Wednesday, June 16, 2004
"Joseph Goebbels was the Minister of Propaganda for the Nazi regime and whose very famous quote was, 'If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.' All right? 'If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth."
--Bill O'Reilly
Now Big Bill O went on to make it clear that Al Franken is a liar, and a Nazi, and blah blah blah. But I think that quote is very interesting, not to give credit to a Nazi for his truth telling, but, let's face it, that quote is so painfully relevant right now for any number of different reasons.
Dick Cheney is still telling tall tales about the Iraq/al-Qaida link. It was proven to be absolutely false by the 9/11 commission. So false in fact, that al-Qaida was working with the Kurds to fight against Saddam and his infidel secular regime. That 9/11 commission statement can be seen here.
The long lie becoming the truth is here: Bush backs Cheney on assertion linking Hussein, Al Qaeda
How totally entagled in absolute falsehoods can these two become?
Every story line of this war has been shown to be a lie. Jessica Lynch fighting down to her last bullet, rather than curling up on the ground and bawling her West Virginia Hollar White Trash Mascara Running eyes out. WMDs - you really can't say anything about these. Just mentioning the word makes me feel flaccid and powerless inside. They're such a massive lie that they are the truth now.
Bush has taken that sage Nazi wisdom to heart. You think that if HW Bush made that connection he wouldn't have pulled the ripcord on his 80th B-Day jump? He would have thumped loudly into the ground, and accusingly his juices and fluids that flew free of his aged, wrinkled and lumpy with broken bones body spurted out would sprinkle the soil around the Bush shaped impact crater would spell the following line: "My son is a liar, and had taken something that was good and far closer to the reality that all of us understand to be America, and he has broken it, possibly irrevocably, leaving us all kneeling before the executioner's block, necks extended, nude, trembling, sodomized and afraid."
I can see that fluid spattered sentence animated by Bill Plympton. That would be quite the campaign video.
--Bill O'Reilly
Now Big Bill O went on to make it clear that Al Franken is a liar, and a Nazi, and blah blah blah. But I think that quote is very interesting, not to give credit to a Nazi for his truth telling, but, let's face it, that quote is so painfully relevant right now for any number of different reasons.
Dick Cheney is still telling tall tales about the Iraq/al-Qaida link. It was proven to be absolutely false by the 9/11 commission. So false in fact, that al-Qaida was working with the Kurds to fight against Saddam and his infidel secular regime. That 9/11 commission statement can be seen here.
The long lie becoming the truth is here: Bush backs Cheney on assertion linking Hussein, Al Qaeda
How totally entagled in absolute falsehoods can these two become?
Every story line of this war has been shown to be a lie. Jessica Lynch fighting down to her last bullet, rather than curling up on the ground and bawling her West Virginia Hollar White Trash Mascara Running eyes out. WMDs - you really can't say anything about these. Just mentioning the word makes me feel flaccid and powerless inside. They're such a massive lie that they are the truth now.
Bush has taken that sage Nazi wisdom to heart. You think that if HW Bush made that connection he wouldn't have pulled the ripcord on his 80th B-Day jump? He would have thumped loudly into the ground, and accusingly his juices and fluids that flew free of his aged, wrinkled and lumpy with broken bones body spurted out would sprinkle the soil around the Bush shaped impact crater would spell the following line: "My son is a liar, and had taken something that was good and far closer to the reality that all of us understand to be America, and he has broken it, possibly irrevocably, leaving us all kneeling before the executioner's block, necks extended, nude, trembling, sodomized and afraid."
I can see that fluid spattered sentence animated by Bill Plympton. That would be quite the campaign video.
Friday, May 28, 2004
Just a quick one -- books I've been reading recently:
Charlie Wilson's War
Black HouseBrotherhood of the Rose
The Fountain At The Center Of The World
The Door Into Summer
Books sitting on my shelf at this time waiting, patiently, to be read:
Quicksilver
The Power Game
A Problem From Hell
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
Charlie Wilson's War
Black HouseBrotherhood of the Rose
The Fountain At The Center Of The World
The Door Into Summer
Books sitting on my shelf at this time waiting, patiently, to be read:
Quicksilver
The Power Game
A Problem From Hell
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
Thursday, May 27, 2004
It’s been quite a layoff in writing on this blog. I’ve had finals for school and I was in Vieques, Puerto Rico with Pru for a week. It was so wonderful to be completely cut off from it all. We had no phone, no television, and the radio, while most likely providing news, was in Spanish, and my limited vocabulary only let me pick up on the most simple of terms - and those only in the present tense.
But even in the U.S. Commonwealth of PR, and especially on Vieques there was a palpable anti-Americanism in the air; I could feel some decidedly unpleasant stares boring into my back. The graffiti on the walls in Isabel Segunda, Isabel II on the map, was pointed, political, and violent. A massive fist labeled U.S. was ripping the top of a child’s head, exposing its brain, with a paragraph in a flowery script font speaking about the lack of education provided to people on Vieques, while the navy was building bases and bombing the bases and bombing the hell out of the island. A huge seaside mural detailed the fact that the cancer rate on Vieques is nearly 40% higher than it is on the Big Island of PR.
Snorkeling along a reef, I found a large piece of the back side of a bomb or missile. It was crusted in what looked like black coral. It may have been solidified chemicals from the explosion, heat and forse changing the properties of the metal, or if it was sea-life in a Hallmark like sugar drenched demonstration of the resilience of nature and it’s return to state no matter what we can throw at her. Pru was terrified when I swan the munition ashore that it was live, and barring that, that it was covered with some type of carcinogen that had not been swept away by the sea. I was sarcastic and said that any of the carcinogens from the bomb were certainly already in the groundwater and that there was a bald, hairless 5 year old child dying of leukemia in a cement block house on the beach who had taken the full brunt of this weapon’s “practice run.”
We found that the American ex-pats were quite defensive of their island, and their idea of the tourism industry was to over charge for “gourmet food” and try and be as surly as possible when one would ask for something as to have the sheets changed or for a new towel. As is mostly the case, Pru and I made our own fun, finding a thrilling eco-friendly kayak tour of the mangrove forests with the stinking sulfur mud and symbiotic crabs. The beautiful chaotic root systems tangling into the water, was filled with birds and fish and crabs and insects. But the most stunning of all was the bio-bay, which was surrounded by the mangrove forest. Once it was dark, the bio-bay would come to life. It was filled with dinoflagellites, microorganisms that when disturbed emitted a ghostly yet bright blue-green light. It glowed bright enough to see your way through the pitch-black bay. We slid off our kayaks into the water and swam like angels with glowing waterfalls for wings. I dove to the thick mud at the bottom of the bay, 15 feet or so, and heard the trilling, clicking static sound of tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of shrimp mating. The sound was so pervasive and at such a strange frequency, that my head felt squeezed with the immense all-encompassing weight of the life around me and the water above me. Pru was watching while floating under the stars and could see a glowing form sliding about under water. She could see the glowing darts of fish zipping away from me, fading trails of luminescence their signature on the world.
In the airport, relaxed and a bit red from the sun, we smacked into the suffocating cellophane wall of ugly politics and misconceived foreign policy. It felt like a saddle slowly being lowered onto our shoulders. The NY Times was 15 dollars in the airport, so we just stood there dumbly staring down the collection of papers at the overpriced newsstand; Marc Antony was blaring in the background, the new rumored to be Mr. Jennifer Lopez’s face distorted on a wide aspect HDTV stretched horribly, freakishly wide. The Tito Puente emulating drum solo hammered away, ironic sonic soundscapes as Pru and I took in the photos of the pig-pile of Abu-Ghraib, of pixilated Iraqi prisoners’ penises, prone and prostrate positions and the shit-eating grins of the recruited rednecks, West Virginia coal miners daughters, and south Tennessee pig farmers’ sons, the blue gloved thumbs up (which by the way, means Fuck You in the Middle East) and the somewhat bewildered face of Rummy on the front page of the pink Financial Times, headline speaking of his possible resignation.
Back at the gate, we saw out the window as a plane, not ours, skid off the runway into the tree-lined berm and consequently break in half. It was empty, there were no bodies scattered bleeding about the tarmac, ambulances tearing about willy-nilly, about to embark passengers sobbing in terror, the more phobic ones frozen to their plastic seat rows, protests locked up in their compulsively swallowing throats, spittle drying up in mouths, tongues beached and parched, swelling a bit with terror, thickening speech and the self preservative refusals to board the next tin can death-mobile.
I caught up when I got home to New York, reading up on everything I could. I’ve listed below articles that have really caught my attention in the past few weeks.
Seymour Hersh's articles, I feel are seminal in detailing Abu-Ghraib. Newsweek had a good one as well.
Then there is this article from the NY Times: it’s short so I’ll quote the whole thing below.
And yes, that does say brain injury. And yes this is part of the Army’s investigation. Wonder if they would have mentioned this if the press didn’t hound them into it?
Now these two are a real doozy. Institutionalized racism, just days after we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Read carefully about how this lawyer figured out that something was up. He found a footprint in his house that belonged to no one in his family. They were in his house, without a warrant under some cockeyed provision in the Patriot Act.
Oregon Lawyer Speaks Out About His Ordeal
FBI Apologizes to Lawyer Over Madrid Case
They saved the good stuff to the end of the second article:
Holy Shit! Is all I have to say. They took the son’s Spanish homework as evidence of being involved with Spanish terrorists! I remember my Spanish homework, and if memory serves me correctly, it looked exactly like what it was, conjugation of verbs, self given vocabulary quizzes, all done in sloppy handwriting, and most important of all, with Mr. Ortiz, Spanish 101 written across the top in big letters.
Oh, and following the slip-sliding away in the polls and the torturous speech on Monday from G-Dub this very important announcement from the Department of I’ll Sneak Into Your House and Hide In Your Closets To Spy On Your Son Doing His Spanish Homework And We’ll Take Special Care To Be Extra Suspicious Because You Are A Muslim And We All Know What That Means (Wink, Wink, Nudge Nudge, Know What I Mean, Know What I Mean?).
As Ashcroft Warns of Attack, Some Question Threat and Its Timing
But even in the U.S. Commonwealth of PR, and especially on Vieques there was a palpable anti-Americanism in the air; I could feel some decidedly unpleasant stares boring into my back. The graffiti on the walls in Isabel Segunda, Isabel II on the map, was pointed, political, and violent. A massive fist labeled U.S. was ripping the top of a child’s head, exposing its brain, with a paragraph in a flowery script font speaking about the lack of education provided to people on Vieques, while the navy was building bases and bombing the bases and bombing the hell out of the island. A huge seaside mural detailed the fact that the cancer rate on Vieques is nearly 40% higher than it is on the Big Island of PR.
Snorkeling along a reef, I found a large piece of the back side of a bomb or missile. It was crusted in what looked like black coral. It may have been solidified chemicals from the explosion, heat and forse changing the properties of the metal, or if it was sea-life in a Hallmark like sugar drenched demonstration of the resilience of nature and it’s return to state no matter what we can throw at her. Pru was terrified when I swan the munition ashore that it was live, and barring that, that it was covered with some type of carcinogen that had not been swept away by the sea. I was sarcastic and said that any of the carcinogens from the bomb were certainly already in the groundwater and that there was a bald, hairless 5 year old child dying of leukemia in a cement block house on the beach who had taken the full brunt of this weapon’s “practice run.”
We found that the American ex-pats were quite defensive of their island, and their idea of the tourism industry was to over charge for “gourmet food” and try and be as surly as possible when one would ask for something as to have the sheets changed or for a new towel. As is mostly the case, Pru and I made our own fun, finding a thrilling eco-friendly kayak tour of the mangrove forests with the stinking sulfur mud and symbiotic crabs. The beautiful chaotic root systems tangling into the water, was filled with birds and fish and crabs and insects. But the most stunning of all was the bio-bay, which was surrounded by the mangrove forest. Once it was dark, the bio-bay would come to life. It was filled with dinoflagellites, microorganisms that when disturbed emitted a ghostly yet bright blue-green light. It glowed bright enough to see your way through the pitch-black bay. We slid off our kayaks into the water and swam like angels with glowing waterfalls for wings. I dove to the thick mud at the bottom of the bay, 15 feet or so, and heard the trilling, clicking static sound of tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of shrimp mating. The sound was so pervasive and at such a strange frequency, that my head felt squeezed with the immense all-encompassing weight of the life around me and the water above me. Pru was watching while floating under the stars and could see a glowing form sliding about under water. She could see the glowing darts of fish zipping away from me, fading trails of luminescence their signature on the world.
In the airport, relaxed and a bit red from the sun, we smacked into the suffocating cellophane wall of ugly politics and misconceived foreign policy. It felt like a saddle slowly being lowered onto our shoulders. The NY Times was 15 dollars in the airport, so we just stood there dumbly staring down the collection of papers at the overpriced newsstand; Marc Antony was blaring in the background, the new rumored to be Mr. Jennifer Lopez’s face distorted on a wide aspect HDTV stretched horribly, freakishly wide. The Tito Puente emulating drum solo hammered away, ironic sonic soundscapes as Pru and I took in the photos of the pig-pile of Abu-Ghraib, of pixilated Iraqi prisoners’ penises, prone and prostrate positions and the shit-eating grins of the recruited rednecks, West Virginia coal miners daughters, and south Tennessee pig farmers’ sons, the blue gloved thumbs up (which by the way, means Fuck You in the Middle East) and the somewhat bewildered face of Rummy on the front page of the pink Financial Times, headline speaking of his possible resignation.
Back at the gate, we saw out the window as a plane, not ours, skid off the runway into the tree-lined berm and consequently break in half. It was empty, there were no bodies scattered bleeding about the tarmac, ambulances tearing about willy-nilly, about to embark passengers sobbing in terror, the more phobic ones frozen to their plastic seat rows, protests locked up in their compulsively swallowing throats, spittle drying up in mouths, tongues beached and parched, swelling a bit with terror, thickening speech and the self preservative refusals to board the next tin can death-mobile.
I caught up when I got home to New York, reading up on everything I could. I’ve listed below articles that have really caught my attention in the past few weeks.
Seymour Hersh's articles, I feel are seminal in detailing Abu-Ghraib. Newsweek had a good one as well.
Then there is this article from the NY Times: it’s short so I’ll quote the whole thing below.
May 26, 2004
Posing as Captive, G.I. Beaten
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 25 - The Army confirmed Tuesday that a former military police officer was injured while posing as an uncooperative prisoner during a training session at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, last year.
But Maj. Laurie Arellano, a spokeswoman for the Southern Command in Miami, said the medical discharge of the military police officer, Specialist Sean Baker, was not related to a head injury he received during training at the detention center.
Mr. Baker, of Georgetown, Ky., had said he was beaten so badly by four American soldiers that he suffered a brain injury. Efforts to reach him on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
And yes, that does say brain injury. And yes this is part of the Army’s investigation. Wonder if they would have mentioned this if the press didn’t hound them into it?
Now these two are a real doozy. Institutionalized racism, just days after we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Read carefully about how this lawyer figured out that something was up. He found a footprint in his house that belonged to no one in his family. They were in his house, without a warrant under some cockeyed provision in the Patriot Act.
Oregon Lawyer Speaks Out About His Ordeal
FBI Apologizes to Lawyer Over Madrid Case
They saved the good stuff to the end of the second article:
“Under a provision of the U.S. Patriot Act, they entered his home without his knowledge -- but aroused the family's suspicion by bolting the wrong lock on their way out and leaving a footprint on the rug that didn't match any family members.
During a later raid, FBI agents took Mayfield's computers, modem, safe deposit key, assorted papers, as well as copies of the Quran and what they classified as ``Spanish documents'' -- apparently Spanish homework by one of Mayfield's sons.
Mayfield, who runs a small Portland law office, was never facing any formal charges. He was arrested as a material witness, and held in the Multnomah County Detention Center on the chance that he might have information about the Spain bombings.
At a press conference, Mayfield talked about his time behind bars, initially in solitary confinement and then in the jail's mental ward. Mayfield feared for his safety when inmates began to recognize him on the nightly news.
``The climate of fear of terror makes this a cautionary tale about the way in which that fear can ensnare an innocent person in the type of abuse to which Mr. Mayfield was subjected,'' Wax said.”
Holy Shit! Is all I have to say. They took the son’s Spanish homework as evidence of being involved with Spanish terrorists! I remember my Spanish homework, and if memory serves me correctly, it looked exactly like what it was, conjugation of verbs, self given vocabulary quizzes, all done in sloppy handwriting, and most important of all, with Mr. Ortiz, Spanish 101 written across the top in big letters.
Oh, and following the slip-sliding away in the polls and the torturous speech on Monday from G-Dub this very important announcement from the Department of I’ll Sneak Into Your House and Hide In Your Closets To Spy On Your Son Doing His Spanish Homework And We’ll Take Special Care To Be Extra Suspicious Because You Are A Muslim And We All Know What That Means (Wink, Wink, Nudge Nudge, Know What I Mean, Know What I Mean?).
As Ashcroft Warns of Attack, Some Question Threat and Its Timing
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Oh, two things I forgot to post yesterday. They fall under the category of Christians Going Crazy!!!
Defenders of Christianity Rebut 'The Da Vinci Code' All I have to say about this one is, it's fiction - just like the Bible. It's just as much a manipulation of fact and truth and reality as "The Good Book" itself. The best part is that The Da Vinci Code states that it is fiction both in the credits page and in a statement within the book itself. Imagine where we'd be if all these "true" religious texts had to state that they are works of fiction, and that all representations of any one living or dead are purely coincidental.
Which would be true. These texts are all drawn up as a means of control and political power consolidation. If - and this statement will assume that these religious symbols actually existed as real people whose lives could be followed and written about - these books reflect correctly upon the life of any single person who lived at that time it is nothing but coincidence. The fact that the majority of the people living at the time of Jesus and Moses were illiterate, uneducated farmers or fisherman, should probably key people in on the fact that there wasn't a scribe wandering along behind these people taking short hand so that the pearls of religious and post-life wisdom would not be missed. Even if there were this stenographer of Jesus scribbling away on his pad, licking the pencil lead intermittently, how exactly would all of the books be printed, let along disseminated about the populace.
It took hundreds and hundreds of years - actually about 1600 years before copies of the bible were in the hands of anyone other than the many different orders of monks. And of all those orders of monks each one had a separate version of the bible, some more conservative, some less. Not only that, but there is very clear evidence that a large scale internal political battle took place in the foundling church regarding what to include and what not to include in this book about "Hey-Suess" and his posse. Some scholars point to the possibility that the bible was manipulated to fit the situation and the people who were the targets of conversion at the time. Pagans in Europe - their winter solstice holidays were combined into Christmas. Spring solstice is strangely at the same time as the "rebirth miracle" of the walking-dead Christ, no?
The cold fact is that Peter, the "rock upon which I build my church" wanted it to be the way that it is. That's how he set up the church, and you beeyatches better like it or step off. Equality of women? It was cast aside in favor of patriarchy. Marriage and procreation? Jesus' marriage to Mary M., which the preponderance of historical evidence shows to be true (Jesus was a rabbi, and rabbis were married), is negated - as are his children, which are speculation, but are what this whole freakin' hubbub is about. Knights of Templar guarding the bloodline of Jesus, ever heard that one?
It's not that out of line to think that if the founder of Islam and his bloodlines are still alive and well, then Jesus' brood might be pitter-pattering around the globe still. Knowing how heirs act these days, might we be seeing a Holy Night Vision Camera Porno Video of Jesus' Cousin. It'd be an interesting PR campaign that the Catholic Church would have to run to deal with that one. Releasing a porno video of yourself to the internet in the first place is a PR campaign in itself. Maybe it'll be a new recruitment tool for the Church.
Priest Is Arraigned in Killing of Nun
I grew up in Toledo, and the town must be going apeshit over this one. For as small a city as Toledo is, they have a large and powerful local media. 3 or 4 local news stations and a loudmouthed, opinionated paper, which has the title, apt for some of the knife in the gut political attack stories that it has run in the past, The Blade.
Defenders of Christianity Rebut 'The Da Vinci Code' All I have to say about this one is, it's fiction - just like the Bible. It's just as much a manipulation of fact and truth and reality as "The Good Book" itself. The best part is that The Da Vinci Code states that it is fiction both in the credits page and in a statement within the book itself. Imagine where we'd be if all these "true" religious texts had to state that they are works of fiction, and that all representations of any one living or dead are purely coincidental.
Which would be true. These texts are all drawn up as a means of control and political power consolidation. If - and this statement will assume that these religious symbols actually existed as real people whose lives could be followed and written about - these books reflect correctly upon the life of any single person who lived at that time it is nothing but coincidence. The fact that the majority of the people living at the time of Jesus and Moses were illiterate, uneducated farmers or fisherman, should probably key people in on the fact that there wasn't a scribe wandering along behind these people taking short hand so that the pearls of religious and post-life wisdom would not be missed. Even if there were this stenographer of Jesus scribbling away on his pad, licking the pencil lead intermittently, how exactly would all of the books be printed, let along disseminated about the populace.
It took hundreds and hundreds of years - actually about 1600 years before copies of the bible were in the hands of anyone other than the many different orders of monks. And of all those orders of monks each one had a separate version of the bible, some more conservative, some less. Not only that, but there is very clear evidence that a large scale internal political battle took place in the foundling church regarding what to include and what not to include in this book about "Hey-Suess" and his posse. Some scholars point to the possibility that the bible was manipulated to fit the situation and the people who were the targets of conversion at the time. Pagans in Europe - their winter solstice holidays were combined into Christmas. Spring solstice is strangely at the same time as the "rebirth miracle" of the walking-dead Christ, no?
The cold fact is that Peter, the "rock upon which I build my church" wanted it to be the way that it is. That's how he set up the church, and you beeyatches better like it or step off. Equality of women? It was cast aside in favor of patriarchy. Marriage and procreation? Jesus' marriage to Mary M., which the preponderance of historical evidence shows to be true (Jesus was a rabbi, and rabbis were married), is negated - as are his children, which are speculation, but are what this whole freakin' hubbub is about. Knights of Templar guarding the bloodline of Jesus, ever heard that one?
It's not that out of line to think that if the founder of Islam and his bloodlines are still alive and well, then Jesus' brood might be pitter-pattering around the globe still. Knowing how heirs act these days, might we be seeing a Holy Night Vision Camera Porno Video of Jesus' Cousin. It'd be an interesting PR campaign that the Catholic Church would have to run to deal with that one. Releasing a porno video of yourself to the internet in the first place is a PR campaign in itself. Maybe it'll be a new recruitment tool for the Church.
Priest Is Arraigned in Killing of Nun
I grew up in Toledo, and the town must be going apeshit over this one. For as small a city as Toledo is, they have a large and powerful local media. 3 or 4 local news stations and a loudmouthed, opinionated paper, which has the title, apt for some of the knife in the gut political attack stories that it has run in the past, The Blade.
I'm in the middle of finals right now (corporate finance on Friday and Operations management on Saturday), so my righteous indignation is set to a low, lackadaisical simmer. It's tiring, you know. I think that I mentioned it before in an earlier post, how the ridiculousness just keeps rolling along - article after article, day after day. It's like running an endless wiffle ball bat gauntlet, in which after a while, the thwack against your skin, the sting of the molded plastic, stings not as much, the humiliation not as great, and your duck-and-cover self preservation routine is set to auto pilot.
Two things that did break through my mental blockade:
Bush acting the pompous privileged asshole on Letterman.
Bush acting the pompous privileged asshole at an American Association of Community Colleges convention in Minneapolis.
Two things that did break through my mental blockade:
Bush acting the pompous privileged asshole on Letterman.
Bush acting the pompous privileged asshole at an American Association of Community Colleges convention in Minneapolis.
Monday, April 26, 2004
Today in the Wall Street Journal:
"Halliburton, which has won business in the Gulf country since the war, did tens of millions of dollars of business with Iraq in the late 1990s, when it was still led by the current U.S. vice president, Dick Cheney. Much of that business was done through French units.
Halliburton won more than $30 million worth of deals with Mr. Hussein's Iraq in the 1990s, U.N. documents show.
The largest part came when Mr. Cheney led the company from 1996 to 2000. Mr. Cheney said during the 2000 election campaign that Halliburton had a policy against trading with Iraq. The Halliburton contracts mentioned in the U.N. documents involved units and joint ventures that came with the purchase of Dresser Inc. in 1998. Those units were sold from December 1999 to April 2001. "Contracts were initiated prior to the merger," a spokeswoman for Halliburton said.
But at least one French unit, Dresser-Rand SA, part of a joint venture in which Halliburton had a 51% stake, registered $6 million of oil spare-parts sales with the U.N. oil-for-food program between 1998 and 2000, after Halliburton acquired Dresser, U.N. documents show.
Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., the French unit of another joint venture, signed about $25 million of Iraqi contracts at a time when Halliburton owned 49%, documents show."
Sometimes I feel so tired, beaten down from the relentless pounding of just flabbergasting stuff, buried deep in the bodies of articles. You would think that the supreme irony of Cheney being "in a fever" (to quote Woodward) to go after Hussein after doing nearly $100 million in business with him would be a larger issue than it is. Just like Rummy's meeting with the dictator in the early 80's - that was the trip, as far as I know, where the U.S. sold him the WMDs.
What exactly needs to be turned up in order to reveal the corruption and the ulterior motives of this administration? The GOP spin and attack machine puts the celebrated "War Room" of the Clinton campaign and administration to shame. Carville, the Ragin' Cajun, is small potatoes versus some of the world domination politics taking place in the corporate backrooms. Media companies need to be pit-bulling these stories into bloody rags, but it's the opposite that's happening. It's the papers and the TV news that are the meat for the pooches. Clinton engaged in shenanigans on such a small level and yet the column inches multiplied like rabbits in heat. Bush puts us to war, proves himself to be totally and completely asleep at the helm, egregiously participates and encourages his administration to make themselves rich via business interests while in office (ex. Cheney's deferred compensation - doesn't that just make it a huge lump sum once he leaves office - and doesn't that just make it compensation?), and yet the press down nothing but fawn.
The best example is the new attack ad against Kerry by "the Bush Campaign" (I have that in quotes because it's part of the unofficial organization of soft money groups that are supporting Bush via ads at this time (so I quoted a liberal soft money group (ah, the contrast))) regarding Kerry's service in Vietnam. Basically the ad intimates that Kerry did not deserve one of his medals, a purple heart, as he wasn't hurt badly enough to merit one.
I know very little about the military, my grandfather was a WWII veteran so I know some stories, but to the extent that my knowledge allows me to know, you get a purple heart if you hurt yourself in a war zone. Foot gets run over by a jeep when you're rough housing outside the barracks? Purple heart. Kerry was hurt in battle. Not sniffing coke of a stripper's bob's - which was most likely what Bush was up to at the time, that is unless he was driving drunk, or dereliction his duty as a member of the armed forces.
But the issue of medal validity aside, the fact that Bush, a man who is known to have had a not so proud military service in the guard, and who refused to volunteer himself to be ordered to Vietnam, would directly attack the military service of someone who had significant military service, demonstrates the brazenness of him and his campaign. They are brazen about the fact that no one in the press core or the press as a whole would push on the major discrepancy between the two men's services. It would seem to be an obvious point to push on. Bush - you silver spoon, knickers wearing, spoiled brat, you didn't even finish up your service and relied upon the good graces of Pa to make sure you weren't sent someplace where the champagne didn't come chilled. That's what the press should be saying - though without all the embellishment. Something needs to be done, and me complaining about it on my blog does no good.
Pissing into the ocean with hopes of changing the tide. I wish I were the editor of a major paper. I'd be happy to lose my job over mad-dogging the president over these issues. I'd love my phones to be tapped, and to get threatening phone calls from the Rovian dirty tricksters. But alas, I am not.
"Halliburton, which has won business in the Gulf country since the war, did tens of millions of dollars of business with Iraq in the late 1990s, when it was still led by the current U.S. vice president, Dick Cheney. Much of that business was done through French units.
Halliburton won more than $30 million worth of deals with Mr. Hussein's Iraq in the 1990s, U.N. documents show.
The largest part came when Mr. Cheney led the company from 1996 to 2000. Mr. Cheney said during the 2000 election campaign that Halliburton had a policy against trading with Iraq. The Halliburton contracts mentioned in the U.N. documents involved units and joint ventures that came with the purchase of Dresser Inc. in 1998. Those units were sold from December 1999 to April 2001. "Contracts were initiated prior to the merger," a spokeswoman for Halliburton said.
But at least one French unit, Dresser-Rand SA, part of a joint venture in which Halliburton had a 51% stake, registered $6 million of oil spare-parts sales with the U.N. oil-for-food program between 1998 and 2000, after Halliburton acquired Dresser, U.N. documents show.
Ingersoll Dresser Pump Co., the French unit of another joint venture, signed about $25 million of Iraqi contracts at a time when Halliburton owned 49%, documents show."
Sometimes I feel so tired, beaten down from the relentless pounding of just flabbergasting stuff, buried deep in the bodies of articles. You would think that the supreme irony of Cheney being "in a fever" (to quote Woodward) to go after Hussein after doing nearly $100 million in business with him would be a larger issue than it is. Just like Rummy's meeting with the dictator in the early 80's - that was the trip, as far as I know, where the U.S. sold him the WMDs.
What exactly needs to be turned up in order to reveal the corruption and the ulterior motives of this administration? The GOP spin and attack machine puts the celebrated "War Room" of the Clinton campaign and administration to shame. Carville, the Ragin' Cajun, is small potatoes versus some of the world domination politics taking place in the corporate backrooms. Media companies need to be pit-bulling these stories into bloody rags, but it's the opposite that's happening. It's the papers and the TV news that are the meat for the pooches. Clinton engaged in shenanigans on such a small level and yet the column inches multiplied like rabbits in heat. Bush puts us to war, proves himself to be totally and completely asleep at the helm, egregiously participates and encourages his administration to make themselves rich via business interests while in office (ex. Cheney's deferred compensation - doesn't that just make it a huge lump sum once he leaves office - and doesn't that just make it compensation?), and yet the press down nothing but fawn.
The best example is the new attack ad against Kerry by "the Bush Campaign" (I have that in quotes because it's part of the unofficial organization of soft money groups that are supporting Bush via ads at this time (so I quoted a liberal soft money group (ah, the contrast))) regarding Kerry's service in Vietnam. Basically the ad intimates that Kerry did not deserve one of his medals, a purple heart, as he wasn't hurt badly enough to merit one.
I know very little about the military, my grandfather was a WWII veteran so I know some stories, but to the extent that my knowledge allows me to know, you get a purple heart if you hurt yourself in a war zone. Foot gets run over by a jeep when you're rough housing outside the barracks? Purple heart. Kerry was hurt in battle. Not sniffing coke of a stripper's bob's - which was most likely what Bush was up to at the time, that is unless he was driving drunk, or dereliction his duty as a member of the armed forces.
But the issue of medal validity aside, the fact that Bush, a man who is known to have had a not so proud military service in the guard, and who refused to volunteer himself to be ordered to Vietnam, would directly attack the military service of someone who had significant military service, demonstrates the brazenness of him and his campaign. They are brazen about the fact that no one in the press core or the press as a whole would push on the major discrepancy between the two men's services. It would seem to be an obvious point to push on. Bush - you silver spoon, knickers wearing, spoiled brat, you didn't even finish up your service and relied upon the good graces of Pa to make sure you weren't sent someplace where the champagne didn't come chilled. That's what the press should be saying - though without all the embellishment. Something needs to be done, and me complaining about it on my blog does no good.
Pissing into the ocean with hopes of changing the tide. I wish I were the editor of a major paper. I'd be happy to lose my job over mad-dogging the president over these issues. I'd love my phones to be tapped, and to get threatening phone calls from the Rovian dirty tricksters. But alas, I am not.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Bush Says World Owes Israel's Sharon a 'Thank You'
Now the question here for me would be, would that be the whole world in unison? I'd really like to hear the Lebanese and Palestinians get together to say, "Thanks, man. You've really done a great service. If it were not against the bound of nature my children would climb out of their graves to shake your hand. My cousin would be happy to limp his scarred body over to the podium and applaud like the deaf mute that he is now after being nearly killed by a tank round exploding his house."
Zombie style, if all the people that Sharon has killed over his blood drenched reign(this includes his earlier non-presidential, smaller fiefdom reigns as well(a summary reign)), stood up, shaking the dirt off, and shambling up to Sharon to pat him on the back for a job well done, do you think that Sharon would accept the congratulations, or relish having the opportunity of killing them all again?
Secondly, is Bush going out of his way to enrage the Arab world? What lunacy pills is he taking? I'd like to know, because I'd be a millionaire selling that stuff as a party drug.
Now the question here for me would be, would that be the whole world in unison? I'd really like to hear the Lebanese and Palestinians get together to say, "Thanks, man. You've really done a great service. If it were not against the bound of nature my children would climb out of their graves to shake your hand. My cousin would be happy to limp his scarred body over to the podium and applaud like the deaf mute that he is now after being nearly killed by a tank round exploding his house."
Zombie style, if all the people that Sharon has killed over his blood drenched reign(this includes his earlier non-presidential, smaller fiefdom reigns as well(a summary reign)), stood up, shaking the dirt off, and shambling up to Sharon to pat him on the back for a job well done, do you think that Sharon would accept the congratulations, or relish having the opportunity of killing them all again?
Secondly, is Bush going out of his way to enrage the Arab world? What lunacy pills is he taking? I'd like to know, because I'd be a millionaire selling that stuff as a party drug.
Chuck Hagel, Republican Senator from Nebraska, revealed the long term strategy of the US today. Either June 30th is a complete and total lie, certainly not a magical date as Wolfowitz so delicately put it yesterday, or there is going to be a true Vietnam-like war of attrition for the ultimate control of Iraq.
While the link to the NY Post article above does it some justice, it's actually Al-Jazeera that covers the comments in more depth:
""Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel said, even if that price meant death.
The senator also argued that restoring compulsory military service would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face"."
"The Nebraska Republican added that a draft, which was ended in the early 1970s, would spread the burden of military service in Iraq more equitably among various social strata.
"Those who are serving today and dying today are the middle class and lower middle class.""
Hegel served in Vietnam, yet I have been unable to confirm if he was drafted or if he volunteered. My gut tells me that he was drafted and would like the rest of the country to understand the trauma of that event on the most visceral of levels. That aside, why would the staunchest of Republicans, in an election year where the Republican president is fighting for his office, put forth such an inflammatory statement, a statement that would lead the nation to believe that the conflict is escalating rather than coming to a quick end as has been said from the beginning of the war? Is he trying to lose the election? Does he think we live in a country where people will celebrate being forced into military service? Am I the one who is deluded thinking that I live in a country where people don't support conscription?
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, sound familiar? What makes it more frightening is that the president and his top advisors have been speaking of the fact that the conflict will be ending soon. The June 30 date is being drilled into our heads to the point where we will all be expecting the end to take place at that time. Is Bush or Rumsfeld going to fly to Iraq and present the key to the city of Baghdad to Chalabi?
To set up a conscription would take a good deal of time, well beyond June 30th. Possibly into next year or the year after that. Then we start actually training conscripts. That is one big window. Two or three years from now, we start sending off the conscripts? Grist for the mill. What does Congress and the Hill insiders know that we don't? What are we not being told about the real situation over there? Our media certainly does not have unrestricted access. Reporters that get too close end up dead. Who is in any position to tell us anything?
We are left parsing at the fortune cookie comments from Congressmen and Presidents. We have to piece it together ourselves. Reality reconstructed by the people who need to know, the people who might be conscripted, who have to vote on these despicable, vile, power hungry, world renting, civilian killing maniacs.
How deep does this go? It looks like we might hit hell before we hit bottom.
While the link to the NY Post article above does it some justice, it's actually Al-Jazeera that covers the comments in more depth:
""Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel said, even if that price meant death.
The senator also argued that restoring compulsory military service would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face"."
"The Nebraska Republican added that a draft, which was ended in the early 1970s, would spread the burden of military service in Iraq more equitably among various social strata.
"Those who are serving today and dying today are the middle class and lower middle class.""
Hegel served in Vietnam, yet I have been unable to confirm if he was drafted or if he volunteered. My gut tells me that he was drafted and would like the rest of the country to understand the trauma of that event on the most visceral of levels. That aside, why would the staunchest of Republicans, in an election year where the Republican president is fighting for his office, put forth such an inflammatory statement, a statement that would lead the nation to believe that the conflict is escalating rather than coming to a quick end as has been said from the beginning of the war? Is he trying to lose the election? Does he think we live in a country where people will celebrate being forced into military service? Am I the one who is deluded thinking that I live in a country where people don't support conscription?
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, sound familiar? What makes it more frightening is that the president and his top advisors have been speaking of the fact that the conflict will be ending soon. The June 30 date is being drilled into our heads to the point where we will all be expecting the end to take place at that time. Is Bush or Rumsfeld going to fly to Iraq and present the key to the city of Baghdad to Chalabi?
To set up a conscription would take a good deal of time, well beyond June 30th. Possibly into next year or the year after that. Then we start actually training conscripts. That is one big window. Two or three years from now, we start sending off the conscripts? Grist for the mill. What does Congress and the Hill insiders know that we don't? What are we not being told about the real situation over there? Our media certainly does not have unrestricted access. Reporters that get too close end up dead. Who is in any position to tell us anything?
We are left parsing at the fortune cookie comments from Congressmen and Presidents. We have to piece it together ourselves. Reality reconstructed by the people who need to know, the people who might be conscripted, who have to vote on these despicable, vile, power hungry, world renting, civilian killing maniacs.
How deep does this go? It looks like we might hit hell before we hit bottom.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
The Magic Number
"Pressed on how Iraq would assume sovereignty amid weeks of spiraling violence, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz called June 30th "just one step in a process," and not "a magical date" in which the U.S.-led occupation will shift responsibilities to a new Iraqi government."
That being said, let's review. Does this sound magical to you?
"Were the coalition to step back from the June 30th pledge, many Iraqis would question our intentions and feel their hopes betrayed. And those in Iraq who trade in hatred and conspiracy theories would find a larger audience and gain a stronger hand."
"On June 30th, Iraqi sovereignty will be placed in Iraqi hands."
"On June 30th, when the flag of a free Iraq is raised, Iraqi officials will assume full responsibility for the ministries of government. On that day, the transitional administrative law, including a bill of rights that is unprecedented in the Arab world, will take full effect."
-- George Bush, Prime Time Press Conference, 4/13/04
No?
What about this?
"One of the essential commitments we've made to the Iraqi people is this: They will control their own country. No citizen of America or Britain would want the government of their nation in the hands of others and neither do the Iraqis. This is why the June 30th date for the transfer of sovereignty will be kept."
Tony Blair, April 16, 2004
"Pressed on how Iraq would assume sovereignty amid weeks of spiraling violence, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz called June 30th "just one step in a process," and not "a magical date" in which the U.S.-led occupation will shift responsibilities to a new Iraqi government."
That being said, let's review. Does this sound magical to you?
"Were the coalition to step back from the June 30th pledge, many Iraqis would question our intentions and feel their hopes betrayed. And those in Iraq who trade in hatred and conspiracy theories would find a larger audience and gain a stronger hand."
"On June 30th, Iraqi sovereignty will be placed in Iraqi hands."
"On June 30th, when the flag of a free Iraq is raised, Iraqi officials will assume full responsibility for the ministries of government. On that day, the transitional administrative law, including a bill of rights that is unprecedented in the Arab world, will take full effect."
-- George Bush, Prime Time Press Conference, 4/13/04
No?
What about this?
"One of the essential commitments we've made to the Iraqi people is this: They will control their own country. No citizen of America or Britain would want the government of their nation in the hands of others and neither do the Iraqis. This is why the June 30th date for the transfer of sovereignty will be kept."
Tony Blair, April 16, 2004
You know the reasoning behind why we're there, you also know that the reasoning was flawed and that we were manipulated and lied to, but now that the cost of our mistakes is revealed, how do you feel?
Wronged, enraged, sickened, surprised, wondrous, calculating, pained?
The press up to this point has been banned from taking pictures of coffins, of bodies arriving from overseas, of the wounded. George Bush does not go to the funerals for these soldiers. He visits the smiling wounded at Texas hospitals, but not the wounded who are not camera ready. You need all your limbs and no scarification about the face and neck for TV stardom.
Fresh graves are being opened today. Do you know where, or more importantly, why?
Wronged, enraged, sickened, surprised, wondrous, calculating, pained?
The press up to this point has been banned from taking pictures of coffins, of bodies arriving from overseas, of the wounded. George Bush does not go to the funerals for these soldiers. He visits the smiling wounded at Texas hospitals, but not the wounded who are not camera ready. You need all your limbs and no scarification about the face and neck for TV stardom.
Fresh graves are being opened today. Do you know where, or more importantly, why?
