Jack & Jill Politics

fyi, does this mean Beck & Limbaugh are considered "journalists?"

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/han...

"Marcy Wheeler of Firedoglake confirms that we’re screwed:

To to be a journalist in Chuck Schumer’s eyes, you have to both have a boss (at this point, you generous readers and Jane would count as my boss, but Jane doesn’t have a boss, for example) and that boss’ company must disseminate news on some other medium, in addition to the Toobz. Even free-lance writers or people like IF Stone (in the period when he ran his own newsletter) would be excluded from this definition of journalist.

Now, I’m on the record as a skeptic that this new law is going to work out the way the media thinks. I fear that the national security exemption will mean the law will protect people like Judy Miller mobilizing smears or the Rent-a-Generals spreading propaganda, but not protect Dana Priest or James Risen and their sources.

Still, this move pisses me off because it’s a transparent bid to grant a powerful industry special privileges.

This is about ensuring that there is a wall between real journalists and the perceived unwashed masses of ignorant, unqualified bloggers who are mucking up the system. This is a serious issue, because I believe that reliable citizen journalists do have the respect of traditional media in some circles, but this legislative bid to create a firm wall is declaring war on us."

Some news on the health and vaccine front:


British health authorities investigate as girl dies after receiving cervical cancer vaccine

LONDON (AP) — British health officials temporarily suspended a vaccination program in an English city Tuesday after a 14-year-old girl died a few hours after being vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer.

Natalie Morton died in a hospital Monday, a few hours after being the given the Cervarix vaccine, which protects against two strains of the human papilloma virus that causes cervical cancer.

There are no indications of any link between Morton's death and the vaccine — administered at her school in Coventry — although Morton appeared to be healthy before being given the shot. An autopsy will be carried out to determine a cause of death.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has delayed a decision on whether to approve Cervarix. A decision on the vaccine was expected Tuesday. But GlaxoSmithKline UK, which manufactures Cervarix, said the death in Britain did not influence the FDA's decision to extend its review.

The National Health Service in Coventry said it stopped the vaccination program for two days to give staff administering the vaccine training in how to answer questions from anyone concerned about its safety.

"We fully expect to resume the program in the coming days," the health authority said in a statement.

Morton fell ill at the school and later died, according to Caron Grainger, the director for public health at Coventry City Council. The vaccine consists of three injections given over a six-month period, and it had been Morton's first shot. The council declined to give any further details of the death.

Health officials also said they quarantined the batch of vaccine given at the school. The school principal, Julie Roberts, said a few other girls also reported being unwell after receiving the vaccine and some were sent home.

for rest of article:

http://www.dailypress.com/news/world/sns-ap-eu-...

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It is interesting that Cervavix is under review by the US FDA, considering that there has been a reluctance for many to have Merck's Gardasil vaccine administered. Oh well, I guess there is always room for the profiteering of vaccines.....even when the public is not enthusiastic about them.

I've already advised my brother not to get his daughter vaccinated, as required by VA state law for 6th grade girls. There's so much we don't know about this vaccine to pump it into children like that. And if prevention of HPV is the concern, why not require 6th grade BOYS to get it as well?

Co-Sign

After a consult with the OBGYN we had more questions than answers.

skip it.

Town, they are not far from it......the FDA has recommended it. And I want to say it is already approved.

The issue with this vaccine, unlike the legions of others that legislators mandate, especially with a boost of pharmaceutical contributions, is that Gardasil is for a sexually transmitted disease which we all know is a taboo subject. It has been said the Merck has been disappointed with the low usage of Gardasil, as many are choosing to bypass it...so it was only a matter of time before it was suggested and marketed to those outside the original target group of young to middle aged females.

It will eventually be marketed to young males and females, and likely all the way up to Seniors if they have their way.

BTW, there ARE reported cases of paralysis and deaths resulting from this vaccine that took place in healthy young women.....though we know it will be downplayed, if not altogether hidden.

I am not sure if the FDA has approved Gardasil (Merck's HPV vaccine) for use in boys yet.

Actually it has been recommended by the FDA, if not already approved. I'll search for a link.

AFTERNOON OPEN THREAD IS UP

It's been called the U.S. war on drugs — a tough-minded government policy that for decades has targeted traffickers and addicts with prosecution and punishment.

But that policy came into question last week during a conference that brought together an unusually broad grouping of policymakers, academics and community activists from Mexico and the United States.

Instead of discussing how to capture more drug lords, seize bigger caches of weapons and further beef up border security, they proposed alternatives such as creating social programs to raise the quality of life for impoverished Mexicans vulnerable to joining the drug trade. They also advocated for comprehensive programs to prevent and treat drug addiction on both sides of the border, expand needle-exchange programs and decriminalize the use of marijuana so it can be better regulated.

Alternatives to drug war championed at conference

Some news in my area:


Today's HU summit to explore U.S. marriages, parenting

HAMPTON — The declining status of marriage and the importance of effective parenting will be explored at a national summit hosted by Hampton University today and Wednesday.

The two-day event will include the release of the U.S. Marriage Index, which tracks the state of American marriages through the past 40 years. The index was created by the university and the Institute for American Values.

More than 100 leaders will attend the summit, including CNN Analyst Roland Martin; retired Washington Post columnist William Raspberry; Joshua DuBois, head of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships; clinical psychologist and television personality Jeff Gardere; and former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder.

Married couples in the United States have dropped from 72 percent to 56 percent between 1970 and 2004, according to Linda Malone-Colon, chairwoman of the summit. From 2002 to 2007, almost 40 percent of babies were born to unwed mothers, a 24 percent increase.

"We're really focused on raising awareness about the crisis of marriage in the U.S.," Malone-Colon said in a statement. "But we're also solutions-focused, identifying what it is we can do to address this issue."

Participants will explore more effective ways to share research about marriage and family in classrooms and with the general population. The event is closed to the public but will stream live at www.hamptonu.edu.

The summit will mark the launch of the Hampton University National Center on African-American Marriages and Parenting, which will be led by Malone-Colon. The center's mission is to help black families gain the skills and resources needed for healthy marriages and effective parenting.

The summit's fundraising gala will be tonight at the HU Convocation Center. The keynote speaker is Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. Proceeds will benefit the new center.

Want to watch?
The summit is closed to the public but will stream live at www.hamptonu.edu

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-humarriage-no...

Hmmm. Will they mention Daniel Patrick Moynihan or is that still a fighting name?

This story in Chicago was sad, but familiar. The violent mentality in the black community will not be gone until the violent and racist policies of America are gone.It must be remembered that the US has always been violent and racist by nature- the slave trade, extermination of Native Americans, the bombing of Hiroshima, the Japanese Internment and the preemptive wars in Vietnam and Iraq are all obvious examples. The causes of all these atrocities were Euro/American economic greed, fear and xenophobia. America as a nation dealt with these psychological and economic dysfunctions with violence- -America continues to respond to these dysfunctions with violence.

Given that the US deals with its dysfunctions with violence, it is no surprise that American citizens deal with their dysfunctions with violence – violence has been cultivated into our national consciousness and history since the “founding” of America. And although all races in America have been violent at one point or another, African Americans have been influenced by this Euro/American pathology of violent behavior and cultural dysfunction in a drastically different way: African Americans have historically been the victims of Euro/American violence while also having that violent attitude promoted (unjust wars overseas) into our consciousness under the guise of patriotism, national unity and self defense – in a sense African American have become the victims of American violence and the perpetrators of American violence.

The young boys who committed this crime are dysfunctional and monsters - no doubt. But they are no more the monsters than the people who bomb countries and villages oversees for made up reasons and lies that masquerade America’s xenophobic, and brutal behavior. These two boys are just the byproduct of the dysfunctional American AND the Black American experience- both are monstrous in their own right.

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) continues to be a scold to the liberals in his party. Before a crowd of over 200 gathered at a senior center in Nebraska, Nelson said health care reform ought to pass with 65 votes--a feat which would require at least five Republicans to break with their party.

"I think anything less than that would challenge its legitimacy," he said.

...and Emmanuel told the people who produced a commerical to try to get him to do the right thing to "shut the fuck up". Yeah.

he needs to take that shyt somewhere else. no, your cowardly bought off ass will NOT be able to hide behind that bull. MAN THE FUCK UP or let the folks of Nebraska find someone who will

HATING PEOPLE FEELS GOOD. FEELING VIRTUOUS ABOUT HATING PEOPLE FEELS BETTER.

Adam Serwer yesterday, in response to a New York Times profile of Liz Cheney, who thrills right-wing audiences when she defends torture:

For the GOP, torture is no longer a "necessary evil." It is a rally cry, a "values" issue like same-sex marriage or abortion. They don't "grudgingly" support torture, they applaud it. They celebrate it. Liz Cheney's unequivocal support for torture methods gleaned from communist China has people begging her to run for office.

... torture is now a "values" issue for the right, it is, like abstinence-only sex education, unmoored from the necessities of proving its usefulness in the real world....

One of the things I learned growing up in Boston during the busing crisis was that the hateful and vengeful very much want to believe that their feelings of hatred and vengeance are moral. They want to lash out -- and they want to be told they have God or morality on their side. Vengeance draws great strength from those rabble-rousers who can explain why the vengeance is righteous indignation. So the people who threw rocks at school buses in 1970s Boston were told that their cause was to preserve neighborhood schools -- that was the slogan -- and they lashed out in the belief that they were the good guys.

More recently, in years of lurking at Free Republic and Fox Nation and other right-wing sites, I've learned that right-wingers' embrace of bellicosity is invariably about the same thing: the fact that they want moral leeway to kill or hurt -- or, more often, to vicariously savor the death or suffering of -- people they hate. Only secondarily, if at all, is it about national security (or, on the domestic side, about, say, crime reduction or traditional morality). It's about having societal permission to be brutal (or vicariously brutal). They want their hatreds socially sanctioned; they want to feel virtuous about watching their enemies suffer. They'll never admit it, but what happens to the country is a side issue at best.

That's why 9/11 was the best Christmas present angry right-wingers ever got. They had a new enemy, and wishing the torments of hell on that enemy was just fine. Anger at terrorists was widespread, of course, but for angry right-wingers, the wishing-the-torments-of-hell part was the point -- that and the wallowing in their own sense of moral superiority. It's been clear for years that they're savoring this hatred and sense of self-righteousness. If we managed to eliminate the terrorist threat, efficiently and with as little bloodshed as possible, they'd feel a sense of letdown.

So of course they cheer Liz Cheney and her torture talk. They want to hurt someone -- righteously. She holds out the hope that that pleasure won't be denied them.
http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/

Ok, we know oily taters is a whack job...Rolling Stone Mag interview depicts just how unhinged she and her crowd is.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/3020...

"Yet even if the original hospital birth record were to be handed to her by God himself, that would not persuade Taitz and her followers of Obama's legitimacy. Indeed, Taitz claims that the founder's definition of "natural-born citizen" meant a child born to two parents who were both citizens. "Based on that fact alone," Taitz says, "Obama cannot be U.S. president because he had split allegiance from the time of his birth until now."

What exactly are these "split allegiances"? Taitz believes that Obama, while never naturalized as an American, is a citizen of Kenya, as well as its former colonial occupier the United Kingdom, and of Indonesia. The crazy keeps cascading from there. The president, she claims, has "39 different Social Security numbers." She adds, "There are reports that Obama never had a U.S. passport until he got a diplomatic passport in 2004. There were some speculations of his travels with his Indonesian passport until 2004."

And then there are the hit jobs: Referencing an incident in 2008 in which the passport records of the presidential candidates were breached, Taitz claims a young man who was cooperating with the FBI in the investigation was found shot in the head. "Maybe there was something that they found," she says in a conspiratorial whisper, "something that somebody's hiding. We need to get to the bottom of this."

This is not the only execution Taitz tries to link to the president. Two gay members of Obama's Chicago church, she contends, also both ended up with gunshots to the head. "Who perpetrated the murder of those homosexual men from the church in Chicago?" she asks. "Both of them were murdered right before the Democratic primary. Possibly it has nothing to do with Obama," she says, before citing a fellow conspiracy theorist's claim that one of the murdered men, "had [a] homosexual relationship with Obama."

Taitz is sincere in her paranoia. She insisted to Rolling Stone that she had a date to make her case before the Supreme Court, but that her case was disappeared from the court's docket just following Obama's inauguration. "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts agreed to hear this case in the joint meeting of all nine justices on January 24th," she claims, "and right after the election, on January 21st someone erased the case from the docket of the Supreme Court."

Taitz also insists her car exhaust system has been tampered with. "Honestly," she says, "I'm afraid I'm the next one that will be killed."

I asked Taitz what her endgame is. What do she and the Birthers really want? The answer is the annulment not only of Obama's election but everything he's achieved while in the Oval Office.

"There are two precedents whereby two senators were removed from office specifically because of the issue of citizenship and residency," Taitz says. "They were removed from office and a special election was held, and as a matter of fact all of their actions were nullified. So that's why I've been demanding that the Congress address this issue immediately because any and all action, any and all executive orders or laws signed by Obama would be deemed null and void if it was found that he is not eligible for presidency.

"So those who are now spending time and money and will on health care reform, we need to address the issue of Obama's legitimacy and eligibility for presidency, first and foremost. Because if he's not eligible then we can't talk about health care, because if it's signed into law by Obama and he's not eligible then it's not binding. It's not real."

Unreal indeed."

she's going to wind up in the funny farm somewhere

Well by Oily's logic the first 7-8 presidents of the US were not legitimate presidents either because their parents were not US citizens. The first president (I believe) to have been born an American citizen was Martin Van Buren.

LOL. I'm getting a visual of some one trying to explain that one to ms taters.

duplicated post accidentally

"First Lady Michelle Obama revealed a hidden White House truth: If she's happy, chances are, so is her husband.

"Throughout my life, I've learned to make choices that make me happy and make sense for me. Even my husband is happier when I'm happy," she said in an interview with Prevention magazine, which hits newsstands next week.

"So I have freed myself to put me on the priority list and say yes, I can make choices that make me happy, and it will ripple and benefit my kids, my husband and my physical health.

"That's hard for women to own. We're not taught to do that," she added. "It's a lesson that I want to teach my girls."

When the interviewer noted that President Obama looks at his wife as if she's the most beautiful woman on the planet, the First Lady said, "I feel fortunate as a woman to have a husband who loves me and shows me in every way."



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/0...

Is this really a secret though? I remember seeing a plaque that read 'If Momma's Not Happy, Nobody's Happy!' Mrs. O is right though, we women often put ourselves last on the list of folk to take care of.

I don't think it is a secret, but, as just stated....I see women friends and family members who put themselves last almost always. Putting this into practice is a mindset change.

McChrystal’s Myth
by Jeff Huber
Share this on Twitter - McChrystal’s Myth Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 05:34:25 AM PDT
There is no such thing a "victory" in the kinds of wars we’re fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The best one can hope for in these types of conflicts—counterinsurgency efforts in far flung corners of the globe with fuzzy objectives and vague necessity—is to not be seen as having "lost." For that to happen, unfortunately, you have to stick around for so long and fade away so gradually that, by the time you leave, nobody notices you’re gone.

Jeff Huber's diary :: :: The neoconservative apparatus that got us into Iraq for reasons we still haven’t decided on threatens to keep us in Afghanistan indefinitely for reasons yet to be determined. Everything we’re doing in Central and Southwest Asia supposedly has something to do with eradicating al-Qaeda, yet there is no sign of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The argument for persisting in Afghanistan says that we have to make sure al-Qaeda doesn’t go back there, yet as former CIA officer Philip Giraldi recently noted, credible assessments suggest that "Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda has likely been reduced to a core group of eight to ten terrorists who are on the run more often than not."

For the sake of keeping fewer than a dozen evildoers out of Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his legion of supporters in the Pentagon, Congress and the media insist we need to bring increase U.S. troop levels to over 100,000, and the overall coalition force level to a half-million, the number of troops we had on the ground at one point in Vietnam.

The half-million figure comes from the counterinsurgency field manual (FM 3-24, Counterinsurgency), which calls for 20 to 25 counterinsurgent forces per every 1,000 locals, and Afghanistan contain a tad over 28 million locals. Your cat can do the math from there. What your cat can’t tell you is the thought process behind the conclusion that it makes sense to pit a half-million persons under arms against a force of eight or ten persons who aren’t in the vicinity of where you plan to place your half-million armed people.

That’s because your cat’s thought process isn’t as short-circuited as the cognitive quagmire going on in the minds of McChrystal and the people backing him.

The short version of this loopy logic equation goes like this: you put McChrystal in charge and he’s asking for what an official doctrine manual says he should ask for, so you have to give it to him. This skips over a trail of false assumptions that, lined up end to end, would span the Khyber Pass.

The requirement for a half-million to ten superiority ratio should have been laughed out of the discussion the moment it was mentioned. The counterinsurgency manual’s dictum that we must "convince the people of the government’s legitimacy" contains two dismal flaws in the context of Afghanistan (and Iraq as well). There is no convincing the Afghan people of the legitimacy of the Hamad Karzai government or any other government we replace it with.

The biggest flaw in the pro-McChrystal plan argument is that the counterinsurgency manual reflects tried-and-true tactics and strategy. There has never been such a thing as a triumphant counterinsurgency conflict. These types of wars have all been indecisive and draining quagmires; the sorts of conflicts that Sun Tzu warned us about over two thousand years ago when he said, "No nation ever profited from a long war."

Yet it is that the military-industrial-congressional complex has adopted the "long war" concept, a gem of tank thinkery straight our of Orwell designed to keep America on a permanent wartime economy and in an endless state of fear and loathing of enemies vaguely defined and overly demonized.

Lacking a peer military adversary since the end of the Cold War, the American war mafia, headed by Bill Kristol’s Israeli-centric neoconsevative cabal, cast about desperately for a "new Pearl Harbor" to justify its existence. The 9/11 attacks gave them the "catalyst" they needed to justify the invasions in Iraq and Afghanistan. It remains to be seen if we’ll be able to pull out of the flat spin they have flown us into.

The greatest fallacy in the counterinsurgency doctrine is the notion that we can partner with the host nation to establish order and security. As U.S. Army Colonel Timothy Reese recently observed, our years of effort at establishing a competent and reliable government and security apparatus in Iraq have come to naught. The "ineffectiveness and corruption" of Iraq’s government, he wrote in a recent memorandum, "is the stuff of legend." Of Iraq’s security forces, he wrote, "corruption among officers is widespread."
Laziness in "endemic," Reese said, and "Lack of initiative is legion." These and other compelling reasons are why Reese recommended that it’s time to "declare victory" in Iraq and go home.

To think we can do better than this in Afghanistan is the epitome of delusion. Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, which we backed in a long war against Iran during the 1980s, was a real country with a real army and real institutions and infrastructure. Afghanistan has always been a fourth-world wasteland.

When it comes to Afghanistan, our counterinsurgency manual amounts to little more than a ream of latrine linen.

Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) writes at Pen and Sword . Jeff's novel Bathtub Admirals (Kunati Books), a lampoon on America's rise to global dominance, is on sale now.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/29/787...

Your problem is these assholes have access to modern technology and the weapons derived from it. It is very clear they will try and use it. If you walk away the next reponse will be genocidal

"Afghanistan has always been a fourth-world wasteland."

If one could equate Afghanistan to "inner city" or "urban" areas, one will quickly realize that the same "thinkers" who can not resolve the US problems will not resolve Afghanistan's "problems".

The G-20 ministers declared their meeting in Pittsburgh a success, but as Rob Kall reports in OpEdNews.com, the meeting’s main success was to turn Pittsburgh into “a ghost-town, emptied of workers and the usual pedestrians, but filled to overflowing with over 12,000 swat cops from all over the US.”

This is “freedom and democracy” at work. The leaders of the G-20 countries, which account for 85% of the world’s income, cannot meet in an American city without 12,000 cops outfitted like the emperor’s storm troopers in Star Wars. And the US government complains about Iran.

The US government’s complaints about Iran have reached a new level of shrillness. On September 25 Obama declared: “Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow.” The heads of America’s British, French, and German puppet states added their two cents worth, giving the government of Iran three months to meet the “international community’s demands” to give up its rights as a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty to nuclear energy. In case you don’t know, the term “international community” is shorthand for the US, Israel, and Europe, a handful of arrogant and rich countries that oppress the rest of the world.

Who is breaking the rules? Iran or the United States?

Iran is insisting that the US government abide by the non-proliferation treaty that the US originated and pushed and that Iran signed. But the US government, which is currently engaged in three wars of aggression and has occupying troops in a number of other countries, insists that Iran, which is invading and occupying no country, cannot be trusted with nuclear energy capability, because the capability might in the future lead to nuclear weapon capability, like Israel’s, India’s, and Pakistan’s--all non-signatories to the nuclear proliferation treaty, countries that, unlike Iran, have never submitted to IAEA inspections. Indeed, at this very moment the Israeli government is screaming and yelling “anti-semite” to the suggestion that Israel submit to IAEA inspections. Iran has submitted to the IAEA inspections for years.

In keeping with its obligations under the treaty, on September 21 Iran disclosed to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it is constructing another nuclear facility. The British prime minister Gordon Brown confused Iran’s disclosure with “serial deception,” and declared, “We will not let this matter rest.”

What matter? Why does Gordon Brown think that Iran’s disclosure to the IAEA is a deception. Does the moronic UK prime minister mean that Iran is claiming to be constructing a plant but is not, and thus by claiming one is deceiving the world?

Not to be outdone in idiocy, out of Obama’s mouth jumped Orwellian doublespeak: “The Iranian government must now demonstrate through deeds its peaceful intentions or be held accountable to international standards and international law.”

The incongruity blows the mind. Here is Obama, with troops engaged in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan demanding that a peaceful nation at war with no one demonstrate “its peaceful intentions or be held accountable to international standards and international law.”

It is the US government and its NATO puppet states, and militarist Israel, of course, that need to be held accountable to international law. Under international law the US, its NATO puppets, and Israel are war criminal governments. There is no doubt about it. The record is totally clear. The US, Israel, and the NATO puppet states have committed military aggression exactly as did Germany’s Third Reich, and they have murdered large numbers of civilians. Following the Fuhrer’s script, “the great democratic republics” have justified these acts of lawlessness with lies and deceptions.

Rudy Giuliani, the former US Attorney who framed high profile victims in order to gain name recognition for a political career, keynoted a rally against Iran in New York on September 25. According to Richard Silverstein at AlterNet, the rally was sponsored by an Israeli lobby group and an organization with connections to an Iranian terror organization (probably financed by the US government) that calls for the violent overthrow of the Iranian government.

The efforts to build pressure for acts of war against Iran continue despite the repeated declaration from the IAEA that there is no sign of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, and despite the reaffirmation by US intelligence agencies that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program years ago.

Meanwhile, the US and Israeli governments, who are so solicitous of international law and holding accountable countries that violate it, have moved to prevent the report of Judge Richard Goldstone from reaching the UN Security Council.

Why?

Judge Goldstone’s report found Israel guilty of war crimes in its massive military assault against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza.

The continuous efforts of the world’s two militarist-aggressor states--the United States and Israel--to demonize Iran was addressed by Ahmadinejad in his speech to the UN General Assembly (September 23). Ahmadinejad spoke of the assault on human dignity and spiritual values by the selfish material interests of the US and its puppet states. Seeking hegemony “under the mantle of freedom,” the US and its puppets use “the ugliest methods of intimidation and deceit” to disguise that they are “the first who violate” the fundamental principles that they espouse and apply to others.

Why, Ahmadinejad asked the UN General Assembly, do the countries of the world sit there while Israel murders and dispossesses the Palestinian people?

Why, asked Ahmadinejad, do the countries of the world sit there while the US, from thousands of miles away, sends troops to the Middle East, “spreading war, bloodshed, aggression, terror and intimidation in the whole region,” while blaming the countries that are suffering the West’s naked aggression?

Ahmadinejad told the General Assembly what most of the UN representatives already know, that “selfishness and insatiable greed have taken the place of such humanitarian concepts as love, sacrifice, dignity, and justice. . . . Lies have taken the place of honesty; hypocrisy has replaced integrity, and selfishness has taken the place of sacrifice. Deception in foreign affairs is called foresight and statesmanship, looting the wealth of other nations is called development efforts; occupation is said to be a gift that promotes freedom and democracy; and defenseless nations are subjected to repression in the name of defending human rights.”

It could not be put any clearer. However, if Ahmadinejad’s speech is reported by the US print and TV media, statements will be taken out of context and used to enrage the conservatives and Christian Zionists in order to unify them behind the Obama/Israeli assault on Iran.

America will not be satisfied until, like Rome, she has more enemies and more wars than she can survive.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts09282009.html

Michelle must not have gotten the memo to dress in basic black.

Okay, did they really need a remake of this movie?

I'll admit though, that of all the movies I saw in my children, this is the one movie, that I still can't watch 'cause it gave me nightmare then, and still will probably give me nightmares now:

Nightmare on Elm Street (2010 Trailer)

I actually liked the first 2-3 movies in that series, but still don't see the need for a remake.

Palin's "Going Rogue"

No, not Sarah Palin the person, but Sarah Palin "the Book" (a memoir -- allegedly) will be released on November 17th, just in time for Christmas! Better place those Amazon.com orders now while supplies last. You betcha!

Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, has finished her memoir just four months after the book deal was announced, and the release date has been moved up from the spring to Nov. 17, her publisher said.
"Governor Palin has been unbelievably conscientious and hands-on at every stage, investing herself deeply and passionately in this project," said Jonathan Burnham, publisher of Harper. "It's her words, her life, and it's all there in full and fascinating detail."

God, I hope it's not all her own words. Four hundred pages of Sarah Palin's mind numbing drivel would be unreadable. Don't believe me? Go revisit her farewell address.
Still think she wrote a 400 page book in four months all by her lonesome? No, Palin's ghostwriter or ghostwriters worked superfast to get this out in time for the Christmas shopping season. How involved Sarah "Barracuda" Palin was in the "writing" of her own book is doubtful. I'm sure she did speak to the people who wrote the book for her once or twice, or her publisher wouldn't be claiming "It's her words" but if she actually wrote more than 10% of this book I'll be shocked. In fact, the less of "her own words" are in it the more likely someone will be able to read the whole thing. Of course, poorly written or not it's bound to be a best seller just like Ann Coulter's books always seem to make the bestseller list. These books get bought so that right wingers can showcase them on their coffee tables (or they get bought in bulk so they can be given away to right wingers to place on their coffee tables). And let's not forget the demographic that will be hoping for a lengthy "pictorial section" in the book, the "Rich Lowry Fan Boy" segment.

In any event I hope none of you get this in your stocking on Christmas Day. I'd rather receive a lump of coal, thank you very much

What he said.

She just makes it to easy

The definition of rogue

1 : vagrant , tramp
2 : a dishonest or worthless person : scoundrel
3 : a mischievous person : scamp
4 : a horse inclined to shirk or misbehave
5 : an individual exhibiting a chance and usually inferior biological variation

Hitler is informed about the title of Sarah Palin's book
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WnodEflqIU

Supposedly written in 4 months. I can't imagine what the publishers are going to do w/ a book full of crayon characters and printed large letters.

The perfect cover
http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/3124/3948876...

The Murder of a Chicago Boy

Another Black teen has been savagely murdered for absolutely no reason, by other Black "people". We know the shock; we know the outrage; we know the pain and the grief that the families go through. And as unfair as it is, *we* know that the rest of society will expect *us* to account for and explain this most shameful act.

I'm not gonna go all Black Conservative, but I'm too through with the kneegrow-subspecies element of our community. They are useful for nothing; they are a menace; they are parasitic; they need to be removed from society and relocated to foreign jungles so that they may continue to act like the wild animals they are.

There is no hope for them. They aren't crying out for love and attention. They only want to kill or be killed. And there's no place for them in a civilized society. Period.

"They are useful for nothing; they are a menace; they are parasitic; they need to be removed from society and relocated to foreign jungles so that they may continue to act like the wild animals they are. "

Society often times cannot tell the difference so why don't they just relocate us all to the jungle?

WE are society, and we know exactly who needs to be culled from the herd.

How can the black community call out kneegrows when at least half of the black community are kneegrows themselves?

I think first we need to arrive at a real-time, as-of-today description of who and what comprises the Black Community. Are do-nothing, rent-seeking kneegrows the majority of our community? I have faith that they are not.

So as a member of the civilized, sane, functional, law-abiding and work-a-day Black majority, I'm calling these kneegrows to account: get out and stay out, and if you won't leave, you'll be thrown out ... like the hot garbage that you are.

I would submit that Kneegrows comprise at least half of the black community. You have that segment of the community that are just pure animals and trash, like these kids who beat that boy to death, then you have the "high class" Kneegrows who profit by exploiting the low class Kneegrows. It's nice that Bill Cosby wants to call out Man-Ray in the hood for not doing right, but it means nothing until he also calls out the Bob Johnsons for having a whole network dedicated to the New Millenium Minstrel Show. It's nice to call out the Flavor of Love girls and Amber Rose and Buffy the Body and Superhead, but it's also time to call out the Sheila Johnsons, who wouldn't have spas to open and horses to jump if it weren't for the legions of anonymous of black girls getting credit cards swiped down their ass cracks on BET. It's nice to call out the Tinys & Toyas & Frankies & Neffes but how about calling out the Debra Lees who put them on the air in the first place? A whole lot of black people have gotten rich by exploiting the Shenekas and Solja Boys, and far too many middle class black people are emulating low class kneegrow behavior for financial profit (Drake I'm looking at YOU).

I agree, we need to shut Kneegrows down but let's not just single out Qu'Twan and Shenekas in the hood, lets shut down the Bobs & Sheilas who got filthy rich by exploiting the Qu'Twans and Shenekas.

...and there all a whole lot of people in between the Shenekas and the Bob Johnsons who are guilty of exploitation, too. Believe me, some of the self-righteous people on here, especially the one(s) who are suggesting that fascism is the answer, and that they're genetically superior to those so-called "rent seekers" don't want us to start culling the herd. They may think they do, but...they don't. The snivelers with extreme "Revenge of The Nerds" fantasies might get culled too; those of you who, at this late date, are still pining away for love and acceptance from "majority America", rather than access and fairness...might get culled, too.

Oh.

Ok.

I bear physical scars (from being stabbed in the thigh at 8 years old, living in the Easter Hill section of Richmond, CA) and emotional scars (from seeing my own aunt get sliced up like lunch meat); the witnessing of a shoot-out at 10 years old; the theft of our family cars; and countless other acts of crime and violence whilst living amongst the no-good kneegrows of whom I speak.

So you can peddle that "fascist" bullshit elsewhere. I paid my fuckin' dues. And when I call out niggas for trifling behavior, I can do so with credibility.

Don't let the smooth taste fool ya, punk.

I shouldn't let the "smooth taste fool me" because...what? You've beem a crime victim? Well, I sympathize, but it doesn't negate what I said. Some of you really don't want the herd-culling to start up, especially if you're going to be urging other people to perform the job. You might not be able to control who gets culled.

...and when I mentioned facism and the presumption of genetic superiority, I wasn't talking about you, but the hit dog hollers, doesn't it?

I'm talking about Black men with courage to stand up and take back our culture and community. I'm NOT talking about outsourcing the job to White people.

Fuckin' animals can thin their own herds. But Black people can't???

I'm not talking about outsourcing the job to white people, either.

Then stop being Captain Cryptic, and say what the hell you mean. I wanna hear your answer to this generations-old problem.

Well, first, let me say that when you all find Black men with courage to stand up and...most of them won't be:
-the snivelers
-the suckasses
-the "Revenge of The Nerds" fantacists who are 40+ years old, and still traumatized by someone snickering at them for doing their homework
in middle school
-the blacks who think they're gentically superior to other blacks because they have more "white blood", or for any other reason
-the ones who are still hunger for the love and acceptance of "majority America"
-the ones who are so circumspect about what to do and say around whites that they can barely move or speak

Those men, if (and that's a big if) they allow themselves to be urged to carry out the desires of the people I've listed above, just might get decide to get rid of the kinds of people I've listed above, as well.

My answer? Well, part of it is to stop telling them that they're not worth shit unless they behave like the people I've listed.

And let me point out, just for clarity's sake, that you in particular have gone beyond talking about the kind of people who would commit this kind of crime to talking about poor black people ("rent seekers") in general.
A "bourgeoisie perspective", indeed.

OK.

Whole.heartedly.agree!!!

Yeah? Who are y'all gonna get to do that for you?

This society have ignored the under resourced Asphalt Jungle breeding grounds for more than 50 years. Whenever there is an eruption within the "jungle" that offends the sensibilities of observers outside of the "Asphalt Jungle" the occupants of the "jungle" only get a "bootstrap" and be "civilized" lecture but no resources.

The "use" for male occupants of the "jungle" have been the for-profit-prison-factories and the military. Both institutions are under budgetary constraints so the "market" for the male occupants in the "jungle" is diminishing.

None of the above is an attempt to make excuses, but simply acknowledge the "jungle". Social engineers and psychologists, politicians, and city planners have long known about the "jungle" but simply shrug their shoulders. Often their complaint is the task is too great and too costly to easily remedy.

Under resourced organizations like ACORN that just become known to many goes into the "jungle" acknowledge the occupants and attempt to "mainstream" them.

In one way or another, the Black community has ALWAYS lacked resources -- and we made due anyway. White society has ALWAYS discouraged a father in the home -- and we made due anyway. But we have NOT always acted like feral animals.

The sheer savagery that is seen in that video isn't frustration from a lack of resources. It's something that needs to be carved out of an otherwise decent Black society.

I think I hold the Bob Johnsons of the world more responsible than the lil Solja Boys...because the Bob Johnsons marketed busting caps, shaking asses, drug dealing, criminal activity, rampant and loveless sex, bad manners, etc. to a whole generation of black children and we can't get those kids back. That's why the youngsters today are singing about she text me say she wanna sex me lol :-) and f*cking every girl in the world as they throw it in a Winn Dixie grocery bag because it's too big, it's too strong, it won't fit, it's too much but he walk like that cuz he can back it up, etc.

An awful lot of people did an awful lot for Bob Johnson to get where he is. It's a shame that his repayment was the devaluation and degeneration of Black culture.

Still, I gotta blame the "people" who actual do this kind of thing, as well as their enablers.

Someone with sense. Thank you.

Whenever anyone speaks to the root causes for the "asphalt jungle" they are excoriated for being racist, sexist, unenlightened asshats. We all know that the causes are multifactorial - some intrinsic and some extrinsic.

I agree. There's no hope for those monsters who did this. What kind of heart and mind does a person have to have to bludgeon to death a 16 year old kid, along with God knows how many other people. They knocked the boy out and when he came to and tried to escape, they went after him again to finish him of.

Monsters. And I'm sick of people like Nas talking about the feelings of these murderers. Stop worrying about how to save them. They can't be saved. They are a bunch of terrorists. I wish someone would call these monsters what they are and actually take up for the kids like Darrion who are the victims of these depraved animals. This boy was an honor student and active in his church. This boy was out there trying to do the right thing and he gets beaten to death by a pack of wolves. It's just maddening.

I say round their asses up and ship them off to Afghanistan if they wanna kill so bad.

Please don't blow a gasket based on the title of this article. Please read the article. BTW, I'm not pro or con the disscussions in the article, I just thought it was an interesting take.

"How to Get Good Health Care Reform Without the Public Option: Going Dutch"

http://www.tnr.com/article/health-care/going-dutch

Bank of America Corp. is suspending its work with the housing affiliate of embattled community organizing group ACORN. The decision comes as three Republicans in Congress ask Bank of America and 13 other financial institutions to give Congress a complete accounting of their dealings with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or its affiliates.

In a statement, Bank of America said it would not enter into any further agreements with ACORN Housing Corp. until the bank is satisfied all issues have been resolved. ACORN Housing Corp. and Bank of America have worked together for years on mortgage foreclosure issues.

BofA suspends dealings with ACORN housing entity

---

The pot calls the kettle black.

"Bank of Thieves" is pulling the plug on funding a social justice organization. Ain't that a blip? So all the money they will save can go to paying back those TARP funds they received, right?

Dkos has a recommended diary up from the developer of the Facebook Poll Application who spoke about the application, and answered questions about the "assassinate Obama" poll that was on Facebook

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/28/787366/...

OK, to save everybody time.

Facebook is not responsible for the offending poll. Users of Facebook didn't hit the "report" button enough times to trigger alert mechanism. I took the weekend off. I am a Obama supporter.

C.Y.A That is all

Thank you!

The old "Save My Job" diary.

You Say Potato, I Say War Crimes
Posted by Zandar
A UN report on last winter's Israeli attacks into Gaza holds nothing back, suggesting Tel Aviv has committed war crimes against the Palestinians.
Israeli officials condemned Tuesday a scathing United Nations report that accused the nation of war crimes in its military offensive into Gaza.

Palestinian officials applauded the report, which was presented at a U.N. meeting, and urged U.N. members to address the alleged crimes documented in the report.

In the report, released earlier this month, a U.N. group accused Israel of committing "actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during its military incursion into Gaza from December 27 to January 18.

The group, called the U.N. Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, is headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone.

Goldstone presented the 500-plus page report the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva Tuesday.

"The lack of accountability for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point," Goldstone said Tuesday. "This is the time of action."

Naturally, the Obama administration isn't happy, but they stopped short of full condemnation of the report.
The U.S. representative, Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner, said some of the recommendations in the report were "deeply flawed" and called for Israel and Palestinian authorities to be allowed to finish conducting their own investigations before passing judgment.
Translation: the White House needs some time in order to talk down Russia and China, who are both satisfied with the report. Any serious action against Israel is inconceivable, even Obama will assure any sanctions will be vetoed by the United States.

But accusations of war crimes by the UN is a deadly serious thing, and the report pulls no punches:

The report claims that the Israeli Defense Forces "failed to take feasible precautions required by international law to avoid or minimize loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects."

The U.N. report also said Israel fired the chemical agent white phosphorous in civilian areas, intentionally fired upon hospitals using high-explosive artillery shells, and failed to provide effective warnings to civilians or U.N. workers before attacks. It also claims that Israel used Palestinian civilians as human shields and deliberately attacked Palestinian food supplies in Gaza.

The report recommends that the U.N. Security Council require the government of Israel to launch appropriate independent investigations into the findings of the report within three months. The findings also recommend that the alleged Israeli war crimes be explored by the International Criminal Court's prosecutor.

The findings also call on Palestinian leadership to investigate alleged war crimes, for militants to respect humanitarian law, and for the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on humanitarian grounds.

A spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that a resolution on the issue could be drafted by the human rights council by Friday.
In other words, this is a serious problem for Obama, and an even more serious problem for Israel. How Tel Aviv reacts to this will be anyone's guess, but reaction of the Wingers I can tell you will include cries of "pervasive anti-Semitism throughout the UN" for daring to say that using Willy Pete on Palestinians is a bad thing.
http://zandarvts.blogspot.com/2009/09/you-say-p...

Hey Rikyrah,

Here are some new pictures for you. The first one with Obama and his niece is so precious

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/29/787497/...

thanks

that picture is fantastic

Americofascism

by digby

Dave Weigel reports from deep in the heart of the conservative movement:


Kitty Werthmann has made quite a career out of warning Americans that fascism is on its way. The 84-year-old native Austrian survived the excesses of the Third Reich and, in her dotage as a leader of the South Dakota branch of the Eagle Forum, recorded tapes and videos explaining just how Hitler took power. She made her case during George W. Bush’s presidency, but the audience was small–fringe conservative activists, radio hosts like Alex Jones. Then came President Barack Obama. On Saturday, at the “How to Take Back America” conference, Werthmann found herself speaking to an overflowing room of conservative activists about the parallels between Obama and the rise of Hitler.
“We had prayer in school before we started class, and after class,” said Werthmann. “One day I came into the classroom and the crucifix was gone, and there was Hitler’s picture, and the Nazi flag on either side. And our teacher said, ‘Today we don’t pray anymore. We sing ‘Deutschland, Deutschland Uber Alles.’” [I hope nobody tells her about the Pledge of Allegiance. hooboy... ed]


The audience of mostly female conservative activists murmured; some of them scrawled out detailed notes, shaking their heads at what they were hearing. It had been a few days since Fox News reported that a New Jersey school had children sing a song of praise to President Obama. They kept on writing and listening as Werthmann explained how Hitler had euthanized mentally handicapped children, and how he’d kept lists of political enemies.

“What would you suggest we do,” asked one activist, “if we are asked to give up our guns?”

“Don’t you dare give up your guns!” thundered Werthmann. “Never, never, never!”

“Give them back one bullet at a time!” called out another activist. The tense atmosphere melted a little bit; the room broke up with laughter.



Ah, good times at Phyllis Schlaffley's yearly confab. Apparently, it's more successful than ever this year.

But this was classic:


“If you look at the classic model for moving to Marxism,” said retired Lt. Gen. William Boykin, who would give the conference’s opening speech, “you look at what every Marxist organization has done, they nationalize. They redistribute wealth. They restrict gun ownership. They then go out and suppress the opposition. And then, finally, they censor the media.”

In his speech, Boykin–who has gotten into hot water for speaking out against Islam while in uniform–begged the audience to pray for their country. “It’s only because of intercessory prayer that we haven’t been hit again since September 11,” said Boykin. “Pray for America for 10 minutes a day. If we can mobilize millions of prayer warriors that can pray for 10 minutes a day, we can open the gates of heaven.”


Boykin, of course, is the Delta Force zealot Zelig who became famous for saying that he was fighting the terrorists for Jesus:


The Pentagon has assigned the task of tracking down and eliminating Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and other high-profile targets to an Army general who sees the war on terrorism as a clash between Judeo-Christian values and Satan.

Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin, the new deputy undersecretary of Defense for intelligence, is a much-decorated and twice-wounded veteran of covert military operations. From the bloody 1993 clash with Muslim warlords in Somalia chronicled in "Black Hawk Down" and the hunt for Colombian drug czar Pablo Escobar to the ill-fated attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980, Boykin was in the thick of things.

Lt. Gen. William G. ‘Jerry’ Boykin, speaking about battle with a Muslim warlord
Yet the former commander and 13-year veteran of the Army's top-secret Delta Force is also an outspoken evangelical Christian who appeared in dress uniform and polished jump boots before a religious group in Oregon in June to declare that radical Islamists hated the United States "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian ... and the enemy is a guy named Satan."

Discussing the battle against a Muslim warlord in Somalia, Boykin told another audience, "I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

"We in the army of God, in the house of God, kingdom of God have been raised for such a time as this," Boykin said last year.

On at least one occasion, in Sandy, Ore., in June, Boykin said of President Bush: "He's in the White House because God put him there."


Interestingly, this super Christian is the same guy who went down to Guantanamo and dispatched General Geoffrey Miller to Iraq to "Gitmoize" Abu Ghraib. But then, that would make sense, wouldn't it?

Anyway, it's interesting to watch the Christian right shifting into anti-communism/fascism (which seems to have morphed into the same thing, which would come as a helluva surprise to Hitler and Stalin....) A guy like Boykin is perfect. He's a real Christian soldier, who fought for both God and the flag as if they were the same things --- kind of like the Nazis actually. He's an excellent standard bearer. The real Jack D. Ripper.

Wiegel's reports from the front are fascinating. The right may be confused but they are thrilled to be wallowing in their domestic paranoia once again. The Islamofascists are terrible and all, but they're nothing to the threat of the Amerifascists, the clear and present threat to everything the wingnuts hold dear.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/americof...

The 84-year-old native Austrian survived the excesses of the Third Reich and, in her dotage as a leader of the South Dakota branch of the Eagle Forum, recorded tapes and videos explaining just how Hitler took power.

I'm pretty suspect of this kind of shit having lived in Germany for some time. It's a given, she's not Jewish. She was 12 when the Nazis took over Austria; she, like Hitler, is Austrian. They made it thru the war, which would mean they did well enough and collaborated enough to get thru. Their Jewish neighbors? Not so much.

As cited here: She is 83 with a "vivid memory" of what happened in her homeland next. She witnessed the government take over the banks and the auto industry. Sound familiar? In the last nine months, Obama and the Democrats in Congress have successfully orchestrated the government takeover of Chrysler and General Motors along with countless banks.

She witnessed the "compulsory youth" service and indoctrination. That sounds a little like Obama's call for "mandatory volunteerism" for America's youth.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/how-take-...

Here's something else:

http://www.meetup.com/mitchell912/boards/thread...

Werthmann said the current health-care proposals threaten to create a system of socialized medicine similar to that of Nazi Austria. Physicians were overwhelmed, she said, because health care was free and hospitals were filled with hypochondriacs who crowded out those with serious health issues. Doctors fled their profession, she claimed, and welfare encouraged layabouts.
Hitler confiscated Jewishowned banks to fund his programs, she said, and blamed their owners for the country’s economic crisis.
“We had an excellent health-care system before Hitler,” she said.
Werthmann also warned against a government takeover of education like in Austria, where she said German teachers tried to drive philosophical wedges between parents and their children.
Despite her protests, said Werthmann, her mother sequestered her in a private school. “I hated her, but she saved me from the godless humanism that was being taught in our schools.”
Werthmann was most strident in speaking out against any form of national identification card and firearm registration. Hitler’s Gestapo security police terrorized her country, she said, and papers were a way of managing the populace.
To an explosion of cheers, she told those present to avoid any attempt to pass a national ID card and to “buy more guns.”
The Obama administration, she warned, is already nationalizing industry and will do the same with health care.
“We don’t want a dictatorship out of Washington,” she said. “We want to be free. I want people to know what’s coming.”

How the fuck would a 12 year-old and younger have known the condition of health care in Austria in 1933? She was born in 1926. Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 .... Austria was annexed in '38?

She claimed her countrymen knew nothing of concentration camps and Hitler’s more sinister machinations until after the war.

Yet wants to warn US about Hitler's rise to power and how Obama is following "the pattern."

Now you know these folks don't care about FACTS. She's preaching to the choir so that's all they hear.

They're about as phoney as those so-called birthermercials. Twisting facts in order to bolster their opinions is old-school...until they get called out and run home with their tails tucked in!

Lie #1 Hitler did not take away guns every german citizen was allowed to have one,party members could openly carry a sidearm and they were in such shortage they had to import sidearms from Spain.
Lie #2 They knew they all knew they were concentration camps and even though they didnt know the extent of the holocaust they knew jews were enemies of the state and were shipped off.
German Gun Laws
History of firearms restrictions in Germany 1919-1938
In 1919 and 1920, to stabilize the country and in part to comply with the Treaty of Versailles, the German Weimar government passed very strict gun ownership restrictions. Article 169 of the Treaty of Versailles stated, "Within two months from the coming into force of the present Treaty, German arms, munitions, and war material, including anti-aircraft material, existing in Germany in excess of the quantities allowed, must be surrendered to the Governments of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers to be destroyed or rendered useless."[1]

In 1919, the German government passed the Regulations on Weapons Ownership, which declared that "all firearms, as well as all kinds of firearms ammunition, are to be surrendered immediately."[2] Under the regulations, anyone found in possession of a firearm or ammunition was subject to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 marks.

On August 7, 1920, the German government enacted a second gun-regulation law called the Law on the Disarmament of the People. It put into effect the provisions of the Versailles Treaty in regard to the limit on military-type weapons.

In 1928, the German government enacted the Law on Firearms and Ammunition. This law relaxed gun restrictions and put into effect a strict firearm licensing scheme. Under this scheme, Germans could possess firearms, but they were required to have separate permits to do the following: own or sell firearms, carry firearms (including handguns), manufacture firearms, and professionally deal in firearms and ammunition. This law explicitly revoked the 1919 Regulations on Weapons Ownership, which had banned all firearms possession.

Stephen Halbrook writes about the German gun restriction laws in the 1919-1928 period, "Within a decade, Germany had gone from a brutal firearms seizure policy which, in times of unrest, entailed selective yet immediate execution for mere possession of a firearm, to a modern, comprehensive gun control law."[3]

[edit] The 1938 German Weapons Act
The 1938 German Weapons Act, the precursor of the current weapons law, superseded the 1928 law. As under the 1928 law, citizens were required to have a permit to carry a firearm and a separate permit to acquire a firearm. Furthermore, the law restricted ownership of firearms to "...persons whose trustworthiness is not in question and who can show a need for a (gun) permit." Under the new law:

Gun restriction laws applied only to handguns, not to long guns or ammunition. Writes Prof. Bernard Harcourt of the University of Chicago, "The 1938 revisions completely deregulated the acquisition and transfer of rifles and shotguns, as well as ammunition."[4]
The groups of people who were exempt from the acquisition permit requirement expanded. Holders of annual hunting permits, government workers, and NSDAP party members were no longer subject to gun ownership restrictions. Prior to the 1938 law, only officials of the central government, the states, and employees of the German Reichsbahn Railways were exempted.[5]
The age at which persons could own guns was lowered from 20 to 18.[5]
The firearms carry permit was valid for three years instead of one year.[5]
Jews were forbidden from the manufacturing of firearms and ammunition.[6]
Under both the 1928 and 1938 acts, gun manufacturers and dealers were required to maintain records with information about who purchased guns and the guns' serial numbers. These records were to be delivered to a police authority for inspection at the end of each year

dj - notice this?

The Weimar government - not Hitler. That whole Treaty of Versailles is what Hitler capitalized on. The Weimar was democratic, btw.

In 1919 and 1920, to stabilize the country and in part to comply with the Treaty of Versailles, the German Weimar government passed very strict gun ownership restrictions.

Oh yeah - the concentration camps. When I lived in Augsburg we visited Dachau. It's outside Munich. (12 miles). (Augsburg 30 miles or so) It IS a little town and the concentration camp. If they didn't know; they made a concentrated effort to NOT know.

Yeah I notice that fact but you know facts dont matter to the citizens of wingnuttia.Also this caught my eye
"Stephen Halbrook writes about the German gun restriction laws in the 1919-1928 period, "Within a decade, Germany had gone from a brutal firearms seizure policy which, in times of unrest, entailed selective yet immediate execution for mere possession of a firearm, to a modern, comprehensive gun control law."[3]"

“Don’t you dare give up your guns!” thundered Werthmann. “Never, never, never!”

“Give them back one bullet at a time!” called out another activist. The tense atmosphere melted a little bit; the room broke up with laughter."

(Video) Right-Wing Conference Tells Activists To Get Their Guns Ready For ‘Bloody Battle’ With Obama The Nazi.

Okay, this has got to be the dumbest idea for a movie yet:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily...

I read about that on some news ticker...>_<

I thought this was cute, and in good fun.

Barack Obama's Amazingly Consistent Smile
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily...

That was hilarious.

A King County Sheriff's deputy who was seen on video beating a teenage girl in a holding cell has been fired, officials said Monday.

Sheriff spokesman John Urquhart said Paul Schene was fired for a number of policy violations, including the incident captured on video.

Urquhart said Schene pleaded his case before Sheriff Sue Rahr on September 9, but she found the violations to be supported and agreed with the recommendation that Schene be fired. The department violations included making false statements, conduct that is criminal in nature, excessive or unnecessary force and discrimination in civility or bigotry, among others, Urquhart said.

The security video shows Schene shoving and kicking a 15-year-old girl in a holding cell after her arrest.

Schene was charged with fourth-degree assault in connection with the Nov. 29 incident in a holding cell at SeaTac City Hall. Schene pleaded not guilty to the charge. Trouble allegedly began after Schene escorted one of the teens into a holding cell. While trying to take her shoes off, the girl kicked off her left shoe, which struck the deputy in the shin, the document said.

Sheriff fires deputy seen in jail beating video (kicks and hits 15 year old girl)

The head of the World Bank on Monday sounded a cautionary note about granting greater regulatory power to the U.S. Federal Reserve and said the dollar's future will "depend heavily on U.S. choices."

"It should not be a surprise that American democracy is hesitating about authorizing the Fed to supervise systemic banking as well as operating monetary policy, adding to its power," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said.

In a speech prepared for delivery at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, Zoellick said the U.S. Congress had a long tradition of viewing banks with suspicion that made it a challenge to beef up the U.S. central bank's power after last year's financial panic.

Be Wary of Granting Fed More Power: World Bank

The Plot Thins
The most important questions about the Zazi case, answered.
Among those who know me well, few can remember when I covered any subjects other than Al Qaeda and the global jihad. I wrote about Osama Bin Laden when he was "Usama bin Ladin." And so since September 14, all anybody's been asking me are questions about a young Afghan immigrant named Najibullah Zazi and his alleged involvement in the first Al Qaeda cell uncovered in America since the 9/11 attacks. Here are my answers to the four most common questions I've been getting.

1. Is this just another of the government's over-hyped terror plots?

U.S. officials whom my colleagues and I at the New York Daily News have interviewed are very consistent about the terrorism case still unfolding in Denver, New York City, and elsewhere. This is "the real deal," they say--and I'm not so skeptical this time. In the Bush years, government types were far too eager to boast about the plots they interrupted. I'll never forget ex-Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf describing the thwarting of the 2007 JFK Airport plot as preventing "unthinkable" devastation, which other New York City officials privately mocked. Now we look back at Liberty City, Fort Dix, and many other plots as "more aspirational than operational"--the catchphrase coined by FBI Deputy Director John Pistole in a refreshing moment of candor about flimsy, informant-driven terrorism cases.

Not this time, however. The suspects--as many as two-dozen, we hear--were convincingly capable and apparently operational, according to new details of the FBI's spying revealed in court papers last week. A prosecutor on Friday told a judge in Denver that Zazi aimed to attack New York on the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which Al Qaeda called "Holy Tuesday."

While Attorney General Eric Holder has handled the plot in such a way that would make sleepy Michael Mukasey seem alarmist, one U.S. counterterrorism official kept telling me, "I'm sure you haven't heard anybody say this isn't serious."



2. How does Zazi fit into the history of fanatical Islamic extremism?

The feds haven't showed their entire hand yet--and they're getting dealt some terrifying cards, judging by the sliver of information they've revealed from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act wiretaps they obtained. We already have plenty of hair-raising details about Zazi. He admitted to the FBI he was trained in "weapons and explosives" by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in the past year. But one of the most intriguing facts to emerge is that he's an Afghan. I polled several top experts on Al Qaeda--The Osama Bin Laden I Know author (and TNR contributor) Peter Bergen and ex-Bush counterterrorism adviser Frances Fragos Townsend--but none could think of any Afghans who held senior leadership roles within Al Qaeda or ever identified as operatives carrying out terror missions outside of South Asia. We may be fighting a war in their backyard but up until now they have not chosen, or been selected, to wage war in ours.

However, Zazi is also a Pashtun tribesman from wartorn Paktia province, which sits on the AfPak border and is controlled by warlord Jalaluddin Haqqani, a principal U.S. adversary in the Afghan war and a close Bin Laden friend and protector. Many of the approximately 70 CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas over the past year targeted Haqqani--and some missiles killed the ex-CIA ally's relatives.

The FBI has also said Zazi used several e-mail accounts, intriguingly calling himself "Kado Khan" in one. In 1745, the Pashtun king of Kandahar, Ahmad Shah Durrani (still a famous Pashtun family), discovered a plot to kill him and executed several of the would-be assassins, including a Pashtun named Kado Khan. "Half the kids in this country can't even tell you who George Washington is, but this kid Zazi knows about a killer put to death 264 years ago," marveled one former senior counterterrorism official. To me, it's significant because jihadis view themselves as part of the fabric of a long narrative--the fight for Islam. A notable example I've found is that Al Qaeda figures from Indonesia, Spain, Syria, Pakistan, Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan--even one of the Saudi 9/11 hjackers--have adopted the jihad name "Abu Dujana" in honor of a mythical red headbanded warrior who fought at the side of the Prophet Mohamed. The hijackers on United Flight 93 donned red headbands just as he had.
3. Has the FBI foiled the planned attack--whatever it was?

Last Thursday, Eric Holder said, "We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted." The Daily News reported early last week that the FBI was convinced agents had "compromised" any plot by Zazi or his alleged goons and a terror attack would be "hard to bring forward." (Though they still couldn't explain what the plot was or identify a target.) What was terrifying was the discovery of a bunch of new backpacks in a Queens apartment during a September 14 raid by the Joint Terrorism Task Force. It conjured images of London and Madrid, of horribly mangled rail cars twisted and shredded from multiple coordinated bomb blasts--Al Qaeda's calling card.

Within a few days, counterterrorism agents got a new lead, and they scrambled to canvass the borough for truck rental shops. Turns out, a group of Afghans had unsuccessfully tried to rent a 26-footer from U-Haul on September 9, the same day Zazi got in his car in Aurora, Colorado, and drove to New York City. What were they going to fill the truck with? It could have just been furniture, but investigators were anxious to find out if it was something more dangerous. One of the men identified by U-Haul workers was Flushing imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, later busted for lying to the feds after he allegedly "tipped off" Zazi that the cops were onto him. Another man fingered in photos the FBI showed the U-Haul workers was Naiz Khan, an Afghan pal who gave Zazi a place to stay in Queens--and the first to tell reporters the night the case broke publicly that the FBI had grilled him about his friend "Najibullah" from Colorado.

One frantic search led to another: The feds began looking for a storage space used as a bomb lab or possibly a hidden cache of nail polish remover and hydrogen peroxide to make TATP explosives. All they found was a model rocketeer's bin in Denver that an ATF bomb dog "alerted" on. Despite evidence on store videos and in receipts that Zazi's crew bought gallons of beauty products to possibly mix chemicals for homemade explosives, the feds have come up empty. As of Friday, they hadn't found any stashes of chemicals.

And yet, last week, my phone rang. It was a source who works in the national security trenches. Others have called with similar inquiries, too.

"Uh, seriously, James," the source whispered, "do you think it's safe for me to go see U2 tomorrow?

I suggested ear plugs. "Don't they search bags at the arena?" I wondered. "You'll be fine. Have fun."

Who could blame him for worrying, though? Since the Zazi case broke in the news, there’s been a daily flurry of joint FBI and Department of Homeland Security bulletins warning the nation's 18,000 police agencies to keep an eye out for suspicious activity in transit systems, sports arenas, and stadiums. In one September 14 FBI-DHS "high priority message," the feds asked local cops to be vigilant about suspicious purchases of hydrogen peroxide, people with "burn marks on their hands," "foul odors," or "dead vegetation."

"A series of unclassified homeland security notes have been produced to assist our partners as they go about their daily duties. They are not intended for the general public or the media," a Homeland Security flack dryly explained. But another fed, reflecting the anger among many I know, fumed, "They're just needlessly scaring the hell out of the public with these stupid bulletins."

4. Did the NYPD blow the FBI's covert probe of Zazi and company?

This is the question I've been asked more than any other, particularly after The New York Times popped a front-pager about the flap between the NYPD and the FBI last week.

As news was breaking about the initial Queens raids, I heard FBI agents griping about how the locals had not only blown the tail, but also called in TV crews when they served search warrants. The feds had wanted to stay on Zazi much longer without his knowledge so they could determine who all his co-conspirators were and what they were planning--though prosecutors now charge the plot was a September 11 anniversary bombing. After discovering him in an electronic intercept, according to our sources, the FBI became so convinced they finally had discovered a real Al Qaeda cell here after eight years of looking that they brought in scores of agents to Denver from around the country. They won approval from a secret court for fistfuls of FISA warrants for searches and electronic eavesdropping. The CIA and NSA were in on the act. The chilling results included Zazi frantically calling evildoers for help refining his recipe for a bomb as he cooked chemicals in a kitchen-equipped Aurora hotel room on September 6 and 7--with "each communication more urgent than the last," court papers said.

But here's where the philosophical difference arose between the FBI and their main rival, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly's massive counterterrorism and intelligence units: When Zazi rented a car on September 9 and drove through the night to Queens, the NYPD decided they needed to put their foot on his neck. So they pulled him over for a random drug search, flashed his picture around Queens, towed his car to covertly mirror his laptop, and asked Imam Afzali, an NYPD snitch, if he knew him. Afzali called Zazi on September 11 and told him the jig was up, and Zazi jetted back to Denver on September 12, apparently destroying his laptop's hard drive, too, the feds have charged. The cops in New York may have blown the surveillance before the FBI was ready to lift the veil, but they "spooked the cell," one source surmised. Nothing blew up on September 11.

On September 16, FBI Director Robert Mueller--without being asked--painted a rosy picture when he told a Senate committee that "New Yorkers are well benefited from the work of the NYPD and Ray Kelly," and things "could not be better" between the city cops and his street agents--who, by the way, deride the feds as "Feebs."

James Gordon Meek covers national security, justice, and terrorism for the New York Daily News in Washington.
http://www.tnr.com/article/world/the-plot-thins...

Where was this guy during the "Liberty Bell 7" mistrials?

deleted

Dirty Dancing - THE Deleted Scene

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

THANKS DJ

The end of the Pax Americana?
Obama has the chance to end our Cold War hangover, and start an era where the U.S. is not the sole global policeman
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/09/29...

Good Morning.Your Tuesday Jam.Enjoy
The Fantastic Johnny C - Waitin' for the Rain (Tom Moulton Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdoICmnSarU

Thanks DJ