WAR!

I'm more and more convinced that the whole war on terror is just like any "war on... " in the US, it's run by corporatism, feeds itself and thus will never end.

Read this blog entry on the Washington Post. If this wasn't for real it would be fucking hilarious, you can't make this stuff up...

Quote

A senior government official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun device, similar to that of a police Taser®. According to this promotional video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal website, the bracelet would be worn by all airline passengers.

This bracelet would:

• take the place of an airline boarding pass

• contain personal information about the traveler

• be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage

• shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes

The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it’s referred to as, would be worn by every traveler “until they disembark the flight at their destination.” Yes, you read that correctly. Every airline passenger would be tracked by a government-funded GPS, containing personal, private and confidential information, and that it would shock the customer worse than an electronic dog collar if he/she got out of line?

Awesome. Now they need to put those on every government official and make the shocks voter-controlled.

or reality shows like american idol.

ddt

I wonder how many more stories there are like this one.

Well, some good news.

Radovan Karadzic has finally been arrested, my guess is he will also die in prison because of 'bad treatment'.

I watched Taxi to the Dark Side today. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush are war criminals, no two ways about it.

If you think that's hyperbole I suggest you watch that documentary and then tell me they're not.

From one of my Congressmen, after an impassioned form e-mail to him after seeing Kucinich bringing impeachment resolutions against Cheney:

Quote

Dear Tomas:

Thank you for writing to share your support for impeaching President W. George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. I appreciate hearing from you.

Currently, there have been no articles of impeachment filed in the U.S. House of Representatives against President Bush. However, H. Res. 799, articles of impeachment against Vice-President Cheney, has been introduced by Representative Dennis Kucinich. H. Res. 799 has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. Since I am not a member of this Committee, I will only be able to vote on H. Res. 799 when it is considered by the entire House. Rest assured, I will remember your support for impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney should I have that opportunity. I will also share your thoughts with my House colleagues.

... snip "contact me" boilerplate ...

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.

Sincerely yours,
Gus M. Bilirakis

I'm not impressed with the power the US federal government has gained in the last 50 years or the way they have been using it.

If the federal government's size, extent and power could be rolled back to pre-FDR standards, I might be happy.

Then again, I'd be happier if our hierarchy of government was functioning as it was intended:

Personal Responsibility > Local (City, County) Government > State Government > Federal Government

So, if you are an US citizen, and you aren't happy, WHY AREN'T YOU WRITING YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS?

Because I hate getting form letters.

People like big government. With small government they have to be more self-reliant. Self-reliance is hard.

I guess I am not a "people".

i'll gladly have the "libertarian" discussion later (running out the door soon, metaphorically).... maybe in the parlour, though?

we can start with the topic of "self-reliance" within a complex, many-degree system of interactions and dependencies (in the programming sense).

ddt



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2008 11:53AM by ddt.

It's so funny that the Republicans who push the subject of big (or small) government so many times stand for anything...
Apart for a small government

Interesting take on the anthrax killings/Irwin suicide. I'm not one to believe in conspiracy theories, but at the very least, if I'm ABC and I get burned by "multiple sources" I'm gonna start digging into how these sources are connected and what the ultimate goal of the disinformation was. Makes you go "humm..."

You think the main stream media is suddenly going to grow a spine?

The Russians are very smart. They wait until the beginning of the olympics to pull this shit, with confidence that we're too stretched thin in the Sham-War in Iraq to put up any kind of tussle for Georgia, a democratic European ally with strategic energy interests for all of western Europe. They're also betting the EU will roll over and let it happen, and pay whatever Gazprom wants for natural gas.

I think Russian bombers and ground-attack aircraft will be experiencing curious "operational errors resulting in loss" over the next few weeks, with Turkish troops and German armor inside Georgia with American air-cover within a month.

The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over as of now. Something much larger has begun. God save us all.

SoupWishesItWasn't So

Yeah, Soup; reading about how this has more to do with Gazprom than any religious or nationalistic associations. Makes me sick that we haven't used technology to find the solution to big energy. Instead, "we the people" let the "owners" of these resources trample our freedoms and future with their greed.

The irony is that the EU was more interested than anyone in renewable or alternative energy... this meant the Russians had to act now, before the wind farms and tidal power plants and next-gen nuclear reactors come online in the next ten years or so. With a natural gas monopoly, Russia can make those things go away quietly, and keep a strong hand over Western and Central Europe.

The Brits and Yanks are always game for a fight, and I think the Baltic states, along with Germany and the Eastern European states, especially Poland, Hungary and Slovenia, will look at this as a fight for their sovereignty. The rest of the EU will be reluctant to join in the fun, to say the least. I think it will hinge entirely on what France thinks is in its best interest - if they join the fight, then the entire EU will be mobilized. If they don't, it's pretty much the end of Nato and the EU.

I don't think it will end with a Nuclear exchange. I pray it won't. Either Russia or Nato will get their nose bapped, and back off, making threatening noises. Which is which is very much in the air right now.

~ Soop



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2008 08:18PM by SoupIsGood Food.

The explanation I read was that it was Georgia who started this. And it's because South Ossetia, part of their own country has been moving towards separation for a while now. Of course, indeed with Georgia being the only link of the EU with large energy resources that doesn't go over Russia's soil, the Russians have been feeding the separatists for quite a while.

And now Georgia fell in the trap, as the papers called it here. Now, they've given Russia a reason to respond and start a war.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2008 01:11AM by tliet.

Reports from the BBC say that the South Ossetian forces, and by South Ossetian forces I mean Russians, were raiding into Georgia and shelling towns outside South Ossetia, while arming rebels and turning up the heat on the war inside Abkhazia.

Georgia isn't stupid. They know they're swinging in the wind. They know they're tangling with the Russians. I doubt very much they'd be in this position unless they felt the survival of their state was at stake... the Russians have been making noises about installing their own puppet government for quite some time, and doing their damndest to topple the new pro-west regime.

They fell into the same trap Iraq fell into... being unpopular with a major world power. Nothing more, nothing less. Only this time it's not a dictatorship in the backwaters of Asia. It's a European democracy.

~ Soop

why we are losers.
military expenditures

[edit] A comparison

Table 1. Absolute expenditures (in USD).(2004-2005)

Country Official budget SIPRI RAND DoD
United States $419.3 billion $475.3 billion / $419.3 billion
United Kingdom $58.6 billion $47.4 billion / /
People's Republic of China (PRC) $29.9 billion $30.7 billion $42.0-51.0 billion $63.0 billion
Japan $45.8 billion $42.4 billion / /
Russia $14.5 billion $19.4 billion / $70.0 billion
Republic of China (ROC) $7.6 billion / / /

Table 2. Relative expenditures (as percentage of GDP).

Country Official budget SIPRI RAND DoD
United States 9.6% 0.4% / 9.6%
Russia 2.8% 4.3% / 12%
United Kingdom 2.7% 2.2% / /
Republic of China (ROC) 2.6% / / /
People's Republic of China (PRC) 1.4% 1.8% 1.9-2.4% 1.2%
Japan 1.0% 1.0% / /