The Hackenblog

“‘State controller John Chiang warned today that if legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fail to come up with a budget-balancing package in the next week, he would begin paying California’s bills with IOUs on July 2.’” (via Calitics)

Y’know, this would be funny if it were remotely funny at all. Fuck.

“People with HIV or AIDS and their providers rallied at the State Capitol today to oppose the governor’s proposed budget cuts to a variety or programs which literally keep people alive. During the public comment period of Conference Committee, people told us about the importance of these programs in their daily lives. The testimony below from a brave 24 year old woman born with HIV was especially poignant.”

The Human Cost of Cuts – Linnea’s Story, Budget Blog, June 10, 2009

There has to be a better way to “save” California than letting this young woman die. There just has to be a better way.

“About a month before LAPD Det. Stephanie Lazarus allegedly beat and shot to death the wife of an ex-boyfriend, she confronted the woman at work and told her, ‘If I can’t have John, nobody can,’ according to a lawyer for the victim’s family.

“The victim’s father, Nel Rasmussen, told LAPD homicide detectives about the alleged confrontation and others in the months before the slaying, but he was rebuffed and told by the investigators “repeatedly that he was watching too much TV,” attorney John C. Taylor said today.

“Police have not responded to the family’s claims.”
LAPD detective Stephanie Lazarus allegedly threatened victim in slaying case, by Amanda Covarrubias, LA Times, June 10, 2009

Why are people such idiots? And then some of them have guns, never mind the badge and uniform. Sigh.

By the way, no man is worth doing time for, even if it seems like it at the time, a week later, you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about. Really.

You know you want to know, so just click on the images. No one ever has to know you did. It will be your secret.

(via Furies Publishing)

Arnold can’t do math:

“In the short-term, expenditure reductions in any of these programs (CalWORKS, etc.) have significant implications for the state economy. The multiplier effects for these programs are found to range between 1.05 and 1.44, meaning that output and employment resulting from human services program expenditures are greater than the expenditures alone would suggest.

“In particular, In-Home Supportive Services are found to provide in excess of a 40 percent boost to the local economy. The multipliers for CalWORKs and Food Stamps are also significant and comparable at 1.34 and 1.37, respectively. Other programs, those that provide primarily services and less in the way of cash benefits, are found to have a smaller multiplier effect. The importance of these services, however, should not be diminished by the smaller multipliers that were found. This report discusses the likelihood that service reductions in many of these programs may result in the following: a higher incidence of homelessness, poverty, malnutrition, substance abuse, violence, and negative health outcomes for toddlers and infants. Aside from the toll these harmful circumstances have on the individuals involved, a higher incidence of these maladies produces not only higher economic costs today, but in the future as well. This suggests another sort of multiplier that ought to be included in the analysis – the indirect effect of reducing the demand for services tomorrow by providing them today.

“Finally, many of these programs are funded by federal in addition to state expenditures. These federal dollars are often only available as matching funds to state expenditures. The effect of matching funds was found to raise the multiplier for some state spending as high as 7.35. With matching funds, $1 in state spending translates into between roughly $3 and $5 in total spending on most of these programs. The effect on output and employment, and on the economic stimulus effect of state spending on these programs, is thus significantly magnified.”
SPENDING ON COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES PROGRAMS IN CALIFORNIA: AN EVALUATION OF ECONOMIC IMPACTS (pdf), By Jon Haveman, Ph.D., Beacon Economics, Eric O’N. Fisher, Ph. D., California Polytechnic State University, Fannie Tseng, Ph.D., Berkeley Policy Associates, Presented to Child and Family Policy Institute of California, March 17, 2009 (via, which has more links and is a faster read)

$1 CA dollar can, with matching funds, turn into up to $5 spent in grocery stores, doctors, public transit, etc. in California. I’m not very good at math either, so bear with me:

$1M = $5M, so $500K = $2.5M, $0.50 = $2.50, but $0 = $0, which is what I think the heartless bastard rightwingnuts in California ultimately want. Don’t any of those people have businesses, homes or investments in California? Or, y’know, humanity? Because sinking the whole State to gratify some sick fear and loathing of children, disease and poverty seems pretty crazy to me.

So, really, the only reason Arnold is going after these programs is because they have no powerful advocates. And he’s a heartless bastard placating heartless bastards.

And at a church, no less.

“KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – A Kansas doctor who was a controversial provider of so-called ‘late-term’ abortions was shot and killed at his church on Sunday, local media reported.

“The Wichita Eagle newspaper reported that 67-year-old George Tiller, a longtime target of anti-abortion activists, was shot to death as he walked into services at Reformation Lutheran Church.

“Police are searching for a white male who fled the scene after shooting Tiller with a handgun, local media reported.”

~snip~

“Tiller’s clinic in Wichita has been the site of mass protests by anti-abortion groups and was bombed in 1985. Tiller was shot and wounded by an abortion opponent in 1993.”
Kansas abortion doctor shot dead at church: report, Reporting by Cynthia Osterman, editing by Anthony Boadle, Reuters, May 31, 2009 (also of note)

Don’t like somebody? Shoot ‘em! It’s the way we live now!

“A former probation department guard convicted of child abuse for letting five minors beat a boy who she wrongly believed had taken her cellphone at a Los Angeles juvenile hall was sentenced to a year in jail.

“Diane Buchanan was also sentenced to four years’ probation. The judge said Buchanan showed no remorse and she was fortunate the victim did not suffer more severe injuries and die.

“Deputy Dist. Atty. Natalie Adomian said that despite her conviction on three felony assault charges Buchanan she never apologized.

“Lawyers for Buchanan told the court she dedicated her life to helping children and her community and was destroyed by the case. In May 2005, Buchanan lost her cellphone at the Sylmar juvenile hall. Another boy at the facility said the victim had flushed the phone down the toilet.

“Prosecutors alleged that Buchanan opened the victim’s cell door and let in five boys to attack the youth. Buchanan did not report the incident or seek medical help for the victim.

“She later found her cellphone in her car, authorities said.”
Former juvenile hall guard sentenced to year in jail, by Richard Winton, LA Times, May 27, 2009

Over a fucking cell phone. This is a very sick woman. What does she do when something serious happens?

For those of you wondering what the hell is going on in California:

“Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, Chair of the Budget Committee, spells out slowly for everyone the structural problems and false assertions about the California budget process.”

(via)

“But the California precedent still has me rattled. Who would have thought that America’s largest state, a state whose economy is larger than that of all but a few nations, could so easily become a banana republic?”

But, Paaaaauuuuuuulllll! It’s not a banana republic! It’s a Libertarian Paradise!

Me, I think it’s more of a dystopia.

“Enter Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian refugee and legal resident of Britain who had found work as a janitor after drug problems derailed his college career. According to his lawyer, Clive Smith of the human rights group Reprieve, Mohamed traveled to Afghanistan in 2001, attracted by the Taliban’s drug-free way of life – which, from my point of view, was a little like upgrading from bronchitis to lung cancer. War soon drove him out of Afghanistan and to Karachi, from where he sought to return to the U.K. But, as a refugee, he lacked a proper passport and was using a friend’s, which led to his apprehension at the airport. Smith says the Pakistanis turned him over to the FBI, who were obsessed at the time with the possibility of an Al Qaeda nuclear attack on the U.S. After repeated beatings and the above-mentioned hanging by the wrists, Mohamed ‘confessed’ to having read an article on how to make an H-bomb on the Internet, insisting to his interrogators that it was a ‘joke.’

“But post-9/11 America was an irony-free zone, and it’s still illegal to banter about bombs in the presence of airport security staff. It’s not clear how the news of Mohamed’s H-bomb knowledge was conveyed to Washington – many documents remain classified or have not been released – but Smith speculates that the part about the H-bomb got through, although not the part about the joke. The result, anyhow, was that Mohamed was thrust into a world of unending pain – tortured at the U.S. prison in Baghram, rendered to Morocco for 18 months of further torture, including repeated cutting of his penis with a scalpel, and finally landing in Guantanamo for almost five years of more mundane abuse. He was just released and returned to Britain today.

“As if that were not enough for a satirist to have on her conscience, the U.S. seems to have attributed Mohamed’s presumed nuclear ambitions to a second man, an American citizen named Jose Padilla, aka the ‘dirty bomber.’ The apparent evidence? Padilla had been scheduled to fly on the same flight out of Karachi that Mohamed had a ticket for, so obviously they must have been confederates. Commenting on Padilla’s apprehension in 2002, the Chicago Sun-Times editorialized: ‘We castigate ourselves for failing to grasp the reality of what they’re [the alleged terrorists are] trying to do, but perhaps that is a good thing. We should have difficulty staring evil in the face.’

“I am not histrionic enough to imagine myself in any way responsible for the torments suffered by Mohamed and Padilla – at least no more responsible than any other American who failed to rise up in revolutionary anger against the Bush terror regime. No, I’m too busy seething over another irony: Whenever I’ve complained about my country’s torturings, renderings, detentions, etc., there’s always been some smug bastard ready to respond that these measures are what guarantee smart-alecky writers like myself our freedom of speech. Well, we had a government so vicious and impenetrably stupid that it managed to take my freedom of speech and turn it into someone else’s living hell.”
My Role in the Torture of Binyam Mohamed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, February 23, 2009

Obama should close the Baghram torture center, too.

“Tamera Jo Freeman was on a Frontier Airlines flight to Denver in 2007 when her two children began to quarrel over the window shade and then spilled a Bloody Mary into her lap.

“She spanked each of them on the thigh with three swats. It was a small incident, but one that in the heightened anxiety after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would eventually have enormous ramifications for Freeman and her children.

“A flight attendant confronted Freeman, who responded by hurling a few profanities and throwing what remained of a can of tomato juice on the floor.

“The incident aboard the Frontier flight ultimately led to Freeman’s arrest and conviction for a federal felony defined as an act of terrorism under the Patriot Act, the controversial federal law enacted after the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

“‘I had no idea I was breaking the law,’ said Freeman, 40, who spent three months in jail before pleading guilty.”

~snip~

“The costs of a conviction can be enormous. In Tamera Freeman’s case, it cost her custody of her children.

“The confrontation on the Frontier Airlines flight to Denver was particularly harsh, recalled Amy Fleming, the flight attendant who told Freeman to stop spanking her children. In a recent interview, Fleming called Freeman the most unruly passenger she had seen in 11 years on the job.

“‘Absolutely she deserved a felony conviction,’ she said.

“But at least one passenger, John Carlson, a defense attorney who was seated near Freeman, said there was no threat. ‘There was a nasty, loud exchange,’ Carlson said. Then Freeman ‘capitulated and offered no resistance. My sympathy shifted to her.’

“A spokeswoman for Frontier said the airline has provided more training for flight attendants since 2001, including classes on ‘ways to calm a situation before it reaches a boiling point or physical confrontation.’

“After three months in jail, Freeman agreed to plead guilty in exchange for being released on probation. A court-appointed attorney told her that a plea deal would be the fastest way to see her children, who had been taken back to Hawaii and put into foster care.

“Her probation required her to stay in Oklahoma City, where she grew up, and prohibited her from flying. Meanwhile, legal proceedings in Hawaii have begun to allow the children’s foster parents to adopt them.

“Freeman has been denied permission to attend custody hearings in Maui over the last six months, court records show.

“‘I have cried. I have cried for my children every day,’ Freeman said. ‘I feel the system is failing me.’”
In-flight confrontations can lead to charges defined as terrorism, by By Ralph Vartabedian and Peter Pae, LA Times, January 20, 2009 (pdf in case it vanishes)

The Patriot Act just makes it easier to grab the kids and funnel them to more worthy indoctrinators. It’s also a graphic lesson for anyone with kids who might want to resist: forget it.

A very useful sidebar widget:

As seen on Seeing the Forest.

Film Drunk’s Trippiest Video of 2008. And, yes, there’s more at the link.

Very disturbing, but you’ll be able to say you saw it here.

Update 122008: Joseph E. Lowery. Well, okay, but Obama, don’t scare a middle aged woman like that.

Rick Warren to speak at Obama’s first inauguration.

Let me understand this: the Democrats did win this election, didn’t we?

I mean, supposedly the Democrats stand for tolerance, fairness, equality, and suchlike, and Rick Warren doesn’t. So why is he speaking at the inauguration and not someone more, well, like the guy we elected President? Or is Obama really like…oh my God, stop, stop, just stop!

“While Hirsch chose to use a champagne bottle and waterfall to illustrate how credit card receivables became asset backed bonds. I feel that a trough and pack of wild hogs would have worked out just as well, though it would have been harder to draw!

“This is only one of the videos in the Marketplace’s collection of Whiteboard videos explaining our current economic situation. Other topics in the series include short selling, defaults, margins and the fallout surrounding a financial crisis. These short informational videos are an excellent way to gain a better understanding of what’s happening in our economy without needing your own personal economist.”
The idiot’s guide to why the credit card crisis is next, by Josh Smith, WalletPop, December 7, 2008

This isn’t just insane, it’s fucking insane. Has debt always been sold as an asset? This is a good explanation of what’s probably coming down the road. We never needed tougher bankruptcy laws. However, we’ve needed laws to leash the credit card companies for decades.

I’m late with the temp stock clerk who was murdered at Walmart and other people injured in the stampede story. I read a woman miscarried due to her injuries, which is equally shocking. I doubt Walmart is doing anything to help his family bury the poor guy, so if there’s a fund to help out, I’ve got a few bucks for it. Or if there’s a fund to hire lawyers and sue the fuck out of Walmart for a wrongful death due to their negligence in crowd control, then put me down for that, too.

Incredible as it seems, maybe Walmart should hire the local police’s Riot Squad for next year. I understand the Riot Squad is usually underemployed on Black Friday.

I seem to recall some horrifying incident like this happening every year in our sales-crazed consumer frenzied society. If stores can’t manage their crowds, maybe it’s time for professional help. Ask local law for the Riot Squad. Blackwater ops even. No, I’m not kidding. I wish I was.

“Pakistani intelligence sources report that Siddiqui was in Pakistani detention until the end of 2003 and that her son Suleman fell ill and died during that time. It is known that terrorism suspects often spend a period of time in the country before being turned over to the Americans. According to the Asian Human Rights Commission, there are 52 secret prisons in the country, into which thousands of Pakistanis are believed to have disappeared since the beginning of the war on terrorism.

“A number of other prisoners held at Bagram Air Base, the site of the most important US detainee camp in Afghanistan, say they heard a woman screaming. Some claim two women were there. The woman was nicknamed the ‘gray lady of Bagram.’

“Elaine Whitfield Sharp, an attorney who has represented the family since 2003, is convinced that Siddiqui was classified as a high-level prisoner and spent five years in a so-called ‘black site’ in Bagram — in one of these notorious black holes in the legal system.”
‘The Most Dangerous Woman in the World’, by Juliane von Mittelstaedt, Der Spiegel, November 27, 2008

If we’re still giving thanks for anything, we can include that we are not the gray lady of Bagram.

I’ll be thankful when Obama ends the war on terrorism and the U.S. stops kidnapping, torturing and raping in the name of truth, justice and the American way.

But right now I just feel sick enough to throw up.

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. suicide rates appear to be on the rise, driven mostly by middle-aged white women, researchers reported on Tuesday.

“They found a disturbing increase in suicides between 1999 and 2005 and said the pattern had changed in an unmistakable way — although the reasons behind the change are not clear.

“The overall suicide rate rose 0.7 percent during this time, but the rate for white men aged 40 to 64 rose 2.7 percent and for middle-aged women 3.9 percent, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found.

“‘The biggest increase that we have seen between 1999 and 2005 was the increase in poisoning suicide in women — that went up by 57 percent,’ said Susan Baker, a professor in injury prevention with a special expertise in suicide.”
Middle-aged women drive rise in U.S. suicides: study, By Maggie Fox, Reuters, October 21, 2008

Shit. According to this article, suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. WTF? I’d put a Bertolt Brecht reference here, but even I think that would be in bad taste.

If Barack Obama is Assassinated The Blood is on John McCain’s and Sarah Palin’s Hands, Fablog, October 10, 2008

“WASHINGTON – A U.S. military officer warned Pentagon officials that an American detainee was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation in a U.S. military brig, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

“While the treatment of prisoners at detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan and Iraq have long been the subject of human rights complaints and court scrutiny, the documents shed new light on how two American citizens and a legal U.S. resident were treated in military jails inside the United States.

“The Bush administration ordered the men to be held in military jails as “enemy combatants” for years of interrogations without criminal charges, which would not have been allowed in civilian jails.”

~snip~

“The 91 pages of e-mails and documents produced by U.S. Fleet Forces Command, which runs the military brigs in Norfolk, Va., and Charleston, S.C., detail daily decisions made about the treatment of Hamdi and Padilla, then both American citizens, and Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a legal resident. All were designated as by the White House as ‘illegal enemy combatants.’

The White House just threw these men in jail forever, tortured them, and took away their legal rights and the White House got away with it. What country do we live in now?

“The paperwork show uniformed officials at the military brigs growing increasingly uncomfortable and then alarmed that they were being directed to handle their prisoners under the rules that governed Guantanamo.

“The authors and recipients of the e-mails are censored from the documents. They appear to be going to either military or Pentagon legal counsel and policy offices.

“The documents show that some officials at the Charleston brig were deeply skeptical about the mandate that Guantanamo rules should apply in the United States, a decision made by the defense secretary’s office, according to the documents.

“‘You have every right to question the “lash-up” between GTMO and Charleston — it was the first thing I ask (sic) about a year ago when I checked on board,” wrote one official to another in 2006. “In a nutshell, they gave the Charleston detainee mission to (Joint Forces Command) who promptly gave it to (Fleet Forces Command) with a ‘lots of luck’ and nothing else.’”
Documents say detainee pushed near insanity. Light shed on how prisoners were treated in military brigs inside U.S., MSNBC, October 7, 2008

We are better than the past eight years. At least I hope so. Let’s prove it in November by electing Barack Obama President of the United States.

“LONDON (Reuters) – Taliban leader Mullah Omar on Monday urged U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan to withdraw or face a similar defeat to occupying Soviet troops a generation ago.

“In a rare message, posted on militant websites and monitored by the U.S.-based SITE intelligence group, Omar offered a bargain to the U.S.-led forces that drove the Taliban from power in 2001 but are now fighting a fierce insurgency by the Islamist militia.

“‘Reconsider your wrong decision of wrong occupation, and seek a safe exit to withdraw your forces,’ said the message, which the Taliban said came from Omar.

“‘If you leave our lands, we can arrange for you a reasonable opportunity for your departure,’ he said, adding that the Taliban posed no harm to anyone in the world.”
Taliban’s Omar offers deal to U.S. on withdrawal, Reuters, September 29, 2008

Haven’t we been looking for this guy as long as we’ve been looking for his son-in-law? And he just pops up and sends us a message? Weird. Even for me, this is weird.

“Citing sources within the aviation industry, ABC News reports an overzealous TSA employee attempted to gain access to the parked aircraft by climbing up the fuselage… reportedly using the Total Air Temperature (TAT) probes mounted to the planes’ noses as handholds.

“‘The brilliant employees used an instrument located just below the cockpit window that is critical to the operation of the onboard computers,’ one pilot wrote on an American Eagle internet forum. “They decided this instrument, the TAT probe, would be adequate to use as a ladder.’

“Officials with American Eagle confirmed to ANN the problem was discovered by maintenance personnel, who inspected the planes Tuesday morning… and questioned why the TAT probes all gave similar error indications.

“One Eagle pilot says had the pilots not been so attentive, the damaged probes could have caused problems inflight. TSA agents “are now doing things to our aircraft that may put our lives, and the lives of our passengers at risk,” the pilot wrote on the forum.”

~snip~

“The TSA has NO BUSINESS putting untrained personnel in a position to damage aircraft. Their bizarre games, in the name of security, do NOTHING to enhance security and do much to inhibit safety. Aviation personnel — pilots, A&P’s, ground personnel — are all either licensed or supervised by licensed personnel and this kind of tampering, had it been accomplished by anyone else, would have subjected that person to criminal charges.

“In this case, ANN strongly recommends and encourages the criminal prosecution of this so-called inspector and his immediate supervisors… it is a matter of time before one of these morons does something stupid and gets someone killed… and with the way these incidents are occurring, we believe it is a virtual certainty that a TSA ‘Inpector’ will hurt or kill someone in such a manner. No kidding.

“A few other notes.. ANN spoke directly to the TSA PAO in this story, Elio Montenegro… a man who desperately needs to get his stories straight. When ANN talked to him early Tuesday evening, Montenegro first stated that no aircraft were tampered with, and thereafter attempted to minimize the issue by stating that a TSA Inspector “may have touched” the aircraft… which American Eagle ’sorta’ objected to. He claimed that there was no attempt to enter the aircraft, and when he was asked if TSA was, in fact, authorized to attempt such an entry — out of the sight/knowledge/supervision of American Eagle personnel — he said that he thought that I had asked a good question, did not know the answer, and promised to get back to me… in direct conflict with other reported statements. TSA can not keep their stories straight… and lying to the media… especially that part of the media that actually knows a thing or two about airplanes, was just plain foolish… if not a deliberate attempt to mislead.”
Commuter Flights Grounded Thanks To Bumbling TSA Inspector, Aero News Net, August 20, 2008 (via the indispensable B12 Partners)

Isn’t this Inspector a terrorist for tampering with aircraft? Just asking.

No wonder everyone hates to fly now.

Where has Dr. Aafia Siddiqui been for the past five years? And what’s been happening to her?

“On August 5, US newspapers carried the story of the capture of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman who was trained in neuroscience here in the United States. Typical of the stories was this one in the NY Times. The report was fairly neutral, but there were some gaps in the coverage which seemed a little puzzling. Dr. Siddiqui was brought back to the US and charged in a New York federal district court for the crime of shooting at FBI agents. There was no other terrorism related charge, yet she was identified as someone who worked closely with Al Qaeda. Rather curious, don’t you think?

~snip~

“‘Ridley has been running a campaign called Cage Prisoner for the release of a mysterious female prisoner who has been held at the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan in total isolation and regularly tortured for five years.

“‘The unknown female prisoner, known as the Prisoner No. 650 or the Grey Lady of Bagram, was brought to the world attention after Ridley read about the woman in a book by fellow Briton Moazzam Begg, a former Gitmo and Bagram prisoner. In his book, Enemy Combatant, Beg talks of a woman’s endless screams for help as she was tortured. Beg first thought he was imagining his wife’s screams.

“‘”We now know the screams came from a woman who has been held in Bagram for some years. And she is Prisoner No. 650,” Ridley disclosed at a recent Press conference in Pakistan.

“‘And I strongly suspect that Prisoner No. 650 is none other than Dr Aafia Siddiqui. It is quite possible that her captors decided to end her isolation after the Pakistani Press and activists like Yvonne Ridley began increasingly talking about the Prisoner No. 650 and how she was tortured and abused physically, mentally and sexually for the past four years.’”
A New Low, Cab Drollery, August 17, 2008 (via)

A new low does not begin to describe five years of torture under the aegis of the United States. What the hell is going on here? Please read the whole post and spread the word about this. My hands are shaking too much to write more about it.

Update 091808: Aafia Siddiqui’s Son has been detained, but no one know what happened to him for the past three years in Afghanistan either. This situation gets more disturbing with every new piece of information, but we need to know how bad it was and punish whoever is responsible, which might be the United States government.

Update 111808: Pakistani woman called mentally unfit for U.S. trial because she was tortured for five years.

“NEW YORK – How mud-wallowingly deep may a multi-millionaire US presidential campaign go? Way deep – deeper and deeper. And this is only early August.

“Republican Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign’s strategic decision is now all too obvious. Swift-boating Democratic Senator Barack Obama is the only way to go.

“The McCain-painted Obama is emerging as a US-hating, terrorist-friendly, deeply suspicious, radical, vapid black celeb – Puff Daddy with a Harvard degree. This “new bogeyman” picture travels well in those vast swathes of flyover US territory where urban hipness not only evokes envy and contempt but is regarded as a mortal sin.

“The McCain campaign knows that is the only chance in heaven and hell for their candidate in November. What can a strategist do when US voters desperately want change and reject the Republican brand in droves, your candidate is senile and insufferably boring, knows absolutely zilch about the economy, and supports a mega-unpopular war?

“So abandon all hope those who yearn for a serious political debate in the US. And it gets worse: signs are the McCain campaign ’strategy’ is working.”
Old Wrinkly’s Roverian cancer, by Pepe Escobar, Asia Times, August 8, 2008

“‘California’s largest union local and a related charity have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to firms owned by the wife and mother-in-law of the labor organization’s president, documents and interviews show.

“‘The Los Angeles-based union, which represents low-wage caregivers, also spent nearly $300,000 last year on a Four Seasons Resorts golf tournament, a Beverly Hills cigar club, restaurants such as Morton’s steakhouse and a consulting contract with the William Morris Agency, the Hollywood talent shop, records show.

“‘In addition, the union paid six figures to a video firm whose principals include a former union employee. And a now-defunct minor league basketball team coached by the president’s brother-in-law received $16,000 for what the union described as public relations, according to the union’s U.S. Labor Department filings and interviews.’” (LAT, 08/09/08)

“Labor unions constantly have to battle the usually false perception that they misuse funds, and face a well-funded right-wing campaign that seeks to undermine unions for even the slightest error. Most unions, including those I’ve been a part of, are very scrupulous about how they use money to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, so I am very surprised to hear that this was going on.”
SEIU Local 6434 Faces Financial Criticism, by Robert in Monterey, Caltics, August 9, 2008

Jesus, first that crazy chickie Cindy Montanez, now this! What next? A plague of frogs? Locusts? Fiery hail? An earthquake? Oh wait, we just had one of those. I was on the freeway so didn’t even notice. I’m talking about the earthquake, yes.

Shape up LA. I’m starting to feel kind of embarrassed.

Honestly! If you really want to know what’s going on in the world, you have to read the Asia Times.

“GORI, Georgia (Reuters) – Georgia called for a ceasefire on Saturday after Russian bombers widened an offensive to force back Georgian troops seeking control over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

“President George W. Bush said Russian attacks on Georgia marked a ‘dangerous escalation’ of the crisis and urged Moscow to halt the bombing immediately.

“Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Bush the only solution was for Georgian troops to quit the conflict zone.”
Georgia calls for ceasefire in South Ossetia, by Matt Robinson, Reuters, August 9, 2008

Well, this is horrible, and here’s some background you might have missed:

Don’t panic, this is from 2002:

“As Georgian troops began their ‘anti-terrorist’ operation in the Pankissy Valley last week, an alleged Russian air strike against a village in the valley made Georgian-Russian uneasy relations dangerously hostile. In reference to the incident, Georgian President Edward Sheverdnadzhe demanded an apology from Russia to normalize damaged relations, while the Georgian ambassador to the United Nations accused that country of state terrorism. The sudden escalation of hostility between the two neighboring countries reflects the growing sense of insecurity of Russia since the deployment of American “military advisers” in Georgia. It also indicated Georgia’s increasing boldness in its relations with Russia, stemming from its expanding military relations with the United States, a growing power in the Caucasus and Central Asia.”
Georgia and Russia square off, by Hooman Peimani, Asia Times, September 3, 2002

But closer to the present…

“The Caucasus Republic of Georgia, as nations go, is not apparently a major global player. Yet Washington has invested huge sums and organized to put its own despot, Mikhail Saakashvili, in the presidency in order to close a nuclear North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) iron ring around Russia.

“US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the capital Tbilisi and made sharp statements against Moscow for supporting the separatist Georgian states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in essence blaming Moscow for an imminent war Washington has incited in order to bring Georgia into NATO by the December NATO summit.”

~snip~

” The underlying issue is the fact that since the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, one after the other former members as well as former states of the USSR have been coaxed and in many cases bribed with false promises by Washington into joining the counter organization, NATO.”

~snip~

“Although the United States has trained several crack Georgian units in the past few years, the fighting effectiveness of all other elements is uncertain. There are no trained sergeants, and troop morale is running low. Only about 50% of the military equipment is operational, and coordinated operations in adverse conditions are impossible.”

~Ah, but here’s the crux of the matter:~

“However, Georgia under Washington’s man, strongman President Mikhail Saakashvili – a pretty ruthless dictator as he recently showed against domestic opposition – refuses to back off its provocative NATO bid.

“Georgia is also a strategic transit country for the Anglo-American Caspian oil pipeline from Baku in Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. As well, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline has been key to Azerbaijan as an alternative to the control of the Russian state monopoly Transneft in order to convey its oil and gas resources toward the West. The entire Caucasus is part of what can be described as a new Great Game for control of Eurasia between Washington and Russia.

“As the Moscow Times sees it, ‘One way to disrupt Georgia’s NATO aspirations would be to heat up the conflict in Abkhazia to a level that would make it unacceptable for the Western alliance, which acts by the consensus of all members, to offer membership. Georgia’s leadership could be escalating tensions in hope of prompting Abkhazia and Russia to make a move that would leave the West with no chance but to intervene.”
A war waiting to happen, by William Engdahl, Asia Times, July 16, 2008

Where there’s oil, there’s trouble.

And also:

“Last week, the gloves finally came off the Dmitry Medvedev presidency in Russia. It had to happen sooner or later, but few would have expected this soon. It was crystal clear US President George W Bush administered a diplomatic snub to Medvedev on the sidelines of the Group of Eight (G-8) summit meeting at Hokkaido, Japan.

“Bush characterized him patronizingly as a ’sharp guy’ soon after they met in Hokkaido on July 9, but that was after making sure Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice proceeded to Prague and signed a deal just the previous day to install a US radar system as part of its missile defense system in Central Europe.

“If Medvedev’s core mission in Hokkaido was to underscore Russia’s growing role in the world arena as a power with which the West has to contend, Bush acted as if he couldn’t care. The US was also plainly dismissive of Medvedev’s proposal at the G-8 for a pan-European security system that would include Russia. Medvedev expressed his ‘dismay’ on hearing about the Prague deal. As if to rub in the snub, Rice proceeded from Prague to Bulgaria, where the US has for the first time established a military base, and then on to Georgia to discuss its plans of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“While in Tbilisi, she called for international mediation to stop violence spilling over in Georgia’s beakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abhkazia, which have been sources of rising tensions, with Georgia accusing Russia of trying to annex the regions. To carry matters further, the US began a joint military exercise with Georgia codenamed Immediate Response 2008, near Tbilisi, which will continue through the month of July.”
Russia’s energy drive leaves US reeling, by M K Bhadrakumar, Asia Times, July 19, 2008

And any secret deals or promises of aid from the bush administration to Georgia are out the window. Or should be, but bush might be like his dad and leave a Somalia-like mess for his successor. Poor, Georgia. They just didn’t know not to go out on a limb during an election year. Because whether the U.S. intervenes or not, lots of people are going to die and none of them will be named Bush or Cheney.

Why do the Republicans need the Cold War so much? Why? I thought they wanted it gone more than life itself. And yet they’re doing everything they can to resurrect it. Obviously the U.S. needs more conflict so the bush mafias can rule through fear. They sure can’t govern through consent worth a damn.

(Whew…blogging like this really wears me out. No wonder I don’t do it anymore.)

Now Edwards:

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has admitted to having had an extramarital affair with a woman he met in a New York City bar in 2006, ABC News reported on Friday.

“ABC said an interview with Edwards would be broadcast later on Friday on the network’s show ‘Nightline.’

“According to the ABC News Internet site, ‘Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year-old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.’”
John Edwards admits affair, Reuters, August 8, 2008

Why are men so stupid? Even the ones that seem like good guys. And cruel, John, you cheated your wife, who had and still has breast cancer, so it’s cruel squared. Why? Jerk.

Or why don’t you guys just pick a better class of women to cheat with? You, too, Bill.

“On Monday, the first American war crimes trial in since World War II opened at Guantanamo, the United States presenting its case against Salim Ahmed Hamdan before a jury of US military officers. Hamdan, who at the time of 9/11 was Osama bin Laden’s driver, is charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. Two surface-to-air missiles were found in a car he was driving – he says it was a borrowed vehicle and that he had no idea what was in the trunk. The judge has thrown out confessions Hamdan made in Afghanistan after his capture. ‘The interests of justice are not served by admitting these statements,’ the judge said, ‘because of the highly coercive environments and conditions under which they were made.’ Hamdan was bound for long periods of time, with a bag over his head.

“You will know us by the company we keep. The burners of witches and the medieval masters of thumbscrews and Iron Maidens, the interrogators of the Spanish inquisition, the North Vietnamese soldiers who beat John McCain and his fellow American prisoners of war into false confessions. We have joined their ranks. In the almost seven years since 9/11, we have countered terror not only with vigilance and war but fear, imprisonment without due process and yes, torture.

“Torture is no more about learning the truth than rape is about sex. Both are about the violent abuse of power.”
Michael Winship: The Company We Keep, Bill Moyers Blog, July 28, 2008

It ain’t right. It just ain’t right.

I loathe American irony, but I found this apt:

Voter Registration in all 50 States. Ginger doesn’t want to hear you didn’t know how to register to vote. She knows baby is muuuuuch smarter than that.

This sounds more like Dee Patterson is making a case for divorce. I know For Better or For Worse is supposed to be some kind of paean to marriage and family but I’ve never seen it that way. Reading FBOFW has always been looking at a car accident I missed.

Full disclosure: I do know some happily married het and gay families, I am not anti-family or anti-child or anti-love, but FBOFW just takes all the joy out of it for me and I can’t imagine any kids reading this would think the trapped creepy hopeless, but financially secure blandness of the Patterson milieu is at all desirable. Foxtrot, Jump Start, Calvin and Hobbes, Zits, Kevin and Kell, and Rose is Rose do a much better job of making growing up, loving, and having a family much more fun than FBOFW. I suspect Lynn Johnson wants her readers to know that successful het society is a very exclusive club and they’ll have to earn their happiness if they want to be like her. But, hey lady, even I know there’s more joy in growing up, loving, and having a family than the Pattersons make of it. FBOFW does to relationships what Mary Worth does for growing old: they make them suck more than they really do.

“Finally, there are the “Tier 3″ sex workers, who can charge in excess of $10,000 per rendezvous. They may have only four or five clients, and they typically charge their clients an additional monthly surcharge for their various needs—rent, clothing, medicine.

“Both Tier 2 and Tier 3 workers can typically do more to safeguard a client’s privacy. There are no guarantees, of course, but they tend to shun contractual relationships with agencies that advertise their services. There is less of a paper trail. They typically will only take a john via a referral, and even then, they may require that the john ‘date’ them for weeks before deciding to offer up sex. I have heard of Tier 2 and 3 sex workers who vet prospective clients for months, sometimes hiring a private detective to see if the john is stable—psychologically and financially. As a former attorney general, Spitzer must have known all this.

“What high-end clients pay for may surprise you. For example, according to my ongoing interviews of several hundred sex workers, approximately 40 percent of trades in New York’s sex economy fail to include a physical act beyond light petting or kissing. No intercourse, no oral stimulation, etc. That’s one helluva conversation. But it’s what many clients want. Flush with cash, these elite men routinely turn their prostitute into a second partner or spouse. Over the course of a year, they will sometimes persuade the woman to take on a new identity, replete with a fake name, a fake job, a fake life history, and so on. They may want to have sex or they may simply want to be treated like King for a Day.”
Skinflint, by Sudhir Venkatesh, Slate, March 12, 2008

I mean, wtf? guys? I hate to tell you this but there’s more to life than your dick and you ego.

And Spitzer, you threw away your chance to make the world a better place. You, your dick and your ego can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.

And, sisters, $10K a month to prop up some guy’s ego and maybe blow him? Advantage capitalism. Christ. I know women who work two jobs for the luxury of doing that. Oh, but they’re in love, so that’s different.

How lucky I found this, too!