Monkeyfister

When climbing amid the ruined schools, fuel stations, shops, homes, roads and bridges of southern Lebanon or driving through village after village flattened and pulverized by the terror that rained down, it is clear that the civilian population was deliberately targeted. Over 1 million cluster bombs were dropped, and 40% of them did not explode. They remain in the south, waiting for children to play with them, for farmers to step on them, a gift that keeps on giving. The agricultural fields on which the south depends for its economy are destroyed.

Then as now, Israel knows what it and America continue to deny: Hizballah is the people, and hence the only way to push Hizballah north of the Litani River as Israel stated it wanted to do was to cleanse the south of Shias and make sure it was too dangerous, and economically impossible, for them to return. More

The Dept of Homeland Security bill that was recently passed included legislation that was to begin addressing the problems we saw with FEMA during Katrina.

Just go read what Senators Collins and Lieberman said the bill would do and then prepare yourself. Here are a few of what they considered the most prominent changes that are pertinent to this discussion. The first 2 were considered the most important changes to be made.

--The FEMA administrator would be the chief Presidential advisor for emergency management;
--the administrator... would be required to have emergency management experience;
--Strengthen FEMA’s regional task forces
--Provide additional assistance for individuals and communities that are struck by disaster, including allowing FEMA more flexibility in the types of housing it can provide to disaster victims in order to find more cost-effective alternatives to the widely criticized trailers.

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But what did Bush do on October 4, 2006?

HE attached a signing agreement effectively re-writing the above key sections of the law. This was to maintain increased powers of the executive and your safety be damned. Bush most often cites, though not exclusively, the unitary executive theory under which he "asserts broad authority to use his judgment to interpret and apply the law" in regard to…..

--Higher standards of qualifications and experience for the Head of FEMA [section 503(c)(2)] enacted so ya know we wouldn’t see the likes of another damn head of the Arabian Horse Association again---
FORGET ABOUT IT--that would "limit the qualifications of the pool of persons from whom the President may selectt"

--The head of FEMA is to be the Principal Advisor on emergency management [section 503(c)(4)]
FORGET ABOUT IT--he’ll listen to his higher father I guess

--Head of FEMA reporting to Congress on whether….
1)additional authority is needed to prepare and deploy response strike teams [section 507(f)(6)]
2)additional authority is needed to continue or make permanent the housing pilot program or make recommendations on such [section 689i(a)(4)(B)(iv) and [689j(b)(2)(E)]
FORGET ABOUT IT--no talking to Congress about your authority or better housing than FEMA trailers. Instead the President shall “recommend for congressional consideration such measures as the President shall judge necessary and expedient.”

--Or that the President would “act through” the head of FEMA in regard to a national preparedness goal, [section 643] or developing a national preparedness system [section 644] or establishing emergency response teams.[section 633]
FORGET ABOUT IT--Baby don’t “act through” nobody

So much for compromise, Congress and a more robust FEMA and head of FEMA.

People we are living under a damn Dictator.
Why the hell do we even bother with a Congress?

I believe the case can be made that these young men joining the military, embodying a racial-purity version of military masculinity, are anything except ab-normal. They are hyper-normal.

A norm, after all, is defined as a standard or model or pattern regarded as typical.

We need to first see for how long white supremacy has been considered ab-normal in the United States; then we can see how ab-normal it is right now, and only then begin to focus more tightly on the question of fascism and fascists joining the military.

What is seldom examined in public discourse outside the universities and a handful of anti-racist political formations, is the question of what it means to be “white.” Thinkers from Toni Morrison to Noel Ignatiev to bell hooks to Theodore Allen to Mab Segrest to David Roediger have studied whiteness extensively, in its economic, cultural and political dimensions, and conclude unanimously that there is no “objective” measure for what it means; but that it is a social construction linked absolutely to social power. The insistence on existence of a white race, by racists and non-racists alike, is symptomatic of a form of mystification that conceals the concrete relations of power behind a set of widely accepted abstractions.

White supremacy as a beliefhas evolved out of the practice of people in power, who defined themselves as white as a way of differentiating themselves from those over whom they wielded that power. Some very well-known American presidents who made openly white supremacist pronouncements were Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon. Of course, until the dismantling of Jim Crow in the South, white supremacy was a norm, and before the Civil War, slavery was a norm.

White supremacy was so normal in 1964 that after the defeat of Goldwater, the Republican Party adopted thinly veiled racist appeals to attract white voters who felt betrayed by the reluctant Democratic Party support for civil rights legislation. Openly racist public officials like Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond and Trent Lott, even after their affiliations with white supremacist organizations were publicized, continued to be elected. The Republican appeals to white supremacy were cloaked as opposition to welfare, as “states rights,” and as concern about “crime.” As late as 1999 the Republican-controlled House of Representatives blocked a vote to condemn the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist organization with whom then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott had close ties.

Are the world's major religions truly incompatible? KCRW General Manager Ruth Seymour talks with authors Sam Harris, Andrew Sullivan and Jonathan Kirsch about the philosophy of religion in today's modern world.

My friend, Earl's dad owns a Heating and Cooling company. I've told him all about my American Dream, and, as he gets to see plenty of houses on a daily basis, he said he'd keep his eye out for me. When he pulled up to this property, he said to Earl, "This is exactly what Tony is looking for."

Indeed, it is:

-- Ten acres of good high land.
-- The house is a 1600 SqFt, hand-built Cedar Log house with all hand-milled "real-dimension" hardwood framing, super-insulated, wet plaster walls.
-- New septic, and a deep well.
-- Franklin stove, and brand new central HVAC system that my friends put in.
-- New tin roofs on all the buildings.
-- A huge barn, with a 20'20' small animal paddock for pigs or goats.
-- Chicken coop.
-- 12'x15' greenhouse.(!!!)
-- A second house (~1200 SqFt) about 3/4 of the way finished, with all the materials still there.

As a really snobby and elitist Craftsman, I can attest that this house and property is a Craftsman's DREAM house... EVERYTHING is hand done... REALLY well, and SOLID.

Asking Price: $140,000

In honor of Matt Drudge's claim that the initial IM exchanges between an ex-page and Mark Foley "were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives," an allegation that, while slapped down by the ex-page's attorney, was handled with masturbatory glee by the anxious right wing punditry:

1. You can put a whoopee cushion on the child predator's seat in the House of Representatives. When he sits on it and creates a fart sound, he will still be a child predator.

2. You can pretend to be a lobbyist and shake the child predator's hand with a joy buzzer. When he jumps back from the jolt, he will still be a child predator.

3. You can offer to donate to his campaign and point to a quarter you've glued to the floor. When he struggles to pick up the quarter, he will still be a child predator.

I really don’t want to be up here today.

I want to believe that the people we chose to lead our country are doing it in a way that is responsible, fair, and in the interests of the people who put them in office.

I want to believe that the checks and balances that our fore fathers sacrificed their lives and well being for, that document that has held this country together for so long and has guarded us from tyranny, the Constitution, would be upheld by those leaders and they would treat it with the same devotion that those who wrote it did.

I want to live my life and spend my time with my children and family and friends and go to sleep at night sweetly knowing that I live in America and that this system with all its problems works.

I want to believe that our government cares for the whole, represents the whole and not just a few. I don’t want to be up here today, but I know that I have to be up here I am up here for my children and yours, I am here in service to my country, because this administration that has come into power by seemingly more and more questionable means does not represent the whole, is not devoted to the Constitution and ultimately does not represent the people.

I don’t want to be up here today but I feel I have exhausted the way we have been taught to affect change in the way our government conducts itself. I’m here because we, the people, are not being heard.

I have voted, I have called, I have written letters, I have given of myself with my time and my money and still we have a government that refuses to respect the Constitution, a government that engaged in a war with illegal justification, a government that abandoned it’s own during Hurricane Katrina, a government that now condones torture a government that favors big corporations before it favors my children or yours.

Step down, Mr. Bush, we are not torturers.

Step down Mr. Bush, we are not war profiteers.

Step Down Mr. Bush, we care for our children and our poor.

Step Down Mr. Bush, we uphold our Constitution.

Step Down, we are not Republicans or Democrats or Independents or Socialists or Communists we are not Black or White we are not Red or Blue.

We are Americans and we demand you step down.

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is investigating a possible threat against the north Louisiana teenager who was on the receiving end of suggestive e-mails from disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley, a Louisiana congressman said Tuesday.

Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-Quitman, said Tuesday that the young man's life wasn't threatened, "but close to it."

"There are people out there who feel like he is the one who (accused) Foley," Alexander said. "There are some bloggers out there who sent him some ugly stuff.

"Looks like right now [Hastert] will keep his job for a maximum of one and one-half months," said a top party aide, adding that in the meantime Hastert may fire some staffers. Other aides said it remained unclear how long he would stay.

The newly passed legislation regulating the treatment of terrorism suspects is designed to limit the hundreds of habeas corpus petitions from detainees at Guantanamo Bay that have flooded federal courts, according to John Yoo, a former official of the Bush administration who helped formulate policies for dealing with enemy combatants.

The bill prohibits detainees held by the United States from filing lawsuits challenging their detention, known as habeas corpus pleadings.

A noncitizen who has been declared an enemy combatant has the right to go before a military tribunal for a hearing to challenge the evidence against him, but does not have the right to a lawyer.

"You have representation from an officer, but not necessarily one who's a military lawyer," Yoo explains. The defendant also does not have access to any classified evidence.

"Well, it's not a criminal trial," says Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who served as a deputy assistant attorney general from 2001 to 2003.

"This is part of the way the rules of war have worked for a long time," he says. "The military proceedings to determine if you're an enemy combatant usually don't require as much proof. You know, the point of the war is not to collect evidence and solve crimes. It's to fight and defeat the enemy. So I think this sort of flexible process reflects the demands and the nature of warfare."

"I'm the King Bitch YOO-Daddy in the Hizzle, an' I'm LaYiN' DoWn My OWN DaMN LaWs... n' shizzle."

Williams is a moderate who planned to ask tough questions.

But Hastert never showed.

This evening, National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez published this face-saving post at The Corner:

A top source in the speaker’s office tells me: “We never booked WGN. Am not aware of a call.”

But according to the show’s producer Matt Bubala, who spoke to ThinkProgress tonight, the interview was very much scheduled, and Hastert staffers apparently were not telling the truth about why Hastert bailed on the show.

Bubala said the statement by the anonymous Hastert staffer was a “flat out lie.” He says that Hastert’s deputy press secretary Chris Taylor emailed him midday — before Kirk Fordham’s revelations were made public — requesting an interview with Williams for tonight.

A supply convoy ambushed near Hadithah, about 120 miles northwest of Baghdad.

LINK

American soldiers kill a woman who approached their position northeast of Baghdad. This incident apparently happened after another US position received a grenade attack.

LINK

Three US soldiers are injured in a mine attack in Baghdad.

LINK

Kinda looks like a coordinated attack on Memorial Day, doesn�t it? Maybe these people know us better than we know them. And note the comments of the Iraqi civilian interviewed at the end of the story.

Meanwhile, the �coalition of the willing�[sic] is having second thoughts.
LINK


What did Georgie get us into?

What do you call it when a Hellhole crashes into a Cataclysm.... what? .... a Catastrofuck."

Debut: Bill Moyers examines issues in the news, ranging from political corruption to the future of the Internet. First up: a look at the Jack Abramoff scandal, detailing how the lobbyist rose to power in Washington, D.C.

Generally, the first hit will be a pointer to the WorldCat database. Plug in your postal code, state, province or country, and WorldCat will tell you where the most geographically proximate copies are languishing.

IN the autumn of 68 B.C. the world’s only military superpower was dealt a profound psychological blow by a daring terrorist attack on its very heart. Rome’s port at Ostia was set on fire, the consular war fleet destroyed, and two prominent senators, together with their bodyguards and staff, kidnapped.

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But such was the panic that ensued after Ostia that the people were willing to compromise these rights. The greatest soldier in Rome, the 38-year-old Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (better known to posterity as Pompey the Great) arranged for a lieutenant of his, the tribune Aulus Gabinius, to rise in the Roman Forum and propose an astonishing new law.

“Pompey was to be given not only the supreme naval command but what amounted in fact to an absolute authority and uncontrolled power over everyone,” the Greek historian Plutarch wrote. “There were not many places in the Roman world that were not included within these limits.”

Pompey eventually received almost the entire contents of the Roman Treasury — 144 million sesterces — to pay for his “war on terror,” which included building a fleet of 500 ships and raising an army of 120,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry. Such an accumulation of power was unprecedented, and there was literally a riot in the Senate when the bill was debated.

Nevertheless, at a tumultuous mass meeting in the center of Rome, Pompey’s opponents were cowed into submission, the Lex Gabinia passed (illegally), and he was given his power. In the end, once he put to sea, it took less than three months to sweep the pirates from the entire Mediterranean. Even allowing for Pompey’s genius as a military strategist, the suspicion arises that if the pirates could be defeated so swiftly, they could hardly have been such a grievous threat in the first place.

But it was too late to raise such questions. By the oldest trick in the political book — the whipping up of a panic, in which any dissenting voice could be dismissed as “soft” or even “traitorous” — powers had been ceded by the people that would never be returned. Pompey stayed in the Middle East for six years, establishing puppet regimes throughout the region, and turning himself into the richest man in the empire.

Dear Democratic candidate for Congress,

If your consultants don't take this story and combine it with This One, then add numerous references to this unbelievably outrageous stunt and urge you to flay the Republicans over their dangerous incompetence, their sheer inability to perceive reality, their malicious lies, and their unparalleled moral hypocrisy... If instead, your consultants insist that in the next month you ignore all these genuine gifts...

Eyes on the Prize is an award-winning 14-hour television series produced by Blackside and narrated by Julian Bond. Through contemporary interviews and historical footage, the series covers all of the major events of the civil rights movement from 1954-1985.

Series topics range from the Montgomery bus boycott in 1954 to the Voting Rights Act in 1965; from community power in schools to "Black Power" in the streets; from early acts of individual courage through to the flowering of a mass movement and its eventual split into factions.

When Eyes on the Prize premiered in 1987, The Los Angeles Times called it "an exhaustive documentary that shouldn't be missed." The series went on to win six Emmys and numerous other awards, including an Academy Award nomination, the George Foster Peabody Award, and the top duPont-Columbia award for excellence in broadcast journalism.

Eyes on the Prize was created and executive produced by Henry Hampton (1940-1998), one of the most influential documentary filmmakers in the 20th century. His work chronicled America's great political and social movements and set new standards for broadcast quality. Blackside, the independent film and television company he founded in 1968, completed 60 major films and media projects that amplified the voices of the poor and disenfranchised. His enduring legacy continues to influence the field in the 21st century.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance.

If, as appears highly likely, the "former chief of staff" who tried to cut this deal for Mark Foley is Kirk Fordham, then it means that Tom Reynolds' current Chief of Staff tried to suppress the release of the IMs by ABC and thereby deprive the American public of learning about the extent of Foley's conduct. That is the very definition of "cover-up." And if it wasn't Fordham himself who did the negotiating with ABC, did he know (while advising Foley on the scandal) about the effort made on behalf of Foley to ensure those IMs never saw the light of day? Was Tom Reynolds' current chief of staff actively attempting to suppressing this critical information from being reported or involved in any way in that effort?

[see the link for all the details about the details of the "Chief Of Staff" issue... it's mighty juicy.]

KHARTOUM, Sudan — American journalist Paul Salopek was released Saturday from a prison in the war-torn Darfur region where he was held for more than a month on espionage charges.

A judge in the North Darfur capital of el-Fasher released the Chicago Tribune journalist and his Chadian driver and interpreter after a 13-minute hearing.

After arriving in Khartoum, Salopek, 44, thanked the Sudanese president and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for their help in securing his release, and he said his "treatment was excellent" while in detention.

Statement

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)
On the Resignation of Congressman Mark Foley
September 30, 2006

"In response to the numerous media inquiries we have received, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is issuing the following statement regarding the resignation of Florida Congressman Mark Foley:

News reports regarding interactions over the Internet between former Congressman Mark Foley and Congressional pages are deeply troubling and convey strong suggestions of child sexual exploitation. NCMEC is not privy to the specific facts of the case and thus, it is inappropriate for NCMEC to comment or speculate about them.

Child sexual exploitation via the Internet has become an enormous problem, reaching into every aspect of society. It is imperative that every person become more vigilant and that we enhance steps to keep children safe online.

Congressman Foley has been an effective and dedicated Member of Congress. Nonetheless, if it is determined that he has engaged in acts which have harmed children or put them in jeopardy, like any other person, he must be held accountable. If he has violated the law, he should be prosecuted."