November 5, 2007
November 4, 2007
Values and Radio Censorship
Since I am too broke to afford satellite radio and since it is illegal to wear headphones while driving, I am often stuck with the choice between regular radio or silence on my daily commute. I have taken a liking to the song “Rock Star” by Nickelback, but whenever I hear it on our local Clear Channel or Cumulus affiliate (I can’t remember which), I am always destracted by the amount of the song that is bleeped out. Personally, I don’t think that any government group should tell a privately owned broadcase corporation what they can or cannot play, but this is beside the point. Since the local Butler Broadcasting affiliate plays the song in its entirity, I know that FCC regulations do not prohibit the broadcast of words that the mainstream stations can’t force themselves to play.
For those of you who do not know the song, here are the lyrics (courtesy of www.sing365.com):
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Molly Ivins’ Last Book: “Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch’s Assault on America’s Fundamental Rights”
Buzzflash, November 4, 2007
From Random House, the Publisher of Molly Ivins’ last book, “”Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch’s Assault on America’s Fundamental Rights”:
“Throughout her long career of “afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted,” the cause closest to Molly Ivins’s heart was working to protect the freedoms we all value. Sadly, today we’re living in a time when dissent is equated with giving aid to terrorists, when any of us can be held in prison without even knowing the charges against us, and when our constitutional rights are being interpreted by a president who calls himself “The Decider.”
Ivins got the idea for Bill of Wrongs while touring America to honor her promise to speak out, gratis, at least once a month in defense of free speech. In her travels Ivins met ordinary people going to extraordinary measures to safeguard our most precious liberties, and when she first started writing this book, she intended it to be a joyous celebration of those heroes. But during the Bush years, the project’s focus changed. Ivins became concerned about threats to our cherished freedoms–among them the Patriot Act and the weakening of habeas corpus–and she observed with anger how dissent in the defense of liberties was being characterized as treason by the Bush administration and its enablers.
From illegal wiretaps, the unlawful imprisonment of American citizens, and the undermining of freedom of the press to the creeping influence of religious extremism on our national agenda and the erosion of the checks and balances that prevent a president from seizing unitary powers, Ivins and her longtime collaborator, Lou Dubose, co-author of Shrub and Bushwacked, describe the attack on America’s vital constitutional guarantees. With devastating humor and keen eyes for deceit and hypocrisy, they show how severe these incursions have become, and they ask us all to take an active role in protecting the Bill of Rights.
In life and on the printed page, Molly Ivins was too cool to offer a posthumous valedictory (or even to take a victory lap for her many triumphs over inane, vainglorious, and addlepated politicos). But in Bill of Wrongs, her final and perhaps greatest book, the irrepressible Molly Ivins really does have the last word.”
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Pakistan’s Military Dictator Stifles the Free Press
Gretchen Peters, ABC, November 4, 2007
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — As Pakistanis awoke Sunday to a strict new political reality, the most visible sign of emergency rule was the harsh clampdown on the private media.
Pakistan’s Electronic Media Regulating Authority (PEMRA) issued an order that bans the media from making any reports “that defame or bring into ridicule” President Pervez Musharraf, his administration or the military.
Any editor who violates the order can face up to a year in jail or a 5 million rupee fine ($83,000).
In a speech to the nation on Saturday night, Musharraf said he invoked emergency powers in a bid to control a pro-Taliban insurgency that’s spinning out of control here. But immediate actions by his government instead appeared to target the media, opposition politicians and the judiciary.
About half a dozen judges were arrested after they refused to take oath under his new regime. Meanwhile scores of human rights activists, lawyers and pro-democracy agitators were put under house arrest, according to local news reports.
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Huges Suddenly Remembers Family; Resigns Again
Doghouse Riley says it best…
…..Oh, bright cherry blossoms of 2001! Hughes was the most powerful woman ever to set foot in the West Wing. Rice and Colin Powell were the twin avatars of The Mostest Color-blind Administration, Like, Ever. Winking, smirking, and used-car-dealer bonhomie were the softening artillery barrage of a Charm Offensive set to conquer the land with Conservative Compassion. And Dick Cheney was the selfless éminence grise with one ambition-less hand discretely on the rudder as the Boy King learned the read the winds….
Excesior!! Read the rest…..
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November 3, 2007
Frank Rich: Noun + Verb + 9/11 + Iran = Democrats’ Defeat?
Frank Rich, The New York Times, November 4, 2007
When President Bush started making noises about World War III, he only confirmed what has been a Democratic article of faith all year: Between now and Election Day he and Dick Cheney, cheered on by the mob of neocon dead-enders, are going to bomb Iran.
But what happens if President Bush does not bomb Iran? That is good news for the world, but potentially terrible news for the Democrats. If we do go to war in Iran, the election will indeed be a referendum on the results, which the Republican Party will own no matter whom it nominates for president. But if we don’t, the Democratic standard-bearer will have to take a clear stand on the defining issue of the race. As we saw once again at Tuesday night’s debate, the front-runner, Hillary Clinton, does not have one.
The reason so many Democrats believe war with Iran is inevitable, of course, is that the administration is so flagrantly rerunning the sales campaign that gave us Iraq. The same old scare tactic — a Middle East Hitler plotting a nuclear holocaust — has been recycled with a fresh arsenal of hyped, loosey-goosey intelligence and outright falsehoods that are sometimes regurgitated without corroboration by the press.
Mr. Bush has gone so far as to accuse Iran of shipping arms to its Sunni antagonists in the Taliban, a stretch Newsweek finally slapped down last week. Back in the reality-based community, it is Mr. Bush who has most conspicuously enabled the Taliban’s resurgence by dropping the ball as it regrouped in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Administration policy also opened the door to Iran’s lethal involvement in Iraq. The Iraqi “unity government” that our troops are dying to prop up has more allies in its Shiite counterpart in Tehran than it does in Washington.
Yet 2002 history may not literally repeat itself. Mr. Cheney doesn’t necessarily rule in the post-Rumsfeld second Bush term. There are saner military minds afoot now: the defense secretary Robert Gates, the Joint Chiefs chairman Mike Mullen, the Central Command chief William Fallon. They know that a clean, surgical military strike at Iran could precipitate even more blowback than our “cakewalk” in Iraq. The Economist tallied up the risks of a potential Shock and Awe II this summer: “Iran could fire hundreds of missiles at Israel, attack American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, organize terrorist attacks in the West or choke off tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s oil windpipe.”
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Musharraf Declares State of Emergency In Pakistan, George is Watching
President Musharraf of Pakistan has done what many leaders like him have dreamed of doing, he has declared a state of emergency and suspended the Constitution. George W. ,must he smiling. Musharraf has apparently made this move because the Supreme Court of Pakistan was set to rule that he must step down as head of the army if he is to continue as president.
Musharraf and his supporters have said all along that Musharraf was unwilling to step down from the army, his power base, at a time of continued unrest. Musharraf faces problems from his political rivals like Benazir Bhutto and from hard line Islamists that favor the Taliban and Al Queda. A few months ago Musharraf tried to remove the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court but lost the battle and the justice was reinstated. With the court poised to rule against Musharraf again, the General made his move.
Can’t you just see George W. Bush fantasizing about doing to America what Musharraf has done to Pakistan. Remove the Congress and the Courts, something the neocons behind Bush salivate about, and you have absolute control. One can laugh all one wants but if the US were to suffer a catastrophic terrorist attack our mindless leader could see his chance to join his buddy Musharraf as dictator. Combine that with a national media and general public that behave like sheep you can actually see this happen.
Bush has one year to go and his backers know that the US public is looking for a change at the top. Short of a Musharraf like move, Bush and his benefactors are gone and all that they have created will be destroyed. Call me paranoid or a conspiracy theorist or whatever, but it sure is fun watching George and his little friend fuck around with the world. I just hope they don’t crap on it too much more before we get rid of them.
MaryMac and Hillary…
Personally, I don’t remember a Clinton/Ali analogy, either, but MaryMac didn’t make up the bit about Kyl-Lieberman. Those who opposed it did so based on the history of this White House to torture logic in any way necessary to make up equal down, etc. Edwards actually said during the debate that (I’m paraphrasing) we know that if you give this White House an inch, they’ll take a mile. The charge is, Kyl-Lieberman can be used as authorization to invade Iran and with this White House, if it CAN be, it WILL be.
Hillary voted for it but insisted she did it as a matter of diplomacy. I believe she even indicated she hadn’t read it but she voted for it. I’ve read it. It includes little tidbits like:
“it should be the policy of the United States to combat, (emphasis mine) contain, and roll back the violent activities and destabilizing influence inside Iraq of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies;”
and:
“that the United States should designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization…and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists”
Hillary’s stump rhetoric is one thing. Her actual VOTES are aiding and abetting…
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Perkel Meets the Big Dog
Dear Church of Reality Members,
I just got back from my reception with the Big Dog and I think the
Church of Reality has a new member. As you know from my previous emails
Bill Clinton came to Oakland tonight for a political fund raiser for
Hillary. I paid the big bucks so I have the chance to get my picture taken with him.
I had hoped to get 30 seconds to talk to him but only got about 10 seconds, which
wasn’t enough to get him hooked on the idea, and the secret service people made it
clear that I wasn’t allowed to hand him anything. So at first I didn’t think I had achieved what I had hoped to.
The Tattlesnake — Prince of the City Rudy Versus the Real America Edition
The Pampered Ex-Mayor, His Misleading Health Care Ad, and My Friend Mike
Paul Krugman recently wrote about it, Keith Olbermann named Rudy his Worst Person in the World due to it, but they didn’t cover the whole sordid story of Giuliani’s ‘socialized medicine’ radio ad, and that it plainly demonstrates how out of touch the elitist Republican presidential candidate is with ‘Ground Zero’ America, and what an unrepentant liar he truly is.
“I had prostate cancer, five, six years ago. My chance of surviving prostate cancer — and thank God I was cured of it — in the United States, 82%. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England, only 44% under socialized medicine.”
– Rudy Giuliani, from his “Chances” radio ad released October 29, 2007.
When I first heard this ad on MSNBC earlier in the week it struck me that the figures were suspect. Republicans these days are factually-challenged to begin with, and it’s proved doubly true with the Giuliani campaign. It took me all of 30 seconds ‘on the Google’ to refute Rudy’s ‘statistics.’ As Julie Bosman wrote at the New York Times’ The Caucus Blog:
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The Tattlesnake — Fred Thompson Eases His Way Out Edition
“I don’t have to prove myself to anybody. I’ve done pretty well being me. And me is all they’re going to get.”
– Fred Thompson, as quoted by Slate.com.
http://www.slate.com/id/2176518
Sunday on Meet the Press, Fred Thompson, wearing every one of his 65 years on his sagging face, amiably talked himself out of the Republican nomination for president in 2008. On social issues, he nearly sounded sane, coming out against any amendments to the Constitution or federal statutes making abortion and gay marriage illegal, preferring to leave those decisions to the states. And he also considered the fervid pandering of the GOP leadership attempting to intercede in the Terri Schiavo tragedy excessive, believing that such life-and-death decisions should be left to the family and the doctors in charge. At one point, remarkable for a Republican of the Bush era, he even granted his fellow citizens the right to disagree with him without reprisal. If you’re keeping score, Fred essentially told the Christopublican ‘values voters’ to sit on it and twist. Why, he’s almost as liberal as Giuliani on the social issues that have propelled the born-again base to the polls like lemmings since Ronald Reagan did his star turn in the Oval Office.
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