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Over at the Huffington Post, John Cusack chats with Naomi Klein about her new book, The Shock Doctrine. As I mentioned the other day, it's quite profound and I can't put it down:
[B]ecause the decisive role played by shocks and crises have so effectively purged from the official record of the rise of the free market, the extreme tactics on display in Iraq and New Orleans are often mistaken for the unique incompetence or cronyism of the Bush White House. In fact, Bush's exploits merely represent the monstrously violent and creative culmination of a fifty-year campaign for total corporate liberation.
She'll also be here for the Book Salon on November 18. You can buy the book here.
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Jane!
BADA BING x2!
Jane and Naomi, you Rock!
Naomi Klein: My Canadian hero! And great writer! Like you Jane…
(IMO, Naomi’s also hot…)
Shocking that our Senate is even considering taking one step closer to pre-emptively attacking Iran
Lieberman up Kyl Liebermann amendment uphttp://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan_rm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS
Webb pushed for further discussion
I ordered the book this weekend. Wish I had paid for express shipment.
Kyl Lieberman vote on cspan2 now.
Yes, this ties in with a number of observations about how the groundwork for so many things today really stretch back quite a ways.
However, the Bush admin is definitely cashing in on them, where another admin might not…
Biodun @ 4
She’s Canadian too? Wow - last night it was Patrick and now Naomi Klein - where would we be in this country without Canadians?
http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs.....p;Code=CS2
Kathleen @ 5
not shocking. 97-0 last time. Bravo for Webb, though, he’s digging in his heels a bit.
makes the antiwar posturing of (D) Senators look kind of fake, to be supporting the next war while pretending to oppose the current one.
but, on topic and in character, lets not forget how helpful Bill Clinton was is the “fifty-year campaign for total corporate liberation” by jamming NAFTA through over the objections of his own party in Congress at the time.
Clinton just voted aye for kyl/lieberman
NaomiKlein.org.
In less than one year how many of these Senators will be saying I did not know that the Kyl/Lieberman amendment would lead to a pre-emptive attack on Iran.
“I did not have all of the information” “I was going on the information that we had then” “If I would have known then what I know now” “the intelligence we had was false”
Jesus Mary and Joseph help the Iranian people
Al-Gapo is a terrorist organization.
Helen @ 11
Shameful–or shameless, I’m not sure which.
Al Gore I hope you are watching!
How does the re-worded bill read?
The Cheney dream map of the middle east discussed in a thread or two yesterday sure seems to be the big plan.
I heard Clinton vote yes on Kyl Lieberman..
kyl lieberman agreed to 76-22
76 to 22 in favor.
76-22 kyl/lieberman passes
just now on the senate floor:
biden amendment passed.
kyl/lieberman passed. 76 - 22
roll call votes will be posted here shortly.
Senators in less than a year “I did not hear Iaea’s El Baradei say that Iran poses “no imminent threat” Senator Clinton in less than a year ” I did not hear El Baradei say that there “is no verifiable claims” to back up the repeated claims by the “cakewalk” crazies about an “alleged” nuclear weapons program. Clinton “I did not read all the reports”
Clinton in less than a year “I did not hear General Pace say that there is no verifiable evidence to back up the IED claims”
Biden voted No this could move him forward with voters.
How did Obama vote?
Helen @ 11
Maybe this wasn’t so crazy after all…
http://www.examiner.com/a-9531.....crats.html
Liebermans “Bring It On’ moment.
76 Senators who are not just wrong but pure evil.
Kathleen @ 13
“no one could have anticipated…that warmonger Joe Lieberman would hoodwink us into unwittingly green-lighting another war”
Helen @ 21
I hope Webb has had something good and strong to drink today. I don’t think anyone could have worked harder to defeat this thing. I’m sure after getting “whupped” on his legislation to give soldiers some decent rest between tours, he’s not feeling so “colleagial” right now.
Helen @ 11
Hi Helen :)
I know you’re not shocked by her vote. Anyone who is hasn’t been paying attention. PEACE
someone just suggested they have an absence of a quorum.
Wow what a super day the Senate is having. First, in a hearing DiFi avoided voting against a WH crook. Second the Senate approved the partitioning of Iraq despite the fact that they have no standing in Iraq and just now they passed the bloody lieberman amendment as a prelude to a war with Iran. What a great fu**ing day for ‘murica.
how does lieberman continue to get away with this shit? how is he allowed to bypass the committee process for such important bills?
Kyl Lieberman (men who have never put their own asses on the line) move our country closer to a disaster with Iran. Webb’s (a man who has put his ass on the line) amendment to give soldiers more down time, FAILED.
Insanity!
This from Josh:
Black is white, up is down, in is out and good is evil.
WE MADE IT!!! WE ARE FINALLY THERE!!!
it’s 1984…
Les see, who was President in 1984?
Biodun @ 15
no, typical, and par for the course.
from Rulers and Ruled in The U.S. Empire by James Petras,
reviewed by Sherwood Ross at Counterpunch.
the War party chariot is pulled by two steeds, the Donkey and the Elephant.
If you think wars of aggression against countries that pose no threat to the USA are wrong on principle, then there is no national political party for you.
if you think the (D) team deserves support no matter what they advocate, well, this would seem to be an example of putting political faction before country, as the Founders warned against.
Eureka Springs @ 6
Ditto.
What? I thought it got tabled? I must have misread something earlier. ARGH.
RUN AL RUN!
kdh22 @ 29
Hiya - no not shocked. Just….exhausted; she’s “mine”
What nomolos said at 31
About Naomi:
Wow, is all I can say…
I thought Reid said this would not come to the floor for a vote - WTF?
dollars do donuts Obama votes for the next war, though he deserves some respect if he went against the grain on this one.
Kathleen @ 38
I know there is a lot of strong feeling on supporting Gore - but he’s a really sharp and clever guy. Do you think that anyone that smart is going to embrace this load of tarbabies? No way.
sporkovat @ 36
These organizations turned it up just after the invasion of Iraq. Ledeen, Woolsey, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Kristol have been all over the MSM cranking the Iran propaganda up.
Clinton will not get my vote for president even if Duncan Hunter is the Gooper nominee.. Enough!
excuse me while i step away for a bit… otherwise my laptop may end up causing serious damage to my wall.
catch you-all later this afternoon for the hearing on iraq war/occupation supplemental (to be shown on c-span3)
Frivolous question: is Kyl pronounced like “kill” or “kyle” or something else?
*hoping for “kill”*, although nothing beats the “Delay Doolittle bill”…
I have already written the speech for the day Iran Shock and Awe commences.
“No one could have known that President Bush would have used this amendment as a pretext for war.”
-GSD
How low can Congress’s numbers go. They are going to reach new lows faster than Bush
selise @ 46
Bless you selise; I would be lost without you.
peanutbutter @ 47
Like Heil Hitler
Eureka Springs @ 45
You know, if Clinton is the nominee, we could start a campaign to write-in Edwards…
Eureka Springs @ 45
that’s the spirit! if they nominate and run someone who yearns so badly to be a warmongering repug, then people will just pick a real warmongering repug, and the (D) party will have snatched defeat from almost certain victory, yet again.
and, touching base on the post topic again, H. Clinton represents the DLC, tireless fighters for “fifty-year campaign for total corporate liberation.”
On the short film:
Brisingamen @ 52
You know, despite Hillary’s supposed front-runner status, Barack Obama is the one who’s getting all the money. If you think of the donors as the people who are paying the most attention–and therefore the people making the most informed decsions–that’s a very heartening sign.
Shock.
What next election?
a nice slippery escape!
JEP @ 24
Maybe a way to take her out. The media is all about Hillary Hillary, barely ever hear about Edwards. She gets the nomination and then this vote brings her down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as8mFBSa4Zg
Toby Wollin @ 43
He has a sense of duty, and he has to live in this world like the rest of us. It’s not like he can go off to be Emperor of the Moon and avoid the consequences of failing to oppose these twits.
sporkovat @ 58
wow…such fortitude, such conviction, such leadership.
Toby Wollin @ 28
Well I certainly hope he’s not feeling collegial! Maybe now he’ll start figuring that if the Rethugs are for something, that should be your first clue that it may not be the best thing for you. The Rethugs have been wrong about virtually everything, and they refuse to put anything akin to a win in the Dems column, so if they like it, be afraid. Be very afraid. And stop voting for stupid things like FISA adjustment that takes the court out of the FISA business and broadens WH authority and control. Also, it would behoove you to refrain from rebukes of you party brothers and sisters over an ad that questions the integrity of a general who is being used as a mouthpiece by the WH, amongst others.
For me, it’s been Edwards. Then, lately, I’ve added Dodd. He’s been very good. Maybe he always was and we just hadn’t noticed.
Toby Wollin @ 8
It hurts us and scares us too, y’know. I’m a Canadian, and I follow your hearings, especially the HJC and the SJC, because I’m as worried as you are. I would love to jump in and write to some of my/your favourite senators, but I know they wouldn’t listen to me — no votes in Ontario.
A lot of us up here are watching and hoping against hope, though. Good luck. The rest of the world needs you and hopes for you.
Biden voted no..is this his move forward?
Corporate debauchery. Been waiting so long for this. But the concept must permeate to the masses to do any good. Redistribution of wealth is what I am working for. This… is my politics. It defines my political desire.
Lieberman said on the floor in the whopping TWO MINUTES of debate they scheduled for this mindless travesty of an Insanity of the Senate Resolution, that Paragraphs 3 and 4 in the original amendment were stricken in response to objections (from Webb and Durbin, I assume - I heard no other public protestations). Durbin ended up voting Aye. As Webb firmly reiterated, however, in opposition:
This resolution recommends that the State Dept. classify a portion of a sovereign nation’s military forces as a “terrorist organization,” which has never been done before. If “we” are being attacked by a nation’s military forces - that’s “war,” isn’t it, by definition?
Waltzing to War Without A Whimper. A pox on all their houses - but especially on those of Harry Reid and Carl Levin.
[Jim Webb, it is so, so important and valuable that you stood up against this, and we are very, very grateful for that. But Webb and Feingold: please also consider starting to OBJECT on the floor to the UCs even when there are more than 60 votes in favor, on principle - isn’t preventing war worth that extra step? Sheldon Whitehouse: A very disappointing Aye vote. No votes I heard: Webb, Feingold, Tester, Kerry, Kennedy, Dodd, Boxer, Biden, Klobuchar.]
Solai @ 63
Overall I like Dodds as well. He’s another snowball like Kucinich, though. But I say we always need gadflies, which role these two definitely provide.
Edwards is harder for me to figure out. He’s basically invisible in the polls, but seems to have much better visibility than the above two (I daresay most people know Edwards is running; and most people will not have even heard of Kucinich or Dodd…)
Ah well.
Edwards ‘08!!
Obama is in NH today.
-GSD
The roll call hasn’t been posted yet. How did Obama vote? Anyone?
News on the wording oo the Kyl/Lieberman bill. Per TPM
http://tpmelectioncentral.com/.....margin.php
“The commander of U.S. military forces in the Middle East does not believe current tensions with Iran will lead to war and urges for greater emphasis on dialogue and diplomacy.
“This constant drum beat of conflict is what strikes me which is not helpful and not useful,” Adm. William Fallon said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television, which made a partial transcript available Sunday.
Fallon, the head of U.S. Central Command, wraps up a seven-nation tour of the region on Tuesday that included stops in Persian Gulf countries, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Many of the talks with military and political leaders were dominated by worries about expanding Iranian influence and U.S. accusations that Iran is supplying arms and training to Shiite militiamen in Iraq.
“I expect that there will be no war and that is what we ought to be working for,” said Fallon during the Friday interview at Al-Jazeera’s headquarters in Qatar. “We should find ways through which we can bring countries to work together for the benefit of all …. It is not a good idea to be in a state of war. We ought to try and to do our utmost to create different conditions.”
http://ap.google.com/article/A.....qNIXHshH7g
“if you think the (D) team deserves support no matter what they advocate, well, this would seem to be an example of putting political faction before country, as the Founders warned against.”
Get real, Sparky, putting both parties on the same page, and not just thier wayward members, ignores some harsh realities all you concern-trolls seem to want to ignore.
Here are D’s to consider who don’t fit your one-size-fits-all model - Edwards, Biden, Dodd, Kucinich, Al Gore, the list goes on, just count the nay votes…
Republicans? Hagel, Paul ? ? ? ?
Feel free to criticize individual Democrats, but don’t use “The Democrats,” as a party, it contains too many peace-loving men and women to condemn as a whole, the way one might be justified in doing with the lemming Republicans.
This is a Republican war, started under a Republican three-branch monopoly, managed by a Republican neocon cabal.
We all know that there are some Democrats who helped enable those Republicans, but as a party, you can hardly blame them for what REPUBLICANS did with the help of a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican Supreme Court all in the iron grasp of the consumate neocon Republican OVP, thus by extension, the Republican White House.
If the Dems had controlled even one of the three branches at the time this all started, you might convince me the party as a whole is cuplable.
But the reality is, the Dems were ruled and over-ruled mercilessly by the R’s, and no amount of historical revisionism can change the fact, one that the R’s openly bragged about.
“Kick their soft teeth down their whiney throats…”
Now that they are being held accountable for their egregious mistakes, the Republicans are suddenly co-opting those wayward Dems like Clinton and Lieberdem, to spread the guilt around. And all the Independent bitterheads and Republican apologists are glomming onto it desperately.
So what is it, are you a proud Republican because you ruled in spite of the Democrats, or are you ashamed and you want the Dems to take on some of that guilt?
Either/or, there’s not much wriggle room in between.
GSD @ 69
They’re all at Dartmouth today for the debate that Timmeh is moderating. And I also know where they’re all staying, including MSM: At the College Inn (don’t be deceived by the name: It’s quite swanky and the food is great!) by the Green at Hanover.
The people to Hillary “why do you build us up just to let us down”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du-b-fRTzkQ
My son is a scholar of Herman Melville. Today, I came across this quote from another, much earlier scholar of Melville, C.R.L. James:
skdadl @ 64
Except that we seem to have exported all the writing ability, brains and truth-telling north of the border.
Biodun @ 70
Obama missed the vote.
Kathleen @ 33
Totally disgusting display from our own representatives. They represent us; they do whatever they do in our names. Yet apx 70% want out of Iraq, and don’t want to start WWIII with Iraq. Why aren’t more of our Representatives on the same page with us?
back to Naomi:
I highly recommend this discussion, hosted by the lovely and talented Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!: Alan Greenspan vs. Naomi Klein on the Iraq War, Bush’s Tax Cuts, Economic Populism, Crony Capitalism and More
THE hands-down BEST interview with Alan Greenspan EVER, beating out even Jon Stewart in actually taking the guy to task about Free Market Capitalistic ideology. He, of course, accuses her of being a Socialist. The grand finale is Greenspan PRETENDING HE DIDN’T UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION to avoid answering about cronyism in this administration.
Naomi rocks, rolls, and blows ‘em out of the water!
Is anyone keeping a list of how many times the Democrats have failed in the last few weeks?
There was the Lieberman anti-Iran amendment before this one.
The Webb Amendment on troop down time
The Feingold Amendment on troop withdrawal
The Cornyn resolution to condemn the MoveOn ad
The Specter amendment to restore habeas corpus
The House Lantos anti-Iran bill
The bill to give DC a voting representative
The Kyl-Lieberman anti-Iran Amendment
These are some of the measures that Democrats either voted the wrong way on or failed to force the Republicans to filibuster. All of them except the first Lieberman anti-Iran amendment which goes back to July 11 have happened since September 18. Can we just call the Democratic Party the Republican Party now?
We’ve had the Great Communicator.
Now we have the Great Triangulator.
My candidate has not yet declared.
Solai @ 63
Obama fudges the numbers. If you buy a bumper sticker from him, he counts the money as a “donation” and (more importantly) he counts you as a “donor.” Thus, he has many more donors than he would otherwise, and the average donation is smaller. This is how he creates the appearance of being the little guy’s candidate, supported by the masses.
I thought Webb’s point that this was no way to establish foreign policy was a good one. For that reason alone, everyone should have voted ‘no’.
“Abizaid suggested military action to pre-empt Iran’s nuclear ambitions might not be the wisest course.
“War, in the state-to-state sense, in that part of the region would be devastating for everybody, and we should avoid it — in my mind — to every extent that we can,” he said. “On the other hand, we can’t allow the Iranians to continue to push in ways that are injurious to our vital interests.”
http://ap.google.com/article/A.....Kyj1HxPoJw
He suggested that many in Iran — perhaps even some in the Tehran government — are open to cooperating with the West. The thrust of his remarks was a call for patience in dealing with Iran, which President Bush early in his first term labeled one of the “axis of evil” nations, along with North Korea and Iraq.
He said there is a basis for hope that Iran, over time, will move away from its current anti-Western stance.”
Helen @ 11
It is OK she can say her vote was “mistaken” and all will be well.
As for BO well he is a ken doll
Solai @ 83
“Should” has no meaning for either the Democrats or the Republicans.
Hillary just “cheney’d” herself!
Helen @ 11
Wonder if Hillary knows that German leaders hung at Nuremberg for wars of aggression against other nations.
Hillary, Lieberman, and Condi - and everyone in the Senate who vote to facilitate Bush’s war of aggression against Iran are complicit in international war crimes.
If the US attacks, I hope the US leaders responsible are ultimately sentenced to hang - and then have their sentences commuted to life by the UN.
Today the US Senate advances war crimes.
Heil Hillary!
Re: HRC. My bestest friend suggests I wait ’til tonight to comment on this subject.
Bush is institutionalizing controversial anti-terror programs so they can be used by the next president.
“Look, I’d like to make as many hard decisions as I can make, and do a lot of the heavy lifting prior to whoever my successor is,” Bush said. “And then that person is going to have to come and look at the same data I’ve been looking at, and come to their own conclusion.”
No matter who the president is, no matter what party, when they sit here in the Oval Office and seriously consider the effect of a vacuum being created in the Middle East, particularly one trying to be created by al Qaeda, they will then begin to understand the need to continue to support the young democracy.”
Isn’t the heavy lifter the creator of the very vacuum of which he speaks? A legend in his own mind.
One wonders about the source of said data specially prepared for a guy that requires a DVD moving picture story to appreciate the severity of a major hurricane.
Seems he’s confused in the use of the vacuum metaphor.
OK kiddo, what is happening tonight?
Kathleen @ 38
Did you put your $0.02 in? I’m serious, did you hear about that movement to send two cents to his office to encourage him to run. It seemed real, and was not sending the pennies to a PO box, but to an actual address that is supposedly his office (or one of them.) They also suggest writing a note promising more money for his campaign if he runs. Just wondered how widespread this effort was.
Yes, back to Naomi:
My bold. (I like my bold.) As they say, the apples haven’t fallen too far from the tree. (She’s hot, lucid, and a damn good writer.)
Toby @ 76:
Oh, well. We have jerks of our own up here. You should meet our PM. At the moment, he’s working hard at “harmonizing” us with Bushco, and it’s still not certain that he won’t succeed.
We also have hyper-politicized generals who don’t know where that bright line is between citizen oversight and sentimental manipulation of public opinion by military leaders. We’re scared too.
Solai @ 84
Webbs point was what is the hurry? Can we please discuss this critical issue?
DEJA F—ing VU!
hackworth @ 90
that person is singular. That person will have to come to his or her own conclusions.
Isn’t the heavy lifter the creator of the very vacuum of which he speaks? A legend in his own mind.
One wonders about the source of said data specially prepared for a guy that requires a DVD moving picture story to appreciate the severity of a major hurricane.
Seems he’s confused in the use of the vacuum metaphor.
The vacuum is trying to be created. And it wants Al Q to do it. Don’t you know he has no responsibility. Note to Shrub: Vacuums don’t do anything. They just suck.
OT & possibly ON (Old News): Clinton vote aye on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, which passed 76 to 22: http://tpmelectioncentral.com/.....margin.php
Re: Obama:
Did he skip the Boxer Amendment and vote Nay for the Cronyn? Please someone refresh my memory.
Oh, I realized you (OK kiddo) were referring to the debate, but why will they change any comment we have about Hillary doing this?
Kathleen @ 95
I agree with Webb’s point (viz., “What’s the hurry?) but the answer given by the republicans, sub silento, is “This is show biz., and their President is in the U.S. We must at least embarrass him, and poisen the well.”
sporkovat is no “concern troll,” JEP @ 73 (although I agree with you that naming names is important). sporkovat’s comments usually hit the nail right on the head.
If Clinton, Dodd, and Biden could be present