Saturday, September 30, 2006

Henry Kissinger and the Old Voodoo


Doesn't look like an inhuman monster, does he ? But, like a bad dream or a bad penny, Henry Kissinger keeps coming back. Already an accomplished war criminal he has now . . . what ? Excuse me ? Oh, you object to my characterizing the former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to Richard Nixon as a war criminal without evidence. Fair enough.
I refer you Seymour M. Hersh's 1983 classic "The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House". Yes, that Seymour Hersch, Abu Ghraib, Iran war planning and etc., etc. So, how about complicity in the overthrow and assassination of an elected head of state, i.e., Salvador Allende of Chile, Chapter 22 ? Satisfied ? No ? How about design and execution of a secret bombing campaign against a country with whom we were not at war, i.e., Cambodia, Chapter 5 ? O.K. ? O.K. Fine.
We learn from Hersch that one of Kissinger's principal talents is the ability to tell powerful persons what they want to hear, e.g. that they are smarter than other people and that their controversial decisions are correct.
So what is it that President George W. Bush apparently wants to hear, according to Bob Woodward in his new book "State of Denial" ? That "victory is the only meaningful exit strategy" from Iraq, that's what. Music to the Bush ear. And what does he care if the advice comes from an unindicted war criminal ? It is a status he is familiar with.
The fact that this advice might contribute to further American and Iraqi deaths as the Administration pursues a failed policy means nothing to Henry who is almost personally responsible for the last three or four years of the Vietnam war.
What does Henry get out of this ? Well, he gets close, once again, to the seat of power, a place he dearly loves to be and, by advising the President, he builds credibility for his international consulting firm, Kissinger Associates.
Bush may not be the devil, but the moral standing of his chosen associates leaves something to be desired.
ZOO UPDATE: The next day's WAPO shows us that this is truly vintage Kissinger. His advice to the President: "Don't give an inch or they'll walk you backwards". Kissinger's private criticism of Bush: "He has no method for considering alternatives". Henry always looks great to whoever he's talking to and doesn't care a damn if he's talking out of both sides of his mouth and his rear.
For more on public loathing of this creature and the desire to see him punished, try HERE.
Stay Naked.
jd

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Maybe War is a Bad Metaphor


Since the launch of the Global War of Terror (GWoT ) and the ensuing festivities associated therewith, it has become easy to forget the other wars we have going, so the Zoo is here with a quick reminder of the existence and status of these other vitally important conflicts. Let's take them chronologically.

(1964) War on Poverty. President Lyndon B. Johnson declares "unconditional war" on poverty in the United States. Various initiatives are proposed including the Head Start Program and lots of money spent. How is it going ? Not so good. According to data compiled at Wikipedia, poverty rates, while lower than at any time since 1980, are still higher than they were in 1970, 6 years after the war was declared. Arguments about measuring poverty rates continue as does, I assume, the war.

(1970) War On Drugs. It was a cold January day in 1970 when President Richard M. Nixon declared the war on drugs and it will be a cold day in Satan's sauna when we win it. We have spent billions and billions of dollars in 36 years in this cause, countless police officers have been corrupted and the drugs we mainly declared war against (heroin and cocaine) have been supplemented with such new favorites as methamphetamine.
The "front line" of the WoD, judging by the five billion dollar commitment made in the waning years of the Clinton Administration, is Colombia where, the Christian Science Monitor recently reported, an elite unit of U.S. trained and supported narcotics cops were set up, ambushed and murdered by the U.S. trained and supported Army. The CSM also reports that there is as much coca growing now as before "Plan Colombia" was started and the street price of cocaine in our cities hasn't budged.
I suppose we could call the WoD a stalemate, except the other side is making money while we are spending money.

(1974) War on Energy Problem. The war on U.S. energy profligacy began with President Jimmy Carter's vow that the United States would end its dependence on foreign oil and "never" again import more oil than we did in 1970. How is it going ? Need you ask ?
In 1970 were using 13.8 million barrels a day and 23% of that came from imports, so we were importing about 3.174 Mb/d. In 2004 we were using about 20 Mb/d in 2004 and importing about 60% of our usage for about 12 Mb/d, an increase of just under 9 MILLION BARRELS A DAY.
Fair to say that we have been utterly defeated in the War on Energy Waste and are enslaved to the Petroleum Industry.

(2001) Global War on Terror. In the wake of the attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and an empty field in Pennsylvania, President George W. Bush committed the nation to a war against a tactic. How is going ? Read the latest review of the situation at the "central front" of said war at TomDispatch. This is a sickening and tragic summary of all that is presently wrong with the war in Iraq in particular and GWoT in general.

I recommend that you not read this latter to soon after eating and that you

Stay Naked
jd

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

One Stop Shopping


I just wish I had the brains, resources, stamina and vision to have created Lie by Lie.

Any question you might have about the Iraq war, from the dim antecedents (like Gulf War I) the sales job that got us in there, the lack of planning for a post-war Iraq and the steady deterioration of the security situation ever since, can be answered with this handy data base.


Searchable by a scrolling time line, by full text queries and by special icons, such as "torture", "distraction" and "quaqmire", Lie by Lie is also frequently updated and filled in.

This will be an invaluable tool during the looming mid-term elections and the Presidential in '08 (providing, of course, there is a Presidential in '08).

A place of honor in the Zoo for Mother Jones and the designers, programmers and researchers of Lie by Lie, your online infomall on the worst foreign policy disaster in American history.

Check it out. Scroll it. Search it. Stay naked.

jd

Monday, September 25, 2006

I miss home...

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Sunday, September 24, 2006

'Are You Registered to Vote?'

This is not a hypothetical question. I mean 'Are you registered to vote?' If the answer is 'Yes' my follow-up is 'Are you sure?'. Your recent application may have been lost or rejected. You may have even been purged (HERE is a wonderful article by Greg Palast on how voter 'purging' cost Al Gore the 2000 Presidential election).
I encourage you to check out mydem.democrats.com. You can check to make sure you're registered and if not, how to register. (NOTE: You do have to register on the site to use the service)
-----------------------

A lot of Dems are nervous about this Novembers election getting 'stolen', especially since Edward Felten, a Professor of Computer Science at Princeton, showed how easy it was to hack a Diebold voting machine. The Youtube video below is Feltens own submission, narrated by Prof. Felten, that demonstrates how you too can hack a voting machine:)



Hey, if the Repubs can steal an election? Just kidding...mostly....

Stay Revolutionary and as always...

Stay Naked.

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What if we started a groundswell of hackers and got Captain Kangaroo elected President?

Below is a gratuitous picture. I love it. Bubbles and Canines. Courtesy of Photographer Frederic Larsen.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

'Predatory Lending Practices'

From Wikipedia: Predatory lending is the practice of exploiting a potential borrower's ignorance for profit. Although predatory industries in general are more likely to target racial minorities, women, and the elderly, victims of predatory lending are represented across all demographics.
You read it about here on the Zoo some time ago. We said watch out for the bomb to go off...well it's started with a sharp increase in foreclosures. RealtyTrac is reporting a 24% more forecosures in August than in July. And July was up 55% over July 2005. I've already seen a C-Span show on this topic as it's risen to the level of national Oh-oh! You'll love this guy
“With home price appreciation continuing to decelerate and billions of dollars in adjustable rate mortgages projected to reset in the next few months, this month’s increase could be the beginning of an upward shift in the foreclosures market,” says James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties."
An 'upward shift in the foreclosures market'. Nice. Kind of like saying Baghdad has experienced 'an upward shift in the dead bodies market'. Makes it almost sound like a good thing...this is only going to get worse as 'billions of dollars in ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) ...reset in the next few months'.
None of this is good nor do I take any pleasure in being right. Get ready for more congressionals investigations and teeth gnashing as this gets worse...

Stay Mortgaged and As Always...

Stay Naked.

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A word from the EZ :
First, the poor schmuck borrowers will get wiped out and there will be Congressional handwringing, but no action.
Then the phony appraisals that all these lousy loans were based on will kick in and we will discover that the lenders are losing money because their foreclosure price won't cover the debt.
Then we will see the taxpayers ( see "poor schmuck borrowers" above) rescuing the lenders from the consequences of their own greed (see "S&L Crisis of the 80's").
jd

Thursday, September 21, 2006

'October Surprise'


It's been awhile since I've heard the phrase 'October Surprise'. According to Wikipedia, it's an American political term that refers to any stunning news event that influences an election. I know the term as it relates to the allegations that Ronald Reagans campaign team made a deal with the Iranians to keep the hostages until Reagan was safely in office. Barbara Honegger used the term in her book of the same title which was the first book to deal with allegations.

Well, it's baaaaaaaaaaack. And in an ominous place. NewsMax is reporting that Karl Rove has promised an 'October surprise' that will help Republicans retain a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. NewsMax should be trusted in this case as they are a very right-wing website with proven ties to the Administration. Rove won't say what he's talking about but I, for one, am plenty nervous...perhaps Bush will single-handedly pull Osama out of a cave:)
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The Financial Times is reporting that the reason why so many terror suspects were transferred from secret prisons to Guatanamo Bay is the fact that the CIA is 'REFUSING TO OPERATE' said prisons.

This one qualifies as a WOW! Apparently the CIA interrogators are a little nervous about the fact that they may be breaking the law...

Stay Out of Prison and as always,

Stay Naked.

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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

The Key to the Castle


It is way past time for the funeral of electronic voting in general and of Diebold electronic voting machines in particular.
If it wasn't bad enough that Diebold resisted independent testing of their machines, or that one security gap opens the machines' systems to anybody with a little knowledge and a cheap part from CompUSA, or that some boffins at Princeton found the Diebold boxes vulnerable to "extremely serious [hacker] attacks".
Set aside for a moment the dark suspicions that arise because Diebold's CEO was also Bush's campaign chair in Ohio, "committed" to delivering Ohio for Bush.
Here is the icing on the cake, the cherry on the sundae, the filial on the flagpole.
Diebold advertises that the memory on their machines is protected by a lock and key and its true, its just not very much protection as the key is a standard piece used on mini-bars, and jukeboxes. A standard part easily purchased over the internet.
If there were more at risk than freedom and the Constitution we'd be alarmed.
As it is, we know that other people are worrying about so we can
StayNaked
jd
************************
An ad addendum. CNN has been doing a nice job covering this story. Below is a Youtube posting of two CNN stories concerning e-voting.



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Monday, September 18, 2006

The Gift That Keeps On Giving


Cooler heads have prevailed and the war in south Lebanon is at least temporarily suspended.

Except for the three or four people who the Israelis kill every day in the area south of the Litani River. In the closing days of the war, in what may have been a desperate attempt to silence Hezbollah's rocket batteries, Israel "flooded" southern Lebanon with cluster munitions.

Cluster munitions are large bombs or artillery shells which contain smaller bombs, or "bomblets", which themselves contain scores of projectiles like giant beebees or small ball bearings. About thirty percent of these fail to explode on contact. These will explode later, often at the slightest contact.

Israel admits to firing 1.2 million bomblets into the occupied areas of Southern Lebanon, arguably in violation of international law, almost certainly in violation of a classified agreement with the United States. The agreement with us arises because we manufactured many of these charming weapons and sold them to Israel.

1.2 million times 30 percent means that there are something like 360,000 unexploded bomblets in Lebanon. In olive trees and oranges trees, In ditches and on roof tops. Anywhere. And they kill 3 or four people a day. Often children.

So now the Lebanese must decide between letting the olives and oranges and other crops rot or chancing death or maiming by Israeli/U.S. cluster bombs.

The entire story is in The Independent via truthout.

You may, if you wish, cry in rage and shame, but try to do so quietly so as not to disturb the other passengers and

Stay Naked
jd

Sunday, September 17, 2006

01.20.09

It doesn't seem like a very important date does it? 01.20.09. January 20th, 2009...so why has it taken on such importance? It's George Bush's last day in office (think Clinton's flurry of odious pardons...multiply by 30 and you get an idea...My dream list:
-Cheney
-Rove
-Abramoff
-Ney
-Cunningham
-Rice
-Powell
-Hadley
....but no Scooter Libby as he flips on all of the above:)

According to Bushslastday.com, Bush currently has 856 Days, 3 Hours, 45 Min, 48 Secs left in office.

Ouch. That seems like a loooooooooooooooooong time...Look on the bright side, plenty of time for Indictments:)

Stay Bright and as always...

Stay Naked.

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Friday, September 15, 2006

When is a question mark not a question mark?

That is the question. For you Zooheads who missed 'The Daily Show' last night (myself included) I offer you an instant classic...



Stay Funny and as always...

Stay Naked.

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Thursday, September 14, 2006

Rumsfeld's Transformed Military


You doubtless recall, Oh Best Beloved, that Don Rumsfeld came to the post of Secretary of Defense with a mission. Not the mission to invade Iraq. That was a secret. The other mission.

That was a mission to transform the American military into the lightest, most potent, most agile fighting force in the world. Well it appears that the on-and-ongoing war in Iraq has delayed that transformation, but has created another, and quite different, transformation.

The Iraq war has created tremendous pressures on the military, particularly the Army, national Guard and Marines. This has translated to downward pressure on the quality of recruits now being accepted according to Nick Turse writing in TomDispatch.

Take, for instance, the percentage of recruits scoring below 50% on the ASVAB which is the aptitude test given to potential recruits. The figure is now nearly 40 % of all recruits with such low scores.

To appreciate how serious this is, we invite you to look at some sample questions from the test. In order to slip below 50% you're going to have to miss stumpers like " How many 36 passenger buses does it take to carry 144 people ?". If you answered "10", don't worry, you can still serve.

You can also serve if you are up to 42 years old, a convicted felon, a gangbanger, a Nazi or skin head. If you are a foreign national you'll get the right to apply for citizenship with all fees waived after one (1) day of active service.

Check out the whole piece at TomDispatch, remember our military fondly and

StayNaked
jd

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Remember Tinkerbell ?


Some of you are too old ( to remember anything) and some of you are too young and some of you are too cool, but most of you remember Tinkerbell, Peter Pan's pixie pal.

And, if so, you remember that she almost died and we all had to save her by saying "I BELIEVE" at the tops of our tiny voices. Remember ? Did you believe ? Do you still ?

Then you are ready for Steorn.

"What's a Steorn ?", we hear you ask. Well, click on the link and you'll discover everything we know. For instance:

  • Steorn promises a limitless source of free energy. That's right, boys and girls, FREE energy and all you could ever want.
  • Steorn is being ignored by the scientific community. Can't think why.
  • Steorn violates the law of conservation of energy (they said it, we didn't).
  • Steorn is illustrated by a diagram that looks like it was drawn by a six year old and by a comparison to the "energy you gain" when you walk uphill and back down.
  • "Engineers and scientists" have validated the process, but only "off the record". You can't make this stuff up.
What the site doesn't say is that Steorn also violates the rule that if something seems too good to be true it usually is.

Steorn is running a full page ad in The Economist which is where we ran across them. They are looking for a panel of scientists to evaluate their claims. We can hardly wait.

There is, of course, a chance that Steorn is on the up and up and that the world's energy problems are about to disappear like pixie dust. There is also a chance that George Bush will celebrate Christmas in Baghdad judging the first annual Shia-Sunni Santa Contest.

So, by all means, keep and open mind and, at all costs,

Stay Naked
jd

Monday, September 11, 2006

A Father Remembers.

The article below is one of the most painful things I have ever read. I think on this September 11th we're just going to let the words on one father, talking about his son, serve as our reminder of the costs this terrible war is inflicting on all sides. Kudos to NorthJersey.com for posting this in its original form.
In the four months since the death of my son, Sgt. Matthew J. Fenton, from injuries suffered in Iraq, I have stated many times the horror of what I saw in the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md.

I believe that the time has arrived to tell the whole story of his death and the carnage that was inflicted on some of his fellow Marines. I do not find this easy to do, but as the death toll and injured number continues to climb, I cannot sit silently.

On April 26, Matthew, 24, was the gunner on a Humvee protecting a Marine convoy on the outskirts of Fallujah. A suicide car bomber attempted to ram his Humvee, and he got off a few shots at the vehicle. From what I have been told it is common practice for these bombers to detonate their bomb if they come under fire. Matthew was the only Marine injured in the attack. Later that same day I received a phone call telling me that Matt was seriously wounded and that it was a head injury.

The next day we were informed that Matt had been flown to Germany. Matt’s mother, Diane, and I prepared to go to Germany. But in the middle of trying to get a flight, we received another call saying that he had stabilized and they were going to fly him to the United States. We were all lifted by this seemingly good news.

Diane and I flew to Washington the next day and were met by a uniformed Marine and driven to Bethesda. What awaited us there is still shocking to me now. We met with two doctors who laid everything out for us. Matthew’s injury was a devastating one. Shrapnel had entered his head just above his left eye and traveled diagonally through his brain and exited the right rear.

Surgeons in Baghdad had removed two plates from his skull to help relieve the pressure from the swelling of his brain. The frontal lobe was destroyed, so they had removed it. It was explained that the frontal lobe is the center of personality and the place where someone is aware of themselves. The Matthew that we knew and loved was gone and would never come back.

As we struggled with that staggering news there was more to come. The shrapnel had done severe damage to both sides of Matt’s brain because of the angle that it traveled through. The brain can figure a way to control functions when one side is damaged, like in a stroke. But this was devastating news. The doctors told us that if this had happened in Vietnam, there would have been no surgery. If this happened in front of the best hospital in New York City, there would have been no surgery. His chances of ever having meaningful movement were less than slim.

Why, we asked was the surgery done in Baghdad? The answer, surgeons do whatever they can to keep a soldier alive. They do not decide life or death.

We were then led down a long hospital corridor toward my son’s room. This is the moment that I will never forget until the day I die. Just outside his room we were instructed that we had to don gowns, masks and gloves every time we entered the room. This was to prevent us from picking up bacteria that Matt may have brought back from Iraq and spreading it to other patients in the ward.

My shock was doubled upon seeing Matthew. He was unrecognizable. His head was completely swollen, like some cartoon character. There were maybe hundreds of metal staples in his head. There were of course tubes coming and going everywhere. There were drains running from the site of the surgery. And there was the ventilator. I immediately snapped at the doctors. Somewhere along the line I had been informed that Matt was breathing on his own. Nine years ago I watched my father die after having lung cancer surgery. He never got off of the ventilator, and I flashed back to that time.

Matthew was able to breathe on his own, the doctors explained. The ventilator was only assisting. His heart and lungs were perfect. There had been no damage to his brain stem, which controls involuntary actions like breathing and the heart beating. So there we were looking at our son, not recognizing him, not a scratch on him below his eyes. But his face and head mangled and inflated. This must be a nightmare, one that we will never wake up from.

For days we made that walk down that long hallway. It took some time but I finally was able to look at some of the other Marines on the ward with Matthew. I wish to this moment that I hadn’t. Kids with horrible injuries.

One had been in the ward for 11 months, after seven different brain surgeries. His wife refused to let him go. She was praying for a miracle. He had parts of his skull removed also, but all the swelling was gone now and his head had sunken in where they had been removed. He did not move at all.

Across the ward another Marine was in his third month, and his head was all sunken in. This is what lay ahead for Matthew also. Also across the ward was another Marine who was there only a few days before Matt. He was lucky, damage to only one side of his brain. I became friendly with his father, Jim, from Tennessee. One day there was an uproar from his son’s room and I looked over and made eye contact with Jim. Maybe an hour later we met in the hallway and he apologized to me. His son had opened his eyes for the first time and his family just responded. There was no need for an apology as I would have jumped for joy if Matthew were to open his eyes.

All that was left was to decide when the life support would be removed. That final decision rested in the hands of his mother. There was no disagreement on what course to follow, just when.

On May 3, the Marine Corps commandant presented Matthew with his Purple Heart. On May 4, I noticed that the swelling of Matthew’s head was going down. By the end of the day the indentations where pieces of his skull were missing were becoming noticeable. The next morning I was dreading what he might be looking like. And, yes, there was his head becoming very odd shaped.

I prayed that Diane would find the strength to let her son go today. I did not want to see him decline another day. Another day of watching his head sink into his skull. And neither did she.

Sometime around noon on May 5, Matthew was moved from the ward to a private room. Behind some curtains they removed the ventilator and most of the tubes. He was kept on the morphine, and we were assured he would not feel any pain. Now he was breathing all on his own. Diane got into the hospital bed with her son, and I held his hand and we all waited and watched for Matthew to pass.

But he would not go easily. After three hours of labored breathing, I asked the nurse if there was anything that she could do. No. I asked God to take him now. No. His mother told him to go. I asked him to go. Go to some peace. A half-hour later, he finally took his last breath.

This is the real story of the war in Iraq. We all know the numbers, and we all know the reasons that are claimed that we have to be there. But this is the reality: young, brave, patriotic men losing their lives for a cause that keeps shifting.

Every politician who supports the war should go to Bethesda or Walter Reed and see just what their support is costing in human life and suffering. And to everyone who opposes the war, don’t just sit back any longer. Someday you may be touched personally by some tragedy from this disastrous war, and it will be too late, like it is for me.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Blood Borders

Below you see two maps of the Middle East. The top map is the current Middle East and the map below it represents the Middle East as redrawn by Ralph Peters. Who is Ralph Peters? He's a retired US Army Lt. Colonel, writer and essayist. The maps you see below are illustrations used to support an article he wrote recently for the Armed Forces Journal titled 'Blood Borders'. I admit I hadn't heard of the Armed Forces Journal before this article popped onto my radar but I'm a little hooked. Imagine the military point of view without Rumsfeld and you've got an idea. Here's his main idea, in a nutshell...;
"While the Middle East has far more problems than dysfunctional borders alone—from cultural stagnation through scandalous inequality to deadly religious extremism—the greatest taboo in striving to understand the region’s comprehensive failure isn’t Islam but the awful-but-sacrosanct international boundaries worshipped by our own diplomats."
So he proposes redrawing the borders (see fig. 2). While this article in a pretty obscure military mag hasn't received much attention at home it has fired some heated responses abroad.

Here's a thoughtful piece by Yassar Latif Hamdani of Pak Tribune.

And Kurt Nimmo of Uruknet.info.

Say what you may, it's an interesting idea and one that may draw more attention as Iraq devolves into Civil War. Mr. Peters drew some fire for the following quote:
Oh, and one other dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works.
Yikes! His point is, that what we call ethnic cleansing is the process by which most nation states are born...argue if you will but check out the map and imagine...what if?






Stay Loose zooheads and as always...

Stay Naked.

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Saturday, September 09, 2006

There's No Plan Like No Plan


President Bush's assertion (after others had failed) that we invaded Iraq to bring democracy was a lie. Its that simple.

How do we know ? A recent interview with Brigadier General Mark Scheid, chief of the Logistics War Plans Division. He tells us that when Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld ordered the planning for the Iraq war to begin he told the planners not to plan for a long stay.

Planners being planners, they wanted to at least have a plan for what they called "Phase 4", including an occupation, so they kept including it in their drafts. Until, again according to General Scheid, Rumsfeld threatened to fire anybody who mentioned such plans again.

So, like the WMD that got us going, the "promotion of democracy" was a cynical lie designed to manipulate American public opinion. Unless, of course, Rumsfeld thought democracy could be planted like a flag and left to wave gallantly in the breeze.

Thanks to truthout, the Washington Monthly, Orin Kerr and the Hampton Roads Daily Press for this beauty which is inexplicably missing from the New York Times, Washington Post, etc., etc.

While we await the festivities that will doubtless surround the upcoming elections ( the R's stole the last two and that looks like the only way they'll get this one) and try to make sure we can spell i-m-p-e-a-c-h-m-e-n-t and i-n-d-i-c-t-m-e-n-t we will make every effort to

Stay Naked
jd

Thursday, September 07, 2006

We're Beginning to Believe


There is gathering evidence that the collective intelligence of the Bush Administration and the Republican Party and the Republican Congress ( if these things may legitimately be distinquished from one another ) has finally collapsed or imploded or been exhausted.

If the following two stories could break on the same day (to say nothing of have either one be true ) then the wheels have come off the Rove Message Machine.

Story Number One. I watched this one unfold on CSPAN this morning and couldn't believe my senses. On virtually the last day of business before the fall elections in which Republican control of Congress hangs by a thread, the House of Representatives (i.e., the Republican leadership thereof ) ignores port security, border security, gas prices, global warming, the stagnant minimum wage and the war in Iraq to have a tightly controlled debate on one issue.

The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act. You got that right. The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act which is designed to prevent horses being used for human food.
I know this is an issue that has been keeping you up nights and I am grateful that Congress has seen through the clutter to something of true importance.

The only good I can see coming of this is when Bin Laden hears about it he will forswear any further attacks on us as not being worth the effort as self-destruction must surely be our fate.

If the Democrats (who used almost all their debate time lambasting the Republicans for their priorities) can't take a slow fat pitch like this and knock it into a Demoratic majority in the next Congress, then God help us. But there's more.

Story number two deals (you'll be stunned to hear) with apparent misconduct in the awarding of a Pentagon contract worth seventy million dollars (say it ain't so, Don !). While no one in their right mind would permit a scandal at this delicate moment that involved the safety of our troops, I regret to report just such involvement.

At issue is new technology designed to Protect Our Troops against rocket propelled grenades (RPGs). RPGs have been taking a steady toll in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Army has been looking for a defense.

It came down to a choice between an Israeli contractor who had a system tested and proved under live fire and Raytheon. The (contractually) successful Raytheon system was not tested by the Army, leading to this amusing exchange between NBC's Lisa Myers and Col. Donald Kotchman who heads the Army's RPG defense effort:

Lisa Myers: Was the Raytheon system tested by the Pentagon?

Col. Donald Kotchman: The Army did not specifically test the Raytheon system.

Instead, Raytheon tested its own system this February.

Myers: How well did the Raytheon system do in its own testing?

Kotchman: I don't have that information.

Myers: Were there any Pentagon officials present for the Raytheon testing?

Kotchman: I do not know.

With everything else the R's have lying around, besides those listed above I'm thinking about voting irregularities (Ohio), candidate meltdowns (Florida), bribery scandals (Abramhoff), I would think there are extra innings worth of slow fat pitches. Enough so there wouldn't be any Republicans left in either house.

So now we meditate on how Karl can spin all this to their advantage and resolutely

Stay Naked
jd

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Noah Takes a Photo of Himself Everyday for Six Years



This is exactly what it says it is. A guy named Noah took a picture of himself everyday for six years. The music is perfect. The effect is unique. I encourage you to set aside five minutes and forty five seconds and open your mind to whatever thoughts, feelings and questions might arise. It's a uniquely human experience you're about to undertake. Six years of someone's life in five minutes.

God bless the internet.

Stay unique and as always...

Stay Naked.

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Tuesday, September 05, 2006

What If They Gave a War Against Terror . . .


What if the Adminstration gave a war against terror and no terrorists came ?

Not a problem in Iraq where terrorism, insurgency and civil war have settled in quite nicely. Of course, they weren't having a war until we got there, but that obervation takes us down well-worn paths to conclusions long since concluded.

But, what about the Home Front where the Department of Homeland Security stands with hydra-headed vigilance to protect the Volk (oops, sorry, strike that) the American People against domestic attacks by Al Qaeda sleeper cells. And what an overwhelming success their efforts have been ! The fact that we have had no attacks since 9/11 is "no accident" according to VP Cheney, but is due to the "sound policies" of the Bush Administration.

It is theoretically possible that the same administration that has got it wrong on Afghanistan, Iraq, the budget deficit, Katrina, global warming, CIA-agent-outing, illegal-on-American-spying, prisoner torturing and etc., somehow got it right on domestic security.

And there is another explanation, provided in fascinating detail by John Mueller writing in the current Foreign Affairs. The true explanation may well be simpler. There were and are no Al Qaeda sleeper cells in the Homeland.

In an admirably through article Mueller examines the evidence and the arguments regarding our safety from attack since 9/11, as other cities and countries have suffered devastating bombings, e.g., London and Madrid.

Though not directly responding to Cheney's argument cited above, Mueller does address the point with a simple observation:

"But there is a problem with this argument. True, there have been no terrorist incidents in the United States in the last five years. But nor were there any in the five years before the 9/11 attacks, at a time when the United States was doing much less to protect itself."
So maybe we haven't been attacked because no sleeper cells were in place, no cells have been infiltrated across our notoriously porous borders and we lack the extremist Islamic elements that give rise to attacks elsewhere.

We urge you to read this piece and we urge you to

StayNaked
jd



Sunday, September 03, 2006

Make Love Not Kerfuffle!


I think I have much better understanding of the problems in the Middle East now that I've just finished reading a mind-blowing article posted on the Times Online titled Israel Plans for War with Iran and Syria.
Reportedly NOT stinging from their failure to free the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers or dislodge Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon, Israel has decided to set their sights a little higher. According to the reporters, Israel has figured out that too MUCH attention has been paid to the lowly Palestinaians in the West Bank and Gaza and not enough on Syria and Iran...Let's walk through the madness slowly.
“In the past we prepared for a possible military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities,” said one insider, “but Iran’s growing confidence after the war in Lebanon means we have to prepare for a full-scale war, in which Syria will be an important player.”
Translation: Our failed military incursion into Lebanon has encouraged the Iranians (who have a military assistance pact with Syria)

So what do the Americans think?
“Fixed targets (In Iran) are hopelessly vulnerable to precision bombing, and with stealth bombers even a robust air defence system doesn’t make much difference,” said Richard Perle, a leading neoconservative.
Whoa! They're quoting noted neo-con and famous Iraq War cheerleader Richard Perle?

Perle goes on
“If they had acted against Syria during this last kerfuffle, the war might have ended more quickly and better,” Perle added. “Syrian military installations are sitting ducks and the Syrian air force could have been destroyed on the ground in a couple of days.”
Hm, so...the leading nutcase who got us into Iraq thinks it'll be easy to hit the 'sitting ducks' in Iran and Syria in spite of the Israeli failure to do so in the last 'kerfuffle' (Kerfuffle is really a word whose synonyms are: disturbance, stir, commotion, to-do, and the ever popular hoo-hah. This explains how it's so easy for these mutton heads to send people into combat...pardon me...kerfuffles)

This is my favorite
The Israelis are integrating three elite brigades that performed well during the Lebanon war under one headquarters, so they can work together on deep cross-border operations in Iran and Syria.
What border does Israel share with Iran? Some politicos (State Department) are apparently arguing for 'diplomacy' with Syria in the hopes of A) peeling Syria away from Iran or B) causing internal problems for Syria which would result in waves of Islamic terror generated against the stable dictatorship.

This would all sound nuts if it wasn't true...So if the Israeli plan works it would have Israel bombing (and/or) invading Syria and Iran with US help...so we'd have Iraq, Syria, Iran, Afganistan and Lebanaon all in play at the same time with a Saudi Arabia facing a serious threat of homemade terrorism (let's not forget Osama Bin Laden's original beef was with the Saudi government)...

I feel safer already.
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Thank God for Chad Vader: Night Shift Manager. We join our favorite web celeb in Episode 3...after his demotion to Night Shift Manager from...Day Shift Manager...



May the Force Be With You and as always...

Stay Naked.

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Saturday, September 02, 2006

EAT! OR DIE! OR EAT!...ummm...

Wonderful article HERE on how we use red and yellow as a sign of DANGER! and as a sign of CHEAP FOOD AHEAD! Author David Barringer ponders the question, why do fast food joints and warning signs use teh same color schemes and yet they mean two completely different things. Looking at the image above forces you to read the lettering for context so what's the deal?
The answer is: they don't know:) There's a lot in this article about the neurology of color (we detect red well), psychology of color (we've learned to equate red with food), psychology of marketing (red and yellow worked for McDonalds and all followed suit) , evolutionary theory (red means healthy fruit)...but there are no concrete answers. The 'comments' on the bottom provide some intelligent conversation.
Ryan, Sep 1, 2006 posted that he'd read a similar article on food packaging HERE. The article is found on Today's Dietician and is titled 'Cueing Consumers to Buy' Here's what happens when marketers write:
Red and yellow, the trademark colors of fast food, encourage eating quickly and quick table turnover. Yellow (happy and warm) and red (stimulating and speed) are probably the most popular colors used on snack food packaging. Red, however, also indicates danger—of eating too much, too quickly, and too often.


So Red means danger and eat fast? We're back to where we started:)

Alright Zooheads...Stay Skinny and as always...

Stay Naked.

Kudos to AIGA.com for posting such a cool piece.

Friday, September 01, 2006

No Confidence Vote on Rumsfeld ?

The Democrats in Congress, apparently led by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), are planning to turn a Pentagon budget bill into a vote of no confidence in Secretary of Defense and winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Ever eager to participate in the workings of the democratic processes that make this the greatest country on the face of the earth, the Zoo presents its Unofficial Donald H. Rumsfeld Vote of No Confidence Ballot, suitable for framing or printing out and forwarding to Sen. Boxer, either by email at boxer.senate.gov or snail mail to 112 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510-0505.

UNOFFICIAL RUMSFELD NO CONFIDENCE BALLOT

A CITIZEN AND OR RESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES I HEREBY VOTE THE INDICATED LEVEL OF CONFIDENCE IN DONALD H. RUMSFELD AS SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, CONSIDERING HIS ROLES IN THE FOMENTING OF THE WAR IN IRAQ, THE MISTREATMENT OF PRISONERS AT GLOBAL LOCATIONS TOO NUMEROUS TO MENTION AND THE INVASION AND ABANDONMENT OF AFGHANISTAN.

1. NONE

2. NOT ANY

3. NOT A BIT

4. ZERO

5. ZILCH

6. NADA

7. NAUGHT

8. BLOODY F&%K ALL

9. ZIP

10. NOT AN IOTA

11. NOT A JOT

12. NOT A TRACE

13. NOT A SPECK

14. NOT A HINT

15. NOT A SMIDGEN

16. OTHER ____________

Vote early, vote often and

Stay Naked
jd