Isn't This Interesting?

From the Jerusalem Post July 30:

"Defense officials told the Post last week that they were receiving indications from the US that America would be interested in seeing Israel attack Syria."

I think I would call this Operation Midterm Ass-saving. "Hey Karl, let's get the Jews to attack Syria. That should bring out the wingnuts in November. They'll think Armagedon started."

It's starting to get a little crazy.

Reality

If you haven't read this before or even for the sake of refreshing your memory on who we are dealing with in the current U.S. government leadership. This is an account by Ron Suskind of a discussion with a Bush aid early in Bush's presidency:

"I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'' "

Reread it to feel the utter contempt for the media and,in saying that, also contempt towards Americans right to know what its' government is doing.

But that's only a sidenote. Here's my point. It is perfectly clear how Karl Rove operates as the Brain of Bush. To be honest, many others on both sides of the aisle have figured out how to manipulate average Americans thinking through the use of disinformation campaigns too. Rove, however, is the best at it. The neo-cons acted in the runup to the invasion of Iraq and created a "reality" that never existed. Saddam wasn't an imminent threat, no al-Qaeda connections existed, no nuclear program and on and on. That was empirical reality but Rove's new "reality" said just the opposite. And isn't it true, just like stenographers, the press reported the actions and words of Bush and Co., knowingly or unknowingly, to help mislead the public to get their support for the invasion.

Fast forward to the current demonstration of neo-conservative instigated destruction, this time in the country of Lebanon. Israel is systematically destroying so much infrastructure Lebanon will be set back decades if they can ever recover. That is discernable reality. But is that the reality George and Condi and Fox News and... and...and are repeating over and over? No. According to the "reality" the neo-cons and the Rovians are creating, this is all just part of the war on terror, "birth pangs" of a "new" middle east. Freedom is on the march. Terrorists hate freedom. You know the drill.

Now see, in Bush's own words in response to David Gregory's questioning, this grand new "reality" in all it's spendor.

Bush:"...instead of having foreign policies based upon trying to create a sense of stability, we have a foreign policy that addresses the root causes of violence and instability."

I thought reality would be that American fireign policy would try to "create a sense of stability" in the world. Silly me. See, Bush is acting decisively, as a decider would do, again, creating "reality". You see the new "reality" foreign policy deals with "the root causes of violence and instability". How? Through the use of violence and instability. Now there's a reality you can sink your teeth into, isn't it?

More Bush "reality". "For a while, American foreign policy was just, Let’s hope everything is calm — manage calm."

And I bet that you thought "managing calm" with our foreign policy would be an optimum reality to strive for. But see you would be wrong. The new "reality" is created by Bush's very words: American foreign policy is now,not managing calm, but being "aggressive in chasing down the killers and bringing them to justice". Now we are going to manage the opposite of calm, chaos.

This "reality is what we say it is" deception, I'm afraid, will lead to a soon to be announced "reality change" in Iran. Maybe what will look to us like a nuclear strike will actually turn out to be a refusal to give in to our "old reality" foreign policy of keeping things calm and stable. An attack on Iran is very posssible before the November elections.

Finally, how do you defeat the thinking that creates suicide bombers? According to George, "you defeat it with a more hopeful ideology called freedom."
Do you think 1 million displaced Lebanese think Bush's "reality freedom " is very "hopeful"? Me either.

Disaster Response

Just a quick hitter here.

Remember the Katrina disaster? Bush and his administration didn't get things going til about 4 or 5 days after the levees broke. Totally inexcusable. It was then, it still is today.

Now we have the Lebanon disaster. Same, same. It could be said that W.'s bunch is getting worse instead of better when it comes to disasters. This time they wait 13 days before they begin to intervene and Condi gets a few new expensive suits and heads over there for a bunch of photo ops. The pattern I see here is a tad disturbing, these particular folks simply play off of disasters for political purposes only. There's no human concern at all because you couldn't act like that and still care about the human element. Why would you wait to try to stop the killing? Perhaps killing was the point.

Wild and Crazy

From Bluester (Scroll to June 10,2006):

AZA (Reuters) - "Islamic militant group Hamas called off a 16-month-old truce with Israel after attacks blamed on Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians, including children playing on a beach.

Palestinian officials said Israeli air strikes and artillery fire killed 10 Palestinians in Gaza, the highest Palestinian toll in a single day since 2004. Seven people, including five from the same family, were killed in what Palestinian officials said was Israeli shellfire from boats on to a crowded beach.

Among the dead were three children, aged 1, 3 and 10. Their sister, who had been swimming, survived. Twenty people were wounded. Covered in blood, children screamed as adults carried the wounded and dead from the sand."

This was the beginning of the current violence involving Israel. It is clear to me now and has been for quite sometime that Israel would not simply give up land around Gaza without retribution. They kept looking for an opportunity but Hamas wouldn't give it to them so they did what any authoritarian structured society would do; created their own opportunity. This is post 9-11 muscle flexing Israeli style.

To be fair. There was an investigation done by the Israelis'into the beach shelling. It concluded Israel wasn't shelling during the times alleged. Other logs kept of the events disputed that finding. The game was on.

Then this June 25. Source israelinsider.com

"Hamas militants, backed by reinforcements in the Gaza Strip, infiltrated southern Israel through a 300 meter tunnel Sunday, lobbing grenades and bombs inside a tank at a border military post, killing two soldiers and kidnapping a third, the military said"

Then: Source here.

"On Tuesday, June 27th, the Israeli military launched an all-out assault on the people of Gaza....

The destruction of vital bridges and power stations, which led to the cut off of electricity and water for well over 1 million people, is nothing short of collective punishment imposed on a civilian population. Israel has also taken nearly 100 elected officials and leaders of the Hamas party as prisoners in the last few days."

Wed.July 12.Link.

"In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Hizbullah's spiritual leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, lauded the Hizbullah for the attack in which seven IDF soldiers were killed and two others kidnapped and warned Israel that the Hizbullah would only release the captives in exchange for security prisoners.
"Our operation succeeded, we have results and honor," the sheikh declared. "We kept our promise to kidnap soldiers [to secure] the release of prisoners, and therefore are calling the attack 'Operation Promise Fulfilled'."

Here's more on what motivated Hezbollah to kidnap. Link.

"Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said he would free the Israeli soldiers only in a prisoner swap, adding that he was open to a package deal that would include the release of the soldier held in Gaza.

"The capture of the two soldiers could provide a solution to the Gaza crisis," he told reporters in Beirut."

Wed. July 12 Israel began its' punishing campaign on Lebanon, all of Lebanon, even though Hezbollah is shooting rockets at the south Lebanon border. Today is the 24th, so the punishment has been going on for 12 days. Hundreds of Lebanese civilians dead and billions of dollars of damage done.

All American leaders can say is "Israel has a right to defend itself."

I Got Your Extremism Right Here.

You know how those crazy Islamic suiciders think all those virgins are waiting for them on the other side of martydom? I know it's just crazy isn't it? Well, what about evangelical Christians and their reaction to increased violence in the middle east? Crazy too? Here's one commenter's mindset.

"I too am soooo excited!! I get goose bumps, literally, when I watch what's going on in the M.E.!! And Watcherboy, you were so right when saying it was quite a day yesterday, in the world news, and I add in local news here in the Boston area!! Tunnel ceiling collapsed on a car and killed a woman of faith, and we had the most terrifying storms I have ever seen here!! But, yes, Ohappyday, like in your screen name , it is most indeed a time to be happy and excited, right there with ya!!"
A time to be happy? Happy because of violent chaos. Happy that violent chaos was happening, especially in the middle east because that indicates what? It's getting closer to the time when the "true believers" will be supernaturally transported to a place called heaven that we can't see right now. This supernatural event stars Jesus in what is a long awaited (2000 years) sequel to his first supernatural event. The first time it was the "resurrection", now it's the "rapture". Caught up to meet their Lord. That's what this person was "...soooo excited...." about that she got "goose bumps".

An Islamic radical believes he's doing God's will by blowing himself up in order to kill others and ultimately be awarded many virgins in the hereafter for his trouble. An American evangelical believes he's doing God's will by excitedly pointing to that suicide as evidence of God's ultimate victory and upcoming presentation of his bride, his church, like a virgin to Jesus in the supernatural rapture. You say, well at least the rapture believer isn't violent in this life. That's true, however the violence all evangelicals know is coming, also causing goose bumps, is what comes after the rapture. See, God is going to let the winds of strife loose after the rapture and all manner of plague and violence will ensue, leading eventually to God's great violent act of eternal hellfire and brimstone torment to all who don't join the club. "Oh happy day...right there with ya'..."

It sure is clear that those guys in the middle east are extremist radicals. There're sure not like us. Not a bit.

Authoritarian Regimes Are By Nature Lawless

I've mentioned the unitary executive concept before but this post should demonstrate clearly what it means to George and Co. The following will be a look at one provision of one executive signing statement out of 750+ during Bush's tenure thus far.


President's Statement on Signing of H.R. 2863, the "Department of Defense, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations to Address Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, and Pandemic Influenza Act, 2006"


Language in Division B of the Act, under the heading "Office of Justice Programs, State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance," purports to require the Attorney General to consult congressional committees prior to allocating appropriations for expenditure to execute the law. Because the President's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and take care that the laws be faithfully executed cannot be made by law subject to a requirement to consult with congressional committees or to involve them in executive decision-making, the executive branch shall construe the provision to require only notification. At the same time, the Attorney General shall, as a matter of comity between the executive and legislative branches, seek and consider the views of appropriate committees in this matter as the Attorney General deems appropriate.

In street talk, W. is saying even though the law says he is to "consult" with congressional committees, he's only going to "notify" congress. I mean honest to God, can you imagine, telling a judge, 'Judge I understand the law but I don't agree with it so I broke it cause I'm allowed'? This is a clear example of the Bush administration's lawlessness. And notice the arrogance "...the Attorney General shall, as a matter of comity between the executive and legislative...". They don't have to but just to keep peace the AG will, as he "deems appropriate", "seek and consider" other views. Dripping with condescension, even contempt.
This is how the current sitting president of the United States regards the lawmaking process and the laws themselves that have served our nation well for over 2 centuries. He did the same thing with the McCain torture bill and it passed in the senate 90-9. McCain's bill represented the American peoples' views on torture but W. doesn't care what the American peoples views are, so he issues a signing letter that says he must faithfully follow his unitary executive theory, something the laws and the constitution say nothing about, and use torture, if necessary, to protect the country.

The secrecy is key here. From the get, this group, like John Dean said in Worse Than Watergate, is more secretive than Nixon's bunch. What's to be secret about? Lots of stuff. Energy task forces with Cheney, Enron connections, vote count in Fla 2000, wiretapping, but most of all it's the Iraq mess, lots of secrets there, lots of lawbreaking.
So the way I see it the signing statements for W. are protection, flimsy, but protection, against future indictments for lawbreaking. He's playing this like the CEO president he announced in 2000 he would be. He has his lawyers. Just like he had his lawyers when he was such an unsucessful businessman. W. is always watching his back because he is lawless at heart and feckless in the real world. He was bailed out by Poppy's middle east buds and then later was silver spooned the Texas Ranger assignment. In the future when he is challenged for his lawlessness he must believe his signing letters will somehow give him an out. You know, how Ken Lay said it wasn't him it was others, he didn't know illegal stuff was going on. So too W. He's going to point to those signing letters and say his lawyers told him if he signed a letter he could break the same law he was approving. He'll say he thought all his lawbreaking was perfectly legal because lawyers told him so. George is unaccountable. He accounts to no one. It's always someone else's fault.

More Misdirection + Contagious Insanity

What's a president and his political advisor to do when the news exposes the closing of a CIA group whose sole purpose was to track Osama bin Laden? Well, you know Karl's rule by now because I've been demonstrating it to you over and over. Karl plays directly into his opponents strength. This is important to grasp and understand because, once undestood, it can be used like a "decoder ring" to decipher events as described by the media.
The opponents strength in this CIA story is transparent. Bush wanted Osama "dead or alive". Osama did orchestrate 9-11. Americans want Osama eliminated. Closing the "track Osama" CIA group makes it look like Bush is giving up or he is weak.
How do you play into that strength and thus neutralize it? How indeed.

The closing of the CIA unit was announced first on Monday the 3rd on National Public Radio.
The Daily News story about pre-emptively stopping an alleged plot to blow up tunnels was published Friday the 7th and can be read here.

First let's look at the actual threat.
From Rawstory.com:

One former intelligence field officer says, and two other CIA officials confirm, that the alleged plot by Muslim extremists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in New York City was nothing more than chatter by unaffiliated individuals with no financing or training in an open forum already monitored extensively by the United States Government, RAW STORY has learned.

The so-called New York tunnel plot was a result of discussions held on an open Jihadi web site,” said Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer

“They are not professionally trained terrorists, however, and had no resources with which to carry out the operation they discussed," Giraldi added. "Despite press reports that they had asked Abu Musab Zarqawi for assistance, there is no information to confirm that. It is known that the members discussed the possibility of approaching Zarqawi but none of them knew him or had any access to him.”

Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertof seemed unconcerned earlier today, when the news first broke. Chertoff told the Associated Press earlier today that, "It was never a concern that this would actually be executed… We were, as I say, all over this."

Additionally, Giraldi stated that, “In sum, the plot, if that is what we would call it, was not well conceived, and there was no possibility of flooding Wall Street. There was no connection to a cell in the US. Finally, professional terrorists generally do not discuss targeting on open channels. As it was being monitored from the beginning of the open discussion, there was little chance anything concrete would have developed."

But what about the timing of this story and was anything leaked?

From Bloomberg.com
"Authorities said they hadn't intended to release details about the plot this early and that whoever leaked the information had compromised the FBI's relationship with some foreign intelligence services.

The person who leaked the details is ``clearly someone who doesn't understand the fragility of international relations,'' Mershon said. `We've had a number of uncomfortable questions and some upsetment with these foreign intelligence services that had been working with us on a daily basis.''

Let's review what we know so far, shall we? For 2 weeks the N.Y.Times has been under attack by rabid right folks going on and on about alleged treasonous activities by the Times in leaking "secret" information to the public. This ongoing braying at the Times even led to a resolution in Congress to publicly rebuke the Times!
Now on Monday NPR tells the public about the closing of the special Osama CIA unit. Then on Friday a new story making Bush and Co look strong is apparently "leaked" to the New York Daily News explaining how an alleged plot was stopped. This leak was apparently a "good leak" from the administration. Did anyone on the right complain about this new leak that contained details "they hadn't intended to release" yet? No.
Did rabid right politicians condemn this new leak? No. What to make of this contradiction? Leaks that make Bush look strong=good leaks. Leaks that criticize Bush or make him look weak=bad leaks.

Now I've saved the best for last. The contagious insanity part of my title. Don't you just love insanity stories? I know I do. Remembering all that you have just read, feast your eyes on this comment by an obviously mentally ill or severely thought impaired right winger, commenting on this new "good" leak:

From Strata-sphere.com:

"This is just remarkable. Obviously the funding of this plot was compromised by the asshats at the NYT. Obviously the “chatter” obtained through the NSA program indicated the plot was changing, requiring the FBI to act prematurely.

Congratulations NYT - Give yourselves a great big pat on the back for endangering the lives of not just Americans in general but New Yorkers in particular. Your need to “inform” clearly has blinded you to the FACT that those you have “informed” want to kill New Yorkers FIRST.

In essence you have signed the death warrants of your fellow citizens in your clarion call to all terrorists that America is open season."

Left by Enlightened on July 7th, 2006

Get it? No mention of the fact that the New York Daily News printed the story not the N.Y.Times. But it was the Times fault that the plot was wrapped up prematurely. See how the logic works? No, I don't either.
And this cat goes by the internet name Enlightened. The only thing "obvious" is that insanity is alive and well in America. I rest my case.

Aryan Nations Graffiti in Baghdad

From the Southern Poverty Law Center and The New York Times:

A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

"We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," the group quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying in a report to be posted today on its Web site, www.splcenter.org. "That's a problem."
An article in the National Alliance magazine Resistance urged skinheads to join the Army and insist on being assigned to light infantry units.

The Southern Poverty Law Center identified the author as Steven Barry, who it said was a former Special Forces officer who was the alliance's "military unit coordinator."

"Light infantry is your branch of choice because the coming race war and the ethnic cleansing to follow will be very much an infantryman's war," he wrote. "It will be house-to-house, neighborhood-by-neighborhood until your town or city is cleared and the alien races are driven into the countryside where they can be hunted down and 'cleansed.' "

He concluded: "As a professional soldier, my goal is to fill the ranks of the United States Army with skinheads. As street brawlers, you will be useless in the coming race war. As trained infantrymen, you will join the ranks of the Aryan warrior brotherhood."

Quite reassuring, right? This Iraq thing is working out real well and we are definitely spreading democracy. Only we didn't know it was "white" democracy or did we? Do you still support the troops?

Sure It Is

Many in the administration and some in lapdog media land have been saying things are improving in Iraq. Of course this is not true.
Democrat Joe Lieberman, in a tough political primary August 8 in Connecticut, is known for his belief in Bush's "stay the course" thinking in Iraq. Here's big Joe at his debate with Ned Lamont last night:


"So I am confident that the situation is improving enough on the ground that by the end of this year, we will begin to draw down significant numbers of American troops, and by the end of the next year more than half of the troops who are there now will be home."

Where do people like pompous Joe Lieberman get their information? Not from these guys:

The journal Foreign Policy, two days ago:

You can only manage the news to a certain degree. It is certainly hard to hide the fact that in the third year of this war, Iraqis are only getting electricity for about 5 to 10 percent of the day. Living conditions have gotten so much worse, violence is at an even higher tempo, and the country is on the verge of civil war.

Can you see why people talk about reality based news and faith based news? Everything, according to neo-cons, is good. The entire Iraqi government except one department carries out their work behind the safe walls of our Green Zone fortress but "things are improving". Violent killings have gone up since Zarqawi's death. Now our own hand picked leader for Iraq, al-Maliki, is calling our soldiers "reckless" and is requesting a timeline for withdrawal. No, things are not getting better in Iraq. Our leaders don't really care about any of that. The whole idea of going to Iraq in the first place was to set up a permanent military presence in order to "project" our power over the middle east. We are going to "project" our power with permanent military bases, one of which is 19 square miles. For the space impaired, 19 square miles is approximately the size of an Ohio township. Reality based thinking is this: congressional Republicans recently defeated a Democratic amendment that would cut funding for permanent bases. Why would they do that? Could it be that Republicans know we're never leaving Iraq?
Why would we want to "project" our power over the middle east anyhow? What does the middle east have that would be of such interest to us that we would kill all those people and spend all that money? What could it be? Hmmm.
The faith based news group would have us believe that our current leaders would do all this to bring freedom and democracy to Iraqi people. What a good bunch of leaders they would be if this were true but alas, no. The reality based news tells a completely diffferet story. Reality based information tells us that under the middle east deserts there are huge reserves of what? Just say it, that's it, you're right it's the OIL. See how reality is so liberating.
In the future be more mindful of how faith and reality based information are being offered up, sometimes side by side. In this new world where information is power, it can't all be true.
Thus ends the lesson.

Travel Time Terrorists

Wow. Man. The New York Times. What are they up to now? Well, thanks for asking.
Everyone knows by now that the Times revealed nothing new in their bank transaction story which other newspapers also covered. That didn't keep the president, many congressional members and of course the usual suspect wingnut media and blogger personnel from calling for the Times Regime to be unilaterally invaded, occupied and imprisoned for their treasonous work. One of the silliest(but what did you expect?)name calling was tagging the Grey Lady as al-NYTimes or just al-Times. Similar to the nuts approach to the man who won the popular vote in 2000, Al Gore. His name is designated by the tin foil hat wearers as al-Gore. Get it? Ha, freaking ha. This is done because every wingnut knows for a fact that the Times as well as Al Gore are not so secretly working on the side of al Qaeda.

With that short background of where we are, it won't surprise anyone but, my goodness gracious sake, the latest from Nutland is silly and yet so sad. I'm referring to the accusation by Michelle Malkin, (that lovely, tolerant writer and media "personality") that now the N.Y.Times is aiding and abetting the terrorists by leaking important information in their...wait for it...Travel section. Yep. The Travel section article is here
To be brief, The Times Travel section featured the small village of St. Michaels in eastern Maryland where both Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld have vacation homes. Naturally if the Times printed this it wasn't merely a Travel section article about travel and the lifestyles of the rich and famous. No, no.
One of the reasons the Times printed this, according to Malkin is:

"And because al Qaeda already must have an inkling that Rumsfeld and Cheney live somewhere in the greater Washington, D.C. area, right? So what's the harm in handing them all the details, right?"

And then David Horowitz,another tolerant wingnut, takes it further:

"The NY Times points cranks, radicals, al-Qaeda operatives and would be assassins to the summer homes of Cheney and Rumsfeld"

Then, Horowitz describes the "real" war and who's responsible for it:

"Make no mistake about it, there is a war going on in this country. The aggressors in this war are Democrats, liberals and leftists who began a scorched earth campaign against President Bush before the initiation of hostilities in Iraq.

The initiators of this war were Al Gore and Jimmy Carter who attacked the president's attempt to rally the world against Saddam's defiance of international law in September 2002 just after his appeal to the UN General Assembly."

Good stuff, no? Well, the implications are far reaching. I don't believe anyone will be able to read the paper any longer without detecting the allegiance to al-Qaeda in ALL it's pages. I recommend a thorough daily review of the sports section as well as the comics. The classifieds are, of course, suspect. In addition, stock quotes in the business section can no longer be viewed as merely stock quotes. If the Times prints ball scores, stock quotes, or comic strips, I now know they are sending clandestine messages to the enemy. Secret code. The kind of code that only tin foil hat wearers can decipher when they tilt the foil in just the proper way to reflect the light. Michelle Malkin, David Horowitz and tin foil hat wearers everwhere I salute you for once again pointing out the dangers in our midst.