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March 31, 2006
Sticks and stones
Definitions people use that make me cringe. Not that they always did.
ghetto - Word which rich white girls use to describe almost everything thats not clad with lilly polos and pearls.
pimp - As an adjective: If somethin' is pimpin', it's pretty darn cool. It's probably something "normal" that's tricked out ghettolicious and gawdy. Basically, you look very ghettofab and blingbling.
gay - A generic insult. It can mean bad, stupid, whatever you want it to mean.
liberal - A word meaning open minded. Ironic then how the majority of Americans hate liberals and liberalism and yet claim to be a tolerant and free society. Surely some mistake...
loner - This is a person who is always on their own. They prefer their own company and do not make friends easily. They often find solace in books or the internet. They are alone.
"Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me."
Does it hurt when people are marginalized and looked down on?
Posted by Mike at 12:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 29, 2006
An inalienable right to multitask
Look at it as a bloggers declaration of independence from real life:
A University of Memphis law professor has banned laptop computers from her classroom and her students are passing a petition against it.Professor June Entman says her main concern is that students are so busy keyboarding they can't think and analyze what she's telling them.
Students have begun collecting signatures on petitions and tried unsuccessfully to file a complaint with the American Bar Association.
Student Cory Winsett says if he must continue without his laptop, he'll transfer to another school. Winsett says he won't be able to keep up if he has to rely on hand-written notes, which he says are incomplete and less organized.
Yeah, right. I'm sure their main concern is the taking better notes.
Life, liberty, and connectivity.
Posted by Mike at 09:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 28, 2006
Thrown in jail for reporting an assault
This type of dehumanizing behavior was status quo in the South during Jim Crow. When you don't see someone as human, you can do anything:
A transgender woman who has been a leader in social services for the Latina transgender community in Los Angeles was assaulted and molested by security guards and police in Miami 03/10/06.Transexual Activist Maria Louise Roman was assaulted, discriminated against and wrongly incarcerated – ironically, after a taping of "Transamerica" segment for Spanish TV Talk Show Cristina.
This letter comes directly from her.
Dear Friends:
I am writing this letter to give you a snapshot of how I was assaulted, ridiculed, humiliated and wrongly incarcerated while celebrating a successful taping of the Cristina Show. These events took place on March the 10th in the city of Miami.
Many Media outlets continue to perpetuate stereotypes and sensationalize our lives. It has been a long process but I am a firm believer that the only way we can influence change is by being involved in the process of creating this change. We cannot sit back and expect change to magically happen.
For this reason whenever there is an opportunity for me to be involved in how the media depicts my reality as a transgender women I am the first one to sign up.
On March the 10th I was panelist for an upcoming Cristina Show, a Spanish speaking International show that reaches millions of Spanish speaking homes in the US and Latin America. The taping of the show went very well; the questions were relevant and focused on the complexity of the transition process. They also discussed discrimination and rights of people of trans experience. The panel was very diverse, composed of both FTM and MTF people. It also included A 15 year old Argentinean transgender woman who was supported by her entire family.
After a successful taping there was much reason to celebrate, Little did I know that my celebration would not last long.
I went to a popular Miami club called Space, Accompanied by a friend. We had a drink, danced and enjoyed the scene, needless to say the club was packed.
About 40 minutes later while going to get a second drink, we were making our way though a very crowded club headed toward the bar. I was pushed by a man, and when I turned around he began yelling "Fuck! that's a man" To several of his friends, who then joined him in the name-calling as the pushing continued.
He then physically assaulted me. As the attack continued, security came to the scene and grabbed him. He was still calling me "you fucking faggot", even though he was restrained by security personnel.
In panic, in pain, dazed from the attack, I screamed to my friend, "he broke my nose!" I was also concerned about my safety because I did not know if the other individuals who accompanied him might also attack me in retaliation, after seeing their friend taken by security.
I decided to follow the security officers as they where escorted the man to the first level, telling them in bits and pieces what happened and how this man had attacked me unwarrantedly. I made it very clear to the security guards that I had intentions of filing charges of assault since I was physically attacked and I had not retaliated. When we got to the office, there were other men in uniforms and I assumed they were also security guards.
I asked them to call the police since I wanted to press charges against the man who had just assaulted me. To my surprise they informed me they were Miami Police Department Officers. One of them was a sergeant. I would find out later that the sergeant was also a bigot.
At that moment he ignored me and proceeded to ask the man who had attacked me what happened. I was furious at his apathy towards me, but remained calmed.
As he continued to ignore me he asked the Security Guards who escorted the man who attacked me, "WHAT DID HE DO?" (They used male pronouns to refer to me). I felt disrespected by his comment. I reached in my purse for my California Identification Card, which states my gender as female, hoping this would redirect focus to the assault and not my gender. I tried to tell the police about the assault, however it was difficult since their focus continued to be on my gender; snickering back and forth. Things were taking place quickly. The sergeant looked at me with a smirk on his face and told the security guard next to him "He has nice tits."
At that moment I realized that things were not going to move in my favor. Two security guards grabbed me by the arms and began escorting me down some stairs towards the entrance of the club. It was clear that they were escorting me out of the club however my concern was still focused on ensuring documentation of my attack. I continued questioning their behavior, repeating that "I was assaulted." I questioned why I was being escorted out of the club since, in fact, I was the victim of a crime. '
The circumstances that transpired during and after my assault were blatant violations of my rights, and negligence on the part of the police. I was forcefully detained by security for no reason and then placed in the back of a police car. At that moment it was clear to me they were arresting me, however I could not think of what they would charge me with since I had not committed a crime. During this ordeal I maintained restraint. I was never disrespectful to any of Police Officers or Security Personnel. I was humble but firm in pointing out the wrong-doing on their behalf.
I made it clear to the sergeant that I was going to do everything in my power to ensure that this does not continue to happen and that they would se me again. That the oath they took to protect and serve includes me, and that their discrimination and bigotry would not be silently ignored.
While being transferred to the car which would take me to county jail, the sergeant told one of his colleagues as my dress was lifted, "yes that's a man, but I would fuck him in his ass" And they all laughed. The humiliation was endless.
The only way I could let my anger and frustration out was by crying, at that moment I was so powerless. I have been fighting this kind of injustice for years, yet I was never a victim. And none of my many surgeries, speaking abilities, beauty, or the charm I have been told I possess, could make these people look at me as a woman. Because even though they did call me a man, I am certain that if two men had been involved in a physical altercation, both would have been arrested. Yet I was a victim of an assault and I was the only one incarcerated.
You would think my ordeal would have been over but it continued while being processed in the local county jail. I was stripped and searched, and paraded for all to view and laughed at. I continued to weep in anger and despair, I would spend the next 18 hours afraid for my safety, questioned about my gender, asked improper questions, and sexually molested.
I was assaulted, ridiculed, mistreated, and incarcerated because of who I am. As incredible as it may sound my sense of true self is offensive to even the people that take an oath to protect and serve us.
However I take an oath to my self and the rest of my community that I will continue to do anything and everything in my power to expose this bigotry, hate and perpetuate mistreatment by people in law enforcement and their apathy to crimes fueled by hate associated with our gender or sexual orientation.
At the present time I am continuing to work with the support of Ron Brenesky from "Unity Coalition", a local organization in Miami, along with Monica Taher who has been a great support. Currently Ron is contacting the local agencies trying to categorize this as a Hate Crime.
Under Florida law Transgender individuals are not recognized. So much work ahead for our community However I am only one person. Let’s continue to ensure that we all grow from our experiences by supporting our own and each other. Don't be silent. Let’s let them know that there are many of us and we have each others’ backs. Remember none of us are immune to acts such as this. I will be going to court in Miami in April on a false trespassing charge. I would like your support. I want to send a clear message to the club and the police department that this kind of mistreatment will not be tolerated. If this type of neglect, discrimination and violation of our rights by police officers in Miami is an ongoing practice the time to put a stop to it is now. PS: Even though this was a very traumatic time, my spirits are high and I am looking forward to continuing to fight this. My nose is a little to the right and the bruises in my arm are gone, otherwise I am all good. I thank God that I am here and that things did not escalate more. Many men and women have lost their lives to crimes fueled by hate. On March the 10th at 1:35 am this kind of hate fueled a man to strike me simply because I was a transgender woman.
Thank You,
Maria Louise Roman
Proud Transgender Woman
Orgullosa de ser Latina
Mariathemost@aol.comRon Brenesky
Unity Coalition
Miami, Florida
786 317 3557
Posted by Mike at 07:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 27, 2006
Ouch
If you've got a subscription, which I don't, this audio clip from a week or two ago should be worth a few good laughs:
First Time For Everything
CBS and Yahoo hoops analyst Clark Kellogg joins Tony Bruno to defend his "bold" prediction that all four No. 1 seeds will be playing in this year's Final Four.
All No. 1 seeds fall by the wayside en route to no-favorite Final FourSpeaking of dogs: Welcome to the first Final Four where everybody is an underdog. George Mason, Louisiana State, UCLA, Florida ... honestly, who can pick a favorite with a straight face? UCLA has the highest seed (No. 2), but the Bruins won their last three games by a total of 10 points. Does that say "bully" to you?
For the first time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams, no No. 1 seed made the Final Four. If these teams unload the cliche truck later this week, we can actually believe them - this year, everybody is truly "just happy to be here."
Posted by Mike at 12:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 21, 2006
I agree with Bill Gates
That's not something you'll hear me say too often about software, but this is basic economics. Not only are we providing incentives for companies to outsource jobs, we're preventing them from hiring people who want to work here and contribute to the American economy.
So great is the demand for such skills in the burgeoning high-tech world that in August 2005 the last of the visas available for fiscal 2006 were issued. That means a 14-month shutdown of the program, until October of this year. "It's kind of ironic," Gates told me, "to have somebody graduate from Stanford Computer Science Department and there's not enough H-1B visas, so they have to go back to India. . . . And I have people who have been hired who are just sitting on the border waiting."The draft bill that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter has been preparing for floor consideration would expand the annual H-1B limit from 65,000 to 115,000. By excluding dependents (who now are counted against the cap) from the total, it might mean the entry of as many as 300,000 people a year -- one-tenth of 1 percent of the U.S. population.
As Gates said, these are highly paid, highly qualified individuals. Salaries for these jobs at Microsoft start at about $100,000 a year. Their counterparts can be hired more cheaply in China or India, he said, but Microsoft does 85 percent of its research and development work in the United States because it wants its computer scientists interacting directly with its program managers and its marketing people on its own campus.
Gates said he has a hard time understanding the logic of those who decry the outsourcing of American jobs yet are reluctant to facilitate bringing the high-skill people who are catalysts for economic growth to this country. "People just shake their heads at what kind of a central planning system would say having 65,000 smart people come in, that's okay, but 70,000 smart people, no."
Posted by Mike at 08:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 09, 2006
All about the Benjamins after all?
Here I thought they actually still printed a $1,000 bill. Guess not:
The government stopped printing bills larger than $100 in 1945 and hasn't issued any since 1969.
Posted by Mike at 11:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 08, 2006
A horror worse than death
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., chairman of the Rules Committee and one of the authors of the base bill along with Dodd, went along with the amendment but warned it could cause unintended problems every time a lawmaker or staff attended a reception where food was available."It's totally ludicrous that we are doing this," he said. "I'll be eating with my wife and so will a lot more senators after we pass this one."
Others seemed to have a different view, even though no one would go so far as to ban lobbyists from paying for expensive trips, much less gathering or making campaign contributions:
But Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who offered the meal ban with Sens. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., said it was better just to eliminate a "tripwire" for activity that might be perceived as unethical."In cities and towns all across America it turns out that people pay for their own lunches and their own dinners," said Obama. "People who make far less than we do."
No word if anyone plans to look into the apparent correlation between a Senator's vote on the amendment and their fondness for their spouse.
Posted by Mike at 03:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Who is Anti Science Now?
I'm a regular visitor to Daily Kos, but I'm embarassed to see this load of BS on the front page. Hello, Biology 101. Maybe DarkSyde was asleep in class? A sperm has a half set of chromosomes. An egg has a half set of chromosomes. A zygote has a full set of chromosomes formed by combining the two. There is no gray area here. I have always understood conception as the point when your complete set of 46 chromosomes comes together for the first time.
What the hell is this moron talking about?
The Imaginary Conception
by DarkSydeWed Mar 08, 2006 at 04:42:10 AM PDT
In science, the term "conception" commonly refers to fertilization. But among bioethicists, conception is sometimes defined as implantation or even "the point at which human life begins". Because of the imprecise meaning of the term, it has served as the fulcrum for semantic arguments within the abortion debate. The typical usage one encounters among anti-choice proponents is that life begins at conception. The statement is often made with complete confidence as though it's the uncontroversial scientific truth.
It does sound good, hard to argue against, right? Nope, it's a right-wing myth, as accurate scientifically as 'there is no evidence for global warming' and 'Intelligent Design is a scientific theory'.
From the American Heritage Dictionary:
con·cep·tion
n.Formation of a viable zygote by the union of the male sperm and female ovum; fertilization.
The entity formed by the union of the male sperm and female ovum; an embryo or zygote.
Sure, you can freeze an embryo, but it's still an embryo. Good grief.
Posted by Mike at 11:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 07, 2006
Who is Jay Boesen?
Just doing some research here, but I think he is important.
From the National Conference on Homeland Security in October 2002:
Technical Board of DirectorsJay Boesen - Senior Counter Intelligence analyst and field officer specializing in European, Middle East and Asian terrorism. He is a former senior consultant for analytical tradecraft at the Defense Intelligence Agency's Joint Terrorism Analysis Center's Counter Terrorism course. Mr. Boesen served as liaison at the DCI Counter-terrorist Center at the Central Intelligence Agency. He has also served as guest lecturer at the CIA's Analytical Risk Management Course.
From the same site in October 2004:
Technical Board of DirectorsJ. L. Boesen - has a Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts from the University of the State of New York and a Master's degree in International Relations from Troy State University. Mr. Boesen is the author of the Vulnerability Assessment Fundamentals Course and the Advanced Vulnerability Assessment Course at the U. S. Department of Energy. He was the Special Advisor for Intelligence to the D.O.E. Director of Safeguards and Security. Mr. Boesen served as liaison at the DCI Counter-terrorist Center at the Central Intelligence Agency and was responsible for analytic training and support at the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Joint Terrorism Analysis Center. He currently serves as a faculty member in automated analytical methodologies and exercise scenario development for the DIA and Interagency Intelligence Committee on Terrorism's "Counter-terrorism Analysis Course,” Mr. Boesen was a senior tactics instructor and course chief with the US Air Force Security Police Academy, was a lead instructor and course developer for vulnerability assessment training at the Department of Energy Non-Proliferation and National Security Institute's Central Training Academy. While assigned to the European region he was recognized for his efforts in fighting terrorism by the German Federal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) earning the title of "Honorary Kriminalkommissar." He has conducted some of the first terrorism risk assessments in the world. Mr. Boesen is co-author of an NCHS published book entitled "The Al-Qaeda Network".
The Law Enforcement Intelligence section was developed and is maintained by members of our Technical Advisory Board and the Genesis Intelligence Laboratory at Raytheon. To review the credentials of our Technical Advisory Board, go to the About Us section of this web site.The Raytheon Genesis System utilizes “best of breed”, commercially available applications coupled with proprietary software and processes to mine, exploit and analyze all-source intelligence data. Characterized by extreme speed and super computing capacity, Genesis can provide solutions to all strategic, operational and tactical intelligence problems. The end product of this process is actionable intelligence that all operators and first responders can utilize to detect, deter, disrupt and/or neutralize asymmetric threats.
The Law Enforcement Intelligence section contains weekly updated information concerning the following subjects.
** Intelligence concerning terrorist organizations domestically and abroad.
** Charts concerning Al-Qaeda members their affiliations and photographs.
** Current information on radical and protest groups which may pose threats to the United States domestically or abroad.
** Information concerning safety of U.S. citizens at various locations domestically and abroad.
** Information concerning new methods of operation, potential venues and weaponry.
** Analysis of current intelligence data.In order to gain access to this section you must be a local, state or federal law enforcement agency. After you provide the information requested, The National Conference on Homeland Security will verify its accuracy and provide you with a user name and password. Non-law enforcement entities should contact NCHS directly for a determination as to whether they may gain access. Once you have gained access, you will be provided with navigation instructions.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GENESIS
You may contact Jay Boesen at Raytheon
(703) 391-2913, Extension 7063
To screen people, the data would be mined through a system that Raytheon called Genesis, which, Woollen explained vaguely, could track "certain patterns of behavior" that indicated someone was a threat.None of that was enough by itself, Woollen added. The real value Raytheon added was that the Raytheon system would be "proactive." Once a visitor arrived here, his data would be constantly updated, so that everything he did would be "tracked during the entire lifetime of the visa." If he got into trouble here and was wanted by the police, or even if new information about his prior activities was developed by Genesis, he'd be placed on a new lookout list so that he could be apprehended.
Depending on your point of view, it was all fascinating, scary, or encouraging. But Peterman and the man from the White House science office also knew that it was wildly expensive. To take one example, how could they pay for the biometric scanners -- whether of the iris, the palm, or the face -- at every border crossing? And how would someone be apprehended once put on a lookout list? Where would all the checkpoints be?
Nonetheless, these Raytheon guys seemed determined to build a system that, in some form, had to be built, so Peterman gave them the name of the procurement people at INS who were overseeing the development of the entry-exit system, and said they should get a meeting over there. He added the now standard speech that all homeland security staffers had learned -- which was that they did not make any purchasing decisions.
According to an attorney named Wade Birdwell:
When Able Danger powered up, Dr. Preisser became the head of the data evaluation group within the program, apparently applying the Genesis data-mining technology (or a derivative thereof), the development for which she was at least partially responsible. Over the next few months, she and her group developed a list of approximately 80 possible Al-Queda operatives, including Atta, and a Brooklyn cell, and made at least three attempts to get the FBI/DOJ to initiate an investigation based upon their findings.If Weldon presents evidence tomorrow of the success of Able Danger in predicting an attack that became the attack on the U.S.S. Cole attack in October 2000, and that the Pentagon/DOD received the warning, but ignored it, then we can reasonably infer that the Pentagon/DOD knew that Dr. Preisser and her group were on the right track in doing the very thing they were supposed to be doing, i.e., discovering, predicting and, thereby, preventing Al-Queda activity before it occurred. If they were not so aware, we can reasonably infer that Dr. Preisser and her group attempted to make them aware over the course of the next few months. We can also reasonably infer that Dr. Preisser and her group went back to their data and became more convinced than ever that they had a line on Al-Queda in the form of that list of 80 possible operatives, and that they would have attempted to bring this back up with the powers that be.
Unfortunately, this would all have occurred during the Florida recount debacle. But it is at least possible that this critical information in Clinton Administration efforts ( I use that term advisedly) made it some way up the chain of command, and was available to both the Clinton Administration and the incoming Bush 43 Administration.
My guess, it stopped at some fairly high career bureaucrat(s) because they didn't want their betters to know that they could have stopped the U.S.S. Cole attack, but didn't. Then, the 2.5 teragigs of data get deep sixed shortly thereafter, ostensibly because the Pentagon/DOD was worried about being accused of domestic spying.
The point of all this is that Dr. Preisser, again, a critical member of the DOD intelligence community presumably knew all of this was going on, and can testify that her superiors ignored not only her unsubstantiated warnings about the 80 possible operatives, but also her clear success in predicting the U.S.S. Cole attack almost a year before the 9/11 attack.
From a Raytheon presentation on Genesis:
So the intelligence side, we are now bringing together the data. There is, of course, the question of how do we absorb that and be able to use it and put it all together make the right decisions. In this area, we have tools, not only at Raytheon, but at all other places, that are incredible. In our case, the front page that you saw, there’s a tool called Genesis. If I give Genesis your name, Genesis will find out more about you than you could ever remember about yourself. That is a key tool to look into people, visitors that are coming in. That is not just data that is available publicly, but other data that may be available also; it puts it all together and it yields a recommendation to a border guard, to an analyst, et cetera, on the basis of the data available.
Excerpts from "1000 Years for Revenge" by Peter Lance that mention Jay Boesen.
Page 235:
In light of what we now know was going on in Manila at the time, Khalifa's release has to be considered one of the most grevious instances of negligence in the years leading up to 9/11. Even given the need to apease Jordan, a key U.S. ally in the Mideast, the release of Khalifa represents disturbing evidence of just how badly the FBI and State, two of the nation's top antiterrorism agencies, were at odds."I remember people at CIA who were ripshit at the time," said Jacob L. Bosesen, who worked as an analyst tasked from the Department of Energy to the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center. "Not even speaking in retrospect, but contemporaneous with what the intelligence community knew about bin Laden, Khalifa's deportation was unreal."
Page 357:
Ronnie Bucca was a fire marshal. By any traditional definition, terrorism wouldn;t have been even remotely close to his jurisdiction. But he had seen the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as an act of arson, and one that touched him personally. Now the four main conspirators and the bomb maker himself had been convicted. The blind Sheikh and the other member of his "jihad army" would be locked up for years. any other investigator might have given up and moved on. But not Bucca. He was the firefighter who had fallen five stories and worked his way back to Rescue One.As the spring of 1997 arrived, he continued to believe that the Trade Center was a potential target. "He said, 'They're gonna come back and do it again,'" said Jacob L. Boesen, an analyst who worked with Ronnis at the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. "I said to him, 'They did it once.' But he said, 'Some of those people have folded now into al Qaeda.'"
Boesen, who wrote a study on al Qaeda for the National Conference on Homeland Security, said Bucca was a rare combination. "Ronnie's military experience as an intelligence officer gave him an analytical role, and his experience as a Special Ops Green Beret gave him an operational perspective," said Boesen. "He was the real deal. He has was frustrated because the Bureau was the lead player in New York when it came to terrorism and he couldn't get anybody on the Task Force to listen."
Page 382:
By late November, Ronnie was visiting firehouses to discuss terrorism preparedness with the rank and file. In July he'd taken a course in advanced counterterrorism analysis at the Joint Military Intelligence Training Center. In his capacity as an analyst with the 3413th Military Intelligence Detachment, Ronnie and his unit would now meet at least once a month with Jacob Boesen, an analyst with the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center, who would come up from Washington to Fort Dix and deliver chalk talks on the latest terrorism intelligence."We were working in asymmetrical threat analysis," said Boesen, "using a program called Analyst's Notebook the helped us produce link charts of the entire Al Qaeda organization." The charts, like the one of page 362-63, allowed DIA analysts to step back and take a broad snapshot of Osama bin Laden's organization and its related cells.
Boesen remembered one session in particular. "After we'd finished," he said, "Ronnie pulled me aside and asked what I thought the chances would be of al Qaeda hittin New York again. At that point the sense in law enforcement had been that Yousef and his cell were finished. But Ronnie seemed to sense that was something else in the works. That's when he asked me about KSM."
Bucca had seen Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's name in the unsealed bin Laden indictment, and he wanted to pick Boesen's brain to see what he knew.
"The truth was, we knew very little about him at the time," said Boesen. "Just what was in the intel from Manila. We knew the FBI had tried to grab him in Qatar. But what we didn't know was that he was now in Hamburg meeting with Mohammed Atta and the other members of the 9/11 cell."
Posted by Mike at 09:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Full results from Quinnipiac survey
I hate it when news articles don't link to their source. Well, here are the full results in a more useful format:
63.5 Rudy Giuliani
59.9 Barack Obama
59.7 John McCain
57.1 Condoleezza Rice
56.1 Bill Clinton
50.8 John Edwards
50.7 Mark Warner
50.4 Hillary Clinton
49.0 Russ Feingold
48.6 George Allen
47.5 Joe Biden
46.3 John Kerry
44.1 George W. Bush
44.1 Bill Frist
43.2 Al Gore
41.0 Dick Cheney
Posted by Mike at 12:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Broadening the Conflict
In the words of our fearless leader: Mission Accomplished.
David Wurmser's op-ed on Middle East strategy from November 1, 2000:
Crises can be opportunities. Israel must avoid letting Arafat prolong the intermittent war of attrition in West Bank towns. Arafat wants that war; Israel cannot win it. Instead, Israel and the United States should adopt a coordinated strategy to regain the initiative and reverse their regionwide strategic retreat. They should broaden the conflict to strike fatally, not merely disarm, the centers of radicalism in the region—the regimes of Damascus, Baghdad, Tripoli, Tehran, and Gaza. That would reestablish the recognition that fighting with either the United States or Israel is suicidal.Many in the Middle East will then understand the merits of being an American ally and of making peace with Israel. They will even discuss again how powerful freedom is, as they did early in the 1990s.
Or not. My only question is who exactly is going to fight this war?
Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that Iran will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and warned "the United States is keeping all options on the table in addressing the irresponsible conduct of the regime."Cheney said the Iranian government "continues to defy the world with its nuclear ambitions" and that the issue may soon go before the U.N. Security Council.
"The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose meaningful consequences," Cheney said in a speech to the to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an influential pro-Israel lobbying group.
He said the United States joins "other nations in sending that regime a clear message: we will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."
Any guess what Bush has to say? "Fuck Iran! We're taking them out!"
Flashback to four years ago. It's deja vu all over again:
As he marched the nation to war, Bush presented himself as a Christian man of peace who saw war only as a last resort. But in a remarkable though little noted disclosure, Time magazine reported that in March 2002 – a full year before the invasion – Bush outlined his real thinking to three U.S. senators, “Fuck Saddam,” Bush said. “We’re taking him out.”
Posted by Mike at 11:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
World War III?
Usually, when the defense minister of one country says he will kill the elected leader of another country, it is considered a declaration of war. You could argue Hamas fired the first shot by refusing to recognize the right of Israel to exist, but so do most countries in the region and cleary, targeting the elected leader of Palestine for assassination sounds more like a declaration of war:
Israel's defense minister advised the incoming Palestinian prime minister Tuesday to fear for his life if Hamas militants start attacking Israel again.
Will Iran and Syria back Palestine against a nuclear Israel? If any actual troop movements begin, clearly the rest of the countries in the region - including occupied Iraq - could take sides. But whose?
Posted by Mike at 11:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 04, 2006
Change of heart at the IG?
Maybe they figured out that if they didn't start taking their job more seriously, Chris Shays was gonna take it away from them.
The Pentagon has directed the Army to open a criminal investigation into the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman, CNN learned on Saturday.An inspector general ordered the Army Criminal Investigative Division to determine if Tillman's death resulted from negligent homicide, sources said.
Initial reports after his death said Tillman, 27, was shot and killed by Taliban forces during an ambush on April 22, 2004. An investigation later revealed that fellow soldiers shot Tillman, thinking he was part of an enemy force firing at them.
Tillman's family demanded to know why his uniform and body armor were burned a day after he was killed and why they were not immediately told he might have been killed by fellow soldiers.
A 2005 report from Brig. Gen. Gary Jones contained sworn statements from soldiers involved in the incident who said they burned the items because they had taken pictures of the scene, walked around and knew how Tillman had been killed.
Posted by Mike at 05:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
They picked this guy to run the World Bank?
For some reason I find this excerpt from a speech Paul Wolfowitz gave in May of 2001 highly amusing. On a related note, I'm also thinking of renaming my "Rebuilding Iraq" category to "Bad News from Baghdad":
Not long ago I spoke to the American Turkish Council and I took a bold risk, reciting an old Turkish saying in Turkish, a feat that I won't attempt for you today. I'll do it in English. The saying goes, "bad news comes back, even from Baghdad." Ten years after the Gulf War we're still getting bad news from Baghdad, from the same tyrannical regime. This regime which has meant bad news for so many for so long poses one of today's most pressing obstacles to peace. It has become clear that there is no cost-free or risk-free option in dealing with that regime.We must see Saddam without illusion if we are to know how to deal with the dangers that he creates. We cannot appease him. His appetites cannot be satisfied. There will be no peace in the region and no safety for our friends there--Arabs or Israelis, Kurds or Turkamons--as long as he remains in power. ...
As Secretary of State Powell has said, "Saddam Hussein is sitting on a failed regime that is not going to be around in a few years' time. The world," Secretary Powell said, "is going to leave him behind and his regime behind as the world marches to new drummers, drummers of democracy and of free enterprise." And let me add to that, it is our obligation to help this forward march in every way that we can. ...
Today the tyrannical regime in Baghdad is the root cause of the most immediate dangers that we face in the Persian Gulf. Hope for Iraq and hope for peace in the region rests on the liberation of that country from the tyranny of Saddam's regime. .... Again, to quote our Secretary of State, "We believe a change in the regime in Iraq would be in the interests of all concerned."
All concerned? Think he meant Al Qaeda, Syria, and Iran? It's clear now that it's in all of their interests for Iraq to remain unstable.
Posted by Mike at 03:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 03, 2006
New DNC Spring Meeting guest speaker named
Just imagine the fundraising possibilities:
Documents cited in federal court by a defunct Islamic charity may provide the first detailed evidence of U.S. residents being spied upon by President Bush's secret eavesdropping program, according to the organization's lawsuit and a source familiar with the case.The al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, a Saudi organization that once operated in Portland, Ore., filed a description of classified government records in a lawsuit Tuesday and immediately asked a judge for a private review.
According to a source familiar with the case, the records indicate that the National Security Agency intercepted several conversations in March and April 2004 between al-Haramain's director, who was in Saudi Arabia, and two U.S. citizens in Washington who were working as lawyers for the organization....
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control froze the foundation's U.S. assets in February 2004, pending an investigation, and designated it a terrorist organization in September 2004, citing ties to Osama bin Laden. Al-Haramain was indicted in February 2005 on charges of conspiring to defraud the United States in connection with a scheme to funnel money to Chechen fighters. The charges were later dropped because the Oregon branch of the organization had shut down.
When with this great injustice be stopped?
Posted by Mike at 09:01 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 01, 2006
Faith-based National Security?
Interesting how this story comes out when Republicans are in revolt over the Dubai port deal. Very interesting:
In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.
Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."The footage — along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press — show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.
Linked by secure video, Bush's confidence on Aug. 28 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.
Posted by Mike at 06:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)