dvtv live broadcast 11.19.09: a witch to burn

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the circus - is coming to town!
last week the attorney general of the united states announced that khalid sheikh mohammed would face trial for september 11th - in a federal courtroom downtown in foley square.
and all hell broke loose.

this year its different

there's tension, despair. perhaps because two NYC firefighters were killed here just weeks ago.

perhaps because half of the children near the Trade Center on Sept. 11th developed breathing problems.

perhaps because most in this country now realize that thousands in uniform have died in vain, thousands more will for years to come, and scores of thousands in uniform will return missing limbs, or pieces of their skulls, or both.

perhaps because the evil, lying rat bastards in the white house will attempt to force-feed us all the same shit on a different anniversary, and that the opposition party is impotent, despite a mandate and a majority. perhaps because a critical mass of the U.S population now realizes that our nation is despised by much of the world, and the core principles of our former democracy are now not worth the parchment they are written on.

i can't write anymore, it hurts to care, and it is painful to be numb. i will instead quote a fine but depressing piece from a mainstream news site.

It took America 1366 days to win World War II. Yet in the 2192 days since the Twin Towers fell our political leaders not only have failed to resoundingly win the Battle of Baghdad, they haven't even been able to come up a constitutionally sound and comprehensive set of legal policies and practices to guide our systematic war on terrorism...
Good ideas, like establishing a wholly separate legal system to handle sensitive terror-related cases and causes, have been shot down without a fair hearing in the court of public opinion (never mind inside the White House). Terrible ideas, like allowing agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine when the private records of consumers can be poached from telecommunications companies, have rocketed through the corridors of power to become policy.
this from CBS News' Andrew Cohen: 'Opportunities Squandered Since 9/11'

as we remember the many innocent people who were killed on September 11th, and the countless more military casualties, the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis and Afghanis dead, the millions of refugees streaming into Lebanon, also remember what this country was before George W. Bush made a shameful mockery of it.

then read 1984 again. we were warned.

does he ... or doesn't he?

you can bet that there's something fishy in D.C. when the news about the latest bin Laden tape is not that he's alive...ALIVE, not that he's still at large, not that this is the first verifiable sighting of the world's most wanted man in three years, but that he's discovered - Just For Men!?!?

of course it gets worse. now the wingnuts are attempting to link OBL's statements to Democrats and "lefties".

first, on Friday's NewsHour on PBS, NYT columnist David Brooks says:

"[I]t’s like he’s been sitting around reading lefty blogs, and he’s one of these childish people posting rants at the bottom the page, you know, Noam Chomsky and all this stuff."

of course, Fox's Sean Hannity picks up on this, and after comments on his dye-job, states that bin Laden

"...seemed to adopt the very same language that is being used by the hard left in this country...very, very specific language.”

Hannity even suggests that the term "civil war" when applied to Iraq is the "language of the hard left". Hannity and Colmes' guest was former WH Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Colmes asked Card how al Qaeda and the Taliban have been allowed to regroup, and asked Card about Bush's incredible 2002 statement that Bush was "not that concerned" about bin Laden. Card gives a lame answer, claiming, "we are definitely winning the War on Terror". Colmes presses him for evidence of "winning". then comes...the threat: fighting the war on terror, he says, may last "for generations...we cannot let our guard down. They want to attack us." oh and he claimed that there’s "lots of evidence" that we're winning, but neglected to mention any.

later in the 'cast, Fox News Military Analyst Bill Cowan, after comments on OBL's black beard, continues with the fear mongering, insisting that the U.S. will be attacked by "somebody...[a]n attack is going to occur at some point."

News Hounds has more on this, and Think Progress links some "rightie" blogs that claim much the same as above.

UPDATE: the NY Post too: "...vast sections of rambling rhetoric indistinguishable from the latest "netroots" rant."

oh and Fred Thompson tries to have it both ways, saying bin Laden is "more symbolism than anything else. I think it demonstrates to people once again that we're in a global war." but later that same day, following criticism from John Edwards and others, Thompson told a crowd: "He ought to be caught and killed." Thompson also claimed, incredibly, that "[w]e are finally on the right track in Iraq and we're making progress.” and that public support for the war - is increasing(!)

other lame repug reactions to the OBL tape came from Rudy ("a very, very important objective to capture him and take him out.") and from John McCain: "My presidency will be al-Qaida's worst nightmare...Osama bin Laden and his henchmen must be hunted down — and as president, I will." just what this country needs - four more years of that shit.

now, just in case Osama bin Laden happens to be reading this "leftie blog", i have a very, very important question for you: who does your hair?

UPDATE II: he ain't no cave dweller, niether....

smokin' in the boy's room

the Senator Larry Craig saga just keeps getting better.

the toe-tapping congressional sex scandal threatens to obscure any repugnican hopes of reframing the failed but ever-ongoing war on terror, September 11th flag-waving we're-at-war: no-questions-asked mandatory patriotism, and of course, the much-anticipated General Petraeus report that the General will not author. then again, maybe that's what the scandal is supposed to do.while others on the weblog circuit (no links - find them yourself) are suggesting a presidential pardon in the works, that won't happen (not now or even in January 2009, which would be way too late for Craig's critical-condition political career).

Craig wants to "clear his name" (fat chance), not be pardoned for his actions that he claims never happened.

more likely (though still a long shot, considering he plead guilty over seven weeks ago) is a Minnesota judge overturning his plea. what do you suppose the quid-pro-quo would be for that ambitious judge - a promise of an appointment to a cushy seat in some federal district court perhaps? Senator Arlen Specter - who has come as close as anybody to supporting Craig's claim of innocence and was until earlier this year the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee - may have some clout in this department, but that's probably even less likely.

perhaps Specter feels - as i do - that Craig fell victim to a dispicable and useless sting operation by over-zealous and underworked cops. don't these airport cops have water bottles to confiscate?

for far more perspective on the Senator who-is-not-gay, catch tonight's broadcast of Gay USA, seen at 11:00pm in Manhattan on channel 34 and simulcast on the web at mnn.org (click on channel 34 icon); airing nationally starting Friday on the Free Speech TV Network (schedule here) and on Dish Network channel 9415; or listen to the podcast anytime here or at the iTunes store. (full disclosure - i'm the studio director of that broadcast.)

btw - there's no dvtv live broadcast tonight because our MNN studios are being renovated (unless something dire happens, in which case you will see me actually seated(!) in a very small, bright studio). we should be back on the air with an all-new dvtv live next thursday eve, which will be posted here next friday.

more good news

as a follow-up to last week's pessimistic post (see below: 'now it begins') i asked Pamela Gia, the official dvtv live astrologer, for some specifics.
with the permanent war dragging on, everyone from Rudy to French President Nicholas Sarkozy ("the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran") to the New York Post (carrying this article from the Sunday Times of London: ‘Pentagon ‘three-day blitz’ plan for Iran’) dwelling on Tehran (whose claim of "3000 centrifuges" can't help) and with the sixth anniversary of a certain terror attack next week, there's plenty to fret over.
Ms. Gia reminds us that "Mars, the red Warrior planet, is closer to Earth than it has been in nearly two thousand years." sound ominous? how's this:
"Saturn, Planet of form, restriction, manifestation, time… has just moved from the constellation Leo into Virgo" and now aspects Neptune "in a transit that hasn’t been seen for hundreds of years."
as for that sixth anniversary?
a solar eclipse on - that's right - September 11th - will create "dynamic aspects that haven’t been seen at these exact degrees in many generations" and she speculates that "the turmoil, anxiety, high energy (or lack thereof) that everyone is feeling is due to these unusual events.
“The concern centers around the 9th of September through the 13th when the range of ecliptic energy meets with the T square aspects creating a battlefield in the sky.
“If there is terrorist activity during this time the occasions for OUR government, in particular, to make mistakes are high (because of United States’ aspects chart).
“If the U.S. doesn’t make quick, acute decisions around this time, we could find ourselves in a long, extremely destructive, fiery conflict."
what troubles me: she’s usually right.
you should know, however, that our dvtv live astrologer is a persistent optimist. i am duty-bound to pass on Ms. Gia’s personal advice to you for this potentially volatile period:
“This is an excellent time to use imagination for manifestation. Keep idealistic thoughts and visions in your minds. Deliberately create scenes in your minds eye that are bright, light, froth with laughter, Beauty, high spirits which invoke pictures that expand the heart feelings and rise above all things of lower nature.
"Do not dwell on fearful ideas but rather put that energy into fun activity or throwing things away, or dancing, singing even if it’s momentary - on the spot in your living room, car, or on the street. Cheer.”
if only I could add the above to Dick Cheney’s daily agenda.