There seems to be nothing good to say about anything coming out of Syria, as the government of Bashar al-Assad [and his visible allies, Hezbollah and Iran and his less visible allies, Russia] and “the rebels” [a wild consortium, almost certainly sponsored by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and without doubt possibly the CIA], now accuse each other of unleashing a chemical attack on the Syrian city of Ghouta in the suburbs of Damascus, which is estimated to have killed well over 300 people and sickened thousands… as the Obama Administration deploys some U.S. naval vessels ever closer to Syria… for...
Continue reading...The Talking Dog "Sure, the dog can talk…but does it say anything interesting?" He ain't The Man's best friend
Thirty-five years
That’s the sentence handed down by a military court-martial to Bradley Manning for leaking evidence of the United States’s war crimes and other acts of malfeasance. The idea is to deter others who might have the audacity to try to let the public know what their government is up to. Hell– the government was arguing for an even longer sentence– of sixty years or more, to assure that Manning would die in prison for having the audacity to tell the American people what their government and military are doing in their name with their tax money. Damn him. Of course,...
Continue reading...Exercises in Credulity-Defying
Well, this piece from WaPo sort of lays out the conventional wisdom (as WaPo is wont to do)… to wit, given that the majority of the poor bastards still held at GTMO hail from Yemen, and given that there is a purported “threat” coming from “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” allegedly based in Yemen, this will “complicate” the return of said Yemeni men to their home country, which of course, had been held up by Barack Obama for years now, in response to “the underpants bomber,” but was supposedly “resumed” in response to the GTMO hunger strike. Of course,...
Continue reading...Unintended consequences… sort of…
It seems that uber-whistleblower and former contractor to the NSA Edward Snowden has, at least for the next twelvemonth, been given asylum in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Perhaps a September Obama-Putin summit will be canceled as a result of this… or perhaps it won’t. Russia is obviously an irritant, along with Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba and the few other countries flexing their independence from Washington’s jackboot. Having both a nuclear arsenal and huge oil reserves, Russia can pretty much do what it likes… and has. Actual national sovereignty independent of the financial interests running most of the world: imagine that? Let me...
Continue reading...Fear Factor
Was it that much of a surprise that George Zimmerman of Sanford, FL was acquitted in the homicide of Trayvon Martin? You’ll recall that originally, police didn’t even want to charge Mr. Zimmerman with killing Mr. Martin, who, after all, represented American society’s ultimate bete noire, a young Black man. But, you know… the public outcry and all. I’m not going to comment specifically on the case, or on the outcome. Indeed, this from the Atlantic says it more articulately than I ever could, noting essentially that “we wuzn’t there…” Where the only living witness is the alleged perp, “proof...
Continue reading...Department of irony department
Chris Cillizza of WaPo ordinarily devotes his life to the conventional wisdom, i.e., being a legitimate heir to the late David Broder of WaPo… and, needless to say, being a useful repository of… conventional wisdom. Color me surprised by this sudden reality check on the part of… Mr. Cillizza… who gives us this compilation noting that political donors of meaning, to wit, the ones who donate big enough that politicians pay attention (not to mention do their bidding…) number barely 31,385 in this whole freaking country of 300,000,000 people…… he also links to this even more useful piece… WOW. Just...
Continue reading...Some of the things happening in the latter stages of Empire
From the great Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald, we get this piece indicating that the Dept. of Defense has decided to identify the 48 men who are deemed “too dangerous to try, but too Muslim to release” and hence subject to indefinite detention. For whatever reason, the Government decided to honor this particular Freedom of Information Act request… given that the Big O’s approval ratings have finally taken the Bush-like nosedive finally appropriate to well, doing things like the latest NSA surveillance over reach, i.e., being Bush… maybe, a few interesting moves might be in order. Then again, Candace...
Continue reading...Hail to the victors
A brief reference to the U. of Michigan fight song, after this weekend’s visit to Ann Arbor, where, notwithstanding an early asthma attack and a late foot problem with my big toe, completed the Ann Arbor Marathon in more or less the usual time, for my second marathon since I turned 50, 36th marathon finish overall and 20th state. The song presumably does not apply to the Obama Administration, nor to its newest public enemy no. 1, former NSA/CIA employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden, now bizarrely seeking refuge in Chinese controlled Hong Kong.. Snowden merely confirmed what I certainly thought...
Continue reading...What’ll it cost, man… what’ll it COST?
Evidently it will cost $450,000,000, or roughly $2.5 million per prisoner to maintain and “upgrade” the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a Pentagon budget request. Considering 86 or so– the majority– of the 166 men still held there have been cleared for release by our own government, that means we’ll be spending over $200 million to hold men our government tells us are innocent and shouldn’t be there. The sheer financial cost of political cowardice and national ignorance and apathy mixed with complacency is impressive, to say the least. My prediction remains that Guantanamo will ultimately be shut...
Continue reading...Dep’t of hand wringing
Benjamin Wittes at the Lawfare Blog gives us this piece noting the perplexing nature of the President’s recent press conference comments on Guantanamo and indefinite detention. In this piece, Wittes notes his unusual meeting of minds with Glenn Greenwald on this matter. In short, the President, whose own policies mesh well with Wittes’s general view (which diverges from that of Greenwald.. and myself…) that there are circumstances where GTMO-style indefinite detention is appropriate policy, nonetheless asserts liberal sounding claptrap to the effect that somehow he [Obama] himself disagrees with these policies (and by implication its that mean old Congress that’s...
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