Twelfth Bough

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Archive for category Politics

Fundie dreams may become nightmares

Sep 3

Posted by Marlena in Israel, McCain/Palin, Politics | 2 Comments

Lots and lots of speculating about Palin and whether or not she can last as VP pick. Now that we know the religious right picked her, this was clearly aimed at the base and the base alone. Here is the smoking gun: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?pid=352178.

So, they’re filling up the coffers. She remains under withering attack, and one can only imagine the victim-warrior narrative being used to motivate and shake down the base for every spare nickel.

The fundies have been used this way many times before, but to this date they can’t get no satisfaction from the GOP. They’re kind of like the Israelis that way. No matter how many wingnut judges or gutted science curriculums you throw their way, it’s never enough. They still feel threatened. So just imagine how excited they must be to have one of their very own on the ticket.

Now, just imagine how they will feel if, after sending many millions of dollars to the GOP because of Palin, she gets dumped. Oh dear. And on top of that, who would replace her? It’s like some sort of betrayal, don’t you think? A set-up, perhaps, to get the fundies last monies before they break up with the GOP forever. The fundies are so high maintenance anyway. Good riddance.

Perhaps this is why Karl Rove thinks it’s a ‘brilliant’ decision, though he can’t come right out and explain why or that would ruin all the fun.

Should this all come to pass, we will see who really calls teh shots around here. Beware the fallacy of insufficient cynicism. Things are bad. Very, very bad. No more effing around.

UPDATE: Brilliantly written details here, fully conveying the gasping, pearl-clutching horror of it all. Blow after blow after blow.

The Governor cancelled her busy schedule today allegedly to prepare her acceptance speech, but insiders report that she is now consumed in dealings with powerful Republicans who want to oust her.
…Initially, many conservatives were thrilled with McCain’s selection because Governor Palin is a devout evangelical Christian, a pro-life politician and a prominent gun enthusiast with a membership in the National Rifle Association (NRA). However, the mood of many of the party’s faithful is changing with the emergence of new and troubling reports about hitherto obscure details lurking in her background.
…Many Republican conservatives attending the St. Paul convention are aghast that Governor Palin’s daughter might not have become pregnant had she been able to obtain appropriate counseling.
…Even Governor Palin’s personal image is causing her problems. Earlier this morning, Republican eyebrows were raised when a photograph emerged of Governor Palin wearing disco attire featuring a micro-mini-skirt and a breathtakingly low-cut décolleté as she steadied herself on a bar while teetering on shiny, black patent leather platforms fitted with vertiginous stiletto heels that could have been purchased at Victoria’s Secret.

Let’s hear it for the ‘hitherto obscure details lurking in the background’. Priceless. Maybe the GOP/fundie marriage can be saved after all, though that would require throwing Mrs. Palin under the bus together. A human sacrifice.

Heckuva job, Saakass.

Sep 1

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, NATO, Politics, Russia | No Comments

The pressures must be very intense right now on the European countries. Saakashvili has tripwired lots of problems for the US, Israel, Europe, Turkey… I guess Cheney forgot to tell him about the Silly String trick before giving the go-ahead to piss off Russia. Oops.

Extraordinary meeting held at request of several EU member states:

The President of the French Republic as current President of the European Council, has, at the request of several EU Member States, decided to convoke an extraordinary meeting of the European Council which will be held on Monday 1 September in Brussels.

This meeting will be devoted to the crisis in Georgia, particularly to the course of action that the European Union intends to take in terms of aid to Georgia and its future relations with Russia.

But there’s a big problem:

Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition is split over confronting Russia, its biggest energy supplier, for invading Georgia, threatening efforts to strike a united European response to a resurgent Kremlin.

…“Everybody in the EU is looking for Germany to lead on this, and if the Germans can’t get their act together, it’s very bad news for the rest of Europe,” said Shada Islam, an analyst at the European Policy Centre in Brussels. “It’s a bit of a gamble to hold this meeting, which may merely serve to reveal all the cracks and fissures in the EU’s Russia policy.”

Germany is the 27-nation EU’s biggest member and has the closest links to Russia, so it has most to lose from reducing economic ties that flourished under Merkel’s Social Democratic predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder, now co-head of a joint venture with Russian state-owned gas monopoly OAO Gazprom. Merkel’s own party, the Christian Democratic Union, is pushing her to confront Russia to improve its record on human rights and democracy. Her Social Democrat coalition partners, including Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, stress dialogue over sanctions or confrontational rhetoric because they don’t want to risk Germany’s place as Russia’s No. 1 European trading partner.

There’s a lot of hand-wringing going on because Russia has the upper hand and everyone knows it. Saakashvili has put Old Europe in a difficult position, and now they will make some decisions for their own interests.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Aug. 28 that some EU states at the summit “will propose sanctions” while “others will be against.” The EU has to decide such measures unanimously, making sanctions unlikely because a single member state can block imposing sanctions on Russia. “Europe can’t do very much,” said Fredrik Erixon, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels. “We mainly import energy from Russia and if we cut trade ties it’s going to be a very cold winter.”

Soon we will hear shrill, ear-piercing screams coming from the neocons because Everything’s Ruined!

Things are rarely as they appear

Aug 31

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Corruption & Crime, McCain/Palin, Media, Obama/Biden, Politics, Psychology, Stupidity | No Comments

 

Like millions of other people across America…I’m still trying to comprehend what would drive McCain to pick Palin, especially now that she is being vetted. What a disaster. I am of two minds about this. Either the powers that run things above politics picked her to be their puppet and will control the corporate media so they don’t shred her like she’s being shredded on the internet, or John McCain snapped under pressure and picked her all by himself out of spite.

McCain seems to have a similar sociopathic personality to Bush. He must have been under tremendous pressure to make this decision, and we can imagine the people pulling and tugging and wheedling and cajoling their arguments at his poor, addled brain. Maybe he snapped out of exasperation, told them all off, and picked her to literally mess up their plans. Spiteful? Yes. Stupid? Yes. Possible? Yes. As suggested by one wag, perhaps he wants to take a few of his favorite enemies out (the Rovian power structure) as a final but deeply satisfying disparaging gesture.

However, it could also be part of a bigger design — a disturbingly cynical decision from exceedingly greedy people. They selected her because they can control her, and they can control her portrayal in the media, and they can control the election results. We can judge this from the narrative.

I caution anyone who thinks disposing of McCain/Palin will be simple and fun unless the media narrative adopts the same position. We have been down this road before, have we not? Did W get the job twice against all odds? Yes, and millions of people knew he was a big fat unqualified phony. It matters not what we understand in the online community if ABCCBSNBCFOXCNN decide Palin poops cupcakes, so people should refrain from getting all cocky over this. Many many people in America will consider her a breath of fresh air. Fox has begun the ‘rising star’ narrative. We live in a country where millions of people have no trouble blithely tossing aside pesky facts that don’t meet their preferred worldview, and who spend exactly zero hours doing independent thinking or investigating.

Yes, it’s ridiculous. Yes, she lacks all qualifications. As Dick Cheney says, “So?” I ask you, since when have facts mattered to these people?

If you read this article: www.rense.com/general83/gds.htm, The RNC Just Gutted the DNC Again by Karl Schwarz (and Rense.com is down for some unknown reason), you can see that Shwarz thought this pick was a really great idea. Now he is one of the people — and a conservative — who writes the most bitter diatribes against the Bush administration, complaining how badly they have screwed everything up and cost people lots and lots of money. Sounds like a smart guy, but he sung Palin’s praises to the high heavens. How odd, I thought. Apparently, it was a signal that the right people were finally in charge again. This somewhat bizarre position, coming as it does from a highly disaffected conservative, and combined with the rumor (also from purported insiders) that McCain suffers from a deadly illness, support the conclusion that Palin was chosen deliberately by people who have plans beyond John McCain. If you buy all that, and put it in context that a Lieberman pick would have been very disruptive to the base, you can see how this route might make sense. All they have to do is get McCain/Palin close enough to squeak in with a little election theft, and then they have another puppet regime through which to control events. Additional options of the non-election variety open up when McCain becomes incapacitated. I ask you, how convenient is that?

McCain has yet to release his medical records. The latest news about his health goes back to May 2008, came from the AP (not be be trusted), and didn’t say much.

He now appears cancer-free, has a strong heart and is in generally good health, according to eight years of medical records McCain’s presidential campaign made available Friday as it sought to prove that, at 71, he is healthy enough _ and not too old _ to serve as president.

Appear. Lot’s of things appear to be one way, but in reality they are quite another. For all those who have devotedly sought the truth about 911, etc., we know how resistant most Americans remain. They see what the corporate media wants them to see, in this as in all critical matters. What I propose here may seems like a wild theory, but unfortunately, the truth for the past eight years has proven to be beyond most people’s nightmares. Therefore, I find it most productive to consider the craziest possible theories first and work my way back into conventional thinking as those theories get knocked out by facts (to the extent that we can determine the facts). For those who want an Obama win, I suggest you tread carefully or the Democrats will soon pluck another defeat from the jaws of victory. Because that seems so incredibly unlikely is exactly why you should worry.

UPDATE: The Yurica Report. The Dominionists consider this a ‘brilliant’ move. Don’t forget that the Religious Right has been waiting so patiently, so very, very patiently, with Job-like virtue I tell ya, having been used for their votes and money so many times before by the Republicans. Now, at long last, they have the chance to get one of their own into the White House. They begin to pour money into John McCain’s coffers now. She is The Church Lady.

UPDATE: The Nation reports that an ‘ultra-secretive right wing group’ picked Palin: The Council for National Policy. It is the Dominionist theocracy crowd after all. Yurica had it right.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?pid=352178

Bill explains how the world works to stupid, selfish, liberal Dennis

Aug 28

Posted by Marlena in Media, Politics, Stupidity, Unreality | No Comments

(satire) Obviously. But perhaps not, so there.

Transcript of Bill O’Reilly interviewing Dennis Kucinich here.

KUCINICH: You know, first of all, the American eagle needs two wings to fly. Don’t forget that. And, secondly, what I stand for is mainstream: health care for all, jobs for all, employment security. That’s what all Americans want.

O’REILLY: Yes, they want it, but you can’t — the only way to get all that is by implementing a socialistic system. And that’s what they don’t want, so that’s the…

If you want a secure job and health care, you’re a socialist. Actually, it’s probably ok to want these things for yourself, but if you start wanting it for other people, you’re a socialist. We’re pretty smart here in America, but socialism is the only way to give Americans secure jobs and health care. There’s just no other way to solve the conundrum, so pick one. See, we can’t have socialism, so we can’t solve these problems. Suck it up. Now, if you were a good, cut-throat red-blooded American like Bill O’Reilly, you’d be satisfied getting your own needs filled. Why do you have to such an asshole and care about what other people need? That’s your problem, you know.

KUCINICH: You know what, though? But in a country where the wealth is accelerating to the top because of our tax system, because of our health care system, because of our energy policies, I think the American people in this election are going to want to recognize we need to go in a new direction.

O’REILLY: It’s going to be — it’s going to be interesting, because most Americans don’t like socialism and they admire achievement. And they understand that guys like me pay an enormous amount of tax, enormous. Now, I don’t mind paying it, but if you’re going to take 50 percent, 60 percent, I’ll retire. You don’t want that.

A new direction means socialism, and we can’t have that. Bill already explained that. What are you, dense? Now, it’s important to remember that Bill is very very very selfless and doesn’t mind paying ‘enormous’ amounts of tax. Just enormous. But if we put any more weight on his sturdy, selfless shoulders, he. will. retire. Obviously, we don’t want that to happen. That would be a national tragedy, so suck it up. Stop thinking about yourself all the time, and start thinking about the sacrifices that people like Bill O’Reilly make for this country. This is your problem, you know? You never think of the poor rich people in America.

KUCINICH: Do you know that 1 out of every 3 health care dollars goes for the activities of the for-profit system, corporate profits, stock options, executive salary, advertising, marketing?

O’REILLY: That’s the free market place. You can’t control it.

Allright?? You cannot control the free market place. You just can’t do it. Does the sun rise in the east every morning? Eggsactly. And you cannot control the free market place. If you tried to exert any control over the free market place, that would be socialism, and as Bill has already explained like five times, we can’t have socialism in America. Why can’t you get this through your thick head?

O’REILLY: I like the fact that there should be a safety net for health care. I don’t want anybody to be out on the street.

KUCINICH: Bill, 50 million people are without health care.

O’REILLY: We can’t afford it.

We can’t control the free market place, and that’s why we can’t afford health care for all. What’s the matter with you, are you stupid? This is really straightforward. The money that would make health care affordable for another 50 million people has to go to corporate profits and CEO salaries. That’s the free market place, which you cannot control without killing America. It’s the price these people pay to live in a free market place kind of country. If you weren’t so selfish you’d recognize this and happily sacrifice your health for the USA.

KUCINICH: The truth is we shouldn’t have gone into Iraq.

O’REILLY: OK, but Iraq’s a different thing. We won that. We won that.

KUCINICH: Where’s the soft approach?

O’REILLY: You don’t want to confront Putin militarily in Georgia; you don’t want to confront Iran militarily. You don’t want to do all of that.

KUCINICH: Bill, why have a war if you don’t need it?

See, we won in Iraq. Already won that war. If you weren’t such a pussy, you’d see that we should go right over there and smash up the Russians and nuke Iran. War is good for America. People love war. It’s a blast. There’s nothing to worry about. We’ll kick their asses.

O’REILLY: Because the reason Bush did that was because he knew down the road Putin would invade somebody, which he has.

KUCINICH: No, excuse me. Georgia invaded South Ossetia.

O’REILLY: OK. All right, you know I love you. It’s great to have you on here. All right, I’m just wondering whether Obama loves you as much as I do.

Georgia invaded South Ossetia….this guy is such a ham…OK this interview is over. Cut. CUT! Love you, baby. You liberals are soft as shit, but we love you man. Love having you on the show.

This should be a newsy week

Aug 25

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Iran, Israel, Media, Politics | No Comments

The corporate media is going to hand off the baton from the Olympics to the Democratic Convention. Gotta keep those Americans distracted from the real news. Let’s hope they drop the damned thing and some truth breaks through.

The other day we saw the first signs of Israel squirming a little on the hot seat because of the Georgia fiasco.

Russia has condemned both Israel and the US for their role in arming the Georgian military with sophisticated weapons.

Israel claims it has not directly equipped or trained the Georgian military, and private Israeli firms - with the defense ministry’s approval- are responsible for such dealings.

How Eddie Haskel-ish.

On the same day (8/20/08), a Lebanon paper reported that Olmert warned Israelis about the ‘next war’ hitting Israeli cities.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned on Tuesday that the next war with Lebanon would involve attacks on Israel’s cities, and threatened that the Jewish state would hit back “harder than before.” In 2006 Hizbullah fired almost 4,000 rockets at northern Israel during a month long war, reaching cities as far south as Haifa and Tiberias. Olmert warned that now that Hizbullah is the “dominant” force in Lebanon, Israel will hit back “harder than before.” Olmert added that the Jewish state did not use all means to respond in 2006, but “if Lebanon becomes a Hizbullah state, then we won’t have any restrictions in this regard.” He did not elaborate.

And just a few days later, Israeli troops briefly entered Lebanon. You get the impression that they want another war with Lebanon, which Olmert predicts will cause the destruction of Israeli cities. But hey!

Eight Israeli soldiers entered the south Lebanon area of Mais al-Jabal, but pulled out after 15 minutes, a Lebanese daily reported. Lebanon’s al-Safir newspaper said on Saturday that Israeli forces came only 100 meters into Mais al-Jabal in Marjayoun province before pulling back. A Lebanese army patrol and UN peacekeeping force headed to the area to monitor their movement and the Israelis turned back after some 15 minutes. Israeli threats against Hezbollah have escalated in the past week. An Israeli prime minister spokesman threatened to hit the whole of Lebanon if Hezbollah took over control in Lebanon. Meanwhile Lebanon plans to lodge a complaint with the United Nations about Israeli threats of pursuing Hezbollah inside Lebanese territory. The Zionist regime prime minister Ehud Olmert said recently that Israel would not consider itself bound by any restrictions if Hezbollah came to power in Lebanon.

So there’s always crazy Israel to watch, because you never know what shit-storm they will kick up, all the while blaming it on someone else.

And this continued warmongering is necessary because the plan with Georgia, according to this source (also here & here), was for Israel to use Georgia as a launching point for an airstrike against Iran.

The air strike was to be aimed at Iranian government buildings with one Israeli group striking where top Iranian officials were known to be working, at housing for the top leadership, at any identified laboratory where nuclear work was being carried on and a second flight was to strike at Iranian oil wells, pipelines and Persian Gulf oil terminals. Once the dual strike was completed, the aircraft would head towards Israel and then were slated to be refueled in mid-air by an American tanker aircraft. That Putin was aware of the pending Georgian attack on South Ossetia is certain and the strong probability is that someone connected with the CIA’s Russia desk gave sensitive material on this subject to the Russians and an Israeli IDF member is positively known to have given very specific information to the Russian GRU.

Obviously, that plan is now defunct and people on the inside may be actively working against the neocons (oh please, God, may it be true). Is the ‘next war’ with Lebanon Plan B? I don’t know, but events like the Olympics and the Democratic Convention give great cover for starting brush-wars that can race out of control given the right circumstances. So that’s something to watch.

Of course, there’s one thing that would take the pressure off the neocons, and that would be assurance that the next US president will continue the current policies, thereby resetting the clock. The Voice of the White House had this tidbit:

Washington, D.C., August 21, 2008: “Such heart-warming news! High level Republican associates here are talking about the latest ploy on the part of the State of Israel to gain complete control of the United States government. Their idea is to offer the diseased McCain unlimited support from their papers and television stations in return for his putting Joe Lieberman on the ticket as vice president. As McCain is known to be seriously ill and will soon be unable to function, the plan will be for him to retire “for reasons of health” and then Joe Lieberman, loud and persistent Israeli supporter, will step into the Oval Office and America will have her first (unelected) Jewish president. And a firmly dedicated Zionist at that! Many GOP people say putting Lieberman on the ticket will ruin any chance McCain has at the White House. Why? His obvious mental confusion? No, the American public is becoming seriously anti-Semitic and anti-Israel and if McCain attempts to support a universal draft (as he is dead set on doing) and has a rabid Zionist as a running mate, his fall will be great and he will drag the shattered remnants of the Republican Party with him. Thank God!”

Well, let’s see how the media shills play the Mighty Wurlitzer this week. I barely have this ridiculous presidential race on my radar, but it defies belief that McCain should have any traction whatsoever regardless of Obama’s qualifications or lack thereof. The credibility of the Republican Party is negative five billion percent thanks to GWB. But when I heard a talking head the other day describe some statistics about women supporters of Obama as ‘ominous,’ I thought that was an extremely loaded word, and I notice the persistent news about these Clinton supporters who supposedly can’t seem to accept her defeat. If you recall Bush v Gore, you may remember that the right had a field day berating the Dems for refusing to accept the (managed) outcome. Sore losers…that was the narrative as I recall. From my position of not paying attention to the details of this particular circus, I must say the whiff of this old script wafts above the news of Clinton and her supporters like elephant dung and makes it to my nostrils. Is she going to be the spoiler like Nader, who splits the Dems and hands the victory to McCain, who is as big or bigger a joke as Bush ever was? I dunno, but this week we may begin to see the endgame of all sorts of plans coming into focus.

Um, excuse me, but your slip is showing

Aug 14

Posted by Marlena in Israel, Media, Military, NATO, Nuclear Weapons, Politics, Russia | No Comments

Love the illustration via s o s.

The situation with Georgia has really generated a ton of great and interesting analysis. One thing is clear: both Obama and McCain are tied in via their advisers. To those who scoff at NWO-type theories, I’m afraid this offers quite compelling evidence that actions are indeed coordinated at some supra-level.

Saakashvili is a protégé and creature of Zbigniew Brzezinski, the foreign policy boss of the Barack Obama presidential campaign. As is explained in my book Obama- The Postmodern Coup: The Making of a Manchurian Candidate, Saakashvili was brought to power in 2003-2004 by a people power coup or CIA color revolution, directed by the Brzezinski clan and financed by George Soros, one of Obama’s key financial backers. In a very real sense, it is the Obama campaign which has attacked Russia in South Ossetia.

And…

There are telltale signs that he played a similar role in the recent Georgia flare-up. How else to explain the folly of his close friend and former employer, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, in ordering an invasion of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, an invasion that clearly was expected to produce a Russian counterreaction? It is inconceivable that Saakashvili would have triggered this dangerous escalation without some assurance from influential Americans he trusted, like Scheunemann, that the United States would have his back. Scheunemann long guided McCain in these matters, even before he was officially running foreign policy for McCain’s presidential campaign.

So in other words, both McCain and Obama are on the same team. See? The election is a complete waste of time, nothing but a giant distraction to keep the American people from understanding what is happening, and who is driving the bus, and where we’re going. But the word is out there. I have found the work of these sites invaluable during the past couple of weeks:

what really happened
s o s
therearenosunglasses

Wear Orange

Jun 17

Posted by Marlena in Citizenship, Corruption & Crime, Injustice, Politics | No Comments

There are some really great reads out on the interwebs today. You can browse my top ten picks here, but this one in particular deserves wide circulation.

You know all those nagging cognitive dissonances we live with every single day, like how the system seems to be totally broken and yet we feel compelled to participate so as not to give up ‘hope’? Isn’t that annoying? Don’t you want to have some answers that will let you put down at least one heavy bag so you don’t have to carry around both bags all day, every day, year after year?

If elections really were a solution, then why hasn’t the Democratic majority in Congress, ended the war, the torture, and the massive, warrantless surveillance over all of us and impeached the sorry excuses for human beings in the White House? Pelosi and Reid claim that they haven’t had the votes to stop the war. Nancy and Harry: that’s what your leadership posts are for. You don’t need the votes. All you have to do is block the funding bills from coming out of committee. If you don’t like the telecommunications amnesty bill or the spy-on-all-Americans bills, then all you have to do is keep the bills from coming up for a vote. You can kill these bills in the same way you’ve been killing the impeachment resolutions against Cheney and Bush. But then, Nancy and Harry already know this.

Isn’t that the truth? They have the power to block impeachment, yet they claim they can’t do anything about all these other horrible bills. In layman’s terms, that is what we call having one’s cake and eating it, too.

The Bush regime has been spearheading an extraordinary rupture from the norm, de jure and de facto, much of it in the shadows, but increasingly in the open, and the majority of people of this country are deeply disturbed by it.This is in spite of the fact that only a fraction of the people are aware of the magnitude of this rupture because the mass media and the Democratic Party have been actively minimizing and/or concealing this.

In addition, all too many Americans are “opting out” of taking responsibility for the barbaric acts being committed in our names because they themselves are anesthetized by their material comforts.

The rupture’s dimensions, nonetheless, are so far-reaching that it is impossible for this country’s leadership class to conceal entirely the jagged rips and tears going on.

People know. They know that horrible things are happening, though they don’t have the words to put around them. And they don’t have time to figure it out and sort through all the false leads and conspiracy theories and tsunami of news since they have to work two or three jobs per family to keep the mortgage paid, etc. So they put compartmentalize all this anxiety about politics, and they put it into the election, which conveniently takes just one day of our time in November. There (brushing hands together). We’re all set. Just mark that voting day on the calendar.

It’s deeply immoral for the Democratic Party and the mass media to countenance torture and “pre-emptive” wars based on fraudulent premises. Obama and Pelosi and McCain are fully aware of this. They want us to follow their lead and get us to act as if this isn’t the present reality – that we should ignore their collusion in crimes against humanity and support them as fellow colluders.

That is what these elections are really about: herding people into supporting crimes against humanity and declaring that it’s the people’s will.

Is that what you want? Is that the kind of person you are? Is this the legacy we want for our children and future generations - that we stood by and let tyrants and monsters ravage the planet?

Even if you now think that Obama should be “given some slack” for what he’s saying, do you think it is proper to put your faith in one person and faith in the same party that has betrayed us all? Even if you plan to vote for him, do you think that simply voting discharges your responsibility to protest, everyday from now until it is no longer necessary, the moral outrages being committed by our government?

…Every single person who reads this and who steps forward does so in the name of millions of others and creates the conditions for many, many others to step forward.

Don’t we as individuals have a personal responsibility to take a stand against grave injustice and not pass that responsibility on to others to take care of it for us? The people who many people think are supposed to take care of things are obviously not doing it.

So what are you waiting for? Yes, you.

At first I thought it was satire

Jun 9

Posted by Marlena in Iran, Israel, Media, Politics | No Comments

You know we’ve turned some sort of hellish corner when the NYT has a big graphic titled “Six Points to Remember for your AIPAC Speech” and which is, naturally, full of Zionist propaganda.

Are they proud of this? Is it a cry for help? One can only hope that a few Americans will read it and have some sort of epiphany that there’s something desperately wrong with our country.

This reminds me of the etiquette rules for meeting Queen Elizabeth.

Behold how the candidates for President of the United States have to grovel in front of AIPAC. And look, the NYT has helpfully illustrated how McCain and Obama have successfully accomplished this critical though humiliating ritual.

There’s Still a Difference

May 31

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Citizenship, Civil Rights, Corruption & Crime, Military, Politics, Surveillance | No Comments

Having long been a liberal and a citizen, I certainly have been bitterly disappointed by the Democratic Party’s countless capitulations to the Republicans over the last eight long years. The specific reasons for this, I’m sure, would be fascinating to learn and someday I hope to read all about the dossiers and bribes and taps and threats, but the bottom line is they can’t be trusted and I’m not voting. Having said that, I reject the argument that they’re all (dems and reps) equally complicit in our current dismal state of advanced rotting decay. Complicit? Yes. Equally complicit? No. If they were all equally to blame, then why do things like this keep happening only to people on the left?

Carroll, who requested that his real name not be used, showed up early and waited anxiously for Swanson’s arrival. Ten minutes later, he says, a casually dressed Swanson showed up, flanked by a woman whom he introduced as FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola. For the next 20 minutes, Mazzola would do most of the talking.“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality—they kept saying I was friendly and personable—for what they were looking for.”

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.

The story goes on to recall how similar things happened in 2004.

Carroll’s story echoes a familiar theme. During the lead-up the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, the NYPD’s Intelligence Division infiltrated and spied on protest groups across the country, as well as in Canada and Europe. The program’s scope extended to explicitly nonviolent groups, including street theater troupes and church organizations.

There were also two reported instances of police officers, dressed as protestors, purposefully instigating clashes. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, the NYPD orchestrated a fake arrest to incite protestors. When a blond man was “arrested,” nearby protestors began shouting, “Let him go!” The helmeted police proceeded to push back against the crowd with batons and arrested at least two. In a similar instance, during an April 29, 2005, Critical Mass bike ride in New York, video footage captured a “protestor”—in reality an undercover cop—telling his captor, “I’m on the job,” and being subsequently let go.

Then we have the preparations for the DNC in Denver. Apparently, the biggest issue is security and crowd control because….well…just because.

Citing “Denver’s unjustified penchant for secrecy,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado filed a new lawsuit today in Denver District Court demanding disclosure of security-related equipment purchases connected to the Democratic National Convention this summer.

The suit comes hot on the heels of The Colorado Independent’s Riot Toyz series that last week detailed the panoply of high-tech security vehicles, non-lethal crowd control devices and just plain weird personal restraint devices available for purchase by the Denver Police Department, which has an $18 million equipment budget in its total $50 million federal earmark for convention-related security expenses.

…Responding to ACLU media inquiries that the Denver Police Department has purchased a “sonic ray gun” to subdue unruly crowds, Silverstein said: “If Denver is buying such a device, or any other new-fangled so-called ‘less lethal’ weapons,” Silverstein continued, “the public is certainly entitled to know. And the public is entitled to ask whether Denver has adequately evaluated the manufacturers’ self-serving claims of safety, has established appropriate policies to regulate how and when officers may use such weapons, and has adequately trained its officers.”

‘Non-lethal’ and ‘less lethal’ weapons - these euphemisms apply to the weapons discussed here.

People can say what they want about the weak and mewling democrats, and they may be totally justified, but how convenient for the republicans to have the police power of our nation arrayed in their service to intimidate and entrap their opposition. It indicates that the powerful still want to manage events in a certain direction, does it not?

So as long as things like this keep happening to the left end of the political spectrum and not to the right end, it seems very obvious to me that there is still a difference between democrats and republicans in power. Some people do the wrong things out of coercion and desperation, and others do them out of sheer enjoyment and a lust for power.

Good times, good times…

May 22

Posted by Marlena in Corruption & Crime, Economy, Politics, Sustainability | No Comments


Traders share a laugh in the crude oil options pit of the New York Mercantile Exchange, where the price of oil futures swept toward $130 a barrel. The record-shattering run-up in energy and food prices has prompted Congress to consider taking action against speculative investing.

Photo: Henny Ray Abrams/AP

So, the husband tells me the other day that he’s really getting pissed off about gas prices. Mmm-hmm, I say.

Ever since we passed the psychological barrier of $100 a barrel, it’s been pretty much a runaway train. The Peak Oil theory doesn’t really explain how gas prices can jump ten cents a gallon in one day. The thing about Peak Oil is that it’s a long term geological problem, so there must be another gremlin in the works here messing with the day-to-day prices, you know? I think it has something to do with these happy, happy guys. I mean, they are having a damn good laugh.

“The American people are about to take out pitchforks” because of the cost of groceries and gasoline, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said during a Senate hearing on whether commodities are being pushed higher by investors’ high-stakes bets that prices will keep going up. Given the uproar from consumers, McCaskill warned an official from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, “if you don’t do something, Congress will.”

…Economists, traders and regulators routinely dismiss the notion that excessive trading is the culprit instead of traditional market forces such as supply and demand. And they warn that increased regulation could interfere with trading programs used by airlines and others to blunt the negative effects of rising commodity prices.

Jeffrey Harris, chief economist at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told lawmakers Tuesday that the high prices reflected increased demand from emerging markets and decreased supply because of bad weather or geopolitical events.

Harris and others also pointed to broader economic factors such as the sinking value of the dollar, which has made commodities traded in the United States a relative bargain for foreign investors. Commodities also have recently offered more certain returns than the stock market.

The happy guys tell us that it’s so much demand, so little supply, the weak dollar, bad weather, wars, etc. They’re doing the best they can to regulate the prices and protect consumers. Seriously. They really are. They have a lot of data to crunch every day, and whenever there are incidents of potential abuse, they take those very seriously on a case-by-case basis. (blink blink blink)

They do!

This happened on Tuesday, May 20, 2008. Senator McCaskill said, “If you don’t do something, Congress will.” If you click through the link in that story to this site, you will see that the House passed legislation to close the Enron loophole on May 14, 2008. Excellent!

The legislation closing the loophole is meaningless unless the federal Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, the agency charged with regulating energy trades, enforces the law. To do that, they need to the tools and the resources and, perhaps more importantly, the political will to put the cop back on the beat.

Moreover, speculators still have a free hand to continue gaming the market using the “Foreign Exchange” loophole. Similar to the Enron Loophole, this aspect of commodities law allows commodities markets that are owned by foreign entities to operate beyond the reach of federal oversight – despite the fact that their offices are open for business right here in the United States.

There’s another loophole???? For foreign entities????

You know what? I’m getting suspicious.

This problem has been on the table for some time. Back in July 2007 Congress held hearings on the very same thing.

IN A SERIES of hearings last week on Capitol Hill, members of Congress shed light on the most significant source of volatile energy prices — excessive speculation and manipulation on the unregulated energy commodity futures markets.

Seven years ago, Enron lobbyists sought to free their new experiment in electronic trading, “Enron Online,” from oversight by the principle regulator of energy futures and derivatives, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. They managed to drop a loophole into an appropriations bill that has effectively exempted all electronic over-the-counter energy commodity markets from US regulation. Before this bill was passed, crude oil was under $25 per barrel and motorists enjoyed affordable gasoline.

Since then, energy commodity traders and hedge funds have poured billions of dollars into these “dark markets.” According to a bipartisan report published by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, excessive speculation may be responsible for as much as $20-$25 of a barrel of crude oil. Between 50 cents to $1 per gallon of gasoline may be a direct result of irrational and unethical behavior in the commodity markets. Enron may be long gone, but its legacy remains.

Few Americans realize the extent to which futures trading on dark markets determines the price they pay for energy. [And why is that, pray telll?? - Ed.] Daily trading has an immediate impact on the price of gasoline, heating oil, natural gas, and other fuels. A large majority of futures trading — as much as 75 percent, according to experts — is conducted on unregulated dark markets, as opposed to trading on regulated markets, including the New York Mercantile Exchange.The Federal Trade Commission concluded last year that retail price gouging is not only hard to define but is virtually nonexistent, whereas “price gouging” on the commodity markets is very real. Insufficient or nonexistent US oversight has given profiteering traders and hedge funds the wiggle room they need to distort prices for personal profit — at the expense of the American consumer.

…A bill called the “Oil and Gas Traders Oversight Act” would close this loophole and bring accountability to the dark markets. Congress should pass this bill, put an end to the real “price gouging,” and tell commodity market profiteers to stop playing with their constituents’ wallets.

Let’s recap. Speculators have been gouging American consumers for eight years now. Congress has known about it. Now the behavior has become so insanely greedy under cover of supply and demand, the weak dollar, geopolitics, bad weather, wars, and every other possible excuse that is out of the CFTC’s control that finally, at long last, somebody has to do something or else the American people will rise up with their pitchforks and skewer the nearest Mobil Gas Station owner, who the FTC has determined really doesn’t participate in any price gouging, but is a handy target and possibly an Arab.

So, ahh, is somebody on this, guys, before it gets really ugly?

Why yes! Not to worry. Our congresspeople are right on top of it. Just be patient for a little while longer and it will all be straightened out, ‘kay?

Status of this bill: in committee.

The bill’s sponsor: Dianne Feinstein.

The bill’s co-sponsors:
Sen Bingaman, Jeff [NM] - 2/13/2007
Sen Boxer, Barbara [CA] - 2/13/2007
Sen Cantwell, Maria [WA] - 2/13/2007
Sen Feingold, Russell D. [WI] - 2/13/2007
Sen Kerry, John F. [MA] - 2/26/2007
Sen Lautenberg, Frank R. [NJ] - 2/13/2007
Sen Levin, Carl [MI] - 2/13/2007
Sen Lieberman, Joseph I. [CT] - 2/13/2007
Sen Mikulski, Barbara A. [MD] - 2/13/2007
Sen Sanders, Bernard [VT] - 2/26/2007
Sen Snowe, Olympia J. [ME] - 2/13/2007

Maybe I’m just very cynical, but this looks like an elaborate kabuki display that will, in the end, fail. People will be able to express ‘regret’, however, because they ‘tried’. And that will make up for everything.

Who’s in for drinks at the Hamptons?