Hooray For Barney Frank

Barney Frank on special protection House should not criticize FBI for warranted search of member’s office(Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)
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I Think This Is Really Funny

The New York Times is reporting that, at the same time the neo fascists are ginning up a military strike on Iran, Iraq’s recently installed Foreign Minister has “endorsed the right of Iran to pursue the ‘technological and scientific capabilities’ needed to create nuclear power for peaceful purposes”.
Those Straussian “philosopher” neofascists are just a [...]

More on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

In an April 18 post I commented on an Asian Times article reporting on the formation and enlargement of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

This May 25th Boston Globe comment on the subject, via the International Herald Tribune, makes a similar point to which I made in April.
In some ways I guess I should thank Bush, [...]

The Chicks Are Back

In case you haven’t heard, the Dixie Chicks are back and ready for a fight, having reportedly in essence told the country music establishment to kiss off. Their new CD, “Taking the Long Way”, opens with “Not Ready to Make Nice”, in which Maines announces “I’m not ready to back down/ I’m still mad as [...]

“You can’t have a war without a good disinformation campaign”

Kudos to the “Jewish Week” newspaper for this “Yellow Journalism” report tracking to Benador Associates, an agent for some of the most prominent USA neofascists, the erroneous report that Iran was to require non-Muslims to wear particular colored clothing.
The article reports that even after the report was debunked the story continued to breathlessly reverberate through [...]

Federico’s Cafico Coffee Shop

Meet Federico Navarro A., proprietor of the Cafico coffee shop on Calle 58 a few doors South of Parque Santa Ana and purveyor of the best coffee I’ve been able to find in my limited explorations of Merida.
When I accompany my neighbor Armando on the 4 block walk he takes each day to pick up [...]

Trojan Cooling Tower Goes Down

The cooling tower portion of the Trojan nuclear plant, a bit North of Portland, OR, has been demolished. The picture at left, which I pirated off the KOMO TV web site, shows the cooling tower disappearing into the implosion induced cloud of dust.
The Trojan plant operated for only about 10, or so, problem plagued years [...]

More On Wikipedia

Don’t go to Wikipedia looking for reliable information on Cuba, as the Cuba page has become a battleground for ideologues, as apparently the pages addressing a number of other controversial subjects.
Traditional encyclopedias have articles reviewed and edited by folks determined to be knowledgeable on the subject by the encyclopedia purveyor. I find it amusing [...]

Galloway v Di Rita. It’s No Contest.

Check out this email exchange between Joe Galloway, renown and awarding winning Knight Ridder military correspondent and commentator, and Rumsfeld spokesperson Larry Di Rita.
It’s one thing to be an hubristic, incompetent Secretary of Defense who has publicly derided and dismissed professional military officers who have expressed military judgments which didn’t square with neoconservative ideology. It’s [...]

As the AP reports Rudolph Giuliani is apparently a…

As the AP reports Rudolph Giuliani is apparently already so desperate in his quest for the 2008 republican presidential nomination that he has gone to Georgia to kiss Ralph Reed’s ass. Reed, as you will remember, is so far enmeshed in the numerous Abramoff felonies that even Georgia republicans have deserted him in his [...]

Immigration Facts

Kevin Drum’s piece, taking a Robert Samuelson commentary to task, includes links to studies that determine that Hispanic immigrants do in fact assimilate; that they only compete for jobs with high school drop outs, and then only barely; that they have a net positive influence on the USA economy; and that they [...]

Recommended Reading

I am about half way through Peter Irons “A People’s History of the Supreme Court” (thanks to the Merida English Library collection) and recommend it.
Irons begins by covering the drafting of the Constitution, moves on to the composition and notable decisions of the early Supreme Court, and wends his way through various notable cases to [...]

Kevin Phillips Takes on Robert Rubin and His Hamiltonian Project

KevinPhillips really is one of the most intelligent political commentators around. Here he takes on Robert Rubin, Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and current Citigroup chairman, and his efforts to promote Wall Street friendly Hilary Clinton. I think it is worth a read.

Welcome to the Police State

Brian Ross and Richard Esposito, of ABC news report that:
“A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we call in an effort to root out confidential sources.”
And close to half of the USA pulic supports the illegal government spying on its own citizens. I think [...]

A Really Stupid Diebold Spokesperson

In the wake of revelations of serious security flaws in Diebold electronic voting machines the New York Times reports that the Diebold spokesperson is really stupid.

““David Bear, a spokesman for Diebold Election Systems, said the potential risk existed because the company’s technicians had intentionally built the machines in such a way that election [...]

Is Michael Hayden’s Nomination Doomed?

With the latest USA government domestic spying revelation that under Hayden’s direction the NSA “collected the records of billions of domestic calls” his nomination to head the CIA may be on the way to withdrawal.
As Kevin Drum notes, Qwest Communication is the only telecommunications company that insisted the NSA comply with the law and obtain [...]

Do You Use Antibacterial Soap?

If so, why? Science Daily reports on the persistence and environmental distribution of one of the primary antibacterial chemicals.

Appeals Court Judge Goes to Work for Boeing

What was it Eisenhower said about the military/industrial complex?
Judge Luttig finally had enough of the Bush administration B. S. in the Jose Padilla case, called the administration on it’s screwing of Padilla, and was plucked from the bench, with a doubling or tripling of is salary, by Boeing, which will presumbly profit handsomely by [...]

The Irony Escapes Cheney

Is Dick Cheney:
a) Stupid
b) Evil
c) Demented
d) Crazy
e) All of the above
President in Fact Cheney lectures the Russians.
Cheney, an opponent of the reforms of the Magna Carta 400 years ago, who [...]

"Minutemen" Get Cold Shoulder in South L. A.

The L. A. Times Reports the Minutemen bigots thought they’d roll into L. A. and enlist African Americans into their bigotry. Instead they are compared to the KKK.
“The Minuteman Project, the self-proclaimed citizen border patrol that has emerged as a vocalopponent of illegal immigration, arrived in the heart of South Los Angeles on Wednesday hoping [...]