Bush's Brownshirts Threatening the Press?

NY Times letter had powder, own editorial

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times on Friday received a letter containing a suspicious white powder and a copy of a recent editorial in which the paper defended its coverage of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism programs.

Tests found the powder to be harmless, but not before the incident helped push U.S. stocks lower and raised fears of a possible recurrence of anthrax-tainted letters sent to newsrooms and other offices in late 2001.
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Mathis confirmed that the envelope included a copy of a June 28 editorial entitled "Patriotism and the Press" with an "X" marked through it.

Hey speaking of Anthrax - Bush did just as good at catching the Anthrax mailer as he did at catching bin Laden.

Really - has Bush done anything successfully?

- rob 6:25 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bubble Boy Speaks

Putin rejects Bush's Iraq democracy model

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (CNN) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected a suggestion from U.S. President George W. Bush that his country should emulate democracy in Iraq.
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"I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world, like Iraq where there's a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same," Bush said.

To that, Putin replied, "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy that they have in Iraq, quite honestly."

God what an embarrassment. Who in Bush's "brian trust" thought pretending Iraq was a paragon to strive for was a good idea? Was it Bush himself?

To be crass: Does Bush really think his shit doesn't stink?

- rob 6:15 PM - [PermaLink] -

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No really, I will post again soon.

In the meantime do go to: The Joseph and Valerie Wilson Legal Support Trust

THE MISSION:

To help Ambassador Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson pay for the substantial legal costs associated with the illegal leaking of Mrs. Wilson’s classified CIA status.
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THEIR SERVICE

Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, have served our country for over a combined 43 years. Valerie Plame joined the Central Intelligence Agency at the age of 22, and it has been widely reported that she worked undercover on several overseas assignments in areas related to counterterrorism and on counterproliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Ambassador Wilson was a member of the Foreign Service from 1976 through 1998. He was the acting Ambassador to Baghdad when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and is credited with negotiating the release of several hundred American hostages during “Desert Shield.” Mr. Wilson later served as U.S. Ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe under President George H.W. Bush and helped direct Africa policy for the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton. In February 2002, he investigated reports of Iraq’s attempt to buy uranium from Niger.

- rob 5:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

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-Kim Jong Illin'-

All isn't quiet on the Far Eastern front.

The latest from our government regarding North Korea is that they are pressuring China to put pressure on them to change their policies, using their influence in trade relations specifically.

North Korea is self-isolated politically, and their angry kid mentality toward the surrounding countries and particularly toward the western first world countries is pathetic. Their actions with defense, particularly with showboating their missile defense system to the world, is simply proving them to be the jealous passive aggressive bully. So far these actions have proven to most of the world that Kim Jong Il is feeling small, and blowing a bunch of hot air in a sad attempt to get attention in world politics. And it is working, of course. Thankfully, we are responding with nothing more than smooth rhetoric and a sort of dismissive attitude.
But surely the Bush Administration isn't going to move in this game of dares and threats. Is it because they know that it isn't a serious concern? I don't think so.

We all know that the occupation of Iraq has been a big mistake for a number of reasons, tactical, political, etc. Even the administration probably knows this, although you wouldn't find it obvious with all the "stay the course" catch phrasing they still use. So when it comes down to the wire, how will they really handle this problem? The answer is probably a complicated one.

The history of wars in this country proves that the mission in most is twofold. Our interests have always been economic ones, in that we only get involved with wars once our own economic safety is in question, or when our economic interests will profit from it. And war is always profitable, in both defense spending and employment, but also in the collective support that it gathers in the form of patriotism. This is, after all, why shortly after the 9/11 attacks the president came out and said something to the effect of "go shopping!". That attack on our soil was the perfect uniting tool for the government to muster public support for colonizing the middle east, and seizing it's assets, whether or not you believe it was a coincidence or some sort of conspiracy is irrelevant at this point. It is what we are up to, and it is what conveniently allowed us to attack a country whose only noteable threat to us was an economic one.

Furthermore, the case can be made that the war was also planned and executed as a safety net to an economic recession or possibly worse that our country was headed into just before the attacks. The state of industrial and manufacturing outsourcing was putting the major hurt on small towns all over the country, people losing jobs left and right and getting very upset at the system. War is a perfect way to unite the opposing factions within the country, to keep the attention away from class struggle and growing gaps between rich and poor, and to distract from the symptoms of capitalist recklessness within our borders. And we have played that card time and time again. Just look at WW1, when the socialist movement was gaining so much steam and it was not looking good for big money and the ruling class.

So back to topic, the war in Iraq makes sense in those terms. Whether or not you like the idea of going to war to protect our economic self-interests, it is pretty obvious that it is at least a huge part of what we are doing there. And the design and marketing of the product called "patriotism" that we were sold was truly genius. Look how well it worked. "if you are not with us, you are against us". And for a large part we bought that, and it speaks volumes of both the power and influence of the government and it's ability to deceive for its gains, as well as speaking volumes about the vulnerability and simply naivity of the common masses.

When you look at North Korea, what economic interests do they offer to us? Or should I say, what resources do they possess that we want, regardless if they are offering or not? The answer is none. And so with that in mind, it doesn't make much sense, for better or worse, that our economically-biased government should go to war with them.

But the more important issue, the real important issue, is that North Korea is a pandora's box of trouble for us. The truth is we are also playing it real cool with them because everyone knows if they start shit, it will be the real "war to end all wars"... and we won't come out on top.

Our military resources, particularly in terms of personel, but also in terms of supply of materials and weaponry, is terribly strained as it is. This is because of the limited volunteer enlistment, but with materials it is because of the funneling of funds into just a few contractors, buddies if you will, of the administration. So supply is short because this small list of contractors isn't producing fast enough... and yet they get the bulk of the defense funding. Funny, isn't it? Not really.

Not only would we be ill-prepared to confront yet another country with military force, but that country has the semi-solid support of China and Russia. We don't need to be messing with them. Whether or not they would jump in to North Korea's aid may not be too likely, but especially with China, they are a super-power with near self-sufficiency as it is, and to piss them off would pretty much resolve them to drop us and take up trade with other countries who can offer the same goods and services. And really the only resource that China is in deperate need of is oil. I don't think it takes a scholar to draw a logical connection to their need for energy and our aggressive intent to control it.

As long as we remain stagnant with our policies with North Korea and don't stir up trouble, and as long as they don't up the ante and blatantly corner us into acting, we are in the middle of a battle of wit and capital. As long as China is in good diplomatic standing with us, they can be the deciding factor in how the rogue state of North Korea is dealt with.

If I were in Japan I would probably be shitting a solid gold brick.

- king michael the second 12:03 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Sorry for the light posting lately - I've been swamped and I'm thinking of a post that will take longer then the TCS standard of 30 seconds worth of thought.

So you all come back now - you hear?

- rob 11:11 AM - [PermaLink] -

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