dvtv live broadcast 9.20.07

Click To Play

some football thug goes to jail, out on bail, makes no difference to my life - makes no difference to yours. to know that an all-white jury can sentence a teenager in Louisiana to 22 years just because he’s black, that makes a difference to me. that’s real.

boom

just weeks ago Bush was speaking of a "holocaust" due to Iran's nuclear ambitions. but the day before he made that speech

The International Atomic Energy Agency...reported "significant" cooperation from Iran with its nuclear probe...
IAEA Deputy Director-General Olli Heinonen highlighted the importance of Tehran's increased readiness to answer questions about former nuclear activities...
"We have an important step for the first time," he said. "We have been able to agree ... on how to resolve the outstanding issues...This is not an open-ended timeline."
VIENNA, Austria (AP)

so, if the rationale for bombing Iran is fading, no worries, find another one: Iran is helping Iraq - lets bomb them anyway.

ITEM: "The Pentagon is preparing to build a military base near the Iraq-Iran border to try to curtail the flow of advanced Iranian weaponry to Shiite militants across Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday in its online edition."
Reuters.com

ITEM: U.S. Officials Begin Crafting Iran Bombing Plan-Fox News
"...according to a well-placed Bush administration source, "everyone in town" is now participating in a broad discussion about the costs and benefits of military action against Iran, with the likely timeframe for any such course of action being over the next eight to 10 months, after the presidential primaries have probably been decided, but well before the November 2008 elections."

ITEM: Lieberman to Petraeus yesterday: "Is it time to give you authority, in pursuit of your mission in Iraq, to pursue those Iranian Quds Force operations in Iranian territory, in order to protect Americas troops in Iraq?" Petraeus didn't exactly say no: "...any kinds of operations outside the borders of Iraq would rightly be overseen by the Central Command."

ITEM: the British troops that you heard were withdrawing from Basra - they're headed for the Iran border:
"British forces have been sent from Basra to the volatile border with Iran amid warnings from the senior US commander in Iraq that Tehran is fomenting a "proxy war".
In signs of a fast-developing confrontation, the Iranians have threatened military action in response to attacks launched from Iraqi territory while the Pentagon has announced the building of a US base and fortified checkpoints at the frontier." - The independent (UK)

ITEM: "Reports that the Bush Administration will put Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list can be read in one of two ways: it's either more bluster or, ominously, a wind-up for a strike on Iran. Officials I talk to in Washington vote for a hit on the IRGC, maybe within the next six months. And they think that as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran's nuclear facilities." - Robert Baer, Time.com

the democrat majority in congress has pussied out on any real troop withdrawal in Iraq. they have been dazzled by the shiny objects on the general's coat and are merely racking up sound-bites for future use in primary ads. Bush will throw them a bone tomorrow night and announce a possible troop cut - but the most optimistic estimates put the number of troops in Iraq in January, 2009 at 135,000 - the same number that we started with. (estimates of the number of non-uniform mercenaries there add another 100,000.)
now, a third war is brewing, hawks like Lieberman and McCain are fanning the flames, and the dems are barely awake.
want more bad news?
"Dollar hits fresh 15-year low" - Financial Times
and this:

MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia's state television reported Tuesday...
The statement reflected the Kremlin's efforts to restore Russia's global clout and rebuild the nation's military might while the ties with Washington have been strained over U.S. criticism of Russia's backsliding on democracy, Moscow's vociferous protests of U.S. missile defense plans, and rifts over global crises.
The U.S. Massive Ordnance Air Blast, nicknamed the Mother Of All Bombs, is a large-yield satellite-guided, air-delivered bomb described as the most powerful non-nuclear weapon in history.
Booming oil prices have allowed Russia to steadily increase military spending in recent years, and the Kremlin has taken a more assertive posture in global affairs.
Last month, President Vladimir Putin said he ordered the resumption of regular patrols of strategic bombers, which were suspended after the 1991 Soviet breakup.

didn't i tell you that the dvtv astrologer is usually right?

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....

oops? OOPS?!

when i first heard the reports of a B-52 Stratofortress that 'accidentally' carried five 150-kiloton nuclear-armed cruise missiles earlier today i was suspicious. now i'm concerned.

a post on Larry Johnson's blog sheds some light and offers some possible explanation.

Johnson is ex-CIA and has worked with U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism, and now heads an anti-terror consulting firm that "works with US military commands in scripting terrorism exercises", according to his bio.

his post contains some inside perspective on this unusual incident:

"(H)ow does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.

So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him...My buddy...reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.

Then he told me something I had not heard before.

Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can’t imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?

various comments on this blog back up the notion that cruise missiles don't just get strapped on a B-52's wing by accident.

"There is no way the weapons would have moved without a top-level...directive to do so, because of treaty obligations dating to the Cold War, because of the potential for really big problems in the wrong hands or if there’s a crash during transport."

"Pilots (or anyone else) are not supposed to just fly off with nuclear bombs, and base commanders are not supposed to tell them to do so unless so ordered by higher command."

"...violates multiple layers of command and control systems and also four decades of policy. What are the odds?"

"‘no way, they know d*mned well those are armed."

"The controls on weapons and nuclear fuel is insanely tight.. This story just CAN’T happen."

therefore, if not an accident, two distinct possibilities emerge: preparation for use in Iran; or an attempt to intimidate Tehran.

oops my ass.