Pakistan Bombs For Terrorism, New Texas Schoolbooks, Earmark This

David Brooks
Eugene Robinson
Joe Biden

"Political partisans always imagine the other side is ruthlessly effective and that the public would be with them if only their side had better messaging." - David Brooks

"Anyone who claims to be able to identify a potential terrorist by appearance or nationality is delusional. There's a reason all of us have to take our shoes off at the airport." - Eugene Robinson

A few days ago, an influential Pakistani cleric, Sheikh Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri, issued a 600 page fatwa against those who would commit terrorism. It has sparked a lot of debate throughout the region, and this week the terrorists answered back, unfortunately aimed at hurting innocent civilians. There have just been two suicide bomber attacks, one this morning aimed at an army convoy near a crowded bus stop at the edge of a popular and busy bazaar. Several other bombs were set off in Lahore, and another severe one that injured 39 happened earlier this week. Makes me wish the pen really was mightier than the sword, or at least, fertilizer bombs.

The NY Times suggests some other reasons for the attacks that are more secular in nature: "Lahore is the biggest city in of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. The attacks here this week seemed a direct challenge to the authority and effectiveness of the military, which recruits heavily in Punjab and has sought to move against militants in recent months in Pakistan’s mountainous and often lawless areas near the border with Afghanistan.


The surge in violence follows a Pakistani crackdown on militants linked to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, including the arrest of the Taliban’s No. 2 commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. No group immediately took responsibility for the latest attack on Friday."
Pakistani Taliban have also been regrouping in South Waziristan, where the Army had finished a campaign to wipe out their strongholds. Maybe next time the Army won't give notice of their advancement on radio and television first, just keep it to a couple of YouTube videos...

Meanwhile, the Pakistani Navy has been testing some new missiles and torpedos, aimed at impressing their arch-enemy, India. This paranoid saber-rattling between the two countries has been going on ever since Pakistan was formed, I think they are scared that India will demand they become part of their country once again because they are ruling Pakistan so poorly.  Of course, India feeds into and fuels the fire by tweaking their noses every once in awhile. Like the pact India just signed with Russia, allowing Russia to help upgrade their nuclear systems. And the ruler of Dubai went to India to check out the new Russian toys, to see how they compared with the US's technology. Oh, what a wonderful world...

"President Obama has signed a bill to increase tourism to the United States. Tourism is way down, which is surprising. You'd think people from foreign countries would want to come here to see where their American jobs originated." –Jay Leno

I can see that many future homework assignments in Texas schools will be asking students to research and point out the lies printed in their textbooks. In an 11-4 vote, the Texas Board of Education approved to include all of the 160 amendments emphasizing Conservative Christian beliefs and ways of thinking over all others: "After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday voted to approve a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the role of Christianity in American history and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.


In recent years, board members have been locked in an ideological battle between a bloc of conservatives who question Darwin’s theory of evolution and believe the Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles and a handful of Democrats and moderate Republicans who have fought to preserve the teaching of Darwinism and the separation of church and state.


Since January, Republicans on the board have passed more than 160 amendments to the 120-page curriculum standards affecting history, sociology and economics courses from elementary to high school. The standards were proposed by a board of teachers." Because Texas buys so many textbooks from academic publishers, it used to be that what was put into their textbooks would influence children in other less populous states, but in this digital age most publishers can tailor the text to each state's needs. What this means in Texas is that Conservative Christians no longer have to keep their kids at home to be home schooled, now it will be the moderates, liberals, Jews, Hispanics, Asians, and Muslims who will invest in home schooling, leaving the public schools to wither and die from any Federal funding. when my sister's grandkids moved here to Colorado from Texas, they had a hard time academically, they were barely getting by. And they are smart kids. Now that they are back in Austin, they are getting all A's and B's, happily coasting along without really being challenged intellectually. Honestly, I now despair if they ever will go to college and find a way to better themselves. I think I will counsel them to join the Armed Forces... A set of national textbook standards is now being debated.

Why not let those Texans believe what they want to? Does it matter if a majority of people never pick up and read a book after they graduate from school? Maybe these will be the folks who will move to Costa Rica along with Rush Limbaugh after the health care reform bill passes. Then, you could go and visit on your next vacation, arrive at DittoHead Airport, drive down Oxycontin Drive to stay at the Kristol Arms Hotel, reading the occasional billboard plastered with the sayings from Chairman Newt... Of course the major flaw in this scenario is that Rush is not a religious man, he only worships money and isn't very generous with it, so I doubt that any evangelicals would seriously follow him anywhere after they got to know him in person...

Yesterday the House Appropriations Committee announced that it would no longer consider putting earmarks on legislative bills from any for-profit corporation. Not to be outdone, House Republicans announced that they would not propose any earmarks at all for one year, this election year...

Already lobbyists are trying to find ways around, since they also had over $1.7 billion in orders for earmarks last year from their clients: "Some firms talked of partnering with hospitals, universities and other nonprofit organizations in seeking federal money, an idea that Congressional officials said might not be allowed under the new rules. Others said they planned to become more aggressive about applying directly to the Pentagon and other federal departments and agencies, and not Congress, for grant money. Still others are warning their clients to diversify their financing sources and become less reliant on Washington." Earmarks are essentially no-bid contracts added onto a bill at the last minute by a Congressperson, usually in return for a campaign donation.

So far no members of the Senate have jumped on board the bandwagon, so there will be some conflict down the line, probably when the two appropriations bill have to be reconciled. I don't know what bitter experience Arizona had with earmarks, but so far the champions for getting rid of them have been John McCain and Rep John Flake, who was very happy with the current outcome. Many lobbying firms may dry up and leave town, especially the ones who only had defense contractors as clients.

We'll have to wait and see if these new rules will have any effect. One defense lobbyist says that earmarks gives transparency to a project, but there is no review process to evaluate if an earmarked project is a good one or a waste of taxpayer's money. We'll also have to watchdog the industry and see what dirty little tricks they produce to earn their billions in fees...

Biden's Successful Diplomacy, Gates Plan To Isolate Iran, Goodbye Mr Rush

Dana Milbank
Matt Latimer
Michael Young

"Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid is in trouble again for saying it's really good news that America only lost 36,000 jobs in February. Well, think how happy he'll be when November comes and he loses his job." – Jay Leno

"And I love this. Radio host Rush Limbaugh says he will leave the United States if health care reform passes. Well, if that doesn't get the Democrats to rally, nothing will." – Jay Leno

"David Letterman spent ten minutes making fun of Rahm Emanuel last night. This kind of stuff just doesn't happen." - Rush Limbaugh

Top Ten Signs Rahm Emanuel Is Nuts

10. Every morning he takes a leak off the Truman balcony
9. President Obama smokes cigarettes; Rahm eats them

8. Spotted today at Toyota dealership

7. He's leaving Obama to become a special adviser to Richard Nixon

6. In a fit of rage, he snapped Dennis Kucinich in half

5. Changing his name to Rahm Emanuel Lewis

4. Refers to every Cabinet official as 'Clarkie'

3. Recently got into a heated policy debate with his stapler

2. You mean, besides walking around D.C. naked?

1. Even Andy Dick is telling him to chill

Boy, I hate getting half of a story, clearly missing the best part. Yesterday I wrote about the dueling press conferences between Robert Gates and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Kabul. Maybe our world leaders all have the travel bug, because even Hamid Karzai left to go shmooze with leaders in Pakistan shortly after Mahmoud went back home. Karzai is trying to get Pakistani help in starting dialogues with the Taliban. Pakistan wants better links because it doesn't want Karzai to forge s relationship with India. And India suddenly realizes this and will now send ambassadors to Afghanistan. So it goes.

I have also not been sufficiently paranoid because I didn't think about the theory floating around that Gates, Karzai, and Ahmadinejad had actually all secretly met together for some kind of negotiations on the future of Afghanistan. Gates even commented on it before he left: "Asked for his reaction to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s visit so close to his own, Mr. Gates at first said that “it’s clearly fodder for conspiratorialists... We think Afghanistan should have good relations with all of its neighbors, but we also want all of Afghanistan’s neighbors to play an up-front game in dealing with the government of Afghanistan.” If Ahmadinejad were a saner person, a meeting of this kind could have been beneficial... Iran and Afghanistan share a lot of borderland that serves as a smuggling route, both for al-Qaeda and for drugs. Based on their mutual co-operation in capturing Abdulmalik Rigi, Asia Times notes: "Iran wants to extend this multilateral cooperation to the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking. This would involve closer cooperation with the United States and foreign troops in Afghanistan, and therein lies the problem..."

Gates then flew to Saudi Arabia, to for private talks about the plans forming to isolate Iran if it starts getting belligerent. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Gen. David H. Petraeus, who oversees the United States Central Command, all had previously made the rounds, so we know that something important is up. We already have agreements with Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait to put in anti-missile systems to go with a possible naval blockade. Negotiations with the Saudis are to help keep a US presence in the region after we withdraw troops from Iraq.

The best way to de-escalate the situation with Iran may be to accept their claims and are being honest about wanting nuclear plants to produce energy. We have the capacity to tell if they are weaponizing, and if we worked more intimately with the International Atomic Energy Committee in monitoring their programs, we might get more information with honey than the fly-swatter. Iran doesn't have enough uranium to do what it wants right now. If they build more reactors they are going to have to get more somewhere, as well as upgrade the US built centrifuges they have now. Also, with the unrest after their last election, Iran doesn't have much credibility with its neighbors and poses less of a threat than it ever has in the past.

The reactions to Joe Biden's trip to Israel, and how he handled being blindsided is a good lesson in diplomacy. He was able to express support for Israel and also show concern for Palestinian interests with his condemnation of the announced housing units to be built in East Jerusalem. He got a standing ovation in Tel Aviv for his honesty and compassion for the situation, with pundits asking if he could be the catalyst to get talks back on the productive path, something everyone has been giving lip service but nobody being brave enough to lead in action. Even though it's clear that the Israelis are going to have to create a Palestinian state, and the details should begin to be hammered out, Joe ended his speech with a touch of world weary precaution:  “I can’t tell you that peace will come easily,” said the vice president. “You know better.” But right now there is a lot more optimism than before he arrived...

It used to be a popular refrain back in the sixties and seventies "If so-and-so gets elected, I'm leaving the country!" Then, Nixon, or Reagan, or Carter got elected, and the person never really left, just stayed around and groused.

Now, Rush Limbaugh has announced that "If health care reform passes, I'm leaving the country!" Well, don't let the door hit your butt on your way out... If Rush does leave and tries to broadcast from outside of the country like Wolfman Jack did with XERB in Mexico, would he then be considered a pirate radioteer, and we would have the FCC jam him and put out a warrant for his treasonous ass? Just asking...

While I am in a wondering mood, there are accusations floating around that our own James Dobson was forced out of his own organization Focus on the Family because he was too far to the right for the newer, kinder, gentler Board of Directors? "[T]the board of directors voted privately on Wednesday -- before we got there -- to ask for my resignation, although their request was made with kindness and respect. We can only guess the reason for their decision because frankly I don't fully know,"

It's not like they kept him on a yacht at sea, drugged and drunk all of the time while they slowly took over his organization, then dumped his sorry old butt into a nursing home in San Luis Obispo, oh, sorry, I thought we were talking about Scientology for a moment... of course, James has retired in the heart of medical marijuana land, so maybe the plan is to keep him herbally medicated to thwart his new planned radio show...

Mahmoud in Kabul, Gurus Are My Favorite Frauds, Death To For-Profit Earmarks

Dana Milbank
Lee Siegal
David Harris

"If ever a political mentality cried out for analysis, it’s the toxic gray matter lying between the ears of Liz Cheney" - Lee Siegal

As Defense Secretary Robert Gates was leaving his tour of Afghanistan, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was arriving for some economic talks between their two countries. He gave a press conference that was attended by Western reporters. I never thought I would be saying this, but he actually said something that made sense, mostly because it parrots the current counterinsurgency strategy employed by the US, of course coupled with a sharp criticism: "Asked at a news conference with Karzai about Gates' comments, Ahmadinejad responded: "The question is what are you [Gates and troops] doing here in this region?


"You are 12,000km away on the other side the of the world. What are you doing here? This is a serious question.

"They are not successful in their fight against terrorists, because they are playing a double game. They themselves created this excuse of terrorism themselves, and now they say that they want to stop them. It is not possible.


"The fight against terrorism is not a military one it requires the work of intelligence, through respecting nations and to separate people from terrorists." Actually, this is the course of action  being taken by most Muslim countries, now that the military threat of al-Qaeda has been minimized, and people get tired of being bombed, beheaded, dismembered, maimed, crippled, raped, robbed, and had acid thrown in their face. There have been so many suicide bombers who have gone on to Paradise, that  they have transformed those 72 virgins into working prostitutes, as they take a number and stand in line... In the meantime, a report was released saying that the largest amount of inept handling of funds and lack of oversight is located at the US embassy in Kabul... and the embassy agreed.

David Harris, in his opinion piece above, makes a good point, that the entire Arabian Peninsula has a history of Jews and Muslims living together. In fact, include groups of Christians, Copts, and several other religious groups. Except that since the date when we invaded Iraq, many Christian groups have fled the region, and those who have stayed have faced intense persecution from both Sunnis and Shiites. In Iraq, there aren't many groups as strong as the Kurds who can stand up to the bullying in the midst of a religious civil war. And if you look in Jerusalem, Christians have steadily been leaving the city, with the ones staying keeping their heads down and creating a low profile. Which is weird, because you would think that the wrangling over which site is holiest to each religion would be between Christians and Jews, the Muslims being the late-coming interlopers here. Most holy sites have been torn down by one group and rebuilt over it so many times since the Crusades, that you might think they could acknowledge that the sites are holy to all humans, no matter what faith they believe in, and it is our duty to preserve them and share them. To really achieve peace, we need to take the blindfold off and look outside of the cave...

My very favorite group of frauds are the self-proclaimed god-men, who come out of Indian tadition to prey upon the gullible and foolish among us who would give them money and power. Shri Rajneesh comes immediately to mind, who came to the US and tried to take over a town in Oregon from a militaristic fortified compound. After he was deported back to India, he changed his name to Osho, as if that magically erased his past.

Now there are several such scammers being investigated and put on trial in India, who should have started doing this 200 years ago, but they have been too busy building up their nuclear arsenal to bother. The crimes span from murder to pimping to extortion: " The murder cases relate to the killings of Ramchander Chhatrapati, a local journalist, and Ranjeet Singh, a former disciple.


Chhatrapati would criticize Gurmeet's alleged misdeeds in his news reports, while Ranjeet Singh had accused Gurmeet of raping his younger sister. The CBI has charged Baba Gurmeet with arranging their deaths through his henchmen." It's not every journalist that would the word "henchmen" in a report, I love it. This guru has millions of followers that have rioted before, trying to protect him, even threatened self immolation which caused a mass handing out of fire extinguishers to the police. Politicians snuggle up to these men to woo the votes of their disciples, much the way that James Dobson was coddled in America.

A couple other gurus under suspicion are: "Besides Gurmeet, other religious gurus have recently been implicated in unsavory episodes that purportedly involved police and politicians.

Swami Nithyananda, a god-man who has a large following in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu was last week filmed cavorting with an unidentified Tamil actress in a television sting operation - he is now on the run. His ashram has said the video footage, run by a television channel, is "fake".


Swami Bhimananda, a follower of the legendry guru Sai Baba, was arrested by police in February for allegedly running a high-end call girl racket in the city. Bhimananda allegedly used a temple in south Delhi for operations allegedly involving about 200 prostitutes, including air hostesses from a foreign airline and students. Bhimananda has been arrested on similar charges in the past."

It gives a warm feeling to know that not only old hippies and starry eyed college kids can fall for a charismatic fraud, give up and devote their lives to perpetuating a god-like ego, walk around wearing silly orange pajamas. And then there was the Creative Consciousness Community, a scam started by the Reverend Moon, who owns the Washington Times newspaper and lives in Korea. I don't think he's allowed back into the US, either... Besides, these guys give someone like Sean David Morton someone to look up to, a goal that he can psychically aspire to...


another small step forward...
The House Appropriations Committee announced some good news today: "... it will no longer approve earmarks for for-profit companies.


Agency inspectors general will also be required to audit at least 5 percent of earmarks for nonprofits to protect against corporations hiding behind a nonprofit veil, according to an announcement from Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) and Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), the head of the defense appropriations subcommittee." This is aimed primarily at defense contractors, who spend millions lobbying for projects while their executives contribute to political campaigns. It's another small step in reform, next should come banning all earmarks, make them go through a vetting and normal legislative process. Then, either ban all lobbyists, or make them fair game for the guys who like to wear their guns around on their hips, give them something constructive to do...


And now, a word from my PEEPS:

Biden Embarrassed By Israel, Nuclear Report, Silver Lining in Texas

Dana Milbank
Anne Applebaum
Zainab Salbi

"Representative Charles Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has temporarily surrendered his post pending an ethics investigation. They've been investigating him for three months now. And so far, they have not found a single trace of ethics." – Jay Leno

"Hey, how about this? President Obama had a meeting at the White House with Jay-Z and Beyoncé. And, in fact, they hit it off so well, Jay-Z gave the president his own rap name, 'Biggie Deficit.'" – Jay Leno

"I'm not sure if you guys have heard the latest update on healthcare reform, but Democrats are saying they hope to get a final healthcare vote before Easter. Well, I don't know. Two resurrections is a lot to hope for, don't you think?" – Jimmy Fallon

I wonder how I would feel if I braved going to my polling place to vote, then coming back home to find my house in rubble, bombed while I was away. The fact that so many Iraqis did vote for one of more than 350 candidates is a testament to their fortitude and determination to forge an identity. The doom-sayers are predicting that this may be the last free election in Iraq, because it will fall apart in sectarian violence after the US pulls out all of its troops in 2011. Of course Iraq can always replace them by hiring Blackwater mercenaries to take their place, think of it as sweet revenge...

Most other pundits in the region view Iraq as that couple down the street who are always arguing and at each other's throats, yelling at each other at the top of their lungs, so that you can never get to sleep on a Saturday night: “People in the region are definitely interested in democracy and in practicing their own rights,” said Mr. Abdullah, the political science professor from United Arab Emirates University. “But the Iraqi experience will have an impact on the region only once it stabilizes. Right now, it is so sectarian and unstable that it turns people off. If it becomes a stable democracy, then it will have some impact.” It's predicted that Mr Maliki will have retained his crown, and the emerging influential opposition will be the Allawi coalition, both campaigned on uniting Iraq in a secular way.

Joe Biden was in Israel, hugging and confirming his big love. In response, Israel announced that it was going to build 1,700 new houses in East Jerusalem, to pack in more Jewish settlers into what is considered the Palestinian section of the city. Thoroughly embarrassed, Joe had to make a statement condemning them. The criticism is that the Obama administration has not been as supportive of Israel as they should, in retaliation the right wing faction planned this piece of street theater. If Israel continues its juvenile pranking and biting the hands that feed it, it may become as isolated as Iran is on the global scene...

Not to be outdone by Iran's recent announcement that they were building more nuclear plants, both Israel and neighboring Syria today announced their plans to build another reactor. It will be Israel's third nuclear plant, and Syria's first. Both countries are immediately suspected of wanting to build nuclear weapons with the new plants, especially Syria, who has greater ties to Iran, and had their last attempt at building a facility bombed by Israel in 2007.

Interesting to note that Israel is contracting with France to build their reactors, Syria had used South Korea before and probably will again. South Korea is already contracted to build a reactor in the UAE, while Russia will do the honors in Iran. Iran's first centrifuges, which they still use, were bought from the US by the Shah, and the US was able to monkey-wrench them once when the Ayatollahs took over, which delayed their program for several years. No word on where each country plans on placing its nuclear waste, probably in rusty barrels dropped off the coast of some poor African country late at night, or in the harbor facing Gaza...

Every time I get depressed reading about the weird and drug-like induced behavior of right wingers, I get cheered up when us moderates strike a win for truth and justice for all. This happened in last week's Republican primary election for the Texas Board of Education. A moderate beat out Don McLeroy, who had served on the Board since 1999, and has been involved in an acrimonious debate over revising school textbook standards. This is important because Texas buys so many textbooks that the publishers use them as a standard for books sold to many other states, being cheaper than having a standard for each state. From Don's website:

"I believe God created the Heavens and the Earth millions and millions of years ago. I do not believe, as my opponent does, that the Earth is a mere few thousand years old, nor do I believe, as my opponent does, that dinosaurs and mankind lived at the same time."

As you might have guessed, Don is a bit of an evangelical, but in an ignorant way. He is trying to get science kicked out and creationism put in, along with glorifying Ronald Reagan, though I think he has backed down on the greatest quotes from Newt Gingrich. A few other tidbits that he has espoused are:

"He said during a 2008 debate over science standards: "Is understanding of evolution 'vital' to the understanding of biology? No."


Last year he instructed curriculum writers to "read the latest on [Joseph] McCarthy -- he was basically vindicated."


He described his textbook evaluation process this way to the Washington Monthly: "The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan--he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last twenty years because he lowered taxes."


Finally, McLeroy successfully offered an amendment to U.S. history standards to require students to be able to "describe the causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association." There is no liberal counterpart clause in the current draft of the standards." Because their are no Democrats running in his district, his opponent who won the primary will take his place.

Perhaps the diaspora of Californians into the surrounding states is beginning to have a mellowing influence on the population. I can hardly wait to see what happens when the virtual California good-old-boys, with their guns strapped onto their hips, swilling their Starbuck's lattes, and eating their Chuck-E-Cheeses, go out to meet their brethren in Dallas and Austin. What kind of cross-cultural hoedown will occur? How many Ford 150's can rev on the head of a pin? What is the sound of one chap clapping? Sierra Nevada or Shiner?... or maybe the narrow minded right winger's children have all grown up and began voting in some sanity... I know, I shouldn't make fun of Texas when I live in an ever more deeply conservative community. But in a recent poll that asked the question if James Dobson had made an important impression on the American landscape, 97% responded that no, he had not. Which gives me hope for our grandchildren, if there's anything left for them to inherit...

Third Party Peace Talks Resume, Too Much Caffeine and Guns, Man...

Jackson Diehl
Trita Parsi

"Iran is the 21st century equivalent of 1930s Russia — a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. The Iranians haven't stumbled upon this mystifying state coincidentally, and the enigma isn't the result of outsiders' failure to try to understand them. Rather, the Iranian government has a deliberate policy aimed at confusing the outside world about its goals and decision-making processes." - Trita Parsi

Turns out that the American the Pakistanis caught in Karachi may not be Adam Gadahn after all, who can tell? After all, we all look alike in our long hair and bushy beards...

Joe Biden is beginning a Mid East tour today, hoping to get the negotiations process started again, after it was halted when Israel tanked on into Gaza 14 months ago. The PLO has agreed to restarting indirect negotiations with the US as one intermediate role, giving a time line of four months to produce something concrete. Some little thing, like the reduction of a blockade.

Israel has also agreed, but instead of announcing their participation, they have made a press release that they are starting a new housing project in the West Bank area, right where they had previously announced a building moratorium. "Oh, did we say that?" an official asked, looking coyly into the camera... I guess what they meant was that the Mossad would not try to assassinate anyone in the West Bank for the next 10 months...

The Palestinian question can be answered in six months. Like it or not, the side with all of the power to grant are the Israelis. If they ever had been serious, this could have been finished and done with 20 years ago and the world would have been a different place. No al-Qaeda, for instance, and a healthier economy with a Palestinian state working with the Israeli state... You have to wonder who has been befitting from this horrible status quo. Granted, both the Israeli military and politicians get lots of money from the US, as does the PLO. Hamas would loose influence once a state has been negotiated, to be replaced by a more moderate business class interested in getting rid of all older,corrupt politicians. It also would take the wind out of the sails of the right wing extremists in Israel, and the next elections would see the end of nationalistic fervor in exporting all of those with dark skin... It could only better relations with every other Mid Eastern country, and strengthen existing business ties for Jewish businesses that already have quite a bit invested, albeit quietly, in places like the Gulf states.

there's a storm a'brewing...
A lot can be made over those wacky Californians. In the melting pot of Hollywood make-believe,Silicon Valley inventiveness, runaway youth, and silver-haired MILF's, trends are often born and relayed out to the nation past each Oscar season. But the latest craze is for a bunch o' guys putting on their camos, getting together and meeting in solidarity. It ain't fashion, but it sure is fun.

Yep, I'm talking about those virtual cowboys strapping guns on their flabby hips and strutting into the nearest Starbucks or pizza parlor, some 148 times so far: "You gotta problem with that!?" "A grass-roots effort among some gun rights advocates is shifting attention to a different goal: exercising the right to carry unconcealed weapons in the 38 or more states that have so-called open-carry laws allowing guns to be carried in public view with little or no restrictions. The movement is not only raising alarm among gun control proponents but also exposing rifts among gun rights advocates.


In recent weeks, the practice has expanded as gun owners in California and other states that allow guns to be openly carried have tested the law by showing up at so-called meet-ups, in which gun owners appear at Starbucks, pizza parlors and other businesses openly bearing their weapons."

“Our point is to do the same thing that concealed carriers do, We’re just taking off our jackets.”

I am of mixed emotions on this. The John Wayne, fictitious cowboy part of me says, how cool is that? While the unarmed part of that is now a senior citizen is more frightened by it. The only problem with carrying a gun is that sooner or later you will find an excuse to use it. The more off-kilter among us will manufacture a reason. And since the latest uses of citizens shooting at others have come in the form of right wing extremists shooting at doctors, security guards or middle school pre-teens. I'm leaning towards  it isn't a good idea...

We would have to drastically change our laws, making it so that shooting a gun in public is not a jailable offense. Killing someone would have to be seen in a different light, perhaps we could color code them like we do with Homeland Security Threats. I would rather that everyone had tasers or something that would make the other person instantly fall asleep, thinking outside of the box and not escalating or provoking more violence in our culture. These guys are enjoying the in-your-face confrontations, and enjoying the intimidation they are creating, telling me that they are latent sadists rather than someone interested in freedom. It's ringing suddenly has a hollow sound... Hey, since it is coming out of Cali, it's really a new kind of porn, giving new meaning to the term of strapping one on... hold still, you wascally wabbitt...

American Taliban Caught in Karachi, Psychic Profit Indicted as Fraud

Samuel Jacobs
Michael Bennet
Tahir ul-Qadri



In addition to proposed sanctions against businesses that do business with the Revolutionary Guard, the US has also toyed with setting up a naval blockade in the Persian Gulf. To counter the West's pawn moves, Iran has announced that they are making a bunch of powerful short range missiles that can blow anything we send out of the water. Check. The US's goal is to isolate Iran both physically and financially, with the hope that this will make them play nice. The only thing that will be allowed to penetrate the cordon will be the Afghan drug traders, bringing the gift of poppies so that the citizens of Tehran can forget their miseries...

To help increase this year's soon to be bumper crop of poppies in Afghanistan, we are letting the drug lords stockpile the precursor chemicals that go into the production of heroin and morphine: "According to a survey of global counter-narcotics efforts, Afghanistan remains the world's top producer of opium despite a 22% decline in the area under poppy cultivation there during 2009. Historically, traffickers have exported raw opium produced in Afghanistan to other countries for processing into heroin and other opiates. In recent years, however, the country has emerged as one of the biggest producers of refined products.


Drug traffickers in Afghanistan deal in all forms of opiates, including unrefined opium, semi-refined morphine base and refined heroin.


The decrease in poppy cultivation has as much to do with economics as security, according to independent experts in the US. ''The decline is fueled by over-production of poppy which led to a lowering of prices,'' said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a security expert with the Brookings Institution and author of Shooting Up: Counterinsurgency and the War on Drugs. ''The market is saturated," she told Inter Press Service." Last year's crop was smaller because there was more production than demand in europe and Russia, but with the increasing outlook of the new Iranian market, things are looking up for the Afghan economy. Isn't working with the Karzai government better than that nasty old Taliban?

Richard Holbrooke isn't as effective as a special envoy these days. He doesn't get along with the Afghanis, and the Pakistanis see him as arrogant and someone they cannot work with. So they have been bonding with the spook side of our government, with the results that they have been finding and arresting all sorts of al-Qaeda members lately. This morning they caught the infamous California born Adam Gadahn who: "... has served as an important symbol for Al Qaeda. Wearing a beard and long dark hair, he speaks in an American accent on videos produced by the Qaeda media cell, Al Sahab.


He has been on the F.B.I.’s most wanted list since 2004 with a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture, and he is the first American charged with treason in more than half a century. He is believed to have been operating on the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.


Biographical sketches of Mr. Gadahn, who is about 32, say he converted to Islam at a mosque in Orange County, California, and moved to Pakistan in 1998. Also known as Azzam al-Amriki, Mr. Gadahn apparently joined a Qaeda training camp six years later." Someone has decided to clean house in Karachi, and the end result is that Pakistan can dictate the terms of their relationship with the CIA to their advantage. They won't give up Mullah Omar, that is asking too much, but everyone else seems to be fair game. It seems as though the Mid East is tired of all of this al-Qaeda bs, the game was fun in the beginning, but now everyone is picking up all of their equipment and going home. Time to get on with the rest of our lives...

One of my favorite frauds, Sean David Morton. has been charged with securities fraud by the SEC, bilking 100 people out of over $6 million. The joke going around is that if he is psychic, why didn't he see the indictment coming?

Sean has been a guest several times on the late night radio show Coast to Coast, with host George Noory and original host Art Bell. Sean is also a compulsive liar and self promoter who has tried several different ways to make money off of the fringe elements. I used to listen to Coast to Coast when I was working all night delivering newspapers, it filled up three hours per night of wonderfully wacky guests along with more serious theorists and scientists. Oh yeah, there were the UFO folks, and a lot of the programming is geared towards those who like to hear a good scary story late at night.

Sean's biography has changed a lot over the years, he used to make a lot more claims about having psychic powers, but has narrowed it down to one or two. He used to claim to be a qigong healer and master, but took down all of those claims from his website after I confronted him on them. I guess he figured that nobody in America actually knew about a Chinese system of martial meditations. The picture above shows him doing a fake movement that has nothing to do with qigong or martial arts, the position of the hand and wrist is all wrong. Nice cat, though. One of the most basic lies in his biography is the claim that: "After a life-changing personal audience with the Dalai Lama, His Holiness instructed Sean to trek to the Black Hat monastery of T'ang Boyche in Nepal, near the foot of Mt. Everest." The Dalai Lama is not a guru and will never send anyone out on a spiritual quest, Sean is mixing up a Hindu practice from India and putting it onto a Buddhist from Tibet. And there isn't a Black Hat Monastery located at the foot of Mount Everest, except maybe in the movie Lost Horizons...

Sean and his wife live in a crappy two bedroom shack in Hermosa Beach, though it is i/1 block from the ocean. If you would like to see how well Sean does as a psychic, here is a link to an old web site that used to keep track of all of the predictions made on the Coast to Coast show... And for those gullible folks who invested their money with Sean, you know what they say about a fool and their money...

Hamas Helper, Ethically Challenged, Mahmoud Denies 9/11

David Sirota
Dana Milbank
Matthew Yglesias


I always worry when I make some kind of prediction that I have embarrassed myself, such as when I thought who was behind the murder of the Hamas official in a Dubai hotel room. Today I see that the police chief of Dubai, a most clever and honorable man, agrees with me. Thank you for reading my blog: "Admitting that he could not know for certain which faction the two Palestinians extradited from Jordan over the killing belonged, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim told Al Jazeera television yesterday: “I believe that someone from Hamas helped the assassins with the operation.


“I understand that Hamas might be upset to hear me say that, but it’s my personal opinion and it’s clear to me that someone from Hamas helped.


“Hamas and Fatah are exchanging accusations over who the two Palestinians belong to. We don’t know. Even if one of them said that he belonged to a particular group, we cannot be sure they are not lying.”


Gen Tamim admitted that his officers had only realised al Mabhouh’s role in Hamas when the dead man’s family contacted them. He said they had not previously known the Hamas commander was in Dubai."

Two of the assassins have been said to have flown to the US although the State Department is denying that they ever entered the country. They have not offered up any proof one way or the other, so the people could have entered with US complicity and we are lying, our computer skills still aren't up to snuff and we missed them, or can't find them, or they bought tickets for the US and flew somewhere else. The FBI is said to be helping the investigation of Payoneer, the company that issued 13 credit cards that the assassins used to buy plane tickets and pay for their rooms. The results will probably not be made public, especially if it is a front for either the CIA or Mossad, or just caters to spies all over the world like Assassins-R-US, your friendly one stop shop for all things clandestine...

"Scientists in Britain have developed a new camera that can identify a terrorist by the shape of their nose. Yeah, it's all part of the new technology called 'racism.'" –Jimmy Fallon

New York Democratic Representative Eric Massa will resign his seat on Monday. He is under investigation for sexual harassment of a male staffer. I'm sure that more scandals will unfold in the near future. I guess he can double-date with the California Republican family values guy who got arrested for a DUI after coming out of a gay bar with some strange man that he was taking home. Or maybe they can join Larry Craig, David Visser, John Ensign, and Mark Sanford in creating an Old Wive's Club... The problem with Congressmen getting caught at having affairs isn't all about sex, though we are a Puritanical nation, but the hypocrisy, lying, and predatory nature of their actions. Power corrupts, abuse of power tends to cause them to abuse others.

"Representative Charles Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has temporarily surrendered his post pending an ethics investigation. They've been investigating him for three months now. And so far, they have not found a single trace of ethics." –Jay Leno

And if its not about sex then its about money. Most people want to get elected to Congress for the power, prestige, and the money. In a few cases where the publicity and public opinion becomes overwhelming and the ethics committee has to take action, for the most part they will slap your hand and exonerate you. Yesterday, the bi-partisan committee composed of five Democrats and five Republicans cleared seven members of the House: "... all on the defense appropriations subcommittee, of allegations that they had improperly given tens of millions of dollars in earmarks to political contributors.


Although investigators found indications that at least two of the members had at least implicitly rewarded donors with earmarks, the committee said that the appearance of a financial reward for donors does not amount to an ethical breach in itself.


“Simply because a member sponsors an earmark for an entity that also happens to be a campaign contributor does not, on these two facts alone, support a claim that a member’s actions are being influenced by campaign contributions,” the committee, which is made up of five Democrats and five Republicans, concluded in its report."

“In essence, unless you’re caught on the phone with a lobbyist saying ‘Contribute or else you don’t get an earmark,’ then you’re fine,” he said. “ That’s the clear message here.” - Jeff Flake, D Ariz

You are a Congressperson. An entity in your jurisdiction has a project that they would like some federal funding. It could be anything from a college sports complex to bio-research in the private sector, let your imagination go wild. The entity contracts with a lobbyist and pays them lots and lots of money to ensure that you get the federal funds. The lobbyist goes to the Congressperson and makes a deal, usually in the form of an earmark, which is a rider inserted into whatever bill that is set to pass that day, and in return the lobbyist gives your campaign a generous donation, and keeps most of the money for himself. He can't give you the money directly because that is a bribe and is illegal.

Not all earmarks, which are outside the normal budgeting and review process, are given for donations. The linking of an earmark to a campaign donation is seen as an abuse of the process until this recent ruling by the ethics committee which legitimizes the abuse by saying that it isn't really any kind of punishable offense. And we trust these people to make our laws... And those laws do not have a sunset clause... It may not be bribery but it does constitute prostitution...

This is one more example that is pissing people off, creating distrust in government. Although  both John McCain and Barack Obama campaigned on cleaning up the sleaze of earmarks, Obama so far has taken a baby step, making folks cynical that he is serious about his campaign pledges. We'll see after this healthcare boondoggle is over, if he suddenly gets a conscience... and God knows where McCain has gone, after all of his backtracking and repudiating all of his former beliefs in order to get re-elected.

"Gay marriage now legal in Washington, D.C. How about that? So, if you're a congressman, in bed with a lobbyist, if you like it, you better put a ring on it." –Jay Leno

This just freshly translated, from that ever-lovable, wacky leader of Iran. Once again embarrassing all intelligent Iranians, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed yesterday: "In remarks reported by IRNA, an official Iranian news agency, and translated by Reuters, Mr. Ahmadinejad said, “The September 11 incident was a big fabrication as a pretext for the campaign against terrorism and a prelude for staging an invasion against Afghanistan.” Mr. Ahmadinejad also reportedly described the attacks in New York as a “complicated intelligence scenario and act.” Conspiracy theorists in the Middle East have suggested that the attacks were not the work of Al Qaeda, but carried out by Israeli or American intelligence operatives."


While I love conspiracy theories, and there are many questions about 9/11 that have been unanswered, ignored, and swept under the rug, most of it comes from the US intelligence agencies not releasing all of the investigative information they have. The official report does little to answer them too, again, creating distrust in our government. In fact, the lies given to us by the Bush administration, despite the shallow protestations in Karl Rove's new book, coupled with the frustrations, pain, and death caused by the two wars is what created the atmosphere that birthed the tea parties...