Obama Hope

A cartoon by Mr. Fish

harpers.org/archive/2008/08/hbc-90003380

January: Finally, a candidate who isn't afraid to say what he really believes.

March: Well, he has to say that stuff if he wants to be elected - he doesn't really believe it.

May: There's no way in hell that he can possible be that stupid - but if it gets him into the White House...

July: Jesus Christ, now he sounds like the other shithead! Why should I even vote, what's the goddamn difference?

September: What a fucking asshole - does he think I'm an idiot?! Why does nothing ever change in this country?

November: Go Obama...

Vote your Conscience

Occupation to Reconstruct

This reminds me of the "Pottery Barn Rule" (as mentioned by Colin Powell in the run-up to the invasion. An apt analogy to the current situation with Iraq as it suffers under an occupation by a foreign military power while civilian infrastructure goes woefully un-repaired:

The Metaphor

by Mr. Fish
go to original

Harper's Magazine Online

Harper's Magazine online, www.harpers.org, features a wealth of content, including the commentary of prominent Washington D.C. journalists Ken Silverstein and Scott Horton. Many of the stories from the print magazine are republished online and available for reading without a subscription.

Harper's does an especially great job of covering the current political environment in Washington D.C. (as it relates to corruption in major offices of government), and matters as they relate to the war on terrorism / Iraq, etc.

Ken Silverstein is known for his Congressional muckraking, and coverage of the unethical practices within the D.C. lobbying industry. Scott Horton is a New York attorney and legal professor who is known for his insights into Bush Administration legal (or illegal) operations.

Reading either of Horton's or Silverstein's blogs, as well as the general content published at www.harpers.org comes highly recommended from this blogger.

Fidel Castro Steps Down

Dead Presidents celebrate upon the replacement of Fidel Castro with his brother Raoul as President of Cuba.

Dead Presidents Celebrate.

Mr. Fish:

Missing Emails

Why isn't Congress pressing Dick Cheney or the White House about this obvious and egregious breach of the public trust? Is our whole system of governance in the USA corrupted? What will it take to right the course of American Politics?

The Emails that Dick Cheney Deleted
No Comment
by Scott Horton
January 22, 2008

Late last week, right after official White House spokesmen made a series of either evasive or completely false statements about the mysterious case of the vanishing, then reappearing, then perhaps no really vanished White House emails, Henry Waxman and his Oversight Committee announced some of the conclusions they had reached. Dan Eggen and Elizabeth Williamson published an account of it on Friday in the Washington Post:

The White House possesses no archived e-mail messages for many of its component offices, including the Executive Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President, for hundreds of days between 2003 and 2005, according to the summary of an internal White House study that was disclosed yesterday by a congressional Democrat. The 2005 study — whose credibility the White House attacked this week — identified 473 separate days in which no electronic messages were stored for one or more White House offices, said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.).

Waxman said he decided to release the summary after White House spokesman Tony Fratto said yesterday that there is “no evidence” that any White House e-mails from those years are missing. Fratto’s assertion “seems to be an unsubstantiated statement that has no relation to the facts they have shared with us,” Waxman said. The competing claims were the latest salvos in an escalating dispute over whether the Bush Administration has complied with long-standing statutory requirements to preserve official White House records — including those reflecting potentially sensitive policy discussions — for history and in case of any future legal demands.

Waxman said he is seeking testimony on the issue at a hearing next month from White House counsel Fred F. Fielding, National Archivist Allen Weinstein and Alan R. Swendiman, the politically appointed director of the Office of Administration, which produced the 2005 study at issue.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has now posted a series of studies to help us zero in on just what’s missing. It will come as no surprise to most that the big offender is the man at the center of the most virulent scandals, and the missing email traffic relates just to those dates in which a federal prosecutor would have the most interest. Vice President Dick Cheney’s office destroyed its emails, in violation of the requirements of the federal records act and potentially criminal law, for the following days:

September 12, 2003: The day on which the headlines in the New York Times read “federal appeals court in Washington yesterday rejected the Bush Administration’s effort to avoid releasing documents about Vice President Cheney Energy Task Force.”
...

read the rest: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002219

"Don't be Evil"

Read about how much electricity it takes to keep the Internet running. Google builds a new plant in an area with promises of access to inexpensive electricity and public investments in necessary infrastructure.

"In 2006 American [Internet] data centers consumed more power than American televisions."

A Harper's Magazine centerfold annotation by Ginger Strand:

Wolfowitz Resignation

Warming Caused by God

This just in from Harper's Magazine: Global Climate Disruption Caused by God!!!



This definitely defeats the "One God" theory. I believe that God is the product of our own minds. If the White House has a God (or is a God) that is intentionally causing climate disruption, then I want no part of it. Further I think that they and their God ought to be opposed at every turn.

The moral bankruptcy of this Bush White House casts a pall over the USA. And it is our duty as citizens of this nation to oppose their efforts to undermine the health and well-being of the world's peoples.

This and That

A little bit of this:

go to original
Harper's Weekly
...
For its temporary embassy in Washington, D.C., the Iraqi government purchased a $5.8-million Tudor-style mansion across the street from the home of Dick Cheney on Massachusetts Avenue. The mansion features a built-in espresso machine, heated floors, soft pistachio carpeting, and a Jacuzzi...

And a little bit of that:

go to original
NYT

BAGHDAD, Feb. 26 — The Iraqi cabinet approved a draft of a law today that would set guidelines for countrywide distribution of oil revenues and foreign investment in the immense oil industry.

The endorsement marked a major agreement among the country’s ethnic and sectarian political blocs on one of Iraq’s most divisive issues.

The draft law approved by the cabinet allows the central government to distribute oil revenues to the provinces or regions by population, which could lessen the economic concerns of the rebellious Sunni Arabs, who fear being cut out of Iraq’s vast potential oil wealth by the dominant Shiites and Kurds.

The law also grants regional oil companies the power to sign contracts with foreign companies for exploration and development of fields, opening the door for investment by foreign oil companies in a country whose oil reserves rank among the world’s top three in size...

America's Christian Right

from Harpers.org, go to original:

Through a Glass, Darkly

How the Christian right is reimagining U.S. history

Posted on Wednesday, January 10, 2007. Originally from December 2006. By Jeff Sharlet.

We keep trying to explain away American fundamentalism. Those of us not engaged personally or emotionally in the biggest political and cultural movement of our times—those on the sidelines of history—keep trying to come up with theories with which to discredit the evident allure of this punishing yet oddly comforting idea of a deity, this strange god. His invisible hand is everywhere, say His citizen-theologians, caressing and fixing every outcome: Little League games, job searches, test scores, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, the success or failure of terrorist attacks (also known as “signs”), victory or defeat in battle, at the ballot box, in bed. Those unable to feel His soothing touch at moments such as these snort at the notion of a god with the patience or the prurience to monitor every tick and twitch of desire, a supreme being able to make a lion and a lamb cuddle but unable to abide two men kissing. A divine love that speaks through hurricanes. Who would worship such a god? His followers must be dupes, or saps, or fools, their faith illiterate, insane, or misinformed, their strength fleeting, hollow, an aberration. A burp in American history. An unpleasant odor that will pass.
...

continued

Lapham in Harper's

Oh (insert hyperbolae)! - I just read Lapham's critique of Uncle Sam in the magazine's regular NOTEBOOK section. [edit: here's a permalink: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/01/0081325] It's a powerful article regarding the state of the nation. A resounding and forceful critique of the Bush Administration and US Foreign Policy (over the past 100 or so years) generally, it is well worth a read. Lapham provides a sensible and clear analysis of Bush Admin. Malfeasance, and Congressional Nonfeasance.

If you don't already subscribe, you can do so here. Or else, check it out at your local newsstand.

The Republicans are in the process of stealing America. Let's put a stop to it. It's up to us.

Cocaine Blowback

This is from Harpers Magazine (harpers.org). link to original

Blowback

Posted on Tuesday, January 2, 2007. From October 2 remarks to the press by New York City Council Member James Sanders Jr., in response to the release of Cocaine, an energy drink containing 280 milligrams of caffeine. Redux Beverages, the drink's producer, was founded by Jamey and Hannah Kirby. Originally from Harper's Magazine, December 2006.

Mr. Kirby, have you lost all shame? Is there nothing that you won't stoop to? What will you market next? Pedophile Peanut Butter? Gang Rape Grape Juice? How about Genocidal Jelly? If you are ignorant of the horrors of cocaine addiction, then come with me and I'll take you to mothers mourning sons and daughters killed in the drug trade.

We will visit prisons peopled with broken men and women who have thrown their lives away, slaves to cocaine. We will walk together down deserted, rubble-filled streets, where fear of the cocaine cowboys is so strong you can almost taste it. Join me as I hold a prematurely born, underweight baby as she writhes and shakes, trying to get the monkey of drug addiction off of her tiny back. Perhaps then, sir, you will understand what I understand about cocaine, and you won't think it's so cool.

But you may be the type who loves only money and thinks all of humanity are but stones to be trod upon. Under those conditions we will—and must—fight you, sir. We will fight you with education. We will fight you in the streets and in the churches, in the courts and in City Hall, in the schools and in the clubs. But understand this fight: This one is for the naive, those whose lives are so empty that they seek to fill them with the false ambience you offer.

The Little Red Pack

go to original
[Advisory]

Posted on Wednesday, October 12, 2005. From essays and testimonials on tobacco-information websites run by the Chinese government. The state monopoly on cigarettes in China provides 10 percent of government revenue; annual sales amount to 1.8 trillion cigarettes, or approximately one third of the total sold worldwide. Translated from the Chinese by Mara Hvistendahl. Originally from Harper's Magazine, September 2005.

People often ascribe the inability to quit smoking to a weak will. In reality, it is well known that many great men smoked, like Churchill, Mao Zedong, etc. The smokers all around us now are also people of outstanding character. They have a great deal of determination and strength. The courage that they show in the face of unforeseen events—a courage that many nonsmokers are unable to muster—is unforgettable.

Look at what we know about dictators: Louis XIV, Napoleon, and Hitler all abhorred smoking. Napoleon once instituted a countrywide smoking ban. Dictators are completely opposed to people gratifying their desires. Hitler harbored a rigid, fierce hatred of smoking. The only person whom he allowed to smoke in his presence was Mussolini.

In the midst of war, however, cigarettes prove their unique worth. They can be the most valuable weapons in an arsenal, as valuable as gold, and more valuable than food. A general who is now an official at the Ministry of Defense wrote in a letter: “You ask me what we need to win the war. I tell you, we need cigarettes, more cigarettes—cigarettes even more than food.” Smoking cigarettes can temporarily conceal brutal reality and help soldiers find a moment’s rest. They not only produce the feeling of being under anesthesia but can help the smoker forget the present and, like a two-faced god, remember the past and dream of the future. A general once said: “The cavalryman who doesn’t smoke is hopeless as a soldier.” His affirmation brings to mind the image of the Marlboro man—deep in the mountains, relying on his own strength as he contends with nature.

Even as people are being executed, the only thing they can think about is smoking a cigarette. In the middle of their last cigarette, they can get past their fear, face their chosen destiny, and calmly accept death. Today, in wartime situations, cigarettes are millions of people’s favorite thing, the last thing left that brings them adventure and meaning.

Testimonials

I majored in Food Studies in college, and I have since worked with tobacco for more than thirty years. I believe that smoking has a definite effect on one’s health. The French use tobacco to treat wounds, as it can accelerate the healing process. This is completely reasonable, because when nicotine oxidizes, it turns into one of the most effective forms of vitamin B.

There isn’t a smoker who hasn’t had the experience of trying to quit several times. Take one of my friends. One day he decided to quit smoking. For one month he didn’t touch cigarettes. But his family felt uncomfortable; they realized that he lacked energy, that he was tormenting himself. As a result, he started to smoke again, and life returned to normal for everybody.

Smoking gives you the feeling of having company. Many people think that friendship is an external thing; in reality, your own actions can become your companion when you are lonely. I used to travel to lots of places by myself, going everywhere under the sun. By the time I was twenty-five, I had covered nearly the whole country. On the road, I was really lonely, so I started to smoke. Of course, smoking gradually became many other things to me with time. When my life becomes a frantic rush, I light up a cigarette and walk calmly for a while. Smoking is itself a sort of mission—not because of the way cigarettes are used but because you grow accustomed to relying on them. It is just like how when you leave home, before you marry, you miss your parents, but later you miss your husband or wife. How could I not smoke?

This is The Little Red Pack, a reading, originally from September 2005, published Wednesday, October 12, 2005. It is part of Education, which is part of Readings, which is part of Harpers.org.
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Education