by Anthony Ioven
Looks like Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has been smoking some of that plentiful Afghan opium. The other day, Maliki refused to accept any US-imposed timeline on when Iraqi troops would stand up so Americans can stand down and get the hell out. Maliki insists that he is "not America's man in Iraq."
Good for you, Nouri.
And yesterday, macho Maliki's government issued this tough-talking statement:
[T]he Iraqi government has made clear the [security] issues that must be resolved with timelines for them to take positive steps forward on behalf of the Iraqi people.
Didn't know they had woodsheds in Iraq.
by The Guests of 604
The rest of the story. When the MSM crowed over the 48 insurgents killed in Afghanistan by Nato forces the other day, they neglected to mention that up to 85 civilians were killed along with them.
According to a Nato spokesman, "sometimes things go wrong." I'm sure the families of the dead feel so much better.
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Shocking stat: "Each of the nation's 10 largest public school districts (New York, Los Angeles Chicago, Greater Miami and Houston, among others) fail to graduate more than 60 percent of their students."
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If 70-year-old balladmaster Engelbert Humperdinck is truly A Man Without Love, it's his own damn fault. Throughout his 40-year concert career, adoring woman fans toss their panties at him on stage, and still do so today. Only now, they're Depends.
by Anthony Ioven
Gary Webb is living proof of the real risks that real journalists take when they report real news — at least, Webb would be living proof if he hadn't committed suicide in 2004, after watching his career and then his life fall apart.
 | The beginning of the end of Iran/Contra |
In the 80s, investigative journalist Webb wrote a series of articles for the San Jose Mercury News about CIA complicity in South American drug-smuggling operations, at a time when crack-cocaine was flooding large American cities like Los Angeles. The MSM reacted like a wolf defending her brood, attacking Webb viciously for the MSM's one unpardonable sin — committing acts of real journalism.
Caving under the pressure from its peers, the San Jose Mercury News demoted the Pulitzer Prize winner to a suburban police beat. Webb left the paper, and then bounced around for years when no other major US daily would hire him. Along the way, he lost his house, his family, and his life. He was 49.
Read a review of a new Webb biography here. Other information and links are here.
Gary Webb wasn't the first journalist to be hurt trying to publish the truth about the CIA/crack-cocaine connection in the 80s. Robert Parry was forced out of his job at AP for reporting it.
Today Parry appeared on Democracy Now, talking about the major political scandal he helped expose back in the 80s — the secret US funding of the Nicaraguan "contras." Oliver North and other Iran/Contra criminals supported the insurgents by any means necessary, including money from illegal arms sales to Iran, and, yes, the CIA/cocaine connection.
During the interview, Parry recalled that going after Iran/Contra stories was a "career-ender" for journalists, and he offered this insight as to why the today's MSM is so spineless:
Many of the reporters who really pushed these [Iran/Contra] stories and went after the hard news had their careers damaged, and many reporters who didn’t moved up. So you ended up with sort of a kind of a reverse Darwinianism...[where] it was the reporters that played ball got ahead, and they became the managing editors of today. So, there was a cultural change that occurred with the Washington press corps during that period, and that remains with us: this idea of not asking the hard questions, not pushing the edge of the envelope.
After using the term "reverse Darwinism, Parry backed away from it, and so do I. The taming of the American press is due more to intelligent design.
by The Guests of 604
Ron Ziegler would be proud. The Bush administration has rendered its prior statements against a cowardly, cut-and-run timetable in Iraq as inoperative — and coincidentally, this big 180 comes just two weeks before the election.
What about Bush's Texas tough-guy pledge to stay the course? "He stopped using it," said spokesman Tony Snow. Oh.
Think there'll be an apology to that traitor John Murtha anytime soon?
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Follow the leader. Other countries with a somewhat less-than-Christian philosophy of dealing with prisoners are starting to use the US as their get-out-of-jail-free card for torture, if not murder, according to a UN investigator. If the US does it, why can't we? Anyone have a good answer for that? No one here at 604 seems to.
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Headline: Report finds sex always on men's minds. Like I've said for years — all men, by nature, are pigs.
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And speaking of which. Howard Zinn makes this pointed observation about our swaggering president:
I remember John Hersey's novel The War Lover, in which a macho American pilot, who loves to drop bombs on people, and also to boast about his sexual conquests, turns out to be impotent. George Bush, strutting in his flight jacket on an aircraft carrier, and announcing victory in Iraq, has turned out to be an embodiment of the Hersey character, his words equally boastful, his military machine equally impotent.
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As if we needed another reason to see Rush Limbaugh for the hateful buffoon that he is, this is the blathering blowhard's take on Michael J. Fox' political ad in support of stem cell research:
Now, this is Michael J. Fox. He's got Parkinson's disease. And in this commercial, he is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He is moving all around and shaking. And it's purely an act. This is the only time I have ever seen Michael J. Fox portray any of the symptoms of the disease he has...
So this is really shameless, folks, this is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting, one of the two.
Shameless? That just begins to describe it. But Limbaugh isn't the problem. The really scary part is the millions of Americans who proudly call themselves dittoheads.
by The Guests of 604
After we read the words of US diplomat Alberto Fernandez, that "there was arrogance and stupidity in US [dealing] with Iraq," the buzz at 604 went something like, Gee, ya think? But after Fernandez read his own words, he quickly retracted them, claiming he "seriously misspoke." No doubt — the truth doesn't escape easily or often from the lips of anyone in this administration.
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The founding fathers expected that future generations would need to fix the "imperfections" in the Constitution — or at least, update it now and then to accommodate a changing world. But instead we treat the Constitution like the word of God: "We have gone far too long without a serious national conversation about what our experience teaches us about the adequacy of the Constitution, and we are paying an immense price for this failure."
We couldn't agree more. The Constitution was written in the days of the horse and buggy, powdered wigs, and puffy shirts. It's time to bring it into the 21st century. Update America.
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The quick-thinking moms and dads in 604's neighborhood are showing how much they love their kids by saddling them with huge credit card debt. Seems the government is refusing to send deep-in-debt soldiers overseas because they're considered a security risk. Expensive? Sure. But the cost of keeping your child out of this completely unnecessary war — priceless.
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"Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is" — a moving look at America and its leaders by Pat Tillman's brother Kevin.
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House hunting? You can have Nicolas Cage's cozy 7-bedroom home for a mere $35 million. Us? We're happy right here at 604.
by Anthony Ioven
At least, that's what a recent Forbes offering would have Mr. and Mrs. Median American believe — that for all their bitching about the economy, "The fact is that in real terms, today's Medians are doing great" when compared to their 1960s counterparts. And yet:
Yes, despite their material prosperity, the Medians are a grumpy lot.
And apparently, a dense and ungrateful lot at that.
At the end of this attempt to convince the Medians that they are self-absorbed twits who should be ashamed of themselves is a link: In Pictures: Mr. and Mrs. Median Over The Decades. The pictures aren't so interesting, but the accompanying statistics are — especially the ones that the article ignores:
Income Share of Middle 60% of Wage Earners. 1965: 52.3% – 2005: 46.2%
Personal Savings Rate. 1965: 8.5% – 2005 -0.4%
Misery Index (Inflation Plus Unemployment). 1965: 6.1% – 2005: 8.5%
And nowhere does Forbes mention a very telling statistic — consumer debt. So I took the liberty of checking it out for them:
August, 1965: $93 billion. Adjusted for inflation, that's $554 billion.
August, 2006: $2.352 trillion — a roughly 425% increase.
No wonder Steve Forbes never blinks. It's hard to blink when you're telling someone that black is white and down is up.
by The Guests of 604
The penis is king. Most issues don't seem to get much of a rise out of Americans — unjustified invasions, civilian deaths, torture, domestic spying, outright administration lies — ho-hum, what time is Dancing With the Stars on? But:
Thank God for Mark Foley. It proves that the American people still care about something. It happens to be penises. But still.
If this is what it takes to kick Republican asses out of Congress, so be it. So it isn't what Malcolm X had in mind when he said, "We want justice by any means necessary," but still... The link is a great read, BTW.
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Plus ça change... . And suppose we do kick enough Republican asses out of Congress next month and end up with a Democratic majority in both Houses — then what? Will we get out of Iraq? Will we finally provide health insurance for all? Impose real restrictions on campaign contributions and spending? Outlaw signing statements? Impeach the criminals in the administration? Sure we will. ...plus c’est la même chose.
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The stock market's record-breaking week is great news for Americans — well, at least a few of them. Krugman:
Should we be cheering over the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has finally set a new record? No. The Dow is doing well largely because American employers are waging a successful war against wages.
Class war? There is no class war. But the buzz at 604 is that we're losing it. Badly.
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Between the idea and the reality... . The Drudge headline: Massive anti-Chavez rally in Venezuela... . The BBC report:
For some it was simply a day out to enjoy the sunshine, but for most it was a chance to listen to a speech by [presidential candidate] Mr Rosales, who declared that Venezuela was "at a crossroads".
In Drudge's defense, he was probably confusing this campaign speech with the October 5th protests against the Iraq war held in 235 cities all across America.
by The Guests of 604
Ozzie the terrorist? Tomorrow night, 60 Minutes will report that the Transportation Security Administration has a No-Fly list of 44,000 names of people who must undergo "intense scrutiny" before being allowed to fly:
A former FBI agent tells Kroft that the list was basically a "data dump" that ensured any name ever remotely connected to terrorism would be on it.
Oh great. Just having a blacklisted name like David Nelson is enough to get you detained, questioned, and searched, even if your middle name is Ozzie and you're the son of the all-American Ozzie and Harriet Nelson. So if you have a common name like Gary Smith, John Williams, or Robert Jobhson, better make sure you're wearing clean underwear before heading to the airport.
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They're baaaa-aack. While we're busy spreadin' liberty to Iraq, Iraq has been spreadin' insurgency to Afghanistan.
The reborn Taliban acknowledges that it has adopted the suicide bombings, beheadings and remote-controlled bombs of the Iraqi insurgent movement.
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With blunt comments like this...
The president doesn’t just hear what he wants. He hears things that only he can hear.
...Keith Olbermann is shining a spotlight on the 800-pound gorilla that most of the rest of the MSM is afraid to talk about — that President Bush is "a leader crumbling under the weight of his own lies." Olbermann is making a name for himself, sounding like Edward R. Murrow battling Joe McCarthy.
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If you're headed to Bellport, NY to exercise your right to participate in peaceful protest, you're going to have to buy
protest insurance first. Seems the village of Bellport has mandated that protesters carry two million dollars in liability insurance. The ACLU is suing.
by Faith Hope
So ok I admit I may not spend as much time as I'd like keeping on top of what's going on in the world what with taking care of three kids and working two jobs and everything else I've got going on so maybe I'm just not seeing the big picture when I hear something like this on the news:
Condoleezza Rice...said Thursday she will tell [Iraqi] leaders they have limited time to settle political differences spurring sectarian and insurgent violence.
Limited time? That sounds like a threat to me but will someone please tell me exactly what else we can do to this country? We've bombed them back to the stone age, helped kill hundreds of thousands of their children, invaded their country on false pretenses and have occupied it ever since, making their lives a daily living hell in the process.
So what's left?
Oh well gotta run...
by Anthony Ioven
 Is the US losing its grip on South America? Noam Chomsky thinks so. And by "reasserting its independence," Latin America is becoming a threat to the ruling elites not only in countries like Ecuador and Bolivia, but in America as well:
They have sought to construct democratic systems based on popular participation rather than elite and foreign domination.
Democratic systems, based on popular participation? Outrageous.
Chomsky illustrates the kind of democracy he sees emerging in some Latin American countries by contrasting the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia last year to the 2004 US presidential election:
In the 2004 U.S. presidential election, voters had a choice between two men born to wealth and privilege, who attended the same elite university, joined the same secret society where young men are trained to join the ruling class and were able to run in the election because they were supported by pretty much the same conglomerations of private power. Their programs were similar, consistent with the needs of their primary constituency: wealth and privilege.
For contrast, consider Bolivia and Evo Morales' election last December. Voters were familiar with the issues, very real and important ones like national control over natural gas and other resources, which has overwhelming popular support. Indigenous rights, women's rights, land rights and water rights were on the political agenda, among many others. The population chose someone from its own ranks, not a representative of narrow sectors of privilege.
Imagine that. Voters in the "poorest country in South America" are savvy enough to vote for "someone from [their] own ranks," unlike voters in their wealthy, sophisticated North American neighbor. We have a lot to learn from a country many of us look down on as an inferior banana republic.
by The Guests of 604
How weak. Condoleezza Rice is pleading "I don't remember" against the charge that top intelligence officials warned her on July 10, 2001 that "something was coming." She did nothing about it then, and she did nothing a month later after reading the PDB with the apparently-too-subtle title "bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." But 9/11 was Clinton's fault.
No health insurance? No worries. If you need a medical procedure that would cost you an arm and a leg — and also your house — here in the US, consider outsourcing the work to an exotic locale like Malaysia or India for bargain-basement prices. The Boston Globe reports that more and more Americans are going overseas for medical care that they can't afford at home. For example, "the average charge for heart valve surgery in the United States is $115,221, while at Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India, it's $7,000."
Yes, the $108,000 difference is "staggering," and don't think employers haven't noticed:
David Frazzini , a senior healthcare consultant for Mercer Health & Benefits, a consulting firm, said Mercer is currently "having conversations with a handful of big employers" including "at least a few Fortune 500 companies," about the idea of sending employees overseas for care. Frazzini added that "there is already very strong evidence of large financial reasons to be looking at outsourcing healthcare.
Don't expect too many relatives and friends to come to visit you in Bangalore.
Oops. Speaking of health care, it seems that Massachusetts' so-called "health-care-for-all" law forgot to include a few members of the population — children. Screw 'em. Kids don't vote.
And the state may not bother to correct the "oversight":
...forcing parents to insure their children may be unenforceable and unnecessary, because most parents voluntarily insure their children when they buy coverage for themselves.
Right. Although some of them may have to sell the extra Lexus or the summer house on Martha's Vineyard to raise the cash.
by Anthony Ioven
 At what point does the world finally say the Palestinian people have suffered enough?
Because the Palestinians had the temerity to elect a Hamas-led government, which we don't approve of, we're squeezing these long-suffering people even more by denying the government aid. In a quasi "country" where people aren't free to come and go as they please, where they are subject to daily indignities just trying to get to and from work, if they are lucky enough to have work, and where there is truly no hope, that aid from the US, Israel, the EU, the UN, and others is all that stands between these truly unfortunate people and utter chaos.
The aid embargo will continue as long as the government refuses to "recognize Israel, renounce violence, and honor previous peace agreements." Replace "Israel" with "Palestine" and the same can be said of the Israeli government, but that doesn't stop us from funneling billions in your taxpayer dollars to the Israelis.
The major showstopper is the recognition of the state of Israel. A few months ago, Hamas signaled it was willing to compromise by agreeing with the more moderate Fatah party to accept a Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders. Yes, that compromise stopped short of an explicit recognition of Israel. But as a Hamas official said recently (my emphasis):
"Let's be realistic. Having a state within the 1967 borders, that means there is another state in the rest of historical Palestine," he said. "But in our tradition, in our belief, in our society, we do not submit to those who say" — he snapped his fingers three times — "One, two, three, do this."
Nor does anyone else with an ounce of self-respect. But like a schoolyard bully, we won't be satisfied until Hamas cries "Uncle," even if we have to destroy the lives of every last Palestinian man, woman, and child for the satisfaction of hearing it.
by The Guests of 604
It was another bad week for America. Congress passed the so-called detainee bill, with much crowing and gloating from the rabid right. But there's no happy talk here at 604 — the buzz is about all that has been lost.
In a post called Habeas Corpus, R.I.P. (1215 - 2006), Truthdig introduced a Molly Ivins piece this way:
With a smug stroke of his pen, President Bush is set to wipe out a safeguard against illegal imprisonment that has endured as a cornerstone of legal justice since the Magna Carta.
Ralph Nader put it more bluntly:
The White House is on a rampage. The President is a documented lawless, reckless, arrogant politician whose policies are fueling more terrorism in the Middle East.
No argument here. But one of the most wrenching reactions to this soon-to-be-law came from a letter-writer in yesterday's Boston Globe:
I can be picked up and detained indefinitely, with no right to a lawyer, no right to challenge my detention or to see the evidence against me, and no right for my family to even know the location of my secret prison...This measure is advertised as an antiterrorist bill [but] I find this country a much more terrifying place than when I woke up on Thursday morning.
And then there's the buzz about the fat, damning snippets from Bob Woodward's new book, State of Denial. Woodward writes that on July 10, 2001, then-CIA director George Tenet and his counterterrrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, became so worried that "something was coming" from al Qaeda that they immediately drove to the White House to talk to then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. But apparently, nothing less than a mushroom cloud or a falling building was going to convince Rice of the danger to America, because she dismissed the dire warning from these two top intelligence officials and gave them "the brush-off."
And then it gets worse:
The July 10 meeting of Rice, Tenet and Black went unmentioned in various investigations into the Sept. 11 attacks, and Woodward wrote that Black "felt there were things the commissions wanted to know about and things they didn't want to know about."
So is anyone surprised that the July 10 meeting between Rice, Tenet, and Black is not mentioned anywhere in the 9/11 Commission Report?
And what's the White House's reaction to the allegations in Woodward's book? Tony Snow:
You know, in a lot of ways, the book is sort of like cotton candy, it kind of melts on contact.
Well that makes us feel so much better...
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UpdateAmerica.com
604.UpdateAmerica.com
October's Posts
Thank You Nouri, Now Go Play
'Reverse Darwinism'
Stop Whining - You're Doing Great
The Nucular Option, Maybe?
A Second American Revolution?
Collective Punishment
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