My Thoughts on Changes

Total Man V1.0

Much like Don Quixote and his monomania with knights and chivalry novels, my non-fiction "monomania" is with the Yijing (or "I Ching," as popularized by the Wilhelm/Baynes translation and the Wade-Giles transliteration of Chinese). I read extensively on the subject and I know for a fact that I'll never exhaust it in a lifetime. The thing is, for those reading and still stuck in the conceptual visualization of the Yijing as the exotic Oriental version of the Tarot and a hippie Ouija board, the classic is so much more than an usable oracle that the exegesis inspired by it, over thousands of years, is only second to the Bible (although, if I request a recount, it would most likely come up in first place). Unfortunately, most Western media, and users, focus only in the oracular usability of the classic and, because of it, it is often derided and belittled as quackery. Well, their loss, not mine.

In the meantime, my so called "monomania," takes me to the most varied reading paths. Hard to believe for most, I know. See, serious students of the Yijing can find many parallels between the inherent imagery of the classic and subjects that, at first sight, seem unrelated to it. One of the cornerstones of Chinese philosophy is "correlative thinking" and, although it runs against the grain of Western philosophy and its use of logics and analytics, its metaphorical toolbox is a spring of ideas and associations. Carl Jung, to name just one philosopher (yes, philosopher), realized the truth of its potentiality and applicability in Western thought. As the classic, and its exegesis, becomes more available to Western philosophers and writers, its use in metaphorical comparisons and the pursuit of meaning is slowly becoming commonplace. One such writer is the psychologist Stan Gooch. In the early 1970's he published "Total Man, an evolutionary theory of personality" and, in part of it, he touches on the Yijing. The book has fourteen chapters divided within six parts. Part five, "The Rise to Tyranny of Western Consciousness," includes Chapter 11, "The Momentary Universe," which talks about the Yijing from a Jungian perspective.

I had to chuckle at this statement in said chapter:

The foregoing is not in any sense offered as evidence of the value or validity of the Book of Changes. There is nothing to prevent one regarding it still as a very complex folly, as a tragic monument perhaps to the wasted energies of a considerable section of humanity over a considerable period.

Of course, the disclaimer was perhaps needed as part of the natural Western defensiveness against all things outside "rationality and logic" and as a service to the those readers that would automatically take exception to such concepts. Such disclaimers are chicken soup for their sensitive souls, in my opinion. Finding comfortable shelter while confronted with incomprehensibility.

The chapter is actually very good and goes on to explain some points of view on synchronicity.

What I really like to quote though is not directly related to the Yijing. I comes from the preface and I think it is a handy way to put things in the proper perspective, specially for those attached to "rationality and logic" that think they can make a "science" out of everything that can find its way towards an empirical explanation:

The social scientist, erroneously, as I believe, has adopted many of the practices of the physical scientist on the implicit, often explicit, assumption that psychology and sociology are  sciences. I myself on the other hand, together with some other psychologists, consider the wholesale application of the methods of the physical sciences to the study of human behavior to be among the major disasters of our time. This does not mean, however, that I believe those methods have no place at all in behavioral studies--though I have no space here to outline my precise position. The point I do wish to make very briefly--a slightly different one--is this. Because of the fact that we ourselves are the objects of the psychologist's and sociologist's studies, we cannot grant the psychologist the same automatic authority that we grant the professional physicist or chemist. Rather, the position resembles that which pertains in democracies in respect of Parliament. The people elect representatives to govern them--individuals whom they consider particularly suited to do so--granting them by such election a mandate to run the affairs of the country as they think best. It is when a point is reached that government behaves in ways deeply unacceptable to the people that that mandate is withdrawn. So it must be, I think, with the social sciences. We in a sense grant, or have granted, a mandate. But we do not thereby lose our inalienable right as human beings--the objects of the psychologist's study--to reject not merely his findings but, if necessary, even his methods.

The book is out of print and hard to find, cheaply. A good read, nevertheless.

Technorati Tags: I Ching, Yijing

Parisology and Perissology pits

I admit it, it is my fault. The haiku-like nature of Twitter lends itself to the dangers of open interpretation by others. Furthermore, the two-way nature of the medium, practically assures the immediate feedback of those waiting in the background with specialized nets that fish for specific words of their liking. It is like one of those Sushi restaurant with a carrousel, immense in size, where all kinds of fish pass in front of the patrons and, occasionally, their favorite fish appears and they take it front the carrousel. Then, they eat it, digest it for a couple of seconds, and, if bad, instead of blaming the fish or their own predisposition for properly digesting it, they blame everything else between the happy life of the fish at sea to their own teeth.

Now, the specific issue at hand, and the raison d'être for this post, is that yesterday I posted this in Twitter:

Question of the day: what's the attraction of "individuals" to find their own label? Thinking of MBTI tests, Eneagrams, etc. Note quotes
9:19 AM yesterday from web

A few minutes later I get this in reply:

@yijingman Your assumption seems to be that ppl are looking for labels perhaps they are seeking something else entirely -

Ah, the Blue, always prolific, didn't disappoint. Quick search of the "Blue" told me that yes, in effect, the person had a subjective reason for the defensive posture. Needlessly so, in my opinion, because I placed one caveat in my post (the " ") and I ended it with a big arrow pointing at it for good measure ("note quotes"). She missed both, apparently. Before I explain a few things, let me quote the next two exchanges. First my reply--two twits in length--and then her follow-up. I will also use bold and underline here, which isn't available in the medium.

:-) You're missing context but yes, my opinion is that certain taxonomy isn't useful at street level. Self knowledge

isn't attained by classificatory tests. Mind you, they are useful in other environments (thinking corporate and counseling)

To which she replied this morning:

@yijingman Self knowledge is emergent assessments+conversation+reflection+selfobservation+feedback My rant onthis http://tinyurl.com/9axdwg

The rant, as she put it, isn't bad but, pointing to it (it was written days before these exchanges) perpetuates the defensive posture that prompted it, and, in the process, misses my point, again.

Now, I suppose, is time for some clarifying thoughts. Alas, my initial comment in Twitter wasn't a criticism of MBTI or the Eneagrams as tools. I align myself with Jungian thought so I could hardly fault a "tool" that was inspired by him, albeit grossly trademarked by commercial interests. What's happening with the whole MBTI environment reminds me of scavenging pharmaceutical companies taking patents on the active ingredients of ancient medicinal potions still in use in many Third World countries, which is akin to "ZYX Energy Co." filling for a patent for fire and water..., and getting it granted. You get my drift. Shameful, in my opinion, and far from the intention of Jung when he published his "Psychological Types" in 1923. Proverbially, the man must be turning in his grave.

The missing context I talk about comes from a conversation in another forum--which does not deserves any negative feedback from those outside of it and shall remain anonymous--in which participants were quick to test themselves, comment about it..., and comfortably fall in place in their newfound little niches, like pegs on a board, wearing a badge that, for them, should obviate any conversation of whom or what they are or where they come from in a conversation. Thus, my twit/comment, was for those few that follow me there that are also participants in said forum. None of them took the bait, but, alas, the words MBTI and Eneagram got caught in "Blue Selective Net" and the fisherman manning it, instead of allowing the small fish to swim away, got it from the net and threw it back to the last fisherman.

As I implied in the original twit/post, and my follow up to the lady's comment, the real usefulness of the named tests isn't at the street/individual level but as corporate and counseling tools. To obtain one's own MBTI label, just because it is freely available, does nothing to further one's personal quest for self-knowledge. It provides nothing specific that would serve as a ladder rung to descend into the depths of your self--or to step out of it if you find that your nature isn't of your liking--nor will it help you improve it. It will, though, provide you with branding label. Unfortunately, branding labels, much like those in cattle, are mainly used by third parties to place you in your proper place. Thus, labels, in my modest opinion, diminish the self, rather than helping it to improve, by taking your freedom of movement within a given environment out of the equation. Which is why corporations love MBTI testing their current and prospective employees.

She points

When you need to open a conversation on differences between people an assessment tool like the Myers Briggs is an excellent starting place and provides a common language for people to begin to have a new understanding.

Really? I mean, yes, I suppose it does help in certain ways and in certain environments, but, are we, as a society, arrogant enough to believe that a classification label will explain the complexities of other selves to us or that those other selves would get a glimpse of our selves from an artificial label? I don't think so. I don't even think it is "an excellent starting place."

Having said that, I wonder if those popularizing and commercializing the MBTI tests--I'm talking about those who know enough to get in trouble and misstep in an in-depth discussion by lacking proper exegetical reading--are familiar with the modern works of Richard D. Grant Jr. and Chris Lofting. Furthermore, how many of those have even a clue that the real root of the so called MBTI test, which is a modern trademark, in good old Western fashion of legally appropriating ideas, is a few thousand years old and from a far away land?

As for the statement "self-knowledge is emergent assessments+conversation+reflection+selfobservation+feedback," yes, I agree, those are some of the steps, but, if it were only so simple to find your way within, we wouldn't be having this conversation, would we?

The title is an allusion to the dangers that lurk in throwing words to their own fate into the Blue. Alas, I've fallen into those yonder pits myself.

Technorati Tags: perissology

Nobody takes my feelings into consideration...

The Palin-McCain equation...

Has anybody noticed how Palin is the one that talks for 20 minutes, get's the crowd into a frenzy, and then passes the mic to McCain, he repeats his mantras like an obsessed for 5 minutes and then is over? The other day I commented that I thought that it was actually McCain the Trojan Horse for Palin (or Palin alikes) into the White House. If that is the "change" they propose, placing a Christian fundamentalist in the W.H. isn't the kind that should be welcomed by anybody. Yes, the whole thing is "mavericking" (*) their way into the W.H.

The sad part is that they openly keep repeating the mantra of "maverick this," "maverick that," and nobody has noticed anything or even care by their choice of words. I'm sure the GOP strategists must be having a private blast of laughter...

Lou Dobbs, the "Independent"

This is hilarious. Lou Dobbs paints himself "independent" only because not even the most rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth conservatives have a place for him. He's so far to the Right that he qualifies as "infra-" or "ultra-" something, yet to be defined but definitely over the far reaches of the Right's ledge.

In my opinion, he shouldn't appropriate the "independent" adjective all for himself. I'm almost certain that most "independents" do not share his views, or come even close.

Lou Dobbs: Issues, TV, Radio, and Books - CNN.com

"Word Magic" and mavericking votes

While feeding my Yijing OCD of reading all I can get my hands on related to it, I found the following passage in Richard Smith's latest book, "Fathoming the Cosmos and ordering the world":

A certain "word magic" gave early hexagram line statements social and psychological power. Long ago the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski pointed out that word magic could be found not only among so-called primitive peoples such as the Trobriand Islanders, whom he had studied, but also among Westerners in his own time. Advertising slogans, political campaigns, and legal formulas, for example, al provided illustrations for Malinowski of the magical power of words. They represent, more or less, what more modern scholars describe as "performative" utterances, statements that have the ability to create what they refer to, such as the seductive phrase I hereby promise.

Word magic, as Malinowski observed, can describe conditions that are "objectively" false but subjectively true. That is, language is capable of reflecting a kind of "pragmatic" truth that is "reasonable" in terms of addressing certain psychological needs of the individual and "sociologically true in the sense that it affects intentions, motivations and expectations." Much of the appeal of the Yijing as an explanatory device can be understood as a product of this sort of word power, specially in a society such as traditional China's, where plays on words were so powerful and where the written language exerted inordinate social influence by virtue of its seemingly intrinsic magical qualities.

All of a sudden, "maverick," "9/11," "terrorism," "change," "country first," "fight with me," "McCain," "Obama," "Biden," "Palin," started making a different kind of sense to me.

By the way, it was interesting to find out that "maverick," as a transitive verb, means:

1 West : to brand and take possession of (an animal) as a maverick
2 West : to obtain by dishonest or questionable means

Technorati Tags: parrhesia, maverick, Yijing

Master chess players...

It is hard to fathom such an amount of stupidity on the part of a supposedly "Western leader" like Saakashvili. What was he thinking? There are very few random things that happen in geopolitics. This was a (mis)calculated move by the Georgian president to launch a "take control of the dogs in the backyard" to coincide with the opening of the Beijing Olympics, hoping the Russians would look the other way or at least wait until the games were over. By that time, it would have been very difficult to wrench the Georgians out of South Ossetia. Russia, on the other hand, which has a history of not giving a crap about what anybody thinks of their actions, launched a clean-up and punitive campaign against the Georgians. Was that unforseen by Saakashvili? Really? Now, what kind of gambit was Saakashvili playing? Was he promised an unconditional back-up by the U.S.? (yes, I see Dick Cheney's and Co. fingerprints in this)? Was he given the green light--not that he needed one, mind you--to launch such an attack on its own rebel provinces? Provinces which, by the way, have been bristling with Russian "Peacemakers" for, what?, at least 16 years. For crying out loud, what was the logic of it? What forced that hand?

Looking at the future, I agree with Debka's assessment of what's "next". The Russians, like it or not, do call the shots in the region. Bear no illusions about it being different. The Cold War never ended; it was paused. The thing is, there many hands itching to press the "Play" button. Perhaps it's being done already.



DEBKAfile - No Caucasian Ceasefire until Russia Achieves its Aims

After severing South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia, four follow-up Russian steps may be postulated:

1. The two separatist provinces will proclaim their independence, just like Kosovo.

2. Russia will continue to exercise its overwhelming military and air might to reduce the pro-American Saakashvili to capitulation.

3. The Georgian president will not be able to face his own nation after losing two regions of his country and causing its humiliation. Moscow will then make Washington swallow a pro-Russian successor.

4. Moscow’s trampling of Georgia will serve as an object lesson for Russia’s own secessionist provinces, such as Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, and a warning not to risk defying Russian armed might.

5. Western plans to develop more oil and gas pipelines to bypass the Russian network to the West, in addition to the Caspian line which carries one million barrels a day from Baku through Georgia to Turkey and out to the West, will be held in abeyance pending an accommodation with the rulers of the Kremlin.

It makes me wonder...

When is the territorial China going to shrink. I mean, you can't have it both ways. Be a capitalist powerhouse and keep a totalitarian regime (cough! cough!, yes, I know, I'm pointing at the mirror). I'm not saying that they should follow the ex-Soviet example of breaking up the country at the hinges of the weakest links of their former territory, but, it is evident that forcing cohesion can demonstrate to be unbearable in the long term.


Attack in China Kills 16 Border Patrol Officers - NYTimes.com

The assault, the deadliest terrorist attack in China since the early 1990s, took place 2,100 miles from Beijing, but just four days before the start of the Olympics, adding to security concerns in the capital as hundreds of thousands of foreign athletes, journalists and spectators begin to arrive.

China, anxious to avert any possibility of terrorist attack during the Games, has girded Beijing with soldiers, missile launchers and sidewalk cameras. The heavy surveillance did not prevent a small protest near Tiananmen Square on Monday by people who said they had not been compensated after their homes were demolished for a redevelopment project, but a swarm of police officers rapidly broke it up.

WTF v3.5

This is like the third or four piece of news from UPI, in the past couple of weeks, where they quote information obtained from Debka. I mean, I've been reading the site since they opened the joint and although they have interesting articles and information, their track record on veracity is suspect... Is UPI, and other big names in information gathering and reporting, being lazy and off the field not to be able to come up with news like this on their own??


Egypt supporting Hamas, report claims - UPI.com

A group of suspected Hamas fighters were arrested after allegedly returning from training courses in Iran and Syria. About 15 of the suspects were allegedly allowed to cross into Gaza with a cache of weapons and ammunition in ambulances, the Jerusalem military intelligence Web site DEBKAfile said.

Sources told DEBKAfile that the immigration of Hamas fighters coincided with the escalation of conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza. Israeli officials were hesitant to highlight the movement of fighters for fear of angering Cairo, as it expresses its support for Israel's fight against militants.

How's this for drumming in Armageddon?

The linked article is also reporting U. S. Defence Secretary Robert M. Gates was forced to cancel a trip to South America due to the emergency situation throughout West Asia (Middle East). It is an alarming situation to Washington and European governments since it has finally dawned on them Tehran was never interested in any peaceful resolution to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, nor was Iran ever interested in waging a major war with Israel, since Israel is by no means the rival for international dominance and regional influence the West is. That is why Tehran really noticed and monitored the Rome Conference last year and the arrival of European units in south Lebanon afterward. Tehran knew it meant Rome was back and leading the West again into the region something Tehran did not want to see, so Iran had al-Qaeda declare them an enemy of Islam. That is why Rome's role in World War III is very similar to London's role in World War II. Rome is replacing Brussels and not only during the war but in the post-World War III world because the area of concentration for the West is no longer the North Atlantic but the Mediterranean.

Bush Lost the War - Pass it on...

From Sam Crane's blog:


The Useless Tree: Bush Lost the War - Pass it on

It seems to me that the simplest, most direct response to the continuing efforts of the Bush administration to deflect responsibility for the fiasco that Iraq has become, is to say: Bush Lost the War. If many just said that, whenever confronted with the dissembling and lying and evasions, it would remind us all of the one clear fact in all of this: Bush Lost the War. He lost it in a variety of ways, but surely he lost it, not the media, not the Democrats, not Iran, not the liberal professorate; no, none of these. Bush Lost the War.

George Soros on Israel, America and AIPAC

Kudos to Soros and his article in the New York Review of Books. It is about time that the State of Israel steps down its high war horse and starts seeing things from the ground level. Only then would fellow human beings be able to relate to each other's problems. Furthermore, if last year's reactionary invasion and destruction of much of Lebanon --an exercise in futility if the goal was to eradicate or even teach a lesson to Hizballah-- is an indication of how ineffective Israel policies have become, people in power, bent south of Armageddon, should start reconsidering their positions and find a path to peace.

On Israel, America and AIPAC - The New York Review of Books

The Bush administration is once again in the process of committing a major policy blunder in the Middle East, one that is liable to have disastrous consequences and is not receiving the attention it should. This time it concerns the Israeli–Palestinian relationship. The Bush administration is actively supporting the Israeli government in its refusal to recognize a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas, which the US State Department considers a terrorist organization. This precludes any progress toward a peace settlement at a time when progress on the Palestinian problem could help avert a conflagration in the greater Middle East.

The United States and Israel seek to deal only with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, in the hope that new elections would deny Hamas the majority it now has in the Palestinian Legislative Council. This is a hopeless strategy because Hamas has said it would boycott early elections, and even if their outcome would result in Hamas's exclusion from the government, no peace agreement would hold without Hamas's support.

The Futility of Sectarian Violence

Dr. Sam Crane and a gift from Mencius. A bell that tolled more than 2200 years ago and only but a few care to read in our days. Man is the only animal that stumbles on the same rock more than once...

The Useless Tree

Mencius said: "Only now have I realized the true gravity of killing a man's family members. If you kill his father; he'll kill your father. If you kill his brother, he'll kill your brother. There's precious little difference between that and killing your father or brother with your own hands.

Duh! What did you expect?

It is always easier to discard criticism off-hand rather than taking the time to lower arrogance and finding the roots of it...

Washington - The White House rejected Sunday Russian President Vladimir Putin's criticism of United States policy in a speech to the international security conference in the German city of Munich.
'We are surprised and disappointed with President Putin's comments. His accusations are wrong,' spokesman Gordon Johndroe was quoted in US media reports as saying.

Hey, predictions "R" us...

...but I never claimed to have a Red Phone connection with the Almighty (or with the Netherworld, for that matter). If Pat Robertson was anybody but who he is, he would be committed to a mental institution and medicated with anti-psychotic drugs.

As for predicting a "terror attack", isn't that what the Department of Homeland Security has been saying for years and been working on to stop it? Hey, if it happens at last I know my tax dollars were used to predict something real.

The most scary thing of the whole affair is the kind of gullible revival that would occur if the man is vindicated in some twisted way. Be scared, very scared; of that, if nothing else.

Pat Robertson:�God told me of 'mass killing' in 2007 - CNN.com

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (AP) -- Evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson said Tuesday that God has told him that a terrorist attack on the United States would cause a "mass killing" late in 2007."I'm not necessarily saying it's going to be nuclear," he said during his news-and-talk television show "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network. "The Lord didn't say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that."Robertson said God told him about the impending tragedy during a recent prayer retreat. God also said, he claims, that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.

Out of the closet...

Shocker!! You know, is like one of those guys you meet and think "hmmm, he's really in touch with his feminine side", about two shades above metrosexual... May we live in interesting times...



DEBKAfile - DEBKAfile: Olmert breaks Israel’s nuclear silence in response to US defense secretary’s nuclear stance and Iran’s Holocaust denial conference

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Olmert decided on this step in response to US defense secretary Robert Gates’ listing of Israel as among the nuclear states surrounding Iran to explain Tehran’s search for a nuclear deterrent of its own. He was the first American official to confirm Israel had a nuclear weapon and did so without consulting Jerusalem.

Olmert chose his journey to Germany, which coincided with the opening in Tehran of a conference negating the Holocaust, for his shock disclosure. This conference is taken in Israel as a vehicle for attacking Zionist legitimacy and so justifying Iran’s ambition to destroy the Jewish state. Olmert used the opportunity to remind Iran’s rulers that Israel possesses a large stock of nuclear weapons capable of not only smashing Iran’s nuclear facilities but also disabling its infrastructure.

Let me see if I get this right...

This "commodore" is pissed because, among other things, the deposed Prime Minister wanted give amnesty to the generals that orchestrated another coup in 2000? Hmm, I wonder if he would be pissed when another PM  down the road wants to grant him amnesty for this coup...


BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Fiji military coup is denounced

Commodore Bainimarama has dismissed PM Laisenia Qarase, who said the army had brought "shame to the country".

Cmdr Bainimarama accused the prime minister of corruption and leading Fiji on a path of doom.

The two have long been in dispute, largely over the commodore's opposition to a proposed amnesty for those responsible for a 2000 coup he helped put down.

Red herrings...

Well, yes, it doesn't make any sense. Mr. Putin has nothing to win by having this guy out of the way and much to lose if something like this is somehow connected to his administration. Mr. Putin has pissed off a lot of people on the way up, most of them people with as much money as a Saudi prince. Unfortunately, money is fuel and grease in the present we live in... Mind you, I'm not a fan of his policies, heavy handedness and the control of the press he exerts. He can appear to be a precursor of a new wave of Tzars, sans the nobility claims (that I know of...) On the other hand, I believe a country with the history that Russia has, needs a strong hand such as his. Russia can do much worse than Putin.

Anti-Russian conspirators killed KGB spy : HindustanTimes.com:

"The potential list of those who stood to benefit from Litvinenko's death is a long one," said a typical analysis in the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda last week. "One thing is certain, however. A scandal such as this one was not in the interests of the Russian authorities."

Technorati Tags: poison, russia, wheaton

If you think is tough for...

Him to apologize, just wait for him to get home. I can imagine Teresa Heinz in black leather, whip in hand, waiting for the good senator to get home. If I was him, I'd book a flight to Timbuktu right about now...

Dear Senator, your are not helping the cause man! Are you a closet Republican?

Kerry issues formal apology after Iraq 'joke' - Financial Times - MSNBC.com

"As a combat veteran, I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: my poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and never intended to refer to any troop. I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted… and I personally apologise to any service member, family member, or American who was offended," he said.

Deja vu...

"Weapons of Mass Destruction": Building a Pretext for Waging War on Iran?

Cheney's Contigency Plan

The ongoing naval deployments under the "global war on terrorism" are part of a far-reaching military plan "to fight terrorism around the World".

In the month following last year's 7/7 London bombings, Vice President Dick Cheney is reported to have instructed USSTRATCOM to draw up a contingency plan "to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States". Implied in the contingency plan is the certainty that Iran would be behind these terrorist attacks.

Leaked military documents to the Washington Post suggest that these Pentagon plans are predicated on the possibility of "a major terrorist attack" and the need to retaliate in self-defense if and when the US or its allies are attacked:

"A third plan sets out how the military can both disrupt and respond to another major terrorist strike on the United States. It includes lengthy annexes that offer a menu of options for the military to retaliate quickly against specific terrorist groups, individuals or state sponsors depending on who is believed to be behind an attack. , WP 23 April 2006)

This "contingency plan" uses the pretext of a "another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States" to prepare for a major military operation against Iran, while pressure is also exerted on Tehran in relation to its (non-existent) nuclear weapons program.

What is diabolical in this decision of the US Vice President is that the justification presented by Cheney to wage war on Iran rests on Iran's presumed involvement in a hypothetical terrorist attack on America, which has not yet occurred:.

The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. ... Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections. (Philip Giraldi, Attack on Iran: Pre-emptive Nuclear War , The American Conservative, 2 August 2005)

Are we to understand that US, British and Israeli military planners are waiting in limbo for "the opportunity" of a terrorist attack, which would then provide "the justification" for the launching of a military operation directed against Syria and Iran? In the words of the Pentagon, quoted verbatim in the Washington Post (23 April 2006):

"Another [terrorist] attack could create both a justification and an opportunity that is lacking today to retaliate against some known targets, according to current and former defense officials familiar with the plan." (quoted in the Washington Post, 23 April, 2006, emphasis added)

How did that teacher dared...

...to show her students something like this?!?! Disgusting! Immoral!

WTF!! What a hypocritical country this one is evolving into.

Although the tour had been approved by the principal, and the 89 students were accompanied by 4 other teachers, at least 12 parents and a museum docent, Ms. McGee said, she was called to the principal the next day and “bashed.”

She later received a memorandum in which the principal, Nancy Lawson, wrote: “During a study trip that you planned for fifth graders, students were exposed to nude statues and other nude art representations.” It cited additional complaints, which Ms. McGee has challenged.

How a country paints itself into a corner...

Us against the rest of the planet... How arrogant can we be? Is there a limit? When arrogance trumps logic, reason's been dead and buried for a while...

CNN.com - IAEA blasts U.S. intelligence report on Iran - Sep 14, 2006

The subcommittee's report also insinuates that the IAEA may be in cahoots with Tehran in covering up Iran's nuclear ambitions. The report alleges that an IAEA inspector might have been removed at Iran's request "for not adhering to an unstated IAEA policy barring IAEA officials from telling the whole truth about the Iranian nuclear program." The IAEA shot back that the claim was "an outrageous and dishonest suggestion," but Rogers stood by it Thursday.

Kingdom of Perissology

Today is a happy day, I learned a new word. I was reading an old entry in  "El Interpretador" and the word "parresia" sent me running for the DRAE (something that doesn't happen every day unless I want to make sure how to conjugate a verb...):

parresia.

(Del lat. parrhesĭa).
1. f. Ret. Figura que consiste en aparentar que se habla audaz y libremente al decir cosas, ofensivas al parecer, y en realidad gratas o halagüeñas para aquel a quien se le dicen.

Aha... Now, even though it comes from the Spanish Royal Academy and is supposed to be impartial, that's a loaded cultural interpretation of the word. Quite accurate; we can be like that when talking to others. Furthermore, it works both ways...

Of course, being a Latin word I was certain there would be an English equivalent. Indeed, the word is actually spelled like in Latin: "Parrhesia." Merriam-Webster has this entry for it:

Main Entry: par·rhe·sia 
Pronunciation: parzh()
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): -s
Etymology: Medieval Latin, from Greek parrhsia, from para- 1para- + -rhsia (from rhsis speech, speaking); akin to Greek eirein to say -- more at WORD
: boldness or freedom of speech

Well, that's quite different from the Spanish interpretation... Even though we may think talking with double meaning is akin to "boldness" or "freedom of speech", it isn't really the case.

From there I started to concatenate ideas. After those two entries, Google gave me this under "parrhesia", courtesy of silva rhetoricae, Dr.Gideon Burton's site at the Brigham Young University.

Either to speak candidly or to ask forgiveness for so speaking. Sometimes considered a vice.

Examples
Jesus used parrhesia in response to the Pharisees:
The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, "Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee." And he said unto them, "Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected." —Luke 13:31-32

Hmmm, talk about twists of interpretation... That entry also had a Related Figures link to the word "perissologia", which is the original Latin spelling of the English "perissology":

In general, the fault of wordiness. More specifically, periphrasis, circumlocution, synonymia, accumulatio, or amplification carried to a fault by length or overelaborateness.

==========

M-W has this:

Main Entry: per·is·sol·o·gy 
Pronunciation: persälj
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): -es
Etymology: Late Latin perissologia, from Greek, from perissologos speaking too much (from perissos + logos speech) + -ia -y -- more at LEGEND
archaic : superfluity of words : PLEONASM

Oh my... Happy as a dog with two tails from having learnt something new, I went hunting for something where I could apply those words, specially "perissology". Not so far, only a link away in Google News, I found this:

Concord Monitor Online Article - Bush: We're in battle of the century - Your News Source - 03301

President Bush began a new effort yesterday to shore up flagging support for the war in Iraq, telling a veterans group that the fight against terrorism was no mere military conflict but "the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century." 

The president responded to those - including some Republican allies in Congress - who have questioned whether the sectarian violence in Iraq has grown into civil war, casting doubts on the U.S. role there. "Our commanders and our diplomats on the ground in Iraq believe that it's not the case,"Bush said. "They report that only a small number of Iraqis are engaged in sectarian violence, while the overwhelming majority want peace and a normal life in a unified country."

Technorati Tags: bush, GWB, parresia, parrhesia, perissology

Twists of interpretation...

First of all, I still cannot fathom why would anything close to a nuclear confrontation be on the Iranians' minds. Whatever Iran is doing on the nuclear armament race they are better off thinking suitcase nukes than long range, missile attacks on anybody. The U.S. didn't spend 50 years of a Cold War sitting with their thumbs up their ass. They already have a nuclear arsenal and is mighty deadly. In such a confrontationl, either the Israelis or the U.S., would only have to sneeze a bugger size of nukes to wipe Iran off the map and have enough arsenal left to wipe the rest of the globe 10 times over. Suicide bombers only have a horrifying impact in the public opinion because their damage is directed to civilians, albeit limited in scope, and because they are repeatable (i.e. limited in number to the number of fanatics willing to pulp themselves and everyone else in a 50m radious). Iran taking the nuclear path, unless attacked first and in a path of total destruction, would be akin to gambling their entire population on a 5 minutes war. Furthermore, anything nuclear used close to Israel by other means would stink so much of Iran that reaction would be swift and on a shoot first, wonder later.

On the other hand, even though Hizballah held their ground pretty good against a land confrontation with Israel, I agree with Debka that Iran's interests have been hurt in this snafu. I believe Iran had hopes for an exponential scalation of hostilities. Not only didn't happen, the logistics of resupplying Hizballah with arms would be daunting to say the least.

The real shame is Israel's red and bullish reactions to insult and injury. The destruction of a country that has suffered so much in a civil war and a recent invasion wasn't justified. A world in which disproportionate retribution is assessed on an enemy would never succed in peace and would guarantee perpetual hate. Not in the rest of the world and specially not in the Middle East.

DEBKAfile - Tehran Takes Gloomy View of the Lebanon War and Truce

After UN Security Council resolution 1701 calling for a truce was carried Friday, Aug. 11, the heads of the regime received two separate evaluations of the situation in Lebanon – one from Iran’s foreign ministry and one from its supreme national security council. Both were bleak: their compilers were concerned that Iran had been manipulatively robbed of its primary deterrent asset ahead of a probable nuclear confrontation with the United States and Israel.

While the foreign ministry report highlighted the negative aspects of the UN resolution, the council’s document complained that Hizballah squandered thousands of rockets – either by firing them into Israel or having them destroyed by the Israeli air force.

The writer of this report is furious over the waste of Iran’s most important military investment in Lebanon merely for the sake of a conflict with Israeli over two kidnapped soldiers.

It took Iran two decades to build up Hizballah’s rocket inventory.

DEBKAfile’s sources estimate that Hizballah’s adventure wiped out most of the vast sum of $4-6 bn the Iranian treasury sunk into building its military strength. The organization was meant to be strong and effective enough to provide Iran with a formidable deterrent to Israel embarking on a military operation to destroy the Islamic regime’s nuclear infrastructure.

The Spanish Virus...

Mmmwwaahaha!! We care coming to get you. We are like the Borg of language. Resistance is futile. Your grandchildren will recite Cervantes the same way they can now recite the Psalms...  Pass the Corona, please.

Oops!! I wrote this in English. Oh well, just a reminder that not all of us are "language challenged" -to put it mildly- and can juggle more than one.

CNN.com - Navarrette: What really bothers immigration foes - Aug 11, 2006

The Hutchison-Pence plan forces the anti-amnesty crowd to level finally with the rest of us about what really bothers them. If it is that people are here illegally, or that the border isn't secure, then the plan has that covered. But if it's the fear that Anglo-Saxon culture and the English language are being eroded by Spanish-speaking foreigners, and that the country is going down the tubes because of it -- then this plan doesn't offer much relief.

I demand a recount!!

Damn!! 

The Blog | Marty Kaplan: How to Hack a Diebold Voting Machine | The Huffington Post

Hat tip to www.openvotingfoundation.org for the pix & tips. GEEKSQUAD update: You'll also want a USB gender changer ($2.99) and a USB-to-serial converter ($24, but it can double as a keyring) in your pocket. Democracy rules!

Oh, for Christ's sake...!!

Now that I've got your attention here are some theories on religion, culture and societies. I came across the article below after I followed a Google Alert on Debka to this other article.  Let's call it the "Theory of conquering without wars". I take this approach any time. As for societies changing, well, we can theorize all we want but the fact remains that the only fixed point in space about it is just that: Change. Societies are fluid. They may seem otherwise in a linear space-time continuum only because human lives are short and although history is a reference tool, it isn't the steering wheel. Trying to hold down a given set of cultural values is like holding water with your hands. I agree that change can be somewhat steered, but, it cannot be controled. There are no Grand Plans that have passed the test of time.

Interesting site.

TCS Daily - Culture and the Demographic Crisis

Religion is the way that humans attempt to put into language, stories, art and ritual their guesses about such things. As a species whose major and unique specialization is language, we are meaning-seeking beings, and when the buck of meaning has been passed around the various contents of the world about us, it ends up usually in the plate of religion. One hypothesis about demographic collapse that might be worth checking out is that it happens when a nation loses its religion.

................

I do not personally accept this Spenglerian future of decline. As an
immigrant myself, and a believer in the free movement of capital,
information, and labor, I cannot accept any solution that shuts the
borders. There are counter-examples to the pattern I have suggested,
such as China and India, which kept their cultural and demographic
vitality and their religious love and veneration through millennia of
invasion -- and another exception perhaps, America itself. I believe
that it is possible to have a high and reflective civilization whose
transcendent love, faith and hope burn as hotly as that of the mullahs,
and in which one can still hear the lovely din of a schoolyard at
recess. But if I were still a European, as I once was, and not an
American, as I now am, I might not be so sure.

Somber predictions...

About Cuba and its future...

RIA Novosti - Opinion & analysis - Cuba to suffer without Fidel

It is no use talking about the possibility of change, since it is forthcoming anyway. But we can consider possible changes. I'm afraid that both Castro's supporters and adversaries will not like my forecast.

To begin with, the upcoming changes will be extremely painful for Cubans, judging by Russia's experience. Although Cuba is much smaller, it will go the same way as Russia did on its way from an authoritarian regime to democracy, from total censorship to freedom of the press, from a one-party to a multiparty system, and so on. Cuba has some unique national, economic and geographic features, such as proximity to the United States, but the common features of a transition period will most likely dominate.

So the transition will not be smooth and painless. Fidel's brother Raul or some mediocre politician will take over for a short time and do their best to keep the country under control. This is a useless but psychologically understandable intention. In any case, the regime will fight for power tooth and nail. But Fidel's regime will collapse overnight, just like communism crumbled in the Soviet Union, because it was not made for compromise, modernization or true democracy. Historically, such regimes cannot survive.

War and literary flair...

Well, I thought Debka would take the prize for literary flair in their reporting but some in the Islamic world can write with imagination too... Hmmm, I really wonder... The whole region has had, for millenia, some of the greatest poets and writers in the world. Their verse and prose are full of metaphors and a richness of style that is very difficult to emulate in the West.

I wish we weren't reading about war, terrorism and injustice. I would spend a lot more time reading some of what is written in the MIddle East.

So Much for Israel’s 1.2 Kilometer “Security Zone” :: from www.uruknet.info :: news from occupied Iraq - ch

The IOF "is still nearly 20 miles from the Litani and even after reaching the river there will still be concentrations of Hezbollah units in and around the Palestinian refugee camps of Tyre. Here Israel will encircle the city, lay siege to it, instead of a frontal assault and use artillery and air attacks to eliminate any enemy rocket fire," reports Willard Payne for News Blaze, quoting the pro-Likudite DEBKAfile. Translation: in standard Zionist fashion, the IOF will engage in a medieval siege of the ancient Phoenician city with a history going back to 2700 BC, according to the Ionian traveler and storyteller Herodotus. Its 117,100 inhabitants will be ethnically cleansed and those who remain will be exterminated, a now well established Israeli modus operandi.

The overt face of covert operations...

Don't you love it when things like this see the light of day? No wonder people in other countries are always wary of so called 'philanthropic organizations' that come bearing gifts. I know, I grew up under a military dictatorship and the sole mention of USAID, for example, would raise the hair in the back of our collective necks as a suporter of a regime that oppressed, disappeared and tortured its people for over a decade. I thought these dinosaurs were children of the Cold War. It appears they are just the children of an imperialist mentality.

Diana Barahona and Jeb Sprague: Reporters Without Borders and Washington's Coups

The I.R.I., an arm of the Republican Party, specializes in meddling in elections in foreign countries, as a look at NED annual reports and the I.R.I. website shows. It is one of the four core grantees of the NED, the organization founded by Congress under the Reagan administration in 1983 to replace the CIA's civil society covert action programs, which had been devastated by exposure by the Church committee in the mid-1970s (Ignatius, 1991). The other three pillars of the NED are the National Democratic Institute (the Democratic Party), the Solidarity Center (AFL-CIO) and the Center for International Private Enterprise (U.S. Chamber of Commerce). But of all the groups the I.R.I. is closest to the Bush administration, according to a recent piece in The New York Times exposing its role in the overthrow of Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide:

"President Bush picked its president, Lorne W. Craner, to run his administration's democracy-building efforts. The institute, which works in more than 60 countries, has seen its federal financing nearly triple in three years, from $26 million in 2003 to $75 million in 2005. Last spring, at an I.R.I. fund-raiser, Mr. Bush called democracy-building 'a growth industry.'" (Bogdanich and Nordberg, 2006)

Debka File Adds...

Sigh... News with a twist and editorial opinions. With that kind of linear thinking I guess is "one down and 'n posts' to go..." Nice. Guys, just in case you want to spare a few posts, here is a map with their locations. I was able to find it here and I'm just a regular guy with an Internet connection and Google... I've been reading Debka since its inception and I'm usually sympathetic and a supporter of the "right of existence" for Israel but give me a break. By the same token as expressed in that opinion, everybody and their unborn children is a spy in the region. Who knows, if you believe it, with enough conviction, it may be true in your minds. Chances are, reality is otherwise.

DEBKAfile -

DEBKAfile adds: The holier-than-thou tone of outrage taken by Annan is surprising when it generally known that many UN missions are exploited as the cover for foreign agents, often hostile, to carry out spying operations in war zones. The inadvertent Israeli air strike revealed the fact that the UN force in Lebanon includes Chinese observers. One was killed along with an Austrian, a Canadian and a Finn. The presence of Chinese observers keeping an eye on the combat in South Lebanon has never before been reported.

Our intelligence experts compare the incident to the inadvertent US bombardment which wrecked the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1998 (picture), killing a number of Chinese "diplomats." It was discovered that from that building the Chinese had operated sophisticated surveillance to track the performance of American warplanes, missiles and smart bombs.

The Khaim observer post was located near Hizballah positions and training facilities in the eastern sector, where the IDF has launched the next stage of its campaign against Hizballah in southern Lebanon

Appearances...

Remember the photgraph of the girls drawing little Israeli flags on artillety shells? Below is a disclaimer in the form of "context":

CJR Daily: About Those Photos of Little Girls and Artillery Shells …

They had just spent the last five days underground in a bomb shelter and this was the first time they had come up for some air. A new army unit had arrived in town, attracting a lot of media attention, and the children and their parents gathered around the missiles. It was the parents who wrote a few messages, then, as Goldman relates it, "the photographers gathered around. Twelve of them. Do you know how many that is? It's a lot. And they were all simultaneously leaning in with their long camera lenses, clicking the shutter over and over. The parents handed the markers to the kids and they drew little Israeli flags on the shells. Photographers look for striking images, and what is more striking than pretty, innocent little girls contrasted with the ugliness of war? The camera shutters clicked away, and I guess those kids must have felt like stars, especially since the diversion came after they'd been alternately bored and terrified as they waited out the shelling in their bomb shelters."

Which makes me think that, although I don't doubt the real story of the pictures, it still doesn't justify that children are used to fan hate across religious and ethnic lines. There is enough hate in the region to fuel Hell for millennia. Why show innocence side by side with hate? Or is it that there are really no innocents in the whole region and that all children born there are flying flags of a mindless dogmatic "Original Sin" and derervers of Hell on Earth? If there is no innocence left, where is hope?

We can only wish...

...it was about God and religion... It has everything to do with turf, power and greed. On both sides of the fence.

Lightstalkers :: from beirut to the journalist-LISTEN

INSHALLAH! As we, over here, love to say…it means god willing. What god? Is there still a god. A friend of mine’s mother, he is actually in Haifa now though I have not head form him in over 5 days and I am now starting to worry, once told me, stopped believing in god after years and years of generations of people she saw suffer in Palestine. She truly believed that it could not be that there is a greater power above, around, somewhere not taking care of these people and allowing them to suffer in such a way for such a period of time…indefinitely? I thought it was a ridiculous thought but I can equate it to one thing. the whole world right now!

If reviewed by him...

...I feel much better.... Sigh... What a bunch of dictatorial crooks.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Bush 'blocked phone tap inquiry'

Mr Bush had refused them security clearance, Mr Gonzales told senators.

A White House spokesman responded by saying the programme was reviewed regularly, including by Mr Gonzales.

Like a spy novel...

I keep telling you, Debka reads like a fiction bestseller. Just the way the reports are written is quite engaging...

DEBKAfile - Bush Wants the Hizballah-Israel War to Give Iran a Bloody Nose

America’s Day of Independence 2006 was selected for this group to make its first low-key attacks against US forces in Baghdad and British units in Basra and break surface under the name of The Abu al Fadal al Abas Brigades. No one had heard of it because Tehran had kept this Iraqi arm of Hizballah dark as the ultimate weapon to spring on the Americans in Iraq at the appropriate moment.

President Bush saw that if he looked away and let Iran’s challenge burst into full-blown action without responding, America’s standing in Iraq and the rest of the region would be forfeit. He was further stirred into a response by Tehran’s developing appetite for quick gains. On July 12, believing they had got away with it in Iraq, Iran and Hizballah followed it up by opening a second front against Israel, America’s ally: the Shiite terrorists kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

That was the last straw, but George W. Bush turned it around as a boomerang to hit Tehran. The Israeli Defense Forces, there to hand, were more than ready to punish Hizballah and had been raring to go after five years of forced restraint against the Lebanese group and Palestinian terrorists. For Bush, this course offered America the chance of a bold, efficient blow against a Shiite extremist terrorist group without a single American soldier having to step onto the battlefield.

Forget CNN and others...

If you want to know another "version" of the news in the Middle East, albeit heavily biased towards the Israeli side, read Debka At the very least is more interesting and novelesque...

DEBKAfile -

DEBKAfile adds: The Hermel drug-farming pocket bordered north and east by Syria is the haunt of smugglers who use the remote, strategically placed region to move fighters, weapons, cash and drugs across Syria into Iraq and as a staging post to other parts of the Middle East. The smuggling gangs’ overlord is Mughniyeh, a triple Hizballah-Iran-al Qaeda agent and terrorist executive, who has figured high on the US wanted terrorist list for more than two decades. On his orders, the smugglers recently relocated their main operation from the Syrian-Iraqi border to the Syrian-Lebanese border in preparation for the new warfront against Israel. In the last 48 hours, Iran has used this illicit route to beat the Israeli air, sea and land blockade and pump quantities of rockets, anti-air and anti-tank missiles and other advanced weapons systems to Hizballah for a fresh escalation.

Syria's role in this smuggling operation is critical.

Earth and Happiness

This goes to show that to find happiness in the "raw" you must almost leave the planet. Vanuatu is so far removed from everything that short of a destiny akin to the legend of Atlantis you have no choice but to be happy...

Independent Online Edition > Environment

At the other extreme, Vanuatu, an archipelago of 80 islands in the western Pacific inhabited by fewer than 250,000 people, has a tiny ecological footprint, reasonable longevity and high life satisfaction - perhaps linked to its unspoilt coastlines and unique rainforests.

Net neutrality in jeopardy...

Sometimes I wonder what are the Republicans (and some Democrats) smoking... Why try to heal a bullet hole? Isn't better not to shoot the gun in the first place? Little evidence that there would be discriminatory pricing doesn't mean it would not happen. Net Neutrality proponents, like Google and Yahoo, whom ARE in the Internet business (allow me stress the obvious to make a point) are "insiders" of the whole thing and know what's coming if there are no safeguards established to prevent something like this. Besides, the fact there are people, in and out of the telecoms, whom think along the lines of "telecom companies invested the money to build the Internet infrastructure and should be free to charge what they see fit" (which is the biggest bullshit in the world as much of that money is subsidized by mine/your taxes, what you pay to talk to aunt Jenny across the country, and what you pay for accessing the fucking net in the first place...), is enough, in my book, to make sure the cookie jar is not raided empty by the greedy telecoms. Why throw sand into the gears of the Net by caving in to the greed of a few companies?

'Net Neutrality' Amendment Rejected

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) said such a law is unnecessary because there is little evidence of discriminatory pricing from Internet service providers. "We're attempting to legislate on a problem that doesn't exist and potentially make other problems in the process," Ensign said. If telecom companies begin to charge higher fees, "I'd be the first to stand up and do something about it," he said.

Hitler vs. Coulter Quiz...

Take the test... Geeze, some of those Neo-Cons should be vaccinated against rabies...

Give Up Blog

"Liberals have a preternatural gift for striking a position on the side of treason...Whenever the nation is under attack, from within or without, liberals side with the enemy."
"We must study this vile liberal technique of emptying garbage pails full of the vilest slanders and defamations from hundreds and hundreds of sources at once, suddenly and as if by magic, on the clean garments of honorable men, if we are fully to appreciate the entire menace represented by these scoundrels of the press."
"Taking these consequences into account, it is no accident that it is always primarily the liberal who tries and succeeds in planting such mortally dangerous modes of thought in our people."
"Liberals are always wrapping their comically irrelevant charges in a haze of lies..."

No poster child but a Yellow Flag...

Net Neutrality should be kept as is. Don't fix what is NOT broken.

Sen. Wyden (and the WSJ) fall into Net neutrality misinformation trap by ZDNet's David Berlind -- George Ou clearly thinks the dirt he keeps finding under the Craigslist/Net neutrality rug is amounting to a story that's stranger than fiction. To the extent that it's disturbing, it is indeed strange. But, from my point of view, it's business as usual. In case you've been missing the action, here are some bullet [...]

Sometimes he makes sense...

Chávez, I mean, although I'm not a fan of his antics... As for America "losing influence in the region", they've been doing that to themselves for over 50 years in the hearts of the people, with facts and political rhetorics. A Dictator is a Dictator, is a Dictator, ad nauseam. It doesn't matter if they wear the Fascist "Black" or the Socialist "Red". The U.S. has had, and still has, a sad history of supporting all those "Black-clad" dictators in the past and that didn't endear them with the peoble that was being oppressed by them. What really hurts the American government is to have a dictator to whom they cannot attach puppet strings. But of course, they expect to win every single one of their chess matches. If "Rome" was ever a clue...

BBC NEWS | Americas | US bans arms sales to Venezuela

"It's the empire and it has a great capacity to do harm to the countries of the world," he told the Associated Press news agency.

He said his government would not respond with punitive measures.

US officials argue that the rule of President Chavez is eroding democracy and human rights in Venezuela and that he is working to undermine American influence in the region.

Put your money where your mouth is

How about actually using some of those billions of dollars being used in an invented war to fund some of that R&D... Stop the lip service and switch to facts.

Update 7: President Touts Hydrogen-Powered Cars - Forbes.com

President Bush had an Earth Day message for drivers worried about soaring gasoline prices: The nation must move more quickly toward widespread use of hydrogen-powered cars.

Pots of gold...

Econ 101 on Illegal Immigrants

Each year, for example, the U.S. Social Security Administration maintains roughly $6 billion to $7 billion of Social Security contributions in an "earnings suspense file" -- an account for W-2 tax forms that cannot be matched to the correct Social Security number. The vast majority of these numbers are attributable to undocumented workers who will never claim their benefits.

If those funds could be earmarked for local support, they would make a sizable dent in education costs. Local school districts are estimated to educate 1.8 million undocumented children. At an average annual cost of $7,500 (averages vary by jurisdiction) per student, the cost of providing education to these children is about $11.2 billion. That means roughly half of the education costs for undocumented immigrant children could be met if these Social Security funds could be redirected.

Now, how's this for paranoia?

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

LONDON (Reuters) - British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said Wednesday.

Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.

The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's 1979 anthem "London Calling," which features the lyrics "Now war is declared -- and battle come down" while other lines warn of a "meltdown expected."

Well, there is some hope after all...

I hope the trend is contagious and other states catch up.

THE BRAD BLOG: "MD House Votes 137 to 0 to Ban Diebold Touch-Screen Voting in 2006!"

A House united. That seems to be the effect that Diebold has had on the state of Maryland where they had initially deployed their paperless touch-screen voting machines in 2002 as one of two "showcase" states along with Georgia.

That "showcase" has turned into yet another public relations fiasco for Diebold of late.

The Republican Governor there recently slammed Diebold's paperless system, called for paper ballots and announced he had lost confidence in the State Board of Election and its Diebold-supporting Director, Linda Lamone, to carry out a fair election. Then information surfaced that Lamone had allowed MD to use uncertified Diebold software in the 2002 and 2004 elections. Then revelations were made public of massive machine failures in 2004. And now this from MD's Democratic House...

Maestro, may you rest in peace...

Thank you for sharing your vision.

HNN - HuntingtonNews.Net

Born in Fort Scott, Kan. In 1912, Gordon Parks was the youngest of 15 children. After his mother died when he was 16, Parks left Kansas for Minneapolis and supported himself by working as a piano player, busboy, basketball player and Civilian Conservation Corpsman. At the age of 25, Parks began to seriously consider photography. While working as a waiter on the Northern Pacific Railroad, he read voraciously, wrote music and through reading the magazines of the day, was introduced to pictures made by social documentary photographers for Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Farm Security Administration (FSA) Historical Section. The photographers he studied were Ben Shahn, Jack Delano, Carl Mydans, Dorothea Lange, John Vachon, and Walker Evans. "They were photographing poverty, and I knew poverty so well," Parks recalls.

The apex of hypocrisy

I suppose Mr. Gonzalez was busy chasing or pushing some other issues at the time, but I wonder what does he thinks about all the "torture by proxy" the U.S. carried out in South America in the 60's and 70's and well into the 80's, in countries where they sponsored military coups and governments. Maybe he never heard of the "School of the Americas"...

Nowadays, priorities are different and the theater of operations has moved elsewhere (for the moment, that is) but make no mistake, that theater is very shifty and may come back to the South, any time.

Proxy, now, that's a keyword if I've seen any...

CNN.com - Attorney General Gonzales defends American anti-terror tactics - Mar 7, 2006

Alberto Gonzales also said the U.S. did not transport terrorism suspects to nations where it was likely they could be tortured.

Human rights groups and other European critics have alleged that U.S. planes may be using European airports and air space to send suspects to nations that may torture them. They have also criticized the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo, and a U.N. report last month called for the facility to be closed "without further delay" because it is effectively a torture camp where prisoners have no access to justice

German engineering

I'll sin of being politically incorrect here, but if this doesn't fall into the German pragmatic stereotype, I don't know what does...

Hey,! before you start shooting arrows at me, I'm Hispanic, so don't tell me about stereotypes.

IOL: Germans ditch their cats after bird flu death

Berlin - Hundreds of German cat-owners have dumped their pets at shelters since the country recorded the first case of a cat dying of bird flu in the European Union, the German animal welfare society said on Thursday.

"Nationwide, several hundred cats have been left with us. People are scared their cats have bird flu," a spokesperson for the group, Jan Pfeifer, told AFP.

The Washington Gang...

Judged by a jury of his peers....

I mean, I'll accept the explanation and even the "oops, I did it and I'm sorry", but Fox News?? Give me an effing break.

Fox News wins battle for Cheney interview

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Vice President Dick Cheney told Fox News Channel in an exclusive interview Wednesday afternoon that he believed he properly handled the disclosure of his involvement in a hunting accident in Texas last week.

Brasil, uranium and ghost sightings

I was just watching CNN live on my PC and they were showing a press conference in which the media was grilling White House Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, about the VP Cheney's hunting accident (note to self: never accept a hunting invitation by the VP...), a real fiasco, if yoiu ask me and goes to show what kind of timely information we get from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. In any case, when McClellan got tired of dodging spit balls, he tried to change the subject and of course, Iran and their nuclear program came up. One of the reporters asked the Press Secretary about a piece of news that supposedly appeared in the British media about Brasil enriching uranium with the opening of a brand new plant to supply their two, and operating, nuclear power plants. The alleged report appears to have all kinds of hyperbolic extrapolations about potential threats, nuclear proliferation, etc., etc., and comparing Brasil to Iran on an issue where the similarity begins and ends on "uranium", the mineral. McClellan claimed not to know anything about the report or of the facts themselves. Weird, if it wasn't impossible not to notice such an elephant in the room, I might even believe him. "Might" is the keyword, but the weird thing is that I searched Google News on two simple terms, "Brasil" and "uranium", and as of today, Feb/13/2006 1320hrs EST, there were only four articles about that new plant, all from a Brasilian news agency and they were released back on January 23rd. Three weeks ago! Not a peep from anybody else in the News Googlesphere!!

Now, how come not even Iran itself used the news to their advantage, citing international hypocrisy, for example? Don't get me wrong, like I've said, the similarity between Iran and Brasil on the issue of uranium enrichment, begins and ends on "uranium", period, beyond that there are no real or fabricated comparisons. Still, just now, three weeks after it was noted in "one" Brasilian news agency, the slow digestion is begining to shed some crap. One word: Amazing!

Who the fuck controls the media? Not sure I want to know, but if you have an answer, please share, nevertheless.

Portal da Cidadania

Brazil's nuclear program is peaceful

07:38

Alana Gandra
Reporter Ag�ncia Brasil

Rio - At the moment, when anyone mentions nuclear program, all eyes turn to Iran and its dispute with the United States and the European Union. The problem is that there are strong suspicions that the objective of the Iranian nuclear program is to eventually build a bomb.

The Brazilian nuclear program does not have that problem. According to Carlos Freire Moreira, a director at Ind�strias Nucleares do Brasil, which will be operating Brazil's first uranium enrichment factory in Resende, Rio de Janeiro, the program is exclusively industrial and commercial, and will supply the country's nuclear power plants with fuel. The factory will be inaugurated this month.

Moreira points out that Brazil is a signatory to all the nuclear non-proliferation treaties and that the Resende factory will be overseen by the Brazil-Argentina Nuclear Energy Application Agency. He also reports that Brazil presently has a good relationship with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Aquilino Serra, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, says that when the Resende factory goes into operation the only international concern will be with possible competition from a new player in the restricted field of uranium enrichment. Serra says Brazil should not have any problems with inspections, as long as they take place within the framework established (which offer Brazil protection for its processing technology). Serra points out that the Brazilian factory will enrich uranium by 5%, which is the limit for industrial/commercial purposes. "In order to make a bomb, you have to enrich to 95%," he explains.

Translation: Allen Bennett

23/01/2006

Sign of the times...

Iran and a death wish...

If and when something as described by Debka happens, I wonder how will the world react. There is a lot of hypocrisy in the world of international politics and Russia's covert, and not so cover, meddling in the Middle East and Iran in particular, is one of the great examples. However, I doubt Russia will remain silent if Iran actually test such a device. However, of all variables, China is the 800 pound gorilla in the room.

If it wasn't such a deadly proposition, the whole Iran nuclear affair would make for a great fiction book.

Heck, I despise GW&Co. as much as anybody with a few grams of gray matter, but the thought of a country dominated by frothing-in-the-mouth Muslim Clerics bent on "wiping another country out of the face of the earth" would give some of his rhetoric a place to stick. Not sure if I'm more disappointed by the route Iran is taking or for them fullfilling some of GW's prophecies...

DEBKAfile -

According to Lavrov, Russian intelligence estimates that Iran is now capable of detonating this non-weaponized nuclear device - or in other words carrying out its first nuclear test.

DEBKAfile sources add: This estimate which Russian president Vladimir Putin passed to President George Bush some weeks ago is challenged by US and Israeli nuclear experts, who do not believe Iran is up to the stage of a nuclear device. However, on Jan. 21, the opposition FDI claimed Iran would carry out its first nuclear test before the Iranian new year, which falls on March 20.

A Robertsonian?

Hmm. the difference between Nagin's God and Robertson's God is that Nagin's is 75% Cocoa. Hey, you can't go wrong with dark chocolate!! Is good for your health (and soul?)...

Telegraph | News | 'This is how God punished us for invading Iraq'

The mayor of New Orleans has provoked new outrage by calling Hurricane Katrina God's punishment for invading Iraq and insisting the city become "chocolate" again.

Gospel I can live with...

Glad to read some sense. Fire and brimstone for the Big Mouth!!

al.com: Opinion - Who's going to muzzle the man with the mouth?

If Pat Robertson were a doctor, we could strip him of his medical license. If he were a lawyer, we could disbar him.

But what do you do with a "televangelist" who is given to declaring God's will for political leaders, resort communities and, indeed, entire nations? Is there no one to muzzle this self-
appointed, self-anointed man of God?

For those of you who cannot get enough of Pat Robertson: Pat's Shake. Hmm, hmmm, hmmm. Don't forget your fiber supplements to get some of that out of your system...

In the "must be known" file...

Must be shared. A real shame on the part of the Mexican justice system. There are other ways to refute involvement in such a crime. Don't shoot the messenger.

IFEX :: Lydia Cacho Ribeiro, investigative journalist faces possible prison sentence for libel

On the basis of her research, Cacho wrote a book entitled "Demons of Eden" that was published in 2004. It claimed there were links between the pedophile ring and a number of government officials, politicians, businessmen and drug traffickers. One of the businessmen mentioned in the book, Puebla-based textile magnate Jos� Camel Nacif, has brought a complaint against Cacho for criminal libel, which is punishable by imprisonment under Puebla state laws.

While they were sleeping...

Cheers for the people of Bolivia! I don't know if what's coming is good for the people of Bolivia, for the poor that make up the majority of the country, but, I can tell you that what they are leaving behind was hell; frustrating, shameful and demeaning hell.

When all is said and done; when all the attention shifts away from the Middle East and the greedy people that when cut bleed oil, the world will realize that a whole new continent, with a whole new attitude has, to their eyes, suddenly popped-up before them. I wonder what kind of hooks the powers that be will try to throw at them when all the other countries, like Argentina and Brazil are doing now, embark in paying off their debts with the FMI, once and for all...

A clean stale is always good. At least you know the past was paved with shit. Give it your best shot!!

Latin America's new socialist revolution - 20 Dec 2005 - World News

At the end of a corridor is a room full of images of Che Guevara. Among them hangs a poster with the slogan, "I'd rather be an illiterate Indian than a North American millionaire".

Thirty-eight years after his death in the foothills of the Bolivian Andes, trying to spark a revolution, the Marxist soldier of fortune's boast reverberates in the dilemma now facing the nation.

In an election yesterday, Bolivia chose an indigenous Aymara Indian and radical former coca farmer over a Harvard-educated, American-married member of the business elite.

The two leading presidential candidates, Evo Morales and Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga personified the bitter divide between the European-descended haves and the majority indigenous have-nots, in Bolivia and beyond.

Yesterday Quiroga conceded to Morales to become Bolivia's first indigenous leader after Morales claimed about 50 per cent of the vote.

It means the nation will join Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and possibly Mexico next year in the rebirth of Latin American socialism, much to the chagrin of the United States.

A way to capture a shift...

It is and it isn't. It shifts. In a two dimensional world--and two is not a typo,--fine, tenuous lines are there to bound, mark and define form, give a message of volume, existence. Our mind fills the empty voids with meaning, much the same way the lines that form these characters on the screen impart a message. All of it is art. But, what is it? Different people, reading the same thing, cannot reach a free consensus on the real intention of a writer. With the introduction of third parties, the readers, askewness prevails. Words are no longer the property of the writer but a picture that belongs to the spirit of a reader. Sure, there are long, tedious courses of comparative literature that may give you shades of gray on what the writer meant to say. As there isn't a free consensus on the interpretation of colors, other than hard measurements of wavelengths, providing only numbers, devoid of perception, written words cannot be captured and sealed in the container of an idea, not fully, not ever. Even laws, as polarized as they seem, are open to interpretation and loopholes. It shifts. Everything does. It goes from eye to mind, jumping dendrites, dancing pirouettes, juggling electrons, pumping minute chemicals, reaching a big, round projection screen, somewhere, in the back of our skull, where a bunch of slave neurons are condemned to watch an endless motion picture. Sometimes, the slaves are gratified...

BIROCO.COM ~ A way to look at things

But probably you pick up a tone of sadness, and think that is more real than sadness going. Well, for a while it is more real, and then it goes and it is not real at all. I can't always wait until it is not more real before getting words down on paper just to make you feel less awkward. If you worry, know that I see through this and I see through you too, and why don't you understand that the real real thing is none of this, and that is the point. Do you think a river is having a hard time when the riverbank gets constricted? Bring up your babies and look after your families, but myself I have other things on my mind of which death and disappearance are things to flirt with while twiddling my thumbs. Ultimately, something mad is what I will be known for. And when I am gone I will not be gone. It is pleasing to express it whether it is happy or sad.

I have a problem with that title...

I doubt the guys at the NSA were jumping at the bit to start spying on the American people and GWB just agreed to it... Can you guys rephrase that?

ABC News: Report: Bush Authorized NSA to Spy in U.S.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said Bush has "acted lawfully in every step that he has taken." His top spokesman, Scott McClellan, said that Bush "is going to remain fully committed to upholding our Constitution and protect the civil liberties of the American people. And he has done both."

Talk about timing...,

I'm glad to know many of our Senators have some sense of honesty and know where to draw some lines. Heck, they miss most; in the end they may even miss this one, but, for the time being, they had some decency and common sense.

Senate Deals Setback to Bush on Patriot Act

In today's Senate debate, several lawmakers cited a New York Times report disclosing that Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in the United States, despite previous legal prohibitions against such domestic spying.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the domestic spying "clearly and categorically wrong" and vowed to hold oversight hearings on the matter when the Senate reconvenes early next year after its holiday recess.

Brain surgery...

Anyone paying any attention would have known that for a fact. Apathy is what dooms empires...

Columnist Says Bush Knows Who Leaked Name

Novak also suggested that the administration official who gave him the information is the same person who mentioned Plame and her CIA role to Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward in the summer of 2003.

"I'm confident the president knows who the source is," Novak told a luncheon audience at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, N.C., on Tuesday, according to an account published yesterday in the Raleigh News & Observer. "I'd be amazed if he doesn'

Shameful and real

Because "Freedom" is not free.... Hmmm. what would Jesus do? Oops!! That's right!! I remember:

Matt 21:12-13

12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

13 And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"

(NKJ)

Luke 19:45-46

45 Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it,

46 saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"

Only for the benefit of hypocrite Bible propagandists, of course...

Democracy Now! | Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions

We play an interview with, John Perkins - author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" - who says he says he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then taking over their economies. [includes rush transcript] The protests this week in Bolivia come as Latin America is seeing significant success among popular progressive movements. From Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Lula da Silva of Brazil to the changes of government in Uruguay and now Ecuador, there is a continent-wide trend that has Washington concerned. The US has long exploited countries throughout Central and Latin America for the natural resources, labor and land. Over the decades, this exploitation has been backed up by force and through devastating policies dictated to puppet regimes. Our next guest says he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries in Latin America and around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then taking over their economies. From 1971 to 1981, John Perkins worked for the international consulting firm of Chas T. Main. He described himself as an "economic hit man." He"s written a memoir called Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. When he joined us in our fire house studio, we asked him to begin with how he came to be recruited first by the National Security Agency - far larger than the C.I.A. - and then this so-called international consulting firm of Chas T. Main.

File under "Wow!" and "Holly Shit!"

Simply amazing.

Harold Pinter - Nobel Lecture

Harold Pinter's Nobel Lecture was pre-recorded, and shown on video December 7, 2005, in B�rssalen at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.

Slaves with a return address...

The sad part is that they'll still cross the border and try to make a decent living, even if they are used and discarded like disposable gloves. Very, very few make it in a first generation try. It is though, the second and third generations the xenophobics are really afraid of. Yup, those are as Americans as they are and at some point they are going to demand equal "respect"...

Bush Pushes Guest-Worker Program

TUCSON, Nov. 28 -- President Bush promoted his administration's efforts to get a grip on illegal immigration, spotlighting a plan to tighten security along the southern border and calling for a guest-worker program that would allow about 11 million illegal immigrants to work legally in the country temporarily before forcing them to return home.

Falling justice...

Well, talk about neat metaphors...

Pieces of marble fall from Court facade

WASHINGTON -- A basketball-sized piece of marble molding fell from the facade over the entrance to the Supreme Court Monday, landing on the steps near visitors waiting to enter the building.

Watch that space...

If this pans out, and it usually is the case with things I read at Debka, it will be the sad opening of yet another front in a war that will swallow the Mid-East... Sad day, indeed.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism Security

DEBKAfile Exclusive: US Marines are locked in battle with Syrian troops after crossing the border from Iraq into Syria at a point west of al QaimNovember 25, 2005, 12:27 AM (GMT 02:00)Both sides have suffered casualties. US soldiers crossed over after Damascus was given an ultimatum Thursday, Nov. 24, to hand over a group of senior commanders belonging to Abu Musab al Zarqawi%u2019s al Qaeda force. According to US intelligence, the group had fled to Syria to escape an American attack in Mosul. Syrian border guards opened fire on the American force.

Well, that's one way...

...to deal with opposing opinions... It would have certainly helped revamp pro-American sentiment in the region... Yo,!! yes you, the other half of the country that voted for this "...." (fill in the blank), where did you find him? Are there more like him in that hole? (don't answer that...)

ABC News: Report: Bush Talked of Bombing Al-Jazeera

LONDON Nov 22, 2005 — A civil servant has been charged under Britain's Official Secrets Act for allegedly leaking a government memo that a newspaper said Tuesday suggested that Prime Minister Tony Blair persuaded President Bush not to bomb the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera.

The Daily Mirror reported that Bush spoke of targeting Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, Qatar, when he met Blair at the White House on April 16, 2004. The Bush administration has regularly accused Al-Jazeera of being nothing more than a mouthpiece for anti-American sentiments.

Unclassified, unclassifiable...

Now, as a hypocrisy corollary of what I wrote below on mind-altering drugs, take a look at this "invention"... Huh?!?! So, you mean that a device that can make you a mindless, order-following-killing-machine drone is OK if it has, ahem!, "a practical use in a military application"?

Now, we file this under what? Sci-Fi B movie come to life? Reality, my friends, is stranger than you think...

New Scientist Breaking News - Invention: Soldiers obeying odours

These can be delivered silently, in the dark and when loud noise is drowning out speech. Furthermore, says the USC patent, the immediate reaction to a smell is emotional, rather than rational, so an odour trigger may encourage people to carry out orders without question.

Pictures filed with the patent show how the researchers used a collar, like a gun belt, which hangs round a soldier’s neck. The collar has a dozen cartridges, each containing a wick soaked in smelly liquid, a valve and a small propeller fan. Remote radio signals open selected valves and kick fans into life.

Timothy Leary revisited...

Is it a "Rock on!!" in good order? I think so, but, let me qualify that: I'm, completely, against drugs that create dependency. That's misery for anybody who is hooked on them. However, there are many ethnobotanical substances that are mind altering that are not dependency causing. They have been used for thousands of years without the taboo modern society place on them. It is time some respect is returned.

More to the point, the "legal" drugs Prozac, Paxil, Welbutrin, Big-Pharma-Fill-in-the-Blank-with-drug-name, are just that: Mind Altering Drugs. At the time of "mistrust" I would ponder much longer about the ones who stand to make a hefty profit from said drugs.

Give Me Cognitive Liberty (News) Salim Muwakkil

The ranks of folks who believe that the war on drugs is an effort to control consciousness include a few bohemian types and "graying hippies" who may not be sober all the time. But a few straight-edge libertarians would agree with their basic argument: An individual should have the right to choose access to a variety of mental states, some of which can be achieved through the use of mind-altering drugs.

Red phones; Direct lines; God's Fast-track

I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God; you just rejected him from your city. And don’t wonder why he hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don't ask for his help because he might not be there.

And no, I'm not a atheist.

Semantics, V2.0

A rose, by any other name, is still a rose... Right? And here we go back to the issue of "intent". For the maker of this software the product is just a long--and marketable--spaghetti of code. The weight of "intent" (may I use the word "onus?") is placed on the user. It is the user who is spying, not the maker of the software. The person being spied on may have an issue with this concept but I would place these kind of programs under the same umbrella as DVD decoders and other software used to copy copyrighted material. They are outlawed... Even though they argued that they don't do the actual copying and the liable party is really the person doing it, the courts decided to snip the bud at the weakest link and that was the provider of the copying tools.

There is more ethical and moral weight in a person not wanting to be spied on than in the person wanting to spy on another.

I suggest the maker of "SpyMon" to keep their peace...

Spyware spat makes small print a big issue | Tech News on ZDNet

SpyMon logs keystrokes and takes screenshots. It sells for $26 and is advertised by RetroCoder as a tool to monitor kids, spouses or employees. Before downloading the application, RetroCoder asks customers to agree to a statement that forbids its use by a researcher for an antivirus or anti-spyware company, or business related to these.

The SpyMon download agreement continues with a legal condition: "If you do produce a program that will affect this software's ability to perform its function, then you may have to prove in criminal court that you have not infringed this warning."

Semantics, V1.1

Somebody in the administration will find a way to wriggle out of this one saying that ALL modern weapons are chemical based and therefore unavoidable their use in a war. Intent though is another matter. A kitchen knife could as easily be used to slice your tomatoes as it could be used to slice a living, breathing entity.

Did the US military use chemical weapons in Iraq? | csmonitor.com

"I heard the order being issued to be careful because white phosphorus was being used on Fallujah. In military slang this is known as Willy Pete. Phosphorus burns bodies, melting the flesh right down to the bone," says one former US solider, interviewed by the documentary's director, Sigfrido Ranucci.

"I saw the burned bodies of women and children. The phosophorous explodes and forms a plume. Who ever is within a 150 metre radius has no hope," the former soldier adds.

Semantics...

"We'll do it under the law"--of the country where the prison is...
"We do not torture"--but let them do it; we are there to record the information obtained...

Sometimes I think people in power believe everybody else outside that sphere are idiots (the rest of the time I just feel it...)

Bush Defends CIA's Clandestine Prisons

Brushing aside international criticism of the CIA-run prisons set up in eight countries, Bush said that the nation is at war with an enemy "that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again. And so, you bet, we'll aggressively pursue them, but we'll do so under the law." Bush, who spoke to reporters during a brief visit to the capital of Panama, also asserted, "We do not torture."

Before you say...

..."What was he thinking?", give him some credit. The man may be corrupt and Pinochet's "Mini-Me" wannabe but that's never a metaphor for stupidity. All bets are still open, but, if I were the president of Peru, I would do some soul searching among the military brass before extraditing Fujimori back into Peru.

Caveat lector. I hope I'm wrong and I don't have to write a follow-up with a "I told you so..." as the title...

World News Article | Reuters.co.uk

Fujimori, who had been living in Japan as a fugitive since 2000, was arrested at the Marriott Hotel in Santiago. In a statement when he arrived on Sunday he said he had come to Chile on his way back to Peru to run for president next year.

July 14, 1789 - Fast Forward to A Yogi Berra Moment

Only the Royals are missing.... I could almost hear the countdown to Martial Law, State of Siege and curfews. Inevitable, if the curve of current events keeps climbing, I dare to say.

Now, talk about symbols and imagine THAT happening in the cradle of civil liberties... Scary, indeed.

World Opinion Roundup -- Jefferson Morley's Review of Opinions and Commentary on News Around the World - washingtonpost.com

"A country which prides itself as the fatherland of the humans right and the sanctuary of a generous social model shows, in the eyes of all, that it is incapable of ensuring dignified living conditions for young French people," said the editors of Le Monde (in French).

Beady eyes...

Perhaps, the moment the U.S. drops the expectation of finding beady eyes, eager supplicants waiting for free handouts, of finding beggars knocking at their door, whereby all that is said from a higher-than-thou vantage point is accepted without question, perhaps then, the time to be surprised by these kind of outcomes will be over...

Learn to really treat people as equals, specially if "trade" is the keyword of the day, and then a real dialogue can be established.

Bush Departs Without a Deal

The United States has encountered increasing problems in selling its free-trade agenda in recent years, as many countries in the region have voiced objections to what they say is unilateral U.S. foreign policy.

Simplicity, in a surreal sort of way...

Only problem is that, for most in Latin America, the only way to achieve access to "luxuries" like a refrigerator is to break away from the status quo and the only way to achieve that is through radical ideas. The opposite is conformity and acceptance of poverty. Look down, pull your pants down and bend over.

Heck!, at least the Hindus are honest and they've had a system of castes for millennia. They are very overt about it, even though change is blurring the lines. The hypocrisy of using a covert caste system in Occident is quite repugnant.

Bush, Chavez or Refrigerators?

As Marta Lagos, head of Latinobarometro put it, "people in Latin America are no longer interested in buying the dreams offered by extreme ideologies.'" Rather, she said, "they want to buy refrigerators."

Patchily implemented

The day some of these assholes realize that a shoe that fits one person may not fit another perhaps that clean slate will open their collective minds to novel ideas. You cannot open one door to free trade (inward, into S.America) while closing the door to their output. In my book, that isn't free trade, it is arrogance and big brother upper-handedness.

Those state run agencies that South America, collectively, gave away to multinationals backed-up by loan sharks like the IMF, should have never left state control. They were, yes, perhaps inefficient in many ways but they were a source of jobs for the people and the money earned was spent within those states thus lubricating the economy. It wasn't perfect, never was, but it worked. Now the situation, in many places, is dire.

Herald.com | 11/03/2005 | Latin summit likely to be tough on Bush

Many in Latin America are suspicious of free-market reforms espoused by Bush. In the 1990s, governments lowered trade barriers and privatized state firms, with little to show for their efforts. Some economists and U.S. officials argue those reforms were patchily implemented.

Chess...

.... Never play as they expect you. Now that you have the cow where you wanted it, milk it!

Harry Reid sparks a dramatic Senate standoff - Tom Curry - MSNBC.com

“The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions,” Reid said before making the motion which sent the Senate into a closed-door session.

Scalia V2.0

If he's approved I only hope he has some of the theatrics of the real Scalia. It could make for good entertainment... If it wasn't that our collective asses are in the Conservatives' sight, that is...

TIME.com: Why Bush Picked Alito -- Page 1

Sen. Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, had a straight face as he called Alito "controversial," and said he has real questions about the judge's record on civil rights, women's rights AND workers' rights. "It's sad that [Bush] felt he had to pick a nominee likely to divide America," Schumer said. "The President seems to want to hunker down in his bunker."

Fukuyama - The Neocon Who Isn't

Well, not all conservatives are completely nuts...

American Prospect Online - ViewPrint

"That was the point at which I started to think about the whole issue of American hegemony,"� he says. "Until then I had accepted the neoconservative line, which is, 'OK, we're hegemons, but we're benevolent hegemons.' But when I was in Europe, the reality of what non-Americans thought hit me more forcefully than it had before. Even the editor of the Financial Times, which is a pretty conservative paper, was absolutely livid about the way the Bush administration was dealing with the U.K. and Europe."

Onus...

Watch this space... This may be interesting. Debka has been, for years, one of my favorite places to read about the Israeli/Palestinian issue. Mind you, they have an obvious bias towards the Jewish point of view but still, for me is one of the best places to get information about the current Middle Eastern situation.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism Security

US president Bush placed the onus for progress towards peace squarely on Israel at the joint news conference he held with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas after their White House talks Thursday, Oct. 20

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Now, don't tell me that Orwell was too high on Absinthe when he wrote the namesake novel about "Big Brother" having an almost symbiotic relationship with its subject citizenry and whereby the former is the dominant parasite that steers the destiny of said subjects...

A couple of questions come to mind: a) how has this flown under the radar of oufits like EFF for almost ten years? (the article cites that said tracking information on printouts has been found on copies printed up to ten years ago; mind you, a place like Apple cannot keep the rumor mill quiet for two minutes...); b) how can we take back control of what we print now that the cat is out the bag?
(Click on the image to go to the EFF.ORG article about this issue)

It occurs to me that this technology can be used for legitimate, overt purposes, by the public, specially digital artist and photographers. Give the technology back to the people and let them use it.

On the matter of the "bad guys", the money counterfeiters, I can bet all the money I don't have and win the bet, that those were onto the scheme long, long before it became a public... Hey, that's their business!

Sleuths Crack Tracking Code Discovered in Color Printers / from the Washington Post

The EFF said it has identified similar coding on pages printed from nearly every major printer manufacturer, including Hewlett-Packard Co., though its team has so far cracked the codes for only one type of Xerox printer.

The U.S. Secret Service acknowledged yesterday that the markings, which are not visible to the human eye, are there, but it played down the use for invading privacy.

"It's strictly a countermeasure to prevent illegal activity specific to counterfeiting," agency spokesman Eric Zahren said. "It's to protect our currency and to protect people's hard-earned money."

Between semantics an hypocrisy...

Hmmm, you mean that to be a "blockade" you need to have the U.S. Navy stationed around the island and to be an "embargo" is just to use economic means to accomplish the same thing? Ah... I thought so... It isn't lost to the whole world but the U.S. that the "embargo" only hurts the people of Cuba, not the elite. (I learned English, learn some Spanish, it won't hurt you...)

Herald.com | 10/16/2005 | Cuban 'blockade'? U.S. objects to word

The 17 leaders began discussing the Cuban issue at the start of the annual summit, prompting the U.S. Embassy in Madrid to object to the word ''blockade'' instead of ''embargo.'' Spanish officials countered that the word ''blockade'' had been used in U.N. resolutions as well. ''We call on the United States of America to comply with that laid down in 13 successive resolutions approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations, and to bring an end to the economic, trade and financial blockade it maintains against Cuba,'' one of a set of final statements said.

As for the UN Resolutions, good luck, for all they care about those around here, unless they sponsor them, of course...

Not your father's rubber...

...only Karl Rove doesn't think of himself as the condom but as the spermicidal: he believes he's still in control after a leak...

A Day of Questioning, More Questioning and . . . No Questions

While Rove testified, three women dressed as condoms, and a fourth with a stocking over her head, distributed "Karl Rove Brand" prophylactics in front of the courthouse. The nine demonstrators, coordinated by the antiwar group Code Pink, chanted "Some things should never leak! Fire Karl Rove!"The hot-pink condoms, with a smiling photo of Rove on the wrapper and the same "Some Things Should Never Leak" message, promised to be effective against pregnancy, AIDS and STDs."Any of the condoms want to say something to the microphones?" one of the camera operators asked. But the latex-clad demonstrators had nothing to add.

The real powder keg...

While W&Co. play "gate keepers" for the second largest reserve of oil in the world, the real "action" may be happening not too far to the north of Iraq. The focusing on Arab Muslims may prove to be a fatal distraction. Arab Muslims are, more or less, easy to profile at an airport... While there is no respect for other cultures and religions, and equitative sharing of resources among the people, the result will always be discontent and discontent is fertil ground for fanaticism.

And no, this is not a full stop, 90 degree turn to the portside of political views (i.e. socialist or communist views); it is a pragmatic observation of reality as it unfolds before our collective eyes. Pay attention.

Bloomberg.com: Top Worldwide

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Russian troops killed more than 50 rebels who attacked a regional capital in the North Caucasus, raising concern that Muslim separatist unrest is spreading beyond Chechnya.

Misnomers, V2.5

Can't they leave us, "humans", out of that equation? Mind you, I don't want a passing-by race of "advance intelligence" aliens to confuse the rest of us with the guys that "manufactured" the Iraq War...

CIA acquires new US clandestine leadership role

With the new clandestine service based at his agency, Goss will have a dual role as CIA director and "National HUMINT Manager." HUMINT is bureaucratic parlance for human intelligence.

The hypocrisy of international politics

Now, if the Bush administration's logic in the war on terror is to bring the war front to the "terrorists", in places like Afhganistan and Iraq, and specially Iraq, to avenge the death of about 2900 people in the World Trade Center in NYC, wouldn't the same line of thought indicate that to avoid a global pandemic of avian flu, that in some estimates could kill as many as 150 million people worldwide, the problem should be tackled where it starts?

This administration feels entitled to spend as much as $520Billion by 2010 on a hare-brained war based on lies but cannot think out of box for something that could kill ten thousand fold as many people worldwide as almost any act of terrorism that can be cooked out by desperate, hare-brained religious fanatics...

Virologists tell West to divert flu shots to Asia - Health & Science - International Herald Tribune

NEW YORK To head off a global pandemic of avian flu, some virologists have proposed a novel front-line strategy: Poultry workers and farmers in Asia, they argue, should be given the same flu shots that Americans get.�
But the idea may be politically unpalatable, experts say, because it could require diverting millions of flu shots that Americans and Europeans are expecting to protect them in the coming flu season.�
Although officials hope there will be an abundance of vaccines for the flu season just now beginning, supply now is not keeping up with demand.�
Giving flu shots to poultry workers is "something that we think might be extremely important," said Dr. Andrew Pavia, chairman of the pandemic influenza task force of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.�
But he said he thought it was "very unlikely" that vaccine now on order for the West would be diverted to Asia because flu shots prevent hospitalization and death for tens of thousands of the elderly and immuno-compromised.�

Gasp...!!

...you mean there are people that actually "like" Karl Rove?

Rove Redux

Still, the only thing we know for sure, thanks to Matt Cooper's account, is that Rove discussed Valerie Plame with the Time reporter.

But judging by the way this is played on TV, you can almost hear the reporters salivating for indictment. Not because they don't like Rove--a lot of them have probably dealt with him on background--but because it would be such a juicy story.

Supreme "Gore" Justice

Did anyone catched W this morning on CNN answering a question about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers saying that she would be a great "Supreme "Gore' Justice"and then he corrected himself to say "Court" . I swear to it!!! Somebody who was ready and recorded it, or CNN itself, can attest to that.

Lapsus linguae...

Kill em all. Let God sort em out...

Although W is not Arnoud-Amaury, the Abbot of Citeaux and Papal Legate for the Albigensian Crusades, he appears to have a direct line to the Highest. Sigh... What of the good ol' times when the only Red Phone in the Wihte House was with the Soviet Union's Prime...? Geeze, at least a nuclear holocaust promised to be quick...

I don't know about you people, but hearing voices in your head, the last time I checked, was a mental disease...

Bush said God told him to invade Iraq, Arab leaders say / Palestinian officials confirm comments from documentary

Jerusalem -- President Bush told two high-ranking Palestinian officials that he had been told by God to invade Afghanistan and Iraq and then create a Palestinian state to bring peace to the Middle East, they recall during a documentary on Middle East peace that airs next week in Britain.

"President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God,' " said Nabil Shaath, who was the Palestinian foreign minister at the time of a top-level meeting with Bush in June 2003. Mahmoud Abbas, then Palestinian prime minister and now the Palestinian Authority president, was also present for the conversation with Bush.

Any doubts yet...

...as to where this country is headed? Orwell must be having a fit a laughter in his grave...

CNN.com - Bush military bird flu role slammed - Oct 5, 2005

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A call by President George W. Bush for Congress to give him the power to use the military in law enforcement roles in the event of a bird flu pandemic has been criticized as akin to introducing martial law.

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...snip...
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And Gene Healy, a senior editor at the conservative Cato Institute, said Bush would risk undermining "a fundamental principle of American law" by tinkering with the act, which does not hinder the military's ability to respond to a crisis.

"What it does is set a high bar for the use of federal troops in a policing role," he wrote in a commentary on the group's Web site. "That reflects America's traditional distrust of using standing armies to enforce order at home, a distrust that's well-justified."

Healy said soldiers are not trained as police officers, and putting them in a civilian law enforcement role "can result in serious collateral damage to American life and liberty."

Futures Market....

...confused yet? You would be if you go by these headlines in Google News as of 1445hrs on Wednesday, Oct/05/2005. Look at the three different headlines and tell me which way the oil market is going.... (click on the thumbnail)