Dan Feidt's log on Minnesota, Information Operations, spinstorms and latent contradictions.
This is very important:
Terry Schiavo: The Blog: http://durrrrr.blogspot.com :
Friday, March 25, 2005
nnnnguh
AHHHHHHH WAAAAAAAA
posted by terri at 5:24 PM 149 comments
nnnnngnhgngnh
*blink*
posted by terri at 3:40 PM 42 comments
Also it seems that her parents are selling off their recently composed mailing list to conservative groups. But talk about your hyperactive core to target... those people got some buttons to push. (DailyKos / Billmon on it)
It is good to have Billmon back at the Whiskey Bar. I particularly like the future news snippets (as introduced by a dribble of news items parading the formation of an Iraqi government):
Iraqi politicians in the besieged Basra pocket vowed to break a deadlock that has blocked the formation of a new government, saying an agreement will be finalized before President-for-Life Bush's formal deification ceremony next week. Talks were slowed after three key negotiators – two Shia and one Kurd – died of old age last month . . .
Voice of Christian America
Iraq Cabinet Deal Said Close, Even as Evacuation Begins
January 12, 2009
Iraqi negotiators continued to haggle over the shape of their government in exile – nearly three decades after Iraq was overrun and annexed by the New Islamic Caliphate. Talks are reportedly deadlocked over genetic banker Ahmed Chalabi IV’s demand for control of the regime’s modest Treasury, reportedly valued at $150 trillion (3,500 Chinese renminbi) . . .
New New York Times
Iraq Talks Continue at Arkansas Oceanside Resort
March 28, 2045
Ok I gotta go to class now. There is much to say but little time to do it. Dang...
Hell, I'm finally back. My computer is acting weird which prevented me from updating the site earlier.... Anyhow...
We had a hell of a time in Colorado. I skied for the first time in eight years, so that was awesome.
God, I am too tired to deal with this right now. There were good stories. The National Security State came around at unexpected times. A guy told me that they know where Osama bin Laden is.
Our society seems to be obsessed with mortality, wall to wall Schiavo on the wretched airport CNN televisions that can never be turned off, as I found trying desperately to sleep on Friday before last in the Atlanta airport.
I have this weird psychological problem, which I think relates to my atheism. Simply put, I would say that we die every day, as some realities are brought about and other potential realities are crushed. As we move from one phase of life to another the old personality dies. But maybe not, maybe there is a firm and Profound bond between all the moments that make up a person's life, and it isn't all complex, random movements of inherently mundane and truly dead molecules.
Ugh, I don't mean to get negative. To be truly honest, I feel all right about where my life is going to go and I don't quite have the same level of anxiety that's sweeping through many of my classmates. We are moving on Real Soon, that's what's clear. The old social forms are ticking away, ready to go into the dust of these strange years of college...
By now you have surely read about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's ethics troubles. Probably, too, you aren't entirely clear as to what those troubles are--something to do with questionable junkets, Indian casino money, funny business on the House Ethics Committee, stuff down in Texas. In Beltway-speak, what this means is that Mr. DeLay has an "odor": nothing too incriminating, nothing actually criminal, just an unsavory whiff that could have GOP loyalists reaching for the political Glade if it gets any worse. The Beltway wisdom is right. Mr. DeLay does have odor issues. Increasingly, he smells just like the Beltway itself [...] Taken separately, and on present evidence, none of the latest charges directly touch Mr. DeLay; at worst, they paint a picture of a man who makes enemies by playing political hardball and loses admirers by resorting to politics-as-usual. The problem, rather, is that Mr. DeLay, who rode to power in 1994 on a wave of revulsion at the everyday ways of big government, has become the living exemplar of some of its worst habits. Mr. DeLay's ties to Mr. Abramoff might be innocent, in a strictly legal sense, but it strains credulity to believe that Mr. DeLay found nothing strange with being included in Mr. Abramoff's lavish junkets. Nor does it seem very plausible that Mr. DeLay never considered the possibility that the mega-lucrative careers his former staffers Michael Scanlon and Mr. Buckham achieved after leaving his office had something to do with their perceived proximity to him. These people became rich as influence-peddlers in a government in which legislators like Mr. DeLay could make or break fortunes by tinkering with obscure rules and dispensing scads of money to this or that constituency. Rather than buck this system as he promised to do while in the minority, Mr. DeLay has become its undisputed and unapologetic master as Majority Leader. Whether Mr. DeLay violated the small print of House Ethics or campaign-finance rules is thus largely beside the point. His real fault lies in betraying the broader set of principles that brought him into office, and which, if he continues as before, sooner or later will sweep him out.I know Dan will want to highlight this as an example of the nefariousness that is allowed to simmer on in the Republican Party, but I am going to to take WSJ's side here and say that Delay (a) is not going to be convicted and (b) is not going to be House Majority Whip much longer. Remember Newt Gingrich's mistress? DeLay's trespass is bigger, but less gross, because we don't have to picture anyone having sex with Tom DeLay. What is the point of all this Schiavo nonsense, then, in the end? Nothing and a tuppence, because it turned out to be a disastrous miscalculation for Bo and Luke (Tom and Bill) and the Dems finally stood to the side while the Republicans ran up on their own swords for a cause that would seem to be precious to a tiny portion of America. Now for the apologies: To Terri Schiavo- I'm sorry for spelling your name wrong. If there is a God, you are with him, but I doubt it, so I make jokes about your IQ approaching that of an English breakfast. If you are actually in there listening, or in heaven, I am sure that you will rain fists down on my ass like a WWE wrestler in order to straighten me out. This concludes the apologies. Wellkidsallfornowloveyoubyebye...
Hi kids. Mordred here, to let you in on what's going here at HongPongWorldCo, Inc. Our dear founder and fearless leader, DanF, has left us. It is a dark day here at HongPong, and the flags (and selected pieces of my anatomy) have been flying at half-mast. Actually, Dan's only in lovely Steamboat, Colorado, and should be back... sometime, I've no idea when.
The point is that I'm the only elf minding the shop at the moment and, as such, am allowed to say and do whatever I want on this, one of the more serious wild-eyed screed forums I've come across in my very serious study of wingnut screed forums. So, with that in mind, I am announcing a complete change in the focus and style of Hongpong.com. From now on, Hongpong is going to be a low culture celebrity gossip rag, focusing on celebrity sightings in the Twin Cities area. As Dan has already posted the picture he had taken of himself with Al Franken, we're probably not going to be releasing any new material in a few years, when Al Franken loses to Norm Coleman for a Senate seat. Maybe if we're lucky Jessica Alba or someone shitty like that will have a layover, but I wouldn't hold your breath. It does mean an utter cessation of political news. Though many of you relied on us for all of your sporadic and questionable news, we hope that you will find our celebrity gossip just as fascinating. For example, did you know that Jessica Lange used to live in Stillwater for part of the year? Well, she did. Yeah, no shit, who'd a thunk it, right? A big time hollywood...Jessica Lange? Oh, she's that one who was in... umm... well, she looks like this
You remember her, right? She was in that commercial for cellphones where they tell you that their cellphone service is better than the other guys? Oh! Dorothy Poppins from Gone With the Wizard of Id was from Minnesota. The one with the beautiful blue suede shoes, she was America's sweetheart when this shot was taken:
Of course, she's aged since then, as well as died, but I'm sure she stills looks better than Melanie Griffith- drum roll, please.
Actually, this horrible wretched style of writing stale jokes about celebrities people stopped caring about around the time they stopped remembering that Alec Baldwin and what's-her-face were ever married is going to become something more akin to what is going to go down on BlackOutBlog, which from now on is going to change the meaning behind its name. No more is the "black out" element referring to damaged brain tissue and unpleasant bathroom cleanup. Now, I mean blackout as the condition of the media in a world less crappy then our own. That being said, I will be using the space therein to talk tirelessly and in depth about the very thing I supposedly despise. It'll be great.
'Kbedtimebye
Hey all,
It is Raining Like Hell on Sanibel Island, near Ft. Myers in the Voting Rights State. Apparently the weather will be better tomorrow. We are in a cafe right now, where last night I transmitted my midterm paper for Holocaust class to Kellan PoliSciPimp Anfinson... So it is fairly uneventful. I was hoping to get a tan and stuff but you can't really do that in the torrential rain.
There are hundreds of alligators on this island but I haven't seen one yet. Between our condo and the beach there is a brackish coastal swamp where the alligators are known to roam. Yesterday the Lucy Dog, who previously hadn't been afraid of going on the boardwalk over the swamp, was just terrified and had to be dragged across the boardwalk. She can probably smell the Rotting Flesh in the mouths of those nasty beasts, or something like that. There are strange noises at night, frogs etc...
We ate at the Lazy Flamingo last night and as we were going to the car, we noticed that raccoons were all over the dumpster. How many? Seven. I went in to tell the staff about it, and our waitress smiled and said, "Oh, there's more than that!" Ah Florida, always ready to let the animals forage as long in order to have to get rid of less garbage.
From what I have seen the Island is an excellent wildlife refuge and a low-key sort of spot, no nasty highrises etc. Really fairly nice, if not for this dicey weather. The Island has a strange post-apocalyptic feel to it--and you know how I like to feel post-apocalyptic--because it got hammered in those hurricanes last year, knocking down lots of trees etc. On the flight down here, i talked with an interesting young woman and she told me about how her and her friends went out to surf in the fifteen foot waves around the island as the hurricane came in. Then they got arrested. Naturally.
I'm lookin forward to a trip to Colorado with a good crew of people, starting this Saturday when I get back. Hell yeah!!
Hey, whatever. I'm going to Florida. Hell Yeah. There's things I could post about, but now I'm done. Oh yes.
All right, Major Things have to Happen today and I've got to set about doing them real quick-like, in preparation for the trip. Have to write midterm exam all day...
Civil war stuff further down. Turns out that the Bush Administration makes up more shit than any other presidency, ever. They use fake news broadcasts with fake reporters, distributed to TV stations, to help provide the public with a fuzzy background of "a caring get-it-done Administration". The Congressional Budget Office has considered some of this stuff potentially "covert propaganda". The NY Times had a major feature on it Sunday.
"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers.
To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department. The "reporter" covering airport safety was actually a public relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. The farming segment was done by the Agriculture Department's office of communications.
Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production.
This winter, Washington has been roiled by revelations that a handful of columnists wrote in support of administration policies without disclosing they had accepted payments from the government. But the administration's efforts to generate positive news coverage have been considerably more pervasive than previously known. At the same time, records and interviews suggest widespread complicity or negligence by television stations, given industry ethics standards that discourage the broadcast of prepackaged news segments from any outside group without revealing the source.
Federal agencies are forthright with broadcasters about the origin of the news segments they distribute. The reports themselves, though, are designed to fit seamlessly into the typical local news broadcast. In most cases, the "reporters" are careful not to state in the segment that they work for the government. Their reports generally avoid overt ideological appeals. Instead, the government's news-making apparatus has produced a quiet drumbeat of broadcasts describing a vigilant and compassionate administration.
Some reports were produced to support the administration's most cherished policy objectives, like regime change in Iraq or Medicare reform. Others focused on less prominent matters, like the administration's efforts to offer free after-school tutoring, its campaign to curb childhood obesity, its initiatives to preserve forests and wetlands, its plans to fight computer viruses, even its attempts to fight holiday drunken driving. They often feature "interviews" with senior administration officials in which questions are scripted and answers rehearsed. Critics, though, are excluded, as are any hints of mismanagement, waste or controversy.
Some of the segments were broadcast in some of nation's largest television markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Atlanta.
All right other stuff, quickly. Stratfor says that John Bolton is not such a horror for the UN post, and of course I disagree because he is A) batshit crazy B) antagonizes people purely for symbolic value C) incredibly dishonest and dangerous.
In fact, there is some extremely deep diplomacy going on here. Bolton belongs to the "put-up-or-shut-up" branch of American neocons, believing that the United Nation's original charter prescribed a much more activist organization -- where resolutions would be strengthened by possible consequences if violated, often including the use of force. In Bolton's mind, the Korean War is precisely the type of military action the United Nations was designed to authorize and carry out.
This is, needless to say, very different from the circumstances surrounding the Iraq war of 2003 -- in which the Bush administration, we believe, hoped that the United Nations would not go along with U.S. requests. The whole point of the war was not to oust Saddam Hussein but to intimidate Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia into acting against al Qaeda on Washington's behalf. Bush wanted to scare regimes that supported or enabled al Qaeda by placing uninvited, unsanctioned American armored divisions -- not a sea of polite blue helmets -- in the sands of Iraq.
[.....]
Had the administration simply wanted to destroy the United Nations, it would have appointed someone far less controversial and independent-minded who would simply rubber-veto U.N. Security Council resolutions ad nauseam. As Bush pointed out during his first term, the United Nations is relevant only if it takes steps to enforce its own dictates.
Bolton feels the same way. He believes the U.N. system is not necessarily irredeemable, but simply discredited. Rather conveniently, he has two ready-made test cases waiting: North Korea has withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty while Iran is, at best, attempting to skirt the IAEA on technical grounds. In effect, both states have -- in the eyes of the United Nations -- placed themselves outside of the system, and are therefore squarely in what Bolton and his neocon circle feel are the United Nations' crosshairs. Bolton's task will be to get the United Nations to act against them -- not for American interests, but to prevent the United Nations from sliding into total irrelevance.
In the four years to come, the United Nations is likely to have several "legitimate" targets, from the neocons' point of view. In his second term, Bush seems committed to finishing the work not just of his first administration, but of the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations as well. The White House has made no secret of goals that include not only tying up the final loose ends of the Cold War and completing the rollback of Russian power, but also of extending that geopolitical effort to Communist East Asia and the Middle East.
I don't buy it. Ok. Also a former US soldier, Nadim Abou Rabeh, claims that the U.S. faked the news of Saddam's capture on Dec. 13, 2003, and he was actually captured by Rabeh and others somewhere totally different on Dec. 12. Justin Raimondo speculates on whether this is true, and the upcoming demonization of Bashar Assad as the next-worst-thing-to-Hitler. He also has a bit about how the Neo-cons have been chased out of one of their periodical redoubts, National Journal.
The pro-Syrian govt in Lebanon is back in the saddle. Experts warn that the War on Terror (TM) is going to make more terrorists. Apparently the U.S. is finally ready to acknowledge that Hezbollah has a key role to play in Lebanon. We just don't have the traction to play the stupid demonization card anymore.
Speaking of liars around Bush, a bit by David Corn about the bad old days of massacres in El Salvador, and Elliot Abrams lying to Congress to cover it up. These days are going to be here again, with people like him and Negroponte running around. Dowd points out that these 'security-minded' bastards are not really that competent at security.
Oh yeah, here's some batty stuff. David Horowitz made up a site, discoverthenetwork.org, that purports to connect, say, the editors of The Nation with Zacharias Moussaui. It also shines light on the evil conspiracy that is Counterpunch.org. Nuts.
Ok finally, something about that civil war stuff. Uri Averny, an old-school Israeli peacenik, has a ton of good thoughts about what kind of mess we are getting drawn into with Lebanon and elsewhere.
Many years ago, I read a book called The Quiet American by Graham Greene. Its central character is a high-minded, naive young American operative in Vietnam. He has no idea about the complexities of that country but is determined to right its wrongs and create order. The results are disastrous.
I have the feeling that this is happening now in Lebanon. The Americans are not so high-minded and not so naive. Far from it. But they are quite prepared to go into a foreign country, disregard its complexities, and use force to impose on it order, democracy, and freedom.
[....]
Exactly 50 years ago, a secret, heated debate took place among the leaders of Israel. David Ben-Gurion (then minister of defense) and Moshe Dayan (the army chief-of-staff) had a brilliant idea: to invade Lebanon, impose on it a "Christian major" as dictator, and turn it into an Israeli protectorate. Moshe Sharett, then prime minister, attacked this idea fervently. In a lengthy, closely argued letter, which has been preserved for history, he ridiculed the total ignorance of the proponents of this idea in face of the incredibly fragile complexity of the Lebanese social structure. Any adventure, he warned, would end in disaster.
At the time, Sharett won. But 27 years later, Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon did exactly what Ben-Gurion and Dayan had proposed. The result was exactly as foreseen by Sharett.
[....]
In Lebanon, all the diverse communities are in action. Each for its own interest, each plotting to outfox the others, perhaps to attack them at a given opportunity. Some of the leaders are connected with Syria, some with Israel, all are trying to use the Americans for their ends. The jolly pictures of young demonstrators, so prominent in the media, have no meaning if one does not know the community that stands behind them.
[...]
It took us 18 years to get out of that morass. Our only achievement was to turn the Shi'ites into a dominant force. When we entered Lebanon, the Shi'ites received us with showers of rice and candies, hoping that we would throw out the Palestinians, who had been lording it over them. A few months later, when they realized that we did not intend to leave, they started to shoot at us. Sharon is the midwife of Hezbollah.
[....]
If a civil war breaks out in Lebanon, it will not be the only one in the region. In Iraq, such a war – if almost secret – is already in full swing.
The only effective military forces in Iraq, apart from the occupation army, are the Kurdish peshmerga ("those who face death"). The Americans use them whenever they are fighting the Sunnis. They played an important role in the battle of Fallujah, a big town that was totally destroyed, its inhabitants killed or driven out.
Now the Kurdish forces are waging a war against the Sunnis and Turkmens in the north of the country, in order to take hold of the oil-rich areas and the town of Kirkuk, and also to drive out the Sunni settlers who were implanted there by Saddam Hussein.
How can such a war be practically ignored by the media? Simple: everything is swept under the carpet of the "war against terrorism."
But this small war is nothing compared to what may happen in Iraq, once the time comes for deciding the future of the country. The Kurds want complete autonomy, or independence by another name. The Sunnis would not dream of accepting the rule of the Shi'ite majority, which they despise, even if it came about in the name of "democracy." The outbreak of a full-fledged civil war may only be a question of time.
[....]
If the Americans succeed, with Israel's discreet help, in breaking the ruling Syrian dictatorship, there is no assurance at all that it will be replaced by "freedom" and "democracy."
Syria is almost as splintered as Lebanon. There is a strong Druze community in the south, a rebellious Kurdish community in the north, an Alawite community (to which the Assad family belongs) in the west. The Sunni majority is traditionally divided between Damascus in the south and Aleppo in the north. The people have resigned themselves to the Assad dictatorship out of fear of what may happen if the regime collapses.
It is not likely that a full-scale civil war will break out there. But a prolonged situation of total chaos is quite likely. Sharon would be happy, though I am not sure that it would be good for Israel.
[....]
Israel is now openly threatening to bomb the Iranian nuclear installations. Every few days we see on our TV screens the digitally blurred faces of pilots boasting of their readiness to do this at a moment's notice.
The religious fervor of the ayatollahs has been flagging lately, as happens with every victorious revolution after some time. But a military attack by the "Big Satan" (the U.S.) or the "Little Satan" (us) may set fire to the whole Shi'ite crescent: Iran, south Iraq, and south Lebanon.
[....]
And here, too. Israel, too, has recently witnessed a tiny civil war.
In the Galilean village Marrar, where a Druze and an Arab Christian community have been living side by side for generations, a bloody incident suddenly erupted. It was a full-fledged pogrom: the Druze fell upon the Christians, attacking, burning, and destroying. By a miracle, nobody was killed. The Christians say that the Israeli police (many of whose members are Druze) stood aside. The immediate reason for the outbreak: some doctored nude pictures on the Internet.
Here are a couple other writings by Averny. This one is interesting but in particular please read "Israel's coming civil war," it is scary as hell. It was written back in October but it is highly relevant.
Everybody in Israel is talking about the Next War. The most popular TV channel is running a whole series about it. Not another war with the Arabs. Not the nuclear threat from Iran. Not the ongoing bloody confrontation with the Palestinians.
The talk is about the coming civil war.
[....]
The seeds of the civil war were sown when the first settlement was put up in the occupied territories. At the time, I told the prime minister in the Knesset: "You are laying a land mine. Some day you will have to dismantle it. As a former soldier, let me warn you that the dismantling of land mines is a very unpleasant job."
[...]
Many settlers do not yet say so openly and pretend to be insulted when such attitudes are attributed to them, but in fact they are dragged along by the hard core that has already thrown off all the masks. They challenge not only the policy of the government, but Israeli democracy as such. They declare openly that their aim is to overthrow the State of Law and put in its place the State of the Halakha.
A State of Law is subject to the will of the majority, which enacts the laws and amends them as necessary. The State of the Halakha is subject to the Torah, revealed once and for all on Mount Sinai and unchangeable. Only a very small number of eminent rabbis have the authority to interpret the Halakha. That is, of course, the opposite of democracy. In any other country, these people would be called fascists. The religious coloration makes no difference.
The religious-rightist rebels are powerfully motivated. Many of them believe in the Kabbala – not Madonna's fashionable Kabbala, but the real one, which says that today's secular Jews are really Amalekites who succeeded in infiltrating the People of Israel at the time of the exodus from Egypt. God Himself has commanded, as everyone knows, the eradication of Amalek from the face of the earth. Can there be a more perfect ideological basis for civil war?
In preparation for the Great Rebellion, the settlers have unveiled their potential. The most eminent rabbis of the "Religious Zionist movement" have declared that the evacuation of a settlement is a sin against God and have called upon the soldiers to refuse orders. Hundreds of rabbis, including the rabbis of the settlements and the rabbis of the religious units in the army, have joined the call.
The voice of the few opponents is being drowned out. They quote the Talmudic saying "the law of the kingdom is law," meaning that every government has to be obeyed, much as Christians are required to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, etc. But who listens to these "moderate rabbis" now?
The conquest of the army from the inside began long ago. The "arrangement" with the yeshivot (religious schools) that serve in the army as separate units has allowed the entry of a huge Trojan horse. In any confrontation between their rabbis and their army commanders, the soldiers of the "arrangement yeshivot" will obey the rabbis. Worse: for years now, the settlers have systematically penetrated the ranks of the officers' corps, where they now constitute an even more dangerous Trojan horse.
[....]
Altogether, the settlers, together with their close allies in Israel including the yeshivot students, may amount to something like half a million people – a mighty phalanx for rebellion.
Well that's a pretty serious blog post. I don't think I'll have time to add anything else. I didn't really even have time for this, but it is really important stuff to note. Everyone have a great spring break, and hopefully Mordred will offer something to us over that time....
"It's the story of the development of the soul," Miss Portinari was saying at that moment, spreading out the twenty-two trumps or "keys" of that very ancient deck. "We call it a book—the Book of Thoth—and it's the most important book in the world."
George and Joe Malik, each wondering if this was the final explanation or a new put-on leading to a new cycle of deceptions, listened with mingled curiosity and skepticism.
"The order was deliberately reversed," Miss Portinari went on. "Not by the true sages. By the false Illuminati, and by all the other White Brotherhoods and Rosicrucians and Freemasons and whatnot who didn't really understand the truth and therefore wanted to hide the part of it they did understand. They felt themselves threatened; the real sage is never threatened.
"They spoke in symbols and paradoxes, like real sages, but for a different reason. They didn't know what the symbols and paradoxes meant. Instead of following the finger that points to the moon, they sat down and worshipped the finger itself. Instead of following the map, they thought it was the territory and tried to live in it. Instead of reading the menu, they tried to eat it. Dig?
"They had the levels confused. And they tried to confuse any independent searcher by drawing more veils and paradoxes across the path. Finally, in the 1920s, some real left-handed monkey wrenches in one of these mystic lodges recruited Adolph Hitler, and he not only read the book backward, like all of them, but insisted on believing it was the story of the exterior, physical universe."
The Illuminatus Trilogy, p. 715-717
As DeLay's Woes Mount, so Does Money: (NYT)
A legal defense fund established by Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, has dramatically expanded its fund-raising effort in recent months, taking in more than $250,000 since the indictment last fall of two his closest political operatives in Texas, according to Mr. DeLay's latest financial disclosure statements.
The list of recent donors includes dozens of Mr. DeLay's House Republican colleagues, including two lawmakers who were placed on the House ethics committee this year, and several of the nation's largest corporations and their executives.
Among the corporate donors to the defense fund is Bacardi U.S.A., the Florida-based rum maker, which has also been indicted in the Texas investigation, and Reliant Energy, another major contributor to a Texas political action committee formed by Mr. DeLay that is the focus of the criminal inquiry. Groups seeking an overhaul of Congressional ethics rules have long complained that companies might seek the favor of powerful lawmakers by contributing to their legal defense funds.
While the disclosure forms show that the defense fund has raised nearly $1 million since its establishment in 2000 and that Mr. DeLay is continuing to pick up generous donations from House Republicans and corporate executives, the documents also suggest that the majority leader's fund-raising efforts could soon be outpaced by ballooning legal bills.
The disclosure statements show that Mr. DeLay, whose title as majority leader makes him the second most powerful Republican in the House and whose fund-raising tactics led the House ethics committee to admonish him last year, paid $370,000 in legal fees last year - $260,000 of it in the final three months of the year.
The fees were divided among lawyers in Washington and Mr. DeLay's home state of Texas, where he is facing scrutiny by a grand jury in Austin over his role in the creation and management of Texans for a Republican Majority, the political action committee that he helped establish in 2001. The committee has been accused of funneling illegal corporate donations to state Republican candidates in the 2002 elections.
That is the best thing about their gerrymandering scheme in Texas: a tasty idea that took down the leader by his own hubris. Another example of successful long term thinking, like so many others we see and hear about.
"There is no disputing that [timeattackers] are cheating at games to make their videos. This is a fact, and trying to argue against this point is futile and only demonstrates stubbornness and self delusion." -sdkess
Just got back from a screening of student films on campus. All in all quite entertaining, though they should throw that fucking DVD player in the garbage--it snagged on several films. Bassam Jarbawi's "Frequency," a montage of West Bank life with excellent music, and Jesse Mortenson's "Timeattack" were my favorites. By the way here are Jesse's links to the Timeattack websites:
http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/
http://home.comcast.net/~arcthelad/
On Tuesday I am on my way to Florida somewhere around here to get a little sun and spend a few days with the family. This is the first time I've gone somewhere warm with them during the winter in three years, so I just gotta do it. Then, during Macalester's spring break, I will be out in Colorado with some folks for about 6 days. Warm sun and fresh mountain air. A balanced vacation!
I enjoyed this advice from SlackerManager.com about various tactics to get people to go away and stop bothering you.
I have a bunch of various interesting links sitting around and as usual no time to form it together. If I'm going to tie up my loose ends tomorrow and get ready to go, probably won't have time. Or maybe I will...
Hey all,
I have a radio show in twenty minutes. I have a big story in the Mac Weekly today about How to Interview the Minnesota Legislature.
Listen to the radio show online. Special guest today: DJAngryNihilistRoommate and The Bobs! Studio request line 651 696 6312. Hell ya
Straight from the inbox:
Will JFK return to rule the world in the last days? Was the brief reign and tragic death of JFK a part of his divine destiny? Did JFK's death fulfill biblical prophecy? Does historical evidence prove that JFK is the 'end-time' beast of Revelation? Join author Gabriel Cola as he explores all of these questions. He will methodically gather the evidence and prove that JFK is the only possible individual that can fulfill prophecies that were written regarding the end-time reign of the antichrist.
"Unmasking the Beast" is available from Armageddon Books at:
http://www.armageddonbooks.com/262cola.html
The reconstruction process proved brutal but, with the will of the Amish at a roof-raising, we slowly pieced our rat-and-flame-damaged server room back together. Now, back after a brief slumber, HongPong returns, better than ever. Better, you see, because now I am doing this thing for real, having outfitted myself with the Nanoblog 4356(a). With this bad boy here,
I am SET. No more writing html like a schmuck. All I do is click a button, choose from a pulldown menu, find the appropriate section of the html code to enter information in, and do it! It's great! Also, for $4,563.43, can we say STEAL? Haha, I joke, I joke, it's hot- I didn't pay a dime.
Anyway kids, just stopping in to say hi, hope the day finds you well. Keep reading.
Bush orders Syria out of Lebanon
United States President George W. Bush on Wednesday pointedly ordered Syria out of Lebanon, saying the free world is in agreement that Damascus' authority over the political affairs of its neighbor must end now.
He applauded the strong message sent to Syria when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier held a joint news conference in London on Tuesday.
"Both of them stood up and said loud and clear to Syria, 'You get your troops and your secret services out of Lebanon so that good democracy has a chance to flourish," Bush said at a event on his job training programs at a community college in nearby Maryland.
Also Wednesday, Lebanon's opposition demanded the full withdrawal of Syrian military and intelligence services and the resignation of Lebanese Syrian-backed security chiefs.
I am highly suspicious of this stuff about Syria causing the assassination of this Hariri cat, and I fail to see how people can leap to such conclusions so quickly. Either way it is not a surprise that many Lebanese are tired of the Syrians, but then again Syria is perched in a quiet state of war with Israel, recently interrupted by an Israeli bombing of what they called an Islamic Jihad base, and of course the recent accusations that Devious Syrians were instrumental in the recent suicide bombing. And of course the Iraq thing. So where does Syria go? What are they really doing right now? Why is Lebanon any of our god damn business?
I'll note at this point that Hongpong.com has in fact gotten hits from the Paris of the Middle East... I forget what the ISP was called but it was kind of funny.
News links: Here I have a bunch of links mostly from Lebanon's Daily Star. I would like this set to illustrate the fact that Lebanon has quite an excellent degree of press freedom... not infinite but hey it's there.
Two weeks of turmoil summarized by the Daily Star."People power" brings down cabinet. History in the making. A good thing? Let's look at this great Lebanese model or so they say. Fragile Syria must withdraw. Electrified youth hope for new beginning. Saudis demand Syrian withdrawal. Cheers in Beirut (which you have to admit doesn't happen often).
Thoughtful second thoughts on Lebanon from Matt Yglesias. Keep reading Juan Cole, its good for you.
Some people are highly cynical: The Cedar Revolution is hollow by Justin Raimondo:
George W. Bush's journalistic sock-puppets are hailing their own hallucinations: what's sweeping the Middle East is not a wave of capital-"D" Democracy, but a tsunami of nationalistic and religious fervor that can only redound against us.
Lebanon's "Cedar Revolution" is a case in point, one that illustrates the entirely illusory nature of the media hype – which is, unsurprisingly, identical to the U.S. government's official line. The official story is that the long-suffering peoples of Lebanon have had enough, and – drunk with the mere promise of the magical elixir of Democracy – are at last rising up, seizing their liberty, and throwing off their Syrian oppressors. It's a pretty story, albeit a bit simple-minded and hackneyed, but there's just one problem: it isn't true.
The reality is that Lebanon has had democracy for quite some time: or, at least, more so than any other Middle Eastern Arab nation. But instead of being a panacea for the country's problems, this relative excess of democracy has merely exacerbated them. Divided into a bewildering array of ethno-religious and political fiefdoms, Lebanon has managed to survive the foibles of majority rule largely by avoiding centralization and devolving power back to the various clans, parties, and religious groups that constitute, in effect, a collection of mini-states.
[.....]
The sudden and quite unexpected resignation of the pro-Syrian Lebanese government – which would have won any vote of confidence in the parliament – is being portrayed as a necessary concession to a rising populist movement patterned after Ukraine's "orange revolution" – but it seems to me it was a very clever ploy. The so-called "opposition" is united by nothing but a common hatred of Syria and a willingness to act on behalf of foreign interests. Once the government is out, however, and the Syrians withdraw to the Bekaa valley, they will be left to fight among themselves – and who can doubt that the communal grudge matches that have afflicted Lebanon for most of her history will reassert themselves in the absence of a stabilizing force?
So that's a few points on the matter. I really can't say what's what about this whole thing. It reeks of manipulation, and as jolly as it might look on TV, we are set for all kinds of problems to unfold...
also of random interest: sex lies and jeff gannon by justin raimondo...
Well well well, this just sounds delicious. Lebanon's becoming free! The Iranians are... going to do whatever. And Syria is cornered. Gaza's on its way to becoming a cleared territory... Hm. Maybe things will wrap themselves up neatly. But it never goes that way.
The Kurdish areas--Kirkuk, Mosul regions--are not likely to remain stable. The Iranians are still pursuing their nukes and the U.S. and Israeli hawks are croaking at a fever pitch. Lebanon may be without a stabilizing force of any sort, and they could all turn against each other in a little while.
This writeup concerns the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The stuff about Syria and Lebanon I'm putting in another. Here we have a collection of stories mostly from EI and Haaretz, two fairly well respected sources on opposite sides.
The U.S. government now says that there are slightly more Palestinians than Israelis living in the ol' Mandatory Palestine, Making the demographics and the claim to the West Bank all the more absurd.
Meanwhile in Israel it's on the settlers and the right-wing members of the military to make their move. They are locking a land-grab in the West Bank with a new Morally Approved fence route, designed to contain more illegal settlements--and about a quarter-million Palestinians. The airstrikes against Palestinians have not really stopped, and there is some sort of debate in their military complex about whether or not the vast housing demolitions actually accomplish anything (By Zeev Schiff below) It is a positive step for the moment, praised by this Israeli peace org.
This story also is interesting because it ties to the issue of housing construction licenses, an important bureaucratic instrument used to justify demolition and carry out the cleansing of Palestinians, even throughout the 1990s. The nasty land confrontations are still going on and it's really "Unilateral give, unilateral take" (this story from the always interesting electronicintifada.net)
Housing demolitions story by Zeev Schiff:
The family of suicide bomber Abdallah Badran, who killed five Israelis and wounded another 50, need not worry. Two weeks ago, the defense minister approved a decision by the chief of staff to halt the practice of demolishing the homes of suicide terrorists. Even if they capture the person who sent the murderer, according to the new decision, his home will not be destroyed. And if there is a decision in the future to once again demolish homes, B'Tselem will once again demand that Israel pay damages to the family of the suicide bomber.
The current decision was made in the wake of a recommendation by a committee headed by Maj. Gen. Udi Shani that doubted whether house demolitions were a factor in deterring terror. According to that logic, buildings constructed without a license by the occupied population in the territories cannot be destroyed because it won't deter others from building without licenses. There are also family members who live in those buildings who also were not involved in breaking the law. And it could be argued that the thousands of Palestinian detainees, the assassinations and the other steps in the war against terror did not deter others from joining the uprising and committing acts of violence.
The representative of the Shin Bet in the Shani committee opposed the ruling that demolishing the home of a suicide terrorist does not deter at all, and presented proof to back up his argument. When the issue was brought to the forum of the general staff, there was a debate because it was difficult to quantify the intensity of the deterrence.
It turns out that during the discussions, the committee's mandate was broadened to deal with the matter of homes demolished during combat. It distinguished between justified demolition resulting from operational needs, when a force is fighting for its life, and demolition for observation purposes (the practice known as "exposure") or for protecting the border, as in the Philadelphi corridor region. Some parts of the report have not been published.
[.....]
What will happen if terror resumes? The lawyers have the feeling that in any case, there will not be a resumption of the house demolitions only for the purpose of deterrence, a method used by the British on an enormous scale during the Arab Uprising in the Land of Israel. The committee report says that "an extreme change" would return the situation to the status quo ante. They did not define "extreme change."
The Israeli-Palestinian peace political partisan pair Yossi Beilin and Yasser Abed Rabbo write that what's going on now is still land theft, perpetuating the conflict:
A physical barrier constructed without Palestinian consent, inside Palestinian territory, leaves more than a quarter of a million Palestinians involuntarily annexed to "barrier-delineated" Israel. Tens of thousands of settlers remain on the "Palestinian side." The barrier will eventually be dismantled or moved. But for Palestinians, the fabric of daily life is further ruptured.
For Israelis, every revision and extra unnecessary kilometer of barrier takes resources away from desperately needed social budgets, while gaping holes remain in construction, as even the Sharon government hesitates to defy the Israeli Supreme Court, the Hague ruling and the U.S. government.
We are not against a physical as well as a political border, and fences may make for good neighbors. But not when the fence is in the neighbor's garden. It is an agreed border regime that will look after both peoples, the best security guarantee. In the Geneva Initiative, we reached an agreed border - the detailed maps can be viewed at www.geneva-accord.org - based on the 1967 lines with minor mutual modifications, and a land swap that addresses both Israeli and Palestinian needs.
But it is the guiding policy of this decision that is equally troubling. The unilateralism that has characterized the last few years must now become the language of the past. With one hand the Sharon government met the outstretched Palestinian hand at Sharm, but with the other hand it continues to sign unilateral edicts that shape our shared future.
The unilateral policy had two components: one side exclusively defines what happens next and then implements these decisions alone. It seems that regarding implementation, the Israeli government has understood the need for coordination and cooperation. But this is not enough. The process itself, the parameters, the substance, must again be the result of a dialogue - and a dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, not Israelis and Israelis. We must return to comprehensive negotiations.
The Gaza disengagement and unilateral West Bank barrier construction are connected in more ways than the Israeli government vote. Our concern is that this signifies the "morning after Gaza" intentions, namely a continued avoidance of permanent status talks and the creation of more facts on the ground that undermine the very viability of a two-state solution.
The temptation to go slowly, in measured steps, nothing too far-reaching, is perhaps human and understandable. But it is mistaken, and learns nothing from the past decade. The cruel terror attack in Tel Aviv is another example of what extremists can do to sabotage and wreck. It is in the interest of both our peoples to end this conflict - and soon. That is probably why in a recent poll published in Ha'aretz, 64 percent of Israelis and 54 percent of Palestinians supported the detailed content of the Geneva Initiative.
Interim arrangements and the avoidance of defining the endgame solutions are a recipe for encouraging extremists on both sides to torpedo every step along the way. Gradualism places an unbearable burden on any attempt to stabilize the security situation. Not defining the endgame feeds unnecessary fears and unrealistic dreams in both constituencies. In many respects, it may be easier to reach a permanent status agreement than an interim arrangement.
Of course, we both support an end of the occupation in Gaza. But the "morning after Gaza" is just around the corner, and those who wish this conflict to continue, or believe that it is our fate, are already planning their next moves. So it is not too early for the coalition of sanity on both sides to declare that after Gaza, no more unilateralism, no more interim solutions, end the uncertainty, end the conflict.
We find it instructive that in more than a year since the Geneva Initiative launching, no detailed alternative plan has been proposed for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even our critics appear to concede that if, or when, a solution is reached, it will be along the Geneva Initiative lines.
Amira Hass says that there is a sense that old corrupt games might return, that is, the fantasies laid over the Oslo process that ducked the inevitable impact of land theft for settlements might be returning today... the occupation just may lock itself in more tightly inside the West Bank. Amira Hass is really interesting about this, asking what the Palestinian "state" as such really exists for:
The excitement that accompanied the rejection of the original composition of the Palestinian government by the Palestinian Legislative Council last week blurred the fact that there was no debate about the purpose of the new Palestinian government.
There was no challenge to the way the Palestinian governments since 1994 have perceived their function as "governments of the nascent state." It is a concept that has been accepted alongside the belief - once shared by many Israelis - that all it takes is a vaguely worded agreement to create a dynamic that will necessarily lead to a state. In other words, the belief that the liberation of the territory in which that state will exist will take place on its own.
But it is precisely the thesis of Oslo, that the process would inherently lead to a Palestinian state worthy of the name, that collapsed. The Oslo years proved that Israeli governments exploited the period of negotiations to strengthen the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. That construction, which goes on to this very day, undermines the chance to reach a peace agreement based on an independent Palestinian state beside Israel.
In the Oslo years, Yasser Arafat and the bridesmaids of the agreement were eager to behave as if there already was a state and not even one in formation. Arafat loved the title "President of the State of Palestine," and enjoyed nurturing the mechanisms of power and coercion that belong to real states. With a limited budget, he continued paying disgraceful salaries to the employees most vital for a future Palestinian state, particularly health and education professionals. Thus he gave up the necessary conditions for the process of national liberation: creating social solidarity and investment in the human potential of all social classes.
The mechanisms of charity and corrupt racketeering were able to thrive precisely because the PA's leadership gave up any attempt to create a welfare society, meaning a decent distribution of wealth, and in that way win the confidence of the public.
European countries and the U.S. also wanted to see a state in "Palestine." They dumped the dreary duty of treating Israel as an occupying power, which continues to control all the land reserves of the nascent state. Like today, at the London meeting, they invested efforts in monitoring the early failures and corruption of the Palestinian regime. Like today, in London, alongside the sloganeering about two states, they allowed Israel to continue its blatantly corrupt and anti-democratic actions: the theft of the land of the Palestinian people. With their generous contributions to the PA, they regulated and continue to regulate the levels of damage done by the occupation.
[.....]
The Palestinian people is capable of withstanding terrible trials and tribulations: physical, psychological and economic. It can certainly face those trials if they become a means within the context of planned, coordinated and deliberately led strategic action meant to break the rules of the game that faked peace and statehood, rules that were set down in the days of Oslo and are coming back to deceive us now once again.
Haaretz - Israel News - Zionist zealotry is not necessarily religious:
Most of those who object to the disengagement are religious, a fact that distorts the ability to understand their worldview.
Thus, for example, most people tend to assume that religious groups' objection to the pullout derives from their preference of the Torah laws to the laws of the state. Such circles no doubt exist, headed by the rabbis who issue halakhic rulings forbidding the evacuation of settlements in the name of the Torah. Their disciples, the students of the Orthodox-national yeshivas, are also part of these circles.
They should be reminded that the religious establishment has agreed to accept halakhic violations no less severe than evacuating settlements - first and foremost the acceptance of a non-halakhic justice system - in order to maintain and preserve the national homeland.
It is a common misconception that messianic beliefs are by their very nature more extreme than others. Those who have a messianic view of the state, to which they attribute a "redemptionist" religious status, are in fact more likely to uphold moderate positions, because of the very sacredness they attribute to the state.
This explains Rabbi Shlomo Aviner's public stand against disobeying orders to carry out the evacuation, while at the same time advocating that individuals use every means to evade actions that aid the evacuation, as suggested by Rabbi Zvi Tau, the leader of the "messianic line."
In contrast, Rabbi Avraham Shapira, who is not "messianic" but a halakhic man par excellence, rules unequivocally to refuse the evacuation, because the state in itself has no holiness. As far as he is concerned, the evacuation order should be seen as any other order to violate halakha.
However, all this rabbinic argument is restricted to a minority. Most religious people who object to the disengagement, headed by the leaders of Yesha (Council of Settlements in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District), are not motivated by religion. Their readiness to accept the results of a referendum proves this. A religious person would not subject his religious values to a referendum, not even for manipulative purposes.
Why then are they fighting so insistently, with some of them even willing to violate orders and laws?
For one thing, they feel that the decision-making process was not democratic. Another reason is that for segments of religious Zionism, Zionist values themselves, like settlements, have acquired an "Orthodox" status stronger than any halakhic principle.
This reasoning leads to the conclusion that Zionist zealotry could be no less dangerous than religious zealotry. Another conclusion is that religious Zionism, among other groups, should launch a comprehensive public and educational debate about the proper relation between the Land of Israel and the settlements in it, and the State of Israel and Zionism.
According to the original Zionist concept, the settlements are a central means for setting up a sovereign national home. However, if settlement endangers the national home - as in areas where the settlement would endanger a Jewish majority and therefore sovereignty - it must be rejected.
A third conclusion, and perhaps the most urgent, is that most of the objectors to the disengagement share the code of values of its supporters. In other words, the state and democracy take precedence even over the Land of Israel. We may reject their demand for a referendum or even suspect their motives, but it would be wrong to lump them together with those advocating disobedience to orders and brand them as a "menace to democracy."
Moreover, portraying them, in the words of the ironic old Jewish adage, as "robbed Cossacks" might drive them into the arms of the zealots. In a society where murderers and terrorists can demand human rights, there is no place for presenting all the settlers as a sector whose complaints are unworthy of hearing. After all, their main "crime" is pressuring the government and manipulating the authorities. They are no more "robbed Cossacks" than Ariel Sharon, who is suddenly expressing dread of "the danger to democracy."
Meanwhile, this stuff just amazes me. Now there have been Halakhic (Jewish religious law) rulings from some extremists that allow non-Jewish members of the IDF to be shot at during settlement evacuations. In turn, a local sheik has issued a counter-fatwa. So this is how religious warfare is formalized between segments of Israeli society: Haaretz - Fatwa allows Bedouin soldiers to return fire in evacuation:
A Bedouin Sheikh issued Wednesday an Islamic ruling under which Beduoin soldiers who take part in the evacuation of settlements were allowed to protect themselves even at the price of hurting settlers.
The Islamic ruling, or Fatwa, issued by Sheikh Kamel Abu Nadi comes after reports appeared that rabbis had issued a halakhic ruling permitting live fire on Druze and Bedouin soldiers and police officers who take part in evacuating settlements under the disengagement plan.
"Many soldiers and officers have turned to me during the last week asking what they should do in the event that they were fired on during evacuation," Abu Nadi said.
"In reaction I issued a Fatwa that if they can not avoid taking part in the evacuation and were fired on, they should return fire in order to protect themselves," Abu Nadi said.
Bazam Nafez Abulqian, an Israel Defense Forces major in the reserve and chairman of the Bedouin soldier and officer association, turned Wednesday to Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Attorney General Menachem Mazuz in a request to deal severely with right-wing inciters.
"After years where Bedouin soldiers served and protected settlers all over the country, they are suddenly abandoned and people distinguish their blood from blood of Jewish soldiers?" Abulqian asked angrily.
Well, that was crazy... It's been a very rapid month and a half, and now the book is set for the publishers tomorrow. On this last weekend I contributed some fantastic floor maps of the capitol, and all the nice state symbols we know and love... or don't know at all. The official state tree is red pine, and we used a red pine photo from my great-grandparents' farmstead, which is now the Silver Bay Country Club golf course.
The book is over 600 pages long, it was a real tough one to figure out... We had a lot of fun, it didn't go at all like I expected, because I never knew what to expect.
I can't wrench any more words out about this tonight. I am going down to the Artists Quarter to drink and listen to jazz. I think you'd agree that its about time to kick back....
