Tannishblog

In Buddhist teachings on learns that we only have the present moment. this eternal dot in time, as it were, is always with us. The future is but a dream, the past is gone. All there is, is now. In light of this thought, it seems that now is the correct time to widen the ideological devide in this country by pressing on with fudamentalist views on one of our nations hottest topics: abortion. Indeed, now is all we have.

Now, South Dakota throws the gauntlet down and attempts to wrest state control of women’s wombs from the women themselves. Now, we get to test the mettle of the right-leaning supreme court as politics get up close and personal.

The whole abortion debate reminds me of a quote from Galileo. My best recollection goes like this:

I find it hard to believe the same God that bestowed intelligence and reason upon us intends us to forego their use.

These type of arguments with fundamentalism have been around for a while, it seems. So, now we get to see how the Bush legacy will change America. It’s too late to recant our disinterest in politics, politics is coming into our homes - like it or not. The hand is dealt, the dice are tossed, now we see exactly what mess we’re in.

I, for one, fear for my daughter’s rights as a modern woman in trying times. We humans have been expanding without control, gobbling up resources, turning air and water into waste products. We have the foresight, courage and intelligence to change that trend. We have the technology. But we’re caught in a medieval mindset of outmoded beliefs that undermine our capacity to control ourselved on a global level. Why hasn’t any believer in God stood up to say: “God has given us the tools to solve modern problems, so we can reach our potential; if God didn’t want us to use the science we invent, he would have made us no more than animals.” Perhaps God wants us to limit our population to coincide with dwindling resources. Perhaps God wants us to manage our planet better.

Now, I think, is the time for someone to take up that call.

Aside from my usual fare of left-handed political leftovers, todays postings come to you courtesy of Ubuntu linux. Being the geekiest person in my immediate surroundings has the benefit of my acruing old computer hardware from the family. Bits an pieces have accumulated over the years to where I can upgrade a box handed down from my mother in-law into a fairly useful workhorse. WIN98 is passe, so I investigated “the OTHER operating system,” you know, the one that is based on democratic ideals and not on capitalism.

As a newbie choosing the endless variants of linux (like the supermarket and its 100 brands of chocolate chip cookies), I leaned upon an article from my favorite geek publication - aside from the cyberguys catalog - MaximumPC, which featured an article about “making the switch” to linux. Ubuntu was their choice of distributions, so I took their recommendation.

Tonight, as I got home, I didn’t bother to turn on my WINXP rig. I started the new/old linux box and started doing my thing. As for first impressions - outside of gaming (which I love), there’s no reason not to give linux a try except for one caveat: some tinkering is still needed by the user. This is not an OPsys for my mother in-law quite yet. Due to resistance from the capitalistic software community, ready integration on such offerings as Real Player and other tools has yet to be smoothed out. Soon, though.

Meanwhile I bask in geekish glory while forgetting that I am yet a newbie. Great Fun!

A lot of talk in my political emails today about torture. Dahr Jamail’s Iraqi Dispatches points to TomDispatch refering to our great nation’s policy on un-torturing “detainees” and are not actually prisoners, but are held offshore in areas, delineated by chain link and barbed wire, that are not prisons. The NY Times joins the fray with a long article detailing images of the not-conflict of the un-prisoners at Gitmo.

All this denial make my head hurt, given that we speak in context of a war (its OK to use that word: its macho) that is not a police action or (gasp) nation-building. Our administration is so busy masking its actions, spinning its tales, that it cannot and has not functioned as a govorning body. Name one piece of new legislation in the last three years that didn’t cut taxes, fund the war, or take away money from long-standing government programs designed to aid people. At this writing I can’t think of any…

But I can recall a dozen time our un-leaders have passed the buck, stood “reso-loot,” or lied to the press and to the POTUS. I can recall a score of issues that our leaders have acted upon without due process, underhanded and secretive, that we learn about after the fact. And I can clearly see the billions of dollars of taxpayers money wasted in uncoordinated and unmanaged attempts to “rebuild Iraq.”

It makes my un-happy!

The Law of Unintended Consequences has raised its laughing head once again. The NY Times notes that our Terrible War on Terror has effectively strengthened Tehran’s hold on the Middle East:

Washington has now become dangerously dependent on the good will and constructive behavior of Shiite fundamentalist parties that Iran sheltered, aided and armed during the years that Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. In recent weeks, neither good will nor constructive behavior has been particularly evident, and if Iran chooses to stir up further trouble to deflect diplomatic pressures on its nuclear program, it could easily do so.

There is now a real risk that Iraq, instead of being turned into an outpost of secular democracy challenging the fanatical rulers of the Islamic republic to its east, could become an Iranian-aligned fundamentalist theocracy, challenging the secular Arab regimes to its west.

Of further note is the connection to our new “Noocular” Pact with India.

Fast-forward to Thursday’s nuclear deal with India, in which President Bush agreed to share civilian nuclear technology with India despite its nuclear weapons programs and its refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

This would be a bad idea at any time, rewarding India for flouting the basic international understanding that has successfully discouraged other countries from South Korea to Saudi Arabia from embarking on their own efforts to build nuclear weapons. But it also undermines attempts to rein in Iran, whose nuclear program is progressing fast and unnerving both its neighbors and the West.

The India deal is exactly the wrong message to send right now, just days before Washington and its European allies will be asking the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran’s case to the United Nations Security Council for further action. Iran’s hopes of preventing this depend on convincing the rest of the world that the West is guilty of a double standard on nuclear issues. Mr. Bush might as well have tied a pretty red bow around his India nuclear deal and mailed it as a gift to Tehran.

This seems to me a new twist on the game of “Cowboys and Indians” with meaner weapons. Now that we have a partner in potential nulear hijinks, we can get serious. The Texas Bad-boy and his cronies have already done their homework and created a long list of enemies to play against. With the technology of warfare outstripping humanity’s capacity for diplomacy, the whole world should tremble as the Warmonger Party starts playing with nukes. It seems that white phosphorus is trite already; one can only burn the faces of so many children before boredom sets in. Now that the end of the presidency of George the Unready is in view, its time to dust off our aging nukes and see what we can do with them. Either we “upgrade” or we use them. Time will tell.

Yee-haw!

What a week. How much depressing news can we take, as the world spirals out of kilter? Here is a brief study in contrasts while perusing the headlines today.

While another crooked republican prepares to live behind bars, our senate rejects ethical conduct rules.

While George the Unready visits central Asia playing Noocular Santa Claus, the Defense Department plans to spend money we don’t have to upgrade our atomic arsenal.

Wile a teacher gets censured for political remarks in the classroom, a policeman on campus over reacts to a band sticker.

So: our government will not try to fix itself. Our self-acclaimed and “resoloot” War President is putting “noocular” back into our lexicon and in our faces, while thumbing our noses at an “important ally in the war on terror” by being friendly with their enemies. Free expression in the classroom can only occur with parental approval. And our servers-and-protectors are a might twitchy.

As Joe Six-pack would say: “What time are the Oscars on? Hand me that remote.”

I have to share this:

Coming to me via Democracy for Illinios’ daily email, from Theodore Tilton, a nice short cartoon about the Federal budget. Go to TrueMajority.org and watch it.

And pass it on!

When I was growing up, America was great. That’s what I was told in school, from my elders. We were the most powerful nation on earth. In my early years America was still glowing from the after affects of a victory in Europe, from the can-do spirit and the anything goes mindset of the sixties.

My, how things change: I grew up believing America had the best health care in the world. Today France has that. I learned America made the best TV’s and stuff. Now, microelectronic devices are made in Asia. In my youth, I was certain that America had the best and brightest scientific minds. Now, Medical advances are made in Europe and elsewhere, Software engineering – a field Americans pioneered – is advancing in India faster than in America.

A quote from today’s Washington Post:

Technology development happens in India. Technology consumption happens in the U.S

That’s right: the thing we have become best at as a nation is consumption. If human global society were an organism, America would serve the function of the gastro-intestinal system. From gaping maw to anal orifice, we have it all, designed for the purpose of ingesting the world’s goods and resources, and squirting out waste products.

Recently a long-standing trend to come to America to seek riches is reversing. The best-and-brightest are leaving our shores to follow the money outward back to the once depressed and now burgeoning economies of Asia and the Middle East. Europeans were the first to stop looking to America for advancement, and now the rest of the world is following suit.

Our nation is in decline. We’ve reached our peak last century in our fight against fascism, and now all we have become is a fading memory, like the proverbial old-timer boring the young ones with tales of his glory days. America’s glory days are over.

Unless and until we as a nation realize this, and take action to correct this situation, we may soon become the next Etruscan Empire. Remember them?

Frank Ahrens of the Washington Post asks an interesting question: Why do we blog? His article illustrates how blogging has hat a plateau recently, and he wonders if the blogosphere is done for. He fails to see that blogging is a nitch market at best - not everyone likes to think for themselves - and perhaps it is finding its watermark.

Nonetheless, he asks a question and invited replies:

But Web Watch does not blog (yet), so we can only guess at the motivating factors.

We’d like you to tell us why you blog. If you’re reading this online, clicking on the byline will let you send an e-mail. Or if you’re reading in the paper, e-mail a note to ahrensf@washpost.com . Web Watch will publish the most insightful answers. Enlighten us.

I took up his challenge. below is my reply:

Hi, Frank.

Blogging is cathartic: to reach out into the unknowable and find like minded souls. This is important in political debate, less so perhaps for personal documentary. To hear from strangers is a joy, regardless of agreement.

Blogging is engaged democracy. It creates an end-run around power publication, in that the people with the most power control what is heard. This is seen more and more in China, but is also relevant in the US. To give the populace the voice of self publication and the tools like google to disseminate and distribute the unedited voice of the people is the current paramount of democracy in action.

Finally, blogging is a return to thinking. For several generations we parked ourselves in front of a TV and turned off our minds. Blogging is a rebound from that: one cannot write without thought; one cannot read without encountering the thoughts of others. Bloggers know that to learn is sometimes preferable to being entertained. It scratches a mental itch TV can’t reach. We’re still in front of a tube, but we’re controlling the transmission.

Tannish

Feel free to send him a line, I’d like to see his follow-up article.

It seems like American efforts in Iraq are finally coming to fruition. There’s a movement within the country toward solidarity. After all the bloodshed, Iraqis are coalescing into a unified force aimed at taking control of their nation, as our ministers of propaganda have always said was America’s goal after ousting Saddam. Below, I paste this week’s Iraq Dispatch from Dahr Jamail in its entirety. If you aren’t on his email list, you should be.

February 24, 2006
Who Benefits?
The most important question to ask regarding the bombings of the Golden Mosque in Samarra on the 22nd is: who benefits? Prior to asking this question, let us note the timing of the bombing.
The last weeks in Iraq have been a PR disaster for the occupiers. First, the negative publicity of the video of British soldiers beating and abusing young Iraqis has generated a backlash for British occupation forces they’ve yet to face in Iraq. Indicative of this, Abdul Jabbar Waheed, the head of the Misan provincial council in southern Iraq, announced his councils’ decision to lift the immunity British forces have enjoyed, so that the soldiers who beat the young Iraqis can be tried in Iraqi courts. Former U.S. proconsul Paul Bremer had issued an order granting all occupation soldiers and western contractors immunity to Iraqi law when he was head of the CPA…but this province has now decided to lift that so the British soldiers can be investigated and tried under Iraqi law.
This deeply meaningful event, if replicated around Iraq, will generate a huge rift between the occupiers and local governments. A rift which, of course, the puppet government in Baghdad will be unable to mend.
The other huge event which drew Iraqis into greater solidarity with one another was more photos and video aired depicting atrocities within Abu Ghraib at the hands of U.S. occupation forces. The inherent desecration of Islam and shaming of the Iraqi people shown in these images enrages all Iraqis.
In a recent press conference, the aforementioned Waheed urged the Brits to allow members of the provincial committee to visit a local jail to check on detainees; perhaps Waheed is alarmed as to what their condition may be after seeing more photos and videos from Abu Ghraib.
Waheed also warned British forces that if they didn’t not comply with the demands of the council, all British political, security and reconstruction initiatives will be boycotted.
Basra province has already taken similar steps, and similar machinations are occurring in Kerbala. Basra and Misan provinces, for example, refused to raise the cost of petrol when the puppet government in Baghdad, following orders from the IMF, decided to recently raise the cost of Iraqi petrol at the pumps several times last December.
The horrific attack which destroyed much of the Golden Mosque generated sectarian outrage which led to attacks on over 50 Sunni mosques. Many Sunni mosques in Baghdad were shot, burnt, or taken over. Three Imans were killed, along with scores of others in widespread violence.
This is what was shown by western corporate media. As quickly as these horrible events began, they were called to an end and replaced by acts of solidarity between Sunni and Shia across Iraq.
This, however, was not shown by western corporate media.
The Sunnis where the first to go to demonstrations of solidarity with Shia in Samarra, as well as to condemn the mosque bombings. Demonstrations of solidarity between Sunni and Shia went off over all of Iraq: in Basra, Diwaniyah, Nasiriyah, Kut, and Salah al-Din. Thousands of Shia marched shouting anti-American slogans through Sadr City, the huge Shia slum area of Baghdad, which is home to nearly half the population of the capital city. Meanwhile, in the primarily Shia city of Kut, south of Baghdad, thousands marched while shouting slogans against America and Israel and burning U.S. and Israeli flags.
Baghdad had huge demonstrations of solidarity, following announcements by several Shia religious leaders not to attack Sunni mosques. Attacks stopped after these announcements, coupled with those from Sadr, which I’ll discuss shortly.
Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, shortly after the Golden Mosque was attacked, called for “easing things down and not attacking any Sunni mosques and shrines,” as Sunni religious authorities called for a truce and invited everyone to block the way of those trying to generate a sectarian war.
Sistani’s office issued this statement: “We call upon believers to express their protest … through peaceful means. The extent of their sorrow and shock should not drag them into taking actions that serve the enemies who have been working to lead Iraq into sectarian strife.”
Shiite religious authority Ayatollah Hussein Ismail al-Sadr warned of the emergence of a sectarian strife “that terrorists want to ignite between the Iraqis” by the bombings and said, “The Iraqi Shiite authority strenuously denied that Sunnis could have done this work.”
He also said, “Of course it is not Sunnis who did this work; it is the terrorists who are the enemies of the Shiites and Sunni, Muslims and non Muslims. They are the enemies of all religions; terrorism does not have a religion.”
He warned against touching any Sunni Mosque, saying, “our Sunni brothers’ mosques must be protected and we must all stand against terrorism and sabotage.” He added: ‘The two shrines are located in the Samarra region, which [is] predominantly Sunni. They have been protecting, using and guarding the mosques for years, it is not them but terrorism that targeted the mosques…”
He ruled out the possibility of a civil war while telling a reporter, “I don’t believe there will a civil or religious war in Iraq; thank God that our Sunni and Shiite references are urging everyone to not respond to these terrorist and sabotage acts. We are aware of their attempts as are our people; Sistani had issued many statements [regarding this issue] just as we did.”
The other, and more prominent Sadr, Muqtada Al-Sadr, who has already lead two uprisings against occupation forces, held Takfiris [those who regard other Muslims as infidels], Ba’thists, and especially the foreign occupation responsible for the bombing attack on the Golden Mosque in
Sadr, who suspended his visit to Lebanon and cancelled his meeting with the president there, promptly returned to Iraq in order to call on the Iraqi parliament to vote on the request for the departure of the occupation forces from Iraq.
“It was not the Sunnis who attacked the shrine of Imam Al-Hadi, God’s peace be upon him, but rather the occupation [forces] and Ba’athists…God damn them. We should not attack Sunni mosques. I ordered Al-Mahdi Army to protect the Shi’i and Sunni shrines.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, urged Iraqi Shia not to seek revenge against Sunni Muslims, saying there were definite plots “to force the Shia to attack the mosques and other properties respected by the Sunni. Any measure to contribute to that direction is helping the enemies of Islam and is forbidden by sharia.” Instead, he blamed the intelligence services of the U.S. and Israel for being behind the bombs at the Golden Mosque.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that those who committed the attack on the Golden Mosque “have only one motive: to create a violent sedition between the Sunnis and the Shiites in order to derail the Iraqi rising democracy from its path.”
Well said Mr. Blair, particularly when we keep in mind the fact that less than a year ago in Basra, two undercover British SAS soldiers were detained by Iraqi security forces whilst traveling in a car full of bombs and remote detonators.
Jailed and accused by Muqtada al-Sadr and others of attempting to generate sectarian conflict by planting bombs in mosques, they were broken out of the Iraqi jail by the British military before they could be tried.

_______________________________________________
(c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail. All images, photos, photography and text are protected by United States and international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr’s Dispatches on the web, you need to include this copyright notice and a prominent link to the http://DahrJamailIraq.com website. Website by photographer Jeff Pflueger’s Photography Media http://jeffpflueger.com . Any other use of images, photography, photos and text including, but not limited to, reproduction, use on another website, copying and printing requires the permission of Dahr Jamail. Of course, feel free to forward Dahr’s dispatches via email.

This is the natural response to American and British empirical arrogance. If the table were turned would you respond any differently than the Iraqi people? Just think how our nation came together after the twin tower fell? What Iraqi has experienced is of a magnitude greater that what we’ve known. I for one, and proud to say I’m ashamed at my country’s actions abroad. We deserve whatever we get as a result of this illegal war.

This comes to me from Carolyn Kaye as distributed by Democracy for Illinois:

Friends and neighbors, meet Granny Bee. She’s just wondering…. Here’s just a taste of her homespun wisdom. Let’s elect this lady!