I told you not to do that
A man in Gifu who was arrested for theft and traffic violations got himself into deeper trouble after setting fire to a futon at the police station where he was being held.

A 41-year-old Tochigi man was arrested for making some 8,000 "silent phone calls" to his 30-year-old ex-girlfriend after she broke up with him last July.

What's the kanji for "Wear goggles, you idiot!"?

Ikea Japan has agreed to modify its instruction manuals after a Chiba man suffered a serious eye injury from a cracked screw while assembling a chest of drawers.

It was revealed that the Japan Swimming Federation is in a "crisis" over a new brand of Speedo that it says gives foreign competitors an unfair advantage.

STATS
5
Global rank of Japan among all nations in amount of overseas aid provided in 2007

1972
The last year in which Japan placed as low as fifth

241
Tons of Sekisaba mackerel caught off Saganoseki, Oita Prefecture, in 2001

99
Tons caught in 2006, leading experts to believe that the prized food fish faces extinction due to climate change

83
Tokyoites killed during the past decade after their clothes caught fire, according to a report by the Tokyo Fire Department

Reporting on crime leads to a crime

Showing ones self on TV. just wasn't enough

More crime seeking punishment

I must be punished

People who cook that shouldn't

I'll have some mayonnaise with that vegetable blend

Mommy why do they call it Dope?

Because Ganja is to difficult to pronounce

Naughty schoolgirls serve up 'espressos' to go at 'encounter cafes'
"Encounter cafes," manga shops where men and women -- or more likely, girls, can meet and satisfy their mutual needs are rapidly increasing across Japan, according to AERA (5/19).

The women's weekly visits a Nagoya "deai kissa," literally an "encounter café," where a man was arrested last month for breaking the law banning child pornography for allegedly performing indecent acts on a 16-year-old.

The reporter is there to see how the system works, discovering that membership for men costs a one-time fee of 5,000 yen and another 1,000 yen per visit, for which the entrant receives a membership card that can be in any name they like.

I bet you thought there were no "new" ways to serve esspresso

Primero...go read smackdown goodness!

Proximo: Random tube seventies centric surfology loosely to do with bass lines and blamelessly inspired by Robyn's mention of Nilsson. Could these be the absolute best bass lines evaahhh???

No.

Surely not.

Not even close, AAMOF, as you are about to prove in the comments! Show me up and dress me down....just don't call me Shirley! But this first vid is surely the best bass song evah!

graphic images

Obligatory YouTube -- The Harptones "OOH Wee Baby":

I was reading NLinStPaul's essay, Full-Blooded Americans and I read the linked article as well as the comments in the article, most of which agreed that heritage and culture and background were very important.

Reminded me of an old Jewish story from A Treasury of Jewish Folklore edited by Nathan Ausubel:

Usually the orthodox rabbis of Europe boasted distinguished rabbinical geneaologies, but Rabbi Yechiel of Ostrowce was an exception.  He was the son of a simple baker and he inherited some of the forthright qualities of a man of the people.

Once, when a number of rabbis had gathered at some festivity, each began to boast of his eminent rabbinical ancestors.  When Rabbi Yechiel's turn came, he replied gravely, "In my family, I'm the first eminent ancestor."

His colleagues were shocked by this piece of impudence, but said nothing.  Immediately after, the rabbis began to expound Torah.  Each one was asked to hold forth on a text culled from the sayings of one of his distinguished rabbinical ancestors.

One after another the rabbis delivered their learned dissertations.  At last it came time for Rabbi Yechiel to say something.  He arose and said, "My masters, my father was a baker.  He taught me that only fresh bread was appetizing and that I must avoid the stale.  This can also apply to learning."

And with that Rabbi Yechiel sat down.

Last week I wrote about smashing idols.

Full-blooded Americans.  Aristocrats.  The Rich.  The Famous.  I guess here I would add "The Familiar."
It sometimes happens that as we grow older, everthing seems to change so quickly and it can be very frightening.

So some of us decide to ignore all that and become sort of set in stone.

It is immensely comfortable to surround ourselves with familiar things and familiar thoughts and feelings.

I think that's a rather formidable idol to smash.  Because although we all know the only thing you can count on in life is change, most of us don't like change, and many of us fear it.

That's ok, that's understandable.

What causes problems, though, is when we make The Familiar our idol and anything that challenges The Familiar becomes something to fight against and destroy.

America is facing great changes.  Some of them are very scary indeed.  And some of the challenges we face are very new in our human history, given the level of technology and knowledge we have attained.

I won't lie.  I'm not some brave heroine who is not afraid of the future.  I get very scared at times and downright terrified now and then.

But I do believe that if we're going to solve the problems we now face, it's far more important that the thinking we support be fresh and sensible than giving a higher value to the pedigree of who is doing the thinking.  It's been said here and on other blogs many times ... it's the issues, not the personalities.

I am hoping that both in our political system and in our society, fresh voices come forth to be heard.  I've found a few in my prowling, but I'm looking for more and more.

Happy Friday to all.  In honor of The Familiar I shall post an another old doo-wop tune I happen to like ... the Cookies singing "Don't Say Nothing Bad (about my baby)" (the Cookies are also known for singing backup for Ray Charles as the Raelettes, if anyone is interested).

It always takes a few days to turn the switch.

There are still teaching things to attend to over the summer, some of which will be fairly onerous, like building an evaluation instrument for one of our computer literacy classes, a mechanism by which students can test out of the course.  Our students do not come from the burbs, for the most part.  They are what is euphemistically now called "urban."  Inner-city New Jersey.  They do not generally come complete with computer skills beyond texting and MySpace/Facebook.  Email is a foreign substance, except that you have to have an email address to sign up for things.  I just got half of the gig to build a fair assessment instrument for $1000.

And I maybe need to design a Special Topics class for fall (unless it gets canceled for lack of enrollment) .  The topic is Internet Support Tools.  I may be bugging the shit out of some of you because the topic is blogs, wikis, widgets, RSS feeds, etc.  I suppose I'll need to learn some stuff myself so I can teach it.  Maybe we can figure out a way for my students to wander around behind the scenes of Docudharma for a bit. :-)

But that's the me who is a teacher.  Summer is the time for working on grand ideas...my life's work, so to speak...for weaving the next layer on the tapestry.  

And for that I have to go...
...through here...  

Sitting inside while outside the swamp they call the Meadowlands attempts once again to reclaim northeastern New Jersey, as it has done for millennia, I ponder the fact that I have no goddamn speakers connected to this machine.  But maybe the words are more important anyway.  Apologies to Harry Nilsson:

Flying high up in the sky
I think I have to find
another point of view
to see me through

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

...over to here.

Another point of view indeed.

Someone has stories to tell and there are words that demand to be written.

At some point in time one may realize that a discussion one is ready, willing and able to participate in is not going to take place until sometime many years in the future...probably after one is dead.  That presents a problem.

How does one address the future?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Between here and where you are, life will no doubt change considerably.  I'm told that the things I want to say will be spoken about someday, after all the other wrongs in the world are attended to...or not, which will no doubt cause catastrophic change in human society...or not.  The long view smooths over many of the temporal spasms we must survive in one way or another.

Some day there will be time to speak of gender and the massive effect it has on the lives of us all.  And some day we who peck at its flaws would like to have your ear for awhile.

How many years is it between me and you?  A decade?  A generation?  A century?  More?  Will my words as I write them still be sensible to you?  Can you accept that there are so many ways in which I got to where you are now so many years before you did?

Can you accept the concept of trying to catapult ideas into the future?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And the writer in me wonders about how to arrange that sort of writing, assuming I could find the space that is required to inhabit in order to produce that writing.  And wonders what changes finding that space might have on the writer.

One thing is sure.  I am no longer confined to being the writer only between Friday and Sunday, as has been the case since Docudharma  opened last Fall semester, except for a few brief respites.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The realist in me wonders how in the hell I think I could package these Letters to the Future^™ so that they might someday be found.

Assuming, of course, that they could be written in the first place.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

...as the rain still falls and the swamp continues to rise.

In a large sense my commitment last year was to my past.  I wonder if any of my wise friends have anything to say on the subject of writing to the future.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

River of Time Note in a Bottle Words strung like beads into thoughts woven into frayed patches a fragile parchment from your past A note in a bottle set adrift in the river of time If the words reach you can you see to it that they are read and then sent once again on their way --Robyn Elaine Serven --May 16, 2008

1. This is what appeasement looks like. Something... From Voice of America, Bush in Saudi Arabia for Nuclear Deal. "Bush and King Abdullah... will discuss a deal to help the kingdom develop civilian nuclear power for medical and industrial uses as well as generating electricity. The agreement provides access to safe, reliable fuel sources for nuclear reactors and demonstrates what the Bush Administration calls Saudi leadership as a non-proliferation model for the region."

   For nothing... The Guardian reports Saudis reject Bush's plea to ease oil prices. "Saudi Arabia today rebuffed George Bush's appeal to increase production and help cut record oil prices, the White House said. It was the second time this year that the pleas of the US president, who is visiting King Abdullah, have fallen on deaf ears. Bush's latest request came as the price of crude oil hit a new high of more than $127 (£65) a barrel."

2. The Great Lakes Compact is becoming more and more likely. In Cleveland, The Plain Dealer reports the Great Lakes Water Compact nears agreement in Ohio legislature. " Lawmakers in both Wisconsin and Michigan this week nearly unanimously approved the proposed interstate agreement, which supporters say would guard the region's water from diversion outside and overuse within its borders. That leaves only Ohio and Pennsylvania as states that have not signed on to the water deal."

   "The Council of Great Lakes Governments conceived the compact, which also includes a less-formal agreement with the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, in 2005. Six states - Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin - have now approved the plan." In addition to the states, Congress must also give its approval.

   According to NPR, "The Great Lakes Water Compact... lays out rules for conservation and water use in the region." Or as the Detroit Free Press explains the "historic regional agreement that would prevent Great Lakes water from being diverted to thirsty parts of the country or globe."

Four at Four continues with barbarisation and laissez-faire ethnic cleansing.

3. Here's one view of the future. James Randerson of The Guardian reports Expert warns climate change will lead to 'barbarisation'.

   Climate change will lead to a "fortress world" in which the rich lock themselves away in gated communities and the poor must fend for themselves in shattered environments, unless governments act quickly to curb greenhouse gas emissions, according to the vice-president of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC).

   Mohan Munasinghe was giving a lecture at Cambridge University in which he presented a dystopic possible future world in which social problems are made much worse by the environmental consequences of rising greenhouse gas emissions. "Climate change is, or could be, the additional factor which will exacerbate the existing problems of poverty, environmental degradation, social polarisation and terrorism and it could lead to a very chaotic situation," he said.

   The scenario, which he termed "barbarisation" was already beginning to happen, he said. "Fortress world is a situation where the rich live in enclaves, protected, and the poor live outside in unsustainable conditions.

   "If you see what is going on in some of the gated communities in some countries you do find that rich people live in those kind of protected environments. If you see the restrictions on international travel you see the beginnings of the fortress world syndrome even in entering and leaving countries," he said.

   This new feudalism is already going on full-tilt. But, much of the rich seem to have foolishly hunkered down in Dubai rather than in the northern climes. Likely, they'll be able to move easily though.

4. Naomi Klein, the author of The Shock Doctrine, writes about the cyclone and earthquake aftermath in Burma and China for The Nation, Regime-Quakes in Burma and China.

   ... None of this compares with the rage boiling over in Burma, where cyclone survivors have badly beaten at least one local official, furious at his failure to distribute aid. There have been dozens of reports of the Burmese junta taking credit for supplies sent by foreign countries. It turns out that they have been taking more than credit--in some cases they have been taking the aid ... The generals, it seems, are "haunted by an almost pathological fear of a split inside their own ranks...if soldiers are not given priority in aid distribution and are unable to feed themselves, the possibility of mutiny rises." ...

   This relatively small-scale theft of food is fortifying the junta for its much larger heist--the one taking place via the constitutional referendum the generals have insisted on holding, come hell and high water...

   The cyclone, meanwhile, has presented them with one last, vast business opportunity: by blocking aid from reaching the highly fertile Irrawaddy delta, hundreds of thousands of mostly ethnic Karen rice farmers are being sentenced to death. According to Farmaner, "that land can be handed over to the generals' business cronies" (shades of the beachfront land grabs in Sri Lanka and Thailand after the Asian tsunami). This isn't incompetence, or even madness. It's laissez-faire ethnic cleansing.

   I think she has the Myanmar junta in Burma pegged, but I'm not convinced she has the situation in China right. Anyway, I find what she has to write interesting in light of her other writings.

While research etc. proceeds on the Maddow Movement, I intended to do a little report on our recent progress down the slippery slope of the Bushco and Friends induced/aided slow slide of civilization back to savagery. Short for "going to hell in a handbasket" the Handbasket Digest is where I try to depress the hell out of everybody by listing as much bad news as I can find.

But when I got here... I give up, says Brazilian minister who fought to save the rainforest

I got depressed myself and had to seek solace in pootie escapism. Sometimes you have to just say fuck it and dance:

 

Howdy!

Welcome to the Grand Opening of the Docudharma Tradin' Post!

Now open for business 24/7! Make the jump to browse products from our store.

Git yer pony butt on down to the Tradin' Post	Click pics for more details
and load up the saddlebags with genUwine Docudharma gear.
We've got everythong you need right here [i am]!
Speedo on over -
and sticker around awhile.
Complimentary cups of coffee
or Efferdent,
while you mosey around our [be] excellent selection.
I'll keep it shorts now...
just a few more eye-tems that might make you yell louder!!!

What???

I can't hear you!

Pump up the volume!

and stay tuned... there's more in store!

Now do your dharmacratic duty and go shopping.  Yeehaw!

 

 

If we were wise and brave we would have taken down this President a long time ago.

Is an earnest desire for peace a foolish delusion?  George Bush thinks so...and who could know more about foolish delusions?

The world is full of fools and America must be their Mecca.  Where else could a certified goober become head of state?

Mr. Bush also served up a veiled rebuke to critics like Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, who suggest the Bush administration should negotiate with countries like Iran and Syria. He called such a strategy "a foolish delusion," though he did not mention Mr. Obama by name.

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," he said. "We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

New York Times

The surprising thing is not that Bush became President.  That can be explained by examining the extensive historical record of Republican cheating and election theft.

Will the GOP election theft machine do it again in 2008?

No, the surprising thing is that there are still Americans who remain unashamed by their support for such an obviously disgraceful fool as George W. Bush.

Let's take a closer look at W's statement to the Knesset.

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," he said.

First note the use of the terms 'terrorists and radicals' as if those words didn't apply equally well to himself.  One man's terrorist George...

Then notice the assumption that the only outcome allowable is for us to persuade the 'terrorists' that 'they have been wrong all along,' because of course we have been right and there is no such thing as compromise or a re-framing of the arguments.  Leave it to a fool like George Bush to equate negotiating with persuading the opposition that they have been wrong all along.

Do you really believe that attempting to make peace is a 'foolish delusion' George?  Really?

What would your buddy Jesus think?

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."

Matthew 5:9

If we were wise and brave we would negotiate with our enemies.

We might start by asking Syria and Iran to work in cooperation with the Arab League or the UN or both to provide an all Muslim Peace Keeping force so that we could withdraw all American forces from Iraq immediately.

If we were wise and brave we would dismantle/re-purpose the Military Industrial Complex to pursue peaceful solutions to the problems we all face and to save our children and the world from its ravenous evil.

If we were wise and brave we would never elect another Republican President.

If we were wise and brave we would act to protect the future of our children and grandchildren.

If we were wise and brave we would bring the war criminals in our government to justice.

If we were wise and brave we would put an end to war.

If we were wise and brave...

And now a special shout out to those Democrats who have argued against the impeachment of this outrageously criminal presidency.  You, in particular, are neither wise nor brave.

If you don't think Bush should be impeached immediately, and I do mean ASAP, I hope you're prepared to accept your part of the responsibility for the damage he does over the next two years.

What's This Fool Doing Still In Office? originally posted December 22, 2006.

From an editorial by Kathleen Parker titled, appropriately enough, Getting Bubba:

"A full-blooded American."

That's how 24-year-old Josh Fry of West Virginia described his preference for John McCain over Barack Obama. His feelings aren't racist, he explained. He would just be more comfortable with "someone who is a full-blooded American as president."

Whether Fry was referring to McCain's military service or Obama's Kenyan father isn't clear, but he may have hit upon something essential in this presidential race.

Full-bloodedness is an old coin that's gaining currency in the new American realm. Meaning: Politics may no longer be so much about race and gender as about heritage, core values, and made-in-America. Just as we once and still have a cultural divide in this country, we now have a patriot divide.

Who "gets" America? And who doesn't?

I'd like to be clever and snarky about this, but my blood is boiling just a bit too hot for that right now. So I will have to succumb to rant mode.  
What Ms. Parker has done here is that she has conflated all of the most obnoxious hate in this country down into one sickening phrase..."full-blooded American." What the hell kind of "heritage, core values and made-in-America" is she talking about? We know that whatever it is, it does not include Barack Obama. But who else is excluded? Maybe this will give you more of a clue:

It's about blood equity, heritage and commitment to hard-won American values. And roots.

Some run deeper than others and therein lies the truth of Josh Fry's political sense. In a country that is rapidly changing demographically -- and where new neighbors may have arrived last year, not last century -- there is a very real sense that once-upon-a-time America is getting lost in the dash to diversity.

We love to boast that we are a nation of immigrants -- and we are. But there's a different sense of America among those who trace their bloodlines back through generations of sacrifice.

Ah...so now the picture is becoming a bit more clear, isn't it? We're also going to exclude those who came here in the last year as opposed to the last century. I wonder just what the cutoff date would be for those immigrants who are considered "full-blooded?" Sounds like according to Ms. Parker, there's some magic time in the 1900's when immigrants went from being full-blooded to what...part-blooded Americans. I wonder if that cut-off date would be in any way related to changes in immigration patterns from Northern European countries to where the "brown-skinned" people live?

This all makes me so angry, I'm not even sure I can craft a sane response. So here's what Steven D had to say:

So let me just say this to the dishonorable Ms. Parker: go take your racist, nasty, screwed up ideas about what real "full blooded" Americans stand for and stick them up the orifice where fecal matter exits your small minded, bigoted body. There are no "full blooded Americans" whose core values and blood sacrifice entitle them to a superior status among the many people who live and work and play and die in this country of ours. There are only one kind of Americans, and neither the color of their skin, their heritage, the number of ancestors they can count who landed on Plymouth Rock or fought in any of our innumerable wars, nor the faith they practice (or don't practice) has anything to do with their relative importance vis-a-vis each other under the law of our land.

Yeah...what he said.  

Corporatist War Monger President George W. Bush, in a pathetically desperate attempt to use an International speech to smear his domestic Democratic opposition as appeasers, quoted a Republican Senator as an example of American appeasement of Hitler prior to World War II.

While delivering an address before the Israeli parliament commemorating the 60th anniversary of Israel, President Bush said that Sen. Barack Obama and Democrats favor a policy of appeasement toward terrorists. CNN reports that Bush was comparing Obama to "other U.S. leaders back in the run-up to World War II who appeased the Nazis."

In his speech, Bush said, "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

The Senator whom Bush quoted verbatim was Idaho Republican William Edgar Borah:

From 1924 to 1933 [Borah] was chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, and his major interest was in foreign policy.... An advocate of disarmament and the outlawing of war, he suggested the Washington Conference of 1921-22 and promoted the Kellogg-Briand Pact; in 1939 he fought revision of the Neutrality Act.

Of course Borah was far from the only 'appeasing' Republican. Indeed, prior to WWII, the Grand Old Party was home to many of the fiercest advocates of appeasement.
Appeasing Republicans prior to WWII included Republican Senate leaders Robert A. Taft (nicknamed 'Mr. Republican'):

[A]s a staunch isolationist, [Taft] fought against the increased military appropriations and international agreements that threatened to draw the U.S. into war.

and Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg:

The acknowledged but unofficial spokesman of Senate Republicans on foreign policy matters, [Vandenberg] advocated strict neutrality and a rigid arms embargo to prevent American involvement in the war.

Appeasing Republicans even included future President Gerald R. Ford:

While attending Yale Law School, [Ford] joined a group of students led by R. Douglas Stuart, Jr., and signed a petition to enforce the 1939 Neutrality Act. The petition was circulated nationally and was the inspiration for The America First Committee, a group determined to keep America out of World War II.

Other appeasing Republicans against American intervention in WWII included prominent businessmen:

[The America First Committee's] most important supporters were a core group of Republican Chicago businessmen.  Chief among them was General Robert Wood, CEO of Sears, Roebuck....Other Chicago businessmen, such as meat packers Jay Hormel and Philip Swift, and William J. Grace, head of one of Chicago's largest investment firms, had never supported the president.  All became key Committee members.  Colonel Robert J. McCormick, owner of the Chicago Tribune, was the most influential of all.  A passionate Roosevelt hater and Anglophobe, his paper became an important disseminator of AFC propaganda.

as well as appeasing Republican Party supporters like Charles Lindbergh:

On September 11, 1941, Charles Lindbergh appeared in Des Moines, Iowa, to speak on behalf of the isolationist America First Committee. The famous aviator criticized the groups he perceived were leading America into war for acting against the country's interests. He expressed doubt that the U.S. military would achieve victory in a war against Germany, which he said had "armies stronger than our own."

Of course, let's not forget the greatest Appeasing Republican of them all:

George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany....

The evidence has ... prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

So the next time you hear a Republican bemoan 'appeasement', remind the historically challenged individual (or President) just whose party (and family) wrote the book on it.

Only A Shrub Sees Appeasement

Friday's Headlines: Bush warns of talks with 'radicals'  Clean-air rules for national parks may be eased   Burma storm aid frustrations grow   Afghan death squads 'acting on foreign orders'   Italian tolerance goes up in smoke as Gypsy camp is burnt to ground   Robert George puts parasites on the map with Atlas of the Fleas   How one Liberian helps others speak out   Zimbabwe's rulers unleash police on Anglicans  Talks set on new government for Lebanon   Middle East: Invisible peace talk   Friction forecast at EU-Latin America summit

Chinese Open Wallets for Quake Aid
Individual Giving Blooms in a Society Long Under Sole Care of the State
BEIJING, May 15 At the headquarters of the Red Cross Society of China, volunteers turned a boardroom into a makeshift cashier's office Thursday, sending tens of thousands of fluttering bank notes through counting machines and handing receipts to people like Cai Lili, 30, who stood in long lines with bricks of cash to donate to earthquake relief efforts.
Since a massive earthquake struck Sichuan province and surrounding regions three days ago, Chinese have donated $192 million to help their countrymen, according to China's Civil Affairs Ministry. The fundraising has come as officials have issued a rare public appeal for cranes and rescue equipment, hammers and shovels, bandages and medicine.

California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban
The California Supreme Court, striking down two state laws that had limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman, ruled on Thursday that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.
The 4-to-3 decision, drawing on a ruling 60 years ago that struck down a state ban on interracial marriage, would make California the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow same-sex marriages.

The decision, which becomes effective in 30 days unless the court grants a stay, was greeted with celebrations at San Francisco City Hall, where thousands of same-sex marriages were thrown out by the courts four years ago.

USA

Bush warns of talks with 'radicals'
In Israel, evokes appeasement of Hitler Obama, others call remarks unwarranted political attack
WASHINGTON - President Bush yesterday used a high-profile speech in Israel to attack the idea of pursuing diplomatic talks with renegade countries such as Iran, a key element of Barack Obama's agenda, likening it to the failed appeasement of Germany prior to World War II.
more stories like this

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush said in a speech to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem.
Bush did not mention the Democratic frontrunner by name and the White House officially denied that Bush was referring to Obama. But White House officials indicated that the criticism applied to Obama, who has said that as president he would rely on greater diplomacy to improve relations with unfriendly nations.

Clean-air rules for national parks may be eased
Scientists, managers oppose plan that may allow for new power plants
The Bush administration is on the verge of implementing new air quality rules that will make it easier to build power plants near national parks and wilderness areas, according to rank-and-file agency scientists and park managers who oppose the plan.

The new regulations, which are likely to be finalized this summer, rewrite a provision of the Clean Air Act that applies to "Class 1 areas," federal lands that currently have the highest level of protection under the law. Opponents predict the changes will worsen visibility at many of the nation's most prized tourist destinations, including Virginia's Shenandoah, Colorado's Mesa Verde and North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt national parks.

Asia

Burma storm aid frustrations grow
Top aid envoys are ramping up pressure on Burma, as reports from the country suggest aid is still not reaching the region worst hit by Cyclone Nargis.
A BBC reporter visiting the Irrawaddy Delta said there was little sign of help from the government, which has banned foreign aid staff from the area.

But Burma's prime minister said the emergency relief phase was finished, and rebuilding was beginning.

Agencies say the response is not enough and that up to 2.5m people need aid.

Official death figures from Burma - also known as Myanmar - have risen to more than 43,000, with nearly 28,000 missing, but the Red Cross and UN both say the toll could top 100,000.

Afghan death squads 'acting on foreign orders'
Secret Afghan death squads are acting on the orders of foreign spies and killing civilians inside Afghanistan with impunity, a senior UN envoy has claimed. Professor Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on illegal killings, said "foreign intelligence agencies" had used illegal groups of heavily armed Afghans in raids against suspected insurgents.

He said the attacks were beyond the legitimate military chains of command, and they were "completely unacceptable" and "outside the law".

At the end of a 12-day fact-finding mission to Afghanistan, Professor Alston said: "There have been a large number of raids for which no state or military appears to take responsibility. I have spoken with a large number of people in relation to the operation of foreign intelligence units. I don't want to name them but they are at the most senior level of the relevant places. These forces operate with what appears to be impunity."

Europe

Italian tolerance goes up in smoke as Gypsy camp is burnt to ground
In cruel and unusual concert, Italy's new government, its police and paramilitary carabinieri, and even its gangsters, have turned their joint might against the nation's enemy number one: the Gypsies.

Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI and a small number of left-wingers raised lonely voices in central Naples against the national hardening of hearts towards Europe's perennial outsiders. To little avail: the Pope's appeal for a spirit of welcome and acceptance was met with a hail of angry rejection in blogged comments on news websites.

But what will remain scorched in the nation's memory - as a mark of shame, or a beacon pointing the way forward, depending on how you see it - are the flaming structures of the Gypsy camp burnt in the Ponticelli district of Naples on Wednesday.

Robert George puts parasites on the map with Atlas of the Fleas
Fleas are an irritation for many people, but for Robert George they are a passion. For the past 58 years he has compiled detailed records of the blood-sucking parasites to create an atlas of fleas.

"It's kept me out of mischief," Mr George, 86, said. "They intrigue me. I've always been able to find a lot of time for fleas."

He has counted and identified fleas in samples sent to him by other researchers, on the bodies of animals, in their nests and, for bats, in their faeces to get an accurate idea of how they are spread across the British Isles.

People are bitten most frequently by the human flea, Pulex irritans, but our blood is also a favourite of the cat and hen fleas. Others that like to take a bite out of people include the hedgehog flea and the grey squirrel flea.

Africa

How one Liberian helps others speak out
Aloysius Toe has spent - and risked - his life fighting against human rights abuses.
Monrovia, Liberia - Aloysius Toe's wife and children were crying, huddled together as a gang of armed men beat at the front door threatening to kill him. He could not call the police because the armed men were the police. Mr. Toe's crime was speaking out against Charles Taylor's violent regime in Liberia.

On that October night in 2002, Toe listened as 19 policemen kicked in the door and smashed up his house looking for him. When they did not find him, the officers dragged his wife into the street, threw her in the back of a truck and sped off.

Toe was not there, but he heard it all because she had called him and left the phone switched on so that he would know.

Zimbabwe's rulers unleash police on Anglicans
JOHANNESBURG: The parishioners were lined up for Holy Communion on Sunday when the riot police stormed the stately St. Francis Anglican Church in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital. Helmeted, black-booted officers banged on the pews with their batons as terrified members of the congregation stampeded for the doors, witnesses said.

A policeman swung his stick in vicious arcs, striking matrons, a girl and a grandmother who had bent over to pick up a Bible dropped in the melee. A lone housewife began singing from a hymn in Shona, "We will keep worshiping no matter the trials!" Hundreds of women, many dressed in the Anglican Mothers' Union uniform of black skirt, white shirt and blue headdress, lifted their voices to join hers.

Middle East

Talks set on new government for Lebanon
The deal, brokered by Arab League diplomats, follows a burst of street battles. It appears to be a boost for Hezbollah.
BEIRUT -- Lebanese factions took another major step toward calming a flare-up of sectarian and political violence by agreeing Thursday to immediately resume long-stalled talks on a new government.

The deal, brokered by a visiting delegation of Arab League diplomats, appeared to be a victory for the Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah, which leads opposition to the U.S.-backed government and the so-called March 14 movement behind it. Hezbollah fighters occupied parts of Beirut last week, forcing concessions from the administration of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

Middle East: Invisible peace talk
Even as we console ourselves with the fact that the Bush presidency is entering its twilight months, we can't help but wish, as artist/political activist Henry Rollins said, that President Bush be allowed to speak only on closed-circuit television. That way, only the U.S. would be privy to his embarrassing speeches.

Sad to say, Bush travels and speaks before international audiences, as he did this week in Israel. On hand to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the country, he gave a 20-minute speech before the Parliament on how much the U.S. loves Israel. While he pays much lip service to brokering a peace treaty between Palestinians and the Israeli state, Bush mentioned Palestinians once during the entire speech. How's that for a two-state solution?

He didn't say much about how Israel's security can be attained while the party trying to broker peace doesn't even acknowledge the ruling Palestinian party. And in one of his signature moves -- favoring hyperbole over diplomacy -- Bush also compared talks with Iran to the "appeasement" of the Nazis in 1939. Funny. He can reach back 69 years for appeasement, but can't go back 55 to when the U.S. helped overthrow Iran's democratic state.

Latin America

Friction forecast at EU-Latin America summit
Lingering disputes and personality clashes were expected to add friction to a Latin America-European Union summit in Peru Friday that is aimed at addressing climate change and poverty.
Leaders from 50 Latin American and European nations have converged on Lima for the summit, which will address in particular the recent spike in world food prices that has generated violence in several countries.

Preparations for the talks were overshadowed by rows, most of them involving South America's 'enfant terrible,' Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has ruffled feathers both within Latin America and across the Atlantic.

Foremost is his longstanding hostility with the president of neighboring Colombia, Alvaro Uribe.

Their often belligerent rhetoric resumed recently over Chavez's alleged support of the Colombian guerrilla group FARC, supposedly confirmed by data found in a rebel laptop seized by Colombian troops in a controversial cross-border raid into Ecuador in March.

Pooling Absolutely Nothing War Huh!  Good God, y'all! What is it good for? War is good for making the rich richer those mongers who profit from human suffering and tragedy It matters not if they benefit from victory by one side or the other only that War continue somewhere forever And War is good for spreading that suffering and tragedy along with hatred death and the disintegration of human society What more could anyone want? --Robyn Elaine Serven --March 13, 2008

Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses...

Muse in the Morning

The muses are ancient.  The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them.  Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward.  In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.

It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse.  Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets.  Others have been suggested throughout the centuries.  I don't have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts.  And maybe there should be many more.

I know you have talent.  What sometimes is forgotten is that being practical is a talent.  I have a paucity for that sort of talent in many situations, though it turns out that I'm a pretty darn good cook.  :-)  

Let your talent bloom.  You can share it here.  Encourage others to let it bloom inside them as well.

Won't you share your words or art, your sounds or visions, your thoughts scientific or philosophic, the comedy or tragedy of your days, the stories of doing and making?  And be excellent to one another!

Now with extra appeasement!

Yesterday I ran across the piece that NLinStPaul discusses in Full-Blooded Americans at Atrios and it sent me scurrying to teh Google to find some speeches by Hitler that contained "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher".  As it turns out it is so pervasive a theme of Nazi propaganda that searching on it is kind of hopeless, though I did run across some of Goebbels "Our Furher" speeches (birthday speeches for Hitler) that were evocative but not entirely on point.  Just as well because NL's essay is much better than mine would have been and I'll Front Page it tomorrow.

So I went instead with my little celebration of Republican party disarray which continues today with-

Six ways the GOP can save itself
Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, Politico
Thu May 15, 5:25 AM ET

Summarized they are-

1. New ideas and an attractive agenda
2. Purge scandal-stained members, swear off boondoggle spending projects and promote strong ethical standards
3. Re-build network of donors, think tanks and activist groups
4. Disassociate from President Bush
5. Fresh, reassuring packaging and new spokespeople
6. Stir up concerns about Democratic patriotism and their commitment to national security

and-

Hagee's apocalyptic support of Israel
Ben Smith, Politico
Thu May 15, 5:16 AM ET

Hagee's commitment to Israel, however, is itself controversial: It's rooted in the belief that the Jewish state will -- soon -- be the site of Armageddon.

Hagee, who leads the evangelical group Christians United for Israel, is a proponent of U.S. aid and support for Israel, and he is a major ally of Israeli conservatives who reject any "land for peace" formula in dealing with the Palestinians. But Hagee is viewed with distrust by some Jews and Israelis because his brand of Christian Zionism closely links support for Israel to the end of the world and the conversion of the Jews to Christianity.

Hagee's predictions are very clear. Armageddon, the final battle, could begin, he wrote in his 2007 book "Jerusalem Countdown," "before this book gets published."

Indeed Troutfishing said today that he had a copy of Hagee's specially annotated Bible (free for a small "faith donation") where he lays out all his eschatology.

But I want to talk about appeasement.
One thing that amazed me tonight as I put this piece together was that I couldn't find a coherent Wikipedia narrative about the isolationist obstructionism leading up from the '36 election to Pearl Harbor.  You can find the names- Borah, Dirksen, Taft, Lindbergh, Ford, America First, German America Bund...

Anyway I knew from the moment I heard W say "if only I could have talked to Hitler" that it was one of those appeasing Hitler loving Republicans and fortunately Larry McAwful satisfied my curiousity- Bush's "Nazi appeaser" was a Republican..

Other people also remembered warnings about stones and glass houses and such-

• Prescott Bush and the Nazis by JLFinch
• I got your Nazi appeasers right here, George! by 8ackgr0und N015e

I hate to give Chris Matthews credit for anything, but he is correct that appeasement is giving away half of Czechoslovakia.  It is in fact just like paying bribes to the Barbary Pirates about which was famously said by Thomas Jefferson (or was that Charles Pinckney)- "millions for defense, not one cent for tribute".

Only it was actually said by Robert Goodloe Harper and it was the perfidious French who wanted tribute.

So now WE know what appeasement is, and it's certainly nothing that any full blooded patriotic American would do.  Make deals with State Terrorist Iran?

St. Ronnie how could you?  I thought you were keeping the gates of White Heaven working for White Jesus.

Huge McCain Blunder: Says Reagan Didn't Negotiate With Iran by existenz is not so much about McCain as it is a great recap of Iran Contra, pointing out how dangerous this can of worms W opened with his big fat mouth today is for the Republican party.  It deservedly spent the day on the Recommended list.

I'm hoping it's just a disastrous year for Republicans.  I hope all their crimes and perfidy are paraded before the people and they are shamed into insignificance at the ballot box.  It's not because all Democrats are any better but because if the radical reactionary right is relegated to the rubbish heap of history, it will be easier to advance a progressive agenda without worrying that the country is going to go down faster than Weimar.

And all Godwin bets are off.

This Thursday's Writing in the Raw is sponsored by The Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, so call them and book a trip to the Netherlands!  Right now!  Tell them Rusty8 sent you and don't forget to send me a postcard.  

Because of the intense subject matter of tonight's WITR, it is being presented with limited commercial interruption.      

I'm a big fan of the Counting Crows, so I want to explain in their defense that the song you are about to hear was written ten years ago, before all the Mrs. Potters in this country began to experience the alarming cognitive/rectal conditions that are the topic of tonight's WITR . . .          

We've all seen Mrs. Potters.  They're everywhere.  The Republican Party is filled with Mrs. Potters who still respect and admire the war criminals, traitors, psychopaths, racists, and thick-skulled idiots of the GOP who've been perpetrating fascist hackery in Washington D.C. this entire millennium.  I'm not a neurologist, I'm not a proctologist either, but anyone who has paid any attention at all can verify that the GOP's Mrs. Potters are experiencing sensory and cognitive difficulties because their heads are firmly lodged up their asses. As one might expect, this condition is acutely impairing their ability to perceive and understand what's happening beyond the confines of their permanent Republican rectums.    

They're everywhere.

You can never escape from them, Buhdy, you can only move south down the coast.
Mrs. Potters come in a variety of shapes, sizes, ages, and psychoses.  Some of them are idiots walking a tightrope of fortune and fame, like Cindy McCain. Others are acrobats swinging trapezes through circles of flaming lies, like Condi Rice.  Most Mrs. Potters--    

This is a test of the Emergency Writing in the Raw System. The bloggers  of your area, in voluntary cooperation with the FCC and other incompetent authorities, have developed this system in order to keep you informed if an Emergency Writing in the Raw becomes necessary.  If this had been an actual Emergency Writing in the Raw, you would have been instructed to step away from your computer, bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.

OK.  Thanks.  That's good to know.  

As I was saying, most Mrs. Potters--  

This is another test of the Emergency Writing in the Raw System. The bloggers of your area, in voluntary cooperation with the FCC and other incompetent authorities, have developed this system in order to keep you informed if an Emergency Writing in the Raw becomes necessary. If this had been an actual Emergency Writing in the Raw, you would have been instructed to step away from your computer, bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.

Yes.  I think we understand.  Thank you.

AS I WAS SAYING, most Mrs. Potters are completely oblivious to reality.  I'd rather poke red hot needles in my eye for a thousand years than talk to one of them.  But there are a lot of victims who might like to have a word or two with them, who'd like to know what it is about fascism and war crimes that inspires these Mrs. Potters to heap so much admiration on their Republican heroes.

Like these victims, for example . . .

Hey Mrs. Potter, won't you talk to me?  Let's discuss what being tortured feels like . . .  

What is it about torturers that instills so much admiration in you, Mrs. Potters?

Hey Mrs. Potter, won't you talk to me?  Let's discuss what getting killed on a fifth combat tour in Iraq feels like . . .

What is it about wars for oil that you find so heroic, Mrs. Potters?

Hey Mrs. Potter, won't you talk to me?  Let's discuss what being collateral damage feels like . . .

A million men, women, and children are dead in Iraq, Mrs. Potters. Think about that the next time you sit your complicit asses down in a church pew to worship the Prince of Peace.    

Hey Mrs. Potter, won't you talk to me?  Let's discuss what being left behind to drown feels like . . .

Black people drowning, black people getting shot as looters, black people being ethnically cleansed.  You no doubt pulled your heads out of your asses long enough to see God's righteous punishment of the niggers in New Orleans, huh, Mrs. Potters.  

Hey Mrs. Potter, won't you talk to me?  Let's discuss what being a forgotten, homeless vet with no hope at all feels like . . .

Give him a yellow ribbon, Mrs. Potters, that'll help.

Yeah.  I know, I know, you'd love to do more, but admiring war criminals, traitors, psychopaths, racists, and thick-skulled idiots is a full time job, huh, Mrs. Potters.  Well, the Mrs. Potters at the RNC are even busier.  There's always one last light to turn out and one last bell to ring, and the last one out of the circus has to lock up everything, or the elephants will get out and forget to remember what they said, and the ghosts of the tilt-a-whirl will linger inside of their heads, and the ferris wheel junkies will spin there forever instead.  

Pull your heads out of your asses and wake the fuck up, Mrs. Potters.  Conservatism is an old and terrible lie. Capitalism is an old and terrible lie.  The border lines drawn on maps are an old and terrible lie.  Those old and terrible lies you admire so much, those old and terrible liars you have such respect for divide humanity into us against them.  They incite fear of other human beings who look different, or who say goodnight to their children in a different language, or who look up at the stars from a different land.

I'll be talking to you, Mrs. Potters.  You'll be hearing some raw truth from me between now and Election Day.      

 

The more things change.....

In an increasingly complex world, many people find it difficult to cope with the stresses of day to day life. The strain of caring for a family, paying the mortgage, job insecurity, and terrorists lurking at the Dairy Queen, can result in crushing anxiety and fear. But now, from the makers of The War in Iraq™ and Katrina Neglect™ comes a breakthrough in the treatment of depression caused by incompetent and dishonest national leadership. Now there is an alternative to the endless years of suffering brought on by deficient representation.
After extensive research and focus grouping, the Republican National Committee is proud to introduce Republichol™ for the treatment of Latent Impotent Electoral Syndrome (LIES). Republichol™ is specially formulated to deceive the patient into believing that the utterly discredited Republican Party is actually pursuing an agenda of change. American voters can now enjoy the relief and satisfaction that comes from masking reality with comforting platitudes.

If there is a defining theme for 21st century politics, it is "Change." Every actor on the political stage has extolled its virtues. Barack Obama promises "Change you can believe in." Hillary Clinton touts her record of "35 years of change." Even George Bush stakes out this territory:

"In 2000, I said, 'Vote for me, I'm an agent of change.' In 2004, I said, 'I'm not interested in change. I want to continue as President.' Every candidate has got to say 'change.' That's what the American people expect."

In his own, nearly incomprehensible way, Bush admits that he wasn't interested in change even as he asserts that every candidate has to embrace it. His lack of comprehension is a hallmark of the party he leads. This is why House minority leader, John Boehner, personally developed the Republichol™ campaign and it's slogan "The Change You Deserve." The slogan was carefully composed to avoid the promise of change that you need, or change that will actually be beneficial. By focusing on change that you deserve, Republichol's™ patented time-release formula distributes any change on the basis of personalized determinations of merit. For instance:

• Oil companies deserve control over protected off-shore and wilderness areas.
• Telecom companies deserve retroactive immunity for crimes against innocent customers.
• Defense contractors deserve international hostilities that create demand for their products.
• The media deserve military analysts who are secretly provided and coached by the Pentagon.
• Health insurers and drug manufactures deserve freedom from regulations that inhibit their ability to gouge patients.
• Corporations deserve to consolidate into unregulated monopolies.
• The top 1% of American income earners deserve more tax relief.

And.....

• American workers deserve to have their jobs outsourced to India and China.
• Iraqi civilians deserve to be killed in the tens of thousands.
• Veterans deserve reduced benefits and substandard treatment for service related injuries.
• Women deserve prosecution for exercising choice with regard to family planning.
• Children deserve limited access to, and lower standards for, education.
• Voters deserve to be disenfranchised by special interests, discrimination, and insecure voting technology.
• Middle class households deserve to pay more in taxes, as a percentage of income, than the wealthy.
• Citizens of the world deserve widespread climate catastrophes brought on by global warming.

The Republican model has conveniently defined the deserving as those who have already acquired wealth and power (thank you Ayn Rand). This is enormously helpful in the development of guidelines for dispensing benefits under the new Republican program for change.

Unfortunately, the new slogan was not composed carefully enough to avoid infringing on another product that already claimed "The Change You Deserve" as its marketing mantra. Wyeth Laboratories trademarked the phrase for its Effexor XR anti-depressant medication. While this sort of conflict might ordinarily result in costly litigation, the Republican Party and the multi-national drug maker are notoriously friendly and a mutually acceptable accommodation is expected. In fact, this partnership may even expand marketing opportunities for both, as the implementation of Republican policy is likely to produce greater demand for anti-depressants like Effexor.

Not to be outdone, the Democratic Party has developed a product of its own to address mood disorders related to Weak/Unstable Shrinking Spine (WUSS). Democracyn™ works on brain functions to relax the patient's outrage mechanism triggered by Congressional activity based on fear or self-interest. It can also be prescribed after legislative actions taken on behalf of corporations rather than constituents.

The pharmaceutical cocktail of Democracyn™ and Republichol™ provide a potent antidote to the travails of modern sociological distress. Taken together within a regimen that includes counseling, re-education, and aggressive doses of media punditry, a wall of delusion can be constructed that serves as a defense from the troubling realities of civic life. And as the people become less agitated by affairs of state, those who serve as our representatives benefit as well. Remember, a medicated electorate is a compliant electorate. What began 200 years ago as an experiment in Democracy has evolved into a Pharmocracy™ - an institution defined by two dominant characterizations:

1. Pseudo-representational legislative bodies that seek to control the behavior of populations through the use of psychoactive propaganda and sedative rhetoric.
2. Constituent bodies that are heavily medicated and susceptible to the influence of media-dispensed government perspectives.

The media itself plays a major role in the advancement of Pharmacratic principles. No institution in American society is as effective at mood manipulation as the media. As metaphorical opiates go, television has replaced religion in the veins of the masses. Consequently, all sides are rushing to revitalize their brand. The problem for Republicans, however, is that their brand has been severely damaged by the present administration. Even Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), the former chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee confessed that:

"The Republican brand is in the trash can. ... If we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf."

That's even worse than my own brand analysis (The Republican Scare: A Branding Nightmare) written in June of 2007, in response to Boehner's previous attempt to rehabilitate his Party's brand. The Republican Scare was how I analogized the situation to the Tylenol Scare of 1982 (another drug calamity):

"After six years of a toxic administration whose policies have led to a poisoning of public discourse; with corruption infecting Capital Hill, the Justice Department, the Pentagon, and the White House; and a president whose market share is dipping into historic lows; Republicans have concluded that they need to persuade the American people that their brand of politics is safe for our families and our country."

~~~

"...they are trying to design new packaging without enhancing product safety or purpose. While some of them recognize that it will take more than a fresh coat of varnish to restore their credibility, many are convinced that they can improve their image in the eyes of the public if they can just spin some more wool to pull over said eyes."

After only a year, Boehner is back with the same crippled brand but a brand new PR effort to polish his bruised political fruit. But the Republican brand is rotting in the mud. There seems to be little likelihood that the new "change" campaign will see any more success than the failed campaign it's replacing.

For real change to take place, the American people need to complete a program of detoxification. They need to flush the poisons from the political system, which will require flushing some of the politicians as well. When finally cleansed of contamination we will have a chance to implement a true reform agenda. One that consists of more than the placebos prescribed by cynical Republican quacks who think that they can dictate what we each deserve.

An action alert from Physicians for Human Rights:

We urge you to write your Senators and Representative today to support the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act of 2008.

Shocking exposés this week by the New York Times, Washington Post, and 60 Minutes have confirmed the alarming breakdown in health care for detained asylum seekers and other immigrants in custody of the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), resulting in needless suffering and, in the most tragic cases, avoidable death.

The Detainee Basic Medical Care Act would help to prevent these tragedies by requiring the government to protect the rights and well-being of asylum seekers and others held in immigration prisons throughout the United States.

Please take action now in support of humane treatment and the right to health care of asylum seekers and other immigration detainees....

If you know of currently or previously detained asylum seekers who received inadequate health care in detention, please let us know as soon as you can by emailing Jennie Baldé at jbalde@phrusa.org.

Dana Priest and Amy Goldstein are reporting the story at the Washington Post:

The most vulnerable detainees, the physically sick and the mentally ill, are sometimes denied the proper treatment to which they are entitled by law and regulation. They are locked in a world of slow care, poor care and no care, with panic and coverups among employees watching it happen, according to a Post investigation.

The investigation found a hidden world of flawed medical judgments, faulty administrative practices, neglectful guards, ill-trained technicians, sloppy record-keeping, lost medical files and dangerous staff shortages. It is also a world increasingly run by high-priced private contractors. There is evidence that infectious diseases, including tuberculosis and chicken pox, are spreading inside the centers.

Federal officials who oversee immigration detention said last week that they are "committed to ensuring the safety and well-being" of everyone in their custody.

Some 83 detainees have died in, or soon after, custody during the past five years. The deaths are the loudest alarms about a system teetering on collapse.

I once had an asylum detainee as a psychotherapy patient. I can tell you he suffered tremendously from poor health care at the center where he was held: poor access to doctors or medications; misdiagnosis; jailors who saw most ill detainees as complainers at best, or malingerers at worst -- and this patient was lucky, as he did not have a life-threatening illness. Something must be done!

Support PHR's campaign and take action now.

Rachel Maddow says:

The real issue is story selection, is editorial control. I can only control what it is that I get asked to speak about in a very blunt way. That said, the way that I handle that is that I, I am gunning to get my own show. I would really like to be hosting a show on cable television, rather than guesting because I would like to exert more control over what gets discussed, over what counts as important.

     

The Press, the Fourth Estate, is the gatekeeper of Truth in our country. If the Press does not report it, it effectively never happened as far as the all important reaction of the citizenry is concerned. Where the Press shines it's light, freedom follows.

Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
Thomas Jefferson

Information is the currency of democracy.
Thomas Jefferson

This has never been better demonstrated than during the reign of George Bush. The Press has not only blinded its own light in regards to scandalous crimes, it has on far too many occasions, such as the lead up to the Iraq Occupation and domestic spying, and in the latest iteration of the military analysts, actually aided and abetted in the criminal acts and despicable propaganda activities of the Worst President Ever. The Bush Administration has corrupted both the Press and the Justice Department to such an extent that is has literally, in the case of its Torture activities, gotten away with murder. It is up to us as citizens to do what we can to stop this. To take back our government and to restore a Free Press.
Even as we speak, "The Architect" of the Bush Administration is now employed as a pundit instead of making license plates. Blatantly injecting propaganda and lies into the public discourse whenever his lips move on Fox News, itself the equivalent of the State Propaganda Agency.

Just as it is our responsibility as citizens to take our government back from these aspiring despots, so is it our responsibility and duty to reclaim the Fourth Estate to our service, rather than service to the state. Free The Press!

The only question is...how?!?

Our "Free Press" is now a wholly owned subsidiary of a few major corporations,  corporations with a vested interest in what news is presented to the public and how that 'news' is framed. In the case of NBC, for example they are owned by a major defense contractor, General Electric, which raises a serious conflict of interest concerns when it comes to unbiased reporting on anything having to do with war and defense.

So a frontal assault will not be successful lol, until we have the resources to buy our Free Press back!

The Maddow Movement then, is part of an incremental campaign, combined with rigorous criticism (heh!) to change the Press, to move it slowly but steadily in the right direction. The Maddow Movement represents an achievable, desirable goal on the part of the Netroots to meaningfully change the framing, spin and tone of the news by helping to get more progressive...and less conservative...voices heard in the national media conversation. Thus both flexing our power as news "consumers" and helping to move the national media away from its role as apologists and eablers of the failed policies of the right wing of America.  We need to battle against the influence and framing that commercialism, sensationalism and partisanism have formed to discourage real reporting and journalism.

The policies and playbook of the Conservatives have indisputably failed, and its spin and blatant influence on the news 'industry' has failed us all. The capitulation of the entire modern day media to Fox-like journalism, ethics and editorial judgment must end. We must change the paradigm, and changing the players is a part of that. Rachel Maddow being free to report from an independent progressive editorial viewpoint is one step towards that end.

Free The Press!

1. The Bush administration has yet another way to steal from America. The Associated Press reveals Defense contractors and insurance firms make millions off loose Iraq insurance rules.

   A poorly run Pentagon program for providing workman's compensation for civilian employees in Iraq and Afghanistan has allowed defense contractors and insurance companies to gouge American taxpayers, a House oversight committee said Thursday.

   Insurance companies alone have pocketed $600 million in excessive profits over the past five years, says a staff report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but the Defense Department refuses to adjust its approach for managing the program...

   "What makes the situation even worse is the people this program is supposed to benefit - the injured employees working for contractors - have to fight the insurance companies to get their benefits," committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said at a hearing Thursday. "Delays and denials in paying claims are the rule."

   KBR Inc., one of the largest defense contractors in Iraq, paid the insurance giant AIG $284 million for medical and disability coverage under the Defense Base Act, a reference to the federal law mandating the insurance. Due to the way KBR's contract is structured, this premium, along with an $8 million markup for KBR, gets billed to the taxpayer.

2. Just in case you missed it, General David Petraeus is in charge of who gets promoted in the Army. The Washington Post reports Army's next crop of generals forged in counterinsurgency. "An Army board headed by Gen. David H. Petraeus has selected several combat-tested counterinsurgency experts for promotion to the rank of brigadier general, sifting through more than 1,000 colonels to identify a handful of innovative leaders who will shape the future Army, according to current and former senior Army officers. The choices suggest that the unusual decision to put the top U.S. officer in Iraq in charge of the promotions board has generated new thinking on the qualities of a successful Army officer -- and also deepened Petraeus's imprint on the Army."

Four at Four continues with stories about the impact of climate change and our American history crumbling away due to neglect.

3. The Guardian reports World's wildlife and environment already hit by climate change, major study shows.

   Global warming is disrupting wildlife and the environment on every continent, according to an unprecedented study that reveals the extent to which climate change is already affecting the world's ecosystems.

   Scientists examined published reports dating back to 1970 and found that at least 90% of environmental damage and disruption around the world could be explained by rising temperatures driven by human activity.

   Big falls in Antarctic penguin populations, fewer fish in African lakes, shifts in American river flows and earlier flowering and bird migrations in Europe are all likely to be driven by global warming, the study found.

   The team of experts, including members of the UN's intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) from America, Europe, Australia and China, is the first to formally link some of the most dramatic changes to the world's wildlife and habitats with human-induced climate change.

   In the study, which appears in the journal Nature, researchers analysed reports highlighting changes in populations or behaviour of 28,800 animal and plant species. They examined a further 829 reports that focused on different environmental effects, including surging rivers, retreating glaciers and shifting forests, across the seven continents.

4. Here's another piece of our nation's infrastructure that is decaying. The Washington Post reports Sites in national forests at grave risk. "Millions of historic sites, crumbling and collapsing in national forests around the country, are in danger of being lost forever... The National Trust for Historic Preservation estimates that only a small slice of about 2 million 'cultural resources' that sit on 193 million acres managed by the U.S. Forest Service have been properly preserved."

   These national treasures have been subject to "vandalism, theft, fire, damage from off-road vehicles and other recreation" which have "accelerated" their deterioration. Plus "oil and gas extraction, mining, timber harvesting and grazing" have greatly contributed to their decay."

   Our American history is being erased. What the United States is losing through neglect are "Native American archaeological sites, Civil War battlefields, ranger stations, fire lookout towers, cabins and camps built by the Civilian Conservation Corps."

   And the reason? The Forest Service does not have the budget to manage and preserve them, but you won't catch Bush administration officials saying so — "Joel Holtrop, deputy chief for the national forest system, shrugged off suggestions that his agency lacks the money for historic preservation... 'We need to make sure all of our resource programs . . . have the ability to compete appropriately for scarce federal dollars.'"

   $14 million or 0.3 percent of the Forest service's $4.4 billion budget goes to preservation. As forest fire fighting demands increase, the budget for heritage programs gets cut.

   A people needs its history.

San Francisco Chronicle:

Gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry in California, the state Supreme Court said today in a historic ruling that could be repudiated by the voters in November.

In a 4-3 decision, the justices said the state's ban on same-sex marriage violates the "fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship." The ruling is likely to flood county courthouses with applications from couples newly eligible to marry when the decision takes effect in 30 days.

The ruling set off a celebration at San Francisco City Hall. As the decision came down, out-of-breath staff members ran into the mayor's office where Gavin Newsom read the decision.

Los Angeles Times:

Today's ruling by the Republican-dominated court affects more than 100,000 same-sex couples in the state, about a quarter of whom have children, according to U.S. census figures. It came after high courts in New York, Washington and New Jersey refused to extend marriage rights to gay couples. Before today, only Massachusetts' top court has ruled in favor of permitting gays to wed.

Bigots will attempt to overturn this by constitutional amendment. Even Schwarzenegger, who has twice vetoed bills legalizing gay marriage, says he will fight an initiative to ban it.

If behavioral scientists are concerned solely with advancing their science, it seems most probably that they will serve the purposes of whatever individual or group has the power.

The quote above is from U.S. psychology pioneer Carl Rogers. It is worth pondering his statement as we consider both recent developments in the fight against U.S. torture, and more general considerations about the role of psychologists, physicians, and other scientific and medical personnel in interrogations for Bush's "War on Terror."

I was reading the New York Times's article on the decision by the "Convening Authority" at Guantanamo to drop all charges "without prejudice" against purported sixth 9/11 Al Qaeda hijacker Mohammed al-Qahtani, when my attention was drawn to an ad from the CIA trumpeting the announcement that they were seeking applicants for "National Clandestine Service Careers." A few clicks later, curious to see what they were offering for my own profession (not that I wish to apply), I found a number of positions open. Here's one that caught my eye:

Operational Psychologist
Work Schedule: Full Time
Salary: $82,961 - $127,442
Location: Washington, DC metropolitan area

Responsible for providing behavioral science consultancy to the Intelligence Community, the major activities involved in this role include psychological testing and behavioral assessment; customized training/consultation on topics related to cross-cultural personality assessment; and applied research.

"Applied research." "Cross-cultural personality assessment." Perhaps it was the sort of job that Major John Leso, psychologist at Guantanamo in late 2002-early 2003, had applied for, only to find himself present at the 54-day interrogation of Mr. al-Qahtani, otherwise known as Detainee 063. As Philippe Sands explains in his recent must-read article at Vanity Fair, "The Green Light", Mr. al-Qahtani had the unusual luck to have his interrogation log publicly leaked, detailing the torture -- which included 15 of 18 torture techniques, then under special approval of then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld -- he underwent, in part under the participation of psychologist Leso.

No one knows for sure, as the "Convening Authority" is under no statutory obligation to explain herself, but it seems likely that al-Qahtani was dropped from Bush's projected show trials of other selected detainees, projected to begin sometime next year, because the evidence on him included large amounts of material produced through torture. There is no way the government can suppress this evidence by citing state secrecy, as the interrogation log is now public record, thanks to an anonymous leaker. Portions have already been published at Time Magazine. The full log is available at Center for Constitutional Rights.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon and the Bush Administration is preparing to try five other "high-profile" Guantanamo inmates at its dubious military commission hearings, as it seeks the death penalty for all five. One of the five is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused "mastermind" of the 9/11 attacks, who was admittedly waterboarded by CIA torturers during his interrogation. The videotape evidence of this was destroyed, leading to a brouhaha in the press and increased Congressional scrutiny.

Legal Experts Take on Bush/Cheney's Legal Team

Some of that Congressional interest was displayed at hearings on May 6 before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties of the House Judiciary Committee, looking at Bush Administration lawyers and the development of Administration interrogation rules over the past six years. Much of this history is already available in Philippe Sands' article cited above. Mr. Sands, a professor at University College London, was one of three prominent legal authorities to testify at the hearings (transcript courtesy of AfterDowningStreet.org):

Mr Chairman, Honourable Members of the Committee, the story I uncovered is an unhappy one. It points to the early and direct involvement of those at the highest levels of government, often through their lawyers, the individuals on whom I largely focused. In June 2004, after the scandal of Abu Ghraib broke, and the August 1, 2002 Bybee Torture Memo became public, Mr Gonzalez and Mr Haynes appeared before the media to claim that the Bush Administration had not authorized such abuse. Contrary to the impression given by the Administration, repeated by Mr Haynes when he appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2006, his involvement (and that of Secretary Rumsfeld) began well before that stated in the official version. Mr. Haynes had visited Guantanamo, together with Mr Gonzales and Mr Addington, discussed interrogations, and then recommended that the U.S. military abandon its tradition of restraint. My conclusion, on the basis of interviews and documents, is that this is a story not only of crime but also of cover-up, to protect the most senior members of the Administration from the consequences of the illegality that has stained America's reputation.

Also speaking at the hearing was Marjorie Cohn, President of the National Lawyers Guild, who has recently called for the firing of University of California law professor John Yoo, who is heavily implicated in giving legal cover for Bush's torture plans. Ms. Cohn spoke very precisely about the legal gyrations of Bush administration lawyers as they sought refuge from legal accountability for the deliberate breaking of torture laws both national and international. What follows is an edited version of her testimony:

What does torture have in common with genocide, slavery, and wars of aggression? They are all jus cogens. Jus cogens is Latin for "higher law" or "compelling law." This means that no country can ever pass a law that allows torture. There can be no immunity from criminal liability for violation of a jus cogens prohibition. [emphasis added]

The United States has always prohibited the use of torture in our Constitution, laws executive statements and judicial decisions....

The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, says, "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for torture."

Whether someone is a POW or not, he must always be treated humanely; there are no gaps in the Geneva Conventions. He must be protected against torture, mutilation, cruel treatment, and outrages upon personal dignity, particularly humiliating and degrading treatment under, Common Article 3....

The US War Crimes Act, and 18 USC sections 818 and 3231, punish torture, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and inhuman, humiliating or degrading treatment.

The Torture Statute provides for life in prison, or even the death penalty if the victim dies, for anyone who commits, attempts, or conspires to commit torture outside the United States....

In Filartiga v. Peña-Irala, the Second Circuit declared the prohibition against torture is universal, obligatory, specific and definable. Since then, every U.S. circuit court has reaffirmed that torture violates universal and customary international law. In the Paquete Habana, the Supreme Court held that customary international law is part of U.S. law....

Yet on February 7, 2002, President Bush, relying on memos by lawyers including John Yoo, announced that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to alleged Taliban and Al Qaeda members....

Lawyers in the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel wrote memos at the request of high-ranking government officials in order to insulate them from future prosecution for subjecting detainees to torture....

The [United Nations] Torture Convention defines torture as the intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering. The U.S. attached an "understanding" to its ratification of the Torture Convention, which added the requirement that the torturer "specifically" intend to inflict the severe physical or mental pain or suffering. This is a distinction without a difference for three reasons. First, under well-established principles of criminal law, a person specifically intends to cause a result when he either consciously desires that result or when he knows the result is practically certain to follow. Second, unlike a "reservation" to a treaty provision, an "understanding" cannot change an international legal obligation. Third, under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, an "understanding" that violates the object and purpose of a treaty is void. The claim that treatment of prisoners which would amount to torture under the Torture Convention does not constitute torture under the U.S. "understanding" violates the object and purpose of the Convention, which is to ensure that "no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment"....

Nevertheless, Yoo twisted the law and redefined torture much more narrowly than the definitions in the Convention Against Torture and the Torture Statute. Under Yoo's definition, the victim must experience intense pain or suffering equivalent to pain associated with serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure or permanent damage resulting in loss of significant body functions will likely result.

Attorney David Luban, a Georgetown law professor, and the third expert to speak at the committee hearing, zeroed in on White House legal counsels' terrible twisting of the meaning of pain and suffering under torture:

...as I mentioned earlier, [John Yoo] wrenches language from a Medicare statute to explain the legal definition of torture. The Medicare statute lists severe pain as a possible symptom of a medical emergency, and Mr. Yoo flips the statute and uses the language of medical emergency to define severe pain. This was so bizarre that the OLC itself disowned his definition a few months after it became public. It is highly unusual for one OLC opinion to disown an earlier one, and it shows just how far out of the mainstream Mr. Yoo had wandered. This goes beyond the ethical limits for a legal advisor. In fact, even in the courtroom there are limits to spinning the law: ethics rules forbid advocates from making frivolous legal arguments, or failing to disclose adverse legal authority. But it would be a mistake to focus only on Mr. Yoo. Mr. Levin's replacement memo also takes liberties with the law. In particular, when the Levin Memo discusses the term "severe physical suffering" (which is part of the statutory definition of torture), it states that the suffering must "prolonged" to be severe - and that requirement simply isn't in the statute at all. Under that definition, of course, waterboarding would not be torture because people break within seconds or minutes. This is a perfect example of a legalistic definition that looks inconspicuous but in reality narrows the definition of torture dramatically. Notice that the quicker a technique breaks the interrogation subject, the less prolonged his suffering will be - so the harsher the tactic, the less likely it is to qualify as "torture."

I wonder if any CIA psychologist wannabes were watching the House committee testimony on C-Span. Perhaps they will have to sign a waiver releasing the Agency from liability if they are later found prosecutable for war crimes. One never knows.

Torture and Civil Society

Among those who are fighting to remove psychologists from government interrogations at Guantanamo and other "war on terror" prison sites (including CIA secret torture prisons), there is some recent hope that the tide is turning in the struggle against the ossified bureaucratic apparatus of the American Psychological Association. Steven Reisner got a plurality of votes in the first round of voting for APA president. Even more, a petition to essentially remove psychologists from operational roles at national security interrogations has gained over 800 signatures thus far