Saturday, May 15, 2004

Some recommended reading...online

The Education of Henry Adams
by Henry Adams

Martin Chuzzlewit
by Charles Dickens

The Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Sorrows of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
by Henry David Thoreau

Walden
by Henry David Thoreau

An Ideal Husband
by Oscar Wilde

When We Dead Awaken
by Henrik Ibsen

Songs of Innocence and Experience
by William Blake

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Poems
by T.S. Eliot

Short Stories
by O. Henry

Works by William Shakespeare


Has Pat Buchanan achieved Cosmic Consciousness?

Has Pat Buchanan achieved Cosmic Consciousness?
And, for that matter, has WorldNetDaily?

This is what the new cosmic Pat says on WorldNetDaily:

EXCERPTS:


The neoconservative hour is over. All the blather about "empire," our "unipolar moment," "Pax Americana" and "benevolent global hegemony" will be quietly put on a shelf and forgotten as infantile prattle.

America is not going to fight a five- or 10-year war in Iraq. Nor will we be launching any new invasions soon. The retreat of American empire, begun at Fallujah, is underway.

With a $500 billion deficit, we do not have the money for new wars. With an Army of 480,000 stretched thin, we do not have the troops. With April-May costing us a battalion of dead and wounded, we are not going to pay the price. With the squalid photos from Abu Ghraib, we no longer have the moral authority to impose our "values" on Iraq.

Bush's "world democratic revolution" is history.

Given the hatred of the United States and Bush in the Arab world, as attested to by Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, it is almost delusional to think Arab peoples are going to follow America's lead.

Iraq was an unnecessary war that may become one of the great blunders in U.S. history.

The Iraqi peoples should then be told that U.S. soldiers are not going to fight and die indefinitely for their freedom. If they do not want to be ruled by Sheik Moqtada al-Sadr or some future Saddam, they will have to fight themselves. Otherwise, they will have to live with them, even as they lived with Saddam. For in the last analysis, it is their country, not ours.

The president should also offer to withdraw U.S. forces from any Arab country that wishes us to leave. We have already pulled out of Saudi Arabia. Let us pull out of the rest unless they ask that we remain. Our military presence in these Arab and Islamic countries, it would seem, does less to prevent terror attacks upon us than to incite them.

A presidential election is where the great foreign-policy debate should take place over whether to maintain U.S. troops all over the world, or bring them home and let other nations determine their own destiny. Unfortunately, we have two candidates and two parties that agree on our present foreign policy that is conspicuously failing.




SAPs Under Wraps: A Game of Craps?

THE GRAY ZONE
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.

EXCERPTS (Headlines mine):

SAP RISING
The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of élite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror.
...

RUM TRUMPS THE CHUMPS AT CIA
According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon’s operation, known inside the intelligence community by several code words, including Copper Green, encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official, in confirming the details of this account last week, said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld’s long-standing desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A.
...

SOME PEOPLE THINK YOU CAN BULLSHIT ANYONE
The senior C.I.A. official, asked about Rumsfeld’s testimony and that of Stephen Cambone, his Under-Secretary for Intelligence, said, “Some people think you can bullshit anyone.”
...

The Abu Ghraib story began, in a sense, just weeks after the September 11, 2001...

Rumsfeld reacted in his usual direct fashion: he authorized the establishment of a highly secret program that was given blanket advance approval to kill or capture and, if possible, interrogate “high value” targets in the Bush Administration’s war on terror. A special-access program, or sap—subject to the Defense Department’s most stringent level of security—was set up, with an office in a secure area of the Pentagon. The program would recruit operatives and acquire the necessary equipment, including aircraft, and would keep its activities under wraps...
...

THE WHITE WORLD
They carried out instant interrogations—using force if necessary—at secret C.I.A. detention centers scattered around the world. The intelligence would be relayed to the sap command center in the Pentagon in real time, and sifted for those pieces of information critical to the “white,” or overt, world.
...

GRAB WHAT YOU MUST. DO WHAT YOU WANT.
“We’re not going to read more people than necessary into our heart of darkness,” he said. “The rules are ‘Grab whom you must. Do what you want.’”

One Pentagon official who was deeply involved in the program was Stephen Cambone, who was named Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in March, 2003.
...

BOYKIN BOINKING THE MUSLIMS
Cambone’s military assistant, Army Lieutenant General William G. (Jerry) Boykin, was also controversial. Last fall, he generated unwanted headlines after it was reported that, in a speech at an Oregon church, he equated the Muslim world with Satan.
...
RUMMY AND HAMBONE GO ONE BETTER! ROUGH SEX!!
Rumsfeld and Cambone went a step further, however: they expanded the scope of the sap, bringing its unconventional methods to Abu Ghraib. The commandos were to operate in Iraq as they had in Afghanistan. The male prisoners could be treated roughly, and exposed to sexual humiliation.
...
IT'S BLACK AND IT'S HOT...AND IT'S FLOWING INTO THE WHITE WORLD
Cambone says, I’ve got to crack this thing and I’m tired of working through the normal chain of command. I’ve got this apparatus set up—the black special-access program—and I’m going in hot. So he pulls the switch, and the electricity begins flowing last summer. And it’s working. We’re getting a picture of the insurgency in Iraq and the intelligence is flowing into the white world.

Cambone then made another crucial decision, the former intelligence official told me: not only would he bring the sap’s rules into the prisons; he would bring some of the Army military-intelligence officers working inside the Iraqi prisons under the sap’s auspices.
...

RECYCLED HILLBILLIES
The military-police prison guards, the former official said, included “recycled hillbillies from Cumberland, Maryland.” He was referring to members of the 372nd Military Police Company. Seven members of the company are now facing charges for their role in the abuse at Abu Ghraib. “How are these guys from Cumberland going to know anything? The Army Reserve doesn’t know what it’s doing.”
...

THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS
“The White House subcontracted this to the Pentagon, and the Pentagon subcontracted it to Cambone,” he said. “This is Cambone’s deal, but Rumsfeld and Myers approved the program.” When it came to the interrogation operation at Abu Ghraib, he said, Rumsfeld left the details to Cambone. Rumsfeld may not be personally culpable, the consultant added, “but he’s responsible for the checks and balances. The issue is that, since 9/11, we’ve changed the rules on how we deal with terrorism, and created conditions where the ends justify the means.”

...

THE GENEVA CONVENTION HAS COME TO AN END
They told him that, with the war on terror, a fifty-year history of exemplary application of the Geneva Conventions had come to an end.
...

FIRST THERE WAS A PRETZEL ACCIDENT...
The abuses at Abu Ghraib were exposed on January 13th, when Joseph Darby, a young military policeman assigned to Abu Ghraib, reported the wrongdoing to the Army’s Criminal Investigations Division. He also turned over a CD full of photographs. Within three days, a report made its way to Donald Rumsfeld, who informed President Bush.
...

CAMBONE IS HAMBONE
The most vulnerable senior official is Cambone. “The Pentagon is trying now to protect Cambone, and doesn’t know how to do it,” the former intelligence official said.
...

RUMMY LOWERS THE BAR, AND THE WORLD LOWERS THE BOOM
“We’re giving the world a ready-made excuse to ignore the Geneva Conventions. Rumsfeld has lowered the bar.”


FULL STORY

anonyMoses @ Daily Kos

anonyMoses @ Daily Kos

Including such hits as:
- The Right: The Ambitious Mediocre
- Bush's "crusader prisons"

JUST SHUT UP!!

JUST SHUT UP!!
by Neal Pollack
You are full of shit, Rush. So shut up. You too, Coulter. And Lieberman? For the love of G-d, shut your fool mouth. Everybody just shut up.
LINK

Friday, May 14, 2004

Tracking the lies of lying liars

Claims vs. Facts Database - Center for American Progress
"The Center for American Progress has launched this new database project to chart conservatives' dishonesty and compare it with the truth. In this database, each conservative quote will be matched against well-documented facts, so that users can get a more accurate picture of the issues. And we need your help. If we're missing a lie or distortion you know of, please submit an entry. If it checks out, we will gladly add it to the database."

News from BushWorld

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Citizens or Consumers? The Zen of Citizenship.

Citizens or Consumers? The Zen of Citizenship.

Bill Moyers asks...which are we?

During an interview today with Terry Gross, Bill Moyers reiterates a point I have often made. Bush, the GOP, treats Americans, and indeed, the world...as consumers. I swear this is true.

John Kerry must make it damn clear that he does not. He must make it damn clear that he treats us, and other peoples of the world...as citizens.

The business of America is not just business.
This is just a trick of language.

But what business is the people's business...should be good business.

Bla bla bla...

Rumsfeld: "I stopped reading the newspapers." GET HIM LENNY!

Rumsfeld: "I stopped reading the newspapers." GET HIM LENNY!

Now that you publishers know that Mr. Rumsfeld is not even reading you...stop pussyfooting! Get him, Lenny! And you know that Bush doesn't read you either. Quit walking on rice paper. They are not Lao Tse. Quite the opposite, sadly.

Both Bush and Rummy would fail miserably at Sim City. Why do we think they would do any better with the world?

Rush Contra Rummy : Watch the Ad by David Brock's Media Matters

Rush Contra Rummy : Watch the Ad by David Brock's Media Matters
Media Matters for America Television Spot Reveals Controversial Iraqi Prisoner Torture Commentary
Ad Cracks Down on Limbaugh's Outburst


Whistleblower, David Brock, is blowing the whistle ever louder with his latest project, Media Matters [mediamatters.org].

Here is their latest contribution; a TV ad showing Rush contradicting Rummy, and showing just how shallow and mean-spirited a man he really is.


RUSH! Dull mind think alike! Better snap to, boy! We'll pull the funds!

Hizb Allah (Hezbollah) condemns beheading

Hizb Allah (Hezbollah) condemns beheading

The Lebanese political group Hizb Allah has condemned the beheading of an American hostage in Iraq as an ugly crime that flouted the tenets of Islam.

IRAQ GONE WILD: "Almost everybody was naked all the time"

IRAQ GONE WILD: "Almost everybody was naked all the time"

American soldier and namesake of coalition partner, Lyndee England, is a real gangbanger! Or so says those who have seen her latest videos...soon to be available on the Internet, if my prediction that this is just another money-making scheme by the Oil-Drugs-Porn-Guns cartel comes true...no pun intended.

Advice to Kerry: An Administration of Giants

Advice to Kerry: An Administration of Giants



David Ogilvy, upon hiring a new manager, would send them a set of Russian dolls, one inside the other. Inside the smallest doll was the note: "If you hire people less than you, you will wind up with a company of midgets. Hire people bigger than you, and you wind up with a company of giants. Hire giants."

I paraphrase, but the meaning is the same.

Pick your VP and Administration carefully. Create an Administration of Giants.

Nick Berg's family business on Right-Wing Hit List. Are you?

Nick Berg's family business of Right-Wing Hit List. Are you? :: HERE IS THE ENEMY -- they have posted their names

The McCarthyites have their panties in a wad.
Further proof...dull minds think alike.

Megadittos!

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Don't behead us! Rape us and sick dogs on us!

Don't behead us! Rape us and sick dogs on us!

HYPOCRISY ALERT!

A POEM

We are better than them.
We are better than them.
We are morally superior.
We are better than them.
Repeat it enough and you'll believe it.
We are better than them.


IN OTHER NEWS
Rush, filled with rage, call Americans "blockheads"

Goofball, Rush Limbaugh, waxes religious as he describes the hate that welled up within him as he saw the beheading of Nick Berg. It was quite moving, actually, but the problem with Rush is that he then goes on to talk about moral equivalences, nuking them, and so on. Devilthink. Satanspeak. Take your shoes off.

He wants people to take out their rage on political opponents, and some probably will.

Rush needs to watch "Fisher King" before he, with his millions of dittoheads, create Hell on our precious soil.

Nick Berg and Freepergate

Nick Berg and Freepergate

Graphic images of the first beheading

Graphic images of the first beheading


WARNING: IMAGES WITHIN LINK ARE REAL, BUT SIMILAR TO THIS

Will Mr. Berg be the only American beheaded in retribution for American misdeeds in Iraq? Or is he only the first one?

My hope is that he is the last one.

But we've got to quit digging the hole deeper. We shouldn't have gone into Iraq in the first place, since the reasons for our going have turned out to be bogus. No WMD. No Nuclear threat. No Al Qaeda connection.

As we are witnessing, or supressing, images of our own atrocities, our own inhumanity to man, and woman, and indeed child...we are shown an image of one of our own suffering the consequences of ill-conceived visions, basically, and suddenly we want to step up our violence against those who perpetuated this horrible deed.

There is no either/or. We have both been shown to be capable of atrocious behavior. So stop! And maybe they will!
At least we will not be going our own standards of decency, regardless of the fact that a relatively small minority of others act otherwise.

Greatness is having the power, but not using it.
Store up for true emergencies.
Don't exhaust your resources, especially not frivolously, with mere profit in mind.

In Falluja, they killed 4 Americans, and in retaliation, we killed hundreds. Both them and us.

"Paths of Glory" comes to mind...

How many of us and them will we kill because of this one man's death?

And how many more Nick Bergs will that insure?

If we are truly on a path of Peace...let us be on a path of peace, and stop the warring already.

99.9% of the World are fed up with Powerful People throwing poor schmucks to the proverbial dogs of war, while nothing but Oil pours, nay, trickles, from the other side.

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

New Images from Iraq!

New Images from Iraq!

Flag-burning American Style :: Every flag but US to go up in flames

Flag-burning American Style :: Every flag but US to go up in flames

While it is illegal to burn a US flag, it is not illegal to burn the flags of other nations. To celebrate this fact, we at Anonymoses Inc. suggest we have a bonfire, and burn the flag of every other nation.

It is our right. It will make you feel important.
Your girlfriend will look at you cross-eyed.

But be that as it may...we think you should obey your inner voice
and, so to say, throw in the flag.

Our next project is to study the viability of a map-burning.
What are the ramifications of burning a map?
Is it against the law to burn a map of the United States?

So many important things to think about...
And they say stuff is going on overseas!


Monday, May 10, 2004

Tao te Ching, Chapters 30 and 31

I am always reminded of chapters 30 and 31 if the Chinese classic, Tao te Ching, when War raises its awful head. So, once again, I bring them to you, my dears with ears and tears...




Chapter 30

1. He who would assist a lord of men in harmony with the Tao will not assert his mastery in the kingdom by force of arms. Such a course is sure to meet with its proper return.

2. Wherever a host is stationed, briars and thorns spring up. In the sequence of great armies there are sure to be bad years.

3. A skilful (commander) strikes a decisive blow, and stops. He does not dare (by continuing his operations) to assert and complete his mastery. He will strike the blow, but will be on his guard against being vain or boastful or arrogant in consequence of it. He strikes it as a matter of necessity; he strikes it, but not from a wish for mastery.

4. When things have attained their strong maturity they become old. This may be said to be not in accordance with the Tao: and what is not in accordance with it soon comes to an end.

Chapter 31

1. Now arms, however beautiful, are instruments of evil omen, hateful, it may be said, to all creatures. Therefore they who have the Tao do not like to employ them.

2. The superior man ordinarily considers the left hand the most honourable place, but in time of war the right hand. Those sharp weapons are instruments of evil omen, and not the instruments of the superior man;--he uses them only on the compulsion of necessity. Calm and repose are what he prizes; victory (by force of arms) is to him undesirable. To consider this desirable would be to delight in the slaughter of men; and he who delights in the slaughter of men cannot get his will in the kingdom.

3. On occasions of festivity to be on the left hand is the prized position; on occasions of mourning, the right hand. The second in command of the army has his place on the left; the general commanding in chief has his on the right;--his place, that is, is assigned to him as in the rites of mourning. He who has killed multitudes of men should weep for them with the bitterest grief; and the victor in battle has his place (rightly) according to those rites.




Tao Te Ching

Chì mi na mórbheanna

CHI MI NA MORBHEANNA

O Chì, Chì mi na mórbheanna
O Chì, Chì mi na córrbheanna
O Chì, Chì mi na coireachan
Chì mi na sgoran fo cheò

Chì mi gun dàil an t-nàite 's d'rugadh mi
Cuirear orm fàilt' 's a' chànain a thuigeas mi
Gheibh mi ann aoidh gràdh 'n uair ruigeam
Nach reicinn air thunnaichean òir

Chì mi ann coilltean, chì mi ann doireachan
Chì mi ann maghan bàna is toraiche
Chì mi na féidh air làr nan coireachan
Falaicht' an trusgan de chèo

Beanntaichean àrda is àillidh leacainnean
Sluagh ann an còmhnuidh is còire cleachdainnean
'S aotrom mo cheum a' leum g'am faicinn
Is fanaidh mi tacan le deòin



TRANSLATION:

Oh I see, I see the great mountains
Oh I see, I see the lofty mountains
Oh I see, I see the corries
I see the peaks under the mist

I see right away the place of my birth
I will be welcomed in a language that I understand
I will receive hospitality and love when I reach there
That I will not trade for tons of gold

I see woods there, I see thickets
I see fair, fertile fields there
I see the deer on the ground of the corries
Shrouded in a garment of mist

High mountains with lovely slopes
Folk abiding there who are customarily kind
Light is my step when I go bounding to meet them
And I will remain there willingly





Played at John F. Kennedy's funeral in Arlington, Virginia, 1963, this was one of JFK's favorite songs.

Called "one of the most hauntingly evocative gaelic songs", it is beautifully rendered by the great Talitha Mackenzie. A family name on the distaff.

One to own and treasure...
-Anon



Fox Fux with Faux Fax

Fox Fux with Faux Fax

In a scathing critique of Fox News and some talk show hosts, such as Bill O'Reilly, Carroll said they were a "different breed of journalists" who misled their audience while claiming to inform them. He said they did not fit into the long legacy of journalists who got their facts right and respected and cared for their audiences.

Carroll cited a study released last year that showed Americans had three main
misconceptions about Iraq: That weapons of mass destruction had been found, a connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq had been demonstrated and that the world approved of U.S intervention in Iraq. He said 80 percent of people who primarily got their news from Fox believed at least one of the misconceptions. He said the figure was more than 57 percentage points higher than people who get their news from public news broadcasting.

"How in the world could Fox have left its listeners so deeply in the dark?" Carroll asked.

Sunday, May 09, 2004

Book: "Kiss My LEFT BEHIND" on Amazon

Book: "Kiss My LEFT BEHIND" on Amazon




First there was "LEFT BEHIND".
Then there was "No Child LEFT BEHIND".
Now the trilogy is complete, with...
"Kiss My LEFT BEHIND"!



Folks, there are people out there who are trying to scare you.
Some of them do it because they are able to make money off your fears.
Others do it because they are fearful, and want to make sure they are not the only ones.

But some people want you to be afraid for both reasons.
This is the "Go Right Ahead" crowd. They hail from the halls of Righteousness, or perhaps it is really just a mixture of self-righteousness mixed with Right-wing ideology. They want the Left to be Left Behind when their famous Armageddon comes to 'copter away The Elect.

They simply will not give it up.

They promised us a good old fashioned Armageddon at the turn of the century, and you might think that when it didn't happen, they would admit they were wrong. But instead, they simply move the date up. Just like they've done for centuries.

These people fear going to Hell. They fear it because they have been such bad people.


Phat Robertson writes a book and calls it "Common Sense". Bush starts talking about 'common sense" government. These are all products.
And we are all customers, guinea pigs, suckers.

That is why it is important to buy, read, and memorize "Kiss My Left Behind". The wisdom that may or may not be contained therein, may possibly be just the thing you need in order to become a better shlamazl. And after all...YOU deserve it!

MORE

The Taguba Report : On Bush's Reich Wing Concentration Camps

The Taguba Report : On Bush's Reich Wing Concentration Camps

The following is the text of the executive summary of the Taguba report with only the names of some witnesses removed for the sake of privacy.
The report was prepared by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba on alleged abuse of prisoners by members of the 800th Military Police Brigade at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad.

Chechen President Killed in Explosion at Stadium while celebrating the defeat of Nazis

Chechen President Killed in Explosion at Stadium while celebrating the defeat of Nazis

GROZNY, Russia (AP) -- The Kremlin-backed president of Russia's warring Chechnya region and a top Russian general were killed Sunday when an explosion tore through a stadium in the Chechen capital where they were attending Victory Day observances marking the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, the republic's Interior Ministry said.

President Akhmad Kadyrov died about 30 minutes after the blast, likely caused by a land mine planted under the stadium's VIP seats, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Col. Gen. Valery Baranov, a top regional commander, died at the scene, the official said.