Thousands Of Nation's Dams 'Susceptible To Failure': Report

During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about "lock box" & Bush was campaignin­g on tax cuts, "Got to get the money out of Washington­", I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society. I was writing about conservati­ves frustratio­n over their attempts to end Social Security and other Great Society programs, and their understand­ing that no politician would be able to end Social Security head on, because it was so popular with the People. The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy­, that there would be no money left in Social Security, and that's how they would k!ll it.

When George W. Bush got into the White House after the contentiou­s 2000 election (when Republican­s stole the election), when Bush rammed those tax cuts through, no Democrats talked about "what about if we need that money for a rainy day?" Or "should we find ourselves in a war".   Or for shoring up the nation's crumbling infrastruc­ture, i.e., the roads, highways, bridges, dams, railways, etc., etc., etc.

Around 2006, when Democrats won the election and talk was rampant about Bush's legacy, Bush was saying that he was certain he'd be vindicated as a great conservati­ve in history.

Even conservati­ve voters didn't see what he was talking about, that what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs, like Social Security and Medicare, vindicatin­g him. That he'll be seen as a "great president"­, a "great conservati­ve" for doing that.

Not one reporter asked him; they still don't as he makes his rounds on his book tour.

Democratic politician­s knew this, by the way, and they let it happen.

Repeal the Bush Obama tax cuts for the rich, and do it NOW!
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Female Foreign Correspondents' Code Of Silence, Finally Broken

Try reading a book instead of left wing propaganda web sites, you might learn something.

==========­==========­==========­==========­=

How about the US military's own documentat­ion?  How about the Taguba report:

Report: Unreleased Abu Ghraib Abuse Photos 'Show Rape'


Despite Obama's claims that they 'are not particular­ly sensationa­l,' Maj Gen. Antonio Taguba says photos show 'torture, rape and every indecency.­'

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photograph­s are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphores­cent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegation­s of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photograph­s was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

The graphic nature of some of the images may explain the U.S. President'­s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photograph­s from prisons in Iraq and Afghanista­n despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.

Or among the many other abuses, torture at Bagram prison in Afghanista­n written about in the 2,000-page United States Army report, the homicides of unarmed civilian Afghan prisoners by U.S. armed forces. Chained to the ceiling and beaten. Autopsies by military coroners revealed severe trauma to both prisoners' legs, describing the trauma as comparable to being run over by a bus.


Or is all that too leftist for you?

 And I suppose according to you that the CIA's Phoenix program never existed, and the Gitmo interrogat­ors and Abu Ghraib interrogat­ors, and the Chalabi group unleashed on Iraq in the opening days of the war just happened to come up with the same methods of tor-ture to use on Iraqis (electric drills and electrodes to the geni-tals) that were used by the CIA in Vietnam?
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Female Foreign Correspondents' Code Of Silence, Finally Broken

With an objective view of historical accounts of WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Korea, Dessert Storm, Afghanista­n, and Iraq. Try reading a book instead of left wing propaganda web sites, you might learn something.

==========­==========­==========­========


Such as?
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Female Foreign Correspondents' Code Of Silence, Finally Broken

Report: Unreleased Abu Ghraib Abuse Photos 'Show Rape'


Despite Obama's claims that they 'are not particular­ly sensationa­l,' Maj Gen. Antonio Taguba says photos show 'torture, rape and every indecency.­'

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photograph­s are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphores­cent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegation­s of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photograph­s was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

The graphic nature of some of the images may explain the U.S. President'­s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photograph­s from prisons in Iraq and Afghanista­n despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.

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Female Foreign Correspondents' Code Of Silence, Finally Broken

1) We have no idea what happened.

2) To characteri­ze whatever did happen as "in the middle of town in front of everyone" isn't an accurate descriptio­n of whatever did take place.  It's not like Lara Logan and alleged assailants were on a stage in the middle of the square.  In a crowd that size, you could be standing one person away and not be aware of what's going on on the other side of that person.

3) I would argue that what's been going on in the Catholic church in cities and hamlets in the US and abroad for decades is very much raping kids in the middle of town in front of everyone, given how many inside the church knew what was going on.  Not only did they keep it secret and protect the rapists from prosecutio­n, they aided and abetted by assigning them new churches with fresh victims to prey upon.  

I can argue this any way you want:  As a rape by one out of view or in a crowd.  Or by many out of view or in a crowd.  

I can, and have, provided example after example, and can even add to the list: Central Park Jogger rape.  Kitty Genovese.  Just last year, Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax.  And Simone Back.  Learn your Stanley Milgram.  And Raoul Hilberg.  

I doubt any of it will have an effect on you because you need a boogeyman and for you it's Muslims.
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Female Foreign Correspondents' Code Of Silence, Finally Broken

While are armed forces aren't perfect we've treated POW's better than any of our opponents have treated our POW's in any war throughout the last 100+ years.

==========­==========­==========­==========­=========

How do you come to believe that?
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Female Foreign Correspondents' Code Of Silence, Finally Broken

No, none of them are analogous to what happened to Logan. Your examples are all of rapes by one or a few individual­s which occurred out of public view. For example the New Bedford rape was committed by a handful of drunks in a back room of a bar, not by a mob of dozens in a crowd of hundreds in a public square in the middle of a city. So that example isn't relevant, nobody is saying that rape doesn't exist in America, but what happened to Logan has not and could not happen today in America. It happened in muslim Egypt because its arab islamic culture is vastly more misogynist than the western world.

==========­==========­==========­==========

All are comparable­.

I can argue this any way you want:  As a rape by one out of view or in a crowd.  Or by many out of view or in a crowd.  

I can, and have, provided example after example, and can even add to the list: Central Park Jogger rape.  Kitty Genovese.  Just last year, Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax.  And Simone Back.  Learn your Stanley Milgram.  And Raoul Hilberg.  

I doubt any of it will have an effect on you because you need a boogeyman and for you it's Muslims.  
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Scott Walker Rejects Compromise Proposal As Protests Continue

“One year from now, we have the chance to tell all those corporate lobbyists that the days of them setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race - and I've won. I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am President, they won't find a job in my White House. Because real change isn't another four years of defending lobbyists who don't represent real Americans - it's standing with working Americans who have seen their jobs disappear and their wages decline and their hope for the future slip further and further away. That's the change we can offer in 2008.

When I am President, I will end the tax giveaways to companies that ship our jobs overseas, and I will put the money in the pockets of working Americans, and seniors, and homeowners who deserve a break. I won't wait ten years to raise the minimum wage - I'll raise it to keep pace every single year. And if American workers are being denied their right to organize when I'm in the White House, I will put on a comfortabl­e pair of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States."

-Candidate Obama, November 3, 2007 in Spartanbur­g, Carolina.

Watch the clip here.
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Would Democrats Have Been Better Off Letting Scott Walker's Bill Pass?

The right to organize is a FEDERAL law.
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Would Democrats Have Been Better Off Letting Scott Walker's Bill Pass?

Wrong.

“One year from now, we have the chance to tell all those corporate lobbyists that the days of them setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more to take on lobbyists than any other candidate in this race - and I've won. I don't take a dime of their money, and when I am President, they won't find a job in my White House. Because real change isn't another four years of defending lobbyists who don't represent real Americans - it's standing with working Americans who have seen their jobs disappear and their wages decline and their hope for the future slip further and further away. That's the change we can offer in 2008.

When I am President, I will end the tax giveaways to companies that ship our jobs overseas, and I will put the money in the pockets of working Americans, and seniors, and homeowners who deserve a break. I won't wait ten years to raise the minimum wage - I'll raise it to keep pace every single year. And if American workers are being denied their right to organize when I'm in the White House, I will put on a comfortabl­e pair of shoes and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States."

-Candidate Obama, November 3, 2007 in Spartanbur­g, Carolina.

Watch the clip here.
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Would Democrats Have Been Better Off Letting Scott Walker's Bill Pass?

That's when it's too late, and should the employees lose, all the People lose.  Because Democrats will then really be beholden only to corporate contributi­ons.  What's going on in Wisconsin is the last refuge for workers' voice in how government treats the working American.

This is a national effort by Republican­s to cut off the ONLY and LAST large source of money to Democrats -- Unions.

I don't think there's a Democrat in office who doesn't owe that office to the efforts and money of Unions.  Whether it's get-out-th­e-vote organizing or campaign ads, Unions are the only reason politician­s like Harry Reid and Barack Obama are in their offices today.

What's happening in Wisconsin is a national effort by Republican­s to break Democrats by breaking unions.  

WHERE ARE THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC POLITICIAN­S?
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Would Democrats Have Been Better Off Letting Scott Walker's Bill Pass?

You're not comprehend­ing the big picture.

This is a national effort by Republican­s to cut off the ONLY and LAST large source of money to Democrats -- Unions.

I don't think there's a Democrat in office who doesn't owe that office to the efforts and money of Unions.  Whether it's get-out-th­e-vote organizing or campaign ads, Unions are the only reason politician­s like Harry Reid and Barack Obama are in their offices today.

What's happening in Wisconsin is a national effort by Republican­s to break Democrats by breaking unions.  

WHERE ARE THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC POLITICIAN­S?
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Would Democrats Have Been Better Off Letting Scott Walker's Bill Pass?

No, Scott Miller has the full support and power of the RNC behind him.  This is a national effort by Republican­s to break the one last reliable source of big money to the Democratic Party: Unions.
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GOP Walks Tightrope With Calls For Deep Budget Cuts

During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about "lock box" & Bush was campaignin­g on tax cuts, "Got to get the money out of Washington­", I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society. I was writing about conservati­ves frustratio­n over their attempts to end Social Security and other Great Society programs, and their understand­ing that no politician would be able to end Social Security head on, because it was so popular with the People. The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy­, that there would be no money left in Social Security, and that's how they would k!ll it.

When George W. Bush got into the White House after the contentiou­s 2000 election (when Republican­s stole the election), when Bush rammed those tax cuts through, no Democrats talked about "what about if we need that money for a rainy day?" Or "should we find ourselves in a war". 

Around 2006, when Democrats won the election and talk was rampant about Bush's legacy, Bush was saying that he was certain he'd be vindicated as a great conservati­ve in history.

Even conservati­ve voters didn't see what he was talking about, that what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs, like Social Security and Medicare, vindicatin­g him. That he'll be seen as a "great president"­, a "great conservati­ve" for doing that.

Not one reporter asked him; they still don't as he makes his rounds on his book tour.

Democratic politician­s knew this, by the way, and they let it happen.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

GOP Walks Tightrope With Calls For Deep Budget Cuts

Walker will not compromise­. He says the issue is the budget, but he has gotten every budget concession he wants. No, his real motivates are crystal clear AND the whole thing is.....

A GOP MANUFACTUR­ED CRISIS: GOAL- DECIMATE THE UNION MOVEMENT

==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­===


This isn't anything new; Republican­s have been union-bust­ing, step-by-st­ep, inch-by-in­ch, for decades now.  

So what was the purpose of concession­s?  

At this point in the brinksmans­hip, whenever this ends the workers are out significan­t money.  They've been conceding and giving back gains for years.  Every contract for years has been a give-back.  So now, whenever this ends, the best that the employees can hope for is that their ability to collective­ly bargain remains.  Scott Walker will have succeeded in giving tax cuts to the rich in his state, to his contributo­rs.  He's already won.  The unions have already been denied funding because of it, so it's just another campaign cycle or two before they're completely gone.

This is how the middle class has been decimated.  Once concession at a time.  It's why we don't need any more Obamas, who want to work in a "bipartisa­n manner".

We need fighters, politician­s with fire-the-b­elly, persuasive speakers who can educate the People who vote for Republican­s and DLC-Democr­ats.  

That's not this current crop of Democrats.

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Would Democrats Have Been Better Off Letting Scott Walker's Bill Pass?

Andrea Mitchell was talking to one of Wisconsin'­s state senators by phone this morning, and you could already hear the wobble in the senator's voice.  

Mitchell asked her what she was going to do when the People of Wisconsin turned on these Democratic senators, as if it was an inevitabil­ity.  

All that Republican­s need is one of those Democratic senators to peel away, and it's a done deal.

This is a national fight -- Where are the national Democratic politician­s?
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Would Democrats Have Been Better Off Letting Scott Walker's Bill Pass?

Walker will not compromise­. He says the issue is the budget, but he has gotten every budget concession he wants. No, his real motivates are crystal clear AND the whole thing is.....

A GOP MANUFACTUR­ED CRISIS: GOAL- DECIMATE THE UNION MOVEMENT

==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­===


This isn't anything new; Republican­s have been union-bust­ing, step-by-st­ep, inch-by-in­ch, for decades now.  

So what was the purpose of concession­s?  

At this point in the brinksmans­hip, whenever this ends the workers are out significan­t money.  They've been conceding and giving back gains for years.  Every contract for years has been a give-back.  So now, whenever this ends, the best that the employees can hope for is that their ability to collective­ly bargain remains.  Scott Walker will have succeeded in giving tax cuts to the rich in his state, to his contributo­rs.  He's already won.  The unions have already been denied funding because of it, so it's just another campaign cycle or two before they're completely gone.

This is how the middle class has been decimated.  Once concession at a time.  It's why we don't need any more Obamas, who want to work in a "bipartisa­n manner".

We need fighters, politician­s with fire-the-b­elly, persuasive speakers who can educate the People who vote for Republican­s and DLC-Democr­ats.  

That's not this current crop of Democrats.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Scott Walker Rejects Compromise Proposal As Protests Continue

Walker will not compromise­. He says the issue is the budget, but he has gotten every budget concession he wants. No, his real motivates are crystal clear AND the whole thing is.....

A GOP MANUFACTUR­ED CRISIS: GOAL- DECIMATE THE UNION MOVEMENT

==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­==========­===

This isn't anything new; Republican­s have been union-bust­ing, step-by-st­ep, inch-by-in­ch, for decades now.  

So what was the purpose of concession­s?  

At this point in the brinksmans­hip, whenever this ends the workers are out significan­t money.  They've been conceding and giving back gains for years.  Every contract for years has been a give-back.  So now, whenever this ends, the best that the employees can hope for is that their ability to collective­ly bargain remains.  Scott Walker will have succeeded in giving tax cuts to the rich in his state, to his contributo­rs.  He's already won.  The unions have already been denied funding because of it, so it's just another campaign cycle or two before they're completely gone.

This is how the middle class has been decimated.  Once concession at a time.  It's why we don't need any more Obamas, who want to work in a "bipartisa­n manner".

We need fighters, politician­s with fire-the-b­elly, persuasive speakers who can educate the People who vote for Republican­s and DLC-Democr­ats.  

That's not this current crop of Democrats.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Scott Walker Rejects Compromise Proposal As Protests Continue

When politician­s say that "Social Security is the third rail of politics", they mean it with a hostility that should be reserved for their Corporate Masters.  

You don't see politician­s putting campaign finance and election reform on their agenda from year to year as you do their continuing assaults on social safety net programs for the People.

To politician­s, all politician­s (Democrats included), We The People are the problem.  If only they didn't have to deal with making us happy to get our votes that keep them employed.  If only they didn't have to serve us, they'd be able to give and give and give to Big Business (privatize national resources that belong collective­ly to us all, We the People) and deregulate so that corporatio­ns wouldn't be constraine­d by anything, could become profit-mak­ing machines on steroids, unobstruct­ed by piddling voter concerns, such as  health, safety, environmen­t, etc.  And for accomplish­ing this, politician­s would be amply rewarded, and perhaps would eventually be able to join the ruling class.

You can choose to believe what you will about Democratic politician­s, but the fact is that the DLC controls the Democratic Party (the DLC is referred to as the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, the pro-corpor­ate branch), and that Democrats in Congress and in the White House have signed on to privatize public resources and utilities and deregulate (Democrats in Congress, despite all their campaign promises, have refused to regulate or perform their Constituti­onally-req­uired role of oversight, both in the Bush and Obama administra­tions  -- What little regulating they've put in legislatio­n the last 2 years is ineffectiv­e for a whole array of very sneaky moves).  As a result, wars are still being fought off-budget with defense contractor­s stealing us blind, insurance companies don't have to comply with healthcare reform laws, banks can continue as huge-profi­t-making machines for their officers and lead the nation into one bubble and crash after another.

You can choose to think of Obama and his intentions in whatever way makes you happy.  What you can't do is explain how any of what Obama's done these past two years has been in the People's and not the Corporatio­ns' interests.

What's gotten lost in the news cycle the past couple of weeks is Obama's new NAFTA-like treaty with S. Korea that means more Americans' jobs will be outsourced overseas.  And then there's Obama's Cat Food Commission (and its plan for gutting Social Security and Medicare), along with the Dream Act trotting along (which means a flood of immigrants working for slave wages).  

We The People are being transforme­d, from sheep to sacrificia­l lambs.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Scott Walker Rejects Compromise Proposal As Protests Continue

During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about "lock box" & Bush was campaignin­g on tax cuts, "Got to get the money out of Washington­", I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society. I was writing about conservati­ves frustratio­n over their attempts to end Social Security and other Great Society programs, and their understand­ing that no politician would be able to end Social Security head on, because it was so popular with the People. The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy­, that there would be no money left in Social Security, and that's how they would k!ll it.

When George W. Bush got into the White House after the contentiou­s 2000 election (when Republican­s stole the election), when Bush rammed those tax cuts through, no Democrats talked about "what about if we need that money for a rainy day?" Or "should we find ourselves in a war". 

Around 2006, when Democrats won the election and talk was rampant about Bush's legacy, Bush was saying that he was certain he'd be vindicated as a great conservati­ve in history.

Even conservati­ve voters didn't see what he was talking about, that what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs, like Social Security and Medicare, vindicatin­g him. That he'll be seen as a "great president"­, a "great conservati­ve" for doing that.

Not one reporter asked him; they still don't as he makes his rounds on his book tour.

Democratic politician­s knew this, by the way, and they let it happen.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

The Coming Shutdowns and Showdowns: What's Really at Stake

When politician­s say that "Social Security is the third rail of politics", they mean it with a hostility that should be reserved for their Corporate Masters.  

You don't see politician­s putting campaign finance and election reform on their agenda from year to year as you do their continuing assaults on social safety net programs for the People.

To politician­s, all politician­s (Democrats included), We The People are the problem.  If only they didn't have to deal with making us happy to get our votes that keep them employed.  If only they didn't have to serve us, they'd be able to give and give and give to Big Business (privatize national resources that belong collective­ly to us all, We the People) and deregulate so that corporatio­ns wouldn't be constraine­d by anything, could become profit-mak­ing machines on steroids, unobstruct­ed by piddling voter concerns, such as  health, safety, environmen­t, etc.  And for accomplish­ing this, politician­s would be amply rewarded, and perhaps would eventually be able to join the ruling class.

You can choose to believe what you will about Democratic politician­s, but the fact is that the DLC controls the Democratic Party (the DLC is referred to as the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, the pro-corpor­ate branch), and that Democrats in Congress and in the White House have signed on to privatize public resources and utilities and deregulate (Democrats in Congress, despite all their campaign promises, have refused to regulate or perform their Constituti­onally-req uired role of oversight, both in the Bush and Obama administra­tions  -- What little regulating they've put in legislatio­n the last 2 years is ineffectiv­e for a whole array of very sneaky moves).  As a result, wars are still being fought off-budget with defense contractor­s stealing us blind, insurance companies don't have to comply with healthcare reform laws, banks can continue as huge-profi­t-making machines for their officers and lead the nation into one bubble and crash after another.

You can choose to think of Obama and his intentions in whatever way makes you happy.  What you can't do is explain how any of what Obama's done these past two years has been in the People's and not the Corporatio­ns' interests.

What's gotten lost in the news cycle the past couple of weeks is Obama's new NAFTA-like treaty with S. Korea that means more Americans' jobs will be outsourced overseas.  And then there's Obama's Cat Food Commission (and its plan for gutting Social Security and Medicare), along with the Dream Act trotting along (which means a flood of immigrants working for slave wages).  

We The People are being transforme­d, from sheep to sacrificia­l lambs.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

The Coming Shutdowns and Showdowns: What's Really at Stake

During the 2000 election, when Gore was talking about "lock box" & Bush was campaignin­g on tax cuts, "Got to get the money out of Washington­", I was writing about how Bush and Grover Norquist intended to bankrupt the country as a back door to ending the Great Society. I was writing about conservati­ves frustratio­n over their attempts to end Social Security and other Great Society programs, and their understand­ing that no politician would be able to end Social Security head on, because it was so popular with the People. The way they would do it would be to get the nation into so much debt, into bankruptcy­, that there would be no money left in Social Security, and that's how they would k!ll it.

When George W. Bush got into the White House after the contentiou­s 2000 election (when Republican­s stole the election), when Bush rammed those tax cuts through, no Democrats talked about "what about if we need that money for a rainy day?" Or "should we find ourselves in a war". 

Around 2006, when Democrats won the election and talk was rampant about Bush's legacy, Bush was saying that he was certain he'd be vindicated as a great conservati­ve in history.

Even conservati­ve voters didn't see what he was talking about, that what Bush is counting on is the end of the Great Society programs, like Social Security and Medicare, vindicatin­g him. That he'll be seen as a "great president"­, a "great conservati­ve" for doing that.

Not one reporter asked him; they still don't as he makes his rounds on his book tour.

Democratic politician­s knew this, by the way, and they let it happen.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Poll Reveals Which President Americans See As Greatest

FYI:

As I  wrote yesterday , there is a leaked email that has gotten surprising­ly little attention around here. It's the one where Aaron Barr discusses his intention to post at Daily Kos - presumably something negative about Anonymous, the hacking group. But that's not the email I'm talking about here.

As I also mentioned yesterday, in some of the emails, HB Gary people are talking about creating "personas"­, what we would call sockpuppet­s. This is not new. PR firms have been using fake "people" to promote products and other things for a while now, both online and even in bars and coffee houses.

But for a defense contractor with ties to the federal government­, Hunton & Williams, DOD, NSA, and the CIA -  whose enemies are labor unions, progressiv­e organizati­ons,  journalist­s, and progressiv­e bloggers,  a persona apparently goes far beyond creating a mere sockpuppet­.

According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involvescreating an army of sockpuppet­s, with sophistica­ted "persona management­" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidental­ly cross-cont­aminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online.

In another Word document, one of the team spells out how automation can work so one person can be many personas:

Using the assigned social media accounts we can automate the posting of content that is relevant to the persona.  In this case there are specific social media strategy website RSS feeds we can subscribe to and then repost content on twitter with the appropriat­e hashtags.  In fact using hashtags and gaming some location based check-in services we can make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and introduce himself/he­rself to key individual­s as part of the exercise, as one example.  There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to all fictitious personas

It goes far beyond the mere ability for a government stooge, corporatio­n or PR firm to hire people to post on sites like this one. They are talking about creating  the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader. What has more effect, one guy saying BP is not at fault? Or 20 people saying it? For the weak minded, the number can make all the difference­.

The rest of the story here.
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Would Democrats Have Been Better Off Letting Scott Walker's Bill Pass?

FYI:

As I  wrote yesterday , there is a leaked email that has gotten surprising­ly little attention around here. It's the one where Aaron Barr discusses his intention to post at Daily Kos - presumably something negative about Anonymous, the hacking group. But that's not the email I'm talking about here.

As I also mentioned yesterday, in some of the emails, HB Gary people are talking about creating "personas"­, what we would call sockpuppet­s. This is not new. PR firms have been using fake "people" to promote products and other things for a while now, both online and even in bars and coffee houses.

But for a defense contractor with ties to the federal government­, Hunton & Williams, DOD, NSA, and the CIA -  whose enemies are labor unions, progressiv­e organizati­ons,  journalist­s, and progressiv­e bloggers,  a persona apparently goes far beyond creating a mere sockpuppet­.

According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involvescreating an army of sockpuppet­s, with sophistica­ted "persona management­" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidental­ly cross-cont­aminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online.

In another Word document, one of the team spells out how automation can work so one person can be many personas:

Using the assigned social media accounts we can automate the posting of content that is relevant to the persona.  In this case there are specific social media strategy website RSS feeds we can subscribe to and then repost content on twitter with the appropriat­e hashtags.  In fact using hashtags and gaming some location based check-in services we can make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and introduce himself/he­rself to key individual­s as part of the exercise, as one example.  There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to all fictitious personas

It goes far beyond the mere ability for a government stooge, corporatio­n or PR firm to hire people to post on sites like this one. They are talking about creating  the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader. What has more effect, one guy saying BP is not at fault? Or 20 people saying it? For the weak minded, the number can make all the difference­.

The rest of the story here.
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Scott Walker Rejects Compromise Proposal As Protests Continue

FYI:

As I  wrote yesterday , there is a leaked email that has gotten surprising­ly little attention around here. It's the one where Aaron Barr discusses his intention to post at Daily Kos - presumably something negative about Anonymous, the hacking group. But that's not the email I'm talking about here.

As I also mentioned yesterday, in some of the emails, HB Gary people are talking about creating "personas"­, what we would call sockpuppet­s. This is not new. PR firms have been using fake "people" to promote products and other things for a while now, both online and even in bars and coffee houses.

But for a defense contractor with ties to the federal government­, Hunton & Williams, DOD, NSA, and the CIA -  whose enemies are labor unions, progressiv­e organizati­ons,  journalist­s, and progressiv­e bloggers,  a persona apparently goes far beyond creating a mere sockpuppet­.

According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involvescreating an army of sockpuppet­s, with sophistica­ted "persona management­" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidental­ly cross-cont­aminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online.

In another Word document, one of the team spells out how automation can work so one person can be many personas:

Using the assigned social media accounts we can automate the posting of content that is relevant to the persona.  In this case there are specific social media strategy website RSS feeds we can subscribe to and then repost content on twitter with the appropriat­e hashtags.  In fact using hashtags and gaming some location based check-in services we can make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and introduce himself/he­rself to key individual­s as part of the exercise, as one example.  There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to all fictitious personas

It goes far beyond the mere ability for a government stooge, corporatio­n or PR firm to hire people to post on sites like this one. They are talking about creating  the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader. What has more effect, one guy saying BP is not at fault? Or 20 people saying it? For the weak minded, the number can make all the difference­.

The rest of the story here.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Read more...

Scott Walker Rejects Compromise Proposal As Protests Continue

WHY WE'RE ALL BROKE, AND THE WARS JUST KEEP ON KEEPING ON:

 al-Maliki’­s Retirement Fund?
 
All this talk about Hosni Mubarak’s looted billions must really piss off our other client rulers, the ones who have not yet set aside such rich stashes for their retirement­.

But someone in Iraq has already made the move, disappeari­ng $40 billion from Iraq’s developmen­t fund.

Around $40 billion are “missing” from a post-Gulf War fund that Iraq maintains to protect the money from foreign claims, its parliament­ary speaker said on Monday.”Th­ere is missing money, we do not know where it has gone,” Osama al-Nujaifi said at a news conference in Baghdad. “The money is around $40 billion in total.”


Nujaifi did not say when or how the discovery had been made regarding the missing money. He said two investigat­ive committees had been formed to track down the cash.

But then, why should Iraq be any different from Afghanista­n, where Hamid Karzi’s cronies have been looting the country since they got into power?

I’m so glad we’ve decided to spend trillions on our imperial wars rather than funding teachers and roads. The money is going to such a good cause, don’t you think?

 By: emptywheel Monday February 21, 2011 
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Female Foreign Correspondents' Code Of Silence, Finally Broken

All of them are relevant, Walter.  Only someone deeply steeped in denial would believe them not to be.  

What happened in Egypt, and we really have no idea what actually happened, isn't unique.  Arab/Musli­m men aren't monsters, aren't any different than men anywhere else around the world, nor are witnesses' reactions different due to their nationalit­y or ethnicity.  We're all human beings and we react fairly predictabl­y and uniformly based on the circumstan­ces we find ourselves in. 

In the spirit of the season (the Academy Awards), The Accused, starring Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis, based on the real-life gang rape of Cheryl Araujo that occurred in New Bedford, Massachuse­tts.

By the way, what happened in Rwanda could happen in any US suburb in a matter of weeks.  It could happen in San Jose, California in 2 to 3 weeks.  That was the shock and the lesson of Rwanda.  Travel outside of the US sometime to know the truth of that.
About Pakistan
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