We're under the illusion that the lives, loves, mores and money of the rich and famous are more interesting, important and worthy of attention than our own. It's just another symptom of how messed up every aspect of our media-driven culture is. Marty Kaplan
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Guernica
Commemorating Sixty Nine Years Of Terror Bombings
By Bob Higgins April 27, 2006
Today or yesterday is an anniversary of sorts, a day of commemoration, a day to reflect on what it is in man that dooms him to endless repetition of his mistakes.
Maybe it's just a day to spit on the sidewalk, hitch up your pants and say, "same shit, different day" and let man worry about himself.
Sixty nine years ago Hitler and Mussolini decided that propping up their soul mate Francisco Franco would offer them a great opportunity to test out all the new high tech military hardware they had amassed.
This was bad news for a Basque city called Guernica and 1500 or 6000 or 16,000 of it's inhabitants. The number is uncertain, record keeping tends to go out the window when the entire universe is a collage of blood and body parts.
For in a Republic, who is 'the country'? Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant, merely a temporary servant,it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.
He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.
There is scarcely any part of science, or anything in nature, which those imposters and blasphemers of science, called priests, as well Christians as Jews, have not, at some time or other, perverted, or sought to pervert to the purpose of superstition and falsehood.
Of all the tyrannies that afflict mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst. Every other species of tyranny is limited to the world we live in, but this attempts a stride beyond the grave and seeks to pursue us into eternity.
"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-things I had no words for."
"I hate flowers...I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move."
"I've been terrified every day of my life but that's never stopped me from doing everything I wanted to do."
"The days you work are the best days."
Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time - and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time.
If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small.
So I said to myself - I'll paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it - I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers. ...
Well, I made you take time to look at what I saw and when you took time to really notice my flower you hung all your own associations with flowers on my flower and you write about my flower as if I think and see what you think and see of the flower - and I don't.
"...Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."
"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas.
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. James Madison, Federalist 47,1788
When voters are given a choice between voting for a Republican, or a Democrat who acts like a Republican, they'll vote for the Republican every time.
"I don't like bipartisans. Whenever a fellow tells me he's bipartisan, I know that he's going to vote against me."
"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."
"Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix."
The Republicans believe that the power of government should be used first of all to help the rich and the privileged in the country. With them, property, wealth, comes first. The Democrats believe that the power of government should be used to give the common man more protection and a chance to make a living. With us the people come first.
There is only one thing that arouses animals more than pleasure, and that is pain. Under torture you are as if under the dominion of those grasses that produce visions.
Everything you have heard told, everything you have read returns to your mind, as if you were being transported, not toward heaven, but toward hell.
Under torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants, but also what you imagine might please him, because a bond (this, truly, diabolical) is established between you and him.
Last month, Congressman Barney Frank called for a 25 percent cut in the defense budget--approximately $150 billion in annual spending--saying, "We don't need all these fancy new weapons. I think there needs to be additional review."
Predictably, the Republican backlash was swift. House Minority Leader John Boehner called Frank "incredibly irresponsible." House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee ranking member John McHugh (R-NY) labeled the proposed reduction "unconscionable." Democrats--especially those on the House Armed Services Committee --didn't exactly embrace Frank's target, either.
But Congressman Frank isn't backing down. In an e-mail to me yesterday he wrote, "Much of the reduction will come from ending the war in Iraq and from cutting unneeded weapons systems. I believe that it's appropriate to reduce defense spending, and this is a goal I wanted to set. I don't have specific details at this point, but I will be working with my colleagues to identify weapons systems that we can reduce, and I also want to look at drawing down the number of our overseas bases."
Even a senior Pentagon advisory group--the Defense Business Board --recently concluded that the current budget is "not sustainable." And according to the Boston Globe, "Pentagon insiders and defense budget specialists say the Pentagon has been on a largely unchecked spending spree since 2001 that will prove politically difficult to curtail but nevertheless must be reined in."
The indictment accuses Cheney and Gonzales of engaging in organized criminal activity.
It criticizes Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests inthe private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees by working through the prison companies.Gonzales is accused of using his position while in office to stop an investigation into abuses at the federal detention centers.
Photos:Left, All Grillo/Associated Press; Jim Lo Scalzo/Bloomberg News
Mark Begich, left, declared victory Tuesday in his bid to unseat Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, right. Mr. Stevens's party opted to wait for vote totals rather than voting on his expulsion.
WASHINGTON - Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, convicted last month on federal ethics charges, lost his bid for a seventh term as final ballots were counted on Tuesday, giving Democrats at least 58 seats in the Senate for the first years of the Obama administration.
With an estimated 2,500 votes still outstanding and other election certification steps still to take place, Mark Begich, the Democratic mayor of Anchorage, had taken a lead of 3,724 votes out of more than 315,000 cast, and he declared victory.
"I am humbled and honored to serve Alaska in the United States Senate," Mr. Begich said. "It's been an incredible journey getting to this point, and I appreciate the support and commitment of the thousands of Alaskans who have brought us to this day. I can't wait to get to work fighting for Alaskan families."
Mr. Stevens did not immediately concede the race. He could request a recount, but he would have to pay for it if the current vote margins hold.
Mr. Begich's victory will end the career of Mr. Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator ever and a pivotal figure in the history of his state after it initially appeared that he would triumph despite his criminal conviction just days before the election.
The defeat came on Mr. Stevens's 85th birthday, at the end of a day in which he avoided expulsion from the ranks of Senate Republicans as his colleagues awaited the final results.
With all the talk of a new "Great Depression," Herbert Hoover has enjoyed an ignominious revival. On the day when Lehman Brothers winked out of existence and the simmering financial crisis boiled over, John McCain infamously pronounced that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong," a phrase that uncomfortably echoed Hoover's 1929 pronouncement that "the fundamental business of the country...is on a sound and prosperous basis."
Hoover's inaction in the face of the mounting crisis has made him an enduring symbol of economic mismanagement, but as bad he was, his neglect was nowhere near that of his secretary of the treasury, Andrew Mellon. Faced with a financial crisis even greater in scale than our current troubles, the multi-billionaire robber baron said, more or less, "Bring it on": "Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate!" Mellon railed, "It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people"
In welcoming the widespread immiseration of the populace, Mellon was simply giving voice to his (very) narrow class interest: depression brought with it a sharp deflation that would increase the wealth of the holders of great stores of capital like himself, and provide ample opportunities to purchase assets at steeply discounted prices. Though he was putatively the treasury secretary of the entire country, his views reflected the narrow interests of his fellow Wall Street tycoons.
A UK engineer has invented a device that harnesses wave power to pump sea water uphill, from where it can flow downhill to create hydroelectricity, raising hopes of a cheap, abundant source of renewable energy.
In trials, the device, called the Searaser, has pumped water more than 160ft above sea level, using little more than the natural motion of the waves. There are now plans for a much larger version, capable of pumping to a height of more than 650ft.
Inventor Alvin Smith reckons that each full-size device would be able to pump enough water to supply electricity to 470 homes. He also calculates that a fleet of 43,000 could generate enough power for a staggering 20 million households.
According to Smith, one of the major advantages of the method is that the turbines that would be used to generate electricity are a proven and reliable technology that has been in use for years in hydroelectric installations in hilly areas, where water can be held in reservoirs.
The Searaser is currently undergoing a six month trial prior to commercial production. Once this is over, we might be getting used to the sight of flotilla's of these ingenious devices bobbing up and down all around the UK coast, or further out to sea. If the relatively cheap, simple invention can be shown to work effectively alongside a dependable hydroelectric system on a large enough scale, it might just be possible that the approach could be taken up elsewhere around the world too.
One of Britain's most authoritative judicial figures last night delivered a blistering attack on the invasion of Iraq, describing it as a serious violation of international law, and accusing Britain and the US of acting like a "world vigilante".
Lord Bingham, in his first major speech since retiring as the senior law lord, rejected the then attorney general's defence of the 2003 invasion as fundamentally flawed.
Contradicting head-on Lord Goldsmith's advice that the invasion was lawful, Bingham stated: "It was not plain that Iraq had failed to comply in a manner justifying resort to force and there were no strong factual grounds or hard evidence to show that it had." Adding his weight to the body of international legal opinion opposed to the invasion, Bingham said that to argue, as the British government had done, that Britain and the US could unilaterally decide that Iraq had broken UN resolutions "passes belief".
Governments were bound by international law as much as by their domestic laws, he said. "The current ministerial code," he added "binding on British ministers, requires them as an overarching duty to 'comply with the law, including international law and treaty obligations'."
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats continue to press for an independent inquiry into the circumstances around the invasion. The government says an inquiry would be harmful while British troops are in Iraq. Ministers say most of the remaining 4,000 will leave by mid-2009.
Addressing the British Institute of International and Comparative Law last night, Bingham said: "If I am right that the invasion of Iraq by the US, the UK, and some other states was unauthorised by the security council there was, of course, a serious violation of international law and the rule of law.
"I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture, and I'm going to make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world." Barack Obama
That unequivocal passage from President-elect Barack Obama's first extended interview since the election, broadcast on "60 Minutes" Sunday night, was a big step toward healing the damage that the Bush administration has done not just to our nation's image but to its soul.
Amid the excitement of the election and the urgency of the economic crisis, it has been easy to lose sight of the terrorism-related "issues" that defined George W. Bush's presidency and robbed America of so much honor, stature and goodwill.
I put the word issues in quotation marks because torture can never be a matter of debate. Yet the Bush administration sought to numb Americans to what has traditionally been seen as a clear moral and legal imperative: the requirement that individuals taken into custody by our government be treated fairly and humanely.
This doesn't mean handling nihilistic, homicidal "evildoers" with kid gloves. It means being as certain as possible that the people we are holding are, indeed, real or would-be terrorists, not unlucky bystanders; and treating these detainees in accordance with international law, as we would expect detained U.S. personnel to be treated.
At Guantanamo, at Abu Ghraib and in a little gulag of secret CIA prisons overseas, the Bush administration failed to live up to these basic responsibilities and thus sullied us all.
The U.S. auto industry "cannot succeed in today's unstable economic environment without immediate help from the federal government. And the costs of failure are unacceptable," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a Washington Post op-ed today.
If even one U.S. automaker fails, he warned, it would cost the entire country millions of lost jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars in lost sales and revenue.
The auto industry crisis, exacerbated by stalled consumer spending and lack of credit, affects much more than the Big Three automakers and the 240,000 people who work for them, Gettelfinger said. It also endangers thousands of car dealerships, small and medium-size businesses that provide parts and services to the auto giants and more than a million retirees and dependents who receive pension and health care benefits from Chrysler, Ford and General Motors.
According to Gettelfinger:
If these companies are unable to meet their obligations, the human toll on retirees and their families will be devastating. It's also possible that the failure of these companies could impose severe costs on the federal pension guaranty program and public health care programs.
Gettelfinger also took exception to "Detroit-bashing."
It is not the actions of our members that have caused the crisis in today's auto industry; the crisis is being driven by economic factors that have nothing to do with labor costs or factory performance. To the contrary, our contracts have put our employers in a position to compete. The reality of today's auto industry is that union-made vehicles are winning quality awards and that union-represented factory workers are winning productivity awards.
Recent auto industry labor negotiations are reducing or eliminating cost differences between union and nonunion car makers, Gettelfinger said.
(This classic Dave Barry column was originally published Sept. 22, 2002.)
So I have to tell you what I saw on the interstate the other night.
First, though, you must understand that this was not just any old interstate. This was I-95 in downtown Miami, proud home of the worst darned drivers in the world.
I realize some of you are saying: ``Oh yeah? If you want to see REALLY bad drivers, you should come to MY city!''
Listen, I understand that this is a point of civic honor, and I am sure that the drivers in your city are all homicidal morons. But trust me when I tell you that there is no way they can compete with the team that Miami puts on the road.
I know what I'm talking about. I have driven in every major U.S. city, including Boston, where the motorists all drive as though there is an open drawbridge just ahead, and they need to gain speed so they can jump across it.
I have also driven in Italy, where there is only one traffic law, which is that no driver may ever be behind any other driver, the result being that at all times, all the motorists in the nation, including those in funeral processions, are simultaneously trying to pass.
Forty-eight years ago, President-Elect John F. Kennedy thought it would be a good idea to show "bipartisanship" and continuity by keeping on Allen Dulles from the previous administration as Director of Central Intelligence. He found out after the Bay of Pigs fiasco of April 1961 that he had made a big mistake. Kennedy suffered a major political embarrassment early in his presidency and ended up firing Dulles along with his deputy, Richard Bissell, who oversaw the Bay of Pigs operation. Dulles and Bissell had lied to Kennedy about the level of direct American involvement in the operation and exaggerated the intelligence that claimed an uprising on the island would break out that would help the CIA-backed Cuban exiles overthrow Fidel Castro. Had Kennedy begun his presidency by wiping the "national security" personnel slate clean and filling key positions with new blood he might have avoided the botched CIA operation altogether.
The Bay of Pigs episode might give President-Elect Barack Obama pause in keeping on people associated with the "national security" establishment from the previous administration. There are rumors that he is considering retaining Defense Secretary Robert Gates. If Gates is kept on hopefully it will be only for a "decent interval" (a few months perhaps) to give him time to prepare to resign to "spend more time with his family." Back when the Soviet Union was teetering on collapse Gates was President George H.W. Bush's CIA Director and he insisted the Communist regime was as strong as ever. He muffed the most important intelligence story of the day. He might have been CIA Director four years earlier but he withdrew his nomination after it became clear the Senate would not confirm him because of his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. He is very close to the Bush Family.
Iraqi policemen danced with a United States Army soldier in Baghdad on Sunday, the day Iraq's cabinet approved a security pact. Photo by
Karim Kadim/Associated Press
BAGHDAD - Iraq's cabinet on Sunday overwhelmingly approved a proposed security agreement that calls for a full withdrawal of American forces from the country by the end of 2011. The cabinet's decision brings a final date for the departure of American troops a significant step closer after more than five and a half years of war.
In Baghdad on Sunday, 27 of 28 members of Iraq's cabinet present voted in favor of a new security pact with the United States.
The proposed pact must still be approved by Iraq's Parliament, in a vote scheduled to take place in a week. But leaders of some of the largest parliamentary blocs expressed confidence that with the backing of most Shiites and Kurds they had enough support to ensure its approval.
Twenty-seven of the 28 cabinet ministers who were present at the two-and-a-half-hour session voted in favor of the pact. Nine ministers were absent. The nearly unanimous vote was a victory for the dominant Shiite party and its Kurdish partners. Widespread Sunni opposition could doom the proposed pact even if it has the votes to pass, as it would call into question whether there was a true national consensus, which Shiite leaders consider essential.
The proposed agreement, which took nearly a year to negotiate with the United States, not only sets a date for American troop withdrawal, but puts new restrictions on American combat operations in Iraq starting Jan. 1 and requires an American military pullback from urban areas by June 30. Those hard dates reflect a significant concession by the departing Bush administration, which had been publicly averse to timetables.
RUJIGOU, China - The barren hillsides give a hint of the inferno underfoot. White smoke billows from cracks in the earth, venting a sulfurous rotten smell into the air. The rocky ground is hot to the touch, and heat penetrates the soles of shoes.
Beneath some rocks, an eerie red glow betrays an unseen hell: the epicenter of a severe underground coal fire.
"Don't stay too long," warned Ma Ping, a retired coal miner. "The gases are poisonous."
Another miner tugs on the sleeve of a visitor.
"You can cook a potato here," said Zhou Ningsheng, his face still black from a just-finished shift, as he pointed to a vent in the earth. "You can see with your own eyes."
China has the worst underground coal fires of any country on Earth. The fires destroy as much as 20 million tons of coal annually, nearly the equivalent of Germany's entire annual production. The costs go beyond the waste of a valuable fuel, however.
Scientists blame uncontrolled coal fires as a significant source of greenhouse gases, which lead to global warming. Unnoticed by most people, the coal fires can burn for years - even decades and longer - seeping carbon dioxide, methane and other gases that warm the atmosphere.
"Coal fires are a disaster for all of humanity. And it's only due to global warming that people are finally beginning to pay attention," said Guan Haiyan, a coal fire expert at Shenhua Remote Sensing and Geo-engineering Co.
Cartoon by 
By Faiz Shakir
Photos:Left, All Grillo/Associated Press; Jim Lo Scalzo/Bloomberg News
By Christopher Hayes
By Andrew Williams
A British soldier patrols the northern suburbs of the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Photograph: Dave Clark/AFP/Getty images
By Donna Jablonski
By Dave Barry
Iraqi policemen danced with a United States Army soldier in Baghdad on Sunday, the day Iraq's cabinet approved a security pact. Photo by
