In The News: Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
Egypt - The Egyptian Army and police are apparently NOT doing their government-ordered suppression of street protests as the "Egyptian Army says it WILL NOT fire on Protesters". There's a "Million Person March" planned for tomorrow.
California - The governor delivers the State of the State address tonight, and California's 'state' is economically dilapidated.
Medical Marijuana - Medical Marijuana users will be protected from job loss and harassment in a bill has been passed by the State Assembly and Legislature since the Schwarzenegger administration... awaiting a signature. Expect governor Brown to sign it.
ObamaCare - The 11th Circuit court will hand down a decision today on whether the Obama administration has the right to mandate the purchase of health insurance by US citizens. Twenty six states are interested parties to this decision. Expect the case to go to the US Supreme Court.
In The News: Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
Egypt comes unglued with open rebellion on the streets of Suez and Cairo where demonstrators have been targeting the police in mass street demonstrations. There has been a battle in Cairo for who controls a strategic bridge allowing the authorities to move their forces and equipment. The rest of the country is also experiencing turmoil.
[Say Buh-Bye Mubarak: "A protester kisses a police officer during a demonstration in Cairo January 28, 2011"]
Mohamed ElBaradei, the former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the UN who attempted to prevent the Iraq war and is perhaps the only person who could be considered the "opposition" in Egypt returned from 'exile' to Egypt yesterday and was placed under house arrest. Now it's reported he has been moved into government custody. That is sure to create even more violence in the streets of Egypt. He is the 'choice' of the Egyptian middle-class, as yet un-involved in the protests in any large number.
You realize this all started because a guy in Tunisia with a Graduate degree who couldn't find work started peddling fruit on the street and was told he couldn't. He immolated himself... causing a revolt and now-accomplished government overthrow... and it's spreading to the rest of North Africa and the Middle East.
From Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP):
The January 14 departure of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was a long overdue demonstration of the possibility of genuine democratization in the Arab world. It remains to be seen, however, to what degree the toppling of Ben Ali will transform Tunisia into a representative democracy whose citizens enjoy greater economic opportunities.
Amy Aisen Kallander assesses some of the obstacles to change in "Tunisia's Post-Ben Ali Challenge: A Primer," now available in [Middle East Report Online]
The Shiite funeral that was bombed in Iraq the other day killing 30 has raised the death toll for the week to approximately 200 killed and 800 wounded. Expect the illegitimate Iraqi government to ask the US to stay after the end-of-year 2011 deadline... Expect the US government to say "Yes".
Speaking of our near-forgotten war on Iraq, Steven Lee Myers (New York Times) pens his retirement column and says of president Obama's State of the Union address:
The war in Iraq occupied no more space in President Obama’sState of the Union address than it has in his administration’s foreign policy: not exactly a footnote, but no longer the contentious, consuming, convulsive center of all attention.
Iraq came up only briefly in the 46th minute of a speech that lasted just over an hour, but his five sentences and 72 words amounted to a declaration of victory, if a subdued one.
“Look to Iraq,” he said, using the experience here under his presidency as an example of the restoration of American standing in the world, “where nearly 100,000 of our brave men and women have left with their heads held high.”
Loyalty is not their strong suit... The Senate Tea Party Caucus was called yesterday and out of 63 who might be considered "Teabaggers" only three showed up.
Speaking of the "TeaTards"... In their greed they even spite themselves.
From Mark Ames @ The EXiled "Mankind's Only Alternative":
Class War For Idiots / January 22, 2011
We, The Spiteful
By Mark Ames
[...]Here we are, in 2011—and although 2004 seems like a different world from today, separated by more events than we can make sense of, the left still hasn’t come around to answering that big Kansas mystery about Americans’ farcical voting habits.
So the left was left baffled once again when, in 2009, millions of Americans volunteered as foot-soldiers to fight for a second-rate TV personality named Rick Santelli and his rich speculator friends at the Chicago Exchange, who called for a revolution to protect their money from “losers” because Santelli and his speculator buddies didn’t want to “subsidize losers’ mortgages.”
Next thing you know, these same losers took to the streets to defend the semi-celebrity Santelli, his rich speculator pals, and the Koch brothers from… losers.
That is, they revolted against themselves. • • • And they weren’t just revolting against their own rational economic self-interest—they also rebelled against their health and longevity, storming town hall meetings with guns threatening any lawmaker who dared offer them cheaper, better health care of the sort enjoyed in every other First World country, where people live longer healthier lives than we do, at half the cost.
Fueled by spite, these protesters proved to the world that Americans would rather die in misery and bankruptcy than live longer healthier lives. Thanks to them, Obama, who was never thrilled about offering us cheaper health care in the first place, made sure that whatever happened, we’d get the very worst health care reform possible, one that left everyone bitter except the health care plutocrats.[...] [More @ The EXiled]
In OTHER News:
""During his year at Fort Drum, N.Y., Manning had "thrown chairs at colleagues and shouted at higher ranking soldiers,"
New information reveals that Bradley Manning may have been picked to be the flogging boy over the Wikileak of Iraq information because he already thought the people he worked with/for were murderous cretins, before he was shipped to Iraq.
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
January 27 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Color Coding Terrorism Is Sooo '20th Century' - The DHS Cancels The Color Coded Threat Alerts
In The News: Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
Leading in to the news this morning, a word from our sponsor... You know.
The American political circle jerk continues as the Republicans put forth their thoughts on US elections... The elimination of the little check box on your tax form to contribute to the elections... Meanwhile corporations continue to donate.
It's the third day of street revolts in Egypt. Suez and Cairo are under siege. Eight to ten people have been killed, including a number of police.
In Tunis Tunisia there is ongoing strife regarding the removal of all officials affiliated with the Ben Ali government. There has been a request from what remains of the Tunisian government for international arrest warrant to capture the Western-Affiliated (one pundit called Tunisia under Ben Ali "The model Western client state") former strongman leader who apparently looted the national treasury as well. Swiss banks have already frozen his accounts.
More on the Egyptian situation from Foreign Policy Magazine, and "Anonymous", the hacker group that went after Paypal and Amazon with dDos attacks for cutting off Wikileaks sources of donations. "Anonymous" is offering their assistance to the Egyptian rebels.
Unrest in Egypt continues amidst police crackdown
Protests in Egypt continued for a second day, despite an official ban on further demonstrations put in place by President Hosni Mubarak's regime after tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Tuesday. Egyptian police moved to crush the scattered protests on Wednesday, using tear gas, rubber-coated bullets, and batons to force the protesters to disperse.
In the city of Suez, east of Cairo, demonstrators set a government building on fire. They also threw gasoline bombs at the offices of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Egypt's ruling party, but failed to burn the building.
The NDP released a statement on the demonstrations reiterating the government's claim that they have been organized by the banned Muslim Brotherhood (A Straussian Neoconservative organization -ed.) , and saying that the parties organizing the unrest are "exploiting the enthusiasm of youth to achieve chaos." [More]
Expect Free Speech... The Egyptian liberation elements have an internet 'Posse':
DEAR CITIZENS OF THE WORLD,
Anonymous can not, and will not stand idly while people are being denied their basic rights and human liberties. Yet, there are still a lot of governments worldwide who fail to even aspire to the standard of freedom that was set by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These governments believe they have the right and privilege to impose upon their own people an 'official' version of 'reality' which isn't in any way tampered by the truths of everyday life under which its citizens are living. Anonymous believes this is an outright crime which can not go unpunished.
The Egyptian people are living under inhumane conditions; being denied their basic rights to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of association, and the free access to information. By imposing censorship upon its own people and condemning these freedoms, the Egyptian government has revealed itself to be criminal, and has made itself an enemy of Anonymous.
To the Egyptian Government: Anonymous challenges all those who are involved in censorship. Anonymous wants you to offer free access to uncensored media in your entire country. When you ignore this message, not only will we attack your government websites, Anonymous will also make sure that the international media sees the horrid reality you impose upon your people. Anonymous will not spare anybody who supports this suppression. It is in the hands of the Egyptian government to end this: continue your repression and you will be subject to civil protest - lend an ear to the claim of freedom from your people and the hostilities will cease.
To the Egyptian people: We stand together and united against this oppression. This struggle is not just for you alone, but for the whole of humankind. Citizens can no longer endure their governments abuse. When forced by the threat of oppression, we will be loud as hell - and when the people roar, it will send shivers down the spines of all those who stifle our freedom and take our precious liberties away... [In Full, With An Opportunity To Join Them...]
Spork YOU! Nancy Pelosi had proposed the Capitol cafeteria go 'Green' a while back. The cafeteria did so and now it's going to be canceled because our hard working representatives are quite unhappy with the biodegradable plastic forks. It's rugged in there too, even WITH real flatware... Dennis Kucinich is suing the cafeteria for a busted tooth caused by an unpitted olive
Guy Debord LIVES on the Mexican border - The National Guard on the Arizona border surveiled people catapulting kilos of Marijuana over the border. They seized 45 pounds of weed and the catapult.
Grainy surveillance video shows drug smugglers putting a new twist on their crime by using a catapult to launch small bales of marijuana across the Arizona-Mexico border.
The video was taken the night of Jan. 21 by National Guard troops monitoring a series of surveillance cameras near Naco, Ariz., officials from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.
The black and white video shows at least four men near an SUV loading a three yard catapult and flinging the pot over the border fence.
Border Patrol agents contacted Mexican authorities to thwart the smugglers, officials said.
The men reportedly fled from the area to avoid apprehension, officials said. [More @ ABCNews]
There's nothing more notable to see since the city drove the counterculture out of town and the surfers now days consist mostly of cubie workers driving their solitary SUVs to the beach once a month with the board strapped to the roof for show. If you have nothing better to do in Santa Cruz (California) today, the World Series trophy will be on display.
In OTHER News:
Anti-imperialist Historian and Author Howard Zinn passed last year on this day.
Read his classic history book, "A People's History Of The United States" online, suitable for Junior High School age plus, at History Is A Weapon (Direct link to text)
From Truthout:
The number of US Troop Casualties From Roadside Bombs in Afghanistan Soared in 2010
US military statistics show that the number of troops "killed by roadside bombs in Afghanistan soared by 60 percent last year, while the number of those wounded almost tripled," The Washington Post reports. In 2010, 268 US troops "were killed by the improvised explosive devices, or IEDs … about as many as in the three previous years combined." Military officials believe the rise in deaths and injuries is a direct result of "the surge in U.S. and NATO troops, as well as the intensified combat." [source]
...and it's expected to get worse. Expect bloodshed on a whole new scale.
Finally, Jim Hightower on the State Of The Corporatist State:
Obama Inc.
Wednesday 26 January 2011
by Jim Hightower
Exciting news, folks. Obama and team say they're recalibrating, recasting, retooling and rebranding his presidency! And they've come up with a dandy new slogan to sum it all up and get America moving again. Ready? "Win the future."
Takes your breath away, doesn't it?
If you're old enough to remember Gerald Ford's hapless presidency, Obama's fabulous new slogan might have a familiar ring to it. In 1974, with rampant inflation gobbling up the paychecks of workaday families, Ford blamed the American people, asserting that they were simply spending too much. So he ordered thousands of red-and-white buttons that said "WIN!" It was an acronym for "Whip Inflation Now," which Ford thought would happen if only the public wore the buttons to remind each other to buy less.
This was, in a word, stupid -- and it helped make Gerry a one-term president.
Obama, however, hopes his slogan will catch on. As explained in his Jan. 25 State of the Union speech, it refers to what he sees as a sort of global Super Bowl in which the U.S.A. is competing to "out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world." He has declared that this is "our generation's Sputnik moment," adding that, "My No. 1 focus is going to be making sure we are competitive."
Hooray, let's go! Washington should harness the idealism, creativity, energy and can-do spirit of grassroots people into a bold national program to revitalize America's economy, educational system, infrastructure and middle class.
But, wait -- it turns out that Obama's not proposing a true Sputnik response, like Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson produced in the 1950s and '60s. They launched such public efforts as a national program of science education and the Apollo moon landing. Instead, Obama is trusting Corporate America to "win the future" for us, offering deregulation and more tax breaks to entice them... [In Full]
In The News: Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
A note from the archivist: Sorry about the posting delays over the last couple of days. I was involved in the federally mandated bi-annual census of the homeless. The route I followed was about as rural as it gets in Santa Cruz county California yet I still head-counted a number of homeless, with most of the local population of houseless circulating in the urban areas or the fringe of those areas.
The results, which the federal government depends on for calculating funding contributions to local agencies that help the disenfranchised and displaced workers of America, will be published later this spring.
Stuff about stuff the people are talking about... The State Of The Union address has turned out to be THE social occasion/elbow-rub spectacular, without the focus on a report to the nation that's constitutionally mandated. Obama gets to signifyin' by demanding that we "Win The Future", implying that what money is left in the US treasury has to focused on increasing productivity (Longer Hours) and global competition (Less Pay).
The brothers in the 'hood are displeased...
Meanwhile, Governor Udall's request that the Republicans and Democrats sit together like one big cozy family actually worked, in part due to the umn... vagueness of Obama's speech... which negated the necessity of applauding or booing at partisan statements, but instead allowed them to politely applaud in unison on whitebread semantic cues to which ALL government officials are apparently trained to respond positively
Prime Minister Putin of Russia suspects it wasn't the Chechens who killed 35 people and wounded 150 in the recent Moscow train station bombing. He claims it's one of the other 'stans in the region. Putin also claims it's in regard to Muslims rebelling against the Moscow central government. Repeat after me... "It IS NOT ABOUT the Natural Gas and pipelines, and Russia's intention to loot it, perhaps with the help of a now allied NATO.
For the back story on the situation in Central Asia and 'Pipelinistan' see "Central Asia: Top 10 Developments in 2010" at The Oriental Review. Also see: Pipelineistan Poker (It all comes down to the top two global players) - Pepe Escobar, Asia Times
It's getting closer to open revolt in Cairo Egypt as the government bans protests after the deaths of four protesters and over 860 anti-government demonstrators are arrested in Cairo and Suez on day two of protests. Today protesters in Suez set a government building on fire and tried to burn down a local office of Egypt's ruling party.
All this is occurring in the wake of the recent Tunisian rebellion which toppled it's government. Former strongman Ben Ali's Tunisia was model US client state, and it's going to be treacherous for Tunisians now, as counter-revolutionaries, and the inevitable US backed destabilization operations ramp up.
Large numbers of Egyptians are also apparently willing to push back at their authoritarian government, along with others in the region, such as Yemenis... and the Lebanese, whose March 14 movement (Western Supported) Muslims just found themselves without representation in their Parliament after a faction of Hizbollah and allies walked out, are on the path towards removing their government as well due to the appointment of a March 8 movement nominee as the new Prime Minister who will most likely reject the findings of the Special Tribunal to Lebanon investigation the assassination of Rafic Hariri a few years back.
Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of Hizbollah Nasrallah warns Tunisians against a U.S. conspiracy.
...from VoltaireNet
Speaking to the Tunisian people, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah hailed their aspiration for freedom and their action. The Lebanese Hezbollah Secretary-General emphasized that the arrival in Tunis of Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, was in itself very disquieting. "The Tunisian people must repel U.S. interference" (...) it must guard "against the conspiracy that the United States are hatching to torpedo its Revolution". [More]
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the person up on 285 counts of murder for allegedly selling the explosives used in the attacks against America embassies in East Africa has been acquitted on 284 of the counts in a federal court because torture was used to extract information. He received a life sentence for the one death.
[After the commentary, Widespread Panic says it if we're going to make it, it takes "Hope In A Hopeless World". Courtesy of the respective artists and KPIG radio Freedom California Earth.]
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
January 25 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: State Of Our Union - If We Could Stop Making Huge Social Events From Our Government's Banality We Might Get Something Done
In The News: Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
President Obama will deliver the State Of The Union address this evening with the focus on economics and government waste. But all in all the social scene will most likely be the biggest show, and there COULD be some interesting sideshows as the Tea Party people will pout in a corner and NOT go with the request that they 'mix it up' with the other party politician. THAT'S an interest group who belive in majority rule and cooperation to make government work... NOT! (Pssst... they're proto-Fascists... pass it on.)
Lebanon's political 'culture' is gone after Hizbollah and some allies walk out of parliament yet the remainder of the government, now of mostly Christian membership, goes on as if they AREN'T a parliamentary government that needs to be dissolved. Expect turmoil if the Muslims who have just been effectively disenfranchise from the government, follow the path currently circumscribed by events in Tunisia and Algeria, where there are active rebellions against their corrupt governments.
In Haiti the Cholera epidemic has killed 4000 people so far with many more sick and the epidemic running rampant through the refugee camps created in the wake of last year's earthquake. Many NGOs are taking money for aid and necessities to pay their executives and staff quite handsomely. Last year, figures published showed that for every dollar contributed to Haitian aid in the U.S. thirty cents went to the Pentagon, and ONE PENNY made it to the Haitian 'government'... The amount actually trickling down to the people in need is indeed negligible.
Carol Browner, America's "Climate Change Czar", is leaving the Obama administration. Her tasks included oversight of the development of US Carbon "Cap and Trade" policy. Cap and Trade has stalled, a tow truck is needed, and the Obama administration "hasn’t decided whether Browner will be replaced or her job eliminated,".
In Tucson, the prosecutors of Jared Loughner want the case moved back to Tucson from Phoenix. Loughner has tuned down a jury trial and has requested a trial by judge.
Does anyone remember when Ralston Purina, the "Dog Chow" people owned Jack In The Box? A public interest law group is suing Taco Bell. Lab analysis has shown one of their tacos is only 35% beef. The company describes the umn... "Filling" as "ground beef" but IT DOES NOT meet the USDA's definition.
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
January 24 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Remembering Jack LaLanne - With A Chair And A Stick He Showed Us Being A 'Jock' Isn't The Point, Our Health Is...
In The News: Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
A suicide bomber in the baggage claim area of Moscow's largest international airport has left at least twenty five dead and one hundred thirty people wounded, with rescue operations continuing. Chechens separatists are the primary suspects
The "disturbance" in North Africa is spreading from Tunisia to Algeria to Morocco. The Tunisian government declared a curfew so the people took to the streets and slept there as the ruling party's ministers resigned en masse
In Zimbabwe, with the tourism industry still "owned and operated" by the post-colonial White population... This weekend government agents and police moved into the "hunt clubs" and hotels taking inventory as a new policy is announced that RE-Propriates 51% of all property back to the Black citizens of the country.
It's the bombing season In Iraq with three attacks on Shiite pilgrims leaving around 100 dead and 300 wounded. There is no Interior Minister, or a working government for that matter.
Speaking of non-existent governments, in America, the entire governmental structure has frozen in place except for the sound of loud mouths as the nation waits for the president's State Of The Union Address. In a cozy-if-they're-disarmed change from tradition, the Republicans and Democrats are supposed to pair off and sit in randomly scattered locations throughout the room.
Finally, Jack LaLanne, the "Guru of Good Health" has passed. He was 96. More in the commentary
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
January 21 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: I Pity Those Under Forty Five For 'Missing The Show' - In Light Of Obama's 'Chicago Move', Remembering 'The Watergate Follies'
In The News: Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
The Pandas can stay! Chinese President Hu has said the Pandas on loan to the National Zoo in Washington, DC can stay for another five years. Yesterday Hu met with Senate and House leadership to thank them in advance for their assistance in passing bills that are expected to positively affect trade with China
It's unconstitutional, and he STILL hasn't managed to shut it down... President Obama is penning an Executive Order allowing additional charges to be filed against detainees at Guantanamo. That sounds wrong but IF it allows for military tribunals of those with the added charges, it may allow for the release of those who don't. (ed. Don't hold your breath for the latter).
For more on the situation at Guantanamo, Razer suggests two sites who follow the issue closely: The World According To Bill Fisher (ex-State Department), his current post about the issue under discussion is Here, and Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files'... A post from September 2010 entitled "1000 Reasons to Close Guantánamo" linked Here, but he's quite active and has already posted thirty times this month.
The president will also move his re-election headquarters to Chicago, which circumvents any possibility of conflicts of interest and other corruptions as experienced notably during the Nixon administration when the "Plumbers" worked on more than the White House sinks and drain traps.
NASA is adding one last shuttle flight to the International Space Station in June. A sidebar note... due to the continuing resolution budget, in other words, funding using last year's budget, the canceled Spaceplane project is still getting money, but the Shuttle program is not.
There have been Graffiti-ed, specific threats against California governor Brown scrawled on freeway walls in Santa Ana. The CHP is investigating and are on alert. A similar tactic has recently been applied at the local UC campus, UC Santa Cruz. It was "...found in a bathroom in Social Sciences 2 before the winter break, the graffiti warned of violence on January 18.". There is no word in that case as to the nature of the threat.
In OTHER News:
Law Suit Filed Against The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Over Pesticides
"The Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network North America today filed the most comprehensive legal action ever brought under the Endangered Species Act to protect imperiled species from pesticides, suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its failure to consult with federal wildlife agencies regarding the impacts of hundreds of pesticides known to be harmful to more than 200 endangered and threatened species." [More @ EarthFirst News]
Because it's where the Energy Resources Are...
...You might want to peruse "Central Asia: Top 10 Developments in 2010" at The Oriental Review. Also see: Pipelineistan Poker (It all comes down to the top two global players) - Pepe Escobar, Asia Times Apocalyptic "Christianity" helps calm the nerves when the phone rings and you're sitting in an ICBM missile silo with your finger on the BIG RED BUTTON:
USAF Academy Taps Member of "Lord's Army" to Speak at National Prayer Luncheon • • • The National Prayer Breakfast is sponsored by The Fellowship, a foundation associated with The Family, a secretive group of influential Christian lawmakers and politicians whose mission is to advance the evangelical Christian agenda in Washington and across the world.
An anonymous MRFF client and spokesperson attending the Air Force Academy issued a statement on Tuesday claiming that an email sent to everyone at the academy made it clear that the attendance at the luncheon, although technically optional, is strongly encouraged:
.. when the base-wide e-Mail begins with a highlighted statement:
it's not hard for so many of us here at USAFA [US Air Force Academy] to conclude that the senior leadership is STRONGLY encouraging attendance. The attached flyer goes on to say that you can purchase his book at the BX and that he'll be available to sign it, too. A visit to his web site, though, and one gets the impression that, while everyone on base is invited to attend, this isn't going to be the most inclusionary event of the year.
The first paragraph reads "Clebe is what he likes to call a complete Marine. To him, USMC will always mean a U.S. Marine for Christ." I can only conclude that anyone that doesn't share his particular religious view must be an "incomplete Marine," (or soldier, or [sailor], or airman) unworthy of the uniform. And shouldn't it be USMC as in "US Marine for the Constitution?" That's the document he swore to defend when he was commissioned.
It's a National Prayer Luncheon, but the message [couldn't] be clearer to those who may pray to a different deity or those that have a more ecumenical interpretation of their god - if you're not an evangelical, fundamentalist Christian, this event isn't for you. Yet senior academy leadership seems to want us there anyway.
The Air Force Academy and the MRFF have been butting heads over the evangelical influence at the academy for some time now. The MRFF charges that academy cadets are pressured into joining evangelical groups and attending Bible studies, while the academy has made public attempts to promote religious diversity by offering more types of religious services at its chapel and assessing the spiritual "climate" at the academy.
Last September, Air Force Academy graduate and MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein told Truthout that an anonymous Air Force cadet contacted him and claimed to be part of a "underground" group of about 100 cadets, who came together because they could not rely on legitimate channels to address pressure from evangelicals in the academy.
Weinstein's source said that some cadets pretended to be evangelical and attended services and Bible studies in order to maintain standing among their peers and superiors... [In Full @ Truthout]
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
January 20 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Watch The Bandits - The Republicans Try To Repeal 'ObamaCare' A LAW That Was Passed And Signed
In The News: Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying the news and commentary audio files.
They bring a gift (but that doesn't mean they're pushovers)... The Chinese have brought $45 Billion dollars worth of trade deals to the US financial table. Motorola and Boeing are two major companies that will stand to gain. Chinese President Hu will meet with Congressional leaders and business leaders today.
The OTHER Border Gang, I.C.E. is changing their policies across country and will be looking to "Tax" the companies and bosses for immigration law violations. Only $7 million in fines were levied against US employers last year.
President for Life Baby Doc Duvalier decides he's not going to stay in Haiti after all and claims he will be leaving shortly for... wherever it is failed dictators go. (Hunter S. Thompson suggested some Bahamanian island where he'd drink Mai Tais endlessly in the warm evening breeze and rub elbows with high profile global financial swindlers, and friends of Richard Nixon... But I digress.)
The House HAS PASSED the repeal of ObamaCare, 245-189 with 3 Democrats defecting(why do my fingers keep typing 'defective'?). Committees will now attempt to form some alternative, but it's all a waste of time... and at least the first month of Republican majority will go down the legislative law-making dumper, because the repeal will never be signed by the president.
It would be a medical headline no matter who... Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, shot in the head at close range with a 9mm Glock pistol by a disturbed young man at a Tucson shopping mall less than 3 weeks ago, stood up and looked out the window of her hospital room yesterday and will soon move to a rehab center near home.
Stan Goff, Feral Scholar (and in a previous incarnation as a US Army Special Forces Operator, a "Killer") on Jared Loughner, the shooter:
Killer 15th January 2011
by Stan
[...]"Jared Loughner may have some problems with dissociation, however that is being defined, but he didn’t learn to load and fire a Glock 19 via some synaptic disruption in his cerebral cortex; he learned it from a culture. Last I checked, there is no evidence of a Glock 19 gene, though I expect the DSM-IV people to come up with a Glock 19 Disorder soon enough, and Searle will invent a drug to control it... • • • Let’s start with the premise that Jared Loughner is crazy, not coherently political. His reading list was all over the map, everything from The Communist Manifesto to Ayn Rand. He was very attracted to conspiracy theories, and was reportedly a devotee of David Winn Miller, a bizarre internet guru that claims to be a judge and the King of Hawaii. Loughner capered in front of a camera in a g-string with his gun, ate a lot of acid, and attacked street signs..." [In Full]
An American-led military unit pulverized an Afghan village in Kandahar's Arghandab River Valley in October, after it became overrun with Taliban insurgents. It's hard to understand how turning an entire village into dust fits into America's counterinsurgency strategy - which supposedly prizes the local people's loyalty above all else.
But it's the latest indication that Gen. David Petraeus, the counterinsurgency icon, is prosecuting a frustrating war with surprising levels of violence. Some observers already fear a backlash brewing in the area.
Paula Broadwell, a West Point graduate and Petraeus biographer, described the destruction of Tarok Kolache in a guest post for Tom Ricks' Foreign Policy blog... [More @ Wired with links to all cites]
Woodrow Wilson, on Americans, and war:
[Click the image for source]
The image above originated from a skeptical article by Jerold S. Auerbach in a 1967 volume of The Journal of American History appears to be almost a plagiarism of Hofstadter's "American Political Tradition" where I first read it. I side with the quote's veracity, and Hofstadter.
January 31 2011 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: It's The Army Silly! 'Coalescence'; It's How The Egyptian Rebellion Came To Be But...
