Being vegan saves more energy than driving a hybrid

According to this. I needed a little reinforcement wandering around Guanajuato looking for veggie food.

If it runs away like a donkey and poops like a donkey...

From WIIIAI:

Some bloggers are criticizing Democrats for not having a strategy on the Alito nomination. Are you sure the strategy isn’t to lose? I’m not sure they haven’t consciously or unconsciously or, if I know Democrats, semi-consciously, decided to be a failure as an opposition party in the hopes that things will get so bad that they might, somewhere, some day, win a freaking election again.

It seems pretty obvious to me that the most incompetent ruling party in US history gets to do everything it wants only because it exists contemporaneously with the most incompetent opposition party in world history. If you can´t oppose the war in Iraq or Scalito, you are incapable of opposing, period.

Go read!

Here in sunny Guanajuato, I have neither the time nor the inclination to read much on the Internet. But if I did, or were stuck in a snowstorm in Michigan, I would read the interviews with Daniel Ellsberg linked to here.

Oh, I would also read what Cindy Sheehan said:

And about Bill Clinton... You know, I really think he should have been impeached, but not for a blow job. His policies are responsible for killing more Iraqis that George Bush. I don't understand why to rise to the level of being president of my country one has to be a monster. I used to say that George Bush was defiling the Oval Office, but it's been held by a long line of monsters.

Oh, and I'd read Whatever It Is, I'm Against It, since whatever he says there, I'm for it.

Oh, and Paul Craig Roberts too, of course.

Still here!

I'm still in Guanajuato, barely keeping up with the news as I see the sights and learn the language. I doubt if I'll be posting much until next week. See if y'all can block Scalito for me, por favor?

From Christo Komarnitski.

From Monte Wolverton.

From Tom Toles.

Guanajuato!

I'm now in Guanajuato, sitting in the cafe at the Escuela Mexicana. My classes start at 11, about half an hour from now. The city is just as amazing as it looks in the pictures. My host family is actually the owner of the school, with her husband and two daughters. They have an incredible house way up on the hill, with a spectacular view of the city.

I took a first-class bus from Mexico City, which took five hours. Greyhound should be ashamed. Seating on the bus is three to a row--singles on one side of the aisle, paired seating on the other. Quiet, clean, climate-controlled, clean bathroom. The scenery along the way wasn't especially beautiful--much like what you'd see in the semi-desert regions in the USA--California, Colorado, New Mexico. But Guanajuato is beautiful, climbing the hills, surrounding a very compact, pedestrian-friendly centro historico. When I arrived at the house last evening, a celebration was going on in the city below, as seems to be the Sunday-evening custom in Latin America. Music and simple fireworks were the most noticable activities from my perch way above.

More later!

What he said

Bob Harris points out that the latest Osama tape threatens more attacks, but Homeland Security is still sitting on its big yellow butt. Suggesting that either the Osama tape or Homeland Security are total crap. Harris suggests that the most likely answer is--BOTH.

Would you like to buy some obsidian?

One thing about visiting Mexican tourist spots--you have mucho opportunities to buy souvenirs. It´s not just the shops crowded around the entrance like you´d see at a US tourist attraction. They´ve got those, to be sure. But once you´re inside the attraction, you get offered souvenirs about every 10 meters as you walk. In addition, the people who run the tours seem to be in on it. The first stop on the tour today wasn´t the Pyramid of the Sun, or the Pyramid of the Moon. It was a giftshop outside the Teotihuacan site. Our tourguides introduced us to other ^guides^ who spent 20 minutes trying to sell us anything and everything in the store. Then when we were in the Teotihuacan site (which is incredible, BTW), our guide introduced us to a guy demonstrating how the builders of Teotihuacan used a type of cactus plant to produce paints for coloring the low-relief sculptures and decorations at the site. He demonstrated this on what looked like thick pieces of paper, which he then passed around to us. Surprise! Inside the envelope were pictures of the pyramids and other structures, which he was, of course, selling.

The last stop on our tour was the Basilica de Guadalupe, built on the legend of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The old basilica was sinking into the lake, so a spectacularly atrocious replacement was built in 1976 and was visited by Pope John Paul II a few times. So, of course, we spent most of our visit there in the gift shop. You´ve probably never seen so much Pope and Virgin crap in your life!

Oh well, it was still a fun trip, and I only succumbed to the souvenir vendors once. I also climbed all the way to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun! Photos someday.

Hasta mañana or whenever! (I was about to go searching for that alt-key code for printing the 'n', and then I remembered that I'm typing on a Mexican keyboard. Sure enough, the 'ñ' key is right there where the semicolon should be!)

I don't have time to bash Hillary here in Mexico

Fortunately, a at Mousemusings quotes Molly Ivins doing a fine job of it, and Cyndy adds some fine thoughts of her own.

Mexico City!

I'm here in one of the largest cities in the world, typing on a sticky keyboard in an internet cafe about 8 blocks from the Zocolo (main square) and hopefully about six blocks from my hotel. I'm going on a tour to the Teotihuacan pyramids this afternoon. Y'all hold down the fort while I'm gone!

Off to Mexico!

Probably light posting for the next two weeks. Hasta luego!

$67.15

Oil is on the march again.

Go back to the plantation, Hillary

Gag me with a spoon. The stupid senator from New York seems to think that the Bushies haven't been belligerent ENOUGH towards Iran.

Just the type of "opposition" that an emperor loves.

PCR on Gore's speech

Paul Craig Roberts calls Al Gore's address Monday "the most important political speech in my lifetime."

Bush is angry at the New York Times and at the government officials who leaked the story that Bush illegally spied on American citizens. Both may be prosecuted for making Bush's illegal behavior public. By ignoring Gore's speech, is the New York Times signaling to Bush that the newspaper is willing to be a lap dog in exchange for not being prosecuted?
...
Gore challenged the American people to step up to the task of defending the Constitution, a task abandoned by the media, the law schools, and the Democratic and Republican parties. If we fail, darkness will close around us.

[Update] A reader points me to this article from the NY Times, showing that the Times did indeed cover Gore's speech. Perhaps it never made it to the print edition? If anyone has copies of Tuesday's NY Times and could check to see if the Gore speech was covered, I'd appreciate it.

From Bill Schorr.

From Brian Adcock.

From Rob Rogers.

From Stephane Peray.

Safe and sorry?

From Patrick Chappatte.

Tom Tomorrow quoted this from Al Gore's speech Monday:

Fear drives out reason. Fear suppresses the politics of discourse and opens the door to the politics of destruction. Justice Brandeis once wrote: “Men feared witches and burnt women.”

The founders of our country faced dire threats. If they failed in their endeavors, they would have been hung as traitors. The very existence of our country was at risk.

Yet, in the teeth of those dangers, they insisted on establishing the Bill of Rights.

Is our Congress today in more danger than were their predecessors when the British army was marching on the Capitol? Is the world more dangerous than when we faced an ideological enemy with tens of thousands of missiles poised to be launched against us and annihilate our country at a moment’s notice? Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march-when our fathers fought and won two World Wars?

It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same.

Gore is one of very few prominent politicians actually to say what has needed to be said to the "never forget" crowd, you can't forget 9/11, but if you let it rule your lives, guess what: THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON. The main goal of terrorism, obviously, is to instill terror throughout a population. And while Osama bin Laden (supposedly) gave them a head start, the people most responsible for terrifying the populace in the last four years have been Bush, Cheney, and Ashcroft, and their supporters in the wingnut media and the wingnut Congress.

Tom Tomorrow, I think, says it best in a term he uses for the "never forget" crowd: "bedwetters." Next time you meet a bedwetter, remind him or her of the following:

• More Americans died because of governmental incompetence in the wake of Katrina than died from terrorism during the entire eight years of the Clinton administration (or the Reagan administration, if you/they prefer).
• More Americans died in car accidents than in terrorist attacks in September 2001.
  

From Mike Keefe.

From Boondocks.

Predators: Screwups by remote control

Ted Rall documents the nearly perfect record of failure of America's favorite weapon of terror.

Boldly going...

From AP:

An online casino has a piece of Capt. Kirk.

Actor William Shatner has sold his kidney stone for $25,000, with the money going to a housing charity, it was announced Tuesday.

Shatner reached agreement Monday to sell the stone to GoldenPalace.com.

"This takes organ donors to a new height, to a new low, maybe. How much is a piece of me worth?" he said in a telephone interview.

GoldenPalace.com is noted for its collection of oddities, which includes a partially eaten cheese sandwich thought to contain the image of the Virgin Mary.

This, then, is the 2006 solution to homelessness. People who probably can't afford to gamble do so online. The money goes to GoldenPalace.com, which uses it to buy disgusting memorabilia from a celebrity, who passes it on to Jimmy Carter to build houses for the poor.

Meanwhile, the online gamblers probably can't pay the rent and become homeless. Celebrities sell tumors, appendices, moles, polyps and bunions to build houses for them. The cycle is complete.

Also, I have to wonder: What was on the part of the cheese sandwich which WAS eaten? Something about the Virgin Mary that some hungry Catholic wanted to make sure never saw the light of day? And how long will it take before someone notices how much Shatner's kidney stone looks like Jesus?

The Revenge of Gaia

British environmental scientist and author James Lovelock writes about global warming:

The climate centres around the world, which are the equivalent of the pathology lab of a hospital, have reported the Earth's physical condition, and the climate specialists see it as seriously ill, and soon to pass into a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years. I have to tell you, as members of the Earth's family and an intimate part of it, that you and especially civilisation are in grave danger.

Our planet has kept itself healthy and fit for life, just like an animal does, for most of the more than three billion years of its existence. It was ill luck that we started polluting at a time when the sun is too hot for comfort. We have given Gaia a fever and soon her condition will worsen to a state like a coma. She has been there before and recovered, but it took more than 100,000 years. We are responsible and will suffer the consequences: as the century progresses, the temperature will rise 8 degrees centigrade in temperate regions and 5 degrees in the tropics.

Much of the tropical land mass will become scrub and desert, and will no longer serve for regulation; this adds to the 40 per cent of the Earth's surface we have depleted to feed ourselves.
...
We [in Britain] could grow enough to feed ourselves on the diet of the Second World War, but the notion that there is land to spare to grow biofuels, or be the site of wind farms, is ludicrous. We will do our best to survive, but sadly I cannot see the United States or the emerging economies of China and India cutting back in time, and they are the main source of emissions. The worst will happen and survivors will have to adapt to a hell of a climate.

Lovelock's book The Revenge of Gaia will be published next month.

3.5 million Kenyans face starvation

From CNN:

Malnourished children cried feebly in hospital in this drought-stricken corner of Kenya, too weak to even make themselves heard as aid agencies warned Tuesday that they do not have money to feed millions of Kenyans hit by food shortages.
...
The crisis hit as Kenya forecast a surplus harvest of 62,500 metric tons (68,900 tons) of maize. Farmers in other parts of the country were waiting in lines for up to two weeks to sell surplus maize, the nation's staple food, to the national cereal and produce board.

Surplus food in the west of Kenya is being exported abroad rather than diverted to those at risk from the food crisis.

"Free" markets: magic, or genocide?

Okay, that's way too trite. I know basically nothing about the crisis in Kenya except what I read in the article. But the neoliberal dream of the supremacy of markets, exemplified by the WTO and regional agreements like NAFTA, inevitably means that many will starve because the food they need goes to a higher bidder.

Re-elect Gore in 2008

Al Gore made a great speech yesterday about the Bushies unconstitutional power grab. You should read it! Excerpt:

At present, we still have much to learn about the NSA's domestic surveillance. What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and insistently.

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. They recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution - our system of checks and balances - was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: "The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men."

An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free. In the words of James Madison, "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

Buzzflash comments on how Gore's speech was largely ignored by the mainstream media.

$65.40

All the insane war talk about Iran is sending oil prices up again.

From Shannon Wheeler.

From Andy Singer.

From Jeff Stahler.

From Steve Benson.

Attention 24 fans!

I've been e-mailing comments on the TV show "24" to a few friends for a couple of years. I've now turned that into a blog for the start of season five.

A Canadian comments

There's one of those quibbling little posts which seem to dominate the Democratic blogs (Atrios, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, etc.--as opposed to liberal/progressive blogs) over at TPM Cafe, debating the best position for Dumbocrats to take with regard to war with Iran. What's the best strategy for winning Congressional seats in November? Calls for restraint and limited war, or grabbing the hawk side of the argument before W has completely grabbed it? Missing from the discussion, of course, is the fact that war with Iran would be, if possible, even more criminal, deadly, and dangerous to the US and the world than the incredibly criminal, deadly and dangerous war in Iraq.

Missing from the argument, that is, until Canadian Den Valdron chimes in. His comment begins:

Speaking as a Canadian who is fond of judicious language, I feel that this situation deserves careful and measured thought. So let me just open with:

Is your entire f*cking country on crack??? Are all you Americans out of your cotton picking minds??? Are you completely freaking delusional? Homicidal? Psychotic? Have you lost any shred of a moral compass? WHAT IN THE NAME OF JESUS H. CHRIST ON A CRUTCH IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!!!

Questions I wish I could answer for Den. Den goes on to explain all of the reasons why even starting a discussion about war with Iran is completely insane. All I can tell Den is that yes, America is out of its mind, it is freaking delusional, it is homicidal and it is psychotic.

The road map is depressingly clear--2002 becomes 2006. As the last war becomes hopelessly bogged down and futile looking (it was Afghanistan in 2002, Iraq this year) Ahminajad continues to get demonized, to the point where even Americans who can't pronounce "nuclear" correctly can say his name with accuracy and disgust. Dick and Condi make speeches about the threat, and the new product, war with Iran, is unveiled just as W comes back from vacation in September. The Abramoff, Plame, Medicare and all other scandals are put on the way-back burner. Dumbocrats crawl all over each other trying to appear tough, until they are boxed into a corner on a war resolution. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden make speeches on the Senate floor describing the terrible consequences of a nuclear Iran, and the resolution passes. The Dems lose even more seats in Congress in November, and the war begins in March, with 85% of Americans "supporting the troops."

W doesn't know much, but he knows from experience: "Fool you once, shame on you. Fool you twice--you'll get fooled again and again and again."

From Jeff Danziger.

Quote du jour

"The new federal program is too complicated for many people to understand, and the implementation of the new program by the federal government has been awful," said Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a Republican.

Pawlenty is talking about the multitude of screwups in the new Medicare bill, the one jammed down the throat of Congress in 2003 with lies, threats and bribes. Lots of poor old people are having a real hard time getting their meds these days, thanks to the criminal subversion of the democratic process on behalf of Big Pharma by the likes of Bush, Tommy Thompson, and Tom DeLay.

Normally I would applaud a Republican criticizing the Bush administration, but Pawlenty is undeserving of praise--he was a Bush "Pioneer" in the 2004 election cycle, raising over $100,000 for aWol's re-selection. He also withdrew from the 2002 senate race at the request of the Veep from the Deep, figuring I guess that the rights of a war-criminal oilman from Wyoming take precedence over the preferences of the people of Minnesota in picking a senator. (Pawlenty's withdrawal cleared the way for the atrocious Norm Coleman to be the Republican candidate for Senate, and Coleman won because his opponent Paul Wellstone was murdered in a plane crash.)

So go Cheney yourself, guv'nor, although in this case it seems like you may already have done so.

Like the war in Iraq and Katrina, the Medicare fiasco demonstrates that selecting really bad presidents has really bad consequences.

Using Predators is terrorism

For the second time in two weeks, apparently, the super-creepy pilotless aircraft known quite appropriately as Predators have caused massive death to rain down on civilians. On January 2, cameras on a Predator in Iraq supposedly saw three guys planting a roadside bomb in Bayji, Iraq. Shortly thereafter, Navy F-14's dropped bombs on a nearby house where the supposed insurgents had gone. Ten or so civilians, including children, were killed.

On Friday, according to media reports, a CIA Predator fired missiles which destroyed three houses in Pakistan, killing 18 or more people. The alleged target, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who allegedly was one of the dozen or so alleged "masterminds" behind the alleged al Qaeda attacks on 9/11/01, was allegedly supposed to have been in one of the three houses, which apparently he wasn't.

If we temporarily grant that the CIA had somewhat honorable motives in this attack (which I don't)--that they believe that Zawahiri actually was behind 9/11 and is actually still alive today and that there might have been some reason to believe that he was in one of the houses destroyed--the attack was still outrageously reckless and illegal. Chances are very high that once again the awesome power of the US military has been used to settle tribal scores. Some Pakistani, Afghan or Iraqi tells US intelligence that there are terrorists in that building--and fifteen minutes later he has revenge on the family of the man who dishonored his daughter or stole his goat or took him snipe hunting or whatever. (Well, maybe the revenge will fall on the family next door--Bush happens, you know.) The most dramatic example of this, of course, is the Iraq war itself. The Chalabi clan informed gullible American "intelligence" agents like George Tenet and Judy Miller that the Saddam Hussein clan was stockpiling all sorts of nasty weapons. Since this was just what our corrupt leaders--Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Kerry, etc.--wanted to hear, Chalabi had little trouble getting his message heard.

The awesome might of the US military has been used three times in the past five years to change the governments of three countries--in itself one of the textbook definitions of terrorism ("use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments"). On top of this, that military might has been put at the disposal of some very bad people looking to settle scores (and I don't mean just Bush and Cheney). Harry Belafonte was exactly right when he called George Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world." (And I nearly puked when Jon Stewart mocked the idea as ridiculous on the Daily Show. Go Cheney yourself, Jon.)

Being the world's greatest terrorist is actually the stated goal of the Pentagon, although they call it Full-spectrum dominance:

Full-spectrum dominance means the ability of U.S. forces, operating alone or with allies, to defeat any adversary and control any situation across the range of military operations.

NSA spying, Predator aircraft, satellite surveillance, and stealth bombers are already part of the arsenal, with space-based weapons to follow (under the guise of a "missile defense shield"). The goal seems to be to be able to destroy any location anywhere in the world on a moment's notice at any time. It destroys any notion of investigative police work, or justice for that matter. "Full-spectrum dominance" is terrorism on a scale far beyond anything the world has ever seen.

Well, that was easy

On Monday, I pondered the significance of the murder of recently retired NY Times reporter David Rosenbaum on a quiet Washington street, just as we were learning that the NSA wiretapping story was just one of many that the NY Times had been sitting on while the destruction of our constitutional government continued.

Well, case closed.

A 23-year-old maintenance man from Southeast Washington was arrested last night and charged in the robbery and slaying of New York Times journalist David E. Rosenbaum, police said. They also were seeking one other person.

Michael C. Hamlin was arrested shortly after 6 p.m. when he walked into the 7th District police station in the 2400 block of Alabama Avenue SE, which is in the block where he lives, and asked why "my face is on TV," police said.

Only an hour earlier, police had released to the media images from surveillance videotapes taken at a CVS store in Southeast Washington and an auto parts business in Prince George's County. Police said the tapes showed Hamlin using or attempting to use Rosenbaum's credit cards shortly after Rosenbaum was robbed near his home in Northwest Washington on Jan. 6.

Hamlin walked into the police station last night wearing the same dark jacket, with his first name sewed onto a chest patch, that he had been wearing in a surveillance tape, police said.

Police drove Hamlin to the department's violent crimes branch, where he provided detectives with a statement on the slaying, police said. He was charged with felony murder.

"It did wrap up rather quickly," Detective Anthony Paci said during a news conference last night outside the violent crimes branch.

Like I said on Monday: "Nothing suspicious here." This couldn't possibly be a mentally-impaired individual framed to take the fall, now could it? He walks into the police station and asks why he is on TV. A black guy trying to use credit cards with the name Rosenbaum. (Okay, possible, but not bloody likely.) Heck, the mentally-impaired angle could be part of the setup. Whoever might really have been behind the hit may have had something on this guy, and got him to play-act this scenario. The mental-impairment angle buys him a favorable plea bargain (rather than facing an insanity plea); he spends a year or two in an obscure mental facility and then disappears, far better off than if he'd been prosecuted for whatever they really had on him. And whatever story David Rosenbaum may have been about to break goes to the grave with him.

Jeez! Four years of blogging has made me suspicious!

One week to Mexico!

A week from today I'm heading for Mexico. I'll spend two days in Mexico City, and then about twelve days in beautiful Guanajuato. I'll be attending La Escuela Mexicana for two weeks of Spanish instruction.

What to write to your senators about Scalito

WIIIAI posted his letter to Barbara Boxer.

Let the eagle soar

While the destruction of the constitution considers apace under the auspices of his replacement, John Ashcroft is raking in the lobbyist money. One of his clients is ChoicePoint.

You may remember ChoicePoint and the voter-roll purges in the 2000 Florida election (without which, of course, Ashcroft would have simply remained the incumbent senator who lost to a dead man). Or ChoicePoint and Mexico. Or ChoicePoint and Venezuela.

Now ChoicePoint is paying for the services of a man who knows many secrets about public officials, who hired many of the lawyers who are now in a position to prosecute or not prosecute those officials for those secrets. Depending on whether said officials hire ChoicePoint to do their data-mangling, I'm sure.

What Joe Bageant said

A Tiny Revolution introduces me (and you) to Joe Bageant. If you are looking to be enlightened and depressed, read Joe's essay on our insane society, The Simulacran Republic. Excerpts:

We no longer have a country -- just the hollow shell of one, a global corporation masquerading electronically and digitally as a nation called the United States.
...
Our civilization, our culture, in as much as it can be said to exist in any cohesive way, is based upon two things, television and petroleum. Whether you are a custodian or the President, your world depends upon an unbroken supply of both. So it is small wonder that we all watch a televised global war for oil.
...
America suffers from a psychosis, a psychosis being nothing more than an insistence upon staying in an untenable state of consciousness, despite the normal modeling of those around you. This is not out of meanness, but rather an indifference so profound as to be a sickness. The hologram IS the psychosis made manifest. Psychotics love to play ominous games with those around them, just as America does with the world today.
...
Thanks to the hologram, American culture, as such, is nearly over. It is not sustainable. It is not reformable. Not only are TV and all digital media unreformable, but they are sure to accelerate our demise more rapidly because of the technological capitalist paradigm of growth at all cost. We cannot eliminate the generators of the hologram, television and electronic media. They are the glue of the hologram, the mediators of our human experience. We will all die without them, now that they have replaced all other previous forms of knowledge...
...
Unlike the humans who constitute their living innards, the corporations animating the hologram are themselves deathless. The citizens cannot harm them. Under U.S. law corporations have all the rights and protections of individuals, and they cannot be regulated because corporations are "fictional persons" and have the same right to free speech as persons. Of course, given that the media are corporations, their speech is a helluva lot more impactful and significant than any one person’s. "But," as the brilliant author of In the Absence of the Sacred, Gerry Mander puts it: "They have none of the commensurate responsibilities. Communities cannot control them because they can always move to other communities. They do not have corporeality; they can't be executed. You can imprison certain people within a corporation if they engage in criminal acts. The corporation itself, however, lives beyond the people in it."

And Burger is mad

From Tom Toles.

From Doonesbury.

They're doing it again

One country over, one letter different. The NY Times editorial page has joined the Bushie chorus about what a terrible threat Iran might be if it had the bomb:

Turning its back on generous European and Russian offers that would have guaranteed its supplies of civilian reactor fuel, helped its economy, added jobs and lessened its diplomatic isolation, this week Tehran unsealed the centrifuges it can now use to enrich uranium to bomb-grade levels.

By doing so, it thumbed its nose at all those governments, including the United States, that had been working patiently and creatively to find a diplomatic formula that met everyone's needs without adding to nuclear dangers. Now those countries - along with China, whose veto power on the United Nations Security Council makes it an essential participant - need to look for new ways to stop, or at least slow down, Iran's nuclear weapons drive.

Ah yes. Working patiently and creatively--by invading Iran's neighbors on either side, awarding it charter membership in the "axis of evil" (with the implicit and ongoing threat of bombing and invasion), ongoing flyovers and other spying (including that still largely unexplained U2 crash last June). Working patiently and creatively--by threatening Iran constantly for possibly doing the only thing that it could to protect itself from US invasion (the US has invaded dozens of countries, but never one with nukes).

Until recently, one thing had been missing in the normal American plan of attack--a recognizable villain. Since Ayatollah Khomeini died in 1989, none of Iran's leaders have apparently been colorful enough to demonize. Railing about obscure "mullahs" just wasn't the same for the Limbaughs, O'Reillys and Hannitys of this world--they need a pock-marked drug-running Noriega, a tall, ominous Osama, or a gun-toting mustachioed Saddam to really get the war juices flowing.

Fortunately for the wingnuts and the Bushies (but I repeat myself), and suspiciously for me, a possibly questionable election in Iran last June ended up with Mahmud Ahmadinejad in charge--a firebrand who has been quoted or misquoted as saying things which match Pat Robertson (though not George W. Bush) in insane bellicosity. I for one wonder how much support Ahmadinejad may have had from the CIA. I remember reading a column (I wish I could remember/find the column--any help appreciated) written around the time of the Iranian election which suggested that the bellicose statements coming out of Washington may have stirred the patriotic ferver of Iranians, leading them to vote for the hardliner (just as 9/11 did here). The article further suggested that that may have been the intention, and that Ahmadinejad election was further supported by the usual covert CIA tricks--assassinations, intimidation, disinformation, propaganda. Voila! Instant villain. They probably would have preferred a villain with an easier name to pronounce and remember, but I'm guessing that soon, if it hasn't happened already, Ahmadinejad will become widely known here as "I'm a nut job." At that point, his villainization will be nearly complete, and the war will be close. The war will be brutal, completely unaffordable, and risk much wider conflict as the world fights for remaining oil and gas resources. But that won't stop the Bushies--it didn't in 2003.

Falling George secret tip

You've probably seen the Falling W animation. But did you know that you can take your mouse and pummel him against the balloons repeatedly? Try it--you'll feel better.

When life deals other people lemons...

steal them and force those other people to make lemonade for you! It's the Repuglican way!

That photo comes from Constructive Anarchy: The Blog, whose motto is "Freedom of Speech: Use it or lose it. Bear witness. Tell somebody. And have some *!#? fun." Thanks to blogkeepers Greg and Magic Sam who sent me a nice e-mail. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to read their blog some more!

MoveOut...dot org

The supposedly anti-war MoveOn organization proves once again that it's just a front for the Democratic Party, right or (almost always) wrong. Joshua Frank describes MoveOn's obeisance to the War Queen, Hillary Clinton.

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York has continued to support Bush's war in Iraq as well as his greater war on terror, yet MoveOn refuses to voice frustration. Instead, they support the war-hungry senator and admit they won't stand up to her during an election year.
"The case I would make is that 2006 needs to be a year of reckoning for Republicans on Iraq," Tom Matzzie, the Washington director for MoveOn recently told the New York Times. "If the antiwar candidate is creamed by Hillary Clinton, it's a distraction."

A distraction from what? If I remember correctly, it wasn't just the Republican Party that got us into this dreadful mess. The Democrats voted for it, helped sell the damn thing, and even bombed the hell out of Iraq during the 1990s, all the while supporting deadly UN sanctions. And as Americans begin to turn on this war, including prominent elected officials from both parties, Hillary still won't retract her defense of the war, let alone meet with genuine antiwar activists here in New York. All of this, and the feckless MoveOn.org still won't call Hillary out for her warmongering.

Friends with low wages

American Rights at Work takes on Wal-Mart and Garth Brooks. It'll have you singing right along!

From Troubletown.

From Bruce Plante.

From Matt Wuerker.

From Etta Hulme.

From Mike Luckovich.

¡Sr. Bush, demuele esta pared!

From Lalo Alcaraz.

From Boondocks.

Whatever it is, he's against it

With excellent reason. WIIIAI reviews the moron-in-chief's latest babblings. Any country that would allow this complete ignoramus to remain in charge for five years is in deep doodoo.

Stay the course

From Non Sequitur. Oh, and another one:

"For-profit healthcare" is an oxymoron

The NY Times reports on diabetes clinics set up in New York a few years ago, only to fall victim to their own success:

At four hospitals across the city, they set up centers that featured a new model of treatment. They would be boot camps for diabetics, who struggle daily to reduce the sugar levels in their blood. The centers would teach them to check those levels, count calories and exercise with discipline, while undergoing prolonged monitoring by teams of specialists.

But seven years later, even as the number of New Yorkers with Type 2 diabetes has nearly doubled, three of the four centers, including Beth Israel's, have closed.

They did not shut down because they had failed their patients. They closed because they had failed to make money. They were victims of the byzantine world of American health care, in which the real profit is made not by controlling chronic diseases like diabetes but by treating their many complications.

Insurers, for example, will often refuse to pay $150 for a diabetic to see a podiatrist, who can help prevent foot ailments associated with the disease. Nearly all of them, though, cover amputations, which typically cost more than $30,000.

Patients have trouble securing a reimbursement for a $75 visit to the nutritionist who counsels them on controlling their diabetes. Insurers do not balk, however, at paying $315 for a single session of dialysis, which treats one of the disease's serious complications.

Compromise, consensus and power-sharing

"Compromise and consensus and power-sharing are the only path to national unity and lasting democracy." So sayeth our uncompromising, consensus-destroying, power-grabbing pResident. Of course, he was talking about Iraq. His agenda for the US is somewhat different (emphasis added).

It's one of the great strengths of our democracy that we can discuss our differences openly and honestly -- even in times of war. Yet we must remember there is a difference between responsible and irresponsible debate -- and it's even more important to conduct this debate responsibly when American troops are risking their lives overseas.

The American people know the difference between responsible and irresponsible debate when they see it. They know the difference between honest critics who question the way the war is being prosecuted and partisan critics who claim that we acted in Iraq because of oil, or because of Israel, or because we misled the American people. And they know the difference between a loyal opposition that points out what is wrong, and defeatists who refuse to see that anything is right.

When our soldiers hear politicians in Washington question the mission they are risking their lives to accomplish, it hurts their morale. In a time of war, we have a responsibility to show that whatever our political differences at home, our nation is united and determined to prevail. And we have a responsibility to our men and women in uniform -- who deserve to know that once our politicians vote to send them into harm's way, our support will be with them in good days and in bad days -- and we will settle for nothing less than complete victory. (Applause.)

We also have an opportunity this year to show the Iraqi people what responsible debate in a democracy looks like. In a free society, there is only one check on political speech -- and that's the judgment of the people. So I ask all Americans to hold their elected leaders to account, and demand a debate that brings credit to our democracy -- not comfort to our adversaries.

The evidence that the Bushies misled the American people is so overwhelming that any debate about Iraq which does not mention it is dishonest and partisan. AWol managed to include most of the sleazy warmongering techniques that Norman Solomon included in his new book, all in one speech. I'm not sure there's any insult nasty enough to do proper justice to this nastiest of men.

Correction

Last week, I wrote a sentence that was clearly false: "Some ideas are just too stupid to live."

I am bombarded by the minute with counterexamples:

• Bush is a good president.
• We're winning in Iraq.
• Saddam Hussein was a threat to the US.

and so on, all obviously nonsensical ideas which nontheless continue to thrive. Bob's Links and Rants regrets the error.

Sharon moves left hand

No kidding--that's "Breaking News" on the CNN web site right now. A quick review of a few web sites suggests to me that the topic of euthenasia is just as controversial in Israel as it is here. How controversial would it be, both in Israel and here, if Sharon is in or falls into a persistent vegetative state, Terri Schiavo style?

Social promotion

AWol went to Maryland yesterday to brag about one of his many disasters--the No Child Left Behind Act:

I mean, some schools may not think they're quitting on kids, but when you shuffle kids through the schools without determining whether or not they can read and write and add and subtract, I view that as quitting on kids. I called it the soft bigotry of low expectations. In other words, you believe certain children can't learn, so, therefore, just move them through. It's kind of a process world, isn't it? It's more important that somebody be shuffled through than it is to determine whether or not they're capable of meeting certain standards in certain grades.

First off, why is he promoting "No Child Left Behind" by saying it's better than a system where no child was left behind? More importantly--George W. Bush complaining about social promotion? Without wealth, family and connections, this moron would still be in the fourth grade--and we'd all be much better off.

It would go without saying, if I wasn't about to say it, that aWol's talk was filled with grammatical errors.

Also yesterday, aWol babbled about Scalito:

And my hope, of course, is that the American people will be impressed by the process. It's very important that members of the Senate conduct a dignified hearing. The Supreme Court is a dignified body; Sam is a dignified person. And my hope, of course, is that the Senate bring dignity to the process and give this man a fair hearing and an up or down vote on the Senate floor.

Look, moron. If you care so much about "dignity," you refer to him as "Judge Alito," not "Sam."

Tell Scalito to scrambito

Online petitions and letters to senators:

• True Majority
• MoveOn
• ACLU
• Stop the NRA

From Jen Sorensen.

Just wondering...

What part of
JNQFBDI CVTI
don't you understand?

Testing Scalito's judicial skills, the Senate had him serve as scorekeeper at the Celtics-Wizards game last night. Look for him to be the replay official at the Patriots-Broncos game this weekend. He'll also be judging ice dancing at the Olympics in a couple of weeks.

Quote du jour

[Natural gas is] "the single best energy source we've ever had. It's too bad we didn't understand it. We've used up probably two thirds of the finest natural gas in the world through one of two reasons- we either flared it because we didn't have any idea what to do with it, or we sold it for 1/10th the amount we sold oil for and we gave oil away. It's not the emissions aspect of natural gas that makes it so unbelievably precious. It's the only source we have of instant heat."

-- Matthew Simmons

From Don Wright.

From Bill Schorr.

From Bob Englehart. If I were Englehart, I don't think I'd be answering my phone about now.

From R.J. Matson.

Okay, it's in bad taste to post a Cheney cartoon right after he went to the hospital for shortness of breath.

So be it.

From Tom Toles.

Nothing suspicious here

From Todd Purdum in the NY Times:

David E. Rosenbaum, a retired reporter and editor for The New York Times who for more than 35 years wrote about the intersection of politics, economics and government policy with uncommon depth, clarity and a keen eye for the story behind the story, died Sunday. He was 63.

His death was caused by a brain injury suffered when he was struck in the head and robbed Friday night while walking near his home in Northwest Washington, police officials and his family members said.

He retired from the Times last month. So, just as the New Pravda's repeated coverups of important stories is exposed (see previous post), one of their longtime Washington reporters resigns--and shortly thereafter is beaten to death on the streets of Washington.

Note the Times' headline: David Rosenbaum, Reporter for Times Who Covered Politics, Dies at 63. Headline readers wouldn't have a clue that he'd been bludgeoned to death. And Todd Purdum, while remarking on Rosenbaum's keen eye for the story behind the story, shows no interest for the story behind this story. Just a simple brutal mugging--could happen to anyone. I guess the two-bullet suicides were getting too suspicious.

I see from a Google News search that many other news outlets are reporting Rosenbaum's death more accurately--he was "killed," he didn't just "die." The WaPo article notes that the neighborhood where he was attacked is generally quiet and safe.

All the news the government deems fit to print

Last month, the NY Times ran an article exposing the illegal NSA wiretapping program. Good for them--except that they'd known about it for A YEAR. (Whether they knew about it before the 2004 election still seems to be unclear.) This is bad; really bad. But it gets worse. Jonathan at A Tiny Revolution points out that, based on passages in Times' reporter James Risen's new book, State of War, the Times has been sitting on a lot of stories in the past few years. They sat on crucial information about the Downing Street Memo. They sat and continue to sit on reports that the CIA sent thirty relatives of Iraqi scientists to Iraq (before the war) to ask them whether they were working on WMD programs, and every single relative reported back that the