Suz!

suzanne!

neuro!

Gator’s got yer granny.

Nite y’all.

Nite, Busted! Sleep well.

g’nite busted

Freezing here still…and lovely snow.

Hiya Suzanne! Is it really you? Or is it TBogg?

I wish I had an evil twin to blame, Teddy, but its just little ole me.

What a find.

what’s up?

am down to 39 and the foggy drizzly sky was starting to show stars when i took token out to save a tree a wee bit ago.

Hi Margot,
How’s the weather there?

I ventured outside and covered the stoopid faucets. It’s nippy. Brrrrr.

Petro – if you’re still here I left you a big hug right back that landed in EPUville. ;~)

brrr! that’s pretty cold! we’re chilly and expecting some snow on my mountain, but not that cold yet…

large dogs have their purpose.

dood can say more with one grunt that most foks say in an entire verse

Hi Christine,
It’s 9 degrees, more like winter’s supposed to be. What is it there?

Cold in Greater Seattle, too. Last Monday’s freak snowstorm was NOT fun. I don’t think we’ve gotten much above freezing since.

Large dogs, small dogs, multiple poodles, fuzzy affectionate kitties, it’s all good.

FunnyD

Good song, btw. Hadn’t heard it in a long time.

85 and humid here in southeast Queensland. The western part of the state is under flood water. We go from drought to flood with nothing between. Hope all the Pups are well tonight.

oc, small dogs are great lap warmers. bailey is mad that token has claimed my lap and is off sulking (inside – she is mad but not despondent)

I love this song.. Elvis did it too. And I have know idea what a Polk salad is.. Down south we have poke salad.

Hi, Pete in Aus.
So, do you think the Big Dry is over, or is this a temporary and sick joke by Mother Nature?
FunnyD

ES, the utube called it polk salad. did i fork up?

Poke Salad

So, while it’s quiet-ish, could someone briefly bring me up to speed with Cassie’s move? I hope nothing bad happened.

FunnyD

evening Suz:>) Hope all is well with you, busted and token. Hows fishing today any bites? Getting cold down here also last I saw it was 42 and dropping clear skies which doesn’t bode well for the overnight temps. We have the buck stoked and staying cozy here.
And I love Poke Salad Annie
Al ittle something for thought:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdodDEELLDg

Looks like 7 degrees. We had the most lovely “little” snow all weekend. It it beautiful and very cold. We have two extra heaters (those on wheels that look like radiators) and they keep our rooms toasty. Old cat Elvis (17 years old) glued to my hip.

Hey Suze – keep that cold front at bay please (no pun intended) cause here on southern shores of Mty Bay we’re pleasantly temperate and the storm clouds just headed east and we have bright ‘n beautiful moon rays shining down. If your freeze is too miserable you and Token tootle right down to our house.

ok, everyone refresh the page

No, it is how the original song title is spelled. I think they messed it up..)

sorry Bailey… memory getting bad. Is that a sign I should pay attention to?

Polk Salad Annie lyrics

Wiki:

…also known as poke, pokebush, pokeberry, pokeroot, polk salad, polk sallet, inkberry or ombú, comprise the genus Phytolacca, perennial plants native to North America, South America, East Asia and New Zealand. Pokeweed contains phytolaccatoxin and phytolaccigenin, which are poisonous to mammals. However, the berries are eaten by birds, which are not affected by the toxin because the small seeds with incredibly hard outer shells remain intact in the digestive system and are eliminated whole.

one large dog on either side, the length of my legs… think I’m gonna have to go put on my shorts soon – it’s getting a little toasty here

;-)

fork, i already changed it to poke. (tossing hands in the air)

Polk is the correct song title spelling.. Sorry if i confused things.

Does anyone have an idea of when this Caffety File episode was created?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHQ7Prwh7Gc

He mentions “if the Democrats get control of Congress in Nov.” so it was before 11/2006. Other than that, I can’t tell.

Evening, all!

urbandictionary.com lists three definitions for polk salad, all meaning essentially the same thing.

Also, I am proud to announce that urbandictionary.com now contains the definition I submitted for Obamomentum.

hey pb

OMG Ray! I so want this to be satire but it sure looks & sounds like a true story. WTF?

ok, changing it back again

Probably late Oct or early Nov ‘06. I think Jack is talking about the John Warner Defense Authorization Act 2007.. Passed in Oct or Nov ‘06.

changed back, everyone refresh the page

I beg to differ with your source – poke salat.

Polk, poke, it’s a poker shoot. Night, all.

g’nite LooHoo

if I never refreshed the 1st time, do I have to refresh a 3rd time?

I think my last comment qualifies me a genuine FDL Nerd.. Who else knows the details of the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 (passed in ‘06) *s*

You poke her, you brought her.

I’m beat. Nite, pups. See ya tomorrow. Stay warm everybody.

g’nite TOW

I refer the term political junkie to nerd, but yes, you qualify. ;)

What a weekend, I have to say, I LOVED the comments. Saturday’s Southern Dragon’s racing sports cars around Europe was my favorite.

Teddy,
You and my New York Mom… such a saying…

Sweet dreams TOW and Loo Hoo!

Heh, my question, too. How ya doing? Nothing blow away last week, I hope :-P

Agh, did I miss Loo Hoo?? G’night!

Cheery news: Long-Term Joblessness Spreads in Middle Class

An unusually large share of workers have been out a job for more than six months even as overall unemployment has remained low, a little-noted weakness in the labor market that analysts said threatens to intensify the impact of the unfolding economic downturn.

In November, nearly 1.4 million people — almost one in five of those unemployed — had been jobless for at least 27 weeks, the juncture when unemployment insurance benefits end for most recipients. That is about twice the level of long-term unemployment before the 2001 recession.

The problem is ensnaring a broader swath of workers than before. Once concentrated among manufacturing workers and those with little work history, education or skills, long-term unemployment is growing most rapidly among white-collar and college-educated workers with long work experience, studies have found, making the problem difficult for policymakers to address even as it grows more urgent.

you leaving pb?

No, just sayin’ good night to LooHoo. Ah well.

“You poke her, you brought her.”

That would be poke salute :-)

posted it on the ticker, thanks teddy

One of the problems that I see is the absolute (well comparatively) explosion of part time jobs, jobs that are jiggered to just below required benefits. That’s getting to be so common it doesn’t even surprise me anymore.

I just wonder who all these companies think is going to buy their shit after they get through shafting everyone into skid row?

spew i think i need several jars

the next set of worker bees. after we get used up, they plan on just replacing us with younger (and paid less with no benefits) – you know, the american way

Those same young’uns with all the various and sundry debts, forced to live with their parents still and unable to spend any extra money?

And again, I wonder who’s going to purchase their stuff …

I recommend this article on the status of Iraq and the Surge by conservative history professor Andrew Bracevich. (h/t Glenzilla)

Violent Neo-Nazi Radio Host Paid By FBI?

(from Alternet)

New Jersey radio host Hal Turner is well known as one of the most vicious neo-Nazis in America, a man who routinely suggests killing his enemies.

Railing against President Bush, he told his audience last June that “a well-placed bullet can solve a lot of problems.” He has written that “we need to start SHOOTING AND KILLING Mexicans as they cross the border” and argued that killing certain federal judges “may be illegal, but it wouldn’t be wrong.” In 2006, after he published an attack on New Jersey Supreme Court justices that also included several of their home addresses, state police massively beefed up security for the members of the court, checking on one justice’s house more than 200 times.

Hal Turner is one serious extremist. He may also be on the FBI payroll.

On Jan. 1, unidentified hackers electronically confronted Turner in the forum of his website for “The Hal Turner Show.” After a heated exchange, they told Turner that they had successfully hacked into his server and found correspondence with an FBI agent who is apparently Turner’s handler. Then they posted an alleged July 7 E-mail to the agent in which Turner hands over a message from someone who sent in a death threat against Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.). “Once again,” Turner writes to his handler, “my fierce rhetoric has served to flush out a possible crazy.” In what is allegedly a portion of another E-mail, Turner discusses the money he is paid.

On Thursday, as the E-mail exchange was heatedly discussed on a major neo-Nazi website, Turner suddenly announced he was quitting political work. “I hereby separate from the ‘pro-White’ movement,” he said, adding that he was ending his radio show immediately. “I will no longer involve myself in any aspect of it.”

Dang, I’m not the night owl I used to be…peepers are shutting down, so I’m gonna close up the laptop before I drop it off the side of the bed or something in a snooze.

Nighty!

sleep tight, pb

don’t let the bread bugs bite

g’nite pb

dang, kirk, i’m not sure what to think of that.

Corps and profits moving off-shore in the next 12 mos, a la Haliburton?

Nice piece. I wonder if there’s a Democrat capable of making it into a cogent electoral argument against his or her challenger…
Thanks.

nite peanut butter

Tony Joe White is supposed to have been one of the best all time Austin City Limit Shows. It’s available free here.

BTW, Asian markets are all way down. Keep your rich friends away from ledges.

Wow. Never heard of the guy. I have a new obsession. Just listened to “Rainy night in Georgia.” Lord have mercy, I melted when he started on that mouth harp. THANK YOU.

you are welcome, LiberalTarian (and i must say, i do like your name)

The Frames, with Glen Hansard. ONCE Please see… great band.

that ’sock it to me’ at the end made me smile – took me right back to laugh in and judy carne.

kirk picking up the Bay Area punster mantle in punaise’s absence….

peepers now slamming shut – ‘night pups…

g’nite oc

Are US markets closed tomorrow and, if so, will there be two days of bad news trading pressure built up when they open on Tuesday?

tis a federal holiday so i think they are closed. not good at all

I believe they are closed, as always on federal holidays. I’m wondering myself whether that will damp the Asia fallout; Tokyo’s closed for the day, but HK and Singapore just took sharp turns further downward.

Are US markets closed tomorrow and, if so, will there be two days of bad news trading pressure built up when they open on Tuesday?

I had the same question…the Asian markets are getting hammered.

Niters Old Coastie – sweet dreams.

There have been no comments appended to Mrs Howell’s latest screed since early this morning.

Kinda sad. I think she might be leaving soon, too. She last told us she had a two-year contract on January 22, 2006, although she started in November 2005. Perhaps, being Lovey, she gets a three hour year tour?

good night OC

Teddy, I don’t know, but my instinct is to go buy 2 cans of coffee. If it goes up again I’ll really be hurting.
Maybe we need a Bank Holiday on Tuesday here.

did she cut off commenting or is it that nobody care what she says anymore?

Well, there will be another Asia session and two Europe sessions before US opens again, so who knows? On one hand, it could serve as a cooling-off period. On the other, someone might try to throw one by the players, you know, there being so many rotten eggs out there to choose from.

TSF do you think that the association of Rev Caldwell and the Metanoia Ministries with the Obama campaign will affect support in No Cal?

Exactly! And Matt Stoller documents that negative feedback to Obama in Nevada. I’m suggesting going a bit further and holding our feelings and our votes hostage. Obama dissed us, and it’ll take us a while to get over it, perhaps even past Super Tuesday

.

This came from here.

From MTP Sunday morning–Brokaw quoting Clinton from his book interview of her:

The Hill & Bill Show Gets Exposed On Meet The Press

TIM RUSSERT: And in 2002, after the Democrats lost the midterm elections, William Jefferson Clinton said, “The Democrats have to have ideas to win. We are MIA, missing in action on national security and have no positive plan for America’s domestic future.”

TOM BROKAW: In my book, “Boom”…she says that Ronald Reagan plays the music beautifully, and she talked about how he balanced the interests of the middle class and took on the Soviets.

JON MEACHAM: I think this is a closely argued, closely fought election on both sides. And the one person, which Mike Gerson makes this point for us this week, who could in fact unite the Republican Party, is Hillary Clinton..

Only twenty comments, I’m sure she hasn’t cut them off.

Don’t know if this was noted here:
More thuggery.

lil debbie will probably say it was because of the holiday weekend or some other face saving excuse

Yup

Anyone wanna argue about Hil and Barack? I hope not.

Just back from the premiere of my Winter Songs< </a>/em> in Anchorage. For coloratura soprano, violin, clarinet and piano. They kicked some serious butt and the audience loved ‘em. I’m happy, happy…

congrats ET

teddy, that diary used a term i am not familiar with – intersex people.

One of the best performances of my music ever, anywhere. Probably won’t be able to sleep all night. I should be able to get a recording up at my garge band site by mid-week.

sweet, et, let me know when it is up please

EEE-TEE!
Great news!

I think national attention will be back on Alaska this coming week. Not because of me, though – Thank God! The GOP corruption indictments may be getting further down the tip of the iceberg.

how cold is it up there tonight, et

Plus 42F. We used about a gallon of windshield washer on the 90-mile trip to the concert and back. Had to pull over three times to clean the headlights.

Wonderful, ET!

dayam, i’m colder than you – am 38.3 now with clear skies.

Thanks, Margot…

Nice piece. [link @ #71] I wonder if there’s a Democrat capable of making it into a cogent electoral argument against his or her challenger…

I wonder if there’s one that wants to. I saw the front runners decline to have the troops out by the end of their first time, if elected. I’m told they’ve since revised/qualified that, but it seems to have been managed with a minimum of fanfare — like their hearts weren’t really into really getting the troops out. Not like Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson, and Ron Paul were.

Congratulations on your success, ET. The poems are certainly lovely.

TOM BROKAW: In my book, “Boom”… [Hillary] says that Ronald Reagan plays the music beautifully, and she talked about how he balanced the interests of the middle class and took on the Soviets.

So Brokaw claimed today that Hillary claimed some time or other in the past that Reagan “balanced the interests of the middle class.” If so, she was in error — depending, of course, on what her definition of “balanced” is. ;-)

Presumably, she did not make that claim during a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

They are. I found a bunch over the years I wanted to write about winter. These were the best.

I’m in and outta fdl, writing my newest rant about GOP criminals in AK. Hard to keep up!

ok, pups, i’m outta here. g’nite all.

nite suzanne

‘SOkay, fIght the good fight!

I’m in and outta fdl, writing my newest rant about GOP criminals in AK.

Now that you mention it, I don’t recall any of the Dems bringing up GOP criminality in their campaign. Of course, they’re now running against each other, and there’ll be plenty of time to raise such matters during the general election.

Nevertheless, they could brag about what they intend to do about criminality in high office in general, and compare their resolve to enforce the rule of law to that of their opponent. Sigh!

Sweet dreams Suzanne.

One of the best performances of my music ever, anywhere.

Wow. Great. Congratulations.

Presumably, she did not make that claim during a campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Please allow me to extend your thoughts, wigwam…
Because the Clintons may have made similar statements, Obama gets a pass? Bill and Hillary are well known for their middling stances on a very wide array of topics. But Senator Obama is a blank slate on many topics, and on some that he has been asked about, he has been less than clear.
The most investigated political couple in the 20th century are pretty well vetted. Your guy? Not so much.

And by the way, what kind of nitwit Democrat gets taped intoning the spirit of the Reagan years (particularly when he had to know that the Clintons had visited the topic) during his candidacy for the Presidential nomination? This one. We aren’t just entitled to look very hard at him, we would be irresponsible not to.

So Brokaw claimed today that Hillary claimed some time or other in the past that Reagan “balanced the interests of the middle class.” If so, she was in error — depending, of course, on what her definition of “balanced” is. ;-)

Brokaw was quoting her from his bestselling book Boom! I’d have to get hold of the book to see exactly when he did the interview or got the quote from her. I saw it as I was replaying it after the games, but he didn’t say specifically.

I’ve just been trying to say–I read the comments on the earlier thread “About the Raegan Thing” and many many people that from being here for months, I know I agree with on scores of issues and despise the same things about the current administration that they all do are awfully outraged at Obama thinking that his comments should be reason to chose Clinton over Obama.

I think this goes back to what I’ve been noticing as a race for President gets closer and closer–every nanomolecule of what they say or have said even before the campaign gets pulled out of context to champion one candidate or another or to be fair, to help make a decision for one candidate and against another, and I think any of us are more likely to make the best decision if you step back, look closely at what they said, and then try to get as much additional information about that candidate as possible. Try to see what else they have said, and try to get details of what they stand for–and getting the details isn’t easy–because the nature of a campaign in my experience is that they don’t want to commit to too many details out of fear they’ll offend someone.

They walk a fine line–we want details and we have every right to get them (not to mention that we all hear a lot of promises during a campaign that take the tricky hard work of getting these ideas through Congress for most of them to happen (not all–Iraq withdrawal would be one). A lot of people have examined their ideas comparing them–like health care, taxes, economic proposals, etc. and found that the devil is in the details that aren’t there.

I don’t recall any of the Dems bringing up GOP criminality in their campaign. Of course, they’re now running against each other, and there’ll be plenty of time to raise such matters during the general election.

*g* They had better. I mean if they do it right, and frame it well, they have a ton of hard hitting material. That’s one of the many reasons why you’re seeing so much obfuscation, and so much email and backup deletion, and so much refusal on the part of DOJ to really investigate anything right now–and why the last thing Mukasey is about to do is to appoint a special counsel for CIA tapes or anything else. It’s why DOJ says they can’t prosecute Blackwater or the State Department for the alleged rapes and why the investigations drag on for 1-2 years. They are running out the clock in terms of the 2008 election.

epu’d…

(and btw – this comment is not about Obama – it’s about political “analysis” that substitutes personalities for deeds and documented history. I could make the same point about Hillary’s corporatist/imperial foreign policy team I make about Obama’s.)

The Audacity of Smoke

Is Ari Berman on crack, or just on Obama’s PR team?

And WTF is wrong with The Nation – are they hiring Patrick Henry grads from NPR’s reject pool for their fact-checkers?

I researched the names behind Berman’s list of “forward-thinking” Obama advisers (below) in 90 minutes with half a pizza, a glass of elderly nouveau beaujolais, SourceWatch, and a few neurons that listened to news in the late 70’s and survive to recall it.

Jeebus, I don’t know what’s sadder: The Nation paying someone to write such crap, or their subscribers actually believing it.

Berman:

Obama’s team includes some of the most forward-thinking members of the Democratic foreign policy establishment–Joseph Cirincione and Lawrence Korb of the Center for American Progress, the party’s leading experts on nonproliferation and defense issues, respectively, along with former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke and Carter Administration National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski. Added to the mix are fresh faces who were at times critical of the Clinton Administration, like Harvard professor Samantha Power, author of “A Problem From Hell”, a widely acclaimed history of US responses to genocide. These names suggest that Obama may be more open to challenging old Washington assumptions and crafting new approaches.

More open than what? Darth’s coronary arteries?

Like Clinton, Obama has more than 200 foreign policy advisers. The campaigns have been dueling over who has the best bench. (Many people who have been linked with Obama are actually advising Clinton, her advisers say.) Obama’s advisers tend to be younger, more progressive–having opposed the war from the start–and more likely to stress “soft power” issues like human rights, global development and the dangers of failed states.

The word Obama advisers use most often to describe Clinton is “conventional.”

Uhh…Ari…

Let’s look at these indications that Sen. Suited Smile is “challenging old Washington assumptions and crafting new approaches.”

Cirencione:

“He is a frequent commentator on proliferation and security issues in the media, and teaches at the Georgetown University Graduate School of Foreign Service.

“Mr. Cirincione worked for nine years in the U.S. House of Representatives: six years on the professional staff of the Committee on Armed Services and three and one-half years on the Committee on Government Operations, and served as staff director of the Military Reform Caucus under Congressmen Tom Ridge and Charles Bennett. He is the author of numerous articles on proliferation and nuclear weapons issues, the editor of Repairing the Regime (Routledge, 2000), the producer of the DVD, The Proliferation Threat, and the publisher and editor of the Internet site, ProliferationNews.org. He has held positions at the Henry L. Stimson Center, the U.S. Information Agency, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and previously at the Carnegie Endowment.

“He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is an honors graduate of Boston College and holds a Masters of Science with highest honors from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service.” [1]

I can hear the Establishment quaking…

oh…wait..it’s the tinkle of ice in cocktail glasses

Now onto that grizzled Trotskyite Lawrence Korb:

Lawrence J. Korb, born July 9, 1939, in New York City, is a member of the Intellibridge Expert Network and Vice President and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair, and Director of National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Center for American Progress.

In 1981, Korb was Director of Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and had served as an adjunct scholar for Federal budget analysis at the Institute since 1972. He was an adviser to the Reagan-Bush committee in 1980 and served as a member of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency transition team. In 1981, Korb was appointed as Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations and Logistics) by Ronald Reagan and continued in that capacity until 1985. “In that position, he administered about seventy percent of the defense budget. His responsibilities included: recruiting and training the five million active duty reserve and civilian employees of the Department of Defense; maintaining the U.S. worldwide military base structure; and establishing supply, maintenance, and transportation policies for the land, sea, and air forces of the United States. For his service in that position, he was awarded the Department of Defense’s medal for Distinguished Public Service … In the past he has served as a Consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and to the Office of Education. He was a member of the Defense Advisory Committee for President-Elect Reagan (1980), and a member of the Defense Issues Group for President-Elect George Herbert Walker Bush (1988). “[1][2]

Meet the new cold warrior. Same as the old cold warrior.

Now on for a look at that Hero of the Revolution Samantha Power.

(gotta love the name)

Samantha Power “is a professor of practice at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Her recent book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction, the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award for general non-fiction, and the Council on Foreign Relations’ Arthur Ross Prize for the best book in US foreign policy.

“Prof. Power was the founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy (1998-2002). From 1993-1996, she covered the wars in the former Yugoslavia as a reporter for the US News and World Report, the Boston Globe, and the Economist. She currently contributes to the New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. Prof. Power is the editor, with Graham Allison, of Realizing Human Rights: Moving from Inspiration to Impact (St. Martin’s, 2000). A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, she moved to the United States from Ireland at the age of nine. She is currently working on a book on the United Nations.” [1]

[snip]

“In 1996 she worked for the International Crisis Group (ICG) as a political analyst.”

* U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea – Board of directors

Lordy, lordy, lordy.

Now who got together to make that nice ‘ol ICG?

From 1993-98 Lynne A. Davidson as Senior Associate for Human Rights and Special Assistant to Ambassador Morton I. Abramowitz, … she helped to shape the original proposal for the International Crisis Group“. [1]

More on Abramowitz, the US Ambassador of Armaments – to the Taliban:

Presidents come and go but the continuity of U.S. policy is ensured by a small elite of policy-makers who remain outside party politics – and often outside public view. An influential member of this foreign policy establishment is Morton Abramowitz, whose career has involved him with both the Afghan mujahidin and Kosovo Albanian rebels. In 1986, as assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research in the Reagan administration, Abramowitz helped arrange delivery of the Stinger missiles. The collapse of the Soviet Union obliged U.S. policy-makers to redefine the “threat” justifying foreign intervention. The “war on terrorism”, launched by President Reagan in the early 1980s, was suffering by the end of the decade from a dearth of active terrorists. As president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the early 1990s, Abramowitz headed a project to develop a new U.S. foreign policy for the post-Cold War era. Rather than simply identifying “threats”, especially at a time when few threats could be seen, a successful new policy needed to combine promotion of U.S. interests with proclamation of American “ideals”.

From Diana Johnstone’s Fool’s Crusade, Pluto Press, 2002, p. 9:

Abramowitz continued to act from behind the scenes as an eminence grise for [US Secretary of State] Albright. He helped found the high-level International Crisis Group, a chief policy designer fro Bosnia and Kosovo. He was omnipresent behind the scenes of the Kosovo drama, both in making policy and in shaping elite business, government, and media opinion. He acted as an advisor to the Kosovo Albanian delegation at the Rambouillet talks, whose programmed breakdown provided the pretext for NATO bombing.

Nice blowback ya got there, Mr Ambassador.

“Ms. Davidson received the State Department’s Superior Honor Award in 1993, 2002 and 2005, Exceptional Performance Awards from the Central Intelligence Agency in 1998, 1999 and 2000, and the Director of Central Intelligence’s Director’s Award in 2001. She was educated at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.” [1]

Job well done in Langley’s eyes.

Looks like Prof. Power found her policy soul-mates.

And the Chicago Machine Tool had his chosen for him.

The Audacity of Smoke.

PS Edward S. Herman dissects Power in Z

Samantha Power can identify with Holbrooke because they both follow the U.S. party line on worthy and unworthy genocides. As the United States was directly involved in the great Vietnam genocide, as its leaders were part of the “joint criminal enterprise” with Indonesia in East Timor, and as they were mainly responsible for the “sanctions of mass destruction” and those 500,000 dead children whose deaths were “worth it” for Albright, Samantha Power evades these cases. Thus the Vietnam war, in which millions were directly killed by U.S. forces, does not show up in Power’s index or text. Guatemala, where there was a mass killing of as many as 100,000 Mayan Indians between 1978 and 1985, in what Amnesty International called “A Government Program of Political Murder,” but by a government installed and supported by the United States, also does not show up in Power’s index. Cambodia is of course included, but only for the second phase of the genocide—the first phase, from 1969-1975, in which the United States dropped some 500,000 tons of bombs on the Cambodian countryside and killed vast numbers, she fails to mention.

[snip]

A major U.S.-encouraged and supported genocide occurred in Indonesia in 1965-66 in which over 700,000 people were murdered. This genocide is not mentioned by Samantha Power and the names Indonesia and Suharto do not appear in her book’s index. She also fails to mention West Papua, where Indonesia’s 40 years of murderous occupation would constitute genocide under her criteria, if carried out under different auspices. Power does refer to East Timor, with extreme brevity, saying that “In 1975, when its ally, the oil-producing, anti-Communist Indonesia, invaded East Timor, killing between 100,000 and 200,000 civilians, the United States looked away.” [17] That exhausts her treatment of the subject, although the killings in East Timor involved a larger fraction of the population than in Cambodia, and the numbers killed were far larger than the grand total for Bosnia and Kosovo, to which she devotes almost a third of her book

She also misrepresents the U.S. role in East Timor—it did not “look away,” it gave its approval, protected the aggression from any effective UN response (in his autobiography, then U.S. Ambassador to the UN Daniel Patrick Moynihan bragged about his effectiveness in protecting Indonesia from any UN action), [18] and greatly increased its arms aid to Indonesia, thereby facilitating the genocide. And her pal Richard Holbrooke was also on the front line in servicing this genocide.

Power engages in a similar suppression and failure to recognize the U.S. role in her treatment of genocide in Iraq. She attends carefully and at length to Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical warfare and killing of Kurds at Halabja and elsewhere, and she does discuss the U.S. failure to oppose and take any action against Saddam Hussein at this juncture. But she does not mention the diplomatic rapproachement with Saddam in the midst of his war with Iran in 1983, the active U.S. logistical support of Saddam during that war, and the U.S. approval of sales and transfers of chemical and biological weapons during the period in which he was using chemical weapons against the Kurds. She also doesn’t mention the active efforts by the United States and Britain to block UN actions that might have obstructed Saddam’s killings.

The killing of over a million Iraqis via the “sanctions of mass destruction” is unmentioned by Samantha Power.

[snip]

Power is concerned about genocide in Iraq today and wrote recently on how to bring it to a halt (“How to stop genocide in Iraq,” Los Angeles Times, March 5, 2007). But nowhere does she mention that the mass killing that has taken place in Iraq traces back to the U.S. invasion in violation of the UN Charter; nowhere does she mention that the killing has grown in parallel with the occupation and occupation policies; nowhere does she mention Fallujah and other cases of mass killing for which her leaders are responsible; and nowhere does she hint at the possibility that the United States has stimulated ethnic conflict as part of a divide and rule strategy. When Bush claims to be “surging” in the interest of stability and to reduce conflict, Power never contests this or suggests some alternative explanation. Somebody better informed on Iraq like the exile Sami Ramadani writes that “It is hard not to presume that what he [Bush] means by an exit strategy is to install a client regime in Baghdad, backed by US bases. The Iraqi people will not accept this, and the west should be alerted to the fact that US policy objectives will only lead to wider regional conflicts, rather than to full withdrawal.” [20] Samantha Power cannot formulate or admit such a critical analysis.

When Power talks about “atrocities” it is always indigenous forces that engage in them, not the U.S. occupation.

And by the way, what kind of nitwit Democrat gets taped intoning the spirit of the Reagan years (particularly when he had to know that the Clintons had visited the topic) during his candidacy for the Presidential nomination? This one. We aren’t just entitled to look very hard at him, we would be irresponsible not to.

You’re getting carried away and whatever candidate you back, you owe it to yourself to look at all their comments and I guess I can’t get you to look at what Obama actually said. He didn’t get taped intoning the spirit of the Reagan years. The spirit of the Raegan years including Raegonmics is what we hate here. He simply said Raegan had ideas and they had a chemistry that helped make some of them happen. It’s true. But every one of those ideas were bad ideas, and I knew it when I saw them unfold–and Obama has said so, and I expect you’ll hear him saying more of it after the huge reaction from some of the Dem base.

Obama’s far from a nitwit–and you’re about to see that play out. Obama will take SC easily, Clinton is leading in the Fla. polls now. Super Tuesday is going to say a lot about where things go from there.

The nitwits aren’t the 3 candidates you theoretically have to choose from in the Democratic primary–believe me–they are on the otherside. There you get the kind of nitwitism that Frank Rich and Krugman talk about in their columns week after week.

Here’s some of what your looking for in Monday’s NYT:

Debunking the Reagan Myth

Well.. I just got lost in the unknown world (to me) of bit torrent.. At least I am downloading into azureus.. Who knows if I will ever be able to view it.

Good night firedogs.

{{{{{Dr. Murphy}}}}}

bookmarked!

Wow ET (scuffs shoes, looks at ground)

aw, shucks

You’re getting carried away and whatever candidate you back, you owe it to yourself to look at all their comments and I guess I can’t get you to look at what Obama actually said. He didn’t get taped intoning the spirit of the Reagan years. The spirit of the Raegan years including Raegonmics is what we hate here. He simply said Raegan had ideas and they had a chemistry that helped make some of them happen. It’s true.

No dice.
From the transcript…

I don’t want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what’s different are the times. I do think that for example the 1980 was different. I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn’t much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.

Parsed any way you like, there is deep admiration for Reagan here. We simply choose to view it differently. I have chosen to investigate further into Obama’s themes and public statements because when a real contender for the Democratic Presidential nomination praises (in my opinion) a leader upon whom precisely zero congratulations are due, lauds a singularly scurrilous wanker of the Republican Party, I worry. And I follow up. As a lifelong and devoted Democrat, I can do no less.

Well.. I just got lost in the unknown world (to me) of bit torrent.. At least I am downloading into azureus.. Who knows if I will ever be able to view it.

Good night firedogs.

If I can help you with that let me know. The tricky thing about some of the downloads is their kooky compression files–and burning them.

If you’re looking for something to burn .avis to DVD–I can show you a good free program that works well.

nite Eureka

Good gawd, Kirk.. Samantha “disconnect” Powers…

really.. good night

As newtonusr noted, in the years since 1992 Hillary has had a lot of exposure, and we know a lot about her. Barack by contrast is something of an enigma. He avoids specificity like the plague. He has finely honed the motherhood-and-apple-pie political pitch. But there’s a very important fundamental area where he and I have an absolutely opposite worlview:

“So we have a deficit to close. We have walls – barriers to justice and equality – that must come down. And to do this, we know that unity is the great need of this hour….” Barack Obama 1/20/08

Yes, there are barriers to justice and equality. No, the problem is not a “lack of unity.” In fact, the problem is too much unity. The loyal opposition is too long on loyalty and way short on opposition.

A president’s greatest freedom of action, and the thing a president can do without a fight, is to implement the platform of the opposing party. Their own party goes along out of loyalty, and the opposition goes along because it’s their agenda. For example, in 1964 Johnson ran as a peace candidate against Goldwater who insisted we had to send troops to Vietnam, but within a year of getting elected Johnson did exactly what he ran against. I trusted Johnson. And now Obama is running as the trust-me candidate. I’ll create change-and-harmony, trust me. There is no way to get the troops back, the criminals out of the justice department, taxes restored, etc. without a fight. I won’t happen harmoniously. And, when the going gets ugly, which way is Obama going to go?

That’s my problem with him.

Meanwhile, I’ve got to get some sleep. Thanks for the fine discussion.

Sleep well, ES – may only benign Power surround you and your dreams.

I think this is the time for the digging exactly as you’re doing. If only all the people who vote had the capacity to drill down the way I know you will.

The pragmatic campaign lesson or “takehome” from people who are strongly critical of Obama for the perception they got–I mean you can’t help but see the comments–they are going to be played ad nauseam now for the rest of the campaign– seems to be don’t ever–ever mention an icon or leader of another party while you’re campaigning. And it doesn’t seem to matter what the context is you intended. I think Reagan is so incredibly over-rated as Saint Reagan as Jane Hamsher referred to him a while ago.

nite wigwam

Sleep well wigwam – hoping the only Power(s) to visit you are friends and protectors.

I try to skewer a local rightwing AM radio host.

I think one of the problems for Obama to solve is how to balance the rhetorical talents that he is using to inspire that got him into this position far beyond their expectations with the details that people are asking for.

Good nite everyone.

nite pete

ET, I’d say you eviscerated him, but you clearly describe he’s lacking eviscerable parts.

Great shredding!

g’nite Pete – good dreams!

heh, heh…

Ouch!
I know nothing about Hinkle, but he seems a likable Patriot.
The other guy reminds me of now-ousted Gooper Congressman J. D. Hayworth, who to my shock and glee, now appears on a late night infomercial hawking “free” money from the Federal Government to use to buy property!
Way to go!

wingnut welfare has so many layers. like an onion. makes me want to cry.

Yep. There he is in his cowboy boots and shiny crew-cut, a’grinnin’ and accompanying some TV studio sleazoids. It’s hilarious and frightening.

And another thing:

Samantha Power “is a professor of practice (blah, blah, blah)”.

WTF is a “professor of practice” in the US foreign policy imperium?

What do they profess?

The diplomatic theology for shooting and killing funny-talkin’ people so we can take more of their stuff and land?

The political “how” to grab from funny-talkin’ people?

They can’t be professing the religious theology of why we deserve to take the funny-talkin people’s stuff and land.

The “why” is the U of Chicago economists’ territory.

They own the Cult of The Free Market.

Kind of a monopoly thing.

Oddly enough, just like the congregation.

if a lurking mod could delete one of the “a” before “monopoly”, I’d be most aapreciaative.

Hard refresh, Kirk.

*G*

Polk salad — eaten raw (like a tossed green salad) is nothing to mess with. When I was a kid, my father tried to poison my brother and me with that. Well, we claimed that. LOL My mother was out of town and he was sold some from a door-to-door farm man. He bought it, had heard about polk salad, so assumed it was to be eaten like a tossed green salad. My brother and I took one bite and refused to eat any more. We were sent to our rooms. So — my father ate even more. When my mother got home, my brother and I were crying that “daddy tried to kill us” and my father was VERY sick. We non-southerners learned a big lesson that day!

Of course, Tony Joe White had the name wrong – it’s POKE salad