Howard Dean is first and I can't sleep till the Nobel is announced and there are sure gonna be a lot of disappointed Deaniacs if he doesn't get it.

Also:

Seashell -- Light & Prayers Lady -- Take care of your self.

On Turkey, there is a long and I'm sure learned diary at KOS on the subject and I tried to wade through it and will try again tomorrow. Must say on the surface though and surely an opinion based in pragmatism, seems absolutely suicidal to p*ss those folks off at this time, considering our shaky rep all over the world but especially in the ME, and with Turkey next to Iraq, and with Turkey being a democracy, secular, with mostly Muslims, that is pretty much working from what I know of it. I think the resolution is kind of like what I thought when Bush invented the Axis of Evil in his SOTU speech.

See y'all on the flip. Night.

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/22541...

last thread

More about Mark Penn.  Frankly this guy worries me a lot.    Too many ties to corporatiions.  And part of the polling company that did skewed exit polling in other countries.

Using exit polls to facilitate coups abroard.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1121

The Coup Plotters:

"Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB) has played a pioneering role in the use of polling operations, especially "exit polls," in facilitating coups. Its primary mission is to shape the perception that the group installed into power in a targeted country has broad popular support. The group began work in Serbia during the period that its principle, Mark Penn, was President Clinton's top political advisor."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

More about Penn...here is how he blamed Gore for losing in 2000.    Putting down populism and touting centrism.  I am so tired of the word "centrism".

Mark Penn's analysis of why Gore lost

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1569

"nstead of running as a New Economy Democrat, Al Gore used an old-style populism that reduced his appeal rather than expanded it. The message prevented him from reaching the swing voters who could have pushed him over the top. Gore narrowly won the popular vote with this message by piling up large wins in states like California, where extra votes fail to count. But the message sent him tumbling backward in key border states, in his home state and, finally, in the electoral college. Liberal positions on social issues along with populism and big government positions took what could have been a substantial win and turned it into a draw. Had Gore combined his positions of conscience on social issues with a new vision of the role of government, he would have carried a larger percentage of upwardly mobile, socially tolerant suburban men that would have helped him win."

NOW’s Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa travels around the world for a revealing exploration of child marriage in developing countries, and how people can act locally and globally to solve the problem.

The hour-long special, "Child Brides: Stolen Lives," marks the first time the subject has been documented in a primetime television newsmagazine. Countries visited include Niger, India and Guatemala.

http://www.pbs.org/now/index.html

More about Penn...here is how he blamed Gore for losing in 2000.    Putting down populism and touting centrism.  I am so tired of the word "centrism".

Today's "center" was "right" when I was younger. 

DENISE!!! Wow, great report and a GREAT time, it seems.

I LOVE Bonnie. I was sorry her marriage with that actor failed. She is awesome and that smile...great. I loved her videos with Dennis Quaid. Oh well, I just think she's a cutie and so talented.

And, good to hear Mr. Gore dived in to so many important areas.

And even better that the crowd shared their support. :)

Yes, you are one lucky lady. When I saw you post St Francis, I almost thought you were talking about somewhere here in SF NM (the other SF) Fortuitous. You can send some my way. :)

Thank you again.

Transcript: Maziar Bahari on the Similarities Between U.S. and Iran
9.15.06

HINOJOSA: Wow. So, when you talk amongst Americans, one of the first things that they'll say about your President is the statement that he made about Israel, it should be wiped off the map, that the Holocaust was a myth. Help us understand why he made those statements and how we should interpret those statements and if they're as big a deal in Iran as they are here in the United States.

BAHARI: No, they are not as big a deal. And I don't think you should take it really seriously because I mean. In Iran, talking about the Holocaust is like talking about Armenian genocide in Turkey or the Cambodian genocide by the Khmer Rouge. So, it's not a matter that, you know, people really care about in their daily lives. And it may not be right, but you know, I don't think that people in Israel care that much about the genocide in Armenia or Khmer Rouge killings.

HINOJOSA: But to say that Israel should be wiped off the map, that's that's pretty extreme.

BAHARI: I mean, that's something that I think that and, I mean, both of those sentences I think he had the Arab audiences in mind, because in Arab countries people have a very deep hatred of Israel which some part of it comes from Ignorance about the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust and the nature of Israel, and the other parts comes from Israeli atrocities and American's support of Israeli atrocities. So, I think that our President, for very strange reasons, tried to appease the Arab masses and the Muslim masses around the world. And at the same time, what he did with that, it was made before I mean people inside the government as well. He tried to radicalize the atmosphere in order to marginalize the more pragmatic, more reformist politicians from the arena, because from the political arena, because these are the two issues that people, you know, have almost the same feeling.

I mean, Israel issue, I mean, most politicians in Iran, they like Israel, of course, but I mean not many people think that Israel can be wiped off the map. And I think the President clarified himself as well. He said that what I meant by wiped off the map was not through violence but through a referendum, and after referendum Israel will be just annihilated automatically because there will be a democratic Palestinian government that will include Jews, Christians and Muslims in it. So he tried to, I mean, but people in Iran, a lot of people, don't think that he said the right thing. I don't think that he said the right thing, you know, and he became President denying Holocaust was not one part of his mandate, and people did not vote for him to deny Holocaust. The sad thing I think is that is not the fact that he denied the Holocaust, the sad thing is that he is the President of Iran, and you know, we have such a President who does not know about history, and he does not know about the sensitivity of international community this issue. And, you know, I think it's just very dangerous for Iran to make such comments.

HINOJOSA: So if you have a President that you say basically lacks a broader world vision, lack a kind of historical education, than can you in fact see some positive movement forward with this perspective that you have of your own President?

BAHARI: I think we do. I mean, I don't think that your President really has a much better perception of the world and what's going on what's going on in the world either. You know,...

http://www.pbs.org/now/news/237-transcri...

Linda you're welcome. Left a short note for you at the end of the last thread.

RUN AL RUN!!!

5.Sitka

Today's "center" was "right" when I was younger.
==============

Not necessarily, it is just the opposite on some issues. It depends on the issue.

Oh, Eldorado. We were this \/ close to buying there. But they went buck wild on their pricing jacking it up over 11 pct from last years increased prices. Of course, most of the houses are still all for sale from the summer, and they actually come down like 10 K at a pop, like that's going to do something. But yes, there you have the acreage which was one of attracting bene's. And, you can get some great views.

But, I liked being closer to the city and the commute to Albuquerque, so it worked out for us to find what we did. Eldorado actually adds 20 minutes to the drive to ABQ.

The nice part is there are pluses and minuses with each.

But yes, aren't our skies incredible. Our community is Enviro friendly with the little lighting and all facing down, so it usually looks pitch black out so the stars and planets are so visible. And we have 50 pct land undeveloped with trails. Hubby can't wait to set up the Telescope. I'm sure folks aren't used to being right under the Milky Way...or at least seeing it. But this is one of the few places left that has such clear skies.

Next time maybe you'll have some extra time on your visit and you can come by here.

i paid radiohead $10 for the download album just because i want to support the effort to break free of the record companies. i'm listening to it now and it starts out pretty strong...

a hearty bravo to reed!!!

denise, i wanted to go to the event tonight, but had already called a political meeting before i heard about it. so, i was sitting talking local stuff rather than being wooed by the rock stars. lucky you!

time for shut down......Romancing the Stone is on :)


nite all, sending good vibes to Oslo. :)

Oh, just wanted to share this pic from SF Gate from 2 nights event.

Everything You Need to Know about Disinformation in 2 Minutes

George Washington's Blog | October 10, 2007

The topic of disinformation is a very complicated one. Essays, lengthy papers and whole treatises have been written on the subject. But the very length of most discussions overwhelms people, so that they never get an accurate picture of what disinformation looks like.

So I thought I'd take a crack at a very simple definition of disinformation, something that is short enough to read in two minutes.

Disinformation is:

* Repeating the same factual claims over and over even when people have proven that such claims are contrary to the evidence (for example, the claim that no planes hit the Twin Towers)

* Spending more energy causing in-fighting and disruptions then helping to promote the truth, and causing dedicated activists to waste time rebutting obviously false claims and theories

* Unnecessarily alienating large sections of the population by attacking victims' families, certain religious or ethnic groups, or political parties with no reason

* Calling someone names instead of addressing that person's theories or claimed facts

* Making knowingly false statements about someone

* Threatening people or their families with violence, job loss, or other forms of intimidation or harassment

* Acting as provocateurs to disrupt peaceful groups or gatherings

People who repeatedly do one of the above things even after people have pointed out what they are doing, are spreading disinformation -- consciously or unconsciously. Indeed, because disinformation may be an unconscious activity, I prefer to call it "disruption". These actions disrupt the ability to spread 9/11 truth and to obtain justice against all of those who carried out the attack.

No matter how much seemingly good 9/11 truth work someone has done in the past, if someone starts causing more disruption than good, than he or she should not be followed any more. This is especially true if people have pointed out that person's disruptive behavior

like the picture, sitka. what smells like...do i hafta guess...

btw, i thought your edit take on my post last night was fair enough. i'll add though, that one thing at a time isn't nearly enough. we can juggle, chew gum, walk, talk, and think all at once if you get my drift...

http://www.youtube.com/thenobelprize

Linda I'll be back to NM many times. I'd like to buy some property there someday. Thanks for the invite. I'll let you know. They want me to come for Thanksgiving, but since I can't make it to Thankful's, I'm just going to lay low this year and stay local.

mprov!! I was wondering if you were in the crowd somewhere. I didn't see anyone I knew - not even any of my SMCDFA friends. Maybe it was because Al wasn't supposed to be there, and then he was afterall.

My hotel contact had some other interesting stories to tell about other people she's dealt with in the course of the job. Like the time Teresa Heinz-Kerry dropped her Chanel suit in the bathtub and she asked my buddy to have it dried in 45 minutes before she took the stage during John's campaign. They wouund up using a bunch of hair dryers. But at least she was nice and sent orchids to say thank you.

like the picture, sitka. what smells like...do i hafta guess...

It certainly wasn't your posts.

As for Iran, I refuse to say anything that will in the slightest way play into the NeoCon's latest scam to attack it.

Lots of countries have bad governments, including ours. Let's fix ours and not hurt the efforts of Iranians who want to fix theirs by meddling in their affairs -- because nothing plays into the hands of the mullahs more than the Great Satan threatening their country or trying to manipulate their government.

15.
Linda*in*SFNM

Gore looks likes he's got a secret he's dying to tell. 

Waiting for Goredot Nobel.

22

Clever :)

Hope I wake up to good news.

Night all

20. i think there's reasonable people in iran just waiting to have a say so. true democrats should transcend borders. we're all in the same game together trying to oust the powers that would do us all harm. where's the difference? whether its "america" or american progressives binding together with our brothers and sisters in different countries, where's the difference?


all for one, and one for all!!! democracy at its lowest is preferential to all other forms of government at their height.

The Peace Prize will be announced at 5AM EDT (11AM in Oslo).

It's good to want the best for others, but meddling in Iraq's politics will only hurt them.

Their NeoCon's' first excuse to attack was Iran's nuclear "weapons." But that can't fly alone so they now charge Iraq with attacking US troops. The next excuse will be to deliver them freedom through bombs. 

I'll wait until the US has a regime which isn't itching for another war and has been reformed itself before saying bad things about Iran's government 

Maziar Bahari on the Similarities Between U.S. and Iran
9.15.06


HINOJOSA:...Your president met for the first time with the Iraqi Prime Minister this is you know, people know that Iran and Iraq went through a very brutal, vicious war, a lot of animosity between the two countries, and yet Iran Iraqi President is saying now that the talks were very constructive, called Iran a very important country, a good friend...

BAHARI:...most Iraqis and most Iranians don't believe that it was really a war between Iran and Iraq, it was a war between Saddam Hussein and his cronies against Iran. And most people know that while Iranian authorities Islamic Republic of Iran was sheltering the opponents of Saddam Hussein in Iran, the United States and many countries in the West, they were supporting Saddam Hussein.

Among those opponents of Saddam Hussein who were refugees in Iran were Nouri al-Maliki, the current President of Iraq, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the former President of Iraq, and many members of Iraqi Parliaments and government. So, for the United States to not to like the fact that Iran and Iraq they have a close relations, it just doesn't make sense you know? It these people, the people in the government of Iraq right now, they were receiving money from Iranian government for 27 years.

They were getting support here for 27 years before 25 years when the Americans, they were supporting Saddam Hussein. And they cannot just expect that, you know, these people forget what happened during those 20, 25 years, and then all of a sudden change their alliances and say that, okay, Iranians are our new enemy, and we are supporting the United States against Iran.

It just doesn't happen like that. And Iraqis know that Iran will be their neighbors forever, but the United States and the American forces may leave soon. And many of them hope that they leave soon.

BAHARI:...cause you know, it's American people worrying about Iranian and— Iraqi relations, it's as if Iranians worry about American relations with Canada and Mexico, you know? I don't think that Iranians have any right to worry about NAFTA, North American Free Trade Agreement, so I don't think that the Americans really should be concerned about Iran and Iraqi relations.....

http://www.pbs.org/now/news/237-transcri...

meddling in Iraq's Iran's politics will only hurt them.

so they now charge Iraq Iran with attacking US troops.

Obviously time to cash in. 

http://nobelpeaceprize.org/eng_lau_announce2007.html

26. fair enough.

meddling is the word i'd have a problem with. if we voice our opposition to the way the government in myanmar, for example, is treating their people, are we meddling? and, this is at our expense as some other countries are thinking that we're meddling. and, some factions in myanmar publisize the fact that its americans doing the opposition. are we in the wrong?

Good morning, BFA!

Thanks so much for the Gore report, Denise! And that picture shows a slimmed-down Al ... hmmm!

**********
Thankful, sorry that I had left by the time that you popped by. Waves! How's the moving-in going? When will you ever head this way?

**********
I am afraid that I agree with Phil on the Armenian genocide item. I would like Congress to begin doing something really meaningful right now, i.e., getting us out of Iraq, impeaching putzCo, getting our country back on the right economic track, getting a national health care system, etc. Right now, we have completely lost the moral authority to speak out about anything (and yes, Sitka has a point about the genocide of Native Americans ... and there is also the continuing spate of racially motivated incidents like Jena and the noose on the door of the professor at Columbia).

Yes, governments should be held accountable for such horrendous incidents, but there are more effective ways of doing that (generally through quiet negotiations in the background that create some kind of reparations program, even if payments are token). Simply *declaring* a genocide is merely grand-standing. Right now, all this is seen generally as yet another slap at a Muslim country by the US, which is absolutely not on good moral footing right now.

Lest anyone forget, we have some contemporary genocide of our own to account for.

Out. Now.

=====================
AFX News Limited
US kills 15 women and children in Iraq
10.12.07, 1:54 AM ET

BAGHDAD Thomson Financial - A US air strike north of Baghdad has killed at least 15 women and children, one of the largest losses of civilian life in a single American operation since the war began, the military said.

'Nineteen suspected insurgents and 15 women and children were killed in an operation Thursday in the Lake Tharthar region north of Baghdad,' a US military spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

A statement from commanders said intelligence reports had indicated that members of Al-Qaeda were meeting in the area.

'Surveillance elements observed and confirmed activity consistent with the reports and supporting aircraft engaged the time-sensitive target,' it said.

[...]
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/fee...

More of our own infamy ... because yes, so long as we suffer this administration to remain in power, it is WE who are responsible for BW.

This is what our Congress apparently does not *get.*

There are two legal ways to remove an administration: one is through elections; the other is through impeachment.

We simply cannot wait for elections when so many grounds to impeach exist. We are disappointmenting our last remaining friends in the world.

==========
Blackwater Guards Fired at Fleeing Cars, Soldiers Say
First U.S. Troops on Scene Found No Evidence of Shooting by Iraqis; Incident Called 'Criminal'
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Josh White
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 12, 2007; A01

BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 -- Blackwater USA guards shot at Iraqi civilians as they tried to drive away from a Baghdad square on Sept. 16, according to a report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene, where they found no evidence that Iraqis had fired weapons.

"It appeared to me they were fleeing the scene when they were engaged. It had every indication of an excessive shooting," said Lt. Col. Mike Tarsa, whose soldiers reached Nisoor Square 20 to 25 minutes after the gunfire subsided.

His soldiers' report -- based upon their observations at the scene, eyewitness interviews and discussions with Iraqi police -- concluded that there was "no enemy activity involved" and described the shootings as a "criminal event." Their conclusions mirrored those reached by the Iraqi government, which has said the Blackwater guards killed 17 people.

The soldiers' accounts contradict Blackwater's assertion that its guards were defending themselves after being fired upon by Iraqi police and gunmen.

Tarsa said they found no evidence to indicate that the Blackwater guards were provoked or entered into a confrontation. "I did not see anything that indicated they were fired upon," said Tarsa, 42, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. He also said it appeared that several drivers had made U-turns and were moving away from Nisoor Square when their vehicles were hit by gunfire from Blackwater guards.

In Washington on Thursday, an injured Iraqi man and the families of three Iraqi civilians who were killed in the Sept. 16 shootings sued the company in federal court, calling the incident a "massacre" and "senseless slaughter" that was the result of corporate policies in the war zone.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Well, *disappointmenting* was certainly a creative disappointment that should have been *disappointing.*

***************
E. J. Dionne has an excellent column in today's WaPo.

================
Meanies And Hypocrites
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, October 12, 2007; A17

Conservatives claim to be in favor of stable families, small businesses, hard work, private schools, investment and homeownership. So why in the world are so many on the right attacking the family of Graeme Frost?

Frost is the 12-year-old from Baltimore who delivered the Democrats' reply to a radio address by President Bush in September. The seventh-grader pleaded -- in vain, it turned out -- that the president not veto Congress's $35 billion expansion of the children's health care program known as SCHIP. A car crash in December 2004 left two of Halsey and Bonnie Frost's children comatose, Graeme with a brain stem injury and Gemma, his sister, with a cranial fracture.

The kids were treated, thanks to SCHIP. The Frosts spoke out so the public would know that real people lie behind the acronym.

Their reward was to be trashed on right-wing blogs and talk radio as if they were multimillionaires ripping off the system. The assault on the Frosts apparently began on the Free Republic Web site and quickly spread to National Review Online, Power Line and Michelle Malkin's blog, as well as Rush Limbaugh's radio show.

And of what were the Frosts guilty? Well, they own their own home, which they bought for $55,000 in 1990 and which is now worth about $260,000; they invested in a commercial property, valued at $160,000; Halsey Frost, a self-employed woodworker, once owned a small business that was dissolved in 1999; and Graeme attends a private school on scholarship. I rely here on facts reported this week in the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times, both of which set straight the more outlandish claims made by the Frosts' attackers.

The right is unapologetic. "The Democrats chose to outsource their airtime to a Seventh Grader," wrote National Review's Mark Steyn. "If a political party is desperate enough to send a boy to do a man's job, then the boy is fair game."

Okay, the Democrats are "fair game," but a 12-year-old? No wonder nobody talks about compassionate conservatism anymore.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Well, a lot of cheating will help that *suspension of disbelief,* I'm afraid ... and cheating has certainly not been unknown in past elections.

Eugene Robinson on the recent debate by the Republican candidates.

====================
What Happened To Arthur Branch?
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, October 12, 2007; A17

For most of his first presidential debate on Tuesday, Fred Thompson looked like a tennis umpire. Standing between Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, peering down from somewhere above the fray, he would swivel his gaze to the left, then to the right, then to the left again, as Sampras and Agassi traded serves, volleys and cross-court backhands. You almost expected him to call the lines. "That one was out, Rudy. It's deuce."

Hey, at least Thompson was present and accounted for, finally. And he did get off a terrific line at the end, saying that the umpteen Republican debates had been "getting a little boring without me." But if his goal was to advance the narrative that he's the next Ronald Reagan -- another Great Communicator with the instincts, presence and glamour of a movie star -- he didn't make much progress. I'd suggest a bit more time in rehearsal.

For one thing, Nancy would never have let her Ronnie show up for a televised debate wearing a jacket that draped so awkwardly at the neck. For another, it's hard to imagine how an actor with such talent for exuding an air of supreme command -- think of him in "Law & Order" or "The Hunt for Red October" -- could fail to summon his inner Patton for such an important scene.

Yes, I'm focusing on style rather than substance. Thompson's supporters might think that's unfair, since he was arguably less vague on economic issues -- the intended focus of the debate -- than his major competitors. He offered a specific fix for Social Security, for example, saying he would index benefits to prices rather than wages. The others simply promised to make everything better by growing the economy, which apparently means eliminating all taxation.

But style, or the promise of style, is the only reason Thompson has been able to credibly enter the race so late in the game. If all that Republican primary voters wanted was a reliable social conservative, they could vote for Mike Huckabee, Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter or Tom Tancredo, none of whom is tainted by long association with evil Hollywood. Thompson's potential appeal to the party is that he can do that "District Attorney Arthur Branch" thing and make people believe in his wisdom and authority.

Getting a Republican elected president in 2008 is definitely going to require suspension of disbelief.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

You go, Jimmy!

Dan Froomkin's round-up.

=================
The Carter Critique
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, October 11, 2007; 1:10 PM

Former president Jimmy Carter is once again lambasting the current occupants of the White House.

In one interview yesterday, Carter accused President Bush of abandoning the basic principles of human rights, engaging in torture, and lying about it. In another, he called Vice President Cheney a disaster for our country and a militant who is "trying again to promote once again what might well be a counterproductive and catastrophic military venture."

While it's traditional for former presidents to show some deference to their successors, this is not the first time Carter has publicly scolded Bush. Back in May, for instance, he infuriated the White House by calling Bush the worst president of all time when it comes to international relations. A Bush spokesman responded by calling Carter "increasingly irrelevant."

Carter may or may not be politically irrelevant, but the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner's critique is certainly timely -- coming as Bush's torture policy and Cheney's itchy trigger finger continue to provoke controversy.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

I wondered just how long this would take ...

=================
October 12, 2007
Relations Sour Between Shiites and Iraq Militia
By SABRINA TAVERNISE

BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 — In a number of Shiite neighborhoods across Baghdad, residents are beginning to turn away from the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia they once saw as their only protector against Sunni militants. Now they resent it as a band of street thugs without ideology.

The hardening Shiite feeling in Baghdad opens an opportunity for the American military, which has long struggled against the Mahdi Army, as American commanders rely increasingly on tribes and local leaders in their prosecution of the war.

The sectarian landscape has shifted, with Sunni extremists largely defeated in many Shiite neighborhoods, and the war in those places has sunk into a criminality that is often blind to sect.

In interviews, 10 Shiites from four neighborhoods in eastern and western Baghdad described a pattern in which militia members, looking for new sources of income, turned on Shiites.

The pattern appears less frequently in neighborhoods where Sunnis and Shiites are still struggling for territory. Sadr City, the largest Shiite neighborhood, where the Mahdi Army’s face is more political than military, has largely escaped the wave of criminality.

Among the people killed in the neighborhood of Topchi over the past two months, residents said, were the owner of an electrical shop, a sweets seller, a rich man, three women, two local council members, and two children, ages 9 and 11.

[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/...

Congratulations, Ms Lessing!

===================
October 12, 2007
Nobel to Lessing, Incisive Voice of Women’s Fate
By MOTOKO RICH and SARAH LYALL

Doris Lessing, the Persian-born, Rhodesian-raised and London-residing novelist whose deeply autobiographical writing has swept across continents and reflects her engagement with the social and political issues of her time, yesterday won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Announcing the award in Stockholm, the Swedish Academy described her as “that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny.” The award comes with a 10 million Swedish crown honorarium, about $1.6 million.

Ms. Lessing, who turns 88 this month, never finished high school and largely educated herself through voracious reading. She has written dozens of books of fiction, as well as plays, nonfiction and two volumes of autobiography. She is the 11th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Ms. Lessing learned of the news from a group of reporters camped on her doorstep as she returned from a visit to the hospital with her son. “I was a bit surprised because I had forgotten about it actually,” she said. “My name has been on the short list for such a long time.”

[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/...

More of the continuing *passive genocide* and this one Congress will NEVER speak out against.

====================
October 12, 2007
Gaza Banks Out of Cash as Israeli Banks Halt Business
By TAGHREED EL-KHODARY and ISABEL KERSHNER

GAZA CITY, Oct. 11 — Gaza’s banks have run out of cash, an economic adviser to Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, said Thursday. The cash shortage followed a decision by Israeli commercial banks to halt all business transactions with Palestinian bank branches in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

“People responded by withdrawing their deposits,” said Ala al-Araj, the adviser to Mr. Haniya. The spate of withdrawals brought about the cash shortage.

Later on Thursday, Israel allowed some cash into the strip to alleviate the crisis, according to a Gaza bank manager who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Israel has declared Gaza under Hamas “hostile territory,” and the legal risks of doing business with banks in an area controlled by a group listed as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union have prompted Israeli banks to cut their ties. Hamas seized Gaza in June, routing the forces of the rival Fatah faction there. Since the takeover, Israel has closed the main crossings in and out of Gaza to ordinary traffic.

The decision of the Israeli banks has added to the pressure exerted on Hamas by both Israel and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.

In a statement late on Wednesday, Israel’s Discount Bank said it had “decided to end all activities with banks associated with Gaza and with all branches of other banks located there.” It said its decision was made in light of the Israeli government decision last month to declare Gaza “hostile territory.”

[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/...

Like E. J. Dionne, Krugman calls Rethugs Rethugs (in different words, but the intent is there).

=====================
October 12, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Sliming Graeme Frost
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Two weeks ago, the Democratic response to President Bush’s weekly radio address was delivered by a 12-year-old, Graeme Frost. Graeme, who along with his sister received severe brain injuries in a 2004 car crash and continues to need physical therapy, is a beneficiary of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Mr. Bush has vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have expanded that program to cover millions of children who would otherwise have been uninsured.

What followed should serve as a teaching moment.

First, some background. The Frosts and their four children are exactly the kind of people S-chip was intended to help: working Americans who can’t afford private health insurance.

The parents have a combined income of about $45,000, and don’t receive health insurance from employers. When they looked into buying insurance on their own before the accident, they found that it would cost $1,200 a month — a prohibitive sum given their income. After the accident, when their children needed expensive care, they couldn’t get insurance at any price.

Fortunately, they received help from Maryland’s S-chip program. The state has relatively restrictive rules for eligibility: children must come from a family with an income under 200 percent of the poverty line. For families with four children that’s $55,220, so the Frosts clearly qualified.

Graeme Frost, then, is exactly the kind of child the program is intended to help. But that didn’t stop the right from mounting an all-out smear campaign against him and his family.

Soon after the radio address, right-wing bloggers began insisting that the Frosts must be affluent because Graeme and his sister attend private schools (they’re on scholarship), because they have a house in a neighborhood where some houses are now expensive (the Frosts bought their house for $55,000 in 1990 when the neighborhood was rundown and considered dangerous) and because Mr. Frost owns a business (it was dissolved in 1999).

[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/opinio...

There are indeed more similarities than differences between the two.

But I am one for whom any man's version of *religion* does not tell the true story. All *organized* religions left me by the wayside long ago, I'm afraid.

I appreciate and respect religions when they inspire true goodness in people and make them happy. I excoriate and loathe them when they inspire radical zealotry and bigotry, so that anyone who does not believe as that religion allegedly teaches (always interpreted by someone with an agenda) is fair game.

I am an agnostic in that I believe that it is easier to believe in a Prime Mover just in case there is one and to try to live one's life accordingly. I have also felt an unseen guiding benign presence in my own life at times, and so am honored, awed and privileged ... I am more of a believer than not.

I believe in the following general maxims, which actually encompass a lot:

- know yourself
- nothing to excess
- love your neighbor as yourself

==========================
Conflict between religions threatens future of the world, Muslim leaders tell Pope
· Plea to Christian leaders to find common ground
· Initiative likely to appeal to Vatican's thinking
Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent, John Hooper in Rome
Friday October 12, 2007
Guardian

The survival of the world is at stake if Muslims and Christians cannot make peace with each other, Islamic scholars have told the Pope.

In a letter addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders, 138 prominent Muslim scholars from every sect of Islam urged Christian leaders "to come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions", spelling out the similarities between passages of the Bible and the Qur'an.

"If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world's inhabitants. Our common future is at stake," the letter said. "The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake."

Scholars used quotations from the Bible and the Qur'an to illustrate similarities between the two faiths such as the requirement to worship one God and to love one's neighbour.

The letter, A Common Word Between Us and You, also referred to wars in Muslim-majority countries by urging western governments not to persecute Muslims.

"As Muslims, we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them - so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes."

The letter was issued by Jordan's Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought following its annual convention last month in Amman. Many of the signatories are grand muftis who each have tens of millions of followers. There are four British supporters, including the Cambridge academic Abdal Hakim Murad Winter.

At the UK launch, Aref Ali Nayed, one of the British signatories, warned people not to get "too hung up" on expecting an answer from the Pope.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33094...

Sitka and puddle especially might find this one interesting (Sitka for the genocide comments and puddle for the *insurgent* t-shirts in Canada) ...

===================
Columbus toppled as indigenous people rise up after five centuries
Explorer's reputation is victim of region's pink tide of leftwing governments
Rory Carroll in Caracas and Lola Almudevar in Sucre
Friday October 12, 2007
Guardian

He had been sailing west for five weeks and sensed he was close when at 2am on October 12, with nothing but stars and moon to illuminate the waves, it was spotted: a dark lump ahead. Land. Christopher Columbus had reached the New World.

At sunrise he took a small boat and armed men to shore and planted a royal standard. With a solemn oath he took possession of the territory for the king and queen of Spain. Natives emerged from the trees and watched from a distance, puzzled. It was 1492.

More than five centuries later the anniversary of that event resounds with an ominous clang. Millions of people in central and South America lament that encounter in the Bahamas as the beginning of their ancestors' annihilation.

The indigenous inhabitants lost everything to the invaders: gold, land, freedom, culture, until there was almost nothing left. Disease and slaughter wiped most of them out. "It was a calamity," said Mark Horton, an archaeologist and Columbus expert at the University of Bristol.

Now, however, a counter-attack is under way. After centuries as underdogs, indigenous people are rising up - peacefully - to seize political power and assert their heritage.

The so-called pink tide of leftwing governments has surged on the back of indigenous movements intent on dismantling the region's eurocentric legacy - starting with Columbus.

Across the Andes the explorer once feted as a hero by the Europeanised elite is having his story rewritten, his statue toppled and his name turned to mud. Leading the assault is Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez.

"They taught us to admire Christopher Columbus," he said during a recent televised address, his tone incredulous, while flicking through a 1970s school textbook. "In Europe they still speak of the 'discovery' of America and want us to celebrate the day."

Instead Mr Chávez has renamed October 12 "indigenous resistance day" and mounted a campaign against colonial residue. Textbooks are to be revised under a curriculum that will stress the opposition to Spanish conquest as doomed but heroic.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33094...

They must still be *in their last throes* ... at least according to prick.

And we all know how prick is ALWAYS right.

===============
Sunni insurgents form alliance against US
· Political umbrella group announced on al-Jazeera
· Statement pledges to continue resistance
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Friday October 12, 2007
Guardian

Six Iraqi insurgent groups took a step towards unifying the factions fighting the US yesterday by announcing the creation of a political umbrella organisation.

A spokesman for the new alliance, his face blacked out, made the announcement on a video broadcast by al-Jazeera. He described the alliance as "the political council of the Iraqi resistance".

The six Sunni groups have been in discussion about the move for months. The aim is to reduce the fragmented nature of the insurgency but also to try to claim a slice of the political agenda after the expected US withdrawal.

The talks about the alliance were disclosed by the Guardian in July. The groups had been close to making an announcement at that time but delayed because of disagreements over how to respond to the US policy of doing deals with Iraqi tribal leaders.

In a lengthy statement published yesterday, the six groups listed a 14-point political programme, of which the first was continued action against US forces. "The occupation of Iraq is an act of aggression and an act of gross injustice which is rejected Islamically, legally and rationally, and which all laws grant the right to oppose and resist," it said.

It declared all laws passed by the Iraq government null and void.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33094...

Clueless incompetent Condi ... on yet another tour and exacerbating a very sore point

====================
Rice: Missile Defense Plans to Proceed
Friday October 12, 2007 8:01 AM
By ROBERT BURNS and MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press Writers

MOSCOW (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says plans to expand the U.S. missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic will proceed, but she wants to seek Russian suggestions for cooperation to address Moscow's opposition to the program.

Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates gathered Friday morning at President Vladimir Putin's dacha, or residence, outside Moscow to kick off a series of high-level meetings on missile defense and other thorny issues including Iran's nuclear program, U.S.-Russian arms control and Russia's commitment to democracy.

Shortly before the talks began, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov strolled into the dacha's billiards room, where American reporters had gathered, for a cigarette break. He was asked whether he expected any breakthroughs in the talks.

``Breaks, definitely. Through or down, I don't know,'' he said.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/st...

Yet another fruit of hypocrisy ...

==================
World failing mothers in childbirth as survival rates fall short of 2015 targets
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 12 October 2007

An international drive to cut the global toll of deaths among women in childbirth has made almost zero progress after 15 years, experts said yesterday. They blame governments and agencies for seeking a "silver bullet" to solve the problem instead of building up desperately needed local health services.

Children could be protected by vaccination against infectious disease but there was no equivalent measure to reduce the 500,000 maternal deaths that still occur every year, according to Anne Starrs, vice-president of Family Health International. She said: "You cannot give a woman a pill to prevent an obstetric death. You need a fully functioning health system. People have been looking for a silver bullet and it doesn't exist."

The World Health Organisation launched its Safe Motherhood initiative 20 years ago but a series of papers, published today in the UK medical journal The Lancet to mark the anniversary, show that the Millennium Development Goal of cutting the maternal death rate by 75 per cent between 1990 and 2015 remains a pipe dream.

Deaths of mothers in childbirth are almost unchanged since 1990. In 2005, 536,000 women died due to complications of pregnancy or labour compared with 576,000 15 years earlier, according to figures published by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and other agencies today.

[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/health/art...

It is not that Turkey's actions against the Armenian people were not genocide. It is pretty clear that they consituted genocide.

But the US, of all nations, is certainly not in the best position to address that genocide at this time.

For some facts about the event itself, here is the inimitable Robert Fisk.

======================
Robert Fisk: A reign of terror which history has chosen to neglect
Published: 12 October 2007

The story of the last century's first Holocaust – Winston Churchill used this very word about the Armenian genocide years before the Nazi murder of six million Jews – is well known, despite the refusal of modern-day Turkey to acknowledge the facts. Nor are the parallels with Nazi Germany's persecution of the Jews idle ones.

Turkey's reign of terror against the Armenian people was an attempt to destroy the Armenian race. While the Turks spoke publicly of the need to "resettle" their Armenian population – as the Germans were to speak later of the Jews of Europe – the true intentions of Enver Pasha's Committee of Union and Progress in Constantinople were quite clear.

On 15 September 1915, for example (and a carbon of this document exists), Talaat Pasha, the Turkish Interior minister, cabled an instruction to his prefect in Aleppo about what he should do with the tens of thousands of Armenians in his city. "You have already been informed that the government... has decided to destroy completely all the indicated persons living in Turkey... Their existence must be terminated, however tragic the measures taken may be, and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to any scruples of conscience."

[...]