Panglossian Notes

Rosa Luxemburg's corpse found, maybe. (modified)

If it is true that Rosa's body, or what's left of it, has been found in the basement of the Institute of the Legal Medicine and Forensics Science department of the University Hospital Charité in Berlin, then it would be nice to finally put her, as they say, to rest.

When I visited Berlin, in March, I only went to see where the officers of the Freikorps had thrown her body in 1919, after clubbing her and blowing her brains out. They threw her into the Landwehr Canal at the back of the zoo in the Tiergarten off the Lichtenstein Bridge.

It's under 1 kilometer to the bridge from where Mr. Change, now a.k.a the man bringing you "relatively minor readjustments in certain favorable policy areas", gave his great Berlin speech at the Victory Column. He'd, of course, if he knows who she was, not have ever asked to be shown any thing that related to her given the complete madness (or is it stupidity) of most of the USs voters.

Jesus killed Mohammed

Jeff Sharlet's disturbing article about the turning of the US military into a crusading christian force, published in the May edition of Harper's magazine, is out from behind the subscribers wall. It really should be required reading for those in government's that are allied with the USA.

P
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"When Barack Obama moved into the Oval Office in January, he inherited a military not just drained by a two-front war overseas but fighting a third battle on the home front, a subtle civil war over its own soul. On one side are the majority of military personnel, professionals who regardless of their faith or lack thereof simply want to get their jobs done; on the other is a small but powerful movement of Christian soldiers concentrated in the officer corps. There’s Major General Johnny A. Weida, who as commandant at the Air Force Academy made its National Day of Prayer services exclusively Christian, and also created a code for evangelical cadets: whenever Weida said, “Airpower,” they were to respond “Rock Sir!”—a reference to Matthew 7:25. (The general told them that when non-evangelical cadets asked about the mysterious call-and-response, they should share the gospel.) There’s Major General Robert Caslen—commander of the 25th Infantry Division, a.k.a. “Tropic Lightning”—who in 2007 was found by a Pentagon inspector general’s report to have violated military ethics by appearing in uniform, along with six other senior Pentagon officers, in a video for the Christian Embassy, a fundamentalist ministry to Washington elites. There’s Lieutenant General Robert Van Antwerp, the Army chief of engineers, who has also lent his uniform to the Christian cause, both in a Trinity Broadcasting Network tribute to Christian soldiers called Red, White, and Blue Spectacular and at a 2003 Billy Graham rally—televised around the world on the Armed Forces Network—at which he declared the baptisms of 700 soldiers under his command evidence of the Lord’s plan to “raise up a godly army.”

Jesus killed Mohammed:
The crusade for a Christian military
Jeff Sharlet
Harper's Magazine
May 2009

Technorati Tags: Allies, Clueless fanatics, NATO, Insanity

Retire US general reveals real purpose of US troops

I think everyone knew that the photos Obama is trying to hide were X-rated but it's nice to have General Antonio Taguba confirm it:

"At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.
....

Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape'
Duncan Gardham and Paul Cruickshank
Daily Telegram
May 27, 2009

What I don't think everyone may have known was the real function of US troops. The General enlightens us after giving his opinion on Obama's stance:

"I am not sure what purpose their release [the X-rated photos] would serve other than a legal one and the consequence would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them, and British troops who are trying to build security in Afghanistan.

Major General Antonio Taguba
Daily Telegram
May 27, 2009

Wow, who'd have thought that US foreign policy needs troops to protect it. Does that mean that US foreign policy is all about invading places?

Boy I'm getting confused with all this information.

But, eh, at least it is good to know that British troops are trying to build security in Afghanistan while those American troops get on with protecting US foreign policy.

Technorati Tags: A PLAN, Afghanistan, Allies, Confused

The American Dream - perpetuating the myth.

Everyone is crowing over the Obama pick to replace Justice Souter: good politics, good partisan strategy, a women - oh wow, Spanish speaking, proof of the American Dream.

It's the last point I find funny. Obama's little WH speech introducing the candidate - do they call them that -uses 308 words to describe what I know the MSM will be a buzz with, over the coming vetting process, highlights of Judge Sotomayor's "life journey". After all isn't it proof of the American Dream", a true "American Story"? It is becoming very difficult not to laugh continuously at these illusions. When Obama spoke I was half expecting some of that sappy Ken Burns documentary background music to be played at a low volume to heighten the sentimental happening.

No doubt, in the back of Obama's mind, he knew he must find someone to help the perpetuation of US mythology. The illusionary story has taken so much of a shit-kicking lately under Billy Jefferson Clinton, Georgie boy, the "bonus bandits*" and the revelations about some of those with whom Obama surrounds himself or hoped to surround himself.

So, Justice Sotomayor's story will be, for some Americans, maybe, an added brick to the illusional castle on the hill.

Me, I think it is more indicative of a US nightmare which finds, large numbers of kids along with their caregivers trapped in a dysfunctional society struggling to ensure what most other civilized, modern, Western countries take for granted for their citizens.

Good luck to Justice Sotomayor but she is the exception that's why it's called a "dream" isn't it?

Oh well, spinning a sow's ear into a silk purse is something for which Obama seems to have a true gift.

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* These characters likely shouldn't be included as having diminished the great myth as they are in fact the ultimate expression of it. They actually should be being celebrated, I think.

Technorati Tags: Dreams, Illusions

Canadian's Finance Minister can't add or subtract!

So, let's see now.

The Harper government of Canada's Finance Minister, that tiny perfect person, Jim Flaherty, seems to have lots and lots of problems with numbers.

At the end of November 2008 he tabled, in the House, a Fiscal Update, which indicated that the federal government would have a small but positive fiscal balance for 2008 and into the short term future.

That joke, for a number of reasons, almost toppled the Harper government which was only saved by the GG agreeing that the megalomanic from Calgary could try to keep governing the country at the federal level if he could regain the confidence of the House. This required taking a look at the Update.

So on January 27th Flaherty tabled an actual federal Budget which indicated that the economic reality in Canada wasn't all that rosy and that the federal government expected a number of years of deficit - i.e. spending more than they took in. For the first year of the new budget 2009-10 (Canadian gov't fiscal years run April 1st to March 31st) the deficit was expected to be about $34 billion.

Harper got to keep the confidence of the House for awhile.

Now, the tiny person, is telling us that the $34 billion is likely more than $50 billion which is a (50 / 34) -1 = .4705 X 100 = 47.05% increase.

Wow, this guy really seems to have a problem with numbers --

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Of course Finance Minister's don't do the numbers. Some, likely can't count higher than ten, unless they are on a beach, without shoes, or in the shower, where they can get a peak at their toes. Officials do the numbers, the permanent type of officials, not political flunkies. So, what's really wrong at Finance Canada.

The old trick, I'm simplifying it, under Paul Martin was to over-estimate expenditures and under-estimate revenues in Budgets. This ensured a surplus resulted at the end of a fiscal year. The series of big surpluses rung up under the Liberal governments using this little trick allowed the federal government to get Canada's fiscal house in order so-to-speak. The process was reviewed, sort of, under the last Liberal Finance Minister before the Harper regime.

So what's wrong now? Ah, maybe the new crop of dimwits operating at 140 O'Connor simply threw the marvelous switches on their black boxes and now they are under-estimating expenditures and over-estimating revenues to ensure that every forecast becomes a larger and larger deficit.

I would think some officials needs to answer a few question?

Getting Obama's number?

I'm still not really over Obama's most recent "dramatic" speech and have struggled to put my concerns down in writing. None of my attempts have been satisfactory to me. However I think David Bromwich captures my unease with the speech.

"Let us say it: something is seriously wrong in this administration -- though we are not yet in a position to judge the cause. We do not know who the lawyers are that gave Barack Obama advice that goes against a long career of ostensible commitments. And it is too early yet to say at what point a new president, confused by the depth of his burdens and uncertain how much even now he believes of what he used to say, becomes instead a man we are compelled to see as lacking in convictions. It cannot be a virtue that he sheds the Constitution with a gentler demeanor than George W. Bush.

The former vice president is engaging in a public refusal of the transfer of power. He embodies to perfection his party's failure to learn "the habit of trained and disciplined good temper towards the opposite party when it fairly wins its innings." Yet President Obama is unconsciously abetting that refusal when -- out of fear, or a wish for leverage elsewhere, or a wish to stand in the middle -- he treats justice as a desirable but not an all-important good.

A misjudged statesmanship has allowed Obama to think himself magnanimous when he declines to expose the wrongs he has come to know. The way to right a wrong is not to install a somewhat reformed version of the wrong. People, by that means, may be spared embarrassment, but their instinct for truth will be corrupted. It is a false prudence that supposes justice can come from a compromise between a lawful and a lawless regime. On the contrary, the less you tell of the truth, the more prone your listeners will be to commit the next barbarous act that is proposed to them under the cover of a national emergency or a necessary war.

Land of the Safe and Home of the Cruel
David Bromwich
The Huffington Post
May 26, 2009

To add only one point specifically related to torture: if the Obama administration doesn't investigate the alleged crimes of the Bush administration you can know for sure that the alleged crimes will be repeated either by Obama or a new US administration. Obama's rhetoric, in his speech, about "core values" is simply feel good pabulum 'til the next exception comes along to undermine American morality. I think this is guaranteed by the executives slip into "keeping Americans safe" as opposed "preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution" by ensuring that the country is defined by law.

Technorati Tags: Confused, Democracy?

Some stuff I've been reading just now

This isn't a follow-up to Obama's attempt today to clarify his position on "civil liberties" and to cut off some of the extreme nonsense of the true pre-enlightenment crew in the US - aka the republican party - and to explain himself to that tricky but important, if he wants to get elected again, part of his base that trusted he'd really change a few things.

The outcome of the above we'll see over time and please ignore the MSM who, of course, in a now always changing world are hopelessly confusion in their struggle to force a dime novel scenario on quite a complex to-ing and fro-ing reality.

Whatever!

I, fool I am, started to wonder what went on in France during the Algiers situation. I think that period is now known as la gangrène.

No translation of that word is needed, is it?

I only remember, from personal experience, the aftermath of that time. The time of the OAS when the French police wore their mesh gloves to make sure you complied with a move on order.

But just a few links, to help establish what might be if la gangrène de l'Amérique happens.

First a copy of a New York Review of Books review from 2002 of a number of books (the original essay is behind the NYRB's pay wall):

The Torture of Algiers

Then, a review of a translation of La Question - but actually more:

The Question. Translated from the French by John Calder

And finally an interview, from 2001, with the unapologetic Paul Aussaresses:

Torture to Prevent Terrorism? Interview with a French Master Torturer

Just a short PS to the NYRB essay linked to above:

I think the NYRBs essay written in 2002 concludes that maybe torture worked in the Battle of the Casbah - if you've seen it, that is the specific event the movie Battle of Algiers deals with - but this is not what Darius Rejali concludes in his book Torture and Democracy. In the book Rejali documents the precise opposite. The battle was won because of the usual dull police type work consisting of mainly getting informants or spies within the local population and community. Informants, he notes, that are usually motivated to come forward and cooperate to settle feuds and grudges or simply to collect, that root of all evil, money.

Technorati Tags: Curious, Human, Torture, writing

Following Obama's ode to civil liberties:

pangloss mercilessly posted another Mr. Fish gem in an attempt to stem his confusion with a fake laugh.

Technorati Tags: Confused, Disappointed

I'm confused!!!

I've read Obama's, so-called civil liberties speech, given at the US National Archives, twice now and I'm confused.

The speech it full of the usual mythologic sentiment about the commitment to values - whatever they are as he doesn't define what they might be - countered immediately by renouncing what some have thought, in the past, might have been US values.

He did confirm that those truly fabled figures, "The Founding Fathers", seemed to have fallen down on the job when they constructed that constitution and those other important documents held in the National Archives by assuming that individuals have rights and governments don't.

Oh, he also confirmed that the US is at war with a criminal gang, yes those dastardly al Qaeda guys, who Obama says is currently planning something i.e. an attack on America.

Technorati Tags: Confused

For some: ah, the bad old days?

Via Links at Harper's Disney on Women 1938 _ "Women do not do any of the creative work ... " (of course clip for a full size version)

Technorati Tags: Not political, Nothing in particular, Sarcasm