Thompson Feasts On Rudy's Firefighter Fallout

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me@rescam.org

Did Bush Say God Told Him To Go To War?

by Ira Chernus

Did God tell George W. Bush to strike at Al-Qaeda and Iraq? God only knows. Did Bush SAY that God told him to strike? We don't know yet, for sure. But we damn well better find out. Because if George W. said it, he-and all of us-could be in for some big trouble..... [continued]

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Did Bush Say God Told Him To Go To War?

by Ira Chernus

Did God tell George W. Bush to strike at Al-Qaeda and Iraq? God only knows. Did Bush SAY that God told him to strike? We don't know yet, for sure. But we damn well better find out. Because if George W. said it, he-and all of us-could be in for some big trouble..... [continued]

It's all scary stuff, Apocalypse What?
If our leaders have more investment in another 'world' than in the one we actually live in, I guess anything goes. After all Tony Blair used his 'gut' feeling to go to war in Iraq.

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They assumed that moral standards come from religious belief. [snip] They voted for the man they thought would be more Godly.

Perception is 90 percent of the deception... ;)

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It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .

Getting back to our good name

By Ed Feulner; president of The Heritage Foundation.

July 13, 2007

“Anyone who is popular is bound to be disliked,” Yogi Berra once observed. By his definition, the United States is very popular these days.

Since 2002, “the image of the United States has declined in most parts of the world,” according to the latest Pew Global Attitudes survey. “Favorable ratings of America are lower in 26 of 33 countries for which trends are available.” The numbers have dropped even among many of our traditional allies. For example, 13 percent of Britons now hold a “very unfavorable” view of the United States.

Such findings always generate much gnashing of teeth. But instead of pointing the finger at the usual suspects, let's consider a few ways we can boost our reputation.

Asia, which I recently visited, offers one solution. We remain popular there; 58 percent of South Koreans have a positive view of the United States – a number exceeded in Japan and India. But even in Asia, we're in danger of pushing our allies away.

One distancing issue is free trade. In April, Korean and American negotiators shook hands on an agreement that would be the biggest trade deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement. It was designed to open South Korea's markets and reduce that country's growing dependence on trade with China. Meanwhile, it would lock in critical Korean economic reforms, possibly even giving it a competitive advantage over regional rivals China and Japan. So far, so good.

But U.S. officials didn't leave well enough alone. In June they reopened talks in an attempt to add stricter environmental and labor guidelines being pushed by congressional Democrats. Worse, the new talks went forward under pressure – any deal had to be completed before June 30, when President Bush's Trade Promotion Authority expired.

At the last moment, the Koreans yielded. So, if lawmakers in both countries approve it, this trade deal should pay big dividends. But our behavior still made a bad impression. The Korean negotiators won't soon forget that the United States was ready to put an entire agreement at risk to squeeze out a few more concessions.

The United States also needs to do a better job of welcoming our allies.

Nearly 100,000 Korean students study here, for instance. But it's not as simple as it ought to be for them to visit. They must wait in long lines to obtain visas, a step most citizens of friendly countries (Britain, France, Germany, etc.) avoid because of the popular Visa Waiver program.

South Korea doesn't qualify for Visa Waiver because it falls short on a technicality. President Bush is said to be considering adding it to the program, as long as Seoul is willing to deploy an electronic passport system and increase its cooperation with American law enforcement officials. We also should expand the program by welcoming Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and, if they qualify, the Baltic states.

Finally, look to North Korea. The United States assured our allies that we'd do whatever necessary to prevent Pyongyang from developing nuclear weapons. Yet we recently released about $25 million in frozen North Korean funds. We should have held on to that money until North Korea shut down its nuclear reactor. Instead, all we obtained was yet another dubious promise that it will do so.

Winning a global popularity contest may not top our list of priorities. But if we can enhance our reputation through a few simple steps – such as keeping our word and not treating our friends as if they're suspects – why not take them?

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me@rescam.org

Democrats block amendment to prevent Fairness Doctrine

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me@rescam.org

Did Bush Say God Told Him To Go To War?

by Ira Chernus

Did God tell George W. Bush to strike at Al-Qaeda and Iraq? God only knows. Did Bush SAY that God told him to strike? We don't know yet, for sure. But we damn well better find out. Because if George W. said it, he-and all of us-could be in for some big trouble..... [continued]

It's all scary stuff, Apocalypse What?
If our leaders have more investment in another 'world' than in the one we actually live in, I guess anything goes. After all Tony Blair used his 'gut' feeling to go to war in Iraq.

Interesting

If he said these things, then I'm wondering if any authority will actually investigate it. Ask some quiestions, like, when was he instructed by god, which god, or if he's got something wrong up there, if you know what I mean. But I don't think it'll happen really.

President Bush is a member of Skull and Bones. And they're not known for putting the ideals of the Christian religion they claim to be a part of ahead of the less than Christian ideals that S&B is known for.

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I wonder what God he serves?

A friend of mine had a friend who worked at Bohemian Grove in California as a maid for a day. She walked into the wrong room and saw some things that made her leave immediately. She is Catholic. I can't tell you what she saw because of the younger members of these forums, but can tell you it was highly irregular.

Perhaps the large Owl they burn a fake body in front of is an ancient God who enjoys the symbolism.

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

North Korea receives oil under nuke deal
Officials from IAEA head to Pyongyang

By Burt Herman
ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 14, 2007

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea was poised to take its first step in nearly five years toward scaling back its nuclear weapons program, with U.N. inspectors en route to the North today to monitor the shutdown of its sole operating atomic reactor.

The team from the International Atomic Energy Agency stopped in Beijing as it headed to the North, with its arrival in Pyongyang scheduled just hours after a South Korean oil shipment entered the North Korean port of Sonbong this morning.

Officials said it would take 48 hours to pump out the tanker's load of 6,200 tons of heavy fuel oil, a promised reward for North Korea's reactor shutdown pledge.

After years of tortuous negotiations and delays during which the North argued its nuclear program was needed for self-defense, the reclusive communist regime said last week that once it got the oil shipment, it would consider halting its reactor for the first time in five years.

North Korea did not, however, give any timetable for starting the shutdown.

U.N. officials expressed optimism that North Korean officials were ready to go forward with the shutdown of the plutonium-producing reactor at Yongbyon, about 60 miles northeast of the capital.

“With the kind of help which we (have received) from the (North) in the past few weeks, we think we will do our job in a successful way,” IAEA team chief Adel Tolba said in Beijing yesterday.

North Korea's military, meanwhile, proposed direct talks with the U.S. military on forging a permanent peace on the Korean peninsula.

State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey suggested the idea was both premature and outside the framework for the nuclear talks already agreed on.

“We have a channel and mechanism for discussing a variety of issues with North Korea through the six-party process,” he said.

North Korea agreed earlier this year to scrap its nuclear weapons program in exchange for economic aid and political concessions in a deal with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

Those nations promised to give the impoverished North 50,000 tons of oil for shutting the Yongbyon reactor. It will get total energy aid equivalent to 1 million tons of oil if it disables all nuclear facilities.

The agreement eased a standoff that began in October 2002, when the United States said that North Korean officials had admitted during meetings in Pyongyang to having a secret uranium-enrichment program. Washington said that violated a 1994 agreement for the North's disarmament, and a month later halted oil shipments under that deal.

The North reacted by expelling IAEA monitors in December 2002, withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and restarting the reactor.

Since then, North Korea has occasionally shut down the reactor to remove fuel rods and extract plutonium – and is believed to have harvested enough to construct at least a dozen atomic bombs.

The North set off an underground test explosion in October, leading to intensified international efforts to negotiate an end to Pyongyang's arms program.

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me@rescam.org

Nuclear lab managers fined for security flap

ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 14, 2007

WASHINGTON– The Energy Department proposed $3.3 million in fines yesterday against managers of the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab because of a security breakdown in which classified documents were found in a trailer-park drug raid.

The civil penalties, the bulk of them levied against the University of California, the longtime former manager of the lab, were the largest such fines the department has ever imposed.

The enforcement action stems from an incident in October 2006, when police found more than 1,000 pages of classified documents and several computer storage devices in a trailer occupied by a former worker at the lab.

The discovery was made during a drug raid that focused on another person living in the trailer.

The department said it was proposing a $3 million civil penalty against the University of California, although the university was no longer the lab's primary manager when the incident was discovered, and $300,000 against Los Alamos National Security LLC, the consortium that succeeded the university in June 2006.

The university, which is funded by state taxpayers, was assessed the larger fine because investigators determined the security deficiencies that led to the October 2006 incident were established during the university's tenure as prime contractor. It also said the new management team did nothing to correct the vulnerabilities.

The university and Los Alamos National Security have 30 days to respond, but in all likelihood the penalty will stand. The contractors could challenge the fines in court.

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me@rescam.org

Bush Admits White House CIA Leak
Associated Press
July 12, 2007 3:23 p.m.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118426038242564851.html?mod=googlenews_wsj


WASHINGTON -- President Bush acknowledged publicly for the first time Thursday that someone in his administration "perhaps" leaked the name of a CIA operative, although he also said he hopes the controversy over his decision to spare prison for a former White House aide has "run its course."

"And now we're going to move on," Mr. Bush said in a White House news conference.

The president had initially said he would fire anyone in his administration found to have publicly disclosed the identity of Valerie Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and a CIA operative. Mr. Wilson is an outspoken Iraq war critic.

Ten days ago, Mr. Bush commuted the 30-month sentence given to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby by a federal judge in connection with the case. Mr. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, had been convicted of lying and obstruction of justice in the CIA-leak case.

Mr. Bush would not directly answer a question about whether he is disappointed in the White House officials who leaked Ms. Plame's name. "I'm aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person," Mr. Bush said. "I've often thought about what would have happened if that person had come forth and said, 'I did it.' Would we have had this endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter? But, so, it's been a tough issue for a lot of people in the White House. It's run its course and now we're going to move on."

He also defended the decision to commute Mr. Libby's sentence. "The Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision," Mr. Bush said.

Several Bush administration officials revealed Ms. Plame's identity. White House political adviser Karl Rove and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage were the primary sources for a 2003 newspaper article outing Ms. Plame. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer also admitted telling reporters about her. And jurors apparently believed prosecutors who said Mr. Libby discussed Ms. Plame with reporters from the New York Times and Time magazine. Mr. Libby was the only one charged in the matter.

Meanwhile, the sentencing judge, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, took issue Thursday with Mr. Bush's characterization of Mr. Libby's sentence as "excessive."

"It is fair to say the Court is somewhat perplexed as to how its sentence could be accurately described as "excessive,'" wrote Judge Walton, a Bush appointee. He noted that the 2-1/2 year sentence was at the low end of federal sentencing guidelines. Judge Walton's comments came in a footnote to an opinion formalizing Mr. Libby's probation term. Mr. Bush kept in place two years probation and a $250,000 fine, which Mr. Libby has already paid.

Copyright © 2007 Associated Press

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

Summer of Dissent in Iceland
13 Jul 2007 07:41 GMT




In Iceland a summer of dissent against heavy industry and large dams has begun. In a much disputed master-plan, all the glacial rivers and geothermal potential of the largest wilderness of Europe would be harnessed for aluminium production. Activists from around the world have gathered to protect Europe's largest remaining wilderness and oppose Rio Tinto/ALCAN, ALCOA, Century/RUSAL and other transnational companies.

Icelanders were joined by activists from Africa, South and North America and Europe for an international conference 'Global consequences of heavy industry and large dams' organized by Saving Iceland. "Progress is painted by some as huge projects, large scale development. In all our countries, these have become disasters, socially, ecologically and economically. Progress is a plenitude of small solutions. We should let a thousand flowers bloom," states a declaration from the conference, formulated by consensus by participants.

The conference looked at the effects of large dams on ecosystems, climate and communities, on the role of aluminium in the arms industry and military and on 'green-washing' strategies of large corporations. Activists also recognized the remarkable similarities in corporate strategies between their different countries and continents, on how communities and governments are manipulated and environmental impacts covered up.

A next conference is intended in Trinidad and Tobago, where local communities oppose an ALCOA aluminium smelter. Other campaigns that were presented included the Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (Movement of Dam Affected People, Brazil), Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement, India).

This week there have been a number of protests in Reykjavik. A dam was built in front of the prime ministers office and Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping held a sermon in Reykjavik's largest mall, connecting heavy industry with consumerism. Activists have now set up camp in Mosfellsheiði, South-West Iceland, near a Century aluminium smelter. Further direct actions and a street party have been announced for the 14th of July.

Saving Iceland held direct action camps in the east of Iceland in 2005 and 2006 opposing construction of the Karahnjukar dams and a smelter in Reydarfjordur.

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Account frozen...

We're no longer welcome, not that we ever were...time to pack up boys, the party's over!

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Account frozen...

Iran's existential threat

By Arnaud de Borchgrave; editor at large of The Washington Times and of United Press International.

July 15, 2007

Whether Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he wants to wipe Israel off the map is still contested, even by anti-mullah Iranian-Americans. But that he wants to wipe out the Jewish state, there can be no doubt. As he completes his visits to every Iranian town, the collection of his pronunciamentos is edifying reading.

Culled from a wide variety of sources, ranging from Agence France Presse (AFP), the French national news agency, to the London Daily Telegraph, to the Suddeutsche Zeitung Online, to France's Le Monde and Liberation, Ahmadinejad spells out the target and the strategy:

“This regime [Israel] will one day disappear.... The Zionist regime is a rotten tree that will be blown away by one storm.... The countdown for the destruction of Israel has begun. Zionists are the personification of Satan.

“In the case of any unwise move by the fake regime of Israel, Iran's response will be so destructive and quick the regime will regret its move forever.... The West invented the myth of the massacre of the Jews (in World War II) and placed it above Allah, religions and prophets.”

Ahmadinejad's strategic recipe: “We don't shy away from declaring Islam is ready to rule the world.... The wave of the Islamist revolution will soon reach the entire world.... Our revolution's main mission is to pave the way for the reappearance of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi [a 5-year-old boy who vanished 1,100 years ago and who will lead the world into an era of peace and prosperity, but not before the planet is convulsed by death and destruction].

“Soon Islam will become the dominating force in the world, occupying first place in the number of followers among all other religions....

“Is there a craft more beautiful, more sublime, more divine, than the craft of giving yourself to martyrdom and becoming holy?.... Do not doubt Allah will prevail, and Islam will conquer mountaintops of the entire world. Iran can recruit hundreds of suicide bombers a day. Suicide is an invincible weapon. Suicide bombers in this land showed us the way, and they enlighten our future.... The will to commit suicide is one of the best ways of life.

“By the grace of Allah we will be a nuclear power and Iran does not give a damn about [International Atomic Energy Agency] demands [to freeze enrichment of nuclear fuel]. Iran does not give a damn about resolutions.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has the capacity to quickly become a world superpower. Iran's enemies know your courage, faith and commitment to Islam and.... Iran has created a powerful army that can powerfully defend the political borders and the integrity of the Iranian nation and cut off the hand of any aggressor and place the sign of disgrace on their forehead.

“In parallel to the official political war there is a hidden war going on and the Islamic states should benefit from their economic potential to cut off the hands of the enemies.”

Addressing a conference on “The World Without Zionism,” Ahmadinejad said, “To those who doubt, to those who say is it not possible, I say accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible.”

Hyperbole, gigantism, overkill, huckstering, hocus-pocus, all of the above. But intelligence mounts daily of Iranian efforts to undermine U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan and United Nations efforts to stem the violence in Lebanon (six U.N. peacekeepers were killed by a roadside improvised explosive device).

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's report said, “It is widely believed in Lebanon, including by the government, that the strengthening of Palestinian outposts could not have taken place without the tacit knowledge and support of the Syrian government.”

Ban Ki-moon also noted Israel's claim that “the transfer of sophisticated weapons by Syria and Iran across the Lebanese-Syrian border, including long-range rockets [with a range of 250 miles]... [and] anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems, occurs on a weekly basis.”

Israel also says Hezbollah “armed elements are constructing new facilities in the Bekaa Valley, including command and control centers, rocket-launching capabilities and conducting military training exercises.”

There is little doubt Israel and Hezbollah are suiting up to resume last summer's 34-day war in which the Israel Defense Force came off second-best due to poor political and military leadership. Hezbollah is also shorthand for Syria and Iran. Tehran supplies the equipment and the funding. Syria acts as the transmission belt and is generously compensated.

Damascus has evidently concluded an Israeli offensive across the Golan Heights is in the offing. For the first time in 40 years, Syria dismantled military checkpoints on the road to Kuneitra on its side of the Golan. Foreign journalists were barred from covering Israeli maneuvers on the Heights. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the IDF was conducting military maneuvers – and nothing more.

One of the more plausible scenarios has Israel preparing for a drive into Syria across the Golan Heights, and then fighting a “decisive” battle with the Syrian army on the road to Damascus, followed by a left “hook” into Lebanon to execute an outflanking attack on Hezbollah. Syria has advised its citizens to leave Lebanon as soon as possible.

That could also be a strategically propitious moment for U.S. action against Iran. It remains to be seen whether the key players in President Bush's National Security Council would agree an opportunity is at hand to dust off an Air Force and Navy contingency plan to take out Iran's 23 nuclear facilities.

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me@rescam.org

Privacy is not what it used to be

DAVID IGNATIUS
THE WASHINGTON POST

July 15, 2007

Is life “on the record”? Seriously, should someone going out on a date clarify whether the evening's events are on “background”? In conversations with our neighbors, should we specify that we are operating under “Chatham House rules,” in which our comments may be used but not attributed to us by name?

These are journalistic conventions, you say, not applicable to ordinary folks. But nowadays, in the age of blogs, everyone is a journalist: Foreign service officers write blogs about diplomacy; soldiers write blogs about fellow grunts; singles write blogs about their dating lives; high school and college students post comments on Facebook and My Space that amount to an intimate open diary about themselves and their friends. They are all reporters without press cards, and also without professional standards of conduct.

What are the ground rules of life? Can we assume any “right to privacy” in this digital age when everything we say or do can become part of a permanent record that anyone – friends, enemies, the government – can access? With cameras sprouting on every street corner in Washington and New York (and have you checked out your nearest interstate lately?), should motorists just assume that their zone of privacy ends when they leave their driveways?

Privacy isn't what it used to be, certainly. A woman known as the D.C. Madam disseminates her phone records to fight charges that her “escort service” is a prostitution ring. The disclosure exposes a freshman senator named David Vitter. Well, fine, you say, Vitter is a noisy “family values” conservative, who should be indicted for hypocrisy if nothing else. But what about the thousands of other people whose phone numbers are on the D.C. Madam's call list. Are they fair game?

And what about those whacked-out celebrities who seem to exist to be photographed in embarrassing situations by Us and In Touch Weekly and other high-minded publications. They invited it, you say. They're celebrities!

But surely there is a zone of privacy even for the famous, so that Jennifer Aniston shouldn't have to worry that she will be photographed topless in her own home. That's what her lawyers alleged in a December 2005 “Confidential Legal Notice” that claimed: “The paparazzo took the photographs covertly from a great distance which we believe to be more than one mile away.” (The “confidential” memo, by the way, was published on the Web site The Smoking Gun, which specializes in this sort of interesting dirt. The site currently features pleadings in a lawsuit by a Texas woman against one of her high school pals who allegedly stole her name and used it as a moniker in porn movies.)

A surprisingly modern (if G-rated) discussion of these issues is a famous 1890 article on “The Right to Privacy” by Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis, who was later a Supreme Court justice: “Instantaneous photographs and newspaper enterprise have invaded the sacred precincts of private and domestic life; and numerous mechanical devices threaten to make good the prediction that 'what is whispered in the closet shall be proclaimed from the house-tops.' ”

Back then, the intrusive devices were simple cameras and telephones, rather than cell phone cameras that can take pictures anonymously and instantly distribute them anywhere in the world. But the essential point remains the one made by Warren and Brandeis, which is that people have a presumed, common-law “right to be let alone.” They warned about a world in which any gossip is deemed fit for print: “Triviality destroys at once robustness of thought and delicacy of feeling. No enthusiasm can flourish, no generous impulse can survive under its blighting influence.”

Seth Waxman, a former solicitor general, makes a similar point about what happens when life is “on the record” and everyone becomes careful about what they say for fear it may be disseminated: “It hampers the ability of each one of us to fully explore ideas.”

Journalists habitually argue for broad disclosure of information, bolstering our case with such bromides as “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” But major newspapers recognize that people have privacy rights, too. Newsroom lawyers remind journalists that they can be sued for “public disclosure of private facts” in certain circumstances, and that newspapers shouldn't publish information about private citizens that would be “highly offensive to a reasonable person” unless the information is independently newsworthy or the subject consents.

Similar standards about privacy should be shared by all the modern varieties of “journalist” – reporters, bloggers, Facebook posters and the rest. The alternative is a world where everyone becomes so careful about what they say and do that normal life – including dumb statements, stupid mistakes and general obnoxiousness – becomes impossible.

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me@rescam.org

LOL

:D

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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

But nowadays, in the age of blogs, everyone is a journalist:

And an open book... ;)

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It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .

US citizens NOT required to pay taxes!

Proof:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173

I know what your thinking...

Just watch and witness the biggest enslavement in history.




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"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss