wead

as u know - im skeptical about the whole doug wead tape-gate thingy - the whole "gee - blinky sounds exactly the same in private as he does in public" line seemed to get swallowed by just about every observer.

the LATimes did another story about it earlier this week - in their 'STYLE & CULTURE' section.

heres a question i hada month ago:

"* apparently Wead quotes the tapes 'briefly' in his book - itll be interesting to see when that book went into print (released jan5). itll also be interesting to see how 'briefly' he quotes the tapes - and how directly... presumably he didnt mention the tapes in the book - otherwise the furor would have began earlier..."

i couldnt find the answers at the time, but the LAT piece attempts to fill in some of the details

heres the money quote from Weads book:

"George Bush apparently experimented with cocaine. He has never spoken about it publicly and so we can only speculate on if and when it happened…. The fear that it might flare into the open would become at times an obsession. Privately he brought the subject up often in his run for the presidency in 2000…. "

you'd think that was kinda the end of the story - but i noticed something weird - for all the brouhaha about tape-gate and the excoriation and/or self-flagellation of mr wead, and for all the ensuing punditocracy, heres the funny thing - if u google any of those sentences that were apparently at the center of it all, you only get four hits - and they are all just copies of this recent LAT article. does that seem weird? i wouldnt have thought anything of it, except that i had specifically asked the question at the time, and i had noticed at the time that nobody was actually quoting the relevant passages. if you google "wead tapes bush cocaine", you get 4000 results - and the only 4 which actually include the quotes from the book are all this one LAT article. weird. if any of u lot can actually get your hands on the book, id be interested to see if these are the actual quotes. if they are the direct quotes then its kinda odd that no-one ever quoted them before. and if they arent the actual quotes, then we have a bunch of new questions.

hmmmmm

lets go to the timeline - according to the LAT article, the NYT got an advance copy of the book in december "and began pressing Wead to show that his assertions about Bush — who, Wead wrote, was worried that questions about drug use would haunt a presidential campaign — were based on fact or firsthand knowledge." the book was then released jan4, and then "more than a month later", the nyt announced that it had heard the tapes with their explosive allegations... apparently a 3500-word A1 pieceon a sunday (feb20) called "In Secretly Taped Conversations, Glimpses of the Future President "

ok - so if im understanding the situation so far, a former high-level bush1 staffer, a bush2 spiritual advisor and family friend who has recently "produced two intensively researched books on presidential family dynamics" publishes a book where he says that he has first hand knowledge of blinky doing blow, and the nyt (*or anyone else*) doesnt mention it for 2+ months till they have proof in blinkys own voice, and only one source (LAT) has published the quotes till this past week. compare and contrast with kittykelly, who made the same claims and was on matt lauer's show for god knows how many minutes for 3 consecutive mornings.

from memory, kitty kelly got her info from estranged ex-bush sharon. i think the bushs would probably like to forget both of them. presumably the same goes for dougwead right?

heres what laura bush says: "I don't know if I'd use the word 'betrayed,' but I think it's a little bit awkward for sure."

heres what george bush says (joking@gridiron): "Anyone looking for a transcript of the program should call Doug Wead"

everyone else was 'furious' - except the famously forgiving bush family. blinky has murdered 100,000 folk for much less.

thank goodness mr wead is contrite - and happy to do the president a favor by slinking into the background and letting the matter quietly disappear. oops - that didnt happen - he did his mea culpa op-ed in USA Today, and then went to Chris Matthews, and then did Hannity just 10 days ago. in full volume: dear mr president, im a bad person, im sorry that i released tapes which demonstrate that you really a straight-talking texan who are exactly the same in private (when you are being surreptitiously being recorded) as you are in public. everyone knows that you had a reckless childhood, but the damascene conversion was really cool.

who thinks wead would be allowed on hannity just to apolgise? or perhaps they actually wanna remind the world about those tapes? why would that be?

annual celery

MEDIA
* "Kojo Annan, who now lives in Nigeria, was educated in Switzerland and England. At the age of 22, he joined Cotecna on a $US200,000 ($A260,000) salary as a full-time employee and consultant from 1995 to 1998." LINK
spot the lie in this sentence
the article says that its a piece from the Guardian, which surprised me. so i looked it up, but i cant see it at the Guardian. or anywhere else. odd.

* yesterday i pointed to this quote:
"Australians are as just as concerned about United States foreign policy as Islamic extremism and regard the US as more dangerous than a rising China"
and then i added: "- and thats with the media here ranked 41st in the the world in terms of pressfreedom - imagine what the numbers would be like without murdoch... "
murdock op-eds were all over the issue today, as u mite have imagined:

"The foreign policy class in Australia is especially prone to this paradigm paralysis, as evident in this week's Lowy Institute poll on Australians' attitudes to foreign policy. The truth is that the foreign policy class in Australia is at war with the Howard Government as well as the Australian public."

and

"The really disappointing thing about the Lowy poll is that it indicates that the Lowy Institute could end up being just another familiar echo chamber, as the same narrow group of people quote to each other from the same sacred scriptures to support the same tired orthodoxies. The two groups you'll never influence this way, of course, are the Government and the public."

indeedy.

* fauxnews is playing the anti-DeLay ads in full. sweet.

OTHER STUFF
* "The entire Jewish community is watching closely. As one Jewish leader who asked not to be identified said, "If AIPAC is targeted in this fashion, it is not good news for the rest of us. AIPAC would be only the beginning."" LINK

* "Unlike George W. Bush, Blair's reputation has been seriously damaged. He could still win re-election in May, but only because Britain's squabbling opposition Tories under Michael Howard have put on a pitifully inept performance... Now, however, the feckless Howard is beginning to contemplate what seemed impossible -- becoming prime minister. Opinion polls show only a two-point gap between the parties." LINK
as ive mentioned before, the betting markets tell a completely different story.

SintelligentDesign

SCHIAVO
* the beeb notes drily: 'the schiavo case has mobilised the christian conservatives in america and demonstrates their ability to dominate the national agenda on issues of their choosing' - lol - this was in a news report.

* yesterday i mentioned that oreilly opened with an attack on krugman - which was pretty amazing becuase A) it opened the show b) it quoted heavily c) oreilly is an idiot. heres the vid. check it out.

* "Why is it ironic that Terri will die of starvation? Because the reason she had a heart attack, which has resulted in her current 15-year life and death struggle, was her life and death struggle with an eating disorder." LINK
- this issue has been completely buried. as i mentioned the other day, you'd think that a reasonable part of the story would be an understanding of why the fuck she is sick.

* "Norm Olson, senior adviser to the Michigan militia and pastor of a strong right-to-life church in Wolverine, said Tuesday he had put together an unarmed coalition of state militias that were prepared to storm the Florida hospice where Terri Schiavo has been left to die, and take her to a safe house." LINK
theyd have probably bumped into zarqawi and some of his associates... or do they stay in safehouses? safe-houses?

* nader tries to justify his position on schiavo. i think he is arguing that the public, not the taxpayer, will pay for it. oh, and the husband has a girlfriend. fuck off ralph. a lot. the day the msuic died...

* in other news the Heritage Foundation does IntelligentDesign (C) LINK

61 days

WAR
* ellsberg: "The question is: Will it be Israel as Cheney prepared us for recently who makes the attack (or Iran), or will it be us? It could well be that the game here is that Israel is making such strong noises in doing it, knowing that it would entirely set the Middle East on flame. That the US will give an excuse for a strike--that we had to forestall the Israelis--it would've been even worse, and we had to do it because otherwise the Israelis would do it, better that we did. One theory that is even worse in the Middle East is the Israelis taking action like that before we do. That's just a conjecture. The Israelis have used their influence before in that fashion. They've even threatened before at various times that if we didn't act forcefully they would have to use nuclear weapons." LINK
go read the rest... really. go read it.

* raymcgovern: "What seems clear is that all but the most incorrigible ideologues and the criminally insane realize that an attack on Iran would make the debacle in Iraq seem like child’s play. And yet chances appear good that the ever-narrowing circle of advisers around President Bush will persuade him to do just that..." LINK

* ritter: "Why June 2005?, I asked. 'The Israelis are concerned that if the Iranians get their nuclear enrichment programme up and running, then there will be no way to stop the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon. June 2005 is seen as the decisive date.'...
Whether this attack takes place in June 2005, when the Pentagon has been instructed to be ready, or at a later date, once all other preparations have been made, is really the only question that remains to be answered." LINK
june05 is with us in 61 days.
scottritter gets press in rawstory and aljazeera.

* i love the footage of the new hostages - they scan the line of em, and then zoom in on the pretty white-ish girl. i wonder if that is in the original video, or in cnn's rework (ive only seen the footage there so far).

haririkiri

* Michael Young @ Reason (and Lebanon's Daily Star) is a big fan of the Syria-did-it brigade wrt haririkiri. here he discusses some issues of the Fitzgerald report - but there are still some unsolved issues.

- that footage of the van that was splashed over the TV the other day was "1 minute and 49 seconds before the former prime minister's convoy arrived." - so it can hardly be said to prove anything

- "In interrogating the father of Abu Adas, investigators learned that the alleged suicide bomber couldn't drive."

- "members of the Hariri family have been privately talking about (the idea ) that the former prime minister was actually killed by not one but two bombs—one placed under the roadway, the other above the road and containing a flammable chemical agent able to permeate the armored protection of the cars in the convoy." remember, the report couldnt tell if the bomb was above or below the ground, but seemed to have evidence of both.

clear as mud.

i still refuse to believe that syria could have been so stupid...

cheney oh-hate

AMDOM
* some folk were quietly seated at a Bush event, secretservice folks check out the carpark, and notice a car with a sticker "No More Blood For Oil.", so they find the people in the audience and eject them. LINK

* oreilly is doing the 'pot in california' story again today. i wonder where this one is going.

* "Keep in mind that you need to go all the way back to 1952 to find a party that controls the White House nominating anyone besides the incumbent Vice President." LINK
cheney08? goodgrief. assuming that there is an election in 08, the repug field is really difficult to work out - especially post-schiavo. did frist and jeb and santorum shoot themselves in the foot? its very difficult to see 'moderates', like giuliani and mccain, winning (despite the betting markets). and do we really think theyll send in a black woman who had trouble getting past the senate for her latest role?

* "“(DeLay) mentioned that when he found out that Abramoff was dealing with a casino or whatever, it was then that he called in Abramoff and said, ‘Our relationship is finished. I can’t have anything to do with you because I’m adamantly opposed to gambling and I had no idea you were involved in this.’" LINK
funny. thous shalt not get court.

* Cato: "Expensive new planes, warships and weapons systems won't defeat the Al Qaeda terrorist network -- unprecedented and painstaking international intelligence and law-enforcement cooperation will." LINK

neddo 2.0

* theres a new neddo! welcome to our crazy world gemma sophie. we're trying to do our best. and congrats and much love to brent & soph.

clear as dum

* xymphora "... the information in the 'entrapment' related to the lives of Israeli spies in Kurdistan (a cover story important enough that they decided to admit they had agents in Kurdistan, something they had previously denied)." LINK
syhersh broke this story a long, long time ago... he is a terrorist.

* ""We urge you to reject (bolton's) nomination," the 59 former diplomats said in a letter... Their criticism dwelt primarily on Mr. Bolton's stand on issues as the State Department's senior arms control official. They said he had an "exceptional record" of opposing American efforts to improve national security through arms control." LINK

* "Australians are as just as concerned about United States foreign policy as Islamic extremism and regard the US as more dangerous than a rising China" - and thats with the media here ranked 41st in the the world in terms of pressfreedom - imagine what the numbers would be like without murdoch... LINK

* juancole:
"US Generals revealed on Sunday that a) guerrillas in Iraq are able to keep the number of attacks at about 60 a day and b) that the proportion of fighters that is foreign jihadis has increased somewhat in the past few months...
By the way, if there are 60 attacks a day, why do I only read about 7 or 8 of them?"
http://www.juancole.com/2005/03/no-government-and-16-dead-us-generals.html and if juancole is only seeing 15%, imagine what the somnolent-many see... meanwhile, "The war in Iraq is the most important problem facing the US in the eyes of the American public, according to a recent poll."

* in other news, iraqs little democracy experiment aint going so great. still no govt. their lil session tuesday fell at the first hurdle of trying to get a speaker. the media was kicked out (im not sure whether thats better or worse than what we see in amMSM). meanwhile the talkingpoints goes something like 'its really goot that they dont have a goverment. its politics and horsetrading. its exciting'

* "At least 1,527 American soldiers have died during the military operation, and more than 11,400 troops have been injured." LINK
i keep seeing these numbers quoted everywhere - surely it would be more responsible to also include the dead & hurt amcivilians. there are at least 300 dead civs, and presumably at least 3000 injured. please remind everyone of this.

* australia beat iraq in the soccer. the iraqis are beating us in the war - so we'll call it even.

* juancole on haririkiri:

"Hariri Likely Killed by Truck Bomb...
This discovery bolsters the case for Hariri's death having been the work of a suicide bomber, Abu Adas, a radical Muslim who had travelled in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and may have had links to Ansar al-Islam and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

If Abu Adas did blow up the van and kill Hariri, and if he was connect to Ansar al-Islam, it would be an indication that Bush's Iraq misadventure is destabilizing Iraq's neighbors, and not in a good way.

Syria itself remains a suspect, of course. But the urban legend that there was no truck bombing and that the Syrian secret police set up a bomb in the sewers, seems less likely now."

the situation is still as clear as mud....

shark jumpin

SCHIAVO
* " The parents of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo were joined by prominent civil rights campaigner the Rev. Jesse Jackson" he even went on hannity. good grief. LINK

* read krug (as usual): "America isn't yet a place where liberal politicians, and even conservatives who aren't sufficiently hard-line, fear assassination. But unless moderates take a stand against the growing power of domestic extremists, it can happen here."
and he mentions the trooper showdown in FL. which had hitherto been sooshed. krug is always #1 on the nyt most-emailed list. (update - oreilly fronts with slamming krug - quoting extensively from the article! sweet. they must be getting very nervous - they seem to be trying to get ahead of it) LINK

* alancolmes interviews 2 people from the 'other side' on the schiavo thing. one of chick's shirt says RevolutionaryCommunistYouthBrigade - (actually as im writing this, Hannity actually asks her what her shirt reads. subtle. )

* " In related news Jerry Falwell is in the hospital again with viral pneumonia. Jerry has chosen a ventilator as his first line of defense and plans on using prayer only as a backup." the rest is even funnier... LINK

* abug torturer gets teary outside schiavos hospice. go read billmon. LINK

* terrischiavo really should have chosen better parents

* "But of course the delicate question is how the Democrats use the glazed eyes of Terri Schiavo against the Republicans. And, as with most matters political, the Rude Pundit has the ready, easy solution: it's all about the inference of language. If a Democrat is up against a Schiavo Republican (and, good, wise, vaguely left pundits everywhere should start calling the wacked-out, ultra-Christian Republicans by this nom de guerre), don't bring out Schiavo's corpse. Instead, just say that you support the government staying out of "the most intimate decisions a person" (or "family") "can make." Or some such shit. You see what that does? It evokes Schiavo without saying her name and, frankly, it also covers things like abortion rights, gay rights, and more. If the Schiavo Republican wants to question you about it, then you have free rein to bring up Schiavo." LINK
Schiavo Republican. Schiavo Republican. Schiavo Republican. Schiavo Republican. Schiavo Republican. Schiavo Republican. Schiavo Republican. Schiavo Republican. Schiavo Republican.

* the pope needs a feeding tube. lol.

what would jesus dont?

MEDIA
* murdock: " Kofi Annan, struggling to survive as the UN Secretary-General, plans to blame his son for embroiling him in the oil-for-food scandal when a UN inquiry issues a harsh report today." there wont be any rest for kofi till he is gone.

* in other news "(Reuters) - Right-wing American politicians are using the oil-for-food scandal as a weapon against the United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan should not step down over it, his predecessor Boutros Boutros-Ghali said." its the vast-right-wing-conspiracy stupid.

* meanwhile, kofi is getting cleared by volcker. the AP headline: "Investigators Will Criticize U.N. Chief"

* oreilly is doing a piece on how easy it is to get pot in LA. it makes me want some pot. i hope people are lighting up all over the country because of oreilly

* hannity is still doing shows from outside schiavo's hospice. no turning down on this issue.

* "The television and radio industries are about to come under renewed attack over sex, violence and profanity in their programming, both in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission." link sweet.

* ""There is a 24-hour surveillance team monitoring Martha Stewart's whereabouts. Nothing yet on al Qaeda." David Letterman"

* wonkette is the only blogger who isnt a nazi

* "Why not action figures from Mel Gibson's "The Passion"? I'd like to see a full-sized posable Jesus, like the old G.I. Joe. Maybe you could press a button and He will say things like "What would I do?" in amaraic." lol. thats funny.

happiness is a war gun

war
* "The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 295 civilians employed by U.S. companies have died so far in Iraq. " LINK

* "The U.S. still has 17,000 troops in Afghanistan. On Saturday four U.S. soldiers there were killed by a landmine. " LINK

* "But despite what many of the equality proponents protest, Colonel (Ret.) Ronald Ray points out that there is no inherent right to serve in the military, and many things can disqualify people from eligibility to serve. For example, he notes, "Today if you have three speeding tickets, they view that as an indication of your lack of subordination. They can keep you out of the Marine Corps. And obviously you don't have blind pilots, obviously you don't have disabilities -- flat feet, hernia." LINK
Although equal opportunity may work well in academia and in terms of civilian employment, the colonel asserts, "in the military, all service is selective service -- even the draft was called the 'Selective Service Act.' There is no right to serve your country in peacetime or in war time."" outrageously funny. with the added benefit of being useful. if u know anyone that is likely to get drafted, tell em to start racking up speeding fines and other misdemeanours. and take photos of the themselves doing gay stuff.

* hersh interview

"Q: What will it take for a majority of Americans to say no more torture, stop the war in Iraq?
Hersh: You're missing the point. It doesn't matter what a majority of Americans say. This President has four more years. He's going to do what he thinks he must do. "

and

"Hersh: But I would recommend any American who wants to understand where the government is going in the next four years to get a copy of (Rice's) confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It's a road map, and it's pretty frightening testimony. Their definition of where democracy should go in the Middle East doesn't include Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan; it only includes Iraq, Iran, and Syria."

and

"Hersh: The reality is that Qaddafi has been trying to talk to us about his weapons system for years, and we ignored him. The Libyans even came to me about two years ago and offered me a chance to go through their facilities because they couldn't get anybody's attention here."

hatriot

patriotboy on DeLay

AMDOM
* u know u are toast when... wsjoped turns on Delay (via rawstory). foxnews is defending him, kinda. fredbarnes: 'theres an alliance between the dems, the liberals, and the media...' (lets not forget the pre-schiavo brooks article slamming abramoff - which was apparently an attempt to carve DeLay out of the scandals - which i said would fail)

* itd be so much fun if the whole schiavo mess was an attempt to save DeLay (as some have argued), and it fails to save him, and brings down the repug congress in the process.

* speaking of rawstory, they are running a campaign: "What the paper chase asks people to do is to simply: print, copy, and leave news wherever you go on a daily basis for twoweeks." http://rawstory.com/contact/paperchase.html. the ritter interview might be a good start - part 1, 2, 3 (dont bother about the comments obviously.)

* speaking of ritter, if he supported the war and all that, can you imagine how loudly the msm would tout his credentials as an expert and quoting him widely?

* "Yes, it turns out that good Christian hero Scott Heldreth who let his 10-year-old get arrested at the Terri Schiavo protests is a registered sex offender in Florida" priceless.

* billowens is a fucking creep. he reminds me of reed and santorum for some reason.

* ron has some highlights from blackwells testimony last week. my personal fave: (snarky astonishment)
"To believe (that misallocation of voting machines disenfranchised voters), you would have to conclude that somebody decided to distribute voting machines with the idea in mind that mostly Democratic voters, when faced with long lines, would give up and go home."

* CI has more

* xymph on the aipac thing. go read it. and the haaretz version

* amanda nails it: "It seems to me that there's an effort going on to convince Americans that the number of us that are Crazy Christians is bigger than it really is. But why?..... It's time to start asking--who benefits if Americans believe that half the country has joined the American Taliban?"
i posted this in the comments:
"blue folk (and rest of world): "how could bush possibly get re-elected?"
karl rove: "we energised the xtian base"
blue folk (and rest of world): "surely they arent all that stupid?"
karl rove: "look at your tv""

* "Doctors or other health care providers could not be disciplined or sued if they refuse to treat gay patients under legislation passed Wednesday by the Michigan House... The bill allows health care workers to refuse service to anyone on moral, ethical or religious grounds." link

* josh notes a lovely example of nepotism amongst this crew who dont like nepotism in other countries (or in the UN). as u know, i think its odd that they criticise others given say, the bush synasty, or powell or cheney or any of the other proud members of the meritocracy.

* the AEI is "not exactly singing Peter Tosh songs, but that's a pretty radically sane position to take." LINK
shorter AEI: we cant fight no war on drugs, we've got a war on terror to fite. our prisons are too full with non-muslim nonterrorists. (corrected from 'terrorists' to 'nonterrorists')
* speaking of drug wars, heres one thing i dont understand. given that the pharma companies own congress (et al), why the whole anti-contraception thing? u'd think theyd love to be able to sell 'the pill' to say 25% of the population. they can get nearly every kid on ssris......

* speaking of drug wars: "Jesse Kearns blames the anthrax vaccines, pumped into his right arm over 14 months while he served in the navy, for leaving him saddled with the medical woes of a man three times his age."

be nice to whoever has your living will

MEDIA
* did anyone see the new am-version of The Office? the thought of it sounds appalling. report pls.

* if ashleysmith tried to read The Purpose-Driven Life life to me after id just killed a bunch of folk, she'd be toast.

* fauxnews is doing a massive jonk slam - showing the whole swiftboat thingy again on laurie wotshernames (dhue?) sunday magazine show. i saw the same piece 2 weeks ago - it goes for like 15mins or some such. they really really want hillary to run in 08...

* "The rest of the report, which is directed to the newsgathering process of CBS, is flawed. The panel was unable to decide whether the documents were authentic or not. It didn't hire its own experts. It didn't interview the principal expert for CBS. It all but ignored an important argument for authenticating the documents—"meshing." It did not allow cross-examination. It introduced a standard for document authentication very difficult for news organizations to meet—"chain of custody"—and, lastly, it characterized parts of the broadcast as false, misleading, or both, in a way that is close to nonsensical. One is tempted to say that the report has as many flaws as the flaws it believes it has found in Dan Rather's CBS broadcast." LINK
(James C. Goodale, an Adjunct Professor at Fordham Law School, is the former Vice Chairman and General Counsel of The New York Times and represented the newspaper in the Pentagon Papers case. )

* in other news, cbs' purge is a good start sez the shitehouse. now they have a blankslate and can *start* to prove their credentials. LINK

* sciam does a great april1 ed - eg: "This magazine will be dedicated purely to science, fair and balanced science, and not just the science that scientists say is science." go read it LINK

* the very curious thing about naomi kleins explosive new details about sgrena is that these seem to be new details. how did that happen? how long has it been? a month? i dont get it. sgrena is a fucking journalist, and its a major interest story in italy, if not elsewhere - its not like she should be struggling to get her story out. how can it be that we only now learn that sgrena wasnt even on the famously dangerous road? or even that there is another road! curiouser.

* the beeb is still going crazy of mjacko.

* CI points to this sundayherald article slamming blair(i hardly never read the sundayherald and im always impressed when i do): " In fact, the Prime Minister had not asked the intelligence services for their views on Iraq’s WMD in the crucial months leading up to the war... If the Prime Minister is not punished then consider the consequences; if the precedent is established that ministers like David Blunkett can be fired if they commit a petty offence like fast-tracking a visa, but for the big crimes – like fast-tracking a war – there will be no comeback. Then the freedom for which we fought against Hitler will die out, our claim to export freedom will produce a cynical laugh around the world and the country will sink into a permanent condition of corruption."
i dont know a thing about uk politics, but it seems as tho the tide is turning somewhat against blair. maybe there simply isnt an opposition. tradesports.com has blair @ 90% (ie ten-to-1 that he loses) which is extraordinary in what we call a '2-horse race'. as a comparison, (just picking another 2-horse race at random), in the Roger Federer vs Mariano Zabaleta matchup today at the nasdaq open, u can get 12/1 the guy ive never heard of. and federer is apparently the best tennis player ever. is bliar really that bullet-proof? the mkts say that he is. astonishing.


SCHIAVO
* latest schiavo argument on teeve - some idiot saying: 'jeb has an obligation to save terri, just like his brother did when the UN told him he couldnt go to iraq to save the american people'

* fascinating article (in retrospect) from the Guardian from nov03 - read it all:
"But, given the vehemence with which he has been fighting to prolong Terri's life, it is a little surprising to learn that Robert 9schindler) decided to turn off the life-support system for his mother. She was 79 at the time, and had been ill with pneumonia for a week, when her kidneys gave out. "I can remember like yesterday the doctors said she had a good life. I asked, 'If you put her on a ventilator does she have a chance of surviving, of coming out of this thing?'" Robert says. "I was very angry with God because I didn't want to make those decisions."" LINK
im having trouble keeping score - but from memory, Delay turned off the machine on his dad. schiavos dad did the same to/for his mum. frist advocated it for everyone, and blinky did too if they couldnt pay. for starters.

* "Terri Schiavo's Blog" LINK

* everyone loves deconstructing brooks. its incredible how much time people waste/spend on him.

* " But a Newsweek poll taken a week earlier, before the dispute over Schiavo was being featured so prominently in the news, also showed a five-point drop, to 45 percent, for Bush." LINK

* schiavo got a drop of blood for communion. heh.

* rogerailes to the fetusfolk "And may the Easter Bunny have mercy on your eggs." LINK

feedus folk

AMDOM
* amysullivan laughs at blinky. apparently he tried to call the redlake folk to offer concolences, but he only got voicemail. LINK

* its kinda funny that libs are getting called Death-luvvers while there are pix of a bloody jc on a cross everywhere and melgibsonsthepassion flagellative is on high-rotation

* watching the glee on timrusserts mug discussing religion is frightening. does everyone have the god virus?

* "Senate Foreign Relations Chair Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) scheduled hearings for April 7 on the confirmation of John Bolton as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations." LINK

* i just rewatched the frist video where he did the aids/tears&sweats thing - the funny thing was that stephanopolous even asked him the question.

* speaking of hersh, in my post on the nyt exonerating dicky perle, i meant to mention that he bullied hersh and called him a terrorist and tried/threatened to sue him. rebecca picks up that point (in ref to my post) and suggests that is why the media is being so nice to him. id prolly argue that the media response would have been exactly the same regardless of the hersh incident.

* the fbi didnt quite tell the truth about flying saudis out of am post 911 LINK

* "For all of Tom DeLay's public espousal of Christian values, particularly his deep commitment to family, he privately has nursed a terrible estrangement from his own mother and three siblings." LINK

* michael kinsley writes an article mostly slamming the incuriousson, but then he inexplicably writes:

"Bush's motive for pushing so hard on Social Security reform is more mysterious. But the possibility of idealism must be entertained, because any cynical motive for threatening Social Security seems so far-fetched. The explanation can't be Bush's official one..."

jeepers! far-fetched? how about wall-street fees for example? (hint - look at the bankruptcy bill.)

* " The state's highest court ruled on Thursday that the Bloomberg administration must release the New York City Fire Department's oral history of the Sept. 11 attack, but said the city could withhold portions that would cause "serious pain or embarrassment" to the fire officials interviewed." LINK
its a shame they wont be able to get those FAA tapes that were destroyed...

* months back i mentioned that the anti-gay marriage law had some (presumably) unintended side-effects - like justifying/excusing domestic (non-married) violence. we have our first victim. LINK

* quick question for the fetusfolk: how do u feel about china's one-child policy? imagine the gas-prices today if they didnt have it yesterday. imagine the likelihood of your kid ever having a job.

flackistan

WAR
* hersh: "The administration's use of the word "insurgents" in Iraq gives the wrong impression of militants, making them seem unorganized and barbaric. They in fact should be called "resisters," because they are simply resisting the US occupation.
These resisters are more methodical than Bush or the media have given them credit for." amygoodman calls them the resistance too and i love her for it. LINK

* btw, amongst all the outrage that the egadmin lied that it was nthkorea who sold newks to libya, there seems to be 3 important angles of the story that are getting missed. 1) pakistan is buying newk technology 2) pakistan is selling newk technology 3) posterchild libya is buying newk technology

* oh yeah - and then theres the sale of the f-16s to pakistan.

* and while we're on that page: " A federal criminal investigation has uncovered evidence that the government of Pakistan made clandestine purchases of *U.S.* high-technology components for use in its nuclear weapons program in defiance of American law... efforts by two U.S. agencies to send investigators to Pakistan to gather more evidence have hit a bottleneck in *Washington*" LINK

* via xymphora: "The Communist Party of the Philippines spokesman Gregorio Rosal claimed that American covert operatives reportedly based in the country are apparently planning to stage 'terrorist attacks in the Philippines that it would blame on other threat groups.'
The objective of this plot is to 'justify the escalation of US military intervention in the country,' he added." LINK

* i havent mentioned it for a while, but given that the barmy is gonna miss recruiting targets in march and april (after being down 30% last month), perhaps we should revisit the issue of privatising many of the functions so that halliburton and bechtel et al can cream the amtaxpayer. if u wanted to go to a warzone, would u join the army or join halliburton at 4x salary? and if u were halliburton, and u can charge say 20x, would u increase wages to ensure that u had the workforce required?
the barmy cant win that battle, but they need troops for the ensuing wars. how many solutions are there apart from the draft?

feeding tube frenzy

many folk are sick of the schiavo thing - which i can understand, but it still matters. (the details of the case dont matter of course.)

there are 2 reasons why it matters

heres the first:

"On March 21, 2005 12:44 am, the extremists in charge of the US Government showed the world that when they don't like a law or a legally valid court decision - ANY law, ANY court decision, for ANY reason, no matter how carefully adjudicated - they are prepared to rip it up. There is a word for this.
The word is fascism."

as ive railed for years, the whole 'proto-fascist' and 'pre-fascist' labels were false, and misleading. whatever remnants there were of a veil have now been lifted. no longer can we responsibly use those qualifiers.

the 2nd reason schiavo matters is this:


(taking the poll at face value for the sake of argument) as stevegilliard notes , its the last point that matters (id argue that its the only question which matters). depending on how u look at it, 2006 is either a really long way away, or not that far away. 25% of folk are *much more likely* to vote against their congresscritter. most of the dems didnt vote. these figures are appalling for the repugs. we will probably have another war or two by 2006, so maybe this issue wont matter much, short memories and all, but maybe it does have legs. it seems to have struck people as being pretty personal.

"White House strategists believe that even if only a small fraction of the country supports intervention in the Schiavo case, they tend to be more passionate and will be more likely to vote on the issue, as opposed to the broad masses that disapprove. " LINK

this logic doesnt seem to be supported by the polling, and even if it was true, you've gotta think that the fetusfolk already vote red.


the polling on this was terrible from day one. gilliard and many others ask "Why did they miscalculate so badly?" - id lift that up a level and first ask "did they miscalculate?" - and then ask whether it matters. if they miscalculated, then why is the media frenzy continuing? they completely hijacked easter. its true (as NAGOURNEY hack pointed out) that blinky and delay and frist have receded from the fray, and this lovely piece of baloney:
"STEPHANOPOULOS: And, George Will, according to some of the reporting I've seen, the President actually resisted calls from the members of Congress to get involved and to fly back at the last minute. Should have followed his instincts?"

but if they were really worried about it, u'd think they'd try to dampen things down a little, yet it seems that "The din of the Schiavo death watch continued". on sunday talk shows - not surprising with freaks like falwell and perkins and richard land polluting the airwaves. the story is still the number one story at foxnews.com - they could have easily used easter as an excuse or something.

so again, i ask whether they really did miscalculate? - or more specifically, whether they think they miscalculated. and even if they did, does it matter? probably not - becos of point1 above. there arent any mistakes in a fascist state. or there arent any consequences. thats why fascist states are so much fun. especially if you are in charge...

maybe gilliard is right tho - maybe it really is a big fuckup. and if thats true, then it is important, particularly if we assume that the country is still a democracy with a functioning rule of law and all that stuff. i kinda get the sense that things are speeding up - one imagines that theres a tipping point somewhere, and that we are racing toward it. the only question is what the world looks like the following day - riots & impeachment or military rule?

(there are of course other reasons why the schiavo case is important - particularly abortion and the judicial nominations)

go barmy

MEDIA
* josh brings up my favorite question - CBS " still sitting on the goods in the Niger story after all." LINK

* kofi is toast. murdoch frontpages with "he's also prone to bouts of severe depression, especially when his credibility and personal integrity are questioned." LINK

* tfriedman gets nasty: " This administration is for "ownership" of everything except responsibility."
he is apparently shocked to learn that amgrunts do bad things - but he recently read that some so - and in the nyt no less! LINK

* nyt headline: "Chirac Is Said to Listen In on Rival's Phone Calls" LINK
they then go on to detail the accusations. from a satirical magazine. make.it.stop.

* the beeb is reporting that tsunami deaths were 75% women, according to oxfam.

* cnn has been running an extraordinarily stupid piece all day about some apparently indestructible nerf-type toy thingy called a 'peep'. wtf is going on? the piece runs for about 10 fucking minutes. and ive seen it at least 5 times today. the company is apparently based in bethlehem PA, maybe its a gift to the religio freaks.

* "The Howard government’s appointment of Janet Albrechtsen to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s board of directors on February 24 is another demonstration of Canberra’s efforts to transform the network into a mouth-piece for pro-government propaganda. Albrechtsen, a corporate lawyer and columnist for Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspaper, is infamous for her right-wing views and hostility towards the ABC.
After her appointment, Albrechtsen declared that she would use her new position to examine the “problems of bias and how facts are presented”. The hypocrisy of this claim is nothing short of breathtaking." LINK
good grief. this woman is an animal. murdoch has been destroying the beeb as well. he is so damned good at this shit.

* goarmy.com is still advertising on the daily show's website. funny.

a few bad snapples

WAR
* sgrena was actually on "a secured road that you can only enter through the Green Zone and is reserved exclusively for ambassadors and top military officials", not the famously dangerous BIAH road. the shots that killed calipari and hit sgrena *came from behind*, and the driver was the only person not hit. (u might remember that the photos released were all from the front). go watch the demnow interview with naomiklein. intriguing. LINK

* juancole: "Likewise, the Spanish declined to move against the Sadr Movement for fear of massive turbulence, so the US sent in special ops forces to arrest an aide to Muqtada al-Sadr anyway. (It is just unimaginable that the US would endanger the 1200 Spanish troops in Najaf in this high-handed way. It has been alleged to me by someone who should know that Dan Senor played a key role in this move)." LINK
wtf is ari3 doing calling the shots??? 'karl and karen do it, why cant i?'

* heres more on that attack that apparently killed 85 'insurgents' the other day at a 'terrorist training camp'. "UP to 40 fighters were seen today at a Iraq lakeside training camp attacked by US and Iraqi forces a day before and said they had never left, an AFP correspondent who visited the site said." LINK
curious.

* more on that bogus story about the heroic iraqi army killing 85 furrners in a terrorist training camp. wapo, umm, backpedals: "I would tell you that somewhere between 11 and 80 lies an accurate number." LINK

* "US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair should be tried as war criminals for their role in the heinous crimes and abuses, from the use of banned weapons, raping of Iraqi women to the stealing of the body parts of Iraqi resistance fighters, according to Iraqi legal experts."

* "Elsewhere, a friendly-fire incident near the Syrian border between Iraqi police and army left five dead.
Iraqi police and army traded fire in Rabia, 130 kilometers (80 miles) northwest of Mosul, leaving three soldiers and two police dead, Major General Mohamed al-Jaburi told AFP." LINK
bummer. theres an oz slang expression for a mistake: blue (i think thats the spelling) - which makes the whole -blue-on-blue thing just a little bit funnier

* "The Bush administration's decision to sell F-16 fighter planes to Pakistan is likely to be as warmly greeted in Fort Worth as it is in Karachi.
That's because Lockheed Martin Corp. has said it needs new orders for the jet before this fall, or it will have to take action to close the production line there that employs about 5,000 workers." LINK
hmmmm - at least the sales werent for warmongering purposes... or maybe its just one of those win/win dual-purpose thingies. oh yeah, of course: the deal is "a happy juxtaposition of the wants and needs" of an ally in the war on terrorism and Lockheed's troubled F-16 line."
and if thats not enough:
"Despite the concerns Indian officials expressed yesterday about news of the sale to Pakistan, the analyst said the prospect of both countries (india/pak) buying F-16s is a positive. "Two countries that have F-16s have never fought a war.""
praps we should sell them to syria and iran real quick.

* meanwhile:
"Rumsfeld described Venezuela’s agreement to buy military hardware from Russia as a threat to the hemisphere. “Certainly I’m concerned,” he said, referring to the arms deal, which involves the purchase of 100,000 AK-47 rifles as well as 10 military helicopters from Moscow." LINK venezuela is a democracy. pakistan is a military dictatorship.

* meanwhile: "Tehran also is seeking approval for a U.N.-funded satellite network that Iran says it needs to fight drug smugglers, stoking U.S. worries it could be used to spy on Americans in Iraq or Afghanistan — or any U.S. reconnaissance in Iran itself." LINK
ummm - the ams are worried that the iranians might spy on the ams spying in iran.

* some people are surprised by this:
"Despite recommendations by Army investigators, commanders have decided not to prosecute 17 American soldiers implicated in the deaths of three prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003 and 2004" LINK

right to lie-f

SCHIAVO
* remember what seetheforest said the other day: the media keeps ramping up the schiavo thing even tho the polls suggest that the egadministration is losing... the stunt begging for her to get body/blood-of-christ-communion was awesome. meanwhile, as the media does their till-death-do-us-part vigil, blinky and delay and frist have all got outta the way. LINK

* jeb tried sending in the goons to steal terri on thurs. there was a showdown cos the localcops didnt think that was such a good idea. the media has been really shuuuush about it. LINK

* tomdelay: ""When they can knock out a leader, then no other leader will step forward for a while, because they don't want to go through the same thing," he told members of the Family Research Council, in remarks that were secretly recorded and then repeatedly played on television news. "If they go after and get a pastor, then other pastors shrink from what they should be doing."" LINK
how does he know this? because that is the exact game they play. cf danrather. cf wardchurchill. et fukking al.

* dbrooks:
"The central weakness of the liberal case is that it is morally thin. Once you say that it is up to individuals or families to draw their own lines separating life from existence, and reasonable people will differ, then you are taking a fundamental issue out of the realm of morality and into the realm of relativism and mere taste."
making fun of brooks is fun. and compulsory.
dear david, just because people disagree with your 'morality' doesnt mean that they are immoral. and im glad that you and yours are proud of being morally thick.

* "the Schindlers have enlisted legal assistance that's amounted to millions of dollars at this point, mostly from national right to life associated groups. " LINK and how much free advertising did these groups get over the years? one would have to imagine that they've had at least $100million in free 'advertising' in these last 2 weeks alone. probably multiples of $100million. all donated in-kind by the merchants of death weapons manufacturers and their enablers in the media.

* "So the "Terri Supporters" outside the hospice have gotten more attention in 10 minutes than the entire anti-war protests have received over the last two years." LINK http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/26/202027/073

* "In a Weekly Standard essay titled "Runaway Judiciary," Hugh Hewitt predicted confidently that public fury over the Schiavo case will increase support for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's plan "to break the Democratic filibusters of judicial nominees and ... a backlash against any Republican who sides with the Democrats on the coming rules change vote."... Ultimately the Schiavo case may well change the debate over the filibuster, though not as imagined by the likes of Hugh Hewitt, if only because Senate Democrats finally muster the courage and determination to defend the Constitution and an independent judiciary." LINK

* btw - how did schiavo hurt herself? i read somewhere that it was anorexia-induced - is that right? did her parents make her hate herself? do they hate themselves because of it?

* tomdelay pulled the plug on his dad LINK

* is schiavo's brother benstiller?

ssricide

AMDOM
* redlake murderer's prozax was just upped to 60mgs. can we call these things ssricide? LINK

* separately, the prozac article ends with this separate funny article:
"(AP) - All options should be considered to prevent rampages like the Minnesota shooting, including making guns available to teachers, Sandra S. Froman, first vice president of the National Rifle Association, said Friday." (and u know what i think about when the nyt does that)

* "Mr. Bush comes by the restaurant occasionally, the last time was the Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving. The routine is always the same. "He loves rubbing bald heads. He says it brings him luck."" LINK mmmmm - lucky gannon.

* stephen roach sounding like he makes sense again. and scaring people in the meantime. http://www.morganstanley.com/GEFdata/digests/20050325-fri.html#anchor0

* "A strange thing happened on This Week, this past Sunday. Donald Rumsfeld just didn't know very much about anything when speaking with George Stephanopoulos.
He didn't know about possible U.S. knowledge of Pakistani involvement in nuclear sales between Libya and North Korea.
He didn't know details about the trail going cold for Pakistan in their hunt for Bin Laden.
He didn't know if he had authorized any U.S. military flights over Iran.
He didn't know if these flights had originated from U.S. bases in Iraq.
He didn't know that Iran had protested the U.S. government, as a result." LINK
meanwhile - look for lots of Dog on your sunday talkshows today

* "Rubin underlines his central message by concluding: “Democrats struggling with the appointment of Mr. Wolfowitz may want to keep in mind that spreading democracy is a bipartisan mission.”" LINK
i wanna heart some of the dems sometimes, i really do. but they make it so difficult... rubin can go to hell. biden can go to hell. hillary can go to hell. jonk can go to hell. pelosi can go to hell. conyers ill keep. tkennedy ill keep. hdean ill keep for the mo. boxer ill keep for the mo. hreid ill probably try to keep.

haririport

the hariri report is here

heres the section on whether it was subterranean:

"28. The analysis of the fragments caused by the explosion and of the shape and form of the crater gives indicators equally supporting hypotheses of a surface and of a subterranean explosion. However, the analysis of the damage caused to the buildings in and around the crime scene suggests a surface explosion. The evidence of heat wash on several metal fragments is a clear indicator of a high explosive charge; the fact that the Mission's experts found evidence of heat wash on fragments of vehicles and on fragments of metal shield holders placed in front of the St. George hotel supports the hypothesis of a surface explosion. Metal fragments found sticking in the side of cars indicate an explosion of a heavy vehicle and the dispersion of such fragments in this direction.

29. Many of the indicators pointing to a subterranean explosion, such as the fragments of the road asphalt, manhole and others found in upper floors of the St. George hotel, the impact on the vehicle roofs, and the damage to upper floors in the adjacent buildings, are not inconsistent with a surface large explosion.

30. After having conducted all the analysis and discussions of the samples collected, the Mission's experts came to the conclusion that it was most likely an explosion above the ground, that the explosive used was Trinitrotoluene (TNT) and of an approximate weight of 1000kg."

heres the relevant bit about the water:

"d) The seat of the explosion (the resulting crater) was flooded with water in the days following the explosion after the local authorities/Police failed to prevent water from being turned on and released into the crater through the fractured pipes at the scene, thereby damaging or even eliminating vital evidence."

more to follow, one expects...

hariri update

* i havent been able to make sense of the haririkiri report. i cant find the report at the UN's website - praps cos it was goodfriday. it was sposed to be sent to the UNSC on thurs afternoon

* heres the nyt lede:

"A toughly worded United Nations report into the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, concluded Thursday that heavy-handed Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs had created the polarizing tensions that led to his death and that a deeply flawed local investigation had obstructed efforts to find his killers."

but we dont get much useful information, and the article seems to be an exercise in obfuscation rather than illumination

"the government of Syria "bears primary responsibility for the political tension that preceded the assassination." It said Syria's interference in Lebanon was "heavy-handed and inflexible" which, combined with inept Lebanese security, was responsible for "political polarization" that "provided the backdrop" for the assassination."

i dont really know what that means.

and we are told:

" In what it called a case of "stark negligence," it noted that Mr. Hariri's security detail was cut to 8 people from 40 after he left office."

altho that seems kinda trite. its not difficult to imagine that a sitting president gets more security than an ex-president. and its not beyond the realm of possibility that a gazillionaire can afford his own security if he felt it appropriate.

and we are told that the crime scene was badly managed, which we've been told before - altho the emphasis seems to have changed:

" the crater created by the bomb was allowed to fill with water from a broken main, destroying evidence; people were permitted to move freely in and out of the crime scene and remove objects; and vehicles involved in the blast were removed, preventing proper ballistic analysis."

its not inconceivable that the explosion blew up the mains, and one would expect water would flow into the crater. thats what water does. the other stuff seems quite damning, altho they appear to have been de-emphasized - so we can only speculate at the mo... (which is mostly futile, but its all we've got at the mo)

as for destroying the crime scene, im reminded of the fact that the same thing happened at the wtc in nyc, where the stuff was shipped off to china for scrap...

and then we get this tantalizing sentence, nee paragraph.

"The report said the explosion had been caused by a ton of TNT, detonated most likely above ground."

which of course is the key... its not obvious how we can be sure that it was a ton of TNT if we arent sure whether it was subterranean or not. presumably the result is completely different if the tnt is buried - so its difficult to imagine being sure about one element, but not the other.

more to follow - im sure

rule of lore

* "Michigan bill would ban medical decisions if adultery is involved"
maybe all the disgusting repug men are scared that their wives will have em killed at the first chance. LINK

* are the fetuspeople gonna explode before or after schiavo dies? the world has gone completely fucking batshit.

* "What's on Terri Schiavo's iPod?" LINK

* i heart james woolcott:
"Here's something the cable news outfits could do that would rilly rilly rilly be useful, given that they got all those cameras down there in Florida and all.
Just for the kooky hell of it, why don't they provide us with one wide shot or overview of the protestors and vigil-holders in Pinellas Park just so we can see how big the gathering is? Is it a big, swelling group, or is it like the jubilant Iraqis surrounding Hussein's razed statue, a seeming mass revealed in long wideout as a motley get-together? And what is the ratio of Schiavo deathwatchers to media deathwatchers? Are there as many reporters there as sign-holders, or what?"

* everyone is laughing at the nyt for frontpaging this story which explains how statesmanlike jeb is - even his critics agree that he really likes god. or something.

* blinky's approval rating has dropped 7% points in a week. LINK

* if u search yahoo for "terryschiavo@cnn.com", you only get one result - wotisitgood4.blogspot.com - which is odd, cos that term was never here, till now. apparently people are searching for that term tho. for some reason. maybe people think that cnn must be employing her, given the absurd level of coverage. (and the rest of the jokes just write themselves)

ritter part 3

* part 3 of the rawstory ritter interview

go read it all, but here are a couple of highlights:
"Ritter: A high level source, a NeoCon at that, within the system has said to me directly that “John’s Bolton job is to destroy the UN, Rice’s job is to destroy the State Department’s and replace it with a vehicle of facilitation for making the Pentagon’s national security policy.”"

"The NeoCons are parasites. They build nothing. They bring nothing. They don’t have a foundation. They don’t stand for business. They don’t stand for ideology. They use a host to facilitate and grow their own power. They are parasites that latch onto oil until is no longer convenient. They latch on to Democracy until it is no longer convenient."

* btw - i asked larisa if she could explain the transcription problem that i mentioned yesterday - her response: "the error was technical, involving my tape recorder. Not very exciting."

they hate us for our dangerous freedoms

* "Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism” by “dictator professors” in the classrooms of Florida’s universities....“Some professors say, ‘Evolution is a fact. I don’t want to hear about Intelligent Design (a creationist theory), and if you don’t like it, there’s the door,’” Baxley (R-Ocala) said, citing one example when he thought a student *should* sue." http://www.alligator.org/pt2/050323freedom.php
please.make.it.stop.

* " Baxley brushed off Gelber’s concerns. “Freedom is a dangerous thing, and you might be exposed to things you don’t want to hear,”"

* Baxley compared the state’s universities to children, saying the legislature should not give them money without providing “guidance” to their behavior.

perle choker

* the other day i questioned why the nyt hadnt covered the fact that the SEC are looking to sue perle. they actually ran a truncated version (hidden in the 'MEDIA & ADVERTISING' section) of the bloomberg piece. compare and contrast.

* heres the bloomberg headline: "Perle, Ex-Pentagon Aide, May Face SEC Suit Over Hollinger Role"

* heres the nyt headline: "Hollinger Director Warned".

* curiously, a news.google of the nyt headline "Hollinger Director Warned" comes up empty.

* the nyt ends with this from halfway thru the bloomberg article: "Mr. Perle said that he never profited from the deals." (news.googling that phrase comes up empty as well)

* here are some of the bits from the bloomberg article from *below* where the nyt story stops:

"If the SEC takes action, it would be a ``significant stigma'' for someone who has built his post-government career on a wide network of business interests"
"The SEC could seek to bar Perle from serving as an officer or director of any public company".

[...]

"Perle received $3.1 million in undisclosed bonuses at Hollinger for running an Internet investment arm called Hollinger Digital".

[...]

"Perle and Gerald Hillman, a friend of Perle, convinced Black to put $2.5 million of company cash in Trireme Partners LP, a venture-capital fund that Perle and Hillman had set up"

[...]

"The Breeden report said of Perle: ``His executive committee performance falls squarely into the `head-in-the-sand' behavior that breaches a director's duty of good faith and renders him liable for damages"

[...]

"The SEC warning adds to the scrutiny of Perle's business affairs. In 2003, members of Congress, including John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, questioned why Perle set up an investment fund and took consulting jobs from other companies while serving as chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board under President Bush."

[...]

"At Hollinger, Perle was the only non-management member of the executive committee, which had wide authority to approve transactions. Perle approved deals that let Black and Radler buy Hollinger newspapers for themselves at below-market prices and loan money to companies they controlled, causing at least $10 million in losses"

[...]

"``It is difficult to imagine a more flagrant abdication of duty,'' the report said. ``Perle clearly had a motive to abdicate his fiduciary duties as an executive committee member so as to accommodate the persons responsible for his huge Hollinger compensation.''"

the nypost weighs in:

""It's a huge stigma," said Robert Zito, a partner at Schiff, Hardin who defends companies in securities fraud suits. "Anyone under an SEC investigation will be deemed a pariah.""

and

"Perle was blasted in an internal investigation by Hollinger that contends he enabled Black and his business associates to plunder the company to the tune of $400 million. Perle has maintained that Black duped him."

isnt that the failed ebbers defence? one could imagine that there's a story here somewhere.

the only good thing that can be said for the nyt's bastardization of this story is that the rest of the american media seems to be avoiding it as well.

to ignore or mislead? that is the eternal question...

8 consecutive consonants

AMDOM
* notgannon is not military. LINK

* apparently blinky hasnt mentioned the RedLake thing.

* "“[You] have asked a question people shouldn’t have to answer,” said Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman to a reporter asking if he is gay." out again. LINK

* "Kyrgyzstan's revolt is part of a pattern behind which some analysts, particularly Russian ones, see the hand of Washington. Similar "velvet" revolutions have taken place in Georgia and Ukraine, where Soviet-era authorities were thrown out by well-organised street protests. The trigger for the uprisings has been the same: allegations of rigged elections. "
everyone can uprise except the stupid americans. the consequences are global. LINK
(i promise not to pretend to become a Kyrgyzstan expert)

* " Early Friday, Raw Story will release the third installment of our interview with former UN weapons inspector Ritter. The interview was delayed due to transcription issues."
im intrigued. what is a transcription issue? this interview was done 2 weeks ago... LINK

* gorevidal: " Ohio was stolen... Bush was never elected--not in 2000, and not in 2004. " LINK

* jimlehrer is doing a propaganda series on socsec - they do two really cool things: 1) they introduce a 25 y.o. astrophysicist genius who says 'when socsec began, there were 16 workers for every retiree, nowadays...' 2) they stand in front of a classroom setting with a few 20-somethings and ask people to put up their hand if they think theyll get as much out of socsec as current retirees. see, socsec is broken. or bankrupt. or something.

* everyones talking about virginity pledges and stuff. turns out they are mostly abuot 'technical virginity' - so theres lots of unprotected anal sex. neato. meanwhile, check out these clothes. LINK

* "The Democrats have approved the abortion of tens of millions of future workers, millions of whom would be in the workforce right now paying into Social Security." LINK

* "The U.S. Army is ordering more people to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan involuntarily from a seldom-used personnel pool as part of a mobilization that began last summer" LINK

* ohio stinks. remember that massively under-reported story/case about the judges being bought and all that cliff arnebeck won? go read this article - altho it doesnt mention that case (cos the article is 2 years old), it seems to describe that sort of thing. of course, the guy in charge of owning ohio is a repug. of course, the guy in charge is married. of course, the guy in charge sexually assaults men and women. (and is in cahoots with our in-out-shakeitallabout friend mehlman)

* the nazi website where that redlake kid was hanging out had a 'free matt hale' ad on it.

* frank rich informs us that the austin courthouse granite 10commandments recently famousized in todays courts wrt church/state separation issues were actually a promo for Cecil B. DeMille's Ten Commandments. where to start with this one? lol. why does hollywood hate god? so much ironing, so little time. LINK

* "The IRS is accusing a church of violating its tax-exempt status for engaging in political activities.
Read the next line only if you are sitting down. They are making the accusation because of an appearance by a Democratic candidate." LINK

* "As a family spokesperson, Randall Terry spent much of his time demonizing Michael Schiavo, claiming that he had deserted his wife and was living with another woman. Somewhere along the way Randall Terry has misplaced his moral compass and lapsed into a persistent state of memory loss. He forgot his own pathetic record on marital fidelity and other "family values" issues: A few years ago, Terry deserted his wife and children for a young woman who had worked for his failed congressional campaign; last year, when Terry's son Jamiel revealed that he was gay in Out magazine, Terry responded with a diatribe in the Rev. Son Myung Moon-owned Washington Times, criticizing his son, writing that: "He is no longer welcome in my home.""
so sweet. LINK

* bobby "Fischer's real crime was of course making some outspoken, if true, statements in the wake of September 11 about the United States and Israel and their unholy alliance against Islam." LINK
why would they care what a smart person said about 911?

WAR
* so many dead people in iraq i can hardly keep count. still no govt. some of the stories sound like bollox tho. 'we killed lots of people', 'they were bad', 'some were foreign', 'the iraqi troops did a really good job'

living swill

SCHIAVO ('slave' in italian)
* being single is cool - but to whom do u bequeath your living will?

* "In 1992, Schiavo had filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against two doctors who had been treating his wife before she was stricken. Late that year came a settlement: Schiavo received $300,000 for loss of consortium — his wife's companionship. Another $700,000 was ordered for Terri's care." LINK
theres a $1m lawsuit involved and this is the first ive heard of it? JUNK i say JUNK!

* " Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith, author of the award winning book "Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America" call upon the Florida Courts, Governor Jeb Bush and concerned citizens to take any legal action available to let Terri Schiavo live." LINK
say it isnt so. please say it isnt so.

* "You point out how hypocritical the Republicans are being without thinking about WHY. Stop arguing details, getting all caught up and pinned down. Start arguing the larger narrative.
Tune in to Limbaugh. Go read the Right's press. They are escalating this. Ask yourself why." LINK

* theres been a few calls for jeb to use the military to save schiavo. if by 'save' u mean 'keep her from her maker against her wishes'. maker? make her live.

* "Two prominent neurologists who have asked to remain anonymous have examined CNN behind closed doors and determined that the network is irreversibly brain-dead, as flooded with cerebral fluid as the hull of the S.S. Poseidon. It still retains some primitive reflexes and signs of animation, but a brain-scan revealed the sort of minimal activity usually associated with punch-drunk prizefighters condemned to a flophouse cot, or a broken toaster." LINK

* today is a good day to be a living-will lawyer.

* i mentioned christopher reeves the other day wrt schiavo. heres frist on reeves, 6 months ago:
"Frist responded on a conference call with reporters arranged by the Bush-Cheney campaign: "I find it opportunistic to use the death of someone like Christopher Reeve -- I think it is shameful -- in order to mislead the American people… We should be offering people hope, but neither physicians, scientists, public servants or trial lawyers like John Edwards should be offering hype.
“It is cruel to people who have disabilities and chronic diseases, and, on top of that, it's dishonest. It's giving false hope to people, and I can tell you as a physician who's treated scores of thousands of patients that you don't give them false hope."" LINK

* "A letter in the Des Moines Register today sez that the repubs have just
defined marriage as “one man, one woman, her parents, and the US Congress."" LINK

* "Frist wrote a book in 1989 called Transplant where he advocated changing the definition of "brain dead" to include anencephalic babies. Anencephalic babies are in the same state as Terri Schiavo except that she suffered a physical trauma that put her into a vegetative state while the anencephalic babies are born that way." LINK

* "Anyway, the thing about this stupid "culture of life" phrase is not just the hypocrisy. I have also noticed that two values that BushCo likes to fling around are "life" and "freedom", but I have also noticed that the two are opposite values in their rhetoric. You can have freedom or life, but not both. They are pretty consistent in this viewpoint, and if they evoke freedom, you can be sure they are covering up for someone's death, and if they evoke "life", you can be sure they are trying to take away your freedoms. "

* itd be funny if schiavo dies and jeb gets blamed. much funny.

deny me thrice

everyone is pointing at this - twas on the frontpage of msnbc.com

greasing the psalm sunday. or something.

kiss and spell

lady liberty hates our freedoms

wheres the outrage?

im a warp president

WAR
* "An American Indian veterans' group awarded a "warriors medal of valor" Wednesday to former POW Jessica Lynch" LINK
because she spoke out about the lies?

* "The U.S. military command in Iraq has blocked two Italian policemen from examining the car in which an Italian intelligence agent was shot to death in Baghdad, a newspaper said Wednesday." LINK

* speaking of sgrena, demnow excerpted 20mins of a docu called "Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness ". whereforeartthou eason jordan? LINK

* "Government to be Formed by Sunday?... The Kurds will get the foreign ministry and the Ministry of Petroleum, in addition to a few others, as well as the presidency." LINK

* "Documentary evidence has emerged showing that the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, changed his mind about the legality of the Iraq war just before the conflict began. The damning revelation is contained in the resignation letter of Elizabeth Wilmshurst, a legal adviser at the Foreign Office, in which she said the war would be a "crime of aggression". " LINK
this story seems just about over the finish line - altho it has seemed like that for a year or more (2 years?).

* scottritter: "The problem is, there is good reason to believe that the percentage of votes for the Shi'a was higher – much higher. Well-placed sources in Iraq who were in a position to know have told me that the actual Shi'a vote was 56 percent. American intervention, in the form of a 'secret vote count' conducted behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny, produced the Feb. 14 result." (vs 48%) LINK

OTHER
* "Mohamed Fayed is more convinced than ever that Diana and Dodi were murdered - and that the Royal family were behind it. He tells Jonathan Margolis how the Stevens report will prove him right" LINK

take me to embed

AMDOM
* ""This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy," said Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut" ouch. LINK

* murdoch (the Oz) op-ed: "THE pattern of senior appointments in Washington offers a fascinating insight into where the second Bush administration is heading. If you're a Bush critic, the good news is that George W. Bush is going to take the multilateral system and international issues hugely seriously." LINK

* "Is Washington Post Editor Phillip Bennett the next Eason Jordan?
Washington Post managing editor Phillip Bennett had intense scrutiny directed his way when he was quoted in the People's Daily Online saying "I don't think US should be the leader of the world."" LINK
good fucking heavens.

* speaking of indymedia "Di Rita concluded his letter by again urging journalists to embed with U.S. forces. "Of course, I reiterate my recommendation that you consider embedding your reporters with U.S. units. It is an excellent opportunity to cover U.S. military activities in Iraq," he said." LINK

* "Republican media adviser R. Gregory Stevens, who was found dead in the Beverly Hills, Calif., home of actress Carrie Fisher on Feb. 26, died of an overdose of cocaine and the painkiller OxyContin, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office." LINK
the results are in.

* "The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has warned former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle that it may sue him for his role in the alleged looting of Hollinger International" LINK
sweet. btw - the nyt hasnt touched this story 'yet' - they wrote a piece wed on black's legal problems without mentioning perle.
awesome. may crimcharges follow. i wanna see him in orange.

* the other day i mentioned the U.S. House Committee hearings in Ohio about the election that were nearly invisible (apart from a couple of illers). there was only one "Voting Rights" group invited to give testimony at the hearings - an astroturf group that had been alive for 5 days, which of course is full of BC campaign officials. brad has the details LINK

* i finally registered as a DUmmie - i never hang out there, but i wanted to help out truthisall and save him/her some of the grief i went thru, and some of the false analysis that can result when trying to deal with that 13660 number - heres my post LINK

* " In the Schiavo case, the money leads to a consortium of conservative foundations, with $2 billion in total assets, that are funding a legal and public relations war of attrition intended to prolong Terri's life indefinitely in order to further their own faith-based cultural agendas... The Philanthropy Roundtable is a collection of foundations that have funded conservative causes ranging from abolition of Social Security to anti-tax crusades and United Nations conspiracy theories. The Roundtable members' founders include scions of America's wealthiest families, including Richard Mellon Scaife (heir to the Mellon industrial, oil and banking fortune), Harry Bradley (electronics), Joseph Coors (beer), and the Smith Richardson family (pharmaceutical products)." LINK

back to the election

* TruthIsAll thinks he(?) has ' incontrovertible proof' that the exit polls were broken:
"In the FINAL NATIONAL EXIT POLL of 13660 RESPONDENTS, POSTED ON CNN at 2:05pm on 11/3, 43% of voters claimed to have voted for Bush in 2000 while only 37% said they voted for Gore.
BUT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR 43% OF 122.26 million 2004 VOTERS TO HAVE VOTED FOR BUSH IN 2000 BECAUSE 43% of 122.26 = 52.57 MILLION VOTERS.
AND THE BUSH 2000 VOTE WAS JUST 50.5 MILLION."

which seems like a pretty good, if startlingly obvious, point - and it would also point to the theft of the 04 election. the exit polls reckon blinky got 4% more votes than the *conceivable maximum*. on top of that u can add in the dead 2000 voters, and those who changed sides, and those who didnt vote in 04 etc etc.

of course, he is using the 13660 NEP respondents, which doesnt affect his analysis but it gives me a chance to point out that it was yours truly who discovered and here/proved that this number was out by 2000. cnn are still using it, and i dont think that the NEP even realised that they had made the mistake until i pointed it out - and they apparently still havent told their subscribers.

joseph makes another point. al gore won the popular vote in 2000 - so its kinda odd that 04 voters went 43% for blinky and 37% for gore. joseph then points out that the whole hypothesis behind the error in the exitpolls was that bush voters ignored exitpollsters because either:
1) didnt like telling anyone that theyd voted for blinky - or
2) the exitpollsters looked smart - or
3) the fauxnews logo wasnt sufficiently recognisable on the pollsters badge (or that it was unrecognisable!)

the fact that there was a bush-over-gore premium of 17% seems to undermine that logic.

possible counterpoints to TruthIsAll's logic:
1. lots of people lied about who they voted for in 2000
2. blinky's 43% 2000 numbers arent absolute numbers but have been put through some 'legitimate' reweighting

i imagine there will be more on this story... i havent really thought about this issue recently - more to come when my brain switches back on.

its my one-party and ill cry if i want to

AMDOM
* mehlman is gay again. LINK

* everyone is freaking out about this dbrooks column. "The sleazo-cons thought they could take over K Street to advance their agenda. As it transpired, K Street took over them." maybe we won't have davey to kick around anymore... altho ezra suggests it might be a cover to hang reed/abramoff and save stupidDelay. its hard to see abramoff drowning without Delay tho. im tempted to believe that brooks hasnt seen the light - we'll know next week methinx. it'd sure be fun if he followed up with an article about mccains disgusting finance hypocrisy, altho we still wouldnt know who is paying brooks. (mccain08 is still 4/1 fave)

* (june04) "Reed has always operated behind the scenes, and apparently he didn't want to risk becoming a humbled hypocrite like his right-wing cohorts William Bennett and Rush Limbaugh... But Reed has managed to slither below the media's radar--until now... In the 2000 GOP presidential primary, Reed justified his big Enron fee by helping to smear John McCain during the South Carolina primary... In 1995, when he was still exploiting intolerance and fear, Time did a story on him that included the cover line "The right hand of God."" LINK

* "John Bolton cut his teeth in the world of big money intrigue that David Brooks describes -- and that makes him the wrong guy to pursue American interests at the United Nations at this point in the UN's history." LINK

* torture doesnt work, according to the FBI, but they still kept torturing people anyway. hmph. (the aclu just got these less redacted memos via FOI) LINK

* "Mr. Chertoff said at his confirmation hearing that he did not engage in detailed discussions of interrogation policies and never offered specific advice when he headed the criminal division at the Justice Department from 2001 to 2003, when he left the department to take an appointment to a federal appeals court.
But the newly released version of the memorandum identified for the first time four of Mr. Chertoff's top deputies who, according to the document, attended weekly meetings with F.B.I. officials in which the military's interrogation methods were frequently discussed and criticized as ineffective and unproductive." LINK

* "Mr. Cheney said retirees could receive a larger return from private investment accounts than from Social Security. "We want to take advantage of the time-value of money," he said." is cheney off the talkingpoints reservation? its sposed to be 'the miracle of compounding interest' - or maybe luntz has had a change of mind. we'll soon know. miracle sounds better tho - especially with Beaster nearly among us.

* btw - i read yesterday someone said they had given up catholicism for lent. it made me laugh. i hope everyone got themselves melgibsonsthepassion to watch on friday. would tomdelay have saved jesus if we were all way-back-then? would blinky have come back from crawford? LINK

* speaking of jokes, a coupla weeks ago i noted the beastieboys getting all political and i said 'you gotta fight for your right (for) two parties' and nobody laughed. so i'll repeat. just cos i thought it was funny.

* "Henry Waxman (D-CA) said the Bush administration, "acting at the request of Halliburton," intentionally concealed evidence from the (oil4food successor)... Waxman found an unredacted audit and compared it to the redacted version.... He said there were "striking differences" between the two. " go read for more. LINK

* Iain Duncan Smith: "Republicans also need to proceed carefully. Once a guillotine (nuclear option) or other minority-limiting power has been introduced, minority rights are never so sacrosanct again. Republicans now bask in the glory of recent advances but, one day, they will be in the minority again." LINK
when will people wake up and smell the fascist napalm? the repugs will never be a minority party. they will either be the govt, or they wont exist any more. ie they will be the govt until they *completely* implode and then no-one will ever dare attempt to revive the dirty party. never again. the only remaining questions are when they'll implode, and how much damage they'll do to the rest of us in the process.