Gays are Icky!

What a name...
---
IPCC Clears G20 Protest Sergeant Delroy Smellie

Sgt Delroy Smellie confronted Nicola Fisher at the G20 protests
A police officer accused of striking a woman with a baton at a G20 protest has been cleared by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Sgt Delroy Smellie was alleged to have assaulted Nicola Fisher, 36, of Brighton, during the protest in Exchange Square, London, in April 2009.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/london/10340798.stm

Right-Wing Campaign Jeopardizes Rights Of The Poor, Working Class

[Duh--ee. Which One? Well, in this case, this one...]

by Bill Quigley | June 17, 2010 - 9:31am

This week, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a 38-page report which found no misuse of federal funds by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The GAO report, "Preliminary Observations on Funding, Oversight, and Investigations and Prosecutions of ACORN or Potentially Related Organizations ," was issued after calls for an impartial investigation into federal funding awarded from 2005 to 2009 to ACORN, a community organization that serves poor, working class people, and its affiliated organizations. The report was issued in response to a Congressional request for a 6-month investigation into the federal funding awarded to ACORN.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/bill-quigley/29538/right-wing-campai...

----
Nope. The link that I thought was the right link for the bad link was the wrong link. Sam fixed it now...This will make no sense to many. But when has that ever stopped me b4?

:)

Way more than Aretha's inaugural hat.

I do not think Obama himself has good feelings about teh gay (amongst other things)...I think that's part of the reason for the apparent cognitive dissonance (aka bullshit) in terms of political strategy as well as in terms of not being an asshole.

that makes Daniel Ellsburg say "totally"--AFTER and separately from the verb that it modifies...

Now, there IS a verb that it modifies. There are limits even to Greenwald's powers.

:)

(DN)

(bbk)

---

Speaking of which, some of y'all (prolly not bridge [no offense bridge]) might find interesting the conversation that recently took place on twitter--primarily between http://twitter.com/ggreenwald and http://twitter.com/tomtomorrow.

Tell Disney: Don’t Pay for Sarah Palin’s “Nature” Show!

Credo Action..

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/disney_discovery/?r_by=-954639-TZmAc...
*

Your paying someone who is dumber than a box of rocks $1 million dollars for each of her shows ? !

Walt Disney’s head must be rolling over in his tank..

*

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

MMRules

Many South Africans watch hometown World Cup from a distance

By Robert G. Thompson
9:00 AM on 06/17/2010

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - On the anniversary of the June 16 youth uprising of the 1976, a sea of green and yellow South Africans huddled in Fan Festival Park in Soweto to not only commemorate the day that 20,000 students marched and lost their lives in protest of the government mandate that instruction will be delivered in Afrikaans, but to root for their team in the 2010 World Cup.
But while all eyes were glued to the game, and spirits rang high in anticipation -- some could not help but feel separated from the real action in the stadium, as they watch the game in a field on a large panel flat-screen.
These fans were in just one of the 16 different fan parks FIFA created to give millions of South Africans who do not have access to tickets or televisions a chance to watch the games that are taking place in their own country.
The fan parks seems to be a popular place to view the games. According to FIFA, nearly 300,000 soccer supporters celebrated together in front of the jumbo screens opening day. But for many, this was their only option in watching the major sporting event.
17-year-old William Malindisa, a Sowetan student, said he was excited to about the World Cup coming to South Africa, but wont be able to watch for one simple reason.
"I tried to buy tickets, but I didn't have enough money to afford them," said Malindisa. "They were not affordable."
That is no surprise and a common obstacle to the 40 percent who are unemployed, and the 45 percent of South Africans who live under the poverty line. That means the chances of the 18 million, out of the 45 million people who live in South Africa who want to watch the games live in the stadium are slim...

http://www.thegrio.com/sports/many-south-africans-watch-hometown-world-c...

Filed under "Nature," freak of.

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/laura-flanders/29541/the-f-word-bloo...

(I still am uncomfortable with the term _justice_ even being used for something that happens 38 years after the fact--which is what I meant the other day. It's better than not--but is it justice? )

Orthodox Jews rally against verdict

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel have staged mass demonstrations against a court ruling that forces the integration of a religious girls' school.

The rallies took place in Jerusalem and in other cities on Thursday in a show of mass defiance over the ruling by the supreme court.

Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said 10,000 police were deployed to maintain order as demonstrators held posters that read: "The Supreme Court is fascist."

"The prisoners of Emanuel are the messengers of the Jewish people," read another.

At the centre of the dispute is an Orthodox school in the Emanuel Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank.

Parents from the strictly observant Slonim Hassidic sect of Ashkenazi Jewry refused to let their children attend school with girls of Mideast and North African descent, known as Sephardim.

They insist they are not racist, but want to keep the classrooms segregated, as they have been for years, arguing that the families of the Sephardi girls are not religious enough.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/2010617125258623745...

"Just Another FRUIT for Peace!"

This icky gay just wants to say, "THANKS!", Sammy. I and all the other icky gays appreciate this particular episode of "That's BULLSHIT!!!!"

Keep up the GREAT work, Sammy! :-)

One Congressional Hero Votes Against Plaque Honoring Slaves

Ron Paul gets shit for being the sole "no" vote on most popular, entirely symbolic bills, so when we read that there was one vote against a plaque honoring slaves at the Capitol, we thought we knew who was responsible.

Yesterday, the House voted on a bill that would put "a plaque acknowledging the role of slave labor in the construction of the Capitol" in the new Capitol Visitors Center. The vote was 399-1 for. Oh, silly Ron Paul, we thought, you don't even think the Federal Government has the jurisdiction to erect plaques on its own buildings, or something, based on your generally logically consistent (with certain glaring exceptions) but entirely nutty philosophy of government.

But hey, look at this. Ron Paul voted for the plaque, honoring the slaves! Which means some other asshole didn't!

And that asshole is Rep. Steve King, Republican of Iowa. He is a fairly standard-issue House conservative, which means is a fucking loon. He called Joe McCarthy "a hero for America," said terrorists would "dance in the streets" when Obama was elected, claimed DC was more dangerous than Iraq, and called the abuses at Abu Ghraib "hazing." But, still, being the sole vote against a kind gesture to long-dead slaves is a little much, even for this prick.
http://gawker.com/5310355/one-congressional-hero-votes-against-plaque-ho...

Suddenly, the Israel lobby discovers a genocide
I once tried to blow the whistle on the Israel lobby's denial of the Armenian Genocide -- and I had to leave my job

Some of the most powerful leaders in the American Jewish community have stepped forward in recent days to acknowledge the 1915 Armenian Genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turkey.

But this sudden embrace of the Armenian Genocide actually marks a shameless turnaround for the major American Jewish organizations. For decades, they have helped Turkey cover up its murderous past. Each year, the Israel lobby in the U.S. has played a quiet but pivotal role in pressuring Congress, the State Department and successive presidents to defeat simple congressional resolutions commemorating the 1.5 million Armenian victims.

Genocide denial is not a pretty thing, they now concede, but they did it for Israel. They did it out of gratitude for Turkey being Israel’s one and only Muslim ally.

So the Armenian Genocide has become a new weapon in the hands of Israel and its supporters in the U.S., a way to threaten Turkey, a conniver’s get-even: Hey, Turkey, if you want to play nasty with Israel, if you want to lecture us about violations of human rights, we can easily go the other way on the Armenian Genocide. No more walking the halls of Congress to plead your shameful case.
http://www.salon.com/news/israel_flotilla_attack/index.html?story=/news/...

"This change is important because passage of a congressional recognition of the genocide would open Turkey to lawsuits, whereby Armenian political groups could capture Turkish assets in the United States."
http://www.juancole.com/

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/06/2010614114457900167.html

http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/41443
[excerpt]

No-Fish area in Gulf expanded again

May 19, 2010 12:45 PM

The area of the Gulf of Mexico closed to fishing has been expanded again by NOAA to capture portions of the oil slick moving beyond the area’s current northern boundary, off the Florida panhandle’s federal-state waterline. This boundary was moved to Panama City Beach.

The federal closure does not apply to any state waters. Closing fishing in these areas is a precautionary measure to ensure that seafood from the Gulf will remain safe for consumers.

...

According to NOAA, there are approximately 5.7 million recreational fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico region who took 25 million fishing trips in 2008. Commercial fishermen in the Gulf harvested more than one billion pounds of fish and shellfish in 2008.

Fishermen who wish to contact BP about a claim should call 800-440-0858.

[end excerpt]

... Colbert fellated the Israeli ambassador last week. So I guess I was pleased by comparison. Thought it was going totally to shit...
»
Is Colbert an Israel apologist, ala Bill Maher, et al?

This Public Citizen piece came out a few weeks before the Deepwater Horizon explosion/gusher. It tells us how CLEARLY reactionary, nonregulatory, pro-corporation/anti-public interest the Executive Branch agencies have been! This disaster should highlight this travesty rather than overshadow it! We need reform now on all levels.

http://publiccitizenenergy.org/2010/04/01/obamas-drill-to-nowhere/

[excerpt]

Obama’s Drill To Nowhere
04/01/2010

by Tyson Slocum

Yesterday’s announcement by the White House that it would seek an end to the moratorium on oil & gas development off the eastern and gulf coasts of the US has nothing to do with serving as a bargaining chip for stalled Senate climate negotiations, but rather is intended to blunt expected GOP campaign attacks that Obama the socialist environmentalist has caused gasoline prices to rise $1/gallon since taking office. I see Obama’s move more about controlling the tone of the upcoming mid-term elections than about cutting a climate deal. After all, analysts are predicting $110/barrel oil by July and the Administration is seeking to head off the GOP hystaria when that happens. So here’s my prediction: this drilling announcement marks the death of a climate deal for this congress.

Here’s why Obama’s political move to open up our coasts to more drilling is wrong.
1. Opening up offshore areas to drilling hurts efforts at a climate deal – not helps. On March 23, ten coastal state Senators wrote a letter to the ad hoc Senate climate crew of Kerry-Lieberman-Graham warning that they “cannot support legislation that will . . . put our coasts at greater peril”. They note the environmental concerns that offshore drilling presents, but also highlight the unfair proposal of allowing coastal states to keep a sizable portion of the royalties rather than share that revenue with all states and taxpayers. The letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson (Fla.), Robert Menendez (NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Barbara Mikulski (Md), Ben Cardin (Md), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Ted Kaufman (Del), Ron Wyden (Ore), Jeff Merkley (Ore) and Jack Reed (RI).

2. Opening up “access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030“. The Energy Information Administration estimates that if the ban on drilling remains in place, that “the average U.S. price of motor gasoline price is 3 cents per gallon higher” than if we open these areas to drilling. That’s because the US isn’t Saudi Arabia: we sit on only 1.6% of the world’s oil reserves, while the Saudis have 20%. Dumping our little pond of oil into the giant sea of global reserves can’t make a significant dent on our imports or impact prices.

3. Opening new areas to drilling while failing to hold oil companies accountable for fleecing taxpayers on existing drilling leases is unfair. Now, we’ve written extensively about this over the years. Because of a bureaucratic oversight by the Department of Interior during the implementation of the Deep Water Royalty Relief Act of 1995, oil companies that secured leases in 1998 and 1999 were exempted from royalties, regardless of the prevailing market price of oil. Recent lawsuits have exposed more leases going back to 1996 to this same loophole. This stands in stark contrast to other, similar leases, which require the payment of royalties if the price of oil exceeds a certain threshold. The day the bill was signed in November 1995, West Texas Intermediate oil was trading at $18.28/barrel. With oil now trading at roughly $80/barrel, these companies have been and will be extracting very valuable energy from public land without paying any royalties to American taxpayers. The GAO estimates the loss to the US Treasury of more than $50 billion over the life of these royalty-free leases – a huge subsidy for Big Oil. And investigations have found serious problems in the management of the entire royalty program. I debated Steven Colbert about this.

As recently as August 25, 2009 - when President Obama submitted his Mid-Session Review budget to Congress – he recognized this fleecing of the taxpayer by Big Oil and proposed a “Levy tax on certain offshore oil and gas production” as a back-door way to capture some revenue from these no-royalty leases, raising $6 billion over a decade.

But in Obama’s budget submitted in February, the Administration has now dropped this offshore tax on Big Oil (you can see the itemization of repealed oil & gas tax breaks on page 30 of 88 at the above link, with the new levy tax now gone).

Obama puts a lot at risk with this offshore drilling plan and gets little reward. What a disappointment.

[end excerpt]
=========================

This from a 2008 piece. What's been happening since 2008? Have these oil corporations been paying any royalties? So the oil pulled out of these U.S. leases is not necessarily sold to the U.S. and, on top of that, the royalties are waved too?

http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=2711

[excerpt]

Oil Companies Escape Billions in Royalty Payments to Americans; Drilling Expansion Will Enrich U.S. and Foreign Corporate Freeloaders

Statement of Tyson Slocum, Director, Public Citizen’s Energy Program

A bureaucratic oversight has allowed 24 oil companies to avoid more than $1.3 billion in royalties for the privilege of extracting oil and natural gas from U.S. territory in the Gulf of Mexico - with foreign companies responsible for 55 percent of that total. But this $1.3 billion in forgone royalties pales in comparison to the $60 billion that Americans stand to lose in royalty revenue over the life of these leases. And if Congress repeals the moratorium on Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) drilling that has existed since 1982, these freeloading oil companies will be eligible to bid on new leases, providing them with more record profits while American families are left holding the bag. These 24 companies have posted a combined $365 billion in profits since 2006.

The list of the specific companies comes from a February 2008 U.S. Department of Interior memo recently obtained by Public Citizen. Four of the 24 companies (BP, Marathon, Shell and Walter Oil & Gas) signed voluntary agreements to pay royalties going forward, but they will not be required to pay the more than $200 million taxpayers have been denied on production that already has occurred.

[end excerpt]

(SAM: IF this is still going on like this with no serious reform being discussed, this might make a good Bullsh*t, Sam. What good is offshore drilling for any sane reason--ban it; but when they claim we need to do it for the good of the U.S. -- that is manure; if the oil does not stay here and we don't even get the rental/lease fee/royalties -- that's smelly manure.)

The Ad compared to BP CEO TONY HAYWARD's statement at hearing--

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/bp-ceo-tony-hayward-re-re_n_616...

Not normally, that I've noticed. In this clip--yeah big-time.

At first, it looks like he is trying to be even-handed (within the limited range of discussion that's allowed and putting a lot of "zaniness" in there to obfuscate)...But it just gets worse (and less funny)...and then it ends with the interview (badbadbad). Even the Palestinian thing at the very end "they should just go back to where they came from" turns out to be just a set-up so Oren can look like a good guy favoring a two-state solution--no?

Possibly big pressure from higher-ups to slant it that way? Dunno...

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/312100/june-09-20...

I should maybe also mention that Helen Thomas starred in the short film he showed at his celebrated White House Correspondents' dinner appearance in 2005? So, when he throws her under the bus "even though she's a 'friend of the show,'" it really is a big deal (even though, as you'll see in the previous sketch if you wanna watch, he also tries to obfuscate with faux zaniness there too.)

bye.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/dead-whale-found-south-of_n_615...

[excerpt]

NEW ORLEANS — A dead sperm whale has been found floating 77 miles south of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

According to a news release, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is conducting tests to determine the circumstance around the whale's death. It wasn't known if exposure to oil caused the animal's death.

The whale was found Tuesday but its condition suggests it may have been dead for several days or more than a week.

It's the first dead whale that's been found since an oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf in April, killing 11 workers. The whale wasn't found in oiled water but the location of its death is unknown. NOAA marine mammal experts are working to determine the location from which the whale's body may have drifted.

[end excerpt]

CALL THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TODAY, THURSDAY, JUNE 17. THE HOTLINE IS OPEN 24
HOURS BUT BEST TO TIE IT UP BETWEEN 9
AND 5. TAKES ONLY 2 MINUTES. 202-353-1555. DEMAND A CIVIL RIGHTS INVESTIGATION
OF MUMIA'S CASE!

Politely but forcefully, demand a civil rights investigation into the case of
Mumia Abu-Jamal. Sound logical and knowledgeable: that you know the Department
of Justice has the jurisdiction to conduct a civil rights investigation when
egregious violations of civil rights have taken place. Explain that Mumia never
got a fair trial, and that there is extensive evidence of
police,prosecutorial,and judicial misconduct, as well as strong evidence of
Mumia's innocence that
was systematically excluded by the courts from the record.

If the hotline, 202 353-1555, doesn't answer, call the main
Justice Dept. switchboard number, 202-514-2000 and tell them what you're calling
about. KEEP THOSE LETTERS COMING TO: FMAJC, PO BOX 16, COLLEGE STATION, NEW
YORK, NY 10030. IF YOU CAN'T DOWNLOAD A PETITION FROM THE WEBSITE, PLEASE LET US
KNOW BY LEAVING A MESSAGE AT 212 330-8029. You can also ask people to sign
online if that is easier. Go to freemumia.com and click onto "Civil Rights
Investigation".

ONA MOVE!

INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED FAMILY & FRIENDS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL AND THE FREE MUMIA
ABU-JAMAL COALITION (NYC)
www.freemumia.com

The fact that people who are claiments sign away their right to sue in the future is unacceptable.

But, of additional concern to me, why was Atty. Gen. Holder at the meeting for setting up the $20 billion (eventually) fund? Was he there to bargain, as in, accept this fund plan and the DOJ will drop its criminal investigation? I am very eager to find out the post-fund status of the DOJ criminal investigations.

Also, I'm wondering:

When people get in line, what will be the nature of that queue they are waiting in?

Since we are a class-based society, I think those with connections and class clout will be allowed to cut in line so they can be given money first.

I'm assuming here the Corporate-connected individuals, contractors and developer types will be the first to get the money and will get the most of it.

If there are guarantees that these claims will be handled in an egalitarian manner, I would be dissuaded from my negativity.

"So Obama did what he always does when he is heavily criticized for things he's done or hasn't done -- he tried to talk his way out of it."
------

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Obama's gulf speech: a gulf in credibility

Anyone rational who listened to Obama's Oval office address to the nation regarding the Gulf spill is now wondering why he bothered. Well, we know why he bothered. Politics. And criticism.

So Obama did what he always does when he is heavily criticized for things he's done or hasn't done -- he tried to talk his way out of it. Only this time it didn't work, even with those who have blindly followed him in the past, the people Hillary Clinton supporters called Kool-Aid drinkers during the primaries.

The Kool-Aid seemed to have worn off on Keith Olbermann, one of Obama's staunchest, and most blind supporters, when Olbermann was absolutely stupefied over Obama's speech, a speech that might have hit new lows in being empty, shallow, and superficial.

To sum it up, aside from announcing a new head of MMS which could have been done using a press release, Obama's Oval office address to the nation might be called Oval Office Speech Abuse.

Historians some day may label this Obama's The Dog Ate My Homework Speech. It sounded like something cobbled together by a 15 year old who had been up late playing Warcraft and put it together so at least he could turn in something.

read here
http://tominpaine.blogspot.com/2010/06/obamas-gulf-speecha-gulf-in-credi...

===
As suggested above Has the Kool Aid worn off SuperObamafan Olbermann whose Primary coverage 08 was as biased and unprofessional as can be? I doubt that v. much. I Don't watch this fellow anymore but by now the guys Upstairs most likely have told him to simmer down. Maybe he has even apologized for his lapse in Obamamania and is making up for it big time .....

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Study shows that MMS knew in 2009 of BP safety failures

A study commissioned in partnership with the MMS during the Obama Administration uncovered 62 instances of blow out preventor (BOP) failures including 4 that were considered critical and yet MMS took no action against BP, allowing the drilling to go forward despite being warned that the blow out preventors were suspect and could result in catastrophic failures.

While Obama has received heavy criticism for an inadequate response to the Gulf spill now in its 60th day, a response that those in Louisiana continue to find lacking, there is now evidence that the Obama Administration was just as negligent as the Bush Administration in dealing with the oil industry and safety standards.

There was ample warning that the blow out preventors presented a potential hazard for failure in any underwater environment but the fact that they were going to be used for the first time in water 5000 feet deep raised no concerns at the Obama Administrations's MMS.

It is specifically the failures at those depths that is the real cause of the environmental disaster in the Gulf. Had the same failures occurred in 200 feet of water, any of the remedies BP used to try and plug the leak would have worked. It is at depths of 5000 feet, depths at which those remedies had never before been tried, that made attempts to plug the leak virtually impossible.

Given the greater risks that drilling at those depths entailed, especially given the warnings of potential failures of the BOP's at any depths, much less 5000 feet, the evidence seems to be that the MMS under Obama did nothing more than continue the polices of the Bush Administration and that led to the disaster. Business as usual from the candidate who promised to change the way business was done.

clip clip clip

Considering that Obama had announced a new policy of more off shore drilling only days before the explosion, ( a policy now on hold) its clear that prior to that announcement there was no review undertaken by the Obama Administration of the MMS and its regulations and policies before deciding to expand its drilling policy. Instead the MMS was allowed to ignore the safety concerns raised by the study as recently as June of 2009, and granted safety waivers to BP.

read more

http://tominpaine.blogspot.com/

W promised New Orleans the moon there under the Hoollywood klieg lights. Then he vanished from the poverty stricken city and wasn't heard from again. Brad Pitt had to come and organize house building for those who had lost everything.

Obama's 20 billion? I believe it when I see it.
And Carville? Does he really believe all the promises or is this only Jobsecurity?

------
Oil response critic concedes Obama's getting it right

Editor's note: CNN political contributor James Carville was chief strategist for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. Carville is a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, where he teaches political science at Tulane University and serves as co-chairman of the 2013 Super Bowl Host Committee.

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- Before the president's address to the nation from the Oval Office, my pal Paul Begala, on "John King USA," reminded everyone of the words of William Shakespeare: "Action is eloquence." By that standard, President Obama has been powerfully eloquent.

He announced that a "son of the Gulf Coast," Navy Secretary and former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus, will develop a long-term plan to restore the Gulf. Mr. Secretary, retired Cpl. Carville, United States Marine Corps, salutes you.

The president has told Mabus to work with fishermen, small businesses, and environmentalists -- as well as state officials -- to design the plan. That's a long-term solution to a long-term problem. Our Gulf Coast supplies America with food and energy, not to mention great music and irreplaceable culture. It will take years to undo the damage.

So in addition to the helter-skelter of trying to cap the well, capture the oil, and clean up the mess, I like seeing a long-range strategy to renew, repair and revitalize the Gulf region. This project must be serious, sustained and substantial: An entire way of life is at stake.

So that's the long-run plan. But as John Maynard Keynes said, "In the long run, we're all dead." That's why today's announcement that BP will fund a $20 billion victims' recovery fund is so important. This ain't rhetoric. This is money. And if money talks, $20 billion screams.

read more

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/16/carville.obama.speech/

"In his first address from the Oval Office, Barack Obama was forceful and focused; comfortable yet commanding. The only surprise was that I was so surprised. I should have seen this coming."

-----Gag me! This Begala corn syrup poetry absolutely screams Jobsecurity. When so-called liberals speak truth to power its gag time.

=====
Obama Swoops In to Save the Day

by Paul Begala

BS Top - Wrap Obama Oil Speech - Begala Alex Brandon / AP Photo Obama entered the Oval Office on the run for critics blasting his response to the BP oil spill. He left having once again shown why his calm, cool approach connects with the country.

In his first address from the Oval Office, Barack Obama was forceful and focused; comfortable yet commanding. The only surprise was that I was so surprised. I should have seen this coming.

With all respect to the millions of people riveted to the World Cup, we Americans are basketball fans, and our president knows that. The NBA has a bone-grindingly long season, but savvy fans know the real action comes in the playoffs, the toughest action comes in the finals, and the nut-cutting comes in the last games of the finals. Timing is everything.

Obama has been compared to Michael Jordan, but to me the president is more reminiscent of Jerry West.

His high school teammates called the future president "Barry O'Bomber" for his proclivity for launching long-range jump shots, and tonight he took yet one more high-pressure shot from downtown. Nothing but net.

The timing of when you shoot a tre is important: the later they come in a game, the more they matter. Three-pointers are the dagger that can put the game away or bring a team back from the dead. Tonight's speech was the latter.

• More Daily Beast writers react to Obama's Oval Office speechIf Marshall McLuhan was right, then for this presidential address the setting was the message. For the first time in his presidency, Barack Obama sat behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office and addressed his fellow Americans. From that room presidents have sent millions of Americans to war. They have sought to heal broken hearts, to remake our government and revive our economy. Barack Obama has, at turns, done all those things -- but never from the Oval Office. Even before he opened his mouth he communicated the most important message: dealing with the Gulf oil disaster is, as Joe Biden would say, a BFD.

read here
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-15/obama-oval-off...

long before the primaries when I went on TV news vacation

Sure, they were funny at times but mostly they were annoying.

Watching them fellate over and over again people like Bill Kristol, McCain and worse, no thanks.
So full of himself Colbert got more annoying every time I gave him another chance.

Bill Maher? We get HBO on Demand and when I feel v. strong I check out his show. Just to see if the Kool Aid has worn off yet. No sign in site. And his last HBO Show was the worst ever.

btw. After the Katrina disaster Bill Maher decided to be brave and said that now he had had it w. Prez Bush. He couldn't support him anymore. Something like that. And the Iraq war was not a good idea either. Ok - Big deal. Since by that time Even SuperRepub Andrew Sullivan didn't like W anymore.

Oh, and before I forget. John Steward was a terrible Oscar host. He was so boring, I couldn't believe it altho I had my misgivings when it was announced. Not that Martin and Baldwin were any better.

So why not give the fabulous Aussie Hugh Jackman a lifetime contract to host the Academy Award show? He was the best ever. And he enjoyed it. An incredible charming, goodlooking and talented guy :-)

Why did I mention BMaher and the Katrina disaster? Because it gave him the courage to denounce Bush.

The Gulf Oil Gusher is a terrible disaster and it is happening on Obama's watch. Self-proclaimed animal rights activist (AFAIK he sits on the Peta board) and environmentalist Bill Maher who thinks Obama is the coolest ever doesn't know that yet .... obviously.

AND-- I LUV that labcoat. It speaks INSTANTANEOUS credibility!

Super installment!!!

Thank you!

Malloy opening with this.

This is just horrible and disgusting. The Court does not care that an election was thrown and refuses the candidates right to protest with a call for a look-see at the figures!

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7900

CORRECTION--THE DEM PARTY DOES NOT CARE.

Malloy's finally got it right tonight. Just blow it up. Go out and vote for the most reactionary Rethugs you can kind. Let them end this country. We'll pick up the pieces!

-Go out and vote for the most reactionary Rethugs you can kind. Let them end this country.-

to the borders of this country.

BP disaster should show you that.

"Financial Crisis" should show you that.

Anything they, or the Dems for that matter, do to "end the country" will probably not stop here.

You want to say "let the people we have fucked over," like Churchill, that's one thing--that's a point of view that at least is logically consistent.

What are you doing when you get all nihilistic like that? What is the purpose?

I'm just saying that is not them.

I got poked.

I'm leaving again now.

How in world can you act like you know who the "we" that will be left to "pick up the pieces" will be and how that "we" will pick them up?

What makes you think "we" (or you, or whatever) are the ones that will survive?

You got an underground bunker we don't know about?

Cuz they do.

I don't know about all that other...

Doesn't really mean bad or good, maybe?

...

There is something I think about that I've read about, and that is 'resistance to'...just the idea of trying to suppress something can bring it to you even more...is what I was thinking of...

I don't quite understand your last comment though.

Explain it to me more if you can and I will look at it tomorrow.

I just think...if one is going to waste time, there are so many more productive (meaning rejuvenating) ways to do it than being completely nihilistic. But, it's true that everybody has to deal with despair and anger differently. And we can't help how we are wired or how we are taught to do that.

If it's a pose, then that sucks. But if it's real...then who am I to say...I guess.

i still say making hypocrisy a felony offense would be a good start.

can bring it to you even more?

Yes, OK...but sometimes expressing it in all its illogicalness can bring bad consequences too. Even if you do it only verbally. Then those consequences take up time to work through.

I know what I am talking about and I know a lot of people here know that I know. So I'm not preaching.

But about the "theory," yes, I'm critiquing it--because it seemed to be begging for a critique. Even if he didn't ask rhetorically--"why not go out and vote?" I chose to take it as rhetorical because I thought it could be answered (and thus put back in the realm of [unhelpful]rhetoric) pretty easily.

But nothing is easy when people are so different...I should know that by now.

Nite Alice. Besos.

:)

Individual cure-all's is about it...I think...

*

-Explain it to me more if you can and I will look at it tomorrow.-

I don't really want to..there has to be one place in the world I can do what I want to do...I think it's here. (at the moment..you know I get fickle)

deserves a tickle

and a pickle!

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/192094.php

Kyrgyzstan's interim leader Roza Otunbayeva has said the death toll in the country's worst ethnic violence in decades could be as high as 2,000.

Officials say at least 191 people were killed in fighting between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks around Osh and Jalalabad.

But Ms Otunbayeva told a Russian newspaper that the real toll could be "10 times the official figures".

Meanwhile, a US envoy in the region has called for an investigation into the unrest.

Central Asia envoy Robert Blake made the call while visiting refugees in camps in the Uzbek border city of Andijan on Friday.

About 400,000 people have fled their homes, with many ethnic Uzbeks crossing into Uzbekistan.

more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10347472.stm

Israel's partial easing of Gaza blockade dismissed as inadequate
Cool response from international community as Palestinians demand blockade be lifted completely

snip
Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, warned Lebanon meanwhile that it would be held responsible for any "violent and dangerous confrontation" as a new aid flotilla prepared to sail for Gaza. Organisers say the Mariam, carrying Arab and European women activists, and the Naji al-Ali are to leave from Beirut in the next few days to try to break the blockade.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/17/israel-gaza-blockade-partial...

It was the biggest bank bail out in British history, and it came with scarcely believable costs. A trillion pounds of tax-payer support; a trillion pounds of lost output. After a disaster of this magnitude you might have expected some collective soul-searching by both banks and government. There has been far too little. Instead we risk a repeat – our banking system is as disconnected from real wealth generation as ever.
The return to business as usual – bonuses, trading in derivatives, the organising of banking as an exercise in which money is made from money – is breathtaking and depressing. And so, given the recent buoyant profit figures reported by our banks, is the easy money.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jun/13/will-hutton-banks-cr...

The remarks were not made in anger or haste, as were the now infamous, flippant and ill-conceived comments that cost White House reporter Helen Thomas her job, if not her legacy. Instead, they were made quite deliberately, with an air of thoughtfulness, while leaning over a lectern, as if lecturing to a class.

Thomas was forced into retirement for declaring that Jews "should get the hell out of Palestine," but New York Senator Chuck Schumer, one of the most powerful politicians in the US, has avoided any criticism or even major press coverage for remarks he made only days later that supported the continued "economic strangulation" of Gaza; in part, because, he essentially argues, the inhabitants of the benighted Strip are not Jewish.

Schumer made his remarks during a brief talk to the Orthodox Union, a well-known politically conservative Jewish educational, outreach and social service organisation.

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/06/2010616131858756851.html
--------------------

I got a form letter from Schumer yesterday saying he was still in favor of more government money to get the N1H1 flu shoot out to everyone.
Now you see why I cant stand this creature from the dark lagoon.

It takes some gall for the Senator who literally represents Wall Street to not just congratulate Blanche Lincoln for “fighting Wall Street” with her sham derivatives bill, but to in the same breath congratulate her on “fighting unions.”

http://workinprogress.firedoglake.com/2010/06/10/schumer-congratulates-l...

-----------------
Schumer and Bloomberg enjoy their week end eating endangered turtle soup and laughing at the little people.
CT. has leiberman and NY has Chuck Cheese ,they would make an icky gay couple for sure.

Sorry. ;)

Maybe he meant through secession--the Republicans would "end the country" that way?

OK, that works for me as an interesting theory as well--with the caveats that I already mentioned (but without so much judgmentalnessesquestuff attached, on my part).

The FDA has ordered makers of drugs for a variety of inflammatory diseases to add a "black box warning" about an increased risk of cancer in children and adolescents.

http://www.naturalnews.com/029020_Crohns_disease_cancer.html

Futurama coming back on Comedy Central.

So that's good news...

(Or maybe not. Maybe it'll start to suck.)

Sincerely Yours: Another Legal Triumph for the Obama-Yoo Administration

For OpEdNews: Chris Floyd - Writer

James Bovard at Antiwar.com points out one of the more egregiously sick-making of the many atrocious "arguments" employed by Barack Obama in his successful effort to block the efforts of Maher Arar to seek justice for his unjust rendition and proxy torture in the Great War of Global Terror.

Obama bade his legal henchmen -- his own personal John Yoos, as it were -- to tell the Supreme Court that it should kill the Canadian citizen's case seeking compensation for his unlawful arrest by U.S. officials, who then rendered him not unto Caesar but to the untender mercies of Syria's torture cells. The Robed Ones agreed, dismissing, without comment, Arar's appeal of a lower court ruling that quashed his case -- a decision that Scott Horton rightly likened last year to the Dred Scott case, which upheld the legality of slavery, even in states which prohibited it.

The Arar ruling upholds the "legality" of a new, universal form of slavery, i.e., the United States government can deprive anyone in the world of their freedom, and dispose of their bodies as it sees fit: torture, "indefinite detention," or even "targeted assassination." The fact that it is a man of partly African descent who is now outstripping the Southern slavers in this extension of servitude to the entire world is one of those poisonously bitter ironies with which history abounds.

But grim and depraved as Obama's position is, it is not without its comic elements. As Bovard notes, one of the "arguments" offered by the Obama/Yoo administration was that the case should be dismissed because it might call into question "the motives and sincerity of the United States officials who concluded that petitioner could be removed to Syria." We kid, as they say, you not.

So now cases of monstrous and criminal actions by agents of the United States government cannot be heard in court, because this might impugn the "sincerity" of the officials involved. And after all, as we all know, it is the inner feelings of government officials that are all important in determining the legality -- and morality -- of their actions. That is why the murder of more than a million Iraqis in an act of naked military aggression is not a war crime; it is, at the very worst, just a "tragic blunder," a misdirected excess of good intentions gone awry. Because we meant well, didn't we? We always mean well...

wreed moare (&linx ihn tekst)

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Sincerely-Yours-Another-L-by-Chris-Floy...

ándele, cágame...soy muuuyyyy ma-la.
----
Diamonds in Your Bathtub
by Alan Grayson
Digg this! Share this on Twitter - Diamonds in Your BathtubTweet this submit to reddit Share This
Fri Jun 18, 2010 at 06:42:06 AM PDT

In the New York Times for June 13th, the Pentagon proclaimed that Afghanistan holds almost one trillion lira - no, sorry, that's one trillion dollars - in hitherto-unknown mineral wealth.

* Alan Grayson's diary :: ::
*

Allow me to offer these revelations:

(1) Paris Hilton actually is Albert Einstein, with a wig. Think about it - you've never seen them together, have you?

(2) The Moon is made of green cheese. Specifically, a lovely Camembert, slightly fruity, that goes very well with cabernet.

(3) While you were at work today, someone broke into your house, stole everything, and replaced it with an exact duplicate (apologies to Steven Wright).

$1 trillion dollars in mineral wealth in Afghanistan. What a lame excuse for a lame excuse.

But the interesting thing is that the Pentagon felt it necessary to serve up this fevered imagining. Why? Because they say that they need another $33 billion for the war by July 4th, or, or, or, I don't know - they just say that they need it. And for once, Congress isn't falling all over itself to give the generals whatever they want. So get ready to hear about lithium in Afghanistan, oil in Iraq, and diamonds in your bathtub.

With 14 million Americans out of work, support for endless war is crumbling. People want an America that is #1 in health, #1 in education, #1 in quality of life, not #1 in number of foreign countries occupied.

Send an e-mail to your Member of Congress. Ask him or her to oppose the "emergency supplemental" for more and more war.

[It's a neat, simple, little tool he is providing.]

Hope. Change. How about some peace, for a change?

Courage,

Alan Grayson

P.S. I am the first Democrat to represent my district in 34 years. I depend on ordinary people like you to support my campaign. If you'd like to make a contribution, please do so here. [I am not linking this link; I am not thaaaat bad. You want it you know where to find it.]

http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2010/06/opinuary-column_18.html

---
Paypal won't let Jesus' General use them? That sux. :(

I'm so undecided about whether or not to be a bitch today. Too early to tell, I guess...

on the way back from giving Mr. Hedges the partridges.

He'll know what to do with them...

----

The Man Who Wasn't There: A Whole Day Of Tony Hayward's Obfuscating In Four Minutes

[...]

"You know, the ancient Greeks had these magical ladies named Alecto and Megaeara and Tisiphone, collectively known as the Furies, who would just relentlessly hound the liars of the world to misery and ruin and death. Don't you wish we had some Furies? Man, I could really go for some Furies, right about now."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/tony-hayward-testimony-video_n_...

Teaching to children, not the classroom
From PRI's Here and Now

A school in the Bronx is helping every student learn at his or her own pace using technology, individualized attention, and an innovative program called School of One.

This story was originally covered by PRI's Here & Now. For more, listen to the audio above.

Most classrooms haven't changed very much in recent decades. They often involve one teacher lecturing to students and reading from books. "Teachers generally work on a mass-production model," Ta Nehisi Coates wrote recently for the Atlantic. "If 30 kids are in the class, the goal is to find a method that will allow the highest percentage of them to succeed."

When a few kids fall behind in class, or other kids feel held back, there's not a lot that most teachers can do. According to Coates, "given the variables that individual students bring to the class, a handful of kids will inevitably be shortchanged."

One of those children was Coates himself, who is now a senior editor for The Atlantic. He started fantasizing about dropping out of school around the fourth grade, Coates told PRI's Here and Now. "I think I had a basic inability to sit still and pay attention." At the same time, his parents were intent on him getting a good education. He wrote, "For black boys," like Coates, "there seemed to be only two roads -- college or jail -- and my parents would go to any ends to ensure that I took the former."...

http://www.pri.org/politics-society/teaching-to-children-not-the-classro...

How the 'Sister Souljah moment' remains teachable
By Lester Spence
9:13 AM on 06/18/2010

For some, hip-hop was both the child of politics (think Reagan counter-revolution) and the parent of politics (think the United States Social Forum). Others make the claim that hip-hop isn't just not political, it's markedly apolitical. And yet others claim that it is the greatest internal threat facing black America.

I'm a child of hip-hop. I remember the first time I heard "Rapper's Delight", the first time I heard Run DMC, LL Cool J, Rakim. I remember my first pair of turntables, and still have my first mixer. But I also remember Ice T and NWA's records predicting the Rodney King riots. Similarly I remember Bill Clinton's 1992 attempt to use Sister Souljah as a punching bag, twisting her words to score political points with conservative white voters. Finally I like many others did double takes when we saw Barack Obama use hip-hop to defuse critiques that he wasn't authentic enough, literally brushing his shoulders off when attacked by Sen. Hilary Clinton on the campaign trail.

These examples and dozens of others like them cause MCs, cultural critics, activists, pundits, and regular people to casually connect hip-hop to politics. Personally, I define politics as the competition over scarce resources (tax dollars, political positions, care), and as the attempt to shape the common sense notions we have about that competition...

http://www.thegrio.com/specials/hip-hop-politics-from-the-beat-to-the-ba...

@FEMINIST HULK San Francisco
TRICK TO SMASHING GENDER BINARY: MAKE SURE IT NOT SIMPLY BREAK INTO TWO NORMATIVE PIECES. HULK CREATE GENDERQUEER DEBRIS!

How Halliburton is profiting from the Gulf oil spill

Eleven days prior to the April 20 Deepwater Horizon blowout, Halliburton Co., the contractor in charge of cementing the rig's well, agreed to purchase a little-known company.
Skip to next paragraph

The firm, Boots and Coots, focuses on oil spill prevention and blowout response. Now, it is assisting with the relief well work – under contract to BP – to help stop the Gulf oil spill.

What appears to conspiracy theorists as more than a coincidence is nothing out of the ordinary, say oil-industry experts. Increasingly, oil-industry titans are buying up smaller companies that provide all manner of services.

The concern is not so much about intentional negligence but creeping complacency....

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0618/How-Halliburton-is-profiting-from...
---
Both/and mofo...

@feministing The sanctioning of child genital cutting at Cornell University: *Strong trigger warning* Alarming research being ... http://bit.ly/9QCff6

What makes you think "we" (or you, or whatever) are the ones that will survive?

We're already dead men walking. If your enjoying your sentence, fine. (Perhaps I can bum a smoke.) For most of us life is becoming more intolerable by the day. We're finishing out sentences out on a dying planet. And all the while paying out taxes to support the greatest threat to human existence on this planet. We're all slaving away as "little Eichmanns" as we man or own crematorium.

Others share this alarmist view, and believe we now have to chose between survival in a bunker, or death in defiance like Joe Stack:

We Stand on the Cusp of one of Humanity's Most Dangerous Moments
We will have to resist the temptation to fold in on ourselves and to ignore the cruelty outside our door.

....All resistance must recognize that the body politic and global capitalism are dead. We should stop wasting energy trying to reform or appeal to it. This does not mean the end of resistance, but it does mean very different forms of resistance. It means turning our energies toward building sustainable communities to weather the coming crisis, since we will be unable to survive and resist without a cooperative effort....
http://www.alternet.org/media/146005/we_stand_on_the_cusp_of_one_of_huma...

Put the Rethugs in charge of everything.
It was the success of armed Iraqi resistance combined with the stupidity of the Bush years that actually led many Americans to believe that change was even necessary. Unfortunately, we all believed that change could painlessly happen by not changing anything but by merely "reforming" a failed system. Mike last night was talking about the need to get to the "bottom" as quickly as possible in order to create a widespread mindset that fundamental social change- not reform- was essential for human survival. Mike concluded that the fastest way to the "bottom" was to put the Christian crazies completely in charge. Let make them make things so intolerable that it forces masses of people to either live in outright squalor or fight.

Radio talk host Alan Berg, the self-described "man you love to hate," is gunned down in the driveway of his home in Denver, Colorado. With his own show on KOA aiming to stir up controversy, Berg was used to receiving an endless stream of death threats. One of the suspects, Bruce Pierce-leader of a neo-Nazi organization called the Order-was arrested nearly a year later in Georgia, driving a van that contained machine guns, grenades, dynamite, and a crossbow. His right-wing extremist group had been linked to many armored-car robberies in the West.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/a-radio-host-is-gunned-down-f...

Listeners in more than 30 states listened to Berg's largely liberal opinions on topics such as gun control, homosexuality, religion, and anti-Semitism. He became notorious for upsetting some callers to the point they began sputtering, whereupon Berg would berate them. However, Berg later toned down somewhat, especially after he returned to work after serving a suspension for similarly berating Colorado Secretary of State Ellen Kaplan on his show.
[edit] Death

At about 9:30 p.m. on June 18, 1984, Berg was shot 13 times in the driveway of his Adams Street townhouse after he stepped out of his Volkswagen Beetle. He was returning home after a dinner date with his ex-wife, Judith, with whom he was attempting a reconciliation.[3] The murder weapon, a semi-automatic Ingram MAC-10, which had been illegally converted to an automatic weapon, was later discovered at the home of one of The Order's members by the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team.[4]

Four members of The Order were ultimately indicted: Jean Craig, David Lane, Bruce Pierce and Richard Scutari. However, only Lane and Pierce were convicted, though neither of murder.[5] Rather they were convicted of racketeering, conspiracy, and violating Berg's civil rights. Both were sentenced to essentially life terms; Lane's sentence was 190 years; Pierce's was 252 years.

Lane was a former klansman who later joined the Neo-Nazi Christian Identity group Aryan Nation. He steadfastly denied any involvement in Berg's murder, but neither did he regret that Berg was dead. In the 1999 History Channel documentary Nazi America: A Secret History, Lane, who called into Berg's radio program at least once, stated: "As I remember, he used to go ballistic over things and I think I yanked his chain just a little bit just to see what he'd do."[cite this quote] In regards to Berg's murder, Lane stated in the same interview: "The only thing I have to say about Alan Berg is: regardless of who did it, he has not mouthed his hate-whitey propaganda from his 50,000-watt Zionist pulpit for quite a few years".

...Years before Berg's assassination, Dr. William Luther Pierce, a former member of the American Nazi Party who went on to co-found what eventually became the National Alliance, described the similar assassination of an unnamed liberal Jewish talk show host in his fictional novel The Turner Diaries. The book has also been described as the inspiration for the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995 due to the similarity to the book's account of the decimation of a government building in Washington, D.C. and the fact that Timothy McVeigh was an avid reader of The Turner Diaries.[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Berg

or even several inbetweens between "hitting bottom" and reform in name only is not automatically "being neutral."

That is my initial reaction. I am still reading and thinking.

He is not thinking of them as "bunkers."

And you misunderstand my point about bunkers too...I think.

I am not advocating that anyone become more insulated in a more "prison-y" kind of way. I am saying THEY (e.g, Cheneys) have the capacity to do so [add: if they fuck up the planet add: Completely and definitively--yes I concede that they are already close.]. Do I? Fuck no. That's the point.

And quoting Howard in this context seems like extremely bad faith. This is what I don't like, when you manipulate things like that.

---
I would think "a cooperative effort" would be based on honest discussion and not on trying to brow-beat the other "cooperators" into agreeing that your tactics are the only moral ones.

---
Sometimes various tactics can reinforce and complement each other. Other times, while there is still an opportunity (we are not trapped in Sarajevo about to be herded off into displacement camps) it's important to think both about effectiveness and about morality, while we still have the privilege (see reference to Sarajevo above).I am skeptical of those who seem bound and determined to convince me that I do not. (And, yes, even that they do not.)

None of the resistors that Hedges honors by mentioning them by name (and in other ways) are anywhere close to Joe Stack. Yes, Hedges is advocating giving up our comfort and our lives if need be, but not stupidly and not while deliberately (or by omission) taking out "noncombattants." (He calls them "innocent people," but I am thinking you will probably call me on the carpet for that phrase.)

And nowhere does he advocate manipulating politics to help the fascists gain control (thereby putting the masses people in further misery). In other essays he argues for being pricipled in our politics and letting the electoral chips fall where they may. That is not the same thing.

Read it again and tell me where I'm wrong.

http://www.health.state.ny.us/diseases/communicable/hepatitis/hepatitis_...

Ouch...

Didn't remember that part. Everything today is a flashback.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_15280681?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1

snip

The Blood Centers of the Pacific, the blood bank that serves the Bay Area, recommended that the blood advisory committee lift the lifetime ban and allow a man to donate blood 12 months after his last sexual contact with another man. According to blood bank policies, an individual who is considered "high risk," such as those who have traveled to a foreign country or received a tattoo, must wait at least 12 months before donating blood. The Blood Centers noted that applying the same policies for high-risk individuals to men who have sex with men would have been sufficient.
"The science has shown that a 12-month wait period should be sufficient and so anything like what we currently have, to us that appears discriminatory. You don't need that," said Lisa Bloch, director of communications for Blood Centers of the Pacific.
The FDA reports that the prevalence of HIV among those designated as "men who have sex with men" is 60 times higher than that of the general population. Rates of hepatitis and other STDs also are higher among that group, according to the FDA.
Despite the elevated risks in that group and the conclusion reached by the blood advisory committee, blood banks ensure that their donations go through rigorous testing. Each donation collected by the Blood Centers of the Pacific undergoes 13 tests, seven of which test for HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, syphilis and other STDs. For the HIV/AIDS test, technology used by the blood bank can detect HIV up to seven days after the individual has been infected. Data also shows that the error rate for these tests is low.
"We and other blood centers are at the forefront of research in terms of transmitted infectious agents including among demographics such as men who have sex with men," said Dr. Kim Anh Nguyen, the medical director at the Blood Centers of the Pacific. "So far we have not found other emerging viruses like HIV."
Because of the ban, the Blood Centers of the Pacific estimates a loss of more than 1,000 pints of potential blood donations each year. Companies and universities, including San Jose State, will not allow organizations to solicit blood donations on their property because of their "discriminatory" practices. Moreover, blood centers from around the United States experience year-round shortages of blood, leaving the Bay Area to import 20 percent of its blood from outside the state.
"I'm disappointed because I'm afraid that student groups and other groups are going to blame the blood banks," said Nguyen. "Blood centers hope that groups that are disappointed and angered by this don't take it out on patients and continue to support blood donations."
The Bay Area's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community also has been a longtime advocate of lifting the ban, and many say the policy will continue to ostracize gay men.
"On the face of it, it just seems to be discriminatory. It's obviously targeted toward gay men," said Chris Flood, the board of directors at San Jose's Billy De Frank LGBT Community Center. "If the concern really is about people who are promiscuous giving blood, then there should be a question about people sleeping with multiple sex partners, not just gay men."

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/17/frank-gehry-designs.html?utm_source...

in the Hedges piece:

These communities, if they retreat into a pure survivalist mode without linking themselves to the concentric circles of the wider community, the state and the planet, will become as morally and spiritually bankrupt as the corporate forces arrayed against us.

Not necessarily addressing your most recent comments, gd. Just saying it jumps out at me and I feel compelled to make it jump out at whoever is not scrolling me.

http://everlastingseeds.com/

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/our-own-extinction-is-forecast-but-h...

if I am understanding correctly that last night he got like he gets approximately every few months...and then changes his mind later on.)

As long as the mass of bewildered and frightened people, fed images that permit them to perpetually hallucinate, exist in this state of barbarism, they may periodically strike out with a blind fury against increased state repression, widespread poverty and food shortages. But they will lack the ability and self-confidence to challenge in big and small ways the structures of control.

caution unless your are sure. I am not so sure of anythings these daze.

Why couldn't you have done it earlier? ;)

or the state of the rumi- nation

Rumi, the Sufi poet of love

into the war machine. Don't do it.

But realize that the little piece of the pie that goes to social welfare and education and other things we support come from there also. Other than maybe going to prison (not as glamorous as flying a plane into a building ;) ) that is the other trade-off involved in that tactic.

But, yeah, only as long as the corporate state exists. So it seems to make sense to me to discuss that--see how many would be willing. THAT, for example, is not taking Hedges out of context, it seems to me.

And doesn't drink sherry.

:)

stephanie miller seems to be off the air in nyc. her one hr slot at 11 am has gone to a local show.

She will probably get a tv gig. yesterday she was at odds with her "crew".

Her boys sounded more like the geneReal population in Sederville.
She was set on making excuses fior Obama

would make a good roomie. (sorry)

lol

It was briefly not horrible (well, better than that) today when Fugelsang was on, but it quickly reverted again to such entertaining things as having callers bawl out Jim and Chris and tell them they should "get them some women this weekend."

Funny, esp, considering Chris's orientation and what is at the top of the thread.

Who knows how much of it is a format/formula choice (the fight they are having or pretending to have). It's not as though it's a "serious" talk show. If there is even such a thing.

Gloryoski at 9:57

from that post:

[excerpt]

The Arar ruling upholds the "legality" of a new, universal form of slavery, i.e., the United States government can deprive anyone in the world of their freedom, and dispose of their bodies as it sees fit: torture, "indefinite detention," or even "targeted assassination." The fact that it is a man of partly African descent who is now outstripping the Southern slavers in this extension of servitude to the entire world is one of those poisonously bitter ironies with which history abounds.

[end excerpt]

What Bush Senior stimulated (via School of the Americas disappearing, torture, assassination policy) and Bush/Cheney sought to legalize, under Obama becomes legal? Is that what is happening

when you are the one who does all the serious research?). It looks that way to me, and I think that is what he is saying (and is only the latest to have said). This is just a pathetic new wrinkle.

slavocracy--It's a word now. Mad cuz YOU didn't think of it? ;)

Oh...you ARE the one coining it? Sure...I guess. I takes a few short cuts (i.e, not the slaves that are doing the ruling) but I'm not going to be a nazi about it. Not my job. ;)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20008171-503544.html

(at its founding under that name) before the, um, incident?

History

In 1946, in the early days of the Cold War, the Latin American Training Center – U.S. Ground Forces was established in Panama[6] in the US army base of Fort Gulick, now housing the Melia Hotel.[2]

During 1949 it was expanded and became the U.S. Army Caribbean Training Center. It was expanded and renamed the U.S. Army School of the Americas in 1963. It relocated to Fort Benning in 1984, following the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty. More than 61,000 military personnel attended these United States Army schools.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_C...

runs on Kathy.

(Her name is not Sherry...)

the moody blues and U2.

-------------
now no more running on.

http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2010/06/18/this-week-on-ring-of-fire-19/

of threatened bluefin tuna off Libya

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jun/18/sea-shepherd-release-b...

http://www.youtube.com/naturalsolutions#p/f/1/_gWmVtn5JsA

Enjoying being Alive is key. But have we lost enjoyment by being centered on consumption, and unlimited choices? With all the conveniences we have, we free up time only to scurry to earn (or borrow) more to acquire more. Can those in the West enjoy a simple life with fewer choices? http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19782

[excerpt]

The Collapsing Western Way of Life
The greatest threat to the Western Way of Life is the Western Way of Life itself.

by John Kozy

...
The Age of Enlightenment was born sometime around the beginning of the eighteenth century. A mere three-quarters of a century later, industrialization ushered in the Age of Endarkenment, and human life has grown more and more perilous ever since. The Golden Age of capitalism cannot be recreated merely by applying the right mixture of spending, subsidies, re-regulation, and international agreements. Because the economic advantages of industrialization rely on overproduction and profit, balanced trade is impossible if the advantage is to be preserved; it entails no economic profit. Industrialism is a Hegelian synthesis which embodies the forces for its own destruction. The greatest threat to the Western Way of Life is the Western Way of Life itself.

That human beings seem unable to solve their most pressing problems is too obvious and well known to deserve much mention; that most of the problems that human beings seem unable to solve are caused by human beings themselves deserves mention but rarely is.

...

Global industrial capitalism will continue on the gradual downward descent to collapse. The Golden Age of industrial capitalism that lasted from 1945 to 1970 cannot be recreated merely by applying the right mixture of spending, subsidies, re-regulation, and international agreements. Because the economic advantages of industrialization rely on the two ingredients mentioned above, overproduction and profit, balanced trade is impossible if the advantage is to be preserved; it entails no economic profit. Ultimately too many nations will be too poor to be importers, and the machines in the exporting countries will cease to function. Industrialism is a Hegelian synthesis which embodies the forces for its own destruction. The greatest threat to the Western Way of Life is the Western Way of Life itself. Patches may prolong it, but they cannot remove its contradictions.

Chandran Nair writes,

The 20th century’s triumph of consumption-based capitalism has created the crisis of the 21st century: looming catastrophic climate change, massive environmental damage and significant depletion of natural resources. . . . The western economic model, which defines success as consumption-driven growth, must be challenged. . . . Advocates of the western model tend to play down its dramatic effects on natural resources and the environment. They refuse to acknowledge that their advice runs counter to scientific consensus about limits and the need for stringent rules on resource management. Instead, they argue that human ingenuity aided by innovations in the markets will find solutions. This is rooted in an irrational belief that we can have everything: ever-growing material wealth and a healthy natural environment. The stark evidence . . . should be proof enough that this is not possible.

No, it's not possible, but the impossibility lies in the system's logic, not in its effects. To use the preferred diction of economists, the system is unsustainable. Since the collapse of the industrial system is inevitable, a fundamental rethinking of the way the economy works is the only alternative. It has always been the only alternative. But even that leaves humanity soaking in the pickle. When the economic advantages of industrialization have dissipated, humanity will still be stuck in a world filled with bioundegradable junk, hazardous sites, raped environments, the unending consequences of the often accidental importation of alien species, polluted air and water, and numerous other consequences, the costs of which economists have never taken into consideration. And the progeny of both the rich and the poor alike will have to live with them. The pockets full of money that the rich have won't prevent their children and grandchildren from breathing bad air or drinking bad water or dealing with environmental degradation. These children and grandchildren may someday curse the days their fathers and grandfathers were born. Capitalism, as we know it, is reaching its endgame. The meek who inherit the earth will find it to be worthless.

The human brain has enabled mankind to discover and create wondrous things; it has also been used to inflict horrendous suffering and destruction. In fact, it would be difficult to design an economic system more destructive, wasteful, and dehumanizing than the industrial, and much of the destruction it has wrought may be irreparable. Industrialization does not efficiently allocate resources; it squanders them.

So, is mankind smart? Of course, but that is not the question. The ultimate question is, Is mankind smart enough to keep from outsmarting itself? The answer appears to be no!

The Age of Enlightenment was born sometime around the beginning of the eighteenth century. A mere three-quarters of a century later, industrialization ushered in the Age of Endarkenment, and human life has grown more and more perilous ever since. Natural disasters can be catastrophic, but their destructiveness is usually limited, and the really horrendous ones are rare. Manmade disasters are ubiquitous, very extensive, and difficult, perhaps impossible, to repair. Had mankind been wise rather than merely smart, most manmade calamities could have been avoided. Que Sera Sera! Whatever will be will be will be. The future is plain to see, and it's not pretty.
...
[end excerpt]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/bp-oil-spill-20-billion-drop-bu...

[excerpt]

NEW YORK — BP holds enough oil in its reserves to single-handedly supply the United States for two years. It has little debt for a company of its size and makes more money than Apple and Google combined.

So when the White House arm-twisted its executives into setting aside $20 billion for the Gulf oil spill, investors weren't worried it would bankrupt BP. They barely batted an eye.

"The U.S. government will become insolvent before BP does," said Bruce Lanni, a stock analyst with Nollenberg Capital Partners.

Sure, BP stock has crumpled in half in a matter of weeks. Creditors are demanding ever higher interest. But this time it's not some inscrutable, high-flying Wall Street bank in trouble.

BP posted $17 billion in profit from its vast operations around the globe last year, compared with $5.7 billion for Apple and $6.5 billion for Google. More important, in the past three years the company generated $91 billion in cash flow from operations.

It's not highly leveraged with debt, as banks were during the financial crisis. And it has 18 billion barrels of oil in proven reserves, twice what the U.S. consumes every year.

BP has spent about $1.8 billion on the spill so far, but that's the first drop in a very large bucket. If BP faces criminal charges, for instance, it could end up having to pay tens of billions in legal costs alone.

Analyst estimates of BP's total cost range from $17 billion to $60 billion. If the worst predictions about the leak come true, that figure could surpass $100 billion, based on a Goldman Sachs estimate that each barrel of oil spilled could wind up costing as much as $40,000 in cleanup and compensation.

Such a big bill, even at the lower end of the estimates, would drive many companies under. But analysts said BP probably won't have to go to that extreme unless it wants to wall off liabilities from the rest of its operations to attract potential suitors.

[end excerpt]

You are the real deal

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19782

-----------------------
http://www.ajcn.org/

I was hoping you might get the news letter that comes from this very good journal

There is so much over there, and those folks have "credentials" from what I can tell.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
We pillage plunder, we rifle and loot.
Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot.
Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.
We extort and pilfer, we filch and sack.
Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
Maraud and embezzle and even highjack.
Drink up me 'earties, yo ho

Gaza convoy activists claim Israeli soldiers using debit cards stolen in raid

Boarding party troops in deadly flotilla raid confiscated cards and spent on them, claim campaigners who were on board
Israeli troops have been accused of stealing from activists arrested in the assault on the Gaza flotilla after confiscated debit cards belonging to activists were subsequently used.

In their raid of 31 May, the Israeli army stormed the boats on the flotilla and, as well as money and goods destined for the Palestinian relief effort in Gaza, the bulk of which have yet to be returned, took away most of the personal possessions of the activists when taking them into custody.

Individual soldiers appear to have used confiscated debit cards to buy items such as iPod accessories, while mobile phones seized from activists have also been used for calls.

Ebrahim Musaji, 23, of Gloucester, has a bank statement showing his debit card was used in an Israeli vending machine for a purchase costing him 82p on 9 June.

It was then used on a Dutch website, www.thisipod.com, twice on 10 June: once for amounts equivalent to £42.42 and then for £37.83. And a Californian activist, Kathy Sheetz, has alleged that she has been charged more than $1,000 in transactions from vending machines in Israel since 6 June.

Musaji and Sheetz were on board two separate boats – one the Mavi Marmara, on which nine Turkish activists were killed, the other on the Challenger 1. Both activists only entered Israel when arrested, and were in custody for their entire time on Israeli soil.

"They've obviously taken my card and used it," Musaji told the Guardian.

"When they take things like people's videos and debit cards and use them, and their mobile phones, it becomes a bit of a joke.

"We were held hostage, we were attacked, and now there's been theft. If the police confiscate your goods in the UK, they're not going to use your goods and think they can get away with it."

Musaji cancelled his card on 7 June, the day after he returned to Britain, where he is a support worker for adults with learning difficulties. His bank has agreed to treat the transactions as fraudulent and he will not be charged for them. His mobile phone was also used for two short calls in Israel after it had been confiscated.

Another American activist, David Schermerhorn, 80, from Washington state, claims his iPhone was used, while Manolo Luppichini, an Italian journalist, said his card was debited with the equivalent of €54 after it was confiscated.

Activists say Israel still has possession of at least £1m of goods and cash, comprising aid and personal possessions, including laptops and cameras...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/18/gaza-convoy-activists-debit-...

Taozen -- I shall look into this! Thanks.

(Apologies if this is a repost.)

ALSO -- note the BP pop-ad at this site; what is THAT about!?

There's an interesting video at the righthand side, too.

http://www.helium.com/items/1864136-how-the-ultimate-bp-gulf-disaster-co...

excerpt]

What makes the location that Transocean chose potentially far riskier than other potential oil deposits located at other regions of the Gulf? It can be summed up with two words: methane gas.

The same methane that makes coal mining operations hazardous and leads to horrendous mining accidents deep under the earth also can present a high level of danger to certain oil exploration ventures.

Location of Deepwater Horizon oil rig was criticized

More than 12 months ago some geologists rang the warning bell that the Deepwater Horizon exploratory rig might have been erected directly over a huge underground reservoir of methane.

Documents from several years ago indicate that the subterranean geologic formation may contain the presence of a huge methane deposit.

None other than the engineer who helped lead the team to snuff the Gulf oil fires set by Saddam Hussein to slow the advance of American troops has stated that a huge underground lake of methane gas—compressed by a pressure of 100,000 pounds per square inch (psi)—could be released by BP's drilling effort to obtain the oil deposit.

Current engineering technology cannot contain gas that is pressurized to 100,000 psi.

By some geologists' estimates the methane could be a massive 15 to 20 mile toxic and explosive bubble trapped for eons under the Gulf sea floor. In their opinion, the explosive destruction of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead was an accident just waiting to happen.

[end excerpt]

Here's a thorough article--

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627640.800-whats-wrong-with-the-...

http://www.grassrootsnetroots.org/articles/article_21065.cfm

[excerpt]

...

The application of these toxic recipes [pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers] has resulted in the loss of up to 16 tons of microorganisms per hectare. As soil dies, its weakened structure becomes prone to erosion. In just a hundred years, over half of the planet's topsoil has disappeared.

A new niche of soil studies has emerged focused on soil's ability to give life without synthetic input. Soil scientists have begun to microscopically explore worlds of decomposed plant matter, earthworms, bacteria, fungi, nematodes, protozoa and minerals. These pioneers are discovering that a small handful of healthy soil can contain billions of such microorganisms, many of which are still unidentified. As these scientists begin to understand soil's sophisticated web of nutrient cycling, it is becoming evident that natural, healthy soil is a very efficient way of growing crops.

In order to nurture this soil/food web, organic farmers have learned to feed microorganisms. Many studies have shown that biologically active soil reduces the need for pesticides and fertilizers, and improves soil moisture retention. Microorganisms also excrete substances which bind soil particles together - minimizing the risk of erosion.

[end excerpt]

Israel has engaged in a war of words with the United Nations Correspondents Association which hosted an event during which a passenger on board the Mavi Marmara was allowed to show a video that was shot as Israeli commandoes raided the aid ship.

The Israeli mission to the UN took aim at UNCA in a letter dated June 17. It says Israel was denied the opportunity to present its point of view to UN journalists and demands an apology.

"Offering UN media facilities to screen video produced by a one-sided activist while actively preventing a Member State of the United Nations an opportunity to respond in real time is severely unethical," Israeli spokesperson Mirit Cohen wrote in her complaint.

Cohen had asked to show a five minute film put together by the IDF right after a screening of footage smuggled out of Israel by Brazilian-American activist Iara Lee.

She told the Israeli press that she was asked to reschedule at the last minute.

But UNCA president, Giampaolo Pioli, fired back.

… It was you who turned down our offer to screen your Israeli film and make your statement directly before or after Ms. Lee's presentation, you who refused to take the stage alongside Ms Lee to present your side of the story, you who declined to take questions from UNCA journalists - a requirement for all UNCA presentations.

more

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2010/06/18/flotilla-flap-un

WHY did BP's lawyers allow BP to be in that meeting in the White House with Holder present, while Holder is gathering information to find out if a crime was committed? There's gotta be a reason.

Was Holder's presence there a sign that the corporate role in the criminal investigation is now over -- bargained away because of this $20 billion over four years fund agreement? Now will the only ones prosecuted be low level managers? I suspect the men in suits know already how this will shake out. Only small people will be sacrificed to appease calls for justice from the small people.

Public Citizen called for a withdrawal of government/Pentagon contracts from BP, but their letter to the President has not gotten a response.

My question is -- If BP-Pentagon contracts are continued, will BP inflate its prices to the Pentagon to compensate for the $20 Billion Fund pricetag?

Have I mentioned yet how much I distrust these people?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/06/18-0

[excerpt]

...

While the president has been on the verbal warpath, the U.S. military has -- with little notice -- continued to carry on a major business partnership with BP, despite the company's disastrous environmental record.

Repeat Offenders

As an institution, the Pentagon runs on oil. Its jet fighters, bombers, tanks, Humvees, and other vehicles burn 75% of the fuel used by the Department of Defense. For example, B-52 bombers consume 47,000 gallons per mission, and when an F-16 fighter kicks in its afterburners, it burns through $300 worth of fuel a minute. In fact, according to an article in the April 2010 issue of Energy Source, the official newsletter of the Pentagon's fuel-buying component, the DoD purchases three billion gallons of jet fuel per year.

Thanks to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Defense has been consuming vast quantities of fuel. According to 2008 figures, for example, U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan used a staggering 90 million gallons per month. Given the base-building boom that preceded President Obama's Afghan surge, the 2010 figures may be significantly higher.

In 2009, according to the Pentagon's Defense Energy Support Center (DESC), the military spent $3.8 billion for 31.3 million barrels -- around 1.3 billion gallons -- of oil consumed at posts, camps, and bases overseas. Moreover, DESC's bulk-fuels division, which purchases jet fuel and naval diesel fuel among other petroleum products, awarded $2.2 billion in contracts to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan last year. Another $974 million was reportedly spent by the ground-fuels division, which awards contracts for diesel fuel, gasoline, and heating oil for ground operations, just for the war in Afghanistan in 2009.
...

despite Obama's tough talk, his reported "anger and frustration," and his efforts to identify the proper "ass to kick," as well as the Pentagon's much-touted green-energy initiative, the U.S. military continues, as Shachtman points out, to burn "22 gallons of diesel [fuel] per soldier per day in Afghanistan, at a cost of more than $100,000 a person annually."

In other words, as a direct result of war-making in distant lands, taxpayer dollars, including those from Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, will continue to flow into BP coffers, even as more wildlife dies, more beaches are fouled, and more livelihoods are lost in the Gulf of Mexico.

...

Yesterday, the White House and BP agreed that the oil giant would establish a $20 billion escrow account to compensate claims resulting from the Gulf Coast oil spill. "This should provide some assurance to small business owners that BP is going to meet its responsibilities," said President Obama following the announcement.

The message is clear. BP will be held accountable -- but only to a point, and not nearly in strong enough terms, says Public Citizen's Slocum. The escrow account is "a no-brainer," he told TomDispatch. "But that's just related to the company's obligations to pay for a mess it created," he pointed out, likening the situation to an individual breaking the law. "If I commit a crime that causes damage, I don't just pay restitution. I pay a punitive fine or I'm incarcerated. The question is: What is the version of incarceration for corporations?"

[end excerpt]

[excerpt]

Senators working on bank reform own bank stocks
Jonathan D. Salant, Bloomberg News

Bloomberg Copyright Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Friday, June 18, 2010

...

At least two-thirds of the U.S. senators drafting new financial regulations hold stock in banks or other companies affected by the legislation, such as Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co., disclosure statements show.

Eight of the 12 senators on a conference committee formed to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions of the legislation reported that they owned stocks in financial companies. One of the dozen lawmakers got an extension and hasn't yet disclosed stock holdings.

[end excerpt]

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/18/MN041E0B4Q.D...

What a horrible term: "Commercial whaling".

We have Obama to thank should the 30-year ban on whaling be lifted with ease.

[excerpt]
Future of Commercial Whaling

The broader goal at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Morocco that begins Monday is to fix a fractured regulatory system in which a handful of whaling nations currently operate under a complex set of exemptions.

The focus will be on Japan, the strongest advocate of modern whaling. Even firm opponents are willing to allow limited commercial hunts if Tokyo stops pursuing whales in the southern sanctuary — a hunt allowed in the name of scientific research although much of the catch goes on sale in Japan as meat.

But that appears to be more than the Japanese are willing to concede.

"Japan holds the key, because Japan is the only country that is whaling in the southern ocean, the only country whaling in the sanctuary, the only country doing high-seas, long-distance whaling," said Susan Lieberman, Director of International Policy at the Pew Environment Group, which supports allowing some whaling.

The effectiveness of the IWC, the world's sole whaling regulator, is at stake. After whaling devastated many species, the commission instituted a ban in 1986, but Japan, Norway and Iceland harvest animals annually under its various exceptions.

"The moratorium has been one of the single most effective conservation achievements of the century, but it's not working currently in the sense that several governments can whale completely outside the IWC's control," said Wendy Elliott, who will lead a group from the WWF at the meeting.

[end excerpt]

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/06/18/internationa...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-06-16-oil-waste_N.htm

[excerpt]

BP's next challenge: Disposal of tainted sludge
By Alan Levin, USA TODAY
Oil giant BP is facing a huge new challenge in disposing of the millions of gallons of potentially toxic oil sludge its crews are collecting from the Gulf of Mexico, according to industry experts and veterans of past spills.
Crews so far have skimmed and sucked up 21.1 million gallons of oil mixed with water, according to the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command. Because the out-of-control well may continue spewing for months, that total almost certainly will surge.

BP's plan for handling the gooey mess, written in conjunction with the Coast Guard, the Environmental Protection Agency and Louisiana officials, calls for reclaiming or recycling as much as possible.

[end excerpt]

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/06/17/2739673/elton-john-performs-i...

---------------
I guess after playing for rush's wedding last week elton will do anything for the money .

MADRID:Nobel literature prize winner Jose Saramago, who left his native Portugal after arguing with his country's government, died on the Canary island Lanzarote aged 87, his Spanish publisher said on Friday.

Mr. Saramago, whose novels include Blindness and The Cave, had spent several periods in hospital recently due to respiratory problems, and was suffering from leukaemia, the daily El Mundo said.

Mr. Saramago left Portugal in the early 1990s after the conservative government in power refused to allow his controversial novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ to compete for a European literary prize.

He lived on Lanzarote with his wife Pilar del Rio, a Spanish journalist.

Born to a peasant family in the central village of Azinhaga, he left school at the age of 12 and trained as a locksmith.

Mr. Saramago published his first novel in 1947, but his next work, a collection of poems, did not appear until 19 years later.

A member of the Communist Party, which was banned at the time, he took part in the revolution that ousted the Portuguese dictatorship in 1974 and published a second novel in 1977. His literary career only took off with the publication in 1982, when he was 60, of Baltasar and Blimunda, a historical love story set in 17th-century Portugal.

A self-described pessimist and non-believer, Mr. Saramago's novels, which have sold millions of copies in more than 30 languages, often deal with fantastic scenarios. The Gospel According to Jesus Christ depicted Jesus losing his virginity to Mary Magdalene and being used by God for world domination. His 1995 novel Blindness depicts the breakdown of society after nearly everyone in another unnamed country goes blind. It was made into a movie in 2008 starring Julianne Moore. Essay on Lucidity, released in 2004, explored a right-wing government's violent reaction to an election in which more than 80 per cent of votes cast are blank. The Intermittency of Death, published in 2005, explores the chaos generated in an unnamed country where people suddenly stop dying.

Mr. Saramago set off a storm of protests in Israel in 2002 after he compared a Palestinian city blockaded by the Israeli Army which he visited to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. “What is happening in Palestine is a crime which we can put on the same plane as what happened at Auschwitz,” the author told reporters at the time following a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. — AFP

Date:19/06/2010 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2010/06/19/stories/2010061964261600.htm

Hand Jive - The Johnny Otis Show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOrQTh_Cq7U&feature=player_embedded

"Obama could not only lose the important Lexus-owner vote, but also earn the undying hatred of every American with a mowing machine, a snowblower, or a leafblower. 15 per cent ethanol in the gas means they may not be able to fire up these devices. That’s a hefty chunk of the electorate. You lose the lawn-mower vote, you lose the suburbs."

---
June 18 - 20, 2010

He Should Have Kept His Mouth Shut

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

The French have a phrase, “He missed an excellent opportunity to keep his mouth shut.” That’s certainly true of Obama last Tuesday when he rolled out a big gun from the arsenal of White House crisis management, an Oval Office address. Excluding FDR’s radio chats of the 1930s, there’s scant evidence across the past forty years that as a venue for rallying the nation, the presidential sanctum did Obama’s predecessors as president much good. In Obama’s case many of his stoutest supporters in the press could say little in its favor. Obama would have been advised to say nothing and leave the nation to the evening's main business, the NBA playoffs.

It was certainly the worst rally-the-nation speech by a US president I’ve ever watched, and that includes Nixon’s cornered-rat addresses of the early 1970s and – an ominous parallel -- Jimmy Carter’s fireside chat on April1977, four months into his presidency, in the Oval Office promoting his plan for Energy Independence. To dramatize the need for conservation Carter wore a cardigan. He said the crusade for energy reduction was “the moral equivalent of war.” As he said these words he clenched his fist. America was not impressed, but more than they were on Tuesday.

Asked a couple of weeks ago about the president’s apparent inability to project anger, his pr man, Robert Gibbs said the president had been clenching his jaw. Better that he had continued clenching, and thus been unable to open it to unleash that windy homily, ripe with cliché, bare of specifics and without even the pummeling of BP that everyone had been looking forward to. Of course Obama said that there will be a set-aside clean-up and compensation fund financed by BP. He tossed the word “recklessness” in BP’s direction. But these were timid little puff-ball punches. There was no mailed fist within the glove, just wadded tissue paper.

Unlike wars and slumps, where a president can invoke inside knowledge proving victory or recovery are imminent, the singularity of this crisis is that there’s no inside story, no disputing the central disastrous facts except to suggest and then have confirmed that they are even worse that BP or the US government admits.

read here
www.counterpunch.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQU4torUz-Q&feature=related

======

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48K5Y0421Ig&feature=related

"Berlin said she received a report from a lawyer working for a Turkish organization that over $3.5 million dollars in equipment had been destroyed."

----
June 18 - 20, 2010

Looting the Victims of the Raid on the Gaza Flotilla

Grand Theft Flotilla

By STANLEY HELLER

"There’s been three or four reports from passengers that Israelis then went out with their credit cards and bought beer with it.” That’s what Greta Berlin of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla told me about what happened with the possessions of people who were on the seven boats of the Flotilla.

The deaths so far have been given major attention (nine at the moment and two so badly injured that they’re unlikely to live). The 40 or 50 wounded or beaten (many in Israeli jails) less so. For those who appreciated last week’s CounterPunch piece by the amazing Kenneth Nichols O'Keefe they should see his interview when bloodied and beaten as he was let out of Israeli custody.

However, the facts about what the Israelis did with the personal possessions of the passengers have received scant notice. This can be summed up in a few words: theft, malicious destruction and seizure.

First there’s good news, the supplies. It’s reported that the U.N. will transport ” the entire cargo” of the Turkish ships to Gaza. Hopefully the same will happen with the supplies from the non-Turkish ships. It’s a bitter triumph for the Free Gaza Movement and a sign that despite the thousands organized by the Israeli soccer club Betar to spew hatred in front of the Turkish Embassy in Israel and the opinion polls there showing overwhelming support for the raid, Netanyahu is rational enough to see he has to make a concession.

What about the personal property, cameras, computers, Iphones, and luggage? According to Greta Berlin some of the electronics were returned, all smashed up. Others were not given back at all. The Israelis selectively used snippets of passenger video to advance their case that the poor Israelis rappelling from the skies were set upon by well armed terrorists. The rest of the videotape and flash memory cards are kept back, no doubt for THE INVESTIGATION or perhaps they were pre-emptively “lost”.

Berlin said she received a report from a lawyer working for a Turkish organization that over $3.5 million dollars in equipment had been destroyed. Clothing, personal items. If a passenger wants to see if their luggage was returned they can go to a Turkish warehouse and pick though the suitcases packed with random clothing and gear and see what they can recover.

They flat out stole money and credit cards. Not a dime has been returned of the cash and as has been mentioned some security officials are merrily tippling their Lowenbraus and laughing at their unwitting benefactors.

Many of the passports have not been returned, especially those from Palestinian Israelis. Now, whatever could they do with passports? What Mossad bunker have they been shipped to be examined and refashioned for use in the next assassination?

read here
http://www.counterpunch.org/heller06182010.html

"The Israeli response, as bloody as it was, can only be understood within this larger context. Erdogan’s statements and the popular support his government enjoys show that Turkey has decided to take on the Israeli challenge. The US government was exposed as ineffectual and hostage to the failing Israeli agenda in the region, thanks to the lobby. Ironically it is now the neoconservatives who are leading the charge against Turkey, the very country they had hoped would become Israel’s willing ally in its apocalyptic vision."

----
June 18 - 20, 2010

The Middle East is Changing

What Ankara Knows

By RAMZY BAROUD

"Even despots, gangsters and pirates have specific sensitiveness, (and) follow some specific morals."

The claim was made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a recent speech, following the deadly commando raid on the humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza on May 31. According to Erdogan, Israel doesn’t adhere to the code of conduct embraced even by the vilest of criminals.

The statement alone indicates the momentous political shift that’s currently underway in the Middle East. While the shift isn’t entirely new, one dares to claim it might now be a lasting one. To borrow from Erdogan’s own assessment of the political fallout that followed Israel’s raid, the damage is “irreparable.”

Countless analyses have emerged in the wake of the long-planned and calculated Israeli attack on the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara, which claimed the lives of nine, mostly Turkish peace activists.

In “Turkey’s Strategic U-Turn, Israel’s Tactical Mistakes,” published in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Ofra Bengio suggested Turkey’s position was purely strategic. But he also chastised Israel for driving Turkey further and faster “toward the Arab and Muslim worlds.”

In this week’s Zaman, a Turkish publication, Bulent Kenes wrote: “As a result of the Davos (where the Turkish prime minister stormed out of a televised discussion with Israeli President Shimon Peres, after accusing him and Israel of murder), the myth that Israel is untouchable was destroyed by Erdogan, and because of that Israel nurses a hatred for Turkey.”

In fact, the Davos incident is significant not because it demonstrates that Israel can be criticized, but rather because it was Turkey — and not any other easily dismissible party — that dared to voice such criticism.

Writing in the Financial Times under the title, “Erdogan turns to face East in a delicate balancing act,” David Gardner places Turkey’s political turn within a European context. He sums up that thought in a quote uttered by no other than Robert Gates, US defense secretary: “If there is anything to the notion that Turkey is moving Eastward, it is in no small part because it was pushed, and pushed by some in Europe refusing to give Turkey the kind of organic link to the West that Turkey sought.” But what many analysts missed was the larger political and historical context, not only as pertaining to Israel and Turkey, but to the whole region and all its players, including the US itself. Only this context can help us understand the logic behind Israel’s seemingly erratic behavior.

In 1996, Israeli leaders appeared very confident. A group of neoconservative American politicians had laid out a road map for Israel to ensure complete dominance over the Middle East. In the document entitled, “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” Turkey was mentioned four times. Each reference envisaged the country as a tool to “contain, destabilize, and roll back some of .. (the) most dangerous threats” to Israel. That very “vision” in fact served as the backbone of the larger strategy used by the US, as it carried out its heedless military adventures in the Middle East.

read here
http://www.counterpunch.org/baroud06182010.html

MUST READ article - thanks goodness for Paul Craig Roberts
---

June 18 - 20, 2010

Every Civil Liberty is Reduced to the Second Amendment

Progressives Want "Direct Action" But a Disarmed Public

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Progressive William Rivers Pitt has lost patience with the Obama regime and with British Petroleum (“Enough of This Crap,” June 15, Truthout). To break through the news blackout that BP maintains over the ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil spill, he wants a hundred thousand Americans to “just show the hell up down there and demand access.”

Pitt is correct that this “is the kind of direct action that has been missing from our national narrative, not just in the Gulf but all over.” Obama, he says correctly, is a “narcotic” for progressives. Apparently, for many progressives having a black man, or a 50 per cent black man, in the White House is what is important, not the fact that he is a continuation of Bush/Cheney.

If a hundred thousand people marched on the Gulf Coast, “big things would happen.” Pitt writes that “either the people would break through those unconscionable corporate barriers and show the world what is really going on in the Gulf, or the forces BP has arrayed against the truth would react with violence, which would tell us everything we need to know about what is happening, and would be enough to break that God damned criminal corporation finally and forever.”

It was, of course, the Bush-Cheney-Obama administration that permitted the drilling. BP didn’t go about it on its own. This aside, and also putting aside my sympathy with Pitt’s outrage, here we have a progressive advocating direct action that likely would end in violence, not merely from BP mercenaries but from local, state, and federal government forces. The anomaly in the picture is that it is progressives who have been most determined to disarm the American people. What would the one hundred thousand do when withering fire is directed at them? Amerika’s forces of “law and order” and conquest enjoy killing people. It doesn’t matter if they are women and children. In fact, killing women and children is the way to win 30-year wars like the one we are one-third through in Afghanistan.

And don’t think the government wouldn’t kill Americans. Remember the 100 murdered Branch Davidians that Bill Clinton and Janet Reno dispatched? The US government has never regretted the million dead Iraqi civilians and the unknown multitude of dead Afghan civilians. Have you forgotten Kent State where college kids were gunned down by the US National Guard? Youtube has tens of thousands of videos of cops getting their jollies by body slamming 90-year old grandmothers and tasering 10-year old kids. Just the other day Obama official Dennis Blair announced that he had a list of Americans to assassinate.

read here
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts06182010.html

Sam Cooke - Chain Gang

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmZdvVnMXCc&feature=related

Sam Cooke - one of the real great ones - thanks taozen for reminding me :)

_

After posting the Roberts article above I was reminded of this video. Just in case you missed it ... a repost.

Doesn't this fellow look exactly like a Mercenary who is ready to shoot if disobeyed? He's got the power. Protecting the workers during their rest period? Unbelievable.

Isn't the whole scene more than weird? - why wouldn't the people want to talk to the journalist? Wouldn't WE want to share what is going on there if we were allowed to help clean the beaches? These people are terrified. It is so obvious.

Besides, whose country is this anyway? BPs?
==========================

BP Using Mercenaries To Prevent Journalists From Talking To
Workers

Vince Veneziani | Jun. 17, 2010, 2:41 PM | 4,554 |

A reporter for local New Orleans news station WDSU tried to interview some BP employees on a beach in Louisiana and was met by a BP-hired security guard and was told he shouldn't disturb the workers reports The Consumerist.

According to the video (shown below), the media needs to stay at least 100 feet from BP workers. Here's one killer quote from the BP-hired security guard when the reporter asks why he's preventing people from accessing a public beach:

GUARD: "I can tell you where to go because I'm employed to keep this beach safe. I have to keep the workers safe."

REPORTER: "Can I go interview that worker?"

GUARD: "NO."

Powerful stuff. Watch the video below for the full confrontation

V I D E O

http://www.businessinsider.com/bp-hires-mercenaries-to-prevent-reporters...

A guy says he finds thousands of U.N. vehicles at a private airport in Florida via google eye in the sky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwbtJHK4cd8&feature=related

The O'Jays - Back Stabbers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVC2j_Kdw8c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lrt2RAnOyBo&feature=related

=============
some groovy bread

Those cars are lined up in rows of five as far as I can see

Problems with what I said: how much like Sarajevo does it have to get for how many people?

Perhaps I use the word "we" too easily. What if I lived in Detroit or on the Gulf Coast?

All I am saying is come correct. Don't quote people out of context, especially when it seems like you are responding "in the cold light of day" trying to explain yourself. Or do. But when it is something important I am probably not going to let it slide.

----
bridge: I usually like Paul Craig Roberts and understand what he is saying there. I do reject the characterization the disarming the public is a major goal of progressives--that seems disingenuous. If it were ever true(and I am only conceding it for the sake of argument), it was in a time that seemed very different to most people living here in this country (which, after all is what we are talking
about--this country and its laws...)

So it's kind of a straw man, in that way...

I am sorry if I piss people off. I am not suggesting censorship and not using insults, so I don't really see how what I am doing is wrong...but, again, sorry if it is irritating.

---
nora: Holy fuck!! I am going to go look at that channel. What kind of a teaparty guy is that guy? A Paulhead or the other kind. Have you verified that the image actually comes from Google earth--that it is authentic? (If not, I am still in the matrix, so I will do it...unless I had to take that off again because of the pathetic size of my hard drive. I forget...)

----
Malloy's story about toast is also what made me think about the use of word "we."

'Medical' butchery of little girls shows its sickness with its sick details. Medicine? How can reputable physicians tolerate this stuff in their midst?

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/147254/after_cutting_little_...

how it would probably have been better if Rev. Al Green had won, instead of this Alvin Green. She called Rev. Al G. "the happiest man on earth..." That was weird but...anyhow, on the whole, prolly...she's right.

Al Green-Keep Me Cryin'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q28sb1mr3w

http://www.naturalnews.com/029023_corporations_crimes_against_nature.htm...

[excerpt]

What is abundantly clear now is that corporations will do anything to make money, from the cruel and inhumane factory farming of cows to dumping millions of gallons of toxic chemicals in the ocean to try to sink the dead sea animals in the Gulf. Corporations would set fire to the entire planet if that act could somehow boost profits by 50% next quarter.

The unbridled greed that drives these corporations is simply incompatible with sustainable life on our planet. Through their careless, greed-driven actions, corporations are threatening YOUR life and the lives of your children.

[end excerpt]

AND, regarding the free pass corporations are given by our compromised 'justice' system:

[excerpt]

Similarly, after drug giant Pfizer was found to have committed massive marketing fraud that violated federal law, the company was deemed "too big to fail" and was simply given a free pass by the government to stay in business, defrauding customers, states and nations. Pfizer set up a shell company to take the fall for its crimes, then went right back to business as usual. Read the story on CNN if you want to learn more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/0...

[end excerpt]

--------------------

Maybe the four years in the BP payout fund schedule will be far from over when BP conglomerate dissolves its BP oil subsidiary....

that you posted about Saramago.

http://www.youtube.com/user/liberteaparty#p/u/1/be3L_ZBWTNw

So, not sayin'...just sayin'...FWIW.

I will still look if I can check Google Earth.

Malloy says.

but how do we know that he is right that "these are UN vehicles?"

Link will only work if you have Earth installed, but here it is...

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

but now say not UN vehicles. Look at what they say. I haven't followed any of the links and don't think I will tonight.

http://nomorecensorship.com/tag/reynolds-airpark/

(I used alltheweb to find this...:))

http://counterpunch.org/roberts06162010.html

[excerpt]

...With the concentrated ownership of the corporate media today, no independently-minded journalist can have a career in print or TV media. You defend the Washington/Tel Aviv line, or you are out of work.

[end excerpt]

like Hedges says.

How do we make sure people get basic material needs met during work stoppages? If people ARE wounded, etc, how do we treat? Will the private hospitals of the "hcr" "system" take care of the anyone--let alone those with no insurance. (And keep in mind what I said a while ago...insurance doesn't cover you if you are anywhere NEAR political uprising--let alone participating in it voluntary...even as a pacifist.)

So..we can't just jump into this from our atomized late-capitalist mindset. If you're gonna be real, be real.

?

Hasta no verlos.

If the use of mercenaries in the Gulf and other goodies of RogueIntelligence/Halliburton/BushCrimeFamily (that is, operations not known to the Houses of Congress) could be in motion in this Gulfcoast mess, that would be a rough scenario.

I wonder if this stuff has any validity, even if only disaster capitalism validity.

and Blue Cross REFUSED him for PRE-EXISTING CONDITION.

KAREL asked: What has changed?

Now, why did we never need a 'kill switch' on the press? (Oops, I guess we did have a 'voluntary' kill switch, where the press did not cover stuff that was off limits, and covered stuff that was given the "okay" (like Judith Miller-style reporting)...).

http://www.zdnet.com.au/internet-kill-switch-proposed-for-us-339303838.h...

[excerpt]

Due to there being few limits on the US President's emergency power, which can be renewed indefinitely, the densely worded 197-page Bill (PDF) is likely to encounter stiff opposition.

TechAmerica, probably the largest US technology lobby group, said it was concerned about "unintended consequences that would result from the legislation's regulatory approach" and "the potential for absolute power". And the Center for Democracy and Technology publicly worried that the Lieberman Bill's emergency powers "include authority to shut down or limit internet traffic on private systems."

[end excerpt]

How many more cold-blooded Bankster rip-offs are slipping under the radar? Why should it take a protest to treat U.S. citizens like humans instead of BankSlaves???

This is a DemocracyNow piece:

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/18/bank_of_america

Following Community Protests, Bank of America Backs Down from Foreclosing on Disabled Bronx Homeowner

Published 11:43 18.06.10

Erdogan is not the bogeyman

Public opinion is the main driver in Turkish policy on Israel-Palestine. Crises with Israel have always followed any Turkish perception that injustice is being done to the Palestinians.

By Hugh Pope

Myth-makers have been busily at work since the May 31 Israeli commando assault on the civilian Turkish ship Mavi Marmara on its way to try to break the Gaza blockade.

Turkish versions of events have fabulous elements, to be sure. Few in Turkey seem to have realized the risks of putting political activists up against a security-obsessed Israel. And some Turks still believe that Ankara's "zero-problem" foreign policy based on peace in the neighborhood can survive the collapse in relations with Israel, even though Turkey can no longer claim to be the only Middle East country with good ties to every regional party.

However, these misconceptions pale beside those of some Israeli commentators, who point to the Mavi Marmara as Exhibit A in a deep-laid plan by "Islamist" Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to destroy a natural Turkish alliance with Israel, to seize leadership of the Muslim world, and to assert Turkish hegemony over former Ottoman domains in the Middle East - probably through the cat's paw of aid organization IHH (Insani Yardim Vakfi ), branded as terrorists in cahoots with Al-Qaida. Whoa there! First of all, it was Israeli live fire that killed nine Turks on the high seas, with a 10th now dead in an Ankara hospital. Dozens more were injured. While the Turks would have been far wiser to employ purely passive resistance, it is clear that nobody on the Turkish side planned for bloodshed. For instance, Mavi Marmara organizers point out that no provision had been made for casualties.

read here
http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/week-s-end/erdogan-is-not-the-bogeyman-1...

Turkey's regional popularity soars

V I D E O

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tRdANHov5g&feature=player_embedded

Guns and Butter

"Europe's Financial Class War Against Labor, Industry and Government" with Dr. Michael Hudson.

Economic crisis in Europe created by predatory lending; European Central Bank stranglehold on the Eurozone; the Euro; foreign banks decimate Greece's social structure; Marx's industrial capital versus fictitious capital; Latvia as a model for the rest of Europe; Hudson's financial and fiscal plan for Latvia; the Cold War and its ruinous effect on progressive economic thought.

Michael Hudson on Guns and Butter - June 16, 2010 .MP3

...worth the listen...dude definitely has his poop in a group....

GRITtv coverage -- Antonio Juhasz & Joe Berlinger interviewed by Laura Flanders...

http://www.grittv.org/2010/06/16/antonia-juhasz-joe-berlinger-big-oils-d...

Did any BP officials refer to the loss of animal life, habitat and the risk of extinction? I've watched several sections of the hearings, but neither the questioners nor the corporate honchos acknowledged the oil's cruel effects on the natural world, the suffering wildlife, the possibly doomed wildlife. Does any such testimony exist?

/|\Om...Hung)0(

if you are being able to stream it cuz I get nothing in itunes.

Just dead air right now?

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65A02B20100619?feedType=RSS&feedNa...

===============
Muslim on muslim violence is what is going on. so the non muslims want to look the other way. but those bases are important and the Russians have told the US , through previous experience "we aint getting involved."

Ghettodefender has said from the beginning the exiled leader will have to come back or something like that. He seems to have more insight on this terrible situation.

The strange and consequential case of Bradley Manning, Adrian Lamo and WikiLeaks
By Glenn Greenwald

(updated below)

On June 6, Kevin Poulsen and Kim Zetter of Wired reported that a 22-year-old U.S. Army Private in Iraq, Bradley Manning, had been detained after he "boasted" in an Internet chat -- with convicted computer hacker Adrian Lamo -- of leaking to WikiLeaks the now famous Apache Helicopter attack video, a yet-to-be-published video of a civilian-killing air attack in Afghanistan, and "hundreds of thousands of classified State Department records." Lamo, who holds himself out as a "journalist" and told Manning he was one, acted instead as government informant, notifying federal authorities of what Manning allegedly told him, and then proceeded to question Manning for days as he met with federal agents, leading to Manning's detention.

On June 10, former New York Times reporter Philip Shenon, writing in The Daily Beast, gave voice to anonymous "American officials" to announce that "Pentagon investigators" were trying "to determine the whereabouts of the Australian-born founder of the secretive website Wikileaks [Julian Assange] for fear that he may be about to publish a huge cache of classified State Department cables that, if made public, could do serious damage to national security." Some news outlets used that report to declare that there was a "Pentagon manhunt" underway for Assange -- as though he's some sort of dangerous fugitive.

From the start, this whole story was quite strange for numerous reasons. In an attempt to obtain greater clarity about what really happened here, I've spent the last week reviewing everything I could related to this case and speaking with several of the key participants (including Lamo, with whom I had a one-hour interview last night that can be heard on the recorder below, and Poulsen, with whom I had a lengthy email exchange, which is published in full here). A definitive understanding of what really happened is virtually impossible to acquire, largely because almost everything that is known comes from a single, extremely untrustworthy source: Lamo himself. Compounding that is the fact that most of what came from Lamo has been filtered through a single journalist -- Poulsen -- who has a long and strange history with Lamo, who continues to possess but not disclose key evidence, and who has been only marginally transparent about what actually happened here (I say that as someone who admires Poulsen's work as Editor of Wired's Threat Level blog).

Reviewing everything that is known ultimately raises more questions than it answers. Below is my perspective on what happened here. But there is one fact to keep in mind at the outset. In 2008, the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Center prepared a classified report (ironically leaked to and published by WikiLeaks) which -- as the NYT put it -- placed WikiLeaks on "the list of the enemies threatening the security of the United States." That Report discussed ways to destroy WikiLeaks' reputation and efficacy, and emphasized creating the impression that leaking to it is unsafe (click image to enlarge)...

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/18/wikileaks

whatever ...which I also did - several times = and that equals "dead air". :):(

The station signed on at five minutes till. Try one more time why doncha...

And make sure the volume is pretty high. As you know they are pretty soft in the talking parts (which is most of the parts).

;) {*poof*, but fly'n around 2 ;) }

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/5876#comment-411481
_ _ _ _ _ _
WTF | BRR