Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Our Beavis Within
A blog I was reading earlier tonight (can't remember whose) linked to this Poorman post from February -- I just had to share it. Enjoy.
I've got the Things-are-getting-better-in-Iraq-but-the-media-aren't-reporting-it Blues
Once again, things are getting better in Iraq, but the darned media just aren't reporting it.
Really.
Yes, I know -- the first batch of things-are-getting-better-but-the-media-isn't-reporting-it stories were back in July 2003, when Uday and whosis were killed. At that time, there were 10 to 12 attacks a day.
And the next batch came in December, 2003, after Saddam was captured. By then, there were 25 to 30 attacks a day.
And then, last July, once again, after the big turnover and before the Republican convention, we were hearing once again about how things were getting better but the media just wasn't reporting it. I think by that time there were 50 attacks a day.
So now the elections have been held two months ago, and there's STILL no new government. But once again its time for another batch of Things-are-getting-better-but-the-media-aren't-reporting-it stories.
Well, here's the latest from someone actually in the country -- and this is supposed to be good news: "George Casey, the commanding US general of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, told [CNN] that current insurgent assaults were running at between 50 and 60 attacks a day. "They (insurgents) are able to maintain the level of violence between 50 and 60 attacks a day," General Casey said. "The four provinces where the insurgency is still capable is out west, near Fallujah in Anbar province, in the Baghdad area and Saladdin, which is in the centre of the country, around Saddam's home town, and up north, in the Mosul area," he said. " Those four provinces, by the way, contain almost half of Iraq's population and about a third of its land area.
And here's the LA Times story on Sunday describing life as it is lived by soldiers in Iraq: "This is a war without a front but with plenty of rear. Many soldiers spend a year in Iraq without ever leaving their fortified bases. Others may never meet an Iraqi, much less kill one. A soldier may patrol for months without ever seeing the enemy, yet risk death or disfigurement at any moment. Each day in Iraq will end, almost without exception, with an American on patrol losing an arm, a leg, an eye or a life to an earth-shattering detonation of high explosives. That these bombs are embedded in the most prosaic emblems of Iraqi life — a car, a donkey cart, a trash pile, a pothole — only intensifies the dread that attends every journey outside the wire."
But things are better, I tell you. BETTER!
Really.
Yes, I know -- the first batch of things-are-getting-better-but-the-media-isn't-reporting-it stories were back in July 2003, when Uday and whosis were killed. At that time, there were 10 to 12 attacks a day.
And the next batch came in December, 2003, after Saddam was captured. By then, there were 25 to 30 attacks a day.
And then, last July, once again, after the big turnover and before the Republican convention, we were hearing once again about how things were getting better but the media just wasn't reporting it. I think by that time there were 50 attacks a day.
So now the elections have been held two months ago, and there's STILL no new government. But once again its time for another batch of Things-are-getting-better-but-the-media-aren't-reporting-it stories.
Well, here's the latest from someone actually in the country -- and this is supposed to be good news: "George Casey, the commanding US general of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, told [CNN] that current insurgent assaults were running at between 50 and 60 attacks a day. "They (insurgents) are able to maintain the level of violence between 50 and 60 attacks a day," General Casey said. "The four provinces where the insurgency is still capable is out west, near Fallujah in Anbar province, in the Baghdad area and Saladdin, which is in the centre of the country, around Saddam's home town, and up north, in the Mosul area," he said. " Those four provinces, by the way, contain almost half of Iraq's population and about a third of its land area.
And here's the LA Times story on Sunday describing life as it is lived by soldiers in Iraq: "This is a war without a front but with plenty of rear. Many soldiers spend a year in Iraq without ever leaving their fortified bases. Others may never meet an Iraqi, much less kill one. A soldier may patrol for months without ever seeing the enemy, yet risk death or disfigurement at any moment. Each day in Iraq will end, almost without exception, with an American on patrol losing an arm, a leg, an eye or a life to an earth-shattering detonation of high explosives. That these bombs are embedded in the most prosaic emblems of Iraqi life — a car, a donkey cart, a trash pile, a pothole — only intensifies the dread that attends every journey outside the wire."
But things are better, I tell you. BETTER!
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Finally, an invention I could really use
Like Something Out of a Cartoon...
"Can't get out of bed in the morning? Scientists at MIT's Media Lab in the United States have invented an alarm clock called Clocky to make even the doziest sleepers, who repeatedly hit the snooze button, leap out of bed. After the snooze button is pressed, the clock, which is equipped with a set of wheels, rolls off the table to another part of the room. "When the alarm sounds again, simply finding Clocky ought to be strenuous enough to prevent even the doziest owner from going back to sleep," New Scientist magazine said Tuesday."
"Can't get out of bed in the morning? Scientists at MIT's Media Lab in the United States have invented an alarm clock called Clocky to make even the doziest sleepers, who repeatedly hit the snooze button, leap out of bed. After the snooze button is pressed, the clock, which is equipped with a set of wheels, rolls off the table to another part of the room. "When the alarm sounds again, simply finding Clocky ought to be strenuous enough to prevent even the doziest owner from going back to sleep," New Scientist magazine said Tuesday."
The Anglicans have turned into wingnuts
The Anglican Church has gone mad, batshit, looney, crackers, around the bend, crazy as a loon, mad as a hatter, not all there, nutty as a fruitcake, a few eggs short of a basket, bunny-hopping nuts . . . oh, you get it.
I think it began when, or perhaps even because, they kicked out the Canadian and American branches just because they accept gay people, an act of stunningly unChristian meanness and ignorance and lack of charity.
Now, the inmates are in charge of the asylum, and they're starting in on divorced people -- Bishop: Prince Charles must atone Prince Charles is supposed to apologize to Camilla Parker Bowles' husband for breaking up his marriage? Oh yeah, like Camilla herself had nothing to do with it, I suppose, and her husband himself was perfect in every way? It was all Charles fault?
And the bishop announces this unsolicited opinion to the media, on Easter Sunday no less. It saddens me to see a venerable and once-respected institution like the Anglican church descend into a kind of tabloid journalism grandstanding, making instant and ignorant judgment calls, showing off its own supposed moral purity by pointing fingures, starting these kind of stupid public battles . . . by turning away from gay people, I think the Anglican Church lost its soul. What we are now seeing are the empty masks hanging from trees, twisting in the wind.
I think it began when, or perhaps even because, they kicked out the Canadian and American branches just because they accept gay people, an act of stunningly unChristian meanness and ignorance and lack of charity.
Now, the inmates are in charge of the asylum, and they're starting in on divorced people -- Bishop: Prince Charles must atone Prince Charles is supposed to apologize to Camilla Parker Bowles' husband for breaking up his marriage? Oh yeah, like Camilla herself had nothing to do with it, I suppose, and her husband himself was perfect in every way? It was all Charles fault?
And the bishop announces this unsolicited opinion to the media, on Easter Sunday no less. It saddens me to see a venerable and once-respected institution like the Anglican church descend into a kind of tabloid journalism grandstanding, making instant and ignorant judgment calls, showing off its own supposed moral purity by pointing fingures, starting these kind of stupid public battles . . . by turning away from gay people, I think the Anglican Church lost its soul. What we are now seeing are the empty masks hanging from trees, twisting in the wind.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
"Calling Franz Kafka, white courtesy phone"
This is incredible but, unfortunately, not unbelievable.MSNBC - Panel ignored evidence on Gitmo detainee
There will come a time when America will have to apologize to the world for Guantanamo and for what it is doing there, as well as at its other secret prisons. 'I was just following orders' was not an acceptable excuse in 1945 and it won't be in 2005 either.
A military tribunal determined last fall that Murat Kurnaz, a German national seized in Pakistan in 2001, was a member of al Qaeda and an enemy combatant whom the government could detain indefinitely at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The three military officers on the panel, whose identities are kept secret, said in papers filed in federal court that they reached their conclusion based largely on classified evidence that was too sensitive to release to the public. In fact, that evidence, recently declassified and obtained by The Washington Post, shows that U.S. military intelligence and German law enforcement authorities had largely concluded there was no information that linked Kurnaz to al Qaeda, any other terrorist organization or terrorist activities. [emphasis mine]
In recently declassified portions of a January ruling, a federal judge criticized the military panel for ignoring the exculpatory information that dominates Kurnaz's file and for relying instead on a brief, unsupported memo filed shortly before Kurnaz's hearing by an unidentified government official. Kurnaz has been detained at Guantanamo Bay since at least January 2002. "The U.S. government has known for almost two years that he's innocent of these charges," said Baher Azmy, Kurnaz's attorney. "That begs a lot of questions about what the purpose of Guantanamo really is. He can't be useful to them. He has no intelligence for them. Why in the world is he still there?" . . . Justice Department lawyers told Azmy last week that the information may have been improperly declassified and should be treated in the foreseeable future as classified.
There will come a time when America will have to apologize to the world for Guantanamo and for what it is doing there, as well as at its other secret prisons. 'I was just following orders' was not an acceptable excuse in 1945 and it won't be in 2005 either.
Dawn of the Undead
James Wolcott: Terri's Law, Sponsored by Kraft Cheese
So now there's talk of Terri's Law - what I would call "The Dawn of the Undead" --which would prevent the withdrawal of life support from anyone without a Living Will, or even for someone with a Living Will if a relative disagreed.
This is, I guess, supposed to satisfy the hysterical anti-abortionists who are picketing the hospice and trying to hire hit-men.
Well, the hospitals and the HMOs will soon put a stop to THAT -- they know how much a law like that would cost them, and for what? So that an hysterical or cruel relative could force the family to continue to worship the empty body?
Once again, its an anti-abortionist attempt to try to deny the right to choose to the person himself or to his closest family.
So now there's talk of Terri's Law - what I would call "The Dawn of the Undead" --which would prevent the withdrawal of life support from anyone without a Living Will, or even for someone with a Living Will if a relative disagreed.
This is, I guess, supposed to satisfy the hysterical anti-abortionists who are picketing the hospice and trying to hire hit-men.
Well, the hospitals and the HMOs will soon put a stop to THAT -- they know how much a law like that would cost them, and for what? So that an hysterical or cruel relative could force the family to continue to worship the empty body?
Once again, its an anti-abortionist attempt to try to deny the right to choose to the person himself or to his closest family.
The latest on the torture papers
Taking a short break from the All Terri, All The Time news obsession, here's a quick update on the latest prisoner torture news -- first, the latest ACLU press release American Civil Liberties Union : Army's Own Documents Acknowledge Evidence that Soldiers Used Torture. Another Friday document dump. on Good Friday no less, reveals more evidence of systematic and strategic torture of Iraqis: a teenage boy's jaw was broken during a beating; a detainee died by being exercised to death; soldiers were told to "beat the fuck out of detainees" and the units who had lost the most soldiers during insurgency actionw were encouraged to "payback" detainees.
Here is the ACLU page listing the other government documents on torture that have been released following the ACLU lawsuit.
And here's the latest news about prisoner homicides -- 27 detainee deaths linked to foul play
And here's the latest about children being held as prisoners -- this CNN story from a couple of weeks ago.
There, isn't it great to be up to date?
Now, back to the latest breaking Terri Schiavo news. . .
UPDATE: Another torture story from yesterday that I should also include in this roundup: Blows that led to detainee's death were common practice, reservist says Here's what they did to a part-time cab driver: ". . . the pathologist who examined Dilawar, 35, testified . . . the tissue in Dilawar's legs had been so damaged by repeated blows that 'it was essentially crumbling and falling apart.'. . . Army investigators have said that Brand wasn't alone in brutalizing Dilawar. Four interrogators are accused in the documents of kicking Dilawar in the groin and leg during the course of his interrogation, slamming him into walls and a table, forcing him to maintain painful contorted body positions during the interview and forcing water into his mouth until he couldn't breathe . . ." And here's what was done to the brother of a Taliban commander: ". . . According to an Army investigation, Habibullah was so badly hurt by repeated knee strikes that 'even if he survived, both legs would have had to be amputated.'. . . another soldier in the platoon bragged that he had kneed Habibullah at least 50 times "and he deserved every one."
Here is the ACLU page listing the other government documents on torture that have been released following the ACLU lawsuit.
And here's the latest news about prisoner homicides -- 27 detainee deaths linked to foul play
And here's the latest about children being held as prisoners -- this CNN story from a couple of weeks ago.
There, isn't it great to be up to date?
Now, back to the latest breaking Terri Schiavo news. . .
UPDATE: Another torture story from yesterday that I should also include in this roundup: Blows that led to detainee's death were common practice, reservist says Here's what they did to a part-time cab driver: ". . . the pathologist who examined Dilawar, 35, testified . . . the tissue in Dilawar's legs had been so damaged by repeated blows that 'it was essentially crumbling and falling apart.'. . . Army investigators have said that Brand wasn't alone in brutalizing Dilawar. Four interrogators are accused in the documents of kicking Dilawar in the groin and leg during the course of his interrogation, slamming him into walls and a table, forcing him to maintain painful contorted body positions during the interview and forcing water into his mouth until he couldn't breathe . . ." And here's what was done to the brother of a Taliban commander: ". . . According to an Army investigation, Habibullah was so badly hurt by repeated knee strikes that 'even if he survived, both legs would have had to be amputated.'. . . another soldier in the platoon bragged that he had kneed Habibullah at least 50 times "and he deserved every one."
Friday, March 25, 2005
Dueling banjos
I hear the twang of dueling banjos as Jeb Bush tries to establish the "culture of life" at gunpoint -- the Bush Banzai Brigade vs the Pinellas Park Police. Police 'showdown' averted Film at 11.
Well, I was right -- I said earlier that doctors would not want to reinstall the feeding tube without legal authority, and it looks like this was one of the factors that stopped the Bush Banzai Brigade from carrying Terri Schiavro out of the hospice by force -- that, and the prospect of a pitched battle with the police, with the protestors and media caught in the middle.
The media, of course, would have loved it -- new people to interview and new video to show over and over and over. Hey, it would be even better than Jessica Lynch, because it could show American law enforcement getting beaten and shot by other American law enforcement, all in the cause of the "culture of life".
You know, if you wrote all this up as a novel, no publisher would accept it -- the story is just too incredible for fiction.
Well, I was right -- I said earlier that doctors would not want to reinstall the feeding tube without legal authority, and it looks like this was one of the factors that stopped the Bush Banzai Brigade from carrying Terri Schiavro out of the hospice by force -- that, and the prospect of a pitched battle with the police, with the protestors and media caught in the middle.
The media, of course, would have loved it -- new people to interview and new video to show over and over and over. Hey, it would be even better than Jessica Lynch, because it could show American law enforcement getting beaten and shot by other American law enforcement, all in the cause of the "culture of life".
You know, if you wrote all this up as a novel, no publisher would accept it -- the story is just too incredible for fiction.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Res Ipsa Loquitur.....
Ross, great piece.
Its about Hunter Thompson and Billmon and the whole damn thing.
I wish Hunter Thompson hadn't done it. But I am glad that Billmon is back. The world needs voices of sanity and truth, now more than ever - do not go gentle into that good night, rage rage against the dying of the light.
I have revised that myself to say "blog, blog against the dying of the light" and to use it as the slogan for my blog. Now partly thats just a joke, but partly I really believe it.
When you look at the history of great battles, it often seems that one of the significant factors for the winners was an unexpectedly better technology.
In the battle against the fascism of the Bush administration I believe that blogs may play a decisive role.
Maybe I am deluded because of my own blog experience, when I discovered Liberal Oasis in the fall of 2002 and felt it truly was an oasis in a world of insanity, when Bush was marching inextolerably toward a pointless, needless war with Iraq and the dems lost congress in the midterms and the media acted like the anti-war movement did not exist.
But just as the discovery of Liberal Oasis allowed this middle-aged woman from Saskatchewan to connect with like-minded people all across the continent and even around the world, so do the on-line communities created by Kos and Atrios and RossK and Frog, and Robert and Pogge and Canadian Cynic and all of us, allow unforeseen connections and synergies which the forces of darkness did not anticipate and have not planned for and cannot stop.
And maybe, together in cyberspace, we will prevail.
Ross, great piece.
Its about Hunter Thompson and Billmon and the whole damn thing.
I wish Hunter Thompson hadn't done it. But I am glad that Billmon is back. The world needs voices of sanity and truth, now more than ever - do not go gentle into that good night, rage rage against the dying of the light.
I have revised that myself to say "blog, blog against the dying of the light" and to use it as the slogan for my blog. Now partly thats just a joke, but partly I really believe it.
When you look at the history of great battles, it often seems that one of the significant factors for the winners was an unexpectedly better technology.
In the battle against the fascism of the Bush administration I believe that blogs may play a decisive role.
Maybe I am deluded because of my own blog experience, when I discovered Liberal Oasis in the fall of 2002 and felt it truly was an oasis in a world of insanity, when Bush was marching inextolerably toward a pointless, needless war with Iraq and the dems lost congress in the midterms and the media acted like the anti-war movement did not exist.
But just as the discovery of Liberal Oasis allowed this middle-aged woman from Saskatchewan to connect with like-minded people all across the continent and even around the world, so do the on-line communities created by Kos and Atrios and RossK and Frog, and Robert and Pogge and Canadian Cynic and all of us, allow unforeseen connections and synergies which the forces of darkness did not anticipate and have not planned for and cannot stop.
And maybe, together in cyberspace, we will prevail.
Its up-is-downism, again
WorldNetDaily: Nazis: Pioneers in medicine
This Buchanan column talks about how Terri Schiavo is like a Christian martyr groaning under the Nazi heel.
I've seen a lot of stuff in the last two months talking about American fascism under Bush and worrying about the fascist tendencies in the Bush administration. Do you think this Schiavo hysteria is what the Bush fascists were waiting for, so that they can use it to try to accuse their opponents of what they themselves are guilty of?
It's like the supporters of AWOL Bush accusing war hero Kerry of cowardice.
Its another example of what Josh Marshall calls Up-is-Downism.
I am calling it Jessica Lynch syndrome -- the desire to see Jeb Bush and the 101st Fighting Keyboarders burst into Ms. Schiavo's hospice room, scoop her up at gunpoint, and spirit her away to a hospital where, because the doctors likely wouldn't do this surgery without legal authorization, they would also have to force the doctors at gunpoint to reinstall the feeding tube.
Still crazy, after all these years.
This Buchanan column talks about how Terri Schiavo is like a Christian martyr groaning under the Nazi heel.
I've seen a lot of stuff in the last two months talking about American fascism under Bush and worrying about the fascist tendencies in the Bush administration. Do you think this Schiavo hysteria is what the Bush fascists were waiting for, so that they can use it to try to accuse their opponents of what they themselves are guilty of?
It's like the supporters of AWOL Bush accusing war hero Kerry of cowardice.
Its another example of what Josh Marshall calls Up-is-Downism.
I am calling it Jessica Lynch syndrome -- the desire to see Jeb Bush and the 101st Fighting Keyboarders burst into Ms. Schiavo's hospice room, scoop her up at gunpoint, and spirit her away to a hospital where, because the doctors likely wouldn't do this surgery without legal authorization, they would also have to force the doctors at gunpoint to reinstall the feeding tube.
Still crazy, after all these years.
Best line of the day
From a commenter on this post at Daily Kos :: What Happens When Worlds Collide?:
"Reality is what refuses to go away when you stop believing in it."
"Reality is what refuses to go away when you stop believing in it."
Thursday, March 24, 2005
A uniter, not a divider
CBS News | Poll: Keep Feeding Tube Out
My daughter raised this point -- if 82 percent of the public think that Bush and congress made a mistake in interfering with the Terry Schiavo case, I guess it can now be proven that Bush is actually a uniter, not a divider. He has united the American public in disapproval of what he did.
My daughter raised this point -- if 82 percent of the public think that Bush and congress made a mistake in interfering with the Terry Schiavo case, I guess it can now be proven that Bush is actually a uniter, not a divider. He has united the American public in disapproval of what he did.
What a great weight loss idea!
Yahoo! News - You Want Fingers with That? A customer took a spoonful of chili which included a human finger. After spitting it out, authorities said "Then they had some kind of emotional reaction and vomited."
Well, I should think so.
Hey, maybe Weight Watchers should try this with their frozen dinners -- having to watch out for the occasional body part would be a guaranteed way to make you eat slowly, and maybe even lose interest in eating altogether, wouldn't it.
Well, I should think so.
Hey, maybe Weight Watchers should try this with their frozen dinners -- having to watch out for the occasional body part would be a guaranteed way to make you eat slowly, and maybe even lose interest in eating altogether, wouldn't it.
NOW I get it
Pandagon: The ghouls and vampires who oppose choice
Well, I'm finally starting to understand why the anti-abortion people are leading the "culture of life" charge to try to get the feeding tube reinserted in Terri Schiavo.
Like abortion, its not about life, its about choice. And once again, its not "what choice" but "whose choice" that is basically the issue.
I have argued on this blog that many of the people who say they are anti-abortion are actually just anti-choice -- what they are actually opposed to is allowing individual women to choose for themselves whether or not to get an abortion. They usually concede that if her reasons are "good enough", like that the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, or that carrying the baby will kill her, then a woman could get an abortion in that situation. In other words, they think its OK for a woman to have an abortion if a committee of doctors OKs it , but not if the woman decides for herself.
Parenthetically, this is why I was so pleased to see the Conservatives agree last weekend that they would not adopt a policy supporting new abortion legislation -- they finally accepted that people can be pro-choice without being pro-abortion.
Getting back to the Schiavo case, I see the same "anti-choice" approach as it taken toward abortion. The basic attitude seems to be that Ms. Shiavo's own choice must be disregarded, ignored, marginalized, disbelieved or overturned. This choice has been confirmed by legal evidence presented in court, reviewed and cross-examined, evaluated by lawyers and by Ms. Schaivo's own guardian, and accepted as factual by judge after judge -- first, that Ms Schiavo is and will always be a vegetable, and second, that she would choose to die rather than to continue to live in such a condition. Instead, the argument seems to go, the choice should be made by her parents or her sister or her brother or the congress or Jeb Bush or the Supreme Court -- anyone, really, who would base the choice on their own mystic, magical, wishful thinking rather than on Ms. Schiavo's choice. Baiscally, they are writhing and turning to avoid accepting that she made her own choice.
And in a postscript -- I read the saddest comment on a blog today. The commenter said she had worked in the same workplace as Ms. Schaivo's brother and that he was a sad man, having spent his entire adult life, 15 years, embroiled in this case. I wonder if her parents or brother or sister ever considered whether Ms. Schiavo herself would have wanted them all to suffer for so long over her twisted body and empty mind.
Well, I'm finally starting to understand why the anti-abortion people are leading the "culture of life" charge to try to get the feeding tube reinserted in Terri Schiavo.
Like abortion, its not about life, its about choice. And once again, its not "what choice" but "whose choice" that is basically the issue.
I have argued on this blog that many of the people who say they are anti-abortion are actually just anti-choice -- what they are actually opposed to is allowing individual women to choose for themselves whether or not to get an abortion. They usually concede that if her reasons are "good enough", like that the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest, or that carrying the baby will kill her, then a woman could get an abortion in that situation. In other words, they think its OK for a woman to have an abortion if a committee of doctors OKs it , but not if the woman decides for herself.
Parenthetically, this is why I was so pleased to see the Conservatives agree last weekend that they would not adopt a policy supporting new abortion legislation -- they finally accepted that people can be pro-choice without being pro-abortion.
Getting back to the Schiavo case, I see the same "anti-choice" approach as it taken toward abortion. The basic attitude seems to be that Ms. Shiavo's own choice must be disregarded, ignored, marginalized, disbelieved or overturned. This choice has been confirmed by legal evidence presented in court, reviewed and cross-examined, evaluated by lawyers and by Ms. Schaivo's own guardian, and accepted as factual by judge after judge -- first, that Ms Schiavo is and will always be a vegetable, and second, that she would choose to die rather than to continue to live in such a condition. Instead, the argument seems to go, the choice should be made by her parents or her sister or her brother or the congress or Jeb Bush or the Supreme Court -- anyone, really, who would base the choice on their own mystic, magical, wishful thinking rather than on Ms. Schiavo's choice. Baiscally, they are writhing and turning to avoid accepting that she made her own choice.
And in a postscript -- I read the saddest comment on a blog today. The commenter said she had worked in the same workplace as Ms. Schaivo's brother and that he was a sad man, having spent his entire adult life, 15 years, embroiled in this case. I wonder if her parents or brother or sister ever considered whether Ms. Schiavo herself would have wanted them all to suffer for so long over her twisted body and empty mind.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
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