Next meeting:
Proposed: Last
week in January
At Local 47, AFSCME,
1606 Walnut St,
6:30PM-9:00PM
People have asked about parking near where we meet,
there
is no parking in the immediate vicinity. Folks can park at
nearby
Septa stations and take the train or subway in or Larry Petkov
at
215-563-6357 can obtain a parking space for you in a nearby parking
garage.
Contacting
us:
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December
21st Third Anniversary
Peace Event
Yes, we will
have been doing this for three years now.
Northwest Greens and 23 other peace
groups will demonstrate from 2:00 until 4:00 p.m. near Senator Arlen
Specter's home on West Schoolhouse Lane (between Henry
Avenue and Gypsy
Lane) in East Falls. They want Specter to cut off funding for the U.S.
occupation of Iraq
and to bring the troops home now.
Twenty-four peace
groups will demonstrate from 2:00 until 4:00 p.m. near Senator Arlen
Specter's home on West Schoolhouse Lane (between Henry Avenue and Gypsy
Lane) in East Falls. We want Specter to cut off funding for the U.S.
occupation of Iraq and to bring the troops home, now. For more
information,
please contact 215-307-7980 and info2506@prawnworks.net.
It's
going
to take place
upon the third Sunday of the month 2pm
to 4pm at the intersection of Timber Lane and Schoolhouse Lane near the
West Chestnut Hill stop on
the R8 train line or by the 32 bus line. For people using
MapQuest
or some other online map search program, the search terms are:
Timber Ln At W School House Ln
Philadelphia, PA 19129
Our view of the current war in
Iraq:
- The
Iraqi Government has requested that
US troops leave their country. The Iraqi Government
refuses
to define shooting at American troops as a "terrorist" action.
Meaning: it's open season on Americans!
- Even hard-core
Neocons like David Frum (Came up with the term "Axis of Evil"
to
describe Iraq, Iran & North Korea) realizes that the war is
lost
and that the US can, at best, return to square one and restore what was
lost..
- Far from having a national "all-for-one, one-for-all"
feeling, the American political leadership is on
the
attack against domestic political opponents
- As the truth about the war trickles out from the
front
lines, the US all-volunteer military is getting fewer
and
fewer recruits with even strong
supporters of the war refusing to serve. The general
public is also rapidly losing enthusiasm.
- US allies
aren't providing much
help either.
- Iraqi have suffered an estimated 655,000
deaths as a direct result of the US invasion. Living standards for
Iraqis have dropped
sharply from what they were in February 2003
- Meanwhile, Big
Oil is attempting to lock in highly favorable contracts on
the
development of new Iraqi fields that would have the effect of robbing
the Iraqi public of billions.
- The military resistance in Iraq is 95%
Iraqi and is a force that's costing America more
casualties every month.
- The war in Iraq has
made
the US less
secure as
jihadists
from all over the Mideast have used Iraq as a training ground.
- The idea of spreading
democracy to a foreign country through an
invasion
and a military
occupation has proven to be sheer wishful thinking.
.
It's time to withdraw. The
war was a crime against humanity to begin with and the alternative is
to go through what happened in Vietnam in 1975, a panicked helicopter
exodus from the
rooftops.
PRAWN's
mission is to:
- Network groups, organizations, and individuals to
stop the
repression caused by "never ending wars" at home and abroad, by the US
corporate military state
- Support organizations having common ground
- Educate and activate the general public
Local Resource Organizations
National Organizations
"Political Allies Newsletter" email listserve which is
sent
out a
few times a month. There are actions you may want to support &
local, national & international articles, most of which are not
printed in
the Phila Inquirer or NY Times. Topic titles are listed. You may read
any
portion, file away for another time or delete any or all.
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Webmaster: Rich
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Upcoming Events
The Media Mobilization
Project
is organizing the
Philadelphia Digital
Justice Coalition
Wed., Jan. 7 at
5:30 pm,
at the offices of
Evolve Strategies,
One South Broad
St., Suite 1850
Details
Poets
and Prophets presents:
A half-hour
sampling of
Sandy's
poetry
at the Plays and Players Club
1714
Delancey St.,
3rd floor, Philadelphia
Monday,
Jan,
12th, 2009, 7:00-7:30 pm
PLEASE ATTEND--EVERYONE WELCOME
Donation variable, usually between $2
and $3.
details
[Downloads
that can be distributed]
Bearing Witness Against the
Death Penalty:
Two Perspectives
Friday 23 January 09
6:30pm Dinner $10 ($5
for students or low-income)
First
United Methodist Church of Germantown
6001 Germantown Ave
Philadelphia PA 19144
Panel
discussions
9:00am to 5:00pm Saturday, 31 January 2009
at the Bodek
Lounge in Houston Hall UPenn
Topics: Which
Way forward for the Antiwar Movement?
and
War
and Economic Crisis:
Linking the war over there with the war at home
details
Philly Against War
contact John
Leslie
609.558.1869
UFPJ-DVN
schedule of Philadelphia-Trenton region anti-war events
five years after the US invasion
The Reagan Question: Are
You Better Off Now Than You Were Eight Years Ago?
Economics comparison of 2000 and 2007
The
"burn rate" for the money the US is spending per month in Iraq was
nearly $5 billion a month in 2003 and has steadily grown to where, in
2007, it had reached about $11 billion
per month.
According to Barack Obama during a presidential debate, the price has
dropped to $10 billion a month.
The Strange Bedfellows
coalition has put an ad into the WaPo about the FISA cave-in. (PDF 1 & 2)
They're collecting
money to shame the enabling Washington DC press corps and
their corporate sponsors.
Institute
for National
Strategic Studies (INSS) did a study
of the
Iraq War (60 page PDF),
concluding that it is a “major
debacle,” a
“classic case of failure,” and a conflict that may not be winnable."
Update: Contains lots of points of agreement with
Bush
Administration (i.e., that Saddam Hussein attempted
to assassinate
the elder George Bush, among many others) but these can be seen as
tactical agreements, made so that other points have more credibility
(i.e., "This is not a DFH
screed!").
Quickly, Carefully &
Generously - A
Responsible Plan for Withdrawing from Iraq - a Committee headed by Rep. Jim
McGovern (D-MA)
Executive
Summary (6 pages) PDF
Full
version (34 pages) PDF
Question: How to withdraw American troops from Iraq without sustaining
needless casualties?
Remind me again, just why
did the Depression occur?
Database
of 935 Bush
Administration lies
that preceded the Iraq War
Not many people are even
aware of death toll.
The
Senate Intelligence Committee Phase II report (PDF)
Part
I
Part
II
on the lies that the Bush Administration told the
American People in order to drag us into the Iraq War.
Post-"Surge,"
casualties in Iraq
start climbing back up
Icasualties " Casualty
Trends"
shows that US military fatalities reached an average of 30 per week in
Jun 07, declined to around 5 a week by Jan 08, but have remained
consistent at around 8 per week since then.
Update: Apr 08 is the
deadliest month on record since Sep 07.
To mention
another issue, consider conservatives (red) vs liberals (blue) and how
Republicans would like to shift
that balance
even further.
YouTube video produced
by local Gold Star family
Boston
IndyMedia story
Seems the
plans made for the Iraq War fall into the category of what we
call
"wishful thinking." The idea here was that the occupation
force
in Iraq was going to fall to 5000 by December 2006.
Oops!
Cool
Protest Idea!!
Obtain toy plastic
soldier, add
a label "Bring me home!",
leave in bookstores, libraries,
coffee shops, etc.
and
The Freeway Blogger
strikes again!
Media
Tank says
FCC is considering
reviewing rules
for media
ownership
This
may pave the way for further concentration of the
already-overconcentrated media
Media Tank
and other Philadelphia groups
ran a public hearing
with
FCC Commissioner
Michael Copps here in Philadelphia
on
January 18th, 2007. Archive of
presentation.
PhillyIMC story
Status
of Public
Access TV
Philadelphia
is about America's
only major city without public access TV. This
means that
noncommercial groups can't get airtime to explain their point of view
on any issue. They must depend on commercial media to do that
and
we have seen with the United
Church of Christ ads how willing they are to do that.
Thanks to the
Adelphia company
no longer being a player (PDF
on Adelphia's
sale of its assets.) in the cable TV business, Time-Warner and Comcast
are
now divvying up its assets. Adelphia used to own a
substantial
chunk
of Philly's cable TV market and those assets are now slated for
Comcast, which
currently owns the other
three-quarters of the city. Comcast has been
legally
obligated to provide free access to community groups since 1983 and the
reason it has not done so
is the subject of a long-running feud between the cable giant and the
city. PCAC
opposes
allowing Comcast to swallow up that last portion "until Comcast make a
public commitment to
fully fund public access." The Philadelphia
Grassroots Cable Coalition also points out that "Cable rates
have
risen more than three times the rate of inflation, with rate hikes in
Philadelphia of 5% or more annually."
Especially
noteworthy
Who
Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think: Book
Review Essay. A
relatively thin book (135 pages) that covers many issues with
Muslims and how the West deals with them. No, there is no "clash of
civilizations." What most Muslims hate about the US is the failure of
the neoconservative movement to live up to the best ideals of our
forefathers. They hate the fact that the neocons appear to have dragged
the rest of America down into the sewer with them.
The fellows
behind Media
Matters
write Free
Ride: John
McCain and the Media, which examines how the media just loves
John
McCain and how they cover for him at every opportunity. Firedoglake
discussed this book
on March
29th. McCain had 135
appearances on high-profile talk shows between 1997 and 2006.
One
of his more infamous appearances (But that indicts the media more than
it does McCain) was his November
12th appearance on Meet the Press. That's right, he appeared
shortly after the Democratic
sweep of the House & Senate to deliver an anti-Democratic
message!
Naomi
Klein writes ,
that presents a very
frightening picture of how modern capitalism makes profits off of
disasters. It's a story of privatization
via shock therapy run amuck. Klein's theory is
discussed in
the context of the California
wildfires of late October 2007 and Grover Norquist's
expressed
desire to annihilate government's role in society.
Susan
Faludi writes ,
about how gender
roles were shaped and
twisted and bent to serve political ends. Faludi probably
pays
more attention to what the right wing was saying at the time than most
folks were aware of, which may explain why some consider the book
overheated. Faludi
talks about how the
"cult of the codpiece" was going to
save us all from the "Islamofacist Menace" in the "War On Terror."
Copied
the PDF of the
Congressional Research
Service's examination of whether it was legal for Bush to have the NSA
spying
for him without FISA warrants.
Short
answer: NO! DailyKos
describes it as a
subtle, polite, well-worded "smackdown".
Also,
letter
sent by "
Other meetings/protests
In
front of
the Recruiting Office at Broad & Cherry Streets last
Friday of
each
month from 5:00pm to 6:00pm. September
07
The
Northwest Peace Coalition has been holding weekly candlelight
vigils at 7:30 pm each Wednesday at the intersection of Germantown
Avenue and Bethlehem Pike (near Borders Books) in Chestnut Hill.
Northwest Peace and
Justice
Movement and the Unitarian Society of Germantown will begin
on
December 8 to hold a peace vigil every Wednesday at 5:00 pm, outside
the Unitarian Society, 6511
Lincoln Drive (just north of Wayne
DelCo Drinkng
Liberally
meets at John Harvard's Brew House, 1001 Baltimore Pike #1B
(Springfield Square South) (map) monthly starting February 5th
6:30pm-8:30pm
Archive
of Action Items
Oh,
and just how DO Iraqis
feel about the "liberation" of their country?
From The
Angry
Arab News Service
Israel attacks Gaza
hours after above rally/march completed.
Photo-essay.
Cynthia McKinney's boat attacked
outside Gaza.
Atlanta
Journal-Constitution piece
on attack. Update
on McKinney. How the residents of Sderot
(An Israeli town bordering Gaza and the target for Hamas' missile
attacks) feel about the invasion of Gaza and visuals as to what the " Qassams" (missiles) look like.
Philly Against War stages
a rally at City Hall
Did we gain a victory? Did the Armed
Forces Recruiting Station move away because we were protesting in front
of it once a month? Hey, ya never know!
IVAW Winter
Soldier event, A 25-mile march from the Constitution Center to Valley
Forge.
March on
Congressman Joe Sestak's office
Human
Chain Event - took place in coordination with 10 other
American cities all on the
same day. Other
demonstrations.
 29 Sep
protest blog
Yet another Tombstones
display!
Celeste Zappala with Iraq War vets behind her
We
decided to
start up yet
another
regular monthly protest! Sept07
We
were
concerned that we
might have a sparse demonstration in August. Code Pink
saved us by
showing up
at our monthly rally near Senator Specter's home!!
Declaration of Peace rally in Philly
One of the Grannies
for Peace outside the recruiting station on June 28th.
Combination of pictures from Rich
and Monique
during march in NYC on 29 April 06
Easter Peace Event
Protest - Break the Silence
Observing third anniversary of beginning of Iraq War by picketing near
Senator Specter's home.
Cindy Sheehan, Monique Frugier, Bill Perry
Winter Solstice Event near Senator Specter's house
Photos by Monique
The
main, serious, essential
question
Bush comes to speak in Philadelphia
These five pictures by Monique
Gold Star Mother Celeste Zappala
|
Info,
articles, etc.
Sderot is an
Israeli town right on the border with Gaza. They have been the target
of many "Qassams" (missiles), so one would think that they'd welcome
the invasion of Gaza. One would think that, but
the residents of Sderot don't agree.
...an IDF commander
I met told me, off the record, "The Qassams [missiles]
are like stones, there is no way to stop them. The only way is
negotiation."
Visuals: The
missiles in question.
Good analysis
of Iyad
Allawi's evaluation of Bush's accomplishments ("Total
failure") of different kinds of power and which kinds tend to last.
Does an Obama
outreach to Republicans have any chance of
ever succeeding? Take a look at their criteria for what he
needs to do to get their acceptance:
As long as Obama is
appearing not to be catering to the Left base of
the Democratic Party, and is making at least [an effort] to involve
Republicans and
not alienate them, I believe he will be able to claim that he is taking
a post-partisan approach.
I say fuggagedaboud it.
Republicans
support bombing and killing in Gaza, Democrats are opposed by a
24-point margin (31-55%), but leaders
of both parties are voting in lockstep unison.
Bush aides try
and fail to convince the American people that their boss was
really a engaged and active and aware President.
According to the
Israeli paper Ha'aretz,
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made a short visit to Paris on Thursday,
after French president Sarkozy proposed a humanitarian cease-fire: Reiterating Israel's
rejection of the
48-hour humanitarian cease-fire proposal, Livni said "there is no
humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a
humanitarian truce."
Oh. Well, I guess we can all just pack up and go home
then. But it's curious to see that Amnesty
International appears to disagree and that foreign nationals
have been permitted to leave Gaza, which suggests an imminent ground
invasion.
I'm currently
watching the Ben Stein anti-evolution film "Expelled"
(I was told by an earnest pro-science employee of Blockbuster Video
that it was garbage and not to bother, but I thought it best to see it
for myself and draw my own conclusions). The main argument made so far
(About 45 minutes into the film) is that of "irreducible complexity,"
the notion that a cell requires so many different "moving parts" or
proteins, that it could not possibly have ever arisen from a simpler
form. Action
Bio-Science's
answer to that is that yes, a cell, or in the example given, a
mousetrap, may indeed be irreducibly complex, but a tie clip uses some
of the elements of a mousetrap, which can then be adapted for use in
the more complex machine. A cell, like a mousetrap, has many components
that can operate independently. Evolution puts many components
together and adapts others to accomplish different purposes.
December
Heh! Kinda
funny how invading Iraq was supposed
to produce a strong ally to Israel in the heart of the
Mideast. Oops!
Juan Cole translates
Grand Ayatollah
Sistani's Fatwa on Gaza, noting that:
...the
Neoconservatives argued for putting the Shiites in control of
Iraq on the grounds that, as a religious minority themselves, they
would be more sympathetic to Israel
D'oh!
Very interesting
commentary on how the left blogosphere has reacted to the
Gaza fighting. Appears to be a real sea change in how Israel is
perceived. Joe Klein BTW, was condemned, quite rightly I thought, for
failing to represent the left in the run-up to the Iraq War, but he's
really redeemed himself by opening up the national conversation about
Israel.
Fascinating
question from David
"The New Tim Russert" Gregory to the Foreign Minister of
Israel.
Is it acceptable to
Israel for Hamas to remain in power in Gaza?
My understanding is that Hamas was elected and
therefore enjoys some sort of status in President
Bush's eyes. Or is that just for American allies?
I respond to a letter
in the Inky concerning warrantless surveillance and the
eternal question of "Does human nature change over the centuries?" (My
answer to that question was "No.")
Whuuh? You
expected Bush to
cut his final vacation short just to deal with a war in which
hundreds have died?!?!? Bwah-hah-hah-hah!!!
Lots of questions
about Michael Connell, Karl Rove's IT guy, who oversaw several
elections, many of which produced highly questionable
results.
Fannie Mae's 10-person
Board of Directors makes $160,000
per person, per year!!!! Which might be okay if they had, say, not been
sleeping through the $8 Trillion
housing bubble or the collapse of Fannie Mae.
Right now, the WaPo is hollering about workers making $27 an hour,
these directors make $320 an hour and somehow the
WaPo is silent on them.
Truly stupid
pieces by traditional media outlets that try
and pretend that only Democrats get fawnng adulation pieces
from their fellow traditional media folks. Of course, they skip right
past actual
fawning coverage
of Republicans (And yikes! This featured 2002 piece from Time Magazine
reads like Stalinist agitprop in the cold light of today).
Hoo-boy, do I
hope this
rule
goes nowhere! The Bush Administration has just approved a rule allowing
medical personnel to make decisions regarding the lives of complete
strangers, decisions that they are in no way competent to make (See: Terri
Schiavo).
A reprint
showing how Peggy Noonan gauged G.W. Bush's honesty
and trustworthiness shortly before the 2000 election. The
uranium story cited here shows that Noonan has zero
ability to gauge such issues.
It also shows that Bush & Co are criminals
who should be in prison!
President-elect
Obama explains why he supports having Rick Warren give the invocation
at the inaugural. Admirable
sentiments, but not very convincing. Warren is a
conservative who
strongly disagrees with Obama on gay rights, reproductive rights,
foreign policy, and modern science.
If Warren were there to debate in some way, it might be justifiable to
include him. But he's not there for that. Inclusiveness is fine, but
this seems a tad over the line of acceptable. Further
arguments. A lefty blogger explains
to a traditional news reporter, slowly and using lots of
little words, why having Warren give the invocation is a bad idea.
Update: Further
commentary.
Yup, now that
we're running down the clock and we're near te end of Bush's term in
office (Yay!) we're now getting revised
accounts as to what a great President he's been all these
years. *Choke* I think the official term is "Gag me with a spoon!" And here's
a really good one. Despite having, y'know, been the President
for eight years of disaster after disaster, somehow,
none of the disasters are his fault!
Update: Oh yeesh! Now SecState Rice
is claiming that the Bush
Administration utilized the UN more than any other
administration. Oh, and there was no
waste of money in Iraq. These claims are just too silly to
even comment on.
Further update: Rush Limbaugh's
brother David condemns
Obama's announced intention to cleanse America's image abroad, claiming
that our image is just fine.
Will
Obama's team release the full story of their contacts with Patrick
Fitzgerald's team concerning the Governor Blagojevitch scandal? No.
Fitzgerald has asked them not to.
The Iraqi
reporter/shoe thrower is turning out to have made himself quite
popular in Iraq.
NSA
whistleblower revealed! The guy who
discovered the illegal NSA wiretaps
and told the NY Times, which then took from Spring 2004 to very late
2005 to reveal it to the public, and only then because the book author
was going to reveal it anyway.
Frances Frago Townsend has an interesting
complaint on the issue.
Update: some
speculation on how Tamm's case may be affecting the
warrantless wiretapping case.
Yeah, yeah,
I'm a wet blanket and a spoilsport, but I can't say I really approve of
throwing
shoes, even at an evil war criminal. I mean, I understand
it, but still...
Credit where
credit's due, Colin Powell makes
a good speech and points Republican Party in good direction.
The
Obama-Blagojevich connection. Seems awfully
doubtful there IS much of one. No question the traditional
media is trying very strenuously to
create at least the appearance of one. John Dean speaks from
his Watergate experience and recommends getting all
the facts out, sooner rather than later.
Well, Bush
shows his usual
class and sensitivity. The Obama family wanted to move
...into the Blair
House before Jan. 5, so that daughters Malia and Sasha could
start classes on time at Sidwell Friends School in Washington.
An anonymous Whte House spokesperson said "[T]here were previously
scheduled events and guests that couldn't be displaced." Ri-i-ight!
Stay classy George!
Hard to make
much more of a comment to this
than "Duh." A panel blames the abuses of detainees on the
chain of command, not upon the ordinary grunts.
David Horowitz
of FrontPage
Magazine (The link is to an unusually sensible blog post of
his), writes the following in a fundraising email:
The Freedom Center will not stand by and
watch the
left advance deeper into government, popular culture, and higher
education. Nor will we allow it to snatch defeat out of the
jaws of
victory in Iraq or hamstring our military in Afghanistan.
Erm, lemme see, how does one begin? Well, the left
has already advanced deeply into the culture, so
FrontPage is a bit
late on that. "Jaws of victory"?!?! Nuh-uh. Nothing of the kind. Once
the US leaves Iraq, the Iraqis are fully prepared to make oil contracts
with
the Chinese, not the Americans. The American-Iraqi Status
of Forces agreement won't be ratified until the middle of
next year. And Shiites and Sunnis have not
made peace with each
other.
Peggy Noonan
claims that "At Least Bush Kept Us Safe"
for the last several years, at least of course, since
9-11 and since Katrina and of course not
including London and other places which have suffered bombings. The
piece (Lengthy at 34 kilobytes) then counts all of
the many ways in which Bush has failed
to "keep us safe."
The AP tries, desperately,
furiously and unsuccessfully, to link President-Elect Obama
to the scandal of IL Governor Rod Blagojevich trying to sell Obama's
old Senate seat.
Update: Time Magazine refers
to Pat Fitzgerald saying that Obama is not involved: "...it's never
good news when a top-notch prosecutor has
to go out of his way to distance them from a front-page scandal." And why
does PatFitz have to distance Obama from the Blagojevich
scandal?!?!? Could it be because the media is irresponsibly
trying to connect Obama to the scandal without any evidence?!?!?
Probably half
of the US soldiers who died in Iraq did so because their
thin-skinned, improperly-armored vehicles were hit with a mine or an
IED.
DoD (Department of
Defense) was aware of the threat posed by mines and improvised
explosive devices (IEDs)...
Yet DoD did not develop requirements for, fund, or acquire MRAP-type
vehicles for low-intensity conflicts that involved mines and IEDs...
Bush tries to whitewash
history to divert people from the fact of his utter moral
bankruptcy.
Freedom's
Watch, the group headed by Ari Fleisher and that spent $15 million on
an ad campaign is
no more.
So endeth the most
overhyped, overrated, and underwhelming political project since the
presidential candidacy of Rudy Giuliani.
Freedom's Watch spent $30 million on TV ads and Democrats gained
eight Senate seats and 24 House seats.
As President
Bush refuses
to argue in a face-to-face manner and as Juan Cole is a
blogger, Cole has to argue about Mideast policy by blogging. One other
problem with the same Bush speech is that, yes, Bush verbally rejected
a link between al Qaeda and Iraq, but he only drew that distinction long
after the Iraq War had begun. In other words, he
drew that distinction only after
it had served its purpose.
SecState Rice celebrates
the invasion of Iraq
as Iraq is "at the center of Middle East politics as a bulwark against
Iran." Erm, slight problem with that assessment as Iraq is now in the
hands of a Shiite goverment friendly to Iran. Other than that, yeah,
it's a "great strategic achievement."
Bush will have
his Presidential Library at Southern
Methodist University. It:
will be completely
independent from the academic governance of the
university. It will reportedly “sponsor research and programs designed
to promote the vision of the president” and “celebrate” Bush’s
presidency.
Why is it going to be on the grounds of, and associated with, SMU if
SMU will not have any say in its "academic governance"? That sounds
like a loser of a proposition for SMU and a straight win for
Bush's Library. Bush gets to run the library anyway he pleases, but SMU
gets the hit on their reputation. I guess they stand to make lots of
cash from the deal. Still sounds like a pretty crappy deal for SMU.
The pollster
Zogby is absolutely destroying
his credibility! He published an apples-to -oranges poll that compared
current questions about the McCain campaign to decades-old questions
about Obama & Biden. Zogby is "standing by" the poll, thereby
sinking himself along with his client.
Happy, happy,
joy, joy!!! The Obama Transition Team has announced that ALL political
appointees in the Foreign Service will
be relieved of their duties on January 20th! NONE of them
will stay on.
*Sigh* Okay,
how do we explain why it's
not all right for Bush to pardon Scooter Libby for commiting
the felony of outing a CIA agent who, BTW, was working on
the issue of Weapos of Mass Destruction. Scooter
Libby is a criminal.
If Bush & Co want to go to turn themselves in
and go to jail in place of Scooter, well yee-hah! In that case, sure!
But if they want to remain free, then no!
Far better that Scooter rot in jail (No, he's not
in jail because of Bush's intervention) than that his buddies be completely
off the hook.
Bush's
"confession" over the allegedly unsatisfactory
intel before the start of the Iraq War is grossly,
pathetically unsatisfactory. As usual, Bush just blames
everyone else for his own failures.
President-Elect
Obama's approach to filling out his Cabinet sounds
eminently sensible and marks a huge
departure from the last eight years.
"I assembled this
team because I am a strong believer in strong
personalities and strong opinions. I believe that's how the best
decisions are made."
Yee-hah to that!
Amazingly, but unfortunately, predictably,
the press corps seems determined
to "gin
up" scandals.
November
WaPo publishes
dreadfully misinforming editorial, describing a completely
unreconizable picture of Iraq over the past several years.
The Nation documented
way back in April 2003 that
Gen. Barry
McCaffrey, who continues to be featured frequently by NBC
News as an objective analyst ... opines about war policies in which he
has a substantial (and concealed) financial stake.
The NY Times' David Barstow covered the story again in April
2008, covers it again November 2008 and notes that NBC News has still
refused to note McCaffrey's conflict of interest.
Update: NBC and General McCaffrey undertake
a coordinated
PR effort to defend their good names.
First Lady
Laura Bush gives
herself points for how much she loves the women of
Afghanistan. Problem: It was clear to me back in December
2002 that Afghanistan was not reconstructed or rebuilt. Sure enough, it
was only a matter of time before the Taliban reassembled and began
attacking. Afghan women are now no better off than they were before the
US invaded that country.
Former SecDef
Rumsfeld is writing his memoir that, predictably, says "I was right in
my strategy for Iraq!"
Of course, he
wrote so many memos taking so many positions
on so many subjects, they were called "snowflakes" by his overwhelmed
subordnates. So whatever position happened to be the right one years
later, you can bet he's got a memo that takes just that position.
Given the
choice between
being successful and being ideologically consistent,
Reagan and the younger Bush have been polar opposites.
Marvelous
news! John Brennan, a
torture advocate who withdrew his support for that but loudly supported
"enhanced interrogation tactics" and rendition, has
been refused any
high-level national security position! And the blogs were
credited for pushing the Obama transition team away from supporting
him.
It's
truly disgusting to see millionaire pundits hardly saying a word about
executives who pull in hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in
bonuses, spreading
the vicious smear that auto workers make $70 an hour (The
average wage is $25, auto
workers make $30).
Many
Republicans and traditional media people are adopting an odd
definition as to what Obama meant by "change." It seems to be
a definition that ignores the distinctions between "insiders"
and "Republicans."
For some odd
reason, the press corps is being
accused
of being excessively pro-Obama. Not really sure what their evidence is
and gee, it sure would have been nice had someone brought this
interesting little factoid up during
the campaign. The press corps also seems very confused about
whether they want information
about appointments or not.
Senator
Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and the American Association for the Advancement
of Science are
demanding that "burrowing" cease and desist immediately. They
list several specific examples.
Marvelous news
on the appointments front! Obama appears to be choosing really good
people. Digby
reproduces
some real "Truth, justice & the American way" rhetoric from the
Attorney General appointee. Punchline: the guy who reprinted
this
stuff in the first place was trying to criticize him!
Someone else has mild
reservations, but essentially approves.
Woo hoo! The progressive
Representative Henry Waxman beats out the "Blue Dog" Rep.
John Dingell.
New Homeland
Security chair has Constitutional
Law background!
"Truth,
justice & the American way" triumph! Five innocent detainees at
Guantanamo have been ordered freed.
"Burrowing"
appears to be the latest method to frustrate the new administration and
to make it more difficult to achieve liberal goals. It's a process of
transferring a
political appointee to a protected career position.. One
problem is that the
appointee may not be qualified for the new position.
But there's evidence
that the burrowing under Bush has been extensive,
and hasn't just been confined to the administration's waning days.
More
extensive examination of the issue.
Interview
transcript. Funny
stuff! Guy being interviewed starts losing it at the fifth
question and is swearing by the end. Summary
of poll questions. Lots of just plain false suggestions.
Liberal
bloggers "speculating"
about Hillary Clinton and the Secretary of State job? But mindless,
evidence-free speculation is a traditional
media speciality. Bloggers
don't really do that.
Weekly
Standard writes
a plea to keep Missile Defense going. Is it really worth it
to do so? Major problem is that it's impossible to tell how truly
effective the program is until a new and critical team takes over the
testing. Otherwise, there's simply no way to tell.
So, now that
the US has agreed to
be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, just how firm is that agreement?
With Press Secretary Dana Perino talking
about mere "aspirational
dates" and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral
Mullen talking about the withdrawal being "conditions
-based," the agreement doesn't seem very firm at all.
WaPo Ombudsman
again frets
over all of the "Liberal Bias" the WaPo contains. She's very sorry and
promises to do better.
The US is
discussing the worthless
boondoggle known as Star Wars/SDI/Missile Defense. We need to
contact
the President-Elect and encourage him to shut it down.
Also, the sub-group within the My Barack Obama
site that encouraged (unsuccessfully) Obama to preserve FISA is regrouping
and plotting strategy.
Facebook for Philadelphia
to oppose California's Proposition 8. They conducted a rally on November
15th and claimed that 5000 were there.
Kewl! The
first YouTube-style
presidential address. Well, okay, Obama is just the
President-Elect so far, but hey, it's all good.
A suggestion
for what to do with
prisoners at Guantanamo Bay that are innocent,
in a way that will keep them from returning to the battlefield. I would
recommend that America truly and decisively reject the prison there as
an unequivocally immoral thing that no Americans approve of. That would
then convince the prisoners tht Gitmo is rejected by the American
people.
It's pieces
like this
piece 'o crud that really make me appreciate how good
writers will use quotes and links to back
up what they say!!! This writer has absolutely no
clue that people might want to know "What exactly is the evidence
that you're basing all of these wild, unhinged assertions
on?!?!"
Yes, I'm very
disappointed that our new President-Elect is backing
the idea of allowing Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to retain
his current chairmanship of Homeland Security. I absolutely
guarantee that the decision will come back and bite the
Democratic Party in the $#@!
Hoo-boy!
Wingnuttery ahoy! We've got Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) comparing Obama's
“civilian national security force,” to
Hitler!!!1!@@!! He later "dialed to back" after both
Georgia Senators expressed dismay.
Hempstead police, after using horses against peaceful
protesters from the IVAW, charge
IVAW with "Disorderly Conduct."
Bwah-hah-hah-hah!!! Newt
Gingrich wants to run the Republican National Committee! Love
it! That's almost as good as Governor
Palin for President!
Kofinis:
Sarah Palin is like that crazy relative who comes over and doesn't want
to leave.
Oh, and here's a good one:
Christie: Voters did
not decide that on Tuesday. It was a very close
election. I mean -- 52 percent, you can't say that he had a mandate.
Uh, scooz me, but
Obama won 66.3 million votes to McCain's 57.9, which actually
rounds off closer to 53%. When Bush declared
a mandate with only 50.7%
of the vote, yes, I would say Obama very definitely
won a mandate!
And this
is just, like, whoooo!
Obama thinks he is a
good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he
speaks. ... President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a
lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking
publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision...
Wow! That's not even mockable, that's so lacking in reality. Has this
guy even heard
of a "Bushism"?
Atrios makes
an extremely
good point about how there's criticism and there's criticism.
Sometimes one is a friendly critic who wants the
person or project to succeed and sometimes one is a hostile
critic who doesn't. Tom Friedman is clearly a friendly
critic of the Iraq War and so yes, he does bear
some responsibilty for the consequences.
The WaPo
Ombudsman takes a look at her paper's campaign coverage and concludes
it was tilted to favor Obama. I point out
that McCain ran a campaign of demagoguery and name-calling,
meaning that a straight "bean-counting" tells us next to nothing.
Ombudsman Howell arrives
at no conclusions concerning the content
of the various Op-Eds she bean-counts so assiduously.
Is there some
way to prevent criminals
such as Karl Rove & Tom DeLay from making TV appearances? Or at
least some way to precede their appearances with an honest description
of their crimes?
Yee-haw!!!
Sarah Palin looks to be the permanent
Republican figurehead for hard-line rightwingers! Yes, we'll
have Palin "to kick around" for many moons to come. You can help! Here's
a petition by Michelle Malkin to support Palin's hard-line
positions with. Here's
a liberal endorsement for that petition.
Just why did
McCain fail to seize the presidency? For all of the claims that McCain
and the Republican Party were substantively different from Bush,
it's really not clear where, exactly, they actually differed.
One extremely good point is that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's acceptace
of Barack Obama's timetable for the withdrawal of American
troops from Iraq back in July basically neutered McCain's perceived
advantage.
Ah! Sweetness,
light & sunshine! Barack
Obama wins decisively! Right wing smears getting
a lot less traction than they used to. As to Matt Drudge?
Bwah-hah-hah!!! Poor
Drudge is in very bad shape compared to the guy who "rules
our world" back in 2004.
From 16
October to 31 October, six
cases are examined where prominent media figures have
compared Obama to Hitler or his campaign to the Nazi
Party. And yes, victimization
is a major theme of conservative media
criticism.
The major
telcos are, once
again,
trying to kill off "net neutrality." This is the concept that all net
users must be treated equally. Companies can't pick and choose whose
content gets favored access. Fach
sheet (23 page PDF) shows why net neutrality is essential to
protecting regular citizens. The
case between Comcast & BitTorrent is probably the
highest-profile case we've seen recently.
October
Uh! Mah! Gawd!
The stupid!!! It HURTS!!! Governor Palin thinks
her 1st Amendments rights are being violated because people
are disagreeing with her and saying things that she doesn't like.
McCain
campaign launches
ugly and frankly, racist, attack on Palestinian
Professor. Karl Rove of course approves the attack and Drudge
features it on his website.
McCain
campaign speaks of the need to get America off of using Mideast oil so
much, but doesn't have any realistic, concrete plans for doing anything
about that.
Two things
about the helicopter assault on an alleged al Qaeda target in Syria on
26 October - 1. In
a piece published on 28 October,
the targets killed are still referred to as "unverified," meaning that
the US has yet to produce physical evidence that they really did attack
a genuine threat. 2. Syria has requested assistance in guarding their
"450-mile long desert border with Iraq, but the Americans
refused." [emphasis added]
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