Sunday, April 30, 2006

 

Distant Drums - The Dead of April


Emperor George * Neil Young's "Living With War" * The "I" Word

As April comes to a close, we learn that 72 of our soldiers have died in Iraq during the month. The total is 2400. Think of the president's Mission Accomplished appearance in a flight suit on the USS Lincoln. That was May 2,2003. Remember the words: ".....I think they're in the last throes if you will, of the insurgency" ? That was Vice President Cheney on CNN May 30,2005. U.S. casualties in May 2005 numbered 1666. So, 734 soldiers died since the vice president (who had taken four deferments during the Vietnam war) said that a year ago about the insurgents. Think about it. 734 soldiers, majority of them in their 20's. Those who sent them to Iraq will again issue lofty statements. The bereaved families will grieve but few of them will speak out about the wasted lives and maimed bodies. And the cost in terms of dollars (our money) keeps going up and up. The president still wants the grossly skewed tax cuts made permanent. Our children and grand children will pay for it while those who lead the nation into the mess do their golfing and quail hunting.
The much vaunted Operation Iraqi Freedom has turned out to be a disaster. The Post reports that: "As the U.S. military struggles against persistent sectarian violence in Iraq, military officers and security experts find themselves in a vigorous debate over an idea that just months ago was largely dismissed as a fringe thought: that the surest -- and perhaps now the only -- way to bring stability to Iraq is to divide the country into three pieces." In the meantime, one hears more and more about the once unthinkable subject---impeachment of President Bush. Living With War, a newly released CD by Neil Young (yes, he is Canadian) includes a song "Let's impeach the President" Click on the title of the CD to listen to clips. In a despatch from Washington, Sarah Baxter of The Times (London) reports: "THE movement to impeach President George W Bush over the war on terror began with a few tatty bumper stickers on the back of battered old Volvos and slogans such as “Bush lied, people died” on far-left websites. But as Democrat hopes rise of gaining control of Congress this autumn, dreams of impeaching Bush are no longer confined to the political fringe. A poll last week found that voters, by 50% to 37%, would prefer the Democrats to win control of Congress. If Bush’s opponents find themselves in a position of power, the temptation to humiliate him is likely to be irresistible."
I doubt that Democrats would succeed in taking control of both the House and the Senate in the midterm elections. In the unlikely event that should come to pass, I would rather see the Bush administration in a lame duck presidency than going through the process of impeachment. It is too expensive in every sense of the word. The nation will need all the energy the leaders can muster to move forward and repair the damage done after 2000. I opposed the impeachment of President Clinton for diddling with Monica Lewinsky and lying about it. No one died because of what he did. The Clinton impeachment was purely a partisan thing. I would have supported his impeachment if he took the nation to war on lies. No question that President Bush deserves to be impeached. Still, it is a course that I have deep reservations about.
The fallen (two names have not yet been released by the DOD. Source:Iraq Coalition Casualties. Let's not forget the hapless Iraqi civilians killed in military action: Min. 34,512 Max.38,661 Source: Iraq Body Count

Darrell P. Clay, 34, Army Staff Sergeant, Apr 01, 2006
Israel Devora Garcia, 23, Army Sergeant, Apr 01, 2006
Michael L. Hartwick, 37, Army Chief Warrant Officer (CW3), Apr 01, 2006
Timothy J. Moshier, 25, Army Captain, Apr 01, 2006
Jeremy W. Ehle, 19, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 02, 2006
Andres Aguilar Jr., 21, Marine Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
David A. Bass, 20, Marine Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Patrick J. Gallagher, 27, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Kun Y. Kim, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Eric A. McIntosh, 29, Marine Staff Sergeant, Apr 02, 2006
Eric A. Palmisano, 27, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Scott J. Procopio, 20, Marine Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Felipe D. Sandoval-Flores, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Brian R. St. Germain, 22, Marine Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Abraham G. Twitchell, 28, Marine Staff Sergeant, Apr 02, 2006
Marcques J. Nettles, 22, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class, Apr 02, 2006
Geovani Padilla Aleman, 20, Navy Hospitalman, Apr 02, 2006
Ty J. Johnson, 28, Army Specialist, Apr 04, 2006
Dustin J. Harris, 21, Army Specialist, Apr 06, 2006
Daniel L. Sesker, 22, Army National Guard Specialist, Apr 06, 2006
Chase A. Edwards, 19, Marine Private 1st Class, Apr 06, 2006
Bryan N. Taylor, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 06, 2006
Richard P. Waller, 22, Marine Corporal, Apr 07, 2006
Shawn R. Creighton, 21, Army Specialist, Apr 08, 2006
Jody W. Missildine, 19, Army Private, Apr 08, 2006
Philip John Martini, 24, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 08, 2006
Juana NavarroArellano, 24, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 08, 2006
David S. Collins, 24, Army Specialist, Apr 09, 2006
Joseph I. Love-Fowler, 22, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 09, 2006
Gregory S. Rogers, 42, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Apr 09, 2006
James W. "Will" Gardner, 22, Army Specialist, Apr 10, 2006
Randall L. Lamberson, 36, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Apr 10, 2006
Joseph A. Blanco, 25, Army Corporal, Apr 11, 2006
James F. Costello III, 27, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 11, 2006
Kenneth D. Hess, 26, Army Specialist, Apr 11, 2006
George R. Roehl Jr., 21, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 11, 2006
Scott M. Bandhold, 37, Army Specialist, Apr 12, 2006
Roland E. Calderon-Ascencio, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 12, 2006
Marcus S. Glimpse, 22, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 12, 2006
Andrew K. Waits, 23, Army Specialist, Apr 13, 2006
Salem Bachar, 20, Marine Corporal, Apr 13, 2006
Stephen Joseph Perez, 22, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 13, 2006
Darin T. Settle, 23, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 14, 2006
Mark W. Melcher, 34, Army National Guard Specialist, Apr 15, 2006
Derrick J. Cothran, 21, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 15, 2006
Pablo V. Mayorga, 33, Marine Corporal, Apr 15, 2006
Justin D. Sims, 22, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 15, 2006
Ryan G. Winslow, 19, Marine Private 1st Class, Apr 15, 2006
Clinton W. Cubert, 38, Army National Guard Master Sergeant, Apr 16, 2006
Ian P. Weikel, 31, Army Captain, Apr 18, 2006
Robert J. Settle, 25, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 19, 2006
Patrick A. Tinnell, 25, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 19, 2006
Jason C. Ramseyer, 28, Marine Staff Sergeant, Apr 20, 2006
Jacob H. Allcott, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 22, 2006
Michael E. Bouthot, 19, Army Private, Apr 22, 2006
Kyle A. Colnot, 23, Army Sergeant, Apr 22, 2006
Eric D. King, 29, Army Specialist, Apr 22, 2006
Travis C. Zimmerman, 19, Army Private, Apr 22, 2006
Eric R. Lueken, 23, Marine Corporal, Apr 22, 2006
Jason B. Daniel, 21, Army Corporal, Apr 23, 2006
Robert W. Ehney, 26, Army Sergeant, Apr 23, 2006
Shawn Thomas Lasswell Jr., 21, Army Corporal, Apr 23, 2006
Metodio A. Bandonill, 29, Army Staff Sergeant, Apr 24, 2006
Aaron William Simons, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 24, 2006
Raymond L. Henry, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 25, 2006
Richard J. Herrema, 27, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Apr 25, 2006
Michael L. Ford, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 26, 2006
Matthew Webber, 23, Army Sergeant, Apr 27, 2006
Edward Davis III, 31, Marine Sergeant, Apr 27, 2006
Lea R. Mills, 0, Marine Not reported yet, Apr 27, 2006

*
The Burial of the Dead

"April is the cruellest month,breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."
---T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), Waste Land

*****


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Friday, April 28, 2006

 

Exits Kaavya Viswanathan - Good Riddance

End of fleeting fortune...and fame for Kaavya Viswanathan. The publishers, Little Brown and Co.,did the right thing by pulling the book from stores. Once the details of her lies became undeniable, the publishers had no choice. Dragging the sordid affair and trying to put a spin on it wouldn't have done them any good. "CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 27 -- The debut novel by a Harvard student, who seemingly copied numerous passages from another author's books, is being withdrawn from sale, the publishing house Little, Brown and Co. announced Thursday evening."

*****


# posted by musafir @ 11:58 AM 0 comments links to this post
 

Karl the Machinator - Is the Noose Tightening?

More dark clouds for the Bush White House

Five times before the grand jury investigating the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name! Must be uneasy nights for Karl Rove. If he is indicted then it would be another issue to add to the growing list of problems facing the White House. Dan Froomkin in the Post: "In his fifth appearance before the grand jury, Rove spent considerable time arguing that it would have been foolish for him to knowingly mislead investigators about his role in the disclosure of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame to the media, the source said. His grand jury appearance, which was kept secret even from Rove's closest White House colleagues until shortly before he went to court yesterday, suggests that prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald remains keenly interested in Rove's role in the case."

*****


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Wednesday, April 26, 2006

 

The Bloodlust of Radical Islamists

They Go on Killing * And the Plagiarist faces fallout from "Opal Mehta ....."

There seems to be no end to the daily slaughter. Shias killing Sunnis, Sunnis killing Shias and, it seems at times that radical Muslims are killing just for pleasure; they don't care who they kill.

In the past, Islamic nations have failed to raise their voices to condemn such acts of violence. Perhaps, at long last, there is an awakening. What happened last week at Dahab,Egypt, caused Arabs to question such wanton killings. No sign that the lunatics who carry out such atrocities are paying any attention. Further bombings took place in the days following the April 24th attack on a tourist resort in Dahab. From Washington Post: CAIRO, Egypt -- The Arab world reacted in horror and outrage Tuesday at the bombings of an Egyptian resort _ and a rift opened between hardline al-Qaida sympathizers and other radical Muslim groups who say the latest attacks have gone too far.
*

Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard student who unconsciously "internalized" 40 passages written by another author, continues to go through contortions. Her explanation after she was caught does not wash. Comments in The Onion about Kaavya Viswanathan. The Post: CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 25 -- Apology not accepted.

That was the response Tuesday from author Megan McCafferty and her publishers to a Harvard student-turned-novelist who said she was sorry for her "unconscious" copying of passages from two of McCafferty's books.

*****


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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

 

For the 109th Congress, It Is Business As Usual


The Lawmakers and Their Patrons, the Lobbyists

Let's face it. Congress does not want enactment of a meaningful legislation to curb the influence of lobbyists. It never did. The members made some noises after details of Jack Abramoff's illegal deals came to light. But they had second thoughts. Editorial in the Post, Sham Lobbying Reform, paints a sickening picture of the lawmakers and their shameful decision to push for a toothless bill. "Mr. Dreier's Rules Committee took an already weak House bill and made it weaker. From the version of the measure approved by the House Judiciary Committee, it dropped provisions that would require lobbyists to disclose fundraisers they host for candidates, campaign checks they solicit for lawmakers and parties they finance (at conventions, for example) in honor of members.

Excerpts:
*****


# posted by musafir @ 9:23 AM 0 comments links to this post
 

There They Go Again: Prostitutes and Islam


Ad for a House of Prostitution riles Muslims

The report from BBC starkly exemplifies the hypocrisy of the Muslims. "A Cologne brothel touting for clients with a World Cup-themed banner has blacked out the flags of Iran and Saudi Arabia after threats from Muslims." What does the protest mean...that Muslims don't patronize prostitutes? That is absurd.
Back in the 1980's a building in Bangkok,Thailand, was known as the Saudi Hotel because plane loads of Saudi Arabians went to Bangkok and stayed there to cavort with prostitutes. The wide-open sex trade in Thailand attracted people from all nations. Perhaps it still does. Friends in Mumbai (Bombay) told me about regular traffic of rich Arabs who came to Mumbai to have sex with prostitutes.

Then, the nature of the protest. Not a group with banners, chanting slogans. They don't believe in peaceful demonstrations.
Why the readiness for violence?
*****

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Monday, April 24, 2006

 

The Boss and the "Protest Singer"


Bruce Springsteen sings Pete Seeger * "Good Night, Irene" in Kolkata * Bush's Third War?
Interesting article about The Boss in the Sunday Observer/Guardian. "Over on Ocean Avenue, a patron sits with a lunchtime shot and beer in the Wonder Bar, which advertises a dance party with DJ Jersey Joe. Down the block is the Stone Pony, the nightclub where Bruce Springsteen, the Jersey Shore's famous son, made his name. Its marquee advertises a show by Nils Lofgren, guitarist for Springsteen's long-time collaborators the E Street Band."

Reading about Springsteen's new album, a tribute to Pete Seeger, brought back memories of the old troubadour. I listened to Pete Seeger strum his guitar and sing in Calcutta (Kolkata as it is known now) in the late 1960's. Didn't know much about Pete Seeger those days but someone gave me a leaflet that contained brief background information. The Vietnam war was raging and I had strong feelings about America's role. Reading that Pete Seeger was part of an anti-war movement was enough for me and a few friends to show up for the performance. Of course, the USIS wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole. His appearance was privately organized. It was standing room only at the Rabindra Sadan auditorium. The audience (mostly Bengalis) enthusiastically joined Pete Seeger in what he called "a hootenanny" when he sang Good Night,Irene; We shall overcome; and Where have all the flowers gone.

The New Yorker, in its issue of April 17,2006, has a profile of Pete Seeger. I spent more than an hour trying to negotiate the New Yorker's poorly designed, user unfriendly web site to get a link to the article before giving up. According to the New Yorker Forum there are others who find the web site frustrating. Wonder if the designers intentionally made it so.

Seeger is 86, he was born in 1919. "He doesn't cultivate publicity. That isn't what he does. He's far more modest than that. He would never make a fuss. He's just standing out there in the cold and the sleet like a scarecrow. I go a little bit down the road, so that when I get him in view again, this solitary and elderly figure,I see that what he's written on the sign is 'Peace'."
---The Protest Singer by Alec Wilkinson,The New Yorker.

The Boss has done his share of making music against the war in Iraq, and Neil Young has recently issued an anti-war album which includes a song titled "Impeach the President". More power to them.
*
 A lot is being written about Iran's nuclear program and President Bush's threats of war. Arthur Schlesinger Jr.in the Post on Bush's Thousand days: "There stretch ahead for Bush a thousand days of his own. He might use them to start the third Bush war: the Afghan war (justified), the Iraq war (based on fantasy, deception and self-deception), the Iran war (also fantasy, deception and self-deception). There is no more dangerous thing for a democracy than a foreign policy based on presidential preventive war." Frightening to think of the power that lies in the hands of a few megalomaniacs, and I don't mean Ahmadinejad and his aides.

*****



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Sunday, April 23, 2006

 

CIA and the Mary McCarthy Affair


Waves over the leaks about Extraordinary Rendition

Reading about the firing of CIA officer Mary McCarthy, it becomes clear that the seriousness of the case lies primarily in information about the secret program for outsourcing torture of prisoners. Ms McCarthy allegedly divulged details of the so called "extraordinary rendition" program, including names of countries to which the prisoners were sent. Very sensitive issue indeed."The CIA said in a statement last week that omitted McCarthy's name that the officer was fired for discussing operational intelligence matters with journalists. Officials have said the journalists included Washington Post correspondent Dana Priest, who last week was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for national security reporting that included the revelation of secret, CIA-run prisons for suspected terrorists in Eastern Europe and elsewhere."

Intelligence gathering by nations is necessary and a fact of life. Intelligence agencies,however,do more than gather and interprete data. They participate in covert actions that are often border-line and sometimes clear violations of international laws. The "extraordinary rendition" program falls under that category. One can understand the embarrassment of high officials who had at one time flatly denied existence of it.

Jane Meyer in The New Yorker,Feb.14,2005: "On January 27th, President Bush, in an interview with the Times assured the world that "“torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture."

A report broadcast by the BBC on March 20th describes in detail the case of one Abu Omar, renditioned by CIA agents from Italy to Egypt and the torture he underwent. "The Italian Government has issued "arrest warrants for 22 alleged CIA operatives involved".

Egypt's role is easy to understand. It is the second largest recipient (after Israel) of U.S. aid. If all it took was to torture some prisoners to stay in the good graces of America, Hosni Mobarek's government saw nothing wrong.

It is, however, the conduct of European nations that is murky....and shameful.
(This edition of Secret Wars by Gordon Corera was broadcast on BBC World Service on Monday 20 March.)
*****


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Bush and Earth Day! There is a Disconnect


President Bush, the Environmentalist * Golfing Congressmen

The records are clear and abundant. The Bush Administration is no friend of the environment. But,like a chameleon, the president changes colors to suit the situation. And so he promoted alternative fuel on Earth Day. "With gas prices at $3 a gallon, Bush said the best way for the nation to end its addiction to foreign oil is to make a transition more quickly to vehicles that run on renewable and domestically produced energy."

Tom DeLay went to play at St. Andrews in Scotland. Cannot blame Tom Reynolds for liking Pebble Beach. The view is breathtaking. Great golf course."The ethical furnace keeps getting hotter for House Republicans. Even Rep. Tom Reynolds, who heads the GOP reelection effort, is feeling some heat. The four-term New Yorker is being targeted by a liberal watchdog group, New Yorkers for a Cleaner Congress, for taking "more lobbyist-funded luxury trips outside of western New York in the last three years than he has returned home to western New York." The group singles out jaunts to Pebble Beach, Calif., by Reynolds that have totaled $205,185 over five years." While Republicans enjoy a more cozy relationship with them, Democrats are not immune from the insidious influence of lobbyists.
*****



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Saturday, April 22, 2006

 

Saturday's Snippets


Smell of Decay in Washington,DC * Immigration and GOP * Vatican and Condoms

Cover story of The April 20th issue of The Economist (London) reads: "Taking on Bush - Can the Democrats get their act together?" Don't think that I am an exception when I say that there are days when the prospects look far from bright. What a pity that would be. With all the negative baggage being carried by Bush and the GOP, if the Democrats fail then they would have no one to blame but themselves.

Editorial in The Economist: "SNIFF the air in Washington, DC, this spring and you notice the smell of decay."
*
The immigration issue has become a hot potato for the GOP as gay rights is for Democrats. With the midterm elections looming ahead, the Republicans are scrambling to find a middle ground between the hardliners and the so called elitist members of the party. The bottom line, they don't want to completely lose the Hispanic voters. ""How The GOP Lost Its Way",There is nothing new about this division. It is a 40-year-old fight that has its roots in the cultural, economic, regional and ideological differences between the two camps. Still, most conservatives felt that after the victory of Ronald Reagan and the Republican Revolution of 1994 their point was made and the country-clubbers would know their place. They were wrong. The Rockefeller wing is now attempting to reassert its control over the party and is openly hostile toward the Reagan populists who created the Republican majority in the first place."

*

The Vatican approves condoms! Not quite. As a weapon against AIDS, yes. "We must do everything to fight AIDS," said Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the retired archbishop of Milan, in Italy's L'Espresso newsweekly. "Certainly, the use of condoms can constitute in certain situations a lesser evil."

But some things never change--old men in robes and their position on abstinence. "While there is no specific, authoritative Vatican policy on using condoms to protect against AIDS, the Vatican opposes condoms because they are a form of artificial contraception. Pope Benedict XVI repeated the Vatican's position last June, when he told African bishops abstinence was the only "fail-safe" way to prevent the spread of HIV."

*****

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Friday, April 21, 2006

 

The Shifting Political Tide


Can we expect the midterm elections to bring a sea change? Signs are encouraging. The domino effect of the president's abysmal approval rating is becoming painfully clear to the Republicans. "And the possibility of a Democratic tide that might sweep in second- or third-tier challengers is no longer mere fantasy talk among liberals at cocktail parties. It is a genuine Republican fear. According to figures from state polls published this week by SurveyUSA, Bush has an approval rating above 50 percent in just four states -- Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nebraska. His disapproval rating is 60 percent or higher in such key battlegrounds as Virginia, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey."

Does he still receive messages from God? The President ought to be able to appreciate Proverb 16:18: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. "

*****


# posted by musafir @ 9:23 AM 0 comments links to this post
 

Edgewood Park, San Mateo County - A Gem Just off Hwy 280


Wild Flowers * Deer, Rattlesnakes

After the long spell of cold and rainy days it felt like spring last Wednesday (April 19th). It was sunny and warm. The long range weather forecast indicates that we still have some wet days ahead of us.

JHL and I took advantage of the weather to go hiking in Edgewood Park. This is a good time of the year to go there. Edgewood Park is limited in terms of trails that offer long hikes. But parts of the park are hilly and one can get a good panoramic view of the Bay area. We take the trailhead at the junction of Edgewood Road and Canãda Road (west of 280), not the main entrance off Edgewood Road.

Edgewood Park is known for display of wild flowers in spring. We took the Serpentine Trail and then Ridgeview to the top of the hill. Then we sat down on the grass, facing west with Hwy 280 about a mile away, for a picnic of Lanterne pasta with roasted butternut squash, pine nuts and sage, and asparagus gratin, accompanied by a Johannisberg Riesling; coffee, and dark chocolate for dessert.

The photographs of Edgewood Park are from Paul Furman's edgehill.net The gallery includes various locations in California---from the Bay area to the High Desert. Mr. Furman's photographs are superb.

Cream Cups [Platystemon californicus] Poppy Family.
© Paul Furman

Suncups [Oenothera spp.], Blue-eyed Grass [Sisyrinchium bellum]
© Paul Furman

Looking west from the ridge
© Paul Furman

Owl's Clover [Orthocarpus > Castilleja exserta] Goldfields and Tidy Tips.
© Paul Furman

Suncups [Oenothera spp.], Blue-eyed Grass [Sisyrinchium bellum]
© Paul Furman

Blue-eyed Grass [Sisyrinchium bellum]
© Paul Furman

On the return leg we made a loop via Ridgeview to Serpentine. Saw a few deers,healthy and not too afraid of human beings. Edgewood is a habitat for rattle snakes also and the warm weather brings them out. Joanne and I were talking about snakes when a woman runner passed us and all of a sudden came to a halt about 20 yards ahead of us. I could see a long dark object lying across the trail and thought that it was a snake. It was. A big rattle snake. It slowly crossed the trail and went into the brush alongside. The runner was hesitant to go past that spot. We went first. The rattler was visible,long and thick. Yes, I am aware that they are not aggressive and are not likely to attack unless provoked. Nevertheless, I am afraid of them, almost stepped on one when I was running on a trail a few years back. I don't like anything that slithers....even lizards make me feel uneasy. I am cautious when I hike or run on trails in warm weather.

*****


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Thursday, April 20, 2006

 

India, New Friend of Bush - Realpolitik or Simple Brown-nosing


Sounds noble but what India is doing is recognizing which side the bread is buttered and to heck with the moral implications of its decision to go to bed with a country which,under G.W. Bush, has adopted an arrogant policy of 'my way or no other way'. Jim Hoagland in the Post: "This lack of nuclear cooperation is the last remaining cobweb from our old relationship, and we can now sweep it aside," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said with an expressive wave of his hand. "There are no other barriers to a more productive, more durable relationship with the United States. The potential is enormous for our two nations."

*****
"Expediency often silences justice."
--- Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca)

# posted by musafir @ 7:55 AM 0 comments links to this post

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

 

Women Amputees: Toll of War, "Sorrowing Lies My Land"
They are the ones we don't read much about. Women combat amputees. The Post article by Donna St. George describes the experience of a few of them."Their numbers are small, 11 in three years of war, compared with more than 350 men. They are not quite a band of sisters, but more a chain of women linked by history and experience and fate -- one extending herself to another who then might offer something for the next."
  • They have discovered, at various points of their recovery, that gender has made a difference -- "not better or worse," as Halfaker put it, "just different."
  • For Halfaker, an athlete with a strong sense of her physical self, the world was transformed June 19, 2004, on a night patrol through Baqubah, Iraq. Out of nowhere had come the rocket-propelled grenade, exploding behind her head.
  • Another soldier's arm was sheared off. Blood was everywhere.
  • "Get us out of the kill zone!" she yelled to the Humvee driver. She was a 24-year-old first lieutenant, a platoon leader who two months earlier had led her unit in repulsing a six-hour attack on a police station in Diyala province. As medics worked to stabilize her, she warned: "You bastards better not cut my arm off."
Latest data from Iraq Coalition Casualties:
In March 2006: 50
Total since beginning of the war: 2378 (Female fatalities 57)
Injured (not returned to duty): 8058
Injured (returned to duty): 9491

Civilians killed by military intervention in Iraq: 34,511 (Minimum) 38,660 (Maximum)
Source: Iraq Body Count

"War hath no fury like a noncombatant"
---C.E. Montague (1867-1928), British soldier,author,journalist

Note: "Sorrowing Lies My Land" is the title of a book by the Goan author Lambert Mascarenhas. It was written long before the unjustified war in Iraq.
*****


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Tuesday, April 18, 2006

 

Our Friends, Our Enemies


Double Standard of the Dept of State * National Parks Service dying a slow death

Teodoro Obiang Nguema is president of Equatorial Guinea, "Africa's third largest oil producer". An editorial in the Post,"With Friends Like these....",reads: " According to State Department reports, the president's goons have urinated on prisoners, sliced their ears and smeared them with oil to attract stinging ants." So, what did head of the State Department do? Offered a warm welcome to President Obiang Nguema! Fidel Castro is an enemy---don't ask why.
  • In the global rankings of political and civil liberties compiled by Freedom House, only seven countries rate worse than Equatorial Guinea. If President Bush and Ms. Rice want anyone to take their pro-democracy rhetoric seriously, they must stop throwing bouquets to odious dictators. The meeting with Mr. Obiang was presumably a reward for his hospitable treatment of U.S. oil firms, though we cannot be sure since the State Department declined our invitation to comment. But Ms. Rice herself argues that U.S. foreign policy spent too long coddling corruption and autocracy in Arab oil states. Surely she doesn't have a different standard for Africa?
Is the Post being facetious? It is a known fact that we observe double-standard in deciding who are our friends. If a murderous dictator happens to be head of a country with large oil deposits and he opens the door to American oil companies, he is a friend and he can do no wrong.

Inching Toward Privatization

Buried in Page A11 of the Post was an item about the slow bleeding of the Park Service. Squeeze until the ground becomes ready for privatization. The president failed to convince the nation of the benefits of privatizing Social Security but he could succeed in accomplishing his goal for the National Parks. "The Bush administration has ordered America's national parks to show that they can function at 80 percent or less of their operating budgets, which is forcing some parks to cut services for visitors as summer approaches."

*****


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Monday, April 17, 2006

 

California's High Desert - Arid and Awesome

Death Valley * Joshua Tree National Park

At the beginning of April, a friend and I went to the High Desert area. It was a long drive---about 1500 miles roundtrip from the Silicon Valley---and my first visit to that part of California. The landscape changed during the drive. The unusually heavy spring rains made a difference. The meadows and the foothills were green. Even when we got on to Interstate 5 and headed south toward Wasco the fields looked soft and velvety. It was only after we took Hwy 58 and drove through Tehachapi and Mojave that the changes became noticeable. The barren stretches of land and rocky outcroppings were in marked contrast to what lay behind us. I thought that one had to be of a special breed to opt to live there. Not many do.

Red Rock Canyon, Hwy 14/178 to Death Valley © www.earth.edu.waseda.ac.jp

Hwy 190, Death Valley
© rogerhe,stock.xchng

The Sierra Club's website describes it in a nutshell:

  • Fifteen thousand years ago, toward the end of the last Ice Age, the lakes covering most of present-day Nevada and parts of Utah, California, Oregon, and Idaho dried up. Left behind was a vast, arid, high-elevation basin, with deep canyons and steep, north/south-trending mountain ranges, piercingly cold in winter and blisteringly hot in summer.
Temperature in Death Valley was around 80°F (27°C) which allowed us to do some hiking. Spring of 2005 was reported to be exceptional for the display of wild flowers. We came across only a few although more of them have been sighted at higher elevations.

Death Valley Sand Dunes
©Ian Britton,freefoto.com

Artists' Palette (see next image for details)

© U.S.Parks Service

Details: Artist's Palette

© Musafir

Zabriskie Point, looking north

© Musafir

Zabriskie Point, looking south

© Musafir
At Zabriskie Point, Death Valley

©Musafir
Near Zabriskie Point, Death Valley

©Musafir

White Bear Poppy near Zabriskie Point

©Musafir

Desert Velvet near Zabriskie Point

©Musafir

Creosote Bush near Zabriskie Point

©Musafir
Desert Gold near Zabriskie Point

©Musafir

Field of Desert Gold south of Badwater

©Musafir

From Death Valley we drove on Hwy 190 and 127 to Shoshone and continued on to Baker. At Baker we took the Baker-Kelso Road and drove through Mojave National Preserve,then to Amboy on National Trails Hwy and followed Amboy Road to Twentynine Palms. The 22nd Annual Baker to Vegas 120-mile foot race was in progress when we were on the Baker-Kelso Road. It slowed us down. The race is run as a relay by 20-member teams and restricted to employees of law enforcement agencies. There were participants from many states as well as Canada and Australia. Badwater (285 ft below sea level), which we had passed on our way through Death Valley, is the starting point for the 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon,said to be the toughest footrace in the world.

Beyond Baker the road offers no facilities (service stations,water,telephone access). So, it could be a problem if one gets stuck on that stretch. As to getting help from other motorists, we saw few cars on that day. But we decided to take that route instead of driving via Barstow because that would have meant close to 100 miles of additional driving.

View of Mojave Sand Dunes, Baker-Kelso Road

©Musafir

Twentynine Palms is the gateway to Joshua Tree National Park. The weather continued to be mild and we were able to do more hiking in the park. Wild flowers were not plentiful but we saw more of them in the Cottonwood Spring area of the park than in Death Valley.

Good specimen of a Joshua Tree

©Arundhati Bhowmick

Skull Rocks, Joshua Tree National Park

©Musafir

Joshua Tree with buds

©Arundhati Bhowmick

Ocotillo in bloom, Joshua Tree National Park

©Arundhati Bhowmick

AB on Mount Ryan, Joshua Tree National Park

©Musafir

Top of Mount Ryan, Joshua Tree National Park

©Arundhati Bhowmick

Teddybear Cholla,Joshua Tree National Park

©Musafir

Bigelow Cholla, Joshua Tree National Park

©Musafir

Desert Tortoise near Mastodon Mine, Joshua Tree National Park

©Arundhati Bhowmick

Wild Flowers near Cottonwood Spring
©Arundhati Bhowmick

Wild Flowers near Cottonwood Spring
©Arundhati Bhowmick

Near Cottonwood Spring

©Arundhati Bhowmick

When we left on the morning of April 3rd it felt like it would be a blistering hot day. Twentynine Palms is the home of the Marine Corps Combat Center, the world's largest U.S. Marine Corps base. Driving through Morongo Valley,San Bernardino County, it is easy to sense the pulse of the residents. According to unofficial vote totals for 2004, Bush received 226,133 votes and John Kerry received 175,533 votes. A place where I would feel like a fish out of water.

The rains hit us when we were driving past Los Angeles and stayed with us all the way home to Bay area. That was two weeks ago. The weather continues to be wet and cold; the foothills and meadows still look lush and green.

*****


# posted by musafir @ 9:04 AM 0 comments links to this post
 

GOP and Horsemen of the Apocalypse

How sweet it is! It brightened my morning to read confirmation of the president's falling popularity. The Bush juggernaut is showing signs of wear and tear. Is Karl Rove's head spinning? He must be going bonkers. "Polls have reflected voter discontent with Bush for many months, but as the election nears, operatives are paying special attention to one subset of the numbers. It is the wide disparity between the number of people who are passionate in their dislike of Bush vs. those who support him with equal fervor."

Red, Blue, and now Pink! More encouraging news in the Post for Democrats and midterm elections. "States that were once reliably red are turning pink. Some are no longer red but a sort of powder blue. In fact, a solid majority of residents in states that President Bush carried in 2004 now disapprove of the job he is doing as president. Views of the GOP have also soured in those Republican red states."
*****




# posted by musafir @ 8:43 AM 0 comments links to this post

Sunday, April 16, 2006

 

Revolt of the Generals and the Names of the Dead in April


No one talks about the Dead and Injured * Amichai on War
Let the pundits argue about the very unusual situation--what made the retired general come out with scathing criticism of Secretary Rumsfeld. Richard Holbrooke's op-ed piece in the Post made me think of the soldiers who are out there. So far in April 44 soldiers have died in Iraq; 31 of them in their 20's and three under 20. "These generals are not newly minted doves or covert Democrats. (In fact, one of the main reasons this public explosion did not happen earlier was probably concern by the generals that they would seem to be taking sides in domestic politics.)" Background details in Newsweek, "Anatomy of a Revolt".

Names of soldiers who died in the first 15 days of April. 3 names have not yet been released by the DOD. The total now stands at 2375. Source: Iraq Coalition Casualties.

Darrell P. Clay, 34, Army Staff Sergeant, Apr 01, 2006
Israel Devora Garcia, 23, Army Sergeant, Apr 01, 2006
Michael L. Hartwick, 37, Army Chief Warrant Officer (CW3), Apr 01, 2006
Timothy J. Moshier, 25, Army Captain, Apr 01, 2006
Jeremy W. Ehle, 19, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 02, 2006
Andres Aguilar Jr., 21, Marine Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
David A. Bass, 20, Marine Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Patrick J. Gallagher, 27, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Kun Y. Kim, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Eric A. McIntosh, 29, Marine Staff Sergeant, Apr 02, 2006
Eric A. Palmisano, 27, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Scott J. Procopio, 20, Marine Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Felipe D. Sandoval-Flores, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Brian R. St. Germain, 22, Marine Corporal, Apr 02, 2006
Abraham G. Twitchell, 28, Marine Staff Sergeant, Apr 02, 2006
Geovani Padillaaleman, 20, Navy Hospitalman, Apr 02, 2006
Ty J. Johnson, 28, Army Specialist, Apr 04, 2006
Dustin J. Harris, 21, Army Specialist, Apr 06, 2006
Daniel L. Sesker, 22, Army National Guard Specialist, Apr 06, 2006
Chase A. Edwards, 19, Marine Private 1st Class, Apr 06, 2006
Bryan N. Taylor, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 06, 2006
Richard P. Waller, 22, Marine Corporal, Apr 07, 2006
Shawn R. Creighton, 21, Army Specialist, Apr 08, 2006
Jody W. Missildine, 19, Army Private, Apr 08, 2006
Philip John Martini, 24, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 08, 2006
Juana NavarroArellano, 24, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 08, 2006
David S. Collins, 24, Army Specialist, Apr 09, 2006
Joseph I. Love-Fowler, 22, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 09, 2006
Gregory S. Rogers, 42, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Apr 09, 2006
James W. "Will" Gardner, 22, Army Specialist, Apr 10, 2006
Randall L. Lamberson, 36, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Apr 10, 2006
Joseph A. Blanco, 25, Army Corporal, Apr 11, 2006
James F. Costello III, 27, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 11, 2006
Kenneth D. Hess, 26, Army Specialist, Apr 11, 2006
George R. Roehl Jr., 21, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 11, 2006
Scott M. Bandhold, 37, Army Specialist, Apr 12, 2006
Roland E. Calderon-Ascencio, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Apr 12, 2006
Marcus S. Glimpse, 22, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 12, 2006
Andrew K. Waits, 23, Army Specialist, Apr 13, 2006
Salem Bachar, 20, Marine Corporal, Apr 13, 2006
Stephen Joseph Perez, 22, Marine Lance Corporal, Apr 13, 2006
*
"A POEM THAT I WROTE IN A HIGH FEVER" by Yehuda Amichai

You who are lengthening your lives
with the best doctors and best medicines
remember those who are shortening their lives
with the war
that you in your long lives are not
preventing.

You who are again screwing
the younger generations
and winking at each other
the winking of your eyelids
is like chill of the swinging shutters
in an empty house.

---Translated from Hebrew by Leon Wieseltier
*****


# posted by musafir @ 8:51 AM 1 comments links to this post

Saturday, April 15, 2006

 

The Angry Left * Retired Generals * Senator Chafee


Primal Scream

There must be legions of bloggers who read David Finkel's article about Maryscott O'Connor in the Post and understood exactly what made her tick. Not all bloggers on the left use expletives but we share her visceral antipathy toward Bush and the Republicans. "Out there, awaiting her building fury: the Angry Left, where O'Connor's reputation is as one of the angriest of all. "One long, sustained scream" is how she describes the writing she does for various Web logs, as she wonders what she should scream about this day."

The Generals Speak Out

The rumble against Donald Rumsfeld turning into thunder and lightning. The mounting criticism by retired generals--now there are six of them--of Secretary Rumsfeld's handling of the war is causing waves. The president issued a statement expressing strong support for the secretary. "In an unusual statement issued from Camp David, where he had already retired for the weekend, Bush stepped directly into the debate over Rumsfeld's performance to offer his "strong support" and make it clear he would keep the embattled defense secretary. Rumsfeld separately declared that he would not go." What else could he do? To remove Rumsfeld because of things gone awry in Iraq would be an admission of his own failure. It will be interesting to see whether the president would be able to put a lid on this.

Senator Chafee Facing Long Knives

Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island is facing the ire of his party. What did he do? He opposed the war against Iraq,domestic wire tapping,and confirmation of Justice Alito. Deadly sins. "Chafee, 53, once could count on voters in Rhode Island to tolerate his maverick ways, but this time the response was blank stares. "Nobody listened to my reasoning," Chafee recounted as he piled hay into a wheelbarrow. "They support the president on everything."
*****



# posted by musafir @ 9:03 AM 0 comments links to this post

Friday, April 14, 2006

 

Holy Week 1815 - Then and Now


In his novel Holy Week, Louis Aragon narrated fateful days in the history of France. In the introduction,translator Haakon Chevalier wrote: "Holy Week in the year 1815. March 19th to 25th. Seven days. Easter week, that year, occurring just at the point when winter turns into spring. . . .

Holy Week 2006 is coming to an end. As I went past the local Catholic church on my run yesterday evening the faithful were driving in to attend Maundy Thursday service. It is an uneasy time for people in many parts of the word. Violence raging in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. Here in America there are many families grieving for soldiers who have lost their lives; others live in constant anxiety over those who are serving in war zones. There is a shadow of fear about what might happen if an accord cannot be reached with Iran about its nuclear program. As usual, super powers are flexing their muscles and not always for a just cause. It is the ordinary people who suffer most in such strifes. How is the world going to be a year hence---a place in which people live without fear or full of turmoil as it is now ?

It has been a tradition for me to join a group of friends for a long hike on Easter Sunday. After that we return to JHL's place in Palo Alto for lunch. For us in the San Francisco Bay area, it is an unusual spring. The forecast is for rain on Sunday. We shall probably have to forego the pleasure of the walk. There will be talk about family members who are absent,about friends,and the state of the world. All of us will think about peace just like millions of others who will attend Easter service in a place of worship.
*
Holy Week ©1961 BY G. P. Putnam's Sons and Hamish Hamilton Ltd. Originally published in France under the title La Semaine Sainte. ©1958 by Librairie Gallimard. Translated by Haakon Chevalier
*****




# posted by musafir @ 9:50 AM 0 comments links to this post
 

Commentaries: Iraq, Iran, Immigration


The Guardian,UK * Michael Kinsley * Eugene Robinson

All worth reading and thinking about. First, the leader in the Guardian: Iraq Ungoverned and ungovernable. "In the meantime, and in the absence of effective national security forces, the quarrelling factions are taking matters into their own hands, through the use of militias. This, as the US ambassador in Baghdad recognises, provides the "infrastructure of civil war". Though the daily suicide bombings still attract most of the media's attention, a far more sinister trend is developing. This is the growing number of mutilated bodies that turn up - people who have been abducted and killed, simply because they belonged to the wrong sect."

What have we achieved in Iraq for the lives lost,cities destroyed and the daily carnage? Michael Kinsley in the Post: "So, after more than a half-century of active meddling -- protecting our interests, promoting our values, encouraging democracy, fighting terrorism, seeking stability, defending human rights, pushing peace -- it's come to this. In Iraq we find ourselves unwilling regents of a society splitting into a gangland of warring militias and death squads, with our side (labeled "the government") outperforming the other side (labeled "the terrorists") in both the quantity and gruesome quality of its daily atrocities. In Iran, an irrational government that hates us with special passion is closer to getting the bomb than Iraq -- the country we went to war with to keep from getting the bomb -- ever was."

The more interesting part about the role of the United States as a king maker comes later in his op-ed piece Where do we Meddle Next? No wonder that we are not liked by the Iranians.
  • Half a century ago, Iran was very close to a real democracy. It had an elected legislature, called the majlis, and it had a repressive monarch, called the shah, and power veered uncertainly between them. In 1951, over the shah's objections, the majlis voted in a man named Mohammad Mosaddeq as prime minister. His big issue was nationalizing the oil companies.
  • But in 1952 the United States had an election for president, and the winner (Dwight Eisenhower) got more votes than anyone in Iran. That must explain why in 1953, in the spirit of democracy, the CIA instigated a riot and then staged a coup. Mosaddeq was arrested, the majlis was ultimately dissolved and the shah ran things his way, which involved torture and death for political opponents, caviar and champagne for an international cast of hangers-on, and no more crazy talk about nationalizing the oil companies.
Then there is immigration, a hot-button issue. Eugene Robinson presents the case for legal recognition of the wetbacks,illegal immigrants.
*****


# posted by musafir @ 9:45 AM 0 comments links to this post

Thursday, April 13, 2006

 

Democrats in Disarray and Bloggers


Blogs * Russ Feingold's Censure Resolution * Republican Lite

Hendrik Hertzberg's comments in the Talk of the Town Section of The New Yorker are always a pleasure to read. In Disarray This, in the March 27th issue Mr. Hertzberg wrote: "Meanwhile, the left-populist blogosphere--—a reliable barometer of the Democratic equivalent of the famous Republican "“base"--—erupted with praise for Feingold and contempt for his cautious Party colleagues. The adjectives used to limn the latter were pungent: "“Spineless."” "“Sluggish."” "“Weak."” There is truth in it. I,myself, have used "gutless" and "craven" to describe the Democrats in Congress long before Russ Feingold proposed the censure resolution. Perhaps the majority of Democratic bloggers are left of center and our frustration surfaces in the posts that appear in the blogosphere. I make no apologies.

Mr. Hertzberg went on to say: "There is very little doubt that Bush deserves censure, not only for the warrantless wiretapping but also for the many other catastrophes his Administration has generated, including the manipulation of intelligence to justify the Iraq war, the willful failure to heed warnings of what the invasion'’s aftermath would entail, the sanctioning of torture, and the neglect of "“homeland security"---—to say nothing of a set of domestic policies that sacrifice solvency, safety, the environment, and elementary fairness on the altar of enriching the rich in the name of Christian compassion. And there is scarcely less doubt that, ever since 9/11, Democratic opposition to Bush'’s war-related policies has been inordinately muted. (Even a figure as non-populist as Zbigniew Brzezinski protested last week that "“Democratic leaders have been silent or evasive."”) But none of that means that those who prefer strategies different from Feingold'’s are, ipso facto, spineless, sluggish, and weak.

And further on:
  • A poll taken last week by the American Research Group showed that a plurality of voters--—forty-eight per cent--—actually favor Feingold'’s resolution, with forty-three per cent opposed. Among Democratic respondents, support was seventy per cent. For senators whose seats are safely Democratic, supporting the resolution is a personally cost-free choice. (The same is true of the thirty-one members of the House who have endorsed an impeachment resolution: in 2004, all won with at least fifty-seven per cent of the vote. The average was seventy-five per cent.) That A.R.G. poll also showed independent voters narrowly opposing censure. The midterm election will be decided in places where no Democratic candidate can prevail without overwhelming independent support. Tactical calculations like these are never pleasant. But they are not always sordid, and sometimes they are necessary.
Yes,even left-leaning bloggers recognize that in making political decisions expediency is unavoidable. Such tactics,however, are sordid....always. It is too bad that to unseat the amoral politicians we have to go down to their level and become Republican Lite.
*
An Uphill Battle

For the Democrats, outlooks for the mid-term elections are far from rosy but the president is floundering and reports about Iraq and other matters continue to shed a harsh light upon the Bush administration. Jonathan Weisman in the Post: "An 18-month recruitment drive by the Democrats has produced nearly a dozen strong candidates with the potential for unseating House Republicans, but probably not enough to take back control of the House absent a massive anti-incumbent wave this fall, according to House political experts."
*****


# posted by musafir @ 8:29 AM 0 comments links to this post

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

 

Schizophrenia Drug Studies and Pharmaceutical Companies


This story belongs to den of thieves category like the reports about lawmakers and lobbyists. "Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. recently funded five studies that compared its antipsychotic drug Zyprexa with Risperdal, a competing drug made by Janssen. All five showed Zyprexa was superior in treating schizophrenia. But when Janssen sponsored its own studies comparing the two drugs, Risperdal came out ahead in three out of four." Anyone surprised?
  • In fact, when psychiatrist John Davis analyzed every publicly available trial funded by the pharmaceutical industry pitting five new antipsychotic drugs against one another, nine in 10 showed that the best drug was the one made by the company funding the study.
*****



# posted by musafir @ 10:15 AM 1 comments links to this post
 

Weapons of Mass Deception and a Fitting Reward for the Commander in Chief


Casualties of War
In the first 11 days of April, 36 American soldiers have died in Iraq. The total: 2364. Taking the numbers into consideration the report that on May 29,2003, the president crowed "We have found the weapons of mass destruction" leaves no doubts as to what length the president was determined to go to justify the war. There was no evidence to support announcement of the finding of WMD and he knew it. Joby Warrick's report in the Post details the facts.
Silence of the families of soldiers is deafening.

The 15th Annual Jefferson Muzzle Award

And the winner is G.W. Bush. There can be no argument about it. The President received the recognition that was due to him for his tireless efforts to curb our rights to protect us from evil doers.

RICHMOND, Va. -Apr.11
*****


# posted by musafir @ 9:40 AM 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

 

News From Here and There

Berlusconi vs Prodi * Price of Oil and the Stock Market * End of Reverend Robertson's Empire

Oil, How High Will It Go
An item in Yahoo Finance reads: "Skilling Speaks, and Oil Spikes. Enron's former chief declares his innocence. Oil prices surge on fears of a military strike on Iran." President's friends on Wall Street are not happy about news of plans for a first strike against Iran and neither are ordinary Americans across the country. High price of oil affects us all although I have no sympathy for those who drive ugly behemoths.

Uncertainy Over Polls in Italy

Romano Prodi, leader of the center-left party, is claiming victory but the very narrow margin (49.8% for Prodi to 49.7% for Berlusconi) raises questions about the final outcome. Allegations of irregularity have been made. Silvio Berlusconi,an autocratic buffoon, is a survivor, adept at dirty tricks. He has been a strong ally of President Bush. This morning the Italian financial market fell almost 1%.

Pat Robertson and the Christian Coalition
Soon after the fall of Tom DeLay comes news that Rev. Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition is facing money crunch. What went wrong? "The once-mighty Christian Coalition, founded 17 years ago by the Rev. Pat Robertson as the political fundraising and lobbying engine of the Christian right, is more than $2 million in debt, beset by creditors' lawsuits and struggling to hold on to some of its state chapters." Apparently, higher powers have not come to his aid and his followers are holding on to their wallets. With his valiant work to spread the Lord's words and tireless campaign on behalf of conservative Republicans one would think that he deserves a Federal bail out. Right now the president has other things on his mind. Once the dust settles--if the dust settles--perhaps he would take care of the reverend.
*****



# posted by musafir @ 9:04 AM 0 comments links to this post

Monday, April 10, 2006

 

The Good Soldiers


The President's approval rating in a free fall. The news made me see a silver lining in the rain clouds. Good news for those of us who opposed the war before the bombs fell on Baghdad. Good news for the Democrats hoping to be the majority party after the mid-term elections although I am not too sure of their success. Republicans are vulnerable but the Democrats' failure to stand up against abuses of power when it mattered has made it difficult for them to take advantage of the situation.

One saving grace for the president is the support of the soldiers and their families. If they have doubts they do not publicly voice them.
*
"Colonel Walter E. Kurtz: Did they say why, Willard? Why they wanted to terminate my command? Did they tell you?
Captain Benjamin L. Willard: They told me you had gone totally insane and, uh....., that your methods were unsound.
Colonel Walter E. Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?
Captain Benjamin L. Willard: I don't see ... any method ... at all."
~APOCALYPSE NOW
*****


# posted by musafir @ 9:20 AM 0 comments links to this post

Sunday, April 09, 2006

 

The War President Getting Ready for Battle

Hit them all at once or according to his needs

Iran,Venezuela. Perhaps Cuba. Cuba will be good for Brother Jeb. Drum beat getting louder. The ground was laid with the preemption policy reiterated in March 2006. Timing is right. Now,more than ever, the president needs something to divert the nation's attention from reports about abuses by his administration. "According to current and former officials, Pentagon and CIA planners have been exploring possible targets, such as the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan. Although a land invasion is not contemplated, military officers are weighing alternatives ranging from a limited airstrike aimed at key nuclear sites, to a more extensive bombing campaign designed to destroy an array of military and political targets." The villains have been created. An air war will minimize casualties on our side. Then he will read a speech about another mission accomplished. No, he is not going put on a flight suit.

Seymour Hersh has a report,"The Iran Story",in The New Yorker, about the Bush administration's plans for a nuclear strike against Iran.
*****


# posted by musafir @ 9:40 AM 0 comments links to this post
 

Fitzgerald the Dragon Slayer - Go Pat, Go


The Plame Story Unfolds - It was the Veep, "Dr. Strangelove" Cheney

From the information available,it can safely be assumed that his boss was not far behind. They are writhing,the slimy creatures of the Bush White House. Barton Gellman and Dafna Linzer write in the Post 'A Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic: "As he drew back the curtain this week on the evidence against Vice President Cheney's former top aide, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time described a "concerted action" by "multiple people in the White House" -- using classified information -- to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" a critic of President Bush's war in Iraq." Things are falling in place. Does not mean that the president and his aides will receive their just desserts but America and the world will know them for what they are. Thanks to Patrick Fitzgerald,the Bush administration's efforts to bluff,bully and subvert the nation are being exposed in full colors. It warms the cockles of my heart.
  • Bluntly and repeatedly, Fitzgerald placed Cheney at the center of that campaign. Citing grand jury testimony from the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald fingered Cheney as the first to voice a line of attack that at least three White House officials would soon deploy against former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.
Sometimes the wheels of justice move in strange ways. Not hard to imagine the gnashing of teeth by the smarmy former AG John Ashcroft and the Republicans about the appointment of Patrick Fitzgerald. If they only knew.

What made Tony Blair a member of the cabal for war is a mystery. Now his name,too, will be tied for ever to Bush and Cheney.
*****
"Fair is foul and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air."
---Wm.Shakespeare, The Three Witches, Macbeth



# posted by musafir @ 7:11 AM 2 comments links to this post

Saturday, April 08, 2006

 

Magic of Languages

A gem in this morning's Washington Post---"Words and Music" by Alaka Basu. The first paragraph of her op-ed piece about National Security Language Initiative almost made me move to something else. The State Department's web site about NLSI reads :.....a plan to further strengthen national security and prosperity in the 21st century through education, especially in developing foreign language skills." While not all students of foreign languages will train to be spooks, the primary reason for establishment of NSLI was to create a pool from which to recruit.

Glad that I stayed with the article. Caught mention of the Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason, a book that I had enjoyed a few years back, and continued following Ms Basu. "This project reminds me of a book I read recently, "The Piano Tuner," by Daniel Mason, in which the central character seeks and makes peace in late 19th-century Burma with music instead of guns. I want to believe the language initiative also is at least partly motivated by an interest in more nonviolent tools of negotiation, although I much prefer the word "conversation" to "negotiation." Yes, "negotiation" is a hard word, it implies confrontation. The world would be better off when those in power meet to talk rather than negotiate. Not likely to happen any time soon.

What drew me to the article in the first place was the author's name. A Bengali if I'm not mistaken. The Indian sub-continent has produced great authors and works of literature. Perhaps I am partial but to me Urdu and Bengali are far superior to Hindi, the national language of India. Hindi lacks the lilt,the sweetness found in the other two.
*

"Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms."
---Penelope Lively
*****


# posted by musafir @ 8:58 AM 0 comments links to this post

Friday, April 07, 2006

 

Arrogance and Contempt - A President Above the Law


Commanders in Chief, Current and Previous

The news broke yesterday that the decision to smear ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson and leak the name of his wife,Valerie Plame,an undercover CIA officer, came down from the very top. "The court filing by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time places Bush and Vice President Cheney at the heart of what Libby testified was an exceptional and deliberate leak of material designed to buttress the administration's claim that Iraq was trying to obtain nuclear weapons. The information was contained in the National Intelligence Estimate, one of the most closely held CIA analyses of whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the war." Faced with lack of evidence to support their arguments for the war the Bushies were mad and struck back as they know how. Today the print media covered it on front page but just as another item. There is no sense of surprise and there is an absence of indignation. There is no firestorm.....not yet. What does that say about us?

The President's supporters argue that he has the right to declassify information. The Washington Post:
  • Legal scholars and analysts said yesterday that the president has the authority to selectively declassify intelligence reports But they also said it was highly unusual for senior officials at the White House to take such an action so stealthily, without notifying Cabinet officials or others in the administration, including the CIA authors of the National Intelligence Estimate.
The War (G.W. Bush) and the Intern (William Jefferson Clinton)

William Jefferson Clinton faced impeachment for diddling with Ms Lewinski and lying about it. The circus put up by Ken Starr and the Republicans (some of them probably drooled thinking about cigars and buxom females) cost the country about $30 million according to a CNN report. No one died although attempts were made to create a mystery around the suicide of Vince Foster.

George Bush and the neocons engaged this nation in an unjust war. 2345 American soldiers have lost their lives, the number of severely injured is estimated to be 17469; number of Iraqi civilians killed: Minimum 33821 Maximum 37943, most of them from military action,i.e. "collateral damage". Based on estimates of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO),cost in dollars could exceed one trillion ($1,000,000,000,000). See left margin of this page for running costs.
*****


# posted by musafir @ 9:02 AM 0 comments links to this post

Thursday, April 06, 2006

 

God and the Republicans - Ah,Togetherness


"Religious party"! Gag me with a spoon. While it is easy to understand the GOP's use of God, for God to permit the Republicans to adopt him is a different matter. God must be blind...and deaf. Was away in the high desert for a few days and didn't catch historian Kevin Phillips' article "How GOP Became God's Own Party" until this morning. "Now that the GOP has been transformed by the rise of the South, the trauma of terrorism and George W. Bush's conviction that God wanted him to be president, a deeper conclusion can be drawn: The Republican Party has become the first religious party in U.S. history."

What are the Democrats to do...turn into sanctimonious hypocrites? It would be interesting to see the results of the mid-term elections. Time is running out and the Democrats still lack a clear message. The gains and losses by each party will be an indicator of how the voters feel about God's party and what it has done for them and the country. Would the milking of God and 9/11 continue for ever and ever? The prospect is depressing.
*****



# posted by musafir @ 9:32 AM 0 comments links to this post

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

 

The Bush Tax Cuts - Generosity of the 500 Lb. Gorilla

Who Are the Beneficiaries? * Iraq - The President Talks but does not fund

A clear picture is emerging of the effects of the much-vaunted tax cuts championed by the president and passed by Congress in 2003. It is not a "water under the bridge" issue. We are paying for the tax cuts and we'll continue to pay for them. David Cay Johnston writes in The NY Times: "The first data to document the effect of President Bush's tax cuts for investment income show that they have significantly lowered the tax burden on the richest Americans, reducing taxes on incomes of more than $10 million by an average of about $500,000."

To be fair, the president and his party made no secret of their objective. The numbers were there for all to see. They are,however,masters of the game. Smoke and mirrors succeeded in hiding the ugly truth. A few who raised red flags were not heard in the din. With Republicans in control of Congress, the tax bill was passed. The President continues to push to remove the sunset clause and make the cuts permanent. What has changed is that the president is no longer the 500 lb. gorilla he was back in 2003.

Excerpts from NY Times:

"When Congress cut investment taxes three years ago, it was clear that the highest-income Americans would gain the most, because they had the most money in investments. But the size of the cuts and what share goes to each income group have not been known.
As Congress debates whether to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, The Times analyzed I.R.S. figures for 2003, the latest year available and the first that reflected the tax cuts for income from dividends and from the sale of stock and other assets, known as capital gains.
The analysis found the following:
*
Funding for Iraq Not A Priority

The glaring difference between what the president says and the facts about Iraq again brought to light in Peter Baker's report in the Post:"The commitment to what the president of the United States will say every single day of the week is his number one priority in Iraq, when it's translated into action, looks very tiny," said Les Campbell, who runs programs in the Middle East for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, known as NDI."
*****


Note: NY Times articles can be accessed free of charge only for 7 days after publication.


# posted by musafir @ 10:19 AM 0 comments links to this post
 

Haryana, India - From Bride Burning to Bride Buying


The news that,due partly to female foeticide and skewed ratio of men to women,some Indians are paying to buy brides would have been amusing if it were not for the implications and conditions that created the situation. For centuries parents in India have been paying dowery to get their daughters married to suitable grooms. Although no longer legal, it is a practice that continues covertly and it is not going to disappear any time soon. Story about men buying brides (sex slaves) is another side of the picture. The customs---of female foeticide,dowery,and bride buying---are all reprehensible.

From the BBC:

"Can a young, single girl get married to a father of six willingly?" asks Anwari.

"It is all fate. What has happened has happened. What can I do? My parents didn't even get any money from this deal."

Anwari is among the several thousand young women from all over India who are literally sold-off to men in Haryana, a state notorious for its low ratio of girls to boys.

The going rate for buying a girl in the state is anything between 4,000 and 30,000 rupees ($88 to $660).

Sex slaves

A cultural preference for sons over daughters has skewed India's sex ratio in places like Haryana.

As a result of female foeticide, there are about 861 women for every 1,000 men in Haryana, according to the last census. The national average is 927 women to 1,000 men.

Since there aren't enough local women to marry, Haryana's men pay touts to bring women for them to marry and to work on their farms."

*****
India-Haryana-Female Foeticide-Sex Slaves-Dowery-Musafir's Musings


# posted by musafir @ 9:51 AM 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

 

The Fall of Tom DeLay

DeLay * Liberals and the Immigration Debate * Iraq War * Twentynine Palms CA 92277
Events finally caught up with Tom DeLay, aka The Hammer, aka The Exterminator. Allegations of campaign finance law violations, questionable manipulation of redistricting in Texas, involvement in Jack Abramoff's shady deals, all dragged him into the center of a growing storm. The decision by Tony Rudy, his former aide, to plead guilty to conspiracy charges was perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back. The formerly feared congressman from Sugarland,TX, faced reality and announced that he would give up his seat and withdraw from reelection contest.

The Immigration Debate

Two columnists,known for their liberal views, have expressed their reservations about the merits of the guest workers program. Their comments are close to those made by conservative Republicans.

Robert Samuelson in the Post, "We don't need guest workers":

Paul Krugman in NY Times: "North of the Border"
  • First, the net benefits to the U.S. economy from immigration, aside from the large gains to the immigrants themselves, are small. Realistic estimates suggest that immigration since 1980 has raised the total income of native-born Americans by no more than a fraction of 1 percent.
  • Second, while immigration may have raised overall income slightly, many of the worst-off native-born Americans are hurt by immigration — especially immigration from Mexico. Because Mexican immigrants have much less education than the average U.S. worker, they increase the supply of less-skilled labor, driving down the wages of the worst-paid Americans. The most authoritative recent study of this effect, by George Borjas and Lawrence Katz of Harvard, estimates that U.S. high school dropouts would earn as much as 8 percent more if it weren't for Mexican immigration.
The President,Iraq and History

Twentynine Palms in California is the gateway to Joshua Tree National Park. It also happens to be the home of the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command. It was there a few days back that I read "Deluded",by Steve Coll which appeared in the Talk of the Town Section of The New Yorker, April 3rd issue.

  • The President and the members of his war cabinet now routinely wave at the horizon and speak about the long arc of history's judgment--—many years or decades must pass, they suggest, before the overthrow of Saddam and its impact on the Middle East can be properly evaluated. This is not only an evasion; it is bad historiography. Particularly in free societies, botched or unnecessary military invasions are almost always recognized as mistakes by the public and the professional military soon after they happen, and are rarely vindicated by time. This was true of the Boer War, Suez, and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and it will be true of Iraq. At best, when enough time has passed, and the human toll is not so palpable, we may come to think of the invasion, and its tragicomedy of missing weapons, as just another imperial folly, the way we now remember the Spanish-American War or the doomed British invasions of Afghanistan. But that will take a very long time, and it will never pass as vindication.

Regardless of how the president and his aides are judged by history for their role in the war, in towns like Twentynine Palms one is not likely to hear of opposition to the war. If there are dissidents, their voices remain mute.
*****



# posted by musafir @ 9:18 AM 0 comments links to this post

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