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Veterans Day
November 11th is Veterans Day. Veterans Day is the day we thank veterans for their service to our country and acknowledge that their contributions and service are appreciated. We honor all who served - not only those who died - and we honor those who have sacrificed and done their duty.
Veterans Day is also celebrated on the same day as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day and it falls on the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I--the day that major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice.
So given the history of Veterans Day, does it dishonor Veterans when anti-war activists march in parades or protest?
In 2004, my local peace group attempted to march in the Veterans Day Parade and the Christmas Parade but we were not allowed to do so. But up the road, the other local peace group was allowed to carry the names of the dead soldiers in that city's parade because the peace organizers presented an effective argument that they were honoring the dead soldiers and were not trying to make a political statement.
The MAP and CAP groups are connected but in the town where I live, the peace activists have been more aggressively attacked than those in Chelsea. As a result, there has not been many demonstrations going on here.
But tomorrow that silence will end. We will be downtown on main street at the town's gazebo. I will be joining them. Here's hoping that it goes well.
And on this Veterans Day, here's hoping that Congress listens to the troops and ends the Iraq Occupation.
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Thank you for standing up for the veterans, sparrow.
This nation loves to glorify military service, and start wars - but when it comes to the actual soldiers who fight them and "defend our freedom," so little is offered to them in return. Remember the recent report about 1/4 of all homeless Americans being veterans, often with serious mental trauma?
We are no different from the Soviet-era Communist dictatorships. We glorify the military, and reward the soldiers very little. We glorify hard labor, and reward the workers very little. We have a sophisticated domestic spying apparatus that even the East German Stasi could only dream of. The only difference is that since we're capitalist, it's the private sector that's got blood all over its hands.
Christy
Those CNN flip-floppers only want money, and reporting Afghanistan failures don't make money for them. I would rather watch Fox News than CNN.
In fact, I never watch any US-based news, it's the worst propaganda outside North Korea.
The British may be corrupt (and little more than W's poodles), but their news, from BBC to the Guardian, are still far more substantial than anything from the US.
Ally
If you or anyone else want to see a cynical opinion about the US and our government and media and system, click on my name. Be forewarned about profanity and I don't know who the narrator is. It's not George Carlin. NWA put it up, not Kayakbiker or me. I was a little stunned by it but also resonated with it, as people are always hitting me up with "shocking" things and I find that I am no longer surprised. I also have had a little habit of thinking things were not necessarily so much "better" before, but that some of the obvious bad things had simply gone "underground." So now I see how I can watch a video like this and merely shrug and go on walking the treadmill.
I do continue to work for peace, dutifully vote Dem when the time comes, but it's not fun watching our currency devaluate because it's like seeing the future shrink. It's scary watching what Pakistan is doing right in front of our eyes too, & especially knowing that alot of people couldn't find Pakistan on a map if they tried or explain how it differs from India, Afghanistan, Iraq or Iran.
re above video, a commenter referred to Norm so I'll bet the narrator was Norman Mailer, who just died.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/books/11mailer.html?bl&ex=1194843600&en=0e3f5d4263677174&ei=5087%0A
I give you more Norman Mailer: (America, Iraq & the Neocons)
RIP Norman Mailer
John Bolton says we weren't nice enough to military dictator Musharaf
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/10/news/UN-GEN-UN-Boltons-World.php
This writer makes a case that in our collaboration with Musharaf we are replicating our mistake with the Shah of Iran:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-sick10nov10,0,5730349.story?coll=la-opinion-center
The Norman Mailer videos were not too cynical after all.
Dictators support each other. They stopped supporting Saddam because he was going to sell oil in Euros.
White House Decides Aid to Pakistan Should Continue
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111007E.shtml
Matthew Lee, reporting for The Associated Press, says "The Bush administration has concluded it is not legally required to cut or suspend hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Pakistan despite President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of a state of emergency and a crackdown on the opposition and independent media."
So it follows..all of these stories have a common link..greedy criminal behavior in high places
Oil Price Rise Causes Global Shift in Wealth
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111007A.shtml
Steve Mufson reports in Saturday's Washington Post that "Oil consumers are paying $4 billion to $5 billion more for crude oil every day than they did just five years ago, pumping more than $2 trillion into the coffers of oil companies and oil-producing nations this year alone."
Army Spending $2.6 Billion on Choppers That Overheat
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111007B.shtml
Aaron C. David, reporting for the Associated Press, says "The Army is spending $2.6 billion on hundreds of European-designed helicopters for homeland security and disaster relief that turn out to have a crucial flaw: They aren't safe to fly on hot days, according to an internal report obtained by The Associated Press."
The New York Times | Veterans Without Health Care
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111007C.shtml
In an editorial, The New York Times says that "many Americans believe that the nation's veterans have ready access to health care, that is far from the case. A new study by researchers at the Harvard Medical School has found that millions of veterans and their dependents have no access to care in veterans' hospitals and clinics, and no health insurance to pay for care elsewhere."
Was it Kruschev who said the capitalists will sell the rope to hang themselves with?
Read this one carefully:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111007A.shtml
The shift in oil wealth benefits - Russia, Iran, Venezuela
Antiwar Veterans Groups Barred From Parade
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111007Y.shtml
Kelly Puente of the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports that a Veterans Day parade committee rejected the applications of two veterans groups that oppose the war in Iraq from participating in Saturday's parade honoring US soldiers because committee organizers don't want "groups of a political nature, advocating the troops' withdrawal from Iraq.
I was just going to post also nmp, first thing I read this morning before I came here.
Rising Oil Prices Creating A Massive Global Shift In Wealth
Iran, Russia and Venezuela To Benefit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/09/AR2007110902573.html?hpid=topnews
Coast Guard Knew of Spill Hours Before Warning the Public
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111007D.shtml
Kevin Fagan, Zachary Coile and Peter Fimrite report in Saturday's San Francisco Chronicle that Coast Guard officials "acknowledged they had erred in waiting more than four hours on Wednesday to issue an advisory that 58,000 gallons - not just 140 - had spewed into the water after a ship rammed the base of a Bay Bridge tower, but they insisted their response was appropriate."
The first video I posted, in fact the first thing I saw this morning before I'd even had my coffee, was narrated not by Norman Mailer, but by George Carlin, in memory of Norman Mailer.
http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/silenced_majority_portal/2007/11/ posted by NWA.
Sparrow I did actually recieve this email I will respond in a bit.
Still coming down from the tournament. Both my little kids got creamed in the ring, but it was their first competition and they fought like lions anyway.
My daughter Ana should not have lost, the refs were letting her get hit in the face and scoring them. It should not have been allowed and I never thought I would watch her walk away crying because she felt cheated. She was trained hitting in the face is a foul, and they let him hit her twice full in the face and gave him the point each time. It was totally unfair and I am not really sure how to make it ok in her head. Poor kid.
I did just hear Christian took second in his arm wrestling tournament, so, that is some good news.
The funny thing is, Ana outranked 99.9% of all the other kids there and she outranked a full 75% of all the adults too.
Man, that was horrible to watch her get cheated.
How corrupt.
Our taxes pay for this.
The government pays defense contractors to train torturers.
Intelligence Work Increasingly Outsourced to Defense Firms
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111007G.shtml
Mike Sunnucks, reporting for The Business Journal of Phoenix, says "An
increasing amount of US intelligence work - including training related to
aggressive interrogation methods - is being parceled out to defense firms, making Arizona's Fort Huachuca a major contracting hub."
"aggressive interrogation methods" - a euphemism George Carlin would love
Cheney Pursuing Nuclear Ambitions of His Own
Jason Leopold, reporting for Truthout, writes, "While Dick Cheney has been talking tough over the years about Iran's alleged nuclear activities, the vice president has been quietly pursuing nuclear ambitions of his own."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110507A.shtml
Surprise, Surprise?
Neocon Leader Bill Kristol Pushes Lieberman As GOP VP
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/326qnsbj.asp
The stock markets went way down yesterday and this week on fears about recession, the housing slump and the credit market failures.
FRIDAY:
Symbol Last Change
Dow 13,042.74 -223.55 (1.69%)
Nasdaq 2,627.94 -68.06 (2.52%)
S&P 500 1,453.70 -21.07 (1.43%)
10-Yr Bond 4.2250% 0.0480
STOCK MARKET FOR THE WEEK:
The Dow Jones industrial average ended the week down 552.36, or 4.06 percent, at 13,042.74. The Standard & Poor's 500 index finished down 55.95, or 3.71 percent, at 1,453.70. The Nasdaq composite index ended down 182.44, or 6.49 percent, at 2,627.94.
The Russell 2000 index finished the week down 25.40, or 3.18 percent, at 772.38.
The Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index _ a free-float weighted index that measures 5,000 U.S. based companies _ ended Friday at 14,709.29, down 559.53 points, or 3.66 percent, from 15,268.82 for the week. A year ago, the index was at 13,837.86.
Is there any kind of 'stop' on the value of the dollar...?
Like, it can never go below ..blank...?
Can the old saying... not worth the paper it is printed on... can that literally become true of our dollar?
I'd like to know the answer to that also? beyond me
Hey darlin. How are things around the bend?
I saw the other day the Aussie dollar is doing very well against ours.
When we do go bankrupt, we can just borrow some money from you.
Soon, ours will be like the peso once was. One Aussie dollar = like $1,500 bucks American.
You could send like 10 Aussie dollars and feed 4 hungry American children for a month. Less than a cup of coffee a day......
OMG, I just disturbed myself deeply.
Dollar Value
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/dollar-value
Soon, ours will be like the peso once was. One Aussie dollar = like $1,500 bucks American.
It was that first time I came to America
US among worst in world for infant death
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/health/5291550.html
Now that is just shameful.
Now I just got to remember how long ago that was, Nicole was 8 born 68 wow can you believe that that was nearly 40year ago my first visit can't believe that.
From the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial website:
November 9 — NASA and Department of the Interior Honor Vietnam Veterans
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund will join NASA and the Department of the Interior for two events honoring Vietnam Veterans on Nov. 13, the actual 25th anniversary of The Wall’s dedication. Read the Press Release
November 8 — Gen. Powell to Give Keynote Address on Veterans Day
Gen. Colin Powell, USA (Ret.), former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as a wounded and decorated Vietnam veteran, will serve as the keynote speaker for the Veterans Day ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The Veterans Day ceremony is the highlight of the 25th Anniversary of The Wall commemoration. Read the Press Release; Read the Media Advisory
November 6 — Names on The Wall to be Read over Four Days
The Reading of the Names, the four-day event during which the over 58,000 names inscribed on The Wall are read, will take place on Nov. 7-10 at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as part of the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of The Wall. It will open with a Nov. 7 ceremony at the Memorial beginning at 3:00 p.m. Read the Press Release; Read the Media Advisory
October 31 — Music and Poetry Tribute to be Held at The Wall
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has invited musicians, singers and poets to take the stage on Nov. 6 to perform their original compositions at the Music and Poetry Tribute to Vietnam Veterans, featuring Keni Thomas and his band Cornbread. Read the Press Release
I can't believe anything they say happened 40 years ago.
I wasn't there. I have no idea what 40 years later feels like.
But give me 6 more years. I'll catch up.
My man was with us on our first visit there, missed the next 2 unfortunatly.
Now I would assume that they would pack me back on the plane, without stepping foot on US soil
The MAP and CAP groups are connected but in the town where I live, the peace activists have been more aggressively attacked than those in Chelsea. As a result, there has not been many demonstrations going on here.
But tomorrow that silence will end. We will be downtown on main street at the town's gazebo. I will be joining them. Here's hoping that it goes well.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Can someone take pictures of this?? If you don't take pictures for proof, it's almost as if nothing had happened.............
Dang I was in your USA and you wern't even born, amazing this thing called the internet.
This veterans day, there will not be a word of dissent uttered anywhere near here, at least not publicly.
I thought about carrying an antiwar sign to the parade...Save a soldier, Impeach a President.. But I seriously believe I may get killed by an angry mob.
No, I am not overstating for effect. A move like that would seriously most likly result in a coma. I live in a place full of irrational people who LOVE fox news.
Loving the soldiers to them means you must also love the war, or atleast have no opinion of it lest it means you hate our soldiers. And that means you also hate our nation. And probably God too.
Sometimes I think I was so stupid to go to the Kerry blog when I saw them rigging it down here (against the blacks, as usual).
I was stupid to think the south can and should be saved. You should quit ignoring it, quit abandoning it...Just come here, bring sunlight!
Then I contemplate being killed by serial killers with police protection, or being beaten to death a a veterans day parade, and I think...WTF am I still doing here?
On this Veterans Day, I would only like to add... Screw you george W. bush.
Rot in hell you pinche puto.
On tomorrow's Washington Journal C-Span:
ON WASHINGTON JOURNAL
Sunday, November 11
7am - Newspaper Article & Viewer Calls
7:45am - Jan Scruggs, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, President & Founder
8:30am - Newspaper Article & Viewer Calls
9am - Brian Freil, National Journal, Reporter | Article
9:30am - Caroline Wadhams, Center for American Progress, National Security Analyst | Report
Associated Press
November 9, 2007
Palestinian dance troupe performances in Old Saybrook canceled
OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. - Officials in Old Saybrook have canceled performances by a Palestinian dance troupe after getting a complaint that it is offensive to Jews and Israel.
http://www.courant.com/news/local/statewire/hc-09080250.apds.m0976.bc-ct--dancnov09,0,4594259.story
Christy, Kangaroo
When we went to France last month, we got our hotel/air as a pkg deal in dollars, so that helped. Each morning we stuffed ourselves with bread, which was included. I actually brought tuna packets and other food WITH me from the US! We walked some of the time, to save subway money, and we did not go to a single museum this time, just art galleries. We only drank at Happy Hour and let them feed us free couscous after the Ramadan fasts (Moroccans). We had a couple of dinners at houses of friends, who cooked for us. I bought a purse but it turned out to be Chinese made. & it may be the last time we go for years.
We wanted to go to Canada for our anniversary, as Vancouver BC is only 2-1/2 hours away, and decided it's too expensive so we will head south to Portland! & our next foreign trip, IF we have one in the near future, will be to Mexico.
Our dream was to travel. We sacrificed everything to be able to do it and we really can't. The upstairs of our house has no bathroom, it took us 10 years to replace our garage, and that's only the beginning. By the time we retire, we will probably be too old and poor and we were not smart like the guy in the Arianna Huffington blog who put his saving into Euros. I hope he's right that a Dem victory will at least start to bring back a stronger currency for us.
I do think the size of our debt, the growth of places like Dubai and China and the enemies we've made limit us though, as people may not invest in our economy just for moral reasons - as used to happen with South Africa.
Ralpheh
Yeah wasn't the Dow up at 14,000 not so long ago?! Hovering near 13,000 means a big drop in a short time.
"..as used to happen with South Africa."
Damn.
I am deeply disturbed again.
The Neoconservative Agenda To Sacrifice The Fifth Fleet – The New Pearl Harbor
The Bush administation has covered up and ignored dissenting Pentagon war games analysis that suggests an attack on Iran's nuclear or military facilities will lead directly to the annihilation of the Navy's Fifth Fleet now stationed in the Persian Gulf.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_michael__071107_the_neoconservative_.htm
As I said, can the old saying, not worth the paper its printed on, can that literally become true of our dollar?
DOD's Claim Of 30,000 Wounded In Iraq , Why Have 202,000 Vets Filed Claims?
The Pentagon claims only 30,000 wounded in Iraq war, why have over 200,000 filed and been approved for compensation claims?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_michael__071109_dod_s_claim_of_30_2c00.htm
NonnyO
Not surprising. Long Beach is right next to reactionary Orange County, and despite the presence of a vibrant gay community, remains pretty conservative. And the Press-Telegram is a right wing hack job of a paper as well.
Ohhhhhh boy, Georgie seriously. Any cable news picked up on this yet.
The uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red faced.
When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed.
At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world's only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.
That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.
American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.
By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.
According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy.
The Americans had no idea China's fast-growing submarine fleet had reached such a level of sophistication, or that it posed such a threat.
One Nato figure said the effect was "as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik" - a reference to the Soviet Union's first orbiting satellite in 1957 which marked the start of the space age.
The incident, which took place in the ocean between southern Japan and Taiwan, is a major embarrassment for the Pentagon.
The lone Chinese vessel slipped past at least a dozen other American warships which were supposed to protect the carrier from hostile aircraft or submarines.
And the rest of the costly defensive screen, which usually includes at least two U.S. submarines, was also apparently unable to detect it.
According to the Nato source, the encounter has forced a serious re-think of American and Nato naval strategy as commanders reconsider the level of threat from potentially hostile Chinese submarines.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=492804&in_page_id=1811
Christy
It is very possible. And the bastards who made this happen, by offshoring the manufacturing base to China (just so that the nation's organized labor will die), will be the ones laughing all the way to the bank.
In fact, if China starts diversifying its foreign currency reserves, then all bets are off.
Based on the discussion going on re: Veterans Day, I have come to this conclusion.
In this rotten excuse of an empire called the United States of America (and its pathetic provinces, including Poland, UK, South Korea, etc)...
You can't support the troops unless you support imperialistic wars.
If you are for peace, you are for communism.
You are not a true patriot unless you support the troops (in other words, support the war).
Dissent in wartime is tantamount to treason.
I've had enough. I WILL rebel against this empire if that's the ONLY way to save the rest of humankind and the planet.
NMP, Christy
I am almost wishing that the US gets ostracized by the rest of the world, South African style.
In fact, if Rudy the Murderer is our next prez, it needs to happen.
Leaving the UN is too dignified. Rudy's US must be KICKED OUT.
NMP
I don't care how worthless my primitive theocratic currency gets. I will continue to visit the nations of the rest of the sane world.
Don't Worry Georgie has Blackwater.
Recruiters struggle to find an Army
Source: McClatchy
The Army is struggling to find volunteers for an unpopular war, despite recruiting bonuses of up to $20,000 and pay increases for enlistees that have beaten inflation by 21 percent since 2000.
It met its numeric goal of 80,000 recruits last year, but it paid a price in terms of declining numbers of high school graduates and lower scores on skills and physical tests. The percentage of minimally qualified Army recruits, known as Category IVs, has quadrupled since 2002, and the percentage that required special health or moral waivers has risen sharply as well.
-----
Pentagon and outside experts cite these factors in order of importance:
While risks to U.S. troops are far lower than they were in most previous wars, young adults and their parents find them unacceptably high.
Parents who went to college want their kids to go to college. So do parents who didn't. As the college-bound percentage of high school students has risen to two-thirds, the percentage that intends to enlist in any branch of the military has fallen by nearly two-thirds.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/21203.html
Chicago H.S. Students Face Expulsion Following Peace Sit-in
Last Thursday, Oct. 1, students at the Morton West High School in Berwyn Illinois held an anti-war peace rally at ten AM. They'd planned it for a few days. About 70 students showed up, the student we interviewed, who asked to be anonymous, told us. By the end of the day of peaceful, non-violent, courteous protest, around 30 students were suspended, told they would be expelled
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_rob_kall_071105_chicago_h_s__student.htm
Hey everyone over here, I'm serving free beer at the Main Thread.........
ahahahaha
Well, we can pretend anyway. But I really do want to hear what you think over there.
Karen I have been trying to get onto the main thread for ages, but not getting the comments box up.
At the main thread when I commented, I got a message that said I'd commented too often and to come back later, but it still took my comment. I also hadn't been near the computer for 4 hours as I was raking leaves. Ah well .. computers
Am amazed/amused to see/hear/read everyone/everywhere talking about the currency devaluation because I've been watching this for several years.
Some think the fallout doesn't matter if they don't travel outside the United States but it does - because our goods may be cheaper overseas thereby reducing our trade deficit some in the short term - but as our credit is no longer underwritten by foreigners buying our bonds, we will experience inflation - those of us who work, are taxed and comsume here. Everything will cost us more in our own dollars.
Also, I just read in our local paper that foreigners may help us with our housing crisis by buying up our property and bringing values back up again. A house that would cost $50,000 for a down payment in US dollars is about $37,000 for a European, so it'll be easy for someone who already buys separate properties in London and Paris to drop a few thousand here for a 3rd or 4th or investment property.
Have also been reading about embittered people who lose their houses (who should not taken out loans they couldn't handle and shouldn't have been given them by banks who intended to sell the mortgages so didn't care if they paid them back) - anyway - said people sell light fixtures, appliances, etc. and "gut" their houses before giving them up. Some leave "green pools" (swimming pools overgrown with algae and crud). Areas like Phoenix and Las Vegas and Florida are terrible.
On another note, my relatives in Colorado told me they have had no rain in weeks and the temperatures are in the '70s. This is not normal. By now they should have snow. (They are at the foot of Pike's Peak).
I also have a book recommendation - PsychoGeography, by Will Self. Highly recommended. He is a long-distance walker and has pithy observations on everything. One of his co-walkers was a classmate of the leader of the free world and told Will something that he promised not to repeat, but it reinforced the frat-boy image and made him shudder even more.
November 10, 2007 6:58 PM
Christy said:
I saw the other day the Aussie dollar is doing very well against ours.
Christy, a couple of years ago we had heaps of American tourists. Americans could almost double their money when visiting Australia. AU 57 cents and decreasing against the USD.
As you know we are in the midst of an election campaign, which goes on for about 4 weeks rather than 2 years. What the Howard crew are campaigning on is that Australia is bursting at the seams with wealth since he took office 10 years ago.
I never see that in American politics - that one group claims to have a better record on fiscal successes than another group. Here they campaign on all the other issues too, like Education and Health, and poverty. But the real clincher 3 years ago was this amazing wealth we all share. What Howard is far too removed to notice, is that we do not all share in this wealth we have shoved into our psyches from radio and TV each day. Only the millionaires have been able to become multi-millionaired, whilst the rest of us become more indebted to the unscrupulous banking institutions.
For the very first time during this campaign today I read about the trillion dollar foreign debt that Australia has garnered over the past 10 years. I keep writing to opposition members to ask why they aren't using this against the governments assurances that they are better at keeping interest rates low and a budget surplus. Thanks to the Age, I realise that I haven't been making it up or imagining any of it. I do wonder about those who look like taking over though.
Rossi,
The main thread is sometimes tricky. Sometimes if you sign in there, it will give you the comment box. Othertimes, you sign in here and switch over. So try it both ways. Also, try to make sure you have cookies enabled on your computer--probably medium security works. (Tools>>>Internet Options>>>Security>>>medium>>>ok)
Also, I've noticed that if I DON'T have the "remember me" box checked that it actually loads better than if I do. (Odd glitch to have.)
Anyways, just got back from a pirate party. Will tell you more about this in the a.m.
Have a good night everyone.
Thanks sparrow
I still can't log into the main blog either.
I think DW has banished me.
It is cool though, cause I don't drink beer anyways.
Speaking of DW, I almost forgot...
DW, would you like a canvas?
Any color any style and any subject EXCEPT hummingbirds.
Or ducks.
Other than that....?
The Coup At Home
Frank Rich
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/opinion/11rich.html?th&emc=th
First thing I see is a headline that Musharaf won't lift martial law, which he still euphemistically calls (as does the press) a state of emergency.
Bush has asked him to hold elections and take off his uniform, setting a fine example of course with his own two bloodless coups and the stunt on an aircraft carrior when he declared "Mission Accomplished" though he had formerly gone AWOL from the Air Force in time of war.
A fine kettle of fish.
Pelosi and H Clinton are lucky they aren't under house arrest like Bhutto.
Relevant excerpts from the link above:
AS Gen. Pervez Musharraf arrested judges, lawyers and human-rights activists in Pakistan last week, our Senate was busy demonstrating its own civic mettle. Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, liberal Democrats from America’s two most highly populated blue states, gave the thumbs up to Michael B. Mukasey, ensuring his confirmation as attorney general.
So what if America’s chief law enforcement official won’t say that waterboarding is illegal? A state of emergency is a state of emergency. You’re either willing to sacrifice principles to head off the next ticking bomb, or you’re with the terrorists. Constitutional corners were cut in Washington in impressive synchronicity with General Musharraf’s crackdown in Islamabad.
In the days since, the coup in Pakistan has been almost universally condemned as the climactic death knell for Bush foreign policy, the epitome of White House hypocrisy and incompetence. But that’s not exactly news. It’s been apparent for years that America was suicidal to go to war in Iraq, a country with no tie to 9/11 and no weapons of mass destruction, while showering billions of dollars on Pakistan, where terrorists and nuclear weapons proliferate under the protection of a con man who serves as a host to Osama bin Laden.
(snip) (old examples of buddy buddyness)
Now The Los Angeles Times reports that much of America’s $10 billion-plus in aid to Pakistan has gone to buy conventional weaponry more suitable for striking India than capturing terrorists. To rub it in last week, General Musharraf released 25 pro-Taliban fighters in a prisoner exchange with a tribal commander the day after he suspended the constitution.
(snip)
In the six years of compromising our principles since 9/11, our democracy has so steadily been defined down that it now can resemble the supposedly aspiring democracies we’ve propped up in places like Islamabad. Time has taken its toll. We’ve become inured to democracy-lite. That’s why a Mukasey can be elevated to power with bipartisan support and we barely shrug.
This is a signal difference from the Vietnam era, and not necessarily for the better. During that unpopular war, disaffected Americans took to the streets and sometimes broke laws in an angry assault on American governmental institutions. The Bush years have brought an even more effective assault on those institutions from within. While the public has not erupted in riots, the executive branch has subverted the rule of law in often secretive increments. The results amount to a quiet coup, ultimately more insidious than a blatant putsch like General Musharraf’s.
(my comment: & this is not even referring to the two bloodless coups that got & kept GWB into office)
More Machiavellian still, Mr. Bush has constantly told the world he’s championing democracy even as he strangles it. Mr. Bush repeated the word “freedom” 27 times in roughly 20 minutes at his 2005 inauguration, and even presided over a “Celebration of Freedom” concert on the Ellipse hosted by Ryan Seacrest. It was an Orwellian exercise in branding, nothing more.
(snip) (more examples of similarities here & there)
Tipping his hat in appreciation of Mr. Bush’s example, General Musharraf justified his dismantling of Pakistan’s Supreme Court with language mimicking the president’s diatribes against activist judges. The Pakistani leader further echoed Mr. Bush by expressing a kinship with Abraham Lincoln, citing Lincoln’s Civil War suspension of a prisoner’s fundamental legal right to a hearing in court, habeas corpus, as a precedent for his own excesses. (That’s like praising F.D.R. for setting up internment camps.)
(snip)
To believe that this corruption will simply evaporate when the Bush presidency is done is to underestimate the permanent erosion inflicted over the past six years. What was once shocking and unacceptable in America has now been internalized as the new normal.
This is most apparent in the Republican presidential race, where most of the candidates seem to be running for dictator and make no apologies for it. They’re falling over each other to expand Gitmo, see who can promise the most torture and abridge the largest number of constitutional rights.
(snip) (examples w/Giuliani & then spinless Dems)
What makes the Democrats’ Mukasey cave-in so depressing is that it shows how far even exemplary sticklers for the law like Senators Feinstein and Schumer have lowered democracy’s bar.
(snip) (re waterboarding here..)
Even if Congress were to pass such legislation (my comment: outlawing waterboarding), Mr. Bush would veto it, and even if the veto were by some miracle overturned, Mr. Bush would void the law with a “signing statement.”
(snip) (more about spineless Congress)
Last weekend a new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that the Democratic-controlled Congress and Mr. Bush are both roundly despised throughout the land, and that only 24 percent of Americans believe their country is on the right track. That’s almost as low as the United States’ rock-bottom approval ratings in the latest Pew surveys of Pakistan (15 percent) and Turkey (9 percent).
Wrong track is a euphemism. We are a people in clinical depression. Americans know that the ideals that once set our nation apart from the world have been vandalized, and no matter which party they belong to, they do not see a restoration anytime soon.
--- Pullitzer Prize for this guy, eh?!
Look! Now they can just thumb their nose at GWB, knowing our military is strapped and our country is in debt
Musharraf Gives No Date for End to Rule
New York Times - 2 hours ago
In a defiant news conference Sunday, the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, refused to give a date for the end of the de facto martial law that he imposed more than a week ago and suggested that it ...
Georgian Says Emergency Rule to Last as Needed
New York Times - 12 hours ago
Anticipating demands from a senior American diplomat that he immediately lift a state of emergency, President Mikheil Saakashvili said Saturday that the emergency decree would remain ...
So much for the Paragons of Democracy, the Beacon of Freedom, the Liberators of the Oppressed & the Land of the Free
& how is this one supposed to work .. does it seem to have alot of "teeth" in it, even with aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Hormuz?
Bush pledges to keep talking with Iran
Los Angeles Times - 7 hours ago
During a friendly visit with Germany's Merkel, the president seeks to reassure skeptics that he is committed to diplomacy. - President Bush sought Saturday to reassure skeptical ...
(I am not providing full links because I have not read these full articles yet - my point is the impression I am getting after reading the full Frank Rich piece and then looking at the headlines)
Islamabad? No, Olympia Washington. Yesterday.
The students are protesting military cargo shipments.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_olympia_protest.html
We Americans are supposed the "change our definition of privacy," says a top intelligence official
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1155ap_terrorist_surveillance.html?source=mypi
(David Horsey, Seattle P I)
Back from War, Out of a Job
Ted Kennedy & Max Clelland
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/11/back_from_war_out_of_a_job/
By the time we retire, we will probably be too old and poor and we were not smart like the guy in the Arianna Huffington blog who put his saving into Euros. I hope he's right that a Dem victory will at least start to bring back a stronger currency for us.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Why should the U.S. have a strong currency? Do we deserve one or have we earned a strong currency?? No.. I don't think we have:
1) The manufacturing base of our economy has been in decline for the past 20 years. We are no longer an economic/ manufacturing super-power as we were in the post WWII period. Much of our Manufacturing base has gone to Asia, China, Japan and Mexico etc..
2) Similarly, we import much (most?) of the manufactured goods that we, as consumers, buy; and our trade deficits with other nations are large and chronic.
3) AS A NATION, WE ARE AND HAVE BEEN HEAVILY IN DEBT. The U.S. federal government is the worst offender, of course, with a $9 trillion national debt which we began to accumulate in earnest during the Reagan years. As individuals, we are no better, with the saving rates in this country being miniscule.
4) Cheap energy, for the United States, is a thing of the past. We import more and more oil, the energy base of our economy.
Merely electing Democrats in 2008 will not change this picture dramatically.
the new Democratic program should be :
1) putting the U.S. fiscal/budget house in order by paying down the national debt. This would mean bringing in more revenue by making the tax structure more progressive.
2) Ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which are draining our economic and human resources
3) A new and comprehensive energy policy, which would encourage conservation and the developement of alternative and clean sources of energy.
Ralpeh
I can hardly argue with that!
We are now a service nation not a manufacturing nation but we outsource as much of our service sector as we can (think telemarketers in Bangalore).
The interest on our debt is now the number two line item on our budget.
We artifically lower our deficit when we have a weak currency, hoping that our goods will be bought but what do we manufacture anymore besides arms?!
We could lower our carbon footprints and it would still not make enough difference. We need to use new technologies and fast, rethink our whole way of living.
I do agree that electing Dems in 2008 will not change this picture dramatically - it is too malignant and chronic. We are following the Reagan era philosophies to the letter.
Good analysis, esp. of what the Democrats need to do. Making the tax structure more progressive would not be popular with either party because people have gotten addicted to keeping more of their money in order to buy toxic junk.
PROTEST OF SCHUMER'S SUPPORT OF MUKASEY IN NEW YORK CITY:
I posted my story about the party I went to last night on Karen's thread on the front page.
No beer. Just rum.
Pakistan Nuclear Security Questioned
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111107Y.shtml
Joby Warrick of the Washington Post reports that "when the United States learned in 2001 that Pakistani scientists had shared nuclear secrets with members of al-Qaeda, an alarmed Bush administration responded with tens of millions of dollars worth of equipment... to safeguard Pakistan's nuclear weapons. But Pakistan remained suspicious of US aims and declined to give US experts direct access to the half-dozen or so bunkers where the components of its arsenal of about 50 nuclear weapons are stored. For the officials in Washington now
monitoring Pakistan's deepening political crisis, the experience offered both reassurance and grounds for concern."
Sparrow - do you have photos? It's a great story!! Belated or not .. the pirates are still marauding around.
Sparrow
Would love to see your photos.
Ralpheh
Great analysis!
Ralpheh
On a second thought, progressive taxation is NOT enough... Tax incentives to discourage offshoring and encouraging domestic job creation are also needed.
Also, a Canadian-style immigration program that brings in entrepreneurs to create American jobs, is also badly needed. Right now, American immigration system is about taking jobs away from Americans, not creating new ones for Americans.
When exactly do you all nominate the democratic presidential candidate, is it January?
Kangaroo
Official nomination is at the national convention in July or August.
BUT... that hinges on the primary results, most of which are finished by February.
Ally, no photos. (Answered nmp on the front page.)
Ralpheh
Great analysis!
November 11, 2007 2:06
@@@@
Hey thanks!!! Should I throw my baseball cap into the ring??? LOL!! I suppose it is too late to start campaigning in Iowa and New Hampshire.
RE. your point on bringing investment and talent into the US with a better immigration policy: I agree - the Chinese and Japanese governments actively promote manufacturing and investments.
OBAMA PROPOSES CHANGES IN SOCIAL SECURITY TAX:
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer
35 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama said Sunday that if elected he will push to increase the amount of income that is taxed to provide monthly Social Security benefits.
Obama and other Democratic presidential candidates previously have signaled support for this idea.
But during an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Obama said subjecting more of a person's income to the payroll tax is the option he would push for if elected president.
He objected to benefit cuts or a higher retirement age.
"I think the best way to approach this is to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like myself are paying a little bit more and people who are in need are protected," the Illinois senator said.
"That is the option that I will be pushing forward."
Currently, only the first $97,500 of a person's annual income is taxed. The amount is scheduled to rise to $102,000 next year.
Obama's proposal could include a gap or "doughnut hole" to shield middle-income earners from paying more in taxes, he said.
BUT... that hinges on the primary results, most of which are finished by February
They televise the primaries, don't they ally,
I know I watched all the primaries when JK was nominated.
Hey Rossi,
Go check out my pinup girl.
And vote Ralph for president.
New thread
November 10, 2007 7:04 PM
Christy said:
US among worst in world for infant death
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/health/5291550.html
Now that is just shameful.
>>>>>>>>
OMG, Christy, that is more than shameful! How could this be - in the world's leading country? Well, once leading country?