Chernobyl :: 2006 A.D.

Nuclear Nightmare

From a post at Digby about Iran and the taboo of Nuclear War comes the info below about Chernobyl.   In 1986 the Nuclear Power Plant underwent a meltdown of the core of the reactor causing the worst contamination since Hiroshima.



Three Mile Island was the most serious Nuclear Accident in American History, which proved we were not advanced enough and safety oriented as we should have been. Even as Kvatch in the comments points out the damage was contained at Three Mile Island compared to a total catastrophic failure that occurred at Chernobyl.




With rethoric circulating wildly about using the bomb, it is time we look at the past and weigh the consequences of such actions.   Humanity deserves more than to turn to technological barbarism.   - fc (edited content 4-28-06)

From the Comments ::

This is an interesting web site run by a Ukrainian woman who is fond of riding through the Chernobyl restricted zone on her motocycle taking photos, with a geiger counter in one hand and a camera in the other. Her father is a physicist and gets her passes to get through the checkpoints. I found it fascinating.

by shargash




From the top of the Ghost Town Hotel



The day after the accident, this place on the bridge provided a good view of the gaping crack in the nuclear containment vessel that was ruptured by the explosion. Many curious people came here to have a look and were bathed in a flood of deadly x-rays emanating directly from the glowing nuclearcore.



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Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Technological Barbarism · Nukes · Nuclear Power

There is none like You among the dumb - אין כמוך באלמים

A medieval piyyut, composed by Isaac bar Shalom, in response to the persecutions of Jews in Ashkenaz during the Second Crusade in 1147, begins with this stanza:

There is none like You among the dumb,
Keeping silence and being still in the face of those who aggrieve us.
Our foes are many; they rise up against us,
As they take counsel together to revile us.
"Where is your King?," they taunt us.
But we have not forgotten You nor deceived You.
Do not keep silence! (אל דמי לך )

Source: Jakob J. Petuchowski, Theology and Poetry: Studies in the Medieval Piyyut (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978), pp. 71-83.

Yom Ha-Shoah - Mordekhai Falkon

Since today is Yom Ha-Shoah - the day of remembrance of the Holocaust - I thought I would mention briefly my grandfather's uncle, Mordekhai Falkon, who was murdered by the Nazis in Liepaja, Latvia (known also as Libau, Latvia), in the summer of 1941. Mordekhai corresponded with my grandfather, Mark Falcon Lesses, from the mid-1930s through March 18, 1940 (just before the Russian conquest of Latvia). My grandfather was a doctor, living in Boston, Massachusetts, with my grandmother and their two children. He was contacted by Mordekhai Falkon and by another relative living in Jelgava, Latvia, Sima Shlosberg - both sought affidavits so that they could immigrate to the United States.

This is the text of Mordekhai's last letter (that is, the last one that I know of, which was saved by my grandmother for many years after my grandfather died).

Liepaja, 18th March 1940

My dear Nephew,

Not being sure, that my letter written about two weeks before, will reach you, I write you today again. My wife has been sick for a long time, but now she is again well up. Also I am well, but since January the 1st I left all my business and since then I am nothing doing.

I am thanking you very much for your kind will to help me get into U.S., but as long as it is possible to live here, I should not leave our old home. Should unforeseen circumstances induce me to leave, I shall not fail to inform you in right time. All papers received from you I delivered to the U.S. Consulate, which will inform me, when my turn will come.

I hope you and your family are all well and I shall be glad to hear from you as often as possible.

With kindest regards from me and my wife

Your uncle
M. Falkon

[on the back of the envelope is stamped: Stockholm 20.3.40]

For the text of Mordekhai's other letters, see Letters from the Past. You can also find there letters from Sima Shlosberg and from Mordekhai's sister, Gittel Falkon Kagan, who lived in Moscow.

As I found out from subsequent correspondence with a relative, Sima survived the war. She married and lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, for many years, before dying in the mid-1980s. We do not know what happened to Gittel and her family in Russia, because there has been no contact since the late 1930s with them.

According to the extensive database of Libau Jews developed by Edward Anders and his co-workers, Mordekhai was likely killed in July, 1941. As soon as the Nazis entered Libau on June 29, 1941, they began killing Jews. Mordekhai's wife, Dobra, was killed on December 15, 1941, along with almost 3,000 other Libau Jews during three days of murder at the Skede dunes along the coast, about 15 km north of Libau. (For photographs of the killings, see Skede executions. Warning: graphic and disturbing photographs). Mordekhai's son, Abram, and his two children, Betje and Genia, were also killed in 1941.

May they rest in peace.

Only In America: Never Again

My local NPR station just broadcast Only In America: Never Again, a one-hour special remembering the Holocaust. Most of the show is devoted to an affecting interview with Elie Wiesel. It's worth listening to on Yom Ha-Shoah.

The controversial Stanley Fish

Watch the amazing spectacle of Stanley Fish arguing that Salman Rushdie should not be a speaker at a college commencement because he's too controversial! His NY Times blog is, of course, behind the Times' firewall, but here's the substance of his remarks. (One wonders when the Times will finally understand what a blog really is!)

Rushdie was invited to be the graduation speaker at Nova Southereastern University in Davie, Florida.

Some student members of the International Muslim Association are protesting the invitation, presumably because they agree with those who regard Mr. Rushdie’s 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” as a blasphemy against Islam and the Prophet Mohammed. (It’s the Danish cartoons all over again, only this time with an additional twist provided by the literary quality of the offending document.)

Graduating senior Farheen Parvez is planning not to attend. “I was looking forward to my graduation,” she told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, but “when I found out that Salman Rushdie would be the speaker, I was appalled.”

His closing argument:

But a graduation ceremony is not a class; it is, quite precisely, a ceremony, a formal rite of passage where etiquette and ritual are more important, and more appropriate, than profundity. Inviting controversial speakers to campus is certainly a good idea, but inviting controversial speakers to give a commencement address may not be. Mr. Rushdie’s visit is trumpeted (in the college’s announcement) as the “capstone” to a series of public lectures and classroom discussions on “tolerance, acceptance and social justice.” One assumes that in the classrooms and at the public lectures, vigorous participation was encouraged, and those who disagreed with the teacher or speaker could make their disagreement known. But graduation speeches are not usually followed by question-and-answer periods or by a panel of people representing opposing views. A graduation speech is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, and those who prefer to leave it must either walk out or resolve to stay home.

Ms. Parvez [one of the protesting Muslim students] had it exactly right when she said, “If he was here for any other event, that would have been fine, because that’s optional. But having him at graduation, it’s not appropriate because that’s for the families and the students.” When you’re the proud parent of a graduating son or daughter, the last thing you want to hear is something that will make you think. You want to hear something that will make you feel good. Professor Smith asserted, “The choice of Rushdie as speaker inspires questions, invites challenges and embodies larger issues… .” That’s precisely the problem.

In my experience of commencement speakers, they vary between the hopelessly banal and the irritatingly offensive. Despite that, it is certainly worthwhile to invite a speaker who will actually say something interesting and maybe even profound, even if one doesn't agree with everything he says. Are colleges and universities required to give in to the sentiments of students who are insulted on religious or political grounds? My institution of higher learning is hosting the editor of the National Review tonight. I'm sure he'll say a lot of things I don't agree with - but so what? Are we guaranteed the right not ever to be insulted by the views of others? I don't think so.

DMCA Upgraded

Call Your Lawmakers

From an article at Cnet we obtain news that a vote will be Wednesday on this bill.   I have posted links and information on two major "Internet" Issues at NeoAlertz.   There is listed petitions from several acvtivist organizations concerning these issues.   Take a look here and see if your lawmakers have already voted on one of these bills.   If they have not done so, call them and tell them to help preserve our rights to fair use and freedom from corporate interests concerning "Net Neutrality".   Read about these issues and make informed comments to your lawmakers today.   These things concern us all...   - fc

Congress readies broad new digital copyright bill

By Declan McCullagh

Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: April 23, 2006, 6:00 AM PDT

Last modified: April 24, 2006, 10:00 AM PDT



update For the last few years, a coalition of technology companies, academics and computer programmers has been trying to persuade Congress to scale back the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.



Now Congress is preparing to do precisely the opposite. A proposed copyright law seen by CNET News.com would expand the DMCA's restrictions on software that can bypass copy protections and grant federal police more wiretapping and enforcement powers.



The draft legislation, created by the Bush administration and backed by Rep. Lamar Smith, already enjoys the support of large copyright holders such as the Recording Industry Association of America. Smith, a Texas Republican, is the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees intellectual-property law.



A spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee said Friday that the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006 is expected to "be introduced in the near future." Beth Frigola, Smith's press secretary, added Monday that Wisconsin Republican F. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the full House Judiciary Committee, will be leading the effort.



The 24-page bill is a far-reaching medley of different proposals cobbled together. One would, for instance, create a new federal crime of just trying to commit copyright infringement. Such willful attempts at piracy, even if they fail, could be punished by up to 10 years in prison.



It also represents a political setback for critics of expanding copyright law, who have been backing federal legislation that veers in the opposite direction and permits bypassing copy protection for "fair use" purposes. That bill--introduced in 2002 by Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat--has been bottled up in a subcommittee ever since.



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Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Technology · DMCA · fair use · Copyright Infringement· Intellectual Property · Congress · Activism

Jews are the "only enemy"

According to Jamal Abu Samhadana, the new P.A. police chief, "We have only one enemy. They are Jews. We have no other enemy. I will continue to carry the rifle and pull the trigger whenever required to defend my people."

Google Earth

I was very happy to discover that Google Earth finally has a Macintosh version, and I've been happily playing with it. I first went to my favorite place - Jerusalem - and discovered that the resolution isn't very good (it's much better for Manhattan, for example). However, enterprising individuals have put a much more detailed overlay of the Old City, which makes it easier to identify individual sites in the city, for example the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or the Temple Mount. As I imagine many people have, I spent some time looking at lower Manhattan, at the site where the World Trade Center once stood - many people have provided overlays for the site, including a fairly detailed timeline of the September 11, 2001 attacks. I also looked at Baghdad, where some energetic soul has pinpointed the locations of many of the deaths in the Iraq War. It's really an amazing resource, as well as being quite a time-sink....

Police officer and terrorist

As Haaretz says, when a police officer is also a terrorist, it means that the new Hamas-led Palestinian Authority has now declared war on Israel. The Palestinian Interior Minister appointed a top terrorist, Abu Samhadana, as the inspector general of the Interior Ministry and commander of a new security force. I've looked on in wonder as the Hamas government has had the chutzpah to complain at not receiving aid from the U.S. or the EU, or at Israel's refusal to transfer taxes to the P.A. Actions like this by the Hamas government demonstrate how justified all three were in not continuing to fund the P.A.

A few weeks ago, a student organization on my campus organized a week of lectures and other activities around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The tendency was notably critical of Israel and sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. One day the group put up a mock section of the Israel "separation wall."

Once upon a time I opposed the separation wall, thinking that it would be unjust to the Palestinians. I still think it is unjust to the Palestinians, since it separates farmers from their fields and prevents students from attending school. The route of the fence has divided communities, when with a little consideration, it could have be rerouted to make life easier for Palestinians.

But now, with the Hamas victory, I find it increasingly hard to oppose the fence/wall. I think that Israel is justified in defending itself. The wall seems to have made it more difficult (although not impossible) for suicide bombers to reach Israel. If various groups that are so critical of Israel had a better solution to prevent suicide bombers from entering Israel, I would probably continue my opposition to the wall, but I haven't heard anything. (Such groups don't usually seem so concerned with the security of ordinary Israelis - for an example of this thinking, see Tony Judt's recent op-ed piece in the New York Times). At this point, I'm more interested in protecting Israelis, among them friends and relatives, than I am in supporting justice absolutely. Such are the consequences of war.

Fighting Dems

Worthy Candidates 2006

Democrats.com has put up a site featuring the dozens of Veterans who are running for Congress this year.   Air America also has had a website dedicated to interviewing these Fighting Dems.   The effort to help get these Vets elected may be the most important job we in the reality based community need to undertake this year.   Please visit these sites to find the local candidates you need to help...   - fc

There are a special group of Democrats who first sign up to serve their country, often in wars half way around the world, and then return home and continue to fight for the values they hold dear in the Democratic Party. Right now more than fifty veterans are running as Democrats for Congress and dozens more are running up and down the ticket.


We all know the current administration doesn't hesitate to stand in front of the troops when it comes to a photo-op, but never stands behind them when it comes to providing the armor necessary to fight in Iraq, or the benefits promised when they return home. It's time for veterans to join together and defend our country once more -- and the Fighting Dems intend to do just that.



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Elect A Congress To Take Our Country Back

Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Fighting Dems · Congress

Worst President

Worse Than Nixon...

Rolling Stone sure got this one right.   Not only is he more corrupt and criminal than Richard Nixon, he can't even talk without mangling the english language.   Even his misguided supporters can put a couple of sentences together without using things like "I am the Decider"...   Of course, most will agree that his puppetmasters have to turn loose of his strings when he goes out in front of the cameras and in these cases anything is possible for Walking Eagle...   - fc

The Worst President in History?

One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush



by Sean Wilentz
Illustration by Robert Grossman


George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. [snip...



... ]   George W. Bush is in serious contention for the title of worst ever. In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a "failure." Among those who called Bush a success, many gave the president high marks only for his ability to mobilize public support and get Congress to go along with what one historian called the administration's "pursuit of disastrous policies." In fact, roughly one in ten of those who called Bush a success was being facetious, rating him only as the best president since Bill Clinton -- a category in which Bush is the only contestant.



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Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Worst President · George W Bush

Don't Attack Iran.org

Stop The Madness...

Please join me in supporting afterdowningstreet.org's effort to inform Bush and Cheney that it is unwise to attack Iran.   They have been wrong about everything else they have done in the Middle East to secure oil and power for themselves.   They are wrong about this too.     - fc

Don't Attack Iran!

Dear President Bush and Vice President Cheney,



We write to you from all over the United States and all over the world to urge you to obey both international and U.S. law, which forbid aggressive attacks on other nations. We oppose your proposal to attack Iran. Iran does not possess nuclear weapons, just as Iraq did not possess nuclear weapons. If Iran had such weapons, that would not justify the use of force, any more than any other nation would be justified in launching a war against the world's greatest possesor of nuclear arms, the United States. The most effective way to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons would be to closely monitor its nuclear energy program, and to improve diplomatic relations -- two tasks made much more difficult by threatening to bomb Iranian territory. We urge you to lead the way to peace, not war, and to begin by making clear that you will not commit the highest international crime by aggressively attacking Iran.

Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Iran · Nuke · Petition · AfterDowningStreet.org · Bush Administration

Letter to the U.N.

Stop The Bomb...

Please join me in supporting Code Pink's effort to stop the madness that is pre-emptive nuclear war.   When my wife and I went to Washington D.C. on Sept 24th 2005 for the Anti-War Protest March, we met three of the ladies from Code Pink.   I was confined to a wheel chair and they were very gracious in helping us find our way to the Washington Monument and the site of the march.   Their efforts to showcase the unjust and illegal war in Iraq and their help in Cindy Sheehan's efforts to bring our troops home are very much appreciated.   They need our help now to stop the use of nuclear weapons against Iran.   - fc

Tell the Bush administration and Kofi Annan that the world is demanding an end to this madness!

HELP US PREVENT A WAR WITH IRAN



To the Honorable Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations



Dear Mr. Secretary-General,



We are appalled that the United States is threatening a military strike against Iran, possibly using nuclear weapons. As you are well aware, a preventive strike is illegal under international law, and the threat to use nuclear weapons against Iran, a non-nuclear weapons state, is a violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that the United States has signed. A nuclear strike against Iran would undermine the entire legal framework of disarmament and non-proliferation that so many millions of people around the world, and the United Nations itself, have worked so hard to build and protect.



As the head of the United Nations, the repository of international law, you called the U.S./UK invasion of Iraq what it was: illegal. Now we call on you to tell the Bush administration and the world:



--That any preventive military strike against Iran is illegal.



--That even threatening a nuclear strike against Iran - a non-nuclear weapons state - is illegal.



--That a nuclear strike threatens dire consequences - maybe even global war.
We urge you to make a diplomatic solution to this crisis your top priority.



Thank you for your consideration.



Sincerely,



CODEPINK

Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Iran · Nuke · Petition · Code Pink · Bush Administration

Don't Nuke Iran

Stop The Bomb...

We need to send a strong message to Congress and the Bush Administration.   Most of us realise the damage that has already been done by this irresponsible and incompetent administration.   Without hearing directly from you, they will take the next step into madness that is nuclear destruction.   Join me in letting your lawmakers know that this is the wrong way to go...   - fc

President Bush and Congress should rule out attacking Iran with nuclear weapons

TO: Your Senators

CC: (Your Representative)

FROM: (Your Name and Email)

SUBJECT: Don't Nuke Iran


__________



Dear Senators and Representatives,



Congress and President Bush must rule out attacking Iran with nuclear weapons. Even the threat of a nuclear attack eliminates some of the best options we have for diplomacy, and the consequences could be catastrophic.

Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Iran · Nuke · Petition · MoveOn · Bush Administration

Kerry :: Deadline For Iraq

Co-Sponsor This Petition...

We need to stand behind Kerry in his effort to avoid more useless deaths in Iraq.   His reasoning is sound and his words are powerful.   Under Richard Nixon, 30,000 more names were added to the wall in D.C.   There have been thousands of our troops in Iraq killed and wounded for a lie.   Tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children have died because of the war criminal in the White House.   It is time for the killing to stop.   - fc

Co-Sponsor This Resolution



Half the names on the Vietnam Memorial wall were added after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion. You and I have to do everything in our power to stop that from happening again.



Two weeks ago, President Bush said that the timing of complete withdrawal from Iraq "...will be decided by future presidents." But this is our responsibility now, not the responsibility of future presidents or a future Congress.



I believe that American combat troops should come home from Iraq in 2006 - not the distant future as President Bush does. Furthermore, I believe we must set a May 15th deadline for the Iraqis to form an effective unity government. And, if the Iraqi politicians choose to ignore that deadline, then I believe things will only get worse and we will have no choice but to withdraw immediately.



It's not enough to express our convictions - we need to back up our beliefs with concrete actions. Today I introduced a resolution into the Senate that will give members of both parties the chance to tell the president that our course in Iraq must change.



I am setting tough deadlines for action in Iraq, and you know as well as I do how fiercely the extreme right wing will attack us. So I'm asking you today to be a citizen co-sponsor of this important resolution. Show the White House and my Senate colleagues a groundswell of support.

Support a Deadline for Iraq



I support John Kerry's Senate resolution for a timely withdrawal from Iraq.



I believe that American combat troops should come home from Iraq in 2006 - not the distant future as President Bush does. Furthermore, I believe we must set a May 15th deadline for the Iraqis to form an effective unity government. And, if the Iraqi politicians choose to ignore that deadline, then I believe things will only get worse and we will have no choice but to withdraw immediately.



We want democracy in Iraq, but it's now the job of Iraqis to build it. Our troops have performed gallantly and heroically. The best way to keep faith with them is to set deadlines for bringing our troops home and getting Iraq on its own two feet. That's the only way to give their sacrifice its best chance of resulting in success.

Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Iraq · John Kerry · Petition · Bush Administration

Be Afraid - Be Very Afraid

Top Ten Reasons...

We should all be afraid of what the little cowboy in the white house might do concerning Iran.   Of course this is nothing actually new to those of us in the reality based community.   Most of us have realised he is a madman for quite a while now.   The only thing that has changed is that the rest of the country is slowly waking up to the fact that he is a danger to us as well as the rest of the world.   Should doing something about Iran be an important priority?   Yes but see reason #1 and #2 why starting a war with them should NOT be an option.   - fc

Top Ten Reasons Why Sy Hersh's New Article Should Scare the Stuffing Out of You


10. Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is a whackjob who is determine to enrich uranium.



9. Our President, George W. Bush, has a messiah complex and is convinced that "saving Iran is going to be his legacy."



8. The Pentagon is already engaging in clandestine activities, called "force protection," that can be classified as military, not intelligence, operations; e.g., preparing a battlefield. Such activities are not subject to congressional oversight.



7. U.S. military planners believe that bombing Iran will cause Iranians to rise up and overthrow the mullahs who rule them. Most Middle East experts think this notion is right up there with Cheney's "Iraqis will greet us with flowers" delusion.



6. A senior Pentagon adviser on the war on terror said: "This White House believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in Iran, and that means war."



5. The White House has been talking to members of Congress about Iran. However, the only ones they're talking to are the same bunch who led the charge against Iraq.



4. "The lack of reliable intelligence leaves military planners, given the goal of totally destroying the sites, little choice but to consider the use of tactical nuclear weapons. 'Every other option, in the view of the nuclear weaponeers, would leave a gap,' the former senior intelligence official said. '"Decisive" is the key word of the Air Force's planning. It's a tough decision. But we made it in Japan.'



3. "He went on, ‘Nuclear planners go through extensive training and learn the technical details of damage and fallout-we're talking about mushroom clouds, radiation, mass casualties, and contamination over years. This is not an underground nuclear test, where all you see is the earth raised a little bit. These politicians don't have a clue, and whenever anybody tries to get it out'-remove the nuclear option-'they're shouted down.'"



2. Bombing Iran could "provoke 'a chain reaction' of attacks on American facilities and citizens throughout the world."



1. See reasons #9.



Read the entire article



THE IRAN PLANS

Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?
by Seymour M. Hersh

Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Iran · Nukes · NeoCon · War · Bush Administration

Support Bush Censure

Stand up for America...

Please join me in supporting the effort by Russ Feingold, Tom Harkin and Barbara Boxer to bring accountability to this loose cannon in the White House.   Our freedom and liberties have taken one blow after the next from this megalomaniac whose attitude and actions have proven he does not have our best interest at heart in his powermad agenda.


His lies, deceit and cronism have led us to the edge of a constitutional crisis that may very well affect the very foundation of our democracy.   It is time we stand up and take our country back from the hands of these fanatics.   The constitution is more than just a piece of paper.   The American Revolution of the 21st Century must begin within each and every one of us.   - fc

Petition in Support of the Resolution of Censure



Yes, Tom! Please let your colleagues in the Senate know that the American people demand accountable, law-abiding democracy here at home, not just rhetoric about democracy abroad! I want you to mobilize support for Senator Feingold's Resolution of Censure so that when the Senate returns to session after the Easter recess, a vote on the Senate floor will tell President Bush that no American can be above the law!

Dear Senator Harkin:



We, the undersigned, support your principled stand with Senators Russ Feingold and Barbara Boxer in favor of holding President Bush accountable, and we urge you to bring the Resolution of Censure to the floor of the Senate for a vote. The President has brazenly, arrogantly and unapologetically broken the law - the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which prohibits warrantless wiretaps of American citizens. Despite getting caught red-handed, he refuses to stop.



Government must protect Americans' security, and that's why the FISA law allows intelligence services to listen to terrorists' conversations legally - by going to the secret espionage and terrorism court to get a warrant AFTER listening.



We are a nation of laws, not of men. No American is above the law. That most certainly includes the President. If Congress fails to hold him to account through censure, then he will believe that he can continue breaking laws with impunity. This is profoundly dangerous to our democracy.



We admire your courage in standing up to President Bush and saying enough! Now, we urge you to take the next step. We - ordinary Americans deeply concerned for the country we love - ask you to work with your colleagues to support and pass the Resolution of Censure in the Senate.

Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Morals · Scandals · Censure · Tom Harkin · Russ Feingold · Barbara Boxer · FISA · SnoopGate · Domestic Spying · Illegal Wiretapping · Bush Administration · Culture Of Corruption

Bush Credibility :: Zero

Liar In Chief...

Well...   Looks like asshole ( Leaker In Chief ) got caught in another lie.   Big Shock...   Not...   Scooter says he got the OK from Bush to disclose part of the NIE that fit their pattern of lies leading up to the war of terror in Iraq.   Notice the 'part' clarifier...   The parts that didn't get disclosed didn't fit their lies so no need to lay all that on the line.   Bringing honor and integrity back to the White House sure has it's funny little quirks, don't it.   Just more good ole Republican Values...

Bush welcomes probe of CIA leak

'I want to know the truth,' president tells reporters - CNN - Wednesday, February 11, 2004


President Bush Called Leak 'A Criminal Action'
- TalkLeft - Monday, July 11, 2005


Press Briefing by Scott McClellan
- September 29, 2003


Bush Vows Action if Aides Had Role in Leak

Democrats' Demand for Special Counsel Rejected
- By Mike Allen and Dana Milbank - Washington Post - Tuesday, September 30, 2003


Bush alters standard for firing in leak case

President says an aide would have had to commit a crime, not just be involved - Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen - Washington Post - Tuesday, July 19, 2005


The Wilson-Plame-Novak-Rove Blame Game
- Both sides twist and hype the case of a CIA agent's leaked identity.
- We document what's known so far.

FactCheck.org - July 22, 2005 - Modified: November 23, 2005


Bush Administration Archives - Daily Kos

Tags:   Politics · Morals · Scandals · Bush Administration · Culture Of Corruption · PlameGate · Corrupt Republicans

GOP Resignation Form

Multiple Copies Needed...

Maybe the wingnuts can take a joke...   Wait a minute...   It's no joke, is it...?

Republican Party of the United States


Uniform Resignation Form


FORM 34-RY REVISION MARCH 2006



I (name) ______________________HEREBY RESIGN MY

POSITION IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AS :

ELECTED OFFICIAL   PARTY LEADER   PARTY SPOKESMAN   UNPAID INTERN   LIASON TO RELIGIOUS RIGHT   FOX NEWS COMMENTATOR   LOBBYIST   FUNDRAISER   ALL OF THE ABOVE

EFFECTIVE AS OF (date) _____________________________

PLEASE GIVE MY REASON AS THE FOLLOWING :

INDICTMENT   CONVICTION   CENSURE   IMPEACHMENT   BRIBERY SCANDAL   ETHICS SCANDAL   RACISIM SCANDAL   TAX EVASION   CHILD PORN ON COMPUTER   THERE'S A DEAD HOOKER           IN MOTEL ROOM           (hotel name &           room # on reverse)   SCANDAL (other)   ALL OF THE ABOVE

PLEASE NOTIFY THE PRESS WITH THE FOLLOWING EXPLANATION:

PERSONAL HEALTH ISSUES   SPEND MORE TIME WITH FAMILY   FOLLOWING GOD'S ORDERS   CAN'T FIGHT THE LIBRUL MEDIA           JUGGERNAUT ANYMORE   ALL OF THE ABOVE

SIGNED : _____________________________

your signature here


(How may the GOP contact you? Indicate phone number, email address, bail bondsman or attorney contact info on reverse.)

Tags:   Politics · Morals · Scandals · Bush Administration · Culture Of Corruption · Pedophiles · Corrupt Republicans

Republican Values :: NOT

Imploding Again...

You just can't make this stuff up.   Tom DeLay looks like a virgin choir boy compared to the scandals unfolding since his annoucement that he is not running for re-election.   It's enough to make ya sick.   It's enough to make ya vote Democratic, unless you condone crooks and pedophiles and a president who is a war criminal and murderer of innocent men, women and children.

DHS Spokesman Is Accused of Soliciting Teen Online
Washington Post.com
By Spencer S. Hsu
4.5.06


The deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security was arrested last night on charges that he used the Internet to seduce an undercover Florida sheriff's detective who he thought was a 14-year-old girl, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.



Brian J. Doyle, 55, was arrested at his Silver Spring home at 7:45 p.m. and charged with seven counts of using a computer to seduce a child and 16 counts of transmitting harmful materials to a minor, according to a sheriff's office statement.



Doyle was online at the time awaiting what he thought was a nude image of a girl who had lymphoma, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in an interview with Fox News' "On the Record With Greta Van Susteren." "We wanted to make sure he was using that computer and talking to detectives at the time of the arrest," Judd said.

DHS Officer Pleads No Contest
Tampa Bay Online.com
By Elaine Silvestrini
4.5.06


The man who headed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tampa has pleaded no contest to charges he exposed himself to a girl in a mall food court and ran away from security guards.



Frank Figueroa, 49, originally said he was not guilty. His trial was expected to begin tomorrow.



Figueroa, once one of Florida's highest-ranking federal law enforcement officers and the former head of a national program formed to target child sex predators, was arrested Oct. 25 at The Mall at Millenia in Orlando

Son of Senate president offered plea deal in assault case
Arizona Daily Sun
4.3.06


Clifton Bennett, 18, the son of Arizona Senate President Ken Bennett, and his co-defendant, Kyle Wheeler, 19, were charged in January with 18 counts of aggravated assault and 18 counts of kidnapping for the incidents, which happened at a youth camp last June.



The younger Bennett confessed to police that he and Wheeler sodomized the 11- to 14-year-old boys with broomsticks and flashlights in at least 40 incidents, court documents show.

Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Morals · Scandals · Bush Administration · Culture Of Corruption · Pedophiles · Corrupt Republicans

Israel :: The Lobby

The Lobby Strikes Back

One can hardly mention Israel without being called an anti-semite.   Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer opened a few eyes by publishing a study that deals with Israel in a realistic light.   After detailing the power of The Lobby in domestic policy, the very thing they were writing about happened to them.   Walt lost his job and the university boldly made it publicly known that they did not condone or sponsor anybody that might have something less than stellar praise for Israel.

The Lobby Strikes Back


Harvard study of Israeli lobby's influence costs the academic dean of the Kennedy School his job



The reaction
to the Harvard University study by John
Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt,
"The
Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," [.pdf] has been fury
by the Lobby and its partisans - and a demotion
for Walt, who, it was announced shortly after the paper's release, would be stepping down from his post as [academic] dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government.



The Kennedy School has removed its logo from the front page of the paper, and made more prominent a boilerplate statement to the effect that the school doesn't necessarily endorse any or all of the views expressed therein.



Now, somebody please tell me that Mearsheimer and Walt have overplayed the power and influence of the Lobby in American political life.



The hate
campaign
directed at Mearsheimer and Walt underscores and validates the study's contention that all attempts to objectively discuss our Israel-centric foreign policy and the pivotal role played by the Lobby are met with outright intimidation. We have O.J. Simpson defender
and pro-Israel fanatic
Alan Dershowitz claiming that the scholarly duo filched the majority of their sources from "hate sites" - although how Dershowitz knows this, without having looked directly over their shoulders as they wrote, is very far from clear. But don't worry, he assures us, a "team" of researchers on his staff is looking into the matter. One wonders if this is the same "team" that looked into the evidence
and concluded that Simpson was innocent.



Virtually every mention of the study informs us that David Duke is among its most fervent defenders. The Boston Globe and the Washington Post both featured Duke's endorsement in their respective summaries of the controversy, and when the shameless Joe Scarborough of MSNBC had him on, he introduced the notorious racist this way:

"Thank you for being with us tonight, Mr. Duke. You have been attacked as a former Klansman, an anti-Semite, but tonight you're in league with Harvard University. Do you feel vindicated?"

Mearsheimer and Walt are the ones who should feel vindicated, because this sort of cheap demagoguery proves their point about the Lobby's modus operandi. Always they seek to set the terms of the debate in their favor: If you disagree with them and decry their influence, you're a "Nazi." How very convenient.



Continue Reading This Article

I found it very interesting the reaction from some of the middle eastern papers to their study in the Washington Post's World Opinion Roundup.

World Opinion Roundup

by Jefferson Morley


The Asia Times in Hong Kong approvingly quotes Mearsheimer and Walt's conclusion that support for Israel hinders U.S. efforts to combat Islamic terrorism.



"By preventing US leaders from pressuring Israel to make peace, the lobby has also made it impossible to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which gives extremists a potent recruiting tool and enlarges the pool of potential militants, the authors say. And new attempts by the lobby to 'change regimes' in Iran and Syria could lead the US to attack those countries, with potentially disastrous effects.

Their study is really worth a read to understand just part of what is the reality of Bush's Amerika and the powder keg world we live in today.   The article by Justin Raimondo is worth a read also.   As is normal for his work, he embeds many links to back up his writing.   He and the others at Anti-War.com are a regular read for me.   - fc

Cosmos   •   Tags:   Politics · Israel · Lobby · Bush Administration

Remember When

It's History Now...

REMEMBER WHEN you displayed your flag on the front porch on the 4th of July, and you didn't have to worry about whether it would be misinterpreted as support for a corrupt president and his administration?



REMEMBER WHEN 'Support the Troops' meant equipping our military with everything necessary for battle, instead of just being a catchy phrase that looked good on a bumper-sticker?



REMEMBER WHEN your tax dollars paid for things like improved education and social programs, instead of making Halliburton shareholders millionaires?



REMEMBER WHEN you watched movies about WWII, and it was the enemy who tortured captured American soldiers, instead of American soldiers torturing the people they'd allegedly 'liberated'?



REMEMBER WHEN you heard something on the TV news or read something in a newspaper, and you didn't have to go to the internet to find out just how much of it was fact, and how much of it was 'spin'?



REMEMBER WHEN a politician was caught with his hand in the cookie jar and he resigned in disgrace, instead of excusing his own behaviour by claiming that his political opponents were equally as guilty of wrongdoing?



REMEMBER WHEN 'Made in the USA' labels on products were the norm, and not a total oddity?



REMEMBER WHEN you hitchhiked through Europe as a teenager, and you DIDN'T have to replace the American flag on your knapsack with a Canadian flag in order to be a welcomed guest in a foreign country?



REMEMBER WHEN organized crime figures had to make phone calls from the corner phone booth, because they were the only people who had to worry about wire-taps?



REMEMBER WHEN telling a fellow politician on the floor of the House to 'go f*ck himself' was considered behaviour unbecoming an elected official, instead of being accepted as the way a Vice President behaves himself?



REMEMBER WHEN you could pretty well count on the fact that if the president said it, it was based on sound intelligence and was probably true?



REMEMBER WHEN you could rely on your elected representatives to put your interests ahead of the corporations that filled their campaign coffers, or the lobbyists who gave them great basketball tickets?



REMEMBER WHEN you didn't even KNOW what religion the people you voted for were, because it didn't really matter? Remember when you didn't know what party your neighbour belonged to, because that didn't really matter either?



REMEMBER WHEN the pension you'd worked for your whole life wasn't in danger of being wiped out by corrupt CEOs, assisted by respected accounting firms that made that corruption almost impossible to detect?



REMEMBER WHEN you could brag that as an American, you were guaranteed things like free speech and due process of law, without checking the nightly news to see whether those rights were still in effect?



REMEMBER WHEN the president upheld the law of the land, instead of coming up with 'legal loopholes' to support the idea that he's above the law?



REMEMBER WHEN you could say, "I'm a proud American," without qualifying it with a list of all of the things your government is doing that you're not exactly proud of?



REMEMBER WHEN you actually thought that the people in charge of running your country were smarter than you were?



REMEMBER WHEN your parents worked all their lives to ensure you a better life, instead of worrying about how bad the life they'd be leaving their children might be?



REMEMBER WHEN the importance of clean drinking water and breathable air were unquestionable mandates, and not some crazy hippie agenda to be weighed against corporate profits?



REMEMBER WHEN questioning your government's policies was seen as 'participating in the process', and not 'giving aid and comfort to the enemy'?



REMEMBER WHEN the 'enemy' was a country or military force that posed a threat to American democracy, and not a nation of innocent civilians who whose destruction was dismissible as 'collateral damage'?



REMEMBER WHEN your country went to war based on facts beforehand, instead of constantly-changing suppositions after-the-fact?



REMEMBER WHEN 'patriotism' was judged by your words and actions, and not by whether you were a member of the party currently in power?



REMEMBER WHEN the 'American Dream' was attainable through diligence and hard work, and not the luck of the 'outsourcing' draw?



REMEMBER WHEN the election of a president was considered the result of democracy in action, and not the result of Diebold executives doing the job they were expected to do?



REMEMBER WHEN you sang 'God Bless America' as a kid, and never thought you'd grow up to wonder if, in view of your country's actions, asking God's blessing was asking a bit too much?



I REMEMBER WHEN ... and I wonder if these ideas will become ancient history by the time those of us old enough to recall them are dead and gone.

Note:: When I published this I did not know who wrote it or where it came from.   Since that time my friend at 'Welcome to WallyWorld' has traced it back to Democratic Underground.   It was written by Nance Greggs.   We all owe her a debt of gratitude for her insight into the world after Bush.   - fc

Tags:   Politics · Military · Body Armor · Iraq · Terrorism · Patriot Act · Homeland Security · Domestic Spying · Illegal Wiretapping · NSA · Unitary President · Bush Administration · Cheney Administration · Culture of Corruption · Scandals · Tom DeLay · Jack Abramoff