Sorry there were no posts yesterday - it was my wife's birthday. Here's today's short posts that would have filled a lazy blogpage all in one swoop...
Here's one to think about - "Viva La Welfare State - The case for Euro-optimism" - although the pic with the article doesn't inspire confidence in the Boston Globe. Do they think all Germans have huge man-boobs or can they just not spot a bad photoshop job?
Oil Executives are refusing to testify to Congress on mergers and price-gouging. Last time, they weren't under oath so lied through their teeth. This time they are just holding the Senate in contempt. Even some usually loyal Bush supporters are beginning to smell the coffee on this one and realise their Dear Leader and his crew have facillitated the oil industry's profiteering.
And Dear Leader will have the gall to say "America is addicted to oil" tonight on the SOTU address, according to reports. I wonder how much stock his blind trust owns in Exxon?
The more I read of Molly Ivins the more I like. Here's her latest taking BushCo to task for their utter incompetence over Katrina and breaking their promises over it's aftermath. The latest in a parade of fiascoes inspiring the administration to an impressive level of dishonesty. (Hat tip - Kat at The Daily Grail)
Regular reader Kirk directs me to an article which reports on a claim by the American College of Physicians that primary care in America is broken, possibly beyond repair. As an ex-insurance insider I have an opinion - ditch the insurance companies' involvement in healthcare, they think only in terms of covering catastrophes rather than day to day preventative medecine.
Remember that Senate investigation into how wrong Bushco were in what they told the world about Iraqi WMD's? Well it's been delayed because...the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, rather than forcing the Pentagon to realse documents it needs is awaiting the results of an investigation into war-architect Douglas Fieth over his possible role in manipulating pre-war intelligence.
Fieth resigned as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy over his alleged role in an Israeli spy case. Other neocons who have been accused at various times of spying for Israel include former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, who most recently served as chairman of the Pentagon Defense Policy Board and quietly resigned after the AIPAC case broke. All three had security clearances revoked but had them reinstated by the Bush administration. Wolfowitz, along with Cheney, Rumsfeld and the current US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, were all signators to the original statement of principles by the Project For The New American Century...
An order signed by Donald Rumsfeld in October 2003 says "Psy-op is restricted by both DoD [Department of Defense] policy and executive order from targeting American audiences, our military personnel and news agencies or outlets." Given the modern global media does that mean the psy-ops efforts of the Pentagon in Iraq and the Middle East (and robably here in the US and in Europe) are illegal? You can bet BushCo will quibble.
Let's play that new parlor game called "spot the psy-ops news plant". Here's one from the UK's Daily Torygraph that's so obvious it's funny.
Iran has formed a top secret team of nuclear specialists to infiltrate the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, the UN-sponsored body that monitors its nuclear programme...its aim is to obtain information on the work of IAEA inspectors so that Iran can conceal the more sensitive areas of its nuclear research, according to information recently received by western intelligence.
Counterpunch has Paul Craigs Roberts writing on Iran and the Fox News led narrative for war. He was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. Not a liberal, then.
A majority of Americans have now been deceived twice on the same issue. Just as there was no evidence that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons, there is no evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. There is nothing but unproven assertions, assertions, moreover, that are contradicted by the evidence that does exist. Americans, it would appear, are so anxious for wars that they welcome being fooled into them...Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda must be marveling at the rank stupidity of the American people. Maybe Fox "News" only pretends to be the Ministry of War Propaganda for the Bush administration and is really in the employ of al Qaeda.
More news from the IAEA where Iran has cleared an important hurdle - access for U.N. inspectors to equipment from the former Lavisan military site. Meanwhile the AP is forced to regurgitate the tale of Iran's black market bomb plans (it's unclear whether they mean the Pakistani plans or the CIA plans - heh) and the Jerusalem Post digs up a retired spook who spied on America to opine that Iran already has the bomb.
Russia and China have agreed that the IAEA "should report to the Security Council its decision on the steps required of Iran" which is, I believe, not the same as saying the IAEA should refer Iran to the Security Council (which would mean the IAEA was asking for measures to be taken to ensure compliance) although you couldn't tell that from most reports - including the NY Times'.
Alito's been confirmed. Four Democrats (Byrd, Conrad, Johnson, and Ben Nelson) joined 54 Republicans (all but Chafee).
No comments:
Post a Comment