Twelfth Bough

i run my own damn think tank

Archive for January, 2008

Call Him Back, Mike

Jan 22

Posted by Marlena in Politics, Religion | 2 Comments

The American Spectator reports that Mike Huckabee is running out of money. He’s been forced to cut salaries and ask senior staffers to work without pay. And some of them have said, “No”.

Gasp. I know I know. It’s hard to believe. God was supposedly on Mike’s team, but now…now….????

Matthew 4

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Execution

Jan 22

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Economy, Israel, Media, Military, Politics, Psychology, Sustainability | No Comments

Well, it looks like today will be all about the economy and how it’s collapsing worldwide, an event predicted by many. Who knows what tomorrow may bring.

While we’re waiting for all hell to break loose, you might as well read Winter Patriot’s series: Beyond the Mirror. This economic shakedown has been long planned. Whether this is the endgame or something even worse (another war) awaits, I don’t know. However, while we’re all lying face down in the proverbial dirt, just twist your neck a little so you see who’s boot that is on your back.

In solidarity.

Desperado

Jan 21

Posted by Marlena in Iran, Israel, Nuclear Weapons | No Comments

John Bolton, that paragon of temperance and good judgment, has an important message for the world.

Former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said on Monday that Israel may have to take military action to prevent its archfoe Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb.

Bolton also said that further UN sanctions against the Islamic republic will be ineffective in stopping Iran’s controversial nuclear programme which Israel and the US believe is aimed at developing a bomb — a claim denied by Tehran.

Since the threat of a US attack against Iran has been effectively reduced, the pressure on Israel has increased exponentially. Supposedly. Because, you know, if a group of people really really really want to start a war and then all of a sudden other people start behaving in ways that make the war less likely to occur, it will cause the people who want the war to get very agitated. You could get some hysterical talk, like this:

Bolton said that military action against Iran should be taken before Tehran acquires a bomb.

“The calculus in the region changes dramatically once Iran has nuclear capability, meaning the preemptive use of force or the overthrow of the Iranian regime has to come before they get the weapon,” Bolton said.

“If you are worried about an Iran with nuclear weapons and an extreme theological regime in power, the time to take the plan of action is before Iran acquires the weapons.

“Once it acquires the weapons there is a risk of retaliation with nuclear capability and that’s why Israel is in danger — it is a very small country and two or three nuclear weapons (and) there is no more country. The pressure to act is intensive and the window of time available is narrow.”

Bolton also said that despite Iranian threats to hit hard if it is attacked, “their response will be a lot more measured than people think.” [ie: it's gonna be another "cakewalk"]

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week said that all options were on the table to prevent an Iranian bomb. The Israeli military last week also successfully test-fired a ballistic missile said to be able to carry a non-conventional warhead.

Bolton said that a new round of United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran was “unlikely” and that Tehran would not be deterred by further diplomatic sanctions.

“Maybe there will be another resolution but it will be even more toothless than the previous two sanction resolutions… International pressure through diplomacy of sanction has no chance of shifting Iran’s policies over the next year.”

A senior Israeli security official said in reaction that “one should listen very closely to what Bolton has to say.”

Really? Why should anyone listen to what John Bolton has to say? He’s a desperate war-mongering psychopath.

The desperate neocons and the desperate Israelis are the only people trying desperately to turn this manageable situation into a desperate problem requiring preemptive, desperate solutions.

Update on Sibel Edmonds

Jan 21

Posted by Marlena in Media | 1 Comment

While the US mainstream press has avoided this story like the plague, the UK Sunday Times has exposed itself not once, but twice, to the perilous facts. Full updates at Brad Blog and at Luke Ryland’s Sibel blog, and hopefully at every other justice seeking blog in America.

“It’s ironic,” Edmonds told us, “here is the FBI and DoJ in charge of investigating the CIA Torture Tape case and the missing White House emails. So who is going to investigate the FBI and DoJ if they have destroyed evidence, if that’s what they’ve done, because it looks like that’s what they have done.”

Indeed. Isn’t this really our problem in this country? Where does one turn with allegations of wrongdoing? Who can be trusted anymore? It’s impossible to know. People one might reasonable expect to do the right thing appear hopelessly compromised. So we can’t turn anywhere, and the wrongdoing continues.

The rule of law has become completely devoid of meaning when turned toward the powerful, and yet the ordinary American or worse, the non-American, steps out of line, the law will be vigorously applied.

Perhaps most disturbing, American civil rights have been disemboweled, but enforcement is random or limited. This leaves many people with false confidence about what they can say and do. People don’t realize they may be breaking laws because they don’t realize the laws have been changed. They still think we live in America. They don’t realize the laws were changed because the government doesn’t enforce the new laws. Not yet, unless it’s a special case like Sibel’s, and that’s “different”. The government threw the State Secrets gag on Sibel, so it seems like a rare thing for now. But if they can do it to her they can do it to anybody, and they probably will in due time. It’s a nice little trap they’ve put together, and we’re in a race against time before the trap snaps shut on our very necks.

Look at all the powerful people who have done nothing to help Sibel. They have somehow been paralyzed, an issue Luke Ryland addressed here. There’s a dirty dossier on everybody important, and therefore nobody breathes a word for fear of getting dragged through the mud and ruined. Do we think anybody powerful will come to your defense, or mine, should the need arise? It is to laugh. We will only have our fellow citizens, the ones who are paying attention. So that is what we need more of - people who are paying attention. And that, my friends, is why the mainstream media won’t touch this story with a nine foot pole with a ten foot handle.

Nice country we got here, eh?

UPDATE: Turning up the heat.

Rich, but not Bright

Jan 20

Posted by Marlena in Religion | No Comments

Here’s the latest iteration of the Prosperity Gospel - the ‘Gospel of Bling‘. All right?

One of the country’s most popular pastors is preaching a gospel controversial to many in the religious community. He says Jesus was not poor and he wants Christians to be wealthy, too. Call it the Gospel of Bling.

The man’s name is Creflo Dollar, and according to ABC’s Nightline, he “sits atop a religious empire.” He has a church with a congregation of nearly 40,000 members and offices on six continents, he’s published over 70 books, and his daily television show reaches a billion households worldwide. And in many ways, the church has grown with the message that God does not want people to be poor.

“Well, you have to really talk to people who read the Bible,” he says. “We’ve made financial prosperity like it’s a wicked thing. We automatically assume that Jesus was poor.”

“So you’re saying Jesus was rich?” questions reporter Dan Harris.

“I say pick the Bible up and read it for yourself,” he responds later in the piece. “And as you begin to read it, you’ll go through the entire Bible and find out that Abraham, the Bible says, was rich. Isaac and Jacob was rich. Joseph was rich. Solomon was one of the richest people in the world. These were all servants of God. Well, why in the world would God allow his son to come and not be at least to the level of those servants?”

Well, let’s think about this. I have read the bible, and the bible says lots of things. People who call themselves Christians presumably take their direction from the New Testament in preference to the Old Testament. And even there it becomes controversial because of inconsistencies between the Gospels and the letters from Paul. So let’s just say that if one is seriously wondering which message to follow, it would make the most sense to focus on the words of Jesus himself, as recorded in the Gospels. What Jesus said trumps every other message in the bible. That’s really what it means to be a Christian. One follows Jesus Christ.

It doesn’t really matter how rich Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Solomon were. That has nothing to do with it.

For a thorough exploration of what Jesus said and what Jesus meant, please visit Ray Dubuque’s site. This page in particular has a lot of information that explains why Mr. Dollar is sadly mistaken about his theological interpretations. This is not rocket science, it’s just politics.

“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight. Luke 16:13-15

It that confusing? It is not.

For additional reading on this topic, you can visit my Liberation Theology page.

Control

Jan 19

Posted by Marlena in Psychology | 1 Comment

This is sick.

American military researchers are working to uncover and harness the most terrifying chemical imaginable: that most primal odor, the scent of fear.

Why the need to manipulate people? Why is that?

Powerful people commit crimes right out in the open. They barely bother to conceal their crimes. Nay, they flaunt it in our faces. They leave evidence lying all about. They brag about their superior technology, their superior resources.

They dare you to say something, and then, with your amputated civil rights that you don’t even realize have been lopped off and thrown in the incinerator, they will watch everything you say and do and hold it against you someday. Someday when the time is just right.

They want to control your thoughts. They want to control your emotions. They want to control your finances. They want to control what you read, what you think, what you do, what you feel, where you go, who you talk to…everything.

And if they can’t control you that way, they will eventually have to control you physically. That is why the first people to go in any authoritarian society are the intellectuals, the people who think. People who think threaten those in power.

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. - Isaac Asimov

Turn off the tv. It’s their greatest tool ever.

Developments in Pakistan

Jan 17

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Military, Pakistan | No Comments

Here’s some new information to ponder. Commander Fallon and Admiral Mullen held a 20 minute interview at a private conference of Middle Eastern military chiefs, not including Pakistan.

If you need to refresh your memory on Fallon and Mullen, go here and here and here. They belong to the group of high level people who do not want the US to go to war with Iran. Or, in other words, they are sane people as far as we can tell.

So, they seem to have arranged some kind of mutual agreement with Pakistan to deal with the fight against extremists.

Pakistan is taking a more welcoming view of U.S. suggestions for using American troops to train and advise its own forces in the fight against anti-government extremists, the commander of U.S. forces in that region said Wednesday.

Navy Adm. William J. Fallon, commander of U.S. Central Command, said he believes increased violence inside Pakistan in recent months has led Pakistani leaders to conclude that they must focus more intensively on extremist al-Qaida hideouts near the border with Afghanistan.

He called this an important change from Pakistan’s traditional focus on India as the main threat to its security, and it meshes with Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ recent comment that al-Qaida terrorists hiding in the border area are increasingly aiming their campaign of violence at targets inside Pakistan.

“They see they’ve got real problems internally,” Fallon said in a 20-minute interview with three reporters accompanying Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a private conference here of military chiefs from Middle Eastern countries, hosted by Fallon. Pakistan was not attending.

…Although Pakistan has been a close U.S. ally in the war against terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001, the extent of U.S. military involvement inside Pakistan is a highly sensitive subject among Pakistanis.

“My sense is there is an increased willingness to address these problems, and we’re going to try to help them,” Fallon said. He said U.S. assistance would be “more robust,” but he offered few details. “There is more willingness to do that now” on Pakistan’s part, he said.

The Bush administration’s anxiety about Pakistan’s stability has grown in recent months, not only because of its potential implications for U.S. stability efforts in neighboring Afghanistan but also because of worry about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

Senior U.S. military officials have visited there recently, including Navy Adm. Eric Olsen, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.

In the interview in the seaside hotel where he and Mullen were meeting with Middle Eastern military chiefs, Fallon said he is concerned about weak coordination of U.S. and NATO efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. But he stressed that the security situation in Afghanistan is better than many realize.

…Fallon said he is overseeing a review of the Afghanistan mission, including not only the security effort but also the work in the political and economic realms.

“A lot of this is less coordinated than it might be, and if we could figure out how to get it harnessed together we might be able to leverage all the (contributions) … to better effect,” Fallon said.

Fallon said expanded U.S. military assistance to Pakistan would include, but is not limited to, a U.S. training program for tribal groups in the federally administered tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

The admiral is to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan next week.

He said he has been impressed with Pakistan’s new military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, who took over in December from President Pervez Musharraf.

“I was very heartened by his understanding of what the problems are and what he’s going to need to do to meet them,” Fallon said.

Of course this is all very vague, and you can read into those comments various meanings. Surely this is intentional. There’s some chance, however, that various sane people are working together, in whatever ways they can without raising the suspicions of the idiot-in-chief, to bring some stability to the region. I could be all wet on this, but it’s possible. Not everybody is into death and destruction.

Nothing to Worry About

Jan 17

Posted by Marlena in Israel, Politics | No Comments

Israelis prefer Hillary, because after all, our president is their president, too. Behold the mirth as they discuss our elections. Read the whole thing to appreciate the flavor, to see the entertainment factor which our elections provide. Why, watching Americans choose a president is more fun than a trip to the zoo!

“We are so closely influenced by what happens in the United States, so people think it’s in their own self-interest to support Hillary, assuming she will do more for Israel,” he said.

With a mix of concern for their future and amusement at the marching bands and baby-kissing style of US electoral politics, Israelis are tuning in to see who might be the next US president.

“Of course we are all following the elections: This is going to be our president, too,” said actor Michael Koresh, speaking only slightly tongue in cheek. He, too, is rooting for Clinton.

Oh, HA HA HA HA. What a card. I die laughing.

In the lead-up to the primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire, Israeli TV reporters breathlessly reported on the suspense and twists of the campaigns in live reports from the primaries’ battle grounds.

Just like American reporters, they also speculate on the effect of Clinton’s tears, McCain’s comeback and Obama’s charisma, and they salivate at the signs of a real race.

Israeli reporters also betray some amusement at the festive style of the campaigns, with their requisite balloons, cheerleaders and apple-pie-style applauding crowds.

…Israeli media are covering the Republican candidates less closely than the Democrats. One reporter even had to be prompted by his anchor in Israel to discuss the subject.

“And there are, after all, Republicans. What about them?” the anchor asked.

Yes, what about the Republicans? Nobody cares anymore about the Republicans? All right, then. Good to know.

Whoever wins the general election in November, the Israelis interviewed by JTA did not seem too concerned that the next president would be anything but pro-Israel.

Shocking

Jan 16

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney | 4 Comments

The White House recycles. They recycle things like backup tapes, because that is a “best practice” in the industry. What industry, you ask? Oh, that would be the Criminal Industry.

The White House has acknowledged recycling its backup computer tapes of e-mail before October 2003, raising the possibility that many electronic messages — including those pertaining to the CIA leak case — have been taped over and are gone forever.

…Before October 2003, the White House recycled its backup tapes “consistent with industry best practices,” according to a sworn statement by a White House aide.

I’m sorry, but I just have to say, that is rich. You’d think they were running a McDonald’s franchise.

Backup tapes are the last line of defense for saving electronic records.

Separately, the statement reveals the extent to which the White House is apparently unable to answer how many e-mails are missing from White House servers.

The White House “does not know if any e-mails were not properly preserved in the archiving process,” said the statement by Theresa Payton, chief information officer for the White House Office of Administration. “We are continuing our efforts,” said Payton, whose staff is responsible for the White House e-mail system.

If the e-mails were not saved, the White House might have violated two laws requiring preservation of documents that fall into the categories of federal records or presidential records.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that “there is no basis to say that the White House has destroyed any evidence or engaged in any misconduct.”

Fratto said that despite the recycling, some tapes should contain e-mails from before October 2003.

“Of course the disaster recovery backup tapes were, at one time, recycled,” said Fratto. “However, since October 2003, the Office of Administration has retained and preserved its disaster recovery tapes. The disaster recovery system is set up to regularly back up everything on the network for the Executive Office of the president at the time of each backup.”

The recycling of backup tapes by the Bush White House represents a reversal in policy from the final year of the Clinton administration. The Clinton White House halted recycling of backup tapes in March 2000, when it was discovered that some e-mail from the office of Vice President Al Gore was not preserved.

The seven-page document filed in U.S. District Court says the White House in October 2003 “began preserving and storing all backup tapes and continues to do so.” Payton said this means that e-mails sent or received in the 2003-2005 time period should be contained on existing backup tapes.

The period of 2003 and 2005 is the time frame at issue in lawsuits seeking information about possibly millions of missing e-mails at the Bush White House.

…“It appears that the White House has now destroyed the evidence of its misconduct,” said Anne Weismann, the chief counsel for CREW, the other private group that sued.“The White House declaration raises more questions than it answers, specifically the likelihood that for a very significant period of time — March 2003 to October 2003 — the White House recycled its backup tapes,” said Weismann.

“As a result there may be no way to recover the missing e-mails from a period in which the U.S. decided to go to war with Iraq, White House officials leaked the identity of Valerie Plame and the Justice Department started a criminal investigation of the White House,” the lawyer said.

The sworn statement by Payton did not say how early in the Bush administration the recycling of backup computer tapes began. The statement does not say why the White House stopped recycling backup tapes in October 2003.

The Bush Administration behaves in openly criminal ways. They show flagrant disregard for the rule of law. I know everybody already knows this, but still, let it get right under your skin. Pretty soon we will all be preparing our taxes. When you’re sweating out all those damned forms and schedules, trying to line up receipts and every other piece of evidence you need to stay out of the IRS’s way, just think about the White House taking your hard-earned money and blowing it on wars. Think of them giving it to their rich pals. Think of them blithely erasing their emails to cover up their own crimes.

What country is this?

Getting to March

Jan 16

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Iran, Nuclear Weapons, Politics | No Comments

Mohamed ElBaradei visited Iran while Bush was visiting other Middle East countries. This is the most hopeful news article I’ve read in some time.

IAEA spokeswoman in Vienna Melissa Fleming has since confirmed that ElBaradei’s visit has been of a substantive nature, with Iran committing to answering all questions about its past nuclear activities within the coming four weeks, including activities that were alleged by the US as linked to a weapons program. Fleming revealed that ElBaradei was given information on Iran’s “new generation of centrifuges”, which was a topic of considerable interest to the IAEA for assessing the extent of Iran’s technological advancement in the nuclear field. [1]

Fleming claimed ElBaradei was able to “press his case” with his hosts for a suspension of Iran’s uranium enrichment. Conceivably, ElBaradei proposed to the Iranian side an exit strategy for the impasse that the United Nations Security Council currently faces. He told the media he discussed in Tehran “ways of solving the issue as well as ways to negotiate with the United Nations Security Council”. He stressed his intention is “to find solutions for Iran’s nuclear issue so as to turn the problem into a normal issue”. The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Agency, Gholam-Reza Aqazadeh, also confirmed that “grounds are now being prepared” for resolving all issues and that Tehran has the “necessary political determination” in this direction.

This looks like a big deal, and the timing means that events from now through March will be critically important. A huge power shift is taking place, I think for the better, but it’s very dangerous because the neocons must be desperate to achieve their goals before it’s too late. The window of opportunity inches shut with each day.

ElBaradei being in Tehran has major implications. In Iranian politics itself, it becomes a boost for Ahmadinejad’s standing and is bound to cast its shadow on the parliamentary elections of March 14. The continuing cooperation between Iran and the IAEA makes it virtually impossible for the Bush administration to rake up the matter in the Security Council. The indications are that Paris senses that President Nicholas Sarkozy needlessly antagonized Tehran. European rhetoric on the whole has diminished. Russia and China are able to dig in with greater conviction on the issue in the Security Council, while at the same time they feel more comfortable in pressing ahead with their strategic cooperation with Iran.

All eyes are now on the report of ElBaradei at the IAEA meeting in March. Tehran, naturally, is pinning high hopes that the Iran nuclear file may become a routine affair involving a nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty member country. But the most important outcome of the ElBaradei visit is perhaps its impact in molding regional opinion in the Middle East and in the Persian Gulf region.

It gives the decisive push to the “pro-West” Arab regimes to turn their backs on Bush’s desperate pleas to join an anti-Iran coalition. Even for the most ardent “pro-West” Arab regimes, there is a serious problem now in identifying with the US-Israeli chorus. Equally, this “new thinking” will have implications for the Palestine-Israel peace process, as well as the situation in Lebanon and Iraq. Simply put, Tehran may be on the verge of breaking through to mainstream Arab regional politics - a historic breakthrough.

This excellent article goes on to describe in some detail the current positions of various Arab nations on Iran and the United States. It does not appear that they will be easily drawn into a conflict. US power and credibility, under the scurrilous leadership of George W. Bush, has withered away.

In the Arab world, perceptions matter the most, and nothing hurts more than being made to look foolish. The Filipino Monkey and Jafari have caused havoc on US standing in the Persian Gulf. Washington looks foolish. The Arabs have assessed that the right thing to do is to bide their time until a new president moves into the White House - which is also what Tehran’s substitute Friday prayer leader Khatami advised them to do.

Well, Washington looks foolish because Washington is foolish, and everybody knows it but the very people in power. God willing, it’s time to put the crazies back in the box.