[political-research] Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: #25: Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America via Amazon.com: Bestsellers in Books on 3/12/08 Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America by Steven Waldman (Author) Average Customer Review: Buy new: $26.00 $17.16 2 used new from $17.16 (Ranking is updated hourly. Visit the Bestsellers in Books list for authoritative information on this product's current rank.) Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Amazon.com: Bestsellers in Books using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Yes, Richard, I Have Too Much Money
[Phil Weiss on a heroic quest to salvage the best of the Jewish tradition, speaking in the finest prophetic voice of the Old Testament... History will judge Weiss to have gotten these issues right... And let me emphasize that excessive greed is a universal human phenomenon, not confined to any particular ethnic or religious group...] Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Yes, Richard, I Have Too Much Money via Mondoweiss by Philip Weiss on 3/12/08 Richard Witty has challenged me, re my belief that Jews make too much money: Do you have too much money? Do you think I do? I don't know about you Richard, but I think I do. And no, I don't have the strength of character to give any back, I am competitive as the next jerk. But I do think there's something terribly wrong with a society that has created such a gulf between the rich and the poor, in part through the work of the tax code and the hedge funds and the elitist meritocracy. I would like to see a much fairer society, and would vote against my economic self-interest on that score. (As Jews often do). As I have said before, the chattering classes are utterly separated from the battering ones. Iraq was enabled by that separation. The reason I single out my people, Jews, is that I believe our unprecedented wealth (unprecedented in our history) has created 1, a political imbalance in the life of this democracy, in which presidential candidates kowtow to American Jewry, trying to be further and further right on horrifying injustices in the Middle East, which they conspire in blinding the American people to and 2, a real if unacknowledged crisis in Jewish values. I believe 1, is a subject for journalism and political speechifying and even legislation. I think 2 is just a subject for journalism and inquiry and soul-searching. I am routinely shocked by extravagant behavior in the next Jewish generation that would have been unheardof in mine or my parents. I find it shallow, materialistic, thoughtless. It seems to me to be corrupting a great tradition and damaging Jewish values of learning. I know that another commenter said this is true of many rich people today. I agree. But I am talking about my spiritual tradition. And my tone, Oy, My People Are Too Rich was meant to convey that this is a lament... Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Mondoweiss using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Study: Digital universe and its impact bigger than we thought
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Study: Digital universe and its impact bigger than we thought via KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News on 3/11/08 IDC estimates that by 2011 there will be 1,800 exabytes of electronic data in existence (an exabyte is 1 billion gigabytes), at a compound annual growth rate of almost 60 percent from 2006. IDC created a Personal Digital Footprint Calculator ticker, which counts the estimated amount of data created second by second. Worldwide Information Growth Ticker (Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasictaxonomyId=154articleId=9067639intsrc=hm_topic) Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Stored Data to Exceed 1.8 Zettabytes by 2011
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Stored Data to Exceed 1.8 Zettabytes by 2011 via Slashdot by CmdrTaco on 3/12/08 jcatcw writes By 2011, there will be 1.8 zettabytes of electronic data stored in 20 quadrillion files, packets or other containers because of, among other things, the massive growth rate of social networks, and digital equipment such as cameras, cell phones and televisions, according to a new study by IDC. Data is growing by a factor of 10 every five years. According to John Gantz, IDC's lead analyst, at some point in the life of every file, or bit or packet, 85% of that information somewhere goes through a corporate computer, website, network or asset, meaning any given corporation becomes responsible for protecting large amounts of data that it and its customers may not have created. The study, which coincided with the launch of a digital footprint calculator, also found that as the world changes over to digital televisions, analog sets and obsolete set-top boxes and DVDs will be heaped on the waste piles, which will double by 2011. Read more of this story at Slashdot. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Slashdot using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] One State or Two? Neither - Counterpunch, 12 March 2008
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: One State or Two? Neither - Counterpunch, 12 March 2008 via Jonathan Cook News Archive Israel Palestine on 3/12/08 The issue is Zionism Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Jonathan Cook News Archive Israel Palestine using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Joe Lieberman - Our Next Secretary Of Defense?
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Joe Lieberman - Our Next Secretary Of Defense? via Crooks and Liars by Logan Murphy on 3/12/08 If John McCain is our next President it's not just possible, it's a good bet -- and an invasion of Iran would be inevitable. How long would it take? Six months? A year? The very thought of Lieberman as head of State, Defense or DHS scares the hell out of me. From Raw Story: If Sen. John McCain (D-AZ) prevails in his bid to keep the White House in Republican hands for the next four years, one of his most hawkish colleagues could find himself overseeing the Department of Defense, State or Homeland Security within a McCain White House. Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democrats' onetime vice presidential nominee who left the party last year, is seen as a likely McCain pick for a cabinet level appointment, according to Roll Call: Atop McCain's short list, according to closely aligned Republican Senators and aides, likely would be two of the Arizonan's most vocal supporters: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for attorney general or Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) as secretary of State, Defense or Homeland Security. Graham and Lieberman have been stumping for McCain for months and are considered two of the most loyal and ardent backers of his Iraq War policy. Read on... Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Crooks and Liars using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Disagreements by Top Military Brass to Bush-Cheney War Plans
The battle between rational America Firsters vs. messianic Israel Firsters rages on at the highest levels of the American government -- and note once again that this struggle has absolutely nothing to do with the interests of the oil lobby.] [EXCERPT] Fallon is not a lone voice. Many senior and junior officers support Fallon's position. This resignation confirms widespread opposition within the US military command to a war with Iran. It also reflects the inability of the administration to acquire the support of the Military High Command despite shuffles and reshuffles in high level military appointments since the departure of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. . Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Disagreements by Top Military Brass to Bush-Cheney War Plans via GlobalResearch.ca on 3/12/08 For more details, please click on the link to read the article. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to GlobalResearch.ca using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Move Over Hagee
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Move Over Hagee via Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall on 3/12/08 McCain's new spirtual advisor says America was founded to destroy Islam. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Talking Points Memo using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] FBI interrogator: Torture doesn't work, breeds jihad
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: FBI interrogator: Torture doesn't work, breeds jihad via RSSmeme | Stories Published 24 Hours Ago With At Least 5 Shares on 3/10/08 Shared eight times Tagged Civlib (105) Video (1333) Here's a former FBI interrogator -- who interrogated Al Quaeda suspects -- saying categorically that torture does not help collect intelligence, but that it does sell impressionable people on the legitimacy of jihad, on the grounds that a regime that tortures deserves to be attacked. Former FBI Interrogator Jack Cloonan explains that regular interrogation tactics work well on even the worst terrorists, that there's no such thing as a ticking timebomb scenario, and that waterboarding has done much more harm than good. You can also see interviews with Jack Cloonan in the Oscar award-winning documentary, Taxi to the Darkside. Link (via Jon Taplin) Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to RSSmeme | Stories Published 24 Hours Ago With At Least 5 Shares using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] 9/12/2001: CIA Veteran Doubts Bin Laden Capable Of 9/11 Attacks, Suspects La...
[Osama bin Laden DENIED responsibiity for the attacks in his first statement on the subject.] Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: 9/12/2001: CIA Veteran Doubts Bin Laden Capable Of 9/11 Attacks, Suspects Larger Plot via 911Blogger.com - Paying Attention to 9/11 Related Alternative News by Aidan Monaghan on 3/11/08 A 9/12/2001 interview by CBS News' Dan Rather of a CIA veteran who suspects the 9/11 attacks were beyond the ability of Osama Bin Laden and who believes the reported capabilities of Bin Laden are more myth than fact. Vote ResultScore: 10.0, Votes: 2 Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to 911Blogger.com - Paying Attention to 9/11 Related Alternative News using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] The Navy and UFO/ET
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: The Navy and UFO/ET via Exopolitics: The Study of the Politics of Extraterrestrial Contact by edkomarek on 3/11/08 Is the U.S. Navy Pushing UFO/ET Disclosure? By Ed Komarek 3/10/08 Copy and Distribute Freely My blog: http://exopolitics.blogspot.com/ Physicist Dr. Jack Sarfatti posted my Burn Baby Burn article to a mailing list that includes some right wing military and intelligence people. An individual responded saying, These people are the enemy! This is exactly the problem we civilians have been up against for 60 years. We have been treated and targeted as the enemy while the real enemy of the American Republic and democracy worldwide are the global autocratic elitists. The sad truth is that the militaries of the world have been manipulated and brainwashed into thinking that the public is the enemy by these entrenched global interests. Now it appears that factions of the military may be waking up and nipping on the heels of global elites in regards to UFO/ET disclosure. Come on folks wake up and smell the coffee. Just think what would have happened to the environmentally destructive fossil fuels industry in the 1950s if ET related cheap, non polluting energy had become publicly available. What would have happened to the arms industry if peace would have broken out around the world? What would have happened to the whole transportation infrastructure monopolies if we transported in levitating anti-gravity vehicles? Who has the most to lose if extraterrestrial reality became common knowledge? Its past time for the military and the media to wake up. These two institutions are the most critical to the future of this Republic. Should we really think that the people up at the top of the chain of command are constitutionally accountable and are really working in the public interest in regards to extraterrestrial realities? It's pretty obvious to the general population that special interests not the people control the American government and other governments of the world. Think, who ultimately determines the need to know? Is it the President, the Congress, the Judicial, the people? Really? Who is it that needs to operate in the utmost secrecy and the tightest security? Who does secrecy benefit the most? Who really runs the national security apparatus? If you believe Big Brother knows best, well the more power to you but you are wrong. Wither you believe me or not the battle for the heart and soul of the military is in full swing in regards to extraterrestrial realities. We civilians have our counterparts in the military and intelligence community who have caught on to the game at hand. I just heard from Robert Morningstar who has relayed the following from his deep throat contact a military liaison from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the State Department who serves under a Admiral. It is very ironic, Ed, that these concerns are exactly those that were voiced personally to me by our Source. The military of our country is not all Gung Ho on being pawns and flunkies of the New World Orderlies. They are not interested in being global policemen for a mob of greedy Banksters who are willing to sell out our country for the interests of the UN world ruler-ship or the Socialist Gang-Green Peaceniks of the European Union. Robert. Dr. Michael Salla also had this to say in regards to source A. Source A revealed that he was under command of an admiral. The US Navy is therefore spearheading a military effort to get the UFO/extraterrestrial l issue on the public agenda in order to force greater national/global awareness. Michael gives additional material in support of this statement that is added as a addendum to this article. This whole affair with information leaking out all over the place about this secret UN UFO meeting and the accompanying denials and discrediting operations ongoing show deep divisions in the military, the state department and the intelligence community over this matter of UFO/ET disclosure. Dr. Salla has taken the lead and most of the heat in this matter, but many people are involved, and leaks are coming from many sources all over the world as the dike breaks and both sides of the disclosure issue battle it out around the world and across the Internet. The longer the battle goes on, the more people are going to catch on to the fact that it's the criminal elite, the entrenched interests that are primarily responsible for the 60 year cover up of extraterrestrial reality and the extreme damage to society and the global environment. The global elite have had their day but now are on the run and I hope they will one day be captured and tried in The Hague for crimes against humanity. There should be no amnesty, no appeasement given to these sophisticated criminal gangsters who have done so much damage to society and the environment the past sixty years. We need to rid the world of these people and any extraterrestrial allies they might have assisting
[political-research] Testing Over, Hulu.com to Open Its TV and Film Offerings This Week
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Testing Over, Hulu.com to Open Its TV and Film Offerings This Week via KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News on 3/11/08 Hulu.com will make its catalog of TV shows and video clips available to anyone on the Web starting Wednesday. The streaming-video site displays free, ad-supported shows and feature films from NBC, Fox and more than 50 media companies, including Sony Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/business/media/11hulu.html?ref=technology) Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] NSA shifts to e-mail, Web, data-mining dragnet
[The goal, apparently, is to data mine all the Internet activity on the planet in real time, and to archive all the results for eternity...] Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: NSA shifts to e-mail, Web, data-mining dragnet via CNET News.com on 3/11/08 Recent reports say the National Security Agency is more focused on surveillance of e-mail, Web browsing, and search terms than ever before. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to CNET News.com using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] On Point - Soaring Oil and Transportation's Future
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: On Point - Soaring Oil and Transportation's Future via On Point on 3/11/08 Record oil prices are sending shock waves through the economy, nowhere more so than in transportation. We'll look at planes, trains, trucks, and cars -- and our transportation future. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to On Point using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Top U.S. Commander in Mideast to Retire Early
[Yet another Israeli/neocon op -- the firing of William Fallon, who was an obstacle to expanding the Iraq War to Iran.] Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Top U.S. Commander in Mideast to Retire Early via NYT NYTimes.com Home on 3/11/08 Adm. William J. Fallon's views on Iran and other issues seemed to put him at odds with the Bush administration. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to NYT NYTimes.com Home using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Nanaimo, The Google Capital of the World
[There is something appalling about where this is going, no?] Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Nanaimo, The Google Capital of the World via RSSmeme | Stories Published 24 Hours Ago With At Least 5 Shares on 3/11/08 Shared 10 times Tagged google (1992) eldavojohn writes Time.com has up a story on Nanaimo, a British Columbia coal mining town of about 78,000 that has had everything conceivable mapped into a Google database. Citizens can track fire trucks real time. The results also include Google Earth data for Nanaimo. 'The Google fire service allows people to avoid accident sites by tuning electronic devices to automatic updates from the city's RSS news feed, says fire captain Dean Ford. Eventually, Nanaimo plans to equip its grass-cutting machines with GPS devices, so residents piqued by the apparent shabbiness of a particular park or grass verge can use Google to find out when last it was groomed by the city's gardening staff. And the city's cemeteries will soon be mapped to allow Internet users to find out who is buried in each plot, says Kristensen. A new multi-million-dollar conference center, opening in June, will have 72 wireless access points to allow out-of-towners to use their laptops to navigate the Google Earth version of the city.' Read more of this story at Slashdot. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to RSSmeme | Stories Published 24 Hours Ago With At Least 5 Shares using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Big Picture on Fallon
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Big Picture on Fallon via Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall on 3/11/08 The interlocking rumor and speculation mills are now buzzing with theories about whether Adm. Fallon jumped or was pushed from his perch as the top military commander for US military forces across the Middle East (what the Pentagon refers to as 'Central Command'). But there is a big picture that is important to keep in focus. That is, quite simply, that Fallon is leaving because he was apparently too sane for the Bush White House. Those may seem like fighting words, but they're not. By all accounts, the points of contention between Fallon and Bush administration officials centered on three points: 1) his belief that the indefinite occupation of Iraq is a disaster for the US military, 2) that diplomacy has a central role in American foreign and national security policy, 3) that war is not a credible policy for the US to pursue in dealing with Iran. The last of these was believed to be the key issue. Bear in mind too that Fallon was not foisted on the White House. Nor was he a holdover from a previous administration. The administration chose him. And while the political leadership of the Pentagon and the White House can't choose just anyone for that job they have a fair amount of latitude to choose an officer of sufficient rank who is to their liking -- a prerogative this administration has availed itself of as much or more as any in modern American history. It is widely believed in media and political circles that despite the difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan, American foreign policy is back under some kind of adult/mainstream management. In other words, that we've left the Cheney/Rumsfeld era behind for a period of Gates/Rice normalcy and that Iran regime change adventurism is safely off the table. But put together what the disagreements with Fallon were about, the fact that the president chose him as someone he thought he could work with not more than one year ago, and the almost unprecedented nature of the resignation and it becomes clear that that assumption must be gravely in error. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Talking Points Memo using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Fallon on His Sword
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Fallon on His Sword via Talking Points Memo by David Kurtz on 3/11/08 Like other professional classes -- lawyers and scientists come immediately to mind -- the military officer corps is seen by the White House as a threat to its own Executive Branch hegemony. That's the key to understanding today's resignation by Adm. William Fallon, the commander in chief of Central Command. The resignation of a CINC is a big deal, under almost any circumstance. But considering the Bush Administration's seven-year effort to put the Pentagon under its thumb, the resignation of a commander like Fallon, who by most accounts was willing to exercise his independent military judgment, is another setback for the professional officer corps as an institution. Make no mistake. None of the Bush Administration's efforts in this regard has been about re-asserting civilian control over the military in some constitutional sense. The effort has been focused on degrading the autonomy, independence, and institutional authority of the Pentagon in order to further the narrow ideological and partisan aims of this particular White House. Fallon was considered by many to be the one man standing between Dick Cheney and bombing Iran. So in the short term, Fallon's resignation raises concerns about our future policy towards Iran (and as Spencer Ackerman notes, those concerns are likely to be greatest in Iran itself). So much for the return to mainstream foreign policy that was going to be led by Bob Gates and Condi Rice. In the long-term, Fallon's resignation -- in some ways forced, perhaps in other ways dictated by circumstance -- does much of the same damage to the Pentagon as has already been done to the Justice Department and the supposedly independent regulatory agencies. Defense Secretary Gates was supposed to be a bulwark against the White House's ongoing efforts to erode the Pentagon. But Fallon was apparently too independent. The White House wanted someone, as Esquire said, more pliable. Another Tommy Franks. And we all remember where that led. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Talking Points Memo using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Why John McCain Holds Tightly to John Hagee and Christian Zionists in General
It's all about ISRAEL, period. Where's the analysis and calculations of the AMERICAN interest? Ain't there, not even slightly -- which is why the United States is heading for a major crash. How did so many American politicians get stuck in this self-destructive, robotic groove? There's the question. [BEGIN QUOTE] He [McCain] also went on to say that we shouldn't be so quick to judge Hagee because he's a big supporter of Israel and also supports an indefinite occupation of Iraq. [END QUOTE] Lovely -- that should make Hagee aces in our book -- a permanent American occupation of Iraq on behalf of Israel. Hagee also supports igniting Armageddon as soon as possible. Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Can't Walk Away via Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall on 3/11/08 Last we heard from John McCain he was denouncing John Hagee's anti-Catholic statements while holding on to his endorsement. But now McCain seems to be having second thoughts. Today McCain went on Hugh Hewitt's Bill Bennett's show and explained that while he would condemn Hagee's anti-Catholic remarks if they were actually anti-Catholic that he's not actually sure they were anti-Catholic. He now points out that Hagee says the remarks were taken out of context and that he'd appreciate if Hagee can be allowed to explain his remarks. Well, obviously I repudiate any comments that are anti-Semitic or anti-Catholic, racist, any other. And I condemn them and I condemn those words that Pastor Hagee apparently -- that Pastor Hagee wrote. I will say that he said that his words were taken out of context, he defends his position. I hope that maybe you'd give him a chance to respond. He also went on to say that we shouldn't be so quick to judge Hagee because he's a big supporter of Israel and also supports an indefinite occupation of Iraq. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Talking Points Memo using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Rolling Stone | The Machinery of Hope
[Bottom-up trumps top-down, New Media trump Old Media, the people trump the oligarchs, the Internet trumps the mainstream media.] Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Rolling Stone | The Machinery of Hope via t r u t h o u t on 3/11/08 Tim Dickinson, reporting for Rolling Stone, writes: The Obama campaign has shattered the top-down, command-and-control, broadcast-TV model that has dominated American politics since the early 1960s. 'They have taken the bottom-up campaign and absolutely perfected it,' says Joe Trippi, who masterminded Dean's Internet campaign in 2004. 'It's light-years ahead of where we were four years ago. They'll have 100,000 people in a state who have signed up on their Web site and put in their zip code. Now, paid organizers can get in touch with people at the precinct level and help them build the organization bottom up. That's never happened before. It never was possible before.' Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to t r u t h o u t using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Washington Post Blogger Says Obama 'Kowtows to Israeli Lobby'
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Washington Post Blogger Says Obama 'Kowtows to Israeli Lobby' via Mondoweiss by Philip Weiss on 3/11/08 What hath Walt and Mearsheimer wrought! Today William Arkin, the Early Warning blogger for the Washington Post, tries to suss out Obama's position on missile defense systems and learns that Obama's only comment relates to Israel: A search of Obama's website yields nothing under homeland security positions, and only one mention of missile defenses. Curiously, according to the website, He has called for continuing U.S. cooperation with Israel in the development of missile defense systems. So here is the real world. The only specific Obama has uttered relates not to defending America itself but kowtowing to the Israeli lobby. I guess we can expect McCain to argue that he'll give even more money to Israel and build an even bigger defensive shield. Isn't kowtow an antisemitic slur? More about Arkin. Former soldier, author, lecturer. Doesn't have a lot of hair. Not sure what he means by Israeli lobby. But I love that: defending America itself. No dual loyalty here. A sign of progress clearly, in a pro-Iraq-war newspaper that printed vicious and sophomoric attacks on Walt and Mearsheimer as teutonic, i.e. Nazis. The center cannot hold. The natives are restless with our Israel policy Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Mondoweiss using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Carlyle Group May Buy Major CIA Contractor via t r u t h o u t on 3/11/08 Tim Shorrock, reporting for CorpWatch, writes: The Carlyle Group manages more than $75 billion in assets and has bought and sold a long string of military contractors since the early 1990s. But in recent years it has significantly reduced its investments in that industry. If it goes ahead with the widely reported plan to buy Booz Allen, it will re-emerge as the owner of one of America's largest private intelligence armies. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to t r u t h o u t using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Fallon's No Iran War Line Angered White House
[One of the good guys, one of the true heroes...] Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Fallon's No Iran War Line Angered White House via t r u t h o u t on 3/11/08 Writing for Inter Press Service, Gareth Porter says, A new article on CENTCOM commander Adm. William Fallon confirms that his public statements last fall ruling out war against Iran were not coordinated with the White House and landed him in trouble more than once with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to t r u t h o u t using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Firefox 3 Beta 4 Now Available [Beta Beat]
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Firefox 3 Beta 4 Now Available [Beta Beat] via Lifehacker by Gina Trapani on 3/11/08 All platforms: Mozilla's pushed out the latest release of the Firefox 3 beta for testers and impatient upgraders. Firefox 3 Beta 4 improvements include a better download manager, smarter location bar auto-complete, speedier performance (twice as fast using Google Apps, says Moz), better memory handling, and even more native look and feel for Mac, Windows, and Linux users with new icons and toolbars. After the jump, check out the Beta 4 highlights from the release notes. - New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and you can see and search on the name of the website where a file came from. Your active downloads and time remaining are always shown in the status bar as your files download. - Full page zoom: from the View menu and via keyboard shortcuts, the new zooming feature lets you zoom in and out of entire pages, scaling the layout, text and images, or optionally only the text size. Your settings will be remembered whenever you return to the site. - Integration with Vista: Firefox now has Vista-specific icons, and uses native user interface widgets in the browser and in web forms. - Integration with the Mac: the new Firefox theme makes toolbars, icons, and other user interface elements look like a native OS X application. Firefox also uses OS X widgets and spell-checker in web forms and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates. A combined back and forward control make it even easier to move between web pages. - Integration with Linux: Firefox's default icons, buttons, and menu styles now use the native GTK theme. - Location bar auto-complete: type in all or part of the title, tag or address of a page to see a list of matches from your history and bookmarks; a new display makes it easier to scan through the matching results and find that page you're looking for. Results are returned according to their frecency (a combination of frequency and recency of visits to that page) ensuring that you're seeing the most relevant matches. An adaptive learning algorithm further tunes the results to your patterns! - Speed: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in significant improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3 Beta 4, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases. - Memory usage: Several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox 3 Beta 4 over a web browsing session. Memory cycles are broken and collected by an automated cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of leaks have been fixed, and caching strategies have been tuned. Firefox 3 Beta 4 is a free download for testers; it IS a beta so expect bugs and weirdness, and the possibility that not all of your extensions will work with it. (Here's a workaround for getting your extensions to work in the Firefox 3 Beta). Download Firefox 3 Beta 4 [Mozilla] Firefox 3 Beta 4 Release Notes [Mozilla] Firefox 3 Beta 4 Review [Mozilla Links] Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Lifehacker using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Citing Faith, Bush Defends War Actions
[It's always been about the Judeo-Christian fundamentalism for Bush, not the calculated theft of oil. Ditto, apparently, for John McCain.] Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Citing Faith, Bush Defends War Actions via NYT International by SHERYL GAY STOLBERG on 3/11/08 President Bush told a group of Christian broadcasters that his policies in Iraq and Afghanistan are predicated on the beliefs that freedom is a God-given right. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to NYT International using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Timeline and Chart On Secret UN UFO Meeting
[This looks fairly solid so far, but I'm still evaluating skeptically...] Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Timeline and Chart On Secret UN UFO Meeting via UFO Digest Top News Feeds on 3/6/08 An Individual using the screen name Suspicioso on the Open Minds Forum has been working hard to accurately pull together all the verifiable information on this secret UN UFO meeting case. This person has given permission to release this information to the UFO/ET community and the press. Along with the time-line is a map of the individuals and their interconnections that can be found at the bottom of the thread sited below. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to UFO Digest Top News Feeds using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Big-Time Arms Dealer Arrested in Thailand
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Big-Time Arms Dealer Arrested in Thailand via NYT International by SETH MYDANS and RAYMOND BONNER on 3/6/08 Viktor Bout was arrested in connection with the procurement of weapons for the Colombian FARC rebels. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to NYT International using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] On Point - Seeds, Genetic Engineering, and Our Future
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: On Point - Seeds, Genetic Engineering, and Our Future via On Point on 3/6/08 With millions of seeds now stashed in a doomsday vault in Norway, the rest of the planet's seed stock is under unprecedented pressure. We investigate. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to On Point using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] The Coming Death of Paper as an Information Storage Medium
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: The Coming Death of Paper as an Information Storage Medium via RSSmeme | Stories Published 24 Hours Ago With At Least 5 Shares on 3/6/08 Shared 14 times Tagged Trends (279) The other day I was sitting in the bank watching a clerk copy information off a paper bank transfer to initiate a new wire transfer. Being a busy person I hate inefficiencies, and this was just plain bad. When I asked why the bank didn't use an electronic copy to speed up the process, the clerk replied that using an electronic copy can create mistakes and cause liability for the bank. In the same way that people are mistrustful of electronic elections, they believe that a human being copying from a piece of paper is less prone to make mistakes than doing the same thing electronically. I smiled when I heard that, because I know it isn't going to last. According to Wikipedia, papermaking was developed in China during the early 2nd century. Since becoming the de facto medium for recording knowledge, paper has evolved to also become the medium of transferring information in the modern world. Now, however, paper is being surrounded by an increasing number of digital rivals. We can debate how long it will be before the next generation of e-book readers kills printed books, but the days of paper as an information storage medium are almost over. In this post we look at the role of paper in our information-rich lives, from books and newspapers, to receipts and office documents. Paper as an Information Storage Medium The power of persistent information is awesome. If you have never contemplated what it would be like without it, just take a moment now to think about it. In a world where passing information is only done orally, information transfer is very limited and inefficient. The invention of paper and writing was perhaps as important and critical in the development of modern humans as the invention of language. Persistent information is responsible for both the rise of living organisms (DNA), and the rise of civilization. Most of the knowledge that we gain comes to us via the written word. The burning of the library at Alexandria by Julius Casesar is considered to be one of the greatest losses of knowledge of all times. Understandably so, because books used to be a precious commodity in the ancient times, accessible to an extremely limited number of people. With the invention of the printing press, books took off, followed soon after by newspapers. Then, suddenly paper was not only the preferred method of storing knowledge, but also the best way to record and transfer information. Paper as an Information Transfer Medium While nobody (yet) minds books, people are increasingly being fed up with receipts, envelopes, bank statements, and other forms of paper as an information transfer medium. We cringe at the lengthy receipts we get after a shopping trip to Costco and at stupid credit card statements like the one below. It is the moments when we see things like this that we realize: this is wrong and this has to go. Once again, Apple has it right before anyone else. At Apple stores, after paying by credit card you're asked for your email address and your reciept is sent to you electronically. With online banking becoming so ubiquitous we now let out a sigh every time we have to actually write a check. Not only are we annoyed with paper, we are annoyed with the process of hand writing - typing is so much more elegant and cleaner. And the change is not just happening at home, it is also quite visible at work. Yes, we still have a ton of paper around the office - but it is increasingly less. More people are now used to reading off the computer screen without having to print first. PDF is now the official means of corporate bureaucracy. As mobile devices get smarter, the days of paper as an information transfer medium are nearing an end. In the next decade, we will get rid of receipts, doctors will not be hand writing us referrals, and banking will be done only online. The replacement of paper is not an accident, but a trend. Paper is bulkier, dirtier, less safe and not as good for the environment as its digital competition. Part of the bigger trend towards turning physical things into digital, paper is finally giving in after centuries of reign. Digital vs. Physical Whatever can be digitized will be digitized. Hardware can not compete with software in elegance, simplicity, and cost. From the iPhone to online banking, digital things are superior to physical. Soon the clerk in the bank is not going to be retyping the wire transfer from a piece of paper. Soon we will be electing the president of the United States via electronic voting. The phobia of digital things belongs to an older generation. The demographic that is growing up on Facebook won't think twice about keying their credit card number into a computer or checking a box and pressing the okay button to vote. But even the older
[political-research] Free Video: Richard Dolan and the History of UFOs
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Free Video: *Richard Dolan* and the History of *UFOs* via Google Blog Search: Richard Dolan UFO OR UFOs by unknown on 2/26/08 Here's a great free video lecture from Richard Dolan, creator of Ufos and The National Security State. It's a two parter, two hours longs, and covers the breadth of UFO's history.Enjoy. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Google Blog Search: Richard Dolan UFO OR UFOs using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] Tom Whipple | The Peak Oil Crisis: Polity on Trial
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: Tom Whipple | The Peak Oil Crisis: Polity on Trial via t r u t h o u t on 3/6/08 Tom Whipple writes in Falls Church News-Press, The coming storm will bring one of the most severe tests of the cohesiveness of governments and peoples that the world has known for a long time. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to t r u t h o u t using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] What's on your mind? Neuroscientists may one day find out
Sent to you by Sean McBride via Google Reader: What's on your mind? Neuroscientists may one day find out (AFP) via Yahoo! News: Most Viewed - Top Stories on 3/5/08 AFP - Venturing into the preserve of science fiction and stage magicians, scientists in the United States on Wednesday said they had made extraordinary progress towards reading the brain. Things you can do from here: - Subscribe to Yahoo! News: Most Viewed - Top Stories using Google Reader - Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
[political-research] reddit.com: Timeline of words used in Presidential speeches (1776 - 2006). Move slider to spot trends in the tag cloud.
A user at reddit thought you would find this interesting: Timeline of words used in Presidential speeches (1776 - 2006). Move slider to spot trends in the tag cloud. http://chir.ag/phernalia/preztags/ -- what's new online: http://reddit.com/ questions? email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[political-research] reddit.com: Russian Intelligence: U.S. Military now prepared for full nationwide martial law + tyranny
A user at reddit thought you would find this interesting: Russian Intelligence: U.S. Military now prepared for full nationwide martial law + tyranny http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/October2006/211006Takeover.htm -- what's new online: http://reddit.com/ questions? email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[political-research] reddit.com: Who Killed Anna Politkovskaya?
A user at reddit thought you would find this interesting: Who Killed Anna Politkovskaya? http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/laughland2.html -- what's new online: http://reddit.com/ questions? email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[political-research] Bloglines - Dr. Reynolds exposes 9/11 TV fakery on FoxNews
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Dr. Reynolds exposes 9/11 TV fakery on FoxNews By Total On Sunday, September 10, 2006 Dr. Morgan Reynolds, former Chief Economist of the Labor Department and Professor Emeritus at Texas AM University appeared on FoxNewsChannel to lay out the holes in the official story of 9/11 and point out that 9/11 was an inside job. Fox got at least three basic facts about Reynolds wrong, of course -- Reynolds has left Scholars for 9/11 Truth (not "Scholars Link __._,_.___ SPONSORED LINKS Intelligence Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - Cutting-edge 9/11 research coming to National Press Club
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Cutting-edge 9/11 research coming to National Press Club By Total Total911.info has learned that The McClendon Group, founded by the late, great, White House correspondent and investigative reporter Sara McClendon, will be sponsoring a presentation at the National Press Club in Washington, DC by top 9/11 researchers. The event is to be held Wednesday, September 6 at 7:30pm. Featured speakers will be Dr. Morgan Reynolds and Dr. Judy Wood, with author Jim Marrs __._,_.___ SPONSORED LINKS Intelligence Social network YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - Scientist Raises Possibility of Silicon-Based Life
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Minding the Planet Nova Spivack's Journal of Unusual News & Ideas - Straight from the Global Mind to Your Brain Scientist Raises Possibility of Silicon-Based Life By Nova on Wild Speculation Just read an interesting article on the possibility of intraterrestrial silicon-based life on Earth:SETI spends enormous amounts of money and resources looking for life outside of Earth's realm, but life forms so alien that scientists may simply not have recognized evidence of their existence could inhabit the Earth, according to a leading scientist. Dr Tom Gold, emeritus professor of astronomy at Cornell University in America, believes that organisms based on silicon - completely unrelated to all the carbon-based life man has encountered so far - may live at great depths. In a forthcoming book he will suggest that scientists should take the possibility more seriously. Gold, who is a member of the Royal Society, previously predicted that vast amounts of more conventional bacteria live miles down within the Earth's crust. Scientists initially dismissed the idea, but many now agree with him. So long as nobody suspects there could be silicon-based life, we may just not be clever enough to identify it, he said last week. Rocks bearing signs of silicon-based organisms may already be sitting in laboratories, he believes, with their significance overlooked. Every known living organism, from bacteria to mankind, is based on the chemistry of carbon, which forms the complex molecules such as DNA that are central to our existence. Scientists believe that if extraterrestrial life is found, the chances are that it, too, will be carbon-based. __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Intelligence Social network YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - EMP at WTC
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. EMP at WTC By Total One of several highlights from a new, sure-to-be-controversial paper by Drs. Morgan Reynolds and Judy Wood as posted to NoMoreGames.net August 23, 2006: "On controversies with arguments and evidence on both sides like NPT, he conducts no physical analysis and sides with OGCT.1 The world asks, what energy source could have transformed 200,000 tons of steel-reinforced concrete into ultra-fine __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - Controlled demolition, Pentagon hole top inside-job memes
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Controlled demolition, Pentagon hole top inside-job memes By Total 911Truth.org polled skeptics of the government story:: "What led you to be most suspicious of the official story?Lack of air defense response 8818 (13.73)%Building 7 collapse 9232 (14.37)%Pentagon hole 10436 (16.25)%Bush's response 5340 (8.31)%Insider Trading 2025 (3.15)%FBI and CIA coverups 2303 (3.59)%Demolition-like collapse of WTC 1 2 14545 (22.65)%Gut intuition 7715 (12.01)%Other 3816 __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Intelligence YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - Samuel Danner, Pentagon eyewitness, speaks out
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Samuel Danner, Pentagon eyewitness, speaks out By Total Samuel Danner saw an aircraft apparently crash into the Pentagon on 9/11 and went to the scene to offer his help as a trained emergency medical technician. Five years later, with his children now grown and himself facing a life-or-death battle with lymphoma, he has decided to speak out. Sam Danner (red arrow), was one of the people who helped pick up scraps. The white arrow points to a __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - 9/11 scholars find children, job under threat
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. 9/11 scholars find children, job under threat By Total Release from Scholars for 9/11 Truth, July 4, 2006: "The author of an article about the attack on the World Trade Center has found himself under attack for having published it in a new on-line publication, Journal of 9/11 Studies. Entitled "The Third Elephant", the article discusses evidence that a third airplane was captured on video at the time of the WTC attack. He has now received a Link __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - Scholars debut 'Journal of 9/11 Studies'
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Scholars debut 'Journal of 9/11 Studies' By valis www.journalof911studies.comThe Journal of 9/11 Studies is a peer-reviewed, open-access, electronic-only journal covering the whole of research related to 9/11/2001. All content is freely available online. Volume 1 June 2006 WTC 7: A Short Computation 9/11 Evidence for Controlled Demolition: a Short List of Observations 9/11 Evidence Suggests Complicity: Inferences from Link __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - Finally the proof: Thermate used to destroy WTC
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Finally the proof: Thermate used to destroy WTC By valis Awoken Research Group @GNN : "Professor of Physics, Brigham Young University, co-chair of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and the creator of its home page and its forum, Steven Jones was interviewed by Alex Jones on GCN. [ Commercial-free MP3 (courtesy of Culhavoc) Prof. Jones, who conducted his PhD research at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and post-doctoral research at Cornell University and Link __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - Trita Parsi: Rising Anti-Neocon Star
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. The New York Observer's MondoWeiss Trita Parsi: Rising Anti-Neocon Star In Politics, Culture BBC News last night featured an interview about Iran with a highly-presentable young specialist at Hopkins, Trita Parsi. The interview was startling to me for a word that Parsi used. Now that the neocon moment seems at last to be over, and the U.S. is working with European countries, he asked whether the period of American "isolation" has ended? Parsi was describing the neocons as isolationists. Not isolationists in the old sense, of refusing engagement. But in isolating America from the world. A similar point is made in the wonderful dissection of neocons America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order, co-authored by conservative thinktanker Jonathan Clarke. The Parsi appearance is interesting for a couple of reasons. As head of the National Iranian-American Council, this scholar is a rising star. Parsi is even quoted in the Forward. He is highly critical of Israel, saying that it is using the crisis with Iran to seek to solidify its regional supremacy. And he is Francis Fukuyama's student. Fukuyama thanks Parsi in America at the Crossroads, his fine book about his apostasy from neoconservatism. Indeed, I wonder how much Parsi has influenced Fukuyama in his own distancing from Israel. Parsi, Fukuyama, Jonathan Clarke, Walt, Mearsheimerthey all are realists. I.e., conservatives. Their advantage over the left in opposing the horrifying Iraq war is that they have made it a point to distinguish America's interests from Israel's (while firmly standing up for Israel's existence). That has been important work. When will a politician show the guts to take them in? __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - God and Money at Yale
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Whiskey Bar Free Thinking in a Dirty Glass God and Money at Yale Although I'm back in the United States - and have been for more than a week - I've been hoping to finish my Egyptian epic before turning back to the daily atrocities of life in Dick Cheney's America. But the atrocities, it seems, won't wait in line. They're right back in my face, gibbering and leering and showing me their hideous sores, like the inmates of an insane asylum for cancer patients. I'd go on ignoring them, and write more about the ethereal beauty of ancient tomb paintings, but the news that a committee of scholarly bootlickers has blackballed Juan Cole's candidacy for a tenured professorship at Yale absolutely refuses to leave me in peace. This may not seem like particularly noxious news, at least when compared to the stench of putrefying corpses hanging over Haditha, or the Nazi stab-in-the-back myths now being recycled in Right Blogistan, but it's touched an extremely raw nerve with me - because of what it says about the age of fear and intellectual intimidation that we live in, because of the unadulterated vileness of the self-appointed commissars involved, and, not least, because I consider Juan Cole my friend, and a man who won't take the time to speak up for a friend who's being blacklisted is, as the Godfather might put it, less than a man. That notorious anti-Semitic hate sheet, the New York Jewish Week, has a blow-by-blow account of how the filthy deed was done. The evildoers are familiar, but the lengths they've gone in this particular case to enforce the neocon version of omerta -- i.e. criticize Israel and you sleep with the fishes - is really quite remarkable: When Cole's potential hiring became publicly known, several of his detractors, including the American Enterprise Institute's Michael Rubin and Washington Times columnist Joel Mowbray, took various steps to protest the decision. They wrote op-ed pieces in various publications and Mowbray went as far as to send a letter to a dozen of Yale's major donors, many of whom are Jewish, urging them to call the university and protest Cole's hiring. In addition to Rubin and Mowbray, we've also had John Fund (the poor man's Humbert Humbert) sliming Cole on the Wall Street Journal op-ed page, David Horowitz doing his impersonation of Andrei Vyshinsky over at Planet Conspiracy, plus the usual blog wannabes, like the Powerlie bundists and the little green fascists, bringing up the rear - the tail end (in more ways than one) of the lynch mob. Of course, the Likudniks (American branch) put out the contract on Juan Cole long ago. But until recently the hit men have consistently missed their target - or, like Jonah Goldberg, staggered back to their hideouts with their guns wedged firmly in their own rectums. Mowbray has practically made Cole his pet journalistic obsessive compulsive disorder (on Rev. Moon's dime) but this had had only trivial effects - if even that - on Cole's credibility and access to the mainstream media. But with the Yale deal, the gang that couldn't shoot straight finally found an opening - a way to use money and influence to achieve what lies and slander could not. And so one of America's most prestigious institutions of higher learning (I use the term loosely) was given an offer it couldn't refuse. Again, we turn to that scurrilous pro-terrorist propaganda rag, the Jewish Week, for the details : Then Mowbray went a step further. He drafted a letter, which he forwarded to a dozen of Yale's prominent donors, most of whom are Jewish, urging them to make their disapproval of Cole's hiring known . . . Last week, as Cole's hiring was being discussed by the tenure committee, the letter's recipients apparently weighed in, according to sources. Several faculty members said they had heard that at least four major Jewish donors, whose identity the faculty members did not know, have contacted officials at the university urging that Cole's appointment be denied. As Dylan said: Money doesn't talk, it swears - even if at Yale, it swears politely. It's getting hard to tell what the difference is between Yale University and your average New York street hooker, except that one works on 42nd Street and the other in New Haven, and one sells pussy while the other peddles . . . well, I'm not sure what. Endowed chairs, I guess. (Or, to quote the late great Ruth Brown: "If I can't sell it, I'm gonna sit on it. Why should I give it away?") There are a couple of salient points to make about this nasty affair - only one of them being that Joel Mowbray is a deranged, vindictive rodent who ought to be fed to a boa constrictor. (I realize I'm going to get hammered by the snake lovers over that one.) Mowbray's journalistic droppings are filled with innuendo and guilt by association. He's basically made a career out of smearing people and organizations - Gen.
[political-research] Bloglines - Entertainment News Tonight
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Whiskey Bar Free Thinking in a Dirty Glass Entertainment News Tonight The Pentagon Channel today announced the cancellation of its long-running reality TV series, The Abu Zarqawi Hour, saying tonight's special-effects extravaganza, in which Keifer Sutherland and a team of secret agents trail the terrorist mastermind to his hideout and call in a massive airstrike, would be the show's last. The show originally piloted in 2003, and found a regular place in the Pentagon Channel's prime-time lineup in February 2004, replacing the widely panned sitcom series Mission Accomplished, now in syndicated reruns on Fox News. The Abu Zarqawi Hour debuted to generally favorable reviews, with New York Times critic Dexter Filkins praising the show for its "imaginative" storytelling and "gritty" realism. However, ratings declined sharply in 2005, with many viewers complaining that the show's episodes, which frequently featured the death and/or capture of Zarqawi's closest lieutenants, had become repetitive and unimaginative. Critics reacted particularly negatively to this year's four-hour special, in which Zarqawi had obvious difficulty staying in character, and was unable to properly reload and fire his Kalishnikov rifle. Although some critics defended the sequence as a daring experiment in Brechtian alienation technique, most panned the performance, saying it made it extremely hard for the audience to believe that Zarqawi was actually a seasoned terrorist leader, instead of a paid actor pretending to be a terrorist. Doubts about the show's viability deepened in April, after Washington Post TV critic Tom Ricks questioned whether the supposedly spontaneous reality show was actually being scripted by its producers. Over the next few weeks, insiders say, Pentagon Channel executives determined that while the Zarqawi show still had a dedicated following of hardcore fans who would swallow any plot device, no matter how ludicrous, the series no longer made commercial or artistic sense. It was also believed that a spectacular and upbeat finale might lure viewers away from Haditha, the controversial docudrama now airing on the rival Reality Network. Network sources say the Pentagon Channel is weighing a possible sequel to the Abu Zarqawi Hour, featuring an identical plot but a completely different cast. The network and Zarqawi have severed their relationship, these sources added, due to "irreconcilable creative differences." Pentagon Channel officials declined to respond to questions about a possible sequel, saying only that "all options are under consideration. Things related and not." Mr. Zarqawi was unavailable for comment. __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - FBI: No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. FBI: "No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11" By valis from the MUCKRAKER REPORT : On June 5, 2006, the Muckraker Report contacted the FBI Headquarters, (202) 324-3000, to learn why Bin Ladens Most Wanted poster did not indicate that Usama was also wanted in connection with 9/11. The Muckraker Report spoke with Rex Tomb, Chief of Investigative Publicity for the FBI. When asked why there is no mention of 9/11 on Bin Ladens Most Wanted web page, Tomb Link __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - Not Talking About Mearsheimer Walt
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. The New York Observer's MondoWeiss Not Talking About Mearsheimer & Walt In U.S. Policy in the Mideast Finally someone has done the article I wanted to read long ago: What is Harvard's reaction to the Mearsheimer-Walt paper on the Israel lobby (which was half-produced on the shores of the Charles, where co-author Walt was a dean). The LA Times sent the redoubtable Eve Fairbanks to report, and she came back with stunning news: Instead of a roiling debate, most professors not only agreed to disagree but agreed to pretend publicly that there was no disagreement at all. At Harvard and other schools, the Mearsheimer-Walt paper proved simply too hot to handle -- and it revealed an academia deeply split yet lamentably afraid to engage itself on one of the hottest political issues of our time. Most professors I reached wouldn't speak on the record about the flap because they didn't want their feelings to become known on campus Most fishily, one Kennedy School professor who had previously gone public with his opinions clammed up completely, explaining cryptically to me that even chatting off the record about the paper isn't "the right thing for me to do at this time." Another senior Kennedy School professor admitted that he was baffled by the dearth of discussion of the paper. "We debate everything else here," he said. This is too bad, and underscores what I wrote the other day about the NYTimes coverage of the paper. Here is one of the most important ideas to come along in years, and people are afraid of it stillthe very people who should be doing the hard intellectual labor of exploring Walt-Mearsheimer, and saying what is true and not, and taking their ideas further, as I think they should be taken. That is hard and important work, and it's not happening. I think the reason is because actually, and in spite of Eliot Cohen and Jerrold Nadler and Alan Dershowitz's denunciations, a lot of people agree with the paper. They may be afraid to say so outright, but the paper has greatly empowered leftwingers, and critics of Israel. Made them feel that their voices count, that they can play a role in the debate. Obviously that interpretation reflects my point of view, opposed to the lobby, but I'd point to Col. Larry Wilkerson's comments at the Middle East Institute. The former chief of staff to Colin Powell said that he had assigned the paper at the two schools at which he teaches, George Washington and the College of William and Mary, and he'd gotten "pushback" at both schools for even bringing the paper up. But he had a sly smile as he said it. The downfall of the neocons that we are all observing nowthey appear suddenly to have become outsiders in an Administration that must regret the Iraq adventureis related to this. Yes, I know: radioactive. __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. __,_._,___
[political-research] Bloglines - 15 monkeys in a room with typewriters?
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Sic Semper Tyrannis 2006 A daily journal of thoughts and messages from the "muffled zone" that media management has made of our country. 15 monkeys in a room with typewriters? By turcopolier on Current Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JUNE 6, 2006 New York, N.Y. – Vanity Fair writer Craig Unger interviews nine former intelligence and military officials who have served in the C.I.A., the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Pentagon, all of whom say, on the record, that they believe the Niger documents were part of a campaign to deliberately mislead the American public. Some of the officials refer to the Niger documents as “a disinformation campaign,” “black propaganda,” or “a classic psy-ops campaign.” The complete article can be found on Vanity Fair's website at http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/articles/060606fege02Unger reports that the U.S. may have gone to war with Iraq not because of intelligence failures but because of an extraordinary intelligence success, specifically an effective campaign of disinformation which led the White House, the Pentagon, Britain’s M.I.6 intelligence service, and thousands of outlets in the American media to promote the falsehood that Saddam Hussein's nuclear-weapons program posed a grave risk to the United States.To me, there is no benign interpretation of this, Melvin Goodman, a former C.I.A. and State Department analyst, tells Unger. At the highest level it was known the documents were forgeries. [Then deputy national security adviser] Stephen Hadley knew it. [Then national security adviser] Condi Rice knew it. Everyone at the highest level knew it. (Hadley and Rice declined to comment.)Unger talks with Milt Bearden, a 30-year C.I.A. veteran, who tells him the intelligence gathering with regard to the Niger claim “wasn't an accident. This wasn't 15 monkeys in a room with typewriters.”Unger cites at least 14 instances prior to the 2003 State of the Union address in which analysts at the C.I.A., the State Department, or other government agencies who had examined the Niger documents or reports about them raised serious doubts about their legitimacy—only to be rebuffed by Bush-administration officials who wanted to use the material. “They were just relentless,” Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, tells Unger. “You would take it out and they would stick it back in. That was their favorite bureaucratic technique—ruthless relentlessness.”Unger talks with former C.I.A. officer Philip Giraldi about the meeting between SISMI head Nicolò Pollari and Hadley. “It is completely out of protocol for the head of a foreign intelligence service to circumvent the C.I.A.,” Giraldi tells Unger. “It is uniquely unusual. In spite of lots of people having seen these documents, and having said they were not right, they went around them.” (Hadley has confirmed that he met Pollari, but declines to say what was discussed. He claims it was a courtesy call and that he has no recollection of any discussion of natural uranium or any documents being passed.)Patrick Lang, who served as defense intelligence officer for the Middle East, South Asia and terrorism in the Defense Intelligence Agency, and later as Director of HUMINT (Human intelligence) for the D.I.A., tells Unger: There's no doubt in my mind that the neocons had their eye on Iraq. This is something they intended to do, and they would have communicated that to SISMI or anybody else to get the help they wanted.”Lang also tells Unger that SISMI would have been keenly aware that the hard-line neoconservatives were finally coming into power. He says that SISMI would also have wanted to ingratiate itself with the incoming administration. “These foreign intelligence agencies are so dependent on us that the urge to acquire I.O.U.’s is a powerful incentive by itself,” he says. The July issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on June 7 and nationally June 13. __._,_.___ Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is
[political-research] Bloglines - Warning to US Citizens Visting Israel
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you, with the following personal
message:
This is precisely the kind of justice system the neocons would love to impose domestically on Americans.
Gorilla in the Room
We await the return of the Gorilla
E-mail info, tips, questions or suggestions to girtips {at} yahoo . com
Warning to US Citizens Visting Israel
By Brian
This site claims that a travel warning by the US Department of State on Thursday, June 1, 2006, states:“U.S. citizens arrested by the Israeli Security Police for security offenses, and U.S. citizens arrested in the West Bank or Gaza for criminal or security offenses may be prevented from communicating with lawyers, family members, or consular officers for lengthy periods. The U.S. Consulate General and the Embassy are often not notified of such arrests, or are not notified in a timely manner. Consular access to the arrested individual is frequently delayed. U.S. citizens have been subject to mistreatment during interrogation and pressured to sign statements in Hebrew that have not been translated. Under local law they may be detained for up to six months at a time without charges. Youths over the age of 14 have been detained and tried as adults. When access to a detained American citizen is denied or delayed, the U.S. Government formally protests the lack of consular access to the Israeli Government. The U.S. Government also will protest any mistreatment to the relevant authorities.”Interesting.JSF
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[political-research] Bloglines - Man vs. Machine: How to Survive a Robot Uprising
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News A collection of news articles and stories relating to the accelerating nature of technology Man vs. Machine: How to Survive a Robot Uprising "The purpose of this book," Daniel Wilson writes in the introduction, "is to prepare you for the future robot uprising." And he's only half joking. Wilson, who has a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, has written a book that is equal pa... Link Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Iran-Contra All Over Again
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. AntiWar.com Your Best Source for antiwar news, viewpoints, and activities. Help keep Antiwar.com alive, donate at http://www.antiwar.com/donate/ Iran-Contra All Over Again By Tom Engelhardt Excerpt: You never can be too early when it comes to an anniversary. It's barely June, but a quick look down the road reminds us that the 20th anniversary of the Reagan administration's Iran-Contra Affair lies just ahead this November. As Greg Grandin reminds us, Irangate (as it came to be known in the wake of Nixon's Watergate fiasco) was a kind of coming attractions, right down to its cast of characters, for our own era of right-wing domination, carnage, and now -- finally -- full-blown corruption scandals. From Vice President Cheney to the new Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, so many of the Iran-Contra era scoundrels returned to the political stage these last years for a grim second bow and, perhaps not so strangely, similar results -- though this time not on the relatively parochial stage of Central America, but in the oil heartlands of our planet. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Glenn Reynolds#8217; Warning
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Antiwar.com Blog Glenn Reynolds Warning By Matt Barganier on News Jonathan Schwarz has some important thoughts on Glenn Reynolds warning to antiwar Americans, particularly his stunning update, here. And lets be perfectly clear about this: Ingemi and Reynolds are warning us to shut the f*ck up about war crimes or face the armed wrath of the war-supporters. Now Alan Dershowitz has shown that law profs at even elite universities are not necessarily geniuses, but anyone who can pass the reading comprehension portion of the GED knows exactly what Ingemi meant. His (and Reynolds) more-in-sadness-than-in-anger tone doesnt change anything, nor does the fact (alluded to in one of Reynolds updates) that a minor New York politician made a stupid joke about shooting Bush. I have no doubt that Ingemi, Reynolds, and their ilk are, for the most part, blustering wimps who faint at the sight of blood, but a warning is a warning. Take heed. Comments Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Officials admit doubts over chemical plot (UK)
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News Democratic Underground Latest Breaking NewsGet all the latest headlines from around the world in one place! Officials admit doubts over chemical plot (UK) Intelligence behind terror raid questioned as proof remains elusive Richard Norton-Taylor and Vikram DoddMonday June 5, 2006The Guardian Counter-terrorism officials conceded yesterday that lethal chemical devices they feared had been stored at an east London house raided on Friday may ne... Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Kristol: Response to Haditha Massacre #8220;Handwringing Liberalism#8221;
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Another Day in the Empire Kristol: Response to Haditha Massacre Handwringing Liberalism By Administrator on Uncategorized It didnt take long for William Kristol, top drawer Straussian neocon responsible for the murder of 200,000 Iraqis, to react in knee-jerk fashion to the serial murder at Haditha. The last thing we need in response to Haditha is hand-wringing liberalism. The war against the jihadists, Kristol writes for the Weekly Standard, is not a metaphorical one. Liberals may want to win a war on terror without fighting, and are shocked that in a war, crimes and abuses occur. But heres the hard, Trumanesque truth: In war, terrible things happen, including crimes and abuses and cover-ups. Never mind that if Kristols Jacobin buddies, followers of Trotskys permanent revolution maxim, who hate the very idea of Islam abroad and a constitutional republic at home, are engaged in war crimes not witnessed since Hitler ordered Walther von Brauchitsch, commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, to draw up plans to invade the Soviet Union, ultimately resulting in the mass murder of 25 million Russians. Of course, the neocons have not approached that number yet, or the three million killed during the Vietnam War (Bush the Elder, Clinton, and Bush the Minor have killed around 2 million Iraqis), but give them time, as the war is promised to be long, maybe a few generations, if the neocons have their way. Kristol tells us: Crimes and cover-ups cannot be excused or tolerated. They must be investigated, and the individuals involved, and their commanders, must be held accountable and punished, but he really does not mean it. In fact, the Straussian neocons not only dont care about what happens to Iraqi school kids and grandmothers, shot down in cold blood by mentally disturbed yahoo soldiers, like their mentors in Israel, who believe more of this sort of thing must happen, as Muslim animals only understand violence and brutality. Sort of reminds one of the racist ideas of the Nazis, who thought the Jews were vermin to be eradicated, or at least sent from Europe to Palestine. Kristol, of course, must act like he is a reasonable fellow, a patriotic American (when in fact he is an Israel Firster), only interested in defeating the insurgents and delivering democracy to the people of Iraq, who suffered under Saddam, the former CIA asset and friend of Donald Rumsfeld (few seem to remember his handshake with Saddam). In his article, Kristol makes sure to take the former frat boy with brain damage, now the decider, to task. Does the president really believe, as he said at his recent press conference with Prime Minister Blair, that the Iraq wars greatest mistake was Abu Ghraib? Or was this just a way of ducking the question? After all, the damage done to the war effort by Abu Ghraib pales beside the damage done by not having enough troops in theater, by refusing to send additional troops, by wasting a year before beginning seriously to build up the Iraqi army, by the April 2004 aborted battle for Falluja, and the like. Obviously, it bothers Kristol that the U.S. did not flatten Fallujah the minute after four Blackwater mercenaries were gruesomely slaughtered, a fate commonly suffered by occupation soldiers, or in this case their contractors. Instead, the armchair general Kristol had to wait until November, 2004, and Operation Phantom Fury, or maybe it should have been named Operation War Crime, or possibly Operation Collective Punishment, as the entire city was besieged, sort of like the Vandal king Geiseric sacking Rome (imagine what Geiseric the Lame would have done with phosphorus). As for Kristols plaint of insufficient troops, nobody stopping him from donating his son, Joe, or his daughter, Anne, both of military age, to fight in the generational war envisioned by the neocons. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Specter's FISA bill includes 9/11 lies
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Specter's FISA bill includes 9/11 lies By Total U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Dealey Plaza) is working to retoractively justify illegal police-state actions by the Bush Administration, and lying in order to do it. From Huffington Post : "Last week Arlen Specter proposed a second bill to gut the protections of the FISA statute and legitimize the NSA's warrantless surveillance program. [...] Unlike the previous proposals, it would not create any Link Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - New Pentagon video heavily processed
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. New Pentagon video heavily processed By Total The following is from a letter to BYU Prof. Steven Jones, obtained by Total911.info contributor valis. While interesting, it perhaps does not confront head on the issue of why there are so few frames per second in this video. It is possible that the security cameras recorded the stanbdard 30 frames per second, but the Pentagon only released one or two frames per second, frames cherry-picked to Link Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - NSA Snoop Program: All about the Neocon Enemies List
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Another Day in the Empire NSA Snoop Program: All about the Neocon Enemies List By Administrator on Uncategorized National Review Online, the home of many a Straussian neocon, has posted an excerpt from William Arkin on its Media Blog page. Arkin, who writes a column for the CIAs favorite newspaper, the Washington Post (the editors over there like to call Arkins Early Warning a blog), declared on May 16, in regard to the massive NSA snoop program, there is no enemies list and the Bush administration has been arrogant and incompetent in communicating to the American public. It has cynically split the country into red and blue in order to give itself greater power to pursue a wrong-headed national security strategy that it claims is red, white and blue. The Congress has also utterly failed in five months to get to the bottom of the NSAs warantless surveillance program and thereby resolve its legality and assuage public anxiety. In other words, it is simply more partisan politics and splenetic political manipulation la mode de Karl Rove. Nothing to see here, except a bit of unresolved legality. Please move along. If you believe the Bush and the neocons in the White House and the Pentagon, as Arkin suggests, have not drawn up a comprehensive list of domestic enemies, and are not snooping them right now, I have a chartreuse pony to sell you. Its no mistake Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden was breezily selected, as predicted, by a large number of senators (78-15 in his favor) earlier today. Hayden will merge CIA and Pentagon covert and snoop operations and scant little of the work will concentrate on Osamas cartoonish cave dwellers and the spurious boogieman known as al-Qaeda. William Arkin may trust his government to employ a colossal snoop program in a myopic effort to gain short term political gain, but those of us who take a look at not too distant history understand otherwise. Verne Lyon, a former CIA undercover operative, wrote for Covert Action Information Bulletin, Summer 1990, that with the DCS, the DOD [Domestic Operations Division], the old boy network, and the CIA Office of Security operating without congressional oversight or public knowledge, all that was needed to bring [Operation Chaos] together was a perceived threat to the national security and a presidential directive unleashing the dogs. That happened in 1965 when President Johnson instructed [John] McCone to provide an independent analysis of the growing problem of student protest against the war in Vietnam. Prior to this, Johnson had to rely on information provided by the FBI, intelligence that he perceived to be slanted by Hoovers personal views, which often ignored the facts. In order to achieve the intelligence being asked for by the President, the CIAs Office of Security, the Counter-Intelligence division, and the newly created DOD turned to the old boy network for help. Lyon continues: As campus anti-war protest activity spread across the nation, the CIA reacted by implementing two new domestic operations. The first, Project RESISTANCE, was designed to provide security to CIA recruiters on college campuses. Under this program, the CIA sought active cooperation from college administrators, campus security, and local police to help identify anti-war activists, political dissidents, and radicals. Eventually information was provided to all government recruiters on college campuses and directly to the super-secret DOD on thousands of students and dozens of groups. The CIAs Office of Security also created Project MERRIMAC, to provide warnings about demonstrations being carried out against CIA facilities or personnel in the Washington area. All of this should be familiar, as the Pentagons Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) kept a database on a motley group of about 10 peace activists [who] showed up outside the Houston headquarters of Halliburton in 2004, according to Michael Isikoff of Newsweek, in order to protest the corporations supposed war profiteering. A Defense document shows that Army analysts wrote a report on the Halliburton protest and stored it in CIFAs database. Its not clear why the Pentagon considered the protest worthy of attention, muses the clueless Isikoff, about as tuned in to domestic spook operations (in the case of the CIA, quite illegal under its charter) as his colleague, William Arkin, who should know better. The CIFAs activity in regard to Haliburton is reminiscent of Proiect RESISTANCE, a domestic espionage operation coordinated under the DOD, a fact discovered with a simple Wikipedia search (obviously, writers working for Newsweek and the Washington Post cannot be bothered with online encyclopedias). Under Operation Chaos and Project MERRIMAC, the CIA went about violating the strictures of the Bill of Rights will customary zeal. The CIA infiltrated agents into domestic groups of all
[political-research] Bloglines - Israel a Winner Again in US
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. AntiWar.com Your Best Source for antiwar news, viewpoints, and activities. Help keep Antiwar.com alive, donate at http://www.antiwar.com/donate/ Israel a Winner Again in US By Peter Hirschberg Excerpt: JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert could not have asked or hoped for much more -- surprisingly enthusiastic, if still qualified, support from U.S. President George Bush for his West Bank withdrawal plan. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Scary Reunion
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Antiwar.com Blog Scary Reunion By Justin Raimondo on Mideast The Bush administration is moving aggressively from a policy aimed at neutralizing Irans alleged nuclear ambitions to one of regime change, according to a fascinating piece by the indispensable Laura Rozen, whose blog, War and Piece, is one of my faves. David Denehy, of the International Republican Institute, has been put in charge of a new Office of Iranian Affairs set up within the State Department: he will report to Elizabeth Cheney, assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs. Exile groups are reportedly disappointed that the cash isnt being handed out fast enough, but one fears they havent got long to wait. What the future holds is laid out in pretty stark terms by Rozen, who writes: As much as $50 million of the funds requested will go to the Voice of America for Persian-language broadcasts. The State Department also is planning to send 15 foreign service officers to countries neighboring Iran and to capitals with large Iranian exile populations to serve as Iran watchers. At the Pentagon, the new Iranian directorate has been set up inside its policy shop, which previously housed the Office of Special Plans. The controversial intelligence analysis unit, established before the Iraq war, championed some of the claims of Ahmad Chalabi. A number of assertions made by the former Iraqi exile and onetime Pentagon favorite were later discredited. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable declined to name the acting director of the new Iran office and would say only that the appointee was a career civil servant. Among those staffing or advising the Iranian directorate are three veterans of the Office of Special Plans: Abram N. Shulsky, its former director; John Trigilio, a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst; and Ladan Archin, an Iran specialist. Our old friends at the Office of Special Plans who channeled so much of the phony intelligence that ginned up the war with Iraq are planning a little reunion, it seems. Whether these old dogs have learned some new tricks, or are just content to re-run some of the old ones, be warned: theyre back on the loose. Comments Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Google to Shut Down Orkut Communities
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. FAIR Media Views Google to Shut Down Orkut Communities By Michael Astor (Associated Press) The search engine giant bows to another government's anti-free speech policies by banning groups "the Brazilian government says...advocate violence and human rights violations." A little further down the slippery slope of censorship, Google "did not confirm whether or not it would be handing over user data to the Brazilian government." Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Post Bumbles and Falls for quot;Fourth Reichquot; Hoax
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. FAIR Media Views Post Bumbles and Falls for Fourth Reich Hoax By (Daily News) The New York Post put on its front page a Canadian columnist's erroneous claim that a new Iranian law says "religious minorities...will have to adopt distinct color schemes to make them identifiable in public." The Canadian National Post has since admitted it "did not exercise sufficient caution and skepticism" in originally running the story. While many U.S. outlets retain enough skepticism to have passed on reprinting the column, the New York Post "blared the story on Page 1and across two inside pages" with the inflammatory headline "Fourth Reich: Iran Law Labels Jews." To its credit, the National Post printed a report investigating the occurence, but the New York Post's reaction was to give further print space to the offending columnist. See also Asia Times: Yellow Journalism and Chicken Hawks (5/24/06) by Jim Lobe. Juan Cole, president of the U.S. Middle East Studies Association (MESA), described the [Amir] Taheri article and its appearance first in Canada's Post as "typical of black psychological operations campaigns", particularly in its origin in an "out-of-the-way newspaper that is then picked up by the mainstream press" - in this case, the Jerusalem Post and the New York Post. A former U.S. intelligence official described the article's relatively obscure provenance as a "real sign of [a] disinformation operation."... Taheri is a member of Benador Associates, a public relations firm that lists a large number of leading neo-conservatives, including American Enterprise Institute associates Richard Perle, David Frum, Michael Ledeen and Joshua Muravchik, among its clients. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - AI and the future of search
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Geeking with Greg Exploring the future of personalized information AI and the future of search By Greg Linden Saeed Shah at The Independent (UK) reports that: Google's ultimate aim is to create a search engine with artificial intelligence to exactly answer any question a user puts to it. Larry Page, the co-founder and president ... said: "People always make the assumption that we're done with search. That's very far from the case. We're probably only 5 per cent of the way there. We want to create the ultimate search engine that can understand anything ... some people could call that artificial intelligence." Mr Page ... said it was not possible to predict when Google would achieve this goal, although he pointed out that "a lot of our systems already use learning techniques". See also my previous posts, "Google and The Happy Searcher", "Search without searching" and "Google and question answering". [Found on Findory] Update: An excerpt from a similar article by Richard Wray in the UK Guardian: "The ultimate search engine would understand everything in the world. It would understand everything that you asked it and give you back the exact right thing instantly," Mr Page [said] ... "You could ask 'what should I ask Larry?' and it would tell you." Mr Page said one thing that he had learned since Google launched eight years ago was that technology can change faster than expected, and that AI could be a reality within a few years. One thing you have to say about the Google founders, they certainly are ambitious. See also more of my earlier posts, "The perfect search", "Perfect search and the clickstream", and "Different visions of the future of search". [UK Guardian article via Threadwatch] Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - National Post Admits Zonar Fable Contrived
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Another Day in the Empire National Post Admits Zonar Fable Contrived By Administrator on Uncategorized According to Reuters, the National Post, the conservative (actually neocon) Canadian newspaper, has apologized for publishing the Iranian zonar story, as it turns out to be a complete fabrication. The story was based on a column by Iranian expatriate writer Amir Taheri, who said a law being debated by Irans parliament would force Jews to sew a yellow strip of cloth to their clothes. Christians would wear a red strip while Zoroastrians would wear a blue one, notes the news organization. The story and the column appeared at a time when the international community is pressuring Tehran over its nuclear program. In other words, the bogus story was designed to slander Iran at a crucial moment during negotiations over Irans completely legal nuclear energy program. Of course, the National Posts so-called apology matters naught, as politicians and religious leaders around the world over the past week have condemned Iran as a Nazi menace eager to feed Jews into ovens and crematoria. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Iran is very capable of this kind of action. It boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the Earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany, a predictable comment (or slander) considering Harper is a Canadian version of a neocon and sincerely believes the worst about the Iranians. Meanwhile, Canadas ambassador to Iran, Gordon Venner, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, according to the Associated Press. Iranian television gave no reason for Ambassador Gordon Venners summons. But it came days after Harper criticized Iran over a report last week in the National Post, quoting Iranian exiles as saying Irans conservative parliament was debating a draft law that would force Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims in the country to wear special patches of colored cloth to distinguish them from Muslims, a normal reaction, considering Harper did not bother to apologize to Iran after the National Post retracted the story. Im glad to hear that the government of Iran is not considering this,' said Harper, when he should have formally apologized for essentially characterizing the Iranians as Nazi racists determined to commit genocide. In fact, it would be spot on if Ahmadinejad had accused the Bush crime family of Nazi connections, as documents in the National Archives and the Library of Congress reveal Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the current resident of the White House, served as a business partner of and U.S. banking operative for the financial architect of the Nazi war machine from 1926 until 1942, as John Buchanan reported for the New Hampshire Gazette on October 10, 2003. In other words, the Bush family has more to do with persecuting Jews (and plenty of Roma, homosexuals, political dissidents, communists, socialists, deviant artists, and others) than Iran ever will. But never mind. Bushs neocons are waging a crusade against Muslim culture and facts will not be allowed to get in the waynot that most Americans, steeped in a ceaseless flow of propaganda vomit, know the difference. As for the neocon Harper, he simply was unable to restrain himself. Regardless of the fact the National Post published a crude bit of factitious propaganda, that doesnt make me any less concerned about the comments that the government of Iran has made on issues like Israels right to exist, on denial of the Holocaust and these kinds of positions, in reality positions Ahmadinejad never took. Upon proper translation, it is discovered Ahmadinejad called for the removal of the regimes in Israel and the United States. He has not demanded the elimination or annihilation of Israel and the Jews, as the hysterical corporate media in this country claims, based on a deliberately mistranslated Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) transcript. Naturally, this sort of behavior should be expected as MEMRI is run by Yigal Carmon, a former IDF (or IOF, Israel Occupation Forces) intelligence bureaucrat, and Meyrav Wurmser, wife of the neocon David Wurmser, both chalking up a long and sordid track record of dredging lunatic fringe rantings from the Arab and Muslim press and passing them off as typical fare. Harper, Bush, Blair, Howard, the neocons and other criminals will continue to demonize Iranas an attack is in the cards, probably sooner before later, although predicting an exact or even ballpark date is an exercise in futilityand it is the assigned task of a complaisant corporate media to feed us a steady diet of feeble fabrication, outright lies, slander (a neocon specialty), and basically soften us up for mass murder and war crimes stacked upon war crimes like cord wood stacked outside a Maine cabin in November. No doubt, in the next few weeks, as the negotiations
[political-research] Bloglines - Iran Zonar: #8220;Real Sign of a Disinformation Operation#8221;
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Another Day in the Empire Iran Zonar: Real Sign of a Disinformation Operation By Administrator on Uncategorized Juan Cole, president of the U.S. Middle East Studies Association and thorn in the side of neocons far and wide, has nailed itthe fake news story circulated last week accusing Iran of forcing Jews and other religious minorities to wear identifying badges, thus kindling imagery of Nazis and the Holocaust, was typical of black psychological operations campaigns. A former U.S. intelligence official, cited by journalist Jim Lobe, described the articles relatively obscure provenance as a real sign of [a] disinformation operation, in fact a fairly transparent and crude disinformation operation, as I noted on the day the article appeared with disgusting fanfare in the corporate media. Naturally, the neocon press, most notably the New York Sun, refused to publish a retraction after it was demonstrated, without much effort, the story was gibberish (although it did mention the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa denied the report). As Lobe reminds us, the New York Sun has consistently taken positions consistent with the right-wing Likud Party in Israel on Middle East issues. Meanwhile, Amir Taheri, the Iranian neocon described as a prominent Iranian journalist under the Shah by the Financial Times, who initially floated the story in Canadas neocon friendly National Post, stands by his story. Regarding the dress code story it seems that my column was used as the basis for a number of reports that somehow jumped the gun. As far as my article is concerned I stand by it, Taheri writes on the Benador Associates website. I raised the issue not as a news story, because news of the new law was already several days old, but as an opinion column to alert the outside world to this most disturbing development. In other words, it is Mr. Taheris opinion that the Iranian mullahs will force followers of Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism to wear special markers, known as zonnars (a zonar is a belt or girdle which the Christians and Jews of the Levant were obliged to wear to distinguish them from Muslims, known as Mohammedans in the day). Taheris opinion, however, has absolutely no basis in reality, although the corporate media treated the baseless zonar accusation as a fait accompli (as they treated the neocon lies about Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction likewise). Benador Associates is a neocon clearing house of sorts, a public relations firm that handles the likes of Frank Gaffney, Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, James Woolsey, and other members of the criminal neocon rabble. In order to put Taheri and Benador into perspective, consider the latter promoted Khidhir Hamza, an Iraqi nuclear scientist who fled to the United States in the early 1990s, where he wrote a book claiming that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear bomb. When pressed on the issue, he denied saying that Iraq had a bomb, despite the fact that he says exactly that in his books opening pages (see Catherine Auer, A View from Inside, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, March-April 2001). Hamza and the neocons should be walking the line in orange jumpsuits, convicted of facilitating war crimes of Nazi caliber, but instead they are allowed to walk free, and the neocons are emboldened to pedal more nonsense about Iran in a calculated lead-up to attacking that country. Meanwhile, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, no stranger to war crimes (under Clinton, she oversaw the murder of over 500,000 Iraqi children), has suggested that an official high in the Bush administration should give a speech in response to a letter that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent to Bush, a letter our appointed ruler apparently used as toilet paper. The last thing we need is to invade another country, Albright told an audience of 800 people during a speech earlier this month. Of course, it is not that Ms. Albright is morally opposed to mass murder and wanton slaughter, but rather that the nations military forces are overstretched, as the Associated Press notes. For the Straussian neocons, breaking the U.S. military is of little concernin fact, it can be argued this is precisely what they intend to do, and thus pitch the nation into a larger conflagration, necessitating increased militarization of society and eventually conscription, otherwise known as bullet stopper slavery. As Paul Craig Roberts wrote in late 2004, the neoconservative godfather Norman Podhoretz. is worried that mounting U.S. casualties in Iraq and growing public doubt about the wisdom of the failed Iraq invasion will derail the scheme to conquer the Muslim Middle East and to deracinate Islam. Podhoretz gives his assurances that the obstacles to a benevolent transformation of the Middle Eastwhether military, political or religiousare not insuperable. He writes that there can be
[political-research] Bloglines - Sheen smearmeisters linked to criminal activity
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. 911info The place to find all the real cutting edge information, news, and analysis on the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Sheen smearmeisters linked to criminal activity By Total This is interesting in light of the smear campaign launched on Charlie Sheen in concert with his expressing doubts about the official 9/11 fairytale. >From AOL's TMZ.com May 23: "TMZ has learned that the FBI searched the home Tuesday of a woman who runs an LA paparazzi agency The allegation is that her computers were used to illegally hack into the computers of Us Weekly magazine to obtain Link Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Judith Miller Finally Finds Forum Appropriate To Her Talents
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. FAIR Media Views Judith Miller Finally Finds Forum Appropriate To Her Talents By (Gawker) On former New York Times pariah Judith Miller resurfacing with a series of reports on Libya's nuclear history: Wheres a reporter with no credibility and a reputation for being an administration mouthpiece to go once shes been drummed out of her former place of employ for practicing some of the most sloppy, credulous, bordering-on-disingenuous journalism that said employer has even seen, even considering the fact that it once also employed Jayson Blair? Naturally, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, a magical world where taxes cause cancer, the ghost of Vince Foster has risen from the grave to wreak havoc on President Bushs poll numbers, and Judith Miller can be considered a legitimate journalist If you think that maybe the last topic Judy should be reporting on is WMD, then you have no idea what passes for fact in the right-wing funny farm that is the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - A warning from the Canadian branch
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. xymphora A warning from the Canadian branch By Andrew Via YayaCanada, a curious editorial from a Canadian branch office of the Lobby:While the crazed rantings of overseas terrorists should be placed in the context in which they exist, so should the sometimes careless words of Canadian activists and leaders. Repeatedly, anti-Israel activists in Canada have refused to acknowledge even the possibility that the extreme language employed in discussion of the Middle East conflict might unintentionally encourage individuals or groups for whom violence carries no stigma. It is simply not adequate to contend that any violence preceded by extreme language is an unintended consequence. Citizens in free societies are called upon to exercise a degree of sensitivity not only to the impact their words are meant to have, but the impact their comments might have unintentionally. Abdicating this core civic responsibility is a major failing of Israel's critics in Canada and elsewhere.Now, when we have explicit, if vague, threats to the security of overseas Jews, Israel's critics must be held to a higher standard than before. The issue is not so much the veracity of the accusations- criticism of Israel, like certain accusations against Jews throughout the ages, are usually grounded in a seed of truth- but they have often been misused by malcontents to sway the ignorant. The fear, of course, is that people who are inclined toward violence will be emboldened by the hateful imagery and language employed by otherwise peaceful anti-Israel activists. As unpleasant and unfair as this connection may seem, it is rejected only by people whose concern for the safety of Jews is eclipsed by their dislike of Israel.Individuals and groups in a multicultural society have an obligation not only to choose their words and approaches respectfully, but to give some thought to the way their words could be interpreted by people whose intentions are less pure. This is the core failure of the anti-Zionist movement in Canada (as well as Europe and elsewhere). There is insouciance toward the presumably unintended consequences of their rhetoric. If this was ever forgivable, it is not anymore. Canadians of goodwill, critics of Israel and others, must temper their language in the context of the times. Meanwhile, Canadian governments should be playing a role in alleviating the financial and other burdens of protecting communities who are the subject of explicit threats.The editorial begins by expressly requesting extra protection for Canadian Jews from the Canadian government against the threat of attack from al Qaeda. Would the next logical step not be to request Canadian government protection from those who might want to criticize the policies of the State of Israel? Consider yourselves warned. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Of Imperial Presidents and Congressional Cowards
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. AntiWar.com Your Best Source for antiwar news, viewpoints, and activities. Help keep Antiwar.com alive, donate at http://www.antiwar.com/donate/ Of Imperial Presidents and Congressional Cowards by Patrick Buchanan Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Statistical machine translation live
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Official Google Research Blog Statistical machine translation live By A Googler Posted by Franz Och, Research Scientist Because we want to provide everyone with access to all the world's information, including information written in every language, one of the exciting projects at Google Research is machine translation. Most state-of-the-art commercial machine translation systems in use today have been developed using a rules-based approach and require a lot of work by linguists to define vocabularies and grammars. Several research systems, including ours, take a different approach: we feed the computer with billions of words of text, both monolingual text in the target language, and aligned text consisting of examples of human translations between the languages. We then apply statistical learning techniques to build a translation model. We have achieved very good results in research evaluations. Now you can see the results for yourself. We recently launched an online version of our system for Arabic-English and English-Arabic. Try it out! Arabic is a very challenging language to translate to and from: it requires long-distance reordering of words and has a very rich morphology. Our system works better for some types of text (e.g. news) than for others (e.g. novels) -- and you probably should not try to translate poetry ... but do stay tuned for more exciting developments. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Shrug-detecting software recognizes your disinterest
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Engadget Engadget "Shrug-detecting" software recognizes your disinterest By Evan Blass on UniversityOfIllinois Filed under: Robots In another blundering step towards empowering our future robotic overlords with the ability to recognize when we're being insolent, a group of computer vision researchers at the University of Illinois have invented shrug-detecting software that allows a webcam-equipped computer to pick up on the subtle shoulder movements indicative of confusion or disinterest. The application works by looking for sudden movements of the target's shoulders towards his/her face, and is so sophisticated that it cannot be fooled even by covering one shoulder with a piece of paper, as the above picture helpfully illustrates. Future iterations of the technology could be used to detect blinking, hand movements, facial expressions, and other mood indicators, but for the sake of our enslaved decendents forced to toil in the silicon mines, we hope that they leave certain expressive gestures, such as the raising of the middle finger, out of the software's lexicon.[Via The Raw Feed]Read|Permalink|Email this|LinkingBlogs|Comments Comments Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Flight 93 gets blasted on Universal's own blog.
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. WhatReallyHappened.com "Flight 93" gets blasted on Universal's own blog. In ENTERTAINMENT Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - The questions that United 93 can't answer
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. WhatReallyHappened.com The questions that "United 93" can't answer In COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS why wasn't there any mention of a debris field 8 miles long. That doesn't bode well for the theory that the plane did a nose dive into the ground as they would have us believe. just look at the physical evidence. that plane was shot down and it took a while for it to finally come down hence the debris being found so far from the crash site. wake up !! Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - House votes 397-21 for Iran Freedom Support Act
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. WhatReallyHappened.com House votes 397-21 for "Iran Freedom Support Act" In IRAN As if Iraq isn't a big enough mess, the House of Representatives has just voted to `hold Iran accountable and support a transition to democracy'. Sound Familiar? Only this time Iran is a democracy. They just held an election where their president was actually elected by the people. How refreshing. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Be like Noam
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. xymphora Be like Noam By Andrew Good stuff on the Lobby from:William BlumMolly IvinsRichard CohenLinda S. Heard (an unusually prominent airing of the Yinon thesis)Tony Judt(or here).The pathetic anti-Lobby arguments fall into a small number of categories:Name calling (Nazi, anti-Semitic), the main thrust of big brains for a five-year-old like DershowitzCompany you keep arguments, the idea that the thesis must be wrong as people like David Duke have written favorably about it (this is all the way up to the rhetorical sophistication of a ten-year-old)Arguments that the thesis must be wrong, as prominent Israelis wrote against the attack on Iraq.Of course they did, as the attack didnt benefit Israel, and the Lobby doesnt workfor the real interests of Israel orthe Israeli people. It operates for the Likudniks and the Settler Movement, and the Christian Zionists who are looking for an apocalypse in the Middle East.All manner of what we could callneo-Chomskean arguments, that the American Empire, by definition, only operates for the benefit of the American Empire, or Capitalism, or some such vague idea, following on the Chomsky/Marx/Hegel thesis that the real operators in the world are not human beings but ideas. Thus, by definition, and no matter how much it looks like the Lobby thesis is correct, or how much evidence we pile up to support it, or how obvious it is that recent actions by the Americans in the Middle East have gravely probably mortally wounded the American Empire, the Lobby thesis must be wrong, because, by definition, only the interests of the Empire inform the actions of the Empire. Chomskys intellectual suicide note to hide the crimes of the Lobby was sad, but the fact that neocons who six months ago would have had Chomsky hung for treason are now spouting his ideas in a vain effort to refute the Lobby thesis is hilarious.Arguments that there were other reasons for the attack on Iraq: oil, geopolitics, bases, dollar hegemony, etc. Of course there were other reasons. The Lobby thesis doesnt require that the Lobby be the only reason for the war. Does anyone seriously believe that the United States would have attacked Iraq without the full-court press of the Lobby, efforts by the entire Lobby-controlled media, most notably Miller and the NYT (and the aluminum tubes, Curveball, etc.); Wolfowitz; Wurmser; Feith and the OSP, and the complete disruption of the usual process of relating intelligence to politics; the Christian Zionists who give Bush his backbone and got him elected; etc, etc, etc? The attack on Iraq took months of preparation and bullying and lying, and would simply not have happened without the efforts of the Lobby.Nevertheless, the Lobby thesis is still correct even if the Lobby only played a substantial role, rather than a definitive role,in the enormously ill-advised decision to attack Iraq.The biggest joke is that the efforts of the Lobby continue unabated, to the extent that Israelis are complaining that Israel will be blamed for any upcoming attack on Iran as the connections between the call for war and Jewish lobbying is so blindingly obvious. Israel and its defenders cant continue to have it both ways: rely on the Lobby to advance the craziest of Zionist ideas, all the while pretending that the Lobby doesnt exist. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Microsoft's new Wallop startup
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Geeking with Greg Exploring the future of personalized information Microsoft's new Wallop startup By Greg Linden John Cook from the Seattle PI reports that Microsoft has spun out a 12-person social networking startup from Microsoft Research called Wallop. From Microsoft's press release: Wallop solves the problems plaguing current social networking technologies Wallop developed a unique set of algorithms that respond to social interactions to automatically build and maintain a person's social network. I like this idea. Automatically building the network means less work for users. It means the network is less likely to become stale over time. It increases the likelihood that people will start using it and keep using it. Microsoft Research has published a couple papers that appear to cover some of the technology behind Wallop, "Wallop: Designing Social Software for Co-located Social Networks" (PDF) and "Personal Map: Automatically Modeling the User's Online Social Network" (PDF). From the papers, it sounds like they build a social network implicitly from communications (e-mails sent, instant messaging, etc.) between people. I have been more interested in seeing this data used to prioritize contacts and incoming messages, like MSR's Priorities and Inner Circle projects, but exposing the social network derived from this data is also clever and useful. See also Kari Lynn Dean's Nov 2003 Wired article on Wallop. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Using the desktop to improve search
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Geeking with Greg Exploring the future of personalized information Using the desktop to improve search By Greg Linden The search experience is primitive, one box gazing at us from an HTML form. It hasn't changed much since 1994. But is it really natural to go to a web browser to find information? Or should information be readily available from the desktop and sensitive to the context of your current task? I expect we some day will see information retrieval become a natural part of workflow. Search will be integrated into the desktop. Tasks will become more of a collaborative process. Your focus will remain on your task, but the computer will become your assistant, bringing relevant information closer to you should you need to reach for it. Microsoft Researcher Susan Dumais recently said: We can make it easier for [people] to get results without leaving the application they're in ... Search is not the end goal. We want to show people results in context and help them integrate those results into whatever they're doing. With their control of the desktop, Microsoft is in an ideal position to drive toward this future. At Microsoft Research, the Stuff I've Seen project seeks to allow rapid access to any information you have seen before on your computer. Implicit Query tries to surface relevant information on your desktop without an explicit search. Search personalization targets search results using additional data about the user and the context of the search. Priorities and The Scope intend to focus your attention on important information and avoid unnecessary interruptions. Scalable Fabric and Data Mountain offer task-focused advanced user interfaces for managing your information and work, interfaces that are impossible to reproduce in a web browser. If these can be combined, refined, finished, and moved into the Windows desktop, Microsoft may be able to build a task-focused, advanced user interface that organizes your information, pays attention to what you are doing to help you find what you need, and surfaces additional information and alerts only when it is important and relevant. It would be an experience impossible to reproduce in a web browser, a jump beyond the 1994, one-box search interface we still live with today. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - John Fund vs. Juan Cole
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. James Wolcott John Fund vs. Juan Cole I know whose side I'm on. It's really no contest, as Justin Raimondo lays out in his Antiwar column. In one corner, a distinguished scholar and a tireless educator via his inestimable blog. In the other, a dissembling ferret. Fund... Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Experts see computers getting bigger and smaller at the same time
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News A collection of news articles and stories relating to the accelerating nature of technology Experts see computers getting bigger and smaller at the same time Experts visiting Carnegie Mellon University last week to celebrate the 50th anniversary of computing at Carnegie Mellon shared what might come out of their labs in the next five to 10 years. Rick Rashid, head of Microsoft Research, said it's now p... Link Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - http://robertdreyfuss.com/blog/2006/04/post_3.html
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message: Break out the champagne: Thomas Friedman is NOT an Iran War ringleader. Neither is Christopher Hitchens, last I checked. Nor Robert Kagan. Nor even Alan Dershowitz, I believe. The neocons and neolibs were so badly burned by the Iraq War that they are beginning to back off on some of their more ambitious schemes, probably in part from a desire not to suffer a public hanging. Robert Dreyfuss Amazing to read this in the New York Times--sanity, at last, and from Tom Friedman of all people. He says that having a nuclear armed Iran is better than having W. and Rummy launch attacks. In his own words: If these are our only choices, which would you rather have: a nuclear-armed Iran or an attack on Iran's nuclear sites that is carried out and sold to the world by the Bush national security team, with Don Rumsfeld at the Pentagon's helm? I'd rather live with a nuclear Iran. While I know the right thing is to keep all our options open, I have zero confidence in this administration's ability to manage a complex military strike against Iran, let alone the military and diplomatic aftershocks. As someone who believed — and still believes — in the importance of getting Iraq right, the level of incompetence that the Bush team has displayed in Iraq, and its refusal to acknowledge any mistakes or remove those who made them, make it impossible to support this administration in any offensive military action against Iran. Permalink Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - The Forward on Iran
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message: The Forward is one of the leading Jewish newspapers in the United States and the world, and a great newspaper all around. It is NOT playing the role of an Iran War ringleader -- quite the contrary. Again, there is no room for anti-Semitism in analyzing the political blocs which are agitating for an American attack on Iran. The agitation is in part about Israel and the Israel lobby, to be sure, but it has nothing to do with Jews overall, 70% of whom have been opposed to the Iraq War. Anti-Semitism is just plain stupid, and most of it is motivated by mean envy. Robert Dreyfuss The Forward on Iran By Robert Dreyfuss The Forward, the leading U.S. Jewish newspaper, carries a strong editorial suggesting that an attack on Iran would have incalculable consequences, perhaps even worse than Iran having a nuclear weapon. After noting all the war talk, the Forward asks: “What could be worse than the terrifying uncertainty of a world in which Iran possessed a nuclear weapon?” It answers its own question: The answer is alarmingly simple. Worse than those uncertainties would be the very certain consequences of an American attack on Iran. Begin with an unwinnable quagmire in a Muslim nation three times the size of Iraq. Then consider a global wave of Islamic rage against America that would make our current diplomatic predicament look like a honeymoon. Add to that the destabilization and likely collapse of unpopular pro-American regimes in places like Egypt, Pakistan and perhaps Saudi Arabia. Instead of one Islamic republic that threatens to develop a nuclear bomb down the road, we would then face three or four — one of which would be in possession of a fully developed nuclear arsenal from day one. How compelling is the military option against Iran? Jack Straw, the foreign minister of Great Britain, our most reliable ally, has for months been calling the idea "inconceivable." This week, after the reports of escalating war plans began surfacing, he went a step further and called it "completely nuts." And that's our closest ally. Another highly respected European foreign minister, speaking last week on condition of anonymity, told a small group of Jewish community leaders in New York that the idea of an American attack on Iran would produce "a catastrophe — an absolute calamity." He was speaking at a convivial dinner party, lubricated with wine and good cheer, until he was asked about the prospect of Iran war. At that point, his face turned white. "Imagine the current situation in Iraq," the minister said, ticking off the unwinnable quagmire, the collapse of a strategic nation into chaos, the turning of Iraq into an incubator for global terror and growing worldwide rage against America. "Then multiply it by 25, by 30. The implications are almost unimaginable.” Where are the similar editorials in the MSM? Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - We Need You to Save the Internet!
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Daily Kos State of the Nation We Need You to Save the Internet! By mcjoan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on telecommunications Sounds hyperbolic, no? It's not. The House Commerce Committee is likely to vote as early as Wednesday on legislation that would essentially hand over the keys to the Internet to the giant telcos, ATT, Verizon, Time Warner, and Comcast. It's hard to imagine that the Internet, that vast free-flowing world of entertainment, enlightenment, education, and interaction could be fettered, but under this legislation it very well could be. Internet service provision in the U.S. is covered by telecommunications law, and has operated under the idea of "network neutrality." In it's early years, telephone companies provided most Web service, and carried most of the traffic. Because of the nature of laws regulating phone service, Web traffic was handled just like phone traffic, each "call" being equal. That means every page you surf to on the Internet is served up just like any other, as far as your ISP is concerned. You can go from Amazon.com to Aunt Harriet's family history blog equally. Here's what's at stake with this legislation. The nation's largest telephone and cable companies -- including ATT, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner -- want to be Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow and which won't load at all. They want to tax content providers to guarantee speedy delivery of their data. They want to discriminate in favor of their own search engines, Internet phone services, and streaming video -- while slowing down or blocking their competitors. . . . On the Internet, consumers are in ultimate control -- deciding between content, applications and services available anywhere, no matter who owns the network. There's no middleman. But without net neutrality, the Internet will look more like cable TV. Network owners will decide which channels, content and applications are available; consumers will have to choose from their menu. The Internet has always been driven by innovation. Web sites and services succeeded or failed on their own merit. Without net neutrality, decisions now made collectively by millions of users will be made in corporate boardrooms. The choice we face now is whether people can choose the content and services they want, or whether the broadband barons will choose for them. That does seem like so much speculation, doesn't it. But this scenario isn't unprecedented. Consider these examples from the Save the Internet Coalition: In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service. In 2005, Canada's telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a labor dispute. Shaw, a big Canadian cable TV company, is charging an extra $10 a month to subscribers who want to use a competing Internet telephone service. In April, Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com -- an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme.Still think it's not going to happen? That these companies wouldn't dare to alienate the entire Internet-using community? Well, think about how much fun it is to deal with Comcast for your cable, and how much flexibility they're willing to offer. Also consider this comment from Edward Whiteacre, CEO of SBC Comm., when he was asked about how concerned he was about losing ground to Internet upstarts: How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes? The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment and for a Google or Yahoo! (YHOO) or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts! It's not about the customer, you see, it's about their profits. So if a giant retailer like Barnes and Noble wanted to screw the competition, they could pay the right ISPs, the right networks, and make sure that traffic to a site like Powells.com would run much slower. Or they could guarantee one Internet search engine that their engine would run much faster than anothers. If one of the network providers developed a music service, they could slow down your access to iTunes. Non-profits could be squeezed off of the Internet if they couldn't pay for the "fast-lane" of Internet service. You can find out much more about the legislation, how bloggers are reacting, and how various organizations are reacting at Save the
[political-research] Bloglines - The Truth About The DLC and friends
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message: The neocons control the Democratic Party through the DLC (Democratic Leadership Councl), and are seeking to create a one-party state in America, erasing Democratic and Republican distinctions, that will wage eternal war against the entire world on behalf of Israel. Traditional Republicans, conservatives and Christian evangelicals under the Bush administration have been hoodwinked by a cabal of ultra-leftists and Trotskyites who are focused like a laser beam on the interests of a single nation -- Israel. This article manages to connect a great many dots that are unknown to most Americans who may even have a sophisticated understanding of politics. Anti DLC Coalition The Truth About The DLC and friends By Cch092775 The Progressive Independent has provided a comprehensive history of the DLC and its affiliates that every Liberal/Progressive Democrat should familiarize himself/herself with. It is for this reason that I have posted it on "Democrats Against The DLC" and "Anti DLC Coalition". Our battle is not just against Republicans, we as progressives must be cognizant of the enemy within whose primary objective is to create ONE political party consisting of the Republican party and its surrogate cancerous sibling the Democratic Leadership Council. PNAC. What informed American hasn't heard of the treacherous Project for a New American Century by now?PNAC is a small off-shoot, occupying the 5th floor, of the American Enterprise Institute which has been around since 1943. The AEI has 12 very busy floors where its operative have had plenty of time to send their operatives over to infiltrate the Democratic Party, or leave them in to be more accurate since the PNACers & AEIers are ORIGINALLY DEMOCRATS. To this day Richard Perle, Fieth and Wolfowitz are still Democrats. The day the Republican party, which they hijacked also, no longer suits their needs, they'll follow other PNAC neo-cons like Marshall Wittman back to the Democratic Party where the neoliberal Democratic Leadership Council is laying out the welcome mat for them. The AEI, the PNAC the DLC were founded by Scoop Jackson democrats who follow the philosophy of Leo Strauss. To this day the DLC is stacked with neo-conservative ideologues, who maintain deep personal ties to the war-mongers in the Bush Administration.The DLC is following the footsteps of its neo-conservative, war-mongering predecessor organizations of the 1970s: the Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM)((also see http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Coalition_for_a_Democratic_Majority )), founded in 1972 by the likes of Richard Perle, Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol, and Jeane Kirkpatrick, among others; the Committee on the Present Danger (CPD) ((also see www.rightweb.irc-online.org/groupwatch/cpd.php )), founded in 1976 by Richard Perle, Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol, and Jeane Kirkpatrick, et al; and the Committee for the Free World (CFW) (( also see http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Committee_for_the_Free_World )), founded in 1981 by exactly the same crew. Rounding out the picture, CFW's chairman was none other than Donald Rumsfeld.The "missing link" between the "Democratic" DLC and the now "Republican" CDM/CPD/CFW neo-cons, is the Social Democrats-USA, (SDUSA), whose chairman, Penn Kemble, was the Executive Director of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority in 1972, until he brought in Richard Perle's underling Stephen Bryen to take his place. Bryen, who created the hawkish Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) in the early 1980s, when he served as Perle's aide at the Department of Defense, is another leading member of the neo-conservative gang that wants to go to war against the entire Arab world in the name of anti-terrorism. Providing daily coordination between Perle and Bryen would be Joshua Muravchik, a fixture at nearly every American Enterprise Institute event--but also a leader of SDUSA since its creation.The DLC and SDUSA both maintain extremely close links to Tony Blair's British "New Labour" party faction, and in parallel, are out to recreate a new version of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority in time for the 2004 elections. The battle cry for this effort is to follow the "strong defense" lead of the original CDM's heroes: the late Dem Senators Henry "Scoop" Jackson, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan.The CDM's two leading lights in Congress were the Democratic Senators Jackson and Moynihan. The Cold Warrior and fanatically pro-IsraelJackson remains the model for the DLC crowd today. Former DLC president Joe Lieberman declares he is proud to be identified as a"'Scoop' Jackson Democrat." It was these two Senators' offices that housed the Straussians behind the no-exit Iraq War. http://forums.alternet.org/guest/motet?show+-ui13dz+-ilad+Issues+527+-25
[political-research] Bloglines - Profiles in Chicken Shit
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message: The Democrats are getting their marching orders from the neoliberal DLC (Democratic Leadership Council). They are following the same script as the neoconservatives in the Republican Party. And the mainstream media are covering up the entire rigged operation. Whiskey Bar Free Thinking in a Dirty Glass Profiles in Chicken Shit The congressional Dems show us what they're made of. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go scrape the rest of it off my shoes. As rhetoric builds, Democrats in Congress lie low on IranMost aides refused to speculate whether Democrats might support a military operation in Iran. Several aides acknowledged, however, that some Democrats in Congress could support a military strike . . . Any military action Democrats supported, one aide said, would not include the use of nuclear weapons. Unless, of course, it tests well with the focus groups. (From Raw Story, via Cursor.) Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - The Jasons Exposes Secret Science
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Wired News: Top Stories Get the latest headlines from Wired News, the net's leading chronicle of how technology affects our lives, culture and work. The Jasons Exposes Secret Science A new book digs into the furtive work of a cabal of brainiacs who advise the U.S. government on hot topics, from global warming to nukes. By Randy Dotinga. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Findory traffic growth Q1 2006
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Geeking with Greg Exploring the future of personalized information Findory traffic growth Q1 2006 By Greg Linden Findory.com has been live since January of 2004. The website has grown rapidly over the last two years. Every quarter since Q4 2004, I have posted charts showing Findory's growth. The Q1 2006 numbers are now in: As in the previous posts ([1] [2] [3] [4] [5]), the data show total "viewed hits" (hits excluding robots and redirects) for each quarter. Viewed hits for March 2006 were 5.8M, viewed page views were 4.7M. Total hits (including robots, redirects, etc.) on the Findory.com webservers in March 2006 were 9.5M. The chart shows Findory growth slowing a bit in Q1 2006, down to about 8% per month (24% per quarter) from the 16% per month of the previous quarter. The slower growth is not surprising. Development at Findory has been clipped and PR efforts reduced. In addition, my analysis of the effectiveness of our (tiny) advertising budget showed it was converting poorly, so I decided to eliminate it. All of these could impact Findory growth rates. Findory was cash flow positive for all of Q1 2006. On top of our continuing growth, this is good news. The extra cash Findory is generating is modest, sufficient for an additional server or two for the cluster, but definitely nice to have. Looking toward the future, I would like to see Findory move into other products (pictures, video, podcasts), further develop our personalized advertising, work on a more mature version of our alpha personalized web search, improve support for mobile devices, add additional customization features for power users, expand the breadth of our news and blog crawls, and offer internationalized versions (German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese) of Findory. There is much to do! Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Weiner #8220;Savage#8221; Calls for Genocide of Muslims
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Another Day in the Empire Just another WordPress weblog Weiner Savage Calls for Genocide of Muslims By Administrator on Uncategorized Clear Channel’s KNEW 910 A.M. resident fascist and misanthropic beatnik, Michael Savage Weiner, has called for slaughtering 100 million Muslims, thus winning this years Ann Coulter award for hatemongering. Weiner told listeners that intelligent people, wealthy people are very depressed by the weakness that America is showing to these psychotics in the Muslim world. They say, Oh, theres a billion of them. I said, So, kill 100 million of them, then thered be 900 million of them. I mean would you rather us die than them?. Would you rather we disappear or we die? Or would you rather they disappear and they die? Because youre going to have to make that choice sooner rather than later. In other words, Weiner is calling for an act of genocide that would best Maos Great Leap Forward into mass murder (49,000,000), Stalins various famines and purges (13,000,000), Adolf Hitlers Nazi killing spree (12,000,000), and Pol Pots Year Zero (1,700,000), to list the most infamous. In America, circa 2006, you will end up arrested and abused if you hold up an anti-Bush placard along the presidential motorcade route, and yet large entertainment corporations allow vicious hatemongers such as Weiner to spew venom over the once publically owned airwaves. Savage should be picked up and put in a rubber room and observed closely for any homicidal tendencies, lest he endanger any Muslims, or for that matter red diaper doper babies, that is to say any boomer who is not a neocon fascist. Instead, he is a three time New York Times bestseller and a nationally syndicated radio show host with over eight million listeners on 377 stations throughout the United States, ranking third in nationwide ratings behind the neocon shills Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Weiners hatred will unfortunately influence a percentage of the easily brainwashed and stampeded masses, already steeped in an endless barrage of anti-Muslim propaganda engineered by the Straussian neocons and a complaisant corporate media as part of their Clash of Civilizations crusade against Islamic society and culture. But what is really startling is Weiner-Savage is allowed to get away with dispensing such over-the-top hatred while a small number of people, essentially locked out of the corporate media, are called conspiracy nuts and anti-American trolls for asking questions about obvious inconsistencies (and violations of the laws of physics) in regard to the official version of nine eleven events. Obviously, the corporate media is fully onboard with the Straussian total war agendaand Mike Weiner, a former beatnik who once frolicked nude with Allen Ginsberg in Fiji, serves their purposes nicely. Beatnik San Francisco bookstore owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti considers Weiners hate radio persona total opportunism, the crowning achievement of someone who was always looking to make a fast buck and always trying to think up new schemes to get famous (see the Wikipedia entry on Michael Alan Weiner). Unfortunately, his beguiled listeners are unaware the man is a charlatan and fake. However, it is difficult to fake hatred of the sort Weiner espouses against largely peaceful Muslims. In a perfect world, those in influential positions calling for war and mass murder would be held to account for their reprehensible advocacy and also destroying the remaining vestiges of our one-time constitutional republic, now in tatters and moving ever closer to outright tyranny by the hour. On the day Bushzarro world finally crashes, not only should Bush and crew be immediately arrested and prosecuted, but Michael Weiner as well for preaching hatred, advocating mass murder, accurately characterized as genocide. After he is convicted of hate-mongering and deemed a potential threat to the social order, Weiner-Savage should be sent to a small island, preferably an uninhabited one in the vicinity of Aitutaki in the Pacific, although that may be too close to civilization for comfort. Fiji, of course, is out of the question since it may elicit fond memories. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Bush: the Decider Dictator
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Another Day in the Empire Just another WordPress weblog Bush: the Decider Dictator By Administrator on Uncategorized I recall months ago, when folks began first murmuring about booting Donald Rumsfeld, arriving at the obvious conclusionDonald Rumsfeld is not going anywhere, not anymore than Cheney is (short of a heart attack). Rumsfeld and Cheney are integral to the Straussian neocon hold on both the Pentagon and the Oval Office. Bush may appoint Rob Portman to head the Office of Management and Budget, and Dan Senor (former AIPAC flunky, director of the US-Israel Business Exchange, and associate at the Carlyle Group) may replace Scott McClellan, but Cheney and Rumsfeld are like white on rice. Its said Rumsfeld has to go because Iraq is a disaster. I beg to differthings are going swimmingly for the Straussian neocons in Iraq. Bush never intended to bestow democracy on the Iraqi people, as claimed, and we all know about the weapons of mass destruction that never were (and a few of us said this in late 2002, as the Office of Special Plans began to circulate its propaganda and lies to the likes of Judith Miller at the New York Times). All of it was and is a smokescreen for the real dealfomenting civil war and eventually breaking Iraq up into three pieces based along ethnic and religious lines (all the better to rule and divideand steal oil, water, and other natural resources, not to mention turning millions of people into a pool of cheap labor, as the Israelis have done over the years to the Palestinians). I hear the voices and I read the front page and I know the speculation, Bush growled at the corporate media. But Im the decider and I decide whats best. And whats best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense. Translation: Bush is the dictator (it would be a heck of a lot easier) decider increasingly unbound by the restraints of law and the Constitution. In ancient Rome, a dictator received absolute power on a temporary basis during times of emergency. It is said our emergency is the war on terrorterror documented to be an engineered fraudbut unlike the Romans before Sulla and Triumvir and the Princeps, Bushs dictatorial power is arbitrary and unaccountable, not subject to law and justification. Bushs emerging dictatorship is the most dangerous kindunlike the garden variety military dictatorship put in place through a coup détat, primarily to keep a certain personality (invariably a knuckle-dragging thug) in power (usually representing a particular social or economic class), the Bush (or rather Straussian) dictatorship is extremely dangerous because it represents a totalitarian ideologyand thus akin to the totalitarian dictatorships of Hitler and Stalin. Our decider (or rather his handlers) have embraced the theology of state power and corporatismor as Mussolini called it, fascism. Donald Rumsfeld is crucial to this fascist ideology. A bit of harping on the part of the corporate mediaor factions therein squeamish over Straussian neocon tactics (shock and awe mass murder, institutionalized torture, mini-nuke braggadocio)will not change the game plan, a stratagem devised by the neocons as far back as the first Bush administration (in the good old days, these guys were called the crazies, and Colin Powell later added a colorful verb before this pejorative). Nothing short of a military coup and tanks rolling up Pennsylvania Avenue will put an end to this madness. On that fateful day, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush will resemble Hitler and his lieutenants hiding in their bunkers as the Russians stormed Berlin. Either that or they will turn the planet into a living hell. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss SPONSORED LINKS Business intelligence Competitive intelligence Market intelligence Emotional intelligence Military intelligence Critical thinking YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Being Leo Strauss
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Another Day in the Empire Just another WordPress weblog Being Leo Strauss By Administrator on Uncategorized Leave it up to the Straussian house organ, the Weekly Standard, to write about Leo Strauss without really saying too much about Leo Strauss. In the latest issue, Steven J. Lenzner reviews Heinrich Meiers Leo Strauss and the Theologico-Political Problem. Meir, described as a prominent interpreter of Rousseau, apparently tackled Strauss after an exhausting dissection of the political theologian Carl Schmitt, who was a Nazi (no mention that here). Strauss showed that the underlying basis of Schmitts affirmation of the political was a profound dissatisfaction with liberalismthat is, with liberal universalism and its aspirations for boundless security and a life that seeks fulfillment in the interesting and entertaining. Liberalism, according to Schmitt, was above all a rejection of the political, the characteristic distinction of which he held to be the division into friends and enemies. Such a lifelacking the passion and commitment that would lead one to die for a causeseemed to Schmitt a rejection of all that was high and vital in man, writes Lenzner. Classical liberalism, as opposed to modern liberalism, can be defined as a tradition which holds libertyfreedom of thought, limited government, the rule of law, and the free exchange of ideasas a primary political value (the word liberal comes from the Latin liber, or free). Schmitt rejected the idea of liberty and embraced dictatorial government and the German concept of Ausnahmezustand, or a state of emergency, and the disencumbering of the executive branch from all legal (and moral) restraint, as Hitler did with the Reichstag Fire Decree. For Schmitt, Ausnahmezustand (literally, state of exception) allowed the executive, as a dictatorial office not obliged to a Constitution, to engage in violence under right, thus transforming the state into a death machine (Schmitt would later condone the Night of the Long Knives as the highest form of administrative justice). It only takes a cursory glance to see an ugly glimmer of this authoritarian philosophy at work in the Bush administration under the sway of the Straussian neoconsfrom Guantanamo Bay to the NSA snoop scandal and beyond (note: Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR) accuse Bush in separate letters of illegally initiating military action against Iran without congressional authorization and plan to introduce a resolution in opposition). Meiers complex exposition and arguments give no inkling of the fascistic character of Carl Schmitt and his student Leo Strauss, at least not in Steven J. Lenzners review of his book. Instead, Meir apparently investigates, in Strauss words, the relation between society and philosophy, not the ultimate outcome of that philosophy (the effort to destroy classical liberalism and create a dictatorship). In contrast to the widespread abuse of mining Strausss works for snippets that ostensibly show Strausss agenda, Meier treats them as invitations to think about the most important problems; that is, to philosophize, that is, to avoid the terrible totality of the Straussian philosophy with its underpinnings in the authoritarian theology of Machiavelli and Schmitt. Hardcore Straussians like to call this esotericism. The esoteric, or supposedly secret teaching which [Strauss] inculcated into [Thomas] Pangle, [Allan] Bloom, Werner Dannhauser, and many others, including, reportedly, Blooms protégé Paul Wolfowitz, was indeed pure Nietzsche, writes Tony Papert. From Nietzsche to Leo Strauss, only the names have been changed, as they say. To begin with, what Nietzsche called the superman, or the next man, Strauss calls the philosopher. Papert continues: It is the supermen/philosophers who provide the herd with the religious, moral, and other beliefs they require, but which the supermen themselves know to be lies. Nietzsche said that his supermen were atheistic priests, and Strauss pretends that their lies are noble lies. But they do not do this out of benevolence, of course; charity and benevolence are mocked by Nietzsche and Strauss as unworthy of gods and godlike men. Rather, the philosophers use these falsehoods to shape society in the interest of these philosophers themselves. Lenzner tells us by serving as a timely and enticing summons to accept Strausss generosity, Meiers work helps us begin to understand the greatness of Strauss as a philosopher. That is an achievement worthy of note and gratitude. Strauss is all about Nietzschean relativism (the Nazis liked this about Nietzsche toomade it easier to kill millions of people) and Hegelian historicismthat is, the end of history and, as Nietzsche saw it, a return the Socratic-Platonic-Aristotelian philosophy (Strauss, however, sternly rejected the Socratic question: What is the good for the city
[political-research] Bloglines - Filling in Bush's blanks: The media's pattern of conjuring statements beneficial to the administration
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message: David Brock and Media Matters for America fail to ask WHY the mainstream media are propping up and running interference for the Bush administration. The hamster wheel continues to spin endlessly. Media Matters for America Latest Media Matters for America items Filling in Bush's blanks: The media's pattern of conjuring statements beneficial to the administration In Propaganda/Noise Machine In reporting on the scandals and issues confronting the Bush administration, a variety of media outlets have imputed to President Bush and members of his administration comments or statements they have not actually made. These phony statements often arise as a result of reporters misinterpreting an administration officials statement, then presenting it in a way that appears similar to, but is significantly different from, what was actually said. In some cases, however, reporters have attributed a position or statement to an administration official even when that official has said nothing close to what was reported. Nuclear strikes against Iran On the April 11 edition of CNNs American Morning, anchor Miles OBrien reported that Bush, on April 10, had "reject[ed] reports [that said] there are contingency plans for a nuclear strike against Irans nuclear program," and played a video clip of President Bush saying: "I know here in Washington, you know, prevention means force. It doesnt mean force, necessarily. In this case, it means diplomacy. What youre reading is wild speculation which is -- its kind of a -- you know, it happens quite frequently here in the nations capital." Nothing in the clip CNN aired, however, indicated that Bush ruled out -- or even directly addressed -- reports of planned nuclear strikes against Iran. During an April 10 talk at Johns Hopkins Universitys Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Bush answered a question on whether the United States will allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons by saying, in part: BUSH: But our objective is to prevent them from having a nuclear weapon. And the good news is, is that many in the world have come to that conclusion. I got out a little early on the issue by saying, axis of evil. But I meant it. I saw it as a problem. And now, many others have -- have come to the conclusion that the Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon. The doctrine of prevention is to work together to prevent the Iranians from having a nuclear weapon. I know -- I know here in Washington prevention means force. It doesnt mean force, necessarily. In this case, it means diplomacy. And by the way, I read the articles in the newspapers this weekend. It was just wild speculation, by the way. What youre reading is wild speculation, which is -- its kind of a -- happens quite frequently here in the nations capital. OBrien apparently linked Bushs vague dismissal of "articles in the newspapers" to investigative journalist Seymour Hershs article in the April 17 edition of The New Yorker, which reported that the Bush administration has "intensified planning for a possible major air attack" on Iran, and may be considering "the use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon ... against underground nuclear sites." OBrien made this claim even after his colleague Wolf Blitzer correctly reported that Bush "did not actually deny" the reports of planned nuclear strikes. From the April 10 edition of CNNs The Situation Room: BLITZER: If diplomacy does not work, would the United States use military force to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons? The investigative journalist Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker magazine says the United States is considering several military options to curb Irans nuclear ambitions, including possibly nuclear bombs to blast Irans underground bunkers. Today, President Bush did not actually deny that, but he did say this -- listen. BUSH: The doctrine of prevention is to work together to prevent the Iranians from having a nuclear weapon. I know -- I know here in Washington, you know, prevention means force. It doesnt mean force, necessarily. In this case, it means diplomacy. And by the way, I read the articles in the newspapers this weekend, and it was just wild speculation, by the way. What youre reading is wild speculation, which is -- its kind of a -- you know, it happens quite frequently here in the nations capital. The Plame leak An April 13 Washington Post article by staff writer R. Jeffrey Smith carried the headline: "Libby Wasnt Ordered to Leak Name, Papers Say." But the headline is not supported by the article itself. Smith was reporting on an April 12 court filing by lawyers representing former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby -- under investigation for his role in the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilsons identity -- which noted that "Mr. Libby does not contend that he
[political-research] Bloglines - Cleanser rather than cleansee
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. xymphora Cleanser rather than cleansee By Andrew Isnt it funny how Jews in Russia were upset at the antics of extreme nationalist Russian political parties who advocated the ethnic cleansing of the Jewish people from Russia, decided to escape the anti-Semitism by moving to Israel, andthen set up an extreme nationalist Israeli political party which advocates the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from Israel? In other words, it wasnt the concept ofethniccleansing that bothered them. They just wanted to be sure that they were the cleanser and not the cleansee. Due to the faulty Israelielectoral system, this party, Yisrael Beiteinu, will probably end up holding a vastly disproportionate amount of power, with no doubt disastrous consequences. Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the party, has some striking similarities to Ariel Sharon. Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - More LRB letters on M W
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Jews sans frontieres An Anti-Zionist blog - browsing the media More LRB letters on M & W By Levi9909 Here are some more letters to the London Review of Books on the Mearsheimer and Walt Israel Lobby article. First up is serial liar and darling of the zionist Engage smearsite, Alan Dershowitz and it's long so you might want to scroll down a good bit.Here are some I quite enjoyed:More than thirty years ago, I was one of the first British Jewish writers to write about the harsh behaviour of the Israeli authorities towards the Palestinians living under a cruel and illegal occupation. Although I did not write about anything which I had not witnessed, I was accused of lying, of being ‘paid by the Arabs’ and even of ‘having sex intercourse with the Arab gangsters’. I was inundated with letters containing hysterical abuse and anonymous death threats, and attacked verbally and physically. One man wrote to say he considered it his duty ‘to prevent a Jewess from damaging the cause of Israel’. Publications for which I had worked were told that I was ‘a member of a terrorist gang’.It is a pity that supporters of Israel still reach for the same obfuscations, denigrations and outright distortions of fact. As far back as 1980, the May/June issue of Yiton 77 (a Hebrew literary monthly) published an article by the Israeli writer Boaz Evron on the use of accusations of anti-semitism and reminders of the Holocaust to silence critics. There have been many similar articles in the Israeli media over the years.Marion WoolfsonEdinburghWhy do Jeffrey Herf and Andrei Markovits employ the Lobby’s rhetorical tactic of conflating Israel with Jews (Letters, 6 April)? John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt are careful to distinguish the Israel Lobby from American Jewish citizens, and never refer to a ‘Jewish’ Lobby. And why do they accuse Mearsheimer and Walt of ‘naivety regarding the power and import of ideological fanaticism in international affairs’? Their article was precisely about the impact of ideological fanaticism not only on international affairs but on American democracy. Finally, does the fact that Likud came third in the recent Israeli elections mean that the majority of Israelis are not in sympathy with all of the policies promoted in their name by the Lobby?Renee SlaterBristolThat's a good point. The Engage crew went overboard in their lies about the M & W article and yet if they tried to promote their professed position on Palestine in the USA it would never get past the Lobby. So it's good for them that they (Engage that is) are manifestly insincere about where they stand on the occupation and on the bogus charge of antisemitism, which they exist to disseminate.Anyway, there's more:John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt almost acquit the American war machine of what is happening here. ‘The bottom line,’ they write, ‘is that AIPAC, a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on Congress, with the result that US policy towards Israel is not debated there.’ Suppose AIPAC weren’t there: would American policy in the Middle East be different? I doubt it.Yitzhak LaorTel AvivAnd here's a word from the editors:Besides those published here and in the last issue, we have received a great many letters in response to John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s piece – not all of them edifying, though we haven’t received any death threats, as one correspondent from New Jersey feared we would. There have been a number of accusations of anti-semitism, as Mearsheimer and Walt predicted, and some very unpleasant remarks about Arabs, but also dozens of messages praising the article. Most readers understood that Mearsheimer and Walt were writing about US foreign policy and its effects on the Middle East, though there have also been a few congratulatory messages of an anti-semitic nature. The letters accusing Mearsheimer and Walt of having written an ‘anti-semitic rant’ and those congratulating them for having exposed a ‘secret Jewish’ – or, as one individual felt the need to spell it, ‘J E W I S H’ – ‘conspiracy’ have something in common: they come from people who appear not to have read the piece, and who seem incapable of distinguishing between criticism of Israeli or US government policy and anti-semitism.We don’t usually publish letters of simple praise, which meant that only letters putting the case against Mearsheimer and Walt appeared in the last number of the LRB. This led one correspondent to write: ‘Your obvious slant in the letters you have chosen to publish regarding the Israel Lobby establishes, once again, that Israeli apologists are alive and well and living at the London Review of Books.’ It may be impossible to write or publish anything relating to Israel without provoking accusations of bias.Mearsheimer and Walt will reply to the correspondence we’ve published and discuss the wider response to their article
[political-research] Bloglines - Former Admin. Officials: Iran Conflict Could Be Even More Damaging To Our Interests Than Iraq...
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. The Huffington Post | Raw Feed The Huffington Post Raw Feed Former Admin. Officials: Iran Conflict Could Be "Even More Damaging To Our Interests" Than Iraq... By The Huffington Post on Iraq White House spokesmen have played down press reports that the Pentagon has accelerated planning to bomb Iran. We would like to believe that the administration is not intent on starting another war, because a conflict with Iran could be even more damaging to our interests than the current struggle in Iraq has been. A brief look at history shows why. Reports by the journalist Seymour Hersh and others suggest that the United States is contemplating bombing a dozen or more nuclear sites, many of them buried, around Iran. In the event, scores of air bases, radar installations and land missiles would also be hit to suppress air defenses. Navy bases and coastal missile sites would be struck to prevent Iranian retaliation against the American fleet and Persian Gulf shipping. Iran's long-range missile installations could also be targets of the initial American air campaign. These contingencies seem familiar to us because we faced a similar situation as National Security Council staff members in the mid-1990's. American frustrations with Iran were growing, and in early 1996 the House speaker, Newt Gingrich, publicly called for the overthrow of the Iranian government. He and the C.I.A. put together an $18 million package to undertake it. Link Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Cenk Uygur: If You Liked the Iraq War, You'll Love the Iran War
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. The Huffington Post | Raw Feed The Huffington Post Raw Feed Cenk Uygur: If You Liked the Iraq War, You'll Love the Iran War By Cenk Uygur on Iraq If you liked gas at three dollars a gallon, you'll love it at five dollars or more. If you liked fighting 26 million people in Iraq, you'll love fighting 68 million in Iran. If you liked turning Sunni Muslims against us, you'll love turning Sunni and Shiite Muslims against us. If you liked war in the Persian Gulf, you'll love war all over the Middle East. If you thought things were bad now, wait till Iran retaliates against our air strikes by bombing Israel. When Israel strikes back, the whole Middle East will have to get sucked into the war. And then the fun really starts. Do any of you have any confidence that George W. Bush knows what he's doing when he contemplates starting a war with Iran? Do any of you believe he has carefully thought out all the possibilities and has a plan for every contingency? I don't care how Republican you are, that is an inconceivable thought. No one could believe that's true. The man who lost New Orleans and accidentally started a civil war in Iraq is going to have a sound strategy for Iran? Besides which, there is a very real reason why they actively don't plan for these wars. They don't want word of the worst case scenarios (or even realistic scenarios) leaking out and providing a disincentive to go to war. They think if they can convince people it will be easy, everyone will go along. If there is a discussion of realistic contingencies, it will be harder to drive people into war. That is why they so fastidiously avoided making plans for "post-war" Iraq (I love that term, did anyone let the Iraqis know we're in the "post-war" stage?). If people realized how hard it would be to occupy Iraq and build that nation from scratch, do you think they would have been as eager to go in the first place? The Rumsfeld strategy is to start a war with no planning and then complain that you have the war you have, not the one you wish you had. It's ironic because they do no planning specifically because they want the war they wish to have. Why do you think every retired general is screaming at the top of their lungs to fire Rumsfeld? The generals have seen the mess we made in Iraq up close and it isn't pretty. They realize these guys in the administration have no idea what they're doing. Right now, they're just getting a volunteer army and tens of thousands of Iraqis killed, but if we have to fight the whole Middle East, it's all of us who are going to be dying for their arrogant, foolhardy mistakes. By the way, is there anything more vile than a Republican telling you that the kids who signed up for our volunteer army knew what they were getting into, so they have no compunction about sending them into war? Yeah, I guess they had it coming. Bush is a proven liar. Whether he's lying about biological weapons labs, leaks from his administration or warrantless spying, one thing is for sure, he cannot be trusted. He has no shame in continually and aggressively lying to the American people. No one could have anticipated the breach of the levees? Please. Remember he said that after he sat through a long and extensive warning about how the levees might be breached. The man has no shame. Would you trust George Bush to baby-sit your kids? How sure are you that he wouldn't fall asleep, or accidentally drop them on their head or forget to feed them? How sure are you that when he screwed something up he wouldn't lie to you about it afterward? I wouldn't let him within a three state perimeter of my kids (and I don't even have any). And this is the guy we are going to trust to orchestrate a war against a much bigger, savvier, more organized enemy? What I find really laughable is that in his own head, George Bush thinks he is chosen by God to lead America in perilous times, to bring freedom to the world and to "save" Iran. He reminds me of a kid who is convinced he is Superman. He makes a cape out of napkins and jumps off the couch thinking he can fly. He crashes and cuts his head open. But little Georgy is so dense he doesn't get the memo. The next day, he's ready to jump again. He's sure it'll work this time. Bush is the amalgamation of all the hideous and sad parts of the Republican Party. He is a Republican Frankenstein. He has the temperament of Barry Goldwater, the integrity of Richard Nixon, and the brains of Dan Quayle. And we trust this guy with his finger on the button? God help us all if he bombs Iran. And if you think he's not that stupid, you haven't been paying attention. He says the idea of bombing Iran is "wild speculation." He also said we weren't wiretapping anybody without a court order. He says we're trying diplomacy first. That's exactly what he said about Iraq when we found out he was planning for the war
[political-research] Bloglines - ISP snooping gaining support
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News Democratic Underground Latest Breaking NewsGet all the latest headlines from around the world in one place! ISP snooping gaining support The explosive idea of forcing Internet providers to record their customers' online activities for future police access is gaining ground in state capitols and in Washington, D.C. Top Bush administration officials have endorsed the concept, and some members of the U.S. Congress have said federal ... Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - Fox military analyst McInerney touted military strike that will take Iran down very quickly -- but he said same thing about Iraq
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message: Israel lobby Rupert Murdoch Fox News Thomas McInerney Iraq War, Iran War Media Matters for America Latest Media Matters for America items Fox military analyst McInerney touted military strike "that will take Iran down very quickly" -- but he said same thing about Iraq In National Security/Foreign Policy On the April 12 edition of Fox News The OReilly Factor, while discussing the potential use of military action to thwart Irans efforts to develop nuclear weapons, Fox News military analyst retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney purported to "lay out a campaign today that will take Iran down very quickly." When asked by host Bill OReilly if his military strategy "would be all air, no infantry, and maybe some Special Forces trying to help," McInerney responded that was "correct." But neither McInerney nor OReilly mentioned that McInerney also said in 2002 that the military campaign in Iraq, which has now lasted longer than three years, would be "shorter" than the 42 days it took to complete the Persian Gulf War in 1991, adding, "It is going to be absolutely awesome, and thats why this war, if we do it properly, will go very quick, and well have less civilian casualties than we did last time." During an interview on the December 20, 2002, edition of Fox News The Big Story with John Gibson, McInerney claimed that the U.S. invasion of Iraq would be bolstered by "air power" that is "at least 10 times more effective than it was in 1991": GIBSON (host): If we do go to war with Iraq, some military planners are expecting a blitzkrieg in Baghdad, a war that would be significantly shorter than the 1990 Gulf War. So just what does our strategy include? Joining me, retired Air Force Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney, who is also a Fox News military analyst. I mean, how short can this be? The Gulf War was, what, 100 hours? MCINERNEY: Well, the Gulf War on the ground was 100 hours. It was 42 days -- 38 in the air and then four days on the ground. So it will be a war that is shorter than that, John. We have a little different objectives, although weve got a larger terrain to cross to accomplish it. So it will be more complex. [...] MCINERNEY: The air power is 10 -- at least 10 times more effective than it was in 1991. What do I mean by that? We had 150 airplanes that could probably drop smart weapons in those days. Now weve got over 1,500, probably 2,000. We have the joint direct attack munition, it operates in all kinds of weather. And we have the B-2s and the bombers that can drop anywhere from 12, 16, or 24 bombs, precision, at different targets all at once. So we have three new aircraft carriers over there. Weve got the Joint STARS [Surveillance Target Attack Radar System], which maps anything on the ground thats moving. And, so we can immediately send that to the ground troops as well as to the airplanes in the air through command and control that would move our fighters or bombers into those areas if a division was moving. It is going to be absolutely awesome, and thats why this war, if we do it properly, will go very quick, and well have less civilian casualties than we did last time. From the April 12 edition of Fox News The OReilly Factor: OREILLY: The argument is -- and I understand, you dont go into a negotiation and take military action off the table, because then your position is weakened. But the argument is that the USA screwed up the Iraq conflict so bad and we are in so deep, that you shouldnt even be considering any other military action. McINERNEY: Well, first of all, we didnt. It was a brilliant campaign done in 21 days, very similar to the campaign that [Maj.] General [Paul] Vallely and I laid out a year before. And I can lay out a campaign today that will take Iran down very quickly. Well do it a different way. But the fact is, we have lots of capability. We are not pinned down in Iraq, despite what people think. We are not pinned down there. [...] OREILLY: I hope we get the coalition, because that is vital. I said that on the radio. All right. We got two minutes. Lay out the military campaign as it might come down, if all other options are exhausted. McINERNEY: OK. Its a powerful air campaign that we will hit within 36 to 48 hours, over 1,500 aim points. And those are primarily nuclear sites for the development. Well hit this integrated air defense system. Well take his air force out, his navy out. Well take his command and control out and his Shahab-3, his retaliatory missiles. Well take them out. And then, simultaneously, well have a covert campaign in which well help the Iranian people retake their country. Now, they have a mixture of people there, Bill, that only 51 percent are Persian. Youve got about 24 percent Azerbaijanians [sic], about 10 percent Kurds. Thats 85 percent. It is ripe for political discontent and ripe to
[political-research] Bloglines - Doing the splits
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. Antony Loewenstein Doing the splits By Antony Loewenstein on General While a US State Department official confirms why the US government should not be believed on Irans nuclear threat - Stephen Rademaker, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, says that Iran may be capable of making nuclear weapons within 16 days (!) - a former Israeli diplomat, who worked on the Iraqi desk in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, has a solution for Iraq - split the country in three: America needs an alternative policy that will ensure a legacy of peace and stability in Iraq, leaving behind democratic institutions while enabling a timely and honourable exit for allied troops. This goal may not be attainable if Iraq is to be maintained by force as a single unified republic. In fact, Iraq has for the past few years been de-facto partitioned between an increasingly autonomous and flourishing Kurdistan and the Arab (Sunni and Shiite) parts of the country. To seek a solution one must look outside the Middle East. The American diplomatic precedent to focus on is not Vietnam, but the Balkans. Has this always been Israels goal? Comments Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
[political-research] Bloglines - James Zogby: A Strange and Troubling War
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you. The Huffington Post | Raw Feed The Huffington Post Raw Feed James Zogby: A Strange and Troubling War By James Zogby on Iraq Almost three years after President Bush declared "mission accomplished" in Iraq, this strange and troubling war just got even stranger and more troubling. Strange, because it was fought from the beginning without an understanding of the country we were invading, without a strategic plan, and because, to this date, there has been no accountability or acknowledgment of failure. Troubling, because the deadly consequences of this debacle are growing and becoming more dangerous with each passing day. Works by two journalists and a rare public spat between two Bush Administration officials brought all of this into sharp relief in recent weeks. First, the spat. In an effort to deflect anti-war protests that greeted her visit to the UK, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted that the Administration had made "tactical errors, thousands of them" in Iraq. Further, suggesting that only those who were "brain dead" didn't recognize errors and work to correct them, Rice went on to say that history would be the final judge as to whether or not the war was, in fact, strategically right. A week later, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, questioned about Rice's remarks said, "I don't know what she was talking about" and went on to suggest that those who said mistakes were made "lack understanding...of what warfare of about." As George Packer (author of The Assassin's Gate: American in Iraq) suggests in his recent article in The New Yorker, both Rice and Rumsfeld are wrong -- though Rumsfeld more so. The tactical mistakes of this war are many, but all of these sprung from the war's "original sin" -- that it was based on a deeply flawed ideological vision, with no grounding in reality. I have long referred to the "infantile fantasy" that guided the war's architects -- "shock and awe," "a cake walk," "flowers in the streets," "Iraq as a beacon for Middle East democracy," etc. Directed by this vision the Pentagon's civilian leadership discounted and ridiculed calls for caution and greater troop strength, proceeded with a flawed "debathification" program, failed to provide services and security for Iraq's civilian population, discounted the emergence of an indigenous insurgency, etc. Packer contrasts the recent successful, though short-lived, performance of US forces in Tel Afar with the broader conduct of the war and concludes that it was too little, too late. Though the Administration remains in denial (fearful of parallels with Vietnam and rejecting warnings of imminent civil war), Iraq is spinning out of control. Caught between domestic pressures to "draw down" and equally compelling pressures to "save face," they are floundering. The path the Administration appears to be pursuing is to "dumb down" the definition of victory and find a way to limit US exposure -- all the while maintaining a reduced military presence and a long-term political commitment to Iraq -- sounding more like a "Vietnam-like" debacle in the making. While Packer makes no bones about the failures of the civilian leadership at the Pentagon and suggests that even the uniformed military's top brass bear some responsibility for not being more challenging of this misguided effort, veteran journalist Helen Thomas points an accusing finger in another direction. In a recent article in The Nation, "Lap Dogs of the Press," Thomas says that her colleagues in the media share blame for the war in Iraq. They did not challenge the Administration's reasons for the war and instead joined in beating the war drums acting as a "gullible," "complicit," and "unquestioning" echo chamber for the Administration's pronouncements. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and all the cable networks participated in this dangerous enterprise. Thomas concludes her piece saying, "if reporters had put the spotlight on the flaws in the Bush Administration's war policies, they could have saved the country the heartache and the losses of American and Iraqi lives. "It is past time for reporters to forget the party line, ask the tough questions and let the chips fall where they may." And so here we are, nearly three years after "mission accomplished," many dead and injured later, Iraq imploding, the US floundering, the public turning against the war they once supported, and fingers pointing all around. All the while, Democrats, the opposition party, remain torn between their anti-war base and some opportunistic leaders who either believe the better course is to remain silent while the Administration stews in its own broth or fearful to provide a direct challenge, not wanting to be accused of being weak on defense issues. As a result, the debate over this war is not as sharply focused as it should be, given its costs and consequences.
[political-research] Bloglines - Newt Gingrich: It Was An Enormous Mistake For Us To Try To Occupy [Iraq]... We Have To Pull Back...
Bloglines user SeanMcBride ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message: [Newt Gingrich was one of the chief neoconservative ringleaders of the Iraq War. Check out the C-SPAN archives of AEI (American Enterprise Institute) meetings just after 9/11 -- Gingrich and his associates, like James Woolsey, were brimming over with messianic euphoria at the prospect of igniting a world war between the United States and the enemies of Israel. Perhaps Gingrich could explain to us what caused his radical shift in opinion.] The Huffington Post | Raw Feed The Huffington Post Raw Feed Newt Gingrich: "It Was An Enormous Mistake For Us To Try To Occupy [Iraq]... We Have To Pull Back"... By The Huffington Post on Iraq Newt Gingrich, the former Republican Speaker of the House, told students and faculty at the University of South Dakota Monday that the United States should pull out of Iraq and leave a small force there, just as it did post-war in Korea and Germany. "It was an enormous mistake for us to try to occupy that country after June of 2003," Gingrich said during a question-and-answer session at the school. "We have to pull back, and we have to recognize it." Link Search the archives for political-research at http://www.terazen.com/ Subscribe to the RSS feed for political-research at http://rss.groups.yahoo.com/group/political-research/rss YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "political-research" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
