j-views blog

Yes, I’m sorry for the 30+ people who died as the result of one man’s mad rampage through a peaceful community. I don’t want to belittle or denigrate these deaths.

But let me remind you that this sort of death toll through violence happens every day in Iraq and it hardly rates a mention on the news.

One man’s mad rampage has been responsible for the deaths of over 600,000 people, according to the most accurate reports. Shouldn’t this killer be held up to account?

Technorati Tags: Global politics, Media

Seymour Hersh’s recent report that Iran-Contra veterans working out of Dick Cheney’s office are using stolen funds from Iraq to arm al Qaeda-tied groups and foment a larger Sunni-Shia war is a very big deal.

So let’s get this right - the same frigging criminals who illegally armed terrorists under the reign of Republican Emperor Incompetent I (Reagan) are doing it again under His Imperial Highness Incompetent II (GWB)?

If this is true, the time for moderation is over. These people have bankrupted the USA in every way possible, made people round the world hate the very idea of America, and turned US ideals of “democracy” and “freedom” into sick jokes. Why? Because of the “war on terror”. And now we find that the Vice President is funding terrorist groups.

So, no more moderation. Drag Cheney by his greasy bloated neck into open hearings where he is forced under oath to testify. Waterboard the bastard on prime-time TV (hey, it’s legal for those accused of being in league with terrorists, isn’t it?). If he dies in agony from a heart attack, I, for one, wouldn’t shed any tears.

So I’m immoderate and over the top in my comments. Cheney and Bush - enablers and funders of terrorism and treason - are the moderate nice guys. Don’t make me frigging laugh. These guys are treacherous thugs and should be treated as such.

Let’s see this one dragged out into the open and Cheney’s ass thrown in jail for several lifetimes.

Technorati Tags: Corruption, Global politics, Politics, White House Follies

This is the dumbest thing I have seen so far in the Bush administration’s Catalog of Really Dumb Things. I don’t believe that anyone except a hardened Bush supporter (e.g. anyone with an IQ of room temperature or lower) could ever take this seriously.

If this is Karl Rove’s political “genius” at work, he’s on a par with his moron master - too many late nights with Jeff Gannon have caught up with him. Come on, I could write a better terror-based scenario for distracting the public from the fact that the White House is full of perjurers than this. It could involve Dick Cheney, the Golden Gate Bridge and a barrel of radioactive monkeys (and maybe Godzilla).

WASHINGTON - Suspected members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday, in a cautionary bulletin to police. An FBI spokesman said, “Parents and children have nothing to fear.”

Asked about the alert notice, the FBI’s Rich Kolko said, “There are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern,” although law enforcement agencies around the country were asked to watch out for kids’ safety.

The bulletin, parts of which were read to The Associated Press, did not say how often foreign extremists have sought to acquire licenses to drive school buses, or where. It was sent Friday as part of what officials said was a routine FBI and Homeland Security Department advisory to local law enforcement.

It noted “recent suspicious activity” by foreigners who either drive school buses or are licensed to drive them, according to a counterterror official.

Foreigners under recent investigation include “some with ties to extremist groups” who have been able to “purchase buses and acquire licenses,” the bulletin says.

But Homeland Security and the FBI “have no information indicating these individuals are involved in a terrorist plot against the homeland,” it says. The memo also notes: “Most attempts by foreign nationals in the United States to acquire school bus licenses to drive them are legitimate.”

Kolko said the bulletin was sent merely as an educational tool to help local police identify and respond to any suspicious activity.

One counterterror official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the government felt it was likely that the foreigners investigated were merely employed as bus drivers, and did not intend to use them as part of any terror plot.

A second official said the government felt it prudent that the backgrounds of all those who come in contact with school children be checked.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the government has no credible information to suggest terrorists are “involved in buying school buses or seeking licenses to drive them.” He said there was no indication of any immediate threat to the country.

I recently received a message from a friend:

I had lunch with a friend yesterday and suddenly the thought occurred to me that Bush and his minions realize that they can behave in a dictatorial manner without any need to stifle dissent. This is a truly remarkable breakthrough that transcends traditional fascism! People are under the delusion that by protesting they are exercising their democratic rights, but in fact all the government need do is disregard them. If you cross a line by demonstrating too vociferously they toss you in jail. But there is no need to persecute, jail or kill dissenting journalists, academics, etc., who don’t toe the government line, because what they say or do doesn’t really matter. As far as the Bushites are concerned, we are just letting off steam and none of this interferes with their agenda.

Basically, this seems to be correct - the Bolsheviks and Nazis and Mao’s CPC etc. all found it necessary to institute prison camps etc. for dissidents. However, the USA is still continuing its pretence of being a democracy, so dissenters can theoretically vote out the ruling clique and there’s no need to lock up dissenters.

However, I think it’s wrong to say the opposition isn’t persecuted. The right-wing machine covers with slime any rational protesters who might just get some sort of popular appeal and they instantly lose all credibility. It’s not a violent fascism in the Hitlerite or even Italian model, but it’s fascism nonetheless, because they’ve held even closer to the pretence of democracy. However, to succeed, it demands a gutless population with no higher aspirations, which I’m afraid describes the majority of USAians and modern Britons (it was different in Thatcher’s day, when there really was an opposition, even within her own party).

As it happens, I’m listening to “Won’t get fooled again” by The Who as I write this. An excellent track. Uncle Pete knew what was good for us, and what was bad for us.

Technorati Tags: Corruption, Global politics, Politics, White House Follies

Technorati Tags: Corruption, Global politics, Politics, White House Follies

Technorati Tags: Corruption, Global politics, Politics, White House Follies

Bush senior illegally funded terrorist groups (Contras, right-wing guerilla groups in Latin America). Bush junior funds terrorist groups, including those linked to al Qaeda (well, of course, it’s run by relations of Bush business connections).

And conservative Americans can’t understand why America isn’t hailed as a beacon of freedom and democracy. It’s time for American foreign policy to grow up and mature. America is NOT God’s own country. America does NOT have a mandate to bend the rest of the world to its liking. America is NOT always right. America does NOT need all the weapons and military spending. The president is NOT above the law. And the world COULD live without America (probably better).

If this sounds a little harsh, consider that the past six years or so have been spent with a mentally challenged (I’m being very polite here) ignorant provincial amateur politician pompously and self-righteously lecturing the world about its responsibilities in the “war on terror”, and talking about “freedom” and “democracy”. Now we discover that this same “leader” has been pumping money into… funding terrorism.

I have zero respect for the American political system and political process while this kind of thing goes unchallenged. Why should any country treat the pronouncements of Bush and Cheney with any more respect than those of Kim Jong Il?

There is now a definite revulsion in the US against Bushevism - it’s more than indifference or lack of support. If the Democrats don’t take advantage of this and use the popular support crush the evil forces currently administering America - that is, the military-industrial complex, the energy mafia, and their political puppets, they show they are just another part of this fake democracy.

See this article by Mary MacElveen, some of which I’ve quoted below:

Now we read in a report coming from Sy Hersh that “the U.S. has been ”pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight“ for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants to ”stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence.“” Hersh says these funds have ended up in the hands of “three Sunni jihadist groups” who are “connected” to al Qaeda“ but ”want to take on Hezbollah.“
Shortly after 9/11, the Patriot Act was voted for by congress and signed into law by President Bush to stop others from funding terrorists. In reading this explosive report that is exactly what the Bush administration has been doing all along. I have a neat idea; why not use the Patriot Act on the Bush administration. Oh, I forgot, both he and those that make up his administration are above the law.
Hersh also wrote, ”We are simply in a situation where this president is really taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11.“
That is our tax money and how dare this president use our hard earned taxes to fund these groups. If that were you and me, we would find ourselves on a one-way trip to Guantanamo Bay and labeled enemy combatants thanks to the Military Commissions Act. In allowing al Qaeda and the Taliban to flourish as well as funding these groups all of which places our national security at risk, dare I say that President Bush, Vice President Cheney and the rest of them have committed treason? Where are the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act when they are needed most?

Well, I’m annoyed that Yamaha, the new owners of Steinberg, haven’t made the English-language version available in Japan. However, under OS X, the interface can be in English, and the online documentation can be in English. Couples with the excellent search facilities, it almost makes up for the lack of a native English app.

Main improvements noticed so far - a little more responsive, and a little more CPU heavy.

Some nice new instruments, and some pretty good effects - better integration with my FW-1082.

The big winner for me is the new way of looking after single-channel VSTis - now one channel strip loads the instrument and creates an audio track (like Logic). Preset tracks with pre-loaded effects, etc. are also pretty cool.

And at last it’s possible to set up a proper control room situation with talkback, A/B monitoring, PFL soloing independently of the stereo bus, etc. I now feel a lot more in control of the mix process.

When I get something recorded with the new system, I’ll put it up here.

Technorati Tags: Music

“Vice President” Cheney (self-appointed to that role and victor of two rigged elections) is coming to Japan. As a protest, I suggest that a group of concerned global citizens, resident in Japan, pay for an advertisement to be worded approximately as follows, and to be placed in a national publication prior to his arrival:

Comments welcome.

We, the undersigned, in our capacity as citizens of the global community, do hereby protest the official welcome afforded to Richard Cheney, currently filling the office of Vice President of the United States, on the following grounds.

Given that:

- The circumstances surrounding both elections following which Mr. Cheney assumed the office of Vice President are, in the eyes of most impartial observers, suspicious. It is doubtful as to whether Mr. Cheney is in fact, the legal Vice President of his country.
Since Mr. Cheney’s status as Vice President is in question, he should not be granted VIP status during his stay in Japan.

- Mr. Cheney has been known to consort repeatedly with known and suspected felons, such as the late Ken Lay of Enron, and his former chief of staff, “Scooter” Libby.
Mr. Cheney’s past close association with convicted criminals and continuing association with indicted persons should be sufficient grounds for the Japanese authorities to deny entry to him.

- Mr. Cheney’s actions before and during the USA’s illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq have contributed significantly to the reduction of international security, and weakened any hopes for world peace.
Mr. Cheney’s policies are therefore significantly at odds with Japan’s national aims as spelled out in the constitution, and Mr. Cheney’s words and actions should be regarded with the utmost suspicion by the government of Japan for these reasons.

- According to many experts in legal jurisprudence, Mr. Cheney is suspected of war crimes, by having ordered the violation of key parts of the Geneva Convention by his country’s armed forces.
It is the duty of the Japanese government to arrest Mr. Cheney on suspicion of these war crimes, and to deliver him to the International Tribunal at the Hague where his guilt or innocence may be decided in a neutral legal framework.

We therefore call upon the government of Japan to acknowledge these facts, and to take the appropriate legal actions.

Technorati Tags: Politics, White House Follies

In the LA Times, Julian Barnes writes:

The military’s new strategy for Iraq envisions creating “gated communities” in Baghdad — sealing off discrete areas and forcibly removing insurgents, then stationing American units in the neighborhood to keep the peace and working to create jobs for residents.

And after all this is over, and the last “insurgents” (over 50% of the population are very strongly opposed to the invasion and occupation of their country, so are we talking about the mass incarceration/liquidation of this section of the population?), what then? A Vichy France situation, with the Iraqi puppet government taking its orders from the American “embassy”, and with US stormtroopers strutting around the streets, expecting instant deference from the “natives”? How long can that go on - several decades, if the British experience in India is anything to go by, I suppose. And what of the US troops? Out of their super-safe air-conditioned bases into smaller, more vulnerable encampments? Wait for the first 100+ death toll of US soldiers from a car bomb.

Shouldn’t the Democratic Congress be launching a Commission of Enquiry into the Fitness of the President to Hold Office? I read the other day that GWB’s IQ was reckoned to be about 91 (since he hasn’t written a book or any public position papers, it’s hard to judge his analytical skills). Quite apart from any question of sociopathy or other schizophrenic disorders possibly caused by earlier substance abuse, isn’t it time that the rest of the government questioned the ability of the White House to rule in a complex world?

Technorati Tags: Global politics, Oil, White House Follies