Read This

This article discusses the high crimes of US officials with information from a former translator, Sibel Edmonds. The article claims that US officials sold nuclear information/access to nuclear information to Pakistan and Turkey. I don't know why we haven't heard more on this. Two more articles are on this blog, which also contains an interview with Sibel Edmonds.

Whose Missile?

Al Jazeera reports 12 dead in Pakistan's tribal region North Waziristan early today. The dead are thought to be pro-Taliban. Pakistani Intelligence personel say a missile struck the region, and the residents of the region reported seeing two drones fly over the attacked area last night. Two drones and a missile... the attack had to be compliments of either Pakistan or Coalition forces from neighboring Afghanistan.

The NY Times had an article commenting on the failing Pakistani policy towards Taliban in its tribal areas. Washington has been debating possible options and solutions to create greater security in Pakistan; as the Times article pointed out two days ago, "The administration is also debating whether to strengthen covert operations by the Central Intelligence Agency."

Even if the missile attack was the doing of US/Coalition forces, Pakistan would not admit this. The Pakistani government realizes that they cannot afford to seem like they do not have firm control over operations in their nation. The Pakistani Army/Gov. can not allow the appearance that Pakistan's sovereignty is threatened; that the tribal areas and other rebellious and separatist regions threaten the current administration installation. Which is why on January 9, Musharraf publicly refused the appeals of both Michael Hayde (CIA Director) and Mike McConnell (Director of National Intelligence) to allow greater CIA freedom in operations within the tribal regions.

Two drones and a missile killing Taliban supporters? It wasn't Pakistan.

Earmark Reform

According to WhiteHouse.com, the President will issue an executive order sometime today reforming earmarks. This reform would force Congress to include their pork barrel-earmarks in the regular text of a bill, therefore ensuring that Congress would debate each allocation and vote on all of the earmarks. Bush has also pledged to veto any budget that does not cut the number and cost of earmarks in half.

A Human Rights Benchmark?

The Saudi Arabian government permits the first civilian social group, Ansar Al-Marah, dedicated to women's rights in the Kingdom. This seems to be a step in the right direction, though it is hard to tell the direction of Al-Marah when its leader, Suliman Al-Salman, denies the historical bias against women in Saudi Arabia.

The formation of this organization comes among a wave of recent modernization efforts: the science and technology University under construction, women finally getting to enter the business sector, the King's pardon of the formerly-linked rape victim, even two women allowed to be elected to the chamber of commerce. Women are gaining more human rights, but Saudi Arabia has a lot of ground to make up in the human/civil rights arena. At least now women and human rights advocates have a medium by which they can (sometimes and very politely) voice their disappoval of Saudi Arabian abuse.

Gaza Blockade Legitimizes Hamas

The Christian-Science Monitor reports today that, "Hamas did allow scarce goods to flow into the territory and shown itself capable of forcing an alternative economic lifeline open," due to Israel's border-wall. I don't know how they could have seen that coming... The same article includes a comment from a professor at Hebrew University predicting that as a result, there could be four way negotiations between Egypt, Israel, Hamas, and Fatah; if the Israeli government is set on delegitimizing Hamas' movement and calming some of the extremism of it's followers, then including Hamas in government and official decisions is the way to do it. If Hamas operates with the government, it will have to make sacrifices on some of its extreme positions, with a negotiations compromising its radical agenda, creating watered-down issue stances. This turns away the extremists from the group, but since Hamas is a network form insurgent group (no real heirarchy present, collection of individual cells) the extremist cells will break off to form different groups (which is how Hamas got started after Fatah was legitimized with a truce with Israel-- Lost many dedicated individuals to its suicide missions, mostly less dedicated administrators left, had to hire more legitimate adminstration officials with its negotiations and role in regional government, then it became corrupt and extremists abandoned the group). This would more than likely happen with Hamas, but it just depends if Hamas appears threatening enough to the Israeli dominance of Gaza+West Bank. In a sense it's a gamble, since most insurgent groups are not successful, there is a chance that if Hamas splintered no dominant insurgent group could form, though with the rise of PLO (organization of smaller groups dedicated to the formation of a Palestine state), despite the differing dogma between the allied groups, more minor groups are organizing and becoming more relevant. For the record, I'm quite in favor of a Palestinian state; I am just analyzing the conflict.

Marijuana Vending Machines

Today the BBC reports that California will now be operating marijuana vending machines. The new vending machines will be accompanied by a security guard, and require a prescription, fingerprints, and will take your photo at the machine to make sure that it is actually the patient purchasing the medicine.

This is a great step in civil rights for those who need medicinal marijuana as a pain killer or hunger stimulant, like Angel Raich, who sued the federal government for the 1970 Controlled Substance Act, which outlaws marijuana (among other substances) in any medical. According to the BBC, Mrs. Raich's doctor, "testified that she could die if she stopped taking marijuana," but her trial, decided in March 2007, denied her the right guaranteed by California (not to mention as a human being) to medicinal marijuana.

My beef with the vending machines is the photo aspect. With prescriptions come doctor-patient confidentiality, but I doubt that the photo taken at the vending machine would be covered by such a protection. With the already established dominance of federal law on this issue (reasserted in Mrs. Raich's case), I fear that the feds have the power to obtain the photos and prosecute the customers.

It blows my mind that the American electorate continues to elect officials with a record of, and declaration to commit to future, human rights abuses. This usually takes the form of politicians opposed to medicinal marijuana use (any in general, but there no grounds to deny medicinal use), opposed to homosexual marriage, and those who want to make abortions criminal (though I usually classify that as more civil rights, most abortion discussion devolves into a winless argument).

The Donner Party

The White House just released the names of who will be sharing Mrs. Bush's box during her husband's State of the Union speech tonight. On the list of political volley include: Laura Bush, Barbara Bush, Jenna Bush, Lynne Cheney, Lori Ball (homemaker- hurt, by mortgage crisis, later saved by a social program supported by Bush), James Barnard (small business owner from Michigan), a Staff Seargent injured in the war... and etc. As you see, such an elite guest list has more to do with politics than anything else. Administrations play politics with guest lists, as they spell out certain stances on relevant issues by who gets invited to share such an elite spot on the First Lady's guest list.

Ok...is it just me or a lot of teenagers randomly turning up behind both of the Clintons during their concession speeches today? Here, This is the washingtonposts video player, it might show up as Obama's speech, but look at his and then look at bill's and hillary's...

We're all going to die.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080126/ap_on_go_ot/dead_satellite

Real, or all part of their plan?

Web Editing for Dummies

Not saying anyone's a dummy or anything, but I'm a nerd and a couple people have said they didn't know how to do certain things that are actually pretty easy. Here's some simple coding.

To create a link somewhere in your post or comment, make sure you are in the "Edit HTML" tab instead of the "Compose" tab, and type:
<a href="http://www.PENISENLARGEMENTPILLS.com"> DESCRIPTION FOR PENIS PILLS, ETC. </a>

To post a picture from somewhere on the internet, right click on it and open in a new window, copy the URL from the address bar, then put it in this code:
<img src="http://www.PANDASEX.com/weirdpicture.jpg">
(You can also use an image as a link by surrounding it with the link code from above and replacing the "DESCRIPTION FOR PENIS PILLS" with the image code.

Bolding Text:
<B> Text goes here </B>

Italicizing Text:
<I> Text goes here </I>

Underling Text:
<U> Text goes here </U>

There are a lot of websites that offer free HTML advice and have more extensive info than I put up here. That's how I learned to be the Skeezix that I am today. I'll add a link to this tutorial in the bottom of the links on the side of the page. Also, if anyone has an idea for making the blog better, let me know... Dig it.

I didn't think newspapers were supposed to do this.

Who knew?

Attention: If you are from North Carolina and are a Ron Paul supporter...

...you have one more week to register as a republican so that you can vote for him in the primaries.

Just thought I'd make a little announcement.

I got dat neocon fever

If you get a chance check this op-ed piece I found in al-jazeera today. Its funny that the author simplifies our condition so easily, but I can't find much to disagree with him on. Neocons are dangerous, they do control a lot, and they are about to win another four years of control. And though it seems like a conspiracy theory to Americans, it is reality to the people that our foreign policy affects. Here's a little excerpt for you:

"So, if the early political handicapping holds up, the neocons could find themselves in the enviable position next fall of having a super-neocon Republican versus a neocon-lite Democrat. Then, whoever wins, the neocons can expect their policies in the Mideast to continue."

*edit* I found this on youtube shortly after I posted. It's Tucker arguing the point that Hillary is a neocon.

I would like 300 dollars...

Here we go, a new economic stimulus package...and here I thought we were trying to cut down on steroid use...

"Firemen are getting pussy for the first time in the history of fire or pussy."

DHS has been experimenting with a program in New York City aimed at training firefighters to gather intelligence while working, or as the AP describes "identify material or behavior that may indicate terrorist activities."



As the article notes, firefighters need no warrant to access private homes, buildings or institutions. By training this independent force, firefighters don't really need to respond to anyone, but have virtually unchecked power. Well that's not true, because after they gather the information they have to respond to DHS.

...digression...



The top contractor hired by the federal government in fy2007 is Akal Security, bringing in $103,986,622. About $63.5 million of that was earned from contracts that went without compeition. This does not mean that it was a particular industry that doesn't allow competition (Guard services by the way), there is a separate designation for money on uncompetable contracts, that 63.5 mil. was just from not allowing competition for contracts. but don't expect any sort of Democrat contention... Madame Speaker's district brought in $7,602,829, as a result of this one contractor.