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Friday, July 04, 2003

Happy 4th of July! This blog is on a break until the end of the weekend, or I get in front of the computer again...whichever happens first! Have a great one...and if you're needing some quality time in the blogosphere, be sure and check out any of the fine blogs on the blogroll...there are more soon to come! Ciao...

posted by Jenny at 8:59 AM |

Thursday, July 03, 2003

I guess by now everybody's heard about Berlusconi's little slur against a German MEP yesterday. Europe is completely riled up about this, and with good cause--it seems that they have a whole lot more to worry about in their own backyard than they need, and Italy's EU presidency seems guaranteed to drive them even further into the ground. This is merely the latest in a series of idiocy from the Italian prime minister, who once lauded Western civilization as "superior" to Islam.

It's remarkable that a media mogul like Berlusconi, the richest man in Italy, actually serves as prime minister and has been established as immune to prosecution for bribery and other sins of the wealthy...I'm not sure if this is just the next step in "democratic" political evolution (think Rupert Murdoch as prime minister, or Ted Turner as president), but the transparency is stunning. Scary guy, Berlusconi, and even scarier, his network of cronies in Italy and beyond who have helped get him where he is today. Nice to see that at least one person is taking him to task for his corruption with a lovely spoof site.

posted by Jenny at 1:56 AM |

"There are some who feel that if they attack us we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they're talking about, if that's the case," Mr Bush told journalists at the White House.

"My answer is bring them on. We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation."

Yes, Dubya, bring 'em on! And watch your approval ratings sink as more of our soldiers die. Anybody else get the feeling that George W. Bush is like a little boy, and our military are his bathtub toys? In moments like this, it seems that he's confusing war and peacekeeping with Texas football machismo...

The polls are saying interesting, if divergent, things. Common Dreams cites a poll conducted by the University of Maryland which asserts that 52% of the American public believes that a clear link between Al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein has been proven...on the brighter side, only 23% believe that the US found WMD in Iraq, down from 34% in a previous poll. Meanwhile, Gallup claims that the percentage of Americans who doubt the situation in Iraq was "worth going to war over" has climbed back up to 42% (a rise from 23% in mid-April).

The question is, will provocative rhetoric encourage more people to join the anti-Iraq war camp, or will AWOL manage to stoke nationalistic fires once again with his grandolinquent pomposity?

Update: The Daily Outrage is also on this one, with a choice quote from Paul Bremer that sounds like it was lifted straight out of a conquistador's log..

We are going to fight them and impose our will on them and we will capture or ... kill them until we have imposed law and order on this country ... We dominate the scene and we will continue to impose our will on this country. [my emphasis]

*sigh* What did Einstein once describe as insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.

posted by Jenny at 1:41 AM |

Willie Nelson Endorses Congressman Kucinich for President

WASHINGTON - July 2 - One of the most beloved figures in popular music and culture is endorsing the populist candidate, Dennis Kucinich.

Statement from Willie Nelson"I am endorsing Dennis Kucinich for President because he stands up for heartland Americans who are too often overlooked and unheard. He has done that his whole political career. Big corporations are well-represented in Washington, but Dennis Kucinich is a rare Congressman of conscience and bravery who fights for the unrepresented, much like the late Senator Paul Wellstone. Dennis champions individual privacy, safe food laws and family farmers. A Kucinich Administration will put the interests of America's family farmers, consumers and environment above the greed of industrial agribusiness.

"I normally do not get too heavily involved in politics, but this is more about getting involved with America than with politics. I encourage people to learn more about Dennis Kucinich at http://www.kucinich.us and I will be doing all I can to raise his profile with voters. I plan to do concerts to benefit the campaign."

Slowly, Texas's bacchanalian bodhisattva is making up for singing with Toby Keith (FUTK!)...:-)

posted by Jenny at 1:23 AM |

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

Breeding Nationalism, Episode #2,652

Who needs a Hummer when you can have an Iraqi Freedom Truck?!

posted by Jenny at 9:29 AM |

Anatol Lieven states the obvious, via Financial Times:

Help for America must have strings attached

posted by Jenny at 7:21 AM |

Those Iraqis might starve to death, but at least they'll starve to death free.

LMB cites the UNICEF report that 100% of the Iraqi population is now dependent on emergency food rations...that's up from 60% before the war.

Must be a huge comfort that we have done such a great job of liberating them...

posted by Jenny at 7:13 AM |

What Geneva Convention?

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - An Iraqi businessman detained during a raid on his home says U.S. interrogators deprived him of sleep, forced him to kneel naked and kept him bound hand and foot with a bag over his head for eight days.

Khraisan al-Abally's story, told to an Associated Press correspondent, comes as an Amnesty International report released Monday harshly criticizes American interrogation techniques.

A U.S. Army officer confirmed receiving a complaint from al-Abally, but coalition officials declined to discuss his account. The activist group Human Rights Watch said it was trying to corroborate his story.

Seeking to quell a burgeoning uprising, U.S. soldiers have detained hundreds of Iraqis - some of whom have endured days of strenuous interrogations, rights groups say. AP journalists have observed prisoners wearing only underwear and blindfolds, handcuffed and lying in the dirt 24 hours after their capture.

Interviewed June 20 and Monday, Al-Abally said U.S. troops stormed his home April 30, shooting his brother and taking al-Abally and his 80-year-old father into custody - apparently believing they had information on the whereabouts of a top official in Saddam Hussein's regime, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri.

The three men were all low-level members of Saddam's Baath Party, but al-Douri was not a family acquaintance, Al-Abally said.

The brother, Dureid, shot at the troops breaking in, apparently mistaking them for looters, the family said. Al-Abally said he was told during his interrogation at Baghdad International Airport that his brother had died.

Al-Abally, 39, said that while he was bound and blindfolded, he was kicked, forced to stare at a strobe light and blasted with "very loud rubbish music."

"I thought I was going to lose my mind," said al-Abally, a burly man whose wrists are still scarred from plastic cuffs more than a month after his release. "They said, 'I want you on your knees.' After three or four days it's very painful. My knees were bleeding and swollen."

The U.S. military said it could not comment on the raid or its methods of interrogation, saying only that its soldiers adhere to the rule of law. Military and intelligence officials have said sleep deprivation, shackling prisoners in uncomfortable positions and noise abuse are considered legal methods.

"This is democracy?" asked al-Abally, whose family operates a shipping business in Lebanon. "No Iraqi would have thought the Americans were capable of this."

Via Alternet.

posted by Jenny at 6:59 AM |

Ain't that America?

This Salon interview with John Mellencamp runs the gamut of political and cultural affairs in the US today...reading about why the Rolling Stones are uncool, the Dixie Chicks got a bad rap, and the fact that most Republicans aren't rich enough to be Republican is well worth sitting through that annoying Salon ad...check it out!

posted by Jenny at 6:55 AM |

Monday, June 30, 2003

Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003)

Quite possibly the most talented actress of all time...and all the more special because of the way she chose to live her life. With the recent passing of Gregory Peck, and now the loss of Katharine Hepburn, Hollywood's richest era has come to an end. I will never forget watching her eyes light up when she talked about Spencer Tracy, and the way she climbed around the balconies at the Kennedy Center Honors, and the way she shone with James Stewart and Cary Grant in The Philadelphia Story. What a brilliant, beautiful, and fearless woman.

Update: There's a neat editorial about Hepburn in the Oregonian...and another one here at Newsday.

posted by Jenny at 9:27 AM |

Heartening news from the Wal-Mart Wars' western front...

Wal-Mart has announced its intention to open 40 new supercenter stores – each the size of four football fields – in such fast-growing California suburban areas as Contra Costa County.

But Contra Costa County has fought back. A year ago, Martinez prevented a traditional Wal-Mart store from expanding into a supercenter that could sell groceries. On June 3, the county Board of Supervisors voted to ban such supercenter stores from unincorporated areas of the county.

In making its decision, the board cited a study done by the San Diego County Taxpayers Association (SDCTA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. It found that an influx of big-box stores into San Diego would result in an annual decline in wages and benefits between $105 million and $221 million, and an increase of $9 million in public health costs. SDCTA also estimated that the region would lose pensions and retirement benefits valued between $89 million and $170 million per year and that even increased sales and property tax revenues would not cover the extra costs of necessary public services. "Good jobs, good pay, and good benefits should be the goal of an economy," SDCTA concluded, "and supercenters are not consistent with that objective."

Wal-Mart, as is its custom, has launched a counterattack against Contra Costa's ordinance. The company parachuted in platoons of signature-gatherers who are stationed outside discount stores and asking shoppers to sign a petition that would place the board's decision on a ballot. If they collect 27, 000 legitimate signatures, Wal-Mart could reverse the board's ban.

In response, a coalition of community groups have mobilized to defeat Wal- Mart's counterattack. But they face a formidable enemy. Over the last 40 years, Wal-Mart has grown into the nation's biggest employer and the world's largest retailer. Every two days, Wal-Mart opens another superstore. It has more people in uniform than the U.S. Army. Last year, it banked about $7 billion in profits.

The troops fighting Wal-Mart's invasion of Contra Costa County include the Gray Panthers, small businesses, dozens of churches, the National Organization for Women, and environmental and smart-growth activists. Young people, recruited by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), fan out daily to discount stores and try to convince shoppers not to sign Wal-Mart's petition. They even carry cards that allow voters to withdraw their signature if they have already signed the petition.

The generals in charge of this community resistance are union leaders. John Dalrymple, director of the Contra Costa Central Labor Council, admits they face an uphill battle. The giant retailer is infamous for its take-no-prisoners, anti-union policies. Wal-Mart's ability to offer such low prices, as any union member will tell you, has been achieved by paying its workers – or "sales associates" – low wages, offering unaffordable health coverage and no retirement benefits and importing most of its products from developing countries, some of which use child and prison labor.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1179, located in Martinez, is headquarters for the war against Wal-Mart. Barbara Carpenter, the union's president, comes from a family whose members have worked for decades at retail companies that provided decent wages, affordable health benefits and pension plans. "It's about saving the American dream," she told me.

Wal-Mart, she points out, lowers wages among working families and crushes family businesses. "It not only pays workers less than most of its retail competitors, two-thirds of workers don't have health-care coverage – a cost taxpayers are picking up across the country.''

Did she say taxpayers? That's right. We, the customers, get such low prices and convenient shopping because we, the taxpayers, subsidize Wal-Mart profits by paying for county public health services, food stamps, and social services for its retired employees.

So should you shop at Wal-Mart? To make up your mind, consider this: If you earn a livable wage or are protected by a union, you can probably buy all your monthly needs at Wal-Mart. But that's because the average Wal-Mart employee, who earns about $15,000 a year, cannot do the same.

posted by Jenny at 8:02 AM |

skippy draws our attention to what seems to be the only article of Bush-era legislation of which I approve...there's a new FTC-sponsored website, www.donotcall.gov, where you can sign up NOT to be disturbed by telemarketers...the site was getting up to 1,000 hits per second a couple of days ago, and the site is so popular, it's been getting bogged down--but why not give it a shot and enable yourself to enjoy your evenings in peace...

posted by Jenny at 7:57 AM |

Is the US on the way to becoming a one-party state? Paul Krugman introduces us to a forthcoming article in the Washington Monthly that indicates that the foundations for one-party rule are being laid now. From Santorum to Clear Channel, Nicholas Confessore combines multiple stories to suggest that the US political landscape is becoming increasingly narrow. Check it out! (Also via Cursor...)

posted by Jenny at 7:49 AM |

Business as Usual?

Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern chalks up Dick Cheney's visits to the CIA as "unprecedented" behavior by a US vice president:

As though this were normal! I mean the repeated visits Vice President Dick Cheney made to the CIA before the war in Iraq. The visits were, in fact, unprecedented. During my 27-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency, no vice president ever came to us for a working visit.

During the '80s, it was my privilege to brief Vice President George H.W. Bush and other very senior policy-makers every other morning. I went either to the vice president's office or (on weekends) to his home. I am sure it never occurred to him to come to CIA headquarters.

The morning briefings gave us an excellent window on what was uppermost in the minds of those senior officials and helped us refine our tasks of collection and analysis. Thus, there was never any need for policy-makers to visit us. And the very thought of a vice president dropping by to help us with our analysis is extraordinary. We preferred to do that work without the pressure that inevitably comes from policy-makers at the table.

Via Cursor.

posted by Jenny at 7:36 AM |