Nathan

The Blog | Arianna Huffington: Bush's New Plan for Victory: Stop Saying 'Insurgents' | The Huffington Post: "So 'the insurgency' really is in its last throes.

No, not the effort to drive U.S. forces America out of Iraq -- that continues unabated. I'm talking about the Bush administration's decision to stop using the words 'insurgency' and 'insurgent' to describe the rebel forces."

village voice > news > Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway: "Most of all, Bush himself and his strategy statement omit oil, a major reason--if not the only reason--for invading Iraq to begin with. And here the U.S. is on the verge of executing a total takeover of the once nationalized industry, turning it instead into a privatized business to be run by the big international companies--descendants of the original oil companies that colonized Iraq to begin with."

Forward Newspaper Online: Costly Withdrawal Is the Price To Be Paid for a Foolish War

Via.

New heat on U.S. over global warming treaty - Environment - MSNBC.com: "'When you walk around the conference hall here, delegates are saying there are lots of issues on the agenda, but there's only one real problem, and that's the United States,' said Bill Hare of Greenpeace International."

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Science faces 'dangerous times': "Fundamentalism is hampering global efforts to tackle climate change, according to Britain's top scientist.
In his final speech as president of the Royal Society, Lord May of Oxford will say scientists must speak out against the climate change 'denial lobby'. "

Telegraph | News | The Darwin exhibition frightening off corporate sponsors: "The failure of American companies to back what until recently would have been considered a mainstream educational exhibition reflects the growing influence of fundamentalist Christians, who are among President George W Bush's most vocal supporters, over all walks of life in the United States.
While the Darwin exhibition has been unable to find a business backer - unlike previous exhibitions at the museum - the Creationist Museum near Cincinatti, Ohio, which takes literally the Bible's account of creation, has recently raised $7 million in donations."

Rumsfeld: Don't Call Them 'Insurgents': "Without missing a beat, Rumsfeld replied with a wide grin: 'Enemies of the legitimate Iraqi government. How's that?'"

Let us change the word and thus we change the war. Let us also just perhaps stick our head firmly up our ass and thus avoid the brutal pictures and news coming from that region of the world that we have totally unsettled even further that it all ready was, amazingly enough.

The Blog | Nora Ephron: What About Bob? | The Huffington Post: "They were outsiders, and their lack of top-level access was probably their greatest asset. "

Interesting post.

Executive pay | Too many turkeys | Economist.com: "Even some businessmen are now calling for restraint. Edgar Wollard, a former boss of DuPont, recently proposed that a chief executive's compensation should be indexed to the pay of the senior vice-presidents that head his firm's divisions. At DuPont, he was limited to 150% of the average pay of those other top executives. Mr Hindery, a serial CEO in the telecoms and media businesses, says he has published his book partly because greed in corporate America is now damaging capitalism."

Only Dungy can keep Colts from history - NFL - MSNBC.com: "Your whole plan is to win the Super Bowl."

Good for him, it seems that he has learned something from last season and improved... and changed. I think it is great that he is considering this at the very least and sounds like he may even implement it.

It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that ring.

Rise in deadly storms worries researchers - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com: "So although the close of this year's hurricane season on Nov. 30 may allow residents along the Southeast coast to heave a sigh of relief, it also points to a growing worry: What is going on with the weather?"

I believe the cracks now are becoming so brutally apparent that it is in all our hands to figure out what the heck are we going to do in the next year - five years to remake and reform the United States of America. This Jack Abramoff scandal emerging may prove to dwarf them all.

The central question to me is: what role do we want corporations to play in our nation and national direction. We need to confront this issue directly very quickly. We need some new founding fathers to help us re-find our national essense.

Barack Obama - U.S. Senator for Illinois: "I don't know. None of us can answer that question fully until we find ourselves in that situation. What I do know is that the extraordinary men and women that I met seemed uninterested in rage or self-pity. They were proud of their service. They were hopeful for their future. They displayed the kind of grit and optimism and resourcefulness that represents the very best of America.

They remind us, in case we need reminding, that there is no more profound decision that we can make than the decision to send this nation's youth to war, and that we have a moral obligation not only to send them for good reasons, but to constantly examine, based on the best information and judgment available, in what manner, and for what purpose, and for how long we keep them in harm's way.

-snip-

It is no coincidence that both Mr. Edwards and Mr. Powell no longer serve the government in Washington. Those of us in Washington are falling behind the debate that is taking place across America on Iraq. We are failing to provide leadership on this issue.

Iraq was a major issue in last year's election.

But that election is now over.

We need to stop the campaign."

Stop Global Warming: Join the Virtual March: "Watch the Blue Man Group video featured on 'Earth To America!'"

Seriously.

Report: Bush Talked of Bombing Al-Jazeera - Yahoo! News: "A civil servant has been charged under Britain's Official Secrets Act for allegedly leaking a government memo that a newspaper said Tuesday suggested that Prime Minister Tony Blair persuaded President Bush not to bomb the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera. "

oh boy

Louisiana Sees Faded Urgency in Relief Effort - New York Times: "Officials from both parties say the bottlenecks have occurred in large part because of a leadership vacuum in Washington, where President Bush and Congress have been preoccupied for weeks with Iraq, deficit reduction, the C.I.A. leak investigation and the Supreme Court. "

A leadership vacuum everywhere it seems. The money grab is in full effect and sadly leadership has been lost in the new push. My heart goes out to the Katrina victims especially after seeing on 60 minutes some of the neighborhoods - it really looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off.

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall November 21, 2005 01:31 PM

Hello Dr. Marshall,

Very good points made in your post here. I am going to take some time to write about my thoughts on this post in my blog so I thought I might as well share them with you now too, for what it is worth.

Before the war I remember my heart dropping late one night while I was watching George Bush make threatening, fearful statements about Iraq, thinking that there was no doubt in his mind and thus no doubt in mine: we were going to war with Iraq. This was probably 6-8 months before the start of shock and awe. I hate that our media allowed him to be so certain without an ounce of doubt then and only now has begun to question things. They are acting like the 40 year olds that bought their first Red Sox jersey last year: disgusting front runners. There is always doubt among intelligence agencies and intelligence – why did they not question the fact that implicitly and explicitly the case was made and Iraq was tried and convicted so stunningly quick and assuredly?

But they allow and encourage this in so many respects do they not? You are either a liberal or a conservative. Things are either good or evil. Black or white. There is no grey and honest discussion in our media outlets these days. It is about themes and framing things in certain ways and it is about time it stopped.

I think you are part of a great trend to encourage this change – please keep up the good work.

Murtha Says Americans Agree With Him - Yahoo! News: "'The guys in Congress are scared to death to say anything because they might be vilified,' Murtha said. 'The soldiers can't speak for themselves. We sent them to war and, by God, we're the ones that have to speak out.'"

GOP forcing vote on call for troop pullout - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com

Wow. All I can say.

The Terrorist Temptation - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com

An interesting article that covers a lot of ground and since I have nothing to add, as the Sports Guy might say, I will offer something that I was thinking about the other night.

Let's say you are working in your backyard digging some holes for a fence and all of a sudden you come upon something hard. You dig a little more and find out what you have just hit upon is gold. Literally, gold. A lot of it.

Soon enough your neighbor finds out about it and becomes pretty good friends to you. Seemingly very genuine and giving. Your neighbor is so nice he ends up giving you these amazing attack dobermans. No one would get near your gold with these crazy firebreathers around.

Your neighbor doesn't seem to ask for too much at first, but does accept your invitations to dinner and to enjoy your new pool and go out with you to the clubs every once and a while. A couple years go by though and the relationship kinda moves on and you don't talk as much anymore.

Finally your neighbor starts saying to other people in the neighborhood how tyranical you are. That neighbor starts talking how you would sometimes act in the clubs (punching people or taking two women home with you) and how crazy your house parties could be sometimes. Your neighbor also starts talking to people like, 'Can you believe those fucking dogs! They bark all the time and are pretty scary. I would hate to see them get loose.' Your neighbor also talks about how you might be looking to get some wolves here soon and becoming even more menancing.

Finally, your neighbor kills you. The neighbor did it in a nice way, with undectable poison that can never be traced back, but you are dead nonetheless. Your neighbor then takes your house and your gold due to some questionable property laws.

What do you think the neighborhood thinks?

It is an allegory.

Quick rant: Why the fuck does Cingular only have a $39.99 plan? Jeezuz. I use like 30 minutes a month or less and I still have to pay for 400+ minutes a month? That is ridiculous. Okay, rant over.

Global warming study forecasts more water shortages / Climate change already affecting Sierra snowpack: "A warmer world is virtually certain to be much thirstier, too, according to a new study by West Coast researchers of the impact of global warming on water supplies.
Climate change experts led by Tim Barnett at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla (San Diego County) found that at least one-sixth of the world's population, including much of the industrial world and a quarter of global economic output, appeared vulnerable to water shortages brought about by climate change. "

Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force: "Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who posed the question about the task force, said he will ask the Justice Department today to investigate. 'The White House went to great lengths to keep these meetings secret, and now oil executives may be lying to Congress about their role in the Cheney task force,' Lautenberg said."

Meditate on This: Buddhist Tradition Thickens Parts of the Brain - Yahoo! News

Text of Bush's remarks in Kyoto, Japan

56 'Freedom's. Jeezuz.

Like people writing their angles on Terrell (I tried to find a link for you to a Sports Guy story about this, but oh well the link seems broken) I want to give you a fresh angle on this Iraq shit we are now stuck in. This three thousand year old argument we are now intimately involved in.

So now, finally, and about a year plus late and an election short we are thinking, ‘Wait, hey, maybe we should investigate fully how the administration used intelligence!’ Congratulations, we all get a star.

The saddest thing to me though in this situation is: preemption. These leaders who obviously had an agenda that may or may not have had something to do with oil in the desert and a former CEO position at Halliburton decided and used intelligence not only to say that Iraq’s regime had MASSIVE weapons, but that they were going to use them. And they were going to use them on US! And it was going to be VERY soon.

It is a sordid tale from the start no doubt, especially for our finest still out in those sands. But the movie Minority Report keeps playing over and over in my head and reminds me, and I will remind you: these dunces don’t know nothing and certainly couldn’t tell the future. Hopefully something like this will never happen again.

Did you see me out there on the court in Campbell? You might have heard someone yell out ‘shooter’! I was feeling it pretty good that night, but damn if I didn’t bring the Cherry Park mentality to Campball. Bad Nathan. There were a couple of times I shoulda passed when I shot, but oh well. It went in more than it missed—pretty much (probably 50/50 after that stupid NBA length+ 3 I threw up).

Anyway, my team was bad. We even had one girl on the team who couldn’t really do much of anything besides pass. God love her for going out there and some of the best basketball players from my high school were girls, but we were just over matched. Way. She didn’t help.

Enough about my latest run around the playground. Have a good day. Live it up, it is a Tuesday after all.

Senate rejects timetable for Iraq withdrawal - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com: "Republicans countered with their own nonbinding alternative that the Senate approved on a 79-19 vote. Five Democrats sided with the majority party."

Yes, the republicans are still winning! Please believe it. Please?

EMINEM LYRICS - When I'm Gone: "Have you ever loved someone so much you'd give an arm for?
Not the expression, no, literally give an arm for?
When they know they are your heart
And you know you are their armour"

Don't miss it. When I'm Gone.

Let's Try Baloney - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com: "One former diplomat after three glasses of wine at an embassy dinner confessed that he has a recurring image of the White House as a crab with seven atrophied legs and one over-developed leg, which would be Karl Rove, pulling everything along. 'If he goes, there's nothing left.'"

A seemingly leftist, but hilarious line. Love it.

I would say that they are a bunch of ass boils and hemroids.

AOL News - Fight Over Abuse Pits Bush Against Party Allies: "He rejects a compromise proposed by Cheney to excuse the CIA from his proposed ban. 'There can be no exemptions,' he said.
McCain's strategy is to attach the amendment to bills that will be hard for his colleagues or Bush to reject. He tacked it onto a Pentagon spending bill that contains all military funding, including for the war in Iraq. He also attached it to a bill that authorizes Pentagon programs for next year. 'We will win sooner or later,' he said. 'I will not quit.'"

mtv.com - News - Outkast Finally Ready To Drop Their New LP, Big Boi Says

Consider me excited.

Google: "We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet: and, amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us."

Evil Is So Damned Boring / Karl Rove, pasty neocon judges, "Saw II," Dick Cheney's dead soul, ho-hum, pass the wine: "Which is to say, sure, we all love the drama of evil and we love the spectacle of evil and the media (and this very column) can beat the drum of evil's bloody lusciousness until we're red with yawning outrage, but after a while one thing becomes painfully true: We are not moved. We are not really all that scared. We might as well be shaking a fistful of sand: After a minute or two, there's just ain't nuthin' there. "

MercuryNews.com | 11/08/2005 | Voters head to polls: "``My concern isn't about my vote, because I was able to figure out how to change it,'' Kahn said. ``My concern is all those other machines out there. Are they doing the same thing? Is this an honest vote?''"

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Covering Teen Wolf: One Coach's Guide.: "To begin, you're going to have to resign yourself to the fact that Teen Wolf is probably going to drop at least 50 points. That might seem like a lot, but, unfortunately, it's just the way the ball bounces. As coach, you need to recognize that your job isn't to do the impossible; you're not going to stop Teen Wolf entirely, but you can try to contain him by making him play your team's style of basketball. "

Hilarious link from the Intern at Sports Guy's World --->

RollingStone.com: The Litigator : Politics: "In his thirty-five years of shaping NRDC's legal tactics, Adams says, he has never seen a more worthy target than the Bush administration: 'Their denial is stupefying. Here we have an administration that invaded Iraq on sparse and even bogus evidence, and yet they claim to be unconvinced by the overwhelming data on climate change -- despite a bigger scientific consensus than most any we've ever seen in history.'"

Very interesting point.

RollingStone.com: Warriors & Heroes : Politics

If only it was 25,000 or 25 million. And maybe it is, but we are just lacking the strong leadership to get 'er done.

Bush Declares: 'We Do Not Torture' - Yahoo! News: "Over White House opposition, the Senate has passed legislation banning torture. With Vice President Dick Cheney as the point man, the administration is seeking an exemption for the CIA. It was recently disclosed that the spy agency maintains a network of prisons in eastern Europe and Asia, where it holds terrorist suspects."

Salon.com | The time to act is now: "It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly and wisely. 'Global warming' is the name it was given a long time ago. But it should be understood for what it is: a planetary emergency that now threatens human civilization on multiple fronts. Stronger hurricanes and typhoons represent only one of many new dangers as we begin what someone has called 'a nature hike through the Book of Revelation.' "

I like the idea, Alterman, of Gore/Obama. I like it a lot.

What is the old satellite seeing today?

Blog Roundup - Newsweek Blog Talk - MSNBC.com

It is funny now in retrospect to see how well accepted blogs are isn't it? I suppose it is something kinda like the internet or cell phones or whatever: almost hard to imagine life without them.

We keep progressing. We keep digressing.

Alito�s civil rights judgments draw scrutiny - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com: "Bray v. Marriott attracted scarcely any attention at the time. But now that Alito has been nominated to the Supreme Court, it is part of a group of cases -- spanning gender bias, sexual harassment, age discrimination and disability and voting rights -- that his critics say reflects a narrow reading of civil rights laws."

Civil rights, shmivel rights. Jeez. We need people to look out for the corporations this day and age! Exxon just set a new profit record and we cannot let that go unchallenged!

TT

TPMCafe || Sen. Reid Demands an Investigation

Nuttin' up. Color me shocked.