Liberal/Progressive/Populist Thoughts from way outside the Beltway...
We'll tell you how it looks from out here in the Other Washington...
And rain on the conservatives parade.
......The feigned cluelessness among some the highest-profile figures in these rackets is something to behold. For instance Citibank was among the companies that helped Magnetar put together their CDOs-designed-to-fail. Citi's chairman at the time, former US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, testifying before the new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission said, "Almost all of us, including me, who were involved in the financial system -- that is to say financial firms, regulators, rating agencies, analysts and commentators -- missed the powerful combination of factors that led to this crisis and the serious possibility of a massive crisis." Bank of America's CEO, Brian Moynihan, told a congressional hearing, "No one involved in the housing system -- lenders, rating agencies, investors, insurers, consumers, regulators, and policy-makers -- foresaw a dramatic and rapid depreciation in home prices" [and therefore in investment instruments based on mortgages].
Either they lie or they are profoundly stupid and incompetent. If the former, then they might be induced to spend some time talking to federal prosecutors; if the latter then the US financial system is too hopeless to survive and we will all soon be bartering hand tools and designer shoes for food. Evidence of the latter is ample, for instance, in Citigroup's loss of 70 percent share value during Robert Rubin's chairmanship -- for which, in the crash year of 2008 alone, he was paid $17 million plus $33 million in stock options.
It is amazing this place we find ourselves. The thieves in high places are still in place. The greedy, selfish are transferring the wealth of the planet to themselves at breakneck speed and we are shitting in our home as we cling to obsolete paradigms. Our symptoms are showing everywhere. Our desperation is evident as increasingly we embrace barbaric extraction of Earth's resources, even when it destroys other human's home, water supply, and health. How much is enough? How's the cancerous phase of unregulated, crony, casino capitalism working for you? Wonder how it will work for our children and grandchildren? Will the debt come due? Will the thieves be stopped?
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) is courageously calling for a criminal investigation into Goldman and other Wall Street companies that broke the law. Several others in Congress have joined her.
I hope this piece on NOW will begin to wake people up to the place we find ourselves. As the gas and oil interest sell people "friendly, green agreement" to use their property for hydralic fracturing gas extraction to people who are facing economic hard times, we must decide if this is the legacy we want to pass on to those who come after. It was telling to me when a landowner was asked, "what if the "fracking"ruins your water or land?" The person responded, "I will have enough money to move." Is this who we are? Are we really that selfish?
Attempts to make natural gas the new "green" is getting play on both sides of the isle as in a previous post I was horrified to hear t boone pickens featured. Until we face the fact that barbaric extraction is never going to be the answer to continuing our current consumption of Earth's resources, we are never going to move to live on the planet in a way that supports future human life. A short term energy fix at the expense of our water, air and land is suicidal. And it is just passing the bill for our continued overconsumption to our children and grandchildren. That seems to be the epitome of selfishness.
This post by Dave Ewoldt says it very well.... we have truly lost our way.
Alternative Energy Ignores the Problem ........Plus, the Industrial Growth Society is only possible with the embedded energy of fossil fuels, which are post-peak and what's left of them is so environmentally destructive to obtain that only a society that has completely lost its way would attempt doing so. Even 100% LEED building standards, hybrid vehicles (or any other proposal that thinks we can "green" consumption and continued growth) can't overcome that basic ecological fact.
full post
It is seven years today since the United States led the attack, invasion and occupation of Iraq under the bush crime family, with the support of most of the humans in the United States. Another year has passed and freedom is still on the march as our occupation of Iraq continues on steroids.
Today I remember River, whose last post was October 22, 2007 from Syria, where her family had fled as out of country refugees, along with about 1,500,000 other Iraqi humans. I wonder where she is today??? I heard her from Baghdad from the beginning of this immoral, illegal action by our country against hers. She amused me, told me stories that broke my heart and informed me about what a human goes through on the recieving end of our actions. She leaves us with .......
....I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...
Wake up humans in the United States of America, we can do sooooo much better. Our grandchildren's lives depend on it.
This piece by Dahr Jamail reminds us, if we can hear, of the horror of what the United States of Americas' policy aimed at Iraq, has meant for the Iraqi humans. Our blood and treasure continues to support one of the most corrupt regimes on planet Earth, as our Supreme Court rules that corporations are people and money is speech, making it exponentially possible for more blood and treasure to be funneled to continue this brand of looting the Earth's treasure. And the horror began to go on steroids in Afghanistan and surrounds last year. We must own this and stop it if our descendents are going to enjoy life on the planet.
The New ‘Forgotten’ War by Dahr Jamail March 15th, 2010 Extra! The Magazine of FAIR
Iraq occupation falls into media shadows
“The Western world that slaughtered Iraq and Iraqis, through 13 years of sanctions and seven years of occupation, is now turning its back on the victims. What has remained of Iraq is still being devastated by bombings, assassinations, corruption, millions of evictions and continued infrastructure destruction. Yet the world that caused all this is trying to draw a rosy picture of the situation in Iraq.”
-Maki Al-Nazzal, Iraqi political analyst
As Afghanistan has taken center stage in U.S. corporate media, with President Barack Obama announcing two major escalations of the war in recent months, the U.S. occupation of Iraq has fallen into the media shadows.
But while U.S. forces have begun to slowly pull back in Iraq, approximately 130,000 American troops and 114,000 private contractors still remain in the country (Congressional Research Service, 12/14/09)-along with an embassy the size of Vatican City. Upwards of 400 Iraqi civilians still die in a typical month (Iraq Body Count, 12/31/09), and fallout from the occupation that is now responsible, by some estimates, for 1 million Iraqi deaths (Extra!, 1/2/08) continues to severely impact Iraqis in ways that go uncovered by the U.S. press.
I must also call attention to Dahr's previous post and this video. One of the horrors we visit on other humans come in the form of Depleted (not) Uranium and the humans in Iraq have recieved massive doses of our nuclear weapons.
this piece from Dave Ewoldt, who is a Tucson leader of the Transition movement and member of Transition Whatcom and Whatcom County ex-pat, is really important. We can turn toward a way of living on the planet that ensures our descendents have a home.
I was asked to be one of the speakers at Tucson's annual Peace Fair and Music Festival on February 27, 2010. Here are my prepared remarks.
.....According to the thousands of scientists who study catastrophic anthropogenic climate destabilization, we're quickly running out of time. According to geophysicists and biologists, we're running out of natural resources and the biodiversity needed to keep the food chain from collapsing. No food chain, no food. It doesn't get much simpler than that. We have to quit being afraid to say this is exactly what's happening just because it might alarm or upset or challenge deeply cherished worldviews.
I mean, since America already ranks next to last out of 150 countries on the UN's happiness scale, when 50% of the American population requires at least one prescription drug per day, when our lifespans, our incomes and our sovereignty are steadily decreasing, what have we got to lose by being honest with people, with forthright truth telling? We actually are capable of handling it. The myth that insists otherwise does nothing but support the status quo, so be very wary of those who repeat it.
Again we must own this and change the way we live on planet Earth NOW!!!! I will apologize to the other humans in my life who do not want to hear the bad news, I will look for every opportunity to speak about the plight of all the humans and our responsibility to try in our own way to stop the bleeding. Whether it's barbaric extraction or waging wars it must be stopped.
And don't forget to sign on to Move to Amend if you haven't yet.
The barbaric extraction continues. I have very little hope that we will wake up and realize that the orgy is over. We will either immediately begin to change our ways, as if our grandchildren's lives depended on it, or we will foreclose on their extinction.
This is how we continue much of our happy motoring.....
This article over at sustainablog was a welcome infusion of hope. After hearing President Obama speak of "clean coal" in the recent state of the union, I was feeling pretty depressed. I know we face a huge problem finding ways to produce energy as we deplete the current resources of planet Earth at breakneck speed. Coal is one of the worst means of producing energy and is used to produce 50% of all the electricity in our country. I think about the poor humans living in the 2nd most diverse forest on the planet whose lives are being destroyed at this very moment by greedy corporatists who are willing to blow the tops off of these beautiful mountain forests to get their hands on the coal seams below. It's heartbreaking. That alone should be enough to get us to reevaluate our energy use and move to the new way we will need to live so our descendents have the slightest chance for a future. We are squandering the resources our children and grandchildren will desperately need.
Coal-Fired Power On the Way Out? by Earth Policy Institute on February 25, 2010
The past two years have witnessed the emergence of a powerful movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States. Initially led by environmental groups, both national and local, it has since been joined by prominent national political leaders and many state governors. The principal reason for opposing coal plants is that they are changing the earth’s climate. There is also the effect of mercury emissions on health and the 23,600 U.S. deaths each year from power plant air pollution.
Well so much for my "hope-sy change-y thing." Caribou Barbie asked a good question??? I'm sure in a much different spirit. This news is so profoundly sad....let's waste some more of our precious time and resources at a time when our descendents need us to face reality and act as if their lives depended on it ...CUZ THEY DO !!!!!! nuclear anything is no future. No insurance company on planet Earth will ensure these endeavors and that's why they stick us with the bill. (whoops) And that's before the question of toxic waste and what to do with it is asked. No one has answered that yet.
Imagine what $8,000,000,000.00 could do to help us in our descent from this orgy (the fossil fuel age of cheap, plentiful energy and more junk than more of us can fit in our homes) The finite nature of the resources currently used to produce energy, plastic, soil destroying pesticide and fertilizers and all the machinery of said enterprises, as well as the biggest export we now have....the military industrial complex, are going to ensure this descent ..... The question is ....will we prepare? or as Tina Turner says will we choose to have it "rough" not "nice and easy" It won't be easy in the best case scenario, but we must immediately stop over-comsuming, stop barbaric extraction and stop using earth's finite dwindling natural resources to fight over earth's finite dwindling natural resources.
This decision is so wrong, so shameful and, again, profoundly sad!!!!
WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!!
Obama gives $8 billion to new nuke plants By Steve Hargreaves, staff writerFebruary 16, 2010: 12:48 PM ET
Work under way to expand Southern Companies' Vogtle plant, the first to recieve new federal funding.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- President Obama announced Tuesday over $8 billion in federal support for two new nuclear power plants in Georgia, setting the stage for what could be the first completed reactor in this country in over three decades.
The money, coming in the form of loan guarantees, is going to build two new reactors at Southern Company's Vogtle plant facility, located some 170 miles east of Atlanta.
In announcing the grant at an electrical worker's union hall in Maryland, Obama used to occasion to tout the benefits of nuclear power.
As I listened to the state of the union the other night and heard "clean coal", nuclear energy, and more off shore drilling mentioned as good investments for our future I was appalled. The following letter provided me with a way to channel my voice in response to helplessness I was feeling after hearing those words.
My heart breaks every time I think about the people who have so resourcefully lived and thrived in the appalachian mountains by living with nature and the resources provided by the second most diverse forest on planet earth. Many of us looked from the outside and considered them poor, but they knew how to get what they needed and passed their knowledge on to each new generation. They are currently undergoing an assault on their lives with the barbaric extraction of coal by blowing the tops off of their beloved mountains. And that is before we even talk about the myth of burning "clean coal".
The enormous input into a nuclear energy producing plant and the resources, including fresh water, to generate energy are just laughable at this point in time. And that is even before we talk about what the hell to do with the toxic waste. And just for the record, I do not think spreading it all over a foreign county (oh, start with Iraq,) in the form of depleted (not) uranium, is an option. And of course that sunny picture follows barbaric extraction. We are at a crossroads.
Here is my comment on this open letter to President Obama from the Post Carbon Institute. These folks are doing some of the finest work in this area and I would hope their voices would be listened to by the leaders and policy makers of the world and those of my country.
We must face the truth. Continuing to squander Earth's dwindling natural resources fighting over Earth's dwindling natural resources ensures no future for anyone's grandchildren. We must begin to act as if our grandchildren's lives depended on it. They do! If we continue to over consume, barbarically extract and squander the resources of Earth, we are ensuring our extinction. I am in, what I call, the legacy phase of my life and I am ashamed and profoundly sad about how we are collectively acting. I will do everything I can in my life and community to ensure my grandchildren can have a healthy, happy life on this beautiful planet. Please lead, there are many of us out here who want to help save the planet.
Open Letter to President Obama Posted Feb 1, 2010 by Asher Miller
February 1, 2010
Dear President Obama,
Your State of the Union speech last week laudably referenced clean tech and renewable energy several times. We ask that you follow your words with action, by leading the transition to a post-carbon economy and a healthier world.
You also spoke of our need to face hard truths.
Hard truth: Our continued, willful reliance on fossil fuels is making our planet uninhabitable. We are evicting ourselves from the only paradise we’ve ever known.
Hard truth: No combination of current and anticipated renewable sources can maintain our profligate energy usage as the global supply of fossil fuels heads for terminal decline.
For the recently released Searching for a Miracle, Post Carbon Institute Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg conducted a “net energy” analysis of 18 different energy sources (including nuclear and “clean coal”). He concluded that the amount of energy available after accounting for the energy used in extraction and production of those sources is—at our current and anticipated rates of consumption—insufficient to get us “over the hump” to a post-carbon world.
Our 29 Post Carbon Institute Fellows—experts in the leading economic, energy, and environmental issues of the day—all agree that this "net energy" deficit is just one of many interrelated crises shaping the 21st century. Each crisis alone creates formidable challenges; in combination, their complexity admits no simple solution. But given their direness, inaction risks tragedy.
Mr. President, we respect you and your advisors and appreciate the enormity of the dilemmas you and all of us confront. When a great leader frames a great challenge, a resilient people will rise to meet the opportunity. And so we ask, Mr. President, that you tell the American people that we must:
1. Face reality. In a carbon-constrained world, true prosperity comes not from heedless growth, but from shared security, community, and liberty.
2. Prepare for the future. Conservation, with an emphasis on building a green economy and revitalizing struggling communities, offers cost-effective “found” energy, and the most immediate and long-term return on investment.
3. Lead the way. A substantial investment in renewable energy, with an emphasis on distributed solar and wind, offers the best hope for moving to a sustainable economy and environment.
Mr. President, lead us in creating a future worth inheriting. Post Carbon Institute and our Fellows will support you and your team in whatever capacity we can. We believe that the American people, and the world’s people, will support you as well.
With hope,
Asher Miller Executive Director Post Carbon Institute 707-823-8700 x109
thanks Thom for bringing this to us..... and for bringing us the designated human to speak to the logical election of the corporation.. no middle human needed
The supreme court decision that came down today is just like the Dred Scott decision, only the opposite. In Dred Scott a human was ruled property, in today's decision a non human, an artificial man-made legal definition, the corporation, was given all the rights of a human. This was discussed on Thom Hartmann today and, in fact, Thom has been warning about for a good long time. The greedy, selfish humans have sealed the deal. It was bad yesterday, but today it's bad on steroids. The marketing extravaganza surrounding elections will be orgy on steroids. (could be to sell a candidate or to destroy another) Thankfully, Thom directed us to where the fight is already on. We the people must stand up. David Cobb has been tirelessly working to prevent the corporate wet dream that has just be unleashed by the court. here are a couple of places to find out more and find out what we can do.
Citizens United v. FEC: Supreme Court Sides with Corporations Ruling Opens Floodgates to Corporate Spending and Strikes Another Nail in the Democracy Coffin Are You Outraged Yet!? Yet again the U.S. Supreme Court has sided with the ruling elite against the interests of the American people. Today in Citizens United vs. FEC they overturned the flimsy federal campaign finance reform laws afforded by the McCain-Feingold law. Corporations can now to spend unlimited money in buying our elections. The Court has legalized corporate bribery of our elected officials. So if you were already disgusted by the fact that over $5 billion dollars was spent in the 2008 election, watch out. Because the floodgates are now wide open!
Naomi Klein warns of the shock doctrine corporatists salivating to move on the poor people of Haiti as they are at a most vulnerable time.
Naomi Klein Issues Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again Journalist and author Naomi Klein spoke in New York last night and addressed the crisis in Haiti: “We have to be absolutely clear that this tragedy—which is part natural, part unnatural—must, under no circumstances, be used to, one, further indebt Haiti and, two, to push through unpopular corporatist policies in the interest of our corporations. This is not conspiracy theory. They have done it again and again.”
and this advice from a piece published first on Common Dreams is the very best we could do.....i hope somebody in a position to make decisions is listening....
Ten Things the US Can and Should Do for Haiti By Bill Quigley - January 14th, 2010
One. Allow all Haitians in the US to work. The number one source of money for poor people in Haiti is the money sent from family and workers in the US back home. Haitians will continue to help themselves if given a chance. Haitians in the US will continue to help when the world community moves on to other problems.
Two. Do not allow US military in Haiti to point their guns at Haitians. Hungry Haitians are not the enemy. Decisions have already been made which will militarize the humanitarian relief - but do not allow the victims to be cast as criminals. Do not demonize the people.
Three. Give Haiti grants as help, not loans. Haiti does not need any more debt. Make sure that the relief given helps Haiti rebuild its public sector so the country can provide its own citizens with basic public services.
Four. Prioritize humanitarian aid to help women, children and the elderly. They are always moved to the back of the line. If they are moved to the back of the line, start at the back.
Five. President Obama can enact Temporary Protected Status for Haitians with the stroke of a pen. Do it. The US has already done it for El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Sudan and Somalia. President Obama should do it on Martin Luther King Day.
Six. Respect Human Rights from Day One. The UN has enacted Guiding Principles for Internally Displaced People. Make them required reading for every official and non-governmental person and organization. Non governmental organizations like charities and international aid groups are extremely powerful in Haiti - they too must respect the human dignity and human rights of all people.
Seven. Apologize to the Haitian people everywhere for Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh.
Eight. Release all Haitians in US jails who are not accused of any crimes. Thirty thousand people are facing deportations. No one will be deported to Haiti for years to come. Release them on Martin Luther King day.
Nine. Require that all the non-governmental organizations which raise money in the US be transparent about what they raise, where the money goes, and insist that they be legally accountable to the people of Haiti.
Ten. Treat all Haitians as we ourselves would want to be treated.
Here's a steaming pile of hypocrisy for you: In his "newsletter", Charlie Crabtree (Republican PCO-precinct 112 and Whatcom County Republican Party State Committeeman) is complaining about countywide voting for council seats (as though it wasn't the voters who decided to do it that way) AND Also complaining about how non-partisan elections aren't non-partisan enough (linking to a couple of jpeg's video clips from the Dem's Xmas party as supposed 'evidence').
Of course, Republican Party State Committeman, Charlie neglected to mention that Sam Crawford (Republican PCO-precinct 141) and Ward Nelson (Republican PCO-precinct 142) are on the County Council.
Charlie [Who is Treasurer/ (& campaign manager?) for Doug Ericksen's campaign committee] also neglected to mention that Republican politicians Doug Ericksen and Dale Brandland felt free to stick their noses into the process to get Ward Nelson appointed back onto the County Council.
Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories & Photos
This was an eye-opening 59 minutes to be sure and then the hour after with a handful of folks who showed up was very helpful. My question to this moment is “what is the end game?” so far, all I can come up with is it’s a natural resource grab by a group who is dominating some of the people who have been living and using the resources of the region also. Palestinians have been designated “the other” in the same way other groups of indigenous peoples have many times in the past. As I have explored more at Anna Baltzer’s site, I have seen a movement that I can really stand with. Oh and I really recommended the 2 clips from her quest appearance on Jon Stewart that are linked from her home page.
As a human community I believe we have to constantly recognize each other and stand with those who stand for the common human values we share. It is my belief that humans everywhere want the same things. We all want to live on planet earth with enough water, food, shelter, safety and our communities are the ways we can work together for that life for all humans.
I was very touched by a Jewish woman visitor from New York who attended. She was very knowledgeable and she introduced the word “genocide” and said that she rarely did that because it immediately took on a life of its own and ended any discussion. It’s hard not to ask the question when you witness the living conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. I put myself in their place and I can’t even imagine getting through one day. I travel freely at any time I choose. Just having to wonder if it will take 30 minutes or 8 hours to work 25 miles away seems unimaginable and this is a daily fact for many Palestinians. Not knowing if me or my family would be able to reach a hospital if we had an emergency, because it was on the other side of a checkpoint (aka roadblock, in my world), is chilling.
I am horrified that my tax money is going to support a country continuing to violate human rights and my country continues to block UN efforts to hold Israel accountable. Occupations are not won, occupations are ended. I will be exploring what ways I can be part of the Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions movement. It is the nonviolent organized movement that makes sense and gives hope for our human future. Thank you Code Pink Rebekah for bring this to us.
this issue of Newsweek explains alot to me......we are not getting the facts about what is happening there.
This “health care reform” (without the public option and medicare buy-in and with the mandate) is just a big sloppy wet kiss to the gangster profiteers who have been stealing from us all along. This Bill Moyer’s journal speaks to how this is happening. His 2 guests agree and come to opposite conclusions about voting for this sorry bill. Matt Taibbi has it right. If this bill passes, it will load this gang of robbers with even more money to prevent the people from ever getting our hands on our own health care. We need to entirely remove the profiteering middle men and this bill will keep them firmly in place. We don't need the middlemen. We the people can hire good people, our fellow citizens, accountable to us, to administer payment to good people, our fellow citizens, accountable to us, to provide our healthcare. There is a system set up now, running at 3% (max) administrative cost- Medicare. And if there are people who don't wish to buy in to Medicare part E-verybody, they can opt out and purchase insurance from the private profiteers, whose administrative costs run upward to 30%. It costs alot of money to pay huge CEO compensations, with stock options added, and pay stockholders to sit by the pool and wait for the dividend checks. It isn’t even about whether the bill has got any "good qualities." "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." (ad nauseum) It’s about filling the trough for these pigs to continue bilking us. The losers will be the people....AGAIN. We are held hostage by these greedy selfish corporatists and there is no end in sight. And there is no hope in sight. So much for “hope” “yes, we can” and empty slogans.
December 18, 2009
Amidst fading hopes for real reform on issues ranging from high finance to health care, economist Robert Kuttner and journalist Matt Taibbi join Bill Moyers to discuss Wall Street's power over the federal government.
addendum....*if a good enough bill is reconciled in conference committee and the House of Representatives and the Senate to vote on it and they pass it to President Obama and he signs it, you will hear me cheering and giving credit.
Evan so eloquently put into words much of what I am feeling these days and he gives me hope for the generations to come. I remember listening in horror to Obama's Afghanistan speech, screaming at the radio practically the whole time. And then, when I talked to fellow Democrats, many supported his position and praised the good speech. Now I hear from Evan that many young folks are not falling for this war mentality and it gives me the hope I felt was lost. Thank you Evan for being the wonderful human you are and for continuing on. You bring a very important perspective at a time when corporate marketing seems to rule the day.
here is Evan's piece published at Common Dreams.....
The Betrayal of Generation Hope by Evan Knappenberger Published on Sunday, December 13, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
As I sit here preparing for my final college exams, I can't help but think back on the ups and downs of the past two years. Ups: the defeat of the Republican Party in 2008, my own graduation from college, and the formation of progressive student and veteran movements; and downs: suffering through a war and hospitalization due to post-traumatic stress, watching my friends die in foreign countries, and now, the betrayal of my generation by a President who we put our utmost faith in.
citizens from all over the county gathered to (joined by citizens in nine Washington cities to hold Health Reform Rallies) ask that we move to healthcare reform that brings healthcare to all citizens.
it was a cold, clear day and the energy of a community coming together for our common good was palpable. thanks once again to the tireless amazing folks who never give up working for healthcare for all of us. and thanks to all of us who showed up......amazing!
this, over at Air America by Megan Capentier, is enough to kill the holiday spirit.
is this who we are???
Is The Military Fudging Civilian Casualties To Avoid Pentagon Oversight? Thursday December 10, 2009 6:19 p.m
Sar Bland, an Afghan man who was injured in Monday's rocket attack in Tagab, lies on bed at a hospital at the U.S. base at Bagram, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009. An official said the deaths of 14 civilians in the rocket attack on Monday presumably aimed at military officials and local leaders underscores the inability of NATO to successfully defeat the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
By Megan Carpentier On Monday, the anonymous blogger Security Crank noticed something interesting: all the U.S. and NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan seemingly kill exactly 30 people every time. How can that be?
Security Crank documented no less than 12 occasions in which news reports, relying on field commanders' estimates, noted that exactly 30 suspected Taliban were killed in airstrikes and, occasionally, artillery attacks. He said:
But the much more important point remains: how could we possibly have any idea how the war is going, here or anywhere else, when the bad guys seem only to die in groups of 30? The sheer ubiquity of that number in fatality and casualty counts is astounding, to the point where I don’t even pay attention to a story anymore when they use that magic number 30. It is an indicator either of ignorance or deliberate spin… but no matter the case, whenever you see the number 30 used in reference to the Taliban, you should probably close the tab and move onto something else, because you just won’t get a good sense of what happened there.
So, why is it always 30? Do thirty casualties seem like enough to justify a military attack, or few enough to not attract too much attention to an incident?
Another blogger, Joshua Foust of the Central Asia blog Registan, seemingly stumbled upon the answer. In a tweet, he noted:
In 2003, an air strike killing 30 civilians could be launched w/o issues. 31 dead civilians and Rummy had to approve.
Foust then linked to an LA Times article from last July by Nicholas Goldberg that documented what field commanders were told.
really Dana? no terrorist attack during bush's administration...and sean, didn't you catch that lie???? (stupid or mouthpiece????) wow!!!! history is revised in plain sight...... our symptoms are showing.... what a profoundly sad time we live in....
and then this....huh....what??..keep your enemies close ????? wow
November 19, 2009, 8:53 pm Obama Has a Job for Dana Perino. Really. By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG From the Department of Unlikely Events: George W. Bush’s press secretary has been asked to serve in the Obama administration.
Well, sort of.
Dana M. Perino, Mr. Bush’s fourth and final press secretary, was nominated Thursday by President Obama to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent agency responsible for overseeing the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and other non-military broadcasts sponsored by the federal government. full article
A great big tip o' the hat to Joe Sustek today for getting the back of the Justice Dept Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama Administration as the do they right thing today. As a great American, who truly understands what, in my opinion, the county stands for, he will make a great Senator. (as he makes a great Representative now)
....and thanks to Randi Rhodes for having Rep. Joe Sustek on in the second hour of your program (could still be heard on AM 1090 after the 7pm top of the hour)
Atty Gen Holder: 9/11 Mastermind, Others To Face New York Justice 12:06 pm November 13, 2009 By Frank James
Attorney General Eric Holder made official Friday morning what was reported by the media for hours beforehand, the Obama Administration's intention to bring the alleged 9/11 conspirators who've been held at Guantanamo for years to trial in New York.
At a press conference Friday, Holder, a former federal judge and prosecutor, expressed faith in the federal judiciary, prosecutors and New York City officials to manage a high-profile trial of self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Muhammad and other suspected terrorist detainees.
