I have taken a few days off from politics after the election.  I'm happy; I just can't get interested in whatever the current incessant squabble is.  When I did this after 2004 I wondered if I was giving up for good.  I had talked and donated money till it hurt.  I didn't give up.  I also did it after the initial Iraq invasion in 2003.  I just couldn't think of anything else to say.  Words were pointless at that point.  It seemed silly to continue to point and scream at the fools that had commandeered our government.  

(over)

What to do about Iraq?  How about some realism, first.  For many alcoholics it seems to work. Maybe it would work for oil addicts, too.  Maybe even Democrats.

How about a bit of Democratic realism on Iraq, a first step, so to speak.

Katherine Harris eyes have turned blue.  The only possible explanation is she has been spewing so much BS that she is beginning to run out (at least it fell below eye level).

see her recent photo here

and her Wikipedia entry here

or perhaps a random shot here

Take the contacts out, Kathy.  The blue eyes don't make you any less evil.  Neither do your statements about religion.

My meaningless contribution to a worthless debate.

under the fold...

On Feb 27th, 2006 DemocracyNOW, Amy's guest talked about how the Total Information Awareness Program was moved off the books and given the code name 'Basketball'.

Imagine this, using a Google like approach to data, the NSA records your phone calls, credit info, locations, plane tickets, etc, and assembles it into a large database.  This database could be searched for any combination of data, almost instantly.

Sound plausible?

Hello Mr. Poindexter, if you are reading this.

This is my 2 cent update to Krusty's October Surprise diary.

Democrats may be playing the Iran/Bush-is-a-maniac/nukes card wrong.  Face it, Bush using nukes in Iran is a low possibility.  Bush finally accepting Iran's diplomatic overtures is a higher possibility.  And Bush instilling fear in the American public for his own political gain, even a higher possibility.

(mare beyond the fold)

My views tend toward Thom Hartmann's on the issue of immigration.  That being said, today Americans of all ethnicities should be humbled by the organizers and participants in the recent marches for immigrant rights. It has been an awesome display and reminds us America can still be a great country if the people are allowed to lead.  I think these marches will be looked back upon as a watershed event.

Grab those American flags marchers and let them wave 'wide and high'.  Let the world see something we can be proud of for once.

Hat's off to all of you, and from the bottom of my heart, thanks for giving me a little hope.  

So as not to be accused of sedition, let's say I'm just very familiar with the air traffic control (ATC) system.  As a bookend to this diary about allowing more foreign control of domestic airlines, by AHiddenSaint, I'll give a glimpse of a related story.

Air traffic control is yet another piece of the national security infrastructure that is often forgotten about.  There is a very serious, very quiet push to privatize ATC.  Some smaller facilities are already contracted out and a handful of them to non-US companies.  

The big money is in the larger facilities and, though they won't yet admit it publicly, the FAA Administrator Marion Blakey is doing all she can to grease the wheels for all out removal of ATC from the government fold.  

read more...beyond the bend

If they can blackmail us before they take over the ports just think what they could do after.

I've never understood how some conservatives can take such a smug stand against the (democratic) UN and stir fears of "foreign control" and in the same breath defend wholesale sell-off to multinational corporations.

This is why the Dubai Ports World deal should give us pause.

UAE warns of threat to investments in political row

I'm sure few of the 'investors' mentioned in the article have the U.S. national interest at the forefront of their agenda.  But obviously they are having a profound influence on our foreign policy.  

This is what upsets a lot people about the Dubai Ports World Deal.  The fact that Bush is deaf to that concern is what upsets even more of us.

It's an old beef but I still see it, and I still get riled up, when I hear people describe the October 2002 pre-Iraq War vote in Congress as a vote "for the war".  This is a mischaracterization.  John Kerry should have stopped it dead in it's tracks, but he didn't, and it likely cost him the Presidency.  This is historical revisionism.

(do I really need to say? look under the fold)

My imaginary conversation with a thinking conservative...
Is there any real difference between turning the ports over to a company from Dubai and turning the western wilderness lands over to multi-national timber and gas companies? Really, would we want the Russians running the US ports instead?? What if the company from Dubai were clear-cutting and strip mining our wild lands that have always been American treasures? Would a conservative think that is OK?

If I twist my tin foil hat ever so slightly I see the Chinese allowing the Waltons to keep their name on Walmart because they are smart enough to know that having a Chinese name on the store would be bad for business.

I don't want to turn our national treasures (and our ports were probably our first national treasures) over to anyone who doesn't have our national interest foremost on their agenda.

And Bush doesn't even understand why you are concerned. Face it, he's not a conservative and this is not about profiling Arabs.  Every day I understand a little better how the third world feels about globalization.

My comment on Rojo's diary Former Pentagon statistician: 183,000 Iraqi Dead is worthy of a diary on it's own.

I've used this simple technique several times while debating the original Lancet approximation of the 'excess' death in Iraq.  It's more illustrative than scientific.  Don't worry, it's easy math.

I'm not sure who is more startled by the result, pro-war or anti-war friends, but everyone ends up in agreement that it's doubtful the Lancet study is a wild exaggeration.  

continue below the fold for a morbid parlor game.

For entertainment purposes and stress relief only...

Maybe I'm the last to see this link.

Experiment with drag and drop...and click and fling, too!  

http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/georgie.htm

I know this is a bit short to be considered a free standing diary, but I'll try not to run this diary on without a better reason than this fun link.

Thanks to the author of this site.

I need help with a little research project.  I've heard that the amount of government services a person uses is proportional to their wealth.  The wealthier the person the more services they consume.  

Also, I've read 'most' of the litigation in our courts is corporate litigation.  How much does this actually cost?

Both of these statements are repeated frequently but where is the credible research to support it?

It seems intuitively correct to me, but many people refuse to accept it.  I need some facts.

Any suggestions to begin my search?

How about providing stacks of military enlistment forms. Even postcards requesting the forms would do.  They can be passed out to the counterprotesters at the September 24th anti-war rallies around the country.

Maybe someone can get it on video, too.  A little street theater.

Any leftovers can be used as leaflets on K street or passed out on Wall Street or outside a mega-church somewhere.  

Where else could we pass them out?

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/

So...now the neo-cons say we're down to two options? Stay the course or cut and run? I'll match the grandiose idealism of the neo-cons and even raise the bar. Let's purify our motives...or get out now.

U.S. motives are compromised. We profess Iraqi democracy, yet our motives remain obviously clouded by Iraqi oil and "strategic location".

This is simple truth.  We want what is best for us...and we profess it SO loudly.

Isn't this the gloating neo-con mantra? Lording the primacy of the United States over the rest of the globe?

So, surprise, many Iraqis simply don't trust us so close to their oil. They have good reason. After all, we don't trust THEM with it either.

Look at Venezuela. Disobedience and oil don't mix. We know what's best for everyones oil. So quick, before the Latin American dominos tumble, send in the assassins. What pathetic little oil junkies we've become.

No solution will be effective as long as Iraqis believe our strategic interests outweigh theirs. The Iraqis barely trust each other, we expect them to trust us?  

It's no secret. We want Iraq much more than they want us.

Almost all of the good people who know what is best for Iraq enjoy sitcoms in air conditioned comfort. Great ideas and noble intentions must flow generously in the presence of amply chilled air and light situation comedy. After all, look at our own Southern states. A paradise has bloomed in the steamy backyard of the North.  

Therefore...let it be known, the solution for Iraq is more light comedy and AC for EVERY household!  At last, great ideas will triumph over reality (and oil will change hands freely) a neo-con paradise!

Right thinking in 1969 could have avoided 5 years of senseless violence in Vietnam. Richard "Cool the Cong!" Nixon would have been a hero to the liberal press and the pesky Arabs would have been cowed. Reagan would have followed Nixon's glorious second term and the Soviets would have thrown in the towel by 1979. Afghanistan would not have been a cold war bloodbath and Osama would have toiled at the family construction firm, helping build a United Arabia one chilly skyscraper at a time, with his Persian partner, the Shah, at his side.

Well, Mr. Wolfowitz, not every great idea is a great idea...is it.

Perhaps the first is the "forged Niger documents."

But of the many stories that should not have died, another is just as important.  It is the Iraqi peace offer prior to the invasion and the subsequent harassment of the man who made it public, Imad Hage.  It has become much more interesting in the last 2 years, in light of recent events (Plame, Rove, Libby, no WMD) and has piqued my curiosity, and it will pique yours, too.  I'm sure the Gold Star families and Cindy Sheehan are interested.  I think Patrick Fitzgerald should be interested, also. It's from November 2003.

It involves the reported Iraqi peace offer prior to the invasion and the harassment of the pricipals - Hage (and Michael Maloof?).