Voting

     I support giving the National Academy of Sciences a mandate to explore valid voting systems (by which I mean Condorcet variants, but lesser people mean to include IRV(San Fran) and STV(Australia)) and return their results to Congress in such a form as to be easily intelligible to the great majority of Congresspeople, at which time Congress will easily see that something like Cloneproof, Smith-Set Condorcet is the best, and adopt it for the Nation.

     In the meantime, I support moves like this one in Virginia, thanks to Rep. Scott.  I dislike the kind proposed in Colorado, principally for being out of touch with the spirit of the Virginia Compromise.

I've Converted

     I'm now one of those "Let the corporations run everything" libertarian motherfuckers... Eli Lilly's Prozac known to cause violence since 1988.  Now, by "known" I mean "known to Eli Lilly."  The scumbags have been keeping it quiet, mildly poisoning the entire society.  A British medical journal actually are the ones who told the US FDA, only fifteen years later.  I am just glad there is no question whatsoever about Ritalin, forcefed to millions upon millions of youngsters.  I mean, if Ritalin's producer knew about any problems, they'd tell us, right?  So what if there are no long term studies!  Corporate research is enough for me.

Israel and Disengagement

     NOTE: I am tired of stale links, so am going to cache many things here.

     Ehud Olmert is the #2 in Israel, the Vice-Premier.  The new Labor-Likud government seems to be going forward, even though Peres had originally wanted to be Vice-Premier in the new government.

     Today's news is weird, though, so it probably is a strategy.  From what I've gathered, historically, Likud is more pro-settlement, and Labor is less so, even if neither party actually does anything to change settlement rates.  So, on the one hand, the top story on Google News (cached here) is about Olmert saying that the disengagement plan is just a precursor to a total withdrawal from the West Bank.  The articles includes loony logic like that from MK (Member of Knesset) Aryeh Eldad of the National-Union (which gets 5.5% of the vote), from the Jerusalem Post article "A proof that there is a plan for more disengagement, he said, is the fact that Israel is planning to cede Gaza down to the last centimeter. 'This means we don't have claims to other territories,' he said."

     Well, what the Jerusalem Post doesn't note is that Sharon's office has no comment on what his #2 is saying!  From the San Francisco Gate

However, Sharon's office did not confirm the plan. "The Prime Minister has not changed his policy and the plan for disengagement. There is nothing beyond that," said Raanan Gissin, an aide to Sharon.
According to the newspaper, Olmert declined to define the extent of the second pullback, but said such a withdrawal was necessary to prevent Israel from being forced to give up all the lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

     In short, the party of the settlements is declaring that disengagement from Gaza is a precursor to disengagement from all Palestinian lands.  Smells worse than fishy to me.  I believe the settlement mentality is irrational.  I believe that a large proportion of settlers are American Jews who believe an imaginary being gave them this land.  The best way to spike the disengagement plan, I see, is to have Olmert suggest its really just the first step in a massive disengagement plan.

Old News on Chechnya

     This exceptional article on Chechnya is, from all places, the Wall St. Journal.  This is the first time I've found the story outside of the subscription only WSJ site... pdf or google cache html

Spies Update

     The Christian Science Monitor has an update on the Israel spying case.  You might recall that a former Office of Special Plans loony, Franklin, was filmed meeting with an Israeli governmental offical and a couple top AIPAC people, then was co-operating (admitting he had handed over some documents), and then was not cooperating (new lawyer).  At the bottom of the CSM peice is information about the new charges, which concern Israeli industrial spying.

     The Saint Petersburg Times has a cute little quote about the National Endowment for Democracy, to wit

They appear to be the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an organization well known to our special services. NED has never hidden its friendly relations with the CIA.

     Got this stuff CI Centre, which has politics I wasn't quite able to divine.  They seem to link only to uncritical peices on the Intel Reorg bill, but I haven't dug enough. 

The Washington Post, Intellectually Honest

     If by intellectual you mean "serving the interests of US policy" and "honest" you mean "Orwellian."

     They WaPo has taken down their version of the story that ran earlier this year entitled "Bush Says CIA Director 's Job Is Secure"  That's Tenet, in case you were wondering.  Just found it missing, blogged it for the heck of it.  If you google news search the title, you will find only tiny outfits still carry it.  I've decided to hook up my own archiving machine, since Google, and Google News, will always be in flux.  Well, this is a Google News Snapshot.

Miscik, Wack

     When?  When did Jami Miscik come forward and be "upfront" about the Iraq war mistakes?  I am one of the people who refuses to believe that an educated person could have looked at the pre-war intelligence and came away thinking anything but "We should probably shoot Chalabi."  I know the President was lying, or told to lie, when he discusses the "unaccounted" for stockpiles.  Even a chemical and biological weapons SCRUB could have told you the stockpiles in question would be worthless sludge by 2002, but I am supposed to believe that this eluded the US intelligence services?  No, all "evidence" of WMD in Iraq came from reports of liars, and Bu$hCo had decided in advance to have the war.

     Now this article from the Indianapolis Times, in a story repeated elsewhere, that Jami Miscik, head of the Analytics department, is retiring, supposedly as part of the "Goss-is-a-partisan-idiot" shakeup.  The article claims

But Miscik also has been praised for owning up to problems in the agency's analysis branch and for pushing for broad changes over the past year to fix problems that plagued the agency in its work on Iraq.

     Remember Tenet's Feb 4th speech at Georgetown?  Search for "Several sensitive reports crossed my desk from two sources characterized by our foreign partners as 'established and reliable.'"  The analysts, all of them, apparently _MISSED_ the fact that on the reports they said they were from people known shitbags.  Further down in the Tenet speech "For example, we recently discovered that relevant analysts in the community missed a notice that identified a source we had cited as providing information that, in some cases was unreliable, and in other cases was fabricated. We have acknowledged this mistake."  I don't know, outside of this speech, where Tenet acknowledged this mistake, making that a very crafty use of the past tense.  But when the hell has Miscik acknowledged anything?

     Look for Miscik to become rich, earning speaking fees from neo-con-friendly mega-corporations.

Simbaud Blog

     Great stuff on religio-nuts.  I'll keep reading.  Links to this article, at Harper's, called "Jesus Plus Nothing."  Do you know Coe?  You should know Coe.  Don't take "The Family" at their word, though, since Foreign Affairs credits Khaddafi with brokering the Congo-Rwanda peace deal, while the Family takes credit for itself, privately.

Good News IS Bad News

     In a story that the mainstream media is pretty much ignoring, some Kurds have gone to the UN in NYC and claimed they have a petition, signed by 1.7 million Kurds, that they want to secede.  Now, based on my ideas concerning justice, I will not be unpleased if the Kurds secede.  The Kurdish and Quechua states are most demanded, based on my theory.  Cons: Based on what I know about the number of people the Pentagon (historically) has been willing to kill to stop political movements they dislike.  Thanks to Unfair Witness blog.

Shoot the Messenger!

     All the top rightwing blogs, whose names definitely don't deserve mention, are all over the AP incident reported below.  AP is their new Dan Rather.  Things to note

• The photographer was an Iraqi.  Lots of dumbkopfs are asking "Why was he there?" and the answer is because America is too expensive on Iraqi AP stringer pay.
  • As a corollary, the Iraqi in question has been living in a war zone for the last year and two thirds, is it entirely surprising that, to get a photo, he might not run for cover?
• Other nimcompoops are asking "How could this possibly have been anything but pre-arranged?  The answer is that there are lot of photographers in Iraq, and, sadly, roughly 98,000 +/- 37,000 _extra_ dead Iraqis.  That one assasination is captured can hardly seem a radical notion.
• If you were in charge of AP, and this picture came into your hands, would you run it?  I hope you would do some inquiry as to its source.

     What I see, among our less enlightened brethren on the "right," is simply a really awful need to explain away all the bad news coming from Iraq.  Rather than blame their leaders, or their war planners, or the nature of the premeditated Iraq War, they choose to blame the messenger.

Reading Right-Wing Blogs?

     Of course, one must, if only to help understand the depth of their stupidity.  I haven't been doing it lately, but found this, from Salon, which debunks their latest conspiracy theory.

Thanks to Trevor Blake

     A regular poster over at American Samizdat, Trevor links to this article by John Gorenfeld, a man dedicated to keeping us up to date on the new moves of the Loony Moon.

     Stuff like this...

In Moon's teachings, God himself is shedding tears over mankind's obsession with the cross, which prevents us from recognizing the real "returning lord": Moon himself.

would be laughable, if Moon wasn't a great friend of Reagan/Bush/Bush, a billionaire, and a killer.

Regime Hosts Even More Terrorists

     A specific New World regime, already harboring terrorists, and less than 80 miles from Cuba, has decided to host even more terrorists.  Remain Calm blog has no choice but to ask "When Will Bush Invade Florida and put his brother on trial?"  In addition to the great and mighty slaughterer, Orlando Bosch, a free man in southern Florida, the Bush Junta of Florida recently has welcomed more terrorists to its shores...

the US government permitted indicted terrorists Guillermo Novo, Gaspar Jimenez and Pedro Remon to dance smilingly into Miami's international airport after Panama's outgoing President pardoned them ­ apparently as the result of bribes. Each of the three participated in assassinations and other terrorist activities.

Was I Dreaming?

     Top Pentagon spokesperson announces that each military commander in the field who has lied to the press will give a press conference including a formal retraction at the end of the US involvement with Iraq.  Yeah, I was dreaming.  The lies will keep coming.

News to feel good about

     Remember Uruguay?  They had elections a few months ago and a leftist party won a majority for the first time in 124 years.  Vasquez will be sworn in March 1, 2005.

     Those rascally leftists are at it again.  Now, in Bolivia, duped by clever Soviet propaganda, another nation have falled into the fold of the Communist Menace.  Doing the bidding of their Kremlin-controllers, the Bolivians are going ahead with plans to nationalize their natural gas.

     Cheery seasons wishes to the summering folk on the other side of the Equator.  Remain Calm blog believes in a certain amount of nationalization.  Especially when it comes to extractive industries.  Of course, this just makes it harder on the people, since they must be even more wary of greedy types trying to get elected. 

The Next Time

     The next time you hear the term Islamofascists, correct the person with "Don't you mean Islamic Theocrat?"

     I sleep well.  I hope they don't.

Sorry

     Shredding Ledeen's article took too much time.  I tend to do that type of thing paragraph by paragraph, and with Ledeen, one is sure to find lies and misdrection in almost every sentence.

     Meanwhile, weird things are going on with regards to the Iraqi elections.  The US is pushing to have Sunni votes counted extra, in case they are underrepresented.  Iraqis seem to want none of it.

War Stories

     Emphasis on "stories."  While the commanders in/near Mosul are confused, attributing the attack to possibly someone in the Iraqi Security Forces (US General), not someone in the Iraqi National Guard (Iraqi General), to Ansar al-Sunna, the drum-beaters on Syria are pumping overtime.

     Al-Jazeera is working with a Jerusalem Post article suggesting that incursions into Syria are in the planning phase.  Stupid fascist, anti-arab-bigot Michael Ledeen has an article which I hope to shred above, here.

     YankeeDoodle has a link to this peice, which asserts that the Soviets were really only minutes away from winning in Afghanistan, until they pulled out.  The author of this going-to-be-bandied-about-on-the-right peice is debunked by YD, because the author asserts "Kabul's staunchly pro-Soviet regime led by President Najibullah remained in power for the next three years. The regime's durability represented a notable success for the Soviet war effort" while YD notes "Until the Kabul fell to the Taliban, Najibullah’s regime controlled a steadily shrinking perimeter of Afghan territory until only Kabul remained in government hands. The rest of the country was controlled by insurgents, Taliban forces or murderous warlords."

Tidbits, WARNING style

• New Forest Anarchy, signed by Bush this week.  <mock>Couldn't really call them "Rules," could I?</mock>
• Governor Rowland of Conntecticutt pleads guilty.  <mock>FOX News to run story on how this vindicates Rowland, and Republicans in general</mock>
• President Stupid's debate Pell Grant lies are made more obvious.
• Official Army Historian of the Iraq campaign says top Army commanders evinced "stunted learning and a reluctance to adapt".  This is too sad to mock.  Smart people are the ones who should be in charge of the big guns, not those who are simply loyal.
• Nature takes a dump on Texas.  <mock>Locals delighted God has blessed them with snow for Jesus's birthday, just like they have in Bethlehem (Beit Lahm).</mock>
• California conservative group ends legal arguments by saying gays "inherently unfit" to be married.  <mock>When asked for proof, they said it was "intuitively obvious."</mock>

     Looking at the news, I'd say the thing the Bush administration was trying to get away with was the new logging rules.  Rowland's admission of guilt is far too personal, but the RNC probably didn't discourage him from declaring his guilt today.  I wonder if the Army Historian thought this was a present?  Again, great timing for Bu$hCo.

i try

     I try not to be to topical.  There are posts here that should be understandable, and even relevant, 100s or 1000s of years from now.

---

     My seasonal story...

     My final step into atheism was when I had a vision. A complete hallucination. I met aliens. In the vision, I asked them if everyone on Earth could meet the three of them, who had been assigned to manage Earth for some militarily-organized alien group. My reply was "For how long?" And I didn't know, so I said "An hour, two?" and as the vision ended I "heard" "You/He doesn't know what you/he is asking for."

     And then I was back in my apartment, still knowing that aliens don't control the world, but understanding how such a big myth like god got started.

     So I went and tried to destroy the Judeo-Christian-Islamic monotheistic religions by pulling the rug out from under Judaism, by discovering the treasure of the Copper Scroll.

     In case you hadn't noticed, Islam, Christianity and Judaism are still with us. I failed.

     Although I did have a very strange encounter with Randall Price which made some of it worth it. But I learned that, among the Dead Sea Scroll scholar community a likely story has emerged, a rumor, if you will.

     "El" was a person, who had 70 sons, a.k.a. "Elohim."

     Names of "god" in the Tanakh(Old Testament), ranked in order of number of appearances: Yahweh, Elohim, El, Eloah, Elah

     All because I wanted to stop theism from interfering in US elections.  Becoming confused for the Anti-Christ seems to me to be the only way.  The Christians aren't going to pay much attention to anyone outside their community.  They will never accept any logical, rational or reasoned explanation that says "Your whole myth-set is a fraud."  If logic defies them, they say God is beyond logic.  If the archaeology denies them, they assert sole legitimacy in interpreting the relevant data.

Thanks to Manic Net Preacher and Left I

     Left I quoted an AFP peice which Manic Net Preacher connects with another quote for this sad proof that the US is engaging in war crimes in Iraq.

"The military says keeping men aged 15 to 55 from leaving [Fallujah] is key to the mission's success."

"The US-backed government put rebel losses at more than 2,000, although unit commanders later revealed their troops had orders to shoot all males of fighting age seen on the streets [of Fallujah], armed or unarmed, and ruined homes across the city attest to a strategy of overwhelming force."

     So, all men aged 15-55 were unable to leave Fallujah, and all men aged 15-55 were ordered to be shot on sight.  The US runs slaughterhouses!  U-S-A!  U-S-A!

Thanks to Under the Same Sun

     Blogged here

Speaker	Date	Quote
Trent Lott	March 27, 2003	I ask Mississippians of all faiths to pray for all our coalition forces and the Iraqi people as they engage in an intense but noble battle against what is nothing but sheer evil.
Trent Lott	April 15, 2003	We went in there to free those people.
Trent Lott	October 28, 2003	If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens.

     I will happily engage in a very, private, dark alley discussion with Senator Lott, concerning this matter, at his earliest convenience.  Fuck the Dixiecrats!!!

Stenographers

     Lately, I've heard the term "stenographers" from Robert Kennedy, Jr and Bill Moyers, in regard to the people covering the White House.  This message comes from many quarters.

     Chomsky, iirc, asserts that the press has three responsibilities, when it comes to covering the White House.  Their first responsibility is akin to stenography.  They must tell us what has been said.  Then they are supposed to go on and fact check what they say, and lastly, later, make sure what has been said has been done.

A Gentle Hand

     Pardon in advance for the actual people who are referenced in this post, no identities are going to be revealed.

     I met a conservative, online, last night.  In the channel, someone else mentioned a foreign gov't's own audit of their Armed Forces.  I quickly mentioned how the Pentagon is happy when its self-audit is only USD 1,000,000,000,000.00 (1 trillion) dollars off.

     Then I brought up an old analogy of mine.  Namely, what if Aliens came to Earth and told all the governments that they need to disarm, or they will be (individually) destroyed.

     With almost no hesitation, Mr. Conservative said he'd refuse to disarm.  I said that the Aliens wouldn't even bother landing if we didn't.  He said he didn't want to be enslaved.  I argued that they'd promised nothing would happen if we went along.  He said we had no reason to believe them, and we ought to fight to the death.  I tried to explain that they could launch their weapons from space, and so we'd never even really have a chance to fight back.  That, if the infrastructure were intact, it would be easier to re-arm, if the Aliens went back on their word.

     This same person believed 1)Saddam had prevented the inspectors from inspecting Iraq 2)didn't know about the Duelfer Report, nor its conclusions 3)alleged Saddam had been "becoming hostile" before the war, and, repeatedly, 4)that any reasonable person would have concluded Saddam had WMD.

     Saddam's loyal forces might have been reading this conservative's mind.  The right-wing is fighting its own kind, over in Iraq.

William Safire Exposes an Agenda

     William Safire, it had been said at one point during the Clinton administration, "uncovered 19 of the last 5 scandals in Washington."

     Here, at the International Herald Tribune, the worldwide publishing mouthpeice for the New York Times, Safire asks

First, will Iraq stay whole and its people stay free?

     It doesn't take a rocket scientist to note that a US military occupation doesn't qualify as freedom, that the local (effectively puppet) government declaring Martial Law (from a week after the US elections until after their own) doesn't count as freedom, and that being forced to wear a badge that lets you walk on some roads doesn't for a cotton picking second count as freedom, despite William Safire's crack-addicted addlings and prattling... but here at Remain Calm blog, we find it necessary to point out instances of the rest of Safire's lame query "will Iraq stay whole?"

     Why does Safire care if Iraq stays whole?  What's in it for him?  Who put Iraq together, in the first place?  Here are a few links.  In 1900, the region known as Iraq today was divided into the Vilayets of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra of the Ottoman Empire, while the southwest (almost all desert) regions were in the Anzah district of the Ottoman-influenced Emirate of Jebel Shammar.  Then, during meetings between the victors of the War to End All Wars later renamed WWI, Britain and France divided up the Ottoman Empire, and drew nice straight lines[1].  I guess many people don't realize that the Ottoman were Turkic, rather than Arabic, but that's besides the point.

     After bestowing their best wishes on the new Iraq (Britian hung 9,000 Kurdish rebels, used chemical weapons on the Kurds, bombed whole villages into nothing, operated the country as a military outpost for more than a decade), Iraq spent a few years as a relatively independent Monarchy. Later, Iraq decided to stay neutral, and not work for the British, during WWII (Imagine that!).  The Brits were offended, and so invaded again.

     Now, why does William Safire need these borders?

[1] See especially the border between Iraq and Syria, Iraq and Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait, Kuwait and Saudia Arabia.

Bush's Corporatist Lies

     I don't consider myself to be anti-immigration.  However, I don't believe in an unregulated border.

     Bush, the enfant terrible of US politics, claims that he has no real interest in stopping "good-hearted" immigrants who want to come to this country to do jobs that Americans "will not do."  He repeated this claim, that Americans "will not do" jobs, over and over.  Let's examine this idiotic claim.

     Would you pick vegetables on a farm for four hundred thousand dollars per year?  Unless you couldn't move to the farm for some legal or personal reason, I suspect you would.  I certainly would.  Now, as long as the job isn't fatal or really debilitating, I'd do it for that kind of money.  Bush's corporatist lie that Americans won't do certain jobs has a reality, namely, that Americans won't do those jobs at the tiny wages that seem large to immigrants.  Similarly, if illegal immigration wasn't so easy, farms and other places would have to pay more, so Americans would do those jobs.

     Bush should never be ashamed of his proud Corporate Stoogehood.

Self-Negotiation

     Bush had (lengthy for him) wretched press conference today.  It was so filled with deception that I am feeling ill for having listened to so much of it.  I will cover it later, but I wanted to make a note on something that appears in the last post, namely, the art of self-negotiation.  Bush now claims that his meaning, when he said "The great desire of people in Congress is for me to negotiate with myself" was, in fact, that they wanted him to talk about his feelings, so they'd know.  Showing his mind, so that people with different views would know how to counter-negotiate.  Bush, Most Secretive President, believes negotiation should take place when you know exactly what he wants to tell you.

I Fill in the Blanks

     I have filled in the blanks, in red where the President or the Prime Minister left out something.  Best parts include the President discussing debating himself, a new, classic Bushism. 

PRESIDENT BUSH:  There will be two opening statements, and then we'll take two questions per side.  Thank you for coming and participating in this sham.

Silvio, it's great to welcome you back to our country.  I think it's fitting that one of the first world leaders to have visited after our elections is my friend, Silvio Berlusconi who changes the law to prevent his own prosecution, owns the Italian media (cutting out the middle man) and aligns with the neo-fascii for things like tax reform.  He is a close personal friend who has declared that Mussolini was a "benevolent dictator" and that Mussolini sent the Jews "on holiday".  He is a friend of the United States of America , by which I mean, me.  I told the Prime Minister I look forward to working with him over the next four years to make the world a better place for all.  And I've got work to do in Europe because I am the Leader of the World, which includes parts of Europe, and he gave me some very good advice about my upcoming trip.  He said "If I were you, I'd stay home.".  But he always gives me good advice.  And I'm proud to have his advice I'm proudest when people tell me what to do, because I don't have to do it, I'm the Puh-resident.
We talked about peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.  I think there's a very good chance that we can achieve that peace.  I look forward to working toward that end.  The Prime Minister had good advice on that subject, as well. He said "Giorgio, what you smoke?  Stop, for me, for the sake of the children, please stop."
He expressed his concerns about the relationship between the dollar and the euro.  I told him we're going to take this issue on seriously with the Congress, although usually, it's all chuckles and yum-yums when Congress and I get together.  The best thing that we can do from the executive branch of government in America, as opposed to the other Executive Branches I am in charge of, is to work with Congress to deal with our deficits which I have so woefully mismanaged.  One deficit is a short-term budget deficit.  Another deficit is the unfunded liabilities that come with Social Security and some of the health programs for the elderly.  There is neither an Iraq nor Afghanistan deficit.  There is no Military-Industrial-Complex.  I told the Prime Minister that Social Security reform will be at the top of my agenda because he asked about not weakening the dollar anymore, so I told him about how I plan to run up new, massive deficits, to weaken the dollar.  I campaigned on the issue I must have mentioned it, didn't I?.  I look forward to working with members of Congress to resolve this long-term, unfunded issue as compared to the Pentagon, which is self-funding, so that the world financiers can take comfort ah, world financiers taking comfort!  Let's dwell on who is taking comfort (world financiers), and from what (screwing the poor)for a moment more, I feel better already, in the fact that this government will address one part of the budget deficit.  There's a trade deficit.  That's easy to resolve; people can buy more United States products if they're worried about the trade deficit.  I have been told not to mention the trade deficit and the weak dollar in the same sentence, but I did it.
But , there is that but again we've had a good visit.  And I'm proud my friend is here.  When my friends visit, I become proud as a peacock.  See what great friends I have?  I've gotten one whole leader, in the last six weeks, to come visit.  When was the last time anyone came to your house?
And finally, we discussed our mutual desire to spread freedom and peace.  We spread freedom and peace with guns and bombs, the age-old spreading knife of peace and freedom.  I want to thank the Prime Ministerand Foreign Minister for his understanding about the need for the free world to succeed in Afghanistan and Iraq because most people just don't get it.  He's the kind of man, when he gives you his word, he keeps his word, which is the sign of an impressive, strong leader.
So thank you for coming.

PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: Thank you, Mr. President, for your kind words.  Thank you for the friendship you showed to me, to my government, and my country.
And my behavior and the behavior of my government is based on the fact that we share the same values namely, protecting the powerful from the laws, enshrining the selfish in the halls of power, you get the idea.  We appreciate strongly the fact that America has taken on the responsibility of defending and spreading peace and democracy all over the world and I thank God, every day, that Bush doesn't know Italy has a Marxist Party.  And we appreciate the fact the United States do that with sacrifices and a lot of suffering at least among the poor.  So we fully share the work carried out by the American administration.  And the political agenda, the program which has been announced for the next four years the four-year plan, is something we fully agree on.  The President hasn't actually said with the Social Security reform will be like, but I agree with it.
We share the same opinion as to the need of reforming the United Nations in order to make it an institution which will be able to tackle the problems affecting this century these last four, terrible years, and the multilateralism which has to take into account results to be achieved, and complete facts.  We agree on the fact that we have to continue to fight the war on terror together.  And we agreed on the fact that it is now the appropriate time to solve the Middle East issue.
And in particular, I agree on the way in which we keep on and carry on our relationship , namely, secret meeting with limiteed press interaction.  It's a very frank, direct, straightforward and spontaneous way, full of truth.  (Laughter.) And I think this was the deepest reason why President Bush succeeded so much, especially, with the Americans as compared to, say, the Israelis.  It is not politics.  There is no politics which makes people say things which people do not believe in or think that, my friends, is only acting, pure and simple.  President Bush tells me and all of the others always what's in his mind , nothing.  And it is very positive that "yes" means really "yes" to him, and "no" means "no." And I want to reassure President Bush that we'll do any possible accord to strengthen the relationship between the United States of America and Europe.  Because I agree with him, the West is only one.  Everyone else can eat cake.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Welcome.  Anybody representing AP here?  Oh, you are.
Q Iraq's Defense Minister says that Iran and Syrian intelligence agents are supporting al Zarqawi and that Iran is trying to sway the January 30 elections.  Do you believe these charges are accurate, sir?  And is there anything the United States can do besides simply telling Iran and Syria to refrain?  In other words, I am going to echo to you the words of your puppet, to see if you can't repeat it more forcefully, and to pave the way for any future warplans against either other country.  You, Mr. President, are impeccable in these matters.  What?  I have something on my nose?

PRESIDENT BUSH: We have made it very clear to the countries in the neighborhood, including the two you mentioned, that we expect there to be help in establishing a society in which people are able to elect their leaders; and that we expect people to work with the Iraqi interim government to enforce border, to stop the flow of people and money that aim to help these terrorists.  We made that very clear.  And we'll continue to make it clear.  We, in fact, have a perfect record in that regard, so there is no chance they will take us for hypocrites.
We have made it clear that, for the good of the area, that there ought to be a peaceful country where the different religions can come together under the TAL which has been passed by an unelected, US appointed body, signed into "law" by Bremer, the go-by for what a new constitution should look like because all constitutions should have a go-by.  And we will continue to make it clear to both Syria and Iran that -- as will other nations in our coalition, including our friend, the Italians, that meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq is not in their interest.
You want to call on somebody from the Italian press?
President Bush's remarks translated into Italian.

THE PRESIDENT: I'll be more polite to the translator from now on.  I pretended I understood, and everyone laughed! Want to call on somebody from the --
Q You said you've discussed the euro-dollar ratio, and, therefore, you discussed your relations between the two economic blocs.  Can you say something more in detail about what you talked about, and if there is, in the future, the possibility of a better balance between the euro and the dollar in terms of the exchange rate?

PRESIDENT BUSH: The policy of my government is a strong dollar policy.

ITALIAN TRANSLATOR: I'm sorry, I didn't hear -- (laughter.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: She might not agree with it.  (Laughter.) We believe that the markets should make the decision about the relationship between the dollar and the euro.  Therefore, to the extent that the federal government is involved with strengthening -- making the conditions such that a strong dollar will emerge, we'll do everything we can in the upcoming legislative session to send a signal to the markets that we'll deal with our deficit, which, hopefully, will cause people to want to buy dollars.  Most importantly is the upcoming multi-hundred billion dollar prescription drug plan, which I pushed, and then signed into law, not understanding it.  Also important in this regard is the multi-trillion transformation cost of the Social Security reform which I also don't understand.  The wars will also help keep deficits down.  I am always, if nothing else, a simple, honest man (Laughter.).
Independently, the Federal Reserve, under the leadership of Alan Greenspan, raised the interest rates yet again, a signal to the world markets that the Chairman is also aware of the relative currency valuations between the euro and the dollar.  I'm not that generous yet.
We love April, but there's a limited number of questions.  Soon we will be moving to the no-question rule, methinks.

Holland.

Q Sir, you're going to this conference today.  Some Democrats call the private accounts in Social Security a risky scheme.  What happens if people lose money on their investments?  Does the government bail them out?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Look, Steve, this is the issue about addressing the long-term liability issue.  This is a Social Security issue.  This is a risky issue.  Like many nations in Europe, there's an issue with Social Security systems.  Baby boomers are getting ready to retire and there's not enough workers to sustain that which -- that which has been promised.  So the fundamental question I placed before the Congress is, we have a problem, let's work together to deal with it.  I know that isn't really actually a question, but what, is this, Jeopardy?
I believe there's a consensus beginning to grow that members of both political parties understand now is the time to address this problem, and what I believe, goes.  I believe one way to help make sure the system meets the needs of a younger generation is to allow younger workers to take some of their own taxes and invest in a personal savings account -- under certain conditions.  The people in our country have heard this notion, so-called "risky scheme" adjectives in the 2000 campaign and the 2004 campaign.  I took the message to them.  They realize, like I realize, now is the time to deal with the problem.  And I look forward to working with both members -- members of both parties to solve this problem.  Heh, I almost said both members of Congress, Tom DeLay and Bill Frist.
But let me just give you one -- this is a chance now to kind of start laying the groundwork for future questions.  The great desire for people in Congress is for me to negotiate with myself.  You notice I said the great desire for members of Congress, not members of the press so enough with the questions already!.  And therefore, I will continue to articulate principles that I think are important and reach out to members of both parties to fashion a plan that solves the problem.

PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: The problem of Social Security is common to all of the Western world.  And this is, luckily, due to the fact that we live longer because of the better standard of living and because of the discoveries made by medicine.  In Europe, all governments are dealing with reforming Social Security systems, but one thing is for sure, that it needs to be done.  That is, we have to extend the working life of the people.  Bush has talked a lot about increasing the commodity value of humans, in general.
I'm one of the strongest believers in that, because at my age, I'm convinced that one -- at my age you can keep on working pretty well.  (Laughter.) And you can tap on the experience you kind of piled up over your working life.  I work in coal mine on my off days.

PRESIDENT BUSH: You look like a baby boomer. (Laughter.)

PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: I thank you very much.  It's medicine, as well.  So -- credit medicine. (Laughter.) Medicine that is more expensive in America than Italy, I have noticed, but I am a billionaire!

PRESIDENT BUSH: Final question.  Do you want to call on somebody?

PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: I want to say something -- we have already reformed our Social Security system in Italy.  And this is one of the 24 reforms through which we are modernizing our country.  And I've just said to President Bush that at the end of its term, my government will have completed many more reforms than all of the previous governments in the Italian republic.  Most of which lasted about a year.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Very good.  Go to the head of the class.

A final question from the Italian press?

Q Did you debate the possibility that the President of the United States will soon fly on Italian helicopters?  (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, no chance on Earth.  I appreciate that --

PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: -- Italian helicopters almost completely made, manufactured in the United States.

PRESIDENT BUSH: With U.S. parts.  I've got the message, yes but now it is starting to get irritating. Laughter.

PRIME MINISTER BERLUSCONI: I can only say that I've been flying these helicopters for 30 years, and I'm still here.

PRESIDENT BUSH: And you never crashed.  (Laughter.) That's a good start.  (Laughter.)Thirty more years and we'll talk.
The Prime Minister brought up the issue.  I'm very familiar with it.  As I just said, I've got the message already!  As you know, we delayed a decision until after this meeting, I mean later on in the spring.  I'm very aware of the joint venture.  I understand the nature of U.S. jobs that will be created in this venture, and I assured him the venture will be treated fairly.  Like I treated Saddam.
Thank you for coming.  Happy holidays.  Happy Hanukkah.  Because, as you all know, Hannukah isn't a holiday.
END 12:17 P.M. EST

Connect the Dollar Bills

     Rep Matsui of California, no dumb Bush, said that the problems with Social Security today aren't as dire as they were in 1983.

     So, massive tax cuts for the rich in 1981 caused the long-term outlook for Social Security to get so bad that the Republicans had to come up with a fix then, and no, after four years of massive tax cuts, also geared for the richest of the rich, we have another long term problem with Social Security.  I dunno, I can't connect the racketeering dots!

Til Christmas

     It pains me to say this, but I'll be busy until Christmas.  The criminal part of it all is that, at least in normal years, this is exactly when the worst news will hit.

     There is a lot going on right now, and the mostly US blog scene is in a post-election slump.  Meanwhile, crazy shit happens apace around the world.  With my head responding to what's keeping me busy til Christmas, I can't even begin to try to list what is most important.  Ciao for now, brown cows.

Clint Curtis Update

     As I noted before, Clint Curtis wrote this affadavit alleging that Rep. Feeney (R-FL,asshole), asked him to write vote-rigging software.  Curtis has his own website dealing with some of the particulars.

     That website happens to include a link to example software he wrote, which, as I commented in this followup AmSam thread, was insufficient to do what it purported to do.

     Today I received this e-mail from Mr. Curtis

Don't know why the code didn't zip correctly. Have attached a new zip and ftped to the site. Clint

     This batch of files, which simply adds one file to the old mix, does seem to do the trick.  I am going to compile it later, to see if it works, but that can't happen on this machine.

Tool Reuters

     Is Reuter's always bad?  Of course not.  But when the administration wants a WAR, Reuters in the habit of delivering.  Would US Nuclear Power facilities allow themselves to be called Nukes?  To the best of anyone's actualy knowledge, there are no nuclear weapons programs in Iran.  And yet, Reuter's does its murderous duty with the headline... Iran Nuke Talks Launched.  The article itseld does nothing to dismiss the seemingly completely worthless accuasations launched at the Iranians.

Moral Values And Fox

     In case there was any doubt about their moral superiority.

More God Per Hour Than Operation Blitzkrieg Freedom

     Ivory Coast on your radar?  Sure, some french troops were shot at (9 or so) which justified a lot more military action, which has the right foaming at the mouth about French NeoColonialism.  That "Other View" from the Chicago Sun-Times says the French illegally attacked the Ivory Coast with UN permission.  See below for more on that clown.  Anyway, the French bombed some airplanes, the Conservatives were up in arms about UN hypocrisy, and what do the French say?  The French Canard Enchaine has this, which I can't directly link to, so I will quote in full from Miquelon.org's Duck Files

This week's Canard has a short item about the close relationship between Ivory Coast's leader Laurent Gbagbo and their religious guru Moïse Koré and the state of Israël. Gbagbo and his wife Simone are devout members of the American Protestant Church, the Four Square Gospel, and believe strongly that the jewish people will convert to christianity at the second coming of Christ.

This close tie to their religious leader might explain for example why Israeli agents were spotted in Anti-French demonstrations in Abidjan and why Israeli Drones were spotted in the skies before military attacks against Northern Rebel forces. The Gbagbo's guru, Moïse, often travels to the United-States and Israël and has provided them an opportunity to initiate a new cooperation that has the raised the ire of the French Government who's troops are trying to maintain peace between Rebel Forces and the Gbagbo Government.

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NOTE on Jeremy Levitt.

     I knew a little digging would show this guy for a partisan hack.  From MarriedDebate blog

Jeremy Levitt, a professor of law at DePaul University, said the shift by older African Americans could be a response to what is "arguably a failure of the Democratic Party agenda to uplift the African-American community."
"These are also individuals who actively participated in the civil rights movement and tend to have a higher level of patriotism than the 19- to 25-year-olds. But these stats are interesting because blacks were in the Republican Party until the 1940s. This 51-64 category grew up in households where their parents were members of the Republican Party," he said.
"Blacks are conservative. So when you look at the same-sex marriage, death penalty, school choice, prayer in school and the list goes on, you'll find we subscribe to a conservative doctrine. The only reason why we don't have 20 percent and above figure for blacks in the Republican Party is because the Republican Party has not been able to wash away the perceived stain of white supremacy."

  No real stain, move along, nothing to see here. 

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NOTE: The title of this post refers to the new Operation Lightning Freedom in Iraq.  Lightning was what the Nazis called their attacks.  I know, I'm stretching it a bit.  Operation Positronic Freedom?  Operation Neutrino Release?

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UPDATE:  It is possible that the French allegations of Israeli involvement at the military level were pure fabrication.  Israel had been selling arms to the Ivoirians, and promised to stop immediately, and swore they had nothing to do with it.

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UPDATE: Jeremy Levitt's eye on Africa is not at all partisan, even if his politics at home are stupid as shit.  See this intelligent peice called "Conflict Prevention Management, and Resolution: Africa -- Regional Strategies for the Prevention of Displacement and Protection of Displaced Persons: The Cases of the OAU, ECOWAS, SADC, and IGAD".  ECOWOG is the military arm of ECOWAS.  Human Rights Watch has said nice things about them.  However, the article might be not-so-good, as I found this dubious line "A successful rebel movement is responsible for illegal acts committed by its forces during the conflict and assumes responsibility for the wrongful acts of the State" and cites the US Claims Tribunal against Iran as proof, which also happens to appear to be heavily laden with "takings" theory.  Sorry, this got a little long.  Levitt is anti-UN, but at least partially reasonable in his critique.

Bodman, Energy Secretary Nominee

     I've found more than a dozen websites which list this guy as a Neo-Con, Christian Zionist in the White House.  Not one supplies a decent quote.  I just read and skimmed this committee testimony he gave, and although it's definitely pro-Bushista in flavor, well, I'm left thinking he's never said anything quotable.  Of course, the guy has practically no experience with the Energy Department at all, but as long as he is a good Christo-Fascist, that's good enough for me!

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UPDATE:

     Take a look at Patriot Bodman's priorities!  This is a list(pdf (google html), dated May 17th, 2004, of the number of Full Time Employees in Treasury who are working on terrorism, broken down by country/terrorist group.  All figures include administrative and overhead numbers.

	Name	FTEs
Country	Cuba	21.43
Group	al-Qaeda+Affiliates	16.10
Group	Iraq Former Regime/UN Prg/Insurgency	15.84
Country	Iran	13.62
Groups	Pro-Palestinian	8.51
Groups	Narco-Terrorists	6.00
Country	Libya	5.06
Country	Sudan	4.10
Country	Syria	0.75
Country	North Korea	0.34
Groups	Other	4.20

     I think he might be high.  CUBA, who has terrorized Americans all of how many times(I think the answer is zero) gets more people that Al-Qaeda?  God Bless Executive Pay!  Good little neo-con, have a bone of the Energy Department...

So, You've Probably Heard

     About the real computerized police state plans for Fallujah, things like retina scans, DNA tests, badges always being worn that _might_ let you travel between a certain restricted set of points, the banning of cars (did they ask Detroit about this?), et cetera.

     Fucking Pentagon hero and around great fucking great guy Major General Richard Natonski, says "It's the Iraqi interim government that's coming up with all these ideas[.]"  Don't fucking blame me!

     As I noted earlier, Natonski was the guy who got to say "We never expected them to be there. We're not after Zarqawi." after the invasion of Fallujah.  The Pentagon seems to be relying more and more on these wonderful men of moral character and vision.

Thou Shalt Not Undermine...

     Reuters is entitling this peice of comic diplomacy "Powell Attacks European NATO Allies on Iraq."...
"When it comes time to perform a mission, it seems to us to be quite awkward for suddenly members of that international staff to say 'I am unable to go,'"
Awkward for whom, he didn't actually say, although "an expert" thinks it was probably dead Iraqis.
"You[] are hurting the credibility and cohesion [of such an] international staff organization,"
by not following along with our lying, rape, murder and plunder, and without credibility, what do you really have?

FYI on Nicholson

     A short quote, from 1997, on the nature of the new Secretary of Veteran's Affairs, and former Republican Party Chairman (1997-2001) and current Ambassador to the Vatican.  In his favor, as VA Sec. he has no foreign affairs obligations, however, as you will see, he is a hardliner of the Christian Zionists.   This is from a contemporaneous article concerning the 1997 Republican National Convention, written by James Zogby.

Even more disturbing was the press conference held by the Republican Party’s new Chairman in which he pledged to use pressure to keep President Clinton from pushing Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians. “You’re going to see more attention given to Israel by the Republican leadership and that will result in more pressure on the Administration to help the [Israeli] government get to peace through continued resilience, strength, and preparedness, not through softness,” said Nicholson. While in Israel, Nicholson visited the recently opened tunnel in Jerusalem that sparked bloodshed one year ago and went to see construction of controversial settlements at Jabal Abu Ghnaim. He justified both Israeli acts saying that they did not look “provocative” and he would not “second-guess” the decisions of the Israeli government on these matters.

CIA World Factbook Update

     Did anyone notice when they added a page for the Whole World?  Interesting tidbits include

• EXPORTS   $6.421 trillion f.o.b. (2002 est.)

  Exports to where? 

More Crappy NY Times Reporting

     NY Times story headline reads "U.S. Students Fare Badly in International Survey of Math Skills" which is true in the sense that the US fared badly in every category of the international survey, which included math.

     That it also happened to include science, reading comprehension, and problem solving was missing from the "paper of record's" report.  You won't find the word "science" mentioned in the NY Times version of events.  Per usual, according to this OECD organized test called PISA, Finland came out tops overall, although the NY Times mentions them second, after Hong Kong.  Why would the NY Times list the first place winner second?  Why would the NY Times claim it was mainly "math skills" that the US sucks at?  You do the math (unless you are an American).

     For completeness, I link to the shameless "Keep America ignorant!" NY Times version.

     A big FUCK YOU to Art Sulzberger, Jr.

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UPDATE:

     Get ready to laugh, CBS News screws up this story in the other direction, claiming Finns are best in math with this headline "Finns World's Math Mavens".  I will repeat slowly, in case any Bush supporters are reading.  The Finns came out on top in three of four categories, and came in 2nd in math, placing them first overall.

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UPDATE:

     Here is a link to the full results.  Thanks DoDo!

Guy Signs Affadavit...

     effectively states "I wrote the vote-rigging software for the 2000 and 2004 elections.  Believable or not?   I can't say.  The story gets much, much weirder, including shipments of Hellfire missile parts to China, illegal immigrants, fake contracts, and the finger in question is pointing directly at Rep. Tom Feeney, described by one former Governor of Florida as "the David Duke of Florida politics"

Erratta

     Somewhere, sometime, I think I said that the new Senator Minority Leader, Harry Reid, said he'd support Clarence Thomas for Chief Justice.  I must have misread.  It's the opposite.

And Tidbits

• From Dec, 2, Dep Atty Gen admits that little old ladies from other countries who accidentally fund an orphanage that diverts money and sends it to al-Qaeda can be shanghaied and sent to Gitmo. Thanks to Fafblog.
• Academicians operate under the pretense that the Bush administration gives a flying fuck, and report that the statistical chance that the machines in Florida weren't rigged is under .1%
• Ex-CIA Director Tenet, a really bright liar, makes sure reporters aren't present when he announces that the Internet has to be reigned in, because it is a potential achille's heel.  No mention by Tenet of the actual Achille's Heel we have in the form of a nimcompoop as President.

Thanksgiving's Giving

     For years now, if not much longer, the US Gov't has decided that the week's worst information will be released when people aren't glued to the news, for example, Fridays and Holidays.  Well, what was released on Thanksgiving Eve, which will likely only be trumped by what is released Christmas Eve?  A suppressed-before-the-campaign, months old report by the (?who?) "defence science board taskforce on strategic communication", here described by Sidney Blumenthal, for the Guardian (which I found by reading DailyWarNews).

     Yes, indeedy.  It's fun to play politics with National Security matters.  Oh, what a funny joke Bu$hCo is playing on Americans and the World!  Funny bits include

There is no yearning-to-be-liberated-by-the-US groundswell among Muslim societies - except to be liberated perhaps from what they see as apostate tyrannies that the US so determinedly promotes and defends.

Putin != Poodle

     Vlad Putin of Russia and G Bush of America became closer after the bombing at Beslan.  A poll, released soon after, found Russia (alone among 10 nations) supporting America.  If I may be blunt, Putin recognized his efforts in Chechnya (between him and Yeltsin have killed ~100,000, mostly innocent, Chechens) now could be more easily put in the context of Bush's Int'l War On Some Asymmetric Warfare Tactics(IWOSAWT), which helps his domestic popularity.

     However, Putin then found Bush meddling in Ukraine (if they were meddling here, that'd be illegal, hence the "some" in IWOSAWT) and decided to be a little blunt himself, from Xinhua.

Attempts to restructure various civilizations already in existence unilaterally is the most dangerous thing.
...
And, I think you will agree with me, never in the history of human dictatorship, and moreover international affairs, has this resolved, could this resolve, such a problem.  Even if this dictatorship is packaged in beautiful democratic phraseology, it will not be able to solve systemic problems. On the contrary, it will only make them worse.

     Putin did this as part of a trip through India, who had been a constant Cold War ally of the Soviet Union, and then on to Turkey, which had been a close US ally until the start of the Bush Iraq War.

NOTE: I used ~ to mean "approximately" and != to mean "not equal to" in this post

Programming For World Peace

     I haven't mentioned much about myself on this blog.  Since it started I went to Australia for three weeks, and a Middle East trip for two months, and I never mentioned either.  You might have gathered I am a computer programmer.  I am.  I had a contract under PwC to work at the United Nations once, on their payroll system, IMIS, and it did feel like doing a better job might help the world be a slightly more peaceful place.

     I am happy because, although it is hardly complete yet, my new programming system is at the state where I'd appreciate Beta Testers.  At least, I wouldn't mind if you tried installing it.  E-mail Josh at Narins dot Net if you are interested.

Lingua-Nationalism

     If you've paid attention to what I've kept at the upper left hand corner of my blog for months now, you'll know I think this news, of a possible Ukrainian secession along linguistic lines, isn't the worst thing that could happen.  Who will fairly partition the nation?  If they are willing to wait one year for the final disposition, I can help immensely.  If you know anyone involved, I'll happily get in touch.

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     This is a map of where Russian speakers exist in the former Republics.  It was made by the CIA in 1994.