wait wait wait, before we start I'm going to insert something from a recent post --an opinion of mine that hasn't changed in the last 25 years--
"I remember thinking that Khomeini was an asshole. I also remember thinking that Reagan was an asshole. "
ok, carry on
Middle East (Asia Times)
Feb 12, 2009
US-IRAN WALL OF MISTRUST, Part 1
Obama's Persian double
By Pepe Escobar
Khatami...
... he is a reformist able to reach out to conservatives and wildly popular among women, the young and progressives of all stripes....
...He was also the man who called for a "dialogue of civilizations". The Bush administration snubbed him - as it was entangled in the failed, Huntingtonian thesis of the "clash of civilizations"....
...Years later, Ahmadinejad's definitely non-reformist economic policies proved themselves to be an absolute disaster. Official inflation stands at 24% - and rising...
... On top of it, Ahmadinejad is an apocalyptical Mahdist - believing from the bottom of his heart in the imminent arrival of the Mahdi, the "occult" Twelfth Imam. Most Iranian Shi'ites are not Mahdist...
... Khatami for his part remains very popular in Iran. His views are eminently moderate...
...And as for the Khomeinist credo of an exportable revolutionary idea, it seems to remain more alive than ever: "The popularity of the message of the revolution can be clearly witnessed in what happened in Gaza and before that in the 33-day war in Lebanon. The well-equipped Israeli army backed by the US was incapable of defeating a handful of besieged youth [Hamas and Hezbollah] and who had nothing but their faith in God."
Fasten your seat belts; it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
Middle East (Asia Times)
Feb 13, 2009
US-IRAN WALL OF MISTRUST, Part 2
Will Obama say 'we're sorry'?
By Pepe Escobar
If United States President Barack Obama is really serious about "unclenched fists" in a new US-Iran relationship, he's got to take a serious, unbiased look at the US record.
Former US secretary of state Cordell Hull's classic comment about Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo - "He's a son-of-a-bitch, but he's our son-of-a-bitch" - has been the norm for decades. From the Somozas in Nicaragua to Saddam Hussein in Iraq, from Indonesia's Suharto to the shah of Iran, US foreign policy over the past decades has enshrined a hefty SOB gallery...
...During the Cold War, stressing how easily the Soviet Union had occupied Iran earlier, the CIA trained the Savak, the shah's secret police. Being Muslim but not an Arab, Mohammad Reza also rendered a great service to the US: he did not share Arab hatred of Israel. He even sold oil to Israel (one of the reasons that later fomented ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's popularity). In sum, the shah was the perfect gatekeeper of US political and economic interests in the Persian Gulf...
...A case can be made that the whole shah/Kissinger racket inevitably led to the fall of the shah. The shah - like Somoza, Suharto or an array of Latin American dictators - never understood that he was no more than a puppet.
He spent tens of billions of dollars on American weapons. His multinational model fit the obvious pattern seen all over the developing world: a minority swimming in gold and conspicuous consumption while the absolute majority faced dire poverty. The shah pushed for cash crops instead of conducting a real agrarian reform that would guarantee the subsistence of millions of Iranian peasants - all of them diehard Shi'ites and most of them illiterate.
These peasant masses in the end got the boot from the countryside by American agribusiness; for the Americans, they were nothing but a "superfluous" workforce, non-adaptable to a Western, mechanized, selective model. It was those miserable masses, flooding Tehran and other large Iranian cities in a fight for survival, who composed the mass base of Khomeini's revolution in 1979. The rest is, of course, history....
(Jeezus Christ, I never learned that in American History 101, but I do remember the following)
In 1978, the whole US corporate media were hammering that the shah was invincible; that the Khomeinist mobs were a minority; and that the shah was a "great modernizer" opposed by "Muslim fanatics". Then, after the revolution, American guilt for the life and "work" of the shah was psychologically replaced by hatred of Iran because of the American hostage crisis...
...If Obama really wants to make the effort to understand Iran he could do no worse than read the great Iranian philosopher Daryush Shayegan , a former professor at the University of Tehran. When Khomeini died, Shayegan identified him and the shah as the two juxtaposed Irans: imperial Iran and the painful Iran of the blood of the martyr, "a juxtaposition that symbolizes an unreal dream: as the 12th century mystical poet Ruzbehan from Shiraz would say, this 'dementia of the inaccessible'."
Books by Daryush Shayegan on bookfinder
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl
Page last updated at 11:03 GMT, Monday, 19 January 2009
Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl
Private schools in Pakistan's troubled north-western Swat district have been ordered to close in a Taleban edict banning girls' education. Militants seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law have destroyed about 150 schools in the past year. Five more were blown up despite a government pledge to safeguard education, it was reported on Monday. Here a seventh grade schoolgirl from Swat chronicles how the ban has affected her and her classmates. The diary first appeared on BBC Urdu online.
THURSDAY JANUARY 15: NIGHT FILLED WITH ARTILLERY FIRE (click on title link)
"...A Taleban edict banning girls education. Militants seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law have destroyed 150 schools in the past year..."
Austere-
aus⋅tere /ɔˈstɪər/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [aw-steer] Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective 1. severe in manner or appearance; uncompromising; strict; forbidding: an austere teacher.
2. rigorously self-disciplined and severely moral; ascetic; abstinent: the austere quality of life in the convent.
3. grave; sober; solemn; serious: an austere manner.
4. without excess, luxury, or ease; simple; limited; severe: an austere life.
5. severely simple; without ornament: austere writing.
6. lacking softness; hard: an austere bed of straw.
7. rough to the taste; sour or harsh in flavor.
Zardari: We Underestimated Taliban Threat
Pakistan's President Tells 60 Minutes The Country Is In A Battle To Survive
Pakistan government makes deal with Islamic miitants
Posted on Sunday, February 15, 2009 By Saeed Shah McClatchy Newspapers
Nerve Centre of Islamic Extremism is Saudi Arabia, not Pakistan Freedom House study 2005
Sharia law in UK is 'unavoidable'
Thursday, 7 February 2008, 16:55 GMT
Dr Williams says Muslims should have a choice in legal disputes
The Archbishop of Canterbury says the adoption of certain aspects of Sharia law in the UK "seems unavoidable".
Dr Rowan Williams told Radio 4's World at One that the UK has to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system.
Laying down the law: ministers cool on archbishop's sharia suggestion· Williams' view out of line with 'British' agenda
Phillips fears giving succour to extremists
Will Woodward and Riazat Butt The Guardian, Friday 8 February 2008
...Umar expressed concerned, however, that Williams had reiterated his support for the Bishop of Rochester and his remarks on there being geographical "no-go" areas for non-Muslims.
In Britain?
Brits can't be in certain areas if they're not Muslim?
What, like in Mecca?
This 2007 study leaves no doubt that the Saudis were still exporting hatred towards non- Wahhabis
Revealed: UK’s first official sharia courts
From The Sunday Times September 14, 2008
Abul Taher
Decapitates Wife Because She Wanted Divorce
Published: February 15, 2009 18:09h
Muzzammil Hassan established his own TV network to show Muslims in a good light. Decapitation charges will not help.
Muzzammil Hassan (44) established Bridges TV network in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York in 2004, with the hope of showing American Muslims in positive way, Buffalo news reports.
However, his idea and reputation were questioned when the police arrested him under suspicion that he decapitated his 37-year-old wife Aasiya.
Hassan turned to a police station and reported his wife`s death. He told the officers that his wife was at his office, thus the police went to the TV network to find the headless body.
The husband was the prime suspect, because Aasiya filed for divorce and she recently requested a restraining order, thus he was not allowed to come home.
- Obviously, this is the worst form of domestic violence possible - the Buffalo district attorney told the media.
The police are still looking for the murder weapon, while Hassan has been detained under second-degree murder.
Muslims in USA
The number of Muslims in the USA amounted to 7 to 8 million last year, which is a significant increase in relation to 2001, where there were only a million Muslims in America.
(same story from raw story )
Allah's ambassadors
Edna Fernandes gains unique access to the ultra-orthodox Deoband madrassa in rural India
Edna Fernandes Articles > Volume 122 Issue 6 November/December 2007 >
...Deobandi Islam is now the dominant force in British Islam, controlling 600 of its 1,350 mosques and 17 of the country’s 26 seminaries. That means 80 per cent of Muslim clerics preaching in Britain are Deobandis....
(author of article tells of visiting the source of Deobandis in India to find out about them)
... Darul Uloom is just five hours’ drive from Delhi and yet on entering the Deoband madrassa it feels like a different country. I arrived at sundown with my Sikh driver Mr Singh, a usually unflappable character who was uncharacteristically anxious as we approached the campus. He was well aware of the madrassa’s reputation. A tight nexus of alleys and a medieval-style bazaar surrounded the school itself. Carts, sorrowful-looking mules and skittish goats thronged the dark walkways as crowds of white-capped and turbaned young men filled lanes lined with Islamic bookshops supplying textbooks, literature and copies of the Koran. No women were on the streets.
I was greeted by the madrassa’s official spokesman, Mr Adil Siddiqui, an austere man sporting a camouflage puffa jacket and regulation-length white beard. His favourite catchphrase when introducing me to people was “This is Mr So-and-So. He is not a terrorist.”
I read these articles and it just seems so weird to me. I worked with a Muslim man from India and he was the nicest guy. My neighbors are Muslim and they are the nicest people. If you believe some of these articles you would think that there is some sort of Islamic doctrine that orders Muslims to spread the faith world wide and treat non-Muslims differently.
Diary of a Pakistani schoolgirl
Private schools in Pakistan's troubled north-western Swat district have been ordered to close in a Taleban edict banning girls' education. Militants seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law have destroyed about 150 schools in the past year. Five more were blown up despite a government pledge to safeguard education, it was reported on Monday. Here a seventh grade schoolgirl from Swat chronicles how the ban has affected her and her classmates. The diary first appeared on BBC Urdu online.
THURSDAY JANUARY 15: NIGHT FILLED WITH ARTILLERY FIRE (click on title link)
"...A Taleban edict banning girls education. Militants seeking to impose their austere interpretation of Sharia law have destroyed 150 schools in the past year..."
Austere-
aus⋅tere /ɔˈstɪər/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [aw-steer] Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective 1. severe in manner or appearance; uncompromising; strict; forbidding: an austere teacher.
2. rigorously self-disciplined and severely moral; ascetic; abstinent: the austere quality of life in the convent.
3. grave; sober; solemn; serious: an austere manner.
4. without excess, luxury, or ease; simple; limited; severe: an austere life.
5. severely simple; without ornament: austere writing.
6. lacking softness; hard: an austere bed of straw.
7. rough to the taste; sour or harsh in flavor.
Zardari: We Underestimated Taliban Threat
Pakistan's President Tells 60 Minutes The Country Is In A Battle To Survive
Pakistan government makes deal with Islamic miitants
Posted on Sunday, February 15, 2009 By Saeed Shah McClatchy Newspapers
Nerve Centre of Islamic Extremism is Saudi Arabia, not Pakistan Freedom House study 2005
Sharia law in UK is 'unavoidable'
Thursday, 7 February 2008, 16:55 GMT
Dr Williams says Muslims should have a choice in legal disputes
The Archbishop of Canterbury says the adoption of certain aspects of Sharia law in the UK "seems unavoidable".
Dr Rowan Williams told Radio 4's World at One that the UK has to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system.
Laying down the law: ministers cool on archbishop's sharia suggestion· Williams' view out of line with 'British' agenda
Phillips fears giving succour to extremists
Will Woodward and Riazat Butt The Guardian, Friday 8 February 2008
...Umar expressed concerned, however, that Williams had reiterated his support for the Bishop of Rochester and his remarks on there being geographical "no-go" areas for non-Muslims.
In Britain?
Brits can't be in certain areas if they're not Muslim?
What, like in Mecca?
This 2007 study leaves no doubt that the Saudis were still exporting hatred towards non- Wahhabis
Revealed: UK’s first official sharia courts
From The Sunday Times September 14, 2008
Abul Taher
Decapitates Wife Because She Wanted Divorce
Published: February 15, 2009 18:09h
Muzzammil Hassan established his own TV network to show Muslims in a good light. Decapitation charges will not help.
Muzzammil Hassan (44) established Bridges TV network in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York in 2004, with the hope of showing American Muslims in positive way, Buffalo news reports.
However, his idea and reputation were questioned when the police arrested him under suspicion that he decapitated his 37-year-old wife Aasiya.
Hassan turned to a police station and reported his wife`s death. He told the officers that his wife was at his office, thus the police went to the TV network to find the headless body.
The husband was the prime suspect, because Aasiya filed for divorce and she recently requested a restraining order, thus he was not allowed to come home.
- Obviously, this is the worst form of domestic violence possible - the Buffalo district attorney told the media.
The police are still looking for the murder weapon, while Hassan has been detained under second-degree murder.
Muslims in USA
The number of Muslims in the USA amounted to 7 to 8 million last year, which is a significant increase in relation to 2001, where there were only a million Muslims in America.
(same story from raw story )
Allah's ambassadors
Edna Fernandes gains unique access to the ultra-orthodox Deoband madrassa in rural India
Edna Fernandes Articles > Volume 122 Issue 6 November/December 2007 >
...Deobandi Islam is now the dominant force in British Islam, controlling 600 of its 1,350 mosques and 17 of the country’s 26 seminaries. That means 80 per cent of Muslim clerics preaching in Britain are Deobandis....
(author of article tells of visiting the source of Deobandis in India to find out about them)
... Darul Uloom is just five hours’ drive from Delhi and yet on entering the Deoband madrassa it feels like a different country. I arrived at sundown with my Sikh driver Mr Singh, a usually unflappable character who was uncharacteristically anxious as we approached the campus. He was well aware of the madrassa’s reputation. A tight nexus of alleys and a medieval-style bazaar surrounded the school itself. Carts, sorrowful-looking mules and skittish goats thronged the dark walkways as crowds of white-capped and turbaned young men filled lanes lined with Islamic bookshops supplying textbooks, literature and copies of the Koran. No women were on the streets.
I was greeted by the madrassa’s official spokesman, Mr Adil Siddiqui, an austere man sporting a camouflage puffa jacket and regulation-length white beard. His favourite catchphrase when introducing me to people was “This is Mr So-and-So. He is not a terrorist.”
I read these articles and it just seems so weird to me. I worked with a Muslim man from India and he was the nicest guy. My neighbors are Muslim and they are the nicest people. If you believe some of these articles you would think that there is some sort of Islamic doctrine that orders Muslims to spread the faith world wide and treat non-Muslims differently.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Politicians
Listen up, you doofballs! (mp3 file)
Societies and Anxieties
Paul Solman and "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" author Jared Diamond examine how societies handle crises and can even thrive in the aftermath.
And read this book
And then watch this and get a damned clue.
It's Teddy Roosevelt's trust busting, not FDR's policies that should be studied for solutions to the banking crisis
Societies and Anxieties
Paul Solman and "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" author Jared Diamond examine how societies handle crises and can even thrive in the aftermath.
And read this book
And then watch this and get a damned clue.
It's Teddy Roosevelt's trust busting, not FDR's policies that should be studied for solutions to the banking crisis
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Joseph Stiglitz talks to TPM
It can't hurt to listen to what a Nobel Prize winning economist has to say, can it? He's the one who tried to tell us about the three trillion dollar war.
Susan Collins Stripped Whistleblower Protection from Stimulus Bill So GOP Can Blame Dems Later
By Susie Madrak Thursday Feb 12, 2009 3:00pm
Via TPMMuckraker: Gotta love those "centrists"!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Roman Empire and United States
The Stimulus Plans: How They Differ
February 10, 2009
hit CTRL F and put in "military" and check it out. And then look at this.
Fiscal Year 2009 Department Of Defense Budget Released
Global miitary spending chart
Fall of the Roman Empire
February 10, 2009
hit CTRL F and put in "military" and check it out. And then look at this.
Fiscal Year 2009 Department Of Defense Budget Released
Global miitary spending chart
Fall of the Roman Empire
Chu, energy, and weirdness I notice
Stephen Chu: "We're Looking at a Scenario Where There's No More Agriculture in California"
By Joseph Romm, Climate Progress. Posted February 11, 2009.
Eight years of disinformation and muzzling U.S. climate scientists has left the public largely unaware of the catastrophes ahead.
Alternet expands on an article I noticed a week ago,because climate change is doing weird things in this country. And other places.
Australia Fires a Climate Wake-up Call: Experts
Published on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 by Reuters
by David Fogarty
I wonder if Chu is keeping his eyes peeled for what the evil seeds of the Cheney Administration are doing outside the country?
Indonesia Lifts Tsunami Warning Issued After Massive 7.0-Magnitude Quake
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Probe eyed on stranding of melon-headed whales
02/11/2009 05:33 AM
Earthquakes caused by underwater oil and gas exploration, shrinking magma, magnetic stripping and polar reversal
Staff Reporter
Mar. 29, 2005
Right.
Move along. Nothing to see here.
No coinkydinks what-so-ever.
By Joseph Romm, Climate Progress. Posted February 11, 2009.
Eight years of disinformation and muzzling U.S. climate scientists has left the public largely unaware of the catastrophes ahead.
Alternet expands on an article I noticed a week ago,because climate change is doing weird things in this country. And other places.
Australia Fires a Climate Wake-up Call: Experts
Published on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 by Reuters
by David Fogarty
I wonder if Chu is keeping his eyes peeled for what the evil seeds of the Cheney Administration are doing outside the country?
Indonesia Lifts Tsunami Warning Issued After Massive 7.0-Magnitude Quake
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Probe eyed on stranding of melon-headed whales
02/11/2009 05:33 AM
Earthquakes caused by underwater oil and gas exploration, shrinking magma, magnetic stripping and polar reversal
Staff Reporter
Mar. 29, 2005
Right.
Move along. Nothing to see here.
No coinkydinks what-so-ever.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Iran 30 year after the revolution
Yeesh, this book is so old. I haven't read enough of it to make a judgment. So far it just brings back memories of thinking that Khomeini was an asshole. I also remember thinking that Reagan was an asshole. I also remember wondering where the hell Beruit was and why we had a barracks full of marines and sailors who could get blown up there? Books: Islam Inflamed
By DAVID K. SHIPLER (NYT)
Published: October 24, 1985
After 30 years, talk shifts from revolution to democracy
Dispatch from Iran
In rural Iran, as agrarian-centered life erodes and attitudes toward government change, some wonder what the Islamic Revolution brought them, especially as they see some sections prospering.
By Borzou Daragahi
February 10, 2009
How has Iran changed since the revolution 30 years ago?
Timeline: US-Iran ties Published: Tuesday, 10 February, 2009, 06:28 GMT 06:28 UK
BBC's "Have Your Say" (The 'reader's recommended' are fun to read)
As Iranians mark the anniversary of their Islamic Republic, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he would welcome talks with the US based on "mutual respect". What is the future of the country?
Iranians rally to mark revolution
AlJazeera.net
UPDATED ON:
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
22:39 Mecca time, 19:39 GMT
Because the "War on Drugs" has so many losers
Obama Makes a Good First Step on Medical Marijuana
-- Here's What He Should Do Next
By Aaron Houston, AlterNet. Posted February 9, 2009.
Everyone else is blogging about the stimulus package. Frankly I'm so goddamned sick of ReupgnantThuglicans and their arrogant ridiculousness I don't even want to think about their attempts to bamboozle the American people into thinking they still got it under control. They don't, and they never fucking did, that's why they have to control everyone around them. The Alternet article has some good ideas about how drug policy can be more sane and pragmatic. I found this site today, it's interesting.
Common sense for Drug Policy
-- Here's What He Should Do Next
By Aaron Houston, AlterNet. Posted February 9, 2009.
Everyone else is blogging about the stimulus package. Frankly I'm so goddamned sick of ReupgnantThuglicans and their arrogant ridiculousness I don't even want to think about their attempts to bamboozle the American people into thinking they still got it under control. They don't, and they never fucking did, that's why they have to control everyone around them. The Alternet article has some good ideas about how drug policy can be more sane and pragmatic. I found this site today, it's interesting.
Common sense for Drug Policy
Monday, February 09, 2009
Iran's new satellite challenges China
Asia times Feb 10, 2009
Page 1 of 2
By Peter J Brown
...With its new satellite in orbit, the focus is both on the state of Iran's ballistic missile systems, and on how soon Israel will wipe out all of Iran's space facilities along with all of its nuclear facilities. By the way, this writer spotted Omid for the first time last Thursday, early in the evening, as it flew by low to the horizon well northwest of Maine.
Last time we checked, no mention whatsoever of it appears on the English-language section of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) website, which, like the website maintained by the China National Space Administration, is of very limited value to the international community of space enthusiasts. ....(title link for the rest of this article)
Israel reacts as Iran sends up satellite
Canwest News Service
February 4, 2009
Shouting "God is great," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gleefully oversaw the launching of Iran's first satellite into orbit late Monday to celebrate the 30th....
What a moron.
Page 1 of 2
By Peter J Brown
...With its new satellite in orbit, the focus is both on the state of Iran's ballistic missile systems, and on how soon Israel will wipe out all of Iran's space facilities along with all of its nuclear facilities. By the way, this writer spotted Omid for the first time last Thursday, early in the evening, as it flew by low to the horizon well northwest of Maine.
Last time we checked, no mention whatsoever of it appears on the English-language section of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) website, which, like the website maintained by the China National Space Administration, is of very limited value to the international community of space enthusiasts. ....(title link for the rest of this article)
Israel reacts as Iran sends up satellite
Canwest News Service
February 4, 2009
Shouting "God is great," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gleefully oversaw the launching of Iran's first satellite into orbit late Monday to celebrate the 30th....
What a moron.
Israel's elections and U.S. policy
Glenn Greenwald
Monday Feb. 9, 2009 08:35 EST
...International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), surveyed 21 countries from six continents and asked whether the influence exerted by various nations in the world was positive or negative. The three countries most viewed as having a negative influence in the world -- essentially tied with one another -- were Iran, Pakistan and Israel, all of whom finished just behind North Korea -- and this poll was conducted before Israel’s attack on Gaza. Even before the war on Gaza, Israel was viewed overwhelmingly negatively in every country except two -- the U.S., where citizens view Israel favorably by a not very large 13-point margin (47-34%), and Russia, where public opinion is split. In every other country, the view of Israel's influence on the world is significantly negative -- in most cases, overwhelmingly so....
Gaza protests in Chicago stir charges of anti-Zionism
By Manya A. Brachear Tribune reporter
January 16, 2009
Six Jewish institutions have been vandalized in recent weeks, including one arson attempt. On one college campus, a Jewish student was called a Nazi, Benn said.
The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago has condemned the synagogue attacks.
"There's a fine line between what's anti-Israel and what's anti-Semitic," she said. "If the U.S. were being repeatedly attacked from Canada by rockets, we would retaliate, whereas Israel doesn't have that right . . . Comparing Jews to Nazis [is] problematic."
But Stephanie Weiner, who organized Thursday's protest of Chicago's ties to Petach Tikva, one of Chicago sister cities, simply doesn't want Chicago to support what she believes are war crimes. Seven miles east of Tel Aviv, Petach Tikva was one of the first exclusive Jewish settlements in Israel. Weiner and about five protesters distributed leaflets to guests at a breakfast hosted by Mayor Richard Daley.
"This has nothing to do with religion," she said. "People who know and care know it's a human-rights issue."
mbrachear@tribune.com
Not just Chicago, Europe also.
Violent Gaza protests reveal how gentle civilised Britain has changed into something very ugly indeed
Last updated at 9:37 AM on 11th January 2009
Comments (17) Add to My Stories People who have been at the pro-and anti-Israel demonstrations in London have been producing some absolutely horrifying descriptions and images.
On Harry’s Place pictures (such as the one here from Indymedia) capture the violence and thuggery of the left/Islamist alliance.
Monday Feb. 9, 2009 08:35 EST
...International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), surveyed 21 countries from six continents and asked whether the influence exerted by various nations in the world was positive or negative. The three countries most viewed as having a negative influence in the world -- essentially tied with one another -- were Iran, Pakistan and Israel, all of whom finished just behind North Korea -- and this poll was conducted before Israel’s attack on Gaza. Even before the war on Gaza, Israel was viewed overwhelmingly negatively in every country except two -- the U.S., where citizens view Israel favorably by a not very large 13-point margin (47-34%), and Russia, where public opinion is split. In every other country, the view of Israel's influence on the world is significantly negative -- in most cases, overwhelmingly so....
Gaza protests in Chicago stir charges of anti-Zionism
By Manya A. Brachear Tribune reporter
January 16, 2009
Six Jewish institutions have been vandalized in recent weeks, including one arson attempt. On one college campus, a Jewish student was called a Nazi, Benn said.
The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago has condemned the synagogue attacks.
"There's a fine line between what's anti-Israel and what's anti-Semitic," she said. "If the U.S. were being repeatedly attacked from Canada by rockets, we would retaliate, whereas Israel doesn't have that right . . . Comparing Jews to Nazis [is] problematic."
But Stephanie Weiner, who organized Thursday's protest of Chicago's ties to Petach Tikva, one of Chicago sister cities, simply doesn't want Chicago to support what she believes are war crimes. Seven miles east of Tel Aviv, Petach Tikva was one of the first exclusive Jewish settlements in Israel. Weiner and about five protesters distributed leaflets to guests at a breakfast hosted by Mayor Richard Daley.
"This has nothing to do with religion," she said. "People who know and care know it's a human-rights issue."
mbrachear@tribune.com
Not just Chicago, Europe also.
Violent Gaza protests reveal how gentle civilised Britain has changed into something very ugly indeed
Last updated at 9:37 AM on 11th January 2009
Comments (17) Add to My Stories People who have been at the pro-and anti-Israel demonstrations in London have been producing some absolutely horrifying descriptions and images.
On Harry’s Place pictures (such as the one here from Indymedia) capture the violence and thuggery of the left/Islamist alliance.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Pregnant ladybug at the Grammys
Ummmm. Who dressed this woman?
Update 1:36 PM 2/11/2009 Possible Tamil terrorist supporting pregnant ladybug
Grammys. Meh.
By: TBogg Sunday February 8, 2009 10:02 pm
Energy and the tanking economy, not disconnected
Oy vey. We can complicate the shit out of things and go into all the separate disciplines of Energy Economics or we could open our eyes and see that our economy has been built on cheap energy (oil) that we didn't have to compete for and we thought we'd never run out of.
Things changed. We use so much oil that we started having to import more and more and the fucking geniuses that thought we could always depend on military might to safeguard the energy resources we are so dependent upon were arrogant and wrong.
Click on the book cover to read part of the book. And stick that in your pipe and smoke it. Then read the book...
Update 8:35 AM 2/8/2009 I finished the book and I'll summarize what I think is the most important message in this book:
If the best minds from different countries can learn to work together in energy partnerships then they can save a lot of money and lives that are now being wasted on military expenditures in military adventures using military partnerships because they are competing and collaborating (militarily) for energy resources.
I understand that. I was a competitive swimmer for 6 years and you know what I hated about competitive swimming?
Competing....
Update 10:32 AM 2/8/2009
We ignore the leader of an ex-empire that was our competition to our peril. It is us (well, American foreign policy anyway) who is isolating us by acting unilaterally.
A Russia Reality Check
By Fred Hiatt
Sunday, February 8, 2009; Page B07
Yeah, whatever, Hiatt's been in Washington too long in my opinion.
Update 10:08 AM 2/9/2009 links fixed
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Plunder and Blunder; How the 'Financial Experts' Keep Screwing You
By Dean Baker, PoliPoint Press. Posted February 7, 2009.
Anyone with common sense, a grasp of simple arithmetic and a desire to go against the consensus should have seen the financial crisis coming.
Naomi Klein: Public Revolt Builds Against Rip-off Rescue Plans for the Economy
Naomi Klein
More stories by Dean Baker
Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy by Dean Baker, published by PoliPoint Press, 2009.
Facing Foreclosure? Don't Leave. Squat.
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Posted February 6, 2009.
My parents bought a brand new house almost forty years ago for $39,000. It had five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a living room and a family room, 26,00 square feet, and it was in a nice neighborhood. They raised their kids in it and maintained it well. Still, when they told me a few years of years ago it was worth $750,000 I knew the economy was in deep shit, and that the price was overinflated.
Anyone with common sense, a grasp of simple arithmetic and a desire to go against the consensus should have seen the financial crisis coming.
Naomi Klein: Public Revolt Builds Against Rip-off Rescue Plans for the Economy
Naomi Klein
More stories by Dean Baker
Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy by Dean Baker, published by PoliPoint Press, 2009.
Facing Foreclosure? Don't Leave. Squat.
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!
Posted February 6, 2009.
My parents bought a brand new house almost forty years ago for $39,000. It had five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a living room and a family room, 26,00 square feet, and it was in a nice neighborhood. They raised their kids in it and maintained it well. Still, when they told me a few years of years ago it was worth $750,000 I knew the economy was in deep shit, and that the price was overinflated.
Friday, February 06, 2009
Birds instead of squirrels out today
That Gawd-awful noise you hear is the wet 10 or 12 or 14 lane freeway I was standing 15 yards away from. They keep widening the freeway instead of improving the mass transit system here. If you listen closely you can hear the birds.
I'm reading about another fine mess that Barack Obama has to try to clean up. It's big and a bummer.
Tomgram: The Empire v. The Graveyard
Whistling Past the Afghan Graveyard
Where Empires Go to Die
By Tom Engelhardt
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Dinosaurs in San Diego
Backhoe Operator Finds Mammoth Tusk, Skull
Posted: Feb 4, 2009 04:10 PM PST
And some idiot making a porn in his helicopter
Posted Feb 5th 2009 11:30AM by TMZ staff
Flying while distracted, real safe asshole.
Posted: Feb 4, 2009 04:10 PM PST
And some idiot making a porn in his helicopter
Posted Feb 5th 2009 11:30AM by TMZ staff
Flying while distracted, real safe asshole.
On teh Gays
I support Gay marriage. I have a new icon on the sidebar and it, like the gays I have known and loved, brings some color to my life.
You don't like that? Well, there's about a gazillion blogs out there, have at it!
I don't blog about it a lot, because frankly, it seems silly to me to have to.
Yes, I was shocked and disappointed with the h8er bigots on the corner by my house and I told them so.
Yes, I was shocked and disappointed when Prop (h)8 passed.
This showed up in my mailbox this morning and it broke my heart.
California Supreme Court to hear Prop. 8 arguments
The justices announce a March 5 hearing on the constitutionality of the ban on same-sex marriage. Their decision will come within 90 days of the session.
By Maura Dolan and Jessica Garrison
February 4, 2009
Moving on to the big Supreme Court.
Ginsburg is hospitalized with pancreatic cancer
Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer, apparently at an early stage.
Head of Supreme Court worries about 'partisanship'
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN Associated Press Writer
Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009
Are you fucking kidding me?
He wasn't before!
Update 1:30 PM 2/6/2009 Scalia gets nasty with a college student over a question
By John Amato Friday Feb 06, 2009 11:45am
You don't like that? Well, there's about a gazillion blogs out there, have at it!
I don't blog about it a lot, because frankly, it seems silly to me to have to.
Yes, I was shocked and disappointed with the h8er bigots on the corner by my house and I told them so.
Yes, I was shocked and disappointed when Prop (h)8 passed.
This showed up in my mailbox this morning and it broke my heart.
California Supreme Court to hear Prop. 8 arguments
The justices announce a March 5 hearing on the constitutionality of the ban on same-sex marriage. Their decision will come within 90 days of the session.
By Maura Dolan and Jessica Garrison
February 4, 2009
Moving on to the big Supreme Court.
Ginsburg is hospitalized with pancreatic cancer
Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer, apparently at an early stage.
Head of Supreme Court worries about 'partisanship'
By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN Associated Press Writer
Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009
Are you fucking kidding me?
He wasn't before!
Update 1:30 PM 2/6/2009 Scalia gets nasty with a college student over a question
By John Amato Friday Feb 06, 2009 11:45am
State Department To Blackwater: You're Fired, Leave Iraq by May
$1.2 Billion Contract Won't Be Renewed Following Iraqi Refusal to License U.S. Firm
By BRIAN ROSS and KIRIT RADIA
January 30, 2009
By BRIAN ROSS and KIRIT RADIA
January 30, 2009
How the hell did I miss this one?
WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
The Anti-Empire Report
February 3rd, 2009
by William Blum
http://www.killinghope.org/ (I've read Killing Hope, and some other stuff too)
Change (in rhetoric) we can believe in.
hat tip to Left I on the News
Why are you still here? Click on the title link. This guy knows the history of American foreign policy, and no, not the crap they try to shove down your throat in your basic high school American History class.
The War on Terror is a Hoax
By Paul Craig Roberts
February 04, 2009
...If America were infected with terrorists, we would not need the government to tell us. We would know it from events....
...Yet, the neocons, who are the Americans most hated by Muslims, remain unscathed.
The “war on terror” is a hoax that fronts for American control of oil pipelines, the profits of the military-security complex, the assault on civil liberty by fomenters of a police state, and Israel’s territorial expansion...
...The great mystery is: why after 60 years of oppression are the Palestinians still an unarmed people? Clearly, the Muslim countries are complicit with Israel and the US in keeping the Palestinians unarmed...
The truth. It's chunkylicious today. Chew on that fer a spell.
For more on the Byzantine politics of the Middle East and the West
read Treacherous Alliance By Trita Parsi
by William Blum
http://www.killinghope.org/ (I've read Killing Hope, and some other stuff too)
Change (in rhetoric) we can believe in.
hat tip to Left I on the News
Why are you still here? Click on the title link. This guy knows the history of American foreign policy, and no, not the crap they try to shove down your throat in your basic high school American History class.
The War on Terror is a Hoax
By Paul Craig Roberts
February 04, 2009
...If America were infected with terrorists, we would not need the government to tell us. We would know it from events....
...Yet, the neocons, who are the Americans most hated by Muslims, remain unscathed.
The “war on terror” is a hoax that fronts for American control of oil pipelines, the profits of the military-security complex, the assault on civil liberty by fomenters of a police state, and Israel’s territorial expansion...
...The great mystery is: why after 60 years of oppression are the Palestinians still an unarmed people? Clearly, the Muslim countries are complicit with Israel and the US in keeping the Palestinians unarmed...
The truth. It's chunkylicious today. Chew on that fer a spell.
For more on the Byzantine politics of the Middle East and the West
read Treacherous Alliance By Trita Parsi
The stimulus bill
$100 billion jolt of 'green stimulus'
Transit Paradox: Ridership Up, Services Down
Wednesday February 4, 2009
Stimulus: Economic Boon or Bloated Bust?
BU experts pick apart the plan
BU Today staff
Stimulus package: Big money, huge plans
Where $800 billion would go and what it might produce
Janet Hook, Noam Levey, Jim Puzzanghera, Richard Simon and Jim Tankersley contributed to this report Washington Bureau
February 1, 2009
...The bill also increases by $7,500 the tax credit for first-time home buyers, if they make less than $75,000 a year. It provides a new tax credit for up to $2,500 in college tuition and related expenses for people earning less than $80,000 a year....
...In addition to the $30 billion for highway and bridge construction and maintenance, the bill provides $20 billion for school projects, from repairs to projects such as installing solar roofs. Among other provisions: $3 billion for airport improvements; $2.5 billion for new commuter or other light rail systems; $2 billion to modernize existing transit systems; $1.1 billion to improve intercity passenger rail service.The measure also provides $4.5 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers for "environmental restoration, flood protection, hydropower, and navigation infrastructure critical to the economy"; $3.1 billion for infrastructure projects on federal lands; and $1.5 billion to make low-income housing using green technologies
Yeah. From what I've seen the amount that is headed for long term sustainability seems like a pretty small portion of $800 billion. In a country where next fucking quarter's earnings are stressed to a ridiculous degree, this does not surprise me.
We suck at long term planning. Nobel-prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, the new head of Energy is concerned about climate change affecting California's farms.
According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, "California agriculture is nearly a $36.6 billion dollar industry that generates $100 billion in related economic activity."
Transit Paradox: Ridership Up, Services Down
Wednesday February 4, 2009
Stimulus: Economic Boon or Bloated Bust?
BU experts pick apart the plan
BU Today staff
Stimulus package: Big money, huge plans
Where $800 billion would go and what it might produce
Janet Hook, Noam Levey, Jim Puzzanghera, Richard Simon and Jim Tankersley contributed to this report Washington Bureau
February 1, 2009
...The bill also increases by $7,500 the tax credit for first-time home buyers, if they make less than $75,000 a year. It provides a new tax credit for up to $2,500 in college tuition and related expenses for people earning less than $80,000 a year....
...In addition to the $30 billion for highway and bridge construction and maintenance, the bill provides $20 billion for school projects, from repairs to projects such as installing solar roofs. Among other provisions: $3 billion for airport improvements; $2.5 billion for new commuter or other light rail systems; $2 billion to modernize existing transit systems; $1.1 billion to improve intercity passenger rail service.The measure also provides $4.5 billion to the Army Corps of Engineers for "environmental restoration, flood protection, hydropower, and navigation infrastructure critical to the economy"; $3.1 billion for infrastructure projects on federal lands; and $1.5 billion to make low-income housing using green technologies
Yeah. From what I've seen the amount that is headed for long term sustainability seems like a pretty small portion of $800 billion. In a country where next fucking quarter's earnings are stressed to a ridiculous degree, this does not surprise me.
We suck at long term planning. Nobel-prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, the new head of Energy is concerned about climate change affecting California's farms.
According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, "California agriculture is nearly a $36.6 billion dollar industry that generates $100 billion in related economic activity."
Hump day
Holder is in.
Greed is out.
My congressman is a dickhead.
Oh look, he proved it again.
Recent House Votes
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 - Vote Passed (250-177, 6 Not Voting)The House gave final approval to this wage discrimination measure.
Greed is out.
My congressman is a dickhead.
Oh look, he proved it again.
Recent House Votes
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 - Vote Passed (250-177, 6 Not Voting)The House gave final approval to this wage discrimination measure.
Rep. Brian Bilbray voted NO......send e-mail or see bio
Fer christsakes, this dickhead has at least one daughter. I sure hope she marries well. Somehow I doubt that, but hey there's always dickhead congressmen besides her father that she could latch onto.
I'm going to go finish reading another depressing yet important book.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Blogroll Amnesty Day
Whew. I've been all over blogtopia (skippy's word) and I've discovered a few things.
1) People who don't have blogrolls bug me.
2) People who insist on posting really long posts bug me.
3) People who are catergorize their posts endlessly bug me.
4) People who blog and appear to believe that they are the best writers evah bug me.
You know what doesn't bug me?
The fact that anybody who can get to a computer with an internet connection can have a blog, and they can choose to write about whatever they want to, and they can set it up and run it however they want to.
And I can read what they write.
Or not.
So, here's another batch, & don't forget my first batch.
WOK3
"is dissent illegal yet?"
I haven't asked what the blog title means yet, but I like the blog.
The Sunny Skeptic
Some great stuff from a "militant atheist."
Tome of the Unknown Writer
Who (unlike me) is a real writer.
Reverend Manny and The Twilight Empire
(who always leaves a cute or peaceful sign off when he leaves comments!)
Shamanaqua
"In the Natural World, there is no good nor evil, only the footsteps of Man"
You link to me I link to you.
Snow in London bringing poeple together?
click on pic for audio report
Yeah yeah, like the blackouts in New York...
The hurricanes and tornadoes in Texas and Florida …
The rain in southern California…
BZZZZZZZT. Wrong answer, people still drive like assholes in the rain here.
Like earthquakes in southern California.
BZZZZZT. Nope. We laugh at those unless it’s a really bad one, which is rare.
Hmmmm, what brings people in SoCal together?
I was going to make a joke about that silly show True Beauty. Yeah I watch it, so what? My artist friend and I are rooting for the SD County kid, who happens to be an artist, and doesn't appear to take himself overly seriously (he likes streaking to lighten things up) OK?
And then I remembered that people come together in San Diego when the fires are bad here.
Tilt
Suck it up, this is a way bummer dude post.
It’s Not Going to Be OK
Posted on Feb 2, 2009
By Chris Hedges
How Taxpayers Finance Fantasy Wars
By Chalmers Johnson
Road Trip
Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler
Our stystem and infrastructure are pretty flawed and about to wreak havoc on us.
It’s Not Going to Be OK
Posted on Feb 2, 2009
By Chris Hedges
How Taxpayers Finance Fantasy Wars
By Chalmers Johnson
Road Trip
Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler
Our stystem and infrastructure are pretty flawed and about to wreak havoc on us.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Fixing the blogroll *sigh*
Gah
I give up. I'll be switching back to the blogger bloglist. If you'd like me to link to you and you will reciprocate, please let me know and I'll fix it as I slog through adding the links again, one by one.
Update 5:19 PM 2/2/2009 Ok, I think I'm ok now. If I goofed and deleted your link whilst slogging a way here, please let me know in the comments section, and I'll fix it.
For today though, poke me with a fork, I'm done.
I should read this:
Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, Economic Death Spiral at the Pentagon posted February 02, 2009 5:32 pm
Nah fuggit, it's that time again...
I swear I'm addicted to this song.
I give up. I'll be switching back to the blogger bloglist. If you'd like me to link to you and you will reciprocate, please let me know and I'll fix it as I slog through adding the links again, one by one.
Update 5:19 PM 2/2/2009 Ok, I think I'm ok now. If I goofed and deleted your link whilst slogging a way here, please let me know in the comments section, and I'll fix it.
For today though, poke me with a fork, I'm done.
I should read this:
Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, Economic Death Spiral at the Pentagon posted February 02, 2009 5:32 pm
Nah fuggit, it's that time again...
I swear I'm addicted to this song.
Sunday, February 01, 2009
The Cars -- Just What I Needed
Whoa, there's a lot of us out there doing the BAD thing
More sites to gawk at, thanks skippy!
You missed my picks? Here.
Ob Rag BlogFreaks, Uppity Women and Politicos
Indigenous Nudity A frank commentary of American politics, personal finance and culture.
One Sided War gods are mean but people are worse
Oh Well: A Commentary on News and Politics This is a blog examining the political, social and economic issues from my own irrelevant perspective. When examining some of these issues, I just have to shake my head and say, "Oh well. Whatever happens, happens."
San Diego Politico News, commentary and opinion dedicated to advancing a Progressive Political and Social agenda here in San Diego County.
The Rational Realist Opinions and insights on alternative investments with a focus on real estate securities.
Angry Renter.comRenters and responsible homeowners against a government mortgage bailout
Uh Oh, I'm supposed to go watch movies with a friend, because we're not into football. Mmmmmmmm, I have a feeling that I may not make it.
Yeah, and one other thing--- Can somebody tell me why a college age kid smoking a bong hit is a huge newz story? Fer Christsakes, I was a competitive swimmer and the first time I took a bong hit I was twelve. BFD. When he starts training again he's not going to have time for it. He's got ADHD and he's not working out right now, he's probably trying to shut his head up and calm down for ten freaking minutes. I could have told you this was coming.
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