So much going on….
This has been quite a week. Ron Suskind’s revelations about Bush/Cheney’s attempts to get the CIA to forge a document creating a connection between Saddam and 9/11, Bush’s reported berating of the FBI director who wasn’t willing to falsely blame Al Qaeda for the anthrax incidents, and the corporate media offering healthy skepticsm (for a change) of the FBI’s “case closed” fingering Dr. Ivins for the anthrax mailings, now that he is (conveniently) no longer alive to defend himself. Impeachment is on the table–in Pakistan. And the Hamdan show trial at Gitmo produces a split decision and a humane sentence, despite the fundamental unfairness of the process and the fact that Hamdan was tortured. If you missed some of these topics, grab a podcast and get caught up.
My personal thanks to all who have supported our fundraiser to help cover our costs for coverage of the Democratic Convention in Denver at the end of August!
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Where is information about supplies for Gaza? I don’t see it.
Here are some ineresting oak trees:
http://www.ivenacker-eichen.de/html/engl.html
Something about Russia and Georgia:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts08112008.html
The smell of propaganda in the morning:
The press calls for war in the Caucasus:
http://www.counterpunch.org/moses08112008.html
This is an excellent guest. She gives an account that differs from the mainstream fog and spin. Now, is there anyone at that Monterey think tank who has an analysis on the Balkans situation that is likewise balanced? (I know, I keep hammering you on this.)
Russia is fighting a war in the way the US did in the 1990s. One obvious point I have heard is that Georgia taunted Russia, in hopes that the US would intervene on their side, as the US did on the Kosovar side in 1999. One reason the US will stay out militarily is because Russia is much more powerful than Serbia was.
I like those analysts from the Monterey Institute. They provide valuable analyses. I think I said that before.
My Man! Good to hear the Clinton war of 1999 compared with Putin’s 2008 war.
Anybody got the RJ Shulman site address? I’m looking for it online and just can’t find it. Thanks.
Russia’s Georgia campaign and the expansion of NATO:
http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp08182008.html
How Long Before the Military is Back at the Helm?
Pakistan After Musharraf
By TARIQ ALI
Pakistan’s military dictators never go quietly. Field-Marshal Ayub was removed by a three-month long popular insurrection in March 1969. General Yahya Khan destroyed Pakistan before he departed in 1972. General Zia-ul-Haq (the worst of the lot) was blown up in his military pl;ane rtogether with the US Ambassador in 1988. And now General Musharraf is digging his heels. There is a temporary stalemate in Pakistan. The Army is in favour of him going quietly, but is against impeachment. Washington is prepared for him to go, but quietly. And last Friday the chief of Saudi intelligence agency, Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, had secretly arrived in Pakistan and held talks with coalition leaders and President Musharraf. He wants a ‘safe exit’ for the president. Sanctuaries in Manhattan, Texas and the Turkish island of Büyükada (Prinkipo) are being actively considered. The General would prefer a large estate in Pakistan, preferably near a golf course, but security considerations alone would make that infeasible.
One way or another he will go soon. Power has been draining away from him for over a year now. Had he departed peacefully when his constitutional term expired in November 2007 he would have won some respect. Instead he imposed a State of Emergency and sacked the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In January, the latter wrote an open letter to Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown, Condoleezza Rice and the president of the European Parliament. The letter, which remains unanswered, explained the real reasons for Musharraf’s actions:
At the outset you may be wondering why I have used the words ‘claiming to be the head of state’. That is quite deliberate. General Musharraf’s constitutional term ended on 15 November 2007. His claim to a further term thereafter is the subject of active controversy before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. It was while this claim was under adjudication before a bench of 11 learned judges of the Supreme Court that the general arrested a majority of those judges in addition to me on 3 November 2007. He thus himself subverted the judicial process which remains frozen at that point. Besides arresting the chief justice and judges (can there have been a greater outrage?) he also purported to suspend the constitution and to purge the entire judiciary (even the high courts) of all independent judges. Now only his hand-picked and compliant judges remain willing to ‘validate’ whatever he demands. And all this is also contrary to an express and earlier order passed by the Supreme Court on 3 November 2007.
http://www.counterpunch.org
Was McCain a collaborator?
http://www.counterpunch.org/valentine06132008.html
PDA
It is said a lot that the Republicans hit a low point in 1964, given the Johnson landslide. And then underwent a transformation, culminating in Reagan’s big win in 1980. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that we should be saying that it was a conservative transformation, as the Republicans regularly won offices high and low. Not only did they win, Nixon, etal., they maintained the social safety network, as many have pointed out. This started to change in 1980–some say 1978, with Carter’s balanced budget talk, limits in social program expenditures, and of course, his deregulation of industries–with the election of Reagan. O, to return to the liberalism of Nixon and Ford.
Peter B.!
It was terrific meeting you at the Non-Stop Radio Symposium in Madison. I thoroughly enjoyed driving you and Jon and everyone, and enjoyed speaking with you. Jon is a terrific fellow and so are you.
I’m hoping to be one of the Non-Stop Radio Symposium volunteers next year. Keep up the great work and hope to see you next year.
Jan Tessier
Madison, WI
Who was the person talking about Ohio and the voting machines Sunday night repeat in Seattle Aug. 24th?
Dr. Rice.
Something bothers me about this Obama advisor. She did a good job of detailing Russia’s overreaction in Ossettia and Georgia, but what of the provocation of NATO (and US)? She also mouths the same “nuclear Iran is a threat to US and Israel.” Can you say partisanship? I wish you would have put some tougher questions to her.
Mark Riley! I hear he is back at WLIB. I will have to stream him sometime.
Tom Franks has been writing about the erosion of New Deal/Great Society government since the 1990s in Baffler. Clinton: NAFTA, ATEDP, welfare reforms, bungling of healthcare reforms. You know the drill.
Bush/Cheney are probably the worse ones in the process that probably began in 1978. One problem I have is that Democrats have enabled it to happen.
Gentrification! Yippee! It’s contagious.