Odds & Ends

9 Comments

1. 

   idredit on July 14, 2008 at 5:25 pm

   Thinkprogress has this catch of the Day:

   Opponents say San Francisco sewer plant too ‘useful’ to be named after Bush

   The Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco has just recently submitted enough signatures to city election officials “hoping to place on the ballot an initiative that would rechristen the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant as the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.” But on CBC radio last Friday, one of the commission’s founders, Brian McConnell, said the group ran in to some unexpected opposition to changing the name:

       McCONNELL: What we didn’t expect was that most of the opposition was coming from people who didn’t want to name anything. They just wanted to forget about the past eight years and move on or they felt that this is a facility that does something really quite useful and it would be inappropriate to put his name on it. […] If you get to the point where people are defending the sewage plant, that’s a sign that things have not gone so well.

   Listen here:

2. 

   dada on July 14, 2008 at 5:32 pm

   more bush… just to keep his dickishness front and center, chimpy Lifts Ban on U.S. Offshore Oil, Gas Drilling:

   President George W. Bush said today he’s lifting a presidential ban on drilling for oil and natural gas on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, setting up a showdown with Congress over a separate ban it put in place in the 1980s.

   “Today I’ve taken every step within my power to allow offshore exploration of the OCS,” Bush said in a statement at the White House. “This means the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action by the U.S. Congress.”

   and as BushC0™’s influence wanes further, france, probably with the blessings of the rest of the EU, has asked syria to become involved in the iranian nuclear controversy:

   Mr Assad said that, following a request from France, Syria would hold talks with Iran to try and resolve the crisis over its nuclear programme.

   “We are going to have discussions with our Iranian friends to get to the heart of the matter, to the details. This is the first time that we had been asked to play a role.”

   BBC

   yet another sign that syria’s star is beginning to rise in the ME, much to the pnaCON’s chagrin: Syria basks in diplomatic breakthrough

   …These are good days for Syria. They feel confident that the dark clouds of 2005 are gone and that the future is in their hands; they waited for Chirac to leave the Elysee in 2007, and it has paid off. They are now waiting for Bush to leave the White House in 2009.

   the line of those wanting to “get this asshole out of the White House” is getting pretty long.

   • 

     dada on July 14, 2008 at 5:49 pm

     e/m action alert from barbara boxer’s office:

     Dear Friend,

     Recently, running contrary to every shred of common sense, President Bush lifted the presidential moratorium on drilling for oil off our precious coastline — a moratorium his own father put in place.  And now he wants Congress to lift the moratorium as well.

     It’s unbelievable.  In the final months of his failed presidency, George Bush wants to give the oil companies a huge gift that threatens our coasts, our economy, and our jobs — while not doing one single thing to lower gas prices.

     Senator Barbara Boxer is standing up against opening our sensitive offshore areas to drilling because the impact of any new drilling won’t have any effect on gas prices. It will also put our coastal environment at risk. Join us and add your name to Barbara’s petition, urging Congress not to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling: Say no to Bush’s offshore drilling

   • 

     Hurria on July 15, 2008 at 12:14 am

     Bashar Al Assad is NOT his father. While his regime is still a dictatorship, and dissent is unfortunately not permitted, he is much more open to the rest of the world both diplomatically and otherwise. The internet is freely available and has boomed in Syria since he took over as dictator, although sadly the government still controls and monitors it (Amazon.com is, for some reason, not accessible, nor is Blogspot). Syrians have some catching up to do in terms of technology, but high speed is there, and wireless is increasingly available in restaurants and cafes although those are few and far between.

     Unfortunately, Bashar’s willingness to open Syria up more to the world, and to work toward a solution to its issues with Israel and the US is not convenient for the USA, which is desperate for enemies. So, the US continues to demonize Bashar as if he were his father all over again.

     The attempt this last April on the part of the US and Israel to revive the ludicrous lie that the building Israel bombed last year was a nuclear site met mostly with derision and contempt on the part of Syrians. Oh, sure! The Syrians are careless enough to plunk a nuclear site out in the middle of the desert with no attempt to camoflage it, and not a scintilla of security – not even a barbed wire fence around it – and no nearby source of water to provide the critical cooling.

     If Syria continues this rise in influence, we can certainly expect to see more demonization and sabre rattling, or worse, on the part of the US and Israel.

     • 

       on July 15, 2008 at 10:03 am

       I wonder about Syria. On one hand it’s a junior member of the Axis of Evil, and on the other the CIA has dumped its rendered kidnap victims there. Twenty years ago Monzer al-Kassar, an Assad family inlaw, was flying heroin and weapons for or near Ollie North’s Enterprise and yet in public it was despised by the Republican leadership. Like today.

       Other countries that have followed this path (Noriega’s Panama, Hussein’s Iraq) end up getting blamed for the sins of our intelligence services when they try to fly right, or at least try to represent their people.

3. 

   DaveW on July 14, 2008 at 6:21 pm

   Mother Jones has an interview with Russ Feingold on what went on with the FISA debacle:

   …the problem is that there’s this fear, that sort of grows over time, that somehow Democrats are gonna get hit over the head by claims that they’re soft on terrorism. And it always rears its head, especially when we’re heading into a recess period or an election period. We were able to make the argument early in the year that the orders were lasting for a year. So even if the law expired, the orders allowing the surveillance were still in place. Until August. But as you get closer to these deadlines, the administration uses these intimidation tactics, and far too many Democrats fall for it. There is this sort of inertia–if that’s the right word–that leads to ultimately the caving of very large numbers of Democrats, even voting for an awful piece of legislation like this. That’s the only way I know how to describe it. I don’t know, the day-to-day pressure–it’s like this constantly pulsating fear of being accused of being soft on terrorism.

   MJ: How, politically, does one change that mindset– that being tough on national security means that the Democratic party has to support the erosion of civil liberties?

   RF: I think you show people that those who stand firm on this do just fine politically. I like to think of myself as an example of that. There are many people like that. The truth is that if you properly articulate that you want to balance national security and make sure we protect civil liberties at the same time. And take the time to go through the arguments, which are very frankly easy to win–these are not hard arguments. When anybody really listens to it, they just kinda shake their head. Then you can prevail and show people that you don’t need to buckle at the knees on this. But it requires a little patience. It requires a little faith in peoples’ willingness to listen. And that’s how in the long run you prevail. And I’m hoping that a lot of people who run this time, unlike a lot of people who ran in 2006, are held accountable.

   I’m sure many of our candidates are gonna say, “You know, I was against immunity and I don’t like this bill.” Well, they need to be held accountable when they get here. And that hasn’t really happened. We have a lot of Democrats, even some who voted to get us out of Iraq, who aren’t voting properly on this, in a way that is, frankly, very damaging to our efforts.

   The whole interview is a must-read for some perspective on how it somehow always goes wrong when Dems have to make a stand on anything.

4. 

   jack fate on July 14, 2008 at 6:56 pm

   I finally found some work since I got “restructured” (i.e. laid-off) in May. So I haven’t had much time to read the tubez today. But I’d like to remind everyone that today is Woody Guthrie’s 96th birthday.

   Happy birthday Woody! Thanks for reminding me how music can really change the world. God bless and thank you.

   It’s a mighty hard row that my poor hands have hoed
   My poor feet have traveled a hot dusty road
   Out of your Dust Bowl and Westward we rolled
   And your deserts were hot and your mountains were cold

   I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes
   I slept on the ground in the light of the moon
   On the edge of the city you’ll see us and then
   We come with the dust and we go with the wind

   California, Arizona, I harvest your crops
   Well its North up to Oregon to gather your hops
   Dig the beets from your ground, cut the grapes from your vine
   To set on your table your light sparkling wine

   Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground
   From the Grand Coulee Dam where the waters run down
   Every state in the Union us migrants have been
   We’ll work in this fight and we’ll fight till we win

   It’s always we rambled, that river and I
   All along your green valley, I will work till I die
   My land I’ll defend with my life if it be
   Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free – Pastures of Plenty

   • 

     Joyful Alternative on July 14, 2008 at 11:34 pm

     Thanks and congratulations!

5. 

   Hurria on July 14, 2008 at 11:42 pm

   Very fine analysis by the great Helena Cobban of Obama’s op ed in the NYT (Helena supported Obama during the primary – at least she can be realistic about him at the same time):

   “even after the withdrawal of “combat brigades” that he calls for, Obama still plans to keep a very significant combat presence in Iraq for a further, undefined period of time.“

   Yep! He plans to withdraw all combat brigades from Iraq while at the same time keeping a very significant combat presence in Iraq. Is this muddled thinking or politician’s doublespeak?

   Helena goes on:

   “Let’s look at these missions in order:

         1. Going after Al-Qaeda remnants: Juan Cole helpfully points out that no-one calls themselves “Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia” any more.

   “

   Snip

         2. Protecting American service members: This one is truly hilarious! US service members need to serve in Iraq to– protect US service members! Yeah, but then the ones who’re doing the protecting there will also need to be protected; and those additional protectors will also need protection; and… Hey, let’s just fill the whole country up with US service members all protecting each other! (Irony alert, folks.)“

   snip

        “3. “So long as the Iraqis make political progress, training Iraqi security forces: This one is almost equally hilarious. First question– what is the definition of this “progress”, and who gets to judge whether the Iraqi government forces have met this benchmark? Second question: If the Iraqi government forces are judged not to have met the benchmark, what then? The US trainers are simply withdrawn?

         “This proposed “residual mission” for the US forces in Iraq is a silly and patronizing remnant of the Green Zone model of imperial governance. Yes, it is quite possible that the Iraqi security forces will need some continuing training. (Though some of them have already gotten quite a lot from Iran all along. The US has never had the monopoly on this.) If so, let the Iraqis themselves figure out what configuration of foreigners they want to invite in to provide it.

   If any.

   “

   Please follow the link above and read the whole article. She is a deeply knowledgeable person with great depth and breadth of experience and knowledge of the Middle East, and very wise, even when I do not agree with her.

   And while you are there, check out the other articles on her blog – well worth the time!