Like father, Like son
posted by TheDon

It has long been known that Chimpy takes after his mother. His temper, his cruelty, his beady-eyed stupidity, his disregard for all things decent are a perfect reflection of the former First Lady. Now, finally, we see King George share some characteristics with dear old dad.

Scooter Libby just became the highest ranking government official to get sentenced since the heady days of Iran-Contra. The disregard for the Constitution, extra-governmental intelligence gathering, the war-mongering, the corporate cronyism? That’s from dad.

Internet Suppression and Amnesty International
posted by Susan Stark

Lately, Amnesty International has broadened it’s human rights focus to include foreign government suppression of the internet, and the use of IT companies like Google and Yahoo to supply information to these governments about dissidents using their services. The examples that Amnesty uses are countries like China, Vietnam, Tunisia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.

I’ll take Amnesty’s word for it that these countries are indeed repressing the internet and using the internet to track down dissidents. But unfortunately, there is one country that Amnesty overlooks at it’s website:

The United States.

Yes, the US is currently trying to censor the internet, with dissidents along with it. Companies like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner provide the bandwidth which internet traffic flows through. The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are the vehicles which drive on this information superhighway, and websites are the people inside the vehicles. The bandwidth providers wish to institute tolls along this highway whenever and wherever they wish, and the ISPs that can’t pay the tolls will be stuck, and those that can will pass through with ease. These tolls will be passed on to websites.

This means that the more money a website gives to it’s network, the more access it has on the internet.

This is plainly discriminatory, and it’s plain censorship. Smaller internet businesses will suffer because they can’t pay what larger businesses can, and people with ideas and opinions will only get heard according to what they can pay. Which means that a corporate hack like Rush Limbaugh will pass with ease on the highway, but not an anarchist in Kansas City. On the flip side, a liberal corporate hack like Air America will pass through more quickly than an Alabaman with a confederate flag on his truck.

As it stands right now, we can get to the anarchist and the Alabaman just as quickly as Limbaugh and Air America, but if the cable and telephone bandwidth providers have their way, we won’t in the future.

And it’s not just websites. Internet radio is also currently in jeopardy. On March 2, 2007, there was a ruling passed by the Copyright Royalty Board that increased the royalties internet radio must pay to artists and record labels by 500%. Most internet radio would have to go out of business if it had to pay these royalties. And ironically, most artists and record labels are against this, because it would cut off a very important venue for their music to be heard. Internet radio is currently fighting tooth and nail against this ruling.

This may not be a dictatorship censoring dissident websites and putting the dissidents in jail, but it is just as serious. If Amnesty International treats Chinese internet censorship as a human rights issue, then it should treat American and corporate internet censorship as a human rights issue as well. If censorship by the Tunisian government is wrong, than so is censorship by Comcast.

Amnesty International’s website: http://irrepressible.info

Save The Internet website: http://www.savetheinternet.com/

Save Internet Radio: http://www.savenetradio.org/

Judicial Process for Dummies
posted by TheDon
Another boneheaded laugher from Atlanta hate-yakker Neal Boortz. From his June 5 “Nuze“:

Bad news out of Guantanamo Bay because of a mislabeling. The terrorists were only labeled as “enemy combatants” rather than “unlawful enemy combatants,” and the entire case was thrown out. Talk about insignificant details.

“Unlawful enemy combatants” are spies and terrorists. The other name for captured “enemy combatants” is POWs, and there are a *lot* of rules about how you treat them. Read the Geneva Conventions for details, if you don’t think that’s too quaint. Moron.

Shortwave Report for Central Asia, Part 3
posted by Susan Stark (Parts 1 and 2 posted below)

SHORTWAVE TRANSMISSIONS TO CENTRAL ASIA

Besides the BBC, that relic of the Cold War–RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty–still broadcasts into the former Soviet Republics, and that would include the Central Asian ones. RFE/RF was started back in the 1940’s by Congress and the CIA to combat the spread of communism, and now it functions as a type of psy-ops for American foreign policy. The transmitter sites are in such American-friendly countries like Germany, Bosnia, and Thailand. It does not transmit in English, though.

The Voice of America performs the same psy-ops function, but has English broadcasting. It transmits to Afghanistan in both shortwave and AM radio. The AM frequency has a 400 kilowatt range, which makes it able to be heard by the entire country. The English segment of VOA Afghanistan is here:

English to Afghanistan

0000-0030 UTC 1296 7555

2030-2400 UTC 1296 7555

Here are the schedules for the BBC in Afghanistan:

AM:

Frequency 1413 kHz serves Afghanistan and Iran at certain times of day.

FM:

In Kabul, Afghanistan, BBC World Service in Persian, Pashto & English is on 89.0 FM.

In Mazar-e Sharif, 89.0 FM carries English service 24 hours a day.

SHORTWAVE TRANSMITTERS WITHIN CENTRAL ASIA

(Warning: some of the programming information is from 2004, and therefore may be out-of-date. But the transmitter-location info is from 2006, so it should be still pretty accurate. Better to find BBC for English broadcasts.)

Kazakhstan has two transmitters, one in Almaty and the other in Qaraturyq. It leases out it’s transmitters to other countries, so it may broadcast in English.

Uzbekistan has one transmitter in Tashkent. These are the English programs:

0100	0130	English	7160	Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
0100	0130	English	7190	Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
1200	1230	English	5060	Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
1200	1230	English	7190	Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa

1330	1400	English	5060	Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
1330	1400	English	7190	Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa

The beginning of these programs should say, “This is Radio Tashkent International”.

Turkmenistan has one transmitter at Ashgabat. It’s got some English, but minimal.

Kyrgyzstan has one transmitter at Bishkek. English minimal.

Tajikistan has two transmitters, one outside of Dushanbe and the other at Orzu. Two fifteen minute English broadcasts.

Afghanistan has two transmitters, one in Kabul and one in Bagram, where I believe the US Forces are stationed. Lots of English programming on all AM/FM/SW frequencies.

That’s it for now.

Apparently watching our current administration get its guidance from daily prayers hasn’t taught the electorate anything. They still insist that credible candidates proclaim belief in the christian god, and reliance on prayer.

Hillary is just the latest example, saying prayer got her through Bill’s infidelities, and that she is “grounded in my faith”. Skipping right over the fact that being “grounded in faith” is a moronic statement of the oxy variety, can’t we try a different basis for decisions, for reasoning, for governance? Please?

First they came for our satire…
posted by TheDon

This administration has been almost impossible to satirize for years. I tip my hat to TR for his efforts; he is fighting the good fight in hellish conditions.

Now, in another development which could completely destroy Ted’s livelihood, it is almost impossible to be too cynical about them. As I predicted, the more we learn about the “terrorists” trying to blow up JFK, the less they look like terrorists. And the less Homeland Security looks like security.

No weapons, no experience, no money, no plan with any chance of succeeding, all egged on by a convict looking for a jail-term deal from the FBI. And the reporting is politically timed.

Good Luck Ted! Your job gets harder every day.

It’s because of our hairstyles

posted by TheDon

Neal Boortz, syndicated Atlanta hate-yakker blasts war hero Rep. John Murtha for not understanding the danger we face:

He does not understand that the fundamental hatred of terrorists is not based on our presence in Iraq. Rather, this hatred is based on a general hatred for our culture. It almost seems as if moonbats like Murtha want nothing more than to see America defeated by Islam.

They hate our culture. They hate our freedoms. And Murtha is the moonbat? Atta and his buddies spent their time before the attacks hanging out on Jack Abramoff’s gambling boat and inside strip clubs – at least the ones not living with FBI informants. I’m pretty sure that the people blowing up our soldiers in Iraq wouldn’t recognize our “culture” if they were holding it in their hands.

Refusing to even acknowledge that the people attacking us might have logical motives and could have a knowable agenda is a big part of the pathology of the enablers of the thieves and murderers in the current administration. You, Neal Boortz, are part of the problem.

Man, if I thought I was jetlagged before! Here I am, 9 hours ahead of New York and I don’t know if I’m coming or going. The Tajik capital has changed a lot since my last visit in 2002: more expensive cars, more businesses, more of a sense of hustle and bustle. There’s even a brand-new airline terminal, though they seem to have reinstalled the same obscene old crappers from the Soviet days in the new one.

The Hotel Tajikistan, home to the international press corps during the heady days of the U.S. invasion of neighboring Afghanistan, is decidedly even more worn. Renovations, however, are underway. And a garrison of French troops wearing oh-so-tight cammie shorts (“he wears short shorts!”) keep heavily armed pressure on the breakfast chefs to make the food more palatable than in the past.

This coming week, my syndicated column was filed from Istanbul. After that, Tajikistan’s previous bland president takes up the mantle of the deceased Turkmenbashi.

This Weak
posted by TheDon

This Week With George Stephanopoulos

Terrorist Plot Foiled! Whatever. Discussed by FBI guy. No weapons. Not operational. No ties to Al Queda. Starting to sound familiar.

GS hammers him a little on the lack of focus on home-grown threats and the phony focus on AQ.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani shows up.

“I don’t blame them (Americans getting impatient).” “Withdrawing forces without achieving success will harm the Iraqi people and the people of the US” Says the Iraqis can take over security at the end of NEXT year (2008). Trusts Malaki to dismantle militias. Says some of Muqtada al Sadr’s people are bad, and *some* of his militias are run by bad people. Says (despite polls) that most Iraqis love the occupation. Especially Kurds. Claims the parliament which voted to end the occupation was deceived and doesn’t mean it.

W claims he supports Baker-Hamilton, just like he always have. Pretty good laugh line

Talibani stays with his original assessment that B-H was unjust.

Thanks “glorious people of US” for dying there for his people and their liberation.
Says we only get the bad news out of Iraq. His ability to spin and twist would do an American politician proud.

Murtha comes on.

GS asks Murtha what happens if the benchmarks aren’t met. Murtha says a disaster is coming and coming fast. Talks about how bad the situation in Iraq is – water, electricity, security, etc. Says homegrown terror is inspired by Iraq war.

Murtha expresses reservations about believing what Petraeus and other military leaders say, since they seem to be parroting W administration lines. Calls out Iraqis for not doing enough, especially for not including Sunnis, claiming that it keeps surrounding Sunni countries from helping in Iraq.

GS pushes Murtha for caving on war vote. Murtha goes with “we don’t have a veto-proof congress”. Claims that veto-proof congress is coming.

GS talks about the Korea model. Murtha gives it the proper amount of respect.
“The key is to start to withdraw, and force them to rewrite their constitution.””We must do what is best for OUR country, not for Iraq.”

brief parry about the earmarks controversy

Roundtable time!

Thompson first, of course. (sigh)

clip of Thompson sounding like an idiot and a hack.

George Will says R’s are in the grip of Reagan nostalgia, and they won’t find another Reagan. Calls Thompson “McCain without the immigration issue”.

Cokie says the problem is that the R’s don’t have a candidate.

Sam says Thompson *is* the Reagan candidate, but wonders if he has Reagan’s substance. Hey! Don’t set the bar so high! I have a Shih Tzu with more substance than Reagan.

blah blah blah – just don’t care about Fred that much.

How do candidates deal with Bush for next 18 months? Consensus – by running away from him.

But Will thinks that will be tricky since Bush=War, and both are popular for the primary mouth-breathers on the right. Not so much in the general election.

Sam once again implies that Thompson is lazy.

W talks about how good Americans are, and how proud he is to be our leader. gag.

Sam goes way out on a limb and says W is not an evil man. ummmm… guess he hasn’t watched TV during his retirement.

Will goes to Limbaugh talking points on global warming, Sam calls him on it.

W – We must not let Al Queda keep the safe haven we have created for them in Iraq. Something like that. I might not have that exactly right.

In memoriam – 37 soldiers and Marines killed in Iraq. Jeebuz.

This week’s voice: Kyle Petty – NASCAR driver – made a camp for sick kids. Anybody who makes kids smile is good by me.

Sunday Funnies
includes a clip from FoxNoise’s 1/2 Hour News Hour:”There are reports that Fred Thompson’s portrayal of a racist character on TV in the ’80s could hurt his chances of being elected president today, particularly among people unable to distinguish between television and real life.” WOW! Talk about going after your own base!

credits roll

Because I have a strong stomach
Posted by TheDon

Fox News Sunday

first the headlines…
FOILED!! Another “terror plot” foiled in the planning stages. Stop me if you’ve head this before… How long until we find out the whole plot was generated by FBI agents and informants?

General Ricardo Sanchez, who used to lead the US ground forces in Iraq, says the best we can hope for in Iraq is to stave off defeat. Claims the US has a crisis in its political leadership. Goddamn defeatocrats! They’re EVERYWHERE!!! And they hate America!

6 more US soldiers dead. Since the last six. Before the next six. I think I’m gonna be six.

Newt is on. I have to admit my stomach isn’t that strong. The disgraced former speaker is a rock star to these idiots, but I.just.can’t.watch. I’m guessing we’re not missing that much. Maybe I could read the transcript later, but I can’t listen to that pompous ass superciliously pontificate about what a prophet he is. Thank you DVR!!!

a clip of W saying,”If you want to frighten the American people, you call it an amnesty bill. It’s not an amnesty bill. That’s empty political rehetoric, trying to frighten our fellow citizens.” Well…. that *is* his area of expertise…

Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
Wow. Bug-eyed and telling lies is NOT a pretty combination. In his defense, trying to justify dead soldiers for this war can’t be easy. He’s sticking to the company line – we’re dying so their politicians can have some breathing space. I know that makes ME feel better! Especially when they show no inclination to solve their political problems.

I just love that the administration is already, in early June, telegraphing their September move. No report card. Period. It will be to early to give any kind of report card. Not that we expected any different… But considering they told us we would know how the surge is working in the Spring, and considering Maliki said the Iraqis would take control of their own security by last Friday… at some point people should start seeing a pattern. Any day now…

Still trying to blame the Iranians. Anybody wanna bet me on a war with Iran before W leaves the Whitehouse? Anybody? Didn’t think so.

Wallace asks the ambassador if the US will support Maliki giving amnesty to groups that have attacked US forces. They make it so hard to remember that Iraq is a sovereign nation. But the ambassador seems to be saying that we will.

Heh. The leaked plans for the massive embassy are talked about. I have seen the advice that they put a LARGE helicopter pad on top to accomodate the evacuation, but I really don’t think the evacuation will look like Hanoi. Back then, the people running us out of the country didn’t have missles to knock helicopters down. This one will be much uglier.

Oh goody! The roundtable. I do love Juan Williams being on there…
first topic: Fred Thompson

Brit Hume seems skeptical. Says Thompson seemed bored in the Senate, didn’t go after Clinton nearly hard enough. But he is likeable!

Nina Easton is asked about Fred being lazy. She calls the criticism legit. Questions his qualifications, since he’s never run anything.

Bill Kristol must sense that Fred will buy into the Weekly Standard line of reasoning, and seems to like him. I guess so, since Mary Matalin is on board.

Juan goes for the kill. Says Fred getting in is an indication that the R’s have no candidates.

Standard “who does he help, who does he hurt” question. Brit instead takes a shot a Newt, comparing him to Dukakis. Nina thinks Newt will make a splash. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Kristol takes the bait, and says truthfully that Newt is unelectable. Says Newt will endorse Thompson. Be still my heart!

Brit seems sad that McCain is doing poorly but says not to count him out. Looks like he’s picked his candidate.

Amnesty: Bush defending, Limbaugh getting defensive. Too good to be true.

Hume thinks that W attacking the base as racists if they oppose amnesty is a bad idea. “about as dumb as it gets”

Nina agrees that nobody really wants W calling them names.

Kristol calls himself a “liberal on immigration”. Just a guess, but maybe that means he’s ok with them cutting his grass. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mean that he supports public education, safe working conditions, wage protection, health benefits and anti-discrimination protection for them. Liberal can mean so many different things.

Peggy Noonan jumps on Bush, Kristol disagrees – says she overstates the case. Calls Bush “liberal on immigration”. You keep using that word. I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

Juan makes a real argument about the racists (my word) who attack immigrants differently than they attack citizens for the same offenses.

Hume argues, apropos of nothing that we haven’t been attacked since 9/11. Claims the economy is roaring along, ergo, the only reason people hate Bush is because of Iraq. Guess he missed the scandals and attacks on our constitution.

Power Player of the Week
Ayaan Hirsi Ali “there is something wrong with Islam” blah blah blah
shocking that Fox puts her on…

credits roll