Fuck Long Beach, Ca., and Martha Thuente, for Fascist Fux

This SSSSSSSSSSUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKSSSSSSS SO FUCKING BAD!
I would never advocate taking united action against a private citizen, of course, so you are admonished to ignore the information which is provided here for purely historical purposes.

Anti-war vets banned from Long Beach Veteran's Day parade
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 11/08/2007 10:50:52 AM PST

LONG BEACH, Calif.—Anti-war vets have been banned from marching in the 11th Veterans Day Parade in Long Beach. (Because, you know, they were just "phony" soldiers, I guess?)

A participation application filed by Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out was turned down because organizers want Saturday's parade free from politics. (And supporting the war is not a political position, right?)

"They do not fit the spirit of the parade, the spirit being one of gratitude for what the veterans have done," said Martha Thuente, coordinator for the nonprofit Veterans Day Parade Committee. (This person needs to get a few phone calls, imho. She's NOT just "any citizen/organizer, but rather a relatively well-placed and powerful member of the Long Beach 'elite,' to the extent that that is NOT a raving oxymoron.)

"We do not want groups of a political nature, advocating the troops' withdrawal from Iraq," she added. (Like the American Legion, which once tried to foment a coup against FDR, is "non-political?)

Some veterans and anti-war groups were unhappy. (That'd probably qualify for some award for understatement, I 'magine!)

"It's a violation of Democracy, the whole concept which we are allegedly dying for," said Adrian Novotny, a Vietnam vet and local president of Veterans for Peace. He said it was particularly frustrating because the group was allowed to march in the parade last year.

Iraq veteran Jason Lemieux, a Marine who served three tours of duty in Iraq and is now against the war, said he had planned to march as a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

"I wanted to march like the rest of the Iraq veterans," Lemieux said. "I served my country. I'm a veteran of a foreign war. I think I deserve that respect."

The anti-war groups complained to the City Council this week, but City Attorney Bob Shannon said Wednesday that the parade committee was a private, nonprofit organization that had a right to choose its participants. (I recall a similar argument being used to prevent gay groups from marching in Colombus Day parades. The reasoning is STILL specious.)

"These veterans groups certainly have First Amendment rights," Shannon said. "But the parade committee also has the First Amendment right to exclude whoever they wish if (the entry) does not keep within the theme." (BULLSHIT!)

The city provides the staffing, flags, banners, utilities and police protection, Shannon said, but does not play any role in the approval of parade participants. (Then the fucking CITY should withdraw any andf all of its participation, including the permits.)

The City quite clearly gives its imprimatur to the parade. Theat they

Arthur Silber On Chris Floyd: "There Are NO "Lessers Of Two Evils' Here Anymore"

Verbatim: Chris Floyd:

No mainstream Democrat will ever allow full-fledged criminal investigations and prosecutions of Bush II officials for torture and the war crime of military aggression. You know and I know that's not going to happen. We will get, at most, some soaring rhetoric about "healing national wounds" and "coming together again" and "moving on." (With the outside possibility of a few small fry being offered up as sacrifices, to let the Dem president preen as the "restorer of the rule of law" -- and also purge the Republicans, and Bush, of the worst taint: "Hey, it was a few bad apples, and now they're gone. We've got a clean slate!")

So let's not wring our hands like Russ Feingold, fretting over the Regime's nominees. Let us simply reject, adamantly and utterly, anyone put forward by the Bush Administration -- and anyone who approves anyone put forward by the Bush Administration.

And let us at last be done with the fatal pretense that what we are witnessing today in the war of aggression and the torture program are some kind of aberration, the result of "bad apples" in the White House and Pentagon. Let us instead embrace the truth spoken by Simone de Beauvoir, about the "war on terror" that her native France waged in Algeria (and which is quoted to apt effect by Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine):

To protest in the name of morality against "excesses" or "abuses" is an error which hints at active complicity. There are no "abuses" or "excesses" here, simply an all-pervasive system.

That system is one of authoritarianism and corporatism, coupled with criminal war abroad in the name of American hegemony, that I have discussed here and here.

There is one thing worse than "anyone who approves anyone put forward by the Bush Administration." That is the person who intentionally absents himself from taking a position at all -- the person who claims he recognizes evil and, precisely at the moment the battle is joined and one must either resist evil or support it, removes himself from the conflict, thus ensuring that evil will triumph.

Into this category -- which is perhaps the most abominable of all moral categories -- fall most of the major Democratic presidential contenders. Chris Floyd again:

The only four Democratic senators who did not vote on the nomination of Mukasey – and the legitimization of torture and presidential tyranny it represents – were the four Democratic senators seeking the presidency.

Draw your own conclusions on the implications of these absences, and what they portend for the possibilities of genuine reform should any of these worthy paladins win the White House.

I am sick to death of hearing Democratic apologists, including many prominent liberal and progressive bloggers, make excuses for these loathsome human beings -- or, which is worse, watching them ignore these assaults on liberty, humanity and civilization, just as these presidential contenders ignore ongoing crimes that they could try to stop if they cared to. Try to understand this: the Democrats will not "save" you, me, the United States, the Constitution, or the dying, moaning animal that just got run over in the road. The Democrats are coequal partners in this monstrousness. They have been for many decades. In one critical respect, the Democrats are worse than the Republicans.

But go on. Keep telling yourselves you support the Democrats because otherwise, the state of things will be even worse. How exactly will they be worse? We are now a barbarian, pariah nation, one that officially endorses and utilizes torture, just as the most disgustingly brutal and inhumane regimes in history have endorsed it. We commit genocidal murder against peoples and nations who have never seriously threatened us. The Democrats could stop the murder, but they refuse to do so. The foundations of liberty have been completely destroyed, and the Democrats have no intention of restoring them. Full dictatorship could descend upon us via many routes -- and the Democrats refuse to close off even one of them.

So how exactly could things be worse? Lie to yourselves if you must, simply to get through the day without detesting yourselves as much as some of the rest of us detest you. But don't lie to everyone else any longer.

Decent, intelligent people see through the lies, all the way to your pathetically rotten souls. If you support Democrats as inextricable parts of one of the core institutions of power in contemporary America, you are supporting evil -- while you simultaneously make sickeningly dishonest claims to some kind of superior moral virtue. At present, it would appear that some bloggers can do virtually nothing but lie. In such cases, I have one suggestion to offer: shut the hell up.

AND: Not so by the way, some of us saw all this very clearly before the last election. I did.

ALSO: I linked this essay above, but I hadn't reread it in its entirety for some months. I just did: "Living Under the Guillotine's Blade." It's damned good. I hope you read it, too.

Alternet Asks: "Will Democrats Restore Our Liberties Stolen in the Bush Era?" Short Answer: "Yeah, Right!"

Repealing the Patriot Act, ending warrantless wiretapping, restoring habeas corpus -- have Democratic leaders figured out that these are winning issues in the aftermath of Bush's power grab?

Ari Melber, AlterNet (posted November 10, 2007) sez: "Yes and no, maybe, if you're lucky."

Most rank-and-file Democrats strongly support constitutional rights, from grizzled ACLU liberals to Iowa Caucus voters to MoveOn's web enthusiasts, and the issue regularly competes with Iraq as a top priority for party activists. Yet Democratic leaders are much more ambivalent. The Democratic Congress buckled in its largest civil liberties clash with the White House, passing legislation to expand warrantless spying in August. And while Democratic presidential contenders are better -- they all opposed the surveillance bill and the administration's unconstitutional Military Commissions Act -- few have used the full power of their office to advocate constitutional rights. As the Bush era of radical secrecy, unitary executive power and openly unconstitutional leadership draws to a close, the Democrats are still debating how to restore rights and liberties while waging a more effective battle against terrorists.

Both Hillary and Obama say they''ll restore Habeas Corpus. Well I should FUCKING HOPE SO...

The real question is: Why would it even be an issue? And Obama says he supports Chris Dodd's bill (we'll see: Obama is a Dem Specter on a lot of issues, full of rhetoric and bluster, but significantly lacking when it comes to votes).

So I do NOT expect prompt, effective action on restoring the Fourth Amendment front after the coming election. The Fourth Amendment is the fundamental piece of the protections that shield the People form the o'erweaning desires of the State. Nobody in power, and almost nobody who seeks power, now REALLY wants to see a strong Fourth (or 14th) Amendment. Take it to de bank, chers...

Shamelss Ploy: Sadly,No! Abortion-a-Thon Courts Blog-Award Voters

In the context of which I commented:

There is a fairly large fraction of male ‘pro-lifers’ who, effectively, accuse ALL women of having to have abortions because they believe/fear All women are heartless whores who abort without compunction--for 'convenience.' I have wondered long and loud what might befall if their women truly understood they were pre-judged by their own menfolk to behave that way, too?

Bobbitry amid the babbitry?

If I Had Children, I Might Feel Strongly Enough To Take The Law Into My Own Hands

Arthur Silber writes (you read!): Consider:

This is where we've come: two criminal gangs run the United States from Washington. Neither of them understands the supreme and sacred value of an individual human life. Neither understands any matter of principle relating to liberty or peace. Both of them are intent upon power, no matter how many innocent people must die, and regardless of how many countries must be destroyed, including our own.<[p>This is your government today. Two murdering, thieving, plundering, power-mad gangs, both of which deserve the worst fate that can be imagined. These are the people who will rule you for years to come.

This is our national life now -- and this is your future.

The Franchise, the fundamental power of the People to rein in elected officials, was insufficient (predictably, given the economic culture of unrestrained, predatory capitalism that dominates ALL aspects of USer society) to prevent these criminal/civic abominations. It will also (again predictably, and for the same reason) be insufficient to provide remedies to stop or reverse them. What it will require is blood in the streets, heads on pikes, and a plethora of dime-sized fucking holes freely distributed among the complicit fux who refuse to honor their commitments (that's why they call it an "OATH," you fucking asshwholes!@) to preserve and defend the Constitution, goddamn it!.

The government of the People is not homologous with the management of a firm. In 'bidness,' gaming the system works because 'everybody' games the system; people go out of bidness who aren't either good or willing; which is why 'bidness ethics' is such a reliably laughable oxymoron.

But governing the People? That CAN only work when folks who know how to game the System have sufficient honor to refrain. If they don't, they should not be IN "government," and probably they should be in prison, in exile, or dead. Such are the stakes when you game (an euphemism for 'betray') the People.

Nobody Takes You Really Seriously As An "Oppressor-State" Til You've Got "State Security Police Apparatus" For Dissidents

Silly me, I used to think the USer Interior Army might be the National Guard, and that the Bush Cabal had deployed so many members of the Guard to Iraq to 'bloody' them and get them used to taking orders to shoot 'extremists' or 'insurgents' on command.

But I had reckoned without the magic of the marketplace. Rather than relay on members of the Guard to foresake their loyalty to their communities and open fire on command no matter the targets, the Bush Cabal solves the problem by enlisting 'private security firms' whose operatives have, ipso facto, forsaken any such loyalties for the employers' cash.

The threats and dangers, both implied and real, of Blackwater's rise to power have not been widely enough told, much less deeply enough explored amid the myriad hours of coverage by the mainstream media. So Truthout's Geoff Millard sat down with Jeremy Scahill, author of a new book on the mercenary firm. In this interview, Scahill delves deep into the real dangers of a private mercenary army as powerful as Blackwater.

It is well to recall that Goering's SA/SS started out as a private (Partei) army of disaffected, former military thugs and gunsels, too.

Another burst of interest in my posts in which I featured the Fallujah Bridge photo.

These things come in waves. There have been 41 hits on this site this morning already, more than half of which have been directed thence by searches for a particular image: the charred, mutilated corpses of the four Blackwater mercs ambushed, killed and desecrated in Fallujah, Iraq, in early 2005, hanging from the girders of that bridge while exultant 'insurgents' smile and mug before the camera.

That event was the primary trigger for the unrestrained USer military assault on the city some months later, the city's eventual reduction to mainly ruins, and the deaths of uncounted innocent Iraqi civilians. If not in scale, at least in intent, the USer razing of Fallujah approaches the 1937 Japanese rape of Nanjing in the annals of needless slaughter and savage war-criminality.

These searches have resulted, in my case, in unexpectedly high numbers of hits. Not that I'm complaining; mebbe somebody comes looking for a gruesome photo, but comes back for the perverse profanity, obscene obloquy, and/or eloquent epithet...Anyway, welcome (I guess)...

BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award to Jon Stewart

This Week's BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award Goes to Jon Stewart: "If the emperor wears no clothes, it's in large part because Jon Stewart has disrobed him."

Unfortunately, the Daily Show is in repeat mode til the writers' strike is settled. I am a union guy, and my sympathies lie with the writers. But I hope it's settled soon.

All Gloom & Doom Makes A Boring Blog: H/w The Reason Why Things Are As They Are

Veterinarian friend of mine sent this along.

Subject: Life lessons???

On the first day, God created the dog and said, "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years."

The dog said, "That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?"  God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said, "Entertain people, do tricks and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span."

The monkey said, "Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?" And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said, "You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years."

The cow said, "That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?" And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created man and said, "Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years."

But man said, "Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?"

"Okay," God said. "You asked for it."

So that is why the first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

And now you know...

(Crossposted on Correntewire and MyLeftWing.)

Blackwater: Spies for Hire? This is beyond privatizing.

Blackwater's Owner Has Spies for Hire
Ex-U.S. Operatives Dot Firm's Roster
(via Truthout)
By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 3, 2007; Page A01

First it became a brand name in security for its work in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now it's taking on intelligence.

The Prince Group, the holding company that owns Blackwater Worldwide, has been building an operation that will sniff out intelligence about natural disasters, business-friendly governments, overseas regulations and global political developments for clients in industry and government.

The operation, Total Intelligence Solutions, has assembled a roster of former spooks -- high-ranking figures from agencies such as the CIA and defense intelligence -- that mirrors the slate of former military officials who run Blackwater. Its chairman is Cofer Black, the former head of counterterrorism at CIA known for his leading role in many of the agency's more controversial programs, including the rendition and interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects and the detention of some of them in secret prisons overseas.

Its chief executive is Robert Richer, a former CIA associate deputy director of operations who was heavily involved in running the agency's role in the Iraq war.

Total Intelligence Solutions is one of a growing number of companies that offer intelligence services such as risk analysis to companies and governments. Because of its roster and its ties to owner Erik Prince, the multimillionaire former Navy SEAL, the company's thrust into this world highlights the blurring of lines between government, industry and activities formerly reserved for agents operating in the shadows.

Udall: "I'll Announce Within Two Weeks."

Tom Udall, the long-time back-bencher occupying the NM-3 seat (northern New Mexico) is seen by many observers as having pretty much a lock on the Senate seat being relinquished next year by "Pajama" Pete Domenici, if he decides to run for it. In a field of near-unknowns (Wiviot, et al), too-well knowns (loathesome Albuquerque machine mayor, DINO Martin Chavez, has announced for the seat, too) and with Diane Denish, the State's very popular Lt. Gov. taking herself out of the running recently (saving herself for a run at the Gov. job in 2010), with Bill Richardson committed to the presidential contest, Udall would/should be the overwhelming favorite against any GOP candidate (the field includes Heather Wilson, Domenici's heir-apparent/little laptop, and Steve Pearce, the Bushevik-loyalist incumbent in NM-1). Polls show Udall winning handily over ANY GOP candidate.

Amid cheers of "Run, Tom, Run," at this weekend's Democratic Party of New Mexico's State Central Committee meeting at CNM's Smith-Brasher Hall in Albuquerque, Udall was both coy and temporizing: "Bottom line: Udall will take another two weeks to listen to what the people and his family have to say, and weigh the pros and cons of giving up his secure U.S. House seat in Northern New Mexico before making a decision on entering the 2008 U.S. Senate in New Mexico."

The decision is difficult for Udall, scion of a noted Western family of environmentalist ranchers that includes both his brother, his father, and his uncle. His father, Stewart Udall, was elected four times to Congress before being appointed Secretary of the Interior by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Tom's uncle Morris ("Mo") Udall served in Congress for 30 years and was a major presidential contender in 1976. Representative Mark Udall (D-CO) and Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) are Tom's cousins and current members of Congress. He won his current seat with 75% of the votes, a sufficient margin to mark it as a sinecure, should he wish to remain in the House, where his influence, due to his environmental credentials, is certain to increase, especially should a Democrat win the presidency this year.

There are clips from the weekend meeting, and excerpts from Udall's address up at "DemocracyForNewMexico.com.

Black Mesa, San Ildefonso, NM

At it's most prosaic, it's called a "lava plug." Some millions of years ago, it formed during an immense volcanic event strewed lava over some 1000 square miles of what is now northern New Mexico, and spewed ash and gas all over the world. It emerged as water flowed down the so-called Rio Grande Rift, and the winds blew, and the seasons changed.

As a poetic representation, it occupies a central place in the legends and myths of the several pueblos to which it is adjacent or at least proximate. According to the story at San Ildefonso, on the east side of the River, on which land the Mesa stands, it is the dead heart of a famously cruel and ravenous Giant. The Giant terrorized the People for long years, demanding the sacrifice of their young children to feed his appetites. Finally a set of Holy Twins was borne to the Pueblo, who knew it was their destiny to kill the Giant. When they were of an appropraite age to propitiate the Giant, the Holy Twins went out of the Pueblo and went to the Giant. They were small, and he swept them up and consumed them in a single bite, so swiftly that he didn't even chew the morsels; just swallowed them whole. This was what the Twins had planned on, and they bore with them sharp knives. With them they set about to slice up the Giant from within. In a few hours, they had cut their way out. In the process, they climbed his ribs and stabbed him in the heart. They led the lost children back to the People, and the heart of the Giant remained to remind the People of the gift of the Twins.

That's the way I heard it, anyway.

And this time of year, there are fewer more beautiful places to watch the flow of Autumn down the Rio Grande than on the Santa Clara highway on the west side of the River, when the afternoon sunlight turns the ground almost as golden as the leaves in the tops of the cottonwoods at the riverside.

Probably, it was best 10 days or two weeks ago. It's even more beautiful if there's been an early snow in the Sangres.

What If The Good Samaritan Had Had To Ask For Papers Before Offering To Help?

It'd be a whole 'nother Bible, wouldn't it?

So you gotta wonder where a whole State full of the most prodigiously, proudly, persistently "Christianist-religious" folks you can imagine got the idea behind the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007 which went into effect yesterday. Any person in Oklahoma who provides a ride anywhere to anyone not a legal resident is liable for a 1-year stint in the pokey.

I'll let The John Birch Society, one of the original sponsors of the measure, explain:

On November 1, a new illegal alien bill became law in Oklahoma, and it is one of the toughest in the country. Earlier in the week, on Monday, an opposition group delivered 1,100 signed petitions to the governor's office. On Thursday, local JBS leader Clark Curry delivered nearly 2,700 signed petitions he had collected at the 2006 Oklahoma State Fair in support of "no amnesty."

"The people of the great state of Oklahoma have taken a giant step forward to protect the critical public resources available to legal, taxpaying citizens by passing the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007. Now they want to see it carried out," Curry stated.

The new law helps to keep illegal aliens from receiving public assistance by requiring proof of citizenship or valid visas before being able to get government identification, such as a driver license. Those charged with a felony or with driving under the influence will have their citizenship verified or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will be notified. The law also makes it illegal to transport or harbor illegal immigrants. Public employers and their subcontractors have to register with a Basic Pilot Program to verify the work authorization status of all new employees.

The law reads:

The State of Oklahoma finds that illegal immigration is causing economic hardship and lawlessness in this state and that illegal immigration is encouraged by public agencies within this state that provide public benefits without verifying immigration status. The State of Oklahoma further finds that illegal immigrants have been harbored and sheltered in this state and encouraged to reside in this state through the issuance of identification cards that are issued without verifying immigration status, and that these practices impede and obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law, undermine the security of our borders, and impermissibly restrict the privileges and immunities of the citizens of Oklahoma. Therefore, the people of the State of Oklahoma declare that it is a compelling public interest of this state to discourage illegal immigration by requiring all agencies within this state to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The State of Oklahoma also finds that other measures are necessary to ensure the integrity of various governmental programs and services.

"While there are those that claim we cannot deport all the illegal aliens," Curry said, "it’s clear to the state of Oklahoma that we won’t be catering to their needs any longer and in the resulting environment, they will merely deport themselves."

I commend you to the site to cast your eyes upon the smiling author of this deathless prose.

P.S.: In the interests of honesty and full disclosure, I hereby admit to having spent 30 wonderful years in Oklahoma, from 1994 to 2000.

Is the "Perfect" the enemy of the "Good?"

The Lieberman-Warner "Environmental Sell-out to Polluters" bill got through its first markup in committee yesterday. Kate Shepard on Tapped:

Yesterday afternoon, John Kerry held a conference call with bloggers that covered a range of topics, from international accords to probably the hottest domestic topic, the Lieberman-Warner bill, or "America's Climate Security Act."...Kerry seemed to think that worries about passing weaker legislation now and getting stuck with it are unfounded. We can pass a plan now and strengthen it later, he says, as support for action on climate change grows among citizens and businessfolk

.Just out of curiosity, can somebody provide examples of bills--legislation, yaknow?-- which were regarded as too weak at their passage, and which were subsequently STRENGTHENED in the public interest--that is, their regulatory properties were INCREASED--later at the expense of the interests which assured their weakness in the first place?

Dunno Know If Anybody EVER Believed It, But Murkins Usta SAY It Were Better That 20 Guilty Men Go Free Than That 1 Innocent Man Be Unjustly Imprisoned

That's now regarded as mainly exceptionalist propaganda/bullshit promulgated for the benefit of children and other naifs, as well as certain deluded exogenes who have no way of knowing any better.

The merest glance is enough to assure the observer that this is NOT the way that USer Jurisprudence functions today. On a program called "HumanKind," radio folks spoke with a Chicago-based attorney/reporter, Rob Warden, director of the Northwestern University Innocence Project, whose efforts have led to the release of many DOZENS of innocent people whose innocence Warden led the drive to prove, including no fewer than SIX who were on death row. Warden cited USDoJ documents which indicate as many as 1 person in 10 (10%) of those now serving prison sentences probably were innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted and sentenced.

And I recall a study reported several years ago by The Nation which indicated that over 65% of USers do NOT find it unacceptable that an innocent person should be executed by the State, if in doing so it preserves the death penalty.

This is one majorly fucked-up country, folks, if the people so easily accept the wrongful imprisonment, much less the execution, of an innocent person by the State as an acceptable price for the "convenience" of having a Death Penalty.

But, since 1980, and the so-called Reagan Revolution, this is/has become such fucked-up country in so many ways, mebbe one more way doesn't matter.

Wars Without End, Amen

Sen./Candidate Chris Dodd, in DemDebIX, last night addressed the issue of marijuana decriminalization more candidly, and more honestly than is usual in these increasingly censorious times. He described how criminalizing marijuana use filled the prisons, clogged the judicial system, and severely sanctioned a behavior that is less toxic than at least one, and probably many "legal" drugs. God knows Dodd's remarks were an island of sanity in a torrent of craziness where marijuana is concerned. But I am very skeptical that any sanity can or shall attend further discussions of decriminalization for a number of reasons.

Too Many Jobs, Too Much Pork, Too Much POWER Depends On TheWarOnDrugs (TWOD) to imagine that those who benefit, profit, and prosper because of it will surrender their perqs.

Like its younger sibling, GWOT (though domestically, rather than internationally), TheWarOnDrugs (TWOD) is an amazingly useful program. It is a staple in the repression of people of color: pot busts put a blot on your record in the "serious" universe. One way to keep 'undesirables' out of the work place is to disqualify 'em from the get-go, nest pas? It doesn't matter HOW you test, it's WHO you test. Pot convictions can disqualify a person from voting. Very useful for disenfranchising potentially disruptive voters.

The prison guards' union in California has prevented reform of the 'three-strikes' and 'mandatory sentencing' laws--the victims of which are overwhelmingly drug(and mainly pot)related charges--ferociously lobbying state lawmakers to defeat them because it would mean a loss of jobs if the reforms passed and fewer people were incarcerated, necessitating fewer guards to manage them.

California also has chosen to build prisons instead of universities. Which is suggestive of the the trajectory of anticipated social mobility and utility for the foreseeable future.

Thom Hartmann frequently repeats the statistic that there are nearly a MILLION home invasions every year by police, the MAJORITY of which are prompted by nothing more sinister than the report of a family-crop.

Police forces and municipalities prosper from the appropriation of drug-related property.

The drug-testing industry has only really gotten off the ground in the last decade or so, but it already constitutes a huge, wealthy factor in TWOD, when every kid in America who wants to participate in sports must submit to tests in which the primary object is to discover marijuana and steroid use.

I admire Dodd for his candor, and abominate the others for their caution. But likely as not, TWOD will endure as long as the GWOT...endlessly!

Mukasey Won't Say Waterboarding's Torture? Izzat Cuz His Buddies In Mossad Do It?

TruthOut.com has the link:

Dan Eggen reports for The Washington Post, "Attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey told Senate Democrats yesterday that a kind of simulated drowning known as waterboarding is 'repugnant to me,' but he said he does not know whether the interrogation tactic violates US laws against torture."

Repugnant? Hey, I've Got An Idea: Let's Waterboard the Motherfucker! Then mebbe he'll decide. I volunteer to hold his fucking head still while they fill the towel.

It deserves mentioning in this context that folks who HAVE undergone it declare it to, in fact, BE torture by any definition you'd care to try to craft.

There is No Debate Except for Torture Apologists

1. Waterboarding is a torture technique. Period. There is no way to gloss over it or sugarcoat it. It has no justification outside of its limited role as a training demonstrator. Our service members have to learn that the will to survive requires them accept and understand that they may be subjected to torture, but that America is better than its enemies and it is one’s duty to trust in your nation and God, endure the hardships and return home with honor.

2. Waterboarding is not a simulation. Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word.

Waterboarding is a controlled drowning that, in the American model, occurs under the watch of a doctor, a psychologist, an interrogator and a trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning. How much the victim is to drown depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the final death spiral.

Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration –usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten with its use again and again.

Call it “Chinese Water Torture,” “the Barrel,” or “the Waterfall,” it is all the same. Whether the victim is allowed to comply or not is usually left up to the interrogator. Many waterboard team members, even in training, enjoy the sadistic power of making the victim suffer and often ask questions as an after thought. These people are dangerous and predictable and when left unshackled, unsupervised or undetected they bring us the murderous abuses seen at Abu Ghraieb, Baghram and Guantanamo. No doubt, to avoid human factors like fear and guilt someone has created a one-button version that probably looks like an MRI machine with high intensity waterjets.

3. If you support the use of waterboarding on enemy captives, you support the use of that torture on any future American captives. The Small Wars Council had a spirited discussion about this earlier in the year, especially when former Marine Generals Krulak and Hoar rejected all arguments for torture.

The moon-faced ghoul John Yoo, who still inexplicably holds a position at Boaldt Hall, the UC law school, is another of the Chimp'
s Neo-con 'legal advisors' who--like Abu Gonzales--approved torture, and whose personal experience with the procedure I would cheerfully abet.

I am no fan of genetically modified 'Franken-Foods."

Maybe if Al Gore spoke about the dangers of GM food we’d listen? Until he does we must listen to the scientists:

“The genetic modification of food is intrinsically dangerous. It involves making irreversible changes in a random manner to a complex level of life about which little is known. It is inevitable that this hit-and-miss approach will lead to disasters. It must disrupt the natural intelligence of the plant or animal to which it is applied, and lead to health-damaging side-effects.” -Dr Geoffrey Clements, leader of the Natural Law Party, UK

“If you look at the simple principle of genetic modification it spells ecological disaster. There are no ways of quantifying the risks……The solution is simply to ban the use of genetic modification in food." -Dr Harash Narang, microbiologist and senior research associate at the University of Leeds, who originally caused a scientific and political storm by claiming a link between mad cow disease and CJD in humans.

“The (testing) ssues have simply not been addressed and I think that’s what is profoundly unsatisfactory. The fundamental problem of the way in which GM foods have been approved is that they haven’t really been tested properly at all. All that has happened is something which I would characterize as an exercise in wishful thinking.”-Dr. Erik Millstone, Sussex University, on the inadequacies of GM food testing interviewed in a Channel 4 report on the “substanial equivalence” proceedure for GM foods which the program claimed is a testing system agreed in a backroom deal between governments and companies designed to get GM products onto the market quickly and cheaply.

“Genetic modification of food is a dangerous game of ecological roulette. To take one example, I’m sure there will be a significant increase in deaths from certain types of cancer. If that is the only adverse effect we will have been lucky.
We simply cannot predict the ecological effects of genetic modification. GM forces evolution to take place in one generation rather than hundreds.
Manipulating DNA creates a new substance and it may not behave in the same ways as the origninal version. And existing tests, which only detect already-known toxins, may not reveal man-made ones.
We simply do not know what we are doing.” -Samuel Epstein, M.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition

‘We simply do not have enough reliable scientific evidence on their safety to be able to make a valid decision as to whether there are potential health effects or not.” -Charles Saunders, chairman of the British Medical Association’s public health committee

“Potentially disastrous effects may come from undetected harmful substances in Genetically Modified Foods.”-Dr Andrew Chesson, vice chairman of European Commission scientific committee on animal nutrition and formerly an ardent advocate of food biotechnology (A year earlier Dr Chesson chaired the audit committee which ruled there was no evidence to support Dr Pusztai’s claims on the toxicity of GM potatoes).

“The scientific case put forward for this GM maize is not adequate. If the GM maize was approved for commercial growing in the UK then people would be justified in turning their back on consuming milk derived from it. As a scientist I wouldn’t drink milk from cows fed GM maize with the present state of knowledge.” -Professor Bob Orskov, director of the International Feed Resource Unit in Aberdeen, Scotland at UK MAFF hearings in London, October 2000, concerning proposals to allow Aventis’s GM forage maize, Chardon LL onto the National Seed List.

“We don’t know shit about biology.” -Craig Venter, the scientist whose company completed the sequencing of the human genome in 2000 (”Decoding the genome” Ralph Brave, Jan. 9, 2001)

“Probably the greatest threat from genetically altered crops is the insertion of modified virus and insect virus genes into crops. It has been shown in the laboratory that genetic recombination will create highly virulent new viruses from such constructions. Certainly the widely used cauliflower mosaic virus [CaMV] is a potentially dangerous gene. It is a pararetrovirus meaning that it multiplies by making DNA from RNA messages. It is very similar to the Hepatitis B virus and related to HIV.” -Dr. Joseph Cummins, professor emeritus in genetics from the university of West-Ontario

“Next time you hear a scientist asserting that gene splicing is safe, remind yourself that there is no scientific evidence for that statement. We are profoundly ignorant about what we are doing to the code that generates all life. And unfortunately some scientists, including those entrusted with public safety, are willing to lie.”-Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College.

Addendum: I posted this on another blog (MyLeftWing), where a commentor remarked "For me, these guys sound so over-the-top hysterical about GM foods that I really can't take them all that seriously -- nothing is this black and white. Not every single genetic modification is harmful. I doubt every genetic modification is beneficial and harmless...We won't know the reality for a long time, I think." To which i replied: You're 100, no 1000 , no even 1,000,000 percent right
that not every man-made genetic mutation is gonna prove disastrous...but it only takes one..."

They Should Be Naming Fucking Post Offices, Not Judges

And especially NOT to life-time tenure posts. The Chimp's a gimp: limp/quack. Why give him/them ANY-fucking-THING?
I mean, has ANY Bush Cabal nominee EVER been honest in their confirmation hearings? Think about it: Every last fucking one of 'em has said what they need to say to get the job, and then done whatever the Chimp/Cheney tells ’em to do.
Have the Dems ever prevented a controversial Bush cabal nominee from assuming whatsoever position for which they were nominated? mebbe John Bolton?
And don’t gimme the Belgian Ambassador.
Dodd says he'll block Mukasey unless the nominee makes an unambiguous statement naming 'water-boarding' (a favorite tactic of the SS, 70 years ago) as torture. Even if Mukasey tells Dodd what he wants/needs to hear, once he’s in office, there’s absolutely no way to prevent him from, or punish him for, reneging on those statements.
Last week, that peerless “Liberal” shitheel Diane Feinstein voted to move the nomination of Leslie Southwich out of committee with a MAJORITY vote. Southwick’s nomination was up for confirmation by the whole senate last week. It passed,59-38, with Feinstein leading the defection of 9 “Dems”: Akaka (Hawaii), Byrd (West Virginia), Conrad (North Dakota), Dorgan (North Dakota), Feinstein, Johnson (South Dakota—why were we waiting for that shitheel to get well?), Lieberman (Independent-Connecticut), Lincoln (Arkansas), Nelson (Nebraska), and Pryor (Arkansas) voting with the PUKES!
More to the point:
What the fuck are the craven, Vichy Dems doing moving ANY fucking BushInc nominees into life-time seats on ANY-fucking-THING?

They should be naming post offices, not naming judges.

Rummy On The Run: Ex-SecDef Joins Kissinger Escaping Int'l Justice

Schadenfreude is occasionally an unbecoming emotion.
But in this case, I forgive me.
Quote:

Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today fearing arrest over charges of "ordering and authorizing" torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the US military's detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest.

US embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bush's "war on terror" for six years.

Under international law, authorities in France are obliged to open an investigation when a complaint is made while the alleged torturer is on French soil.

According to activists in France, who greeted Rumsfeld shouting "murderer" and "war criminal" at the breakfast meeting venue, US embassy officials remained tight-lipped about the former defense secretary's whereabouts citing "security reasons".

Anti-torture protesters in France believe that the defense secretary fled over the open border to Germany, where a war crimes case against Rumsfeld was dismissed by a federal court. But activist point out that under the Schengen agreement that ended border checkpoints across a large part of the European Union, French law enforcement agents are allowed to cross the border into Germany in pursuit of a fleeing fugitive.

"Rumsfeld must be feeling how Saddam Hussein felt when US forces were hunting him down," activist Tanguy Richard said. "He may never end up being hanged like his old friend, but he must learn that in the civilized world, war crime doesn't pay."

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and the French League for Human Rights (LDH) filed the complaint on Thursday after learning that Rumsfeld was scheduled to visit Paris.

Run, Rummie, Run. But you cannot hide, you detestable, lying, murderous, torturing sack of sheepshit.