Bipartisan Report on Hurrican Katrina blames Bush

No big surprise. Those of us who actually paid any bit of attention to the disaster (other than the usual bullshit on Fox news and the other govt. propaganda stations), knew that Bush and his terrible conservative administration was to blame for mucking the recovery effort up. From appointing a horse breeder as the FEMA chief to not accepting foreign rescue missions (read my prev. posts on this subject), Bush has once again failed America. Yahoo! yanked a good article on this from the AP.

Last week, I finally went down to coastal Mississippi and New Orleans to see the area for myself. Half a year later, there is still massive devastation everywhere. Entire blocks around Biloxi and Gulfport are gone. You can tell where buildings once stood, but now there is nothing but rubble. Trees were uprooted and tossed into the bay, where they sit today. Structural damage is massive. I will post some pics when I get high speed internet access again to demonstrate the failure of the rebuilding effort.

Edit- here are a few pics

Milosevic Found Dead

After 4 years in a polically motivated kangaroo court set up by Nato (via bullying by the US), Milsevic was found dead today in his cell. Though I would likely be a dissident from his politics if I were Serbian, as an outside observer, I followed how he was brutally demonized and made a scapegoat for all of the troubles that erupted in the former Yugoslavia.

Let us begin at the beginning: the fall of communism. The Soviet Union was always weaker and less aggressive than the capitalist alliance (mainly the US, UK, and western Europe). The skillfully crafted breakup of the USSR into newly independent nations had ended the Cold War. With the main competition no longer any type of viable threat, the US govt started to move onto the nations that had been loyal to the communist bloc for so long. First target- Yugoslavia.

This was a ripe and easy target. A mishmash of different ethnicities and religions mangled into a relatively new nation (formed after WWII).
With intelligence and logistical support, independence movements suddenly began gathering steam (CIA fingerprints everywhere on this one). Slovenia was an easy one to give up, but by not cracking down (as most governments around the world do on a regular basis to squash independence movements), the Yugoslav government opened the door for the disintegration of the republic. Croation followed suite, and this is where the real problems started.

There are, or I should say *were* large areas inhabited primarily by ethnic Serbs within the borders of of Croatia, and these people were completely opposed to becoming a new minority in a new country. So the guns started firing, militias formed, and a small ember began to turn into a fire. When Bosnia, the most ethnically mixed of all declared its independence, the fire turned into an inferno.

Let me restate that none of these entities would have had the organizational skill or means to achieve independence had it not been for outside help (again, the CIA). This was pure punitive action taken to destroy the remnants of the communists in Belgrade, and replace them with western puppets, moving Yugoslavia into the hegemony of the US (instead of Russia). If Belgrade had instantly capitulated, have no doubt, we would still be looking at a united Yugoslavia today.

The Pentagon had a more difficult time justifying the Kosovo campaign. The KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) was a purely criminal and terrorist organization that was given a skillful whitewash. They were actively encouraged to stir up trouble, knowing that Belgrade would have to crackdown, as Kosovo is not just part of Serbia proper, but the cradle of their entire ethnic consciousness. Again, this turned into wonderful propoganda and was a precursor to the Nato bombing campaign in all of Serbia (including civilian targets, public bridges, media stations, and the carpet bombing of an entire ethnic Albanian village in which over a hundred died).

What could justify such an aggressive policy? Again, the Pentagon propaganda machine was thinking ahead, and made Milosevic the main demon for everything. "We HAD to act because of his barbarism". With the subsequent engineered "mass uprising" that removed the former communists from power, Serbias new leaders were given a choice: hand over Milosevic to stand trial at a new court made especially for this and receive hundreds of millions of aid, or face further punishment and get a continuation of the economic blockade.

So Milosevic was virtually kidnapped and sent off to face "justice" in a court never sanctioned or recognized by the only internation organization that would have the legitimacy for such a thing: the United Nations. He was subjected to 4 years of isolation and intimidation by this court, all to justify a war for a political game. They refused to let him travel to Russia for needed medical treatment, despite a guarantee by the Russian govt. that he would be returned immediately after. And now, he's dead. Congratulations new world order, this is what has become legal precedence in our times: might makes right. I guess he was just a smaller fish than the one that ate him.

Conservatives hurt our economy again

The insanely underreported story of the massive US budget deficits have led to a grave situation, a gargantuan total debt. A news article from a reputable news service in a foreign land (where such "trivial events are actually reported) was quoted as saying "the total accumulated debt is now close to its limit of $8.2 trillion". Will this news get any airplay? Doubtfully. Conservatives have an amazing way of keeping an iron grip on information and thought in the mass media. Still, at least now you know.

Muhammad cartoons part 3

Intellectuals Speak out Against Islamic Totalitarianism
Good to see that writers, journalists, and thinkers are standing up for freedom in the way bombs and threats never can.

Some excerpts:
"After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new global threat: Islamism," the manifesto says.

"We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all."

[The clashes over the cartoons] "revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values," the statement continues.

The writers said they refused to accept that Muslim men and women "should be deprived of their rights to equality, liberty or secularity in the name of respect for culture or tradition".

"Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present," the writers added, saying it is nurtured by fears and frustrations.

Intelligent Design

Religious fanatics in this country attacking science is unbelievably idiotic. To put things in perspective check out this article...Gravity vs Intelligent Weight. This reminds of what I learned during my EDUCATION (check out that radical concept) when the conservative catholic church refused to acknowledge that the Earth was not the center of the universe for over 400 years.

more Mohammed cartoons

Good to see others beat me to the punch and continued the trend to print further cartoons of Mohammed. you can find them here.

There is also a good article on a Dutch MP speaking in favor of western liberties (via the cartoons) and critical of strict islamic intolerances at the BBC.

Local desires vs the WTO

The US governed WTO recently ruled that the EU cannot stop the import of GM (genetically modified) foods into their markets, despite a nearly unanimous desire on the part of their electorate to prohibit such imports. Perhaps this is a sign of global federalism in the making, where a country (in this case, a collective of countries) cannot decide their own trading policy. We can only hope that the local vendors are at least required to let its customers know (in bold print) that the food they are buying is GM.

Muhammad cartoons again

The daily unfoldings of this story are simply too precious to leave alone. The BBC has a great page of comments on this whole fiasco, many are worth reading. One in particular caught my eye,

"the wanton destruction by the Taliban...of the historic Buddha images carved into the a cliff [in Afganistan]. Buddha is a prophet too, but I cannot recall any demonstrations of the Muslim world to protest this inane destruction. Double standards..."

How true. The slightest misstep by any non muslim is like kicking over a hornets nest. They begin with simple marches in the streets, but this soon leads to a mob mentality, with effigy burning, signs threatening suicide bombings, and the occasional invasion and burning of, guess what, non muslim buildings. Should any dissenters be the in the location, they will at least be beaten if not killed.

Where was the outrage when the massive, 15 story tall, ancient Buddha statues were blown up? Where was it when the synagogues were burnt in Gaza following the pullout? Where was it when more radical elements of the muslim world killed hundreds of people throughout the last 10 years in everyplace from Chechnya to Kosovo to the Phillipines to India to the Sudan?

But now the muslim world erupts because of...cartoons?

Muslim fanatacism rampant

It seems I may have not hit the issue directly on the head in my initial blog post. The firestorm of violence sweeping the muslim world should cause us all concern, because it directly challenges our sovereign freedoms, and as thus is an attack on free men everywhere.

Freedom of expression. Freedom of speech. Freedom in general. These words become meaningless as soon as we surrender our capacity to make decisions for ourselves to an aggressive monotheistic religion, or a dogma of any sort. The publication of cartoon depicting Islams 'prophet' mohammed is one of those freedoms. Would we all stop eating meat if it directly challenged some wacky religions notions about vegetarianism? What if the fanatics of this religion turned massively violent because of it, would we give up?

The freedom of the press is a basic liberty of our culture. If the muslims cannot accept this, then that is their problem. I see countless things everyday which I find deeply offensive, yet believe in freedom to the extent that I accept others misdeeds, transgressions, and outright insults. I expect others to honor this basic precept as well, even muslims.

So if I see an islamic protest burning an effigy of the Danish prime minister, I will speak up. All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Oppose the radicals. Confront their ignorance. Be strong.

Prophet Muhammad cartoons

Muslims are so touchy. Islam is probably the strictest and most idiotic dogma ever allowed to fester in the history of manking. An example being how they consider any printed version of their holy text, the Kuran to be the literal body of their silly god, Allah. Another being their radical insistence that their "prophet", Muhammed not be portrayed by any drawings, which is a pure misconception of their own holy text.

According to the BBC, "There is no specific, or explicit ban on images of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad - be they carved, painted or drawn. However, chapter 42, verse 11 of the Koran does say: "[Allah is] the originator of the heavens and the earth... [there is] nothing like a likeness of Him."

Now the fanatics (and yes, they even more fanatical than even southern Baptists here in the US) are freaking out over some cartoon depictions from a Danish Publisher of mohammed, not only boycotting Danish goods, but having violent protests, and worse, threatening violence against Europeans for reprinting it.

Evil must be opposed, and organized religion is dangerous. As a proud member of the free world, I hereby give you, the prophet they speak of in all his glory.