March 2006
Autocrats Beware -- Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry. -- Winston Churchill. The quote is used in Der Tagesspiegel in reference to the protests in Belarus over the election fraud. But it of course applies to anyone who seizes illegitimate power. Those who would take power in spite of election returns that show they did not win, launch an agenda that blatantly defies the will of the majority on point after point, use government power to enrich your cronies, lead the country into war on fraudulent grounds, engage in torture in violation of the Geneva Conventions, imprison people without charge or access to counsel, and abuse power in countless other ways must beware. They ride a very dangerous tiger. In Minsk, the article says, police are battling protesters of the election results. "So, in Belarus they are braving it out against a dictator," says the article. "The tigers dictators ride are nothing else but 'their' people -- the people in and of the territory they attempt to rule by force and brainwashing. But these poeple will not, in the end, keep still or be kept oblivious of the facts forever. No violence driven regime can last much longer, once some meetings with freedom have unleashed first sparks of hope. Only question is: How long will it take? "The more the authorities conduct repression, the closer they bring themselves to their end", is what opposition leader Milinkevich told the thousands gathered in Yanka Kupala park. He and international monitors see Sunday's elections stolen by President Alexander Lukashenko who took a Soviet style 82.6 percent of the vote hoping to be in office for seven more years. Putin«s Russia has, needless to say, criticised the international monitors of the OSCE for their harsh assessments of Lukashenka«s electoral 'victory'."
March 23, 2006
The Times Chimes in on Katrina: "Nearly seven months after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans and forced out hundreds of thousands of residents, most evacuees say they have not found a permanent place to live, have depleted their savings and consider their life worse than before the hurricane, according to interviews with more than 300 evacuees conducted by The New York Times." The New York Times Who is Woodward's CIA Leak Deep Throat? Scoop Sleaze Starting to Stick to Blair -- "British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced growing pressure on Monday to step down over a sleaze row which has tarnished his reputation and boosted calls for finance minister Gordon Brown to take the reins.... A YouGov survey published on Sunday put his approval rating at 36 percent, the lowest since he came to power in 1997." St. Petersburg Times Who Could Imagine? Rumsfeld says if civil war ever really did come to Iraq, "It wouldn't look like ours..." Maureen Dowd: "At his impromptu press conference yesterday, the president presented himself as a nice guy doing a difficult job, relentlessly joshing with reporters. He chided the press for playing into terrorists' goals by showing bad news from Iraq -- 'they're capable of blowing up innocent life so it ends up on your TV show' -- even as reports surfaced about insurgents outside Baghdad storming a jail, slaughtering 18 police officers and letting the prisoners out, following fast upon an insurgent raid on Iraqi Army headquarters in Kirkuk. Does the president think TV will instead report on an increase in melon sales at the market? ... Asked if he could envision a day when there would be no more U.S. forces in Iraq, the president said, 'That, of course, is an objective.' But he added that it would be decided by future Iraqi governments and future American presidents. Once W. is not still employed there." topplebush.com Religious Right Losing Control -- sojo.net Impeachment Momentum Growing -- "Ah, spring. Snow melts, flowers bloom, and a Democrat's fancy turns to thoughts of impeachment. Seriously. The Impeach Bush movement has made great strides over the last few years, and today impeachment isn't just a looming carnival of the absurd, quacking and clanging about on the horizon - it's a real possibility for 2007... then came May 2005 and the "Downing Street memos." A month later, a Zogby International poll showed that 42 percent of respondents agreed that Bush should be impeached if it was found that he lied about Iraq. Encouraged by this news, the Democratic group AfterDowningStreet.org raised $10,000 and began commissioning impeachment polls. In November 2005, it paid for a Zogby poll asking if Americans would consider impeachment. It wasn't the most objectively worded question, but never mind that: 53 percent of respondents said yes." philly.com What 36% Approval Gets You -- salon.com
SCRAPS
March 25, 2006
AutoPresidentFace -- This clip from Fox News has audio leakage of something that sounds like a voice prompting Bush. It's his own voice, but not an echo of his actual real time talking, which includes mistakes the first one doesn't have. So it's apparently pre-recorded. He repeats each piece live with his own voice, but it's not identical. Very weird. YouTube Live Horror Movie -- More frightening data from the global warming front. "Warming could push sea levels up six meters by 2100" "Global warming trend on course to submerge coasts, researchers say" "If current temperature trends continue to the end of the century, the Earth's climate will be warm enough to cause a massive melting of Greenland's ice sheet and a partial collapse of the Antarctic ice sheet, resulting in a torrent of melt water that will raise global sea levels by up to six metres, according to a pair of new research papers. The increase in ocean levels would devastate low-lying coastal areas, put dozens of major cities under water, and become irreversible at some point later this century "unless something is done to dramatically reduce human emissions of greenhouse gas pollution," warns Jonathan Overpeck, a professor at the University of Arizona and one of the researchers. He said that if serious efforts to limit global warming are not taken soon, 'we're committed to four to six metres of sea-level rise in the future.'" "Melting oceans may leave us under water": "Miami would be a memory, Bangkok a soggy shadow of its former self and the Maldive Islands would vanish if melting polar ice keeps fueling a faster-than-expected rise in sea levels, scientists reported on Thursday." Through the looking glass -- So strange that it's objectionable when it happens elsewhere. Condoleezza Rice objects to vote fraud in Belarus, talks about "outposts of tyranny" -- perhaps she means places not controlled by BushCo. and its unique definition of democracy. But tyrants of the world take their cues from Bush. "My main job is to protect the people..." See "U.S. to Impose Sanctions on Belarusan Leaders" Washington Post New Yorker article on Global Warming. Rebellion in South Dakota -- "Opponents of South Dakota's new ban on abortions announced today that they would launch a ballot initiative to overturn the prohibition. A group named the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families said it would immediately begin gathering signatures in support of the initiative. If they collect 16,728, the new law, designed to provoke a court challenge that could overturn the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, will automatically be placed on hold... Matt Michels, the speaker of the South Dakota Assembly and a Republican who backed the ban, said that organizers would easily collect enough signatures to place it on the ballot because of the state's low threshold for voter initiatives. He also predicted that a campaign financed by big-money donors on both sides of the issue would saturate the airwaves of the lightly-populated state. 'They're going to bombard us,' Michels said. " LA Times The Sky is Cracking -- In an online CNN poll over 80% agree with Charlie Sheen's statement that the government hid the real story of 9/11. This clip of Bush. His tics look very strange.
March 31, 2006
Act Two -- "It may seem as though it's been moving along at a snail's pace, but the second part of the federal investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson is nearly complete, with attorneys and government officials who have remained close to the probe saying that a grand jury will likely return an indictment against one or two senior Bush administration officials." Jason Leopold Forgetting His Place -- Iraqi prime minister defies Bush administration, won't step down. Does he think they really meant "democracy"? nytimes Scalia: FU2 -- bostonherald Bush Wanted War -- Richard Cohen She Does as She Pleases -- "Ann Coulter Given 30 Days to Explain Vote Fraud Felony Allegation! Palm Beach, FL Election Supervisor May Refer Charges to State Attorney if GOP Pundit/Propagandist Fails to Prove She Didn't Lie About Residency..." bradblog