Monks marching again in Burma

Bless those guys..they don't give up. AP story here. This just made my day I tell ya!

Tags: Burma, Burma

The face of a doomed species

I try not to cut and paste articles. I want to add my usual two cents on how I feel about it. But this time..I have no words, just sadness and despair that we, the universal we, can fuck shit up this bad..that an entire magnificent species will probably disappear in my lifetime, save for zoo's exhibits and special labs where they try in vain to breed these wonderful beasts and bring them back from extinction..From The Independent:(all emphasis mine)

The face of a doomed species
Tigers driven to edge of extinction by poachers and loss of habitat
By Andrew Buncombe in Delhi
Published: 31 October 2007

The disastrous impact of poaching and the destruction of the natural habitat of one of the planet's most threatened animals will be made clear tomorrow when the Indian government is told that its remaining tiger population could be as low as 1,300.

The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, will be told that drastic action has to be taken against the two forces threatening the big cat's chance of survival.

"That size of a population is scientifically not viable," said Valmik Thapar, a tiger expert and member of the National Board of Wildlife, which is due to convene in Delhi for a meeting chaired by Mr Singh. "But in the real world you have to try as hard as you can."

Along with the polar bear, the tiger symbolises perhaps more than any other large creature the majesty and power of the natural world. At the same time the tawdry story of the tiger's decline – not just in India but in other countries where it clings on desperately – is a stark indictment of mankind's apparent inability to preserve the natural habitats on which it depends.

No one knows precisely how many tigers are left in India, home to perhaps 80 per cent of the world's remaining animals and which, at the turn of the 20th century, was estimated to have up to 100,000 animals. It is believed there were about 5,000 at the start of the decade.

The most recent census, conducted in 2001 and 2002, put the figure at 3,642. But many experts questioned the way in which that count was handled and a new census was carried out by the government-run Wildlife Institute of India using a more scientifically robust method. While the findings will not be formally announced until the end of the year, preliminary results of the new count have put the population at between 1,300 and 1,500.

"The new figures and facts came as no surprise to conservationists, although the government is still recovering from the shock," said Belinda Wright, executive director of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, which has several tiger programmes. "In Madhya Pradesh – which is known as the Tiger State – the study has shown a loss of 61 per cent on the figures of the previous tiger census. The state of Maharashtra has shown a loss of 57 per cent."

She added: "In the past census... many tigers were found outside the tiger reserves. The new study shows virtually no tigers outside the tiger reserves."

Experts say the reasons for the decline of the tiger are simple. Not enough is being done to halt the continued poaching of the animals, which are highly prized in China and other parts of east Asia for their pelts and body parts. A tiger skin can fetch up to £5,300 while tiger penises – traditionally believed to have near-magical properties – can fetch £14,000 per kilo.

The tiger has suffered from a loss of its habitat as a result of large-scale mining and hydro-power dam projects. The loss of habitat and prey encourages tigers, pure carnivores, to seize domestic livestock which in turn aggravates local farmers. The tiger is the national symbol but, in the past five years, poachers have been killing them at the rate of one a day, campaigners believe.

Debbie Banks of the Environmental Investigations Agency, a London-based campaign group, said development projects often resulted in the displacement of communities who are left with a choice of moving to the slums of large cities or into the forests. "Living in the forests brings them into conflict with wildlife and the under-resourced, under-trained, ill-equipped forest department staff," she said.

Mr Thapar, 55, who has written 15 books about tigers during three decades working with the animals, has said it would now "take a miracle" to save them. He warned of the impact of the Recognition of Forest Rights Act, a piece of legislation passed last year and expected to become law in the coming months, which grants some of India's most impoverished communities the right to own and live in the forests.

The problem, he said, was that all evidence showed humans and tigers could not co-exist. "If you are not going to set aside habitats where there are no humans then you cannot have tigers," he said.

The decline of the tiger is not isolated to India. In the past century, tiger populations across the world have slumped by 95 per cent and, across a broad chunk of Asia, tigers are now confronting extinction. Indeed, of the nine known sub-species of tiger, three (the Caspian, Javanese and Balinese) are already extinct while another, the South China tiger, is nearing extinction in the wild with perhaps fewer than 30 surviving.

An estimated 4,000 of the South China sub-species – the only one native to central and southern China –roamed the country 50 years ago but its habitat has been dramatically reduced by the country's rapid economic growth and the sub-species was declared officially extinct in 2003. Just this week, the Chinese authorities banned hunting in a mountainous area of Shaanxi province of north-west China where a young South China tiger was apparently sighted by a farmer. The sighting has generated much excitement among conservationists and a team of experts has been set up to conduct a search.

Ms Wright said that, in India, there may now only be two genetically viable populations of Bengal tiger, as the country's sub-species is known. Those live in the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Uttaranchal and the Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, which is said to haveinspired Rudyard Kipling to write The Jungle Book.

There have been the occasional pieces of good news. Last month about 20 tigers were discovered in a mountainous forest range in the western state of Maharashtra from where they were thought to have long disappeared. But among such rare flashes of hope, experts say the evidence of the tiger's ongoing decline have been all too clear. In February 2005, it was revealed all the tigers in the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan had been killed by poachers. Meanwhile, the size of the continuing trade in illegal tiger parts has been revealed by activists working undercover in places such as Tibet where there is flourishing business.

A senior official in India's Environment Ministry said tomorrow's meeting would evaluate progress at implementing recommendations made at the last meeting 18 months ago.

"Everyone is waiting for the [official] tiger report – even the Prime Minister," the official told the Asian Age newspaper.

"It is only after the report is tabled that we will get the real picture, which we know is not going to be rosy. We know that we have lost large numbers of our big cats."

Tags: Environment, Tigers, disappearing species

How Kern County representatives voted last week

I get a nifty lil email from Megavote. It shows me all the bills voted on by the fuckwits that represent us in DC. Here is the latest..check out DiFi..the bitch voted FOR Southwick. I can't believe it..but she did. As FDL points out here about DiFi: "Bush invited Sen. Dianne Feinstein to join him on Air Force One during his trip. It may not have been coincidence that less than 24 hours earlier, Feinstein played a pivotal role in allowing Judge Leslie Southwick, a target of liberal groups, to be confirmed to an appeals court when she voted to block a filibuster and support the president’s nomination.

With a 7:40 a.m. Thursday departure from Andrews Air Force Base, Feinstein found herself seated in the rear of the plane with a handful of Southern California congressional representatives. After a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage and French toast, Bush popped back for what the senator described as a frank two-hour conversation, mostly about foreign policy."

Here is the vote tally:

Recent Senate Votes

Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations Act, FY2008 - Vote Passed (75-19, 6 Not Voting)

The Senate voted in favor of this $605.5 billion bill funding the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education for the 2008 fiscal year.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein voted YES......
Sen. Barbara Boxer voted YES......

Nomination of Leslie Southwick to be U.S. Circuit Judge - Vote Confirmed (59-38, 3 Not Voting)

The Senate confirmed Mississippi Appeals Court Judge Leslie Southwick to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein voted YES......
Sen. Barbara Boxer voted Not Voting......

Recent House Votes

Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act - Vote Passed (261-153, 18 Not Voting)

The House passed this bill that would allow Native Hawaiians to form an Interim Governing Council which would have the power to negotiate with the federal government.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy voted NO......

Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act - Vote Passed (265-142, 26 Not Voting)

A new bill to reauthorize and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program was passed by the House, a week after the chamber failed to override President Bush’s veto of the previous version of the bill.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy voted NO

Nice to know McCarthy hates kids..hope the fuckwits that voted for him realize that too.

Will Gore take part in civil disobedience?

From Alternet we get this article about Al Gore possibly considering a civil disobedience protest:

Rainforest Action Network issued the invitation to the former U.S. vice president, according to RAN executive director Michael Brune. The San Francisco-based group has a twenty year history of protesting against destructive logging practices and other causes of climate change; it specializes in targeting corporations as much as governments.

*snip*

Gore's office confirmed that the former vice president had received RAN's invitation and was considering it, though no decision has been made. "He has not accepted any of their offers to date," Kalee Kreider, a spokeswoman for Gore, said of the RAN offer. Kreider did not deny that this phrasing leaves open the possibility of Gore saying yes down the road.

I would have SO much more respect for Al Gore if he participates. I already support his cause of global warming..but other than that, he is a big fan of the corporatocracy, just like all the Rethugs, Hillary and most of the Democratic Candidates.

Tags: Al Gore, Rainforest Action Network, civil disobedience

Saturday's National Antiwar protests

Of course the majority of the MSM has little to say on the topic. But IndyMedia, Boston.com, LAT and IndyBay.org have good writeups on the protests held in 11 major American cities. The events were organized by UnitedForPeaceAndJustice, their site has a great section on each city with reports and pictures. A few of the writeups:

On Saturday, Oct. 27, anti-war protesters in Philadelphia formed a human chain from the Veteran's Hospital in West Philadelphia all the way into Center City, and then proceeded to march down to the the Liberty Bell and Constitution Center. Initiated by United for Peace and Justice, eleven different cities around the nation, including Philadelphia, mobilized Saturday against the war. Read Rich Gardner's photoessay from the day.

Local media estimated the crowd at over 10,000 in a protest highlighted by a mass die-in during which protestors laid down on Market Street, San Francisco's principal throughfare. The protest received page B1 coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle (Thousands "die" in anti-war protest on Market St. in SF).

Dynamic, fast-paced, dramatic video of Saturday's march in Seattle beginning with IVAW's Chanan Suarez Diaz in Pioneer Square. NYC's Demonstration via a YouTube vid. More of NYC's demonstration here via YouTube. 45,000 from throughout New York City, New York State and northern New Jersey withstood the rain to rally and march for peace in Manhattan. Jon Flanders has an excellent photogallery of the NYC march.

As an antiwar rally waged behind her on swampy Boston Common yesterday, Linda Tobin and her two children crouched over a pair of dusty black boots, one of 156 pairs representing each New England casualty of the Iraq war. Despite the rain, over 10,000 people gathered on the Common to listen to speakers, including historian Howard Zinn and Councilor Felix Arroyo, and march to Copley Square and back.

My wife and I attended the Orlando, Florida rally and march today and we're overjoyed to report that the wet weather did not dampen the spirit of the enthusiastic crowd. We listened to a number of speakers for a few hours before we hit the street to protest the war in Iraq. We sang pacifist songs and chanted antiwar slogans as we marched through the rain drenched streets of downtown Orlando. Our crowd was estimated by the local media at over 2000 people. Picture gallery here.

Salt Lake City's Peace Potato's has a YouTube up of their well-attended march.

The marches took place on Saturday in Chicago, Jonesborough, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Seattle. Twenty four other peace demonstrations were held in solidarity across the United States on Saturday calling to END THE WAR NOW with mass demonstrations across Canada, Italy, London, Denmark and the Netherlands.

For more pictures and writeup's by each city, UFPJ's site has each one and links to their videos and picture galleries. The Antiwar citizens were well-represented across the nation and several other countries..check it out.

Edit: Robert at Left of Centrist has two great videos up here and here of the Chicago march which he attended.

Tags: Oct 27th, Antiwar marches and protests, Protests, Marches

Sunday morning blogs worth reading

Today is a damp and dreary Sunday here in the San Joaquin valley. But it's a good sports day for moi, so I am not in a writing mood. For those in a reading mood, here are some good posts up at Sirens Chronicles:

Donatra gives us her reasons for being a proud Liberal.

BibleBelted makes his case for why Bush43 and Manson were separated at birth.

Another post in their series on the 14 Points of Fascism and how they relate to the extreme right and BushCo in particular. This one is on sexism.

And, the Angry Dakota Democrat gives us a goodie on the flap generated by the reichwing nutjobs over what ended up to be a non-issue: Soros ownership of a health insurance corporation.

Last, but not least by any means..Dave links to a good read and gives us his take on an Esquire article about why Iran is the new Iraq..but its not really new..ya know what I mean?

There you have it..some good reading for a Sunday afternoon my dear blogging buds. I have to go park my ass in front of the boob tube for my Sunday sports extravaganza which starts with football, moves to stockcar racing and ends with hopefully a BoSox World Series win. :)

Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Bloggers

What a real military recruitment ad should look like

Hat tip to Chuck and DonkeyOD for posting this video on their blogs. You know how the Big Pharma ads tout their product and then quickly give you the side effects at the end? Well, this one does the same for enlistment ads..watch it all the way through.


Tags: truth in advertising, Army enlistment ad,

Iraq, Iran..same propaganda right?

From the folks at Americans Against Escalation in Iraq we get this little number from MSNBC:



Same bullshit, just a different country folks..BushCo just recycles their propaganda..amazing.

Tags: Iran, Iran propaganda,

Gee, ya think???

The New York Times gives us this..and says its news? Please, this crappola isn't news..except for the fact that the Democraps are finally fallling out of love with Mukasey after the last day of his nomination hearing when he sidestepped the waterboarding/torture issue. I hoped he was toast. Oh, and I love this line from the White House flunky:

''As he always does, Judge Mukasey will answer all questions from the Judiciary Committee in a clear and forthright manner,'' said White House spokesman Tony Fratto

Give me an effin break..are they all stupid or do they think we are? This craptastic nonsense is on my last nerve. Mukasey was side stepping questions with ease, he seemed to be a pro at it.

But the Dem's are talking in code lately..the only one coming out and saying he won't vote to confirm Mukasey is my beloved Bernie Sanders. Chuckie Schumer looks like an idiot at this point since he was the Democrat that suggested Mukasey. In case you didn't catch Mukasey's dancing moves regarding torture..let me give you part of the transcript:

''It is not constitutional for the United States to engage in torture in any form, be it waterboarding or anything else,'' Mukasey answered at one point.

But during terse questioning by Whitehouse, Mukasey said he did not know if waterboarding is torture because he is not familiar with how it is done. '

'That's a massive hedge,'' Whitehouse responded incredulously. ''It either is or it isn't.''

''If it amounts to torture, it is not constitutional,'' Mukasey answered. ''I'm very disappointed in that answer,'' Whitehouse said. ''I think it is purely semantic.''

I saw the video of this exchange..and I just shook my head in disgust. The man is a Bushie through and through. My only question is how many Dem's will vote to confirm this asshat.

Tags: waterboarding, Torture, Mukasey

BP to pay $373mil to make some problems go away..

First off, its complete bs that British Petroleum-BP can do this. There should be criminal charges filed against these mofo's at every level of management my dear reader. Per an AP writeup, they are buying their way out of the following problems:

BP PLC is taking a multimillion dollar broom to sweep away a slew of federal charges linked to energy price fixing, a deadly refinery blast and pipeline leaks and focus on its energy business.

The more than $373 million in settlements announced Thursday are part of the company's attempt to get rid of the problems left over from the stewardship of former chief executive John Browne and move ahead with the recently announced restructuring of Europe's second-largest oil company.

On top of the fines and restitution, four former BP employees were indicted by a federal grand jury in Chicago on 20 counts of mail and wire fraud connected to a scheme to manipulate energy markets.

The bulk of the fines — $303.5 million — aim to punish BP for conspiring to fix propane prices in 2003 and 2004.

Screw 'punishing' them..put their smarmy asses in jail for Christ sakes for the murder of their employees. I know if I commit a crime, I can't buy my way out of it..can you? But this huge corporation can and will. Also..who is going to pay back the citizens that got screwed when these jackasses colluded to fix prices?

This reminds me of the last post I did here ..about fixing the price of natural gas on the commodities market.

Look at this picture of the plant in TX that blew to hell because BP was cutting corners on safety. People died in this explosion. And BP gets to just pay a fucking fine. Amazing.

Tags: British Petroleum, corporate crime, BP

Waxman and Condi live this morning

CSPAN is providing us with Waxman's oversight committee's hearing this morning. Ms. Rice, our ..cough..illustrious SOS is the guest. You can listen via your computer here. CSPAN3 has the hearing on cable.

Mr. Waxman has graciously provided a live feed on the Committee website here.

Edit: I forgot..TPMmuckraker also provides us with wonderful recaps of the hearing as they are available AND on YouTube, here is the first of hopefully many this morning:



Crossposted at Bring it On!

Plame speaks to KO

She is of course selling her book, but I want to hear what she has to say on all the bullshit and bravado she had to put up with because her husband spoke out about the lies and half-truths that fueled our attack of Iraq.



Plame on surviving the Washington spy game

Editorial in San Diego paper attacks state and federal help

My sister has said she heard rumblings about the ineptitude of the state and federal fuckwits the last day or two..how they are more interested in having a pissing contest with each other about control than knocking down the fires and saving homes. This editorial in the Union Tribune today lays it out pretty well:

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
Surviving disaster

Why wasn't more key help prepositioned?

October 24, 2007

The response of local authorities to the horrific San Diego County wildfires has been a sharp improvement on what was seen during the 2003 Cedar and Paradise fires. But we're not sure the same holds for state and federal officials.

It first became apparent last Thursday that the expected Sunday ar rival of hot, windy Santa Ana conditions would put drought-stricken Southern California at grave risk. Sure enough, wildfires broke out in many areas. Why weren't U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard planes already at nearby airfields and ready to drop water or retardant, by prearrangement of the Pentagon and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Instead, The Associated Press repor ted that the Pentagon's OK of the governor's request for such planes to help in San Diego County did not come until yesterday morning. The planes won't join the fight until this morning - six days after exper ts first warned of a possible Santa Anafueled conflagration and nearly three days after the Witch Creek blaze began its rampage from Ramona west to Rancho Santa Fe and south to Poway. This is inex plicable.

California has led the way in coordinating regional efforts to attack blazes that threaten to overwhelm local fire departments. But given the increasing frequency of catastrophic wildfires, perhaps it is time the interagency approach gave way to a centralized authority in which, at a time of crisis, a fire czar could dispatch resources on a moment's notice instead of having to tend to bureaucratic niceties.

Such a fire czar could also be an advocate for better funding. In May, five former U.S. Forest Service chiefs warned Congress that inadequate resources imperiled fire suppression efforts. In a telephone interview yesterday, Dan Smith - a senior official with the National Association of State Foresters - painted a grim picture. Between drier conditions, a decline in forest health and the millions of homes built in recent years in fire-prone areas, preventing huge wildfires is "more difficult and more complex" than ever, Smith said. "I hope the appropriators ... understand the big picture."

We hope so, too - because when it comes to both funding and functionality, the big picture needs a close look.

Thank God, its coming out now..while the firestorms are still raging. I hope folks take notice and bring it to the forefront. Shades of NOLA my dear reader...which I had hoped wouldn't happen.

Tags: San Diego, Fires, bureaucratic bullshit,
California wildfires

Got an extra $8K lying around?

Because that is the cost to run the war for every man, woman and child in the United States, per the Congressional Budget Office. Per MSNBC:

According to the Congressional Budget Office's report on the costs of the Iraq War, the $2.4 trillion price tag over the next decade comes out to some $8,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. CBO Director Peter Orszag met with some of the members of the House Budget Committee today -- 13 of the 21 Democrats, and 3 of the 15 Republicans -- with the ominous news that "it's clear under analysis that the nation is on an unstable fiscal path ... with the higher debt and interest costs, is going to cause severe economic dislocation, which are exacerbated by war costs." Orszag said a big factor in the large price tag is the reset costs. Reset costs originally meant that the money would be spent to return military brigades to the same standing as before they were deployed -- i.e. fixing tanks and vehicles, or if irreparable, replacing them with similar equipment.

Bullshit on a stick..thats what this crap is..How much is going to the contractors..lining their pockets my dear reader? Total cost for this debacle: $2.4 TRILLON and counting...

This of course, doesn't include what it would cost to attack Iran...

Another Bushie resigns..

Per MSNBC the state departments security guru, Richard Griffin, has tendered his resignation. His resignation is linked with the Blackwater debacle don't ya know..from the write-up:

Griffin announced his resignation just a day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered a series of measures to boost government oversight of the private guards the department uses to protect its diplomats in Iraq.

The steps were recommended by a review panel Rice created after a Sept. 16 incident in which Blackwater personnel are accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilians. The panel found serious lapses in the department's oversight of such guards, who are employed by Griffin's bureau.

I think Condo's order for more oversight is bullshit, based on the fact that this war has been going on for over 4 years and no one has worried about oversight on the mercenaries before now. I also think Griffin is just a sacrificial lamb.

Tags: Blackwater, Richard Griffin, resignation

Blackwater cheating on taxes now??

Per a CNN writeup and Henry Waxman..they surely are:

The latest allegations stem from a March letter from the Internal Revenue Service to Blackwater that Waxman's committee obtained. The letter informs Blackwater that the IRS reviewed the case of a Blackwater worker in Afghanistan and determined that the individual should rightfully and legally be classed as an employee -- not an independent contractor -- for tax purposes. Such a finding would require the company to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes and unemployment insurance premiums for its employees. The letter finds the ruling "may be applicable to any other individuals engaged by the firm under similar circumstances."

There are plenty of reasons for paying employees as independant contractors..one is that they aren't really considered employees when listed as I.D.'s. That way, the company can avoid any nasty lawsuits over the actions of their employees..er..their contractors. Another is that the employees won't be able to collect unemployment or disability if injured on the job.

By classifying workers in Iraq as "independent contractors" rather than employees, Blackwater appears to have engaged in an "illegal tax scheme" that avoided an estimated $31 million in employment-related taxes in the last year of its contract alone, said Rep. Henry Waxman on Monday. Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, also accused the North Carolina-based company of preventing a guard who discovered the practice "from contacting members of Congress or law enforcement officials."

I hope they get screwed over this and everything else they have done. Fuck Erik Prince and his theocratic, bullshit-spewing ass. It makes NO sense that the government would allow one of the biggest contractors to list their employees in this manner. Prince says the government is 'aware' of how they list their workers.

Get him Henry..you go dude.

Tags: Independant Contractors, Blackwater,

The firestorms..1 million displaced..

They are still burning..people are still living in places they shouldn't have to. But my sister is back in her home, my dad is cranky but safe and my asthmatic sister is staying with a friend until the air quality cleans up a bit. This article blames the drought and global warming for the severity of the wildfires. I don't know about all that..but I do know they seem to get worse each time, being a native Californian..I have seen far too many of these bastards.

Almost a million people have been displaced in SoCal. Over a thousand homes and businesses have been lost. They are saying almost 20% of San Diego's population has been displaced.

But Michael Chertoff had to make a guest appearance in San Diego. Thank God FEMA or Homeland Security wasn't involved in the evacuations..who knows wtf would of happened.

Its all been pretty orderly. San Diego County actually had to issue a press release that they had enough supplies that were donated and for folks to check the other evac centers to see what they needed if they were in the giving spirit.

Fucking awesome how people pull together in times like these ain't it? Oh..guess what..

Bush is going to make an appearance San Diego..Happy happy joy joy on that tid bit eh?

tags: San Diego, wildfires,

10,000 spend the night at Qualcomm Stadium

My family is in San Diego. My sister and her family, whom I was just visiting last week, has been evacuated from her home. Another sister is on standby to evacuate. My dad, who isn't in the best of health, is hemmed in by freeway closures in the north part of San Diego county due to the fires. This is a personal fire for me obviously. I couldn't probably get down there due to all the fires and carnage between my home in the San Joaquin valley and San Diego. Roughly half a million people are evacuated from their homes in San Diego county.

So, I watch the live streams on the internets..from San Diego and Los Angeles. Firestorms that can do as much damage as a massive tornado in the midwest my dear reader, but on a much larger scale. The difference is..a tornado just touches down and then nature takes it away..not so with firestorms. I call my family every hour or so. I silently freak out at what I witness live and in burning color.

Four years ago this week was the Cedar fire. It was a horrible week long firestorm that took lives and hundreds of homes. These fires in San Diego have claimed at least one life and roughly 600 homes and 150 businesses. Friends lost their homes in that fire. Some lived with my sister, who has been evacuated this time, for weeks.

Back to the big sleep-in at the "Q". There hasn't been a "Katrina" debacle yet. People are being fed and sheltered, they do not want for anything..except of course for this hell on earth to end. Michal Chertoff has of course been on the ground, surveying everything and sending in supplies to make sure San Diego doesn't have a Katrina-like situation. The schools are also temporary homes for the displaced who have no where else to go, and most of those are full by now. People and pets are crowded into places with other victims of the firestorms..getting to know folks that are also afraid that their homes are gone when all this hell is over.

Its much too much reminiscent of the Cedar Fire for me..and I am sure for many of them, since the fires are taking some of the same paths they took 4 years ago. A few of my friends are suffering through PTSD at this point..the horrible nightmare of 4 years ago rushing back to them.

I feel so helpless, I can only sit and watch..and call them all..saying always that I love them..and they respond back the same. Its not the rich that are suffering like the Malibu fire in L.A., these are hardworking middle class families who have mortgages that are losing everything. Its the fear of losing everything that haunts them all as they sit somewhere unfamiliar with strangers in the same boat.

Unlike a tornado or hurricane..this will go on until the weather changes and the fires run out of fuel. They won't run out of fuel until they burn to the ocean my dear reader..and that is what they are doing.

If you pray..pray for them..pray for all that are caught up in this hell on earth.

Tags: San Diego Fires, Qualcomm Stadium,

I won't be posting about politics..

My entire family is in the fires path in San Diego. One sister and her family have already been evacuated and my dad is hemmed in by flames and all the major freeways are closed..so he has no way out. Another sister is told to evacuate but its not mandatory yet for her.

Its more important to me than politics at this time. I am sure you understand. I watch the live feeds on the internets and I call them all every half hour. It's all so fucked up.

Thank you for your understanding..but I can't concentrate on anything but the firestorms in San Diego. my place of birth and my favorite place on earth. I was just there less than a week ago. Over 500 homes are lost in San Diego so far....

Why does Harry Reid heart the Telecoms?

Money of course..lots and lots of it. From Glen Greenwald's column at Salon:

Then again, AT&T is the second largest contributor overall to officials in Congress, having poured into the Beltway a total of $38 million in campaign contributions for the election cycles for which these records are available. Verizon is in 33rd place with over $15 million; BellSouth in 39th place with with over $14 million; Time Warner in 28th place with $17 million; and MCI in 83rd place with $8 million. The Communications Workers of America, which lobbies for all sorts of pro-telecom legislation, is in 13th place with close to $25 million. That's $118 million of telecom money poured into the coffers of members of Congress, and the real total is much higher since this is only from the top 100. And now Congress, on a more or less bipartisan basis, is passing a law declaring that this industry shall be completely immune from any consequences even if they are found to have broken multiple federal laws in allowing illegal spying on all of their customers.

Now, it all makes sense doesn't it? Methinks the majority of elected Dem's are really just Rethugs in sheeple's clothing.

Tags: Telecoms, Harry Reid, lobbying money

And this is a real shocker I am sure..

Head of Reconstruction Teams in Iraq Reports Little Progress Throughout Country

The blog post title is tongue in cheek my dear reader...its no surprise to me, and I doubt it is to you either. From the NYT writeup linked above:

Attempts by American-led reconstruction teams to forge political reconciliation, foster economic growth and build an effective police force and court system in Iraq have failed to show significant progress in nearly every one of the nation's provincial regions and in the capital, a federal oversight agency reported on Thursday.

Good ol' Bush..have clusterfuck, will travel..And he had the audacity to wax poetic about the headway being made in Iraq just this week during his press conference. Lying bag of batshit that he is. Iraqi's will never get along..they haven't for over a hundred years. Its not friggin rocket science.

Artwork by TheWorriedShrimp

Tags: Iraq reconstruction, Iraq Lies, Bush

Head of the RNC quits

Mel Martinez, a Cuban-American, has stepped down from his position as co-chair of the RNC. This came as a surprise to many of the Rethugs since Martinez wasn't expected to step down until a Republican candidate for President was picked.

Mel states he needs to concentrate on his own campaign in south Florida. Seems his ratings are in the toilet...down to a sterling 38% approval rating.

He had only been on the RNC job for 10 months..

Oh well..another one bites the dust..and on a Friday at that..tsk tsk..I know you will join me in wishing Mel the best...meaning I hope the voters blow his republican ass out of that congressional seat in 2010.

Tags: Mel Martinez, RNC

Mukasey embraces Unitary Executive Theory

After watching the confirmation hearings for Michael Mukasey the last couple of days, I have come to the conclusion that he is a Bushie of the highest order...just more intelligent than the others in that select group. Watch the exchange between Mukasey and Russ Feingold below regarding Bush and his ability to disobey laws he doesn't like or impede his power.



Mukasey tries to backtrack on the second day by saying its not a black and white issue..its a grey area. I call bullshit on that one right here and now. Its either the constitution or the president that holds sway. If BushCo believes in the Unitary Executive Theory and that it applies to all things Presidential, and there is no doubt about it my dear reader, they do...then they also believe they have the right to ignore parts of the constitution.

I call bullshit on that here and now. I also believe Mukasey will toss the Constitution under the bus when BushCo wants something bad enough.

As Crooks and Liars, and then Keith Olbermann pointed out tonight; "Mukasey vowed to end Justice Department "stonewalling," and insisting he would resign if Bush tried to do something unconstitutional. No more partisan considerations in employment, Mukasey said. No more "unilateralism," he promised."

Then the second day of Q&A began. As the CarpetBagger Report points out it didn't go too well for defenders of the Constitution:

In response to questions about authorizing surveillance, Mukasey suggested there may be circumstances in which the president can ignore federal law. In response to questions about waterboarding, Mukasey would only say, "If waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional."

Its all bs and I know it and you know it my dear reader. When the Democrats finally quit pandering to Mukasey and asked him the hard questions..he sounded like a true Bushie, meaning that Presidential power trumps everything.

So, to paraphrase an old rock song: meet the new AG..same as the old AG.

tags: Mukasey, Unitary Executive Theory, Same shit different day

Bonnie Raitt says No Nukes

From WorkingAssets:

Working Assets has joined with musicians Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Ben Harper and Bonnie Raitt on a petition to Congress that will stop a pending bailout of the nuclear power industry.

The artists have created video to help get the word out about the issue which you can watch above. And if you include your mobile number when signing the petition, we'll send you a text message when a vote is imminent that will tell you how you can call to get a special message from Bonnie Raitt before being connected with your Congressional representative to speak out on this issue.

Sign the Petition HERE. Do something as the video says..

BCC making cuts in news room personnel.

Its a bitch when the news division is expected to turn a profit like the entertainment division of most networks and huge conglomerates. But, its a disgusting fact in todays profit-driven world ain't it?

So, to that end, the BCC will make the majority of the cuts in the division which is supposed to enlighten and educate Brits and the world as a whole. Per the Independent:

The BBC will announce the axing of 2,600 jobs this morning – one in nine of the total staff – risking a wave of industrial action over what is the biggest round of job cuts in the organisation's history.

Most of the cuts will come in BBC newsrooms, from which hundreds of journalists will be laid off, and in departments making documentaries.

The article does go on to say they plan on concentrating on the internet services..so for those of us outside their telly signal, thats a good thing I suppose.

Still..it bums me the fuck out. Reminds me of the bs the Rethugs pull regarding Public Broadcasting here. PBS hangs by a thread every year.

Tags: BBC, Job cuts, Bullshit on a stick

Crossposted at Sirens Chronicles.

Bush's new rating..24%

This makes the head fuckwit of our country in the same class as Richard Nixon. Per this writeup about the lastest Zogby poll linked above: "The Reuters/Zogby Index,'' which measures the mood of the country, also fell from 98.8 to 96 -- the second consecutive month in which it has dropped. The number of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track jumped four points to 66 percent. "There is a real question among Americans now about how relevant this government is to them," pollster John Zogby said. "They tell us they want action on health care, education, the war and immigration, but they don't believe they are going to get it." I am Laughing out fucking Loud my dear reader. But not for the reason you assume.

Because this is not news really. But that it is plastered all over the news wires does warm the cockles of my little black heart.

Having watched his lastest charade that goes by the name of a Press Conference, I was screaming obscenities in a matter of minutes..seconds really. As this AP writeup states:

President Bush, weakened by record-low poll ratings, asserted he is still politically relevant and scolded the Democratic-led Congress on Wednesday for having "little to show for all the time that has gone by."

Trying to shape the political debate, Bush used a midmorning news conference to lecture lawmakers about their failure to complete action on any spending bills to keep the government running or to send him legislation dealing with education, housing and other matters.

Give me an effin break pal. Your so full of shit your eyes better be brown.

Tags: Bush, Zogby Poll, Worse than Nixon

The Fog of fear...

The NYT has a good Editorial read up this morning. It addresses the Bush administration’s propensity to find something, anything…to drum up their fear factoring in order to gain more power to spy on Americans. The title is: Spies,Lies and FISA. From the second paragraph of the editorial:

There is no truth to any of those claims. No matter how often Mr. Bush says otherwise, there is also no disagreement from the Democrats about the need to provide adequate tools to fight terrorists. The debate is over whether this should be done constitutionally, or at the whim of the president. The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, requires a warrant to intercept international communications involving anyone in the United States. A secret court has granted these warrants quickly nearly every time it has been asked. After 9/11, the Patriot Act made it even easier to conduct surveillance, especially in hot pursuit of terrorists.

I am sick of this President’s bs. I am sick of the lies and half-truths in order to toss the constitution out the window. It’s about power and control. What it isn’t about is making American safer. Its not about finding the terrorists either my dear reader. This is a country that follows the rule of law, or it was prior to this administration taking office. From the NYT editorial:

Mr. Bush and his team say they have safeguards to protect civil liberties, meaning surveillance will be reviewed by the attorney general, the director of national intelligence and the inspectors general of the Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agency. There are two enormous flaws in that. The Constitution is based on the rule of law, not individuals; giving such power to any president would be un-American. And this one long ago showed he cannot be trusted.

Congress needs to rent a huge set of balls and fix this mess. There is other way around it. The changes made during the summer recess expire in Feb of next year. We can not wait that long for Congress to fix their fuckup with regard to spying on Americans.

BushCo has made fear mongering its modus operandi in order to get what it wants. The republicans are responsible for the original damage done to our Constitution..but this time around the Democrats handed BushCo what it wanted. Those simple-minded mutha fuckas need to fix it. They need to fix it NOW. Nothing less will be acceptable.

Listening to America’s Black Middle Class

From TruthDig:

Posted on Oct 11, 2007

By Bill Boyarsky

Sen. Barack Obama’s fundraising among middle-class blacks tells much about them—and about America.

This aspect of the presidential election hasn’t received much attention lately, as an anxious nation awaits the verdicts of two small and atypical states.

In Iowa, blacks comprise just 2.3 percent of the population. In New Hampshire, it’s 1 percent. That’s compared to almost 13 percent for the entire country. (Why can’t important primaries be governed by laws similar to those requiring juries to be at least somewhat representative?)

I got interested in the middle-class contributions while digging into the Obama campaign.

A couple of longtime black politicians told me that the size of Obama contributions from their community was big. “I’ve never seen so many African-Americans with a lot of money,” one of them said. “I didn’t know there was that much wealth.”

The phenomenon is occurring in prosperous black areas across the country. A few months ago, USA Today surveyed political giving in nearly 600 ZIP codes that included a substantial number of African-American households with incomes above the black national median household income of $31,000 a year. Obama received about 70 percent of the contributions.

I looked at an area I know, View Park and Windsor Hills in Los Angeles. This is not the bleak black and Latino L.A. so beloved by filmmakers, television stations and newspapers which immerse themselves almost exclusively in black crime and other tragedies. Big, luxurious homes adorn this hillside several miles northwest of the poor neighborhoods in the South Los Angeles flatlands. View Park and Windsor Hills are 88 percent black, with a median household income of $73,118, the U.S. Census reported, more than the Los Angeles County household total of $51,447. Almost 70 percent of the people living there are families.

The overwhelming number of contributions from there went to Obama, with Hillary Clinton receiving just two, according to the latest tabulation of The Center for Responsive Politics. That’s not surprising. Nor does it mean Hillary Clinton is friendless in the black community. African-American political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson wrote in the Huffington Post that Clinton “runs neck and neck with Obama in the race to net the overall votes of blacks. ... They are not naïve about Hillary. They know that GOP hardliners are licking their chops at a Hillary candidacy ... yet she still seems a far better bet than Obama to beat back the assault.”

What is as interesting as the horse race is the nature of the Obama contributors. Among them in Los Angeles’ View Park and Windsor Hills are a producer, a chief executive officer of a business consulting company, a nationwide bank senior vice president, lawyers and a restaurant owner.

California state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is campaigning for Obama, said the Illinois senator’s message resonates strongly with such people. “His vision of hope and morality and basic centrist politics is grounded in a moral sensibility that is hard to argue with,” Ridley-Thomas said.

“It’s how he talks about personal responsibility,” said another Obama supporter, “how we raise our kids, being responsible for our actions. It is a message people long for.”

That was evident last year when Obama spoke at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, the city’s oldest black church and, with 19,000 members, a center of middle-class black L.A. People who were there said he was repeatedly cheered as he delivered his message of hope and responsibility to a congregation marking the 15th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots.

First AME reaches deep into the black community with programs ranging from rehabilitating prison inmates to fostering business development. The church also does tutoring and college preparatory training. Located at the northern edge of South-Central Los Angeles, it was in the middle of the 1992 fires and violence..

That’s where I spent the first night of the riots, watching members of the congregation join with neighboring Latino apartment dwellers in fighting fires with garden hoses. Just down the street on West Adams Boulevard, young black men battled cops. When I walked toward the fighting, two men from the church grabbed me, turned me around and said, “This is no time for journalistic heroics.” Later on, I snuck back to observe the action.

As First AME and Obama see it, life should be an upward path, with young blacks turning from fighting cops on West Adams Boulevard in favor of the respectability and pious activism of First AME, rising from the poor, crime-heavy flatlands of South L.A. to more peaceful and prosperous neighborhoods in the city or the suburbs or to the affluence of Windsor Hills and View Park.

But the upward path is becoming more difficult. In 2005 the Urban Institute found that “despite some progress during the 1990s, the share of African-Americans joining the middle class in the U.S. has stagnated over the past 20-30 years.”

The stagnation coincides with roadblocks on the upward path—reduced funding for public elementary and secondary schools and public universities and ending affirmative action in higher education.

Removal of roadblocks is the goal shared by First AME members and middle-class blacks around the country. They are, as Obama supporter Ridley-Thomas put it, “politically and economically progressive” but “on moral issues, more conservative.”

Obama’s effort to translate support into a historic presidential victory will be difficult. Hillary Clinton is strong, and her husband, Bill, is popular among blacks. White Iowa is important to Obama’s hopes. If Clinton wins, she’s in great shape. If either John Edwards or Obama wins, the ever-fickle media will conclude she’s doomed.

But, win or lose, Obama and his supporters are showing America a black political landscape seldom visited by journalists. Why, wondered Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, an African-American, “do editors, reporters, columnists and television producers keep only two phone numbers on speed dial for use whenever any news breaks concerning a black person?”

Those are, of course, the numbers of the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Black America today is much more complex, a mixture of rich, middle class and poor, a subtlety often missed in the sound bites of Jackson, Sharpton and their counterparts around the country.

Breaking: Obama is a Corporate Shill..

From David Sirota's blog at WorkingForChange:

BREAKING: Obama Says He Will Vote for NAFTA Expansion

Hot off the presses from MSNBC:

"Obama said he would vote for a Peruvian trade agreement next week, in response to a question from a man in Londonderry, NH who called NAFTA and CAFTA a disaster for American workers. He said he supported the trade agreement with Peru because it contained the labor and environmental standards sought by groups like the AFL-CIO, despite the voter's protests to the contrary. He also affirmed his support for free trade."

The voter's "protests to the contrary" are exactly right. The AFL-CIO does not support the bill expanding NAFTA into Peru, and the much-trumpeted labor/environmental standards leave enforcement up to the Bush administration, rather than empowering third parties to enforce them (like corporations have the power to enforce investor rights provisions in these same trade agreements). Leaving enforcement to the Bush administration - or any administration - is the biggest loophole possible. It is precisely why corporate lobbyists have bragged to reporters that the standards are not enforceable.

Obama is the first presidential candidate to officially declare his/her support for the NAFTA expansion moving through the Congress. His announcement is not necessarily surprising, considering he was the keynote speaker at the launch of the Hamilton Project - a Wall Street front group working to drive a wedge between Democrats and organized labor on globalization issues. His announcement comes just days after a Wall Street Journal poll found strong bipartisan opposition to lobbyist-written NAFTA-style trade policies.

Trade has been known to be a huge issue in Iowa (remember Dick Gephardt in 1988), so this announcement could very well ripple through the 2008 primary.

To subscribe to Sirota's regular newsletter, go to www.davidsirota.com and sign up on the left hand side. To buy his book Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government and How We Take It Back, click this link.
Tags: Obama, David Sirota

200,000 Italians march for peace and human rights..

I wouldn't believe it unless I saw it with my own eyes..but here it is..from CommonDreams.org:

ASSISI, Italy - About 200,000 people marched from Perugia to Assisi Sunday calling for "all human rights for all" and the end of wars.

The 24km "peace march" between the two towns in central Italy concluded a "peace week" featuring some 400 initiatives on peace and human rights. These included the 7th assembly of the United Nations of the People in Perugia Oct. 5-6."Peace and justice walk together" and "Water for all" were among some of the banners at the march. Many carried the famous "peace flags" that marked Italian protest against the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Participants also joined the "Stand Up!" action in line with the United Nations' "No Excuse" campaign to promote the Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight goals agreed in 2000 to cut poverty and to improve health and education. People in the rally sat and then stood up to urge the Italian government to allocate the 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) to foreign aid.

The march, the 17th such, was started by peace activist Aldo Capitini in 1961. It is organised by Peace Roundtable, a coalition of Italian NGOs, unions, church groups and local administrations working for peace and solidarity.

The march is the big event for the Italian peace movement, and is a sort of barometer of civil society activities. To mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to be celebrated in December, the theme of the march shifted this time from peace to human rights.

"It is a way to make clearer which peace we want to build: not just absence of war, but also respect for human rights," Peace Roundtable coordinator Flavio Lotti told IPS. "We still march for peace, but making more explicit the objectives we are struggling for."

A call for action issued at the march says human rights are "the legal, political and moral compass to face the current world crisis…Promoting 'all human rights for all' means rejecting the idea that the rights of some people can be sacrificed in the name of security, development or the interest of the richest, strongest, the most aggressive."

For the rest of the writeup click the link at the top of the post. It is about more than peace..its about human rights. I think the Italians got it right..why can't we 'get it right' over here in the U.S.?

Guess what? I can't find ANY media reporting on this march either. I googled the hell out of Italy, peace, march..and nothing. That is so friggin wrong.

Iraq Prez says our troops can leave!

Well, 100K of them can by the end of this year:

The United States could withdraw more than 100,000 troops out of Iraq by the end of 2008 but should retain three permanent bases, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Sunday. Interviewed on CNN in Washington, Talabani also backed a US Senate plan to decentralize Iraq along ethnic lines, but the ethnic Kurd said he opposed an independent Kurdistan. "More than 100,000 can be back by the end of the next year," he said of the US troop presence in Iraq, which would leave about 30,000 personnel once a limited withdrawal planned by US President George W. Bush is complete.

Isn't that great! Will BushCo go for it?

Hell no he won't..how would all his corporations make money? Of course this does make one wonder about who is telling the truth..and my money ISN"T on BushCo.

Tags: Iraq, Bush,

PS..I am out of town for 10 days but will post when able. Christ I wish my sister would figure out her friggin wireless network.

And from our WTF? Dept...

WaPo feeds us this lovely piece of news this morning:

Iraq Embassy Cost Rises $144 Million Amid Project Delays Planning, Workmanship Cited as Problems By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, October 7, 2007; Page A01 The massive U.S. embassy under construction in Baghdad could cost $144 million more than projected and will open months behind schedule because of poor planning, shoddy workmanship, internal disputes and last-minute changes sought by State Department officials, according to U.S. officials and a department document provided to Congress.

The embassy, which will be the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world, was budgeted at $592 million. The core project was supposed to have been completed by last month, but the timetable has slipped so much that the State Department has sought and received permission from the Iraqi government to allow about 2,000 non-Iraqi construction employees to stay in the country until March.

Two key office buildings, including the new chancery, will not be finished until early 2009, according to the document.

Such horseshit folks..seriously..this is a shining example of our bloated nation..excessive, expensive and extremely overdue for a lesson in reality. But we can't afford to provide insurance to our citizens. Where is the logic? Why is this ok? Where is the fucking outrage?

Tags: US Embassy,

This mornings sermon...

On this fine Sunday morning, I present to you a most excellent post at Sirens Chronicles. Its about the hypocrites on the religious extreme right. The Title:

CHEAP GRACE:
THE HYPOCRITICAL AND DESTRUCTIVE NATURE OF THE PSEUDO-CHRISTIAN RIGHT

Its a well-written and researched post. Please check it out.

House applies US Law to Federal Contractors

Its about friggin time! What took them so long? From the NYT:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 — With the armed security force Blackwater USA and other private contractors in Iraq facing tighter scrutiny, the House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would bring all United States government contractors in the Iraq war zone under the jurisdiction of American criminal law. The measure would require the F.B.I. to investigate any allegations of wrongdoing. The bill was approved 389 to 30, despite strong opposition from the White House. It came as lawmakers and human rights groups are using a Sept. 16 shooting by Blackwater personnel in Baghdad to highlight the many contractors operating in Iraq who have apparently been unaccountable to American military or civilian laws and outside the reach of the Iraqi judicial system.

Since they operate under the same auspices as our soldiers they should be accountable as such. I never understood the logic that they were above the law. But then, there is very little that BushCo does that makes sense, unless of course your a crony or a large corporation. Hopefully his protecting the merc's will soon be over and they can be held accountable just like our military is for their actions.

Tags: Blackwater, Accountability