Mike's Blog Roundup
By Mike Finnigan Thursday Nov 19, 2009 5:00amMatthew Yglesias: Canada turns a blind eye to torture. So does Lithuania...
Margaret and Helen: Thanksgiving letter to the family, 2009
The Agonist: A Tale of Two Belles
Rising Hegemon: The terrorists who will be tried in NYC are not comic book Super Villians
pandagon: "Jungle Fever” is still eating away at some bigoted brains 40+ years after Loving v. Virginia.
Democurmudgeon: Republican candidate hangs out in a bar and complains to the only bartender who'll listen
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You have to question their 'lets roll' macho bravado when they're scared to bring the prisoners from Quantanomo here... Good stuff again Mike!
Rising CO2 could cause catastrophic sea level rise - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/65...
Make the kids pay: The economic effects of climate change on future generations - http://www.grist.org/article/make-the-kids-pa...
The debate over the economics of climate change boils down to that very calculation: how much are we willing to pay today to avoid climate risks in the future? The simple fact is that as we continue to use fuels that contribute to global warming today, we place major economic burdens on our kids and grandkids tomorrow.
Gasoline consumption represents a tiny fraction of world emissions, all of which will generate damages. The total tab for emissions world wide is almost a trillion dollars a year. Every year that we don’t reduce emissions, we keep on piling onto the tab.
This is very, very, very simple....If we take action within the next 3 years, it will cost the world 1-2% of its combined GDP. If we wait while the Extinctionists/Deniers get fatter & richer off destroying the planet...it will cost us 20% of global GDP.... A five year old can figure this out...
EPIC DEMOCRATIC FAIL: Senate to Put Off Climate Bill Until Spring - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1258506934430...
NOT VERY: David Corn: How Hard Is Obama trying on global warming - http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/18/how-h...
Indiana Dunes threatened by climate change, report warns - http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/green/...
Experts say some noticeable changes already affecting plants, wildlife
The Worthiness of Banker Charity: by Jim Hightower - http://www.creators.com/opinion/jim-hightower...
As in our country, people in Europe are enraged at those hustlers of high finance who wrecked the world's economies, then flexed their political muscle to get governments to replenish their bankrupt vaults. Infuriatingly, these bailed-out bankers have now returned to business as usual, including grabbing monstrous bonus payments for themselves. --
In Europe, such greed is not only being assailed politically, but it is also being cast as a matter of fundamental moral failure. As another of Britain's leading clergymen put it, "There is a general feeling that the level of bonuses we've seen have been obscene." --- The clueless bankster clique is actually claiming that we commoners should be applauding the return of their multimillion-dollar bonus bonanzas.
Why? Because, they aver, the rich payouts allow them to contribute to charity. - Such narcissism reminds me of a story about a selfish, no-good rich man who died and tried to get into heaven. - As in our country, people in Europe are enraged at those hustlers of high finance who wrecked the world's economies, then flexed their political muscle to get governments to replenish their bankrupt vaults.
Infuriatingly, these bailed-out bankers have now returned to business as usual, including grabbing monstrous bonus payments for themselves. -- In Europe, such greed is not only being assailed politically, but it is also being cast as a matter of fundamental moral failure. As another of Britain's leading clergymen put it, "There is a general feeling that the level of bonuses we've seen have been obscene."
--- The clueless bankster clique is actually claiming that we commoners should be applauding the return of their multimillion-dollar bonus bonanzas. Why? Because, they aver, the rich payouts allow them to contribute to charity. - Such narcissism reminds me of a story about a selfish, no-good rich man who died and tried to get into heaven. - But you can't just walk through the Pearly Gates. -
An angel reviews your life, then St. Peter decides if you can enter. To counter the angel's negative review, the rich man argued that he had a history of charitable giving. He'd once tossed a nickel into a beggar's cup, he pointed out. Plus, some years later, he had aided a poor woman by giving her a nickel. Then there was the time he put a nickel into the Salvation Army kettle.
--- Hearing all this, the angel turned to St. Peter and asked, "What in the world should we do with this man?" - And St. Peter said, "Give him back his 15 cents, and tell him to go to hell!"
Now you can see why con-servatives hate Europe...they don't worship greed, they attack it....
The Weekly Standard's ACLU smear indicts only itself - http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/1...
Even for The Weekly Standard, this bitter, juvenile McCarthyite attack on the ACLU by Thomas Joscelyn sputters with so much fact-free, impotent, and self-defeating rage that it's hard to believe it was printed.
Legacy of BS con-servative 'economics': Why Are We Destroying Public Education? University of California Students and Staff Prepare for System-Wide Strike to Protest Cuts
- http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/17/why_ar...
Sarah Palin Makes Another Fraudulent Claim About Alaska by Dahr Jamail - http://www.truthout.org/1117092
A blistering critique of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's game plan for assessing the safety of the state's oil and gas facilities and operations by a national panel of experts calls into question Palin's claim that, as governor, she made safeguarding of Alaska's resources a priority," veteran Alaska oil and gas analyst Richard Fineberg, who consulted to the Palin administration in 2007 and early 2008 wrote on November 15.
"The public would be well served by examination of Palin's executive style and performance as governor," Fineberg added, speaking to Truthout in Fairbanks, "It's important for people to know she was never there to do work, particularly at this time when she is once again in the public eye claiming to be a hard working Alaskan who cares for people in her state."---"
When she announced the Alaska oil and gas infrastructure risk assessment project on May 1, 2007, it (the project) was supposed to take three years to complete," Fineberg continued, "But it took the Palin administration nearly two years just to come up with its plan, only to have its proposal soundly rejected by both the industry and the environmental community.
At two to two and a half years, the project Palin launched is on hold and her successor looks for a new plan - and a new contractor to carry it out."
Robert Scheer: Who Are You and What Have You Done With the Community Organizer We Elected President? - http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/who_are_y...
Poll: Tax the Greedy Rich to Help Pay for Healthcare. "When it comes to paying for a health care overhaul, Americans see just one way to go: Tax the rich."
- http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/A...
Its time they pay for the system they use as much as they use it....pay as you go...
"Reid Outlines Bill For Caucus, Warns Conservative Dems That Reconciliation Is Still An Option" - http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/re...
BradBlog: And They Call the Liberals 'Moonbats'?! - http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7521
Robert Borosage: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs -- Finally - http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/200911471...
Evangelicals Pray For Climate Bill Deliverance - http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/evang...
can these guys really be defended?
a necessary evil???
this is even made more bizarre by the fact that the property was a riding school for the rich in lithuania. could this be the inspiration behind hostel?
good job!
to the Yglesias story about Canada. First the story is hardly new. It's been a scandal for years. Secondly it can hardly be a scandal for Harper's conservatives. They stopped the practice after it became public. It was started under the previous Liberal government who are in no position to criticize. Thirdly, turning over captured insurgents, suspected or otherwise, to the Afghan authorities, such as they are, is exactly what everybody is doing including the US.
"but they did it too ! is hardly a correction.
The point is that Canada detained many times more people
(yes they were people) than other NATO countries:
From the Globe:
Mr. Colvin, who first started red-flagging for Ottawa “serious, imminent and alarming” problems with the treatment of detainees in May 2006, said Canada took far more prisoners in the early days than some other NATO allies. He said Canadians captured six times more than the British and 20 times as many as the Dutch.
“They were picked up ... during routine military operations, and on the basis typically not of intelligence [reports] but suspicion or unproven denunciation.”
Most of the detainees Canada collected were not what Afghan intelligence services would call “high value targets” such as Taliban commanders, al-Qaeda terrorists or bomb makers, Mr. Colvin told MPs in testimony Wednesday.
“Many were just local people: farmers; truck drivers; tailors, peasants – random human beings in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Yet, he said, they all faced the same fate. “According to our information, the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured. For interrogators in Kandahar, it was standard operating procedure,”
and:
"he said the Red Cross tried for three months in 2006 to warn the Canadian army in Kandahar about what was happening to prisoners, but no one would “even take their phone calls.”
How is that not disturbing ...?
It was and remains so. I merely point out that no one gave any thought to what would happen to such prisoners or made any provision for detention. And yes Canada detained many more people than most other NATO allies (except Britain and the US.) Mostly that is so because only the US, Great Britain and Canada sent significant numbers of troops or allowed them to operate in dangerous areas like Kandahar. The other allies stayed in relatively safe areas. On the whole I'd prefer that Canadian troops actually take prisoners as opposed to standing off and bombing the shit out of everybody. The duty to care for those prisoners is the problem not that they took prisoners.
Wow, that politician video in the bar is just painful. It'd be bad off the cuff on talk radio, too, but they could shoot multiple takes and edit the video.
As for Rising Hegemon - a fictional threat is best met with decisive fictional force.
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