Multi-touch screen by Jefferson Y.Han

I'm ready to give up the dream of the flying car now that I've seen this.

A call to any friends of the materialist dialectic

I'm having surprising difficulty tracking down the source (or even, apparently, the true quote) of the standard Hegelism that the act of reading the morning newspapers has become the "realistic" or "pragmatic" "morning prayer" of modern individuals.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

pf

Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

Curiouser and Curiouser...

"Netanyahu discusses Iran with Cheney"

Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu met with US Vice President Dick Cheney at the American Enterprise Institute World Forum at Beaver Creek in Colorado on Friday.

During the meeting Netanyahu spoke mainly about the threat of the Iranian nuclear program. According to Netanyahu's spokesman Cheney complimented him on the results of his fiscal policies as finance minister in the Sharon government."

Booman Tribune cites Jerusalem Post (Nexis only), June 18, 2006:

Compare with:

In a victory speech of sorts on Inauguration Day in January 2005, Vice President Dick Cheney warned bluntly that Iran was "right at the top" of the administration's list of "trouble spots"?and that Israel "might well decide to act first" by attacking Iran. The Israelis, Cheney added in an obvious swipe at moderates in the State Department, would "let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterward."

J. Bramford, Rolling Stone, July 24, 2006

Ahmedinejad meets 'brother' Chavez - Jul 29, 2006

Not to hard to guess what this AP editor thinks the important aspect of this story is...

Iran's Ahmedinejad meets 'brother' Chavez - Jul 29, 2006:

"TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Anti-U.S. leaders Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad met in Tehran on Saturday, pledging mutual support for one another, state media reported."

Troop numbers soar, Financial Times calls it like it is

The US administration has quietly reversed its goal from whittling down troop numbers in Iraq before the mid-term congressional elections in November.

A Pentagon spokesman on Friday confirmed that US troop levels in Iraq rose to 132,000 during the past week ? the highest since late May ? from 127,000 at the start of the week. The spokesman said troop numbers often fluctuated and ?there might be temporary spikes during periods of troop rotation?.

However, analysts said an increase in troop numbers was more likely than a reduction because the number of sectarian killings in Iraq had almost doubled since the start of the year. The rise will prompt fears that the US is becoming increasingly bogged down in an unwinnable conflict.

More highly visble public protest today as protestor interrupts Bolton confirmation hearing

Think Progress:

"I have no representation on this panel or in this senate. I?m strongly opposed to the nomination of this man John Bolton as U.N. ambassador. He is a discredit to the United States. He is not a legitimate public representative of the United States. He should not go to the U.N. He is not representing our best interests. The man will only?"

Chicago Orders ?Big Box? Stores to Raise Wage - New York Times

Chicago Orders ?Big Box? Stores to Raise Wage - New York Times: "After months of fevered lobbying and bitter debate, the Chicago City Council passed a groundbreaking ordinance yesterday requiring ?big box? stores, like Wal-Mart and Home Depot, to pay a minimum wage of $10 an hour by 2010, along with at least $3 an hour worth of benefits."

Judge dismisses lawsuit over phone records

Business Week:

"4:27 P.M. ET Citing national security, a federal judge Tuesday threw out a lawsuit aimed at blocking AT&T Inc. from giving telephone records to the government for use in the war on terror.

"The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government's intelligence activities,' U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly said."

Arbitrary my ass. Yup, its just some kind of coincidence that social being determines thought

Research - Can Polling Location Influence How Voters Vote? - Stanford GSB: "Stanford Graduate School of Business researchers, doctoral candidates Jonah Berger and Marc Meredith, and S. Christian Wheeler, associate professor of marketing, conclude that a much more subtle and arbitrary factor may also play a role?the particular type of polling location in which you happen to vote."

But what to tell the Turks?

Turkey's Impatience With the Kurds - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com:

"But what to tell the Turks, who over the last week lost 15 soldiers to terror attacks launched by sepa-ratist Kurds from neighboring Iraq? Many Turkish leaders are pressing for cross-border tactical air assaults on the guerrillas. "

Al-Manar, Hezbollah's TV station

http://www.manartv.com/NewsSite/News.aspx?language=en

Billy Kristol's answer. Bomb Iran. A bad idea?

So, let's just assume that Hizbollah and Iran really want the destruction of Israel and generally a turn to Shia Islamic Governments. Let's also assume that Israel is one of these liberal regimes that believe in Enlightenment values. I want to ask you guys, why isn't Kristol right?

[snip]
For while Syria and Iran are enemies of Israel, they are also enemies of the United States. We have done a poor job of standing up to them and weakening them. They are now testing us more boldly than one would have thought possible a few years ago. Weakness is provocative. We have been too weak, and have allowed ourselves to be perceived as weak.

The right response is renewed strength--in supporting the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan, in standing with Israel, and in pursuing regime change in Syria and Iran. For that matter, we might consider countering this act of Iranian aggression with a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Why wait? Does anyone think a nuclear Iran can be contained? That the current regime will negotiate in good faith? It would be easier to act sooner rather than later. Yes, there would be repercussions--and they would be healthy ones, showing a strong America that has rejected further appeasement.
[snip]

Here's a brief typology of the sort of arguments one might make off the top of my head:

1. The pacifist argument: War is never the answer
2. The non-pacifist moral argument: Bombing will kill innocent civilians that have nothing to do with the threat to enlightenment values, the threat to people, etc.
3. The strategic argument: Bombing Iran will quickly create a situation in which Iran feels it has nothing to lose and lashes out at Israel and invades/destabalizes Iraq. Or some such scenario in which the region is embroiled in a war that makes the current situation look great.
4. The long-term moral/strategic argument: Continuing the pattern of US 'hard' power as the answer to problems (whether the US's or someone else's) will only frustrate attempts to create a just world society.

Do these arguments even collectively answer Kristol (or some position like it)? This is the fundamental foreign policy program of the neo-cons. I'm throwing this out here, because I think it is important that we get clear on why this ideology is wrong with reference to a specific case.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Bush Blocked Justice Department Investigation (07/18/06)

I wanted to reposit something on the Gonzales revelation that Bush himself put an end to the Justice Department's investigation of the NSA wiretapping programs.

This is clearly not just a "Bush stops another investigation of his NSA program" story, although that is how it largely seems to be being presented in the papers.

Rather, as lots of others have pointed out, the Justice Department investigation WASN'T concerned with the constitutionality of the domestic spying program(s) per se, but rather it was an INTERNAL justice department investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility that was charged with making sure that the AG and others had not acted improperly in advising Bush about the constitutionality of the programs. This is kind of routine investigation is appartently the sole function of the Office Professional Responsibility. This is what these bureaucrats do. It was set up after Watergate to investigate all "allegations of misconduct involving department attorneys that relate to the exercise of their authority to investigate, litigate, or provide legal advice." And, according to Waas, at least, this internal investigation wasn't seeking any "secret documents" that were not already available to senior justice department officials.

So -- Bush personally quashes an internal Justice Department investigation into the question of whether or not he received good legal advice from the only folks who officially can give him legal advice. I guess this is how it's going to go: The Bush regime appears more and more like a gambit on behalf of one segement of the ruling classes. For it to work Bush must never EVER receive official legal advice that even suggests any of his grabs for power might run contrary to the constitution, because, when all has been said and done, Bush's argument won't be principled ("I did it because I truly believe in the 'unitary executive'"), and it won't be Nixionan ("When the President does it that means it's not illegal."). Rather, they've bet the house on plausible deniability ("I got me some bad legal advice from the chief egg-head lawyers. Sorry. Heh heh.")

This clearly is Bush's "Saturday Night Massacre" -- and it goes on almost entirely without public notice and outrage. I guess it's up to some career Justice Department folks to do some digging and leaking.


NATIONAL JOURNAL: Bush Blocked Justice Department Investigation (07/18/06):

"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today that President Bush personally halted an internal Justice Department investigation into whether Gonzales and other senior department officials acted within the law in approving and overseeing the administration's domestic surveillance program."

[snip]

The statement by Gonzales stunned some senior Justice Department officials, who were led to believe that Gonzales himself had made the decision to deny the clearances after consulting with intelligence agencies whose activities would be scrutinized, a senior federal law enforcement official said in an interview.

[snip]

Jesus - the same clearance was immediately given to Justice Department folks charged with investigating leaks about the NSA programs. Fuck...I guess we won't be hearing from any career Justice folks after all. Oh well, thus ends the rule of law.

H. Marshall Jarrett, OPR's lead counsel, wrote Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, on April 21, 2006, to point out that while OPR was denied security clearances to conduct its inquiry, requests from prosecutors and FBI agents tasked with investigating who first leaked details of the NSA surveillance program to the New York Times were "promptly granted."

Terkel wins peace prize

Chicago Tribune: "DAYTON, Ohio -- Chicago-based writer and oral historian Studs Terkel has been awarded the first Dayton Literary Peace Prize, an outgrowth of the Dayton Peace Prize that commemorates the 1995 agreement that ended the war in Bosnia."

Blogs from Lebanon

Lebanese Political Journal

Rampurple

Ramzi's Blah Blah

The Lebanese Bloggers

A New Alliance Of Democrats Spreads Funding

Quite interesting piece...One can only guess this social democrat approach may be effective in the media wars, but real substantial change?

A New Alliance Of Democrats Spreads Funding: "Matt Bennett, a vice president at Third Way, a centrist group that did not receive funding in the first wave of endorsements, said he believes that Democracy Alliance has merit. 'It will enable progressives, for the first time ever, to build a permanent infrastructure to beat the conservative machine,' he said."

Gingrich becomes the first...

The Seattle Times:

"Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so. In an interview in Bellevue this morning Gingrich said Bush should call a joint session of Congress the first week of September and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been heard from the president."

Rape? In a college town?

CNN.com - Police sergeant charged with rapes in college town - Jul 14, 2006:

"BLOOMINGTON, Illinois (AP) -- A police sergeant was charged with four rapes dating back to 2002 Friday, two days after he was charged with stalking a woman who found him lurking outside her home.

In addition to the rape charges, Bloomington Sgt. Jeff Pelo, 41, faces two counts of home invasion and charges of aggravated stalking and attempted residential burglary."

Eat The Press | Eric Boehlert: CNN's Lebanon Problem | The Huffington Post

Eat The Press | Eric Boehlert: CNN's Lebanon Problem | The Huffington Post: "I was surprise yesterday afternoon when a Reuters article popped onto my computer screen reporting that 53 Lebanese civilians had been killed by Israeli forces, part of the suddenly chaotic two-front battle Israel's military is fighting in the Middle East. Surprised, because I had been monitoring the day's events on CNN and hadn't heard much about that kind of swelling Lebanese death toll."...

...Later, I went back and checked CNN's reporting, via TVeyes.com, and discovered that throughout the day CNN repeatedly reported on the lone Israeli civilian causality without making any mention of the more than 50 Lebanese civilian casualties. To be exact, CNN did that at 10:31 a.m., 11:02, 12:09 p.m., 12:19, 1:00, 1:30, 1:52, 2:00, 2:17, 2:30, 2:50, and 4:04.

Note that at 12:05 p.m. CNN did report that "at least 45 Lebanese civilians have been killed in this offensive," but that's because the news channel was airing a feed from CNN International, which seemed to understand one of its fundamental responsibilities in covering bloody, revenge-driven political conflicts was to report civilian deaths suffered on both sides. In fact, a check of CNN Europe's reporting yesterday afternoon showed CNN Europe routinely reported on the death of the Israeli woman and as well as death of nearly 50 Lebanese civilian. CNN's U.S.-based anchors and reporters though, seemed mostly unable or unwilling to do the same.

On Iran, Bush vs. Military

Another scoop from S. Hersh on Iran:

On Iran, Bush vs. Military: "Several current and former officials I spoke to expressed doubt that President Bush would settle for a negotiated resolution of the nuclear crisis. A former high-level Pentagon civilian official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the government, said that Bush remains confident in his military decisions. The President and others in the Administration often invoke Winston Churchill, both privately and in public, as an example of a politician who, in his own time, was punished in the polls but was rewarded by history for rejecting appeasement."

Rove appears at Aspen Ideas Fest

Aspen Times News for Aspen Colorado:

"Rove appeared to be on the defensive on questions about Guantanamo, the Valerie Plame affair, Iraq and other issues. "

Rove made jokes about his hecklers and at one point referred to them as "people who fly in and out of Aspen in their jets." But he had his moments with the crowd as well, drawing applause now and then, and silencing it with the comment, "Republicans will keep their majorities in the House and Senate."

[snip]

Audience dismay with Rove widened during an exchange on the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Isaacson recalled that both Gen. Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., recommended shutting down the detention center.

"And do what?" Rove responded. "When we close Gitmo, the question is 'What do we do with the bad guys at Gitmo?' What do you do with them?"

"That's my question," Isaacson shot back, to laughter.

He [Rove] placed the question in the realm of courts.

"We've been respectful of the courts while these issues worked their way through the courts," he said. Hissing from the audience drowned out the rest of his answer.

[snip]

As for the Plame affair, Rove stumbled and then refused to answer.

Valerie Plame was an undercover CIA agent whose identity administration sources revealed to conservative columnist Robert Novak after her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly challenged the administration's claims about Iraq's nuclear program. Her career with the CIA ended, and some of her sources may have been in jeopardy as a result of the leak.

Isaacson posed the question in the same way Clinton had Friday night. Issacson, parroting Clinton, pointed out that if a member of the Clinton administration had outed a CIA officer, "You'd be sending people to demand impeachment. You'd be playing it better than the Democrats can play it against you."

Rove then said that after a "careful, thoughtful, aggressive investigation," then the person responsible should be fired.

"Have confidence in the process," he said.

But Isaacson continued pressing on the issue asking, "Don't you have some regrets about that? That was [a] regrettable event."

"I'm going to respect the fact that there's an ongoing case," Rove said, again to hissing from the audience.

cbs2chicago.com - President Surprises Chicagoans At Popular Diner

This local Chicago TV news story is perfect and has everything! It is so sappy and is written like a love letter from a star-struck kid. And yet it captures something perfectly -- how differently workers and petit boug. see Bush and the real material basis for their views.

The lede on this story should be: "Bush NEVER thinks about you or your interests"

cbs2chicago.com - President Surprises Chicagoans At Popular Diner:

"As CBS 2's Sylvia Gomez reports, diners at one popular Chicago hang-out got more than their usual cup of morning coffee.

President Bush leaned in like an old buddy at Lou Mitchell's Friday morning. Charm is one of the president's great strengths.

'I'll tell you, he's a very good looking man. When you meet him in person, he's a very nice man. Very polite,' owner Nick Thanas said."

[snip]

But now the president has moved on. For a 23-year Lou Mitchell's veteran, Sheri Wassberg, it was just another day, and the president was just another customer who only ordered coffee and juice.

"We've waited on different movie actors and actresses," Sheri said.

When asked if he wasn't all that special, Sheri laughed.

"Well, he's the president, but, yes," she replied.

She might feel differently if only he had left her a tip.

YouTube - Bill O'Reilly gets his ass kicked by Phil Donahue!!

YouTube - "Bill O'Reilly gets his ass kicked by Phil Donahue!!"

Contender Alleges Mexico Vote Was Rigged

We've yet to comment on the recent Mexico elections. Let me just say this for starters: the US in 2000 and 2004, Italy in 2005, now Mexico (who else am I forgetting?). These razor thin electoral victories by capitalist class candidates can't be just a statistical coincidence, can they? At what point does the canard "a deeply divided electorate" become clearly bogus? How many elections have to come in just under the wire for the ruling classes for the gig to be up?


Contender Alleges Mexico Vote Was Rigged:

"López Obrador ignited the smoldering emotions of his followers Saturday morning, alleging for the first time that Mexico's electoral commission had rigged its computers before the July 2 election to ensure the half-percentage-point victory of Felipe Calderón, a champion of free trade. "

[snip]

López Obrador also told the crowd that he was organizing a march to the capital Wednesday from all over Mexico, including states hundreds of miles distant.

[snip]

After López Obrador left the stage Saturday, the crowd lingered. Someone started singing the national anthem, and countless voices joined in its rallying cry: "Mexicans, to the shout of war!"

American Neo-Nazis back in US Armed Forces

Hate Groups Are Infiltrating the Military, Group Asserts - New York Times:

"A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed 'large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists' to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands, citing interviews with Defense Department investigators and reports and postings on racist Web sites and magazines.

'We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad,' the group quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying in a report to be posted today on its Web site, www.splcenter.org. 'That's a problem.'"

Ann Coulter's Time is Short, but so is Adam Carolla's

Just in case you haven't heard this yet. Ahhh, what it must be to live the life of a B- celebrity.

Blogger Blog about Blogger unblogging their blog

Blogger's Spam Prevention Robots are defective

or a separate case here

Now obviously the problem is the spammers, but when your automated system generates both false postives and misses so much actual spam that certain sites just ban trackbacks from Blogger, what is one to do?

Socialist mayor Frank Zeidler dies at 93

If it isn't too presumptuous....Long Live Socialism

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Former Milwaukee Mayor Frank P. Zeidler, the last Socialist to run a major U.S. city, has died, a spokesman for a Milwaukee hospital said on Saturday.

Zeidler, 93, died on Friday of congestive heart failure.

The son of a German Lutheran barber, Zeidler led Milwaukee for three terms from 1948 to 1960 and also ran for president as a Socialist in 1976.

The Great Blog Black-out of 2006 has ended.

I think things have been straightened out between us and Blogger. Apparently we've successfully passed whatever kind of Turing Test they've invented. So, gentlemen, resume your normal posting.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Iran urged to release philosopher

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Iran urged to release philosopher: "International pressure is growing on Iran to release a prominent philosopher and writer, Ramin Jahanbegloo, who was arrested two months ago on unspecified charges."