An Underwhelming Saturday: The Death Of Civic

Tom Englehardt reports on the (numerically) pathetic Saturday march in NYC, recalls the demos of the 60's, and nails the new generation's perception of government:

"This was one genuine accomplishment of a quarter-century-plus of the Republican 'revolution' (and the Clinton interregnum). All those presidential candidates, running as small-government outsiders ready to bring Washington big spenders to heel, had, on coming to power, only fed that government mercilessly, throwing untold numbers of tax dollars at the Pentagon and the military-industrial complex, ensuring that they would become ever more bloated, powerful, and labyrinthine, ever more focused on their own well-being, and ever less civic; ensuring that the government as a whole would be ever more 'bureaucratic,' ever less 'ept,' and -- always -- ever more oppressive, with ever more police-state-like powers.

"All that had been strangled in the process -- made smaller, if you will -- was the federal government's ability to deliver actual services to the population that paid for it. All that was made smaller in the world beyond Washington was whatever residual faith existed that this was 'your' government, that it actually represented you in any way. As the state's bureaucratic, military, and policing powers bloated, so, too, did the electoral process -- and lost as well was the belief that your vote could determine anything much at all.

"Looking back, this was, in a sense, what 9/11 really meant in America. The one thing that a government, which had long reinforced its own powers, should have been able to deliver was intelligence and protection. So it wasn't, I suspect, just those towers that crumbled on that day. What also crumbled was a residual faith in 'we, the people.'

"...The 'bureaucracy' had strangled the very idea of the 'civic.' Who would even think about entering such a world today as a 'civic duty,' rather than as a career move; or imagine Washington as 'our' government; or that anyone inside the famed Beltway, or near the K-Street hive of lobbyists, or in Congress or the Oval Office would give a damn about you? This is why, at a deeper level, the Washington Consensus today has next to nothing to do with the American one..."

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174855/thoughts_on_getting_to_the_march

-Warren Buffet-

---sometimes-world's-second-richest-man, allocations capitalist extraordinaire, and occasional reflector of populist sentiments.

Billionaire Buffet "Complains," Tax Rate Is Half That Of His Receptionist

Advertising the colossal inequity of the tax system, he also fingers the underlying demon of our politics: big donors.

"Warren Buffett, the famous investor known as the 'Sage of Omaha', has complained that he pays a lower rate of tax than any of his staff - including his receptionist. Mr Buffett, who is worth an estimated $52bn (£25bn), said: 'The taxation system has tilted towards the rich and away from the middle class in the last 10 years. It's dramatic; I don't think it's appreciated and I think it should be addressed.

"During an interview with NBC television, Mr Buffett brandished an informal survey of 15 of his 18 office staff at his Berkshire Hathaway empire. The billionaire said he was paying 17.7% payroll and income tax, compared with an average in the office of 32.9%.

'"There wasn't anyone in the office, from the receptionist up, who paid as low a tax rate and I have no tax planning; I don't have an accountant or use tax shelters. I just follow what the US Congress tells me to do,' he said.

"Mr Buffett also took a pot shot at hedge fund managers. He said: 'Hedge fund operators have spent a record amount lobbying in the last few months - they give money to the political campaigns. Who represents the cleaning lady?'"

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2202020,00.html

Corrupt Senate To Grant Telecoms Immunity For Spying?

The utter corruption of the Senate is not news, but the flagrancy of its behavior continues to astound:

"In recent weeks, Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee caved to the Bush administration and cut a deal to grant retroactive immunity to telecom giants who colluded in Bush's illegal program to spy on Americans.

"The bill -- a so-called 'fix' to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- has now been forwarded to the Senate Judiciary Committee."

Aside from helping to protect government's primary role in the mischief, this favor to big business would also assure continuing contributions to the whores and pimps we keep electing to office; read more AND SIGN THE PETITION:

http://actforchange.workingassets.com/campaign/fisa_sen_judiciary

-Mosul Dam-

According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, "the most dangerous dam in the world."

Iraq's Mosul Dam: Collapse Imminent?

"'The Army Corps of Engineers determined that the dam presented unacceptable risks,' U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, wrote in a May 3 letter to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. 'Assuming a worst-case scenario, an instantaneous failure of Mosul Dam filled to its maximum operating level could result in a flood wave 20 meters deep at the City of Mosul, which would result in a significant loss of life and property.'

"Sitting in a picturesque valley 45 miles along the Tigris River north of Mosul, the earthen dam has one fundamental problem: It was built on top of gypsum, which dissolves when it comes into contact with water.

'Almost immediately after the dam was completed in the early 1980s, engineers began injecting the dam with grout, a liquefied mixture of cement and other additives. More than 50,000 tons of material have been pumped into the dam since then in a continual effort to prevent the structure, which can hold up to 3 trillion gallons of water, from collapsing..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/29/AR2007102902193.html?wpisrc=newsletter

Studs Terkel: A Century Of Domestic Spying

"EARLIER this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the White House agreed to allow the executive branch to conduct dragnet interceptions of the electronic communications of people in the United States. They also agreed to “immunize” American telephone companies from lawsuits charging that after 9/11 some companies collaborated with the government to violate the Constitution and existing federal law. I am a plaintiff in one of those lawsuits, and I hope Congress thinks carefully before denying me, and millions of other Americans, our day in court.

"During my lifetime, there has been a sea change in the way that politically active Americans view their relationship with government. In 1920, during my youth, I recall the Palmer raids in which more than 10,000 people were rounded up, most because they were members of particular labor unions or belonged to groups that advocated change in American domestic or foreign policy..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/opinion/29terkel.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Pig War Profiteer Busted

"America's most ostentatious war profiteer is no longer a free man. In a long-anticipated move, FBI agents arrested bulletproof vest maker David H. Brooks in his Manhattan apartment at dawn on Thursday.

"...Brooks emerged as the poster boy for shameless war profiteering in November of 2005 when he blew some $10 million in profits from military contracts on a celebrity-studded party for his daughter. Leaked details of the bash drew national attention, including a description of Brooks' pink suede suit and photos of his daughter on stage with the rapper 50 Cent. A New York Times editorial compared Brooks to the ill-fated Marie Antoinette.

"And indeed, while Brooks won't face a guillotine for his greed, he could spend up to 70 years in prison if convicted of all charges. The 71-page indictment (PDF) alleges that while Brooks was chief executive of DHB Industries, a leading provider of military body armor, he pocketed more than $185 million from insider trading, fraud and tax evasion. He is also charged with using millions of dollars in DHB funds for personal expenses..."

A skeptic might add the comment that this pig was so out of control that he was making it uncool for the rest of the pack.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/66182/?page=1

-Bear On Beer-

Still beau after all these years. (Photo ljlasala@verizon.net)

Russia To Protect Israel From Iran?

From the Jerusalem Post, a strange turn, signifying the Russian bear may be outfoxing the US loon:

"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert traveled to Paris Sunday for talks that will focus on Iran, carrying in his pocket what he said was a guarantee from Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia would not 'put Israel in a place where it could be threatened.'

"Olmert's trip to France comes just three days after his lightning visit to Russia and a three-hour meeting with Putin. Olmert told reporters en route to Paris that his meetings in Russia were 'serious and important.' He said he talked extensively with Putin about the Iranian issue and was 'satisfied' with what he heard.

"Olmert's snap visit to Russia came after Putin questioned in Teheran whether Iran was developing nuclear weapons and warned the West against attacking Iran."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380617383&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

-Veterans for Peace-

http://www.vfpchapter10.org/

-Michael Ratner, Current Prez, CCR-

Founded by William Kunstler in 1966 to support civil rights activism, the Center for Constitutional Rights represents the second stream of private Constitutional defense, with an impressive list of awareness-raising suits and precedents.

Prior to the challenges posed by the bush administration, the Center clashed with the brutish Janet Reno, achieving a notable victory over secret deportation evidence in the case of Kiareldeen.

Guantanamo And A Tale Of Two Diazes

The NY Times' Tim Golden tells the story of Matthew Diaz, the disillusioned Navy lawyer who sent secret lists of the names of Guantanamo detainees to the Center for Constitutional Rights, the advocacy group that then, in an extraordinary series of actions, ended up turning the lists over to DOJ, resulting in Diaz' trial and imprisonment.

Matthew Diaz is the son of Robert Diaz, the nurse arrested in 1981 (and convicted and sentenced to death) for fatally injecting elderly patients with lidocaine. Ironically, it was his father's legal struggles that seem to have inspired the high school dropout to pursue a career leading to his own quandary:

"Well into the night of Sunday, Jan. 2, 2005, lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz sat alone at his desk in the
headquarters of the American detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, consumed with a new project.

"...Sitting at a secure desktop computer, he printed out page after page of classified information, pulling each batch from the printer in case anyone wandered by. When he was done, Diaz had assembled a document 39 pages long. In tiny type, it listed names, prison serial numbers and other information for each of the 551 men who were then being held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/magazine/21Diaz-t.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th

NY Times Rips Senate Dems On FISA

"Every now and then, we are tempted to double-check that the Democrats actually won control of Congress last year. It was particularly hard to tell this week. Democratic leaders were cowed, once again, by propaganda from the White House and failed, once again, to modernize the law on electronic spying in a way that permits robust intelligence gathering on terrorists without undermining the Constitution.

"...House Democrats drafted a measure that, while imperfect, was an improvement to the one passed this summer. But before the House could vote, Republicans tied up the measure in bureaucratic knots and Democratic leaders pulled it. Senate Democrats did even worse, accepting a Potemkin compromise that endorsed far too much of the bad summer law.

"...the deal cooked up by Mr. Rockefeller and the White House ... would not expire for six years, which is too long. And it would dismiss pending lawsuits against companies that turned data over to the government without a warrant.

"This provision is not primarily about protecting patriotic businessmen, as Mr. Bush claims. It’s about ensuring that Mr. Bush and his aides never have to go to court to explain how many laws they’ve broken. It is a collusion between lawmakers and the White House that means that no one is ever held accountable..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/20/opinion/20sat1.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

COMCAST: First Big Case Of IN Traffic Control?

"Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.

"Each PC gets a message invisible to the user that looks like it comes from the other computer, telling it to stop communicating. But neither message originated from the other computer — it comes from Comcast. If it were a telephone conversation, it would be like the operator breaking into the conversation, telling each talker in the voice of the other: 'Sorry, I have to hang up. Good bye.'

"...Comcast's approach to traffic shaping is different because of the drastic effect it has on one type of traffic — in some cases blocking it rather than slowing it down — and the method used, which is difficult to circumvent and involves the company falsifying network traffic."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071019/ap_on_hi_te/comcast_data_discrimination

Israeli Cluster Bombs Still Killing In Lebanon

"Ninety percent of the land contaminated by cluster bombs in South Lebanon should be cleared by the end of 2008, the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center (UNMACC), said on Wednesday 'A number of factors caused the delay in clearing all the 38 million square meters of infested land,' UNMACC spokeswoman Dalya Farran said during a news conference in the Southern city of Tyre. 'Israel refusing to provide us with maps of where it has dropped cluster bombs constitutes the main obstacle,' she added.

"She said new stretches of land fouled by cluster bombs were being located 'on a daily basis, since Israel dropped cluster bombs in the same areas in multiple instances during the war.'

"The UN and human rights groups say Israel dropped about 4 million cluster bomblets during last summer's war, most of them in the final 72 hours - after the terms of a UN-brokered cease-fire had been agreed.

"A British demining expert was killed last week by a cluster bomb left over from the war. He died instantly when the bomb went off as he was sweeping for ordnance in Bint Jbeil."

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=86051

Arms Industry Favors Hillary

Like this is a surprise.

Like anyone should need more than this to send her campaign to the scrap pile:

"The US arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street's favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months...

"Mrs Clinton's wooing of the defence industry is all the more remarkable given the frosty relations between Bill Clinton and the military during his presidency. An analysis of campaign contributions shows senior defence industry employees are pouring money into her war chest in the belief that their generosity will be repaid many times over with future defence contracts.
Employees of the top five US arms manufacturers – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon – gave Democratic presidential candidates $103,900, with only $86,800 going to the Republicans."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3075691.ece

-MRSA-

MRSA: Establishment Acknowledges "New" Superbug

"...If the mortality estimates are correct, the number of deaths associated with the germ, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, would exceed those attributed to H.I.V.-AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, emphysema or homicide each year.

"By extrapolating data collected in nine places, the researchers estimated that 94,360 patients developed an invasive infection from the pathogen in 2005 and that nearly one of every five, or 18,650 of them, died.

"...Numerous studies have shown that busy hospital workers disregard basic standards of hand-washing more than half the time. This week, Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, called for hospitals to begin publishing their compliance rates for hand-washing.

"Lisa A. McGiffert, manager of the 'Stop Hospital Infections' campaign at Consumers Union, said, “This study just accentuates that the hospital is ground zero, that this is where dangerous infections are occurring that are killing people every day.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/health/17infect.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin

Outgoing Under Secretary Blasts UN Submission To US On Palestine

"On the eve of his retirement, and after 25 long years with the world body, the former Peruvian diplomat blasted the United Nations in a 52-page confidential report to the secretary-general, accusing the world body of undermining the goal of a Palestinian state.

"'De Soto’s incendiary memorandum lifts the veil on the extent of George W. Bush administration’s skullduggery in undermining both the Palestinian democratic process and burying prospects for peace in the region.'”

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38197

Another UN Official Blasts US-UN On Palestinians

"Expressing his anger and frustration at the fast-deteriorating human rights situation in Gaza and the West Bank, John Dugard, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights for the Palestinian territories since 2001, has suggested that the world body quit the Middle East Quartet.

"The U.N. 'does itself little good by remaining a member of the Quartet,' he said in an interview with the BBC Monday, adding that the Quartet has done nothing to protect Palestinian civilians. 'Every time I visit, the situation seems to have worsened,' he said. 'This time I was very struck by the sense of hopelessness among the Palestinian people.'

"...Like many others, Dugard, a retired professor of international relations from South Africa, thinks that over the years, the Quartet has proved ineffective because it is 'heavily influenced' by the United States, a staunch supporter of Israel and its military actions..."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39662

FOOLS FOR GORE

A second rate liberal pundit, John Nichols, succombs to the Gore-for-Prez delusion:

"...the inconvenient truth is that never has the man who might yet be president needed to more seriously consider his personal legacy - not to mention the small matter of his potential to make the world anew - than now.

"There is, after all, the matter of the open space at the end of what is now the most remarkable resume of anyone seeking - or considering seeking - the presidency.

"Let's review...

"Son of a great senator.
Harvard graduate, with honors.
Vietnam veteran.
Award-winning investigative journalist.
Congressman.
Senator.
Vice President.
Winner of the popular vote for President of the United States.
Best-selling author.
Environmental activist.
Academy Award winner.

"And, now, Nobel Peace Prize winner...As resumés go, that is one for the top of the pile.

"But it begs the question: Shouldn't a man who has gotten this far be thinking about how to finish the journey?

"And isn't the last stop the Oval Office?" (1)

Give me a frigging break. An Academy Award helps qualify someone for president? Rocky won an Academy Award. Why didn't Nichols mention the Emmy?

And give me a break on the Nobel Peace Prize, which already went to one of the biggest war criminals of the 20th c, Henry Kissinger.

Another frigging break: Best selling author qualifies? Stephen King and Jaqueline Susann are best selling authors.

Another: Being a congressman? Convicted felon and jailbird Duke Cunningham was a congressman.

Another: Senator? Psycho alcoholic witch hunter Joe McCarthy was a senator.

Nichols fails to evaluate any of the items he lists on Gore's resume. In fact, he doesn't care about evaluating anything. He is constructing a liberal dream, a phantom to satisfy his need for a savior. That has nothing to do with reality, including the difference between Gore's role in popularizing the cause of a movement, where he has enjoyed much success, and that of a politician, where he has a record of mediocre performance and failure.

Contrast Nichol's blather in the Nation with the opinion of a rather more soulful thinker, Bob Herbert, of the NY Times, also sympathetic to Gore, but not so susceptible to liberal self hypnosis:

"Yesterday began with the gratifying news that Al Gore, derided by George H.W. Bush as the 'Ozone Man,' had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

"The first thing media types wanted to know was whether this would prompt Mr. Gore to elbow his way into the presidential campaign. That’s like asking someone who’s recovered from a heart attack if he plans to resume smoking.

"Mr. Gore, who won an Academy Award for his documentary on global warming...knows better than anyone else how toxic and downright idiotic presidential politics has become.

"...Mr. Gore knows the system is in trouble, and not just because of the way he lost in 2000. The last time I spoke to him, a few months ago, he said: 'Having served in the White House with the Gingrich Congress, and having watched the best of intentions so often turned into small changes ballyhooed as revolutionary, sometimes having no lasting mark, I really do believe that fixing the dynamic of democracy is an urgent task.'

"Al Gore is a serious man confronted by a political system that is not open to a serious exploration of important, complex issues. He knows it.

'“What politics has become,' he said, with a laugh and a tinge of regret, 'requires a level of tolerance for triviality and artifice and nonsense that I have found in short supply.'” (2)

So Herbert sets forth a major reason not to run, but he and Nichols both avoid a crucial consideration: for Al Gore to return to politics, he must risk the very fair criticism that his role in the cause of global warming was a stepping stone to the presidency, a means to reinvent his political identity, thereby undermining if not poisoning the credibility of the cause and of his efforts on its behalf.

But Al Gore himself offers yet another reason against returning to politics:

“Like I said, I’m a recovering politician. But you always have to worry about a relapse.” (3)

Gore said that in May of 2006 (i would appreciate any earlier citations) and it is likely not so much a joke or hyperbole as it is a confession of the nature of his life, a view of politics as disease and of his part in it, an addiction---like that of any alcoholic, smoker, or compulsive gambler who must guard against relapse.

But there is another equally important aspect of Al Gore's personality for the notion of which i acknowledge credit to scattered references concerning reports that Naomi Wolf---herself a contradictory figure---accepted $15,000 a month in salary to help groom Gore for his 2000 run. That grooming seems to have involved her notion that Gore was a beta male. (4)

Now, alphas of any gender are as susceptible to satirization, caricature, and even ridicule as betas, but usually they are not so easily dismissed; some glue of their value, even when they are resented or detested, usually attaches. Al Gore is and has been easily dismissed. It's variously reported that Hillary, who is smart and an alpha, out-vp'd him, but even if she didn't, his failure to rise in that office is remarkable. I suspect Gore is a natural beta, like the pup or cub that you can spot in a litter. He is not a beta of circumstantial rank, biding his time to challenge the old alpha. He knows this, and he is going to avoid essential contests and, if he must engage, lose them on some fundamental level.

That is why this nominal environmentalist, during eight years in the Clinton White House, while the earth was warming, could not extend gas mileage by one fraction of one inch, why, in the Senate, with the enlisted enhancements of Tipper, his great moral crusade was a silly war on Rock and Roll, and why, at the convention, his long kiss of said Tipper seemed so staged and clumsy: betas aren't supposed to breed.

Like many professors, ministers, and managers of beta persuasion or heredity, Gore has functioned best in uncontested venues of personal effort, away from adversarial arenas, politics especially.

So leave him to the cause of global warming, where he has done much good and can do some more. Al Gore is a recovering pol. Do not enable his relapse. And if relapse he does, with eyes wide open, understand that he is surrendering to disease.

That the liberal, who sees generally more what s/he wants than what is there, invests him with such political relevance is another, unfortunately related, problem.

(1)

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=242088

2)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/opinion/13herbert.html?th&emc=th

(3)

http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0055.html

(4)
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3613/is_200001/ai_n8902653/pg_1

Andy Borowitz Reports: SCOTUS Gives Gore's Nobel To Bush

"... in a 5-4 decision, the justices made it clear that they had taken the unprecedented step of stripping Mr. Gore of his Nobel because President Bush deserved it more.

"'It is true that Al Gore has done a lot of talking about global warming,' wrote Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority. 'But President Bush has actually helped create global warming.'

"Even as Mr. Gore was being stripped of his Nobel, he received strong words of support from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who said that the former vice president's Nobel win 'shows that he is devoting his life to the right thing and should definitely stay the course.'"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/supreme-court-gives-gore_b_68366.html

Andy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/supreme-court-gives-gore_b_68366.html

Quote For The Day

"My sense is that all the resolutions in the world about past genocides will do precisely nothing to stop the next one."

---Niall Ferguson, historian, writing in today's LA Times about the Turkish/Armenian resolution

More:

"'If we hope to stop future genocides, we need to admit to those horrific acts of the past,' argued Rep. Brad Sherman, a California Democrat and a sponsor of the (Turkish/Armenian) resolution. Really?

"And if -- let's just suppose -- the next genocide happens in Iraq, and the United States finds itself impotent to prevent it, the blame will lie as much with this posturing and irresponsible Congress as with anyone."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ferguson15oct15,0,2244478.column?coll=la-tot-opinion&track=ntothtml

We Have Met The Good Germans And They Are Us

Frank Rich is the latest to draw the parallel between the US government's policy of torture and the Gestapo's verscharfte Vernehmung---and our complicity.

"America's 'enhanced interrogation' techniques have a grotesque provenance: 'Verschärfte Vernehmung, enhanced or intensified interrogation, was the exact term innovated by the Gestapo to describe what became known as the "third degree." It left no marks. It included hypothermia, stress positions and long-time sleep deprivation.'

"...We can continue to blame the Bush administration for the horrors of Iraq — and should... But we must also examine our own responsibility for the hideous acts committed in our name in a war where we have now fought longer than we did in the one that put Verschärfte Vernehmung on the map.

"...As the war has dragged on, it is hard to give Americans en masse a pass. We are too slow to notice, let alone protest, the calamities that have followed the original sin.

"...It was always the White House's plan to coax us into a blissful ignorance about the war. Part of this was achieved with the usual Bush-Cheney secretiveness, from the torture memos to the prohibition of photos of military coffins. But the administration also invited our passive complicity by requiring no shared sacrifice. A country that knows there's no such thing as a free lunch was all too easily persuaded there could be a free war.

"...Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war. The longer we stand idly by while they do so, the more we resemble those 'good Germans' who professed ignorance of their own Gestapo. It's up to us to wake up our somnambulant Congress to challenge administration policy every day. Let the war's last supporters filibuster all night if they want to. There is nothing left to lose except whatever remains of our country's good name.'

Leave the parties of complicity, whether that's moral, political, or symbolic. Get out now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/opinion/14rich2.html?hpv

-Broos & Ran-dee: Cavepersons 1 Million B.C.-

Sheehan Nails Pelosi For "Craphole Of Fascism"

"...(for) an ongoing partnership with BushCo to make the office of the presidency a Congressionally protected crime conglomerate that is rapidly sending this Nation down a crap-hole of fascism.

"...We have the right to hold both of the political parties accountable. We not only have the right, we have the responsibility. We not only have the right and the responsibility we have the power."

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/27666

SCOTUS Refuses Masri: Corrupt, Owned, Cruel

The one clear feature of the careers of Roberts and Alito was their prejudice in siding with power against the individual. Yet Congress allowed their appointments, and we are getting a series of decisions that protect a totalitarian executive.

"Somehow, the court could not muster the four votes needed to grant review in the case of an innocent German citizen of Lebanese descent who was kidnapped, detained and tortured in a secret overseas prison as part of the Bush administration’s morally, physically and legally abusive anti-terrorism program. The victim, Khaled el-Masri, was denied justice by lower federal courts, which dismissed his civil suit in a reflexive bow to a flimsy government claim that allowing the case to go forward would put national security secrets at risk."

The Times concludes:

"In refusing to consider Mr. Masri’s appeal, the Supreme Court has left an innocent person without any remedy for his wrongful imprisonment and torture. It has damaged America’s standing in the world and established the nation as Supreme Enabler of the Bush administration’s efforts to avoid accountability for its actions. These are not accomplishments to be proud of.

There are no brakes on the train, its engine stoked by Congress and the Court. What justice can derail it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/opinion/11thu1.html?th&emc=th

Rosing's Dogs: Spectacular Polar Bear Encounter

A team of sled dogs chained for the night, when a polar bear appears:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/polardog.asp

-Anniversary: Killed Oct. 9, 1967-

---in Bolivia.

-Strict Hierarchy In The Matriline-

Quote For The Day

“Monkey society is governed by the same two general rules that governed the behavior of women in so many 19th-century novels. Stay loyal to your relatives (though perhaps at a distance, if they are an impediment), but also try to ingratiate yourself with the members of high-ranking families.”

---Drs. Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth, on observing baboons in the field.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/science/09babo.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

The Girl And The Financier

The anecdote about the self-styled "spectacularly beautiful" young lady advertising for a husband earning at least a half mil per year made it into the NY Times (business section) when an employee of JP Morgan Chase reportedly responded with a quip that this was no bargain: pulchritude, he pointed out, was a depreciating asset in contrast to his wealth.

It's hard to say which side featured the bigger sexist, and just who was commodifying whom. But both refer to a long tradition. The young lady could be following the advice of any of a number of 50's Hollywood sirens:

“A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man.”

---Lana Turner

And the man might have W. C. Fields in mind:

“The nation needs to return to the colonial way of life, when a wife was judged by the amount of wood she could split.”

And then there's Thomas Hardy's summation:

"It appears that ordinary men take wives because possession is not possible without marriage, and that ordinary women accept husbands because marriage is not possible without possession."

Thanks to m for this one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/business/media/08golddigger.html?ref=business

---USS Liberty---

---turning to evade torpedoes.

USS Liberty Docs Declassified

The Baltimore Sun reprints the Chicago Tribune's detailed article surveying the current information on the attack on the USS Liberty June 8, 1967, including coverage of interviews with surviving crew and government officials, a new graphic, and link to the recently declassified documents. Some excerpts:

"I'm angry! I'm seething with anger! Forty years, and I'm seething with anger!"

---Bryce Lockwood, Marine staff sergeant, Russian-language expert, recipient of the Silver Star, ordained Baptist minister, and crewman of the USS Liberty, on station in the eastern Mediterranean, strafed and bombed by four Israeli fighter jets.

"...a tragic and terrible accident, a case of mistaken identity, for which Israel has officially apologized."

---Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev.

"President [Lyndon] Johnson is not going to go to war or embarrass an American ally over a few sailors."

---Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, ordering Rear Adm. Lawrence Geis, commander of the America's carrier battle group, to bring the jets home, as reported by J.Q. "Tony" Hart, chief petty officer assigned to a U.S. Navy relay station in Morocco handling communications between Washington and the 6th Fleet.

"(I have) absolutely no recollection of what I did that day...I have a memory that I didn't know at the time what was going on."

---Robert McNamara, at age 91, to the Chicago Tribune.

"...couldn't be anything else but deliberate."

---NSA Director Lt. Gen. Marshall Carter, to Congress.

"I don't think you'll find many people at NSA who believe it was accidental."

---Benson Buffham, former deputy, NSA.

"The (Israeli) ground control station stated that the target was American and for the aircraft to confirm it. The aircraft did confirm the identity of the target as American, by the American flag. The ground control station ordered the aircraft to attack and sink the target and ensure they left no survivors. He kept insisting the mission had to sink the target, and was frustrated with the pilots' responses that it didn't sink...Everybody saw these."

---Steve Forslund, intelligence analyst for the 544th Air Reconnaissance Technical Wing, highest-level strategic planning office in the Air Force, regarding teletype received at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha.

"It was clear that the Israeli aircraft were being vectored directly at USS Liberty. Later, around the time Liberty got off a distress call, the (Israeli) controllers seemed to panic and urged the aircraft to 'complete the job' and get out of there."

---James Gotcher, Air Force Security Service's 6924th Security Squadron, adjunct of the NSA, at Son Tra, Vietnam, now an attorney in California.

"Some of the (Israeli) pilots did not want to attack. The pilots said, 'This is an American ship. Do you still want us to attack?' And ground control came back and said, 'Yes, follow orders.'"

---Air Force Capt. Richard Block, commanding an intelligence wing of more than 100 analysts and cryptologists monitoring Middle Eastern communications from Crete.

"Israel was attacking, and they know it's an American ship."

---Dwight Porter, American ambassador to Lebanon during the Six-Day War, as quoted by Andrew Kilgore, former U.S. ambassador to Qatar.

"(The Americans have) clear proof that from a certain stage the pilot discovered the identity of the ship and continued the attack anyway."

---Israeli ambassador Avraham Harman, to Foreign Minister Abba Eban in Tel Aviv.

"(The story) should have been on the front page!"

---President Lyndon Johnson, on finding the NY Times coverage on inside page, quoted by CIA director Richard Helms.

"...a hasty, superficial, incomplete and totally inadequate inquiry."

---Rear Adm. Merlin Staring, former Navy judge advocate general, regarding the report of the American inquiry.

Thanks to rl for this.

http://www.nsa.gov/liberty/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-liberty1002,0,3053738.story?page=1&coll=bal_tab01_layout

Little Horrors Of The Day: WBAI Retreats On "Howl"

"It is with a queasy feeling of history in retreat that poetry lovers discover that WBAI, long the radio flagship of cocky resistance to government excess, decided last week that it couldn’t risk a 50th anniversary broadcast of the late poet’s recording of 'Howl.' The station retreated out of fear that the Federal Communications Commission would levy large obscenity fines that might bankrupt the small-budget station.

"...If Ginsberg were still with us, he would undoubtedly pen a mocking line or two about his poem being banned from the airwaves 50 years after it was ruled not to be obscene. Congress, of course, could redress the F.C.C.’s bullying powers if it wanted to. But lately, the Capitol’s most energetic broadcast agenda has been conservative members’ organizing against any attempt to restore the fairness doctrine to political broadcast, which could crimp the 24/7 rants of right-wing talk radio. The poet would understand, having once noted: 'Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.'"

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/opinion/08mon4.html?th&emc=th

Little Horrors Of The Day: Killer In a Can

"DENVILLE, N.J. — Walter E. Friedel’s plans to waterproof the tile floors of his hot tub room using Stand ’n Seal, a do-it-yourself product sold at his local Home Depot, promised to be a quick weekend project...

"The product offered 'a revolutionary fast way' to seal grout around tiles and, its label boasted, any extra spray would 'evaporate harmlessly.'

"... Dr. Friedel, a 63-year-old physician, ended up being rushed to the hospital, where he would spend four days in intensive care, gasping for air, his lungs chemically inflamed.

"...Before Dr. Friedel bought Stand ’n Seal, at least 80 people had been sickened using it, two of them fatally.

"But even then, with the threat well-documented, the manufacturer, retailer and the commission had failed to remove the hazard from the shelves.

"...Court documents show that, as the case unfolded, the product’s maker, BRTT, appeared at times to be more concerned with protecting its bottom line than with taking steps to ensure that the hazard was removed. That meant that hazardous cans of Stand ’n Seal remained on the shelves for more than a year after the 2005 recall..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/washington/08consumer.html?th&emc=th

Little Horrors Of The Day: Dying In Police Custody

"A handcuffed man stopped breathing and died after struggling with Phoenix police officers who were arresting him early Thursday.

"Archie R. Poole Jr., 41, is the second person in the last week to die in police custody. Carol Gotbaum, 45, died last Friday after she was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct at Sky Harbor International Airport and placed in a holding room.

"Poole, of Tolleson, is the fifth person to die in police custody this year. Last year, six people died in custody."

And that's just in Phoenix.

"In-custody deaths occur across the country and have become a hot-button issue in recent years, particularly after officers began using Tasers to subdue suspects who then died. Last year, the U.S. Justice Department launched a review of the deaths of up to 180 people who died after law-enforcement officers used stun guns or other electroshock devices to subdue them.

"But experts say just the process of being arrested can trigger physiological responses that could lead to death in people experiencing 'excited delirium,' in which a shutdown of bodily function occurs after sensory overload..."

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1005airportdeath1005cuffs.html

Little Horrors Of The Day: Anthrax Shipments Leak

Improper shipment of anthrax in 2005 earned the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories a $450,000 fine, it was revealed Friday.

"...Vials of anthrax leaked inside the packages during their cross-country shipment, and government investigators found that an unauthorized employee packed the shipment from Lawrence Livermore’s Bio-Safety Level-3 lab, a lab that handles deadly pathogens.

"...The lab sent the first package to a biodefense lab in Palm Beach, Florida containing 1,025 anthrax-filled vials, the size of an index finger. Two of the vials arrived at the laboratory with their caps off, and the cap on another was loose.

“'What happened with the anthrax is a major accident,' said Marylia Kelley, executive director of Tri-Valley Cares, the group that filed suit against the lab in 2001 for opening the Bio-Safety Level-3 research center...

'“They have a history of sloppy handling. There have been radioactive releases from the Livermore laboratories many times in the past, and now we’re finding that they’re responsible for an anthrax accident. This is no small thing.'”

http://tracypress.com/content/view/11567/2242/

Little Horrors Of The Day: Cop On Killing Spree

"CRANDON, Wis. - An off-duty sheriff's deputy went on a shooting rampage at a home early Sunday in northern Wisconsin, killing six people and injuring a seventh before authorities fatally shot him, officials said.

"The suspect was 20 years old and worked full-time as a Forest County deputy sheriff and part-time as a Crandon police officer, Sheriff Keith Van Cleve said. He would not release the suspect's name but said he was not working at the time of the shooting.

"...Gary Bradley, mayor of the city of about 2,000, said earlier Sunday that the suspect had been brought down by a sniper, but Van Cleve would not confirm that officers shot the suspect.
It wasn't immediately clear what the suspect's motive was. The shooting occurred in a white, two-story duplex about a block from downtown Crandon..."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071007/ap_on_re_us/wisconsin_shooting

A Woman's Desperation: Feminist For Obama

"CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- Long before the 2008 campaign began, Liz Belden thought she would support Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). As a feminist, she believed it would be good for the country to finally elect a woman as president.

"Today, she supports Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), impressed by his intellect and what she believes is his capacity to unite the country. 'I want a woman president who is the right person. I'm not convinced this one is,' Belden said. 'My problem with her is, too many times I feel she says things for political expediency.'"

If this were Kansas, Liz were Dorothy, and Hillary were flying a broomstick or pulling levers behind the curtain, this might make sense.

As it is, we'll keep looking for a feminist born after 1901.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/06/AR2007100601375.html?hpid=topnews

Another Woman's Story: Life After bushPimping

"It had been four days since Meghan O'Sullivan left her job at the White House. Just four days since she gave up her Secret Service pass, her classified hard drive and her entree to the president. Four days since she gave up any day-to-day responsibility for Iraq.

"...As President Bush's top Iraq adviser while the war sank into an abyss over the past few years, O'Sullivan lived it every waking hour -- and many of the sleeping ones. The dreams came every night, often prosaic, sometimes straight out of a war movie, filled with violence and menace. It was, she said, 'all consuming.'

"Now she has left a White House under siege, part of a parade of longtime aides who have headed for the door in recent months exhausted, sometimes discouraged and wrestling with the legacy of their experience.

"...O'Sullivan... has taken a fellowship at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government while she ponders her next step. As she approaches age 40, she wanted 'to make room for other things in my life,' including apple-picking with her niece. Harvard asked her to speak at an Iraq forum a few days after her arrival on campus, but she demurred. It was too soon..."

Good luck, O'Sullivan, in finding water enough to wash away the blood and crime.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/06/AR2007100601521.html?wpisrc=newsletter

One Woman's Story: Lobbied By The Lobby

"...John J. Mearsheimer at the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard argue in 'The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy' that Israel exerts far more influence than it should on American politics...

"I wasn't around at the time the controversy ignited. I happened to be in Israel with eight other American journalists, on a first-class, all-expenses-paid tour funded entirely by AIPAC..."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/10/07/i_was_lobbied_by_the_israel_lobby/

On Blow Jobs And Burglaries---And Ellsberg

Remarks from symposia and interviews are always harder for me than speeches and essays, because the thinking is less organized and too often runs circuitously, but here Ellsberg raises some interesting points, even if unintentionally.

He, along with other converts like Dean and Moyers, who actively promoted the interests of corrupt political administrations, have a lot of blood on their hands and a lot to answer for, and we are right to be skeptical of their thinking and their motives, no matter how detached their truth telling appears; the human conscience is complicated, and none of us can be confident that we behave free of reaction to, or rationalization of, past deeds and thoughts, real or suspected.

Ellsberg may be helpful in identifying a present coup and predicting the possible shape of a next one, but does he rightly describe the history of the latter half of the 20th c, or the process by which the country increasingly embraced imperialism (not to mention fascism, which is probably just as accurately what has happened with the emergence of a military-industrial-congressional-media-judicial complex)? He avoids that scenario by copping out to intent, suggesting that previous presidents were not mindful to change the form of government while they acted illegally, imperially, and against the Constitution. That's a problem for me. Intent may be relevant in the technical considerations of criminal law, but intent needs to be qualified by the common-sense question, If someone didn't know better, should s/he have? And how would we tell, anyway?

As a child i knew Truman's atom-bombing of Japan was an unconscionable act of horror, and as a child i accepted the propaganda that it was necessary to end the war, but no adult then or now has an excuse to believe it. JFK's militaristic nationalism was no less dangerous because so many idiots went for it. Johnson's deceit was no less dangerous because he may have thought Vietnam was in the nation's interests. Nixon's expansion of airstrikes was no more forgivable because he could get away with it. And so on up to the present administration. It is power and capacity, enabled by a cynical politics, that ruined these presidencies and corrupted their nation.

That Ellsberg would mitigate their mischief on consideration of their intent, or that they are fundamentally different from bush, except in degree and transparency, is misleading and unhelpful. While some may have threaded their way more carefully through the specific constraints of the Constitution, the very form of that document---beginning with its separation of the declaration of war from its conduct---is a rebuke to their treachery. His large omission, however, of the role of congress as complicit in and necessary to, this history is unfortunate. It fails to indicate the real scope of the problem, that the reigning parties have supported if not caused a system that has destroyed the Republic.

It is not helpful to portray our crisis as one of individual actors. That is not what has happened. We have reached the point where the system is so corrupted that it practically excludes a righteous candidate from winning office from within the reigning parties, let alone admit alternative candidates. He is right in noting that our presidents have not been held accountable for their crimes. But that is not just because their crimes were not known during their terms of office; it is more due to their support by and the complicity of, the other branches of government.

The most we have seen from congress is its partisan reaction to petty crimes---lies about burglaries and blow jobs---while it denies or obscures the realities of high treason to which it is party. Ellsberg senses these broader problems, obviously, when he describes the next presidency as unlikely to yield back the rights we have lost, and he may be right in projecting how an actual crisis might bring on the final trappings of a police state. But he fails to take the next step, which is to acknowledge that the Republic is lost, that no crisis is needed and no police state is needed to sustain the present hegemon. Only miscalculation---by the greed and arrogance of the rulers and their instruments---would require more. And that risks what no one knows: the point at which the general population---which knows the corruption of its government but is not threatened sufficient to move---would react.

The empire is now so securely established---politically, economically, and socially---so fascistically defined in the unity of government and commerce, that it will either collapse under its own internal contradictions, or eventually meet reform by a public that is finally too exhausted, disgusted, sick, horrified, or impoverished to tolerate it. There is no way to influence it from within its own rot.

So keep arguing, protesting, and reminding the world of the mischief. And stop sending more of the same hacks to Washington.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/092607a.html

Fed Prosecutor Kills Self After Child Sex Sting

Another hypocritical representative of the government's bastion against crime is removed from action (not that i generally approve of prosecuting virtual "acts"):

"MIAMI, Oct. 5 — A federal prosecutor charged with traveling from Florida to Michigan to have sex with a 5-year-old girl committed suicide on Friday in prison, his lawyer said.

"The prosecutor, J. D. Roy Atchison, 53, was arrested on Sept. 16 leaving a plane in Detroit as part of an Internet sting operation led by the sheriff’s department in Macomb County, Mich.
The authorities said he had been chatting online for two weeks with an undercover detective who posed as a mother offering to let men have sex with her young daughter.

"At the time of his arrest, the authorities said, Mr. Atchison, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., was carrying a Dora the Explorer doll, hoop earrings and petroleum jelly."

And that's way too much information, NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/us/06suicide.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Watada Retrial Stayed

"In a rare intervention of a civilian court in the military justice system, U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin H. Settle granted the emergency stay (PDF) shortly before close of business Friday. Watada's trial, slated to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday, is now postponed until at least Oct. 26, the judge ruled.

"'...The irreparable harm suffered by being put to a trial a second time in violation of the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment stems not just from being subjected to double punishment but also from undergoing a second trial proceeding,' Settle wrote in quoting case law."

http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/452/39/

-Aggie Muster At A&M-

The Texas trade school, supported by defense contracts and industry alliances, features the nation's largest cadet corps outside of the service academies.

Senate Throws Another Half Trillion At War Machine

The latest act of colossal perversion perpetrated by our elected officials was the Senate's passage of the 2008 Defense Authorization Act late Monday afternoon:

"...In February, Bush requested more than $140 billion for the war, and is expected to ask for another $42 billion to cover costs in the 2008 budget year, which began Monday. The Senate’s defense policy bill authorizes Bush’s initial request, plus an additional $23 billion for the purchase of bomb-resistent (sic) vehicles.

"In addition to war money, the Senate’s defense policy bill authorizes more than a half trillion dollars in annual military programs, including such big-ticket items as $10.1 billion for missile defense." (1)

The bill poses a veto risk because of a hate-crimes provision inserted by Kennedy. The Democrats rationalize this stupendous giveaway with promises to challenge the administration when they authorize specific expenditures from the funding.

In the meantime, they have given bush $23B over his request so these ass clowns can brag about their dedication to "protecting" the troops, and are throwing half a trillion at the war machine.

But just as disgusting is the ongoing flow of pork for the lobbies and constituent war industries:

"Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn of Texas inserted 27 earmarks worth $60 million, including funds for trauma care and border security."

(In the House version:

"...lawmakers from the Lone Star State and elsewhere recently inserted in a defense authorization bill a requirement that the military buy 10 more aircraft at a cost of $2.4 billion (even though the) Pentagon insists it has enough C-17 Globemaster jets, which are partly manufactured in Texas.

"...$100 million...for projects that included funding for research at many of the state's universities and institutions in the Texas Medical Center as well as money for the Johnson Space Center and border control.

"...$4 million...for the Houston-based Alliance for NanoHealth, a seven-institution consortium in the Texas Medical Center

"...at the behest of San Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute, Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-Texas, added $2 million to the House version of the defense budget for research and development of crowd behavior software.

"...Texas A&M University...gets three earmarks worth $3.5 million, including one to develop technology to allow detection of biochemical agents in the atmosphere above the battlefield.
The earmarks were inserted by Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, a Texas A&M alumnus whose district includes the university. He also is the top Democrat from Texas on the Appropriations Committee, chairing the panel's military construction and veteran's committee subcommittee.") (2)

It's stupefying to see military contracts supporting the corrupt trade schools that pass for institutions of learning.

And who voted for the Senate's latest evil?

All but three nays,

Byrd (D-WV)
Coburn (R-OK)
Feingold (D-WI),

and 5 clowns who ducked the vote,

Biden (D-DE)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
McCain (R-AZ)
Obama (D-IL) (3),

all of whom happen to be busy on the campaign trail---and can spin their non-vote anyway they like.

(1)
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_defensebillsenate_071001/

(2)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/5175644.html

(3)
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00359

Cockburn: Clintons Created Iraq WMD Myth

Common sense tells us that bush and the neos couldn't have created their nightmare spontaneously.

By the day evidence is coming to light of how the Clintons prepared the way for much if not most of the bush horror.

Andrew Cockburn outlines the history of the WMD myth and the role of sanctions:

"Why Clinton is Culpable
Iraq's WMD Myth
By ANDREW COCKBURN

"A former senior UN diplomat has revealed to me details of how, just over 10 years ago, the Clinton administration deliberately sabotaged UN weapons inspections in Iraq.

"...It was March 1997. For six years the UN inspectors had been probing the secrets of Saddam's weapons programs, in the process destroying huge quantities of chemical munitions and other production facilities. To enforce Saddam's cooperation, Iraq was subject to crushing sanctions.
Now, Rolf Ekeus, the urbane Swedish diplomat who headed the inspection effort, was ready to announce that his work was almost done.

"...For the Clinton administration, this was a crisis. If Ekeus was allowed to complete his mission, then the suspension of sanctions would follow almost automatically.

"Saddam would be off the hook and, more importantly for the Clintonites, the neo-conservative republicans would be howling for the president's blood.

"...Enter Madeleine Albright... set on making sure that Saddam effectively ended his cooperation with the inspectors. 'We do not agree...that if Iraq complies with its obligations concerning weapons of mass destruction, sanctions should be lifted,' she declared. Sanctions, she stated without equivocation, would remain unless or until Saddam was driven from power.

"Ekeus understood immediately what Albright intended...'that Saddam would now feel that there was no point in his cooperating with us, and that was the intent of her speech.'

"...From then on, the inspectors found their lives increasingly difficult... Ekeus resigned in July 1997, to be replaced by the Australian Richard Butler. Butler was soon embroiled in acrimonious confrontation with the Iraqis. Later the following year, all the inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq and the US mounted a series of bombing raids.

"Clinton's strategy had been successful..."

This is what we can expect from Hillary or any of the leading Dem candidates: more war, lies, and political corruption. The only difference between the corrupt parties of this corrupt politics
is rhetoric and tokenism.

The Iraq horror was spawned by the leaders of both parties. The Iran horror is promoted by both.

Want some more? It's headed your way in a pants suit.

http://www.counterpunch.org/andrew09292007.html