Sunsin @ 124

I’ve heard that archeology seems to indicate invasion from the Korea peninsula before 800CE.
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And how does that differ from what Sunsin said…that you tripled the period of time that modern Japanese (non-Ainu) entered the islands. You originally said that the modern Empire had its roots 6000 years ago. That’s not just before 800 CE (~ 800 AD). It was the Jomon Culture that first appears in the Archipelago some 8000 years ago…and Jomon is accepted to be the precursor to AINU culture. The entry of ethnic Japanese came MUCH later.

And Japan is probably one of the Archaeologically best researched regions of the world, with almost one preserved and excavated site per hectare! So there is little room for some new “breakthrough” on these points.

This is the headline on the CCL article about the brief. Sounds like something out of The Onion.

wigwam @ 129

Do you honestly believe that in their hearts the democratic leaders support Bush’s Iraq policy and his trampling of the constitution (i.e., MCA, FISAfix, etc.) in spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of citizens don’t?

I dredge up this quote of Harry Reid on the Senate floor made September 25, 2006 about the MCA:

But I also say this: I think we could work something out if we can get to the bill. When we start late in the session like this, any one Senator weighs about 1,000 pounds because any Senator can stop anything they want. So we have to make sure we can get to this. It takes all 100 Senators to agree that is the case. If we could proceed to it, it is my understanding the majority leader would allow a limited number of amendments. We could work on this tomorrow with some time agreements on it–agreements on both sides.

The MCA happened because Harry Reid went out of his way to make sure it happened. The FISA fiasco happened because Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi rigged the parliamentary procedure to make sure it passed. Back in May, after a Democratic version (already watered down) of the Iraq supplemental was vetoed, neither Pelosi nor Reid sought to fight it out on the issue of withdrawal despite the November 2006 mandate. They set up a “for show” vote but caved on the substance.

If the Congressional Democrats and their leadership don’t want to appear to support such horrendous pieces of legislation, maybe they should try not supporting them instead of facilitating them. Just saying.

That quote from Reid is amazing. I remember Kennedy, Levin, Dodd, and several others making stirring speeches denouncing the MCA on the floor of the Senate. Any of them could have filibustered, but none did. We have to believe that all those pretty words were a sham. Despite what they said, in their hearts they favored the loss of Habeus Corpus. Appalling.

Screw humanitarian ethics, let alone the law. The ends justify the means. Don’t make us much different from the “terrorists”, does it?

amen. our voices may be small compared to the big money – but we do have a voice and can we work together to make our voices heard.

The vast majority of democrats in congress voted against the FISA fix. The leaders like Pelosi adamantly protest that they don’t favor like the bill. But that’s the bill they allowed to get to the floor

yes, but they knew it was going to pass. would they have voted against it if their vote would have caused it to fail?

i am a bit sceptical because it’s hard for me to see how the leadership could get away with manipulating the rules in order to get an outcome the majority of the caucus claims to be against. if that were really true, wouldn’t the caucus have something to say to their leadership on that? the sound of *crickets*, i think, is a clue.

Do you honestly believe that in their hearts the democratic leaders support Bush’s Iraq policy and his trampling of the constitution (i.e., MCA, FISAfix, etc.) in spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of citizens don’t?

I dredge up this quote of Harry Reid on the Senate floor made September 25, 2006 about the MCA:

But I also say this: I think we could work something out if we can get to the bill. When we start late in the session like this, any one Senator weighs about 1,000 pounds because any Senator can stop anything they want. So we have to make sure we can get to this. It takes all 100 Senators to agree that is the case. If we could proceed to it, it is my understanding the majority leader would allow a limited number of amendments. We could work on this tomorrow with some time agreements on it–agreements on both sides.

The MCA happened because Harry Reid went out of his way to make sure it happened. The FISA fiasco happened because Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi rigged the parliamentary procedure to make sure it passed. Back in May, after a Democratic version (already watered down) of the Iraq supplemental was vetoed, neither Pelosi nor Reid sought to fight it out on the issue of withdrawal despite the November 2006 mandate. They set up a “for show” vote but caved on the substance.

If the Congressional Democrats and their leadership don’t want to appear to support such horrendous pieces of legislation, maybe they should try not supporting them instead of facilitating them. Just saying.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Doug Feith, Richard Perle and Marc Grossman
Richard Perle and Doug Feith are the ’stars’ of Kill The Messenger.

In May 2006, Phil Giraldi wrote an article about Sibel’s case which Sibel described as:
“a fantastic short piece by Phil Giraldi; it sums up the case very well, considering the length… as far as published articles go, this one nails it 100%”
Here’s a snippet from Giraldi’s article:

Someone has to be in the middle (of the Turkish, Israeli, American military/economic machine) to keep the happy affair going, so enter the neocons, intent on securing Israel against all comers and also keen to turn a dollar. In fact the neocons seem to have a deep and abiding interest in Turkey, which, under other circumstances, might be difficult to explain. Doug Feith’s International Advisors Inc, a registered agent for Turkey in 1989 – 1994, netted $600,000 per year from Turkey, with Richard Perle taking $48,000 annually as a consultant.

wigwam @ 129

Do you honestly believe that in their hearts the democratic leaders support Bush’s Iraq policy and his trampling of the constitution (i.e., MCA, FISAfix, etc.) in spite of the fact that the overwhelming majority of citizens don’t?

here’s my tentative conclusions (as always, new info can provoke major rethinking):

some of them – yes.
many of them – don’t care.

edit – i should add that my thinking on this is not just based on the last 6 years… but also on the clinton years.

The vast majority of democrats in congress voted against the FISA fix. The leaders like Pelosi adamantly protest that they don’t favor like the bill. But that’s the bill they allowed to get to the floor, either because:
– they secretly liked it, or
– they had outside pressures on them.
An interesting question.