President Bush said today that a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would lead to its conquest by America's worst enemies.
Too late.
Bush and the neocons are already in Iraq.
"When the neocons launched the Bush administration's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and announced plans for invading Syria and Iran, I labeled Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Rice "the Five Morons." With the passage of time, I see that I overestimated their mental capabilities."
Paul Craig Roberts
In commenting on my 911 story, Dichroic mentioned her time in an Air Force A-10 simulator. I can’t match that, but I did spend a brief time in a DC-9 simulator.
A friend of mine who flew DC-9s was taking a check ride and invited me along. I got to sit in the right seat while my friend sat in the left and the examiner behind. While they were discussing some particular technical point, the examiner said to me, “Here, why don’t you do some flying for a while.”
He set the controls so that it appeared that the DC-9 was sitting at the beginning of runway 9 in Miami at night. I gingerly took the controls, pushed in the throttles and began hurtling the plane down the runway. At the proper rotation speed, I lifted the nosewheel; a minute later we were airborne.
I saw the runway lights drop away and was quite proud of how well I was doing. Then my friend looked up from a discussion with the examiner, gently pushed the control wheel forward and said laconically:
“We usually climb out at about 8 degrees, not 30. That tends to dump the passengers in the rear.”
I guess I wasn’t cut out to be an airline pilot.
I have some friends who are conspiracy nuts.
They believe, for example, that on 9/11 some clown named Osama bin Laden picked up his cell phone in a cave in Afghanistan and directed 19 Muslims, none of them professional pilots, to hijack four airliners and fly them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, thereby bringing down three steel-skeleton skyscrapers, the only time in world history that has ever happened.
A humdinger of a conspiracy, that one. My conspiracy nut friends know it's true because they have it on good authority -- George Bush told them so.
These conspiracy nuts also believe Osama is part of some mysterious worldwide "terrorist" organization of "Islamic fascists" that hates us because of our freedoms and democracy, and have enough power to destroy us -- despite our thousands of nuclear warheads, ships, warplanes, tanks, and countless men under arms. A fearsome enemy, to be sure, as President Bush frequently tells us.
For once, I agree with George Bush; 9/11 was a conspiracy. We just disagree on who was involved in that conspiracy. That is, we MAY disagree -- if he really believes what he told us. In other words, whether or not he was in or out of the loop.
9/11 was an inside job. The facts are indisputable. There was no way that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda could have pulled it off, or at least pulled it off without help.
If you'd like to see more of this Alternative Reality world, go read the rest of my essay at --
http://www.swans.com/library/art12/rdeck068.html
"...if they (corporations) don't have their way at this point, conflagration in the middle east--war with Iran, possibly nuclear--will result. What kind of person plans such a thing? Inhumanly callous or inhumanly stupid? We have our answer--a CEO President, someone who epitomises both qualities."
Jane Smiley
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=27393
A friend told me she has started watching the Gilmore Girls on reruns and loves the show.
Alma and I were great fans a few years ago. The first two or three seasons were wonderful -- then they apparently changed writers. They lost the wit which had captivated us. The only thing they kept was the rapid fire delivery.
The original was rife with hilarious iconic throwaway scenes, often in the background, e.g.: Miss Patty leading a bunch of walkers -- from her golf cart, another time mourning the loss of sexiness of a hunk when he was out of his 'uniform'(waiter's); “It was Biloxi all over again."
And in probably the last funny episode -- a congressman (real one) coming out of a men's room, seeing Paris, and turning right around and going back in.
Which makes me think of a lifetime of television. Which shows would I rank at the top of the heap?
The first three are easy:
1) Babylon 5
2) Everwood
3) Judging Amy
All quality shows for the whole series.
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We are off to WorldCon and I probably won't be posting for a few days.
When Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973, songwriter Tom Lehrer said that satire was dead. He had a good point.
And there is no hope of resurrecting it. After I posted a satirical piece about Boop Bombs, my wife discovered that the ABC News blog was reporting that "U.S. authorities are advising women not to wear gel bras on airplanes.”
The paranoid insanity that is “airline security” is ever expanding.
The guardians of our airlines are protecting us from the bad guys by banning all liquids – beverages, hair gels, and lotions – and by treating our shoes as dangerous bombs.
But there is a grave danger that they are not protecting us from.
Exploding breasts.
It’s obvious that silicone implants pose a great danger to all the airlines. Do you know how much explosive could be implanted in a 42D cup?
I won’t feel safe until they start feeling up every overly endowed woman to determine that she’s all real.
Oh, good lord, let’s hope George Bush doesn’t hear about this.
The AP reports that Iran has blocked thousands of websites and is arresting popular bloggers
Arrested bloggers get into trouble for talking about sex, politics, or grumbling in chat rooms – and anything else that makes the Islamic leadership uneasy. More than 50 people have been arrested.
At the same time, Iran’s president has started his own blog featuring stories about his childhood, the Islamic revolution and the Iran-Iraq war.
If Bush started his own blog, he could talk about what a great war commander he is, and all his great victories in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon.
And he could have arrested anyone who says anything nasty about him in a blog – maybe 50 million.
A friend, Leonard J. Hansen, had some thoughts about a piece I wrote for the online journal Swans.com: I had said, in part:
It's long past time that we stopped referring to our wars against
Iraq and Afghanistan, and now Israel's war against Lebanon, in
dispassionate terms involving differing views of geopolitics,
strategic interests, mistaken foreign policy, rights of self defense, etc.
We are talking about crimes against decency, crimes against humanity.
We are talking about war crimes.
And we are talking about evil.
Len had the following observations (abridged slightly). I’ll respond in the next day or two.
I do not argue with your position, but I must offer a bit more information that is worthy of consideration.
Muslims, according to their religion are peaceable people, but they have, over the years, killed millions of their own people, innocent men, women and children wherever and whenever they thought that they were in their way or should be disposed of. Iran, in its own drive for power, is funding the Hezbollah for the specific purpose of killing people whenever and wherever they are.
Some Muslim interests are funding Al Queda to wreak havoc anywhere and everywhere in the world, including innocent civilians as they have done so on airplanes, hostage takings, Embassy raids, 9-11 and more. Will peaceable Muslims stand up and protest? Not when they know that any opposition is a death sentence. ...
It is a failing in this country that virtually no one knows history. And, particularly those in Washington, the Administration and Congress, don’t know the depth of history to really understand the problem and challenges of position and even maintaining peace in the world.
I read recently that Hitler actually killed more Christians (and he was one of them) than Jews in the era before and during World War II. Same with the Muslims.
I do not condone Israel when they have blown away innocent civilians. At the same time I can’t condone the Muslims for executing millions of their own people before they launched their attack on non-Muslim nations and populations.
Muslims outnumber Jews ten to one. And their warlike position is based more on religion than reason.
If we go back in history we find that most wars were actually driven by religion than any other reason or justification. The Crusades went to war to wipe out “the infidels” (read that as non-believers) while, at the same time, the infidels were mowing down innocent Christians everywhere they could. Deja vu?
I do not argue a position here. I do not agree with what this nation is doing (on many fronts and issues) while I also cannot agree with those identified as the opposition.
The United States has been assaulted by Muslim assaults and suicide bombers for years, even long before 9-11 and during the Administrations of several presidents of both parties.
This is the most frustrating time I, for one, have ever experienced in this nation.
I believe, though, that the solution is bigger than a peace march because both sides are killing the innocent for their own gains or mission.
Unfortunately, I, for one, don’t see any one, any leader in the United States or in the rest of the world really working on an effective solution.
Leonard J. Hansen
Journalist and Author
[[[ rest of my original piece can be found at:
http://www.swans.com/library/art12/rdeck067.html ]]]
“Boy George reports for NYC trash duty” the AP headline said.
How appropriate, I thought, although I would prefer that the boy in the White House be in jail for all his crimes. But it’s a good start.
Imagine my disappointment when I discovered Boy George is some kind of rock star. C’est la vie.
Bush and Blair continue to lose popularity over the war in Iraq. Republicans are shaking, fearing they may be tossed out in the next election, although probably unnecessarily since they control the election apparatus.
Something must be done!
I got it – let’s have another terror crisis. Anything involving airlines is good.
Son of a gun. Just in time, the British alleged that conspirators had planned to blow up 10 planes flying to the U.S. using liquid explosives,.
That ought to put the “war on terror” back in the news.
It snarls air flights, but that’s a small price to pay to support Bush, Blair, and Republicans.
So we ban mascara, allow lipstick; ban baby teethers, okay baby food – well, check the list, it varies hour by hour.
But don’t look too closely at the “plot.” And to make sure you don’t, the British government issued a stern warning to the media not to put the probe into the alleged terror plot at risk by publishing information about suspects.
The US corporate media eats all this up. But at least one news source, the Irish Examiner.com, used the words “alleged terror plot.”
Wonderful word “alleged.” Too bad the US corporate media doesn’t know it.
A friend, reflecting on something I blogged, said that if Ralph Nader had not siphoned off all those votes in 2000, George Bush would not be in the White House, we wouldn't be suffering these disasters and the world would be a much different place. She said that she is paying the price for all those who voted for Bush and Nader.
I know where she is coming from, and I empathize, but I voted for Nader, and I would again. To steal a line from the 60s, there isn't a dime's worth of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats, particularly when it comes to war and peace. Both of them enthusiastically supported the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. And support Israeli battering of Lebanon, which is unconscionable. Voting for a pro-war Democrat is not an option. If the Democrats are dumb enough to put up Hillary, I'll find some other Nader to vote for.
But Nader did not cost Gore the election. In the first place, Nader didn't get enough votes to affect the election one way or the other, unfortunately.
Gore lost the election all by himself -- because of the wimpy way he ran it, and because he wouldn't confront the fact that the election was stolen by the Republicans. They got away with it in 2000, and in 2004. And they're probably going do it again because the Democrats refuse to face the facts. The Republicans own the voting machines and they are manipulating the voter roles to eliminate millions of voters who are likely to vote Democratic. An extremely high percentage of those purged voters are people of color, and the Democrats, the Democratic politicians that is, are nearly as biased as Republicans and aren't willing to raise a fuss on their behalf.
If the Democrats don't get back to their base and fight for workers, healthcare, an end to the Iraq war, and the dozens of other issues important to the people, they will lose again. A strong Democrat could win, a Republican-lite will lose to the real thing.
One million Lebanese – a third of its population – have been made refugees by Israel’s vicious bombing and shelling.
One third of America's population is 100 million people. If some nation attacked us in the same fashion -- slaughtering our children, destroying apartment buildings, roads and bridges, and driving 100 million people from their homes -- we would be enraged at such terrorism.
We would want the UN, or somebody, to do something. But if the nation that attacked us had a friend like the U.S., supplying them with planes, rockets, bombs, unlimited money, and a veto in the UN, they would have nothing to worry about.
I've always been astonished how easily the public is fooled into voting against their own interests.
Several years ago, President Reagan got a 'tax cut' passed and people applauded. But unless they are millionaires or billionaires, they actually got a tax hike instead because the income tax was made less progressive, while Social Security taxes were hiked. Most people still don't realize this.
The progressive income tax hits the rich harder, that's the way it was designed. So when it was made less progressive, the money to run the government had to come from somewhere else. And that somewhere else was taxes on the middle class, and cuts in services for the poor. In short, if you're not a billionaire you got screwed.
Things have gotten worse under the Bush "tax cuts" that make the rich richer at your expense.
As Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect, said in the Boston Globe:
"So, if your college loan payments increase, or your Medicare fails to cover a needed treatment, or affordable housing has vanished because federal subsidies have been cut to almost nothing, or your local government increases fees and property taxes or cuts services because federal aid has been cut, you can thank the Republican program of tax cuts for the rich for depleting federal revenues."
"On the web, everyone will be famous to 15 people."
David Weinberger
One drunken tirade by a bigoted Hollywood superstar is more important than a war in the Mideast that is killing hundreds of people, nearly half of them children.
At least if you get your news from the American media.
The British newspapers are covering the Israelis war on Lebanon, with an honesty totally absent in the US media which gives us only statistics and political posturing. The Guardian, for example, had a moving and brutally honest story by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad. Some excerpts:
“Then came two more boys in the arms of the rescuers. One of them, the younger, around eight years old, had his arms close to his chest, his nose and mouth covered with blood. The elder, around 10, had dirt and debris in his mouth. Their slight bodies were put on a blanket, the head of the younger boy left resting on the shoulder of the elder...
“...You go a little crazy when you see little body after little body coming up out of the ground. I looked around me and all I could see in the house was the detritus of their short lives - big plastic bags filled with clothes, milk cans, plastic toys and a baby carriage....
“....Yesterday the Lebanese government said that of the 828 of its civilians killed in the conflict so far, around 35% have been children - that's around 290....
“...A week ago I met Abbas Sha'ito, a chubby 12-year-old boy in a bright orange T-shirt who was sitting on the side of a road south of Tyre, blood covering his face, his T-shirt torn by the bomb that had hit the minivan he had been in. He and 17 others had been inside; his mother, brother and aunt were all injured, moaning and in agony a few feet away. Inside the minivan remained the headless corpse of his uncle, and the bodies of his grandmother and another man who had been fleeing with them.
“Abbas was weeping, and had an arm round his mother, who seemed to be fading fast: she was injured in the chest and head, and one of her arms was almost severed at the bicep. "Don't leave me, mother," the boy wept. "Don't go, don't go."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1835307,00.html
Bumper stickers compiled by Jerry Paull, a former Methodist minister in Lakeside, Ohio:
BLIND FAITH IN BAD LEADERSHIP IS NOT PATRIOTISM
STOP MAD COWBOY DISEASE
IF YOU'RE NOT OUTRAGED, YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION
CORPORATE MEDIA = MASS MIND CONTROL
IF YOU SUPPORTED BUSH, A YELLOW RIBBON WON'T MAKE UP FOR IT
POVERTY, HEALTH CARE & HOMELESSNESS ARE MORAL ISSUES
OF COURSE IT HURTS. YOU'RE GETTING SCREWED BY AN ELEPHANT
BUSH LIED, AND YOU KNOW IT
IF YOU SUPPORT BUSH'S WAR, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?
SHUT UP AND SHIP OUT
RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM: A THREAT ABROAD, A THREAT AT HOME
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS; IMPEACH BUSH
GOD BLESS EVERYONE (No exceptions)
PRO AMERICA, ANTI BUSH
BUSH SPENT YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY ON HIS WAR
JESUS WAS A SOCIAL ACTIVIST - THAT IS A LIBERAL
WHO WOULD JESUS BOMB?
VISUALIZE IMPEACHMENT
FEEL SAFER NOW?
CORPORATE MEDIA: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
I'D RATHER HAVE A PRESIDENT WHO SCREWED HIS INTERN THAN ONE WHO
SCREWED HIS COUNTRY
DON'T CONFUSE DYING FOR OIL WITH FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM
MY VALUES? FREE SPEECH. EQUALITY. LIBERTY. EDUCATION. TOLERANCE
HONOR OUR TROOPS; DEMAND THE TRUTH
IS IT 2008 YET?
DISSENT IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF PATRIOTISM -- Thomas Jefferson
DON'T BLAME ME. I VOTED AGAINST BUSH -- TWICE!
ANNOY A CONSERVATIVE; THINK FOR YOURSELF
HEY BUSH! WHERE'S BIN LADEN?
GEORGE W. BUSH: MAKING TERRORISTS FASTER THAN HE CAN KILL THEM
KEEP YOUR THEOCRACY OFF MY DEMOCRACY
DEMOCRATS ARE SEXY. WHOEVER HEARD OF A GOOD PIECE OF ELEPHANT?
ASPIRING CANADIAN
STEM CELL RESEARCH IS PRO LIFE
HATE, GREED, IGNORANCE: WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
REBUILD IRAQ? WHY NOT SPEND 87 BILLION ON AMERICA?
FACT: BUSH OIL 1999 - $19 BARREL -- 2006 - $70 BARREL
THE LAST TIME RELIGION CONTROLLED POLITICS, PEOPLE GOT BURNED AT THE
STAKE
I'LL GIVE UP MY CHOICE WHEN JOHN ROBERTS GETS PREGNANT