not watching television

Really vast right-wing conspiracy

If your main media source for information is the Internet, you've read a lot about the unfolding story of espionage and secret-sharing going on in Rumsfeld's DOD by now. And even if you're still relying on the vast wasteland for most of your news, you've probably heard at least sketchy reports of it -- how the FBI is investigating DOD analyst Lawrence Franklin for passing classified documents to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which in turn passed them on to Israel's Likud Party government.

if you're here you at least get some of your news via blogs, in which case the two most important -- actually absolutely must read -- posts to read are both from Informed Comment by Juan Cole.

First read this one; it's long, but it puts the Franklin report in context, which your tv never will. And then read this one, which outlines the multi-state connections between some of the power-mad folks (not a few from inside our own government) who have turned US foreign policy into a tool of international conspiracy.

master class . . .

Now this is an interesting contrast. Last night we had the breaking news about a possible mole inside Don Rumsfeld's Department of Defence who's been passing documents to Israel through its right-wing lobbying group, American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) -- which I passionately hope leads to the truth about those forged Niger documents, the Plame affair and the entire bogusness of the war our doofus-in-chief "led" us into . . .

Read the linked story, then go read what Laura Rozen has to say here*. She began posting about her own slant on the story last night and has added several updates since.

(By the way, I'm a big Rozen fan. It's wonderful to have a woman journalist of international repute out there blogging. I have never emailed her that she hasn't emailed back, which I find amazing, given how many responses from truly knowledgeable folks she must receive. I noticed just this morning that she's added a comments link at her site, which will make it easier to respond to her posts without adding to her email overload).

So where's the contrast? Well, over at The Washington Note, Steve Clemons has a post about some wierd emails he's received inadertantly -- from the Department of Homeland Security! It's not that these misdirected missives are exactly earth-shattering (they're actually silly stuff about how the DHS "brand" is portrayed on some Heather Locklear series on tv). But wayward emails from the department set up to protect the "homeland" may leave the skittish among us feeling less than secure.

Yeah, I know. Still no contrast; DHS emails going out like spam and spies dipping into secrets almost willy-nilly sound pretty complementary. But here it comes . . . two views from commenters to Steve Clemon's post:

pietrocelli sees the emails as a deliberate move to test DHS's ability to spread disinformation and manipulate the media, while lightning thinks the DHS should look into those new-fangled encryption capabilities.

And therein lies the contrast: either folks in the intelligence community are master manipulators or they are ignorant baffoons. Or maybe they're masters of baffoonery like Mad Magazine's Antonio Prohias told us all along,

*OOPS: I originally forgot to provide the link to Laura Rozen's War and Piece post up there in the second graf. I've added it now, but she has continued to post on the story since then. And will no doubt continue to do so, since she and Josh Marshall have been working on related stuff for some time now. Most folks have blogrolled Marshall's site by now and stop there regularly, but if you haven't added Rozen to your daily routine, it's time you do . . .

Ah, so that's what Americans do . . .

I let my Salon.com membership lapse a couple of months back, but I still watch the access ad now and then and click through for 24 hours unlimited access. And you can, too.

Right now would be a good time. Right now Salon is sponsoring a contest for readers to write George Bush's acceptance speech, and I'm not sure anyone can top the one currently posted on the front page. The tone is dead on target. I could hear the Dauphin's dyslexic patois in my head and see him circling the stage or hunched like some squint-eyed Elmer Gantry at his podium.

My favorite lines:

We flushed the economic system. We stripped it, oiled it, made it leaner and meaner. Now we've got farmers and ranchers somewhere out there -- I saw one once -- and a mighty herd of other people who are free to roam this great land of ours fending for themselves. That's what Americans do. We fend

. But really, the who thing's brilliant. Well worth clicking through a few ad pages to go see . . .

Bush's economic accomplishments . . .

Bloggerradio has an excellent post on new Census Bureau statistics that confirm what a lot of us know intuitively -- that job growth and wages are stagnant and the number of Americans living in poverty is continuing to grow.

I'm ashamed to say I hadn't read the whole WaPo article before I got to Bloggerradio's place, though I've read other bloggers' posts about the Census report. And none of those highlighted the very important data about the growth of uninsured among white Southerners. D.A.'s does, and hope his post gets read far and wide.

At the end of the same post, D.A. links to an Oregon story about yet another Swift Boat vet who refutes the charges against Kerry. It seems Oregon is experiencing a bit of SBV blow-back since vets began protesting outside the Clackamas County Courthouse where one of the guys featured in the SBV liars latest ad works as an assistant prosecutor. According to The Oregonian, Alfred French -- a prosecuting attorney, mind you -- has done more than base his charges against Kerry on mere heresay. Now it appears he lied to his boss about having an extramarrital affair with a co-worker, too.

Maybe, if we get lucky, D.A. will write a post on French and the strange doings in that Clackamas County prosecutors office that summarizes what really going on from a righteously angry Oregonian's perspective.

ADDENDA: Oops forgot to provide details about that Swift Boat vet D.A. mentioned in his post -- the one who says they were under fire that day when Kerry pulled Rassman from the drink and earned his Bronze Star. Thurlow, captain of another boat, says there was no enemy fire, even though his own Bronze Start citation from the same event says there was . . . But as D.A.'s link shows, Retired Chief Petty Officer Robert E. Lambert -- who rescued Thurlow that day and earned a Bronze Star, too -- says Kerry's version is the right one (and he doesn't even like the guy!)

Lost in the din . . .

The Toronto Star carries news this morning that Margaret Thatcher's son, Mark, has been arrested in South Africa for participating in a plot to overthrow Teodoro Obiong, the dictator of Equitorial Guinea.

It seems the South Africans have "credible evidence" that Maggie's boy helped with logistics and financing in the coup attempt.

This is the same coup attempt that came to light back in early March after a US-registered cargo plane loaded with arms and mercenaries was detained in Zimbabwe.

Within days of the detention the UN announced the mercenaries were actually on their way to kidnap Liberian President Charles Taylor and deliver him to a UN-sanctioned court in Sierre Leone to be tried for crimes against humanity.

That cover story seems to have disappeared fairly quickly. Still, most of these guys seem to have gotten off easy, pleading to lesser (a lot lesser) charges of violating Zimbabwe immigration laws and aviation regulations, though they still risk being extradicted to Liberia to face charges there.

Meanwhile, the trial of others accused in the plot opened in EQ yesterday, where one of the defendents has already died under suspicious circumstances.

Oh, well, just another African coup, one might think. But less we forget, tiny Equitorial Guinea is one of the oil-rich African nations where secret deals with oil conglomerates shore up vicious dictatorships; a country with major accounts managed by the Riggs Bank, which has extremely strong ties to the oil industry. In fact, investigations of the Riggs Bank for money laundering and other improprieties seem to have uncovered a tangle of unsavory relationships and payments between Obiang's surrogates and a number of oil company's doing business with his country.

So here we are, surrounded by the white noise of Swift Boat Liars' accusations while a story about global oil, violence and corruption goes virtually undiscussed. Heaven knows, I don't have a clue about what's actually going on. What I do know is that these grand games aren't benefiting the masses of people in Equitorial Guinea, Liberia, Zimbabwe, South Africa or any of the dozens of other squares on the international chess board where they are being played.

'Nuf Said . . .

From Truthout: A Veteran Speaks Out . . . .

Unfit - My Letter To The Swift Boat Organization
John Cory

(About the author: John Cory is a Vietnam veteran, he received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with V device - 1969 - 1970)

Dear Sirs:

In the face of fact after fact that exposes your lies, you continue to foul and slander John Kerry. Your words and deeds cast doubt on all the honorable men who served gallantly; question the competence of former military leadership; and hurl dispersions on fellow soldiers, while denigrating the dead.

And for what?

You choose to align yourselves with those who smeared an honorable Vietnam POW, calling into question his sanity and his survival of the Hanoi Hilton. You choose to serve those who disgracefully painted a Vietnam veteran triple amputee as unpatriotic and less than a true American.

Where were you then? John Kerry was there for his fellow veteran brothers, where were you?

You choose to support men who had other priorities than serving their country. Men, whose self-interest was more important than duty, honor, and country; and you prefer to serve a man who treated his military obligation like Alcoholics Anonymous; picking and choosing what meetings he would or would not attend.

You choose to aid those who have soiled themselves with the blood of others.

You choose to be finger-puppets of a media obsessed with ratings and tabloid sensationalism. A media, that willfully avoids the truth and pain of the daily toll in Iraq: willing to set veteran against veteran in order to increase viewer share. A media, that happily promotes an old war as a means of avoiding responsibility for its promotion of the new war.

You choose to inflate your shriveled egos with the spotlight of hate and slander. You choose to deny both the truth and the lie that was Vietnam. Like the man you support, you choose to look away from the flag-draped reality of today, and instead, seek yesterday's false reflection, in hope of revenge. But you cannot right a wrong war, whether then or now.

I crawled the mud paddies of Vietnam and stuck my fingers in the gaping wounds, trying to stop the oozing blood that drained the life from my fellow soldiers. I have walked the old paths of war and seen the children that even today, lose limbs from the unexploded ordinance of yesterday's war. I have seen more honor and compassion in the eyes of the men who were once my enemy, than in the twisted piety of your vitriolic defamation.

You now seek to cover your previous words of endorsement with the stench of vomit and partisan bile. You speak of wanting honesty and openness, but your actions belie your lips.

You have chosen vanity over valor, hubris over honor, character assassination and fraud over fact. You have chosen to enfold yourself in the shadows of partisan politics while sniping at those who stand in the open light of their record. You have chosen to wear the uniform of shame.

No sirs, with all due respect, I submit that it is you, who are Unfit.

rue des rêves

Vacationing in a non-verbal state. Hope to return to Ohio sometime soon.

LiberalOasis: Archives For The Week of August 8, 2004

Liberal Oasis has a good post today decifering the lies in a neo-con op-ed published in the NYTimes yesterday.

Read both if you have time. But if you don't, here's the shorter version of LO's take: Kerry is "an idealist without illusions", to quote an earlier JFK.

Freudian Slip

Code Orange . . .

I'm with Atrios, that this latest terror threat announcement smells like politics.

By a rare fluke -- since I'm usually notwatchingtelevision -- I caught Tom Ridge's "terror alert" on the tube today. It sounds really scary this time and you know, it might be really real, too. But it's hard not to question Ridge's credibility when he manages to sandwich a
Bush campaign ad in the middle of his announcement. Or when this latest Code Orange alert comes on the heels of reports from Josh Marshall and Laura Rozen that more news about those forged Niger documents is starting to break . . .