Complicit enablers then, complicit apologists now

h/t John Amato.

Talk to your daughters

Dove’s ad is so brilliant they get bloggers to distribute it for free, it’s that good.

(h/t Melissa McEwan @ Shakesville, who has some reservations however.)

Personally, I prefer Dr. Bronner’s soap.

Seriously, Slate magazine, what are you smoking?

(h/t Micah Daigle @ DARE Generation Diary)

Related post:

• Because women and space aliens don’t smoke pot.

Prepare to be lied to

when David Petraeus briefs congress in September (LA Times, hat-tip Melissa):

Despite Bush’s repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.

Good to know.

Should I stay or should I go now?

Hat-tip Drifty, who properly suggests that David Brooks apologize to us all for being a dishonest shill. Though he said it a bit more colorfully.

And on that note, Cannablog may soon be moving to a new hosting provider. I might even carry advertisements. Who knows? There does need to be a way for political blogs to be self-sustaining, and political “news” programs far more extreme and dangerous exist on television networks like Fox Noise, supported by advertisers. How do we counterbalance this without a way to “put food on our families”?

Surely there must be ethical advertisers who have products and services I wouldn’t object to, and as importantly would not object to letting me run my blog the way I have been without constraint or censorship.

Dolchstosslegende

David Kurtz @ TPM:

No enemy of the U.S. in the last 40 years has had as dim a view of American willpower as neo-conservatives do. To hear them tell the tale, U.S. foreign policy has been one long series of impotent withdrawals.

Here, for example, is Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelman, in a letter, obtained by the AP, responding to questions from Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) about Pentagon contingency planning for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq:

Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia.

Haunted by this dark narrative of failure, the neo-cons are bound and determined not to repeat the weak-willed mistakes of the recent past. Why, even the very discussion of how to get out of this mess will embolden our enemies and undermine our own resolve. Instead, we must march in lockstep forward, chins jutting ahead, ignoring all of the distractions which could so easily turn us into quivering Jello.

Keith Olbermann responds:

Because women and space aliens don’t smoke pot

This stupidest ad ever, via thehim.

Okay, I’m sorry if that seems harsh… But really?

Update: Thehim has data suggesting that there may be a real gender gap.

Update 2: Oh, what the heck.

Category entry: Stupid (noun)

Nicely inconspicuous, this one is.

Hat-tip Bradley @ Incertus, who has this update:

Curtis Allgier, a convicted burglar and white supremacist, briefly escaped from custody today by stealing a corrections officer’s gun and murdering him. This is not the first time Allgier has been a fugitive– he keeps running from authorities and trying to blend in with the general population.

Prohibitia-chloride, take as directed.

Recommended viewing:

• How does it make you feel?
• Judge the tree by the fruit thereof.

Love yourself, as you are

Hat-tip Kate Harding.

Banned on American television

Hat-tip Litbrit.

Instant karma

Amnesty International can do more good in Darfur than the Bush administration.

Saturday afternoon movie

Full-screen.

Hat-tip Monkeyfister.

Related film:

• Weapons of mass deception

Doesn’t eHarmony have the right to discriminate?

Sure they do, and everyone should know about it.

Het Meest onnodige Gebruik van het Woord “Belgium” in een Ernstige Campagne

Dank Xsociate (en Babelfish).

Tuesday night movie

Hat-tip Len Hart.

Related post:

• The word of the day is “Fauxism”

Sibel Edmonds

Outsourced local “journalism” == offshore propaganda mill

Steve Benen.fnord

Do you clean yourself with petroleum? No, soap… Radio.

Hat-tip Tanya.

War is over (if you want it)

Renee in Ohio quotes Time:

At last month’s Democrat (sic) debate in South Carolina, moderator Brian Williams asked the eight candidates: “Show of hands question: Do you believe there is such a thing as a global war on terror?”

Senator Hillary Clinton’s hand shot up. After hesitating noticeably, Senator Barack Obama joined her. Edwards did not, even though he has used the phrase himself and a policy paper on his Web site refers to “winning the war on terror.” And now, in his first interview to explain his turnabout, Edwards tells TIME that he will no longer use what he views as “a Bush-created political phrase.”

I’m going to be compelled to endorse John Edwards very soon, because I cannot resist recognizing the fact that he is obviously a very good man.

Related post:

• John Lennon made lots of money, too

Found, or not found?

My wife found it, not me.

It’s got a kind of catchy rhythm

Hat-tip Egalia.

Related posts:

• It’s downhill from here for Republicans
• Who killed Mychal Judge?

Bill Richardson for president

No consideration was offered or received for the showing of this or any advertisement on Cannablog.

Did someone say Godwin’s Law had been suspended?

Hat-tip Len Hart.

Related post:

• Same shit, different asshole

Ten things I hate about commandments

Hat-tip Skippy.

Related posts:

• Do you prefer plagues of locusts?
• Beautiful vision.

Eurocentric, but good.

My generation remembers, and we do not forget the terrible price inflicted. We need a time to heal.

The times in which this was made and broadcast, we were children, they could say no more than this much. We can say more now. We need to learn to live in peace with one another and to respect our different traditions, while allowing our children to go outside our old traditions. We need to acknowledge that the sins of our forefathers are visited upon their victims, and make our own apologies for having the fruits of injustice. Yet the good that our fathers did may outweigh any incidental harm if we can all find a way to share the fruits of joy and love with one another.

I ask forgiveness of all who may think I have done them a harm by existing, or by accepting any gift which helps to sustain my life, if it ever occurred at your expense and without permission. I do not wish to be led astray from the truth by hopes of wealth, but I wish to preserve and protect that which is valuable to all of humankind.

If you feel I have done a greater harm, or if I have done one that could not be avoided that requires more explanation, I will ask that I be told. This is not the place for putting personal grievances which require knowledge of who I am, but to what you see before you. If you feel I am unjust or wrong, tell me so.

Father of the modern Republican party

Related posts:

• Ron Paul for president
• It’s downhill from here for Republicans

Copyright be damned, and torturers go to hell real quick

Here is Terry Jones. Via Why Now?

Call that humiliation?

No hoods. No electric shocks. No beatings. These Iranians clearly are a very uncivilised bunch

Terry Jones
Saturday March 31, 2007
The Guardian

I share the outrage expressed in the British press over the treatment of our naval personnel accused by Iran of illegally entering their waters. It is a disgrace. We would never dream of treating captives like this – allowing them to smoke cigarettes, for example, even though it has been proven that smoking kills. And as for compelling poor servicewoman Faye Turney to wear a black headscarf, and then allowing the picture to be posted around the world – have the Iranians no concept of civilised behaviour? For God’s sake, what’s wrong with putting a bag over her head? That’s what we do with the Muslims we capture: we put bags over their heads, so it’s hard to breathe. Then it’s perfectly acceptable to take photographs of them and circulate them to the press because the captives can’t be recognised and humiliated in the way these unfortunate British service people are.

It is also unacceptable that these British captives should be made to talk on television and say things that they may regret later. If the Iranians put duct tape over their mouths, like we do to our captives, they wouldn’t be able to talk at all. Of course they’d probably find it even harder to breathe – especially with a bag over their head – but at least they wouldn’t be humiliated.And what’s all this about allowing the captives to write letters home saying they are all right? It’s time the Iranians fell into line with the rest of the civilised world: they should allow their captives the privacy of solitary confinement. That’s one of the many privileges the US grants to its captives in Guantánamo Bay.

The true mark of a civilised country is that it doesn’t rush into charging people whom it has arbitrarily arrested in places it’s just invaded. The inmates of Guantánamo, for example, have been enjoying all the privacy they want for almost five years, and the first inmate has only just been charged. What a contrast to the disgraceful Iranian rush to parade their captives before the cameras!

What’s more, it is clear that the Iranians are not giving their British prisoners any decent physical exercise. The US military make sure that their Iraqi captives enjoy PT. This takes the form of exciting “stress positions”, which the captives are expected to hold for hours on end so as to improve their stomach and calf muscles. A common exercise is where they are made to stand on the balls of their feet and then squat so that their thighs are parallel to the ground. This creates intense pain and, finally, muscle failure. It’s all good healthy fun and has the bonus that the captives will confess to anything to get out of it.

And this brings me to my final point. It is clear from her TV appearance that servicewoman Turney has been put under pressure. The newspapers have persuaded behavioural psychologists to examine the footage and they all conclude that she is “unhappy and stressed”.

What is so appalling is the underhand way in which the Iranians have got her “unhappy and stressed”. She shows no signs of electrocution or burn marks and there are no signs of beating on her face. This is unacceptable. If captives are to be put under duress, such as by forcing them into compromising sexual positions, or having electric shocks to their genitals, they should be photographed, as they were in Abu Ghraib. The photographs should then be circulated around the civilised world so that everyone can see exactly what has been going on.

As Stephen Glover pointed out in the Daily Mail, perhaps it would not be right to bomb Iran in retaliation for the humiliation of our servicemen, but clearly the Iranian people must be made to suffer – whether by beefing up sanctions, as the Mail suggests, or simply by getting President Bush to hurry up and invade, as he intends to anyway, and bring democracy and western values to the country, as he has in Iraq.

· Terry Jones is a film director, actor and Python
www.terry-jones.net

Please help

I need some advice on how to continue to blog as I have been and still make a little bit more than nothing with two clients across the country one of whom may soon cease to be able to afford me due to the financial condition of his main client. I am in no risk of starving, between my wife’s graduate stipend and a bit we got for our condo when we moved we are okay, but we’re thinking we might want to have kids sometime and it can’t happen if we’re already running a small deficit every month.

No, General Petraeus does not “go out there almost every day in an unarmed Humvee”

John McCain is delusional. Not that he actually believes his own bullshit. But that he expects us to buy it…

Hat-tip Monkeyfister.

Related post:

• John McCain for president?

Update: CNN’s John Roberts responds to John McCain,

Roberts: I checked with General Petraeus’ people overnight and they said he never goes out in anything less than an up armored Humvee.

Watch the interview, at C&L.

So easy even a caveman could understand it

Glenn Greenwald:

First, the President began his Press Conference by admitting that the administration’s explanations as to what happened here have been — to use his own words — “confusing” and “incomplete.” Why, then, would Congress possibly trust Bush officials to provide more explanations in an off-the-record, no-transcript setting where there are no legal consequences from failing to tell the truth?

Related posts:

• A real problem for somebody
• First denial, then anger. Next up?
• Impeachment testimony

Bite-sized morsels of obstruction of justice stay crisp and crunchy in milk

WASHINGTON – Fired San Diego U.S. attorney Carol Lam notified the Justice Department that she intended to execute search warrants on a high-ranking CIA official as part of a corruption probe the day before a Justice Department official sent an e-mail that said Lam needed to be fired, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday.

Source: McClatchy.

I believe every word that man just said — because it’s exactly what I wanted to hear

Things we do not know we don’t know — but intend to find out

Related post:

• “Henny Penny”

Various items

1. I began this post intending to write about broadcast reform, but got sidetracked. The public airwaves belong to the public, they are not the private property of licensees to spectrum. We the public own the spectrum in common and for our benefit, not for private profit unless that is consistent with our own public interest. I will come back to this in a future post but welcome general discussion in the comments.

2. It happens that America has come to believe in an economic theory of competition, a capitalist Darwinian survival of the fittest. Shamefully, we treat people as human capital, as resources to be exploited and consumers to be sold, and not as independent members of the public whose object the government is meant to serve. But we do not have a government of, for and by the people today. We have a government of, for and by the rich and powerful.

3. We do not need to compete in everything, we can cooperate instead. We can help one another with our ideas and our efforts to achieve a common purpose. This is not communism, this is just community.

Free software has taught me to be generous with my own talents, and to be able to use the commons at will means we are assured of our freedom and independence, because we cannot be held hostage to the proprietary limitations of the rent seekers.

4. I’m going to be posting another version of the Chromosphere in a day or so, maybe later tonight if I’m inspired enough. This project is really a life’s work for me, even though it is only a bare skeleton of the idea currently sketched out and on display. This is a new way of communicating, a living language. It is an old way of communicating, too. Perhaps we are all having conversations around one another and not understanding.

In the meantime, please do check it out if you can spare ten minutes, and if you feel like tossing me a dime or buying me lunch sometime you can use Paypal from there. I prefer not to ask donations here at Cannablog, because I don’t ever want to have my politics or my religion or any of my beliefs a matter of monetary gain. But if you like my work and want to support free software, art and music, I sure appreciate it.

Update: version1 has been released.

And now, a word from one of our many non-sponsors

Hat-tip skippy.

And now, a word from one of our many non-sponsors

Tanya has more.

Pete’s couch, analyzed

Hat-tip Pete Guither.

Related post:

• Propaganda: Pete’s Couch

Adult content

Hat-tip Ellroon.

American rounds, made in America?

Smoking, or non-smoking?

Hat-tip the Heretik.

Agitprop

Glenn Greenwald on the sad debasement of the Gray Lady. Hat-tip Creature.

Adult content

Someone knows what it’s like to be the sad man

Doctor Biobrain remains the greatest psychoanalyst of the neoconservative mind anywhere on the net. Dick Cheney serves as his model psychopath, as examined by interviewer Wolf Blitzer on CNN. Here’s the video.

He looks to me like a man on the edge of a breakdown, he will have to cry soon. Thank you Mary.

A few days late

NTodd has an interesting perspective on the issue of birth control, of which abortion is only one component. I tend not to write about this issue often because it is so deeply a matter of personal conscience what determines the relative value of a given human life over another. I also take a Monty Pythonesque view on the issue of contraception, which is to say their true view and not the view they satirize by their famous song.

Let me take a moment to point out the obvious hypocrisy of anyone with a purportedly pro-human life outlook being advocates of war. Obviously they value some lives more than others, and some are entirely dispensable to them.

No sane person wants there to be unwanted children or abortions, if it were possible to avoid having them without doing violence to women (or men). We should not want to mutilate people’s genitals, we should not want there to be any harm done to the innocent.

We don’t often enough stop to consider that the cause of violence is usually violence. Stop non-consensual sex and you will stop most or all of the abortions that occur. Stop adultery and you will stop the rest.

Oh, but you don’t want to stop adultery, going by what I see.

Except to punish the woman, because she is the one who is subject to violence from her spouse if she is caught with child.

We have to end the violence done to women, and you know that divorce must be a right for that very reason. But what many of you don’t know or publicly admit due to the risk of persecution is that violence can be tamed by cannabis — marijuana. It is a lie and an obvious one at that when prohibitionists associate cannabis with violence, when the only violence is involved in the criminal aspects of prohibition itself.

End cannabis prohibition and you will see that the very thing you criticize about “hippies” is their non-violence.

End cannabis prohibition and you will end the war in Iraq and in the rest of the middle east. Cannabis can be grown to fuel our economy. Cars and trucks can run on clean biological oils. Paints and chemicals can be made from it. Cannabis may be sacred but she is also profane. We have a petroleum economy today but we cannot have a petroleum economy forever.

The nice thing about standards– is we have so many to choose from.

Jerusalem Post:

The State Department indicated Friday that it had no objection to plan by Jordan to develop a nuclear program for peaceful purposes.

Deputy spokesman Tom Casey, without mentioning Jordan by name, said every country that adheres strictly to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty “has the right to develop civilian nuclear power for the benefit of their people.”

Casey commented in response to a disclosure King Abdullah II that his government has been discussing with western countries a plan to develop a civilian nuclear capability.

Associated Press (via Glen):

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A second U.S. aircraft carrier strike group now steaming toward the Middle East is Washington’s way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts to dominate the region, a top U.S. diplomat said here Tuesday.

Nicholas Burns, U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, ruled out direct negotiations with Iran and said a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran was “not possible” until Iran halts uranium enrichment.

Weapons of mass deception

Movie time

What’s going on in Madrid?

Suuuuurge?!?

You will break the military. The generals have said so.

And do you seriously think that most of the soldiers in Iraq want anything other than to come home soon? How many of those would get picked for a special Potemkin conference with the new secretary of death?

“I do believe in fairies. I do!”

MR. SNOW: Again, the President has said before that we are winning. Look, what Colin Powell is saying, we’re not winning, so therefore we must be losing, and then he says, all is not lost. So I’m just — I’m not going to get — what I am saying is that we will win and we have to win, and that’s the most important — that’s the most —

For the record

Libby Spencer writes about Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and the press. He’s trying to change history and in Iran his words carry some weight. We know that history is supposedly written by the victors, but that’s only if you think in a war metaphor which has an end. While Mahmoud is in authority, journalists in Iran will no doubt wish to avoid displeasing his administration, and history has a way of being concealed by those with a secret to protect. Current history, that is to say our view of it, is determined by current circumstances of access.

And we might face this in our country, as people of a certain mindset even now deny the atrocities of the present administration in Washington. So we in blogtopia (y!sctp) are documenting events as they happen, and making the record available to everyone who can preserve a copy. It is not enough that we survive the present regime but that no future regime can come to power on a platform that the American government never tortured anyone, never started a war on false pretenses, never detained people indefinitely without charges, never rounded up immigrants, never committed any of the war crimes which ought to be the subject of public trials.

If you doubt the history of Adolf Hitler’s Germany, Nuremberg provides a record. There’s a reason those trials were held. And anywhere the truth can reach, we can point people at that record.