DEANS R 1

s.jackson....last 

Well, Howard still qualifies as first in my book!

w00t!

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/22538...

last thread

A general rant, reposted from last thread.  Covers about all of it.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1568

A little more about the Farrugut North movie and play.

http://www.chud.com:80/index.php?type=news&id=12108

That is apparently the name of a street where lobbyists hang out.

Here's to hoping that no more Americans, and especially no more Democrats, and doubly especially no more liberals, are tricked into calling for -- or even acknowledging a need for --  "regime change" in Iran. We've followed the NeoCon pied pipers down that road before with disasterous results.

No matter how much Iran or any other country could use improvement, American politicians and their armies of aggression will only make things worse for the people there. Hell, we can't even protect our own freedoms these days, much less bestow them on others at the points of our bayonets.

How can Dean be in two symposiums the same day?  Or are the dates confused at this link.  Looks like the GMU interview will be on C-Span 3 Friday at 5:00. ?  I think.

http://gmupoljourn.blogspot.com/2007/10/two-guests-on-thursday.html

But this other one is the same day...tomorrow at a John Hopkins symposium.

http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2007/08oct07/08briefs.html

How can Dean be in two symposiums the same day?

Is there anything Dean can't do? 

Ha ha, sitka.  

The best thing about the internet is, other people do the hard part.

God morning, everybody

Good to see everyone's getting lots of sleep.

Do like that quote from Matt Stoller in #5.  LOL

Primaries are good, but making politics a staple is a lot of work.

Even with the internets.  

One of the biggest jobs is separating the wheat from the chaff.

That's something that Bush/Cheney are discovering.  It's why they're so

fixated on electronic surveillance.  They thought it would make life

easy.  LOL 

Looks like everyone was busy last night, but Monica has been here recently.

I am deciding that if I need money, I might just hire myself out as a flatpack furniture assembler. We have certainly assembled enough in recent days; it's getting so we don't even need to read the directions any more.

**************
Just a few now: more assembling awaits so that more boxes can be unpacked.

**************
My nephew is one of the ones that they are trying to lure back. We hope that he will not fall for it; my sister was nearly crazy while he was in Iraq. Not only did all four of us oppose this immoral action in Iraq from the outset, but the irony was that some of our children had to fight it.

And neither Bush twin has enlisted ... fat chance! Nor has any Cheney that I know about. And what about the children of all the Rethug chickenhawks like Romney?

I believe that the my nephew's decision in the end will depend on his fiancee ... who wants him OUT, no matter what the incentive!!

==================
Army Offers Big Cash To Keep Key Officers
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2007; A01

The Army is offering cash bonuses of up to $35,000 to retain young officers serving in key specialties -- including military intelligence, infantry and aviation -- in an unprecedented bid to forestall a critical shortage of officer ranks that have been hit hard by frequent deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army officials said that lengthy and repeated war-zone tours -- the top reason younger officers leave the service -- plus the need for thousands of new officers as the Army moves forward with expansion plans have contributed to a projected shortfall of about 3,000 captains and majors for every year through 2013.

In response, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates approved the unusual incentives last month as a temporary measure for this fiscal year, and over the past three weeks, more than 6,000 Army captains have accepted cash awards ranging from $25,000 to $35,000 in exchange for committing to serve three more years.

In a speech at an Army conference yesterday, Gates said that holding on to today's combat veteran officers is vital to reshaping and rebuilding the force for the future -- and this could mean rethinking Cold War-era promotion policies. "There is a generation of junior and mid-level officers and NCOs [noncommissioned officers] who have been tested in battle like none other in decades," he said. "These men and women need to be retained, and the best and brightest advanced . . . to use their experience to shape the institution."

More than 18,000 Army captains are eligible for the bonuses and more than a third of those have taken them since the new cash offer was announced on Sept. 13, senior Army officers said this week. An additional 900 officers have taken other incentives to stay on.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Mark Fiore's latest ... *Knuckles* and tortured synonyms are back. Try *tickle-fuzzy-hug* ... actually, you DON'T want to.

http://www.markfiore.com/

Remember the US Attorneys scandal. If you do, you're among the few since most of the CMW have been avoiding it.

Today's NYT, however, unearths a new twist.

=======================
October 11, 2007
Editorial Observer
The United States Attorneys Scandal Comes to Mississippi
By ADAM COHEN

Paul Minor is the son of Bill Minor, a legendary Mississippi journalist and chronicler of the civil rights movement. He is also a wealthy trial lawyer and a mainstay of Mississippi’s embattled Democratic Party. Mr. Minor has contributed $500,000 to Democrats over the years, including more than $100,000 to John Edwards, a fellow trial lawyer. He fought hard to stop the Mississippi Supreme Court from being taken over by pro-business Republicans.

Mr. Minor’s political activity may have cost him dearly. He is serving an 11-year sentence, convicted of a crime that does not look much like a crime at all. The case is one of several new ones coming to light that suggest that the department’s use of criminal prosecutions to help Republicans win elections may go farther than anyone realizes.

The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold hearings shortly on whether the Justice Department engaged in selective prosecution in two other cases: when it went after Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, who is serving more than seven years in prison on dubious charges, and Georgia Thompson, a Wisconsin civil servant who was freed after serving four months on baseless corruption charges.

Mr. Minor, whose firm made more than $70 million in fees in his state’s tobacco settlement, suspects it was his role in the 2000 Mississippi Supreme Court elections that put a target on his back. The United States Chamber of Commerce spent heavily to secure a Republican, pro-business majority, while Mr. Minor contributed heavily to the other side.

The chamber was especially eager to unseat Justice Oliver Diaz Jr., a former trial lawyer. He was re-elected after a hard-fought, high-spending campaign. Then the prosecutions came from the politicized Bush Justice Department.

[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/opinio...

This is the Congress that cannot impeach the most impeachable Administration ever in office, but that finds time to condemn MoveOn for using a term about Betrayus that even the soldiers use and to condemn Turkey for genocide, while we continue to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, especially if one includes the years of sanctions, and, together with Israel, responsible for the slow starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.

It's not that Turkey should not have to confront its unsavory past; it's that the US is hardly in a position to chide anyone about anything.

It's also just another way for Congress to avoid doing the two things that most want more than any other: getting us out of Iraq and impeaching this lot of bastards who are ruining our country.

And, oh yeah, the genocide resolution was also dumb to do right now. In addition to war with Iran and Syria, do we really want to add Turkey to the list?

=================
Turkey condemns US over Armenian genocide resolution
Video: Congress ignores Bush over 'genocide' vote
Mark Tran and agencies
Thursday October 11, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Turkey today condemned a US congressional committee for approving a resolution that recognises the 1915 massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide.

Calling the move "irresponsible", and with reference to tensions on its border with Iraq, the Turkish government warned it could damage a strategic partnership at a sensitive time.

"Our government regrets and condemns this decision. It is unacceptable that the Turkish nation has been accused of something that never happened in history," it said in a statement.

The House of Representatives foreign affairs committee yesterday approved the resolution by 27 votes to 21. It goes to the House floor, where there will be a vote by mid-November, say Democratic leaders.

The committee approved the resolution despite warnings from the president, George Bush, and other top administration officials, who said it would damage relations with a key Nato ally and jeopardise an important route for US supplies to Iraq.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33093...

Well, one legal challenge to Al's film has been set aside, even though the judge opined a bit more than necessary, IMHO, especially since he himself is not a scientist either.

====================
Gore's climate film has scientific errors - judge
· Court rules documentary can be shown in schools
· Presentation is 'broadly accurate' but lacks balance
David Adam, environment correspondent The Guardian Thursday October 11 2007

Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, was yesterday criticised by a high court judge who highlighted what he said were "nine scientific errors" in the film.

Mr Justice Barton yesterday said that while the film was "broadly accurate" in its presentation of climate change, he identified nine significant errors in the film, some of which, he said, had arisen in "the context of alarmism and exaggeration" to support the former US vice-president's views on climate change.

The film was broadly welcomed by environmental campaigners and scientists on its release last year, and while they did point out that it contained mistakes, these were relatively small and did not detract from the film's central message - that global warming was a real problem and humans had the technology to do something about it.

[...]
Despite his finding of significant errors, Mr Justice Barton said many of the claims made by the film were supported by the weight of scientific evidence and he identified four main hypotheses, each of which is very well supported "by research published in respected, peer-reviewed journals and accords with the latest conclusions of the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]."

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/20...

This is taking forever to load, but at least Dodd's in the paper

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/11/in_times_ad_a_plea_for_gore_to_enter_race 

The gutting of the Army because of the strain caused by the extended tours might be just the thing to keep us out of war with Iran so it might not be all bad, Judy.

We are having one of those tough harvests because of storm damage that come along once or twice a decade. So I rely on my other character building experiences, but I'm not in a war zone, and I sleep in my own bed, so all is good.

Thanks for the your participation, you regulars. I still skim through the threads even if I'm too tired to post.

Dodd is offering a chance for  Sox playoff tickets to an Iowan who donates. I passed on Obama's dinner offer, but I might give Dodd a shot on that one. (cheering for the Indians, but nine innings of conversation with Dodd would be fun)

Those insurgents must *be in their last throes* yet again. This may be about where the sister of my granddaughter's mother is currently based. We are all keeping our fingers crossed.

May putzCO all rot in Hell!

===============
Attack on US base in Baghdad kills two, wounds 38
Agencies
Thursday October 11, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

A rocket or mortar attack on the main American base near Baghdad killed two members of the US-led coalition and wounded nearly 40 others, the US military said today.

The attack happened yesterday at Camp Victory, a sprawling garrison and headquarters of American forces in Iraq, according to the US military statement.

Two coalition force members were killed and 38 wounded, the military said.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33093...

16.

Phil Specht
Thu, 10/11/07
6:59 am

The gutting of the Army because of the strain caused by the extended tours might be just the thing to keep us out of war with Iran so it might not be all bad, Judy.

[...]
***********
I hope that you're right, Phil. Whatever it takes. :)

I like Dodd too! I'm a former PCV myself and a nicer group of humanitarians would be hard to find, although some on this blog are certainly good examples of such too.

We do have some good options.

I hope that we will hear something definitive from Al after tomorrow.

***************
*Passive* genocide continues. But our Congress will never raise a voice to condemn this.

===============
Palestinian students continue to face exclusion
Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem
Thursday October 11, 2007
EducationGuardian.co.uk

The Israeli army is continuing to bar Palestinian students from Israeli universities, in spite of an order from the Israeli high court that it relax its restrictions.

The army was asked to explain its policy in March 2006, but it has so far asked for delays on seven occasions. The delays mean that Palestinian students will miss the start of the Israeli term on October 15.

As the discrimination against Palestinian students continues, the UK University and College Union (UCU) announced last month that it would not be legal for it to discriminate against Israeli academics, students and institutions in protest against Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

Sari Bashi, the director of Gisha, an Israeli human rights group that has challenged the army ban, said: "No one should be denied access to higher education based on nationality. Academics - not army generals - should decide who studies at Israel's universities."

Palestinian citizens of Israel and holders of East Jerusalem identity cards are allowed to study at Israeli institutions, but residents of the West Bank and Gaza face restrictions.

It is not clear how many students have been affected because the army refuses to reveal how many permits it granted in the past.

There are a number of Palestinian universities in the West Bank and Gaza, but they do not offer doctorates or MBAs. Many Palestinian students live in easy commuting distance of the Israeli universities they want to attend.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33093...

Mosques in the Swiss Alps ... one reason why the fortunes of the Swiss RW are rising.

===============
The rise of mosques becomes catalyst for conflict across Europe
A minaret planned for a Swiss village has prompted the latest of several disputes over new places of worship
Ian Traynor in Wangen, Switzerland
Thursday October 11, 2007
Guardian

North of Berne in an idyllic Alpine valley cowbells tinkle, a church steeple rises, and windowboxes tumble with geraniums. It has always been like this.

But down by the railway station the 21st century is rudely intruding and the villagers of Wangen are upset.

"It's the noise, and all the cars. You should see it on a Friday night," complains Roland Kissling, a perfume buyer for a local cosmetics company. "I've got nothing against mosques, or even against minarets. But in the city. Not in this village. It's just not right. There's going to be trouble."

The target of Mr Kissling's ire is a nondescript house belonging to the region's Turkish immigrant community. The basement is a prayer room where hundreds of Muslims gather every week for Friday rites.

And in a case that has gone all the way to Switzerland's supreme court, setting a keenly watched precedent, the Turks of Wangen have just won the right to erect a six-metre-high minaret.

"We'll build it by next year. We're still deciding what colour and what material," says Mustafa Karahan, the sole person authorised to speak for Wangen's Turkish Cultural Association. "We don't have any problems. It's the other side that has the problems. We're not saying anything else until the minaret is built."

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33093...

13.  What this story out of Mississippi leads me to think is that we keep looking for the Bushes to have committed novel crimes when they're really just petty crooks, doing the easy stuff--going after people's friends and associates to intimidate and blackmail.  Or what should we call it when the crime involves withholding, rather than giving something to which people are/are not entitled?

Republicans really are good at seeing that other people don't get.   "Deprivation" is really an innovative criminal behavior.  Just short of torture.

Well, Laura Bush has spoken out against the junta ... and I am sure that they are quaking in their boots as a result. Not!

They are most certainly kindred spirits to prick.

====================
Only now, the full horror of Burmese junta's repression of monks emerges
By Rosalind Russell
Published: 11 October 2007

Monks confined in a room with their own excrement for days, people beaten just for being bystanders at a demonstration, a young woman too traumatised to speak, and screams in the night as Rangoon's residents hear their neighbours being taken away.

Harrowing accounts smuggled out of Burma reveal how a systematic campaign of physical punishment and psychological terror is being waged by the Burmese security forces as they take revenge on those suspected of involvement in last month's pro-democracy uprising.

The first-hand accounts describe a campaign hidden from view, but even more sinister and terrifying than the open crackdown in which the regime's soldiers turned their bullets and batons on unarmed demonstrators in the streets of Rangoon, killing at least 13. At least then, the world was watching.

The hidden crackdown is as methodical as it is brutal. First the monks were targeted, then the thousands of ordinary Burmese who joined the demonstrations, those who even applauded or watched, or those merely suspected of anti-government sympathies.

[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia...

Here's a story for sea, since she's off tango-ing in Latin America right now. One of putz's kindred spirits, methinks.

===============
Argentina's disappeared: Father Christian, the priest who did the devil's work
Christian Von Wernich's story is one of the darkest chapters of the 'Dirty War'. He was the priest who heard the confessions of political prisoners, passed them on to the police, and then stood by as the detainees were tortured. David Usborne reports on the day justice was done
Published: 11 October 2007

Outside the courthouse in La Plata, 50 miles south of Buenos Aires, late on Tuesday, the crowds were ready for what they were sure was coming. Finally, the word leaked that a verdict had been handed down – and it was the right one. They beat their drums, women undid white headscarves and raised them in the air, fireworks were lit and somewhere in the midst of the throng a human effigy was set alight.

It was an extraordinary explosion of emotion, replicated in cafes and homes across the land at the end of a televised trial that had lasted three months and gripped the entire population. But if there was joy, even relief in Argentina yesterday, its feelings remained far more complicated. This conviction was a moment of cleansing and resolution. But it also was a reminder of deep, incomprehensible pain.

The effigy of cardboard and cloth was in the likeness of the man convicted – in a dog collar of the Catholic Church. The Reverend Christian von Wernich, 69, a former police chaplain, was sentenced to life in prison for collaborating with the Buenos Aires police during the dark days of the country's "Dirty War", when, between 1976 and 1983, the military ran the country in a cruel and ruthless dictatorship.

[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/amer...

Genocide is as Genocide does --

-- kills and kills wantonly.

I'm with the 27 (in the words of Turkish newspapers) "foolish Americans" in the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs that stood up and finally labeled the Turkish massacre of over a million Armenians, a genocide.

Deniers of genocide (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who denies that the Holocaust genocide and Turkisk President Abdullah Gul who denies that the Armenian genocide took place) are simply deniers.

Turkey cut off military ties with France last year when the Chirac government then labeled it a genocide.

Bush and co want the Iraq war to go on into the next U.S. President's term so he won't have to clean up any of the mess he created.  Keeping Turkey in the supply/compliance game with the U.S. is vital to keeping the Iraq war going on, and on, and on....

And that's why Bush opposed the H. Res 106 measure yesterday.  27 members of Congress defied him.

"Embargo" is also a form of deprivation.  So, the U.S. strategy is not a Bush/Cheney invention.

Is it all an outgrowth of the principle of private property?  I don't think so.  The coercive impulse can exist independently of any formal designation of resources. 

Monica, putzCo are *petty* indeed. Although their dirty and sneaky tricks may be considered *crookery,* the accumulation and the consequences of such are so adverse that they rise to criminal level.

But you are right in that the tricks are not that complex. They are just nasty and represent how low such Rethugs can go. That fact usually startles most of us who would never dream of treating others in such a way.

**************
Well, I'll try to be back ... this getting settled is taking time. My husband's theory is that since we are now BOTH retired, unpacking one box a day is enough. But I would like to get them ALL unpacked so that we can actually relax.

http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=23654

Adoption of the H.Res.106 is a big victory of Armenian community of U.S.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ “Adoption of the Armenian Genocide Resolution by U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs is a big victory of the Armenian community of U.S.,” Armenian Assembly Country Director for Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, Arpi Vartanian told a news conference in Yerevan.

...

October 10, with a vote of 27 to 21, the influential panel of the U.S. House of Representatives took a major step toward ending U.S. complicity in Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide, adopting H.Res.106, the Armenian Genocide Resolution introduced on January 30th by Rep. Adam Schiff along with Representative George Radanovich (R-CA), Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI).

Watertown, MA borders the Boston neighborhood in which I work.

There's a memorial plaque in the city of Watertown that I drive by each day that documents the genocide of Armenians by the (Ottoman Empire at the time) Turks.

Watertown is the third largest Armenian community in America, after the Californian cities of Glendale and Fresno. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watertown,_Massachusetts

Bush has no business opposing a Congressional statement of opinion.  Or anyone else's for that matter.  We need to start paying less attention to what people say and more to what they do.

There's an assumption on the part of some people that words and actions are the same.  This is an intentionally perverse assumption, especially when it comes from people who make a daily habit of lying.

Why is Bush Two sensitive to the genocide accusation?  Because it might well be applied to him.  The argument being used to refute the Armenian charges is based on the primacy of intent.  That is, the Turks did not commit genocide because they did not intend to wipe the Armenians out.  Similarly, Bush Two would argue that the demise of over a million Iraqis because of his orders to attack those who resist domination is not a genocide because there is no intent to wipe the Iraqis out.  

Of course, this same logic can be used to argue that there was no genocide involved in the killing of the Jews of Europe.  The Nazis didn't want to kill their detainees.  At first, they didn't even want to detain them and simply ordered them to leave the country.  Then, those that didn't were ordered to be detained and then they ran out of food to feed them and decided to put them out of their misery.

The intent of the perpetrator of an act, rather than its effect, is central to our criminal law.  I would prefer that intent influence the punishment meted out, rather than the determination of an act.  Of course, if you go that direction, you almost have to do away with legally sanctioned murder--i.e. no capital punishment.

... 

Bush has no business opposing a Congressional statement of opinion. 

...

Why is Bush Two sensitive to the genocide accusation?  Because it might well be applied to him.

...

+++

Yes, besides possibly losing a dedicated supplier route (70% comes through Turkey) to continuing the war in Iraq, the other reason is that you are correct in Bush wanting to not be labelled in history as a genocider himself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMitrtE4N4A

Good Morning All,

mprov, thank you for that notice that Al Gore had to take an unexpected trip abroad!.


Fingers crossed. Does this mean he received new about the Nobel Prize?


I love this quote from Roy Neel, about the possibility of Al Gore running.

"Longtime political aide Roy Neel, who runs Gore's office in Nashville, Tenn., said the former vice president is focusing on prompting action against global warming. He said he has seen no signs Gore is contemplating a race.

"He's making no plans, and we're doing nothing," said Neel, adding, "He's not ruled it out in the future."

Asked what "the future" meant, Neel said, "Sometime later than today."


Good luck Al.

bbl ... coffee time

The Draft Al Gore Petition jumped from 137 K late yesterday, to 154 K this morning!!!!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/algor...

This is to advise you that there is a new thread.

33. There's a diary on KOS that he picked up his 'fav' suit from the cleaners but that he said he had a 'wedding coming up.'

Just to fuel the fires further.

==================================

Judy/rdorgan/Monica

On the condemnation of Turkey for the genocide -- I'm puzzled why we're condemning something that happened so long ago and p*ssing off perhaps the only Muslim secular democracy in the world. Not to mention it's high on my list of places I want to visit.

============================

I've mentioned several times the movie LIVES OF OTHERS and that it's now availalbe to rent for free from http://www.filmconnection.org but I forgot to mention -- I had mentioned to my students it was a good movie and one of them asked me yesterday what the name was again and I told him. He said Rush Limbaugh was recommending the movie b/c he said it was what would happen in America if the Fairness Doctrine was reinstated. I'm still trying to figure out the logic of that argument. (The movie deals with the repressive government in E Germany before the wall fell.) I printed out some blurb on the Fairness Doctrine for the student.

Repost from mprov lastnight.

Dear mprov, (how did she know?) :)

I just got a call from Vice President Al Gore. He told me that he needs to
travel abroad tomorrow for an exciting and urgent mission that could
result in a major breakthrough in the fight against global warming.

Unfortunately, this means that we must postpone our Thursday, October 11th
event with him until Friday, November 9th. I wanted to be sure to email
you tonight in case you were planning on attending.

While I am really disappointed that we won't see Al Gore until next month,
I am thrilled that he is continuing to provide critical leadership to
address one of the most pressing issues of our time. You should know that
only the most urgent global warming mission has called him out of the
country.

I look forward to seeing you on November 9th so we can all hear first-hand
about Al Gore's latest exciting initiatives. We will be back in touch in
the coming days with more details about the rescheduled event.

Thank you so much for your continued friendship and support!

Barbara Boxer

*was going to be:

Tickets for this Thursday night's rally in San Francisco with Senator
Barbara Boxer, Vice President Al Gore, and the incredible musicians Bonnie
Raitt and Jackson Browne are going fast. As one of Barbara's strongest
grassroots supporters, we want you to be a part of it, too.