A UN ship delivering aid to Somalia has been...
Mar 3rd
We civil libertarians and Baptists view both...
Mar 3rd
“Why is it that in these globalization discussions among...”
— Jeff Faux
— Jeff Faux
Mar 3rd
Most of the major pundits who led the...
Mar 3rd
“And so is the privatization of services for US troops in...”
— Juan Cole
— Juan Cole
Mar 3rd
Curly's Law
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is?Curly: This. [holds up one finger]
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit.
Mitch: But what is the "one thing?"
Curly: [smiles] That's what you have to find out.
Mar 3rd
Why do the British drive on the left?
Mar 3rd
Conservative Humor
Mar 3rd
Sweet color palette generator tool. Use it all time…
Mar 3rd
How I Became a Big Wheel — What Happened When IBM Fired Me...
Mar 3rd
“The memorandum “describes how the Army’s decision to...”
— Committee subpoenas former...
— Committee subpoenas former...
Mar 3rd
The Bush administration has accelerated its...
Mar 3rd
A man infected with an especially virulent...
Mar 3rd
“After two decades of almost continuous growth, global oil...”
— Raise the Hammer
— Raise the Hammer
Mar 3rd
Saudi Arabian oil production, Jan 2006-Jan 2007
Mar 3rd
There is mounting evidence that the cellular...
Mar 3rd
“Is there any more lame a comment than “You just...”
— Blog Maverick
— Blog Maverick
Mar 2nd
Please, no more new frameworks
Mar 2nd
John Edwards Second Life HQ Vandalized
Mar 2nd
Comes v. MS Exhibits
Mar 2nd
Tabs Considered Evil
Mar 2nd
“Why do reporters always have to use the term “free...”
— Beat the Press
— Beat the Press
Mar 2nd
DreamHost’s Super Lame - No I Mean Really,...
Mar 2nd
Watch
Maxed Out
Mar 2nd
May I Nominate Mary Bono For “Jackass Of The...
Mar 2nd
Grokking the GIMP - Learning Advanced Image...
Mar 2nd
via www.atwitsend.org
Mar 2nd
Ann Coulter calls John Edwards a "faggot"
Mar 2nd
Members of Congress under investigation
Mar 2nd
double-wires
Mar 2nd
www.jinwicked.com
Mar 2nd
Sen Hatch says Bill Gates is "absolutely...
The Senate had their judiciary hearing on immigration on February 28th. At the time of this writing...
Mar 2nd
“The news meltdown is a microcosm of the reversal of...”
— RYP
— RYP
Mar 2nd
Homeland Security offers details on Real ID
Mar 2nd
Much Apu About Nothing
Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm.Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you dear.
Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Oh, how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: It's just a stupid rock.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?
Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.
Mar 2nd
AMY GOODMAN: 1953 was also a seminal date for today, and that was when Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of Teddy Roosevelt, went to Iran and led a coup against Mohammed Mossadegh under Eisenhower.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK: People make mistakes. And one of the mistakes that the United States consistently made was that it could intervene and somehow adjust people's governments, especially in the Middle East. I don't know why we felt that -- you can understand Latin America, because Latin America was always an area in which people would come to the United States, say, “You've got to help us down there. These are banditos, and they don't know anything. And, you know, they don’t have a government. Just intervene and save our property.” And the United States did it a lot in the ’20s. Of course, Eisenhower was part of that culture. He had seen it.
But in the Middle East, we had never been there. We established a relationship during World War II, of course, to keep the Germans out of Iran. And so, the Soviets and the Brits put an Allied mission together. At the end of World War II, the Soviets didn't want to withdraw, and Truman called their bluff in the United Nations. And Eisenhower knew all of this. And Iran somehow became incorporated into the American defense perimeter. And so, his view would have been, we couldn't allow a communist to take over.
AMY GOODMAN: But wasn't it more about British Petroleum?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Oh, it's always -- there are always interests. The truth is, about the Middle East is, had there been no oil there, it would be like Africa. Nobody is threatening to intervene in Africa. The problem is the opposite. We keep asking for people to intervene and stop it. There's no question that the presence of petroleum throughout the region has sparked great power involvement. Whether that was the specific motivation for the coup or not, I can't tell you. But there was definitely -- there's always been this attitude that somehow we could intervene and use force in the region. I mean, that was true with -- I mean, imagine us arming and creating the Mujahideen to keep the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Why would we think we could do that? But we did. And, you know, my lesson on it is, whenever you use force, there are unintended consequences, so you should use force as a last resort. Whether it's overt or covert, you pay enormous consequences for using force.
GEN. WESLEY CLARK: People make mistakes. And one of the mistakes that the United States consistently made was that it could intervene and somehow adjust people's governments, especially in the Middle East. I don't know why we felt that -- you can understand Latin America, because Latin America was always an area in which people would come to the United States, say, “You've got to help us down there. These are banditos, and they don't know anything. And, you know, they don’t have a government. Just intervene and save our property.” And the United States did it a lot in the ’20s. Of course, Eisenhower was part of that culture. He had seen it.
But in the Middle East, we had never been there. We established a relationship during World War II, of course, to keep the Germans out of Iran. And so, the Soviets and the Brits put an Allied mission together. At the end of World War II, the Soviets didn't want to withdraw, and Truman called their bluff in the United Nations. And Eisenhower knew all of this. And Iran somehow became incorporated into the American defense perimeter. And so, his view would have been, we couldn't allow a communist to take over.
AMY GOODMAN: But wasn't it more about British Petroleum?
GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Oh, it's always -- there are always interests. The truth is, about the Middle East is, had there been no oil there, it would be like Africa. Nobody is threatening to intervene in Africa. The problem is the opposite. We keep asking for people to intervene and stop it. There's no question that the presence of petroleum throughout the region has sparked great power involvement. Whether that was the specific motivation for the coup or not, I can't tell you. But there was definitely -- there's always been this attitude that somehow we could intervene and use force in the region. I mean, that was true with -- I mean, imagine us arming and creating the Mujahideen to keep the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Why would we think we could do that? But we did. And, you know, my lesson on it is, whenever you use force, there are unintended consequences, so you should use force as a last resort. Whether it's overt or covert, you pay enormous consequences for using force.
Mar 2nd
4 Problems with Drupal
Mar 2nd
I need a GUI for my application. What library...
Mar 2nd
The Iraq insurgency for beginners
Mar 2nd
“So this Administration either originally hired incompetent...”
— House Democratic Caucus...
— House Democratic Caucus...
Mar 2nd
The butterfly effect — how Wall-Mart...
Mar 1st
Poll: Most Americans Favor Universal Health...
Mar 1st
“The real point here is that the slow uptake for Vista has...”
— Eric Savitz (Barron’s Online)
— Eric Savitz (Barron’s Online)
Mar 1st
Right-wing water carriers go after Al...
OLBERMANN: He may never run for office again, and the man chosen president over him has now come around to his way of thinking about global warming. But face it, to the far right, Al Gore is still an inconvenient truth teller. Hard on the heels of his documentary’s Oscar came the headlines a non-partisan think tank had revealed that Mr. Gore’s own personal energy bill is 20 times the national average.So is our third story tonight outrageous hypocrisy, a minor embarrassment or a demonstration of a different kind of wind power? First, that allegedly non-partisan think tank, which just happens to have gotten its story picked up by the notorious Drudge Report today, is called the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. Twenty seven-year-old President Jason Drew Johnson, hailing from the same American Enterprise Institute that takes money from big oil, cheer-leads the war in Iraq and consistently, and now to pretty consistent laughter, downplays global warming.
That said, even a partisan think tank can get the facts straight. So the facts, last year, Gore’s Tennessee property consumed almost 221,000 kilowatt hours, 20 times the national average. It cost him more than 16,300 dollars. But Johnson’s press release, calling on Gore to walk the walk when it comes to home energy use, omits several other key facts. The former vice president’s home has 20 rooms, including home offices for himself and his wife, as well as a guest house and special security measures.
Furthermore the Gores buy energy produced from renewable sources, such as wind and solar. Tonight, COUNTDOWN confirmed with the local utility officials that their program, called the Green Power Switch, actually costs more for the Gores, four dollars for every 150 kilowatt hours. Meaning, by our calculations, our math here, that the Gores actually chose to increase their electric bill by more 5,893 dollars, more than 50 percent, in order to minimize carbon pollution.
The utility is also telling us that some smaller homes consume energy in the same range of usage as does the one on the Gores’ property. Surprise, surprise, there seems to be political subtext here.
Mar 1st
Was Liz Seccuro wrong for turning in the man...
Mar 1st
Scientists are developing the next...
Mar 1st
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Anybots walking robot (via tlbtlbtlb0)
Mar 1st
Mr. Bush’s job approval remains at one of its...
Mar 1st
Manga Simpsons
Mar 1st
Picnik
An incredibly nifty web application clone of iPhoto. Edit photos online.
Mar 1st
Eliminationism in America
Mar 1st
Berners-Lee: Congress should consider net...
Mar 1st
I Bought Votes on Digg
Mar 1st
Will Saudi Arabia Bail Out Bush Again?
Mar 1st
“McCain has been an indifferent senator for Arizona at best....”
— Jon Talton
— Jon Talton
Mar 1st
The Authoritarians
Bob Altemeyer, cited extensively in John Dean’s recent bestseller Conservatives Without...
Mar 1st
Nation-state firewalls: if the Berlin wall...
Mar 1st
Ruby on Rails Handbook - Tutorials, Docs,...
Mar 1st
cagle.com
Mar 1st
Sunni Arab guerrillas account for 90 percent...
Mar 1st
Arthur Schlesinger, Historian of Power, Dies...
Mar 1st
Why pay $20,000 for a commercial link to run your television...
Mar 1st
Why is the US spending one trillion dollars...
Mar 1st
Showdown — a Javascript Port of Markdown
Feb 28th
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas...”
— Samuel P. Huntington
— Samuel P. Huntington
Feb 28th
Understanding Fourth Generation War
Feb 28th
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“Some call you the elite I call you my base” (via websuspect)
Feb 28th
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Rigged USA Elections Exposed (via truthstream)
Feb 28th
Pakistan makes a deal with the Taliban
Feb 28th
Atmospheric scientists have uncovered fresh...
Feb 28th
“So far, more than 200,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan...”
— Linda Bilmes
— Linda Bilmes
Feb 28th
Immigrants raise wages for Americans, are...
Feb 28th
“Require every station that wants to add to its holdings to...”
— Eric Klinenberg
— Eric Klinenberg
Feb 28th
Replacing AppleScript with Ruby
Feb 28th
CompUSA Closing More Than 50% of Stores
Feb 28th
55 percent of Arizona residents would support...
Feb 28th
More Jonathan Coulton WoW Music Videos
Your Brains Skullcrusher Mountain Just as Long as Me Creepy Doll Podsafe Christmas Song
Feb 28th
Losing the War in Afghanistan
Feb 28th
Economic Inequality in the US Versus in...
Feb 28th
Meet the Vatican’s Webmistress
Feb 28th
Not Compassionate, Not Conservative — A...
Feb 28th
Top 1989-2006 Political Donors in the US
Feb 28th
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Neil Cavuto v. Paul Krugman
Feb 28th
Whatever became of LSD?
Feb 28th
Tumblr Feature Requests
I love this tumblelog deal, but here’s a short list of feature requests: Ability to resize...
Feb 28th
“In essence, what Jesus imparted to his disciples was that...”
— Obery M Hendericks, Jr.
— Obery M Hendericks, Jr.
Feb 28th
How To Tell If Your Cell Phone Is Bugged
Feb 28th
Two Sumatran tiger cubs and two baby orang-utans, each pair...
Feb 28th
“Always, there are people and even entire cultures that try...”
— Sylvia Paull
— Sylvia Paull
Feb 28th
Bush Administration Targeted Wilson's Wife...
Feb 28th
Scientists with the Robot Engineering Technology Research...
Feb 28th
This Magna Carta for humanity sets a high bar...
Feb 28th
Studies show the stock market performs better...
Feb 28th
AMY GOODMAN: Chalmers Johnson, you connect the breakdown of constitutional government with militarism.
CHALMERS JOHNSON: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the signs of the breakdown of constitutional government and how it links?
CHALMERS JOHNSON: Well, yes. Militarism is the -- what the social side has called the “intervening variable,” the causative connection. That is to say, to maintain an empire requires a very large standing army, huge expenditures on arms that leads to a military-industrial complex, and generally speaking, a vicious cycle sets up of interests that lead to perpetual series of wars.
It goes back to probably the earliest warning ever delivered to us by our first president, George Washington, in his famous farewell address. It’s read at the opening of every new session of Congress. Washington said that the great enemy of the republic is standing armies; it is a particular enemy of republican liberty. What he meant by it is that it breaks down the separation of powers into an executive, legislative, and judicial branches that are intended to check each other -- this is our most fundamental bulwark against dictatorship and tyranny -- it causes it to break down, because standing armies, militarism, military establishment, military-industrial complex all draw power away from the rest of the country to Washington, including taxes, that within Washington they draw it to the presidency, and they begin to create an imperial presidency, who then implements the military's desire for secrecy, making oversight of the government almost impossible for a member of Congress, even, much less for a citizen.
It seems to me that this is also the same warning that Dwight Eisenhower gave in his famous farewell address of 1961, in which he, in quite vituperative language, quite undiplomatic language -- one ought to go back and read Eisenhower. He was truly alarmed when he spoke of the rise of a large arms industry that was beyond supervision, that was not under effective control of the interests of the military-industrial complex, a phrase that he coined. We know from his writings that he intended to say a military-industrial-congressional complex. He was warned off from going that far. But it's in that sense that I believe the nexus -- or, that is, the incompatibility between domestic democracy and foreign imperialism comes into being.
CHALMERS JOHNSON: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the signs of the breakdown of constitutional government and how it links?
CHALMERS JOHNSON: Well, yes. Militarism is the -- what the social side has called the “intervening variable,” the causative connection. That is to say, to maintain an empire requires a very large standing army, huge expenditures on arms that leads to a military-industrial complex, and generally speaking, a vicious cycle sets up of interests that lead to perpetual series of wars.
It goes back to probably the earliest warning ever delivered to us by our first president, George Washington, in his famous farewell address. It’s read at the opening of every new session of Congress. Washington said that the great enemy of the republic is standing armies; it is a particular enemy of republican liberty. What he meant by it is that it breaks down the separation of powers into an executive, legislative, and judicial branches that are intended to check each other -- this is our most fundamental bulwark against dictatorship and tyranny -- it causes it to break down, because standing armies, militarism, military establishment, military-industrial complex all draw power away from the rest of the country to Washington, including taxes, that within Washington they draw it to the presidency, and they begin to create an imperial presidency, who then implements the military's desire for secrecy, making oversight of the government almost impossible for a member of Congress, even, much less for a citizen.
It seems to me that this is also the same warning that Dwight Eisenhower gave in his famous farewell address of 1961, in which he, in quite vituperative language, quite undiplomatic language -- one ought to go back and read Eisenhower. He was truly alarmed when he spoke of the rise of a large arms industry that was beyond supervision, that was not under effective control of the interests of the military-industrial complex, a phrase that he coined. We know from his writings that he intended to say a military-industrial-congressional complex. He was warned off from going that far. But it's in that sense that I believe the nexus -- or, that is, the incompatibility between domestic democracy and foreign imperialism comes into being.
Feb 27th
“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to...”
— Paulo Freire
— Paulo Freire
Feb 27th
Bush-Appointed FDA Commissioner Pleads Guilty...
Feb 27th
The True Story of Laura Bush Killing Her...
Feb 27th
According to papers filed with the SEC,...
Feb 27th
Schools should teach deep, strategic computer...
Feb 27th
Feb 27th
The Truth About Switching — What It's Really...
Feb 27th
I love name tags
Feb 27th
“President Bush’s purge of Ms. Lam and others who...”
— Linda Andros
— Linda Andros
Feb 27th
Pligg CMS, an open source Digg clone. Still in beta, sounds like a good idea, but thousands of...
Feb 27th
“We need to completely ditch the whole free market economy...”
— angry.bob
— angry.bob
Feb 27th
Have you been following the world travels of...
Feb 27th
Watch
Seymour Hersh uncovers major Bush scandal. Bush is funneling money without authorization or...
Feb 27th
The Gospel Versus Global Warming
Feb 27th
Windows Vista: I’m Breaking up with You
Feb 27th
Why Can't Programmers… Program?
Feb 27th
“Who is the American leader, in all of our history, who was...”
— Oliver Willis
— Oliver Willis
Feb 27th
Why I refused to blog for Edwards
Feb 27th
Who's Happy and Why?
Feb 27th
Americans grossly underestimate the number of...
Feb 27th
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Save the Internet
Feb 27th
Digg, a political snapshot
Feb 27th
Confronting Davos: The Class Politics of...
Feb 27th
Turn Gmail Into Your Personal Nerve Center
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A Herd of Sea Cucumbers
Feb 26th
An advertising circular on the...
This vehicle is parked on private property. The make, model and license number have been recorded....
Feb 26th
“Traffic flow is a simple mathematical concept (which human...”
— Craig5530
— Craig5530
Feb 26th
Al Gore, A Class Act
Feb 26th
Star Trek XI Has Been Greenlit
Feb 26th
Watch
I believe you have my stapler…
Feb 26th
“The tired assertion that America “supports...”
— Rep. Ron Paul
— Rep. Ron Paul
Feb 26th
Wal-Mart is the beneficiary of more than $1...
Feb 26th
“Your predecessors, Dr. Rice, didn’t spend a year...”
— Keith Olbermann
— Keith Olbermann
Feb 26th
Ethics: Is It Good To Leave Large...
Warren Buffet has rather famously refused to give his children much of anything other than love and...
Feb 26th
Airport Extreme vs Airport Express
Feb 26th
Breaking: Supreme Court awards Gore’s Oscar to Bush
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Saddam Hussein: The Trial You Never Saw
Feb 26th
OpenCongress brings together official...
Feb 26th
Documents captured after 9/11 showed that bin...
Feb 26th
“To a nation bent on violence, anyone who claims to be...”
— N.T. Wright
— N.T. Wright
Feb 26th
OLBERMANN: Mr. Scheuer, given how often the Republicans said during the debate last week in the House that insurgents in Iraq would follow us home if we left Iraq, which battleground is actually more central to the war against terrorists? Is it al Qaeda starting to rebuild training camps that it had in Afghanistan or the Taliban rebuilding them in the neighboring nation of Pakistan? Or is this the central place still the civil war in Iraq?
SCHEUER: No, the central place in terms of an attack inside the United States is Afghanistan and Pakistan. When the next attack occurs in America, it will be planned and orchestrated out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Al Qaeda values Iraq primarily for the entree it gives them into Jordan, into Syria, into the Arab peninsula, and into Turkey.
We‘ve really signed—for example, we‘ve signed Jordan‘s death warrant by the—through the war in Iraq. But actually, the people who will plan the next attack in the United States are those who are in Afghanistan and Pakistan, sir.
SCHEUER: No, the central place in terms of an attack inside the United States is Afghanistan and Pakistan. When the next attack occurs in America, it will be planned and orchestrated out of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Al Qaeda values Iraq primarily for the entree it gives them into Jordan, into Syria, into the Arab peninsula, and into Turkey.
We‘ve really signed—for example, we‘ve signed Jordan‘s death warrant by the—through the war in Iraq. But actually, the people who will plan the next attack in the United States are those who are in Afghanistan and Pakistan, sir.
Feb 26th
The World Wide Web is on the cusp of making...
Feb 26th
The death of print publishing is coming, it’s...
Feb 26th
XM, iPod can't touch that dial — Good old...
Feb 26th
“The last time we sided with Sunni radicals, we got bin...”
— Justin Raimondo
— Justin Raimondo
Feb 26th
New Mexico has ordered 500 talking urinal cakes that will...
Feb 26th
Feb 25th
The numbers behind ethanol, cellulosic...
Feb 25th
By a 64 - 31 percent margin, American voters...
Feb 25th
Blinkx's technology allows users to search...
Feb 25th
The lack of security in Iraq is leading now...
Feb 25th
Feb 25th
“ What do you learn from being in more wars than most? Well...”
— RYP
— RYP
Feb 25th
BillHop.com
A wiki for tracking legislation and issues of the day. Now with a subdomain for Arizona. Nice idea,...
Feb 25th
Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth Wins Best...
Feb 25th
Feb 25th
CAFTA: Free Trade Funds US Global Competitors...
Feb 25th
“Late Saturday, the US Air Force launched a series of bombing...”
— Juan Cole
— Juan Cole
Feb 25th
Islam is growing fast among African...
Feb 25th
“America has now passed the wealth inequality levels that...”
— orcinus
— orcinus
Feb 25th
“I always said I want to get the troops out as soon as...”
— Joe Lieberman
— Joe Lieberman
Feb 25th
Sinkhole!
Feb 25th
16 million Americans are living in deep or...
Feb 25th
Leo Laporte's tumblelog — tumbléo
Feb 25th
Watch
George Costanza’s Answering Machine
Feb 25th
The myth of Muslim support for terror
Feb 25th
“I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation...”
— Steve Jobs
— Steve Jobs
Feb 25th
Justice Department Fires 8th U.S. Attorney...
Feb 25th
Feb 25th
Saudi Arabia is supplying weapons to Iraqi...
Feb 24th
Rudy Giuliani makes fun of a man with...
Feb 24th
SEAN: So you might be working for Uncle Sam.
WILL: I don't know.
SEAN: Gerry says the meeting went well.
WILL: I guess.
SEAN: What did you think?
WILL: What did I think?
WILL: Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. So I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never had a problem with get killed.
Now the politicians are sayin' "send in the Marines to secure the area" 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, 'cause they were pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some guy from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass. And he comes home to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile my buddy from Southie realizes the only reason he was over there was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the skirmish to scare up oil prices so they could turn a quick buck. A cute, little ancillary benefit for them but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And naturally they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink seven and sevens and play slalom with the icebergs and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil, and kills all the sea-life in the North Atlantic. So my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive so he's got to walk to the job interviews which sucks 'cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin' 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue-plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State.
WILL: So what'd I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure I'll eliminate the middle man. Why not just shoot my buddy, take his job and give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? Christ, I could be elected President.
WILL: I don't know.
SEAN: Gerry says the meeting went well.
WILL: I guess.
SEAN: What did you think?
WILL: What did I think?
WILL: Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. So I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never had a problem with get killed.
Now the politicians are sayin' "send in the Marines to secure the area" 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, 'cause they were pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some guy from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass. And he comes home to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile my buddy from Southie realizes the only reason he was over there was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the skirmish to scare up oil prices so they could turn a quick buck. A cute, little ancillary benefit for them but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And naturally they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink seven and sevens and play slalom with the icebergs and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil, and kills all the sea-life in the North Atlantic. So my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive so he's got to walk to the job interviews which sucks 'cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin' 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue-plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State.
WILL: So what'd I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure I'll eliminate the middle man. Why not just shoot my buddy, take his job and give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? Christ, I could be elected President.
Feb 24th
Watch
Code Monkey
Feb 24th
Emacs and Vim
Feb 24th
Merlin’s Tumbamalog
Feb 24th
“Code Monkey like Fritos Code Monkey like Tab and Mountain...”
— Jonathan Coulton
— Jonathan Coulton
Feb 24th
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Rodney Dangerfield
Feb 24th
Time to grow up, Amanda
Feb 24th
Americans Say They Will Vote for a Black...
From a recent Gallup survey Asked if they’d be willing to vote for a “generally...
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Feb 24th
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The Top Five Rants of Keith Olbermann
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Feb 24th
10 Creative Folks Who Started Six Figure...
Feb 24th
“Let me clear it up for any moron with lingering doubts: It’s...”
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Feb 24th
The Rape of Sabrine Al-Janabi...
Feb 24th
“Percentage of males estimated to have died in violence ...”
— Chris Anderson
— Chris Anderson
Feb 24th
AMY GOODMAN: What will you do if the US attacks Iran?
CHRIS HEDGES: Well, I’m not going to pay my income taxes. I just am in such despair over the consequences of that war and the fact that there just really is no -- seems to be no organized opposition. And I think that I have a kind of moral responsibility as someone who comes out of the Middle East and has, I mean, directly, you know, friends throughout the years that I spent there who would suffer tremendously from that. And I sort of -- it may not change anything, and it may be sort of futile, but I think that at least when it’s over, I’ll have earned the right to ask for their forgiveness.
CHRIS HEDGES: Well, I’m not going to pay my income taxes. I just am in such despair over the consequences of that war and the fact that there just really is no -- seems to be no organized opposition. And I think that I have a kind of moral responsibility as someone who comes out of the Middle East and has, I mean, directly, you know, friends throughout the years that I spent there who would suffer tremendously from that. And I sort of -- it may not change anything, and it may be sort of futile, but I think that at least when it’s over, I’ll have earned the right to ask for their forgiveness.
Feb 23rd
Field Guide To Iraq
Feb 23rd
DOBBS: Results of tonight's poll: 98 percent of you say the American people should demand an end to any further expansion of the so-called North American Union until the American people can be allowed to approve or disapprove it.
Feb 23rd
22 Ways to Reduce Eye Strain at Your Computer
Feb 23rd
George Orwell: 12 Writing Tips
Feb 23rd
Is Snap Preview the most hated Web 2.0...
Feb 23rd
“Those called by God to proclaim the good news need to be...”
— Charles G. Adams
— Charles G. Adams
Feb 23rd
Feb 23rd
OLBERMANN: A new report shows that the Bush administration has been using inflated statistics about its antiterror activity to pat itself on the back, justify the erosion of civil liberties, and to argue for additional spending of your tax dollars.
…said report comes not from the left nor even from the Democrats, but from the Inspector General‘s Office of the Bush Justice Department, which tells us the administration‘s terror statistics includes such crimes as drug trafficking, immigration violations, and that scourge of free societies everywhere, marriage fraud.
The report says, any crime that was originally suspected as terrorism, or was just investigated by an antiterrorism unit, ended up as a terrorism statistic, which in turn was used by lawmakers to help shape our national policies.
OLBERMANN: The first question seems obvious, but specifically, how does the president benefit by getting these numbers wrong?
BOIES: Well, I think in two ways. First, it escalates the fear of terrorism. And certainly, the concern about terrorism, and domestic terrorism in particular, has been an important aspect of this administration‘s policy. So that I think by increasing the apparent terrorist threat, that, sir, is a political advantage.
Second, I think by overstating the number of terrorism convictions, it helps the administration make the case that it‘s being tough on terrorism, that it‘s being successful in prosecuting terrorism. And I think that we know from these statistics that both of those claims are somewhat overexaggerated.
…said report comes not from the left nor even from the Democrats, but from the Inspector General‘s Office of the Bush Justice Department, which tells us the administration‘s terror statistics includes such crimes as drug trafficking, immigration violations, and that scourge of free societies everywhere, marriage fraud.
The report says, any crime that was originally suspected as terrorism, or was just investigated by an antiterrorism unit, ended up as a terrorism statistic, which in turn was used by lawmakers to help shape our national policies.
OLBERMANN: The first question seems obvious, but specifically, how does the president benefit by getting these numbers wrong?
BOIES: Well, I think in two ways. First, it escalates the fear of terrorism. And certainly, the concern about terrorism, and domestic terrorism in particular, has been an important aspect of this administration‘s policy. So that I think by increasing the apparent terrorist threat, that, sir, is a political advantage.
Second, I think by overstating the number of terrorism convictions, it helps the administration make the case that it‘s being tough on terrorism, that it‘s being successful in prosecuting terrorism. And I think that we know from these statistics that both of those claims are somewhat overexaggerated.
Feb 23rd
737 U.S. Military Bases = Global Empire
Feb 23rd
What We Learn When We Learn Economics
Feb 23rd
“…the consensus is that Amero is getting a bad rap for a lot...”
— Steve Bass
— Steve Bass
Feb 23rd
Contribute to the Julie Amero Defense Fund.
More on the travesty of justice in the case of Julie...
Feb 23rd
Mass Transit: What Your Tax Dollars Should Be...
Feb 23rd
“The climate itself is sending a powerful and often...”
— Jeffrey Sachs
— Jeffrey Sachs
Feb 23rd
Time to Change America by Challenging...
Feb 23rd
The long-term stability of the massive ice...
Feb 23rd
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols says a high-ranking FBI official...
Feb 23rd
Newcomb out at 1480/Nova M
Feb 23rd
Feb 23rd