Internet muse.
Daring, bold, never sold.
My daily weblog of politics, humor, philosophy...and a constant and nagging reminder of the existence of universal love....
FBI agents on Wednesday obtained files and served subpoenas at the offices of AIPAC.Juan Cole-Spy Case Update
"..In the shadow of President Bush's re-election, and strengthened GOP control of virtually every element of government, many are convinced that the Democratic Party, if not on the brink of collapse, has been relegated to a generation or more of minority party status. It's now clear that nothing short of a radical overhaul will be necessary to revitalize the Democratic opposition. Enter our old friend, Howard Dean....If the DNC places the faith in Dean they so willfully denied him earlier this year, he'll offer a unique chance at revitalizing the party, and could set the course toward a new era of triumph for the Democrats...".
Since the Democratic Leadership Council, with its mantra of "moderate, moderate, moderate," took hold in Washington, the Democratic Party has been in decline at just about every level of government. Forget the Kerry loss. Today the number of Democrats in the House is the lowest it's been since 1928. Democrats are on the brink of becoming a permanent minority party. Can the oldest democratic institution on earth wake from its stupor?
Here are some steps to pull out of the nose-dive...
"While the German Chancellor is - contrary to earlier reports - apparently planning to visit the US President even before his second inauguration in January, a US human rights group, the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, is about to disturb the two governments’ reconciliation efforts.
According to a report by the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau (quoted by The Raw Story, Reuters), the American activists will file war crimes charges in Germany against senior U.S. administration officials - including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and former Central Intelligence Agency director George Tenet - for their alleged responsibility for crimes committed in the Abu Ghraib prison."
"We are without allies amongst the Iraqi populace, including those who have benefited from the ouster of Saddam. Across Baghdad, Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah, Salman Pak, Baqubah, Balad, Taji, Baiji, Ramadi and just about everywhere else you can name, the people absolutely hate us. . . . The Iraqi people have not bought into what the Americans are selling, and no amount of military activity is going to change this fact."
Anonymous U.S. Security Consultant
Press Interview WaPo
November 16, 2004
"..the right's activist base is busy getting things done. And we, once again, turn to a national leadership that's so busy navel-gazing and avoiding an ideological debate that it is unable to offer a compelling alternative to an extreme conservative agenda and too spineless to get in there and fight the dirty, no-holds-barred brawl this country's polity demands. It's time for liberals to lead and the Democratic Party bosses to either follow or get the hell out of the way..."
"..our lord loves the country, he's with you at the pollsHear the song on MP3 at the website.
He knows the lever that you pull
He's keeping track of souls.."
Excerpt from original article:
"On Friday evening, CBS News reported that the FBI is investigating a suspected mole in the Department of Defense who allegedly passed to Israel, via a pro-Israeli lobbying organization, classified American intelligence about Iran. The focus of the investigation, according to U.S. government officials, is Larry Franklin, a veteran Defense Intelligence Agency Iran analyst now working in the office of the Pentagon's number three civilian official, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.
The investigation of Franklin is now shining a bright light on a shadowy struggle within the Bush administration over the direction of U.S. policy toward Iran. In particular, the FBI is looking with renewed interest at an unauthorized back-channel between Iranian dissidents and advisers in Feith's office, which more-senior administration officials first tried in vain to shut down and then later attempted to cover up...."
"With the reelection of President Bush and the appointment of Porter Goss to bring the CIA under White House control, it becomes increasingly hard to see how the republic will survive."
-Chalmers Johnson
"Imagine our uncurious George and his Vice President as feudal lords who have called their retainers to their side. Their men are now filling the moat and pulling up the drawbridge. (No more embarrassing kiss-and-tell memoirs like those from term one!) In essence, what's now being created inside the Beltway is the equivalent of what was created for the President on the campaign trail -- those adoring rallies, that moving campaign bubble, lacking the slightest challenge from reality. In a sense, what's now being put in place is a full-scale fantasy regime, armed to the teeth. Inside the castle (or the bubble, if you prefer) reality will be -- for a while at least -- what the President and Vice President decide it is."
"You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here...Question: Is making a pact with oneself not to subscribe to a particular belief not a belief, in and of itself? Can we ever escape faith, even in its most naked form? Are we inevitable prisoners of faith unto death?
I don't have to know an answer.
I don't feel frightened by not knowing things,
by being lost in a mysterious universe
without any purpose,
which is the way it really is
as far as I can tell.
It doesn't frighten me."
Richard Feynman, 1981
-- "After interrogations, the Americans give the usual detainees to our traitors ... — he calls the new Iraqi army by this word — and those [in Iraq's new army] shoot them. This boy was executed together with three other men. Bastards...
The surgeon comes out after an hour. The teenager has died. The crying mother is led away by the old Iraqi. He is her brother. The surgeon sits down on the sofa and closes his eyes.
-- Aneh teben! — I am so tired! ..."
Excerpt:
"He danced with tall grass
for a moment, like he was swaying
with a woman. Our gun barrels
glowed white-hot.
When I got to him,
a blue halo
of flies had already claimed him.
I pulled the crumbed photograph
from his fingers..."
Poem: We Never Know
by Yusef Komunyakaa
See full poem here.
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