Good Morning Attaturk!

GW Bush DID promise in his 2000 campaign to be “a uniter”….

Does this mean that about 10% of the mouth-breathers have come “back to life” and that it is possible that before November there will be no one who thinks “America is on the right track?”

1,801 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Attaturk and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

The dismantling of the social and political institutions that hold this pluralist society together have been purposfully dismantled in order to facilitate the theft of the public treasury and the transfer of wealth from the common repositories into private hands and the mortaging of future public income to China and Japan. The Marxist anaysis of end-stage capitalism is bein’ played out on Wall Street and in the residential communities all around the country while the oil oligarchy uses the might of the democratic government and military to secure the last ounces of gold for the last barrels of petroleum.

And, of course we know that Ronald Reagan brought us the victory of capitalism over communism but ya gotta read Marx to understand how he did it.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, FASCISM WON’T GO AWAY WITHOUT A FIGHT!!

It’s been a nightmare without end for eight years and ya gotta know there is going to be a Grand Finale with a parting shot out of this bunch.
There will be thousands of history articles about the Bush administration and you know what?
Fifty years from now it will be ancient history , we will be long dead and no one is going to give a shit. Thats why I am all for hunting down every fucking one of the criminal sonsabitches after next January and having investigations and trials still going on after I am dead and gone.

If nobody is going to give a shit why not go fishing. Life is pretty goddamn short.

BAGHDAD — More than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen either refused to fight or simply abandoned their posts during the inconclusive assault against Shiite militias in Basra last week, a senior Iraqi government official said Thursday. Iraqi military officials said the group included dozens of officers, including at least two senior field commanders in the battle.

I wonder how many of those people that said the country is on the wrong track actually would think to blame George Bush for anything. If they turn around in November and elect McCain president we will know the answer to that.

Bush does only two things well,” said one of the most distinguished historians. “He knows how to make the very rich very much richer, and he has an amazing talent for f**king up everything else he even approaches. His administration has been the most reckless, dangerous, irresponsible, mendacious, arrogant, self-righteous, incompetent, and deeply corrupt one in all of American history.”

yet impeachment is off the table

pelosi fails or refuses to understand, the worst is yet to come, as the worst has progressed exponentially, there will be more damage by factors not by progressions

she must, she absolutely must make sure no more damage is done

there is only one way to do that

I really wish pelosi would remove herself from her position, she is not capable, she has been promoted to a position of failure, she is the peter principle defined

actually would think

now that is funny

One has to wonder what Martin Luther King would think of this outrageous assshole in the WH.

On January 21st 2009 we will, hopefully, be a step closer to that promised land.

I wonder how many of those people that said the country is on the wrong track actually would think to blame George Bush for anything. If they turn around in November and elect McCain president we will know the answer to that.

before there was this much hatred for bush we won the election and bush had to steel and cage votes, close demcratic districts to make it look like he didn’t flip votes to win

there is not a chance on the planet a republican can win this election

except if we allow their electronic machines, if we allow them to turn our voters from the polls, if we allow them to close and under equip our precincts

a republican can not possibly win a real election

but we have been far to timid in resurecting an honest vote and I am certain there will be votes stolen, caging, democratic precincts closed and under equipped

fear not the voters, fear those that count the votes

January 21, 2009
The end of an era error.

it might be quite literally the end of an ear

do you know when the next stellar era arrives?

I believe it is some time soon, the arrival of aquarious I believe, the water bearer,

this is the actual “armageddon” the bible talks about, it doesn’t talk about the end of man, the onset of slaughter, it talks about the era ofhe water bearer

but tell that to these dispensationalists and they have no clue what you are on about

January 21, 2009
The end of an era error.

Sooooo right!

And maybe, can we hope, the beginning of action by the International courts to bring these war criminals to justice.

oops, the end of the fish, at the door of the water bearer,,,fish, pisces, the fisherman, all that

JUst in case KayinMaine is lurking I want her to know that the snow has just started and will be coming her way in a few hours…. enjoy!!!!!

too early for me, off to the coffee shop so I can post rationally

oops, the end of the fish, at the door of the water bearer,,,fish, pisces, the fisherman, all that

Raven is going fishing.

OT: A number of people have asked whether John Yoo could be fired from his tenured professorship at the Univ. of Calif, Berkeley for professional misconduct. The short answer is: “It’s not likely.”

The University of California’s faculty code of conducts lists among its types of unacceptable behavior: “Commission of a criminal act which has led to conviction in a court of law and which clearly demonstrates unfitness to continue as a member of the faculty.” Perhaps a dean and/or discipline committee might include disbarrment as well as criminal conviction.

But, quite by coincidence, while I was googling around this morning, I stumbled across this in this morning’s NYT:

For what is believed to be the first time in the 123-year history of the nine-campus University of California, a faculty member with tenure has been dismissed.

The faculty member, Michel Strickmann, an associate professor in the Oriental languages department at the University of California at Berkeley and a widely recognized expert in Oriental religions, was dismissed at the end of the spring semester.

University officials said laws of confidentiality prevented them from discussing the reasons, but two confirmed that sexual harassment charges had been filed by students against Mr. Strickmann and that those charges, along with other factors, had led to the dismissal. Charges Are Denied.

[…]

1,891 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Raven:

“If nobody is going to give a shit why not go fishing.”

Well, I am gunna go fishin’ AND riase some righteous hell with the fascist overloards who are stealin’ our history anhd seelin off my childrens’ future. History either happens to ya while yer sleepin’ or you ken be a part of it while yer awake…I chose ta look the bastards right in the eye and I sure as hell ain’t gunna let ‘em keep me from the Walleye opener!

KEEP THE FAITH, BROTHER RAVEN…THE WAR AIN’T DONE WITH YA YET, BRO!!

In the poll, 81 percent of respondents said they believed “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track,” up from 69 percent a year ago and 35 percent in early 2002…The dissatisfaction is especially striking because public opinion usually hits its low point only in the months and years after an economic downturn, not at the beginning of one.

well, this author loses credibility here

the economy has been in a depression for years, this is NOT the “beginning of an economic downturn”, we have been in that for far more then a few months

the only differance now is the downturn cannot be denied by corporate media, they have to admit it, but it’s been here since the middle of this president’s first term.

sorry to rain on his parade

I don’t care as much his tenure be revoked if that is against their bi laws

but yoo must be disbarred and his decisions and writings rendered irrelevant

we must do that for those memos to turn into water

well, this author loses credibility here
the economy has been in a depression for years, this is NOT the “beginning of an economic downturn”, we have been in that for far more then a few months

Are you licensed to disagree with MSM or are you one of those left wing rabble rousers?

Good morning, pups. It’s that idiot Bobo and Krugman in the NYT today. Bobo (who was born in 1961 and must know whereof he speaks /snark) writes about “The View From Room 306,” and says if Barack Obama’s campaign represents anything, it is the triumph of Martin Luther King Jr.’s early-’60s style of activism over the angry and reckless late-’60s style. Well, Bobo, maybe people got “angry and reckless” in the late 60s when Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy had been killed, and there was no end in sight to Vietnam, and let’s not forget Chicago in 1968. I sure as shit was angry… Mr. Krugman’s column is titled “Voodoo Health Economics” and he says it’s about time someone made the case that John McCain’s approach to health care is based on the foolish claim that the marketplace can produce cheap health care for all.

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and the Thomas’ English muffins are all hot and crispy. Which is a good thing, because Bobo has made me cross and I need to bite something. Have a great Friday.

Worse yet, Pelosi is wilfully blocking the only constitutional avenue to stopping Bush’s authorization of war crimes, specifically waterboarding, which his spokesman admits he has authorized in the past and will authorize in the future should the need arise. Under the doctrine of “command responsibility”, the U.S. executed General Yamashita, not for commiting war crimes, and not for authorizing war crimes, but for failing to stop them.

The author could be trying to point out the the “downturn” is just getting started. In other words, instead of this being the start of negative growth in economy, the negative growth in the economy will be with us for years to come.

I say let him keep his tenure.

It should make him real popular in the Hague…

last year my company had it’s worst economic year in it’s 46 year history, for the first time ever we lost money

this year we are 14 percent behind those numbers’

one of my suppliers from canada told me, “perris, we are not going to raise prices on you this year, because the exchange rate is already going to kill you, if we raised prices on top of that you might be put out of business”

and he is correct, I could no longer sell my product if the price increase included both exchange rate and supplier increase

we are in very tough times and we can survive possibly one more year without a turn around

I think that disbarrment is a very real possibility and should be pursued.

I highly doubt John Yoo has already earned tenure.

I’m curious if the LA times, after blasting his infamous memo and its consequences, will continue to publish his totalitarian views on their op-ed page.

Good morning MArion I will have hot choc if I may as it is snowing AGAIN!!!

And the international evidence on health care costs is overwhelming: the United States has the most privatized system, with the most market competition — and it also has by far the highest health care costs in the world.

Krugman pulls apart the bullshit that is McVains health plan.

This is another gem

McCain wants to privatize and, in effect, dismantle the V.A. Naturally, this destructive agenda comes wrapped in the flag: “America’s veterans have fought for our freedom,” says the McCain Web site. “We should give them freedom to choose to carry their V.A. dollars to a provider that gives them the timely care at high quality and in the best location.”

And I suppose he likes the privatizing of killing with the likes of Blackwater.

His title is “Professor of Law” according to his Berkeley profile. Full professors have tenure.
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/fa.....?facID=235

I highly doubt John Yoo has already earned tenure.

John Yoo is a full professor, and at the University of California, unlike many other universities, all full professors have tenure.

Rats. Well, I suppose they could relocate his office to the storage room next to the boiler and assign him one class, possibly “Things That May Get You Disbarred 101,” and then wait for him to illustrate it…

Thanks for that LA Times link. I really like their last paragraph:

Indefensibly, McCain voted against the legislation to require the CIA to abide by the Army Field Manual. Although Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) weren’t present for the vote, they endorsed the legislation. If nothing else, the belated outcry over the Yoo memo should strengthen the resolve of Congress to force the president to make good on his promise that “we do not torture” by sending this legislation back to him again until he signs it or it is approved over his veto.

Maybe I’ll eventually forgive them for publishing so much of Yoo’s nonsense.

Hmm, a Google search showed me pretty quickly that he has been tenured since 1999. My bad.

If he is tenured, it would be very difficult to dislodge him. But the outrage he has generated could lead to increased scrutiny on his academic work. Given strong public pressure on the University, a slip up could cost him his job, a la Ward Churchill.

You have to work on donors to dislodge Yoo.

You have to work on donors to dislodge Yoo.

That works at private universities, but not at U.C.

here’s what’s on Washington Journal this sad anniversary of the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.

7:30 am - Bill Press, Author, “Trainwreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution”

From Publishers Weekly [via Amazon]
In a domestic cooptation of the neocon End of History thesis, talk radio host Press (Spin This!) argues that conservatism’s record of failure should condemn it to a subordinate place in American politics—it can survive to check the excess of the majority, argues Press, but must never again be allowed to govern.

8:30 am - Christopher Padilla, Commerce Undersecretary for International Trade

Mr. Padilla is responsible for leading the International Trade Administration, which participates in the development of U.S. trade policy; identifies and resolves market access and compliance issues; promotes American competitiveness and the strength of U.S. companies in the global economy; administers U.S. trade laws; and undertakes a range of trade promotion and trade advocacy efforts. The International Trade Administration has more than 2,200 dedicated individuals posted at U.S. embassies and commercial offices around the world. trade.gov

9:30 am - Clarence Jones, Former Attorney & Speechwriter to Martin Luther King, Jr.

It was Jones who helped draft the civil rights leader’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech. It was Jones, King’s personal attorney and one of his closest confidants, who smuggled out the minister’s 1963 “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” in which he told fellow pastors why he thought civil disobedience was necessary. USA Today

I think that all the big state universities have large endowments, though I’m too busy to google Berkeley’s this morning. Heck, I’ve been on the Foundation Board of SUNY-New Paltz. NYS is well behind other large state universities and even they’re trying hard to build up endowments. So I suspect Berkeley would be very subject to donor pressure.

Perhaps a felony conviction and disbarment might help with the Yoo problem

Morning all :)
Me thinks that folks maybe waking up from their slumbers…About time….:)
I tried to Digg this but got a fatal error, is it just me or is The Lake not welcome to Digg anymore??

Perhaps a felony conviction and disbarment might help with the Yoo problem

the obvious solution

Conyers calls out Mukasey:

We are writing about two disturbing recent revelations concerning the actions and inactions by the Department of Justice and the federal government to combat terrorism. These include a public statement by you that appears to suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of the federal government’s existing surveillance authority to combat terrorism, as well as possible malfeasance by the government prior to 9/11, and the partial disclosure of the contents of a secret Department memorandum concerning Executive Branch authority to combat terrorism, which has been previously requested to be provided to Congress. We ask that you promptly provide that memorandum and that you clarify your public statement in accordance with the questions below.

[…]

Occams razor

I tried to Digg this but got a fatal error

it does appear to be broken this morning

‘yet impeachment is off the table’
I keep thinking about the quote from FDR (?) re; The New Deal(?)
‘OK, you’ve convinced me, NOW make me do it’ (paraphrased)

wigwam,
Here’s a $113 million gift.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/m.....lett.shtml

Per the faculty code of conduct, a conviction would suffice. And, I suspect that disbarrment for facilitating war crimes would as well (but that’s not an example in the code of conduct). Donor pressure definitely would not. IIRC, when Reagan was governor, he tried and failed to get mathematician Stephen Smale fired.

I noticed yesterday a lot of folks here were having the same problem. Hmmm, I’m going to see if it is just us or the digg system….

Per Josh Marshall at TPM:

There are so many reasons why candidates should be paying Mark Penn to stay as far away from their campaigns as possible. But this is yet another. Having your key campaign advisor also be an international man of mystery-cum-PR-lobbyist-cheeseball is fairly problematic. But for Hillary’s sake, when her political future is on the line in a state like Pennsylvania, wracked by the loss of industrial jobs for decades, you think he could have waited a few more weeks before prancing off to help get a new free trade pact passed?

Shit, they’re going to use this to justify something bad…..

ASHKELON, Israel (Reuters) - ‘A top aide to Israeli Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter was wounded by gunfire from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Friday during a border tour with a delegation from Canada, medical staff said.’
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200.....iolence_dc

in this instance (yoo) i think i have a real problem with going the route of donor pressure - unless it was initiated by the students and faculty of berkeley. i’d much prefer efforts to make the law school in particular and the uc system in general pay a price for their decision to hire yoo - a price in their prestige and reputation.

this can be done is many ways - locally via letters to the editor of school and community newpapers, letters to berkeley staff responsible for the hiring decision and all others in positions of influence - all the way up to the chancellor. and yoo should not be able to show up any where in public without there being a protest of some kind to serve as a reminder of both what he has done and the public’s condemnation.

well, at those prices and at that school, if I were a student I wouldn’t sign up for anything Yoo taught. Eventually he’ll be teaching to empty desks in the janitor’s closet.

I didn’t mean to imply that there aren’t donors, rather that they don’t have that kind of leverage. In fact, at even at the best private universities they don’t.

Good morning Attaturk! Love this: “…1.8 percent classified it as a success.” Bah hahahahahahaha! Hysterical.

Gee, could have fooled me. My impression from serving on a Board is that donors have a lot of leverage. Don’t see it in the headlines ’cause it’s done behind the scenes, but it’s there.

leverage to get tenured full professors fired?

ecahn - i’d expect the leverage to be more of the kind that would prevent him from getting a good endowed chair, or the best office space, or classroom space. the kind of thing that can drive someone crazy and make them want to go elsewhere. but fired? a tenured full professor? have you ever seen such a thing (not asking for names or anything, a yes/no answer is good enough).

On what grounds could Yoo be disbarred? I doubt outrageous legal advice/opinion would lead to such action. I’ll be in a nursing home before he’s ever charged with a crime in connection with his writings. Yoo probably wrote the one other memo we know exists on this subject. It’s referenced in the latest memo and is included in the ACLU’s current FOIA request. UC Berkeley may be able to dislodge him based on his written material being “not in the best interests” of the university, similar to the Ward Churchill dismissal but without the witch hunt aspect, although the lizard brains would shout witch hunt from every rooftop. Students refusing to sign up for his course(s) would send a clear message to university officials.

I like Raven’s idea. Think I’ll go catch me some mercury laden sheephead this weekend.

Forgive the redundancy but … Rove will manufacture a Democratic scandal days before the election. The voters will “unexpectedly” turn against the Democratic candidate with the assistance of electronic vote tampering and the pollsters and gullible press will rationalize the presidency of John McCain, to be followed shortly by the presidency of his fascist, right-wing religious stooge when McCain resigns for health reasons. Alternatively, there will be another terrorist attack. Bush will declare a national emergency and over the objections of our governors will send what’s left of our National Guard to other states (that is, Georgians to Massachusetts, Alabamians to New York, New Yorkers to Montana ) which he can now do thanks to recent legislation. They will be “supplemented” by well equipped, legally immunized foreign para-military. The Constitution is now well and truly dead and the world’s largest arsenal is now poised against the rest of humanity.

Donors have a lot of leverage, especially leverage to get their kids admitted. To get a tenured professor fired is extremely difficult, especially at the top public universities. Witness today’s NYT article claiming that for the first time in its 123-year history the University of California has fired a tenured professor — that for multiple counts of sexual harrassment of students, which is explicitly listed at “unacceptable behavior” in UC’s faculty code of conduct.

Thanks Raven I needed someone to mention fishing this early,everything else can wait.

but fired? a tenured full professor? have you ever seen such a thing (not asking for names or anything, a yes/no answer is good enough).
reply

I’m not ecahn, but I’ve seen it happen twice. It involves lots of pain in the system, and essentially requires outrageously bad conduct on the part of the professor. A felony conviction will do it, short of that there isn’t much that will.

One thing that hasn’t been noted is that Yoo was hired at Boalt 15 years ago, so he worked his way to Professor pretty quickly. His J.D. was 1992, so he was hired at Berkeley right out of Yale. What ever happened to having an advanced degree before you start teaching in higher ed? (NB: A J.D. is the basic law degree, LL.M. and LL.D. are the graduate degrees in law.) Apparently being hired into Senate-confirmed gigs is good for your law-school faculty vita. Even more interesting, his vita is not on the Berkeley website. Curiouser and curiouser.

BC

http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1471/135/–
(if this doesn’t work, just go to chris-floyd.com and scroll down.)

read this post everyone. It’s about the foreign policy goals of one of the Democratic Party front-runners. It’s about a speech last week.
Read it!

I’ve lived most of the last 30 years in California, deeply politically active for half that (Dem cand for state leg, etc.), and I seriously think a 2010 ballot initiative to fire Yoo would be a great, wedge-issue vote-getter.

The proposed statute could cutely set up conditions requiring his dismissal, or even name Yoo specifically. Completely legal.

Any Repub attack on the initiative would just highlight the despicability of the Bush era. Probably get us a few House seats.

last year my company had it’s worst economic year in it’s 46 year history, for the first time ever we lost money

this year we are 14 percent behind those numbers’

one of my suppliers from canada told me, “perris, we are not going to raise prices on you this year, because the exchange rate is already going to kill you, if we raised prices on top of that you might be put out of business”

and he is correct, I could no longer sell my product if the price increase included both exchange rate and supplier increase

we are in very tough times and we can survive possibly one more year without a turn around

What kinds of products?

Aside from the exchange rate what specifically is killing your company?

Good morning Attaturk! Love this: “…1.8 percent classified it as a success.” Bah hahahahahahaha! Hysterical.

I’d say that would give them an ‘F’ in History.

I wonder how many of those are already on the Right-Wing Gravy Train.