65-34: US tells rest of the world to piss off.

In another stunning display of stupidity, the US congress voted yesterday to pass the Terror Detainee Bill by a vote of 65-34. Just when you thought certain Republicans were beginning to distance themselves from Bush (ie McCain, Powell), a so-called "compromise" is reached with the passage of this bill. Although McCain has said this legislation will be in accord with the Geneva Conventions, this news reports explains:

The detainee bill would create military commissions to prosecute terrorism suspects. It also would prohibit blatant abuses of detainees but grant the president flexibility to decide what interrogation techniques are permissible.

How much more flexibility does this President need? For more on this sad story click
here.

In related news, a leading women's rights activist in Afghanistan has been murdered by members of the Taliban earlier this week. Safia Hama Jan was killed while riding in a taxi Monday morning. Because the United States has pretty much forgotten about Afghanistan in their rush to destroy Iraq and capture oil profits, the Taliban is reorganizing itself to re-establish control of the country once again. Big surprise.

Sunnyvale, CA and other random Tuesday morning musings

My lurker returned twice this morning . . .but this time chose to stay on for 27 minutes, rather than the usual 0:00. How nice. Still no commentary from Sunnyvale aka Inktomi aka Yahoo.com . . . sigh. Soon they will have to be banished from the site.

A run down on what has me boggled this final week of September:

1. Gapless Playback on Itunes v.7.0 Why is Apple doing nothing to address the fact that this new version of ITunes is corrupting music files by the thousands? Most folks on the discussion boards appear to attribute the problem to the beast known as "gapless playback".

2. Clinton, Wallace, Bin Laden: Ho hum. I know everyone in the blogosphere has already sliced and diced this story since Clinton accused Wallace of "smirking" and cleverness the other evening. Nonetheless, Jon Stewart did a wonderful montage of how our "free and democratic" media chose to focus on Clinton's emotional well-being (his anger, meltdown, throbbing veins in neck) rather than the facts and information presented during the interview. When Rummy, Bush, and Condi get their panties in a wad (and there are plenty of instances when this has occurred) the media's lips are zipped shut. Ah, it takes me back to the Chvez speech I blogged about earlier. Most folks (including Clinton I believe) felt he ruined his repuation for using the term "devil" to describe Bush. Again, all this focus on Chavez's rhetorical delivery, detract attention away from his message concerning US foreign policy. And, let's not forget, the US was involved in a coup attempt against Chavez during the early years of his administration in Venezuela.

3. Keith Olberman's "Countdown": JB has made me a believer in this cat. Read #2, and proceed to conduct a search on Olberman's "commentary" on the entire Clinton/Wallace debacle.

4. Life and Death decisions during a Hurricane: The sad stories about Katrina never cease--despite the fact that the Superdome is back for the football fans, NO tourism, and network ratings. 60 Minutes aired a segment about a doctor and a group of nurses who are accused of delivering "fatal" doses of pain medication to terminally ill patients in a nursing home during the storm. Nobody knew when rescue workers were coming to the aid of the nursing home, so the doctor made a decision to ensure that certain patients were made "comfortable" and denies any wrongdoing. Now charged with "murder", the high court in New Orleans is going to have to determine whether the case goes to a grand jury. This raises many ethical dilemmas over life, death, and accountabilty during Katrina.

Somebody's Watching (Lurking) Me?

Rockwell's song has been buzzing in my ears for about a month now . . . since the beginning of September I have had a person from the INKTOMI (Sunnyvale, CA) corporation checking in on my site for what appears to be 0:00 seconds. Day after day they make their annual check--but never comment, never stay longer than 0:00 seconds, etc. On the one hand, I'm flattered someone is checking in on the old blog, but on the other, I think it's time that the mysterious person from INKTOMI reveal themself(ves) or buzz off. I'm watching you now.

Chavez speech at UN!

I'm sure there are many Chavez-haters out there, but if one is interested in hearing informed, thoughtful opinion, on the sorry state of US foreign policy decisions currently being made by the Bush administration--click play. Wouldn't it be nice if our President was only half as informed as this guy?

Been a Long Time Gone . . .

But I'm back. And, I'm pissed off. The latest issue of Harpers's Magazine has a piece by Lewis Lapham titled "Lionhearts" which disputes media accounts that depict the war in Iraq as a complete and total failure. Lapham, in fact, states just the opposite. Comparing Bush and company to the railroad barons and early entrepeneurs of this country, he asserts that this war is a success story. Why? Just take a look at the stock share numbers for corporations "rebuilding" Iraq between 2003-2006: Lockheed Martin $52-$72, Boeing $33-$77, Exxon Mobil $36-$65, Chevron $36-$66, Halliburton $22-$74. Yes, capital accumulation is proceeding unimpeded at quite a clip, regardless of the human/psychological/emotional toll of warfare.

And, now, the US has to be embarrassed once again as our president attempts to deconstruct the meaning of "torture". Derrida (the grand master, patriarch, father of deconstruction) should be rolling over in his grave if he were to witness this stooge engaged in lingusitic acrobatics.

We are fuct.