Posts from — October 2007

Encouraged by the Senate of the United States making decisions about the government of Iraq, the Chamber of Deputies of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick has passed a resolution noting that the American Electoral College is a rather stupid idea, and that including Alaska in the United States makes no sense at all as it is obviously part of Canada.

The decision on Hawaii and the island territories was tabled as it was felt that global climate change would eliminate them anyway.

You cannot deal with the insurance industry – they corrupt the system. They have had the government force people to pay for insurance, but have no intention of honoring their agreements, if you do manage to get insurance.

Badtux has another nice rant on health insurance, Why are Americans so unhealthy?, and the Shrubbery is demonstrating the adherence to the insurance industry line of the GOP with a veto today, and a promised veto for another bill.

As expected, today the Shrubbery vetoed the SCHIP bill:

The president had promised to veto it, saying the Democratic bill was too costly, took the program too far from its original intent of helping the poor, and would entice people now covered in the private sector to switch to government coverage. He wants only a $5 billion increase in funding.

Bush argued that the congressional plan would be a move toward socialized medicine by expanding the program to higher-income families.

You can add “socialized medicine” to the ever-growing file of things the Shrubbery doesn’t understand.

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When I saw the BBC headline, Sears Tower ‘plot’ trial begins, I wondered what plot they were talking about. I didn’t remember anything about an attack on the Sears Tower. Then the story said the trial was in Miami and it hit me – it’s the Miami Haitian Ninja Terrorists!

We are really going to spend tax dollars on a criminal trial of a half dozen whacked out homeless Haitians from Liberty City who were looking for someone to buy them boots. When you can’t figure out how to buy guns and explosives in Miami, you are a danger only to yourself.

Fallenmonk is watching events in Burma and offers other reports on the crack down.

David Axe writing in the World Politics Review reports that Satellites Help Spot Human Rights Abuses in Burma:

In the past week, up to 200 of people have died in Burma in the government’s violent suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations, according to various reports. But thousands more in Burma are routinely forcibly relocated and their villages burned by the army in an ongoing campaign against the country’s ethnic minorities. Now the Washington, D.C.-based American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is using commercially provided satellite imagery to catalogue the abuses.

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You may as well put on the neck brace and helmet, just to be safe.

Tristero at Hullabaloo calls it Dissociation. At Crooks and Liars they refer to it as moving the goal posts. In the run-up to an attack on Iran we are seeing the same pattern of changing rationales for the war that occurred prior to the invasion of Iraq.

Unable to convince people of the need to attack Iran’s nuclear program because the Security Council won’t go along this time, now we have the MAC-V MNF-I pumping out a constant stream of propaganda about Iran aiding the insurgents. All of the “evidence” they have produced has been anecdotal, obviously faked, or too ambiguous to be confirmation of anything.

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Jack at People’s Republic of Seabrook wants to know When is enough too much?.

It is being reported that some Austin volunteer dog-walkers have quit over being required to put up with background checks. These are people who are giving up their personal time to help out at the dog pound by taking the “inmates” out for a walk, and now they are supposed to give up their personal information so a background check can be performed.

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Vladimir Putin is having too fun being “tsar,” but he still wants to look like a “democratically elected leader,” like Khrushchev, who was “democratically elected” by the Party.

The BBC tells everyone how he’s going to do it: Putin moves to extend political life

In the second surprise announcement in as many weeks, the Russian President Vladimir Putin has said it is “entirely realistic” that he will become prime minister after stepping down as president early next year.

Mr Putin is barred by the constitution from standing in presidential elections due to be held in March, having already served two consecutive terms as president.
…

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From the BBC which is still able to make limited contact with people inside Burma:

Heavy army presence in Burma city

Thousands of heavily armed soldiers are patrolling the streets of Burma’s main city, Rangoon, with no sign of further protests against the military junta.

Troops are stopping young men on the streets and in cars, searching for cameras that may be used to smuggle out images, correspondents in Burma say.

Most internet links are still down and mobile phone networks disrupted.

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Seymour Hersh writing in The New Yorker informs the world of the new stupid White House tactic in his piece, Shifting Targets.

The US is going to bomb Cambodia Iran to stop the flow of assistance to the Viet Cong al Qaeda.

Oh, I’m sorry, this is nothing like the Vietnam War – Cambodia was to the west of Vietnam, while Iran is to the east of Iraq.

There has been no credible evidence provided that the government of Iran is providing aid and assistance to anyone other than the current government of Iraq. A military attack on the territory and armed forces of another sovereign nation is an act of war, and only Congress can declare war.

While many people have written about Blackwater, Paul Krugman points out in his Friday column, Hired Gun Fetish, that the practice is wide spread in other areas of government.

…the administration has abandoned the principle of a professional, nonpolitical civil service, stuffing agencies from FEMA to the Justice Department with unqualified cronies. Tax farming — giving individuals the right to collect taxes, in return for a share of the take — went out with the French Revolution; now the tax farmers are back.

And so are mercenaries, whom Machiavelli described as “useless and dangerous” more than four centuries ago.

The private companies are not accountable. They end up with the immunity of government and the immunity of the private sector. When something terrible happens the Hedgemony says it wasn’t us, it was a private company, and nothing ever happens to the private company. The government contracts have often been written to shield these companies from even civil liability.

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