This gratuitous racial slur, “towelhead”, comes from a supposedly moderate/ liberal blog.

The people who have sold us a generational “cultural conflict” against the towelheads start prattling about “racism.”

The author then foams at the mouth about the effontery of UAE thinking they can use their money to “buy the west.” Oh dear, the great big UAE is threatening the poor, defenseless USA, what will we do? This sounds like a paranoid John Bircher looking for commies under his bed. Someone needs a reality check.

Make that two reality checks. First, for fearing the awesomely powerful UAE will envelop America in their protoplamsic terrorist capitalist goo or whatever it is he’s shrieking about. Second, for not even dimly realizing the US has been doing this sort of thing to other countries for decades. I guess exploitation of foreign markets is allowable only if the home team is doing it.

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Americans in Iraq walk a fine line as they try to keep the peace amid sectarian strife.

Keep the peace? The US created the war with their unprovoked invasion. The vast majority of Iraqis want them gone. For mainstream media to continue pretending the US is an impartial peacekeeper in Iraq is Big Brother propaganda. War is Peace. We are winning because we say we are winning. Reality must not be permitted to intrude. Yet it does.

41 killed in five explosions in Baghdad

A prison riot and reality check

The rebellion in the Afghan prison, Policharki in Kabul, has highlighted the deteriorating situation in the Central Asian country.

That’s two countries the US has invaded that are collapsing. Mainstream media seems oblivious. The people are not. Neither are the troops.

Most troops think they should leave Iraq

“An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and nearly one in four say the troops should leave immediately,” a new Le Moyne College/Zogby survey shows.

Ah well, the generals aren’t the ones getting killed, are they? So they’ll keep sending other people’s children to die in an insane attempt to grab oil and power in the Middle East.

On March 18, there will be nationwide antiwar demonstrations, with major actions in DC, LA, SF, and elsewhere as well. Join us in protesting these insane wars for empire. It’s always the people who force the change, and that starts with peiople in the streets.

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Bush ratings at all-time low

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Microsoft to offer 6 versions of Windows Vista system

Golly, imagine my excitement when my clients upgrade to six different versions of Windows. This opens whole new, er, Vistas of support nightmares, as now there will be multiple versions of Windows, all no doubt with different (and gaping) security holes, their own quirks, and of course the joy of converting from XP to the new OS.

What’s needed is one version of an operating system that just simply works.

Long time Mac user and City of Santa Monica Council member Kevin McKeown summed it up in a comment here.

Stability, security, and no spyware — if only Mac was a form of government.

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I read the following op-ed, which anguishes about the disintegration of Iraq without even mentioning that the primary cause for it was the US invasion, thinking it was from was a right wing source. After all, it ponders whether the US should stay or go, implying the US has an honorable mission to perform there and that Iraqis want them to stay, which is akin to saying the rapist is the best person to care for the victim and that the victim should have no say in the matter.

Iraq spiraling into a failed state is a doomsday scenario not just for Iraq but for the United States. But what’s becoming more questionable by the day are whether the 130,000 US forces in Iraq are any longer the finger in the dike they have been for the last 3 years.

“Finger in the dike?” The US blew up the dike when they invaded the country based on lies. Saying the US has any right to be in Iraq, as this op-ed does, simply supports the imperialist goals of the neocons while offering a fig leaf of limp opposition.

That the op-ed is from the supposedly liberal Huffington Post is bizarre. You can’t claim to oppose the Iraq war and at the same time support US troops occupying that country. Yet that’s what they’re doing. Such muddled thinking is typical of liberals, who often find it difficult to take actual stands on issues, much less take action.

Here’s the action to take. Bring the troops home now.

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United Nations ambassador and Atlanta mayor Andrew Young will be the public spokesman for a group backed by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that defends the world’s largest retailer against mounting attacks from critics.

Via the Rock and Rap Confidential listserv who quotes Tupac in response

“For all the sellouts living it up
One way or another you’ll be giving it up”

From civil rights leader in the 60’s to defending a notorious exploiter, it appears Young sold out long ago.

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From our friend Wood in Wales

It winds me up that a system whose survival depends upon screwing over nine-tenths of the world’s population is somehow seen as the most pragmatic and realistic way to run a country, any country.

That is all.

Seen this way by who? By a ruling class who gets wealthier as the rest get poorer or by those in the current socialist upsurge, happening now across the planet and most especially in Latin America? When the USSR fell, there was suddenly no counterpoint to capitalism. Now the planet gets to see the inevitable result of that in the neocons, who believe the world is theirs to plunder.

But it’s not working very well for them is it? Their greed and avariciousness is obvious for all to see as their insane wars threaten to destroy countries in the Middle East and bankrupt the US. “Capitalism contains the seeds of its destruction”, yes it does. Even here in the US, the bastion of anti-socialism, people are now getting interested in socialism again, as they see what predatory capitalism hath wrought.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation, a coalition partner of the ANSWER Coalition, has a wealth of articles and information about socialism, a better, more equitable economic system and form of government.

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About 100 elite Philippine troops openly defied the government and its emergency rule on Sunday, calling for public support after a Marines commander was removed over an alleged plot to oust President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

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From Timothy Karr at Freepress.net

Network neutrality, a principle that ensures the free flow of ideas online, appears dead on arrival in Washington as big media once again wield influence over our elected politicians.  By lining their pockets with telco dollars, certain lawmakers have opted to turn their backs on net neutrality.

Learn more about the corruption of our reps:

Take action:

That would be lawmakers on both sides of the aisles who are working for the telcos and against having the Net open. This is an issue that affects everyone. Get involved now.

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If stopping “Islamist terrorists” is the goal at US ports, wouldn’t an Arab company be a better, not worse, choice since they know the culture, speak the languages, and thus would know what to look for?

Of course they might not know how to look out for homegrown terrorists like Timothy McVeigh, would they?

Anyone wanting to gain entry to the country illegally and secretively will probably just use the time-honored methods of bribery, intimidation, and extortion anyway.

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Iraqi government warns of ‘endless civil war’

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Don’t get me wrong, there’s many sincere reformists trying bring about change. Whether it’s organizations like DailyKos who believe the Democratic Party can be reformed, or tilting further leftward, groups like Democracy Now and Media Channel, they present lots of analysis, some advocacy, but rarely calls to action.

Plus, they bizarrely assume our current political crisis is just some kind of terrible misunderstanding, that they just need to convince the rulers of the errors of their ways, then things will be peachy. As if one day Dick Cheney will call up Amy Goodman and say, “Democracy Now has made me see the light, I will repent and do no more evil, the troops are coming home now.” Ain’t gonna happen that way, of course. Worse, reformists never challenge the structure of the system. That’s because they have no real criticism of the system and its institutions. Oh, they say, a few things have gone wrong, but government is our friend and supports the people, we just need to make the system responsive again.

This would be the same system that has invaded other countries for decades, exploits the Third World, where a tiny few get richer while the rest get poorer. This isn’t a system that needs a few Band-Aids, this is a system that needs replacing.

The anti-globalization mobilization at the Battle of Seattle in 1999 was an opening salvo that change was coming. But after 9/11, the anti-glob protestors retreated, unsure of what to do next. They had no real plan. Meanwhile, a mere two days after 9/11, the ANSWER Coalition formed. The groups involved knew what was coming, unjustified invasions of other countries, and they were right. ANSWER, of which I am a member, has been in full mobilization mode ever since, organizing multiple mass antiwar demonstrations, with the next round coming March 18.

ANSWER is anti-imperialist. We have a viewpoint and organize based on it. Imperialism is the problem, it’s a rogue system, not a rogue president. Reformists don’t have this kind of viewpoint, they look at things piecemeal, hoping a few tweaks to the systems will somehow set things right.

By not challenging the system, you end up doing things like the predecessor organizations to United for Peace did prior to the Iraq invasion, saying “let the sanctions work”, a policy that even Madeleine Albright admitted led to the deaths to 500,000 Iraqi children. I’m sure the parents of Iraqi children who starved to death appreciated the noble efforts of the reformists who wanted sanctions to work. Worse, these reformists never even questioned why the US was applying sanctions. That’s what I mean when I say by reformists support the system - even when it leads to atrocities like dead babies.

Thinking that President Hillary will somehow bring the troops home now is, well, delusional. She won’t. Nor will reformist efforts change the system. Real change starts with people in the streets and ends when the rulers are either replaced or forced to do the will of the people. That’s what we need to work towards.

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So, I’m uploading files to a client’s blog, ftp open in one window, file explorer in the other. File Explorer locks up. Why? Because it can’t find the shared folder on another PC - even though I’m not accessing that  folder. Why it needs to find that folder, then lock up when it can’t find it is known only to the wizards at Microsoft.

And why couldn’t it find the shared folder? It’s because Norton AntiVirus decided to run, froze up, and locked up the entire computer, requiring two reboots to bring it back to life.

Sue says, please buy a Mac so I don’t have to listen to you yell at the other woman. And I will, soon too.

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The ports controversy could cause similar problems for Neil Mallon Bush, the president’s most troublesome brother, who has become a familiar face in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Neil Bush seems to be in constant pursuit of investors and government contracts in the Emirates, and is treated there with a respect and deference that have always eluded him in his own country.

For reasons that must be painfully obvious, UAE royals have been quite eager to engage the former Silverado Savings and Loan director ever since his eldest brother entered the Oval Office.

“Invisible Neil” as he’s called, has a long and tangled tale of twisted financial doings. However he’s less the “troublesome” rogue black sheep and more the family fixer, methinks.

Via The Blue Room, who has more.

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Philippines President Gloria Arroyo invoked emergency rule yesterday after security forces said they had foiled a coup attempt.

If the coup attempt was unsuccessful, why is there a need to declare an emergency after it was over? Either this is a pretext for increased repression or, more likely, major factions of the Army are not loyal and future attempts are coming.

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Thu. Feb. 23, Things are not good in Baghdad.

We woke up this morning to news that men wearing Iraqi security uniforms walked in and detonated explosives, damaging the mosque almost beyond repair. It’s heart-breaking and terrifying. There has been gunfire all over Baghdad since morning. We heard about problems in areas like Baladiyat where there was some rioting and vandalism, etc. and several mosques in Baghdad were attacked. I think what has everyone most disturbed is the fact that the reaction was so swift, like it was just waiting to happen.

All morning we’ve been hearing/watching both Shia and Sunni religious figures speak out against the explosions and emphasise that this is what is wanted by the enemies of Iraq- this is what they would like to achieve- divide and conquer. Extreme Shia are blaming extreme Sunnis and Iraq seems to be falling apart at the seams under foreign occupiers and local fanatics.

People are scared and watchful. We can only pray.

This is from Riverbend blog, written by a young woman in Baghdad. Her identity is not known, and her eloquence is obvious. This post is unsettling for a number of reasons. First, for the obvious descent into the Abyss that Iraq is staring at, and second, because this is one of her only posts where she wasn’t at least guardedly optimistic.

How would you feel if you lived in Baghdad and everything that was normal and reassuring in your life was vanishing? And none of it had to happen, nor would it have happened had not the neocons made shit up so they could invade a country that had not attacked the US. While members of both political parties either supported the invasion or did nothing to stop it, I might add.

See you March 18. Bring the troops home now! Then let’s indict Bush and most of Congress for war crimes.

P.S. DJ Mitchell, a friend who has lived in Sri Lanka on and off for several years volunteering with an organization working to end the civil war there, knows about such violence. It happens in Sri Lanka a lot.

Last year when a major governmental official was assassinated in his own house, I asked “Who might have done it?” He said, given the chaos and multiplicity of players, that it could be anyone from any faction. I would say that applies to Iraq now. Trying to determine who blew up the mosque is probably impossible at this time. Anyone could have done it.

Jeanne at Body & Soul has a long post about the bombing, most definitely worth reading.

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Former American president Bill Clinton told 600 of New Zealand’s top business people their greatest worry in the world was global warming.

The Bush Adminstration, in an apparently related move, hinted darkly that global warming scientists were willing dupes of the “Axis of Evil” and thus are “terrorists looking to destroy our economy.”

And you aren’t sure if I’m kidding, are you?

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You do a great job. One minor point: S.F. may be confusing about its street #s but all over New England the problem is roads that change names with little or nothing by the way of signs. For example, in Bloomfield CT at the key intersection Bloomfield Ave. becomes Tunxis Ave.; Mountain Ave. becomes Park Ave. If you look hard, you might find a street sign.

One major point: there’s a real question, I fear, if a successful democracy can exist in a country that has no history of free speech, women’s rights, etc., and where unemployment among young uneducated males is high. And this seems particularly true in the Muslim world. The British Empire has often been criticized but in many countries when the British left, they left a stable democracy behind because they had time it introduce it. India is probably the best example. The story of how this country became an independent democracy is really an extraordinary one that probably never could be repeated. Of course, corruption in Congress is not new to the 21st century - it has come and gone.

Your thought that it’s time for another liberal resurgence is encouraging and fascinating. One really wonders what the hell is going on in Bush’s mind, most of the time - if anything.

Thanks, Dad!

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Will Transnational water companies swallow El Salvador’s water supply?

The office of SETA, El Salvador’s water workers union, sits like a mouse at the elephant’s feet. The union’s plain, two room office sits next door to the huge, block-long two story building which is the headquarters for El Salvador’s national water company, ANDA (National Water and Sewage Administration). Inside the SETA office, union reps equipped with an old computer and chairs with broken rollers are bracing for a fight against government attempts to privatize their industry. Representatives for SETA say losing the fight could mean the “extinction” of their union and limits on Salvadoran’s access to clean water.

The battle for clean, public, low-priced water is worldwide. This is just one more example. Multinational water companies working together with the World Bank often force water privatization as terms for their onerous loans. It’s the people, especially poor people who then suffer. Water quality worsens as prices soar, often making it impossible for them to afford water. Capitalism steals one of their most precious resources from them.

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Blogger bares Rumsfeld’s post 9/11 orders

Hours after a commercial plane struck the Pentagon on September 11 2001 the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was issuing rapid orders to his aides to look for evidence of Iraqi involvement, according to notes taken by one of them.

“Hard to get good case. Need to move swiftly,” the notes say. “Near term target needs - go massive - sweep it all up, things related and not.”

The handwritten notes, with some parts blanked out, were declassified this month in response to a request by a law student and blogger, Thad Anderson, under the US Freedom of Information Act. Anderson has posted them on his blog at outragedmoderates.org.

Note that Rumsfeld clearly wanted to use 9/11 and the death of Americans as a cover to invade Iraq. Not withstanding that Saddam and al Qaeda were clearly enemies, something Rumsfeld had to know.

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This is not satire.

Singer Morrissey was quizzed by the FBI and British intelligence after speaking out against the American and British governments.

The Brit is a famous critic of the US-led war in Iraq and has dubbed President George W Busha “terrorist” - but he was baffled to be hauled in by authorities.

Morrissey explains, “The FBI and the Special Branch have investigated me and I’ve been interviewed and taped and so forth.

“They were trying to determine if I was a threat to the government, and similarly in England. But it didn’t take them very long to realise that I’m not.

“I don’t belong to any political groups, I don’t really say anything unless I’m asked directly and I don’t even demonstrate in public. I always assume that so-called authoritarian figures just assume that pop/rock music is slightly insane and an untouchable platform for the working classes to stand up and say something noticeable.

“My view is that neither England or America are democratic societies. You can’t really speak your mind and if you do you’re investigated.”

Then it’s time to create a society that actually values democracy!

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I’m helping another blog convert from Blogger to WordPress. Importing the entries from Blogger into WordPress is easy, just one click.

The problem comes with Blogger blogs that are hosted on blogspot. They do not allow hot-linking to images hosted on their servers. So, while entries can be imported, the images hosted on blogspot will not be viewable in WordPress. This is not a problem if your Bloger blog is hosted on your own server, the images will appear.
Blogger allows you to change where your site is hosted, from blogspot to your own server.

Question: if you do so, do the images come too? Meaning, are they downloaded? If so, then you can import into WordPress from there and the images will appear.

Anyone know?

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From Americablog

As if this deal to sell off control of US ports to the United Arab Emirates couldn’t become any sleazier, we now have former Republican Senator Bob Dole being hired as a lobbyist to influence - who? - HIS OWN WIFE. Yes, Bob Dole’s wife is a Republican Senator from North Carolina.

I’m sorry, but how much sleazier can you get than having a sitting member of Congress being paid by a foreign government to lobby his own wife?

Given the open corruption in DC, this might even be legal. One wonders how much other money is being spread around to influence this deal. Of course, no one in either party in DC will mention how ethically bankrupt this is. Because that would exclude them from future gravy trains.

Not to mention, I’m not real sure of the propriety of our national security decisions being influenced by foreign money.

Well, no need to fly off into Jingoist Land. Like it’s fine and dandy for the US to buy whatever it wants in other countries and ‘influence’ things, but not ok for other countries to do the same here? Welcome to the wonderful world of global capitalism. Bush is being loyal to his own, supporting the billionaire class against the rest of us.

Would I wonder, there be so much protest against the deal if it was a Japanese, not Arab firm, buying the British port firm? The implication of course is that an Arab firm is not reliable and might be terrorist, which seems simple racism to me.

Jack Abramoff would be proud

Naw, he’s too busy ratting out his pals to think about anything else now.

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Statement on So-Called “Partial Birth Abortion” Law

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) continues to oppose so-called “partial birth abortion” laws, including the conference committee bill approved by the US House of Representatives yesterday and sent to the US Senate.ACOG’s Statement of Policy explains why ACOG believes such legislation to be “inappropriate, ill advised, and dangerous.” The policy statement notes that although a select panel convened by ACOG could identify no circumstances under which intact D&X would be the only option to protect the life or health of a woman, intact D&X “may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman, and only the doctor, in consultation with the patient, based upon the woman’s particular circumstances, can make this decision.”The Statement of Policy further reads that such legislation has the potential to outlaw other abortion techniques that are critical to the lives and health of American women.