21st Century Lifelessness

Our communication........Wireless
Our business......................Cashless
Our telephone..................Cordless
Our cooking.......................Fireless
Our youth.........................Jobless
Our food............................Fatless
Our labor...........................Effortless
Our conduct....................Worthless
Our relation......................Loveless
Our attitude....................Careless
Our feelings......................Heartless
Our politics......................Shameless
Our education...............Valueless
Our Follies.........................Countless
Our arguments...............Baseless
Our commitment..........Aimless
Our poor..........................Voiceless
Our life..............................Meaningless

Finally,
Our existence..................Useless????

Dirty Politics of Discreditation

It is one thing to disagree with someone and present arguements against his or her case and then let the best idea stand up. But when you activly try to discredit people and try to find and manufacture dirt, it can only point out the weakness of your argument.

The adminsitration is now looking for ways to get into Iran, now that it has egg on the face with Iraq. ElBaradei is not phrasing his words exactly the way the administration wants them to be phrased. Therefore, they take the liberty to tap his phones.

The first link below is a recent CNN article about this. The second is some of the analysis by Paul Craig Roberts about the readiness of the US to attack Iran, even with strong European opposition.

Here is an excerpt from the analysis (2nd link).

The important unanswered question is: why do the neocons with their proven record of duplicity and delusion still hold the reigns of power in the Bush administration? Why isn’t Feith in prison? Martha Stewart is in prison for "lying" about a noncrime. Feith’s lies have killed thousands. The Iraq war is based entirely on neocon lies. The war is costing the US a fortune it does not have. The war is producing US casualties comparable to those of the Vietnam war and has killed a minimum of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.

The neocons have destroyed Iraq’s infrastructure, alienated the entire Muslim world and made the US the most hated country on the planet.

U.S. taps ElBaradei phone

A Dose of Non-Delusional Reality for Douglas Feith

Google Is Adding Major Libraries to Its Database

Google is working with major institutions around the world to add digital libraries that are searchable on the internet. WOW!! This is going to be fantastic! Prestigious institutions like Oxford University, New York Public Library and our local Stanford University are joining this effort.

Now we have to account for our time even better than before and stop wasting so much of it. Here is an interesting short article by Salah Eddin Arqadan (sorry it is in Arabic, I will try to get it translated soon) about the power of the internet and our accountability for all the time that we save using it.

The internet and abuse of time and location

شبكة الانترنيت وسوء استخدام الوقت والزمان

A Stubborn Refusal to Die

Please take a look at this! I have added it as a permanent link on the right set.

Mounting Scandal at Aipac Prompts Talk of Lobbying Powerhouse's Demise

This is a very interesting article about AIPAC. You may need to register your email at the Forward website to read this article in full. But in case that you can't here are some excerpts from it.

Communal insiders warn that an indictment of an Aipac official or a trial that casts the association in a negative light could severely weaken the lobbying prowess of all Jewish organizations at a time when Israel and Jewish agencies are facing rising hostility in many corners, and depending increasingly on support from Washington lawmakers.

"If this goes to court, and I am not even talking about a guilty verdict, it will be very damaging to the community," said an official at one national Jewish organization. "If this goes to court, Aipac as Aipac will be on trial, and if Aipac goes down, it's a disaster for the whole community."

Also this

"It's okay to say once that the FBI is ticked at Aipac, but a grand jury with subpoenas — that's not someone running a grudge campaign," said an official with a major Jewish organization. "Clearly, somebody has thought this through. And they are looking for something."

Steve Pomerantz, a former FBI investigator who consults for Jewish organizations sounded a similar note. He said the nature of the subpoenas suggests that FBI investigators know what they're looking for.

"This is not a fishing expedition," he said. "It's clear to me they have some specific information which is leading them in a specific direction."

And finally this

"People, even in Washington, don't know the difference between some Jewish group and Aipac," said an official with a major Jewish organization. "For them, any Jew lobbying on the Hill is Aipac."

This perception of a stronger connection to Aipac often has been an asset for other Jewish organizations when attempting to advance issues unrelated to Israel, the official said. But with the current legal developments, some Jewish activists say they are beginning to feel uncomfortable with the link. "There are some who are beginning to think in terms of self preservation," the official said.

There are many more details in this. If you would like to see the rest of the article and don't want to register your email address, leave me a comment here and I will email you the full article.

U.S. Students Fare Badly in International Survey of Math Skills

No comments...speaks for itself

The Natalists -- The New Red-Diaper Babies

Guess what? This is an interesting coorelation. The states with the people who are more family oriented and are having more babies voted republican. Those that have a low birth rate (the coasts) are the ones that voted democrat. Interesting, isn't it?

However, where does that stand with the Muslim population of the US? Obviously, we have the family values down pat and the number of children. Yet this election was overwhelmingly democratic for Muslims. Seems that my previous post (yesterdays) about the view of Muslims towards the US policies is the key here.

US Has Zero Credibility Among Muslims – Pentagon Panel

Can you believe it? Even a penatgon panel says that the policies of the US in the Middle East need revamping. When will this administration get it? What is disturbing, though, is the report was finished in September, but somehow held until now to be revealed. Someone was eager to have someone lose.

Here is a quote

The document also called on U.S. policymakers to spend more time "listening" to their intended audience and use messages that "should seek to reduce, not increase, perceptions of arrogance, opportunism, and double standards."

And another

The DSB report also stresses that U.S. policies in the Mideast – notably Washington's support for Israel, the Iraq invasion, and its backing of autocratic leaders in the region – make it very difficult for Washington to persuade Muslims of its good intentions. The report, however, does not advise changing policies, which would be beyond its mandate.

A third

Thus, contrary to the mantra of the administration and its neoconservative advisers, asserts the report, "Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing even increasing support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan, and the Gulf states."

It is amazing that this report finally makes it under a hawkish Bush presidency. Even though this report is not entirely representative of the views in the Muslim world, it is much closer to the real situation than the silly comments that the Muslim world hates the freedom of the west.

The 9/11 Bubble

Here is more fiscal bad news. Add this with the earlier post Contemporary Thoughts: Pass the Buck -- The approaching financial catastrophe This may be the main issue in the 2nd W Presidency.

The very reason Mr. Bush had the luxury of launching a war of necessity in Afghanistan and a war of choice in Iraq, without a second thought, was because of the surpluses built up by the previous administration and Congress. Since then, the Bush team has been slashing taxes in the middle of two wars, weakening the dollar and amassing a huge debt burden - on the implicit assumption that nothing will go wrong in the future.

But what if there is another 9/11 or war of necessity? We're cooked. The tax revenue won't be there, so the only option will be more borrowing and a weaker dollar. But what happens if the Chinese and other foreigners, who now hold over 40 percent of our Treasury securities, decide they don't want to hold these depreciating dollars anymore, let alone buy more?

The Case for Not Attacking Iran

Well, it seems that Iraq is not enough. We now need Iran too. This is getting ridiculous.

Do the last few days remind you of anything, by any chance? Presidential heavy breathing about a ‘rogue’ Middle Eastern state; a supporting chorus of exiles with dramatic new claims; and a senior member of the US government bearing intelligence which turns out to be more spin than spine-chilling. Less than a month after the presidential election, the Bush White House has begun its campaign against Iran. In the week that Americans break for Thanksgiving, it might seem that, for Washington, the festival of the moment should really be Groundhog Day.

And it seems that it all was serendipity

According to Ken Pollack, the highly respected Washington Middle East analyst, Iran’s current status as a fully-fledged US hate-object is partly the result of an accident. Since the embassy hostage-taking in 1979, relations have not been warm. But there have been several attempts at rapprochement since. And, by Pollack’s account, Iran only ended up in President Bush’s famous ‘Axis of Evil’ speech as little more than ‘padding’. Bush’s speechwriters ‘had come up with this great line, and they needed a third country to make up an Axis’, he quotes one administration official as telling him.

However, we hope that Iran is in a better position than what Iraq was in.

In discussions with journalists and British officials over the last six months, Iran has discreetly made it clear that if it should be attacked, it has the power to turn the current mess in Iraq into a Lebanon-in-the-1980s-style calamity, and send a lot more men of the British and American armies back home in boxes. That is the main reason why the current policy of negotiation, coupled with threats from each side to make life difficult for the other, will probably continue for some time, however tough the rhetoric from Washington.

Condaliza Rice takes over as Secratary of State

Don't forget to smile.

US Downplays Report on Guantanamo Prisoner Abuse

This is a must read about Guantanamo.

It cited one common practice at Camp Delta, the main prison facility, which was applied to uncooperative detainees. They were forced to strip to their underwear, sit in a chair while shackled hand and foot to the floor, and then subjected to strobe lights and loud rock and rap music while the air-conditioning was turned to maximum levels.

Pass the Buck -- The approaching financial catastrophe

This is a very important article from Ludwig Van Mises Institute (a Libertarian Think Tank) . The dollar is steadily weakening against all other main currencies of the world. What is worse is that the original problem occured because of the supremacy of the dollar in the sixties and the world pegging their currencies on the dollar. The dollar at that time was backed with gold. When Europe started collecting the gold in the 60's, Nixon bet that if he would remove the gold standard, the dollar would still be sought after and the interest game would bring money into the US, without losing the gold.

Well that worked for a while....but the game looks like it is beginning to implode. You know the fake pyramid schemes of making money from nothing....this is at a world level.

Here are some excerpts from the analysis.

The post Second World War monetary architecture crowned the dollar as the world's reserve currency, tying it to gold at a fixed sum and all other currencies fixed against each other. Under this pseudo gold standard, America's central bank would convert dollars to gold on demand for foreigners. However, U.S. policy-makers assumed that gold redemption would fail to materialize and the Fed could inflate without sanction because foreign central banks would retain the dollars as reserves on which to pyramid their own currencies.

The system worked fine, as far as America was concerned, until the 1960s when European countries replaced an inflationary bent with hard money policies. Assailed by rampant inflation, the Vietnam War, and staggering trade and budget deficits, the U.S. hemorrhaged gold at an accelerated pace, prompting President Nixon to close the gold window in 1971. The de facto declaration of national bankruptcy heralded the advent of free-floating currencies and the present stage of the dollar standard.

No longer constrained by even the nominal fetters of Bretton Wood's pseudo gold standard, America has been able to purchase imports with fiat money churned out by the Fed and uniquely finance its burgeoning indebtedness by issuing debt instruments in dollars. On the other hand, foreigners, stuck with unconvertible greenbacks since 1971, have had no choice but to adopt dollars, rather than gold, as the world's reserve asset.

Consequently, the dollar standard, in both the fixed and floating variants, has fostered an unhealthy economic relationship whereby most major economies excessively rely on exports to the U.S. and then funnel the greenback receipts back into America's credit-hungry public and private sectors. Repatriated dollars seep into America's financial system, furnishing banks a broader monetary base to pyramid credit upon, which can fund more U.S. imports, thus perpetuating the world's vicious economic cycle.[i]

The article is a bit long but very interesting to read. If you don't want to read it, it should suffice to read the last two paragraphs.

To underscore the voracity of the dollar's impending demise, the 27 November Edition of the Financial Times furnishes a telling account published in its letter-to-the-editor section. The writer, who just returned from a business trip to Vietnam, recalls how when a 7-year-old street urchin asked him for money, the child refused his offer of a dollar, instead specifying euros.[vi]

A 100% gold standard, with its inherent price-specie-flow mechanism, would have precluded the tremendous accumulation of debt and annual trade deficits by America as well as the gross distortion of the international economy, whereby most major countries orient production toward exporting goods to America. As 50 years of the fiat dollar standard "boom" ends, the U.S. and the world will reap what they have sown.

The Victims of "Victimhood"

This is an article about honor killing in Jordan. However, it actually exposes made up stories and nonsensical issues with a recent book called "Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern Day Jordan".

An excerpt

Khouri's hoax is a dramatic illustration of how harmful such gaping incredulity can be to real victims and honest dialogue. Malcolm Knox, Literary Editor of SMH, commented that Khouri "spent much of 2003 retelling this story, reducing listeners to tears and anger, in interviews, book festivals, bookshops and other events ... Khouri became a standard-bearer for oppressed Arab women and triggered a publishing trend of similar books."

Meanwhile, Sabbagh – a woman who has fought on the front lines for the real victims of honor killings – stated: "We feel defamed by this book." She feels defamed because Jordan has courageously opened up the topic of honor killings for global examination. Now the issue is being defined by sensationalized fiction, not reality.

Wendy McElroy concludes with

The sad Khouri saga is not an indictment of honor killings. It is an indictment of how society has so fallen in love with victimhood that it took 18 months and an international effort to debunk a claim that should have immediately collapsed of its own weight. But, then, that would have required asking a question.

US Foreign Policy Exposed

Here is an excerpt

In the past 100 years American foreign policy has become progressively more offensive, more militaristic, more expensive, and in every way, less republican, less constitutionally constrained, and with all that, imperial. The facts on the ground in terms of military spending (seven times the next closest spenders, China and Russia, and thirty times that of Iran, North Korea, and Syria combined), military reach (global), and general policies of interference (the U.S. "is the foremost user of economic coercion as a foreign policy tool") support Eland’s assessment that indeed, our foreign policy is beyond the pale and unsustainable. Several closet imperialistas in the neoconservative camp of both major parties, such as Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations and Victor D. Hanson of the Weekly Standard are frequently referenced. Even they seem to agree, ruefully at times, with the basics put forth in the book.

Thus, we have an empire, of sorts, impossible to pay for or to secure, and remarkably unguided by the kind of great ideas, kings and emperors we might read about or watch on the big screen. America has not been led to empire by some great shared vision or the ego of a larger than life leader. She has been cajoled, sweet-talked, lied to and made afraid whenever it was politically expedient, by bureaucrats and academics and ideologues who never knew war or else relished the fantasy of it.

And another one

In this important book, Eland has stripped the American empire for all to see. While it is admittedly painful, we must boldly direct our gaze at this undressed spectacle. The average American, like the clear-eyed innocent little boy in the Hans Christian Andersen story "The Emperor’s New Clothes," is completely capable of observing that in spite of what we are told by the echo chambers of administrations from Wilson to Roosevelt to Truman to Nixon to Bush 41, Clinton and Bush 43, in fact the American empire has no clothes. No profit, no richness, no honor, no loveliness, no good works or humanity. In pursuing empire for beautiful and glorious sounding reasons, in fact we have made America a laughingstock, and as a republic, she has grown scrawny and weak.

That Pre-9/11 Mindset

Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Some quotes:

In 2000, for example – a year before 9/11 – the Mises Institute's Jon Basil Utley was predicting that the United States' disregard of international law was fueling a potential terrorist backlash. And the year before that, our own Lew Rockwell observed that thanks to its "foreign policy, imperial military reach, and global arrogance, the U.S. government is the most hated in the world," so it's "not surprising" that terrorists might "blame us for the actions of the government."

And even from Pat Buchanan

On the right, Pat Buchanan was asking in 1999:

With the Cold War over, why invite terrorist attacks on our citizens and country, ultimately with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons? … [B]attling terrorism must go beyond discovering and disrupting it before it happens and deterring it with retaliation. We need to remove the motivation for it by extricating the United States from ethnic, religious and historical quarrels that are not ours and which we cannot resolve with any finality.

The Failure of Media and Journalism by Robert Jensen

Professor Robert Jensen from the University of Texas in Austin was in the San Francisco Bay Area recently. His web page is linked to the title of this blog. He gave an interesting talk about the failure of media and journalism in the past few years and notably during the war in Iraq and the elections. Here is a summary of his talk. Also here is an article entitled The Failure of US Journalism from his website.

Professor Jensen has put together a Citizen's Oath of Office.

I do solemnly pledge that I will faithfully execute the office of citizen of the United States, and that I will, to the best of my ability, resist corporate control of the world, resist militarism, resist the roll-back of civil rights, and resist illegitimate authority in all its forms.

Citizenship in the United States involves more than "just voting". Part of making good on citizenship is being informed and among the ways to get informed is through the media. The role of media in the US can be enumerated as follows:

1. Provide an independent source of factual information. The two other main sources of information in the US are the government and the corporate world. Media plays a very important role in corroborating the information produced by the other two sources.
2. Provide a framework or a context for the information, whether historical, social, political, or economic relevance.
3. Provide as wide a range of opinion as possible, both from official sources (government and corporate) and unofficial (the public).
   

Especially during crises, the role of media becomes heightened and critical. A country that prides itself on adherence to a constitution and institutions of process to decide its actions should value the truth at all times and search for it fervently during times of crises. We see some samples of the failure of media recently.

1. In terms of providing factual information, the failure that we observed in the run-up to the Iraq war was evident and seen by many in the world and proven more recently.
2. In terms of providing a context for the information and facts, we see a blatant failure in the Middle East and the situation between Israel and the Arabs.
3. The range of opinion we get from the current media runs the gamut from A to .... B. Most of the information available from the media regarding Iraq has been from the military establishment and the retired military establishment. Other sources and points of view were marginalized and discounted without bringing out the information to the public.
   

Failure of the media to fulfill its role stems mostly from systemic problems (and therefore cannot be termed failure in reality).

1. The structure of mainstream media in the US is corporate, for profit entities. Therefore it is difficult to isolate from the corporate information centers and not able to challenge them.
2. The set of professional practices that the media follow are not objective enough. They deal in objectivity, yet they favor officials that frame the news, does not allow oneself to ignore personal prejudices and truly feret out made up data
3. The whole media sector is necessarily beholden to the idealogy of the Benevolent Empire when it comes to international news and to the understanding of capitalism as a system (not as a theory among theories as in Europe) [More on this at the end of this post]
   

How is it possible to solve or resolve this? It is actually a failure of democray not the failure of journalism. Whatever the first issue is, media is the second. This is what is needed:

1. A healthy media system is diversified and not overwhelmingly corporate. Public and alternative media exist.
   
2. The public broadcast has to be greatly expanded (professional journalism)
   
3. Grassroots media operations (non-professional and citizen media)
   

These items can be accomplished as follows:

1. Working journalist need to be empowered to have control over their work. This may be done through the unionizing of journalists to a certain extent.
   
2. Citizens need to demand accountability for the right of use of the airwave. The broadcasting companies purchase the license from the public trust and make a lot of money from it. They have to be accountable to the public.
3. The public and citizens have to continue and expand support for alternative media.

The Naturalizing of Capitalism

Professor Robert Jensen discussed the view of capitalism from within the US. While he did not condemn captialism, per se, he was critical of how it is viewed as a fait accompli in the US, just the way it is practised, with no room for modifications. Capitalism is modified in Europe to a certain extent and it vies for a segment of the mind in addition to other forms of financial compensation or as the key driver of societies.

The Benevolent Empire

Professor Robert Jensen argues that the US has always been an empire and more so after World War II. And it is only recently that this is being admitted in the media. The US empire controls in a different way than the colonizing empires of old, usurping culture and supporting dictators. Nevertheless, it still is an empire.

One difference is that the public believes, or evidence is presented for the public to believe, that even if the US is an empire, it is benevolant. That we only want what is best for the other nations and not take from them for our benefit. Of course, the public may have this feeling, but the reality on the ground for the nations of the world is different. The US has a strong history of supporting dictators that are against their own people and that, somehow, benefit the US, only to be toppled when they change their tune. Saddam Hussein is the most recent example of this. But there were many before him.

Conclusion

Very simply, the conclusion is that concentrations of power are dangerous wherever they occur. In today's climate we need to react to how far to the right US politics are and encourage use of our freedoms. In a depoliticized country freedoms are not used.

Some more articles by Professor Robert Jensen

• It's not just the emperor who is naked, it's the whole empire
• The US has lost the Iraq war, and that is a good thing
• US still adrift in the Middle East
• Your Rich Men are Full of Violence
  

Back to posting again

Somewhere and sometime in the frenzy of the campaign and the inundation of information, messages and confused not-entirely-true statements of both sides, it quickly became impractical for me to comment on all that I wanted to comment about.

Anyway, now that the election is over and things are settled down, it is really time to evaluate the political situation that we Americans find ourselves in viz-a-viz:

• Our internal bi-coastal/heartland division
• Our relationship with the rest of the world
• Definition of values (seems that is what everyone is looking for, but what values?)

I will try to keep my thoughts short (so I can blog them) and I invite your comments to any of my blogs. For those very interesting comments, I will edit my blog and include them to make the reading more interesting.

Also I will be adding the RSS feed to the blog today. Use it if you find this blog interesting.

It is a Republican week

Most of the news today is, of course, about the Republican convention. While the politicians in Madision Square Garden make a lot of sound bites, others respond to them. Here are some Op-Ed pieces from the New York Times.

Mr. Bush and the Truth about Terror

Here is are two excerpts:-

President Bush was absolutely right when he said it was impossible to win a war against terrorism - it's like announcing we can win a war against violence. Terrorism can only be minimized and controlled, and that can be done only with a worldwide strategy, joined by all of the world's sensible and peaceful nations. We hope that when Mr. Bush accepts his party's nomination for re-election tonight, he makes that argument.

If Mr. Bush is going to speak seriously about terrorism tonight, he also needs to talk about Israel. With its fixation on Iraq, the administration has allowed the situation in Israel to turn into a stalemate in which the Sharon government continues to expand its suicidal West Bank settlements while attempting to keep the Palestinians under control with sheer military force. The West Bank is not just a breeding ground for terrorists; it is the perpetual wound Arabs use to justify supporting and financing violent extremists.

And a couple of quotes about the scripted sound bites... Cutups and Cutthroats

Despite the fact that the economy is cratering, Iraq is teetering, Afghanistan is reverting to warlords, Dick Cheney is glowering at the world, the war on terror has created more acts of terror, Ahmad Chalabi is an accused spy for Iran and the Pentagon has an accused spy for Israel, Republicans felt so good about themselves that when Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was inspired to become a Republican by Richard Nixon, they exploded. When Tricky Dick is a hot applause line, they're feeling cocky.

Republicans know that plunging ahead with a course of action, even if it becomes obvious it's wrong, is an easier political sell than flip-flopping, even if it's right.

Another tongue in cheeck Op-Ed Crowning Prince George


And now for the news, still from the NY Times

Cheney and G.O.P. Mount Vigorous Assault on Kerry

Tactics by the Police Mute the Protestors, and Their Messages

Here is a quote from Kerry: Terrorists Gain From Bush Blunders

``Today, terrorists have secured havens in Iraq that were not there before, and we have been forced to reach accommodation with those who have repeatedly attacked our troops,'' he said. ``Violence has spread in Iraq, Iran has expanded its influence, and extremism has gained momentum.''

And finally, analysis from the Economist Make or Break in Manhattan

The Election Season is Depressing

Well here we are, four years later and with another election upon us. To listen to the rhetoric of both sides is to get sick. It seems that with each presidential election cycle that we live through, the name calling increases and the real issue discussions decrease. If you look at the last few elections you notice that we are getting so extremely polarized that no serious discussions are possible any more. Even the radio stations put on two competing points of view hosted by two pundits strung out on caffiene, challenging each other to insult the other person's candidate in the shortest phrase possible. Stories are twisted so far out of context that you can't look at the elections except as entertainment. Yet the election process is one of the most important acts that we do as citizens, if not the most important.

And here in the US, where a man is innocent until proven guilty, nothing is done to protect the reputation of people? Is it really acceptable to throw out a scandalous statement and watch while the targetted person squirms trying to prove a negative, yet the individual that starts this accusation or rumor is unknown and is not scrutinized at all? The candidates' election machines seem to delight in latching on any rumor and pushing it to the limit then claiming innocence. Is this how their candidate will govern the country?

That, and the electoral college insult. In a day and age when news travels so fast, we are burdened with this archaic system that is a throwback to the slave era. Either we relegate this system to the garbage heap and allow the popular vote to cover the country and in the process engage all the states' populations in the vote, or we focus on the credentials of those in the electoral college and ask them to pick a president through a new process that vets the qualifications of that person carefully. Somehow the idea of an anonymous (totally defocused by the media) electoral college and delegates is offensive especially that we saw the manipulation of it in 2000.

[Just in time, here is an op-ed piece in the NYTimes about the electoral college. Abolish the Electoral College ] TMM 2004-09-01 11:16

It is tiring to see this kind of politics year after year. We are in need of serious reform to our election processes. We need to empower the masses and shut out all the loud voices. Elections are not about bullying or dazzling people to vote one way or the other. They are deliberate processes to choose the soundest leaders for a country. Sound bites and loud rhetoric are not the way to do this for a country that prides itself on being the bastion of freedom and equality in the world. The more we trivialize our election process, the less these ideals apply.

Today's headlines and links

The Economist is telling us that the economy is not really doing as well as it should be. How is that for news? Also the Economist has an international view of the Bush Presidency. Here are the articles.

Poverty in America

The Bush presidency -- Je ne regrette rien

The Economist summarizes the Vietnam politics.

Vietnam and the presidency


Large protests today at the Republican National Convention. (You need to log onto NY Times...create an account if you don't have one...it is free, then come back to this link) By the way, it is a two-page article.

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Demonstrations: Hundreds Are Arrested as Protests Escalate

FBI looks at Pentagon worker in Israel spy probe - Aug 27, 2004

This is definitely going to be an interesting story to watch unfold. Read the article and notice that even with a serious charge like this there is a spin at the end to say that things like this are OK between friendly governments.

CNN.com - FBI looks at Pentagon worker in Israel spy probe - Aug 27, 2004

Here are the relevant quotes from the article.

The suspect could have been in a position to influence Bush administration policy toward Iran and Iraq, the senior official said.

Multiple sources have told CNN that the investigation is well along, and one government official described the evidence against the suspect as a "slam dunk case" and said "there has been no decision to prosecute the individual."

Washington insiders note that it is not unusual for friendly governments to have access to certain classified information, so even if the allegations are correct, not everyone involved may have thought they were involved in espionage. Still, one U.S. source is calling the case "a very serious matter."

CNN.com - FBI looks at Pentagon worker in Israel spy probe - Aug 27, 2004

Caught between loss of Civil Liberties and Sweeping Foriegn Policies

There are a few links in today's post. The first one is a New York Times article about the FBI preempting protestors. The other two links are John Kerry's views on the Middle East from the Forward. Not to be outdone, Bush is also giving up his protest to the settlements in Israel.

Here is the New York Times article

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > F.B.I. Goes Knocking for Political Troublemakers


Here is a link to the John Kerry articles at the Forward

Recent Articles by John Kerry The links to the two articles are below. I have provided the preceeding link to jump to in the future for additional articles.

An Unwavering Commitment to Reforming the Middle East

Winning the War on Terror Requires Reconsideration of Saudi Alliance

And here is Bush's leniency with the settlements even in the face of internal pressure in Israel to stop the settlements.
Bush Works at Avoiding Public Spat with Sharon

Happy Homecoming by Christopher Manion

Happy Homecoming by Christopher Manion

More from the libertarians about the neocons. We really are living through very interesting times these past few years.

Again, another quote.

Look, the neocons might not like being called duplicitous or Trotskyites or Straussians or pointy-headed intellectuals, but they share one core belief that is fundamental to all those adjectives, and more: they don’t believe in truth.

Happy Homecoming by Christopher Manion

The Bush Betrayal by James Bovard

The Bush Betrayal by James Bovard

A book about the promises of the campaign versus the four year reality of the aftermath of the elections.

Here is a quote from the article

Truth is a lagging indicator in politics. A president's promises and speeches receive far more publicity than subsequent reports and revelations about how his cherished programs crash and burn. This book does not aim to analyze all Bush policies. Instead, it examines an array of his domestic and foreign actions that vivify the damage Bush is inflicting and the danger he poses both to America and the world.

The Bush Betrayal by James Bovard

Like War? by Paul Craig Roberts

Here is a good reminder of the falsehood and admonishment not to get taken for another ride.

Like War? by Paul Craig Roberts

Here is a quote from the article

The US has struck an aggressive stance toward Iraq, Syria and Iran – the three Middle Eastern countries that are not ruled by American puppets on the American payroll. Now that the Soviet Union is no longer a check on US intrusions in the Middle East, the Bush administration intends to complete the colonization under the cloak of bringing "democracy" to Islam.

Like War? by Paul Craig Roberts

Interest Rates in One Lesson by Gary North

Interest Rates in One Lesson by Gary North

The Wanna-Be State by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

This is an interesting set of views and opinions about the current state of affairs.

The Wanna-Be State by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Here are a couple of quotes from the article:

Even the most cynical among us have been astounded at what the public has put up with since 9-11: a brazen attempt to seize control of the entire economy and culture in the name of protecting us, even though the main lesson of 9-11 is that the government cannot protect us but rather invites act of vengeance
through its imperial foreign policies.

There is such a thing as acculturation that tolerates no attempts to rob people of the right to self-government. It is on display in Najaf and in other parts of Iraq where people are giving their lives to throw out the invaders. But instead of recognizing this as bravery, the US government says that the resistance is showing itself unwilling to accept "freedom" because it represents a people predisposed to live under tyranny. How to respond to such nonsense? Observe their dedication and sacrifices for the sake of the land, family, tribe, and religion: this is a predisposition to tolerate no rule by conquerors. What's more, this tendency has completely shocked the US civilian political elite, who have been uncomprehending as to why foreign peoples are so unwilling to be ruled by tanks and guns.

The Wanna-Be State by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Hijacking Catastrophe--Fear and the Selling of American Empire by Karen Kwiatkowski

Here is a link to a DVD that is better than the movie Fahrenheit 9/11. At least this one sticks to the facts and does not waste time on making people look ridiculous. Still very critical but focuses discussing the situation not picking on people's inane and disgusting peculiarities.

Hijacking Catastrophe: Fear and the Selling of American Empire by Karen Kwiatkowski

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Resources for IT Professionals

Hey you can download the new XP from here. A large download but then you can burn it on a CD and have at it.

The Muslim Roots of European Medicine

Interesting article

Reflections on my daughter's graduation

Yesterday my daughter graduated from High School. It was a wonderful event with lots of her friends and classmates. This is the second of my children graduating High School. My brother, mother, wife and two other children were there.

I could not help reflect and think back on my High School granduation in 1971. Only my parents and brother attended with me. Certainly all my classmates were there and friends. But, there was not the strong sense of friendship and closeness that both of my children's graduations evoked. I am speaking here about the strong familial and Islamic influence I saw yesterday. Scarves were all over the place and one of the main speakers was a Muslim and clearly made reference to her scarf.

Why is this so important? Well in today's Islamophobic atmosphere and Islam bashing politics, the Muslims are showing a strong positive presence in the schools. The school principal on several occasions has told the Granada parents (my kids private elementary and middle school) that their kids are a good influence on the school. They run a lot of the activities and are not involved in the negative peer pressure situations. [Not to say that all muslim kids are angels, but the majority of those whose parents are serious about Islam are positive role models, whether they know it now or not]

It is a pleasure to see the Muslim boys and girls so confident of themselves and their identity. They exude strength and show influence over the others. They speak freely of Islam and are not ashamed of it.

Contrast this to when I graduated. We had only one other Muslim family in town whose children were not in my class (so did not attend the graduation). Our parents did not get along for one reason or another. We saw the mosque (in NYC 30 miles away) twice a year. We were trying to blend in and not really stand out in any way.

Today our youth look vibrant and involved with their friends and in their environment. Some are outstanding and very engaging to the society at large. Others are more introverted, but still work with the youth as a whole to positively support others.

The Muslim parents I saw yesterday were also very supportive of their children and each other. There was definitely a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment with the results they were seeing in their children. Also a grateful thanks to Allah for blessing them with these wonderful progeny.

I am sure not every one of our children will become a super educated genius. But I can sense that they will have a strong community presence and unity. They will influence positively, plainly, by action and quietly.

It is time that we all step up to the plate and encourage the best in our fellow human beings, both for the benefit of the society at large and the benefit of our children, older ones, younger ones and those yet to be born.

Quran and the associative mind

This past week has been an eye opener for me. I am glad that I still find wonder in my mind at the creations of Allah, even as we pass through these bleak times of injustice and pain in the world. This past week Reagan died. That brought back a flood of memories for me of the first few years of my marriage. That's when he was president.

But what is more important in my thinking this past week has been the Memory Optimizer course that I started listening to in the car. This is absolutely fascinating course that triggers the memories and the creative thinking processes. According to this course and the more recent scientific studies upon which it is based, the mind is an incredible constructive and associative machine. All activities of the brain tend to trigger associative thoughts and ideas to other experiences in life. The richer and more actively we push our minds, in a very brain friendly way, the more creative we are and the easier recall we will have.

Among the tools that the course teaches is the Knowledge ABCs. In the process of learning about them I was struck by the beauty of the Quran and its construction and how the human mind is made to understand it. When you read through the Quran there are a lot of associative threads all over that you can refer from one section to the next. It helps in the recall of the Quran, since the human mind is constructed in a fashion to trigger this associative thinking.

What's more, is that when we strengthen our associative thinking and building of our biographical history, we will tend to have stronger minds into our old age. How many times have each of us heard that staunch readers and memorizers of the Quran possess very active minds into their advanced years?

Allah is merciful and forgiving. I thank Him for the bounties that abound in our lives, as grateful or not as we are. I thank Him for giving us these minds that wonder in amazement at His creations and for giving us the beautiful revelation of the Quran that encourages us to do precisely that, wonder in amazement and in the process build up our associative thinking skills. Even more, that we may want to use these skills for worldly gain, when He gives us these powerful capabilities for the gain of His pleasure and the attainment of Paradise.

لك الحمد يا الله على ما انعمت به علينا واوليت انت الغني ونحن الفقراء اليك

Started today 2004-05-24

It is time that I seriously started writing and publishing some thoughts. It has been a very chaotic time period that we are living through and thoughts need to be documented to share with others and to make available for critique and elaboration. I will be posting when I can on this site and see how well I can keep this effort up.