had, whether or not they lived with those siblings and whether the siblings were related by blood or adopted.
He reports in a paper appearing in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that having several biological older brothers increased the chance of a man being gay.
(entire story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060626/ap_on_he_me/sexual_orientation )
Thank goodness this recent report is just based on “science” and isn’t mentioned in the Holy Bible – there goes that stupid “reality-based community" again !!
If we didn't know better, it could convince people that hating gays is as stupid as hating blondes or tall people.
As Rev. Phelps will tell you, “Jesus hates Science almost as much as he hates gays!! – ‘Satan’ and ‘Science’ start with the same letter!!!”
- Uke Man
Men with older brothers more likely to be gay
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Having several older brothers increases the likelihood of a man being gay, a finding researchers say adds weight to the idea that there is a biological basis for sexual orientation.
"It's likely to be a prenatal effect," said Anthony F. Bogaert of Brock University in St. Catharines, Canada, "This and other studies suggest that there is probably a biological basis for" homosexuality.
S. Marc Breedlove of Michigan State University said the finding "absolutely" confirms a physical basis.
"Anybody's first guess would have been that the older brothers were having an effect socially, but this data doesn't support that," Breedlove said in a telephone interview.The only link between the brothers is the mother and so the effect has to be through the mother, especially since stepbrothers didn't have the effect, said Breedlove, who was not part of the research.
Bogaert studied four groups of Canadian men, a total of 944 people, analyzing the number of brothers and sisters each had, whether or not they lived with those siblings and whether the siblings were related by blood or adopted.
He reports in a paper appearing in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that having several biological older brothers increased the chance of a man being gay.
(entire story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060626/ap_on_he_me/sexual_orientation )
Fresh Air June 22 2006
Hey Folks,
If you want to hear how sparklingly humane and fastidiously constitutional, and how unlike our evil-doer enemies our leaders - here on the "shining city on the hill" - are; tune in to Fresh Air below.
Click on the link below, and scroll down to and click on:
Fresh Air from WHYY
Listen to the entire show for June 22, 2006
http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/rundown_archive_hub.php?date=22-Jun-06
- Uke Man
If you want to hear how sparklingly humane and fastidiously constitutional, and how unlike our evil-doer enemies our leaders - here on the "shining city on the hill" - are; tune in to Fresh Air below.
Click on the link below, and scroll down to and click on:
Fresh Air from WHYY
Listen to the entire show for June 22, 2006
http://www.npr.org/templates/archives/rundown_archive_hub.php?date=22-Jun-06
- Uke Man
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Poem # 12 from the Arts Fest Reading
Two trees lived in the meadow
All alone together
And they loved the world
And shared their treasures
With the boys and girls
And men and women
who passed their way.
And while the boys and girls
And men and women
Passed along their own way,
Two trees lived in the meadow
All alone together.
All alone together
And they loved the world
And shared their treasures
With the boys and girls
And men and women
who passed their way.
And while the boys and girls
And men and women
Passed along their own way,
Two trees lived in the meadow
All alone together.
"A Little religion, Bushathy? You and your little dog, Dickie, too!!"
The 23rd Qualm
(written by a retired Methodist minister)
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
Bush is my shepherd, I dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace for his ego's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war, I will find no exit, for thou art in office.
Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion.
Thou annointest my head with foreign oil.
My health insurance runneth out.
Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.
amen!
(written by a retired Methodist minister)
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
Bush is my shepherd, I dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace for his ego's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war, I will find no exit, for thou art in office.
Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion.
Thou annointest my head with foreign oil.
My health insurance runneth out.
Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever.
amen!
Comfest Report
Hey Folks,
Comfest was great today. I heard lots of my friends perform, saw some folks I hadn't seen in a while, and the band and I were "on," energetic, and well received.
It's late, and I'm back at it in the a.m. I'll share more from Comfest as soon as I can.
- Uke Man
Comfest was great today. I heard lots of my friends perform, saw some folks I hadn't seen in a while, and the band and I were "on," energetic, and well received.
It's late, and I'm back at it in the a.m. I'll share more from Comfest as soon as I can.
- Uke Man
Friday, June 23, 2006
Fuck the White House
Hey Folks,
I saw an infuriating news item on Yahoo. Here it is, and below the article is my furious response.
- Uke Man
White House demands dismissal of spy suit
By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press Writer Fri Jun 23, 4:32 AM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - A lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's domestic spying program must be dismissed because it threatens to reveal state secrets and jeopardize the war on terror, the government says.
The case was set to go before a federal judge in San Francisco on Friday.
The Bush administration argues that the courts cannot decide the constitutionality of the president's asserted wartime powers to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants.
The government is invoking the so-called "state secrets privilege" in a federal lawsuit filed by a privacy group against communications giant AT&T Inc. about the telecom's alleged involvement in Bush's surveillance program adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
"Resolution of those legal issues depends entirely on facts that, in light of their highly classified nature, cannot be made the subject of litigation," the Justice Department wrote in a brief to U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker.
The legal tactic of state secrets privilege, first recognized by the Supreme Court in a McCarthy-era lawsuit, has been increasingly and successfully invoked by federal lawyers seeking to shield the government from scrutiny by the courts, from espionage cases and patent disputes to routine employment discrimination lawsuits.
The president confirmed in December that the National Security Agency has been conducting warrantless surveillance of calls and e-mails thought to involve al-Qaida terrorists if at least one of the parties to the communication is outside the United States. The administration is mum on whether purely domestic calls and electronic communications are being monitored, as the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit was brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, on behalf of customers of San Antonio-based AT&T. The EFF accuses the telecom of illegally cooperating with the NSA to make communications on AT&T networks available to the spy agency without warrants.
AT&T said it follows all applicable laws when it comes to government monitoring of customer data, but would neither confirm nor deny the allegations.
The EFF is urging Walker in legal filings to rule on whether the president possesses wartime powers to authorize warrantless eavesdropping in the United States without publicly disclosing any classified or sensitive material.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state secrets defense as recently as January, when it rejected an appeal from a former covert CIA officer who accused the agency of race discrimination. And last month, citing the state secrets defense, the government urged a federal judge in Virginia to block a lawsuit by a German national who says he was illegally held in a CIA-run prison in Afghanistan for four months and tortured.
The Supreme Court first recognized the state secrets doctrine in 1953, when it dismissed a lawsuit against the government brought by family members of people killed in a plane wreck while testing secret electronic surveillance equipment.
FUCK THE WHITE HOUSE !!!!!!
That Shit-head in Washington has got to go!!!!
Yeah, Mother Fucker Bush, you are the “Commander in Chief” and you can do anything you want because we are at “war,” and this fucking “war” is going to last at least a GENERATION; so you and your mother fucking ass-kissers can do anything you fucking want to for as long as you fucking want to (just like a King; even a Divine Right King, since god whispers in your ignorant ear), and here’s the good part: you can “spread DEMOCRACY around the world” even though you take it upon yourself to declare that you don't have to follow ANY of the laws Congress passes and you sign (YOU are above the law - you're the Commander in Chief, the Big Cheese, the New Fuehrer!!!).
You are out of your fucking mind, Dubya!!!
And these psychotic arguments about how you can’t testify about how you are fucking America over because testifying about how you are fucking America over would reveal the facts of how you are fucking America over and that would fuck America over - make me puke!!!!!!!!!!!
Why does a government of, by, and for the people – supposedly spreading
Democracy around the world - need to do what the AP story says:
“The legal tactic of state secrets privilege, first recognized by the Supreme Court in a McCarthy-era lawsuit, has been increasingly and successfully invoked by federal lawyers seeking to shield the government from scrutiny by the courts, from espionage cases and patent disputes to routine employment discrimination lawsuits.”
The government needs to do it because it’s NOT a government of, by, and for the people; and it’s not spreading Democracy. This shitpile in Washington – in reality – is doing everything that, as a child, I was taught the evil “commies” were doing.
Talk about dictatorships, talk about Authoritarian Totalitarianism !!! These fuckers are IT !!!!!! McCarthy, for sure.
These bastards are dedicated to bending the world to their will. And if you think they only want foreigners licking their boots, you’ve not been paying attention.
These fuckers have got to go. If the courts say, “Oh, gee willikers!! There’s no problem here. We don’t need to hear THIS case,” you’d better start building a guillotine or kiss your ass goodbye.
- Uke Man
I saw an infuriating news item on Yahoo. Here it is, and below the article is my furious response.
- Uke Man
White House demands dismissal of spy suit
By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press Writer Fri Jun 23, 4:32 AM ET
SAN FRANCISCO - A lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's domestic spying program must be dismissed because it threatens to reveal state secrets and jeopardize the war on terror, the government says.
The case was set to go before a federal judge in San Francisco on Friday.
The Bush administration argues that the courts cannot decide the constitutionality of the president's asserted wartime powers to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants.
The government is invoking the so-called "state secrets privilege" in a federal lawsuit filed by a privacy group against communications giant AT&T Inc. about the telecom's alleged involvement in Bush's surveillance program adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
"Resolution of those legal issues depends entirely on facts that, in light of their highly classified nature, cannot be made the subject of litigation," the Justice Department wrote in a brief to U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker.
The legal tactic of state secrets privilege, first recognized by the Supreme Court in a McCarthy-era lawsuit, has been increasingly and successfully invoked by federal lawyers seeking to shield the government from scrutiny by the courts, from espionage cases and patent disputes to routine employment discrimination lawsuits.
The president confirmed in December that the National Security Agency has been conducting warrantless surveillance of calls and e-mails thought to involve al-Qaida terrorists if at least one of the parties to the communication is outside the United States. The administration is mum on whether purely domestic calls and electronic communications are being monitored, as the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit was brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, on behalf of customers of San Antonio-based AT&T. The EFF accuses the telecom of illegally cooperating with the NSA to make communications on AT&T networks available to the spy agency without warrants.
AT&T said it follows all applicable laws when it comes to government monitoring of customer data, but would neither confirm nor deny the allegations.
The EFF is urging Walker in legal filings to rule on whether the president possesses wartime powers to authorize warrantless eavesdropping in the United States without publicly disclosing any classified or sensitive material.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state secrets defense as recently as January, when it rejected an appeal from a former covert CIA officer who accused the agency of race discrimination. And last month, citing the state secrets defense, the government urged a federal judge in Virginia to block a lawsuit by a German national who says he was illegally held in a CIA-run prison in Afghanistan for four months and tortured.
The Supreme Court first recognized the state secrets doctrine in 1953, when it dismissed a lawsuit against the government brought by family members of people killed in a plane wreck while testing secret electronic surveillance equipment.
FUCK THE WHITE HOUSE !!!!!!
That Shit-head in Washington has got to go!!!!
Yeah, Mother Fucker Bush, you are the “Commander in Chief” and you can do anything you want because we are at “war,” and this fucking “war” is going to last at least a GENERATION; so you and your mother fucking ass-kissers can do anything you fucking want to for as long as you fucking want to (just like a King; even a Divine Right King, since god whispers in your ignorant ear), and here’s the good part: you can “spread DEMOCRACY around the world” even though you take it upon yourself to declare that you don't have to follow ANY of the laws Congress passes and you sign (YOU are above the law - you're the Commander in Chief, the Big Cheese, the New Fuehrer!!!).
You are out of your fucking mind, Dubya!!!
And these psychotic arguments about how you can’t testify about how you are fucking America over because testifying about how you are fucking America over would reveal the facts of how you are fucking America over and that would fuck America over - make me puke!!!!!!!!!!!
Why does a government of, by, and for the people – supposedly spreading
Democracy around the world - need to do what the AP story says:
“The legal tactic of state secrets privilege, first recognized by the Supreme Court in a McCarthy-era lawsuit, has been increasingly and successfully invoked by federal lawyers seeking to shield the government from scrutiny by the courts, from espionage cases and patent disputes to routine employment discrimination lawsuits.”
The government needs to do it because it’s NOT a government of, by, and for the people; and it’s not spreading Democracy. This shitpile in Washington – in reality – is doing everything that, as a child, I was taught the evil “commies” were doing.
Talk about dictatorships, talk about Authoritarian Totalitarianism !!! These fuckers are IT !!!!!! McCarthy, for sure.
These bastards are dedicated to bending the world to their will. And if you think they only want foreigners licking their boots, you’ve not been paying attention.
These fuckers have got to go. If the courts say, “Oh, gee willikers!! There’s no problem here. We don’t need to hear THIS case,” you’d better start building a guillotine or kiss your ass goodbye.
- Uke Man
Maureen
Fukuyama, Hannah and Zegna
By MAUREEN DOWD
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
Washington
As he launched a progressive journal to ponder big ideas that might help the wretched Democrats stop driving on Ambien and snatch back a little power, Andrei Cherny sought advice from a conservative pundit.
"Who's on your tie?" the pundit asked, explaining that Reaganites had been able to sum up their philosophy in the 80's by wearing Adam Smith and Edmund Burke ties.
Mr. Cherny did not say. (John Stuart Mill?)
So far, Democrats have been more famous for who gave the tie — Monica draped Bill with a Zegna — than who gazed from it.
Besides, Republicans don't own all three branches of government because of little cameo pictures of Adam Smith and Edmund Burke hanging over their blue Oxford button-down shirts. Mr. Smith and Mr. Burke would blanch at the shape W. and Karl Rove have given conservatism — the political muscle of the Christian right, the withering of the social contract, greedy capitalism, fiscal profligacy.
If the Democrats need anything, it's not a new tie. It may not even be big ideas.
The Republicans, after all, got a monopoly while headed by W., a guy who makes Reagan look like Hannah Arendt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt). "Compassionate conservatism" was an alluring alliteration, not a paradigmatic philosophy.
In politics, big ideas are too often just big slogans and big marketing techniques and big slime campaigns.
Besides, big ideas can backfire. Yesterday, Mr. Cherny and his fellow editor, Kenneth Baer, former Gore speechwriters, introduced their journal, Democracy — it's sort of like Foreign Affairs without the glitz — at a panel at the National Press Club with Francis Fukuyama and Bill Kristol.
Mr. Fukuyama's big idea was The End of History. But a couple of little things like religion and nationalist ideology, not to mention history, got in the way.
Mr. Kristol was a key backer of the neocon push to knock out Saddam and create a model democracy in the Middle East. As he pointed out ruefully yesterday, big ideas cannot survive "contact with politicians, unbruised," and are sometimes "applied inappropriately." That was no doubt a veiled shot at Donald Rumsfeld, whom Mr. Kristol faults for the slide in Iraq.
"And since my relations with conservatives these days are so bad — with Rumsfeld and immigration and other things — I'd just as soon hang out with you guys," the Weekly Standard editor told the room of liberals, bloggers and journalists. "You're less mean."
You'd think that incorrectly predicting history is over would get you banished from the intelligentsia forever, but Mr. Fukuyama proffered another big idea, warning that the pendulum was not making its customary swing left because "values" voters were clutching it.
"There's a guy I buy my barbecue from who says, 'I think we're in a class war and my class is losing,' " he shared. (Is this The End of Barbecue?) In Europe, he said, such brisket purveyors would be voting for the left, but in America, "the values issues have been much more prominent, and so people who for economic reasons ought to be voting on the left are held still in the Republican column precisely because they don't trust the left on all the issues having to deal with family, and identity, and this sort of thing."
Big ideas are not enough, because personalities and circumstances intervene. What matters is the bearer of an idea.
Bill Clinton had big ideas but short-circuited his presidency when he elevated his chaotic, self-regarding and gluttonous personality to a management style. Al Gore had big ideas but was too neutered by political mercenaries and focus groups to make those ideas compelling. Maybe because she had one idea that was way too big, Hillary has been running away from big ideas as though they're poison.
After 9/11, Dick Cheney transposed his desire to expand executive power and his personal paranoia into a national policy. Ron Suskind reports in his new book, "The One Percent Doctrine," that Vice dictated that the war on terror allowed the administration to summarily reject the need for evidence and analysis before action.
Mr. Suskind describes the Cheney doctrine: "Even if there's just a 1 percent chance of the unimaginable coming due, act as if it is a certainty. It's not about 'our analysis,' as Cheney said. It's about 'our response.' ... Justified or not, fact-based or not, 'our response' is what matters. As to 'evidence,' the bar was set so low that the word itself almost didn't apply."
In the hands of the wrong person, big ideas can be terrifying.
By MAUREEN DOWD
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
Washington
As he launched a progressive journal to ponder big ideas that might help the wretched Democrats stop driving on Ambien and snatch back a little power, Andrei Cherny sought advice from a conservative pundit.
"Who's on your tie?" the pundit asked, explaining that Reaganites had been able to sum up their philosophy in the 80's by wearing Adam Smith and Edmund Burke ties.
Mr. Cherny did not say. (John Stuart Mill?)
So far, Democrats have been more famous for who gave the tie — Monica draped Bill with a Zegna — than who gazed from it.
Besides, Republicans don't own all three branches of government because of little cameo pictures of Adam Smith and Edmund Burke hanging over their blue Oxford button-down shirts. Mr. Smith and Mr. Burke would blanch at the shape W. and Karl Rove have given conservatism — the political muscle of the Christian right, the withering of the social contract, greedy capitalism, fiscal profligacy.
If the Democrats need anything, it's not a new tie. It may not even be big ideas.
The Republicans, after all, got a monopoly while headed by W., a guy who makes Reagan look like Hannah Arendt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt). "Compassionate conservatism" was an alluring alliteration, not a paradigmatic philosophy.
In politics, big ideas are too often just big slogans and big marketing techniques and big slime campaigns.
Besides, big ideas can backfire. Yesterday, Mr. Cherny and his fellow editor, Kenneth Baer, former Gore speechwriters, introduced their journal, Democracy — it's sort of like Foreign Affairs without the glitz — at a panel at the National Press Club with Francis Fukuyama and Bill Kristol.
Mr. Fukuyama's big idea was The End of History. But a couple of little things like religion and nationalist ideology, not to mention history, got in the way.
Mr. Kristol was a key backer of the neocon push to knock out Saddam and create a model democracy in the Middle East. As he pointed out ruefully yesterday, big ideas cannot survive "contact with politicians, unbruised," and are sometimes "applied inappropriately." That was no doubt a veiled shot at Donald Rumsfeld, whom Mr. Kristol faults for the slide in Iraq.
"And since my relations with conservatives these days are so bad — with Rumsfeld and immigration and other things — I'd just as soon hang out with you guys," the Weekly Standard editor told the room of liberals, bloggers and journalists. "You're less mean."
You'd think that incorrectly predicting history is over would get you banished from the intelligentsia forever, but Mr. Fukuyama proffered another big idea, warning that the pendulum was not making its customary swing left because "values" voters were clutching it.
"There's a guy I buy my barbecue from who says, 'I think we're in a class war and my class is losing,' " he shared. (Is this The End of Barbecue?) In Europe, he said, such brisket purveyors would be voting for the left, but in America, "the values issues have been much more prominent, and so people who for economic reasons ought to be voting on the left are held still in the Republican column precisely because they don't trust the left on all the issues having to deal with family, and identity, and this sort of thing."
Big ideas are not enough, because personalities and circumstances intervene. What matters is the bearer of an idea.
Bill Clinton had big ideas but short-circuited his presidency when he elevated his chaotic, self-regarding and gluttonous personality to a management style. Al Gore had big ideas but was too neutered by political mercenaries and focus groups to make those ideas compelling. Maybe because she had one idea that was way too big, Hillary has been running away from big ideas as though they're poison.
After 9/11, Dick Cheney transposed his desire to expand executive power and his personal paranoia into a national policy. Ron Suskind reports in his new book, "The One Percent Doctrine," that Vice dictated that the war on terror allowed the administration to summarily reject the need for evidence and analysis before action.
Mr. Suskind describes the Cheney doctrine: "Even if there's just a 1 percent chance of the unimaginable coming due, act as if it is a certainty. It's not about 'our analysis,' as Cheney said. It's about 'our response.' ... Justified or not, fact-based or not, 'our response' is what matters. As to 'evidence,' the bar was set so low that the word itself almost didn't apply."
In the hands of the wrong person, big ideas can be terrifying.
